Chapter 5
I look down at her. She looks beaten and tired, like she'd love to curl up in bed and go to sleep for a week. I sigh; while I would love to have answers, I'm not sure running her through the emotional wringer will do her any good. "You don't have to tell me anything."
She looks up at me. "No, I need to talk about this." She looks over her shoulder and adds, "Just not here."
"We passed by a Snarlbucks; I know I could use a cup of coffee," I tell her as she nods.
As we walk down the sidewalk toward the coffee shop, I realize just how poor the rabbit beside me is. She's wearing old University of Zootopia sweatpants and a rather thread bare Zootopia Police Academy t-shirt. As I think back on it, I'm not even sure she'd gotten her wallet out of the house let alone anything else. While I'm sure she has money in the bank she more than likely has no ID so no way to access it, and it will take weeks if not months for the city bureaucracy to get her an ID. My ears splay back a little bit as it hits me: this rabbit is poorer than me.
Granted she could go to her godmother and ask for help, but she doesn't seem the kind to ask. I had to insist that she stay with me to accept my help. Cotton at least still has her clothes and possessions, but Judy? I glance down at her; her ears are down her back and she's looking more toward the sidewalk then straight ahead.
I hold the Snarlbucks door open for her and ask, "What would you like to drink?"
"I'm good…" she starts.
"I bet you'd like a caralatte," I say as I walk over to the barista.
"Nick, you…" she starts as she walks after me.
I smile at the barista and read off of the name tag on the female coyote's shirt. "Good morning Candice. I would like one blueberry triple shot latte and one caralatte; easy on the espresso, since it's for a rabbit."
Candice smiles at me as she eyes Judy, I'm not sure how it looks at the moment but judging by the look on her face it couldn't be the best picture presented. "Certainly, and what is your name?" she asks.
"Nick," I answer.
"That will be $8.93," she says, and I paw over a 10 out of my wallet. I look briefly at the little bit of cash in it. "Keep the change," I say as I walk over to the waiting area.
Judy looks up at me rather sternly for a split second and then her face softens. "I'm going to go find us seats," she tells me."
I nod as I wait, watching out of the corner of my eye to see where she goes as the whir and hiss of grinding beans and steaming milk emits from behind the counter.
"Here's your order, sir,." the barista says, handing them to me. She's rather careful about handing me the caralatte, but I don't think much of it.
I walk across the shop to the window seat that Judy had chosen. "Here ya go Fluff," I say to her as I hand over her caralatte.
"Thanks," she says as she holds the cup in both paws and takes a sip.
"He got out," Judy says quietly.
"Who got out of where?" I ask, trying hard not to draw conclusions.
She sighed and looked down at the table top before looking back up at me and away. It's odd; as long as I have known Judy she hasn't been easily embarrassed.
"Craig Furgonson escaped prison two weeks ago and his fur was found by CSI at…" she glanced around and leaned forward to whisper to me, "that place in the forest."
I nod understandingly and lean forward to whisper to her, "What about the rest of him?"
She shook her head. "His body wasn't there."
I lean back and take a sip of my coffee. It's almost too sweet, honestly. I don't get these often; they're too expensive for what you get at just over $4 a cup. I look at the rabbit across from me as I process the information she's provided.
"Nick," she pauses and looks from the window to me. "He wasn't supposed to get out for at least another twenty years."
"What did he do?" I ask, raising an eyebrow.
"Securities fraud and money laundering." She sighs. "He stole savings from elderly mammals by having them invest in bogus mutual funds."
"Oh…" I look out the window. How would a con artist of an investment banker manage to get roped into a summoning spell for which he'd started to collect the mammals even before he'd escaped prison? "How did you meet a guy like that?"
She looks up and shakes her head. I wonder if maybe I've overstepped the bounds of our fledgling friendship, but she looks out the window and eventually answers. "He is, or was, charming. I had just completed a difficult semester at U of Z and against my better judgment went to a party with friends." She looks at me and continues. "One thing led to another and 54 days later Cotton was born." She sighs. "He was arrested three days after Cotton was born. He hasn't seen her since."
I nod; there's nothing I can say to that. Who am I to judge this rabbit? She needs my help not my mockery. "She's a very perceptive kid. She wasn't even afraid of me this morning."
Judy smiles at me. "She likes you."
I smile at that as I look out the window. My mind is churning with the question of the banker, if he was a banker at all. I look across the table at Judy. "We need more information."
She nods at me. "What was he doing there?"
"That's the question isn't it?"
"Do you think he had anything to do with the thing this morning?" she asks me. "How do you suppose we get more information? I don't think the ZPD has any traffic cameras set up in the forest."
"Maybe," I answer. "I have something in mind, but it might be a wild fairy hunt."
"Fairies?" she asks, and I smile at her implied skepticism Oh little bun you have so much to learn; the world is much larger than you know. "But first I think we need to get you something to wear that doesn't make you look like a homeless bunny."
An hour and half a minor argument, and no minor amount of ribbing later, we are standing outside of a pizzeria near one of the largest parks in the district. Somehow Judy had found the only store in all of Zootopia that would sell what can only be described as country bunkin wear;and trust me, I let her know about it. But I'm also secretly grateful, as I footed the bill for her even before she promised to pay me back. My father told me to never lend money, just give it and be surprised when they actually pay you back. Besides, Karma told me to be nicer to the bunny so I think she has my back on this.
"Nick!" Judy exclaims at me. "We need answers not lunch."
I just smirk at her. "But Carrots, this isn't lunch," I say solemnly.
"It's not?" she asks. "Then what is it?"
I grin down at her. "We need bait."
She goes quiet as the pizzeria opens and I pull the door open for her. We step inside and walk over to the counter. There is a kangaroo behind the counter wearing an already sauce smeared apron.
"What can I do ya for?" the Kangaroo asks; his accent was thick, making it a little hard to understand him.
"One slice of anything you have with the most toppings," I answer. "And lots of cheese," I add.
The kangaroo looks between us and shrugs. "Ok, one garbage pail coming up," he says before turning and walking away from us. His large feet slapped noisily on the tile. "That will be $4.50," said he says a few minutes later, coming back with a triangular box.
I pull out my wallet and paw over a five dollar bill. "Keep the change," I say; typically I would give a larger tip, but after bankrolling Carrots' new wardrobe and some food appropriate for her and Cotton, my wallet is lighter than I'd like it to be.
We walk out of the shop after grabbing a plastic bag with a fork and knife in it and head down the street once again. We're just a few buildings down from my parking garage. The box is warm in my paws and smells delicious.
"Where to now?" Judy asks.
"We need to go back out to the forest," I answer her. "Do you think the police are still out there?"
Judy shakes her head. "No, they should be done by now." Her brow furrows before she asks, "Why do we need to go back out there?"
"We're going to be asking questions about what happened at a specific area; it's best to be in the area that you're asking about," I answer as we enter the garage.
She nods and holds out her paw as we near the car. "I drive," she insists.
I smirk at her, dig in my pocket for the car keys, and paw them over. "Not even dating and already demanding, sheesh." I snark at her as she unlocks the driver side door.
She grins over at me. "You drive like my grandmother and I'd like to get there before we have to pick Cotton up from daycare."
I pause to process the word "we", then shake my head as she reaches over and unlocks the passenger side door.
The drive out to the forest is fairly quiet and the spot is really easy for us to find, as the shoulder of the road is torn up and there is a very clear cut path leading deeper into the forest to the right side of the car. I have to admit, getting chauffeured around by her is something that I could get used to, but I'm not sure my car could handle the extra miles.
"Would you open the frunk please?" I ask as she parks the car alongside the road. She nods as she gets out of the car and fumbles with the keys.
I place the pizza box in the passenger seat and join her at the front of the car as she opens the frunk. I rummage through the spare supplies I keep in there and hand her a table and chair from a kit's dollhouse, as well as a plate, thimble, and a small squeeze jar of honey.
She smirks at me, but I can see the curious look in her eyes as I shut the frunk and get the pizza box out of the passenger seat. She walks beside me as we walk along the now well worn path into the forest. The ZPD had cut back the underbrush, making a very clear path to where we are heading.
"So why the dollhouse stuff?" she asks.
"Fairies are fickle and suspicious creatures, but if you play up to their egos and bait your snare right they're fairly easy to trap," I answer.
"So we trap a fairy and shake them down for information?" she asks.
"Yes and no," I answer. "I only know the name of one fairy, and there's a high probability that he doesn't know anything."
"Then why trap him?" she asks.
"Just because he doesn't know anything doesn't mean he can't ask on our behalf," I answer. "So we make a deal."
She nods understandingly. "Kinda like having a confidential informant," she states.
I smile down at her, but my smile melts off of my face as we come through the forest to the clearing. The clearing is now bare, with 92 holes in it of varying sizes. There is a mound of dirt off to one side where they'd piled it all. My mind superimposed the rot that I'd seen before; it takes me a moment to clear my head enough to focus once again on what we'd come here for.
"You ok Slick?" Judy asks, pulling me from my thoughts.
"Yeah," I answer hesitantly. "I'm good." I kneel down near where her godfather had once been buried and take the table and chair from her.
"You sure?" she asks.
"Yeah I'm fine," I answer. I mean, how do you explain that what you'd seen in that field sticks with you worse than PTSD? "Can you find me a stick?" I ask.
"Ok," she answers, and moves off as I finish setting up the table. I place the plate and thimble onto the table and fill the thimble full of honey. I use the plastic cutlery from the pizzeria and cut off a portion that would fill the plate.
Using the forefinger claw of my right paw, I prick a finger of the left paw just enough to draw blood and dabble the underside of the pizza crust with it. This is necessary to bind the fairy to my will; this way if need be I can use the stick if the carrot isn't effective. But with a carrot this tasty I've never had to use the stick. It also helps that I have a fairly decent working relationship with this fairy, but the formalities have to be observed.
"Here," Judy says as she comes back, pawing me a surprisingly straight stick just as I was finishing setting the table. She looks at the table somewhat in disbelief. "You sure this is going to work?" she asks as I draw a large circle around the table.
"No," I answer truthfully. "But we have nothing else to lose."
Judy is quiet as I prick my finger again and touch a drop of blood to the circle with a little bit of my will. The sudden snap hiss of the circle energizing sounds oddly like a light saber with a flash of blue light.
"Wow…" Judy says, and I grin a bit at her awe as I use leaves and bits of grass to camouflage the circle. She looks to me as I back away and sit down under a nearby tree. "Now what?"
"Now I call him out," I answer as I start to mumble just a bit of quasi Latin once again. "Come here Toot-Toot," I call to the wind, putting a bit of power behind it.
Judy sits down beside me as we wait. "You sure that worked?" she asks.
I nod. "He'll come; I used his true name so he has to come. Just have a bit of patience."
A few minutes later a silvery ball of luminescence flies in to land directly in the circle. Toot-Toot, and no that is not his true name, stands a little over two inches tall, which makes him the shortest elephant in existence. He is dressed in what I can only describe as the summer collection of refuse. He wears a vest made from the discarded wrapper of a candy bar with slits in the back for his dragonfly like wings and what looks to be a kilt made from a plastic shopping bag. The fey are malleable and their appearance may change on a whim, but he's been an elephant for as long as I've known him.
He circled the table looking for a trap, not knowing or maybe knowing and not caring that he'd already stepped into it. Within moments the honey is downed and the pizza disappears down his throat as well. As soon as he ingests my blood the circle pops into life, trapping him in place.
"Come out you coward so I can bite your face off!" Toot-Toot yells, far more gruffly and deeply than his small stature would have implied that he could. "Unless you free me I shall make all your fur fall out and your nose go blind!"
"Now Toot-Toot, that's now way to talk to a friend," I say kindly.
"Friend?" Toot-Toot asks, "Buddy, if this is how you treat your friends I would hate to see how you treat your lovers!"
Judy giggles at that. Which only draws his ire toward her. "What do you think you're laughing at, Cottontail? I shall have you know you're in the presence of greatness; you should cower before the awe inspiring presence of the mighty and dreadful Toot-Toot!"
I roll my eyes. "Toot, the only thing mighty and dreadful at the moment is your breath after you consumed that pizza. Now if you'd like more pizza, well, maybe we can work out a deal."
"More pizza?!" Toot-Toot exclaims excitedly, then he eyes me suspiciously. "What do I have to do to get it?"
I shrug nonchalantly. "We just need to know what happened here."
"Gah you are such a dumb ass; someone dug a lot of holes, now give me my pizza!" His wings flutter and he bounces off the edge of the empowered circle, landing on his backside. His eyes glare up at me.
"I know someone dug a lot of holes. The ZPD recently dug these, but that's not what we want to know. A rabbit was here: brown fur, brown eyes, just a little taller than Judy here," I told him. "We need to know what happened to him."
"I dunno nuthin about no rabbits." Toot-Toot said.
"I will make you a trade: find out what happened to the rabbit and I will give you the rest of the slice of pizza," I say.
"Two slices," Toot-Toot counters.
I eye the diminutive elephant. "Get me the information in two hours and if the information pans out I'll have a pizza delivered out here." That gets the fairy's attention as he glances between me and Judy.
"Fine deal!" Toot-Toot exclaims. "Now lemme out!"
I wave my paw and Toot-Toot shoots off into the forest like a rocket.
"Wow…" Judy starts. "That wasn't quite what I expected."
I sit back down under the tree to wait, crossing my legs as I stretch out with my paws behind my head. "What did you expect?" I ask. "Little glowing bunnies in green summer dresses?"
She rolls her eyes at me. "Maybe I guess." She sighs. "You don't mean to sit here and wait do you?"
"Have to; if I don't he'll come back here, blurt out the information, and still expect his reward," I explain. "Have to stay awake too, otherwise he'll just tell it to me while I'm asleep."
"What if he lies?" Judy asks.
"He can't."
"But…"
"Listen, it's against their very nature. They can't lie; they are incapable of it. They have very, very strict rules in which they may operate in the world, and lying is the biggest one," I explain as she sits down beside me again.
She sits quietly and looks up at the sky, which I suppose is better than looking at a field that was once a bunch of shallow graves. "Why pizza?"
I smile. "Depends on the fairy, but to the wee folk, the lesser of the fey, it's like nip. They love the stuff; the more toppings the better, as it's a richer experience for them."
"So we're trading drugs for information?" she asks, I can hear the uncertainty in her voice.
"Do they get high from it?" I ask. "No, no they don't. Do they crave it the same way? Yes, yes they do."
"Well I guess that's not so bad," Judy admits. "Can I ask you a question?"
"Sure." I have a feeling that I'm going to regret this.
"When did you first do magic?" she asks.
I stare up at the sky as moments tick past, unsure how to answer. She can probably feel my anxiety ramp up. "You know what, it…." she starts
"It's ok," I say, interrupting her." I'm sure you telling me about Craig wasn't enjoyable." I turn my head and look over at her. "It was the worst best day of my life."
I sigh as I look up at the clouds. "First you have to understand something Fluff. My dad would never win a father of the year award. But he was all I had."
I smile. "We traveled constantly. He was a traveling magician; he taught me sleight of paw and card tricks and all sorts of things a naive kit thought was cool, and there was an ever revolving door of females."
"We came to Zootopia maybe once a year to do a tour of the districts. For two weeks he would do shows all throughout the city. Mostly dive bars and smaller community stages, and every so often a birthday party or something." I pause and shake my head. "Mostly though we were on the road. Vegas, Pawstin, Alpanta, Chicowgo, all over the place. I thought nothing would be cooler than to be on stage with my dad sawing some vixen in half."
"I had just turned 13 a few days prior. He had just performed his first sold out show. It was so cool. The crowd, the cheers, the gasps of disbelief; I understood that night why he did it. Why he slogged night after night from low paying gig to low paying gig. He'd developed a new illusion and it had been a smash hit. He was in talks for a four month deal to do a casino in Vegas." I smile whimsically. "The illusion was so good that we got upgraded rooms from the dive place to an actual hotel and dad decided to treat me. We went to a restaurant where they walk by and just pile the food on your plate. Steaks, pie, you name it. I was so full." I chuckle. "He even snuck me just a bit of his whiskey and coke."
I fall quiet as I stare at the passing clouds, I'm not sure how long I'm quiet until Judy pulls me out of my thoughts, out of the past. "What happened?" she asks.
I take a deep breath. "We were walking back to the hotel when we were suddenly grabbed and shoved into an alleyway." I shake my head. "Initially I thought we were being mugged. It's not like it was the first time that it had happened, but one of them had my dad on the ground. My dad was struggling and I was being held."
I close my eyes and take a shaky breath. "What I thought was a deer bit down on my father's throat. I could hear the slurping and whatever it was that held me was whispering in my ear telling me exactly how I was about to die; it wanted to savor what it called 'the sweet taste of my fear.'"
I look over at her and can see how large her eyes have gotten and look back up to the sky. "I was so angry." I swallow hard. "All I could feel was this burning rage. Like I was standing at the lip of a bottomless well of energy and all I had to do was reach out and grab it. I sunk my claws into the stomach of the thing that held me and imagined fire pouring from my paw into its stomach and I poured that burning rage into it."
I close my eyes. "It burst into flames and died beside my father. The one that killed my father ran and I tried to run after it but lost it in the maze that was the city streets. I hid under a bridge in a park for two days and eventually my grandfather found me."
I can feel tears pooling at the corners of my eyes. "I became his apprentice and he taught me." I sit up and look down at my paws. "Fucking vampires killed my father."
I feel a gentle paw rest on my left forearm and look down to see her grey paw. It's oddly comforting, and for the first time in a while I feel that maybe I'm not so alone. "You survived." I nod in agreement. "I think your father would be proud."
I shake away slightly, even though I'm hesitant to break the contact, and mumble, "Come on Toot-Toot, any time ol' buddy."
He doesn't suddenly appear, nor did I really expect him to. But Judy and I sit in a semi comfortable silence. Amazingly to me, Judy scoots just a bit closer to me. I find this oddly soothing and feel…. Not quite comfortable but at ease, I guess, around the rabbit. I don't know why and I feel too raw at the moment to think about it much. My grandfather told me the memories of when I first used my magic would always be powerful. I just wish it had happened at any other time in my life, but like Judy said, I survived.
Time passes strangely out in nature, but it doesn't feel like it's too much longer before we hear the buzz of wings and the luminescent glow of Toot-Toot could be seen making his way back through the forest. He lands in front of us and huffs before looking up at me. "So I talked to Charms, who heard it from Naomi, who talked to Fank, who…."
"What did you find out?" I ask, knowing that if I let him go on he'll rattle off a list of names longer than he is tall.
"Your bunny jumped into the middle pit over there and then exploded." Toot-Toot gestured with his trunk.
"Exploded how?" I ask.
"That's not what you wanted to know; you wanted to know if he was here. He was here four rises of the sun ago and then exploded." He crosses his arms and glares up at me. "Now pay up."
"Did the rabbit explode before or after the sun rise?" I ask.
"Before. Now. Pay. Up," Toot-Toot demands.
I nod and reluctantly open the pizza box, placing it in front of Toot-Toot, and stand up. "Come on Fluff," I say as I start gathering up the doll furniture.
"But…" Judy starts, then gives the pizza box an odd look. The sounds coming from the now closed pizza box can only be described as sexual in nature. The moans and the odd 'so cheesy' only cause me to shake my head. She follows me reluctantly back toward the car.
"We aren't going to get anything out of him now anyway," I explain. "Besides, he was right; the deal was to find out if the rabbit had been here and he had. Now we need to figure out what happened to him."
"We should try to get more information," Judy started. I'm sure her police training is screaming at her to go back and grill Toot-Toot until he coughs up what she wants to know.
I turn and look at her and sigh, as I knew the feeling. Getting information from the fey is frustrating and annoying. "Look, the fey operate in very strict rules, as I said. We made a deal for information about the rabbit being there in exchange for a slice of pizza. He fulfilled his end of the bargain. Craig exploded, but just because he exploded doesn't mean he died."
Judy's brow furrows as she tries to make sense of the information. "It doesn't?"
I look back to the clearing and shake my head. "That was a summoning circle, a very powerful one."
"How powerful?"
"If the circle I used to shield your muffin yesterday and hold Toot-Toot today was the equivalent of, say, throwing a stone?" I ask and she nods. "Then that over there was the Death Star." I point back to the clearing using the doll chair.
We look at each other for many moments before she goes, "Oh…"
I think she finally understands that no minor spook came through; hell, I'm not even sure that the bull thing is all that came through.
