Welcome back!

I won't talk for too long so that you all can get back into the story. I just wanted to say THANK YOU for the support! I never expected to get 14 followers so quickly. It is very humbling and very motivational. I'm so happy you all are liking this story. It's an amazing feeling. I have a new sense of motivation, a new drive to continue my work. Thanks for everything!

And, please, tell me what you think about it so far! I greatly appreciate any support I get.

Thanks, for everything. I mean that from the bottom of my heart.

…..

Two days. Two full days has past and Nick has slept right through every second of them and not once did he move. Only the rising and falling of his chest, accompanied by the consistent beeping of his heart monitor, indicated that he was, indeed, alive. Judy had never left his side.

Nick didn't know that, however. In fact, he was oblivious to everything around him in the real world. He saw nothing, felt nothing, heard nothing, and smelt nothing. Instead, he found himself trapped within an endless room that was filled with an almost suffocating darkness, alone. Where was he? Was this a coma? Was he even alive anymore? "If this is what happens to you when you die, then it is an awful way to spend eternity," he muttered to himself. The thought of staying here until the end of time made him want to puke.

For more than forty-eight hours, he wandered aimlessly within the room. Only his thoughts accompanied him during that time. Then, after what felt like an eternity, a white, ethereal light formed just a few yards in front of him, almost blinding him. Instinctively, the fox got up from his spot and moved towards the light. He had no idea what to expect. Was this the end? Had his body finally lost its fight and was he slipping away into death?

It was none of those things. When Nick neared the light, his eyes were treated to an image, no, a vision of something he normally kept his mind from ever wandering to; his father. The old fox was kneeling down with his paw out, waiting for his son to grab it. Nick did not what to say or think, and just accepted that what he was seeing to be real. Then, his dad smiled, his blue eyes somehow shining in the darkness as if an invisible light source illuminated them. The son reached out to grab his father's paw and…

"What?" Nick whimpered. He stood there bewildered, again reaching out for his father's paw. It just passed right through it for the second time. This wasn't his real father, just a fake imposter. What kind of dirty trick was this? Just some dirty allusion…

Then, a different fox appeared. No, not a different fox. A younger fox. A younger Nick. The small kit intertwined his fingers with his father's and began walking away from the older Nick.

"Ready for your first day of kindergarten?" That was Nick's dad's voice just the way he remembered it; low, but cheerful.

"Yeah!" A young voice. High pitched and full of optimism. That used to be Nick's voice long, long ago.

The elderly fox ruffled his son's hair and then vanished along with him, leaving Nick alone again in the endless darkness with an empty, yet heavy, feeling in his chest. His heart felt like it had been ripped out from his chest cavity.

Turning around, he shuffled away, trying not to think anymore, but couldn't help himself. Why was he shown a vision of his past? Was this his mind playing tricks on him? Why did that happen?

Nick attempted to close his eyes for a second or two, only to open them again and be greeted with a second mysterious light. This time, the light was warmer with a soft, yellow tint to it.

Against his better judgement, he approached the glow ahead of him. As Nick gradually made progress towards the apparition, he more clearly saw what the light was trying to show him; his fifth grade class.

The classroom was filled with tiny animals of all shapes and sizes. There was a squirrel, a familiar raccoon in a corner, a few meerkats, a cow, and so on. Nick did not remember most of their names, but did remember how annoyingly loud the class used to be. The students mixed together, shouting and playing, making a sort of cute, but extremely irritating, chaos. Nick's fifth grade teacher, whose name was Mrs. Trent, ordered everyone to their seats as the clock struck seven fifty-five in the morning. With a heavy sigh of relief, she waited for five more minutes until she began speaking to her class.

"Hello, class!" Began the slightly aged zebra. She wore a pair of round glasses and an elegant dress that ever so slightly sparkled. Nick remembered thinking she was a little hot. He agreed with his former self.

The teacher's green eyes studied her new class. They seemed like a good bunch. Most of them had known each other from previous years at this school and sat with each other, smiling so big it was almost comical. Though, a few sat alone, being surrounded by strangers. Nick was one of those few.

"Hi Mrs. Trent," said the class almost in unison. They all had curious looks on their faces. A few turned away quickly and began chatting again, prompting their teacher to call their names so that they would be quiet. She would have a lot of trouble keeping them quiet it the months ahead.

"I'm glad to see you all here again!" It was honest. She loved her job and was happy to educate her students. But first, before she could get into actually teaching her new class, she needed to get a few things out of the way. Her students must get to know each other. They'll be in this room for most of the year and will see each other quite often. It would be awful if most of them stayed strangers to each other for most of the year. "Now, I thought it would be good if we worked on meeting each other today. So, I want you all to partner up with someone you do not know yet and start getting to know each other. While you guys do that, I'll go ahead and take roll."

Upon hearing this, Nick shot up from his desk and immediately began the great search for a partner. He loved making new friends and was rather good at it, too, he believed. He consistently had a group of friends around him during all of his previous years at this school. Sadly, though, he knew no one in his new class.

"Aha! I'm sure him and I could be friends!" he whispered a bit too loudly to be a whisper as he spotted a beige bunny. He jogged over there and put on the best smile he could manage. "Hi, I'm Nick!"

The rabbit looked at him with a confused expression as one of his ears drooped slightly lower than the other. He then turned away from the fox and hopped away towards another animal in the classroom.

'Well, that was strange,' Nick thought to himself. He wasn't disheartened yet, however. He reached another classmate of his and began muttering greetings. Again, he was turned down.

Nick tried again and again to speak to one of them and make a friend, but none of them were interested. He was beginning to think he stunk and then walked away from his classmates. Alone, he watched them laugh and joke They were having fun.

His teacher noticed him and walked towards him. This wasn't the first time this had happened in her class. There seemed to always be at least one kid left out during their first days in a new class. That's why she wanted everyone to meet each other. Surely, everyone could find a good friend if they opened up to each other. "Couldn't find a partner?"

"…They don't want to talk to me. Do I stink?"

"What? No, Nicky. Of course not." Mrs. Trent began scanning the room "Connor? Come here for a second." She waved a fluffy sheep over to her and Nick, tearing him from his group of three. He shouldn't have had more than one partner to begin with, anyway. "Nick here doesn't have a partner. Would you like to be his partner?"

"No!" He really didn't want to be near that fox.

The sheep's sudden outcry startled the teacher. "Why, dear? I'm sure you two could be very w-"

"He's a fox! He'll do something to me!" Connor glared at Nick with anger, but also a slight hint of fear.

Now, this was the first time this had ever happened in her class. Usually kids did not begin to have these attitudes towards other species until another year or two, and she never taught any class higher than the fifth grade. It took kids a while to lose than little bit of innocence. She wished discrimination did not exist. "Honey, do you even know him yet? How do you know he would do anything to you? It's best to get to know others before you start thinking bad about them."

"That's just what they do! All foxes are like that! My parents told me that, and they are always right. They'll try to eat you, and steal from you, and-and tease you and-"

"That's enough! You do not talk about someone like that in my classroom! Now you better apologize to Ni… Nick?" They had not noticed that Nick had ran out of the classroom. "Where are you?"

That was when the vision finally faded away, darkness regaining its control over the room Nick was still stuck in. Without anything better to do, he continued to think about that day. It had gotten far worse after that. His teacher had found him hiding inside one of the restrooms and dragged him out of it while wearing a pained expression. She was hurting for him.

When they arrived back at the classroom, he told her that he wanted to contact his parents. Nick didn't know how to deal with this. He didn't understand. Why did being a fox matter? Does that really define who you are? He never wanted to steal from people or hurt anyone. He just liked making friends and doing well in school.

His mother and father entered the school only thirty minutes later. The sheep's parents were there as well. Connor had called his parents, too, saying that he was being bullied by the teacher and a dangerous fox. The older Nick snickered as he remembered the look that jerk gave him.

In the office, the two families collided in fought in a very heated argument about discrimination. Nick's parents valiantly defended his character and told off the sheep family with every curse word imaginable (teaching their son a few words in the process) while the parents of the scared sheep shot back with their own choice words. The argument only ended when Connor's father pulled out a high powered tazer on the Wilde family.

Nick didn't want to think about what happened next.

What Nick hated most, other than his father's electrocution at that moment, was why that family of sheep hated foxes. They had no good reason to. Their hatred was literally spawn from just the common lies about his species. He knew none of them had any previous encounters with a fox, and yet, they still decided to judge him based on their unfound beliefs about his species rather than who he actually was. It's a common occurrence, really. Unfortunately, the world has always been particularly unkind to foxes when it came to how people viewed them, even when compared to other predators. No one really knew why.

Though, there were, of course, some theories floating about. One such theory touched upon their species' common appearance. Most foxes, according to many other animals, always look like they are up to something. In their eyes, they just look naturally sneaky. But that fell within the 'opinion category' of theories, so, it didn't really hold much ground. You cannot really prove how sneaky a species looks. It is led by opinion, not fact. Not everyone will agree that a certain species naturally looks sneaky, it is just not provable and is based on one's opinion, but everyone does agree that one plus one equals two because it is provable and, therefore, is fact.

One plausible theory, however, tells about how society itself contributed to the discrimination foxes get. It says that, similar to how a rumor spreads, fake lies about the fox species gradually spread throughout communities. But it must ne said that this kind of thing is normal. Rumors about a certain species are often spread around, and once it reaches a certain point, people begin to actually believe the rumors. But, usually, it isn't so bad. Foxes just happened to be the most unlucky when it came to these rumors, and they sort of spun out of control. Luck was not on their side as more and more people adopted more and more lies about foxes. Now, they are seemingly one of the most disliked species on the planet.

It was rather unfair to foxes, to Nick. If it wasn't for these attitudes towards his species, his younger years would've actually been great and not filled with sadness. He would've never lost hi-

"Huh?" a sinister red glow fizzled into existence just several feet from Nick. The redness itself seemed to be lashing out at the fox like it was fire and was alive. It seemed to be beckoning Nick towards it. He turned around and looked behind him again. Blackness beyond the eye can see.

"The other lights shown me visions… I'm sure this one will too, right? Nothing dangerous about it… not at all…" he thought out loud, something he rarely did. Slowly, he inched towards the redness.

A flash blinded and thrown him hard against the ground.

Dirt. His muzzle slammed against dirt. "Ow!" he whimpered. "S-seriously…?"

It took him a good five minutes before he finally stood back up and took in his surroundings. The Sun was setting, painting the surrounding oak trees and neatly cut grass with a golden orange. Long, dark shadows streaked behind the trees and Nick. Wind playfully shuffled the leaves on the trees and made waves in the grass and in the fox's fur. A large lake glistened below the hill he was standing on. It was astonishing.

Nick finally smiled again. The entire place was beautiful and felt familiar. He could stay here for a few hours if he wanted to. But how did he get there? None of this could've been real. It was all in his mind or something. Perhaps he was going crazy from the crash. Even if that was the case, he was going to enjoy his new surroundings.

With his smile still present, he began to explore. There was a small path to his left that he decided to take. It weaved through a small forested area and led to a large, flat plain that was covered with small and large structures and many different types of predators. The Predator Fair was in town. Bears, foxes, badgers, wolves, lions, cheetahs, and more all mixed and played skill games and rode the many thrill rides that were spread throughout the fair grounds. The wonderful scent of greasy funnel cakes and fried foods wafted through the air. It was a happy time for all who attended.

Well, more like it was supposed to be a happy time.

Nick ran through the crowds, not even bothering to dodge them since he could phase right through them, and watched in horror as the fair was destroyed in the same exact way he remembered.

First came the ferris wheel as a small explosion blew up its support, causing it to crush several predators and booths as it rolled over the fair grounds and finally toppled over onto even more animals. Screams of agony and fear shot through Nick's ears as he watched a group of mysterious prey run from the ferris wheel. He saw one was smirking happily.

A screeching sound pierced the air as a nearby rollercoaster attempted to stop itself amidst the chaos, but it was all on vain as the rails themselves failed to support the coaster. The entire structure fell in a heap. No one within that area survived.

More screams came from all around him. Every single ride failed in some way or another, killing most of the predators who were unlucky enough to be either riding them at the moment or happened to be anywhere near them when they fell apart.

Only one thrill ride was still standing by the time Nick reached the other end of the fair grounds where it sat. It was simply named 'The Tornado.' It would spin its riders in a swirling motion high in the air. If it wasn't for their buckles, they would've been thrown a good sixty meters away. The ride was exhilarating.

And someone had tampered with it, just like all the others.

Nick and his family were in one of the cars as it continued to spin them faster and faster In the air. Its controllers at the bottom frantically smashed button after button in futile attempts to stop the death machine before it could launch any of its passengers to their certain doom. Even the emergency shutdown button did not work at all. It wasn't until the police investigation the following night that they found out the wires powering the emergency button were cut and, therefore, useless.

Nick remembered the sheer amount of terror he felt at that very moment and the thought that he was certain to die as he their car was launched off of the contraption. He saw through his younger self's eyes as the ground sped closer and closer to him….

Then the scene flashed around the older Nick. He saw his little body in an ambulance as three doctors worked furiously to save him.

Again, the scene flashed, but this time, he saw a fox's body in a coffin. On the top of it, 'George Wilde,' was etched into it. 'Loving Father,' was below it.

Another flash, and he saw his mother almost drinking her life away with bottles of booze scattered around her. He couldn't take anymore…

"Ahh!" Nick shrieked as he sat up in his hospital bed. He was immediately thrown back into his bed as a flash of grey fur slammed into him.

"Nick!" the sobbing mass of grey fur said as she wrapped her arms around his neck.

"C-Carrots..? Ow…. Where am I?" He was rubbing the back of his head with one paw and wrapped his other paw around the rabbit who had barreled into his chest with the force of a car.

"You're in the hospital, dummy! It's been two days and... and… you scared me… you haven't woken up and-"

"Oh Judy…" he huffed, cutting her off. "Are you okay?" He burrowed his head into her neck.

"No! I've been worried sick about you! You took forever to wake up! I… I thought…"

"Shhhh." He was now running his paw over her arm. "I'm okay… relax."

"Says the fox who let himself get caught by a gang of murderers and was in a crash!" She punched him out of anger and fear for his life. She had been holding this in for far too long.

"How was I supposed to know there was someone behind me-"

"Nicholas P. Wilde! Do you even remember any of the things the Academy taught us?!" She was furious. Her fox had almost died and willingly sacrificed himself for her safety. She... she just couldn't lose him.

"Heh, I would hope I do. I graduated as the top new recruit just like you, remember?" Judy just pulled back and glared at him as her tears formed a river down her puffy cheeks. Nick reached up and put his paw on her cheek and pulled her back down to his chest, holding her protectively.

"If.. If you died…" she sniffed.

"Me? Die? Impossible! You wound me, Fluff." He could joke during the most inappropriate of times, but Judy loved that about him. He wouldn't even let his near death experience get him down. It was comforting in a way.

"You dumb, dumb fox…"

"Your fox, remember?"

Judy looked back up at him and felt a smile tugging at her lips. She burrowed her face back into his chest and said, muffled by his fur, "Yes, I do."