Disclaimer: I do not own Zootopia or its related characters. All is the property of Walt Disney Animation Studios, Clark Spencer, and Byron Howard. I'm just borrowing them for some non-profit entertainment.
Under a Green Hood
Chapter Three: Dispute of Succession
Judy spent her lunch hour looking for Nick. He wasn't at his apartment, neither was he with Finnick (whom had some colorful words to say about his forum partner turned officer of the law and tool of the establishment). She tried using the Find My Phone GPS, Nick didn't know she knew his password, but was disappointed to discover that he had the app turned off. On a whim, not knowing what else to try, Judy decided to pay his mother a visit and ask her if she knew anything about why a red feather might freak her son out, or who Robert Loxley VI -and VII- really were.
The rabbit had met the vixen only twice before the first time shortly after Bellwether's arrest when Nick took his mother out for brunch and explained to her what his part was in the scandal, and that he was fine (mothers loved to worry, as Judy knew all to well), and that he had decided to join the ZPD and become a police officer. Thanks to the Mammal Inclusion Initiative he could do that -become the first fox officer. Nick asked Judy to come along to that brunch to help him explain things and assure his mother that he wasn't in any kind of trouble with the law.
The second time was, of course, at Nick's graduation ceremony.
Judy had never been to the vixen's house or had reason to see her socially since Nick became an officer. They ran in different circles, had the generation gap as a barrier between them, and just didn't have all that much on common with each other besides Nick. There was no reason for Judy to see Marian, or Marian to see Judy unless Nick was involved.
Well, Nick was involved. So, the rabbit knocked politely on the front door.
Marian answered with only and slight delay, her shoulders set at an angle Mammals usually had when they were being interrupted and just wanted the interloper to go away. But she was polite when she said, "Oh, Officer Hopps, how are you?"
"Fine, ma'am." Judy replied, equally polite. Sometimes, she got the feeling that Nick's mother didn't really trust her. Judy couldn't imagine why. She'd only nearly gotten the vixen's son killed twice. It wasn't like Nick was in any danger simply by being around her. She wasn't a magnet for trouble or anything. "You wouldn't happen to have seen Nick at all today, have you? He ran out of roll call this morning, and the Chief needs him to fill out some time-off papers."
She did not mention the mysterious envelope or the red feather. At least, not right away. Just in case it was a threat of some kind. Judy didn't want to make the other woman worry. Mothers loved to worry.
It was then, probably at hearing his own name, that Nick appeared behind his mother. Still in uniform, still looking a little flustered, but much calmer than he was at the station, an old book clutched in his paw. "Ah! Carrots! Just the Mammal I wanted to see! Come in, come in."
He pushed past his mother, grabbed the bunny by the paw and pulled her inside.
Judy squeezed past Marian, muttering awkward apologies as Nick all but yanked her into the apartment. The entryway was a blur of motion, the room not coming into proper focus until her seemingly hyperactive partner let go and she fell into a couch -covered in plastic- that was just one size to big for her. Looking up at the fox in confusion, Judy saw that Nick was no longer looking at her, but instead flipping through pages in the old-as-a-Gutenberg book he held.
"Nick, what is going on with y-"
"I assume you know who this is." He shoved the book in her face and Judy just barely managed to register a glimpse of an illustration.
Drawn in rough lines and painted in water color. A red fox in a green tunic with a hood pulled over his head so low it obscured most of his face. A bow with arrow drawn in his hands. A red robin's feather stuck in one side of his hood, like a plume in a cap. On the opposite page was something written in lyrical verse. Judy didn't have enough time to read it all. Her brain just managing to register a random line from somewhere in the middle.
'20. 'I prithee, good fellow, O where art thou now?'
Whatever it was, it was written before they had invented spelling -or grammar for that matter.
Nick snatched the book away before she could read more and resumed flicking through pages.
"Was that Robin Hood?" The bunny blinked up at him. "Nick, please don't tell me you ditched work to read children's stories with your mother. Bogo's gonna kill you! I thought there was a death in the family. Aren't you the least bit upset? And what was that feather that you seemed to freak out over?"
Had she not been so flustered, Judy might have also thrown in the mention of the stranger with the Old Country accent that came looking for him. But she honestly had forgotten about him for the moment. There was just something about Nick that got her so worked up and frustrated. It wasn't just his general casualness and lackadaisical attitude, the fox vexed her on a whole other level the over-achieving bunny had never experienced before. Without even trying, Nick managed to get under her skin.
"Shush. This isn't written in order."
"Don't shush me!" Judy stood from the couch. "Look, I don't care why you're really suddenly deciding to skip work, if you're really grieving or if you have to settle some unfinished business back from your life of crime. But whatever's really going on-"
"Here!" Once again, the fox cut her off by shoving the book at her. This time, actually handing it to her and giving her time to not only look at the pictures but actually read the opposite page.
Another illustration, sketched in the same rough lines and painted in watercolors, this time, the red fox was wearing a tabard and armor reminiscent of the Crusades era, except the iconic Xtian motif were missing. In their placer were intricate knot-work designs. He was in some kind of arid desert prison, chained and slumped against a stone wall. Kneeling in front of him was... was a creature Judy didn't recognize -unless 'mythical' counted as recognition.
The creature had the face and body of a fox, but the antlers of a stag, the hooves of a goat and the short little fluff tail of a bunny. The way the artist drew its fur made it look more like the creature had a coat of leaves rather than a coat of soft fox hair. It knelt in front of the red fox, holding out something in his hoof-paw, as if offering the fox a deal, and Judy saw that the thing he held was a red feather.
Glancing at the opposite page, Judy was relived to see that it find that it was not written in Middle English lyrical verse, but something slightly more modern and easy to digest. It was a narrative telling how the Earl of Huntington (presumably the fox knight) was captured and held -along with the Lionheart- by their enemies whom planned to ransom them. One evening during a waxing moon, the Trickster of the Wood (presumably the bizarre fox-stag-goat chimera) appeared to the Earl and offered him a deal. The Trickster would free him from his bonds and guard his passage back home so long as the Earl did something for him once he got there.
"What exactly am I supposed to be taking away from this?" Judy blinked up at Nick, not understanding at all how this was significant, or why he couldn't just stop acting weird and come back to work.
Now it was Nick's turn to become frustrated with her for not being able to read his mind and insanely understand everything he was trying to communicate to her -never mind that he was expressing himself badly and not managing to articulate anything longer than a single sentence. He flopped down on the couch next to her and stabbed a claw at the illustration.
"That is Lord Robert of Loxley -the first." He said, pointing to the fox knight. He moved his finger to the creature. "And that is Robin Goodfellow."
He let those names hang in the air between them as if they carried the great weight of importance to them. As if Judy should instantly recognize them and know their history and significance. But, aside from the fact that this was the third time today that she was hearing the damn name 'Robert of Loxley', Judy neither knew who they were or why she should care beyond the fact that they were distracting her partner from doing his job.
"And they are...?" Judy prompted, hoping her fox planned to elaborate at some point.
Behind the couch, Nick's mother huffed. Marian placed her paws on her hips and glared at her son in irritation. "Nicky, if she doesn't already know, then she won't understand."
"That's why I'm explaining." The younger fox informed his mother. He turned his attention back to the rabbit on the couch, she was starring between him and his mother in confusion. "Robert Loxley was the first Robin under the Hood, and Goodfellow is the lesser pagan god that made him the Robin." A pause. Nick pulled out the red robin feather. "With this."
Judy blinked at the feather, recognizing it as the one from the precent. The only thing that came in Nick's mysterious envelope of presumed inheritance.
"Its not the original badge, of course." Nick added, as if this was the detail that was confusing her. "At this point the feather is just symbolic."
"So..." The bunny began, unsure of the words that were about to tumble out of her mouth. "Someone sent you a random red feather in the mail and now you think you're Robin Hood?"
"What? No, no, no." He shook his head. "Someone else thinks I deserve to be a Robin under the Hood. The thing is, though..." He trailed off, paused. Considered his words. "The thing is, I don't think I deserved it. It was a team effort when we took down Bellwether. You did just as much as I did. In fact, you did more since it was really you who figured out it was the flowers. I was pretty much just along for the ride up until the end there, so... so, I think you deserve this more." The fox once again held the feather out to her. "You deserve to be the Robin under the Hood, Carrots."
He smiled to himself. Judy Hopps certainly was a lot of firsts. The first bunny police officer. The first investigator to make a break in the missing Mammal case. The first to prove that, in Zootopia, anyone really could be anything. And now she was the first non-fox Robin Hood. It was fitting. Nick liked it. He was glad he was giving the badge of the Robin under the Hood to her.
"Nickolas Piberius Wilde!" Marian put her paws on her hips and snarled at her son. "What exactly do you think you're doing?"
"I'm giving the badge to someone who deserves it." Nick said, as if this should have been obvious. Then, to Judy, added, "Keep the book too."
"Absolutely not!" Marian came around the couch and yanked the old tome from off the bunny's lab before she even had the opportunity to react. "If you want to throw the badge away, you're free to do that. It was given to you so its yours and you can do whatever the heck you like with it. But this book stays in this family!"
Nick opened his mouth to say something, thought better of it, closed it again without uttering a word.
Judy took that as her cue to stand. "This is clearly some cultural thing that I'm just not understanding." She said, hoping it sounded polite. "I didn't mean to stick my nose in. I'll just go." To Nick she said, "If you're not gonna be back at work by tomorrow, then at least come in and fill out some time off papers so Bogo doesn't chew you out, okay."
She moved to leave. Paused, remembering she was still holding the red feather. Turned back and tried to hand it back to Nick.
The fox pushed her paw away. "No. I'm serious, Carrots. You deserve it more than me."
"Nick, I don't even know what this thing even means." She reminded him sternly. "It clearly holds some very powerful meaning if the way your mother is still glaring at me is any indication. I'm not gonna keep a thing with that kind of cultural significance if I don't fully understand that significance. It would be disrespectful."
"Listen to our partner, Nicky." Marian told him. "She may be a bunny, but she's not dumb."
Nick did take the feather out of her paw. But only to slide it down under her gold ZPD badge. The red tips just barely peeking out from the top and bottom on a diagonal. He seemed to ignore everything either woman in the room just told him. "Wear it here. Since you don't have a hood."
Marian huffed in defeat. Throwing one arm up in the air uselessly. She stomped out of the room, the 'Ballads and Tales of Robin Under the Hood' tucked securely under her other arm. "I am not adding her to the book..."
"Nick, I really don't-" Judy began to protest, but Nick put a paw to her lips to silence the protest.
"Sh. Just keep it, Carrots. For me." He said. "Trust me. You deserve it way more than I do."
She ended up leaving with the feather still pinned between her badge and her uniform -mostly because Nick shoved her out the door before Judy could utter another protest. "But, what if-?"
The door was slammed almost on her cute little bunny nose.
The moment Judy was gone -'gone' here meaning 'no longer in a position to participate in the conversation', Nick was pretty sure she was still outside voicing her protest- he followed his mother into the kitchen. She had the book open to the last page containing text. Explaining how, after the death of Diego de la Vega in 1859, the mantel of Robin under the Hood was returned to the custodianship of the Loxley estate until a suitable successor could be found.
Marian flipped the page. The very first blank page after that and with a perfectly ordinary ballpoint pen began to add to the tales.
'In the summer of 2016, almost sixty years since the passing of the last Robin under the Hood, the badge was awarded to Nickolas Piberius Wilde. Son of John Wilde and Marian Longstride. For his actions that lead to the arrest of two corrupt mayors and the end to a speciesist plot to tear the city in two.'
Nick leaned over her shoulder to read. "Did you have to put in my middle name?"
"You hush." Marian stood to retrieve something off the wall. After the arrest of Dawn Bellwether, Marian cut out the news article that mentioned Nick by name as one of the brave heroes that contributed to solving the case and had it framed. She pulled it off the wall now to cross-reference some details as she began a narrative of the story -and Nick was sure she was going to embellish everything to make him sound more heroic and Judy sound more like the supportive sidekick. "You've already shown me that you're incapable of taking this seriously. This is your history Nicky!"
"I am taking it seriously!" Nick snarled back. "I'm taking it very seriously. That's why I don't think I deserve it. That's why I gave it to someone else who I think does deserve it! Carrots would be a way better Robin than I would."
"Officer Hopps isn't a fox." It bothered Marian that she felt the need to remind her son of this simple and seemingly obvious fact. Judy Hopps wasn't a fox. She was a bunny. It was worrisome how often it seemed her son seemed not to notice.
"In Zootopia, anyone can be anything." Nick reminded her, and he was serious. It wasn't said with irony or sarcasm. Ever since meeting Judy Hopps, being hustled by the bunny, nearly getting killed twice, saving the city twice, and making history as the first fox on the ZPD, Nick Wilde truly did start to believe that what they said was true. In Zootopia, anyone could be anything.
And he just made a bunny Robin Hood.
"That's a load!" Marian snarled back.
"No its not!" Nick was not going to budge on this. He jabbed a finger at the still mostly empty page. "Write it! Put down that 'Nick Wilde felt he was unworthy of the honor, so he passed the badge to his partner who really solved the Missing Mammal and Night Howler cases -Judy Hopps. The first non-fox Robin under the Hood'."
"I'm not writing that." Marian was not going to budge either. Nick had inherited his stubbornness from her and she had at least twenty more years of experience digging her heels in than he did. "After I finish this, I'm going to write to the Loxley estate and tell them that you humbly decline the title and that you are passing it back to their custodianship."
"But that's not what I did! I gave the title to Carrots."
"Well, that's your word against what I'm going to make sure gets written down in the annals of the Hood."
Nick snarled again, not knowing what more to say. "You're impossible!"
"You'll thank me when you have children of your own and are telling them the tales of the Brotherhood of the Hood." Marian assured him, confident in the inevitability of her statement. "I'm upholding the Longstride family legacy."
That was about the point Nick decided the best possible move was to storm from the room like a petulant kit. He stomped out of the kitchen and nearly crossed the living room before turning back to shout one more thing. "Well, the family name isn't 'Longstride' anymore, its 'Wilde' and maybe the Wilde family legacy is something different!"
With that, he wrenched open the door and stormed out, making a point to slam it as hard as he possibly could behind him.
It was a good thing he kicked Judy out when he did. He wouldn't have wanted her to catch the tail end of that argument.
…
Judy, for her part, was more confused and concerned than she was before.
After speaking to Nick, she had more questions than she did when she first left the station. This whole Robin Hood thing sounded suspiciously more like some kind of secret society than it did a superstition held by a cultural minority. When Judy got back to the station, instead of getting back to her paperwork (like she knew she should have), she began a new Loogle search. This time looking up the names, Scarlet Pimpernel, Diego de la Vega, the Earl of Huntington, and Robin Goodfellow.
Sir Percival Blakeney was a corsac fox and a baronet of the Old Country. Another throwback from that time in Mammal history when almost the entire ruling class was exclusively predator. He lived from 1747 to 1801. After the first Norman Revolution in 1793 he used his family wealth to sail back and forth between Old Country and Normandy, employing disguises and clever ruses to save condemned Norman nobleman from the guillotine. As Judy read about his exploits, she had to admit, he was a hustler that could give both herself and Nick and run for their money. None of her searches mentioned anything about him being Robin Hood, however.
Diego de la Vega got considerably more search results -which meant there was much more to sift through before she find actual reputable information. Like Blakeney, he also used a different monicker than 'Robin Hood'. De la Vega went simply by 'Señor Zorro', which was just 'Mr. Fox' in another language. Judy thought that was absurd. It was like if she just went by the name 'Miss Bunny'. Terrible, terrible vigilante handle. He should have taken the name Robin Hood just to get rid of the crappy name. He lived on the west coast and claimed to avenge the helpless, to punish cruel politicians, and to aid the oppressed. It was during a time in New World history when the Californio nobility was exploiting both the working class and indigenous Mammals to point that -by today's standards- would be considered maliciously and willfully cruel.
But, again, no mention of Robin Hood.
Her search for the Earl of Huntington brought her back to the Loxley estate website, which Judy had already read over and wasn't interested in revisiting just yet.
But Goodfellow... that was where the Robin Hood mythology practically exploded out of her computer monitor at her.
Robin Goodfellow had almost more names than Judy had siblings. He was the Goodfellow, he was Puck, he was the Trickster of the Greenwood, he was the Hobgoblin or just 'Hob'... Judy's head started to spin just a little and she massaged her temples to try and stave off a stress headache and focus. For some reason, Nick had been a strong source of stress headaches for almost since she met him. One day she might take time to wonder why he affected her so much, but not so long as she had other things to distract herself with. The bunny turned her attention back to the task at hand.
Most sources figured Goodfellow into the Robin Hood legend in one of two ways.
Either the fae-backslash-pagan-god appeared to the fox that would later be known as Robin Hood and struck some kind of deal with him. Usually something to the effect of the fae either protecting the fox while in the Holy Land, or else ensuring that he returned home safely. In return, the fox promised the fae that when he returned home, he would become a sort of 'custodian' of the land, protecting not only the Greenwood, but also the Mammals that lived in and around it. Apparently, the fae's power (all fae, not just Goodfellow's) power was tied to the land. If the land was healthy and thriving then the pagan gods were strong and powerful. At the time, the steward left in power by the Lionheart was not doing a very good job of caring for the either the land of the Mammals that lived and worked on it.
The other way Goodfellow figured in the Robin Hood legend was to claim that Robin Hood wasn't a fox at all, but the fae himself in mortal form.
Judy dismissed that theory outright. Neither gods nor faeries actually existed.
Of course, that didn't stop Mammals from believing in them. Judy -very carefully and respectfully- pulled the red feather out from behind her ZPD badge. According to her research, a red robin's feather was the symbol of Robin Goodfellow and -Judy could infer from the way Nick was acting- a sort of badge of honor to identify those blessed by the fae. Someone sent it to him, so, someone obviously thought he was blessed by this trickster god. Considering that they managed to take down not one but two corrupt politicians with nothing more than their quick wits and a couple of lucky bluffs, the bunny could easily understand why someone might think the fox was blessed by a trickster.
But Nick thought she deserved it more than he did.
What did that say about her?
A fox though she deserved a fox-god's blessing more than he did. Wow. After a bit of research, the bunny decided she was actually rather stunned. Nick actually had a much higher opinion of her than she originally thought.
Judy wasn't quite sure if she wanted to keep the feather or not. But for the moment, she slid it back behind her badge. Now that she actually knew what it meant, she didn't mind keeping ti for a little while. At least until Nick decided he had earned it by his own standards and was ready to accept it back. She had no intension of keeping it indefinitely. It was given to Nick, as far as Judy was concerned, it was Nick's red plume.
…
Not feeling like going back to the precent and certainly in no mood to stay and argue more with his mother, Nick went home.
To his leaky apartment in the Rainforest District.
He collected the buckets he kept as semi-permanent fixtures under the leaks in his roof and emptied them out the window, watching the water cascade down the trunk into the muddy streets below.
"Hmf. I already live in a treehouse." He muttered to himself, replacing the now empty buckets back where they belonged.
That done, he went to his bathroom to splash some clean water on his face. Not even noon yet, and already this had been the most exciting day in Nick's life since he graduated the academy. He had to specify since the academy because nothing could top nearly getting shot with mind altering flower-drugs, or nearly getting killed by a Savage jaguar. Near death experiences would always be more exciting than being gifted with titles and responsibilities you don't deserve.
Nick wiped his face on a pawtowel he told himself he'd wash two days ago and still hadn't. He braced his paws on the sink and looked at himself in the bathroom mirror. -And jumped back, nearly having a heart attack! It was like one of those horror movie gags where the victim opens the medicine cabinet and when they close it again there's a ghost, or a monster, or a murderer standing behind their reflection.
In this case, it was another red fox lurking behind Nick's reflection. Dressed in all green linen and vinyl. A hood pulled low over his head, obscuring his face so that all Nick could see was his snout poking out with a frown.
"Ach! Crivens!" Nick exclaimed, practically jumping as he spun around to stare at the intruder. He didn't bother asking how the other fox got in. He was dressed as a Brother of the Hood and it wasn't like his apartment was the most secure building in the city. "What are you doing here?"
The hooded fox didn't waste any time or mince words. He held a gloved paw out. "You have something of mine. The badge of Goodfellow. Give it to me."
Damn it! Nick knew it was to good to be true. He didn't deserve the badge. He was no Robin under the Hood. It had to be sent to him by mistake -and it looks like it was. He was all ready to give the feather over to its rightful owner -except he didn't have it anymore. He gave it to Judy less than an hour ago.
He stared at the hooded fox's outstretched hand. Then up at his face, smiling apologetically. "I, uh, I don't have it anymore. I gave it away."
There was an asymmetrical twitch to the fox's face, at least, the part of the face that Nick could see. The elegant red snout marred with a deep frown. "You gave it away!?"
Then things went sideways.
…