AN We return to our somewhat emotion laden stay at the Hopps family farm. I am grateful for the thoughtful and uplifting to me reviews by: BeyondWinter, J Shute, Medic 27, and Panoctu. I did manage to shorten your wait for this chapter to half that of my recent updates, as I'd hoped.
All hail the Disney hegemon that demands so much of our attention and free time!
Chapter Nineteen:
Bunny Burrowing
Jack Savage needed the physical contact as much as Judy did—certainly for the same reason, notwithstanding her nightmares. Both their mates were under threat nearly a thousand miles away—beyond help they dare not provide. That would only expose them, and hinder any further efforts against their mostly unknown conspiratorial adversaries.
They stood there outside the Hopps warren for more than a minute, and clung to the only other available that could truly understand. She had her face tipped onto his shoulder while he stared unseeingly past her at the contoured earthy slope with its spaced dormer style windows. Jack finally noticed that one at ground level nearly in front of him framed a small face. Fixated, her front teeth visible, the kit vanished deeper into the room as soon as they made eye contact.
Oh crap. She can't be more than eight or nine. Word of this cozy little clinch will spread as fast as her bunny feet can carry her.
"We need a coverr story—your pawsy hint just became more overrt," Jack said in a soft singsong, as he slackened their hug. Judy's eyes snapped open. "Brown and white with darker ears, about nine with really big eyes in the window behind you."
Judy broke away with an abrupt about face, but only a slight sway of one window curtain betrayed the prior nosy witness. He watched her head twist to silently count windows.
"That…would be Janelle." Judy turned back to him. "Not sure what she'll say, it's likely her first scandalous scoop! Oh well, let's just curtail the truth, I was…ah…comforting you because we got a message about one of your long-time colleagues put under indictment."
Jack nodded in thought. "Since we'll have to explain, we could mention the other ZPD officers this has happened to, so maybe they won't focus on you and Nick as much." She smiled at his idea, then led him to the great millstone set in the ground to serve as a table.
"I had to be rather over the top with my mom to convince her of how serious a threat we're facing," she said to him. "And explain our…my distance from them. They were really upset with me yesterday about that. She now knows that we want to keep some information from certain corrupted ZBI investigators—but I didn't say what that was."
"I know, you put that in your note. Our problem is that we don't have much time before they get here to figure out what, if any, local evidence needs to be kept from them. They're on the way up and will contact me after they've settled in—probably by late this afternoon. Hopefully, I can find something innocuous around here to keep them occupied with for a few days, so we can get over to Deerbrooke first and deal with any residual evidence from that primitive Coypu."
"I don't ever remember hearing about real feral animals while growing up," Judy said. "Just what's in books and movies. If there's any local history of that, only a few around here would know of it. We can start by finding out who those might be." She looked at the morning moisture that adorned the stone table and its slatted wooden seats—too wet to want to sit on. "Are we ready to meet with mom's…confidants? I'll tell them to bring towels."
Jack nodded; she amended, then sent her text. He had to rely on Judy's judgement here, since he had no experience with Mrs. Hopps discretion, or that of her relatives. He wouldn't be able to decide what to say to their new allies until he met and evaluated them, so he diverted himself during their wait with a closer look at the massive stone in front of them.
The nearly two-century-old mill wheel was one of the more visible reminders of the episodic history of the Hopps warren. At six feet in diameter and nearly two thick, it was impracticably large for a bunny engineered operation—they'd told him that it dated back to when the hollowed hill had served as a bovid granary. Jack noticed faint patterns on its side, and walked around to where the sunlight just grazed the surface. Yeah, thought so. He dropped to a knee and traced one of the worn carvings with a finger.
"Didn't see these on my tour. Original builders or you guys?"
"Ours, from the first and second generations here, I'm fifth," Judy said. "Nobody has the patience for it now even though there are still blank spots on the stone. Mostly dates and genealogy, some events—I think that one commemorates a flood." He looked at the incised horizontal line that seemed to designate a high water mark, then back up at her. She'd stepped closer to the thick disk to point, then reached to give him a polite paw back up.
The squeals started just as they touched and before he could rise.
Their heads swiveled as one to see several younger bunnies in full run towards them from around the side of the warren, with more coming every second, then taller ones in their wake. Several of the windows now had faces in them too.
Jack realized with the speed of a mid-winter glacier that they still held paws, and that he was down on…his…
Judy released him like his arm had turned into a rattlesnake and moaned, "Oh Jack no!" Her eyes went huge as she realized her own compounded mistake—made worse when her paws clapped to her muzzle. He barely had time to lurch up onto his feet before being buffeted by the fluffy avalanche. Judy's additional desperate "Noooo" sounded far away.
The kerfluffle packed in higher around them as the adults arrived—with embarrassing congratulations for them, and recognition of his unexpected…singular achievement. One of them held a camera aloft and took several candid shots. A brown furred doe in an apron near him scooped two small bunnies out of the crush and excitedly said as they squirmed in her arms, "Never thought we'd see this! How were you able to convince her?"
"That's why we didn't see so much of you around; betcha you was try'n to work up your nerve huh?" came from a buck in denim overalls who put his paw on Jack's shoulder. "Can't say I blame you with her!" He grinned and turned his head towards Judy—she immediately exploded.
"It's not what you think! He didn't ask! Stop! Just stop already!" She clenched her right paw and drew it back to threaten retaliation for the crass comment—aborted when a doe right beside her intended target grasped and lifted her left one.
"C'mon, lets see it Jude," said the eager feminine voice.
"Nothing's happened!" Judy screamed in frustration as she jerked her paw away and waved both arms over her head. "He's not my boyfriend! I already have one!"
The wave of silence that spread out through the crowd at her revelation was awesome to experience, Jack had to admit. The horrifying realization that he had only seconds to save the day for her wasn't. The problem was that he didn't know if he could find what wire to snip, password to type in, or code phrase to speak.
"Who is he then?" came from further out in the crowd. Jack turned and finally spotted Bonnie Hopps standing behind most of the others with an unreadable expression on her face. He couldn't determine if she had been the one to speak. Judy unfortunately did speak.
"My partner back in Zooto…" her brain throttled the rest given her shocked expression.
"You mean that fox?" said a different, incredulous female voice.
Thank the spirits for their boon; I'm still in their favor. Her family won't want to…can't believe that! Just reinforce it for them!
Jack started to laugh, let it get louder—there, that's enough, don't go on too long.
"Oh, I wanna be there to see his face when he finds out! I couldn't possibly imagine anything more embarrassing for a fox, being stalked by a…hungry bunny!" Jack delivered the two lines that would define his brief stage career before this audience with a measure of amusement. He hoped that the familiar to him euphemism for a pred chaser was known in this region. Agonizing moments passed before laughter broke out from several spots in the attentive throng, and he realized he'd pulled off the save.
"You know that fox partner of hers then?" said denim buck.
"Yeah, met him a couple of times before the persecution of pred officers started; he seemed all right," Jack said to the still mostly silent crowd. He'd take this opportunity to ease as many of their doubts as he could. "They're falsely accusing high-profile preds in business and government this time, instead of targeting random ones on the street."
"That's what they said on the news last night." The welcome reinforcement came from Bonnie in the back. "All that earlier stuff about those ZPD officers might be wrong then." She moved through the family—her paws and voice softly urged a few reluctant individuals and small groups back towards the warren. That didn't stop the rest.
"Well, then who is he?"
"C'mon Jude, tell us. What's his name? How long have you two had this going on?"
Even those that Bonnie had sent away stopped to listen or turned back as soon as her attention was off them. The situation was still fluid and Judy remained frozen after her earlier gaffe. Jack stepped closer and unobtrusively nudged her with an elbow, mostly shielded from view by the others pressed around them. "Better tell them about your…admirers," he advised, and hoped she wouldn't need a more overt hint.
Suddenly animated, Judy jumped up on the stone to point at him and declare, "Agent Savage really isn't my boyfriend or anything like that, he's a professional—I'm one—so your assumptions just questioned our integrity. Whoever saw us earlier was mistaken—we'd gotten a notification that another…colleague disappeared after a false accusation—just like my ex partner!" She waved her cellphone. "We were…commiserating with each other!"
"So if he isn't, then who is your boyfriend?" was the first of several similar statements as the crowd briefly livened again.
"I don't have a real boyfriend. He's a virtual one beca…" Judy stopped abruptly—her nose twitched, and the realization spread on her face that she'd somehow misspoken again.
A small high voice was clearly audible over the low murmurs of the family around them. "That means he hasn't done it?"
"With Jude the prude?" scoffed a lanky buck holding a gnaw stick, followed up by a solid slap and angry, "Harlow!" from the checker dressed doe next to him.
Jack managed to stifle his laughter; several others tried and failed. Judy looked totally mortified by their reactions, and her mother swiftly joined her on top of the millstone to attract the family's attention to herself and restrain them somewhat. Bonnie's paw comforted, then finally prodded her embarrassed daughter into clarifying.
"Virtual means pretend, not real," Judy said carefully for the benefit of the misinformed kit. "A lot of mammals in Zootopia know about me because of the savage predator case last year. Since I'm …rather famous, if I didn't say that I already had a boyfriend, which I really don't, half the bucks in the city would be trying to get in…uh…get me out on a date!"
"Why's that a problem? Doesn't sound so bad to me!" said a doe that was nearly a clone of Judy. There was another smattering of laughter.
"That's enough!" shouted Bonnie, "Becca, you're one word away from volunteering for kitchen cleaning with Harlow." She pointed out the unfortunate young buck. "Now the rest of you get back to your own business, we need to have a discussion in private with agent Savage before he and Judy can get to work! Day's a wasting, there'll be family meetings about this down the lines later."
So the communal warren does have a distinct hierarchy thought Jack, as Bonnie and several other adults near her age herded the rest away. Judy rejoined him to take advantage of their brief respite.
"I can't believe I did this all over again," she said in a resigned voice. "I flashed back to that press conference again right in front of my family!"
"It's all right Judy," Jack said deliberately, "Not your fault! It was just too much too fast dumped on you right now. From what I heard though, it'll work out just fine." He briefly held her arms and gave them a slight squeeze. She lifted her eyes and refocused on him.
"That first time at the precinct, I was so nervous that I didn't know how badly I'd screwed up until after it was over! Here, even though I'd thought about what to say, I lost my temper as soon as we were ambushed. They set me off and I just messed up again!"
"Well, it did become a bit more salacious when you dropped the hints about your foxy. By the way, you're welcome for my temporarily preserving your reputation." Jack thought better of giving her a chivalrous bow—her wry expression showed she'd heard him. "Now, about the news last night? Your mom seemed to be confirming something good."
"I think Chief Bogo felt a need to push back," Judy said more purposefully. "There was a story on ZNN about potential judicial malfeasance associated with the reopened investigations into his officers. They mentioned the Department of Justice directive, and that it seemed to target predators since the rest were cleared so quickly. They even briefly mentioned the nighthowler plot last year, but didn't say anything about Nick."
"He had to be feeling a lot of heat to drop that letter right now." Maybe her chief had the right idea; they needed to fight back with what they had rather than wait while the conspiracy kept feeding the public their propaganda unopposed. Unless it was the inevitable result of Skye's exposure as a rogue agent, and had become a case of 'use it or lose it'. Either way Bogo had just jeopardized their strategy of waiting for the right time to disclose their so far limited evidence. Now two of their small number had revealed their resistance.
"We've just lost the luxury of time," Jack said loudly enough to be heard by the returning members of Judy's family. They gave him curious looks, but remained silent as they all sat around the stone. Judy started with needed introductions; besides her mother, there were uncles Ellery, Galen, and Sid, along with an Aunt Tyne. A pair of cousins, Jackie and Jeremy bolstered her generation. Bonnie gave her daughter a sober nod to continue, with the reasonable assumption that he wasn't up to speed after his extended nap.
"Agent Savage and I are here because recent events have revealed significant corruption within some of our government's departments. That corruption has been linked to the instigation of last year's savage predator crisis down in Zootopia. What I helped stop then was only part of a larger and still active effort to divide us along species lines."
"That larger effort to marginalize predators has continued more cautiously since Bellwether's part of their plot was exposed," Jack added, relieved that Judy had recovered her equanimity. "Individuals from several species have been and are being forced from their jobs under suspicious circumstances. Their rights to privacy and due process continue to be eroded, since long established laws are being quietly rewritten to restrict their…"
"Long overdue if you ask me!" Uncle Sid interrupted. "Too many of 'em allowed to be places where they can scare people try'n to go about their business. Then we have idealists try'n ta force it in our heads that everyone's the same. We aren't and nothin's going to change that!" He glared at Judy. Aunt Tyne and one of Judy's cousins wore shocked faces.
"Of course we're not all the same!" Judy tipped her seat back as she leapt up energized. "But if we don't treat everyone fairly and equally, society comes apart! We built a civilization and enjoy what we have because we learned to cooperate! If we start to separate or marginalize any species because of old fears or ignorance, where will it stop?"
"When we're safe!" Sid shouted back at her. "We can't live in fear not knowing when one of em's gonna snap again!"
Bonnie gently closed her eyes, likely in embarrassment at including him, while Jack shared a look with Judy. She turned back to her uncle with her mouth compressed to a line.
"Why do you think that! They've already found a cure for the toxin; it wasn't their fault, they were deliberately poisoned by Bellwether!"
"Don't matter, preds 're goin' savage again and it's spreading! Been in the paper n on the radio. You government types been hide'n the truth again." Sid rudely pointed to Judy as well as him. "Dillon's got thousands of his Disciples digging out the truth you won't face cause them reformists brainwashed you so bad you was willin' ta work with a fox! Least we've got some ideas bout how to deal with these lurkin' menaces down at the lodge."
Oh shit! Blindsided by the obvious, agent idiot! You all saw stories in the papers and on ZNN, why didn't any of you think to turn on the radio! Dillon's Dispatches—how long had the conspirators co-opted media's embarrassing rural relative to spread their propaganda?
"Uncle Sid! That fraud's just out to make money off of conspiracy theories." Jackie jumped into the argument. "And your buddies at the Fieldmaster's lodg…"
"We're not the Fieldmaster's!" Sid almost screamed. "That's them bovid's over in the Central Valley! They haven't had their lodge here for a hundred years."
"Sorry uncle, you're in the Tillers, right?" Jackie had a devious smirk.
"Your generation has no respect! You know I'm FOG; lodge number sixty-five. Those tiller cultists and their stupid soil rituals had to build their…damn Hogan right next to our block in town! We've been here longer, and elect four times the membership.
"Fraternal Order of Growers," Judy leaned and whispered in his ear. At least he now knew why she'd been less than thrilled at his choice of phone alias for her. Jack decided not to inflame things further by pointing out to Sid that the Hopps warren was—size notwithstanding—technically also a Hogan.
"Took me thirty-four years to ascend to Elect Circle Elder; that's just one step below Exalted if you cared enough to notice!" Sid was on a roll. "By our oaths, we're responsible for the welfare of this community even if most these days fail to appreciate it!"
Another misinformed self-important busybody. Jack was ready to remind him that Judy's and his responsibilities were significantly broader when she slowly shifted an arm towards him and lifted her paw in restraint. "You said you've come up with ways to better protect us?" she said to Sid in what he assumed was an artificially curious tone.
"We gave it a lot of thought. Several of us felt declawing and defanging was still justified if preds insisted on living in our community. Some didn't even want to require muzzles, it was too…provocative they said, given those outside courts and their populist laws."
Okay, he's as speciest as they come, and the rest of the group is quietly letting Judy and her cousin spin him up. Let's see where this goes.
"If they're known…like have a job or some business here so they're like on an approved list; they just call ahead so we know to expect 'em. We're try'n to be fair. Otherwise, they're met by an escort so they don't surprise people or go where they shouldn't." Uncle Sid's voice was one of explaining obvious practicality. "So preds with a need to visit pay a fee for their escorts—helps take care of our unemployed—and helps weed out the ones that got no reason to be here!" He looked pleased by the unassailable logic of his argument.
"That'll promote tourism," Jack deadpanned.
"We don't get enough of them to make a…"
"We do for Carrot Days and the Berry Festival!" Judy cut Sid off and developed a distinctly predatory look for a rabbit. "Folks come from all around and quite a few are omnivores, so we sell a lot of produce to them. Nobody seems to mind that! Now, I assume your reasonable restrictions would apply to all dangerous mammals?"
"Just those what are…equipped and predisposed to threaten those that can't defend themselves," Sid recited what sounded like his lodge's attempt at a policy statement.
"So you'd include physically dangerous prey mammals like…pronghorns, goats, or deer? Better dehorn and deantler them to be safe before they get upset and stick somebody!" Judy talked right over Uncle Sid's attempts to object. "What about larger ones like horses or buffalo that could…I don't know…maybe kick or step on someone? Better hobble them to prevent that. Maybe require escorts for those that have weaker eyesight to prevent accidents. Are you going to have allowable strength limits? What about unruly kits? Have you decided which ones will require leashes or…maybe muzzles in public?"
"No reason to restrict decent civilized mammals Judy! They aren't the problem n you know it. Just those…disposed to a violent nature by bein' preds! We seen for ourselves what happened in the city, and we got a right to take reasonable measures to protect ourselves," Sid said with an initial note of uncertainty that he overcame towards the end.
"Maybe while you're at it, you should force us bunnies to file our teeth down to some permissible limit; after all, it's entirely possible we could lose our temper and give someone a nasty bite of our own."
"Don't keep bein' foolish about this, Judy! We're seriously try'n to prevent a tragedy caused by some vicious pred revertin'! Nobody gonna get bit by a bunny!"
"Years ago," Judy spoke clearly and sweetly. "Uncle Terry ate a Midnicampum Holicithias flower, lost control and viciously bit mom. Remember?" Bonnie lifted her arm.
There were several metaphors that could apply to what he'd just seen; Jack chose the one where Judy had stalked, then pounced on and efficiently dispatched her prey—the look on Uncle Sid's face acknowledged her triumph. He marched away with splayed ears after Uncle Galen told him he was quite done here.
"Over half the residents of Bunnyburrow would certainly agree with him Agent Savage," Bonnie said quietly after he was gone. "Be assured, we here don't share those views. I'm sorry about the…hasty and judgmental conduct of some of us this morning, but I wanted you to be aware of the kind of resistance your equal treatment arguments might meet here."
"Along with their uncritical acceptance of our opponents comforting propaganda," Jack noted. "Several agents of that opposition are arriving this afternoon and will fan out through the area in coming days seeking certain information—that we'd rather not have them find assuming it even exists.
"So we need to find out if there's something here that could be used to falsely accuse and discredit predators everywhere." He looked around at Judy's relatives. "Are you, or is any one else you know, aware of any local evidence, or stories, about primitive, unintelligent, feral mammals that may have lived in this region? That's what we need to keep hidden."
They all glanced at each other and remained silent, although Uncle Ellery momentarily looked like he would speak. Bonnie finally acquiesced with a sigh.
"There are a few stories that get passed along, but they're very old, and may just be native species legends. Old Nara Hopps at the Bunnyburrow Historical Museum in town might know more about them. There's a more…credible one about that memorial field east of the Yardley warren's property."
"Oh yeah!" Judy perked up and looked at him. "The spookiest spot in Bunnyburrow—it's a few miles north of here. Rumor is that it's an old cemetery, although there's no markers or anything else—just the grove." She didn't notice her mother's annoyance.
"It's a shameful thing and it's time you know the whole story since you keep on about adult responsibility," Bonnie stated firmly to her daughter. "The rest of you should hear this too since these two think it's going to become a problem for all of us.
"There's a good sized field there that hasn't been cleared or planted since before we settled here. It's just left alone by common consent, although most now don't know why. They might think it's a preserve for native plants and trees—it's certainly the largest natural spot left down in this valley. Part of it is the grove of trees that attracts the morbidly curious, maybe twenty or thirty acres as I remember, with a clearing inside that's sunken a bit."
Jack wanted to grind his teeth, but refrained. Bonnie Hopps seemed to be emulating Dr. Soren in not getting to the point.
"This valley was first extensively worked by larger native mammals like bison, elk, and possibly bighorn sheep or deer. When they became productive enough to need to store, and learned the benefit of milling their…" Bonnie paused and returned the annoyance that must have crept onto his face. "You were told the what of this place when you were first shown around, right? Now you will learn the why."
Time was short and what he wanted to say wouldn't help, and since she hadn't been along for his tour of the warren, he just gave her a nod.
"This place was not only a mill to process their bounty, but it was a safe place to store it. Back then, as it gets related, there were large numbers of…smaller mammal inhabitants that competed for the grain they grew that supposedly could not be accommodated or bargained with. We rabbits first came into this area after the agreements that exchanged many of the smaller mammal holdings in the Central Valley for theirs here; so only those accounts were left for us by those original natives."
So her point's at the end of a spear and I definitely got it; Judy got skewered too, she looks a bit ill.
"What we call the memorial field was called the field of retribution by our native bovid predecessors," Bonnie said very carefully. "I have never heard of anything more about who or what might have suffered it, but we must assume that any evidence of your feral mammals—certainly rodents—would be found there."
"Mrs. Hopps, what do you know about the history of modern rodents in your valley?" Jack didn't want to make any assumptions about the implications of her statement without some more information—they needed to be sure of this.
Judy's brown-furred cousin Jeremy answered him instead after a glance at Bonnie. "Mr. Savage; I help keep track of family genealogy, and have studied local and national history—I majored in that subject which means I still work around the farm." He shrugged. "There really aren't small rodents in Bunnyburrow—some squirrels are about it—most of the rest tend to live further south closer to Middleburrow. Like us, those species are eastern or old-world immigrants that started to arrive out west almost two centuries ago. This area was pretty virgin territory for them—almost no similar native species and only small, often tribal populations of the larger mammals."
That's what we learn in school; the numbers of mammal species originally living in Laurentia decreases significantly as you go from east to west. We immigrants brought our new, inclusive society to those eastern shores, showed the natives the benefits of our alliances; then expanded westwards into rich new lands. Dr. Soren's boss, Dr. Alder did tell us that our familiar history had been 'somewhat—sanitized'.
"These valleys of yours are comfortable and productive lands; good places for mammals to live, right?" Jack received a few nods. "So why were they mostly empty of advanced species when you first arrived?"
"Because there were more primitive species already living…here," Judy said wonderingly. She slowly looked around in realization that her childhood home might be quite relevant to their present interspecies crisis.
"And some of the few modern natives we met here—at least the small ones—may not have been here that long either," added Jeremy as he rubbed the darker brown patch around his muzzle pensively. "They must have still been arriving and displacing the ferals.
"I'd use a stronger word than 'displaced' Jeremy!" Uncle Ellery finally joined the conversation. "There's no sign of them now, so they must have completely died out—or been exterminated!"
"Assuming they ever existed," Jack said, waving his paws to take charge. "We have two choices: one, it's a story with no basis in fact and the issue goes away; or two, species that existed until very recently here have left no evidence of that at all. I'm having a rather difficult time accepting that." Unfortunately, their actual evidence for recent feral mammals was not only scanty, but was for two larger species not indigenous to this area, both being originally Amazonian.
"We have to believe it agent Savage," Bonnie said firmly. "The original storehouse dug into this hill was carefully sealed against intrusion by even the smallest mammals. We have early family accounts from when we remade it for our own needs.
"Don't forget the snakes Bonnie!" Ellery said. "Some of 'em were still seen in the valley by our first pioneers, but none ever since."
"Not really uncle; rarely, someone will still see one way out in the hills even today; so there has to be a remnant population of feral rodents for them to…live on," Jeremy noted. "Some report the snakes are big enough they can't be…eating just insects."
"So if we accept that feral rodents recently lived in the valley, at least in historical terms, and likely still do in the wilderness based on our circumstantial evidence," Jack said thoughtfully, "what real evidence might they have left?" No one spoke up right away, so he answered himself. "They seem to have been actively removed…if by predators…like bobcats, foxes, weasels and so on…if they'd been consumed, that would of course leave no intact evidence."
A couple of the Hopps looked uncomfortable—Aunt Tyne had visibly twitched when he mentioned bobcats, and now abruptly stood, her paws clutching her peach and light brown lined dress. "I can't believe we're talking about this! I think I'm…going to make sure nobody is listening to us," she said tremulously as she backed away.
"Or, if nearly a whole population was…exterminated by disease or by those prey mammals protecting their food stock," Jack continued, "how were they…all disposed of?"
"Bury 'em, burn 'em, or leave 'em to scavengers," Jeremy said, ticking off the choices on his fingers. Bonnie and Judy's faces disapproved of his flippancy, while aunt Tyne increased her distance as she watchfully paced around them.
"Maybe they did hire predators to do it for them," Judy put forth. "Would there have been enough of them available then to have…done the job so thoroughly?"
Jack wondered about the stunned look from Jeremy for several seconds before what was certainly the same thought struck him too.
The abrupt pulse of immigration and rapid expansion of western settlements caused by the discovery of gold! A significant number were preds, particularly the railroad workers. In addition to their on-site labor well inland, they had to transport most of their food from the seaports, since many other species wouldn't do it for them, according to popular history—which we now know is a rather contrived history.
"No refrigerators, and where would they get ice in the summer?" Jack said to puzzled looks from all but Jeremy, who voiced the problem.
"Most modern fully predatory species first immigrated by ship once the goldfields were found, since they had no reliable food supply for a long overland trip—even if partly by rail. They always had to live near a seacoast or large rivers to fish in, since they couldn't preserve most of what food they had in those days.
"There wasn't a transcontinental railroad then, so until locomotives were eventually shipped in and enough track laid, loads would have taken several days, not hours, to get from Pacifica to the sites scattered throughout the Mammoth foothills."
"And fish rot," Jack finished for Judy's cousin.
"What about dried insects?" Judy said. "That seems like it would've solved their problem."
"As yummy as a box of crunchy bugs sounds," Jeremy answered, "It wasn't a developed industry back then and wouldn't have met demand. Neither would the local rivers; they would have been fished out pretty fast."
"It also wouldn't exactly be popular with their agricultural neighbors," said Uncle Ellery. "Meal bugs are pretty much the same ones that could strip our fields bare if they got loose."
A sudden and significant number of obligate predators working in the mines and on the rails with no logical way to feed...and a missing population of...Oh Spirit of all Life!
Jack slowly looked at the Hopps family members seated around the great stone. Only Judy's expression mirrored his thoughts. Her eyes begged him to let her remain silent.
"Live food doesn't spoil," Jack said softly into the silence of perdition.
Notes: Since our split-chapter visit with the Hopps warren was unexpectedly just savaged by the plot bunny of Caerbannog, you will have to wait and see how all of the scattered threads of this tale fall back together, starting in—Chapter Twenty: Inside Out
Enough for now! This is another good break point for those binge readers enjoying my story. The next several chapters are considerably longer, and include more changes between viewpoint characters as we follow their separate paths through the plot.