Hello everyone! Chapter 13 is now available!
Thanks for all the feedback on the last chapter, it was very helpful!
All feedback and comments are welcome.
I don't own any Disney Characters
Enjoy!
It was early, and cold, the morning mist floating about the field in a dull grey blanket. It was peaceful, almost, and if not for her anxiety Judy might have even been able to appreciate it.
She had come to this place, early in the morning long before the sun arose, indeed on her only day off, to do one thing: conquer the jungle obstacle course. She had failed it, time and again over the past week, each failure punctuated by the instructor's gleeful, "You're dead, Hopps!"
It had been a constant refrain, every time she took to one of the numerous training courses that filled the grounds of the Academy. You're dead. It had been almost funny at first, a joke between her and the instructor, a particularly ornery Arctica Bear, but, after falling from the ice wall for the umpteenth time, she had laughed after hearing the call. Before she knew what was happening she had been unceremoniously wrenched from the ice cold water and screamed at for 10 minutes. The instructor making it crystal clear just how funny she thought it was.
Judy had taken it more seriously after that, perhaps finally realizing that the instructor was decidedly not on her side. But that only seemed to make things worse, the chorus of "you're dead" now only making her more self conscious about her apparent inability to keep up with the larger trainees. The equipment had certainly been designed for them after all, but she wasn't about to argue it. In fact, since her dressing down a few weeks before she had done her best to be almost invisible. She would still fail the obstacle courses, but now when she did she was sure not to make any sort of fuss about it. Her displays of frustration only seemed to make everyone around her wish to push her buttons more. It was a little like her own family in that, though for some reason the pokes and prods of near strangers seemed to hurt far worse.
And most all of them were strangers. Despite living and working in close proximity to the nearly 30 other mammals in her cadet class, she had hardly gotten to know any of them. And that was almost more frustrating than her inability to cross the monkey bars.
She was trying to make friends, get to know some of her future coworkers, but she had been mostly met with indifference. Everyone was friendly, more or less, but as she had found out from the only cadet who seemed to enjoy her company, a leopard named Opher, that the rest of the class regarded her days amongst them as numbered. Others had already left, two in fact. One due to an unfortunate injury, and the other for reasons unknown, though Judy suspected that they had been cheating in class.
The obvious lack of faith in her had at first brought her zeal to almost frightening heights, but it had only gotten her so far. She had never had trouble in class, far from it she consistently received the best scores. Thanks in no small part to Nick's generous gift she had to admit. But while her physical abilities had improved, they were still not enough, she was a terrible climber in all its forms.
It had been her routine for the last month, to spend her Sunday morning running through the courses, trying to eke out even just a modicum of improvement. It was a silly thing to be held back by, an obstacle course. They all looked to simple from the window in her barracks, and yet it was they who would determine if she would achieve her dream.
She crouched down, preparing to jump up for the first bar, still dripping with the morning dew, and she leapt. The bar was cold, and large, there in her paws, and slippery too, but she grasped it tightly, determination filling her body. She began to swing, slowly at first, but she picked up speed and let go, reaching desperately for the next bar. Her paws found it, and she swayed there for a moment, allowing her momentum to pass as she rocked back and forth, and then she repeated the process.
"That's a really terrible way to cross that one."
Judy nearly jumped out of her fur and barely held onto the bar, so focused had she been at the crossing that she had failed the notice Opher standing there watching her. "Opher, now is really not the time," she groused at him, in no mood to have her technique criticized.
"I'm just saying. That's a pretty easy one."
"Oh, that means a lot coming from a cat," Judy replied. Rolling her eyes as she hung from one of the bars.
"Leopard, thank you very much. All I am saying Judy is that you would have an easier time of this if you tried it a different way."
"Thank you, Opher, but I am doing just fine."
"Mm, I can see that."
Judy shook her head. This was really not what she needed at the moment. A spectator, and indeed one who wouldn't shut up. She waited a moment, expecting him to wander off, but he simply stood there, looking at her expectantly. She let out an exasperated sigh, but resigned herself to his voyeurism. After a moment longer, she began her laborious journey across the monkey bars again. Swing, swing, leap. Swing, swing, leap. It didn't take her long to tire, her paws aching at every pause. This had always been her problem, she would get too tired to continue long before she could finish the obstacle. The bars made her paws ache and and her arms scream. But she wouldn't stop, could not stop. She would not let the monkey bars defeat her. Swing, swing, leap. And then it happened, she timed her release poorly, letting go too early and she sailed past the next bar, the cold metal just brushing her fingertips, and she fell.
It felt like ages, her descent to earth, though it lasted only about one second. But as she fell, she watched her dream plummet away from her just as the bars did. She couldn't do it. She could do a lot of things, pass a test, run, and jump, but she couldn't climb, shoot, or fight. The walls too tall, the guns too large, and her opponents too massive. There was just no way around those things. Size did matter. They didn't just make smaller guns, and how would she make it against real criminals if she couldn't manage against large mammals in a comparatively safe and controlled environment? And how would she get anywhere in the city if she couldn't climb?
Maybe her days were numbered.
No, her mind screamed, they're not. Never give in.
She hit the water, hard, the wind knocked from her, was enveloped, and down she sank.
Anger, frustration, cold. Those were the things felt as she lay at the bottom of the shallow pool, the world around her somehow perfectly clear despite the murky water.
She raged.
She raged against everything. The Academy, her family, Nick. Raged at everything that had brought her to that moment. That single crushing moment when she found herself coming to terms with the fact that she might have to drop from the Academy. And it was not because of injury, or a lack of intelligence, oh no, it was because she couldn't handle the monkey bars. She would have to live with that. Spend the rest of her life knowing that she was defeated by a kit's play thing.
It was crushing, that revelation. The very idea repulsive in the extreme. And she flew from it like it were about to kill her. And perhaps it was, she still hadn't come up for air, though she didn't feel as though she had to.
She calmed, feeling the familiarity of this cycle, the anger and frustration subsiding, replaced by other things far less unpleasant, as it always was. She would not quit, and the training courses would not defeat her. If they did she could never face anyone ever again, might as well disappear with her shame. And there was one mammal at the very least that she had to see again. Even if it was only to hit him in the nose. That lying fox.
She heard splashes approaching rapidly, muffled by the murky water, and it suddenly hit her just how desperate she was for air. She started, her body screaming at her, and she nearly jumped from the water, gulping down great quantities of air.
"Oh my gods, Judy! Are you alright?" Opher had practically yelled it at her, though he was a mere two meters away, standing knee deep in the water.
"Yeah… yeah, sorry, I'm fine," she replied still thinking of her trouble with Nick.
"Jeez, don't do that to me," he said, clutching the place over his heart, "you almost gave me a heart attack when you didn't come up." He moved closer, patting her back. "You're crazy you know? You're killing yourself over this stuff."
"Well what else am I supposed to do? I am not going to quit, I can't." She said the words but in that moment she didn't really feel them.
"You could ask for help. I am pretty good at some of this stuff after all."
She looked away from him, a little embarrassed. She hadn't really asked anyone for help, thinking that doing so would confirm what everyone was already thinking. Besides, she had never needed help for anything before so why would she need it now? Well, no, that wasn't true, there was Nick, who had helped her a lot, and her parents too, she would have never gone to college if it weren't for them. And plenty of others too, a lot of mammals who had helped her on her way. But those things were different, right?
"Look, I'll show you how to do this one, it's really easy when you get the hang of it," Opher continued. He led her out of the pool and back to the start of the monkey bars, and then crossed them effortlessly. He turned back to her and spread his arms wide.
No it wasn't really all that different.
"I tried it like that though, and it didn't work," Judy groused, "the bars are too far apart."
"Yeah you gotta keep your momentum up. Once you stop it's really hard to get going again."
She looked across the pool at the start of the bars, the apprehension clear on her face. And then, a thought creeped into her mind. Why did he care? He gained nothing from helping her, at least as far as she knew. And she stood there before the start just as the sun was beginning to peak above the horizon, trying to imagine the source of his motivation. But she came up with nothing, and scolded herself for thinking so little of him that he would try to take advantage of her.
When had she become like that? She couldn't quite place it, that the attitude had certainly been magnified by her frustrations with the Academy. No, she realized, she could place the beginnings of it. Nick. Or, perhaps, her realization that he may not have been telling to whole truth, or perhaps any truth at all. It made her so angry, and it was so painful, that realization. Still, he had done so much for her, she wasn't willing to give up on him, not just yet. She would give him one more chance, perhaps. If he showed up at her graduation, she would find out the truth. And if he didn't, well, then she would know the truth too.
"Judy?"
"Yeah?" she replied back, though not really paying Opher any attention.
"Are you going to go?" he asked, offering her the towel she had brought along.
"Uh yeah," she replied, a sudden shiver wracking her body. "Yeah, yeah, sorry," she continued, finally back in the present.
"You ok there?"
"Yeah I'm fine," she said, wading out of the shallow pool, "just frustrated is all"
"Well, give it another shot, I think it will go better this time."
"Oh yeah?" She replied, chuckling. "We will see."
The riot gun was growing heavy in her paws. Large too, and unwieldy, designed for a mammal much larger than her. She was lucky in that the 40mm launcher had a fully telescoping wire stock. It allowed her to properly operate the launcher, seating it tightly against her shoulder. It did not make for comfortability however, the growing bruise on her shoulder evidence of that, the wires of the stock seeming to dig in deeper and deeper with every pull of the trigger.
She had been at it for more than an hour. Launching round after round of practice teargas canisters down range. She was coming to enjoy it. The way the muzzle flashed brightly as the black powder charge hurled the canister on its way. The way it smelled, of sulfur, burnt earth, and metal. And in particular she enjoyed just how accurate she was becoming with the big launcher. It had taken her some time, but just that morning she found herself capable of consistently putting the practice round through a window at 70 meters. No mean feat indeed as 70 meters was nearly the launcher's max effective range.
Thunk
She sent another round down range, watching the smoking canister arc away from her. There was a loud crack as it rebounded off the wooden structure she was aiming for. She had missed the window, but it didn't bother her, it was first she had missed in the last ten rounds and she chalked it up to fatigue. She was lucky in that her launcher was actually designed to be used as a pistol by larger mammals, so it was light, light enough for her to weld for an extended period of time, but not forever. And she felt that she was rapidly approaching the point where she would longer be able to use her weapon effectively. Her arms were heavy, her shoulder sore, her aim unsteady. She would fire one more she decided, and she reloaded her launcher and took aim.
Thunk
The sound rang out, deep and throaty. The round arced away, and flew right through the window.
"Good shot, Hopps," said the Range Master, a deer whose antlers had just shed. She smiled and nodded, lowering her weapon. "You've gotten much better."
"Hey, Judy!" came a call from entrance gate. "You're gonna be late." It was Opher, and he was motioning frantically for her to follow. She glanced at her watch, nearly jumped out of her fur, and rushed off after Opher, calling back at the Range Master that she would be back later to clean up.
They had crowd control training. A time when the cadets in her class would don helmets and armor, and shields and clubs, and be charged by screaming cadets from other classes, or run through walls of fire. It was exciting, and terrifying, and dangerous.
They had placed her, at first, in the shield wall, wedged between her far larger compatriots. It had been farcical. She had represented a massive gap in the line. The two cadets on either side would press together and either push her out in front of the line, leaving her extremely vulnerable, or she would be pushed back in between the ranks, where she could do nothing at all.
Her plight hadn't lasted long however, her instructors recognizing how silly it was even faster than the rest of the cadets did. They had moved her to the back, to the file closers, the rank of widely spaced officers responsible for keeping the lines dressed and closing any gaps, moving the downed officers out of the way so that another could take their place. It was a position of considerable responsibility, and was usually taken by veteran officers who had demonstrated their coolness under fire. At the Academy though, it was the instructors who filled the roll, usually, though at times each cadet had had a chance. They kept her there though, because she seemed to handle it well, and because she had no place in the shield wall. There were some things that hard work and effort simply couldn't overcome, and she would never grow taller or gain the dozens of kilograms that would be needed for her to find a place there.
That suited her just fine though, she had no desire the be in a place in which she would only get in the way. But it had bothered her at first that she wouldn't be facing quite the same danger as the rest of her comrades. Afraid that it might alienate her further. Nevertheless she had thrown herself into her new roll. Working her hardest to prove that she deserved to hold it.
It had been a struggle at first. She had been terrible with the riot gun, though as she walked towards the training ground she reflected upon just how proficient she had come over the last few weeks. She had also had trouble seeing. Once the groups of 'protestors' met the shield wall visibility through the legs of her fellow cadets fell to zero, and she had had trouble determining where to fire her rounds and break up the crowds. But she had found a solution to that too, using her powerful legs to briefly jump above the fray. She had even found herself capable of dragging some of the larger cadets away from the lines when they fell, though the very largest, like the elephant, Roy, were still much beyond her abilities.
She reached the training ground on Opher's heels and donned her equipment. Most of the other cadets were already assembled, and Judy was surprised to see that her class was not the only one there. There were at least three others. More than 100 cadets all standing around in riot gear waiting for things to start. She hadn't realized that this was to be such a big event, though each day the intensity and chaos of the training had been escalating. Still, this would be the first time her class would work with anyone else but themselves and she was excited to see them all in action.
There was something deeply moving about seeing dozens of mammals all moving as one with what she thought to be military precision. Each knowing their place in the long orderly dance.
"Classes Apple, Baker, Charlie! Fall in on your class leaders!" The call rang out, and suddenly the training ground was filled with activity as the cadets frantically found their places beside their class leaders. The instructors added to the noise with calls of "Look alive there," and "Dress it up, you damn animals!"
And then there was silence, each cadet staring ahead at their class instructors, waiting with barely contained anticipation for what came next.
"Battalion! Atten-tion!" A slight rippling in the ranks followed, as many cadets stood just a little straighter and others checked their spacing. Just beyond elbow to elbow. Always.
The class instructors stood about a dozen paces in front of the line conversing quietly amongst themselves, far enough away that even Judy could not hear them. Her blood was up, standing there behind the line with her riot gun, the waiting was killing her, the minutes dragging on with painful sluggishness. And then finally the small conference broke up.
The head instructor spoke, his voice carrying across the ranks of assembled cadets. "Battalion, today we will be practicing battalion maneuvers. Surprise, surprise. It will require you to put into practice what you have learned amongst your individual companies. Battalion drill is no different than company drill, and if you can do that, you should have no problem. We will be here until we get it right." He glanced at his watch. "Instructors, see to your companies." The class instructors left the head instructor's side and filtered back through the ranks of cadets. Taking up their stations behind the companies.
"Battalion, by the right flank, march!"
The cadets turned right, every second cadet stepping up, and the two ranks became four as the battalion began its march around the field.
"Battalion, by files left!" There was a pause as the order was relayed to each company by the commanding instructors. "March!" The order went out just as they were reaching the limit of the field and the head of the column snaked left, keeping them away from the boundary.
It went on like this for two hours. The battalion of cadets put through all sorts of drill under the hot afternoon sun. They marched in column of fours, halted, fronted, wheeled, marched directly from column into line, marching forward and back in their shield wall, and even practiced disengaging one company from the line of battle allowing another to relieve them, each squad in the companies forming a small column and marching back away from the line, allowing the columns of the new company to pass through them and take up their stations. All these things the classes had practiced on their own, but with the other two the seemingly simple company drill became much more difficult. The flanks of the companies tended to bump into one another, and Judy and the other file closers spent much of their time ensuring that their squads weren't marching faster or slower than the other squads or companies. The entire battalion line bowing and swaying when they didn't get it right.
Eventually though, they were halted, returned to company front, and made to wait in the hot sun while the instructor's decided on the next activity. And then without warning all the instructors, including the head, moved behind their line, admonishing any cadets that shifted from their position as they did so. Dress, dress, was the word repeated again and again until the lines became orderly and straight once again. Then an ATV rode up behind the line towing a trailer full of boxes. Judy tried to look but she, like all the others, was reminded to keep her eyes front.
"Those with riot guns, fall in on me!"
There was some hesitancy, the cadets in the line trying to steal glances behind them and those with the guns exchanging glances, unsure of what to do.
"At the double, gods damn you! Fall in!"
There was no hesitancy after that, Judy and the others rushed to their instructor's side and fell in at attention.
"Fill your webbing and load your weapons."
They did so, grabbing the canisters in great handfuls. Judy could only reasonably carry 15 rounds, she didn't have enough space in her equipment and too many more than than that and she would be overloaded, but others could carry far more. They were live, the tear gas grenades. She had only fired the real thing once or twice, and that she was loaded to the brim with them now made her heart race. She shook with anticipation for what would come next.
"Return to your ranks," the head instructor said, and she and the others did so as the ATV drove off, leaving the trailer and its contents behind.
They waited again, the minutes dripping by, almost slower than before, the discipline in the ranks slipping. The cadets weren't standing quite so tall, nor were they keeping their eyes straight ahead as they glanced around searching clues as to their future.
There was a sound, a cheer, from far off across the field beneath a low rise that blocked their view. The sound caused a stir in the ranks, the shorter mammals craning their necks to see while the taller murmured to their neighbors just what they saw.
"There are a lot of them."
"Who?"
"I don't know, guess they are 'protestors'."
"How many?"
"I don't know, looks like hundreds."
Hundreds. The very thought of it made Judy's blood run cold. There were barely one hundred of them, closely packed together in two ranks, the third hardly deserving such a title. It was not enough to stop hundreds of protesters. It was just training, she reminded herself, controlled and safe. She was in no particular danger, and neither was anyone else. How could they be?
"Cadets! Expect no quarter." Uneasiness rippled through the line. "Don your masks!" And they did, each cadet frantically affixing their gas masks to their faces.
The was another sound and the 'protestors' crested the rise, wearing armor much like their own, armed with clubs and other devices, some even carrying shields. They yelled and screamed as they approached, making as much noise as they could and stopped about 30 meters away. It was so loud, the yelling and baying, the roaring and banging, it made it hard to hear the orders of their instructors.
"Battalion!" The pause again, the the sounds of the class instructors yelling "company!" could be heard up and down the line, though only just. "Ready!" The shields came up in one crisp and smooth motion, the company to Judy's right following suite only a moment after her own, the line tightening together to ensure there were no gaps.
The rocks came then, by the dozen, smacking into shield and armor, eliciting the occasional grunt of pain from cadets' lines. Judy cheated forward, desperate to be under the protection of the raised shields of the second rank, and she dodged a flying rock as she moved forwards.
"Damnit, Hopps! Get back to your position!" her class instructor yelled as he dragged her back to her place.
"Riot guns! Open fire!" The order rang out, loud, even over the din. And Judy opened fire, her first round totally blind. She calmed herself then, reminding herself that it was all just training, she knew what to do, and she lept into the air to fire her second. She didn't see where it landed. It was hard to breathe in her mask, and it made her leaping all the more difficult. She had only fired 4 rounds and she was already beginning to pant. She had never experienced anything like it before, the small company drills not even coming close. It was terrifying and exciting, and she was expending her energy at a stupendous rate. Dodging rocks and leaping into the air to send gas canisters into the furious crowd before her. They charged only moments later.
The cadets line reeled under the assault, bent, bent, held, and then bent again. Each company giving ground only begrudgingly, but giving in nonetheless. Judy kept up her barrage, all thought of training long gone as she fired her rounds directly into the faces of their assailants. The gas filling the air and making it hard to see. It was all having an impact though, the gas and the batons. And the assault ceased almost as soon as it began, the mock protesters withdrawing about 40 meters away, getting away from the gas. In barely two minutes of combat Judy had used more than half of her ammunition and was on the brink of an exhaustion the likes of which she had never felt, and she sucked in great gulps of air through the filter as best she could. She could see too that the cadets ahead of of her were in much the same state, panting hard behind their masks.
But it wasn't over, they had but a moment to catch their breaths before the protesters came on again. Judy kept shooting as quickly as she could reload, but the assault was concentrated now directly on her company, and the whole battalion seemed to bow as the center was pressed back and back, barely holding its own. A cadet ahead of her, a wolf, fell after she was struck upon her helmet by a club, and Judy fired one last round before she rushed forward to push the tiger in the second rank forward and drag the wolf out of the line. Helping her return to her place once she regained her senses. Then another fell, a jaguar this time, his legs swept from under him, and then another, there were cadets falling all up and down the line, one even lost to the protesters as they continued to push, his comrades unable to drag him out in time.
There were no reserves, nothing they could do, all the riot guns out of ammunition and the line thinning by the minute. Those fallen that were still able and willing to fight were pushed back into the line but there weren't enough, and soon Judy found herself in the second rank, carrying a recovered shield far too large for her.
Confusion, it was all that surrounded her, the screams and yells of both sides melding with the crashed and bangs of batons and clubs and shield and armor. She stood behind an elephant, the massive mammal one of the few in their line seemingly unphased by the combat that surrounded them. And Judy did her best to lash out at the shins of their attackers, knowing that even that might help stem the tide. But it was not enough, there was a lull, barely more than a minute, the protestors withdrawing back again. The calls from the instructors to hold filtering up and down the line. And then they came on again, at full speed, and smashed into their line, sweeping it aside as if it were not there at all. And her company broke, and with it went the rest of the battalion into wild flight, all sense of order and reason forgotten.
Judy went with them, carried from the fray by the elephant she had been standing behind, protesting at the indignity all the way. The cadets reached the boundary of the field before the realized they were not being pursued. They had gone nearly 150 meters before they realized their mistake, but they were unwilling to go back, exhausted as they were, and they were immensely thankful that it all seemed to be over. Many fell to the ground where they stood and tore off their masks, gulping in the warm afternoon air.
A whistle blew and the call sang out, "Battalion! Fall in!"
It was with intense reluctance that the remaining cadets stirred from their places and slowly made their way back. They were reassembled, those with injuries, the majority quite minor, tended to, and they stood looking ahead at their instructors, though most with far less military bearing than when they had started.
"Good job today cadets, you held on a lot longer than most. It is unlikely they you will ever face a real situation like that one in your careers, totally unsupported. But know they you will almost always be outnumbered." There was an uneasy shifting in the ranks, the cadets unsure of where the remarks were going. "Know though, that even in the darkest of times, the most dire of situations, that as long as you stick together, and work together, you will never be alone."
There was silence for a moment, before the head instructor barked out an order, "Battalion, dismissed! You have classes in 15 minutes. If you're late, you'll regret it."
"Well that was fun today, don't you think?" Opher asked as he peaked his head through the door of Judy's room. She looked up from her book and gave him an exhausted smile.
"I hope I never have to be in a riot line. I don't think I have ever been so tired. My legs have been like jelly ever since!"
"I getcha. One of the mammals attacking us got me right in my neck," he said as he entered, rubbing his neck. "I can't bend my head to the left!" And as he said it he demonstrated, his face screwing up in pain as he did so.
"Well then don't do it!" she admonished, throwing her pen at him. "You'll only make it worse you dummy."
He laughed as the pen rebounded off him and flew out the door. They both stared after it, and then their eyes met, and the message was clear. "Hah! Fine, I'll get it."
"Do you think they will make us do that again?" she asked as he returned.
"I don't know, I hope not. You think real crowd control is like that?"
Judy shrugged and pointed to the textbook laying open on her desk. "It can be. Sometimes worse. And even worse before there was good gun control."
"I heard there were protests in the City the other day, but I didn't hear of any violence. I am sure that is what it's like usually. Just protesters, complaining about something."
"Hey, protesting is important, how else are we supposed to let our politicians know what it important?" Opher rolled his eyes. "What were they protesting anyway?" she continued.
"Ah, you know that whole Arctician thing? With the war they are having. I guess the protesters want us to do something about it. Stop it or something. Though who knows how they expect us to do that."
His annoyance at the protesters was apparent, and Judy wondered just why he seemed so unhappy with them. She wanted to prod, hesitated, and then did it anyway.
"Why don't you like them?" she asked.
"Who?" he answered, clearly dodging the question.
"You know who I am talking about!" she pressed, determined to get at least something out of him.
"We shouldn't be getting involved," he replied after a short pause. "It's not our problem, and we shouldn't be sticking our noses in other mammals' business. And besides, if the Arcticians don't want to let the Ossetians go, then they have every right to stop them."
Judy looked at him quizzically, not entirely sure of to whom he referred. She recognized Arcticia, and of course she had heard about some fighting, but she had no idea who the Ossetians were, or why they would want to leave. Judy was almost wholly ignorant of those sorts of matters. Not because of some incapability to comprehend them, but rather because she had simply never really been introduced to them. World events like that had largely gone without her notice, cloistered as she was in Bunnyborough. But that ignorance didn't stop her mind from quickly processing what little information she had been given and drawing conclusions from it.
Question upon question arose in her mind. Who were the Ossetians and why did they wish to leave? And shouldn't they be allowed to? After all, if that is what they wanted they why shouldn't they have it? It sounded almost like what she had experienced, she realized. Her desperation to leave her comfortable and sheltered life, and her parents' efforts to stop her. She found herself empathizing with the Ossetians, whomever they were, wished them the best in their efforts to strike out and be their own mammals. She moderated it though, not wishing to get too far ahead of herself, had been admonished before at the Academy for jumping to conclusions far too quickly. And so she asked Opher a very basic question.
"Who are the Ossetians?"
"It's- ah, it's complicated. They are mammals from the Arctician province of Ossetia. And they had decided that they don't want to be a part of Arctica anymore. So now they have gone and started a war over it."
She could tell he felt strongly about the issue, the condescension in his tone towards the Ossetians almost painfully apparent. She had never considered the idea that a nation might not be an eternal and immutable structure. That there might be those who wished them broken apart. It had always always simply been a given when she was growing up. Bunnyborough was a part of Zootopia. So it was from time immemorial and so shall it always be. And the same for the other parts of Zootopia too.
She was suddenly uncertain about her feelings towards the Ossetians. Didn't like the idea that something like a nation could be broken up on a whim, sending things into chaos. Forcing her to don armor and go out and face crowds like she had that afternoon. That terrifying and humbling afternoon.
And now there was a war on there, and no doubt mammals were dying and homes destroyed as result. Which only compounded the unease she felt.
"I heard you did good today, Hopps." Opher interrupted her thoughts.
"Oh? Who told you that?" she replied skeptically, unsure of whether or not he was making game of her. That was not his nature though, she knew that, and perhaps at one time the thought would have never crossed her mind. But she wasn't the same bunny she had been even just a few months before.
"No, I mean it. I heard you were all over the place. Even joined the ranks and tried to fight them back. Roy said he had to drag you away from the fighting when we ran or you wouldn't have stopped."
She looked away from him, hiding her embarrassment. "It didn't happen like that, I just didn't see everyone run at first."
"Hah, well maybe that's what happened, no need to spread that around though, hah ha!." He winked at her, and somehow it made her feel a little bit better about the whole thing. Opher was the super cop. Good at everything he tried and well liked by all who knew him. She was near the top of the class right along with him, but he just seemed to belong there, as if that number one spot was meant explicitly, and only, for him. She coveted his praise, whenever it was dealt. Which was rarely to be sure. He could be, at times, short tempered and silver tongued, though that too was rare. He was, most usually, kind and forgiving, especially with her, but not one predisposed to flattery. He was a good friend, which was just what she needed. Even a rival at times, though she suspected that it was a rather one sided competition, he never really understanding just how hard she had to work to stay just one step behind him.
It was a frustrating thing at times. Knowing that no matter the effort expended there was also someone else just that much better. Infuriating even, because of how easy it was for them. But she had come to accept it. Like she had come to accept many things. The difficulty of the Academy. The handicap she carried because of her tiny stature in comparison to the other cadets. And indeed the opinions all of the them seemed to have towards her species. It had taken her quite a bit longer to gain her compatriots' trust. Make them recognize that her days weren't numbered. And that she could be a positive contributor to the class.
There were still moments though, when she was struck by depression, fear, frustration, and second thoughts. Nick remained at the forefront of her mind too. Her memories of him alternating between fond and frustrating. She was cut off from the world at the Academy, mostly, and so his status remained a mystery to her. One which she would revisit with embarrassing frequency. She knew that there was nothing that could be done on that front, not until she left, but that she had been so mislead by him ensured that the wound would remain open and painful.
It had building up, her frustration with him, almost to the point of distraction. She had trusted him, even after he came clean about his name. But every day she spent in the Academy she had less reason to trust his story. The broad strokes of things seemed to be right, the timeline of his entrance and his promotions. But it was in the details where things went awry. Details of procedures that didn't make sense, or seemed to only be performed on television anymore. And as far as she could tell there had never been a fox at the Academy. There had been reluctance there too, to paint his life in anything more than a light coat. She had justified it then, believing, as he said, that his job required secrecy. But she didn't really believe that anymore, and so she was left wondering just what he had been hiding.
"You ok, Hopps?" Opher asked, poking at her, like he often did, when she seemed long lost in her thoughts. Always concerned, always understanding.
"Yeah, I'm fine," she gave him her usual response... and the game began.
"No you're not. What's up?"
This was not the first time they had done this dance, Opher picking up on her souring mood and instantly leaping forth to discover its source. That had annoyed her too, at one time. Though she had begun to appreciate it, had spent more than one night venting to him. He had reciprocated too, and they had commiserated upon their trials and tribulations together. It had eased the long days at the Academy. Made the trying existence bearable, more than even. But she was not always interested in venting. Some topics totally off limits. Nick in particular.
But she could not lie. Had never been good at it, and until she left the burrow had never wanted to be good at it. But by Frith did she wish she was then. "It's nothing, Opher, really." She refused to make eye contact and shifted away from him in her chair so she could more easily avoid it.
He huffed at the transparency of her deception and said, "You know, Judy," the emphasis on her name stung her, "you're always much happier when we skip this and just tell me whats up."
She sighed, knowing the truth in his words. But there was just no way she could let him into that part of her life, see through that window. She wasn't even sure what he would see.
The wound festered though, eating at her little by little each day. It wasn't with her always, just at moments of idleness, when it would scrap at the edges of her thoughts, threatening to cloud everything in uncertainty and self doubt. She would feel better if she told him. She knew that. But she had no idea how to articulate the roiling emotions that sometimes seemed to overwhelm her. It took her everything to fight it back, push them down, and reseal them in the recesses of her mind.
But she also knew that there had never been a point in her life when she hadn't been able to share everything with someone. There had always been someone in the burrow whom she could have leant on when she needed it. She had always had a release valve. One of the benefits of living such a close, communal, lifestyle. But not there, at the Academy, not really. Opher meant well, but he was not her family, not him. But she had to tell someone about it. Had to, it was making her miserable, the thought that Nick had lied.
"Judy?" Opher pressed again, concern lacing his voice.
She leaned back in her chair, the studying she was ostensibly working on long forgotten, and said, "Opher, I have this friend… I met him back in Bunnyborough. He lied to me. And I trusted him." Her voice quivered, she fought back tears, but she wasn't done. She had to tell him. Not everything. No, she would keep certain details out, like his species, and his name, and how exactly she came to meet him, but she had to tell him.
She told him about how Nick had told her he was a cop, and how he had rekindled her dream to do the same. About how for the first time in a long time she had someone who she felt treated her like an equal, like she wasn't being silly or naive for wanting something more than what her burrow could offer. About how he made her feel about herself and in turn how she felt about him. And then she told him about the lies she was sure he told her, about how she had checked the school records and there was never a trace of him to be found, and how it made her feel as though everything else was invalidated. As if his encouragement had all been a lie too, and how it made her now wonder if she even believed in herself. She even told him about the gift and told him about the notes that came with it, and how it all seemed to take on a different light once his duplicity had become clear.
Opher listened to all that and more, only interrupting to slow her down as she became more animated. She appreciated that, it was just like Nick, and had been one of his most endearing qualities, his almost inexhaustible ability to simply listen. She finished though, her story, and the tale didn't require his infinite patience. And when she was he leaned back and let out a low whistle.
"This guy seems like quite the mammal," he said.
"He is… or so he says," she replied, unable to keep her disappointment in Nick from her voice.
"I'm sorry he lied to you," Opher said, "he could be an officer though. You know, not everyone who ends up in the ZPD comes through the Academy."
"I know," she sighed. "I know. But then why did he lie about being here?"
"Maybe he didn't think you would figure it out."
She scoffed. "How wouldn't I? It's such an easy thing to check! The halls are lined with class pictures!"
"Well, he obviously didn't know that," Opher said, a grin threatening to play across his lips.
Judy was unable to suppress her own. "Obviously."
"I think he meant what he said about you."
She looked at him, searching his face for sincerity. "Yeah? And how do you know?"
"Well… it just seems like it would have been much easier to do otherwise. Right? I mean, no offense, but rabbits aren't usually the officer type."
"What do you mean?"
"If he didn't mean it, then why would he bother encouraging you?"
"I–" she arrested her retort, realizing that what he said made sense.
"Plus, there's that whole gift." He shrugged. "There is just no way he would have sent it otherwise."
Yeah. There was no way. It would be a crazy thing to do if it had all been some ruse. And much of the other things he did too. He had been wonderful, his entire time at the burrow, had not even flinched at the idea of her becoming a cop. And he had done so much for her. She realized then that whatever else he may have been. that those things at the very least were true. She wanted to find other things too, to fix the picture and return things to the way they had been before. Stop the lies from being just that. It was impossible though, and she recognized that, but, at the very least, she knew that his belief in her wasn't a lie.
"Bit of a prick though, eh?" Opher smiled at her, clearly sensing the uptick in her mood.
She laughed. Yes, Nick was a prick, and if… no, when she saw him again, she would let him know just what she thought of him.
"It still hurts though," she finally replied after a moment of silence.
"Yeah… that stuff always does."
I hope you enjoyed the chapter!
I actually had to do a pretty major rewrite of this one over the last weekend. I don't think I went into it at first with a real clear of what my goal for it was and as a result it came out a bit weak. It is better now, though I think if I had more time I would make additional changes...
Anyway, some little things:
The drill is loosely based Casey's Infantry Tactics Vol. I, which was used by Union troops during the American Civil War, and the rebels too, though they usually used Hardee's. They are very similar though.
There will be no love triangles! I hate that stuff.
Again, all comments and feedback are welcome!
Live well!