Loves Bond
Chapter 09 - Bun Gone Wilde
Nickolas Wilde opened his eyes and was surrounded by a complete blackness. His first thoughts were to wonder where he was and how he had gotten there. He had curled up in his sleep like foxes often do, and lay on a small, very stiff bed. A warm, bushy tail was wrapped around his body like a blanket to keep the cold air at bay. The blackness slowly took form as he looked around his surroundings.
The strong smell of rabbits filled the air and brought his memories crashing back like waves against the shore. He remembered the fair and the carnival rides with his girlfriend. Remembering the pie-eating contest brought a painful ache to his stomach, he did not want to go anywhere near another one of those amazingly delicious blueberry pies. In the dark, a broad smile stretched across his muzzle when he remembered dancing with his rabbit.
One memory stuck in his mind stronger than any of the others and made him sit up in the bed. The way that Judy had kissed him on the dance floor was completely unlike her. Lifting a paw to his cheek, he felt the beginnings of a new scar forming where she had scratched him while trying to pull him closer. If he didn't know better he would have sworn that his pretty rabbit had tried to climb inside his mouth.
Rolling over, he patted the bed with both paws. Where was she? There was a faint hint of her scent hanging in the air and was strongest around the spot on the edge of the bed where she had sat while they talked last night. She was not here and his nose told him that she must have left shortly after he had fallen asleep. Maybe she had slept in her own bed, he wondered.
Reaching for his phone that was still faithfully sitting on the dresser, he turned it on to check his messages. He only took one glance at the device before leaping out of bed and rushing to turn on the lights. "Oh wow, I must have seriously overslept," he cried. The day's messages remained unread until he ate lunch later in the day.
Tripping over the clothes that were lying at the foot of the bed as he rushed to the dresser, he pulled on the jeans that Judy liked so much. They had a few smudges on the knees from when he landed in the dirt last night, but they were still mostly clean. The blue plaid shirt had some pretty obvious stains so he opted for one of the t-shirts that he had packed. On the front was the symbol for a college tuskball team, it was a roaring feline with extremely long canines printed in the school's colors. He left the I Heart Carrots hat sitting on the dresser as he walked out the bedroom door.
Once he was fully dressed, he headed for the dining hall, where he hoped some food remained. When he arrived the hall was empty and the long tables had been scrubbed clean. Walking through a set of swinging double doors into the kitchen, he found that it was bustling with activity. Every bunny was frantically running around with pots, pans, or boxes loaded with vegetables.
Spotting Bonnie Hopps, the fox walked up to the matronly doe. "Good morning, Bonnie. Have you seen Judy?" he asked politely.
"Oh, I am sorry, Nick," she said while helping a younger doe shuck ears of wild corn. "I have not seen Judy this morning, she might be helping her brothers." She suddenly dropped one of the half-peeled ears back into its box and rushed over to the stove. "Careful, Mary. You have to stir the sauce slowly, so it doesn't splash over the sides."
While Bonnie was hopping around the kitchen helping her kin prepare some vast meal, Nick's stomach rumbled. "Oh, dearie," the motherly rabbit cried, looking at the fox in concern. She stepped up to one of the many microwaves and pulled out a plate stacked with pancakes. "Here you go. I saved you some breakfast."
"Thank you very much, Mrs. Hopps," Nick said, gratefully accepting the plate of food.
"I heard that you liked blueberries so those are the ones that I saved," the rabbit said cheerfully.
Not wanting to be rude to his girlfriend's mother, he simply nodded agreeably. Even though yesterday's pies had been delicious, after eating nineteen in quick succession it left him not wanting to see another blueberry for a long time. Now a plate sat in his paws that was loaded down with pancakes that were practically overflowing with the tiny round berries.
Inwardly he groaned, but he put on his hustler's mask and smiled back at the older rabbit. "Thank you so much, Mrs. Hopps. I don't know how I could make it through the day without your help."
Oblivious to the hidden insult, she smiled warmly at the fox and pawed over a small jar of syrup. "You know that you are always welcome here, Mr. Wilde." She led him to a small table in the back corner of the kitchen where he could eat his breakfast in peace. The table had the quaint look of being used as a makeshift office for the kitchen. Notes and papers covered the small surface and a jar full of pens sat in one corner.
Before returning to her duties, the rabbit turned back to the fox. "Oh, and after you have finished eating, Stu wants your help with something."
Nick slowly swallowed the stack of pancakes while pretending to enjoy every bite. This morning, what would have normally been pure bliss for the red fox, tasted more like prison food. He liberally drowned the fluffy stacks in a sea of syrup trying to hide the taste of the berries that he used to love so much.
Walking down the whitewashed steps of the covered front porch, Nick bumped into Stuart Hopps. The rotund rabbit wore his favorite overalls over a yellow-green shirt and his green tuskball cap sat proudly on top of his head.
"There you are, Nick," Stu declared. He turned and walked back down the steps with the fox. When they reached the bottom at the same time, the buck turned to the tod. "I have a very important job for you, m'boy."
"Ok," the fox said, his voice full of optimism. Despite sleeping in so late this morning, Nick did want to impress Judy's parents, and today was their last day at the farm. "What'cha got for me?" he asked, clapping his paws together.
Stu stuck his thumbs through the straps in his overalls and stretched them out slightly. "Wow, aren't you anxious to get started? I hope all the extra sleep did you some good."
"Yes, Sir," Nick nodded. He clenched his fist and made a quick jogging motion with them, "Ready and roaring to go."
"Just, Stu, son. I never liked the word 'sir'," the rabbit explained, rubbing the back of his head.
"Alright, Stu. What's on the docket today?"
"Well, you can start by helping Jason, Jack and Jarred. They are Judy's littermates." Stu pointed to the nearest of the large barns. "You will find them over by the red Macy Furrson. They should be able to explain what they need you to do."
"Jason? Jack? Judy? Does the entire litter start with the letter 'J'?" Puzzlement plainly smeared across the fox's muzzle like the blueberry pie that had been there only a day before.
"Yep," the rabbit declared proudly. "It is an old rabbit tradition to pick a letter for each litter."
With a slight hint of shock, Nick nodded at the older rabbit. "Is it also bunny tradition to pick the letters in alphabetical order?"
Stu rubbed his chin for a second while he thought about the question. "Well, sort of."
"What do you mean by 'sort of'?"
"The answer to that is a bit of yes and a bit of no," Stu replied, causing the fox to become even more confused. "You see, Nick. Bonnie and her sisters will follow the alphabet as a group, so the first doe to have a litter gets the letter 'A' and the second one gets 'B' and so on and so forth. It is rather organized. That way Judy will never have any first cousins that also start with the letter 'J.'"
Nodding his head, Nick seemed to accept the rabbit's answer. It kind of made sense for a species that gave birth to large litters. For a fox that was an only kit, it took him some time to come to terms with the idea.
"So if you were wondering, Nick," Stu clapped the fox on the back of his shoulder, "Judy is from our fourth litter, not the tenth. Now you better run along, I can see the boys are waiting for you already."
Jogging up to the first barn, Nick spotted the red tractor that Stu had mentioned and the three bucks who were hooking a short wagon up to its hitch. When he approached, a familiar buck, who looked more like his father than his sister, turned and greeted the fox. The buck stretched out a paw. "Glad you could join us, Nick."
The fox grasped the proffered paw and shook it warmly. "I am glad to be of help, ah, um, John?" Nick stumbled over the name. It had been two days and hundreds of introductions ago, so he wasn't quite sure what the buck's name was.
"Jack," the buck explained. "And this is my brother Jarred." Jack pointed at a rabbit that was slightly shorter. This rabbit's tan fur was so light that it almost appeared yellow.
Jarred rushed up to Nick and quickly shook the fox's paw, refusing to let go. His words also flew out of his muzzle in such a flurry that Nick could barely follow what he said. "Hey, Nick. It's great to make your acquaintance. Sorry, I could not meet you at the train station, but I had to help my uncle fix up the family bus. She is an old reliable vehicle but you still have to change the oil and give her new windshield wipers and clean off the seats and make sure the tires are all aired up and ..."
"Ok, that's enough, Jarred." Jack had to pull his brother away from the fox before he pulled the tod's arm off. "And Jason, the oldest, is sitting on top of the tractor." The last rabbit barely even looked at the fox as he turned the key and started the engine. "Don't mind him, he rarely ever says anything, claims that Jarred already says enough."
"Yes, I do!" Jarred exclaimed as quickly as the words could escape his lips. "I always have a lot to say, a lot to say. I like to talk, unlike stuffy ole Jason..."
"Jarred, just get in the wagon."
"Older?" Nick tilted his head towards the brown rabbit. "I thought you guys were born at the same time."
Shaking his head, Jack explained, "We have the same birthdate, but Jason was born about half a minute before me. Judy and Jennifer were so close together Mom doesn't know which one was first. The others were several seconds apart, but Jarred here was last by three whole minutes. Now it's like he is making up for the lost time by doing everything as fast as possible."
The tractor's engine roared for a second and the vehicle rolled forward slightly. "It looks like Jason is in a hurry to get going," Jack said, waving his paw towards the empty wagon. "Hop in and hang on. It's going to get a bit bumpy."
Nick climbed up into the wagon and sat down. He held onto the sturdy siding as the tractor took off, headed down a well-worn dirt trail. When they turned to follow a dried-up ditch, the fox was describing life in the big city and what it was like working for the ZPD. The fox even showed the brothers his badge.
At the tractors' very slow pace it was roughly twenty minutes before they reached the edge of a wooded area of the farm. At first, the trees were all young saplings, but as they ventured further into the woods, the trees got older until they found another tractor that was hitched up to a long flatbed trailer. Several logs lay on the flatbed and Nick could make out a dozen rabbits clearing a section of trees near the trail.
"Judy said that the beavers supplied all the wood to Bunny Burrow?" Nick asked, pointing at the small group of rabbit loggers.
"Yes," Jack explained. "The beavers do supply the town with lumber for building, but we still need wood for the cookout. What do you expect us to make a bonfire out of?"
"So is this what you want me to help out with?"
"Naw." The brown rabbit shook his head and leaned back in the wagon. "Since you look pretty fit for a fox, we have a special assignment for you."
"Special assignment?"
"Just relax, Nick, we will be there in a few minutes."
Exactly as the rabbit had predicted, they arrived at the bank of a small stream after only a few minutes. The stream was running quite low at this time of year and was barely more than a trickle. While Jason backed the wagon up the slight incline that held the stream in its bed, Nick saw several pumps that fed water into the irrigation ditch they had been following. Here the water was so low that the pipes that fed into the pumps were several inches above the water.
With the wagon parked as far up the embankment as it could go, Jack and Jerred hopped out and slid down to the stream bed. "Come on, Nick," they called back to the fox.
"What are we doing here?" Nick asked, looking around the drier parts of the small stream.
Jack picked up a well-rounded stone and hauled it up the bank before casually tossing it into the wagon. "Grab some nice looking stones and load them in the wagon."
Following the rabbit's example, Nick grabbed several stones from the stream bed and carried them up the bank. Over the summer, the fox had been working on his weight training at the ZPD gym and was able to easily lift stones that would have taken two of Judy's brothers to carry.
After he had carried about two pawfuls of rock up the small slope, he began to notice that many of the rocks were scorched and blackened. "What are we gathering all of these rocks for, Jack?" Nick asked as he lifted a particularly sooty rock onto his shoulder.
"They are for the huge bonfire tonight. We put them in this big ring and..." Jarred started explaining hastily before Jack cut him off with a wave of his paw.
"That's right. What Jarred said is correct." Jack tossed another rock into the back of the wagon where it clattered against the rest of its fellow, water-worn brethren. "When we have a big cookout like tonight we build three big rings of stone to help contain the bonfires."
"But," Nick pointed to the stone on his shoulder, "this rock has already been burnt."
"We only borrow them," Jason finally spoke with a grunt as he carried a fairly large rock up the hill.
"What?" The shock was plain on the fox's muzzle.
"Yep." Jack nodded as he dug a well-rounded stone out of the mud. "Tomorrow when we're done, another group of rabbits will put them back in the stream bed."
"But, why?"
"Because they belong to the stream. The fire pits are not permanent so we are just borrowing them. And besides, we don't want them cluttering up the yard, or getting all over the farm where they can damage a plow," the brown rabbit explained.
"Doesn't your family own the stream and thus the stones in it?"
Jarred zoomed by with two small rocks in his paws as he babbled, "Who owns the stream? That is just silly. You can't own the water, fox, it flows where it wants to. It wanders across the countryside as it wills, you can't make it do your bidding. No one owns the stream I say, not me or Mom and Dad and certainly not ..." The swift rabbit's words flowed together incomprehensibly and blended with the sound of the water flowing over the stones they left behind.
Judy carefully jogged along the back trails near the edge of her family's farm. The hiking trail she followed was not suitable for running, yet the gray rabbit was doing her best to keep moving at a decent clip. She dodged around old trees and thick overgrowth then hopped over the thick roots that grew across the path. With all the dodging and jumping, she looked like a squirrel chasing down an elusive nut.
This trail followed the stream bank as it twisted and turned where the flowing water cut its way across the land. With easy access to water, a variety of trees grew up around the banks creating a small forest in the grasslands. Centuries of rabbits had walked this very same route, creating the winding trail with their pawsteps.
She used to explore this trail as a kit, but it had been many years since she had last tread its paths. This section of the forest was much further south than she had been in a long time. She had already passed the southern ditch and was well into the area managed by the southern burrow. Most of this trail was unfamiliar to her, but she continued to press on.
A patch of loose gravel did not deter the swift rabbit from her journey. Her paw slipped slightly as many pebbles gave way and slid down the bank to plunk into the water below, but her momentum quickly carried her past the patch and back to more solid ground.
This early in the autumn, the leaves of the trees that lined the stream were showing their bright yellows and oranges, but none had yet to fall and the trail remained clear. Judy smiled at the vivid colors that surrounded her and she inhaled the crisp, morning air. Her heart felt as heavy as the thick air, but she kept moving, trying not to let the feelings overwhelm her again.
Her return to Bunny Burrow had not turned out as she had planned. It had been a bad idea to bring her boyfriend here. She should have dealt with that rich sow on her own and not troubled the fox with this whole backward town.
Having been raised here, she would be the first to admit that country mammals were stuck in the past. They could not see beyond their own muzzles. Even so, she would not have guessed that her own school friends would have treated her boyfriend like that.
Jumping over another root, she snarled at the things Sheriff Morris had said about her fox last night. Sighing loudly, she was convinced that the entire town where she grew up was full of speciest jerks. If two mammals are clearly in love why couldn't they let them be happy? Why do they have to go out of their way to cause trouble? We weren't doing anything wrong! It was only a kiss.
A bright blush filled the bunny's ears and she stumbled over an unseen root. Being a short bunny, Judy did not have very far to fall. She hit the ground with an "oof" and barely a scrape.
Picking herself back up, a bright, giddy smile was printed plainly across her muzzle. "Maybe I did overdo it a bit last night. It's not like I was trying to climb into his mouth." Or had she? Thinking back to the kiss, she remembered grabbing the tufts of fur on the fox's cheeks and pulling him hard enough to scratch the skin.
Maybe he had slipped and opened his jaws. Her head could have easily fit between his sharp teeth. The thought of his sharp teeth on her skin brought another blush to her muzzle and she nearly tripped again.
She came to a sudden halt in the middle of the trail. "Stop thinking about that dumb fox before you truly hurt yourself, Judy." Her ears raised at the sound of the babbling brook below, and she looked down at the cool, shallow stream when an idea came to her.
Climbing down the side of the bank, she approached the edge of the water. She knelt down on a large, flat rock that jutted out into the middle of the stream. With both paws, she reached into the swirling waters and splashed some on her muzzle. The icy cold water made her shiver and helped clear her mind for a moment, but the sexy image of her fox immediately returned with a vengeance.
Splashing even more water all over her head, she finally drove away the image. Wiping her arm across her lips to dry them, she let out a deep sigh. "Just one more day. I can hold out for one more day. Then I can take Nick back to the city where he belongs. A city fox does not belong out here in the country."
Standing up with her head fur full of cold water, she climbed back up the bank to return to the trail that she had been following. "Maybe I'm also becoming too much of a city bunny and don't belong here either?" Shaking her head to remove that thought, she started to jog once again.
Back on the trail, her mind soon drifted back to the fox as she jogged along in the cold morning air with a wet head. Her long ears flapped in the breeze while she thought about his long muzzle and how she liked to kiss every inch. The return of her vivid daydreams almost caused her to stumble over the next obstacle that crossed her path.
The forest quickly cleared into a small field of grass and the stream made a sharp corner around the open area. Sitting directly in the middle of the trail was a four-wheeled ATV, but she saw that no one was around. With her mind in the clouds, Judy nearly ran full bore into the abandoned vehicle, but quickly hopped aside before she broke her nose.
Not interested in which rabbit had left the quad here, she returned to the trail and headed back into the woods. Before she crossed into the trees a familiar voice called out to her, "Jude The Dude, always rushing into trouble."
Judy skidded to a halt in the soft earth, letting her paw straps slow her to a stop. Turning around, she saw a rabbit that reminded her strongly of staring into a mirror. This new rabbit even wore an identical copy of Judy's favorite pink shirt. The only difference to this copyrabbit was that she was a little heavier around the middle, her eyes were a lighter shade—appearing more pink than purple—and she had a slightly crooked nose.
"Jenny," Judy uttered quietly. "What? What are you doing here? I thought you didn't want to see me."
"I am here now," Jennifer said with her arms held wide as she stepped from the trees and towards her sister.
Stepping back, Judy wasn't quite ready to give her sister a hug in the middle of an empty meadow in the forest. "How did you know where to find me?" she asked cautiously with one ear raised.
Jennifer waved her cell phone at her sister. "Josh said you took off on the creek trail, so I came out here and simply waited. And sure enough, you came running along. Right on time too."
Scowling at her sister, Judy demanded answers, "Ok. You found me. Now, what do you want?"
"Aw, Jude," Jen said with a sigh as she leaned back against the ATV. "I thought we had gotten past this. And now, with all the rumors about your new boyfriend, I expected you to have gotten over me and Alex by now."
"Oh, sorry, Jen-Jen." Judy's ears fell as she apologized. "I just have a lot on my mind right now."
"Is that why your eyes are sparkling and your nose is twitching and even why your tail is wagging like that?" her sister asked, pointing at her rear.
"You're just making that last part up. Bunnies don't wag their tails unless we want to."
"Well tell that to your tail. It's been swishing happily back and forth this whole time." Jennifer wiggled her hips to imitate the motion of her sister's tail. Watching Judy's expression, a light suddenly clicked behind her eyes. "So the rumors about your new boyfriend are true. You really are dating a fox."
Her shoulders slumped and Judy put her arms in the air. "Yeah, I am dating a fox. Is there something wrong with that?" After everything else that had happened this weekend, she did not want to fight with her sister over another male.
Waving her paws at her sister, Jennifer shook her head. "No, nothing wrong at all. I just never took you for a predifile."
Judy's hardened glare instantly returned. "What does that have to do with anything, and where did you hear that word?"
"Oh, it's just something I heard Alex use a few times. He is still a lawyer you know." Jennifer stepped away from the vehicle and began to walk around Judy. "And I think you know what I mean. I always knew that you didn't like bucks, but I would never have guessed that you were into preds."
Walking behind her thinner sister, Jen rubbed a paw on her chin. "I guess all the signs were there. You did spend more time with preds in school than you did with your own kind."
Thumping her paw in the grass, Judy responded, "Because they encouraged me to follow my dreams, unlike my own family."
"And those same mammals you called friends would laugh at you behind your back. Were you really that blind?"
"I knew." Judy's ears fell flat behind her head. "But even that false encouragement felt better than always being told, 'No Judy, you can't do that. It's impossible for a bunny.'"
"So now that you moved to the big city, and you're finally living your dreams, you just hook up with the very first pred that walks by? I don't get it, Judy. Please at least try to explain it to me." Exasperated, Jennifer threw her paws over her head. "For heaven's sake, Judy, he is a fox. I thought after what happened to you with Gideon that you hated foxes."
"Jen!" Judy exclaimed with her paws folded across her chest. "If you are going to have that kind of close-minded attitude then nothing I say will ever make you understand."
Jennifer leaned back against the ATV again. "Alright, Jude. I am sorry. I will try to understand. Explain to me what is so special about this guy."
Barely satisfied that her sister was ready to listen, Judy began to explain, "To me, Nick is not just another fox or a predator. He is smart and wonderful and brave and trustworthy. I am proud to have him as my partner and my friend." Her ears slowly raised as she spoke of the fox and her nose began to twitch.
"Ok, so he is actually a nice guy. That comes as a shock." She folded her paws together as she continued to listen.
"As we spent more time together I grew to understand how much of a great mammal he actually is. Like myself, he is also misunderstood and yet we share many of the same dreams."
"So," Jen waved her paw, drawing a large circle in the air while trying to understand what she had just heard. "Are you saying that you're both two sides of the same coin or something silly like that?"
"I guess you could say that," Judy replied with a soft giggle. "And then I hit that point. The one I am sure you have heard a hundred times before. That point where I realized that I could not live without him."
"So cliche."
"Yet at the same time very true."
Putting her paws to her forehead, Jenny pushed her sister for clarification. "Let me get this straight. You're actually in love with this fox because what? He has a great personality?"
Judy blushed and nodded. "Mmhmm, yes, exactly."
"And there isn't a single buck out there that has a similar personality?"
Shaking her head, Judy's ears flopped from side to side. The smile on her muzzle suddenly dropped and was quickly replaced with a frown. "None that I have met. Except for maybe the one that you stole."
"Ok, Jude," Jennifer sighed. "Can we not fight about who has the better mate for one minute?"
"Fine. I am sorry."
"I still don't get it." The pink eyed rabbit spread her paws wide. "Are you telling me the only reason that you're dating this fox is that you both share some kind of emotional bond? There is nothing else going on here?"
Nose twitching curiously, Judy tilted her head to the side. "I am not sure what you mean."
Jennifer took a step forward in a threatening manner and made a mock predatory pose. "There isn't any physical attraction for him because he is a predator? For example his claws or his teeth?"
When her sister mentioned Nick's teeth and claws, Judy's mind drifted back to that museum exhibit. Her fox's teeth slowly closing around her neck brought a chirp of pleasure to her lips. Humming, she also imagined his sharp claws running down her back and a shiver ran through her body.
Both paws covering her wide-open muzzle, Jennifer gasped at her sister's dreamy response to her question. "I knew it, Jude. You are definitely a grade A predifile." She looked back at Judy with a flash of disgust. "Oh cabbages, Judy, you are even drooling."
"I am not!" Judy quickly denied, returning to the world from her erotic daydream. She wiped the wetness from the corner of her lips, realizing that what her sister had said was true. "Ok, maybe a little," the tough rabbit admitted.
"It's pretty clear as day that you, my dear sister, have a thing for preds. It is just a surprise that you found one that also shares your dreams. Do you like it when he bites you?"
"And when are you going to tell your husband that you prefer does?" Judy shot back suddenly with a snarl.
Jennifer stumbled back for a second with a paw pressed tightly to her chest in an imitation of a movie actor getting shot in the chest. "Ouch. Was that supposed to hurt?" She peeled her paw slowly away from her chest, revealing that there was no blood and she had indeed not been shot.
Glaring back at her sister, Judy did not apologize for the failed insult. Once again she had let her wildly running emotions take control. With a huff, she turned around and headed back to the trail. She was going to need a lot more exercise to clear her head before she did something she would later regret.
"Cheese and Crackers, Judy," Jennifer called to her retreating sister. "You really have it bad for this fox. You can't even think straight can you?"
"My thinking is just fine, Jen," Judy called back.
"You're all ready to jump out of your fur, maybe you should jump his bones instead, sis."
Judy planted both paws firmly in the dirt and clenched her paws into tight balls of gray fur. With her back to her sister, Judy yelled into the air, "I am not going to jump his bones as you put it." She started to jog back towards the treeline, but stopped to look back at her almost twin sister. "That is all I have to say on the subject, but you are welcome to come meet my boyfriend for yourself."
Before she heard Jennifer's response, Judy had disappeared into the thick trees, and the babbling brook drowned out the sounds of her sister's voice.
A pile of logs sat near one side of the Hopps' house. The logs had been cut into smaller sections that were roughly two paws long. These short sections had been haphazardly stacked into a somewhat round pile that would have made a family of beavers proud.
The red-furred tod picked up one of the short logs and placed it on top of another log that was much wider and somewhat flat. He made sure the first log was standing perfectly straight on top of the second while he lifted an axe over his head. The axe handle was built for a bunny, and in the fox's paws, it felt more like a hatchet.
Down the axe head fell, hitting the standing log near its center with a loud thwack. The heavy iron head bit into the softer wood, causing it to split under the pressure. Half of the split log fell to the grass while the other half only wobbled but remained standing.
Raising the axe over his head again, the fox took another swing at the still standing half of a log. Making a critical error, the halflog failed to resist the blow from the falling axe and split neatly in two. Both halves fell to the ground where the fox lifted them easily and tossed them into a new pile.
Nick placed the defeated log's other half back on the chopping block and swung to split it, but the axe head got stuck halfway through the wood. Instead of pulling the axe loose, he lifted axe and wood together and brought them both down on top of the chopping block. This extra force drove the sharp end of the axe through and the wood split neatly into two pieces.
When Nick reached for another fresh log, a rabbit dressed in denim overalls and a blue plaid shirt also picked up his own log from the first pile. "So, Nick, how did the two of you meet?" Jack swung an identical axe to the one Nick held, but in the rabbit's paws it was much larger and he had to use both paws.
Unlike the larger fox, Jack had to swing the axe twice as hard and twice as often to split his logs. The country bunny was much more used to the constant physical labor, so he was able to easily keep up with the soft, city fox. His pile of split logs was actually larger than Nick's.
Jason and Jarred had left to find other chores once their rocks had been placed, forming large rings in a clear, open area a short distance from the house. Since Judy was nowhere to be found, Nick decided to hang out with her brother Jack, and that is how he found himself chopping firewood with the brown bunny.
"You mean Judy and I?" Nick asked while sizing up his next log.
"Yes, how exactly did you meet my sister?" The rabbit farmer didn't waste any time splitting his log into tiny bits while Nick seemed to be arranging his for that perfect swing. "From what I have heard it was on the very same day that she moved to the city."
"We met at an ice cream parlor," the fox declared, splitting his log exactly in two even pieces. Having spent half the day with his girlfriend's brother, Nick decided to be honest with this bunny. His easygoing attitude and open acceptance of the fox gave Nick the impression that he could trust this guy.
"Aww, how sweet," Jack chuckled, reaching for another log.
"No, it wasn't like a date or anything." Nick swung his axe and another log fell to the grass under his dreadful blow. "It was purely for business."
Placing a new log on his chopping block, Jack prepared for another two pawed swing. "What kind of business would you have in an ice cream parlor?"
"Well the proprietor was an elephant," the fox declared, trying to get half a log to stay standing before taking another swing, but the log kept falling over once he let go. "My business partner and I would buy Jumbo Pops from large mammal stores. We then would melt them down and resell them to smaller mammals."
Jack nearly fell over in the grass while laughing so hard that he had to drop the axe. "Wow, that is totally brilliant! Elephant-sized pawpsicles must be huge." His eyes widened trying to imagine the size of the frozen treat.
"Yes, they are quite large, and heavy too." Nick held his paws out as wide as they could reach. "Once melted down, a single Jumbo Pop could make enough pawpsicles for your entire family."
"I can certainly believe it." Jack nodded, tossing his split pieces onto the finished pile. "But where does my sister fit into this story?"
Placing a new log onto the chopping block, Nick arranged it so that it lay relatively flat and level. "What you have to understand is that my business partner is, or I should say was, a fennec fox." When Jack looked at him blankly he continued to explain, "A fennec is a small desert species with light-brown fur and large ears. If you don't look too closely, they could easily pass as a fox kit."
The rabbit swung his axe hard but the bit stuck in the wood and he had to place his hind paw against the log to pull it out again. "I think I know where this story is going."
"So, while I was trying to convince this rude elephant at the counter to let my son and I," Nick made air quotes at the word 'son', "buy a Jumbo Pop. Your sister, in her brand new police uniform, walked in. She saw how the elephant was treating us and she marched right up to that jerk and demanded that he let us buy the giant treat. She even insisted on paying for it herself."
"Yes, that sounds exactly like something my sister would do. She was never afraid to jump into danger to rescue a friend or even a stranger." After a few more swings, Jack was able to split his log in half. "Now that I think about it, pretty much all of Judy's friends were someone she has helped or rescued at some point in the past. I guess you could say that she collects rescued mammals."
Mid-swing, Nick's axe fell to the ground with a soft thud. "I guess you could say that she rescued me too. Well, we kind of rescued each other."
Turning to look at the fox who was picking his axe out of the grass, Jack nodded his approval. "If you did something to help Judy or somehow saved her, that must mean a great deal to her."
Another loud crack sounded across the open lawn and another log split in two. "I kind of saved her job. Now we work together and get to help other mammals every day."
"Knowing my sister, it sounds like she is very proud to have a friend like you," Jack declared, splitting another halflog with a single strike.
Autumn sunsets in the country were quite brilliant. In the big city, the sunset was often blocked by tall buildings or the surrounding mountains. Here in the flat plains that surrounded Bunny Burrow, the horizon was nearly level with the ground so sunsets lasted much longer.
In the fall, the sky stayed clear almost all day long, but as the sun neared the horizon and the air began to cool, puffy little clouds began to dot the sky. As night grew closer, the clouds also grew thicker so that when the sun finally dipped below the horizon, it lit the sky with bright pinks and oranges as the light reflected off the large banks.
Nick marveled at the light show in the sky while Stuart Hopps and his sons lit the three large bonfires. Stacks of chopped wood had been carefully placed in the center of the circles of small stones in such a way that they allowed air to flow under the logs and feed the center of the pile.
Judy had returned from her long hike through the woods and had spent the afternoon helping out in the kitchen. She now stood next to her fox and gave his paw a gentle squeeze as her father lit the first fire.
At first, there was only a tiny spark, but after a few seconds, Nick could make out a small glow. Once the tiny fire caught a taste of the dry wood, it grew rapidly until it had engulfed the entire pile. In a matter of minutes, the fire reached for the sky and spat tiny sparks at the retreating sun.
With the fires lit, Bonnie and a pawful of does brought out trays loaded down with raw vegetables and other goodies. One tray was filled with long metal pokers with which to cook the veggies on. Other trays contained chopped bell peppers, potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, diced squash, button mushrooms, broccoli and mini turnips. And lastly, Nick spotted tin foil wrapped corn cobs that had been cut in half to better fit in a rabbit's paws.
When Nick and Judy finally reached the food tables, the gray doe grabbed several pokey sticks and began to quickly load them up with the chopped vegetables. She would viciously stab the veggies through their centers and built her own custom mixed kabobs. To the fox, each stick seemed like a completely random mix, but the bunny swore that she had a system. Once a metal stick had a certain amount of veggies she would paw it to her boyfriend before starting on the next. On the last stick, she managed to force two whole corn cobs on the end before proudly carrying it to one of the large fires.
"Ok, Nick," the rabbit explained. "Now hold out the kabobs over each fire and let them brown. But don't try to cook more than two at once."
"I know how to make kabobs, Sweetheart," Nick replied.
Judy found a loose branch and propped up the stick where she had put the corn cobs. Her makeshift spit was quite effective until somebunny bumped into it, but the tin foil wrapper kept the corn from getting dirty when it fell into the fire.
While the fox and bunny were cooking their meals, several other rabbits sat around the fire sharing stories about the farm and the local area. There were stories about the harvest and a broken tractor. Another told about fixing the barn roof after a pretty serious spring storm. One of Judy's uncles even described how he and his sons had expanded the burrow after a cave-in had blocked off one of the bathrooms on the lower levels. It might have been Bryon's father since he kept talking about all the plumbing he had done recently.
Once their meals were well roasted, Nick and Judy sat against a long log that they shared with several other bunnies. Judy ate directly off the long stick, while Nick tried to pluck the steaming hot veggies with his claws. After dropping the second potato in the dirt, the fox decided to follow his girlfriend's example.
After the main meal had been finished and the marshmallows had been brought out, Stuart Hopps stood up from his private lawn chair and stepped in front of the fire. A hush broke over the crowd and a few bunnies even clapped as the rotund rabbit raised his paw.
Stuart coughed once to clear his throat before he began to speak, "This is a tale I once heard from my grandfather. I am sure that many of you here tonight have already heard it, but we have a few newcomers here tonight, and I feel that it's only fair that they get a chance to hear the tale and the warning of Blueridge Meadows." His ominous tone seemed to echo around the pitch black fields beside the big house.
Excited whispers flowed through the crowd of bunnies that sat around the fire followed by several clapping paws. Even Judy bounced on her paws and clapped when her father announced the name of his tale. "This is going to be good," she said and cuddled against her fox.
Again, Stuart held up his paws and the hush was palpable. "It all started near the end of the great war with a young rabbit named Tilly McRoon whose one true love had gone off to fight in the war. The buck's name was Eric Loppson and he wanted to be a fighter pilot." The fire seemed to dim slightly as the large buck began his tale.
"When Eric left with his troop, he gave Tilly his father's watch and a promise to marry when he returned. Like a dutiful doe, Tilly waited day after day for her love to return. The days drove into weeks and the weeks into months and still she had not heard a word from her love. Other does received cards and letters from their sons and boyfriends but not a single word ever arrived from Tilly's buck."
Leaning back against the long log, Nick watched Judy's fascination with her father's every word. Her ears were turned fully forward and her nose twitched excitedly. With his arm around the rabbit, he could even feel that her paw thumped on the ground in anticipation.
"Finally, after many months of waiting, the other bucks returned to Bunny Burrow on leave. But Eric had not returned with his troop. Tilly was fraught with worry. She asked every soldier where he was but every one of them only shrugged and walked away. She was so distraught that her parents finally had to order her to stay away from those soldier boys. They thought it was the soldiers that were causing her such distress, not her missing love. One night she stole out of her burrow and tracked down the captain in charge of Eric's squadron."
Judy's paw had stopped thumping in the dirt and she leaned back into Nick's lap. The fox wrapped his long arms around his bunny and held her close.
"She found the captain drinking with his buddies in the old Buckhorn Saloon, which was on the very edge of town back in those days. When she asked about what happened to Eric, the captain explained that his plane had been hit and gone down behind enemy territory, but he was certain that he saw a chute before the plane crashed. This captain had been drinking all night and didn't know what he was doing when he grabbed young Tilly. In a drunken slur, he told her that if she needed someone to keep her bed warm that he was available."
The gray bunny sitting in the fox's lap covered her muzzle with her paws as did a large number of her siblings.
Taking a sip of soda, Stu wet his throat before continuing the story, "Tilly promptly slapped the captain across his muzzle causing him to fall from his barstool. She ran from the bar and into the night. So distraught at the news that her love had died or was captured she did not know where she was going. Eventually, she found herself lost in the woods with no idea how to get home. The autumn clouds covered the sky and she could not see where the moon was."
Leaning back, Judy kissed her fox under the chin before turning her focus back to the story.
"Hours passed while Tilly wandered lost until she saw a dim light in front of her. She called out thinking that it might have been a truck or someone with a flashlight, but there was no answer. Her paws were tired and her dress had been torn by sticks and brambles so she slowly strolled through the brush towards the light. As she walked towards the light, it seemed to recede deeper into the forest. Try as she might, she could not seem to get closer to the light in the forest."
Somebunny passed Nick a gooey marshmallow that had been smashed between a pair of graham crackers with a chunk of chocolate in between. He broke the sugary sandwich in half and offered it to his girlfriend, who nearly bit his fingers when she snatched up the sweet treat.
"Tilly chased that light for what seemed like hours before she started to hear a noise. At first, she did not know what the noise was but as it drew nearer she began to recognize it. The sound was from an older model Cessna airplane. More specifically it was the exact sound that Eric's plane made. She was certain that he had managed to escape and somehow returned to find her. Now she understood that the light was guiding her to him. She pulled up the remains of her skirt and raced towards the light. Knowing that it was her true love in the distance she was able to catch up to the light. Bursting through the trees she saw ..."
At that very moment, the fire popped and crackled, spitting sparks into the air. The perfect timing of the noise caused every bunny to jump in their seats, including Judy. She bumped into her fox's chin, causing him to bite his tongue with a yelp.
"Oh, I'm so sorry, Nick." She petted his muzzle and gave his black nose a soft kiss to ease the pain.
Stuart on the other paw turned to the fire and waved his paw. "Shush," he scolded the flames like they were some kind of unruly kit. "I am telling this story, you can just wait your turn." He turned back to the avid crowd and asked, "Now where was I?"
"Tilly had just entered the meadow," somebunny cried from the back of the crowd.
"Oh, right," Stu said as he took another sip of soda. His voice lowered, and he hunched down slightly as he continued the story, "Now when Tilly entered the clearing, she saw that the light was no longer in front of her but above, and it was coming straight at her very fast. The plane crashed into the ground right where the poor girl was standing. Its propeller cut her to shreds in seconds. Later they said that all they ever found of her was bits of her torn dress and the old watch which had stopped at the stroke of midnight. Now, even decades after the accident many strange things have happened around the Blueridge Meadows. Lights can be seen in the forest at night and kits have gone missing, even preds avoid the place. My grandfather swore that he even saw poor Tilly's ghost one night wandering through the tall blades of grass still searching for her lost love."
A pair of black-furred paws clapped as every other bunny shivered at the story's haunting conclusion. "Very nice tale, Stu," Nick cheered the plump rabbit dryly.
"Thanks, Nick," Stu replied. "Maybe you could tell one?"
Nick shook his head, "I don't know any good ghost stories. I mean there is a haunted hospital in the city and the thirteenth floor of the Concord Hotel downtown. But I do have one story that everyone here seems to be dying to hear. I guess it is to be expected, but every time I turn around someone is asking me what it is like working with a certain bunny cop."
The rabbit sitting in the fox's lap turned around and popped him on the shoulder for his last comment.
"Well, Judy is a great police partner to work with. She is always so peppy, even in the morning. I think this bunny really enjoys her job. As a detective, she is excellent at finding clues and putting seemingly random bits of information together to make a whole picture. And she is of course the best ticket writer I have ever seen." Nick earned himself another punch in the shoulder. He was going to have to start wearing tuskball pads before long.
"Ah, there is one story that I think everyone will like. You all like police chases in the movies right?" All the bunnies nodded. "Well here is a real life chase story that I can tell you."
"No, Nick," Judy cried, trying to grab his muzzle with both paws. "We can't talk about any ongoing cases."
"But, it's not ongoing. We closed that almost as soon as they crashed into that semi," the fox explained.
"Now you gave away the ending," a bunny behind Nick groaned.
"But that's not even the best part," Nick said with his paws in the air. "Now if only my partner will let me tell this story." He looked into her eyes asking for permission.
Judy folded her paws across her chest and sat down on the log a few paws away but still within arms reach of her fox. "Alright, I guess you can tell the story since everyone here wants to hear it anyway."
With permission in paw, Nick sat up straight and started the story. "So one early morning, before we had clocked in for the start of our shift, we had barely stepped out of Judy's favorite coffee shop."
"It was actually your favorite shop, Slick."
"Ok, Carrots, are you going to let me tell this story?"
The rabbit nodded and Nick continued, "With our fresh coffee in paw, an ice cream truck whizzed past, completely ignoring traffic laws and street lights. So Judy drops her coffee and leaps over the hood of our car to give chase, yelling at me to get my tail in gear the whole way."
"I didn't drop my coffee," Judy cried. "I kept it with me the entire time."
"Right, ok, but you were so darn gung-ho that morning." The fox turned to look back at the fire and held out his paws like he was directing the flames. "So we gave chase to the colorful truck expecting this to be nothing more than a simple speeding ticket, but when the dispatcher called over the radio..."
"Clawhauser," Judy corrected.
"I was trying to keep his actual name out of the story, Fluff," Nick explained, and Judy stuck her tongue out at him.
"You two are so cute together," a nearby bunny said, giggling.
Nick turned to Judy and asked, "Can he do that?"
"Of course, he is a rabbit after all. He doesn't need permission to use the 'C' word."
"I see," Nick said with a nod. He rolled his eyes before continuing, "Our dispatcher called and said that a nearby bank had been robbed and that the crooks had escaped in an ice cream van. It was the very same van that we were chasing. When my partner heard this, she put the pedal to the metal and raced after them, but by then we were already on the freeway."
The fox put his arm around his bunny and pulled her closer and she did not protest. She unfolded her paws and leaned her head against the fox.
"After a few blocks, our backup arrived and we began closing onto the getaway van. But as we got close, two of the perps climbed out the side windows wielding automatic weapons. It was then that we noticed they were dressed up as circus clowns. The clown hanging out the rear window opened fire on us, causing Judy to swerve out of the way of the flying bullets. The other clown started shooting random drivers and our backup had to deal with the casualties, leaving us to follow the van."
"Cheese and crackers, Judy!" Bonnie cried from her own lawn chair. "They were actually shooting at you, with real bullets?"
"The car is bulletproof, Mom," Judy tried to explain. "I was perfectly safe."
"Oh, w-well I g-guess it's ok t-then," the matronly rabbit stuttered, but her paws still shook in fright. "You just be careful out there, ok. And Nick, you make sure to keep my baby safe, do you hear me."
"Yes, ma'am. That is my job as her partner," Nick defended. He squeezed the rabbit tighter in his arms until she eeped.
"Back to the chase," Nick declared, looking deeply at the waning fire. "The perp hanging out the back of the truck was firing his gun wildly until it overheated and jammed. That's when Judy made her move. She hit the gas pedal hard and rammed the rear of the ice cream truck. This caused the bank robber to lose his balance, dropping the gun. He also disappeared back inside the truck. A few seconds later he returned to the window with a large tub of strawberry ice cream."
"No," several bunnies cried with a loud gasp.
"Yes," the fox explained in a higher pitched voice. "So the perp opened the tub and threw it at our car. But even with lightning bunny reflexes, Judy was unable to dodge out of the way. The tub bounced off of our hood and splashed its contents all over our windshield. Our black and white car was now suddenly pink, and we could not see a thing in front of us."
"Is that how they make unmarked police cars?" some young buck asked, and several other bunnies laughed.
Ignoring the snide comment, Nick continued, "If it was me behind the wheel, I would have slammed on the breaks, but not my partner. She quickly pulled back on the window wiper lever causing it to spray soap all over the sticky mess that covered our car. It only took a few seconds to clear the windows and we could see again."
Nick looked down at the rabbit resting against his chest and squeezed her paw. "Now, earlier, I had called ahead and asked for a roadblock to be set up right after highway four makes this long bend. At the rate we were traveling, the perps would have never seen it coming until they passed the last exit. I thought we had them trapped, but they somehow anticipated my plan and ended up making a very dumb move. They caused a semi-truck to spin out of control. I think they were trying to throw off our pursuit, but the truck flipped over and ran into a cement wall where it dumped airplane fuel all over the freeway. One little spark later and the entire tanker exploded. If it wasn't for Judy's quick thinking and expert driving, they might have gotten away. She might be overly enthusiastic behind the wheel, but she is the best partner a fox could ask for."
The fox rubbed his rabbit's ears. "Judy is the smartest, bravest, most helpful bunny cop that I know, and that is why I love her." Nick leaned down to give the rabbit a kiss on top of her head but he suddenly received a sharp punch to the nose.
Judy could not take it anymore. Her emotions had been building since they arrived in Bunny Burrow. Those sexy jeans, that deep kiss while upside down in a carnival ride, the dance, and now the sweet compliments he was saying in front of her whole family were too much for her to take. The desire for this fox had built to an overwhelming crescendo, and she could only respond to its urgent demands.
Before she could hold back the deep blue tide that was her emotions, the gray bunny was planting her fists into the fox. Again and again, she struck at him. How dare he look so hot and sexy. He had driven her crazy for three days and now all of this was his fault. She was going to show him exactly how much she loved and needed him right now, and to cabbages, if everyone saw them. It was far too late to go back now.
Small gray fists flew at the fox in a blinding furry. Most had missed his muzzle and pounded at his chest and shoulders while fiery tears streamed down the rabbit's cheeks. A desperate scream also escaped from her lips as she flailed at her boyfriend.
As the first punch struck his nose, Nick fell back against the log stunned, but he quickly recovered. Judy was prone to randomly picking fights with him and he assumed this was no different.
But there was something different about her sudden barrage. There was no strategy to her strikes, and she was swinging wildly at him, with no care to where her punches landed. Were her eyes actually closed?
Usually, by now, Judy would turn and run, expecting the fox to follow, but her punches kept flying and they were actually starting to hurt. With a soft snarl, he reached out his paws and grabbed her fists. "Stop it, Judy!" But she continued to keep swinging even though he held her paws tightly with his own.
Nick jerked his head back in surprise at the expression on the rabbit's muzzle. She had an evil smile across her lips that should have terrified him. The hunger in her eyes had increased tenfold and her nose quivered in a way that he had never seen before.
Seeing that she was caught firmly in the fox's paws, she finally stopped trying to frantically punch him. She looked into his eyes and gave him a very unbunny-like snarl, "Rarrh." Leaning towards him, she very sloppily licked his long black nose.
Pulling away from her tiny, pink and very wet tongue he turned his head to avoid the gnashing teeth that followed. Too late he realized that in pulling back he had loosened the hold on her paws and she quickly broke free.
Paws now free from her fox, Judy skipped towards the house humming some unknown tune. Before she stepped out of the circle of light that surrounded the fire, she turned around and seductively winked back at him.
"Wha-what was that?" Nick stuttered, falling back against the log in confusion.
"Go on, fox," Sharleen said from somewhere behind him.
"What?" the fox asked again.
Sharleen pushed Nick from behind. "Go on, chase after the bunny. She wants you to follow her."
"Oh, uh, ok." Nick climbed to his paws and cautiously followed after the escaping Judy. When he saw her climb up the porch in the distance, he looked back to make sure none of the rabbits around the fire were brandishing any torches or pitchforks.
Once the fox left the circle of light, Uncle Frank asked, "What the heck just happened?"
"Isn't it obvious, Frank?" Sharleen plopped her tail down on the log where Nick had been sitting. "She just declared him as her chosen mate in front of the entire family. You should know what that means."
"I know what it means, Sharleen," Frank declared as he also stepped into the firelight. "But she did it with that, that, that fox." He almost spat the word fox into the dirt.
"So what, Frank?" the skinny rabbit said with her paws crossed. "They are obviously in love." She shook her head. "You are so stuck in the past, brother."
Another rabbit entered the firelight and waved his paws at the porch where the fox was now sniffing the air as he entered the front door to the house. "Are you actually going to let this happen, Stu?"
"You now have a fox chasing your daughter through your burrow, Stu!" A female voice exclaimed.
"I don't even want to think about what happens if he catches her."
"What about it?" Sharleen demanded. "What do you think is going to happen?"
The other rabbits all looked at Stu with blank expressions on their muzzles.
"He is not going to eat her, you idiots!" she yelled at them. "He loves her too much to do that."
"You have to stop this, Stuart," Frank demanded. He then turned to Bonnie. "Are you really going to let them, ah, you know? Under your own roof?"
"No! I am not going to stop those kits," Stu declared, putting his paw down in the dirt so hard that part of the fire collapsed in on itself causing more sparks to fly. "Whatever happens, happens. Better here than in some sleazy motel in the big city."
Bonnie finally stood up and joined the discussion. "I think Judy has earned the right to love this mammal in the way of her own choosing and in her own time." All of the rabbits looked at her in stunned silence.
"Not you too, sis?" Frank asked, frustrated.
"We hardly supported her in her career. As much as it pains me to say, I think we should support her in this choice. And I think Stu agrees with me."
Stuart Hopps, nodded at his wife. "This is their last night in town. Something was bound to happen between them sooner or later. I say better here and now where her family is here in case something bad happens. I know everyone worries that something will happen to Judy while she is living in the big city surrounded by all those predators."
Now all the rabbits nodded in agreement.
"I just hope he treats her well," said Sharleen.
Judy was nowhere to be seen, but her scent was strong. It filled the air in the rabbit burrow, permeating every nook and cranny. Other rabbits had been here recently, leaving their scent on everything they touched, but Judy's was the strongest.
The smell of tulips and dry grass mixed with earthy herbs led the fox through the passages and corridors. Without her scent, he would have been completely lost in this maze of dark tunnels.
On the top of a set of stairs, Nick found one of Judy's paw straps that had been carelessly dropped when she passed. He found its mate on the bottom step, and collected both, sure that she would want them back once he found her.
Unlike the main house, the lower levels of the burrow that were built beneath the hill had little wood paneling. Many of the walls in the long halls and corridors were bare dirt that had been smoothed and packed with mud. After the mud had dried, somebunny came along later and applied a chalky paint to the walls.
Few lamps lined the halls and Nick had to be guided by his nose more than his eyes. The ceiling was also quite low, so he had to crouch slightly, while exploring the area.
Around the next corner, her scent changed. It had grown stronger. This was not a sign that she was near but something about her had changed. The rabbit's scent was now spicier, or more like a freshly picked rose. Whichever words he chose to describe it, her scent was somehow different than it had been earlier today.
At the end of another hall, he found a pink plaid shirt laying halfway around a corner. Judy's strong, flowery scent was all over it. He picked up the crumpled garment and wrapped it around the paw straps he had found earlier on the stairs.
Following her scent through more twisted corridors, he came to another set of stairs that turned a corner after the first landing. Hanging on the end of the balustrade at the top of the second flight, were a pair of well-worn jeans, sized perfectly to fit a female bunny.
Judy's scent coming from the shed pants was nearly overwhelming, and the fox had to hold back a sneeze.
Where was she going, and what was she doing? Was it hot down in the burrow's lower levels? Is that why she was dropping her clothes all over the place? All of these questions and more raced through his mind as he followed the rabbit's scent deeper into the burrow. He would have to wait till he found her before he could get any answers.
At the bottom of the second set of stairs, was a medium-sized room with comfortable chairs. An unlit fireplace sat in one corner while a ceiling-high bookcase occupied the opposite corner. Judy's scent covered one of the soft chairs before it led down one of the passages that left the quaint sitting room.
Entering a long hall full of doors, he nearly tripped over a discarded white bra. It definitely belonged to Judy and was still warm to the touch when he picked it up. He put it with the rest of her clothes that he hoped to return to his bunny wherever she was hiding.
Her scent filled the hallway, and this new, spicy, flowery aspect dominated and overpowered the others. Walking down the hallway with his nose in the air, he felt like he was breathing pure, unadulterated Judy. "Clean and clear, pure, bottled Judy," he chuckled to himself.
Even though the hall felt extremely claustrophobic and the air was stifling, Judy's strong scent brought a warm, pleasant smile to the fox's lips. He was glad that she had chosen to move in with him this summer and always enjoyed when she cuddled next to him. Waking up in the morning with a warm bunny snuggled next to him almost felt better than a hot cup of coffee.
About halfway down the hall, a small piece of orange cloth with a carrot printed on one side lay on the floor in front of a door with blooming daisies carved into the door. When he lifted the cloth, it was quite damp and the strength of the rabbit's scent made him dizzy. He put the underwear with his growing collection and turned towards the door.
The door was slightly ajar and his nose shouted to him that she was beyond it. He pushed on the door with his paw and carefully stepped inside. "Judy?" he called slowly, closing the door behind him.
When he saw what waited for him inside, he dropped all of the clothes that he had collected while following the rabbit's trail through the burrow. The lights were off and the room was almost entirely dark, but a dim, pale light shone on the bed where a completely naked bunny waited for him. She was laying on her belly with her tail raised in the air and wagging seductively in his direction.
She turned to look over her shoulder as he entered the room and said something about a big boy, but the fox's ears did not seem to work at the moment. This rabbit seemed to be expecting him to do something, but his mind had shut down, and he was starting to feel dizzy.
Outside the room, her scent had nearly made him swoon, but now it completely enveloped his being. If he was a rabbit buck he would have been unable to resist the doe's alluring pheromones and sexy pose, but as a fox, he was left utterly confused.
His paw wanted to reach for her soft, sexy tail like he had done dozens of times before, but the sight of her bare, exposed neck made him start to drool. He wanted to take her in his strong arms and nip and bite her neck and shoulders. But the picture of sinking his sharp fangs into her soft flesh made him feel sick. She was beautiful and terrifying all at the same time. His love and desire for this bunny were being overwhelmed by a more feral urge. The room began to spin and he could not hear the rabbit begging for him to join her.
Suddenly he was no longer in Judy's bedroom, but in a giant cage in a dark warehouse. A one-eyed ram loomed over him laughing maniacally as he pulled the trigger on his gun. Nick felt the pellet strike his neck, and once again he was going savage. He watched as his teeth sank into the bare neck of his beloved rabbit and blood rushed everywhere.
A soft paw touched his chest as someone was lifting his shirt over his head. He looked down as the rabbit he loved was unbuttoning his pants, but her pretty gray fur was covered in pools of blood.
The room was spinning too fast, like the controls on the carousel had broken. The tinny music would not stop playing and his head was pounding violently. He needed to get some fresh air before he threw up.
Without a single word, Nick bolted from the room and raced down the empty hallway. Within seconds he was lost. The world still jerked and spun violently, and he was unable to remember which way to the exit. Everything around him still smelled strongly of overly excited bunny, and he had to get away from here before he lost control.
He stumbled across a set of stairs and began to climb them. The way out was up, even with his brain short-circuiting, he still knew that up was out.
After climbing a second set of stairs, he began to smell the scent of fresh autumn air and he raced towards the smell. His panic was slowly subsiding, but he still felt sick to his stomach and so he kept following the clean air.
It only took the fox a few seconds to race through the twisting and winding passages that made up the Hopps family burrow but it felt like hours. When he finally broke free of the house that was filled with the scent of rabbits, he was on some balcony near the rear of the building. He must have climbed one too many flights of stairs.
When he was able to take a breath of fresh air, he realized that his shirt was missing and his pants were starting to fall down. The only thing holding them up was his tail. Buttoning them back up, he took another deep breath of cool, night air and tried to stop his head from spinning.
While Nick was trying to regain his senses by breathing the fresh air on the rear balcony, he never once heard the screams of anguish and frustration that echoed through the burrow behind him.
(A/N) This is the end of their trip to Bunny Burrow so we will have to wait three weeks to find out what happens with the fox and bunny get back to the city. Hint: things get a little spicy from here so look forward to alot of fluff.
Thank you for all the comments on the previous chapter. I am so glad everyone enjoyed the early update. I have a long back log of rough drafts written now so I am going to reduce the uploads to three weeks as long as I can get the chapters beta read and edited in time.
I wonder if anyone can spot all of the TV references in this chapter. I have added quite a few of them and not entirely deliberately either.
Stu's tail was loosely based off of a horrific plane crash ghost story I heard about when camping in my youth, so I thought I would bunify it for the Hopps family cookout. I am not great and writing horror so I would love to hear what you think of my first attempt. :)