"This is crazy!" shouted Judy. "There are plenty of rabbits and foxes out there! Why would we be the ones that prophecy was talking about?"
"As much as I hate to agree with a bunny, I'm totally upset by all of this."
Judy frowned, "I have a name, you know…"
"Sure you do. It's Carrots."
She firmly said, "No. My name is Judy."
"Whatever, I'm still going call you Carrots."
"You think I like this?! I find my godfather is really a king, mice invaded my house, and you're not even a real nutcracker! Just a smart-mouthed fox with a bad attitude!"
"Hey, I never asked to be here! I was brought here against my will! Thanks to your so-called godfather, just how did that happen anyway?"
They faced the shrew as he said, "I have traveled quite a lot in my past. I have made many allies and in doing so, I befriended the Hopps, who were of noble birth and had a strong sense of family just like me. And when you were born, Judy, they decided to name me godfather to your litter."
"But that still doesn't explain why you think I'm the rabbit in that prophecy."
"It is as I've told you: you don't judge someone for their appearance and you refuse to let ancient pasts get the better of you, unlike the rest of your family."
"Then why do you think I'm the fox?" Nick furrowed his brow.
"You come from a noble family, Nicholas. Your parents were my dear friends and when they had passed on, I was asked to watch over you, but you were led astray by Mortimer."
Judy questioned, "Mortimer?"
Nick replied, "The mouse king."
The shrew continued, "When I was overthrown, Mortimer had made Nicholas his right-paw fox, but in his good wisdom, Nicholas sought me out and proved he was still loyal to the true king."
Nick whispered, "Actually, it was because I knew Big would eventually be king again and my parents would have been disappointed if I didn't help their friend."
Judy was surprise to hear that. Maybe there was more to the fox than she thought.
Nick said to Big, "But what made you think I was part of a prophecy where I would willingly work with a carrot-munching rabbit?"
"Because, Nicholas, despite what you tell yourself, you're still that young, carefree kit I knew…"
The fox scowled, "That part of me is gone forever…"
"I do not think so… For now, you have lost the ability to hope and dream. You do not think that anything good could come to you anymore, but Judy has hopes and dreams. Even if something bad happens, she overcomes it. Which is why I believe you two should team up and learn from each other."
"With him?!"
"With her?!"
"The prophecy clearly states: A fox and rabbit may seem wrong, but united, they'll stand strong."
Judy slowly said, "Well… I don't know if I can believe in this prophecy, but I do know that you need help and your daughter needs rescuing. I will go and bring her back to you."
Nick laughed, "Ha! You?! You don't even know where you're going or what you're up against! If anyone is going to rescue the princess," he pointed to himself with a smug look, "…it'll be me."
She fumed.
"You will both go." Big stated firmly. He waved his wand and a portal appeared behind them. They faced it as the shrew told them, "Once you go through, you'll be in the snowy parts of my kingdom. It is looked after by my good friends Lord and Lady Otterton, who they will be waiting for you. From there, they will tell you where to go to meet with the resistance."
Nick groaned, "We moved the base again?"
"We had to. The guards who work for Mortimer were getting too close."
"Aren't you coming with us, Uncle?" Judy questioned.
"I will join you shortly, my child, but it's best you two go alone to avoid suspicion."
Nick said sarcastically, "Right… there's nothing suspicious about a rabbit and a fox traveling together…" But one look from the shrew and he cleared his throat nervously.
Big gestured, "Judy, a quick word if you please."
She went to him and leaned forward so he could whisper in her ear, "My dear, have patience with Nicholas and get to know him."
"I don't know… He doesn't seem to like me so much… Especially since he's given me a name I hate."
"He feels he cannot trust you, but if you give it time, you will see… I plead to you, goddaughter, that you will try to get along with him… For this prophecy is the only thing keeping my hopes up that I will, at last, reunite with my daughter…"
Judy gave a sympathetic look and just nodded.
Big smiled, "Thank you. Now go. I do not know how long my daughter can rebuff Mortimer's advances."
Judy leaned in so he could kiss her on both cheeks, much to Nick's bewilderment. She then went toward the portal, taking a deep breath before going in.
Nick turned to the shrew, "I'll give it to her, she's got guts for a cute bunny." Then he went into the wormhole before it disappeared.
Mortimer grunted as he sat on top of his small stolen throne that was on a large table in the middle of the grand throne room. Beside him were two mice guards and beside the table were two larger guards that were a hippo and rhino. Mortimer was able to overthrow the king by charming the servants and some of the royal court to be by his side. Of course, he had to threaten some of them since he stole magic from the king. He used that magic to keep himself in power while Big only had some magic left to help him with the resistance.
He was running out of time, however. He needed to wed the princess or else Big would rise up again and take back his crown. But the prissy shrew was being very uncooperative.
He told one of his larger guards, "Bring me the princess."
The hippo nodded and left the room. Shortly after, he came back with a female polar bear that was the princess' lady-in-waiting and she had the shrew in her paws as she gently set her down on the table.
Fru scowled at the mouse and turned away from him.
The mouse ordered to the other mammals, "Leave us."
The mouse guards went into the paws of the other guards and once they were gone, the king went to the stubborn princess.
"You are only delaying the inevitable." he stated.
"I will not marry you." she firmly replied.
"But marrying me means you can rule the kingdom as you were always destined for."
"It's true I was always meant to be queen after my father, but that wasn't supposed to happen until after he passed on. So I refuse to take the crown ahead of time."
"But if he wasn't alive now, would you have considered marriage with me then?"
"Even if my father wasn't alive, I would still refuse you."
He was on the edge of losing it, but he kept his cool and rationally asked, "And why is that?"
"Because I don't love you. How can I? You took everything from my father and me! How can I marry someone who is so cruel to others? My father wasn't perfect, but he at least cared! And if I married you, it would feel like I had betrayed him and my kingdom!"
He scowled, "You're really starting to bug me."
She smirked, "Well, it's a good thing you're not marrying me, then."
"Guards!" he shouted and they came. "Escort Her Highness back to her cage."
Fru made a humph sound and went into the rhino guard's hand. Once they were in the hallway, she looked up and whispered, "Have you heard anything?"
The guard, Sir Mchorn, quietly replied, "The captain has sent word that your father was looking into something, but he doesn't know what that was."
"Daddy always has a plan. He wouldn't be following something all willy-nilly if he didn't believe it could work." By then, they had reached the tower where Fru's lady-in-waiting was held. Hanging from the ceiling was a cage where Mchorn had to set his princess in and locked her in, much to his displeasure.
He gave an apologetic look as he said, "I'll keep that in mind. Frankly, I'm getting tired of following a mouse."
She nodded in understanding, "His power is too great at the moment, so we can't rebel."
"I really hope King Big has the solution we need."
Judy fell out of the portal and landed face first into the snow.
Nick had walked out of the portal like it was no big deal. When he saw the bunny, he amusingly said, "First time using a portal?"
She looked up and glared at him while getting up on her feet. She would have loved to wipe the smug look on his face, but remembering what she promised her godfather, she merely walked on.
Nick stood there and called out, "Hey, Carrots! You're going the wrong way."
She stopped and turned back with a forced smile on her face, "Then why don't you go first to show me the way? And also, you're going to refrain from calling me Carrots."
"Aw, is it," he spoke in baby-talk, "hurting your feelings?"
"No, it's just annoying."
"Well, too bad, because I like annoying people."
"I figured that, but we're forced to work together, so I would appreciate it if you would stop."
"Okay, then. How about I call you something else like… Fluff? Cottontail?" He gave a toothy grin, "Sweetheart…?"
"No, no, and definitely no."
"Hey, it's either one of those or 'Carrots'. Take your pick."
She grinded her teeth before calming herself and sighed, "Fine. We'll go with 'Carrots'."
He gave a triumphant look as he moved in front of her and went on. They had walked in silence as Judy had been fuming from the exchange. She suddenly recalled what Big said about Nick being a carefree kit before things had changed. She wanted to get into more about that, but she knew she would have to earn the fox's trust first, so she decided she would have to play along until he opened up.
"So if you were born into a noble family, what were you? A duke? A count? A lord?"
He stated, "Baron."
"Baron? Well, that's impressive."
"Except the mouse king stripped it from me when he found out I was working for Big."
"Yeah, I saw he wasn't happy to see you. Any particular reason?"
"Well, I am a fox. It's what we do…" he said bitterly.
Judy sucked in her breath. Obviously she was going to have to change topics, so she instead said, "What about the resistance? How did you get into that?"
"There are guards who are still loyal to Big, but they didn't say so as that was Bogo's plan the moment Big was overthrown. He had made sure to have his most trustworthy guards planted inside the castle while he and a group of sentries tried to take down the mouse, but they failed. I was already on Mortimer's side the time of the overthrowing.
"But as time went on, I realized the mouse wasn't so different from other mammals, so I told Mchorn that I wanted to help get Big back and he told me where to find him. Turns out I was great asset because I was able to spy better than the guards and was able to get battle plans and such…until one of his mousey guards saw what I was doing and snitched on me. That's when I was stripped of my noble status and was forced to run."
"Then Big stuffed you in the box?"
"No, he immobilized, shrunk, and then stuffed me in a box."
"Ah. Right. I forgot."
He frowned, "And you're totally not sorry for my plight, are you?"
She said innocently, "Nope."