So sorry this is posted so late! It was finished a week after the first part of Cliffside, but my laptop broke and I couldn't upload it, and I was planning to upload this last Monday but completely forgot! anyway, here it is.
. . .
running from fear I
The high-domed ballroom was lined with great mosaics and pillars intricately carved in designs of vegetable vines from the floor up to where they met the ceiling. A hum of constant chatter filled this ballroom, as well as at least a thousand small noblemammals, and the extra entertainers hired to show the wealth of house Hopps rather than mere amusement.
Judith Hopps, the last-born rabbit in the 'J' litter, had been forced into the most bothersome dress then told to float around and greet any newcomers with a warm smile. The music was already enough to lull her to sleep—every new tune sounded the same to the grey bunny's ears—though only the reminder on her mother's scowls kept her from dropping dead when she made her way to from the third mammal she'd conversed with that evening to find a fourth. Surely there was something better to be doing with her time. The bunnies in The Burrows village always had things to do, some games to play, some chores to finish, the farms to care for. But here she was, at her family's estate wasting her time on a ball that got her nowhere, watching other rabbits eating the food produced by those village bunnies who got only more things to do in return.
Out the corner of her eye, Judith saw her sister across the room in a dress like hers but colored a pale blue rather than violet. Both dresses looked glossy underneath the many chandeliers, and both had similar long draping sleeves, and a slim waist design that spread wide from the hips down. Other than the color, the only difference was the fact it looked way better on Jesmaine than it did on Judith.
Jesmaine. Judith despised her first-born litter sister. Jesmaine was everything Judith could not be. Jesmaine was the perfect bunny, betrothed to the highest buck a nobledoe could possibly dream of marrying, and had eyes that shone like the hundred amethyst jewels she wore around her neck and wrists. Judith had paler fur, duller violet eyes and was about a paw-length shorter than the average doe. Jesmaine's stride as she moved from mammal to mammal was more of a glide, and when she spoke, she attracted at least a dozen surrounding does that clung to every word coming from her rosy-lipped muzzle as if they were gifts she spoke. Judith, instead, tripped over most long hind paws in her path and begged herself not to say something she'd regret.
"Lady Judith Hopps," The voice came from behind, and she felt like she'd gotten a bucket of ice thrown over her. Her dress flayed as she spun with wide eyes, ashamed of being caught so off guard, but found herself facing another of her litter siblings, the even fairer furred Jakren. "I seem to have startled you, dear sister."
"You cabbage-plucking, rotten carrot!" Judith growled, earning a mock disapproving frown from him, then her muzzle split into a wide grin. "I almost thought you were another nobledoe. Oh, Jak, you don't know how terrible it is speaking to them one after the other."
Jak took her arm and they began to walk idly to one of the long tables set up to display a wide range of exquisite food. "Really? I find it rather pleasing."
"Jakren!" Judith had the urge to tick his ears. She giggled anyway and unlooped her arm from his to reach for some sweets.
"Has not any buck taken interest in you tonight? This is not the first ball I've had to save you from drowning amongst all of the gossip, Judith, and it might be the last time I can. Once I am wed to my betrothed I'm afraid I'll be so captured in all the mammals bidding me congratulations that by the time they're done the ball will be over." He wore a teasing grin on his face. It was not normal for a mammal almost in their eighteenth year to still be unbetrothed. Judith just didn't fit in with the others. She didn't want to restrain herself to a marriage where she cared for hundreds of children while the husband ran the estate. No, she wanted to do something useful around the Burrows, if not the entire Zootopia—though she was not exactly sure what it would be yet.
"No buck." She sighed and took a nibble of the carrot tart in her paw, glaring at her sister who was now twirling around on the raised dance floor with her husband-to-be, and around the room she easily picked out a range of her older siblings of different litters, all in a marriage and some already with children old enough to mingle with the rest of the court.
"Is it not time you find one then?" Jak worried over her, his favorite sister. Judith appreciated it of course, but he did not understand her on this matter like he did on other matters.
She just shook her head and watched her brother smile apologetically as he was beaconed over by a white-furred doe wearing a daring green dress, Leire.
Jesmaine has her buck, Jak had Leire, and the 'K' litter had already begun to dedicate themselves to a betrothal while she—
"Lady Judith Hopps?" She was startled for the second time, spinning to find not her brother, but a noblebuck she did not know the name of, which meant he must be a buck of a lesser house. She only paid attention to her tutors when she was taught something important, and knowing every mammal's name of each house in the Burrows did not seem so useful to her. "Apologies for surprizing you, but I… I think you should come along with me, my lady."
She remained in her startled state as he grabbed her paw and linked her arm with his to lead her away from the sweets table. She was so dumbstruck she stumbled along with him until she was already most of the way to an open balcony, obscured by thin drapes wavering slightly in the wind. Only when she came to her sensed she stopped in her tracks and glowered at him with disbelief. "My lord, I think not!"
"Lady Judith, I beg you to come. You must trust me."
"Where do you plan on taking me?" She stood as defiantly as she could, hoping it looked convincing.
"My lady, do not make me drag you along. I plead, come along."
"What reason do I have to trust you if you will not tell me why?"
"I… lady Judith, it is not me. It is a… a mammal who asked to see you, outside on the balcony, please."
Judith only had time to open her muzzle in response when a crash came from the glass dome over the ballroom, and three wolves almost half as tall as the ballroom's pillars came leaping through. She was one of the last to process the situation because soon the guests all broke out in hysterical screams and scattered through the first doorway they could reach. Once the doorways became crammed, rabbits dashed beneath tables and curled themselves in balls on the floor as if it would defend them against the predators. The noblebuck beside her grabbed her arm and with a desperate look on his face tried to haul her to the balcony, and without question this time, she leaped into motion and ran with him.
The wolves turned their stares to her and she felt like hiding. She paid no mind to the tears streaming down her cheeks, and to her hind paws aching in pain from the splinters of broken glass that littered the floor, only that she kept running, no matter where she ran to.
Until a large paw caught her arm. The sudden stop of speed as she was jerked back caused her to heave free of the sharp-clawed grip but also from the grip of the other bunny. She slid across the smoothed stone floor in a crumpled heap, catching shards of glass through her dress and into her delicate skin. A wall stopped her and she whimpered, glad at least the constant pain of sliding through the splinters was over. The moment lasted shortly when what she thought had been a wall pushed her, and once again she slid, this time really hitting a wall; the doorframe of the balcony. She scrambled outside with each part of her sore and peered through a gap in the drapes if only to see if she were safe.
Jesmaine. Jak. Mother and father. They had to be safe too. The wolves seemed to only face her direction, which made her want to cower as far away as possible. Still, she watched out of fear, sobbing all the while. There was nothing but a black-cloaked figure between the balcony and the predators, a tall mammal, though dwarfed beside the three it seemed to oppose. Besides the black figure lay the bunny that tried to take her to the balcony, and her sobbing only deepened when she realized he was face down in a pool of his own oozing blood from the gaping claw marks across his back. Still, she continued to watch, too horrified to look away.
The black-clad mammal turned it's head, revealing a long muzzle peaking out of the hood before it's full face was visible to Judith. Through the gap in the drapes, they met eyes, and she shot back from the doorway unable to watch any longer.
She pressed her back against the outside wall, in the shadow next to the glow from inside, curling her knees to her chest and rocking back and forth to soothe herself. This is not real. It could not be real. She refused to believe it was anything other than a nightmare. Impossible things happened in dreams and nightmares.
She pretended if she made herself into a ball small enough, she would disappear into the shadows completely, and wake up sweating in bed.
But nothing happened, and time passed, and howling screams came from the ballroom, and Judith wailed and wept until her eyes begun to hurt, and she did not wake up from the nightmare even if she tugged at her ears until she thought they'd come out of her head. She'd always dreamed of some thrilling event where she could show her bravery, and yet here she trembled like a kit. The realization that she had no nightmare to wake up from came when something seized her shoulder.
The howling screams had long stopped.
She raised her head and met those eyes once again. Her vision blurred to blackness right after.
. . .
Bonne Hopps helped the bloody-faced Stuis Hopps to his feet and cupped his face, which he clutched so protectively with his own paws. The dome had shattered above their heads, and there had been such chaos, and it began to rain glass. She shook her head and sighed, suspecting her husband would only ever see out of one eye from this day on. Scanning her head over the scattered and frightened guests only just recovering, she counted out her large family one by one. She also sent guards to check on the younger sleeping kits, for she would not know what to do if a single one of them had been harmed. Those poor, innocent, defenseless kits, and if there were more than three wolves, she was certain they would have killed every one of them.
The three wolves now lay on the floor, spilling almost enough blood to cover the entire floor in a thin layer. It was but a paw-length from creeping to her skirts, which now bore a huge tear from where it got caught on the end of a table. Predators. Such vicious things. Bonne did not understand why they were not yet overpowered and kept under control by the larger amount of Zootopia's prey.
She left Stuis' side hesitantly and made her way around the room, continuing her count of family, and ordering around a swarm of maids and guards while doing so. Before she could make a full walk around the ballroom, the blood was being wiped away, and the wolves dragged off to be one of her children had to be safe. She did not spend years raising them all, litter after litter, for them to be mindlessly slaughtered by a beast.
"My Lady." A rabbit, dressed in grab that would identify him as a servant, frantically made a bow to her, and glared at her with begging eyes while he waited for her approval to speak to her.
"What is it? Do you not see I am busy?" She wanted to continue her count. She would not rest until it was complete, with all of her kits confirmed unharmed. She was so sure now, with so many kits already counted, that they had been lucky. There was only one dead rabbit visible, after all, only of a lesser house. Surely her kits were all safe then.
"Your daughter, Judith. I saw the wolves go for her when the rest were running for their lives, my Lady."
Panic was like a sword to her heart. "She is alright now, yes?"
"She scampered onto the balcony when that…strange mammal came in to defeat the wolves. That was the last I saw of her, my Lady. After the mammal left, she was no longer there."
Bonne screeched to whatever guard seemed to be listening, "Find her! Find my Judith!" She felt her knees waver. "Find her…" She collapsed onto the floor sobbing, her only remaining 'J' litter cubs rushing over with concern.
"Mother?" Jakren whispered while Jesmaine curled her arms around her with teary eyes. Jakren sank to his knees too, then placed a comforting paw on her arm. "What is wrong, Mother? What happened to Judith?"
"Find her." was all she could mutter, and she returned Jesmaine's tight embrace.
. . .
For those who read the old Cliffside, you probably realised Judy is not the oldest of the oldest litter anymore, her bother changed from 'Zack' to 'Jakren', her sister from 'Jessica' to 'Jesmaine', and she is not in an arranged betrothal to that buck Austin (that would be Jesmaine, but she was going to marry him in the old plot anyway, and honestly, he was never a very relevant character in any version of Cliffside, which is why I did not name him anything other than 'the highest buck any doe could dream of marrying' in this new version.)
And though 'lady' is more human than mammal, I couldn't think of a better word to use. You have to agree 'Lady Judith' sounds better than 'Doe Judith' or whatever heh.
Also, I know Judy is supposed to be that brave bunny that stands up to bullies, but I need her to be scared just this one time. Her bravery is yet to be discovered ;)
