Author's Note:

I have to admit, I might act the same as Honey if I had the chance to see someone I was personally close to like she was with Big Bad. But, that said, anyone who is terribly close to me will tell you that I have not historically demonstrated a rock solid self-preservation instinct.

If you are just joining this series for the first time this story is in the continuum AFTER Season 2, so you will definitely want to read Thanks for the Fox and Guardian Blue Season One and Season Two for important context, you may also want to read Winter Hearth for important causal background.

I want to take a moment to thank everyone for their patience. Things are absolutely getting better, but these things don't just happen because we want them to. I am having to work very hard. It will get easier, but I have not had a day off in a very, VERY long time. But my financial troubles are over. We can move forward confidently now. As time allows, I will get back to doing the things that I really, really love.

Fortunately for you, that's this!

insert witty liability-dodge here insert semi-inspiring compliment to readers here

Also! A HUGE shout-out to J. N. Squire for assisting with editing this series! It's a dirty job, but someone's gotta do it. Thank you!

Sheepless in New Reynard

Chapter 6: Wolf

Absolutely nuts. This whole situation was out of control and Sharla was running headlong into it like a barn fire. She felt the strikingly familiar hard squeeze in her chest that came along with mortal fear. That made running after the crazy badger a lot harder. She could barely breathe from the anxiety of the moment. It was a dark forest. In this section at least, the trees were evergreen, so even in winter it was foreboding and dark in this place. There were scary signs. Oh, and not to forget: sheep-skulls. Even if props, they were set out to make Sharla's fate very clear in this chosen series of events. What other proof did the sheep need that her life was in danger in this foreboding place?

She stopped, leaning forward and panting, trying to get her breathing under control. It was more from the fear than the running. She felt like she was being suffocated. She held her shaking knees. She couldn't even hear Honey running anymore. Motti was nowhere to be seen, but that didn't suggest much. Her larger friend barely made noise when she moved anyway. The hyena was like a ghost. As Sharla leaned over to try not to get sick from fear, her eyes focused on something on the forest floor.

Using her hoof, the ewe shuffled the leaf-litter to the side.

…and the shivering sheep found beneath it the most enormous lupine paw print she'd ever seen in her life.

Sharla went to her knees. She put her hands down on either side of the impression and then brought her measured digits up in front of her face. This wolf's paw was almost the size of her head. As a teacher of the second grade, identifying different mammals by their paw prints was actually part of the lesson plan, so she knew a wolf print from one of Motti's rather large paw prints, and this was still larger even than Motti's print would have been. It was a wolf, and it was impossibly large.

"Motti?" the sheep called cautiously, trying not to be too loud. She immediately didn't want to be alone anymore. 'Big Bad' was not a completely pretend name, at least. And if the big part was true, then… There was a shuffle in the forest behind her. She turned. A shadow was seen, and it was moving. This was it. She was found. This monstrous wolf made it clear. Hopeless were the sheep in his domain, and Honey and Motti left her to die. She turned to run and thumped right into a large form. Sharla cried out, falling back onto her rump. She looked up, fearing the doom about to befall her but daring to see anyway.

She puffed out a sigh of relief. It was Motti. The sheep cast a glance back to the forest where she'd seen the shape. There was nothing there. Her mind, reeling in terror, was playing to every single worst imagining and fear she had. That had to be it.

"Badger in love is not as slow as she looks," explained the hyena in a defeated tone.

"I thought you guys left me!" whimpered Sharla, "There's a giant freaking paw print here. This wolf's bigger than you are, Motti!"

"I not leave you. Where is print?" asked her spotted friend. Sharla got up and looked around, then groaned.

The paw print had been replaced conveniently by a sheep's butt print.

"I sat on it. Sorry. Maybe there's another…" She shuffled about, but wasn't even sure she could remember what direction the print had been pointed. "It was like this!" She gestured the size and Motti straightened up a bit.

"Wolfs are not getting so big. Not like that. Maybe this?" She pushed Sharla's hands together a pretty big margin.

"No. Like this." she framed her head. "You gotta believe me." Sharla was to about to argue with Motti though. She needed her to understand the danger and react appropriately. And by appropriately, that meant exiting the forest post haste.

"Honey will be very happy." Sharla stumbled, staring at Motti with jaw agape. No! Not the appropriate reaction. The hyena began walking.

"Wait, we don't even know where she is!" hissed the sheep.

"Her smell is this way," explained Sharla's only possible defense from wolf-related demise.

"I can't smell anything but wet leaves!" complained Sharla, falling into step behind Motti.

"Badger is smelling happy. Motti can follow." And Motti seemed perfectly cheerful about this prospect.

"We need to get out of here, Motti." Sharla resorted to a pleading tone to make perfectly clear her level of fear.

"I would not leave sheep, what makes you think I leave Mananasi?" And Sharla hated herself again just like that. She sighed and nodded.

"I'm sorry. Of course we wouldn't just leave Honey. I… I'm scared." She hated admitting that her fear would have caused her to abandon her friends, but it really nearly did. If she didn't crash right into Motti she might already be leaving this forest. What a lousy friend she was. Motti seemed to immediately understand the change in mood and stopped. The hyena turned around, kneeling to be eye to eye with her woolen companion.

"It is okay to be wanting to survive. You have reason to be afraid. Motti cannot say she would feel differently. Not a sheep, though. But…" Motti looked down a bit, seeming slightly despondent as well. "Shetani… nearly dies because Motti runs away with family. It was hardest ever choice. Wanting to stay to help Janga and Shetani, but only Motti is knowing where the safe place is… where we are to meet help. It was right choice, but some of the time, choosing right is feeling wrong. Surviving is not bad way to be wrong."

Sharla found herself immediately distracted from her own fear. How could she keep forgetting that this mammal was from the Interior and involved in that mess Judy and Nick had dealt with? There were still precious few details about the massive investigation that ultimately lead to the demise of both of their brothers, but Vivienne Wilde really had sent Sharla to the best mammals possible to help her. It was as clear a revelation of that as there could be.

"How many… mammals did Judy save out there?" asked the sheep with a soft tone of regret.

"All of them," came a deadpan answer.

"I messed up my friendship with her so bad." She began walking behind the hyena again.

"Friendships can be messy and still be friendships. Motti tries to kill Janga when we meet the first time. You make less noise now and not worry. We all be okay. You will see." She smiled back at Sharla reassuringly. The sheep took a deep breath and then took out her phone, using it to add a little more light and try to look for more giant paw prints. As she did, she noticed that she had an email icon.

Checking messages, emails, notifications… that sort of thing becomes habit. Without even thinking, Sharla opened it as she shuffled as quietly as she could behind the sniffing hyena. It was an email from Judy. Sharla immediately opened it.

Sharla,

I hope you get this before you get to New Reynard. The badger lady you are being sent to see needs to be approached with healthy respect. Honey can be… extreme.

Regardless of what you did and said, I don't hate you. I know you are going through a very bad time right now. I won't demand you ever 'like' the life I lead, but I promise you that I really am happy.

Please let me know you are safe. With what you are going through, I really am worried.

- Judy Wilde

The sheep peered at the words and felt hope bubble in her, even with the dark, chill gloom of the winter forest and threat of being torn apart by it's massive occupant. It didn't matter that she promised Vivienne that she'd leave Judy alone, it was the bunny's choice to be Sharla's friend, and reading that letter, she still was. Things were still salvageable. She smiled and began ticking away on her phone to email Judy back.

She wanted to keep it short, given the circumstance. She wanted only to say, 'I'm fine. I don't need you to worry about me after how I acted. I've made some new friends in New Reynard and we searching for my brother together. Thank you for checking up on me. We'll talk soon.' That's really all she wanted to say.

However, she only managed to type the first six words of it before Motti put a paw out to stop her mindless forward shuffling. The sheep realized that the reason she did this was because they had come into something of a clearing and there was a cute little cottage in the middle of it. They had found what was possibly the lair of the Big Bad Wolf.

"It's so… quaint…" Sharla stuffed her phone back into her pocket, forgetting to even turn off the screen.

"It is a house," Motti pointed out.

"Yeah, but it looks like a fairy tale house," whispered Sharla. The grass in the clearing was pretty tall up to about half an acre around the house. Inside that half acre was a short stone wall, only about chest-high, and the grass was short and neat inside of it. The cottage was made of grey stone and dark wood. The tall, angular roof was thatched with tightly woven reeds and grass, still green in places as if it had recently been re-done. The windows had no glass, but had curtains and appeared to have been repaired at some point in the recent past as well. That didn't help separate the feeling that this whole forest was the living source of the story that Honey had dressed the part for. Someone definitely lived here and the trio were trespassing in direct violation of the signs! "Do you see anyone? Hear anyone?" The sheep regarded those rounded hyena ears. Motti had to have better hearing than her. The large lady hyena stood suddenly bolt upright.

"Motti hears struggling. Other side of house." She began moving forward, into the clearing. "Honey. Honey is struggling!" Motti broke into a run.

"Oh for fluff's sake!" cried the sheep, bolting behind her friend. This would be it. A fight. Honey was fighting and she was about to get all kinds of backup.

They rounded the corner, toward the back of the house, Sharla preparing herself to see some dark beast tearing up her badger friend, but she and Motti skidded to a halt as they took in the actual scene.

Honey was upside down, suspended about a meter off the ground by a rope. She had been, by the look of it, caught in a snare by both feet. There was a simple pulley up on a wide bough above the distressed badger that attached to another pulley on a higher branch where a bag of large stones had been tied. That bag now rested heavily on the ground and the rope it was tied to held Honey wriggling and growling. Her crimson cape was just barely touching the leaves under her, hanging down, her hood framing her anxious face.

"Honey!" Motti called as she approached.

"Careful, I don't think-" The badger didn't get to finish her statement. Fwip! Up went Motti. The stones barely managed to touch the ground, the hyena considerably heavier, but it still held her more than three feet up, a bit higher than Honey, but more or less beside her. Stretched out, Motti's paws could at least reach the ground, but it didn't really help her in any way.

"A second trap. It is for catching helpers. Is clever," Motti complimented evenly, hanging casually upside down.

"This is bad," Sharla groaned under her breath as she very carefully ventured closer to her friend. She didn't see any trip wires or traps that were obvious, but she hadn't seen the one that got Motti either.

"I know this is bad!" hissed Honey, "I can't let Big Bad see me like this! It's embarrassing!" Sharla rolled her eyes at that.

"I'm pretty sure you should be feeling something else!" Sharla made her way to the bags of stones. The knots in the rope there were pulled too tight for her to undo them by the weight of her friends.

"Go in the house! There's probably a knife or something!" grunted Honey.

"Oh. Yes. Break into the monster's house," stated Sharla frankly. "Why didn't I think of that? Oh, that's right, because it's suicide!" She hissed the last part.

"You do not fare any better outside the house with friends being ornaments." Motti's carefully chosen words hit their mark. Sharla's best chance was to get them down quickly. She gritted her teeth and went toward the back door. Maybe there would be something she could use outside. That's right, they heard someone splitting wood. There was a wood pile. It seemed to suggest that the neat little chimney on this adorable cottage was not just a decoration. There was a large stump, and there was some freshly split wood.

Sharla's blood ran cold. There was fresh split wood, but no axe. Whoever lived here had just been in this back yard, and now they were not. And worse yet, they had an axe. By the size of that paw print he didn't even need it. He could probably pull a sheep in half with his bare paws. The fear in Sharla ebbed a bit in the face of another thought. Her friends were just whimpering pinatas right then. They would have been helpless against an axe-wielding assailant. She made a beeline to the back door.

It was actually slightly ajar. She cautiously pushed it open. It was pretty dark inside the house. There were no lights. It looked like it had not been designed with electricity, but there was, on a coffee table as she walked in, a charger for a laptop, from the type of connector she saw. So there had to be a generator or a solar panel or something. Two lanterns were there from what she could see, but she didn't have a way to light them, so noticing them was just more of a realization that this house was cut off from the rest of the world. How did Big Bad order pizza from this place? Maybe he met the horrified delivery guy at the entrance to the forest? Maybe he was a good tipper.

The sheep could smell paint and cleaners in the little cottage, again giving the impression that it was being taken care of. It was absolutely not abandoned. Sharla was breaking in. She was trespassing. Anyone here would have every right to confront her, or even harm her for wandering around in their home. She found what she was looking for. It was a single small, clean knife in the sink. She saw a sink, but no tap. There was probably a well nearby. It was so utterly rustic!

"Sorry… sorry…" She picked up the knife. This was stealing.

Judy was a cop. Sharla was just breaking all kinds of laws. It was wrong. How could she face Judy and tell her she did this? The sheep put the knife down. No. She would find another way to get her friends down. She turned to walk back through the two rooms of the cottage she was exploring, but before leaving the kitchen she saw something out of the corner of her eye that made her nearly forget her friends hanging upside down outside.

She saw herself.

Not a reflection, a picture.

What was more alarming is that it was a picture of her as a lamb. Judy was in the picture as well. Sharla moved over to the counter and picked it up in trembling hands. Why the hell would Big Bad have kept this?

Then she saw the box.

There was a box, just outside the beginning of the living room. It had a few other things that were obviously items that belonged to her brother. The box was just kind of carelessly left on the floor.

Big Bad must have taken them because he needed to make sure there wasn't evidence among the dead sheep's personal belongings. Sharla went to her knees in front of the box, shivering. It was not warm here as it was, and now it felt so much colder. She took out a little clear box that had some dice in it. She saw his sketch book that probably held only three or for fantasy drawings he did during his 'I'm gonna be an artist' phase. There was his little set of soapstone files from when he was going to learn sculpting. There was his copy of 'Wolfess!', an erotic compendium of lupine … Okay no, that was probably not Gareth's. Sharla dropped that beside the box.

Then there were more pictures at the bottom. Pictures of her, her family, Gareth's friends. Under that, there were less… cheerful things.

There was a newspaper clipping of a story about a young wolf 'trampled' in a panic during the protests when the "Savage Mammal" thing was going on. Sharla remembered the story. The wolf was on his way to school. He had no idea what the protest was even about, and, like high school canines sometimes did, thought it would be funny to start a howl from inside the crowd of prey since no one noticed him.

His recovery was long and painful.

Of course Big Bad would be angry at sheep. He had every reason to care about that. Yet, it barely even made the newspapers at the time. It went under in the absolute avalanche of muzzle commercials and fox-away ads.

There was another story about the wolf girl that was snatched by the crazed Darmaw. She had started first grade, but had become the poster child for 'stranger danger', and her mother had gone to many schools to raise awareness about… well… awareness. Get off your phone, stop recording, make sure you are safe first and foremost.

Another story was there. This was actually several things stapled together. Stuff about Judy finding Nick under the city.

That fox. How stupid it had been to be so unkind about Judy's happiness. Sharla even saw the video herself… the one that wasn't allowed to be shown on TV. Back when she saw it, she only saw how incredibly strong and capable her friend was, and never for a moment considered why she was that strong.

Of course she loved him.

Sharla met Nicholas Wilde because Judy loved him. Its why he existed at all. If Judy did not love him, that blood-soaked rabbit would never have risked her dream job to bash her way into the DEC to get her dead partner.

Sharla closed her eyes. That, to her, was the moment where 'who' finally really meant more than what.

"Stay back! I have chemical deterrent!" came a shout from outside the house. It sounded like her badger companion.

The sheep bleated in surprise. Oh no! She was sitting there like an idiot with the box of her dead brother's things and she wasn't taking care of what she needed to do! She didn't even keep the knife because she was afraid of stealing. Her friends where helpless!

"There, behind the tree!" came Motti's voice.

"I can't see, I'm facing the wrong way!" called Honey.

Sharla picked up the knife again. She felt sick. She feared less for herself and more for the terrible thing she might very well have to do in mere seconds as she headed for the door. She could not let her friends be harmed. Big Bad might spare Honey because they were friends, but there was no guarantee she'd even get to tell him if he acted quickly and decisively. Sharla had to at least buy them a little time to explain things to him. Honey being preemptively silenced by an axe just was not an acceptable outcome here.

Cautiously, the black caprid snuck out through the back door where she'd entered. She could see her friends still hanging there, Motti peering at the tree-line. Honey was unsuccessfully trying to wiggle to turn back around to see in that direction. Motti could actually reach the ground because her large form was heavy enough to allow it, but only just barely. Honey saw Sharla leave the house, however, and motioned to her.

"Git! Git back in!" she hissed. "Lock the doors!" The ewe whined. Honey had no idea the size of wolf they were dealing with and Motti apparently didn't believe it. They were about to find out, and the sheep was about to do the craziest thing of all. She was going to run out there and help her friends with just her meek sheep butt.

Sharla remained as quiet as she could. She needed to be able to surprise whoever was about to approach her trapped friends. She glanced about, then pushed down behind the woodpile. She could see her friends, and she could see the woods where they were fearfully watching. At least, Motti was watching. She seemed tense, but for that mammal to seem tense, it had to be fear, right? The hyena spoke seriously.

"I can smell nothing. It is too much smell. It is… woods… clothing… I smell nothing."

"But we both saw someone move around the front of th' house!" panted the badger. Sharla quaked where she crouched down. She could run, but she would be leaving her friends. She would also likely not survive even if she did. Those paw prints. The stride of a creature that size suggested it would thunder through the underbrush of the forest faster than the sheep could run on a flat jogging track.

They said it was around the front of the house. She might have time to get one of them down. It was unthinkable to even cast herself into the fight that way, but she had to do it. For them. They were doing this for her. They did it all for her. That's why they were even here.

But who would be the best to get down first? If she got Motti down first, she would likely immediately engage the wolf. She might stand a chance, but she might also get badly hurt. If she got Honey down first, the badger would more likely immediately try to get Motti down next, and that might leave Sharla exposed to attack instead.

This beast hated sheep. That had been made clear. If no one attacked him first, he'd surely go after the sheep before anyone.

However, if the wolf attacked Sharla, Motti and Honey might both be able to get free and fight back or escape.

Sharla made her move. She dashed across the back yard to the point where her friends were hanging. She crouched down by the pile of rocks holding up Honey and began rubbing the knife frantically on the heavy gauge rope. This looked way easier in the movies.

"Yes yes yes! Hurry!" hissed Honey. The sheep gritted her flat, useless teeth. She was trying. She was probably about to get torn apart, but she was doing the right thing. The last thing she did would be to help others.

Just like Gareth.

Motti called down desperately, "No, Sharla should be running. Is not wolf. I am not smelling wolf!"

"What do you smell?" hissed Honey.

"Lanolin."

"That's me, Motti!" grunted Sharla, sawing away. Where did Big Bad even get this knife? It was useless! Wait, he probably just cut everything with his razor sharp knife-like claws and four inch gleaming white saliva dripping fangs. Sharla sawed faster. "Cutting as fast as I can," panted Sharla. "Sorry… nng… this thing couldn't cleave soft serve ice cream!"

"No, not Sharla. Sharla is smelling clean. This is not." The whispered tone from the hyena was so dark.

"Shit!" grunted Honey. "We got freaking followed! Why was I so careless?! Of course someone was watching me! They've probably been waiting for me to bring them here this whole time!" She struggled. Sharla's insides pitched with sudden horror.

The Cudspiracy. The 'evil' sheep were here. Sharla suddenly no longer cared about the danger she herself was in; she brought this fate on her friends. Now, the same mammals who got her brother would get them. Honey had been right. Going after her dead brother was a foolish risk. Sharla was a fool, and she was gonna be the end of all of them.

And in a split second, typical prey fear shifted like a palm breeze cut by a strong northern wind. Anger welled up that towered demonically over the meeker rage she'd felt about foxes days ago.

"Run!" Motti whispered pleadingly.

"No." Sharla growled with determination and continued sawing. She was more than half way through the rope. She wasn't shaking. She glanced back at the side of the house. Would there be a couple of sheep? A dozen? How many would they send after what was obviously a key player in their downfall? The earnest ewe clutched the knife tighter and the rope shuddered with the speed she sawed at it.

Her grim purpose had changed.

She was not just trying to get her friends down so they could face some unknown dark beast.

She wanted these goons to lose. She wanted to drive another stake into the Cudspiracy and the best way to do that was with Motti and Honey on their feet to face it with fist or fang. This was not just a chance to reclaim her brother. It was suddenly an unexpected chance to make those who took him away from her pay dearly for it. She'd never felt such resolve for anything in her life. This was, to her, the most lucid moment of her entire existence.

The murderers. The villains. The conspirators and liars.

She stood against them with mere seconds to spare and a comically dull kitchen knife. Her weapon would be the new friendships she'd made with these odd, crazy mammals. Even if Sharla died, at least some of these sheep would pay the same price as the Shearer family.

"Can you tell how many?" whispered Honey.

"Only smelling one, but others maybe are near. Maybe is watching from far away."

"This is my fault…" Honey sighed. "There's probably… there's probably just the sheep here. They probably got him long ago and have been waiting for me this whole time." She sounded positively morose.

"No!" shouted Sharla, irritated that Honey's will could fracture at that very critical moment. She no longer cared about keeping quiet. "There is a wolf! I saw a paw print. He's freaking huge!"

Motti called back loudly, "She says she see it. Motti did not see it, but Sharla is sure."

"Sharla?"

It wasn't Motti.

It wasn't Honey.

Another voice, from by the side of the house.

The sheep turned slowly, eyes wide, heart still unbelieving. Clutching her knife tightly in hand she peered over the tended lawn of the lovely cottage. Holding an axe in both trembling hooves was a very lanky sheep with unkempt wool and rectangular glasses that he'd worn since middle school.

Sharla squeaked out achingly, "G-Gareth?"