YAY! Despite the monsoon season, I managed to crank out a new chapter! (And things have been getting ca-RAZY here!) I sure do hope that you folks will enjoy the chapter!
Found (Chapter 32)
by
Elite Shade
"A little more to the left," Stuart Hopps called to Vernon and Marcus as the two larger mammals were holding up the wooden beams, with teams of bunnies with nail guns and electric drills set about securing connections and putting in braces. Thanks to the wolf and human boy helping with some of the heavy lifting, the Hopps family was making great time with their own contribution to the Carrot Days Festival. They were working in the clearing just a little ways off the Bunnyburrow main street that was often used for fairgrounds and other community functions and holidays. All around them were other mammals, mostly other large bunny families, setting up booths and games and assorted attractions. The one Vernon and Marcus were helping with was going to be a haunted house with the ever present carrot theme (which still had the gray wolf scratching his head over just how that was going to work.)
"Excellent work, boys!" Stu said as he walked over to the two larger mammals. "Thanks to you two helping with the heavy lifting, we're getting this attraction done ahead of schedule. We really appreciate it."
Marcus blushed and looked down at his feet. On his first day, after the kerfluffle swarm incident, Judy and Dawn had worked together to help gradually get Marcus more comfortable around bunnies. They noticed that he was especially nervous around large groups of bunnies, so they had some of the kits around his age introduce themselves to him in ones and twos.
"It's no problem, Mr. Hopps," Vernon said, his tail wagging as he pulled Marcus into a side hug.
"If you two still don't mind just a little more lifting, two more beams and I think we can take the rest from here."
"What do ya say, Marcus? After we're done, we can rejoin yer aunt and cousins explorin' the town," Vernon said, giving Marcus a gentle squeeze.
"Uhm... sounds good ta me, Uncle Vernon," Marcus said.
"Great!" Stu enthusiastically said, directing the two over to the next wooden beam for them to lift. Between the two of them, the wood was actually quite light. Spotting some of the other construction going on, Marcus saw teams of bunnies using elaborate-looking rope and pulley systems to lift similar beams.
Elsewhere in Bunnyburrow...
"So was the ancient Eg'yip'tian amulet inside the cupcake?" Lily asked, looking, only just a little, up at her Auntie Judy, her eyes gleaming with excitement. The gray bunny blinked in surprise.
"How did you know it was in there?" she asked. She had been talking with Dawn about a recent case involving a stolen piece of jewelry from a history museum. Lily was harnessed and leashed, having almost wandered off three times already. Nick was a little further ahead, showing an excited Trevor and Alice a local bakery with plenty of delicious scents coming wafting from it.
"Well, ya said that Uncle Nick found a white scentless powder where the exhibit had been broken into. Ya also mentioned that the cupcake in question looked lopsided with frosting and sprinkles all skewed. A professional baker might make a mistake like that from time ta time, but Daddy took us ta that museum two weeks ago, as well as ta that bakery. The elk who owned it was very particular and exact about his pastries."
Judy smiled while Dawn giggled and rolled her eyes. Puppy is not going to like hearing about Lily listening to Judy's police stories, the ewe thought to herself.
"Well, aren't you just an observant junior detective!" Judy said, giggling a little at the wide eyed look of surprise on the young mammal's face.
"I'm a junior detective?" Lily asked, her voice full of wonder.
"Sure thing! In fact," Judy said as she reached into her pocket and pulled out a sheet of paper, covered in stickers made to look like little badges, that all said Junior Detective on them. She peeled one off and stuck it to Lily's lavender shirt. "There you go!"
Lily paused and looked at the sticker, smiling brightly. She then jumped forward and wrapped her arms around the surprised bunny.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you, Auntie Judy!" Lily said.
Judy laughed and hugged the girl back. "You're very welcome, sweetie!"
Letting go, Lily turned to regard Dawn. "Mommy, can I please go and show Trevor and Alice and Uncle Nick my new badge?"
Dawn mulled it over, before she unclipped the leash from Lily's harness.
"You can go and show them so long as you promise not to wander off, and stay right by Uncle Nick's side. Okay, honey?" Dawn felt a little nervous, but Lily had been doing much better lately about not wandering off, and she didn't want her lamb to grow up thinking that they didn't trust her.
Lily saluted, looking serious. "I promise!" Dawn had to hold back a giggle.
"Alright," she said. Lily needed no further encouragement, and darted down the sidewalk. She practically tackled Alice, the little black wolf pup now standing a few inches taller than her youngest sibling, having started what was beginning to look like a growth spurt.
"Oh, cheese and crackers!" Dawn heard Judy say, and turned to see her friend looking back at her, with her previously perked up ears drooping against her back. "Dawn, I'm so sorry. I just did that without even thinking!"
The ewe smiled at the bunny. "It's alright, Judy. It's true that Vernon is not too thrilled about Lily's interest in law enforcement and solving mysteries, but we've had a long talk about it. This is something she is genuinely interested in, and not something being pushed onto her by family like it was with him. We've both decided to be supportive, even if Lily does grow up wanting to be a police officer."
Judy smiled back at her friend. "It's wonderful that you and your mate are going to be supportive. I know when I showed an interest in wanting to be a cop when I was little, it really worried my parents, and then when I actually did become one, it outright terrified them."
"It still worries Vernon, and me," Dawn explained. "Lily, just like Trevor and Alice, is our lamb. Just every bit our babies as this little miracle will be," she said, rubbing her baby bump through her forest green sundress. "But, as worried as we may be, we can't keep them safe from the world forever, and to try, especially by trying to push them away from an interest, will only just push our lambs themselves away and make them resent us. The best we can do is to be there for them."
Judy smiled wistfully. "Me and Nick have talked about adoption after we... go public with our relationship. And we've pretty much agreed to doing the same."
As Judy and Dawn further discussed adoption, just a little bit ahead of them, Nick was walking along the sidewalk, now with Trevor sitting on his shoulders, while Alice held Lily's hand with a firm grip.
"This bakery makes the best blueberry pies I have ever had the pleasure of trying," Nick said, his tail giving a little wag. They were standing right outside a shop that read in white paint on the main window Gideon Grey's Really Good Baked Stuff.
"OH!" Trevor exclaimed, the black lamb bouncing a little on Nick's shoulders, "that's what was on the apron of the guy who won the last inter-district pie-baking contest! I remember that my Grandmaw and my Uncle Malcolm, who were both competing, were both grumbling about losing!"
Nick smirked at that. "Oh?"
"Yeah," Alice chimed in, the young wolf's tail was wagging a bit as she sniffed the air, picking out from the variety of aromas wafting from the inside of the shop, something lemony and sweet. "They had both started to get really competitive with each other, and I remember Grandmaw hit Uncle Malcolm over the head with a sack of flour."
Nick chuckled at that.
Back at the fairgrounds...
"And that's the last one," a snow white bunny in work overalls, a red shirt, and a white hard hat said from above Marcus' head. Said rabbit had introduced himself as Isaac, one of Judy's older brothers. Marcus swallowed but nodded while the bunnies working construction double-checked the support beams. With a nod from Isaac, Vernon and Marcus let go of the wooden beam. With that done, they scooted back as more bunny teams started to bring in plywood to start constructing the walls and flooring.
"It's startin' ta look like a maze," Vernon said aloud, to which Isaac nodded.
"It will be," the bunny buck said with a grin, "this year the haunted house will be something of my own design. So for starters, we're making it more of a maze, with sections of walls that will shift place from time to time. There will also be secret passages to be found. I don't want to give too much away as it is, but the game is going to be about finding five specific objects hidden throughout the haunted house. There will be plenty of scares and a creepy overall atmosphere. I've also designed and tested some safe traps for unknowing mammals to set off."
"That sounds purdy elaborate fer a haunted house," Vernon said, surprised. Isaac looked up and smirked.
"Well, ours isn't going to be the only one. And I for one am not going to just sit back and let those Leapertons across the way try to outdo us!" Isaac took a moment to settle himself and smooth back the tuft of his headfur. "Anyways, you two have been a big help, but we've got it from here."
"Well, we're happy ta help out! Right, Marcus?" Vernon looked to his nephew, who had pulled up the hood to his tiger hoodie and nodded.
"Y-yes, Uncle Vernon. It was kinda... fun," Marcus said, looking a little nervous.
"That's what I like to hear! And when everything is all set up, please feel free to come by later and try your paws at winning the prize," Isaac said. Vernon and Marcus were soon walking towards the main street, with Vernon sending a quick text to Dawn that they had finished helping out and were on their way.
"So, Marcus," Vernon started, looking to his left to see his nephew, the two walking by gorgeous fields of blueberries, with mammals, mostly bunnies, going to work harvesting. "If'n this is a little too personal fer ya, then please don't think ya have to answer if'n ya don't want to. But I was wonderin'... why are you scared of bunnies?" He had noticed numerous times when Marcus had shied away from even coming in contact with various rabbits not only on the construction site, but even when they were being given a tour of the Hopps family burrow.
Marcus looked uncomfortable and turned to look away. Vernon worried that he had upset the boy, and opened his muzzle to say something, but shut it when Marcus began to speak.
"B-back in... Kartakka... we learned that... all of the other mammals wanted to... exterminate us. When I was little... my older brother, Robert... he liked to... scare me, with stories. I u-used to have a stuffed bunny toy that he threw into the fireplace once, and burned it. I-It was a gift from my sister, Rose. Afterwards, he would always tell me... really scary stories about bunnies. 'Bout how they would steal and eat entire fields of crops within a day, their ravenous hunger making them into a frenzy that would allow them to swarm a human and... eat all the flesh off of them in under a minute, like land piranhas. Down to the bones. I-I know that Robert was lyin'... but... so many nights, I was so scared to go to sleep, 'cause he told me that bunnies had been seen in the city, and were sneaking up through the pipes... and that they would come fer me when I would sleep." Marcus looked ashamed before he looked away.
"Teeth to tails, son," Vernon said. He saw Marcus' lip tremble as the boy let out a sniff, trying to discreetly wipe away at his prickly eyes.
Vernon was quick to pull him into a proper hug, that Marcus was quick to return, silently crying into the large wolf's shoulder. Vernon's ears laid flat in his head. The wolf gently rubbed Marcus' back.
"It's okay, Marcus," he said in a gentle voice, "yer safe here. What yer brother told ya were lies, son."
"I don't know why he hated me so much," Marcus said with a hiccup, Vernon letting him go, "but the mammal who is not my father, believed that it was a show of strength and dominance. He would often encourage Robert, even when he had attempted to harm me. And then he would chastise me for being so... weak. Robert would tell me later that... because I was so weak and... small, that... they would leave me outside the city, where the rabbits would come fer me."
Vernon bit back a growl, wondering how any kind of a father could be so cruel, and not surprised that he had passed that cruelty on to one of his children. Then he remembered the video he had seen, him and Dawn both... and in turn had to forcibly hold back a whine.
"Marcus... what ya've been through... it just ain't fair, son. But please know that we're here fer ya. All of us. We're yer family now, through and through, and if you ever have a problem, ya can come to any of us, and we will be there fer ya."
Marcus sniffed and nodded. He smiled up a little at his uncle, and wrapped his arms around him in another hug. Vernon smiled and his tail started to slowly wag as it was now his turn to return the embrace.
"Now, c'mon, let's go find yer aunt and cousins."
Back in the Northern Meadowlands...
Vanna sat at the table over at the Hunter Ranch, helping Audrey with the making of some pumpkin pies. Being so far along in her pregnancy, she was temporarily on leave from work.
"Do you think that one of your pies might help Zach to feel better?" the tigress asked the older she-wolf, whose own pregnancy was even further along than hers.
"A bit, but to be honest, I haven't seen that boy mope about like this," she said, referencing out the kitchen window to see the auburn wolf in question, slung over the porch swing. He was on his lunch break, looking moody.
"So your folks really are movin' out here then?" Audrey asked, hoping to change the subject.
"Yes. It was a surprise for me as well, but then again, Papa does have a tendency to do things spur-of-the-moment. And Mama tends to support him, at least when it's not something too crazy. Besides, they're doing it so that they can be closer to their grandkittens."
"That I can understand," Audrey said with a smile. "I love how often Dawn and Vern bring my other grandpuppies to visit, but I wish that they lived as close as you, Zach, and Marcus do. I just love having him over to practice the piano, and also so I can dote on him."
Vanna chuckled, knowing that her son loved spending time with his grandparents as well. Just then, her phone started to buzz, and she pulled it out to find that instead of Myra, it was a MuzzleTime call from Qali. A quick tap and Vanna was looking at the red-eyed tear-stained cheeks of the arctic vixen.
"Qali, what's wrong?" Vanna asked.
"Go give my nephew a hug right now and tell him it's from his Auntie Qali!" the vixen stated, sniffing.
"Qali? I don't understand," the confused tigress said.
Qali started to jump up and down. "Marcus needs hugs, right now!"
Just then, she heard her brother-in-law's voice coming from the phone.
"Snowball, Marcus isn't even there. Dawn and Vern took him to Bunnyburrow," Trent said, his face appearing in the background.
"What?! Well then, what are we waiting for, we need to go to him now! For hugs!" Qali dropped her phone, which was still propped up on something allowing Vanna to see the vixen tugging on Trent's paw, attempting to drag him. Trent smiled, but also while looking a bit sad, as he walked over to the phone and picked it up.
"We just watched a documentary about that city ol' Marcus came from on Nutflix, Kartakka: The City of Smoke and Mirrors... and it had... it had the video Pa told us about on it..." he said. Vanna instantly knew what video he was referring to, and her claws immediately started to dig into the wood of the table. The video of Marcus being whipped in public.
"They included THAT in the documentary?" Vanna asked, outraged.
"Yeah... and worse... Vanna... it was bad, really bad fer Marcus, even before the... floggin'. It also covered the trial and... execution of Marcus'... well, of the mammal that ordered it," Trent said. Suddenly, Qali's head repeatedly kept bobbing in and out of the screen, as she was jumping up and down in front of her mate.
"Trenny! We have to go! I have to hug Marcus!" she said.
"Okay, Snowflake, okay, just, let's not tell him why, alright? We'll act like we're in the area," Trent said.
"Okay!" With that, they said goodbye to Vanna and ended the call.
Vanna was startled by a sudden whine, causing her to look up at her mother-in-law, clutching a potholder in her paws. "At least that monster is gone fer good," Audrey said, wiping at her eyes. Vanna nodded, knowing that she and Zach would have to break the news to their son, unsure of just how he would take it. Then, out of curiosity, she typed into her phone the name of the documentary, and found a brief description of it.
Kartakka: The City of Smoke and Mirrors. A look into the rise of power of a tyrant, rampant corruption, the criminal underworld, witch trials, revolution, and the brave few. After reading this, Vanna saw the picture of the movie poster and inhaled. It was a picture of Marcus, standing on a stage, wearing a ruffled blue petticoat and white trousers, playing his violin with a determined expression on his face. What made Vanna take in a sharp breath, was the metal collar attached to a chain around his neck.
"Qali's right," she said in a low voice, wiping at her own moist eyes. "Marcus does need to be hugged more, so much more."
And there you have it, folks! Chapter 32! WOO! Please consider leaving a comment or review, as those just really do make my day. Thank you so much for reading the new chapter!