"You mess with my stuff, I will not hesitate in having pigeon tartare for lunch, got it?" Julie warned with a growl, glaring at the bird out of the corner of her eye, watching for any sign of betrayal on his face. "I don't have a lot, but the stuff I do have means a lot to me, all right?"
An innocent smile came upon Mr. E's beak and he nodded. "I promise, no harm shall come to your things, Miss Julie. I've made a deal with my client about that. I can't do anything that might sway you into not coming."
The sound of plastic squeaking against concrete made her groan and flatten her ears. With her front paws, she pushed the large plastic rock in the corner of her habitat over, revealing it to be hollow. Truthfully, she considered herself lucky that no one had discovered it before, given how meddlesome everyone in this zoo was. It was the only real safe space she had in the whole place.
She stared down at her pile of old and collected things, unsure exactly what to bring. As if knowing she'd need a minute, the pigeon asked if he could eat her food. She waved a paw carelessly instead of actually answering and he took it as a yes, flapping off towards her food bowl.
Julie huffed, wondering what the hell she cared enough about to take on a trip to some strange place. There were clusters of newspapers, a few earrings, watches, and even a wallet. That was mostly to tick people off. And Alice's mug. She smirked at the memory of the human wandering around, complaining about not getting her daily dose of coffee because she didn't have her beloved mug. Her brown eyes traveled to the more sentimental things. A twig that had somehow grown itself into the shape of a heart. Her father had plucked that off a tree before she left the skulk.
Then there was the old ragged teddy bear. She had bittersweet feelings for the stuffed thing. When they had first brought her into the zoo, they had given it to her while they checked her injured right leg. And at every checkup after, they would give it to her again. Eventually, they just threw it in the habitat one day and she had kept it. It gave her a bitter memory of the zoo, but still... the teddy bear had basically been her only companion. It held a lot of tears and blood in it from all those vets' visits and during the night she never had anything else to hug. It was old and falling apart, but some part of her still struggled on the idea of leaving it behind.
"What does your, uh... client do for a living?" She asked to distract herself, a question void of any actual curiosity.
Flapping back over to her side, he didn't even hesitate whilst saying. "Oh, they're a mad scientist bent on revenge and world domination. Or world destruction... I kinda tune out when they go off about it, so it could be either. Or both, I guess."
Julie waited for him to laugh or give some sign he was joking, but he gave no such thing. So she was going to be taken to a mad scientist... It was an.. unusual situation, she could say. She gulped and her ears flicked. "Okay... Why do they want me specifically?" After she asked, she gently took the teddy bear in her mouth and set it in front of the pigeon. His expression didn't change to anything similar to mockery and for that she was glad.
Mr. E shrugged. "Dunno. They didn't really say why they just said you'd be a good person to help them, you had the 'potential'. I'm the messenger and retriever, I'm not really the 'idea' guy behind this whole operation."
The red fox wasn't entirely sure if that reason was a good thing or a bad thing. Picking up the heart-shaped twig in her mouth, being extremely careful with it since it was old, she went back over to the other side of the fake rock to flip it back over. "Where do they live?" She asked, her question a little muffled with the item in their mouth.
"In a transportable lair in the ocean."
This definitely caught her attention. Her brows drew together as she looked around the rock at him, confused. He didn't look like he was joking and that worried her. She wasn't the biggest fan of swimming. Nudging it with her muzzle then her head, she put the rock back in its original place. She walked back over to Mr. E, placing the twig next to her bear. Again, he didn't seem to judge her for the sentimentality of it.
"Ocean? In the actual ocean?"
The pigeon nodded, making finger gun shapes with his wings. "Ding ding ding, we got a winner. Under the sea, just like The Little Mermaid. Don't make jokes about that by the way, he resents that movie."
He. So it was a he. Well, at least she knew a little about this mysterious client, even if it didn't really help her at all. He was a mad scientist who was interested in her most likely because of her escapee background and who lived under the ocean in a lair. And he hated the classic movie, The Little Mermaid, despite it being a general fan favorite and a hit at the box office.
"C'mon, we should get going." Mr. E said suddenly, moving past her and her stuff, tilting his head at the sky and judging the time. "He wanted you there before sunrise and it's a bit of a walk before we get to the ocean… Need help carrying your stuff?"
"I- uh-" She struggled to get out an actual asking for help, pride warring with practicality. "F-fine. But, just- be careful, okay?"
He chuckled and grinned at her. "Hey, don't you worry, Red!" She wasn't sure how she felt about that nickname. "I got talons made of silk."
That reassurance didn't help the warmth that rose to her face as she pushed the twig and teddy bear toward him. He gingerly grabbed both in his talons, and she was grateful when she saw how gentle he was being. He waited outside the habitat as she climbed out. Taking one last look behind her, she set off after him. She tried not to shiver, she hadn't realized how cold it was. Or maybe it was something other than the cold night air that made her skin prickle.
"So.. anything else I should know about your client? Anything I can't do?"
"Well... Don't mess with his stuff. You can touch it and work with it and all, that's fine as long as you ask, but don't move it to a different place. He's really organized and it drives him crazy when anyone does it. No physical contact, if you want me to be honest, he doesn't really like being touched. I hate to say it, but he's not the most extroverted person in the world. Why do you think he sent his usual outside hire instead of one of his minions, y'know, be a little more personable?"
"Okay… Well, I'm not very personable either, so…" She trailed off slowly, nodding. She was surprising herself with how much she cared about this. This was her first chance out of this town, she didn't want to blow it and get stuck with tall bars she couldn't climb again. "What should I do? Or- well, what can I do, I guess…?"
Mr. E thought for a moment, a small 'hmm' escaping him. "Can you sing?"
Though confused, the vixen shrugged. "Not much, but yeah, I can. My mother used to say I had a pretty singing voice." In fact, her mother had taught her to sing, but she didn't think that was very important.
"He likes singing, so you can do that in your spare time. He's got a whole lotta books, but I don't know if you'd like any of 'em. Or if you can read. I hang around sometimes, so if you ever see me and you need or want something, I'd be happy to come back into the city and get it."
"I can read… Y'know, you're pretty nice for a bird who looks so sketchy."
"Aw, thanks, that means a lot. Hey, you can swim, right? 'Cuz, that's kinda important if you're gonna be living in the ocean."
She gulped nervously and nodded with the smallest ghost of a smile. She could technically doggy paddle, but she still hoped that this so-called lair wasn't too far away from the docks. "I can swim, don't worry. Am I going to be living there and not allowed to leave or..?"
"You'll live there, yeah. You can leave, I think, but I don't think you'll be able to leave very often unless you need to or he's making you go out on a job. You're not, like, confined there, but… well, I dunno, he's not so big on sightseeing, so there'll hardly be anything outside the city and Coney Island nearby."
When they reached the gate, Mr. E flew over and unlocked it with a talon. No doubt Alice would be furious about this tomorrow since she would have to call the locksmith, then have to pay him, and then, of course, argue over the price of the payment. But, hopefully, she wouldn't have to deal with having to listen to all that. She padded out, the dew of the grass brushing against her paws, leaving her feet wet. She felt much colder with the dew drops on her legs.
The rest of the walk was in silence but in comfortable silence. Julie wasn't really sure what else to ask. She wasn't even sure how she felt about all this. All she knew was that it was happening and that was that. Why not go along with it? It wasn't like anything in the zoo had interested her. The night was cold, and the future was uncertain.
A mad scientist that lives under the ocean, who's notably organized and introverted, along with being bent on revenge and world domination, was out there waiting for her.
Julie smirked to herself. Sounded like a fun guy. She couldn't wait to meet him.