Scout of the Free

"I, Nicholas Wilde, promise to be brave, loyal, helpful, and trustworthy."

Bradley Beatnik the Beaver turned off his flashlight…

And the room lights were turned back onto full power.

"Swell, Nicholas! Welcome to the ZJS!" replied Andrew Slash, the zebra.

"Kirby. Kirby Saurus," the young hippo said, trading pawshakes with the 8-year-old fox.

"Ollie Powell," grinned the giraffe.

"Harrison Bray," greeted the goat, his Scottish accent accentuating his sentence.

Now this felt like family to young Nicholas Piberious Wilde. He now had a family away from home. There was now a place in the city where he could walk without wary eyes settling upon him. No prey mammals here would make a point to blatantly sidestep away from him, out of companionable range. Here, in the Zootopia Junior Scouts, he was just another mammal, another miracle, another precious life to behold. Another soul. Here, he was treated as just another one of God's many blessings to the Universe.


"Rookie scouts! As part of this herd of troops, it is necessary for you to learn the ropes of outdoor survival!" the ram instructor declared. The children were organized into three groups in front of him. Nick whispered to Harrison, "What's your guess on the activity?"

"Rowing."

"10k run."

"Fellas, hush!" whispered a young, adorable fennec from another scout division. [1]

"Lads, lassies, you will be assigned to rock-climbing on your first week," the ram instructor said aloud, "Now head over to Mr Takai. You will travel by van to the camping grounds, and when you arrive and sort out bunking arrangements, he will show you what to do. Scout troops dismissed!"

An excitable badger raced by the boys as she scurried to her gear, all packed and ready. "Come on, mates! Vamos!"

"That there was Madge Honey. Ain't she sweet?" the fennec inquired, popping behind Nick and his posse and giving them a jump.

"Whoa! I think it's time you lay off the Red Bull there, um… say, what's your name?" rumbled Kirby.

"Oh, where are my manners?" the fennec chuffed, "My name's Finnick. Finnick Shear. Me and Madge are a part of Troop 230."

Nick stopped and stretched out a paw. "Nick Wilde. Troop 640. These are my friends. Kirby, Brad, Andy, Ollie and Harry."

"Honour's all mine to meet you," Fin continued, fidgeting with energy, "Camping's gonna be swell with you guys! I'd better grab my stuff! Catcha later!"

Finnick shot off to prepare his gear.

"Something tells me this'll be a doohickey of a trip," Ollie remarked. The boys went to their cabin to prepare.


The trip to Cliffside was eventful. There were several rather loud choruses of scout boys and scout girls humming the French National Anthem.

Then after the kids got tired of humming, the discussions drifted into basic facts competitions. After the anti-mathematic kids got fed up with the amount of numbers and numbers and numbers that the intellectuals were spouting, the kids went back to humming classic themes, such as Hogan's Horses, The Longest Bray, Battle of Zootopia, and The Hay Team. [2]

After another hour, the kids' voices grew tired of singing, so the rest of the journey was filled with half-mumbles of "Are we there yet?" and the half-grumbles of the stock replies "Not yet." and "No!".


Nick's childhood was originally planned to be one long chapter, but I didn't have the patience for that, and I want to update quickly for you guys, so now his childhood will probably span two or three chapters.

[1] I originally planned Clawhauser to appear instead of Finnick, but I realized that the latter would be better for the role. Don't worry, you'll see the former likely in the next chapter.

[2] Guess what famous shows and movies I made an animal pun out of. Go ahead, guess. I dare ya. I double dare ya.

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Hope to see you again soon with another chapter!

Transformers 0 over the moon and out!