Chapter 7
I find myself in a blinding white room. It's so white and bright that it forces me to close my eyes as I roll over and get to my paws and knees. I wince as I try to put weight on my right leg and it hurts; it must have gotten hurt in the fight with the demon as well.
"If this is death then it's overrated," I mumble; my ears perk up as I hear a giggle in response.
"Mmmm, she was right; always sarcastic to the core," a sing song voice says, and I open my eyes. The blinding whiteness has been replaced by tall lush green grass and calm blue sky.
"Surprise!" shouts the voice and I look up just in time to get a face full of water.
"GAH!" I shout, coughing, and the voice giggles again.
"Silly fox. We need to talk." I glance around, looking for the source of the voice. My eyes land on a rabbit standing not far from me. Her(at least I think it's a female) fur is silvery grey. No, that's not quite right; it's more chromatic than that, as it subtly shifts color in the soft breeze. The shifting color almost gives her fur the appearance of waving fields of grass or grain.
I try to stand but collapse onto the ground once again.
The rabbit just shakes her head at me. "Just sit Nicholas," she says kindly.
I nod, seeing how I don't have much of a choice, and just stay sitting on the ground. "What do you wish to talk about?"
She looks at me, and suddenly I feel like I'm a slab of meat on display for her. "You did me a great service Nicholas. Not many would put themselves in harm's way for one of my daughters."
I frown and look up at her. "Sadly, Memnoth is not vanquished; he is merely inconvenienced at the moment. His…. essence is tied to the body of Gregory Furgonson. It took a lot of Gregory's soul for your battle tonight."
I nod, fearing as such. "I'll have to find it then."
She smiles at me and nods. "Karma said you wouldn't leave things unfinished." She pauses, tilting her head slightly at me. "Still, I think you earned a reward, even though…. What was it your grandfather said about work well done?"
"The honest reward for work well done is more work."
She nods and turns to walk into the field. "Still…" She pauses and looks over her shoulder at me. "Judith likes red tulips."
My eyes flutter open for a moment and I take a deep breath. I can hear sudden snaps, pops, and shouts of surprise. There's even a funny sounding death warble from some piece of equipment. I can feel two small paws holding my left paw tightly. I curl my paw around them gently.
I open my eyes and see a startled looking moose EMT hunched over me looking at his equipment.
"Nick!" Judy shouts; I hear just a bit of relief in her voice. The air is acrid with the smell of burnt out electronics.
I slowly sit up and lean my back against the car I collapsed behind.
"Sir," starts the moose EMT, "I really must insist that you lay back down."
My side hurts but not nearly as bad as it could have. I flex my right leg a bit and it seems to function normally. My head is pounding though; that last gout of fire must have really taken a toll on me.
"CAN SOMEONE TELL ME JUST WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED HERE?" booms a loud gruff voice. Judy's boss stomps into view; the sound his hoof falls are a pale imitation of those of the demon I had just fought.
I look at Judy, then up at the Cape buffalo. "Custody battle," I quip.
I think if the buffalo's head came around any faster he could have snapped his own neck. He glares at me, but against the memory of doing battle with a demon his ire is nothing, so a slow smug smile starts to stretch across my muzzle.
I look around and grab my staff and start to stand up. Surprisingly, my leg is able to bear my weight, but I have to to use my staff for support on that side.
"My officers are telling me stories about a two story bull that you brought down with fire from your paw and you're telling me it was a custody battle?" Chief Bogo started to rage at me. "Custody of what? Your sanity?"
"Of who would be the better question."
"Cotton…" Judy said, her voice trailing off.
"Where is she?" I ask, trying to neither confirm nor deny her statement.
"I left her with Wolford," she answers. "I didn't want to bring her here, but couldn't leave you to face that thing by yourself."
"Officer Hopps, you're telling me this is about your cal… kit?" Chief Bogo asks.
Judy looks to me and I nod. "It appears so, Chief."
"It's not over…." I start, and pause as I feel a bit dizzy. "It'll be back. It's tied itself to Gregory Furgonson's soul, and by extension his mortal coil."
"Is Furgonson still alive?" Chief Bogo asks.
I take a deep breath before answering and glance toward Judy. "Doubtful; at this point I think it's just trying to fulfill the bargain that brought it here so it can be free."
Judy nods sadly and looks away from me. I can tell by the hard set of her features that she is torn on how she feels about that knowledge.
"Say I believe you fox," Bogo says slowly, his brown eyes boring into me. "How do we stop this?"
"I can locate Furgonson but I'm going to need a few things," I start to explain. "A metal bowl, wine cork, a sewing needle, and…."
"We don't have any of his fur Nick…." Judy interrupts me. Bogo snorts at us.
"We don't need it; we have something even better," I tell her, and then take a deep breath. "But I need you to trust me."
Her eyes search my face and then she nods. "Ok, what do you need?" she asks.
"We are each tied to our parents, first to our mothers with whom bear us then to our fathers who sire us," I explain.
"So a clipping of her fur will help us find him?"
I shake my head at her question. "A drop of her blood would be enough to power the spell."
Judy's eyes harden to dark amethyst and I swallow nervously. I can see her fists balling at her sides and she's struggling to keep from slugging me.
"I would never hurt Cotton," I explain, with maybe just a bit of panic in my face. "She's a kit; she doesn't deserve this thing coming after her."
"Nick…" Judy says gently. I don't know if it's my panic or if she honestly weighed my past actions against me, but the relief I felt when she said, "I know you won't hurt her," cannot be overstated, as I would like to think Cotton is my friend and Judy is…something. What I'm not sure, but she is something.
"You thought of her well being before your own….." She looks away; it's hard for me to read her face from that angle. "Chief, we need a car."
Bogo snorted, his eyes never leaving me. "We'll take my command car." He glances at Judy. "I'll drive," he says gruffly.
Judy nods. "I'll get Cotton," she says as she walks away from us.
"Come," Bogo says as he starts to walk away, drawing my attention away from Judy. He measures his pace to my much slower one as I walk with him toward his command car. "Are my officers telling the truth or do I need to do a round of psych evals?"
I glance up at him and shrug. I can tell he's a hard pragmatic soul, questioning everything. Honestly, he would probably make a decent wizard if he wasn't so bull headed. "I guess that depends on how much you trust the word of your officers."
Bogo snorts and looks around slowly at this officers helping those who need it. "Some of them are just kids, rookies." He shrugs his massive shoulders. "Others I've known most of my career." His hard eyes turn back down toward me. "The responding officers all tell the same tale, and Hopps…."
I chuff in annoyance. "Now you trust her?" I ask.
The Chief stops to glare down at me and I glare up at his eyebrows, a trick my grandfather taught me to keep me from locking gazes with mammals. "It had nothing to do with trusting her."
"Could have fooled me," I tell him. "Mrs. Otterton didn't seem to think you thought much of Officer Hopps. Neither do some of your own officers."
Much to my surprise the Cape buffalo looks away first and snorts. "It has nothing to do with trust. She's very capable…." His right ear flicks in annoyance. "For a rabbit."
"For a rabbit," I echo maybe just a tad bit mockingly.
"Look around you, fox," Bogo says. "I deploy my officers in two mammal teams; that way they always have someone to watch their backs," he explains to me. "The smallest mammal on my team is still over ten times her size."
I look around, seeing that he is correct.
"So who do I saddle with her?" he asks me. "Who risks not going home to their families because she's too small to watch a wolf or tigers back?" Bogo snorts at me dismissively, and perhaps I earned it. "Besides, you're not the one that has to tell the family that their loved one isn't coming home."
I nod and sigh. "Should have known there was more than what lies at the surface."
Bogo looks down at me and snorts. "Maybe you're not such a fool after all."
"Mr. Nick! Mr. Nick!" Cotton shouts as she runs up to me and wraps me in a big hug. "Mama says that I'm gonna help you do magic."
"That you are, Cottonball," I say as I ruffle the fur between her ears and then kneel down to look her in the eyes. "You have to be brave ok?"
She nods excitedly. "Like Karma?"
I lean forward ever so slightly. "Even braver." I bend down and look into her eyes. "Brave like your mother." I smile warmly into Cotton's big brown eyes.
"Where to first?" Judy asks.
"There's a 24 hour supermarket down the street that should have everything we need." I grin at their looks of incredulity. "What?" I ask. "You think there's a Spells R Us or something?"
I am pleasantly surprised to find faux leather rear seats instead of the hard plastic things typically put in the back of patrol cars. While the distance to the supermarket was short, I must have been more drained than I had originally thought as I passed out leaning against the rear passenger door.
I'm not sure if I dream or not, but when I'm awakened by a gentle shake I feel a little more refreshed. My head pounds from the over use of magic though, in much the same way as a rough hangover feels.
"We got what you need," I hear Judy tell me as a bag is thrust into my paws. I look inside and see a cheap bottle of wine with a cork in the mouth of the bottle, a metal bowl, a pack of sewing needles, and a bottle of water, as well as a small pack of bandaids and alcohol wipes.
"We gonna do magic now Mr. Nick?" Cotton asks me, her brown eyes bright in the early morning gloom. I look outside the passenger window of the police car and see a well maintained strip of grass with a tree.
I nod. "Yes Cotton we are going to do some magic," I answer her as I open the door. I lean on my staff as we walk over to the green space. Judy, followed by Bogo, follows us.
I groan as I sit down in the grass and sit my staff at my side. Cotton sits beside me, I can almost feel her excitement. I pull out the metal bowl and sit it in front of me. "We are going to do a tracking spell so we can find the monster that attacked us and finish it off." I explain as I carefully pry the cork out of the bottle of wine.
"But Mama said you made it go away," Cotton said.
I glace up at Judy, who shrugs at me. "I did, but I want to make sure it never comes back," I tell her as I push the needle through the cork.
"It went to its hideout?" Cotton asks me as she watches my preparations.
"It did," I tell her as I pour a bit of the water into the bowl. I turn to her fully. "Cotton, a not very nice mammal sent that monster after you and your mother." I glance up at Judy. "It's my job to make the monster go away and in order to do that I have to find it."
"Who would do that? Mama and I are nice to everyone," Cotton asks me.
"I don't know, but the police will find that mammal and put them in jail. Will you help me find the monster so I can make it go away?"
Cotton nods. "What do I need to do?" she asks.
I tear open the package of alcohol wipes and thoroughly clean the claw of my right thumb. "I'm going to prick your forefinger and we're going to run it around the bowl counter clock wise three times while you say the magic words." I bend my head lower to her. "Finders keepers, losers weepers." So sue me; it's the best I can come up with in the moment.
"Will it hurt?" she asks, looking at my claw.
I shake my head. "No, because you're going to be brave like your mother and Karma, and it will only be a little prick." I grin at her. "Besides, I bet a shot at the doctor hurts worse."
I smile as she takes a deep breath and puffs out her chest bravely and nods. "Kay."
I take a second wipe and clean the tip of her forefinger. "What are the magic words?" I ask her.
"Finders keepers, losers weepers."
"Very good; you ready?" I ask her kindly. She looks to me, then her mom, and back again, and nods.
"Chief, I recommend turning off your cell phone and radio," Judy says to him quietly.
"Ready, Mr. Nick." I smile at the brave little bunny. I prick her finger ever so slightly and squeeze just a bit.
"Ow," she says softly as I guide her finger to the rim of the bowl at what would be the 12 o'clock position away from me.
"Ok Cotton, say the magic words slowly," I tell her, and she starts to slowly chant what I told her were the magic words. I start to slowly say some quasi Latin as I guide her finger around the bowl while pouring just a bit of my meager energy reserves into the spell.
Together we complete the first pass and the needle spins in the water and points to her. She takes a deep breath of surprise and keeps saying the phrase. On the second pass the needle spins in the water again and points to Judy. On the third and final pass the needle spins and points off to the northwest , and Chief Bogo's cellphone and radio emit a loud pop and the magic blue smoke that allows both to work escape s both of them.
"Ga!" Bogo shouts as he tosses his radio off his belt and pulls his smoldering phone from his pocket.
I place a paw on the side of the bowl to keep a flow of magic going into it. As Judy looks at Cotton's finger and places a small bandaid on it. "Look Mama, I helped Mr. Nick do magic!" she shouts excitedly.
Bogo looks down at the bowl, then in the direction the needle was pointing. "I take it we need to go that way."
I nod. "Yes, but first we need to take Cotton someplace safe."
"We can take her to Olivia's," Judy says.
Bogo snorts, looking from his radio and phone then back to me. "A little forewarning next time would be appreciated" said he says gruffly.
I grin smugly up at the Cape buffalo. "She did warn you."
Bogo snorts as Judy says, "Come on, let's get Cotton to safety and then deal with this."
I nod and attempt to stand with the bowl in my paw and sigh as I don't make it very far.
"A little help would be appreciated," I say just before Bogo reaches down and sets me on my paws. I wobble a bit and Judy rushes to steady me.
"I got your stick Mr Nick!" Cotton shouts as she picks up my staff.
"Staff," I correct her as we walk back toward the car. I can hear the end of the staff scrape across the concrete as she carries it.
"And just what, pray tell, will your…" Bogo pauses as he mulls over a word, "magic do to my car?"
I grin as I sit down in the rear seat. "Hope you pay your maintenance mammals well," I answer him as Judy shuts the door. I concentrate on the needle and it doesn't move, which is good; it means the body isn't being moved.
I look over at Judy as she sits my staff at my feet and Cotton worms her way in and sits down beside me just before Judy stretches the seatbelt across both of us.
"Was I good helper Mr. Nick?" Cotton asks me.
"The best," I answer her as I keep concentrating on the spell.
"Olivia lives at the Grand Pawgolion Tower," Judy tells Bogo. "Once we get there I'll run Cotton inside and lobby security can call Olivia to get her.
Bogo snorted and started the car; immediately the power windows on the passenger side went half way down and then stopped in a poof of blue smoke. I could see Bogo's jaw harden in the rearview mirror and tried to keep my grin to the minimum of smug.
The ride over to the tower is quick. I keep my concentration on the spell; I watch as the needle moves in relation to our movement but doesn't take any radical adjustments.
Judy and Cotton get out of the car almost as soon as it stops. I can feel Bogo's eyes as he studies me in the rear view mirror.
"How certain are you that this will lead us to Furgonson?" he asks me.
I glance up at him. "Unless Officer Hopps is wrong about who the father of her kit is?" I ask hypothetically. "100%."
"Mmmmm, is that so," he states flatly; I try not to read too much into that statement. Maybe his wife is cheating on him while he's putting in long hours at work. Wouldn't be the first spouse to use my services to find such information out.
Judy opens the car door and hops in beside me. "Ok, she's taken care of; where to Nick?"
"Still northwest; he hasn't been moved." The needle hasn't moved at all so I'm fairly confident that the corpse isn't animated. The trip is short and with Judy calling out course corrections as we go relatively uneventful from my perspective.
I look out the window and find that we are on the outskirts of Sahara Square in an industrial complex that the sand dunes have nearly devoured. The rising sun bathes the dunes in a warm glow that does little to diffuse the sense of foreboding about the place. There is a foulness in the air that the light morning breeze does little to dissipate.
I stop channeling power into the spell and fish the cork and needle out of the bowl before I toss the water out of the car window. I then take one of the alcohol wipes and clean the rim of the bowl. Much can be done with blood and I really do not want to expose Cotton to any more danger if I can keep from it.
I sit the bowl onto the seat and unbuckle the seatbelt. I can hear the other car doors opening as I pop mine open and slide out onto the sand. The thirsty sand has already absorbed the moisture from the water I had thrown on it. I reach back into the car and grab my staff; Judy and Bogo come around to my side of the car as I eye the facade of the building wearily.
"Do you know if there are any more mammals in there?" Bogo asks.
I shake my head. "No, but his body is in there." I look at the alcohol wipe still in my paw and with a small touch of my will it catches on fire and the ashes drift into the wind.
"So this could be a trap?" Bogo asks.
I nod. "It could be; doesn't change anything though."
"I could use my cell phone and call for backup," Judy says.
Bogo nods. "A wise course of action."
I point across the street. "That should be far enough away to safely make the call."
Judy nods and jogs off to make the call as I stand beside Bogo looking at the building. The giant roll up door gives the building the look of a massive maw waiting to devour us whole. The foul magic that clings to the place only adds to the foreboding I feel. I suddenly wonder if this is how Gandalf felt before the gates of Moria.
"Backup is on the way; they're going to separate a few units off from the disaster area to come help us here," Judy informs us as she comes back across the street, her cell phone already stored in her pocket.
I nod and start walking toward the building. "With the coming of dawn it should be at its weakest," I tell them as my paws sink slightly in the sand, my lips curling back in an involuntary snarl as I step closer and closer.
"Wait!" Judy calls as I stop before the massive door. I can feel the seething hate behind it mixed with the wrongness of foul magic and even the slightest taint of blood.
I can feel Bogo and Judy's eyes on me as I step before the roll up door. I don't know if my companions can feel the wrongness beyond the door, but it must end. My eyes narrow as I draw upon the magic around us; I focus seemingly through the door as I raise my staff in my right paw.
The runes on my staff light up just before I thrust the head of my staff toward the door shouting, "Forzare!" The kinetic blast hits the door, denting it; it sounds like a ginormous gong. I shake my head as my vision blurs slightly and I rear back with my staff again, pouring my hate for the demon into the spell. I thrust my staff forward again with a shout of, " Forzare!" This time I'm rewarded with the sound of screaming stressed metal;the door folds in along the edges as a large round rent is torn through it.
" Knock, knock," I say as I step into the warehouse. I wrinkle my nose at the foulness of the air in the warehouse. It reeks of putrid flesh and suffering; the air is foul with it, and the shadows writhe and crawl in my peripheral vision . Long tables are strewn about the place, along with what looks like small plastic bags and other paraphernalia. What did Serendipity call him again? I ask myself. Ah yes ... Memnoth.
I lift my staff and slam the butt of it against the floor with an expulsion of energy that makes a THOM sound reverberate throughout the warehouse. "Memnoth!" I shout. "Show yourself foul demon so I may remove you from the realm of mammals!"
I hear scurrying sounds in the darkness, followed by tittering laughter. "You have brought one of the two I seek. Where is the second?" a voice in the darkness asks me.
I glance over my shoulder to see that Bogo and Judy have followed me into the warehouse.
"Greg!" Judy shouts. "Come out."
"There issss no Greg here," the demon hisses from the shadows. "Betrayer."
I lift an eyebrow and look over my shoulder at Judy once again. Being called a betrayer doesn't seem to phase her. I take another step into the warehouse now; I'm at the edge of the pool of light cast by the hole in the door.
"There will be no deals demon," I say into the darkness. It writhes, and I can hear the sound of something scurrying around on all fours.
"Ohhh, my pretty," the demon hisses. "I has such delicious memories of your fur."
I hear a sudden rapid fury of strikes behind me and I turn just in time to see Judy throw something off her and look at her paw in shock. In her paw she holds what looks like the most gruesome glove I have ever seen, as it is at least half of what should have covered a rabbit's arm.
"H..he, he's dead?" she asks, looking at the fur in her paw in disbelief. "GAH!" Judy yells, and throws the fur away from her in disgust. We glance around rapidly as we hear the demon scramble away from where it was thrown.
"I wonderssss what secrets youss hold," the demon hisses. I look up and scan the rafters above us. "Loverssss? Moniessss?" the darkness asks.
Bogo roars in pain and I turn sharply to see the rapidly decomposing body of Gregory Furgonson clawing at one of his massive forearms as the Cape buffalo holds it above the ground.
"Slam it into the floor and hold onto it!" I yell as I scramble over to him; he does as I order and slams the thing into the floor.
"NOOOOSSSS!" it yells as I approach."NOOSSSSSS! I WAS PROMISEDES, I WAS PROMISEDES!"
"What were you promised?" I ask as I approach.
"Answer!" Bogo bellows at it and slams it into the floor again.
The demon in a rabbits body starts to laugh and cough.
I change my staff over to my left paw as I kneel down, my right paw becoming engulfed in flame. I hold my right paw inches from its face. "Answer the question."
"Banish me wizard, but the dark lady will get you." The skull grins up at me. "Yes, yes she will."
"Memnoth, I banish ye from the realms of mammals," I say as I clamp my paw over its face; the fire spreads quickly and Bogo lets it go suddenly. The fire that spreads over the corpse has a sickly green glow before it screams one last time and turns to a normal orange hue.
I let go and stand slowly, leaning heavily on my staff. My head throbs as if it's being used as the bass drum for every metal band in the entire world. My vision swims and my hearing gets murky just before it goes black and I collapse beside the burning corpse.
