Chapter 11: To Dream

Marie has an odd dream about her past and the future.

Marie tossed and turned in her bed, the raccoon was dreaming of her first love. She was just a teenager, not even sixteen, and he was a skinny coyote who worked for her father during the harvest season. It was by all accounts no more than puppy love, but the sparks were there for more…much more. She laughed while he chased her through the meadow and caught her before he dragged her down into the late summer flowers, giggling as they kissed. Sammy was the true runt of the litter and he had a lot of his grandmother's blood in him, he was in many ways more of a fox than he was a coyote.

Lying in the flowers, she moved her paws across his bare chest, the soft creamy fur that ran from his chin to below where his jeans were buttoned. His back was grey, like most of his species but with a reddish hue to it. His tongue licked her neck while his paws encircled her waist and pulled her roughly against him, she could feel the bulge between his legs when he ground himself against her thigh and they both were panting with lust. His paws reached for her shirt buttons, but it was then that his sister found them. "Jeeze Sammy, I don't think you should rut the boss's daughter?" she giggled while she stood there above the two lovers. "Especially in the open where everyone can see you!" They sat up and realized that the weedy flowers were not that tall and several of the coyotes on ladders picking apples in the orchard had been watching them.

He blushed while he awkwardly stood up and wiped himself off. A coyote on one of the ladders called out, "Ho little cousin, at least you can help her up!" Sammy blushed even more before he offered her a paw and pulled her from the ground before one of the other workers made a crude remark about needing a cold shower. She looked at the tree line and then fled in embarrassment across the meadow to her home.

A few hours later, an elder pulled Sammy behind him to the house and called for her father. Inside her upstairs room, Marie could hear their conversation about, even though both she and Sammy were of breeding age, it was wrong of the young coyote to have attempted to have sex with her without her father's permission. Her father was quite adamant against her seeing the coyote again, at that time he was not a believer in mixed-species relationships. She saw Sammy a few times after that, they stole a few kisses here and there when no one was looking and both were sure that they were in love, regardless of what the others thought, and made plans to run away together. The day before they had planned to sneak away, Sammy left with his brother to deliver a shipment of produce to Warrenton and the large lorry rumbled down the dusty farm road to never return. That evening she learned that there had been an accident and that both of the brothers had been killed. She sobbed in her room while the sound of mournful howling from the coyotes filled the air. It was that very night that she also had a strange dream. In it, Sammy came to her and held her paw, behind him were thousands of coyotes and she knew that they were generations that were yet to be born. "Remember us, Adageyudi," her ghostly lover said before they faded away and in his place, she saw a raccoon's black mask with gentle brown eyes that slowly faded to an odd pale yellow.

She tossed and turned while her dream moved from the long past to the brunch she just had with Jake. He laughed when she told him some lame joke, smiling he took her paw and lifted it to his lips. She giggled and blamed it on the mimosa she was drinking. They sat in the white gazebo that overlooked a garden full of flowers. Her eyes wandered to the table next to theirs and instead of the two bears that she knew were sitting there, she saw a coyote and a raccoon. Both mammals were wearing only loincloths and each had a long earring which was woven with beads and feathers dangling from one of their ears. She couldn't make out their ages because they looked both old and young at the same time. The raccoon picked up his drink, saluted her with it, and with a gentle voice called out "Adageyudi." She turned to face Jake who was still smiling at her and while she watched, his eyes turned from brown to pale yellow. She heard the coyote at the other table call him, "My Thief."

With a gasp, she awoke from the dream. "No more cheap red wine before bed," she sighed to herself while she stared at the ceiling. What the hell was all that about? She mused. Was she falling in love with Jake? She had to be careful, she had been burned before.

Rolling over she thought of Lamar, the red panda from Little Amir. They had met at a sorority function and she was infatuated with his reddish-orange mask. He took her out on several dates and she was sure that it was love, her father wouldn't approve because he wasn't a coon but that made Lamar more intriguing. Then he took her to a fraternity party and they drank too much, she found herself in his dorm bed while he stripped her naked. They kissed and made out before he mounted her and took her virginity. There was only lust in his actions and after he finished, he just rolled over and passed out. She cried that night and for several nights afterward when he didn't call her. Soon she realized that he had just used her and that she was only another notch in his proverbial belt of male conquests.

Her next lover, Stephen, was not much better. He was working at one of the local bars and they met when she was in heat. The slightly older raccoon was much gentler in his lovemaking and made her feel special that winter. They laughed and drank late into the evenings and he made love to her almost every night. In the mornings they snuggled in the bed and talked about her future and his dreams of one day owning his own bar, she was in love with him and was sure that he was in love with her. Then she accidentally found out he was already married, with a wife and kits in a small farming town north of the Tri-Burrows.

Dejected, she turned her back on all males, until that desperate tryst on the beach with a black wolf she called Michael. It was no more than a one-time rut, both taking out their pent-up passion on each other. She was desperate for love and he was on the rebound, so they used each other.

Sighing, she rolled over and punched her pillow. Why can't I find love? All three of my brothers have found mates.

So what do I really know about Jake? she thought to herself. He's my age and a bit of a dunderhead. She giggled at that thought, how a perfectly articulate male could go completely goofy with a swish of her tail. Okay, so I kind of like doing that to him! He owns his own business and used to be a burglar, so should I trust him? Vivian likes him and said that he grew up raised by his father, his mother having died in childbirth. But, Jake doesn't talk too much about his childhood. His best friend is a fox named Nick who's a cop, talk about a paradox! On top of that Nick is married to a rabbit, Judy, so obviously Jake doesn't have any problems with interspecies relationships. He saved Mister Big, a wealthy businessmammal, from being killed by a rhino gang member by using just a shovel, so he can be dangerous. I wonder who else he's hurt?

She sat up in her bed and yawned, knowing this wasn't getting her anywhere. She felt that she really didn't know that much about him. Lying back down, she curled up under the covers and was in that not awake and not yet asleep twilight world when her ears twitched because she heard a voice, no the voice of the ageless raccoon from her dream, whisper, "So ask him, Adageyudi." After that, she slept peacefully.

Author's notes:

In my stories, I roughly model the coyotes on the Indigenous Peoples or sometimes called Native Americans. They were in the way of "progress" and so villainized, exploited, and finally either physically exterminated or removed all in the name of "Manifest Destiny." Today, they still face discrimination and marginalization of their culture (watch Peter Pan). It is not my intention to marginalize their many cultures in my stories, but I do draw upon them for inspiration much as I draw on the Celtic nations for my inspiration for both Meredith and Marie.

Adageyudi is a Cherokee word for Beloved or Beloved Woman. For more about why Marie would be considered so by the coyotes, read Zootopia: A Raccoon's Redemption and about her being the co-founder of the Coyote Cultural Center. It will also give you a better understanding of the mystical origins of the coyote and raccoon in Marie's dream.