The Fox, the Bunny, and the Zootopia
File #06: The Lynx
Sorry for the hiatus, I tire easily these days. Well, since another exam's off the list, I can get to write this story again. Enjoy!
Judy stared at two creatures in front of her. One of them was her partner, Nick, who was sipping on a nice warm coffee while the other was her newest friend, Layrey Nightclaw or Rey, as he said he usually called with, drinking his fifth glass of carrot juice.
She still eyeing on him. Reddish-fur – almost the same tone as Nick's, black tufts that merge with black tip of his ears – his most noticeable feature – that had a white line on the outside, a black line that went from his outer side of his eyes that extend from the top and go on to the base of his neck, the large white tufts around his lower face, short tail, and golden eyes. He was as tall as Nick, making Judy the shortest outta the three, rather energetic and friendly, and very nice. He was the first cat Judy knew that wasn't tall or large like Lionheart or the tiger and panther officers. Although by a brief glance, his body is wider than Nick.
He wore the same uniform as her. The only difference between their uniforms was some paraphernalia on the upper arms which Judy guessed would contain bullets for his sniper rifle, not knowing how he actually reaches them in his sniping position. He also wore gloves that left the little and ring finger out.
Judy's own glass of carrot juice was still full and just as she see Rey gulping the last drop of the carrot juice, suddenly she didn't feel like finishing her juice. "Do you usually drink this many carrot juice every day?" she asked with a weird feeling about those empty glasses. Well, sure, she was a bunny and bunnies eat carrots, but this new friend of hers was drinking those without any resistance. What could she say? He was a carnivore and carnivores aren't supposed to eat plants, right? "You kinda . . ." she made some gestures with her paws to try to express her awkwardness.
Rey caught all of that from the corner of his eye while stacking his fifth glass on top of other glasses he emptied earlier in form of a pyramid. "Yeah I know what you're thinking," he said while putting a paw on his chin. "I know I'm a carnivore which means that I'm a meat-eater," he said, emphasizing his point by showing his sharp teeth. "I'm just interested in shooting when I'm around, uh, around 6, I think?" He rolled his eyes around, trying to remember more details. "Okay, that, and then I started to practice shooting and turned out I'm quite good with it. I used to shoot targets set among the forest trees," he explained while a glint of fondness sparkled in his eyes.
Judy smiled. Remembering past things often takes people to nostalgic room in their heart, whether it is bad or good memories. She did often smile on her own when she remembered her parents and her siblings. "Where do you come from?" she asked, returning Rey from his frozen state.
"Hmm? Oh, I'm from Savannah Fields. It's somewhere on the feet of Iria Sierra a few kilometers outside Sahara Square. On one of its corners is a forest that gets denser the more you get inside."
Judy snapped. "Wait that seems close to . . ." she glanced at Nick.
"My house is a kilo away from it," Nick said nonchalantly.
"Wait." Judy stood from the chair. "You guys met each other before the academy?" Her feet thumpered in impatience.
Nick scoffed while Rey chuckled. "We've met before too if you remember." He peered at Judy, hoping the bunny to recall anything about the lynx. Nick just shocked in bewilderment of Rey's words.
When Judy didn't make a sound, he continued, "My mother has bad sight and she said it's kinda genetic so there's a chance I'll have bad sight as well and it might prevent me from shooting again. Then I heard from a bunny pen pal of mine that carrots help maintain healthy eyes. So I tried drinking carrot juices . . ."
Both he and Nick shivered at the last sentence. Judy remembered something as she approaches Rey and grabbed him by the collar, catching him in surprise. "You're the cat that bought two boxes of carrots?"
Rey struggled to say something. "Ya got it." Rey put up a smirk.
Judy hopped back in excitement. "I knew carnivores buying vegetable are suspicious!"
"You guys met each other before?" Nick said with a blank expression on his face.
Judy sat back to her chair. "It's just an occasion when I was manning my family stand beside a road. I was listening to some music when a certain cat popped out from the front of the stand and said . . ."
Rey distanced his muzzle from Nick's coffee. "Hi! I'm Rey and I'd like to buy some carrots!" both him and Judy said in unison though the tones were a bit different.
"The last word is higher," Rey said, correcting Judy's rephrase.
"Oh, yeah. Yeah," Judy snickered and ordered something at the waiter. Something neither Nick nor Rey could hear. "I was a bit confused at first. I mean, for what reason would a kid cat, a carnivore, buy carrots?" She threw her paws to the sides. "But, since I don't want any trouble with customers, I hand over two boxes of good carrots as per order and then I received A RIDICULOUSLY LARGE AMOUNT OF BUCKS. Really?" she snapped at Rey, who was grinning awkwardly. "Your parents never taught you how buying things works? It's just two boxes of carrots! And when I asked what they're for he said, 'I'm juicing it for me.' Carrots!" Nick shivered at the word 'carrot'.
Judy just stared at him in confusion. "I don't like carrots, especially juiced ones," Nick said suddenly, grimacing at something. "Not 'Carrots' you," Nick added while pointing at Judy.
Judy raised an eyebrow at his sudden change of mood. "What's happened to you?"
"Eh," Rey scoffed. "Nick once asked why my aim is good when we were in the academy. I said I drink carrots and offered him a glass of to which he reluctantly drank." Rey peered at his fox friend who was peering back at him in annoyance. Rey just smirked. "The next thing I know was him running to the bathroom. I don't know what happened but seemed like he dislikes carrots ever since," he cocked an awkward smile as he felt Nick's dark aura getting stronger at him.
Judy laughed lightly while imagining Nick's expression when he drank that carrot juice. "Okay, continue."
"I don't like it much either, but I kept drinking it in order to keep my eyes good. My mother just shakes her head when she sees me drinking carrot juices. In the end, it tastes like weird syrup to me."
Judy giggled at his comment and offered her juice to him. "You are capable of drinking another one, right?"
Rey frowned. "Maybe not." Judy raised an eyebrow at his answer. "Usually I drink two every day but up to six if I'm sniping in that day, like one hour earlier." Rey's left paw reached to Nick's coffee and took it from his paws. "Just for anti-depressant or sorts, though, so I'm full for today."
"Nice," Judy she commented while Nick grimaced, imagining two full glasses of those weird tasting juice everyday. As soon as she finished drinking, she quickly put her glass on top of Rey's pyramid in a perfect position on the top of the triangle formation.
"Nice," both Nick and Rey remarked her quick positioning.
Judy smirked as she took a bite from a pancake in front of her. "Why don't you tell me how you guys met?"
"Really? That?" Nick said, cocking both brows.
Judy just nodded silently, as if waiting for either of the two to start telling. "May I?" Rey asked, making sure if Nick's OK with that.
"Whatever."
Judy clapped her paws twice as she get into a comfortable position on the chair. "I was about nine or eight." He scratched his head, not sure what's the right number. "Nine, I think. My father took me to a vast savannah just outside the neighborhood to practice shooting with a rifle he had. Knowing how accurate my shots are, he tried to set up targets rather farther so it would be more difficult, oh he didn't know I almost blew the head of a certain fox," he said, shaking his head as he remembers the event.
"I'm sorry sir, did I shot you?" said a cat, age couldn't be more than ten.
He had reddish fur, black tuft on the back of his black tipped ears that had a white bar on it, and several black lines that went from the outer side of his gold eyes down to his cheeks. He was a lynx, as hinted by those features and his dense fur. He wore a light green T-shirt over black sleeveless shirt and gray shorts. A backpack was seen on his back. From the look on his face he wasn't expecting a bullet to hit someone.
The one in front of him was a slender fox with red fur and black tipped ears wearing a nice light blue long sleeved shirt with white tribal lines over it, dark striped tie, and brown slacks holding a newspaper. He was completely fine, though his shirt's right sleeve was cut in half.
The fox crossed his arms and put up a half-closed eyes and raised brows, making the impression that he wasn't in a good mood. "Off with the 'sir'. I was just sitting on my chair, enjoying the rising sun and reading a newspaper when a certain bullet grazed my cheek and made a hole on my newspaper," he said, fanning out the newspaper, revealing a straight hole on it. The young lynx looked at the fox' cheek where fur looked like cut. "One more bullet came and made a rather noticeable cut on my shirt now what am I going to do with them now, huh?"
"Wait, you actually shot him?" Judy slapped her paws to the table, imagining her best friend being shot by a kid.
Rey almost spurt out Nick's coffee when she said that. He paused, trying to catch a breath. "No, I did not! I just grazed his cheek and arm."
"That's the same thing!"
Nick snapped his fingers. "Guys, calm down. Carrots, let us finish this."
"I-I-I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to."
"What's done cannot be undone, kiddo."
"I can get you a new newspaper if you want to," he whimpered, confusing at what's he going to do. "And here, my father gave me this yesterday," he put down his backpack and bring out something and offered it to the fox. It was a green Hawaiian shirt that was obvious too big for the lynx's body. "It is too big for me, and I thing it looks nicer if worn by a more slender person, which is not me, because my fur would suffocate me if I put that on," he explained. "It's that okay?"
The fox chuckled. "Forget about it, kid. It's no big deal. There's nothing on newspaper's good anyway and this shirt contrasts too much. I can keep the shirt, can I?"
The lynx scoffed. "Why not? I won't wear it anyway," he said lightheartedly, as if he had forgotten that he actually almost killed the fox. "I'm Rey." He offered a hand to the fox, who was checking out his new shirt.
The fox reached out his hand. "Nick." Both smiled at the new acquaintanceship. "By the way, what's with the rifle? It's very unusual to see a ten year old kid carrying a rifle in the middle of nowhere.," Nick said, raising an eyebrow.
"It's just an interest of mine. All out of the sudden my dad started to teach me how to shoot and took me everywhere to practice it. Someday I'm going to Zootopia and see what I can be there," he said, eyes zooming off to the distant city.
Nick just scoffed in a clear disgust. "Alright, look. Everyone comes to Zootopia thinking they can be anything they want well you can't. You can only be what you are," he said venomously. "Sly fox," he pointed to himself. "Crazy shooter fluffy lynx." then he pointed at Rey, who frowned at the stereotype.
"The heck!?" Judy interrupted once again, standing up. "How many people you've told that already?"
Nick pulled back. "As many as I want."
"He told you that too?" Rey pushed his head forward.
"The exact same thing!" Judy exclaimed.
The fox smirked. "Okay. Okay. Calm down. It's all have passed now." Rey and Judy sent him a annoyed looks. "Hey, I know how irritating I was. Guess, I was too shadowed by my past, honestly. But believe me, ever since this sly bunny here took me around the city, I have to admit I'm much weaker then her," he said, looking at his clasped paws on the table. "Everyone treated her like she can snap in two in one of her days in the city as a cop but she never gives up. I, heh, I can't help to say that I'm sort of inspired," he explained, making a face no one ever seen before, the happiest face he could make that was full of hope, the exact opposite than when Judy first met him.
Rey and Judy just smiled and nodded in understanding. "You're a great fox Nick," Judy said, tapping his shoulder.
"And our best friend," Rey remarked, holding Nick's other shoulder.
The fox just chuckled. "Okay, let's get this story over with."
"I have 17 years experience in Zootopia enduring all of those people, and I left it because they simply don't allow me to become 'anything I want'," Nick spat the last three words.
"No, I'm not giving up already!" Rey snorted, surprised at the things Nick just said. "They said anyone can be anything there!"
"It's only an illusion of a perfect world that never exists. 'This is Zootopia where predators and prey live together in harmony and sing Kumbaya!'" He mimicked the sentence with unusually cheerful tone of his but not without a scent of disgust. "It doesn't change who you are," he dismissed.
"Well, I'll prove it to you." Rey suddenly got serious. "I'll show you I can be anything I want to there!"
Nick laughed and shoved his muzzle in front of Rey's face. "What will you become there, huh? A police officer? Artist? Firefighter?"
Rey stepped back and think for a moment while Nick backed up, crossing his arms one more. "I can't shoot as an artist or a firefighter. Then, I'm going be a police officer and I will be! You'll see!"
Nick scoffed. "You keep telling yourself that, kiddo. Keep at it."
"Well." Rey stood and faced Nick. "What do you think, now?"
"Yeah, I admit I was wrong," he said gesturing with his paw while leaning on his other arm, earning a smile from Rey. "But don't be happy just yet. I'm still a better cop than any of you."
"Yeah?" Rey scoffed while crossing his arms. "You keep telling yourself that, old man. Keep at it."
Nick immediately frowned while Judy just tilted her head. "Old man? Wait. I forgot how old you are, Nick. Hmm, if you're 17 when you met Rey 15 years ago - Right, Rey, you're 24 now, right?" The lynx nodded while grinning ear to ear, waiting for her to figure it out. "Then you would be, THIRTY TWO!?"
"I know right?" Rey said excitedly. "He's older than he looks! And guess what: he's still single."
The waiter stumbled when he heard Judy's exclaim. Both Judy and Rey looked at an exasperated Nick.
"You two . . ." Nick said in a breathe of murderous aura. Judy and Rey instantly ran outta the cafe, leaving their excitement but their smile remains as the fox was gaining on them.
"COME BACK HERE!"
Yep, the fox' 32 according to the tax evasion scene and I made Judy and Rey the same age so Nick have to endure twice the annoyance.
See ya next chapter!