Chapter 3

Sorry this took so long to release. I'm visiting family at the moment, and I can barely get a moment to myself. That's what happens when you have a huge family… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Fluttering his eyes, the jaguar looked around. The forest was silent, eerily silent. His ears started humming from the absence of sound. Looking around, trying to observe his surroundings, he only noticed the heavy fog, so dense that he could only make out the outlines of the distant trees. The canopy and the fog made the forest look dim, but it wasn't dark enough to be night. "Hello?" He called out. The distant leaves rustled, but the jaguar couldn't tell if it was from the wind or from a mammal. "Hello?" Nothing.

He slowly began to walk forward, attempting to be as quiet as he could. As he tried to listen for any sounds of life, his ears were met only with leaves rustling and the occasional bug's mating call. He wandered aimlessly for quite a while without encountering anything or anyone. It still appeared as though he was lost, and he couldn't find anything familiar.

Soon, his nose picked up on a foul stench. The odor caused his nose to recoil instantly. Though, the jaguar didn't have anywhere else to go, so he sniffed the air and tried to find the source of the smell. It was faint, but eventually he found the general area it was coming from.

The stench grew stronger with each step but it wasn't enough for the predator as he started walking faster, getting impatient that he hadn't found the source yet. All of a sudden, his foot gripped onto what felt like a loose branch, causing him to trip and slam into the forest floor, scraping up his forearms in the process. Groaning in pain, he slowly lifted himself up and gazed to the object below him.

It was a deer skeleton. A few scraps of clothing lay on and around the body. There were teeth and claw marks on almost every bone, but surprisingly the skeleton was still in one piece.

It was nothing out of the ordinary. There were most likely dozens, if not hundreds of skeletons of all species scattered throughout the forest. Sometimes animals got lost, sometimes they were eaten on the way back from a raid. But something about this deer gave the jaguar an uneasy feeling.

Cautiously, he sniffed the carcass. Though there were mostly bones, there was a little flesh left, but it wasn't the main source of the fetor. He looked around as he dusted himself off, trying to reassure himself that there was no one around, that he was safe. Slightly more confident with the silence, he stepped forward a little farther but unfortunately stumbled onto another skeleton, this one belonging to a jaguar.

His heart started beating quickly as if it would burst out of his chest. Slowly, he crept forward to get a better look at the bones. It was in a similar state to the deer skeleton, although there were no teeth or claw marks that could be seen. The coincidence of finding a dead deer and jaguar so close together gave the young feline chills up and down his spine, but that's all it was, a coincidence. Right? His fur started to stand on end from the strangeness of it all, and he could feel his body heating up. The whole ordeal was creeping him out, but he was still intrigued by it's coincidental nature. He started to back away but a crunching noise under his feet drew his attention downward, and he saw that it was a map of the valley, the same exact one he had taken from the storehouse in his village. Wah?

A tingling feeling overcame him, one he could not put a name to. Did I die? And Ashley… did we both die? I don't remember dying… well, I guess I wouldn't remember. Would I? The jaguar was utterly confused by the situation. He was almost certain that the two skeletons that lay before him… were him and Ashley, but if that was the case, then how was he looking at them? I wonder if-

BAM!

Roman's eyes shot open, and were instantly bombarded by raindrops. He shut them again and tried to get out of the downpour. Squinting around, he saw a sizable tree, one big enough to shelter him from all the rain. In a hurry to get out of the rain, he scrambled to his feet and quickly ran over to the tree. Unfortunately, it's leaves still allowed some rain to fall on Roman, but nowhere near as much as before. Stupid water. Leaning up against the tree, the jaguar tried to catch his breath as he thought about the dream he had just had. It had been unsettling, after all, no one wants to see their own death. If he had been the kind to believe in such things, he may have thought the dream was a sign for events to come. But he didn't, so he instead shrugged it off as a simple nightmare.

BAM!

The jaguar flinched at the loud sound. He'd always hated thunderstorms. As a cub, he had been scared of the loud peals of thunder, but now the sound only messed with his sensitive ears. He kicked himself for not remembered to bring something to wrap around his ears or stuff them with, like cloth. He had only had time to grab the map… The map!

He sat up quickly and got onto his knees, hunching over as he took the parchment out of his pocket. Carefully pulling it out, his heart dropped to see that the majority of it was soaked. It wasn't a complete loss, most of it was still useable, but large chunks were smeared, and some areas were torn. Uugh. Attempting to keep it dry, he curled his body into a ball, back to the rain, and put the map close to his chest.

As the minutes ticked by, his stomach rumbled, and he was reminded of the inopportune moment of escape due to his lack of planning. They had had to run in the middle of the night, and had kept running into the morning, only stopping to wait out the approaching storm. He didn't have food, he didn't have a change of clothes, he didn't have anything. All he had were the clothes on his back and the map. It was too bad. Given the time, he would've actually planned for the escapade, but he hadn't known if he would've had another moment to rescue Ashley. The feast was the only thing that kept all the jaguars in one place. Oh yeah, Ashley.

He wondered where she was. "Ashl-"

BAM!

His call was interrupted by another loud crash of thunder. Annoyed, he tried calling out again. "Ashley!" Nothing. All he could hear were the large drops of rain hitting the ground. "Ashley!" Still nothing. He didn't want to move for fear of further ruining the map, so instead he stayed put. Figuring she was somewhere near, probably doing the same thing he was, he opted to try and fall back asleep. The storm had disturbed his sleep, and the jaguar was going to need all the energy he could get for the next few days. Closing his eyes, he covered his ears with his paws and slowly managed to drift off into sleep.

Roman groggily opened his eyes, squinting directly into the sunlight. The storm had finally finished, and everything seemed peaceful. Slowly, he attempted to stand up, but found that his muscles were cramped from being in the incredibly uncomfortable position so long. Finally after reaching a standing position, he stretched, letting out a few groans and squeaks. Relaxing his muscles as well as he could, he could feel his back, which was soaked in water. Looking down at his front side, he saw that his shins and forearms were covered in mud. He tried scraping all the muck off as well as he could, then turned his attention to his map. Fortunately, it had survived the storm without further damage. He let out a sigh of relief, and tucked it back into his shirt. I gotta be more careful with this.

Roman looked around and observed his surroundings. Beams of sunlight shone brightly from behind the wall of slowly departing clouds. There was a rainbow far off in the distance, and it's light seeped into the forest, illuminating it once again and making the dew droplets on the leaves glisten brilliantly. Aside from the mud, the jaguar appreciated the beauty the storm had brought.

His thoughts soon turned to Ashley, wondering what she thought of the spectacular scene. He looked around, but the fawn was nowhere to be found. "Ashley!" The jaguar's shout echoed throughout the valley, but he heard nothing in response. "Ashley!" He was met with the result. Growing impatient, he started rummaging through the nearby trees, hoping to find the fawn, who was most likely sleeping; there wasn't much time to waste. In the unlikely event that his former friends would come after them, he wanted to be far away. "Ashley!"

As the minutes ticked by, there was still no sign of the deer. Roman began to wonder if they had been pursued and she had been taken, but he quickly dismissed that. He figured that had that been the case, Caden would've gone along, seeking revenge. And if some other group had stumbled upon them, he would've most likely been woken up by the noise or taken as well. Orange fur didn't do much to hide him in all the green of the forest.

Arriving at the last and most favorable of the three most likely situations, though none of them were favorable, he decided that she must've walked off during the storm. He stood there in disbelief and anger. After all he'd done to help, she had left without so much as a goodbye. He had rescued her, he had saved her life, but was she thankful? Well, probably… but she had a bad way of showing it. Roman knew she wasn't going to get very far. He still had the map, and he doubted she knew the area well enough to get around safely. His camp was quite a distance away from hers, a good four hour run, and he was sure she had no knowledge of the area. Without directions, she was most likely going to run right into a group of predators.

The jaguar weighed his options. He had already helped her escape, and in doing so saved her life, so he had already fulfilled his main goal. But he had also wanted to see her home, and without his help, she might never make it there. That would ruin everything and nullify all his previous efforts. Roman argued with himself, switching sides over and over in his head. After pulling on his ears numerous times, the jaguar finally made up his mind; he would go after her. But his time, he would make sure she stayed with him.

He looked down at his map, putting himself in Ashley's hooves, wondering where he would go if he was trying to get away from carnivores and back to his home. They were in a valley, and it was quite large. Since she presumably had no prior knowledge of the area, she'd probably want to get to higher ground to get a good vantage point. He gazed up at the mountains surrounding him, looking for one that looked easy enough to climb, but was still tall enough to be worth climbing. Eventually, he settled on a mountain that was covered in trees, but not very steep or rocky.

The jaguar began to stretch, loosening up his muscles. He stared down the mountain, mentally preparing himself for the arduous run ahead of him. The sun had begun to set, and the clouds had changed from gray to brilliant colors of orange and pink. Unfortunately, he had to run in the direction of the setting sun, so he had to squint to see, but that wouldn't last very long as the sun would dip behind the mountain soon enough.

The sun soon fell behind the mountain and the forest had started to darken as Roman ran toward the mountain. As he approached the base, he came upon a clearing in the trees. It was rather large, filled only with tall grass. Stopping for a moment to rest and catch his breath, he perked his ears up, listening for any mammals that might be around him. If his map was correct, then there was a predator camp not far, one belonging to otters. They weren't large mammals, but in numbers, they posed quite a threat.

At first, his ears didn't pick up on any significant sounds. Relaxing, he stood up from his crouched position and started to inspect the immediate area. A little ways away from where he stood, the grass was trampled, probably where a mammal had come and entered the brush. It looked like it had happened recently, but since the grass wasn't completely crushed to the ground, the jaguar assumed it had only been a few mammals at most.

Suddenly, the sound of rustling plants reached his ears, and he dropped back down so he was crouching. His eyes darted in all directions, attempting to pinpoint the source of the sound. A few seconds later, the rustling continued. Though, it wasn't the wind which was also blowing gently, rustling the grass. The artificial sound was slightly louder, but it was being distorted by the breeze. Roman determined the general area the sound was coming from, but he couldn't see what it was. Even his night vision didn't help him.

Slowly he got on all fours and let his primal instincts take over. The jaguar crawled forward, putting one paw in front of the other, making his way toward the sound. Taking care to remain as quiet as possible and retain his element of surprise, he entered the brush, hoping to catch his potential opponent off guard. He kept his ears trained toward the sound, listening for any sign that it knew he was there. Luckily, it seemed as though the mammal wasn't moving very much.

Making his way through the brush, successfully keeping quiet, he neared the source of the noise. Roman was close enough now to see the outline of the mammal through the blades of grass. It wasn't big, so whatever it was, he wouldn't have a hard time fighting it. Slowing down, he eventually got into pouncing range, and as his night vision adjusted, their details on the shadow suddenly became visible. The jaguar relaxed; his hunt for her had come to a rather convenient ending.

The jaguar almost stood up and approached Ashley, but he stopped himself to think about his two options. He could stand up and approach her, make himself known so she wouldn't fear the sudden presence of the predator. However, if she had run to get away from him, that tactic might not work, as she could simply try running away again. Alternatively, he could pounce on the fawn, but that was likely to scare her and cause her to scream, which brought with it the possibility of attracting unwanted guests. Either way, Roman was sure he could catch her, but he knew that she would in all probability run off, so he'd have to pounce on her anyway.

He didn't want to pounce as he knew it was terrifying for prey, and he was trying to build a relationship of trust with the fawn. She had already feared for her life, then he had rescued her, but clearly she still didn't trust him in the slightest or she wouldn't have run. Leaping on her like he would his meal would most certainly scare her beyond belief. Even though she'd find out rather quickly who her aggressor was, Roman was convinced it would sever whatever connection of trust the two had in the first place, and he'd have to start the whole process all over again.

After much contemplation over what he should do, Roman decided that he would simply tackle her right there. It would hopefully be quieter and the struggle could be resolved more quickly that way… That was, of course, until he heard a snap! Surprised, he snapped his head downward to see what had caused the sudden sound. Exasperated, he saw that it was a dead twig he had broken. Looking back up at Ashley, he saw that she had heard the twig break too, and her ears had flown up and were now standing erect in alert, listening for any danger. She slowly turned her head, and eventually they made eye contact. With his night vision, he could see the sheer terror in her eyes, and it was clear that the fawn didn't recognize him. There was a moment of stillness as both mammals waited for the other one to do something.

Suddenly, without warning, Roman leaped forward. At the same time, Ashley had begun to run, so the jaguar barely missed her. He crashed into the ground and slid through the dirt. Using his claws to stop himself, he looked in the direction the fawn had run off. She already had a considerable head start, so he grunted and jumped to his feet after her. He had no trouble following her, his paws lightly thumping the ground, as her hooves were pounding away at the ground, making her easy to track.

Roman was gradually gaining ground, and eventually he got within tackling distance. He waited just a moment longer to be sure he wouldn't miss before he lept through the air, colliding with Ashley's backside and bringing her to the ground. She let out a bawl in distress, and tried desperately to squirm out of his grasp. Her movements caused Roman to accidentally scratch her with his claws, escalating her efforts to be free. It was a downhill battle for her, and the jaguar knew all the ruckus had to potential to attract other mammals, so he was trying to minimize to noise, but it was to no avail.

"Ashley! Ashley, it's me, Roman!" She continued to bawl, unwilling to give up. Unable to get her to quiet down and stop struggling, the jaguar looked around for something to hit her with, in the hope that it would knock her out. Finding nothing of use, he resorted to trying to get her to open her eyes and focus so she could see it was him. He grabbed ahold of her shoulders and began to shake her. "Ashley, stop!" He slapped her across the face and continued shaking her. She was attempting to hit him with her hooves, but most of her throws were missing their mark.

Realizing that his efforts weren't getting anywhere very fast, Roman stopped his violent approach and instead tried simply to keep her still. He wrapped his arms around the fawn and squeezed, significantly limiting her movement, though she still tried. Eventually, she gave up and stopped resisting, though she started to cry, fearing that this was her end. The jaguar finally had a chance to talk to her. He waited a moment before speaking up, still keeping his hold tight.

"Hey Ashley…" The young doe opened her eyes to face her aggressor, and Roman could see a small hint of relief in her eyes, though it wasn't much. She took deep breaths to calm herself, and the jaguar let her do it in silence. After a few moments of calm, he spoke up again.

"Okay, I'm gonna let you go so we can talk, but please, promise me you won't run… It's pretty clear I can catch you anyway." He flinched at how menacing that statement had sounded, but it didn't seem like she had heard. In response, Ashley nodded her head ever so slightly, and Roman released her. He got off of her and sat down. They both rested in the tall grass and simply breathed, catching their breaths. After a few moments, it became clear to the jaguar that Ashley had nothing to say, so he started the conversation.

"So, um, I'm sorry that I had to do that… I realize that you're probably shaken up about everything." He was unsure of how to console her, as he had never felt as much fear as she had in the past two days. Waiting for a response, he looked around, and eventually his eyes came to rest on her clothes, and he quickly realized that blood was staining them. It surprised him she hadn't noticed yet.

He jumped up, startling Ashley. "Don't panic, but I think I accidentally scratched you in our scuffle." The fawn looked down, and though she couldn't see anything due to the darkness, the realization that she was wounded caused her to feel the pain. She started whimpering, and the sound broke Roman's heart. He hadn't been trying to hurt her, but his aggressive tactics had accomplished just that. Almost going over to hug her in an attempt to soothe her like his mom would've done, he stopped, figuring that might scare her.

"No no no, don't cry. They don't look that bad, trust me."

Ashley sniffed. "Why did you ha- have to do this?"

"Well, it was an accident, I didn't mean-"

"No! I mean coming after me." She put her head in her hooves in frustration. "Why can't you just leave me alone?"

"My plan was and still is to get you back to your family. You were going to be eaten, I'm sure you had that figured out, so I helped you escape, but I couldn't just stop there. There was and still is almost no chance you could make it back on your own." Roman threw his paws up in frustration, annoyed that Ashley was questioning his good deeds. "Do you even know what's around us right now?" She slowly shook her head. The jaguar continued in a more aggressive manner. "You see? There are seven predator camps around us. Seven! You could've just walked right into one." He sighed, toning down his approach. "Look… I'm not trying to be mean, or scare you, any of that. It's just… I threw away my life to help you, and… and when you ran, I felt a hint of regret."

Roman looked back in the direction of his home, imagining what the other jaguars were doing. "I had a good life. I was happy. Everything was provided, I never went hungry, as ominous as that may sound to you. But I had never been told why my life was so great, and I never questioned it. I went on that raid to your village, and I captured y- some loot." He had almost let it slip, but he caught himself just in time. Taking a deep breath, he finished his explanation.

"Although time has moved on and the methods have changed, the reality of life remains the same. Predators hunt prey for food, that's just the way it is. But it's one thing to see meat cooked and prepared for you," The fawn gagged at the thought. "But to see that it had once been alive, and it had feelings and mammals it cared about… I don't know. As strange as it seems, I-I thought it was wrong to be killing each other, and to be honest, the night that I helped you, there was meat... but for the first time in my life, I didn't have an appetite for it." The young doe wondered if it had been the deer she had seen dragged through the halls.

"Is… Is that why you help me?" Ashley asked, slowly growing more comfortable with the jaguar being near her.

"Yeah, that's why I helped you." There were other unspoken reasons, but Roman didn't feel that he should reveal those at the current time. It would make things awkward between them, and right now, he needed her to be completely focused on getting back to her home. He looked back at her. "So all I ask in return is that you don't make this any more difficult than it already is."

"Alright." Ashley whispered her response. Both mammals spent the next few minutes in silence, looking up at the night sky. The sun had completely disappeared, leaving only the moon and stars to light the earth. Unfortunately for the fawn, there was a layer of clouds covering many of the stars, keeping the ground in a dark state. It was a peaceful scene, the first she had had in the past two days. She glanced over at Roman. In the darkness, she was only able to make out his silhouette. He sat there, perfectly still, gazing towards the heavens.

The young doe was confused. She felt a strange feeling of trust being around him. All her life, she had feared predators, but now here she was, sitting right next to one. He hadn't tried to hurt or eat her, so those were good signs. Still, she hadn't seen him hungry, so she wouldn't let her guard completely down just yet.

Ashley decided to strike up conversation once again. "Sooo, how did you find me?"

Roman shrugged. "It wasn't hard, I just used common sense. You needed a good viewpoint, and you didn't take the map." He patted the spot where the map was under his shirt. "So I figured you'd try coming to this mountain. And besides, stalking is in my nature."

The fawn nodded in response and started sniffing around the grass, looking for food. She started to nibble on the tips of the grass, and her actions reminded Roman that he hadn't eaten for quite a while. His stomach let out a low grumble, and he groaned from the hunger pains. Closing his eyes and holding his stomach, he complained to Ashley. "Uuuh, I haven't eaten in sooo long."

He heard her stop eating, so he opened his eyes and looked over to her. She was completely still, and she looked petrified. Confused, he asked her what was wrong, "What?" But she didn't respond. It took a few seconds, but Roman realized why she looked so scared. He chuckled. "Ha! I'm sorry… Guess I have to watch what I say, at least for now. Look, this whole trust thing won't work unless we trust each other, obviously, and I want it to work, I really do. So here's what I'll do." He reached into his shirt and pulled out the map, quickly reaching over to give it to the fawn. In surprise, she flinched back, so he raised his free paw in the air and continued more slowly. Cautiously, she extended her hoof and grabbed the map.

"Alright, so, now you have to trust that I won't eat you, and I have to trust that you won't run off with the map." Roman smiled, hoping his action would relieve some of Ashley's trepidations. "I don't know if you know this or not, but predators do eat other predators if given the chance. Unfortunately for me, predators don't only eat prey anymore, so I if get lost and they find me, I'll probably be eaten. So I'd appreciate it if you'd stick with me." He looked into her eyes, searching for a sign that she would listen to his appeal.

Ashley looked down at the map. If what Roman had said was true, then it must've taken quite a bit a trust to give it to her. She wasn't completely sold on the idea of trusting him as it went against her better judgement, but she decided to give him a chance. Looking up to meet his gaze and agreed. "I suppose you've earned that much."

"Perfect!" The jaguar's lips pulled back into a tight grin, exposing his long fangs, oblivious to the fact that the sight was unsettling to the fawn. Her eyes widened, but instead of calling him out, she simply smiled politely and looked back down at the map, then over to the grass she had been nibbling on.

"So, I'm guessing you don't eat plants."

Roman shook his head. "Nope, never have. And I don't ever plan to. Well, I might if I were going to starve to death, but we're not in that situation right now."

Ashley swatted at a mosquito on her neck, smashing it. She scraped the dead bug onto a rock. "What about fruits? They're pretty good."

He shrugged. "They're ok, but I don't ever feel full after eating them. I'm pretty sure I have to eat meat to survive."

"How's that going to work?"

Roman sat in silent contemplation, thinking of an answer. He realized he didn't have one. "I actually don't know. I didn't plan any of this out, this truly is an extempore venture. Um, I can't eat mammals anymore, as that would go against my conscience. Fish could probably work, I don't think they're sentient."

"Alright." Ashley studied the map. "Are there any rivers nearby? We could go to one in the morning."

"You know what, I think there may just be one." He looked down at the map Ashley was holding, and spotted a small stream on the way to the mountain. The jaguar clasped his paws together. "Yup, there's one that we'll come to on our way. Until then, we can just-" He stopped in the middle of his sentence, and his ears rose up.

The fawn didn't know what had happened. "What?"

He raised his paw, signalling for her to be quiet. Listening for the sound he thought he heard, he slowly rose up to his head was nearing the top of the grass. In the distance he could see the faint glow of fire, and it was growing bigger, coming toward them. He reached down and signaled for Ashley to give him the map, all without looking away from the light. She set the parchment in his paw, and he quickly examined it, searching for where they were. Finding their location, he shivered from anxiousness. "Ashley, we are apparently very close to a village belonging to Bengal tigers. They are much bigger than me, even the smallest ones outweigh me, and it looks like there's quite a few of them coming our way."

Her heart filled with panic. "What do we do?"

Roman frantically looked around, searching for a place to hide. They were surrounded by grass, but there were trees not too far away. He pointed at them. "Carefully crawl over there, to the trees. Don't move too fast, tigers can see in the dark."

Full of fear, she got low to the ground and started inching her way over to the tree line, the jaguar right behind her. They both moved ever so slowly, desperately trying to remain quiet and out of the tiger's sight.

Nearly reaching the edge of the forest, Ashley dared to peek over the plants and saw the group of tigers. They were a lot closer than she had thought, and the distance between them was decreasing fast.

Yay, I did it, a third chapter! Hope you enjoyed it. I'm sorry this took so long. I'm visiting family, and when you have a couple hundred relatives (no joke), things get pretty hectic. (Also I procrastinate) But that'll be over soon, so future chapters will hopefully not take so long, even with school starting.

I'd like to say thank you for 10 followers :O Seriously though, 10 may not seem like a lot, but it's more people that enjoy something I made than I've ever had, so that's cool. :)

Unnamed being - Alright, let's see how it goes. And yeah, I hadn't seen any stories with 'pre-zootopia' as a theme, so I thought I'd give it a shot.

Walrusguy - Sure thing, just give me the details. And thank you, I hope to write more, hopefully faster.

ExMarkSpot - That's an interesting character… I like the personality you described, we'll see about the appearance. :P

That's it for the reviews. If you'd like to leave a suggestion, drop a review, they're always welcome. And yeah, if you liking the story so far and haven't, please consider leaving a follow/favorite.

Thank you to Astorathgrim for suggestions and editing.

Til I upload again. *waves*