"Listen up cadets! There is a total of twelve unique ecosystems in Zootopia, and you're gonna need to master dealing with all of them if you plan on surviving out there!"
Our instructor had a very authoritarian way of training the new cadets, but I guess that's the only way to keep us in line. Overall the training was pretty complicated, but to put it simply, at first, it felt like I traveled the world in one night. We had to deal with blazing heat in the desert, hot and humid weather in the jungle, and even had to climb an ice wall in the freezing cold.
After that all the cadets had to box each other, which seemed rather unfair, considering there was a god damned rhino on the team, although he was surprisingly slow and brutish, even though Rhinos are known to be pretty fast, at least on Earth, so it wasn't all too hard to dodge his punches.
I nearly broke my hand trying to hit the guy. It took nearly a hundred just to finally knock him out. Although he couldn't really dodge all that easy, being such a large target, so maybe I had an advantage as a human? Technically we are genetically superior to pretty much every animal on earth in some way, shape or form. But then again, those animals didn't box.
There were also some other, rather unremarkable things we had to do that day. Including driving tests, more self-defense, and some more agility training and whatnot. Surprisingly I did really well in all of the challenges, I got at least 4th in all of them, which I did not expect. In some events, I barely missed getting third place, and even though they weren't technically ranked, I still got really competitive. I was so focused on doing my best to beat everyone that I passed out as soon as we got to the bunks.
After a while, I wanted to do best so much, that I exercised during any free time I got. We had to train for around 20 weeks, and I was the best there was for the quite some time, until close to the end of the program when I started getting beat by some rabbit, which made me extremely frustrated, so frustrated in fact, that I starting working myself to death to the point where it hurt to move pretty much anything, trying to regain my throne, but to no avail. I ended up placing in all of the events on the final test but didn't get first once. I was upset at first, but realizing how well I did, compared to everyone else, I was so happy that I nearly forgot about the whole ceremonial pinning of the badge. I ended up missing the speech the rabbit had made, but other than that, it was a very humbling and honorable experience.
A couple of the other cadets, and I hung out afterward, although most of the others just went and saw their families. At first, I was going to do the same, however, I quickly remembered that I hadn't been able to see my family for 3 months. Let alone any humans, so that wouldn't be possible. I didn't think much of it, though, I didn't want to ruin the night.
We drank, told stories, and went out on the town. During this, I actually learned that the animals here were almost the exact same as humans, it's pretty much just earth but with animals instead of humans. I made a few friends that night. I ended up passing out at some point, so we had to go home early. Everyone was so tired though that they didn't really care. Most of them were going to go see their friends tomorrow. As soon as I got home, I passed out on the couch.
I was woken up by the sound of my phone ringing. The ring pierced my ears, waking me up from an absolutely awesome dream. I sighed and picked up the phone.
"Hello?" I answered groggily.
The caller sighed, seeming disappointed. "Lein? Did you really just wake up? Do you know what time it is?"
I looked at my alarm clock. 12:30? Jesus, I was up late last night. "Oh, yeah, sorry, I had a crazy night, who is this?" I asked as I trudged to the bathroom, and searched for my toothbrush.
"It's Mayor Lionheart, just thought I should congratulate you on finishing your training!" I rubbed my eyes, Lionheart? Why did he call me just to congratulate me? We talked at the ceremony already.
"Oh, thanks, yeah I'm excited to start work," I answered, grabbing the toothpaste from the drawer.
He was quiet for a second.
"Uhh, yeah, about that, have you seen the news recently?" He asked in a somewhat alarming tone.
"No," I answered, stopping what I had been doing. "I've been busy at training, I never got the chance."
"Well, news spread about the recent crime rate spike, and its gotten to the point where people are afraid to walk the streets at night."
I was silent for a moment. That was awful news, but I was still curious as to why he needed to call me.
"Why exactly are you telling me this?" I asked, confused.
"Well," He said, "Now that you're a police officer, you'll be placed in some dangerous situations. Violent crime is through the roof, muggings, assaults, even some armed robberies. The point is that you may be putting your life at risk by joining the force, just thought I should warn you."
I was a little surprised, but if I wasn't used to this kind of stuff happening on earth, I would probably be worried.
"Oh, thanks for the heads up,"
We continued chatting for a little while before the mayor eventually got called to a meeting. I said goodbye, hung up the phone, and got prepared for the day ahead.
