Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“To units near 31 Flock Street, we have a reported 904B, possible 451, Fire Department is already en route. Needs investigating, over!” The police radio chimed up while Nick was waiting in their police cruiser. He had no intention of answering the call since his partner was currently busy buying lunch. To his relief, someone else took the case.

“This is Z-1-15, any more details on that previous call? Over!” Delgato’s unmistakable voice was heard, and shortly the dispatcher followed.

“We have reports of an unusually colored fire, possibly chemicals are involved so caution is advised. No civilian casualties have been reported so far.”

“Copy that, Z-1-15 en route, standby.”

Another successfully avoided call! Job well done, Nick laid back in his seat and just kept on staring at the fast food restaurant where Judy should shortly return from. 

It was a rather hot day even for the mammals in Savannah Central. The sun was shining high in the sky, with no clouds seen anywhere. The red fox felt the warmth it gave, even inside the car with its working air conditioning. That one possible arson fire aside, it seemed to be one of those boring patrol days, where even the criminals rather stay home, instead of roaming around. Not like Nick was complaining. Anything for a calm eventless day on-duty.

A few minutes later he finally spotted the mammal he was waiting for. The gray rabbit who was bringing some food with herself. As her paws were full, Nick decided to open the door for Judy. As much as he would have loved seeing the rabbit struggling with the doors, he was too hungry.”

“So, here is your Bug-Burga.” Judy gave a wrapped Burger to her partner. “And the fries.” She closed the door behind herself and opened the lid of some kind of salad she bought for herself.

“It was about time! I was wondering when you would return.” He unwrapped the burger he got and took a huge bite from it. “Hmmm finally!” 

“Yeah sure, no need to thank me. Why would you?” Judy muttered in a louder tone, making sure Nick heard it while mixing the vegetables a bit more.

“Hmph. Forry.” 

“And don’t talk with a full mouth! Didn’t your mother teach you that?”

Nick swallowed the bite he was chewing on, turned towards Judy, opened his mouth like he was about to say something, and took another bite from his Burger. “Offifer Jufy Hoppf I’m forry you haf to fork fith a fo ungrafeful mammal, lifk me!”

“You are so childish!” Judy chuckled and started eating her lunch. However, just as she raised the first bite to her mouth, they heard an emergency call from the police radio.

“To all available units! I repeat, ALL available units! We have a code 30 here!” A panicked voice said, “I need backup ASAP!”

Wrapping back his hamburger and knowing there was no way they could get out of this one, Nick sighed and asked “Do we have to answer it?”

“Well, is it our job? Yes, yes it is.” Judy said, picking up the radio. “This is Z-1-12, any more details on that previous call? Over!”

“It’s a… It’s...” After a few seconds of silence, they got the answer “It’s some kind of… Demon… Bird...”

“Sorry, I didn't quite catch that, can you repeat it? Over!” The rabbit asked, and gave a confused look towards Nick, not being sure she heard the description properly.

“A Demonic Bird! I need every possible officer on this! Chasing the target on Herd Street… More like it’s chasing us. We’re trying our best to evacuate all citizens, but there are heavy casualties!”

“What?” Nick asked and took the radio from Judy. “Delgato, you didn’t use up the catnip you took from the drug cartel, did you?”

“It’s here in the feathers!” The previous voice claimed annoyedly “Come here and see it for yourself, Nicholas! It’s madness!”

“This is Bogo speaking,” a third voice joined. “I’m sending backup to the given address. Also, please keep the jokes for yourself, Wilde! It sounds serious!”

Nick laid back in his seat and clicked the speaker's button again. “Sorry Chief, it's just kind of hard to imagine a demon bird flying around in Zootopia. What’s next? Ancient gods?” 

Judy gave the fox a death glare and took back the radio with a quick swipe. “We are on our way!” As soon as she said that, she stepped on the gas pedal and turned on the sirens. It did its magic, as every single car ahead pulled off the road, giving them a straight line to drive on.

“What do you think about this bird thing?” The fox asked, seemingly still not believing the 'demon' marker on their target.

“Well… Delgato asked for help and he had never given false alarms before. I have no idea what’s waiting for us there, but prepare for the worst,” she claimed while taking a corner at high speed. Nick had to grab onto his seat if he didn’t want to get pushed into the wall. “He said there were heavy casualties. You don’t joke with that.”

"Come on! A demon bird? If it turns out to be a slightly bigger crow than usual, I'll call that lion a scaredy cat from now on, and you know I'm not joking!" As soon as he said that, 5 ambulance cars crossed their path, using lights, and sirens just like them. 

Judy stopped to let the other emergency units speed their way through. It was an unspoken rule to let the ambulance pass first in case they both were using sirens. Every second counts in cases like these.

"Still think it's nothing?" The rabbit asked, pointing at the ambulance

Nick shrugged, however, his laid-back attitude disappeared. Even he had to admit something wasn’t right. "Maybe just a coincidence. Not the first time we see medics cross paths with us, just to say tearful goodbyes at the next crossroad."

However, their 911 siblings didn't turn anywhere. They were going on the same road no matter where Judy turned. Not long after, they also heard a third kind of siren in the distance, that belonged to the fire department. It came closer and closer, and in the end, the red vans appeared too in their full glory.

Both Nick and Judy gave a meaningful look to each other. Either something big was going on, or it was a heck of a coincidence.

As they got closer to the meeting point, they heard something else too. It wasn't a siren, or… anything they'd heard before. It was a screech. A loud and blood-freezing screech.

"Heh…" Nick chuckled nervously. "Maybe just the wind?" He hoped this really unlikely assumption would turn out to be true. That screech was something everyone should run away from and they were heading straight towards that. As Judy turned the car onto the meeting point, they both widened their eyes.

"Sweet cheese…" that's all Judy could say while staring at the creature that Delgato described to them. It turned out to be exactly a demonic bird, without any exaggeration. It was just the same size as the family houses next to it, and the buildings seemed to collapse way too easily after its hits. Its whole body looked like it was made out of smoke, and was almost entirely black except for a few purple spots. It also had a pair of flaming, purple eyes.  “What is that?” she asked, unable to look away from the huge bird for even one second

“I don’t know…" Nick said with the same expression as Judy "But the tranquilizer won’t be enough for this… That's not a slightly bigger crow, I'll give it to Delgato.” 

The rabbit managed to snap out of the ‘I can’t believe it’ phase sooner than Nick. And with a determined voice, she said “Let’s go!” Making the fox behind her give a painful groan. He quickly stepped in front of her blocking the way.

"Carrots, look! That thing is out of our reach." He tried his best to hold back the rabbit from running into certain death. "Let the military deal with it, or heck I don't know… The ZASA? That thing is definitely not from here! All we can do is help the civilians escape and close the area!"

Ignoring the fox, she raised the radio to her mouth, "Sir, we are at the Rendez-Vous point. Waiting for further instructions." 

While Judy said it, the demonic creature kept on setting everything alight, with a purple flame coming out of its beak-like mouth. Screams were heard from everywhere. BANG another house collapsed after a huge hit.

"Do not engage under any circumstances, understood? Help any civilians you can but don’t get any closer!" Bogo's voice was heard on the radio. "Delgato, what is its response to the tranquilizer?"

"Nothing sir! The dart just reflected off its… Feathers…" Even the lion was unsure how to refer to the dark fog surrounding that thing.

"See Carrots?" Nick gave the 'I told you so' look to his partner. "No reason to rush in!"

"But what do we do then?" She asked and saw another purple flame directed at the houses, following the screams of the panicking civilians. "We gotta do something!"

"Well if you'd like to end up in that purple fire, yeah sure go! Don't forget the sunscreen, so you won't get burnt!" After saying it, another flameball appeared but unlike the previous one, it was normal-looking. Well, as normal as a thrown flameball would look in this circumstance. At least It was red and was directed towards the creature. The bird gave another out-of-world screech and started breathing its fire again, now towards the place where the fireball came from

"Who did that?" the buffalo's voice was heard. Nobody knew if it was an angry question, or an impressed one.

"Nobody here sir!"

"Neither us!"

"We are still en route sir!"

Could be heard one after another through the comms.

"Does anyone have a visual at the source of the counter-attack?" The second question was asked.

"We are close to it! I can take a look at it with as much precaution as possible!" Judy said into the radio. "The creature is showing its back on us, sir! I can check out the source without being seen!"

"Alright. Confirm the identity of the attacker when it’s safe to do so, and get the hell out. The last thing we need is unwanted attention from that thing." Bogo said through the radio, and that’s all Judy needed.

"Copy that!" she claimed and started sprinting to the source of the previous fireball. She could hear a suppressed 'Judy, no!' from Nick but she was already halfway through the place where they had seen the source of the fireball. As she was approaching the place, she saw more and more civilians hurrying out of the area as quickly as possible. Some carrying crying children, and some just simply sprinting away with all their strength.

The fire department was there, trying their best in putting out the fire, but the water seemed to have no effect on the flames whatsoever.  

"Is that ice?!" A distant voice shouted, which made Judy curiously look in that direction.

"Don't be ridiculous Carl! Ice? In there? Keep spraying!" Another firefighter, a horse claimed, as the fight with the fire continued. Taking a better look at the debris, Judy did see something that reflected the purple flames, which looked like ice.

She quickly shook her head and kept on walking. Probably just broken window glass. There is no way it's ice, in summer, inside a fire.

She cautiously hid behind the wall of a building before taking a look at the other road. She prepared by taking two deeper breaths and finally peered to the other side.

She saw a bear who was standing in the middle of the road. He was holding a scroll in his paws and was reading something from it. The held paper started burning and turning into dust, the bear shot a bolt of lightning towards the creature that seemingly just got angrier, and prepared to shoot another flame. First, it looked at the bear, who already had another scroll in his paws, but the demon bird turned towards Judy. It hesitated. Almost like it was thinking about which mammal was a bigger threat. To Judy's surprise, she turned out to be the more threatening.

She saw as the creature released the fire, directly hitting her. There wasn’t any time to run or hide. She just watched as the first parts of the flames reached her, as she tried to block it with her paw. She thought it would be unbearably hot like any other fire, but it was the complete opposite. Just like the coldness in the creature’s eyes, the purple flames were the same. It could even change the feeling of a hot summer into an extremely cold winter. She felt the stinging pain all over her body, her head felt like it could explode any minute. It seemed like it would never end.

She saw a blurry picture appearing in front of her eyes, with a worrying sight… Hundreds of the demon she saw were flying around Zootopia. The sky was completely black. No sun, no moon, no stars, just the purple flames shining light on everything. But as quickly as it came, the picture faded. The cold didn’t disappear, but the stinging pain did. As she looked up lightheadedly, she had to get herself together to focus properly. 

She saw the bear holding up some kind of blue reflecting aura in front of them, directing its own flame back towards the bird.

“Come on you dull creature!” he muttered under his breath, before saying another weird-sounding word. That scroll started burning again and the dust that remained from the scroll formed a fiery ball around the bear’s paws. Swiping once, he threw another ball of flame, now directly hitting the creature. It gave a screech and spreading its dark wings, it flew up, fleeing from the scene.

“Oh no! No, you don't!” the bear shouted but it was too late. The bird dodged an attack that was directed toward it, and got away, leaving behind the confused rabbit, and the angry bear “I almost had it!” He shouted and hit the air while putting the scroll back into his pockets. “It was weakened! I should have made the killing blow… only if I had my sister’s staff…” He shook his head and hit the ground as hard as he could. “Ahhh!”

“Uhh e-excuse m-me…” Judy, while still shivering, said to the bear, who raised his head.

“Yes, ma’am?”

"C-could you e-explain…" Judy started but quickly got interrupted by the bear now with worry in his voice.

“Oh no… No…” He stood up and quickly ran to Judy, looking into her eyes “I was too slow with the scroll, wasn’t I? It already got to you…”

“W-what?” her senses started to fail her. Vision getting blurry, voices becoming blunter. 

“You are already infected by the rot. But how is that possible? The Bane’s breath shouldn’t be that powerful during the day...”

“The… Rot…?” Judy repeated slowly. She felt like she could collapse at any second. It took an insane amount of energy just to stay on foot, let alone focus on what the bear was saying. Were the streets getting darker or was it just her imagining things?

“I guess you here are more sensitive to it as you have no magic of any kind. Hold on for a second” He searched for something in his pockets and unfolded a paper. "Stay still." 

Judy saw the bear raising his Paw while holding the scroll in the other one. She tried grabbing her Tranquilizer, as she saw with her own eyes what those scrolls could do

"Stop r-right there! Drop the… drop the…'' She felt dizzy and cold. Her paws missed the tranquilizer holder three times, and when she did manage to grab it, she still couldn't raise the small gun. Not long after, her legs just gave up. Her body puffed l on the pavement, and she had a hard time staying awake. It wasn’t the 'It's evening' tired, more of a 'being awake for 7 days while sprinting 10 marathons' kind of tired. Maybe just a quick nap… Resting my eyes for a few seconds wouldn't hurt… Judy thought to herself and started feeling numb. Yeah… One tiny nap on this comfortable pavement…

She was about to fall asleep when suddenly a warm feeling snapped her out of it. It started from her chest, spreading throughout her whole body. Finally, she felt the summer sun shining on her again. As she opened her eyes, she saw the worried bear staring at her.

Judy sat up, grabbing her head with both of her paws, as she had the worst headache she'd had in years. "What just… Happened?" 

"Are you feeling alright madam?" The bear asked, still looking deeply into the Rabbit's eyes

"Yes… Yes, definitely better. What…What did you do?"

"Simple soul cleansing spell." He half shrugged like it was the most natural thing anyone could say, and started searching in one of his pockets "It makes the symptoms go away. The Rot, however... Isn't this easy to get rid of. Ah, where are my manners? I'm Lopeus. Son of elder Oblif." 

"Ahhh… Judith Hopps… Daughter of… Stuart Hopps…?" Judy copied the bear's introduction style. She had no clue what was happening right now.

"Pleasure to meet you, Judith." He took off his backpack, as he didn't seem to find whatever he was looking for in his pockets and started searching there. Not long later, he let out a victorious 'Aha!' and gave a round glass to the rabbit. "Take a sip."

Looking at the red-pinkish liquid Judy, gave a questioning look towards the bear.

"Come on! Take a sip! You definitely need it more than I do." Lopeus said like it explained everything.

Sniffing the liquid, she felt a sweetish smell, she couldn’t really describe. "Will it make the… Err… Rot go away?" Judy looked up, still a bit unsure.

For the first time, the bear gave a slight chuckle. "We wish it did. But no. It's an ordinary potion that gives your strength back. If you are weak, the rot will just consume you faster. Go on."

On a normal day accepting a suspicious drink from a poorly dressed stranger would have been a horrible idea. But this wasn’t a normal day by any means. So after giving the liquid another sniff, she finally took a sip from the bottle. It had some rather interesting effects. She immediately felt better, and it felt like she could take on a rhino. Heck, maybe even two, all at once!”

"Wow… I… Thank you? I guess." Judy said.

"You're welcome" He nodded and took the bottle, placing the lid back. "Alright so now what do I do?" He asked the rhetorical question while looking into Judy's eyes a bit longer than she was comfortable with. "I can't go back. Not while the bane isn't dealt with. And you definitely can't stay here. I have no idea how quickly the rot will spread, but it's stronger than in Armello. One creature did this in the daytime. I don't even want to tell you what it could do at night without anything holding it back…. I could also… No, I need my equipment."

"Okay wait… What is a Bane, what is the Rot, and where the heck is 'Armello?"

"I have to send you back.” He finally made the decision, and ignoring the rabbit's questions he picked up another scroll.

"Wai… woah. Put down the… paper and let's talk about this. 

“Look. I will teleport you to the closest dungeon to the rabbit clan. Taking you to any other territory would be foolish of me. Search for Amber, she will help you, and try to get to my sister, Sana. She is with the bear clan. Ask for the spirit stones and tell her I sent you! After you are clean from any traces of the Rot come back. I will take care of the Bane in your world, you take care of the Rot in your body.”

“Can't you explain things first?”

“With every second spent here, you will get weaker. I don't know how much time you have here, but you'll definitely have more in Armello. The Wyld will aid you. Remember, search for Amber!” he said and raised his paw again and starter mumbling those weird words. The scroll seemed to incinerate, and before she could ask anything else, she felt her legs leaving the ground as the winds whooshed between her ears. 

The ground suddenly disappeared and she felt a sudden free-falling feeling. Everything turned white, and no matter where she looked, all she saw was the endless blank space. This feeling, however, didn’t last for long, she finally saw the gray ground appearing under her, but before she could give a shout or anything she already arrived, landing surprisingly easily. 

She needed a few seconds to regain her senses, and after sitting up she looked around. It definitely wasn’t Savanna Central, or any Zootopian District to be clear, yet she felt some unexplained excitement. It’s like it wasn’t even her own feelings. The place looked like some kind of abandoned temple. There were 5 statues placed inside, all portraying a different mammal.

“What is this place?” she muttered, looking at the statues. Judging by the amount of dust gathered on them, they have been here for a few years now, at least 8 or maybe even 10. 

One of the statues was showing a wolf. Standing proud, with a sword by his side. ‘Thane Greymane. Wolfclan’s unstoppable warrior, showing no fear in battle.’ the silver letters stated at the base of the statue.

The second one was a bear with a staff, raised in the air. ‘Sana Oblif. Her knowledge of the Wyld may inspire us all!’ Sana… Judy recalled the weird bear’s monologue. She is supposed to be the one to help me with the… Rot… Whatever it is. But I would still need to find Amber…

The third statue showed a rat, with two daggers in paws. ‘Mercutio Il Ratto. Thanks to him and his quick thinking we were always one step ahead of our foes.’ 

The fourth one showed a rabbit with a sword and an… Umbrella? Judy tilted her head. Weird… ‘Amber Valdemir. Who showed us nobody should be underestimated in battle, no matter the size.’ Wait… Amber… She is the one I have to find! Judy’s ears perked up upon the realization as she tried to memorize the face. However, she still had to actually find this rabbit and not only her statue. But at least now she has an idea of who to look for.

There was still one statue she hadn't examined yet. The fifth one in the middle which was showing a roaring lion with a crown on his head. He was portrayed bigger than any of the previous statues. Something gave him a more fearful look, even Judy got the shivers running through her back. With golden letters, the following was written. ‘Tau Siame Kgosi, the great king of Armello, who united the clans against a common enemy under one banter.’

“Hello?” she asked in an unsure voice. All she heard was her own voice's echo and a few wing flaps of the birds nearby, that she had scared away.

"Hello!?" Now she shouted.  “Is anyone there?” Still nothing. The chunks of new information were twisting in her mind. She started thinking about the last words the bear had told her, to find some kind of... Rabbit clan? She recalled the discussion… or more like the monologue, the bear had given her. And Amber… she glanced at the rabbit statue.

“Nick, do you Copy?” she asked, and received nothing, but static noise. Of course... It would have been too easy.

“This is Officer Hopps speaking, does anyone copy?” She tried again and the same static greeted her. Suddenly she felt a bit nervous since she hadn't given any information to anyone about where she would go… And Nick… He will worry his tail off… Well… too late to think about that now. “This is gonna be fun…” she sighed and headed outside of the huge building.

Chapter Text

Leaving the temple-like building, Judy took a look around. There was a quite big field ahead of her, with a giant mountain on her left and a forest on the bottom of it. On her right, more grass was seen and in the distance, there was something like a village. She decided to head that way, in case that was the ‘rabbit clan’s’ place. If it weren’t it would be still nice to find someone to explain things to her right now. 

As she was walking towards the settlement, she heard more and more noise coming from there. It was certainly not empty, but looking at the variety of the mammals there, it obviously wasn't the 'Rabbit clan'. Either that or their definition of 'Rabbit' is different.

At first, nobody really noticed her coming inside. However, getting deeper in, she was looked at by many mammals, probably because of her dressing style. While she still had her police uniform on, everyone else had some kind of other dress, mainly similar to the 1500s style of Zootopia, just like the bear that sent her to this place.

"Uhh excuse me," she accosted a badger, hoping for some explanation. "Can you tell me where... Amber is?"

The badger looked up and down on Judy, with shrunk eyes and gave a disapproving head shake, like Judy was doing some kind of joke on her "I don't know. Have you tried asking at your clan grounds?"

"Yeah, that's the other thing... you see... the whole afternoon was a mess for me, and..." Before she could finish, she received an eye roll and then the badger immediately walked away from her "You are busy… sorry, I get it!" She shouted apologetically after the mammal, who didn't even bother to turn back.

She wasn’t sure where to go, but no matter who she asked, everyone thought she was just making jokes. Right… A rabbit searching for the rabbit clan, when it's supposedly nearby, may oppose some questions. Finally, a bull calf pointed her in a general direction, and having no better option she just thanked the kid and decided to head that way. 

Walking deeper into the settlement, she finally arrived at a marketplace, where various things were put on display. Food, armor, some kind of drink in a similar bottle that the bear had given to her. A lot of merchants stood there, shouting at the pedestrians to take a look at their goods. Next to the drinks, she saw a bunch of papers, and taking a closer look at them it turned out they weren't just papers. All of them had writings on. Some with longer words, some with smaller ones. These were almost the same ones as the bear used.

"You touch it, you buy it." An unfriendly voice warned Judy, to which she took a quick step backward. The rat gave one more 'I'm onto you' look and turned back to his previous customer. 

Judy didn't want any trouble. At least not on the first day of her arrival in this weird place. At a fair distance, she took a look at the label, reading 'spells'

"What?!" Slipped out from Judy's mouth. "Are those… Really spells?"

"What do they look like?" The rat asked back, pocketing the gold he'd got. "I can assure you, the best quality there is. You want to learn how to use the wyld? It's the best way!"

"How do they work?" She kept on pushing her luck, hoping to understand as much as possible about this place.

Unfortunately, the rat just shook his head and waved for Judy to move out of the way. "Will you buy something too or just waste my time? Give space for those who actually want the scrolls."

"They are for learning purposes." A new voice joined in. There was a hare a few steps away, who was looking at the weapon stand, currently having a long sword in his paws. He seemed young, perhaps 16 or 17, but the armor he wore made him look a bit older. "Scrolls are a way to help inexperienced animals master the Wyld. All scrolls are the same, so there isn't such a thing as best quality. If you learn the spell it gets the job done. It's not about the scroll, it's about your spirit if you can learn to use the Wyld."

While the hare kept on looking at the sword in his paws, the rat looked like someone who could blow up at any second. Even though he didn't say anything, he seemed to wish the hare into hell right now. Giving two test swings with the weapon, the rabbit sighed and placed it back on the wooden table. He picked up a sledgehammer, which was seemingly a bit too big for him, gave a nod as a goodbye gesture, and was already on his way.

Catching on the opportunity to ask the whereabouts of the Rabbit Clan, Judy hurried after the mysterious hare. He was definitely her best shot if she wanted to get to Amber.

"Wait! Hello! Hello! Hi!" Judy started, still wondering what to say to not scare away her potential helper.

The hare stopped in his tracks, and curiously turned around, to take a look at her. "How can I help you, miss?"

"I... Uhh... I need some help."

"I'm terribly sorry but I can't give you any gold. I'm short on that myself. If you want to buy scrolls..." He glanced at the merchant. "...There are better and cheaper ways to get one. There are even kind strangers who'll give it for free, with help on how to use it."

"Wha… Oh! No, nothing like that." Judy quickly answered, but now that the kid mentioned it, she realized that she had no money to pay for food or anything at all.

"Well then." The hare gave an encouraging smile while fishing a carrot out of his backpack. "How can I help you, fair lady?"

"I need to know... Where am I exactly?" The question felt stupid, but she had no idea how else she could approach this.

"Do you need a map?" Now he finally turned his attention entirely to Judy, curious why his help was needed.

"No… Yes… No… I uhhh... Can you show me where the Rabbit clan is?"

"Huh." He gave another smile in the corner of his mouth and took a bite from his food. "Didn't you come from there?"

"It would be long to explain exactly everything... It's complicated. I'm from… far away. I need to find Amber." 

"Oh... Amber, you say..." His enthusiastic smile faded, and even his ears drooped down slightly. "Yeah… should have known… Everyone wants to join her team."

"No! No, you misunderstood me. I need her because..."

"I understand," The hare held up his paw. "I think she is preparing for her next quest. You should be able to catch her before she leaves." He grabbed his sledgehammer again and waved goodbye. "Rabbit clan is that way, about 30 minutes' walk" He pointed at the road to his left. "Good luck!"

"Wait!" She said, making the hare turn around again. "Can you... lead me there?" It was getting embarrassing how much help she needed right now, and she didn't want to be a burden to anyone. But the sun was already on its way downwards in the sky, and getting lost in an unknown place in the evening was the last thing she wanted right now.

"Well, I mean…” The hare hesitated a bit then shrugged “I was about to head towards Arrowrest because I heard there are the finest weapons, but... I can't refuse to lend a helping paw to a beautiful lady, like yourself."

"Thank you" Judy gave a relieved sigh. "You wouldn't believe how much of a help you are right now."

"Come on! I'll show you the way." He gestured and walked out of the market, with Judy by his side. "Name’s Barnaby by the way." He reached out with his paw.

"Oh, Uh, Judith… Judy for short." She returned the gesture and shook paws with her new tour guide.

"Nice name. It has a ring to it and is special around here. Well, nice to meet you, Judith." 

“Same.” she smiled.

On their way out of the town, Judy tried to suppress the growing hunger, and tried not to think about her untouched salad inside their crouser… That delicious salad… If only she finished her lunch before the call came in… The fact that the hare was munching on the carrot just made the feeling even worse, but she felt like she asked for enough favors for today, and begging for food wasn’t on her to-do list.

“So… Forgive me asking," Barnaby glanced at Judy’s police uniform, breaking the silence "I know I shouldn’t poke my nose into other rabbit’s business but... What is that dress you are wearing? I keep wondering, but can't quite figure it out. Is that for some kind of performance?”

“Oh, this. Well… how to explain… you have… Police here right?” Again, she felt like she asked a stupid question and in any other situation, she probably wouldn’t have asked that. But having no idea what this place is, it was best to ask everything before jumping to conclusions.

“Police? What is that?” Barnaby chuckled, confirming Judy's doubts. 

“You know… The ones who… Uhhh… Keep up the order? The mammals who settle disputes... Lock up the bad guys?”

“Ahh, you mean like the Iron Guard?” 

“The Iron… Yeah sure.” Judy decided to just accept everything she was being told. At this point, she wouldn't be surprised at anything. “I’m just like them I guess...”

“Huh, and they say I’m insane for wanting to challenge Thane.” Barnaby grinned

“Thane? The… Wolfclan Warrior?” Judy recalled the name she had read on the statue.

“Yep! I want to challenge the sword master and warrior of the wolf clan! Looks like he has quite the name even outside of Armello if even you know who he is. They say he can’t be defeated, but… I studied his fighting technique. I should be able to win against him with the proper weapons... He defeated me once because of the weight of my sledgehammer. I won’t make the same mistake again! I have enough money for a better weapon now! I'm prepared for everything!”

Not knowing how to react, Judy just said “Well… Good luck.” to the rabbit walking next to her, who gave another chuckle.

“Heh. You are the first who didn't laugh in my face after telling my plan. I guess we both have big ideas, others think is impossible huh? I don’t know what this ‘Pole Ice’ thing is, or how serious that is on a scale from kids playing on the streets to the Iron Guard, but I hope you are happy doing it.”

“I couldn’t be happier,” Judy said, and suddenly stopped, as her guide stopped too.

“Well, here we are! The walls you see belong to the magnificent Rabbit clan.” Barnaby pointed at the two big towers in front of them.  “You can go down here! This staircase will lead you underground where the whole town is built. I think our ways will part from each other now. Anyone there can tell you where Amber is. She is what the… Clan prides itself on. I wish the best for you. However, if the Ice guarding won’t work out for you and Amber refuses to accept you in her party, I will welcome you with open arms to join me. I can also teach you a few spells if you want!”

“Ice guarding?” Judy asked back, thinking it was some kind of Armello slang she wouldn't understand, but right after that, she realized. ”Oh, the police! Yeah...”

“Goodbye, Judith! I hope our paths will cross again sometime. If you happen to pass through Arrowrest in the near future, make sure to give me a visit! Who knows? Maybe you’ll see me defeat Thane! It would be great to have someone in the audience who actually gives me a chance.”

“Will do. And thank you for the help!” Judy said, and with a final nod, the hare was already on his way again.

Back at Zootopia Bunnyburrow had some older houses built underground too, even Judy had a few stubborn grandparents, refusing to leave their burrows but other than that Bunnyburrow was like any normal town… The rabbit clan was the complete opposite.

On the surface, it wasn't more than a long farm field guarded by huge towers. On each tower there were two yellow flags flopping around in the wind, both showing two rabbits grabbing one banter. On the top of each outpost, there were guards, seemingly bored out of their minds and fighting the urge to fall asleep. On the field, a few rabbits were also seen carrying around half-full baskets of carrots, potatoes, corn, and other vegetables but none of the rabbits paid her any attention. They were more focused on talking with each other. Taking in the sight, Judy finally decided to head inside the tower, towards the staircases. Barnaby did say the town was supposed to be down there.

While going downstairs nobody stopped her to check if she was a resident of this district, which was a relief. They seemed to take security very seriously with all those towers and the last thing she wanted right now was to get arrested for trespassing or whatever the equivalent is for that in this place.

As soon as she finally arrived and saw the town, her jaw dropped. There were complete streets, houses, and even bigger mansions for rabbits to live in and the place didn’t feel stuffed at all as the streets were wide enough for everyone to comfortably get past each other. It wasn’t too dark either, as there were torches to light up the place. It felt odd how much light those torches gave but she just accepted it as 'magic'. 

The whole town reached for miles and miles and who knows for how long. It definitely wasn’t what she had expected from a burrowed town. It probably required some professional planning, or maybe even some magic to hold it together, since the whole thing just looked impossible to dig out. 

Snapping back from her amusement, Judy muttered “Alright… Amber...” and went to one of the jackrabbits who currently was talking to his buddy “Hey! I’m searching for Amber. Can you tell me where she is?”

“Of course. Third house on the left.” He pointed at a smaller hideout. “If you are lucky you can catch her to talk but she is not searching for team members right now.”

“It’s fine… I’m… Whatever. Thank you for your help.” 

“Don’t mention it.” The Jackrabbit turned back to his buddy. Quickly hopping to the small, cozy house, she made sure it was the one the rabbit showed her, dusted off her uniform, and knocked.

“Come in!” A voice was heard, but right after opening in, another one joined, 

“No, don’t come in!” 

Stopping on the doorstep, not knowing what to do, she looked at the arguing rabbits. One of them, presumably Amber, signaled to her that she could stay, but they needed to finish whatever they started.

“Look,” the male one said in an irritated voice, not even glancing towards Judy. “Don’t you learn from anything? You can’t just go there like nothing happened, and the whole place is yours!”

“Just watch me. You should be helping me, not working against me!” The doe said with crossed arms.

“Can you grow up already?" The buck said gritting his teeth. "Just think about it! We’ve found a Bane there once and we managed to escape by a fur’s breadth! What if you find it again, or this time two will charge at you at once?”

“Then we will fight it as a team!” Amber said seemingly annoyed that she had to say it out loud.

“Sure! And die as a team too, huh?” The male's counterargument was heard.

“We won’t die! I prepared for this, more than previously. I have the map and a sword, you have the spell knowledge! There are many valuable relics, I’m sure about that! Just trust me on this, would you?”

“You are one stubborn rabbit, you know that right?”

“And a pretty lucky one too, yes.”

“I’m out!” the buck raised his paws angrily and turned towards the door. “I would gladly die fighting by your side, but not for some foolish reason… Not like HIM.” He stepped past Judy and he was already outside, disappearing into the crowd.

"YOU REALLY HAD TO BRING THAT UP?!" She shouted angrily, but the buck was already nowhere to be seen. Trying to calm down, Amber sighed and looked at Judy. "My apologies. Go on, what do you need?” She asked in a calmer tone, but seemingly inside she was still fuming. Meanwhile, she walked to a pouch next to the table and started looking through its contents.

“I… Uhh… You are Amber right?” Judy asked. She had a vague idea of what Amber looked like, and the rabbit in front of her had a resemblance to the statue she‘d seen, but she had to make sure. 

“Yes?” Amber glanced at her visitor and then back at her belongings. 

“I need your help.”

“Who doesn’t?” The white rabbit sighed again, looking at her sword, and muttered “Little bit blunt, but still good for a few fights.” She was definitely somewhere else in mind, thinking heavily about something. 

“Look… I really need you to listen to me okay? It all started...” she began, just to get cut short by Amber.

“Can you fight?” she asked, with perked-up ears, like she just got an idea.

The question caught Judy off guard. She expected a lot of questions but mainly AFTER she was done with her story. And definitely didn’t expect someone to ask about her combat skills “Can I… Fight?” She asked back with a tilted head.

“Yes. As you can see, I need someone by my side for my next quest. Isn’t that why you are here? Joining? You will get your fair share, I give you my word for that.”

“I guess I'm not terrible at fighting but… Anyway, I'm not here to join, I'm here to… Ask for a favor?”

“We’ll see.” She threw her sword towards Judy by its hilt, who caught it. It was a smaller sword that she could hold even with one paw comfortably. Judging by the small scratches, it survived a lot of duels already. It also Had Amber’s initials carved into it. “Fight me! If you manage to hold up against me or defeat me, I will gladly help you with anything.”

“What are you going to fight with?” the question was heard from Judy’s side, while she grabbed the sword a bit unsure how to even hold it… She tried to recall all the stupid fantasy movies where they used swords instead of guns, to have an idea of how to do sword fights. Unfortunately, the only scene she could recall was one where a guy swung a sword around just to get shot by a gun.

“Let that be my problem.” Amber picked up her umbrella from the floor and pointed it at Judy “Whenever you are ready.”

“You can’t be serious!” Judy claimed with a mixture of disbelief and confusion. Is she really going to fight against someone with an umbrella? She thought to herself and gave a slight nod. The rabbit in front of her immediately charged in for a hit. She barely had time to react, but she did manage to dodge it with a jump sideways. She made a quick 180 turn and had to avoid the hit again, now barely missing the tip of the umbrella.

“Hmh. Your reflexes are good.” Amber noted to herself, circling a bit around Judy, trying to figure out her weak point. If only she knew, all Judy had were weak points with sword skills…

She finally made her next move. Judy thought it was another hit like the previous one, but rather than aiming at her body, it was directed towards her paws. 

She barely managed to hold onto the sword, and almost dropped it, making her vulnerable to any potential incoming hits but fortunately, her training partner waited until she strongly grabbed the hilt again. “Your grip could be better, but we can work with that. Alright. Let’s speed up things a bit.” She moved in now making multiple attacks. 

Judy somehow managed to dodge most of the hits even though it was a completely new way of fighting for her. She was almost surprised by her ability to hold the sword and reflect attacks at this rate. The training in the ZPD was one thing but this was definitely a more tiring way of working out. She slowly managed to pick up the pace of the attacks that were directed toward her and dodged hit after hit. 

When she felt confident enough for a counterattack, she took her chance. She pushed one of Amber's hits away from herself, and using this brief moment to her advantage, she returned the sword blow. However, this was dodged by a simple hop backward. 

Judy was about to apologize, realizing how close the hit was to Amber's head, but her words got cut short by the next set of attacks from the white rabbit. While Judy started getting tired, the same couldn't be seen on her opponent. What's more, her hits seemed to get ever stronger and more fierce as they fought. 

Knowing she wouldn't last too much longer, Judy tried a last attacking maneuver. However, she rather attacked Amber's torso. In her head that wasn't as brutal as going for the head…Well, again, the last thing she wanted was to get in trouble for killing someone, no matter how unlikely that was against Amber who most likely survived worse fights than this.

Judy's pathetic hit was immediately dodged. Amber just opened her ‘weapon’ to use it as a shield, completely stopping Judy’s swing. A full-force hit with a sword was deflected by a simple umbrella without leaving a scar on it… The brief moment of confusion was probably a room for counterattack because after closing the umbrella, Amber kicked Judy by the side who lost her balance immediately. Before she could get up the umbrella was pointed exactly at her neck.

“Not bad.” Amber grinned, like someone who figured out something life-changing and lowered her weapon of choice. “I think your disadvantage is that you haven’t used a sword before. Correct?” She gave a helping paw to Judy, who gladly accepted it after the tiring fight and stood up.

“Why do I feel like you were holding back?” Judy asked, placing her paw on her side, where she got kicked. It was still painful and if she didn't know how much worse a broken bone was, she definitely would have thought she had broken a rib.

“Because I did.” The simple answer was heard from her and glanced at Judy's paw that was still fixed on her side. “Are you okay? I didn’t mean to hit you that hard. The heat of the fight.”

“No, I’m… I’m fine.” She said, but she also needed a few seconds and took a few deeper breaths  “So will you listen to me now?”

“I’m all ears,” Amber said, preparing a cup of water for herself, and her fighting partner.

“I need you to help me get to the ‘Bear Clan’. Can you do that?”

“Bear clan? That's an unusual request. Why would you go there?“ she asked, taking a sip from her water, and giving the other 'glass' to Judy. She looked at the clay-made cup and sniffed the water "Don't worry, I'm not trying to poison you," Amber chuckled. "It's from a clean spring."

Judy took another sniff at the water, sipped a little bit, and drank it all up afterward. She was thirsty, and only realized it now. The fight and the fact that she didn't drink or eat since the morning, made her realize how dehydrated she was right now.

Spotting how thirsty her duel partner was, Amber offered another cup of water. Which Judy gladly accepted. As Amber poured it again, she said "You still didn't answer my question. Why would you like to go to another clan territory? They are not interested in trading… especially not with the Rabbit clan… Rat clan, sure, I make trades with them all the time. But the bears…"

Giving a sigh Judy tried to gather her thoughts. “It's a long story, but I’ll try to explain everything.” With that, she told what happened to her since the start of the afternoon. Everything about the Demon Bird’s attack, how she got into the purple fire, and how she got sent to some temple-like place after the bear chanted some kind of spell on her. Finishing her monologue, she looked at Amber, expecting a huge amount of confusion. However it wasn’t seen on her face at all. She just gave a small ‘Hmm’ and stood up.

“Lopeus told me he was going on a more dangerous quest. I would have never guessed he was about to go to another... world.”

“Wait... You are not surprised at all?”

“Well… If we weren’t close friends with Lopeus before the clans decided to hate each other again, I would probably think you are insane. But he came here this morning. He felt like he had to tell it to someone and given that his sister is really busy right now and his elders forbid him to go… I guess I was his third best option. Going to the bear clan won’t be easy though… Not everyone is as kind as… Lopeus is.”

“Didn’t you guys unite with the help of the King? ‘For the great king of Armello, who united the clans under one banter.’” Judy tried to quote what she saw under the statues.

“Heh, Yeah…" Amber gave a forced chuckle. "As long as the king cared about his kingdom, we kind of got along. Not everyone, but... we were at peace at least.”

“What happened?”

“Nobody knows." She shrugged. "There are rumors that the king completely lost his mind, and without him holding the clans together… We separated from each other like before.”

“But why?”

“Isn’t that obvious? Nobody trusts anyone who isn’t their kind. Only one spark is needed to start a devastating fire. Give the clans one reason, and they will isolate themselves… Well… As long as differences exist, we won’t be able to live peacefully next to each other anyway.” Amber shrugged. “We should go. I want to start today, and we should reach Ravenbrook before sunset. Come on! I’ll get you to the bear clan but I can’t promise anything though… They take really seriously guarding their territory. We will either get thrown out or… No, don’t worry about it. I can talk our way in… Hopefully!” With that, she turned outside, but one second later she turned back around. “On second thought, we should change your… Uhmmm… Outlook a bit.”

“Really?” Judy looked at her uniform with spread arms, then back at Amber. “Why?”

“Well… I don’t know… Maybe because if you stay in this jester costume, nobody will take you seriously. It would be even better to go without clothes. Would you like to do that?”

“No?”

“Well, it’s set then,” Amber said and went inside a room. She searched for a bit, then returned with a set of clothes “It seems like you are about my size. Try it on.”

Chapter Text

“Thank you...” Judy said, looking at the clothes she was given. She had no problem with the brownish blouse, but the yellow skirt felt a bit too much. "I always hated skirts…" She muttered under her nose but having no other option, started changing into her given dress. She was never the 'want-to-be-princess' type of mammal and only wore skirts on special occasions. So now it felt a bit out of place to try it on as an everyday wear.

After putting the clothes on, they turned out to be surprisingly fitting. It was a bit dirty, but beggars can't be choosers… It was still a weird feeling to wear something like that. “Not really comfortable…" She finally claimed while twisting her shoulders up and down. "And my back itches a bit.”

“It wasn’t made to be comfortable,” Amber claimed while scanning Judy’s new outfit and gave one satisfied nod. ”It looks great on you! And the itching might be because of the flees.”

“Flees?” Judy’s ears perked up, and the itching feeling got amplified to triple its annoyingness than before.

“I’m just kidding.” Amber grinned, and jokingly hit Judy on the shoulder. “The fleas shouldn't be there after 3 years. Come on! You can leave your previous dress here, I promise nothing will happen to it. Follow me when you are ready!” She gestured outside and left the room.

Judy glanced at her folded police uniform and said a silent goodbye to it. Her badge, radio, and tranquilizer were laid on top of the pile, and even though the badge and the radio would be useless here the tranq gun not so much. So she picked up the gun with its 6 darts in the holder and hid it under her clothes as much as she could. Who knows what the future will hold, it may come in handy that she has 21st-century tech with herself.

Going upwards on the marble staircase was more exhausting than going down, especially after a long sword fight. This whole experience sure made her grateful Bunnyburrow was just a normal town and wasn’t anything extreme like the Rabbit Clan. When her ears picked up on the light sound of the wind coming inside, she gave an inaudible relief sigh and after that they were out in no time, arriving at the bottom of a guard tower. 

Amber turned towards the sun, reached out with one paw, and closed her left eye. After two seconds she gave a pleased nod. “We have more than enough time to get to Ravenbrook. I’ve made this route in a shorter amount of time, packed with valuables.” She started walking to the left, where nothing but a long field was seen, with one larger path where the grass was walked down. 

Judy, while still trying to get her mind off the 'fleas' and having no other ideas, decided to start a conversation. That flea joke was really cruel on her part…

"Hey… Uhm… First of all, thank you for doing this for me. I’m not sure how I could repay you.”

“It’s okay. Don’t worry about it.” Amber waved her paw, but thinking about it she added. “Actually, there is something you could do. I’m a bit curious about something. You could ‘pay’ with some information. You said you are from a different world, right? How different is it?” 

“Well…” Judy said, gathering her thoughts. “For starters, we don’t have any magic… Here you can say a bunch of weird words and summon lightning! We… can’t.”

“Interesting… Well I mean we didn’t always have the knowledge to do these spells. A bear who lived more than 1000 years ago learned how to harness nature's energy, and passed on this knowledge to the next generations. The bear clan could probably tell you more about it… My point is, you may have magic just didn’t realize it yet…”

“I hope not…” Judy said, thinking about how much harder it would be to catch criminals who have reflecting auras, lightning strikes, and flameballs. “What spells can you do?”

“It’s nothing worth mentioning.” Amber shook her head. “Spellcasting is hard and can drain your energy for the day. If I do anything more than lighting a campfire I'll start to feel tired. Meanwhile the bears… They do complex spells without batting an eye. I was never the best spellcaster… Anyway, you should be the one talking. What clans do you have?”

“Not really clans… More like districts, with unique weather.” Judy said “We have 12 of those districts. Sahara square for mammals who prefer hot climates, next to it is Tundra town for others who prefer cold, Rainforest district for mammals who want to be soaking wet all the time…”

A bit confused, Amber glanced at Judy “Hot and cold next to each other? How does that work?”

“Climate walls,” Judy said, and realizing it probably required some more explanation she kept on talking. “There is a huge wall between those two districts. One side is constantly spewing out scorching hot while the other one is doing the same with freezing cold.”

“And you said you didn’t have magic!” Amber claimed, a bit dumbfounded. 

“It’s not magic… It’s…” Judy stopped, waving with her paws trying to find the perfect word for it. Now it was her turn to say a word that had no meaning to anyone else here. “Modern Technology… I’m not sure how it works, but it’s definitely not a wizard saying freezing spells all the time.”

“I would love to see that ‘Technology’ of yours. Promise me you’ll do a guided tour for me once we can send you back.”

“That’s the least I could do…” The gray doe chuckled. She could only imagine how excited Amber would be seeing the most common things. “If I can, I'll show you everything Zootopia has to offer.”

“And which ‘District’ are you from?”

“Neither. I’m from the Triburrow area, from a town called Bunnyburrow… It’s a rural farmland relatively close to Zootopia. It’s technically our own ‘Rabbit clan’ except more varieties of mammals are allowed inside. There are sheep, pigs, weasels, foxes…”

“Wow… that’s… interesting. You need to ask for a bunch of permissions before entering the Rabbit clan if you are anything but a rabbit. I remember how much Rusty had to endure while we adventured together. Our words are greatly different from each other, I have to say.”

“What about Armello?” Judy caught the opportunity to have Amber talk about her world. “I know I’m supposed to be the one talking as your ‘payment’ but… I just have to know your story. I already promised to show you around if I had the opportunity!”

“It’s alright. I changed my mind anyway. That ‘Zootopia’ visit is too intriguing of an offer to pass it up as my payment. So Armello… Well… There are 4 main clans. The Rabbit, Wolf, Bear, and Rat clan. Our ancestors agreed to share the land of Armello instead of fighting for it. The clan grounds have been set for generations, and only the clan members are allowed inside… As I said, sometimes outsiders do too, but it's a lot of hassle. Can you see that golden shining spot in the distance?” She pointed at something far away. Judy had to focus, but she did see something. “That is the castle, where our king lives. It was built equally far away from all clan grounds to represent the king’s loyalty to all four founder groups. Just like his father, our current king used to make trips to the clans."

"But you said he distanced himself away." Judy pointed out, remembering what Amber said. 

"Yes. After the war. He didn't seem like himself either." Amber claimed, a little bit buried under her thoughts. "You know, we had a feast celebrating our victory over the reptiles. He made an appearance, to show his gratitude, but even his speech… It felt like he didn't trust anyone, even though during the fight, he seemed to trust every clan with his life. The way he commanded our troops, and rushed into battle, without fear of dying… He was in the front line, defeating hundreds of scaled freaks… It was a huge moral booster to everyone."

"But if that's the case… Why did he become so protective all of a sudden?”

Amber shrugged “As I said nobody really knows. He started to doubt the trustworthiness of the clans, maybe? I have no idea. He just closed himself away, from one day to another without any warning.” 

Currently, they were walking past a bigger pond. Aside from the reed inside, there was only one huge Willow tree on land disturbing the setting sun rays that are reflected off the water surface. Noticing Amber’s silence, she glanced at the white doe, who was also staring at the lake with guilt-ridden eyes.

“Is everything okay?” Judy asked, putting a paw on Amber’s shoulder. 

“Y-Yes it’s just…” She sighed and glanced at the lake one more time. “Memories of a friend... Just keep walking…”

It would be a lie if Judy said she wasn’t curious about what Amber’s connection was to this lake, but knowing she shouldn’t push this question more, she just let this slide. She wouldn’t want to talk about painful memories to a stranger either, so she just gave a kind smile and nodded. 

“Honestly I’m jealous of what you have in your world,” Amber said after turning back to her walking partner, trying to leave the pond behind as soon as possible. “All kinds of animals living peacefully next to each other? That’s something we won’t ever achieve…”

“Yeah, about that…” Judy started talking “Zootopia isn’t the perfect place I always imagined it to be either. Just like you here… We have differences too. Stereotypes putting their label on any species which is hard to get out of. And to make things even worse, there was a sheep… long story short she wanted to turn prey against predators with the help of a serum. It technically turned any Predator that was exposed to it into a mindless killing machine.”

“Uh… Yes, I can imagine how that affected trust between everyone. And… What happened?”

“Her plan worked for the most part. It was a lucky revelation that stopped her and even though the reason to hate Predators wasn’t there anymore… the damage was already done. The gap between carnivores and herbivores is larger than it has ever been.”

Bellwether… simply remembering this name sent waves of anger through Judy’s body. Too many predators suffered the afterevents of the Nighthowler case. Even Nick got his fair share from it but he was never bothered by the threats. At least it didn’t bother him as much as it did Judy. All the injustice just wasn’t fair and most of it was thanks to that one sheep… She would deserve to die…

That last scary thought made her stop in her tracks. She would deserve to die? What? She was mad at Bellwether, sure… But she never before wished for her death. Even her paws were clenched into a fist, and realizing it, she quickly released them. She was confused.

“Are you alright?” Amber asked, a few steps ahead of her. “You look like someone spotting a Bane for the first time.”

Still looking at her now unclenched paw she moved around her fingers like she was testing if she was still in control of her body. “Ah, Yeah… Yeah… It was just weird… Uhm… How does the ‘Rot’ work exactly? Can it… Control you?”

Surprised by the question, Amber scanned Judy up and down, and then slowly started walking again while explaining what she knew. “Unfortunately, I don’t know as much about it as the bears do. It’s a powerful dark magic that requires sacrifices to be as strong as it is…  but if I’m correct the Rot can’t take control of you. It’s like a cursed sword. You are the one wielding it, so you have to make the choice of using it. But if you get a taste of what it can do, you won’t be able to stop and in the end, you would be bound to it with your life. If it gets destroyed… You die too.” Noticing Judy’s dropped ears, she hastily added. “B-BUT! Your situation is nowhere near that dramatic! Lopeus sent you here because he knew you could be healed. The sooner we get to the bears, the better…”

For the rest of the journey, they were mostly silent. Judy’s mind kept on thinking about the ‘Cursed sword’ example. If that’s true, these thoughts about Bellwether were hers, and it scared her. No… There has to be a valid answer to this, even though she had no idea what. No way that this sudden anger was just inside her all along.

While wondering about this, Amber started talking again, pointing at the lights of the settlement they were headed towards. “We’re almost here. I have a friend, who should be able to help us out. We’ll be able to resume our tour tomorrow, but we both need our strength.”

As they got inside the place, it was definitely a better feeling than Judy’s first walk into the other town. Finally, nobody looked at her like she was some outsider, and sometimes even received friendly smiles too. It was most likely because of Amber though, as she seemed to be quite popular there. A bunch of mammals wanted to talk to her but she kindly told everyone that she couldn’t talk right now as she had an important matter to do. That important matter is mainly sleeping but hey nobody had to know that detail!

After a while, she finally knocked on a door, and to Judy's surprise, a fox opened it.

“Ahh, what a pleasant surprise!” He grinned, “Lady Amber decided to visit my humble home.”

“Hello, Rusty!” She smiled. “Can we go in?”

“Wait. ‘We?’” the fox asked, opening the door a bit more. “Oh! Of course! Amber’s friend is also my friend!” He waved for the newcomers to get inside, so they did. Looking around, Judy saw that the house was bigger than she’d thought. The door opened into a living room, with a fireplace in the walls, and a few chairs pulled next to it. On the middle chair, there was some kind of stringed instrument laid down and a bunch of papers with crossed-out words. “What can I thank your visit for?”

“We just need a place to stay for the night. Is that okay with you?”

“Of course! Please be my guest!” Rusty smiled. “That’s the least I could do for Lady Valdemir and her newfound recruit. Ahh my bad, where are my manners? I didn’t even introduce myself. Rubford would be my good name, but my friends can call me Rusty.” He took off his hat and bowed in front of Judy. “I used to help Amber in her adventures. By her side, I never lacked songs to write.”

“Are you a musician?” Judy asked, putting two plus two together.

"I make poems." Rusty shrugged. "Sometimes songs. I used to amaze everyone in the tavern, but recently it got harder to find the perfect theme. It's a fate worse than death for a performer to lose their muse. I can find rhymes, but choosing meaning is the most important part… without a meaning… words are just words."

"Can you sing one of your works?"

"Nooo." Amber gave a painful groan "Don't encourage him!"

Giving a smug smile that dangerously looked like Nick's trademark annoying smile, Rusty just shrugged. "It would be rude to refuse a request like this." He said and sat down next to his instrument.

“What are you playing on?” Judy finally asked, looking at the thing Rusty was holding.

Glancing at Judy, then back at his instrument, he kept on running his fingers up and down on the strings. “Have you never seen a lute, my dear?” 

“OH! A lute! Of course!” Judy said, hitting her forehead. In hindsight, it was kind of obvious. It's a weird 1500s Zootopia with... Magic. He is a bard… "What else could it be?" 

Rusty ran through his paw on the strings and with a small smile he whispered “Perfect.”

"Well, get ready…" Amber said and sat down, accepting her fate of having to sit through another song. "Just don't tell me I didn't warn you."

"Are you comfortable with an improvisation perhaps?" Rusty asked, seemingly with some hidden intentions. It was some superpower of any fox of any world. They can make you walk into their traps willingly.

Since it would be awkward to back out now, Judy gave a nod. That's just what Rusty wanted. He gave an even larger smile, and after licking his lips to moisten them, he burst into song.

I always sing the truth, never tell you lies, 

That being said, you have beautiful purple eyes. 

Just like a violet, shines like an amethyst,

Only one pair like that could ever exist!

You think your fur hides it,

but I can see behind it, 

there’s something you can't cover,

Your blush with that red color.

But it's alright, my dear,

Here’s nothing you should fear.

Let your emotions flow.

For everyone to know.

But look at those ears, those majestic things.

If angels could choose, they'd swap their wings

Or are you an angel? The difference is subtle.

May I get your blessing? 'Cause I'll take double.

What's wrong my darling I made you embarrassed?

Perhaps it’s something I said in the past?

I'd tell you already, should I once more?

I could only repeat what I told you before.

It's alright, my dear,

There is nothing you should fear.

Let your emotions flow.

For everyone to know.

But oh, who's next to you, that beautiful maid,

A blooming white rose, with thorns like bloody blade

Innocent on the field, but shall you know,

You get on her bad side, you'll see her deathblow.

Those eyes sting the hardest, she needs no blades.

She could protect herself in all sorts of ways.

In the heat of the fight, she'll lean left and right.

Like the rose in the storm, showing no fright.

It's alright, my dear,

There is nothing you should fear.

Let your emotions flow.

For everyone to know.

After the final note played, he let it linger in the air for a bit then gave a grin. “So? How did you like it?” Rusty asked while putting his lute back in its place.

“Well, that was…" Judy said, searching for words. She looked at Amber who was already chuckling behind his paw. "That was definitely something.” 

Still grinning, Amber said “Told you to get ready! That’s Rusty for you! Try not to get too attracted to him... He does this to everyone.”

Judy gave one glance at both mammals next to her, and couldn't help but ask “Are… You two… Together?”

Hearing this question, both Rusty and Amber looked at each other, and after a brief second, they both started laughing. 

“No. But that would be funny,” Rusty said. “Even if it was allowed, we would kill each other by the end of the day.”

“Exactly,” Amber joined. “I wonder who would kill who though.”

“I think it’s pretty obvious.” He proudly sat straight and pointed at himself. “I… would probably die. I saw you fighting with your sword. I'm not half bad myself when fighting but wouldn't risk getting on your bad side. My heart is only beating for one vixen.”

"Please don't tell me you are talking about that piece of a scum bandit leader…" Amber sighed, to which Rusty gave a disapproving glare.

"Don't talk about her like that! I'm certain she didn't have a choice, but to join the bandits. She just needs someone to show her the right path."

"And that would be you I assume…" Amber turned to Judy for an explanation. “They basically first met, when Scarlet and her little gang wanted to kill us both, for whatever gold we had.”

“Her heat of passion during the fight...” Rusty dreamed. “I can still remember that day, clear as water.”

“Well yes… you wouldn't stop talking about her after we barely managed to escape. I remember the little songs you’ve written about her, and I had to listen to them, to give you ‘advice’ on how to improve… ‘Oh, Vixen of the woods your fur is burning fire. Your passion is my inspiration, my only heart’s desire.’ Oh, I was so fed up with your little rhymes back then. Have you even met her since?” 

"Well, no I didn't. But all is not lost, that is delayed!"

"Whatever you say…"

The rest of the night was spent with Rusty and Amber talking about their old adventures. They sure had great stories to tell, Rusty even sang one of his older works, which Amber tried to protest against but based on her reactions during the song she didn’t regret listening to it. All in all, it was a great night. In the end, they finally decided it was time to call it a day. They were offered to sleep in the bedroom while Rusty took the living room floor as a bed, and even though Judy didn’t want to kick the host out of his own bedroom, he insisted on having his guests sleep comfortably. So they said their goodnights, and it was time to sleep after this exhausting day. At least… it would have been time to sleep. Amber didn’t have problems but for Judy…

The night for her wasn’t the easiest one. Her mind was constantly thinking about the past day, almost like it was a dream and she would get out of it the moment she fell asleep. Unfortunately, it felt too real to be a dream. To make matters worse, she also heard a lot of drunk mammals singing close to the windows. She really had the urge to just look out and yell them off, but she decided against it. The behavior of drunk mammals is always hard to predict. They could break the window, maybe attack you. There was one occasion they had to answer a call regarding a drunk bear, who kept on smashing the tables.

"Oh yes, that was a great night." Nick chuckled behind her. He was at his desk finishing a report. "And when we arrived, the bear tried to fight us. In the end, when he was already in pawcuffs he tried biting everyone, including you. Fun times…"

"Yes. The best part is when they wake up in a cell, having no idea what they did." Judy laughed, while looking through her case report one last time, but she couldn’t really make out anything that was written.

"Oh boy, it's always a pain on the tail to deal with alcoholics." Nick stood up and stretched his arms. "That being said… Wanna have some drinks after work? Wine? Only a moderate amount of course." He innocently added

"I still have to finish this but… I wouldn't mind some company!"

"It's set then. See you in an hour, Carrots!" He did his 2 finger salute and disappeared from sight.

"See you, Slick!" As she stood up to go out of her office, she surprisedly realized that the ZPD was completely empty. Nobody in the hall, in the offices, or in any of the rooms. She could only hear the echo of her footsteps in the empty building.

"Hello?" She exclaimed, but no one answered her. "Nick? Are you there?" It was all quiet. No noise from inside, or outside. It was dead silent when suddenly, a screech was heard from downstairs. A familiar blood-freezing, screech.

Realizing how bad the situation was she started running. The demon bird is attacking the ZPD! As she reached the stairs, some kind of dark fog began to surround her. It was lighter at first, but became thicker and thicker, to the point where she could barely see her feet.

The faster she wanted to go, the smaller her steps seemed. In the end, she was running, but new and new stairs appeared, making her way down an endless journey. The stairs started to grow, or… was she the one to shrink down?

"Woah!" She barely managed to stop at the edge of the enormous stair, and now she couldn't even see the next one, only a dark abyss below.

Suddenly, two purple eyes appeared in the darkness. The creature slowly walked around Judy, just watching her it didn't move, nor attack. It just looked at Judy, almost curiously. It seemed like it was wondering what was so special about her.

"What do you want?" Judy whispered while slowly reaching for the beak of the creature. For a while it was calm, and almost let Judy touch it, however just before she could do that, it gave a wing flap and flew up. With it, the fog disappeared too.

“JUDY! HELP!” A distressed Nick was heard from just below. He was hanging on the edge of the pitless abyss, holding on for dear life. 

“Oh my god! Nick!” Judy wasted no time grabbing the fox’s paw, however, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t lift him up. She couldn’t muster the strength to help the fox. “I can’t lift you up! No... It can’t end like this!”

Suddenly the dark bird appeared in her periferal. It was just observing the situation, judging whatever was happening. 

“Help me!” Judy cried to the bird hoping it would help them, but it just curiously tilted its head, almost like waiting for something in return first. His paw was slipping out of hers, she couldn’t hold on much longer. “Please! I’ll give you anything!”

Almost like it was the magic word. The bird flung forward, but to Judy’s surprise, it flung towards her. It got closer and closer and before they would have collided, it turned into a twirling pile of dark fog around her. It felt like a pair of blue eyes was also watching her but whenever she turned to see them better they disappeared. Time seemed to freeze. Nick was still there but didn’t react. His expression froze on his face. Was the bird actually helping? 

The fog kept on whooshing around them, obstructing anything else from her view. It was just her, Nick, and the thick fog. Of course! The bird is still waiting for something in return! But what? That’s when her badge started to glow… Or well, whatever object in the place of her badge was. Taking off the item from her chest, she took a closer look at it. It was some uneven white orb, which shape was always slightly changing. It looked beautiful in its own way, almost hypnotizing.

The fog started to speed up. Whatever this orb is, this is what the creature wants in exchange for its help. But is it worth it? What is this orb? Somehow she knew she shouldn’t hand it over, she had a strong feeling it would be a bad choice. Whatever this is, it’s valuable. The fog was twisting faster and faster, getting more impatient. 

“I…I can’t give you this!” Judy said and placed the orb back in its original place. With one disappointed screech, the twisting fog stopped and formed back into the dark bird. It was angry, and now who knows what it was planning on doing. To her surprise, it was Nick who started talking. He looked hurt, disappointed even.

“You killed me, Judy… You killed me.” With that, he let go of her paw

"No!" She cried. "NO!" As she tried to regain her grip on Nick’s paw, something grabbed her from above. She was being dragged away by the creature. It flew higher and higher, leaving Nick falling into the abyss. "Let me go!" Judy shouted but realized her poor choice of words when the bird did as such. She started falling, with nothing to grab onto other than herself. The floor came closer and closer. She gave a silent scream, preparing for impact when her eyes finally snapped open from the nightmare.

Chapter Text

She was back at Rusty’s house. The sun had already started to rise on the horizon, starting the morning for all animals. Her heart was racing. She was hyperventilating and her thoughts were all over the place. The killing headache didn’t help the situation either. Nick may be in danger and she isn't there to help! While she is comfortably chatting with others here, others back home may be fighting for their life.

At Judy’s sudden movements, Amber snapped wide awake too, immediately grabbing the hilt of her sword, ready to fight. However after she realized it was only her traveling partner, she let go of it.

"What’s wrong? Is everything alright?" Judy saw Amber looking at her in concern. 

“Yeah, I’m… I’m fine… It's just a dream… Nothing more than a dream. Just give me a minute." She tried to calm herself down and think things through realistically. Nick can most definitely take care of himself, besides, Zootopia may not be in danger at all. The bear who sent her there seemed to know what he was doing. 

Perhaps by the time they arrive at the Bear Clan, he will be waiting for them with an ear-to-ear smile saying how quickly he defeated the demon bird. They magically remove the Rot from her, and send her back while saying tearful goodbyes. Be positive! Just be positive! She thought and started feeling better. Worrying about stuff that’s out of her reach is useless. Focus on getting to the bear clan first, worry about other stuff later.

Thankfully every worryful thought disappeared, but the killing headache stayed, demanding attention. 

While grabbing her own ears, she claimed "I’m alright except my head is about to blow up… Sweet cheese. Got any aspirin by any chance?"

"As...What-in?" Amber asked receiving a weak chuckle from Judy

"Heh yeah… figures. Any painkiller… potions?" 

"I don't know. I don't have any. Maybe Rusty has some."

"Eh don't bother. It will hopefully go away by itself." She finally looked at Amber with a smile, but she didn't return it. She just leaned closer, furrowing her eyebrows.

“Woah," She claimed, as her eyes widened while trying to understand what she saw. "Your… Your eyes!”

Judy shook her head in confusion. “What about them?” 

“It’s… Purple...”

“Yeah…" Thinking Amber was just joking, she rolled her eyes. "Rusty pretty much described it yesterday, thank you very much! I don’t need you too to write a song about it.”

“No! Not that!" She waved irritably "The corner of your eyes!” Amber pointed at the part she was worried about, like that could make it clear to Judy too. “It’s like… It’s swirling.”

“Swirl… What?” Judy looked at the window to see her reflection, but for a few seconds, she couldn’t see anything, other than a few mammals minding their own business. Then she finally spotted it. She carefully touched her lower eyelid to have a better look at it because it sure wasn’t an everyday sight to say at least. It looked like a purple worm crawling around in the corner of her eyes, with no clear goal. Just like the ‘Bane’ it also had a fog-like outline. It didn’t hurt, she didn’t feel anything, but simply knowing it was in her eyes made her horrified. “What in the world…”

“You said you were caught in the flame of the Bane right?” Amber snapped her out of her disbelief.

Still glaring at the tiny moving spot, Judy said “Yes.” 

“Well then… The sooner we get to the bear clan, the better… As I said they know a lot more about the Rot than I do. First, however, our main goal is Arrowrest, then I can plan our route from there.” 

“Arrowrest?” Judy turned to Amber upon hearing the familiar town name. “I’ve heard about that place.”

“Did you now?” Amber asked with one of her eyebrows raised.

“Finest weapons, right?” Judy turned back to the window, but the purple spot seemed to slowly fade away, and even her headache was less noticeable so the two were definitely connected. At least this can be crossed off the worrying signs… For now. Again… Get to the bear clan first, worry about other stuff later.

“Huh. Yeah. It does have the fame of selling good quality weapons, but… How did you know that?”

“I met a hare after I got sent here. He wore yellow armor, and had a hammer? He helped me out when I first got to Armello.”

“Oh, Barnaby?” She smiled.

“So you know him?”

“Yes, I do. He is a really talented rabbit but…" Amber stopped to find the right words. "Also quite naive if you know what I mean.”

“Just because he would like to fight Thane? Give him some faith!”

“He already fought him once and got… well… pretty badly defeated. I think Barnaby just wants to achieve something big and goes too hard on himself. Don’t get me wrong, he does have his own talent. For example, the armor he wears… It’s completely his own work. But he is just making a fool out of himself for trying to defeat much stronger animals. Play to your strengths, they always say, and not make the same mistakes, expecting things to change.”

“Well, I do believe he can defeat Thane. Our failures make us stronger!”

“You are just saying it because you haven’t seen Thane fight. We fought side by side back then… He had pulled me out of tight situations more than once, while he himself was fighting for his life."

"But Barnaby said he studied Thane's fighting technique!"

Amber chuckled and shook her head. "The members of the wolf clan are taught to be warriors. When someone turns 6, they will start their training. What’s more, Thane belongs to the Alpha family in his clan so he has to be the best of the best, otherwise once he becomes the Alpha other members could challenge him for the title. So yeah, just because you saw a few fights from a wolf clan member doesn't mean you've learned everything."

"Oh… uhm. So do you think Barnaby maybe has a slight chance?"

"Well… if Thane has a bad day, uses one arm, stands on one leg, and closes his eyes, then Barnaby might have a slight chance to win."

"Come on, it can't be that bad!"

"Whatever. Let’s go. If we walk a bit faster we might reach Arrowrest in time” She walked outside of the room with Judy behind her. 

Rusty seemed to be already awake, and he offered to make breakfast which Amber first refused. However after a bit of persuasion (and since Rusty gave an award-winning act on how unfortunate it would be to let the freshly bought vegetables rot away) she gave in. 

It was without a doubt the best breakfast Judy had had in a while. Of course, it may have more to do with her empty stomach than the quality of the food but she wasn’t about to complain. Rusty sure was a great host, and by the stories Judy heard, he was also a great friend of Amber. It’s perhaps both worlds' biggest irony how originally natural enemies become best friends if presented with the opportunity. 

After eating the food Rusty got them, they said goodbye to the fox and they were already on their way. 

They didn’t need much time to get out of the settlement. In about 30 minutes, they reached the edge, and the houses slowly disappeared behind them. All Judy could see was the field ahead and a quite high mountain further away, where they were headed.

She had to admit, Armello has its beauty. Various wildflowers were seen spread all over the field with bees flying around pollinating each one. With no cars polluting the air, it was a surprisingly refreshing walk. She always wanted to do this in Zootopia, she just never got to it because of work. Well, at least that’s one positive thing amongst the other worryful stuff.

After a few hours of walking, she had to ask “I really don’t want to be that annoying traveling partner but… How far is it? The Bear Clan, I mean.”

“About 2 days of walking.” Amber said, looking at the road in front of them “But if we are fast enough we might arrive there tomorrow noon. And… we will have time to get back to Arrowrest if we get thrown out.” She muttered the rest of the sentence, but it was clear enough for Judy to hear. “Now… I don’t really have any friends in Arrowrest, so we will most likely need to take a room next to the Inn…“ She said as she detached the little coin purse from her waist. She took a look at her remaining money and gave a sigh ”... Or just set up a camp somewhere, because I sure don’t have enough gold with myself… If only Mathias did his job properly, now I would have some valuable stuff to sell… But no. He messed up and pinned his fault on me!”

“Who is Matthias?” Judy asked

“The rabbit I argued with yesterday,” Amber said.

“Oh. And what was the thing you were arguing about back there? You don't have to answer if you don't want to… Obviously…"

"We got unlucky." Amber shrugged. "The Bane caught us off guard, which was his fault I might add! HE should have been on the lookout because I was too busy searching for traps."

"Traps?"

"Yes." Amber waved it off like it was some unmentionable detail. "The ancient ruins used to be hidden places for wealthy lords, who wanted their gold and other belongings as secure as possible. They paid the map holders, who had set up numerous traps so nobody could get to the gold except them. So if you can get your paw on a map…"

"Isn't that stealing?" Judy glanced at Amber

"Every single map holder is long dead, alongside the owners of the hidden gold. It's not stealing. They won't miss their money."

"But it belongs to their family!"

"They are free to discover the labyrinth themselves." Amber rolled her eyes. "Besides, that money would be just a tiny bit of their wealth. So yes. It is a bit dangerous, and since the whole place is dark, and the banes LOVE dark places, you can occasionally run into those. But he knew it from the start, so I don't know why he was this upset. He wasn't complaining when we shared the loot last time, and it was just as dangerous. So yeah if he didn’t chicken out we would be set for years with gold… Now… I guess… I can sell my ring...”

“Wait, no!” Judy interrupted. “Don’t sell your things just because of me!”

“It’s not only about you. It’s about both of us. I’m not really comfortable spending the night outside of a village on a different territory because of… Well… a lot of things...”

“The banes?”

“No, those aren’t my main concern right now, but yes, those are worrying too. However, I’ve defeated more Banes than I could count on my two paws. No, no! It's about Rusty’s ‘lover’ and her kind I’m worried about. In the open, there is a pretty high chance we would be attacked by some bandits, mercenaries or perhaps other clan members, and I don’t know about you but I’m not that good at seeing things in the dark. During the day? Sure! I’d fight anyone! But I can’t see in the dark. My only help is the light the moon can give. Other than that… there is no use for the fighting skill if we can’t see past our noses.”

“That’s a real moral booster…” Judy commented and received a shrug from Amber

“Welcome to Armello! Anyway, I think we are making good progress. Arrowrest should be on the other side of this mountain. Come on, let’s go.” 

“Are we going to walk up this mountain? Wouldn't it be easier to go around?” Judy asked and quickly hopped next to her tour guide. 

“Trust me, you don’t want to go that way. First of all, going around the mountain would probably last two times longer, and there is a huge swamp too. It’s not a nice feeling going through those, trust me! Not only it smells disgusting, but there is a big chance you would get hurt, or catch a few leeches, maybe some disease. I’d rather leave it out of our route if we don’t necessarily have to go through that, thank you!”

Giving an inaudible sigh behind Amber, Judy picked up a larger stick that would help her on the tour and followed her guide. 

They only stopped at the top to have a bite and take in the view. Arrowrest was a bit further away but at least she saw where they were heading, and glancing back at the previous settlement, she saw that they were more than halfway there. Amber also pointed out a huge tree in the distance further away, which was supposedly the center of the Bear Clan. Even from a distance, the tree seemed huge. Its branches spread out in every direction, covering probably miles. Judy could only guess how huge it would look close up.

After the quick sightseeing, it was time to keep going down the mountain which was a lot easier than climbing up. However, her legs started to hurt after this long tour. When they finally reached Arrowrest Judy gave a relief sigh as she felt like she couldn’t keep walking if it was another hour away.

Amber was quite confident, going through the streets, knowing what she wanted to do. They finally walked inside an Inn, where Amber led Judy next to a table.

“I know a guy who might be interested in this ring.” She said nervously touching the small golden jewelry that had a diamond in the middle. “Stay here, trouble won’t find you as long as you don’t look for it. Or in case trouble does find you, just yell for that guy over there. Any kind of non-set fight is illegal here.”

“What do you mean ‘Non-set’? Are there set fights?”

“Yeah. There are contestants from time to time who fight in front of everyone.”

“That’s not a… real fight… is it?”

“No, it has strict rules.” Amber calmed Judy down. “It either goes until first blood or until someone gives up. Whatever happens first.”

Giving a nod and looking at The small ring Judy asked. “Is that special?”

“This?” Amber chuckled. “You bet it is. I got it from my mother, who got that from their mother. The gem you see inside… grants the bearer strength in battle… or at least that’s what I’ve been told. It’s probably just some fairytale, but the diamond inside still should be worth enough to get 8, maybe even 10 gold if the buyer is in the mood for a bargain. We’ll be able to sleep in town.”

“Look, you really shouldn’t sell your ring just to…”

“We already had this conversation.” Amber held up her paw, silencing Judy. “It won’t take long, I’ll be back in a moment.” With that, she left the other rabbit alone. 

Having no better things to do she was just waiting at her table and looking around, everyone seemed to mind their own business here. Just as Amber said it seemed like a peaceful place, despite the fact it was an Inn. The constant noise of talking was sometimes interrupted with a wave of laughter and screeching of chairs being pulled.

“Judith!” A happy voice was heard behind her. Turning around, and scanning the area for a brief second, she started smiling too.

“Barnaby? What are you doing here?”

“Well I told you you could find me in Arrowrest. Oh! And I’m doing it! May I sit down?” He pointed at the seat in front of Judy.

“Sure! Go ahead!” She nodded, and watching the young buck taking a seat she asked. "Doing what exactly?

“Fighting Thane of course! It’s already set, and will take place in about 20 minutes.”

“Wow, you are… Sure determined aren’t you?” Judy laughed nervously. Amber’s lesson on how much better Thane is with a sword made her a bit less sure that Barnaby had a chance. Well… Amber may be just too biased….

“Yep! I studied his tactics in previous fights and practiced beyond exhaustion, so I’m confident, and that’s all that matters, isn’t it? If you'd like to bet you still can! The odds are… ehhm… 32 to 1… BUT! These guys don't know how prepared I am! The prince won’t know what hit ‘em!” 

"I don't have any money on me right now. But I definitely would bet on you!"

This little remark seemed to give Barnaby a bit more moral boost, as he gave an enthusiastic smile. "Thanks! So? Did you manage to catch Amber?”

“I told you I wasn’t searching for her to join her ‘Party’. I just need her for a favor, that’s it.”

“And that favor being… what?”

“I need to get to the Bear Clan, but it’s a long story.” Judy just waved.

“Alright. Personal things, I get it. Are you going to stay for the fight?”

“Oh… I… I don’t know. I mean I would like to but… I think we will leave as soon as Amber arrives from… the place she went to… Wherever it might be.”

“Hey, buddy!” A slightly taller jackrabbit walked to Barnaby. “Practice rounds will start soon. You should get ready. Don’t disappoint!” He patted the buck on the shoulders, and after giving a greeting nod to Judy, he headed back wherever he came from.

“Well… You heard him…!” Barnaby said while excitedly hopping off the chair. Sorry for the short conversation, but I gotta go. Maybe a drink after? If I win, you'll be my guest!”

“I’ll think about it” Judy chuckled ”Good luck with the fight!”

“Thanks! I hope I won’t need it though! I’d rather win with skills than luck! Hey, wait up!” The hare said and rushed after the other rabbit.

He somewhat reminded Judy of herself after her graduation. Ready to take on the world, no obstacle could hold her back! She just hoped his dreams wouldn’t ‘get crushed’ as Nick would say.

As time passed, and Amber still didn’t appear beside the table, Judy started to get a bit bored, and after another 10 minutes, worried. Amber maybe got into trouble, or something might have happened. However even if it was true, Judy couldn’t do anything about it as she had no idea where Amber went. 

Besides, she didn’t seem like someone you could just defeat that easily. She was definitely a greater fighter than her. Judy’s only defense was her tranquilizer gun with 6 darts. Other than that, she had no idea how she would hold up against anyone in a swordfight. Maybe paw to paw combat, sure. But nobody here seemed to prefer that style of fighting. Don’t bring your fist to a swordfight, they always say…

In the end, she just decided to give Amber a bit more time, stood up and walked towards the fighting area to see what that was all about. It was a circle ground, with a wooden fence surrounding it. There were already a lot of mammals standing there, chatting with each other, and waiting for the ‘big’ fight to start. Over the fence, there was a wolf, probably Thane, talking with someone outside of the area. Barnaby was on the other side of the arena, who kept on nodding as a jackrabbit was telling him something, wildly gesturing with his paws.

“Alright everyone, listen up!” A badger shouted in the crowd. He climbed onto a table, took a few more gold from various members of the audience, and then yelled into the crowd again. “The betting is now closed. So I hope you already did if you wanted to.” He turned to the fighting rivals “I hope you know the rules! The fight is going until first blood or until either side gives up. No lethal strikes shall be made, or you’ll face the consequences. Outside help is strictly forbidden. If I notice anyone getting any help, both the fighter and the helper will be banned from this place for life. You may only use your previously chosen weapon to fight, nothing else! If something happens to it, consider yourself defeated. No trickery of any kind! No blinding your opponent, or willingly knocking them over! I want to see an honest, clean fight! Knowing these rules, do you still wish to duel?”

“Yes” Can be heard from both sides.

“It is set! Both fighting sides please stand up, and grab your weapons!”

Barnaby grabbed his sword off the ground, and as a quick practice, he swung with it two times. Looking deep into his opponent's eyes the hare nodded, signaling he was ready. Thane did the same. Got up, lifted his own sword, and put his right foot forward to strengthen his balance. When he nodded too, the badger yelled ‘FIGHT!’ and Barnaby didn’t waste any time. He immediately went in for a sword blow.

Thane seemingly almost got caught off guard. Even though he managed to block the rabbit’s first hit, his eyes told everything, how he didn’t expect his opponent to be this fierce. He got forced further back to the fence while deflecting all attacks. He was aware of his disadvantaged position and tried fighting back.

With his eyes locked on his rival, Thane calculated where the next hit would land and dodged not with his sword, but with his whole body. He made a swift step to the right and made a whole turn around the rabbit. Trying his luck, he quickly made two hits, which the hare dodged, but was also forced to take a jump backward. Barnaby landed on his foot and helped with his arms to quickly get his balance back.

This set of maneuvers seemingly made his legs tremble a tiny bit, but he already moved in again. Thane’s surprised expression was now unmistakable. He was constantly held under pressure by Barnaby, who viciously tried to find an opportunity to make that winning blow. 

Iron met iron as they kept on doing this dangerous dance. Suddenly Judy felt like Barnaby could actually win this, and she couldn’t help but root for the young Hare. The audience's expression was almost the same as Thane's. Everyone expected a 10-second fight, where Thane wins with two sword hits, and nobody gave any fate to the hare. 

“Let’s go!” Amber’s voice was heard behind Judy, who completely forgot why they were here in the first place.

“Can we stay for a bit?” Judy asked like a kid from their mother while having too much fun. She wanted to see the end of this fight.  

“Why would you like to…” Amber started, but as her attention got directed to the fight she gave a painful groan. “Oh no…are you kidding me… He is just… Why?”

Feeling like she had to defend her favorite, Judy hurried for Barnaby’s defense “What? He has been doing alright!”

“Yeah… He didn’t get downed in 2 seconds, props for that…” Amber claimed sarcastically. “That’s one of Thane’s strategies. He won’t take risky situations if the opponent is too aggressive. First, pick a fighting pace, and search for weak points. He is just holding back to tire out our little contestant, and when Barnaby's attention weakens, that's when he attacks. Look at them.”

As Judy took a better look at the fighters, she saw what Amber meant. While Thane was still holding up, Barnaby seemed like he was getting more and more tired. Even his strikes were becoming less and less heavy. His starting momentum started to slowly fade away, and it was only about time when he would slip up.

“Great... Another strike to his, and the Rabbit Clan’s fame.” Amber shook her head. “Why would he do it again? Just… Why? I bet he just started practicing with the sword a few days ago and immediately calls out the Wolf Clan’s best warrior… You know what? We should just go. I can’t watch this… And we need to set up a camp anyway.”

“Oh… So you didn’t manage to sell the thing, huh?”

“No…” Amber sighed, twisting the precious ring on her finger. ”Turns out they were more interested in stealing this, rather than paying for it.” she said with a bit of a grimace on her face. “That was my only chance to sell it for a higher price. I could give it to anyone here for 2 gold but that’s not worth it. Come on.”

“Are you sure we can’t stay to see the end!”

“If you really want to stay… I guess we have a bit more time before it gets too dark but I can tell you what’s gonna happen, and I don’t need to see that.”

“Yeah! Only if it’s not too big of a problem though!”

“It’s alright… It's the first time you see a duel, so sure. Just try not to get your hopes too high…” She said and with that, she went back to their table.

Judy wanted Barnaby to win, but deep down she knew his chances were slowly reaching 0. At the start he was on the oppressing side, now it was Thane’s turn, and Barnaby had to deflect attack after attack. The crowd roared, sword struck sword, it was still not over. 

After Barnaby’s pathetic attempt at hurting the wolf, and swinging more widely than he wanted, Thane finally made his next set of quick moves, leaving fragments of a second for the hare to react. Barnaby’s ready for action, smile was nowhere to be seen. He was too focused on dodging the hits. Closing to the edge, he knew he had to do something or else he would run out of space. He tried to jump sideways, to gain more time, but his foot slipped in the ground and before he could get up, he found himself in the same situation as Judy did with Amber. He was on the ground with the sword being pointed at his neck. 

“Do you give up?” Thane asked. At least that’s what Judy could make out in the huge cacophony of the audience shouting.

Barnaby didn’t want to admit it, but he lost. He tried to ignore the mammals that put their fate into him, glaring at them from the audience rows and sighed. “Yes… I… I surrender.” Even louder, joyful roars were heard upon hearing these words from the Hare. He angrily looked at the ground next to him, unable to express his annoyance any other way. 

Nodding, Thane lowered his weapon, and after placing it back to its holder, he tried to give a helping paw to the rabbit lying on the ground. “You’ve fought well.” At least that’s what Judy could read out from the lips of the wolf.

Swiping away Thane’s paw, Barnaby got up without any help and not saying anything to his fighting rival, he left the stage. Nobody was stopping him either.

Feeling a bit bad for Barnaby, Judy let go of the wooden fence which was surrounded by celebrating mammals. Unfortunately, the hare was already nowhere to be seen, so she couldn’t say any consoling words to him. She just hoped this defeat didn’t crush the young hare too much.

“So what happened?” The white rabbit gave the rhetorical question, but of course, she already knew the results. She knew them a few minutes ago.

“Yeah… He lost...” Judy said with a bit of a frown.

“Well...” Amber stood up, “Let’s go. I can’t stand others' malevolent grin in my face.” 

“Lady Valdemir! What a nice surprise seeing you here.” The wolf that fought Barnaby hurried in front of them. He was slightly wagging his tail, and if Judy hadn’t seen Wolfard doing the same with his wife she probably would have missed it. Interesting…

“I knew I saw you during the fight! Oh, excuse me. Ehm..” He cleared his throat, and after straightening his back, he bowed in front of Amber and kissed the back of her hand. “It’s great to see you again. Oh, and I don’t think we’ve met before!” Thane said, turning to Judy, doing the same gesture he did with Amber. “Thane Greymane. A pleasure to meet you.”

“Hi! Eh… Judy Hopps! At your service!” Judy said hesitantly. The wolf is supposed to be a royalty of some kind if what she’s heard was true and she had no idea how to approach this situation “I-I’ve heard a lot about you!”

“Really? Well, all good things, I hope!”

“Prince Greymane… Defeating the members of the rabbit clan lately?” Amber asked with crossed arms and a disappointed expression. 

“Wasn’t my idea!" Thane defended himself. "When someone requests a rematch, I must accept it. What made you come here tonight?”

“I just wanted to… well... check in. Just passing by.”

“Do you reckon you have time to talk? It’s been almost a whole year!”

“I… I don’t know. I’d love to, but we should keep going to set up a camp before nightfall.

“You don't have a place to stay?”

“No!” Amber blurted “I mean Yes, we do have a place. Look, it's fine. We’re fine.”

“Well actually...” Judy intercepted “No we are not.”

Giving a heavy sigh, Amber closed her eyes. “Great...”

“Look." The wolf started ”I can give you some gold if you need it…”

“No. We’re okay! Really.”

“Look. I don’t need it back, and if you don’t want anyone to know about this...” He lowered his voice and shrugged. “I will keep my mouth shut. You can trust me, you know that.”

“Sorry, but I keep my answer. The last thing I need is others seeing me accepting handouts…”

“It wouldn’t be a…” Thane started but knowing Amber wouldn’t change her mind, he gave in. “Okay, fine! At least let me help you set up your ‘camp’. I can’t with good conscience leave you do that on your own. What kind of prince would I be to leave a friend in need behind?”

“Well…” Amber started, however someone else joined the conversation. Someone whose voice made Amber’s ears alertedly perk up.

“Well well well…” A polar bear said, walking closer to the group. “If it isn’t the great hero from the Rabbit Clan? Oh! And Prince Thane! I should feel honored to lay my eyes on you, your highness…” He bowed mockingly. “That performance was beautiful back there, you’ve earned me a few silver. Unfortunately, I’ve bet on a blood draw, and not verbal giving up… How foolish of me! I should have known that rabbits are...” He didn't miss the chance to take a deep look into Amber’s eyes. “...Cowards.”

“What are you doing here?” Amber asked with a bit of fear in her voice. Seemingly she was ready to pull her sword in any minute now.

“You know just… going around… searching for jobs. Don’t worry miss, you are already off the hook. Too big of a hassle.”

“You should go. NOW!” Amber said but her demand found deaf ears.

“Or?” The bear took a step forward. It wasn’t an intimidating one, but it did manage to make Amber take a step back. “Or what? You wouldn’t dare pull up your sword in a place like this, would you? Yeah, I just see you wouldn’t be strong enough.” He got even closer, now in slash range. If Amber wanted she could have ended this right now with one clean cut “Come on, I know you want to do it. The way I Did it to HIM.” He even revealed his neck a bit better. “What are you waiting for? Don't you want revenge?"

“You’ve heard the lady!” Thane interrupted, stepping between the bear and Amber “You need to go.”

“Is that so?” The bear looked at the wolf now with unmasked disgust “Prince Thane Greymane, the fearless warrior… What happened to you huh? Fighting like a kid against some nobody in an arena? No wonder your clan wouldn’t pick you as an Alpha and you stayed a prince. You’ve gotten weak!”

“That’s enough!” The wolf said between two growls. 

“Hmph” Smiling at his victory against the wolf he finally turned to Judy. “What do we have here? Fresh meat, on the menu?”

“Careful now, this meat might bite back.” Judy was ready to pull her dart gun at any minute. That was the only thing she had brought with herself to this forced trip and was glad she did. Easier to explain everything and she wouldn’t hurt anyone. She could point out that her target is just sleeping, and pass it off as some powerful sleeping potion. So she wasn’t intimidated at all as they had to deal with much bigger mammals in Zootopia who wanted to show how strong they were. 

“Hahah. Do you hear that guys?” It was only now that she realized the bear wasn’t alone. Behind him, there was a weasel, and a bigger warthog looking at the little scene. “This meat might bite back, and oh boy do I love when they try! Now darling let’s see. I know you are not from around here, it’s shining from you from a long distance, don’t even try to deny it. So… You are not with the rabbit clan, and definitely not from any settlements… If you, let’s say… disappeared overnight, nobody would care. Right?”

“Maybe… but let’s see things from a different perspective, shall we? I see you have 2 wingmen, brute force, and the ‘Clever guy’,” She pointed at the hog and the weasel, then at the polar bear “What is your position in your gang, huh? What are YOU? The way I see it… Without them, you are just a nobody…”

“What are you talking about?” The bear asked but took a step back. Judy definitely touched a nerve right there.

“Uhh, a sensitive spot there wasn't it? Yeah, I guessed so. You just like that sweet feeling of having full control over everyone. Add some anger issues, and oh boy, we have a complicated case on our paws. One thing derails from your calculations and you are clueless. Criminals like you always end up in cells, where they can think about where they missed their opportunity to be a better animal. Some can change, some can not. Which one are you?”

“The one that will smash your face!” He said irritatedly but Judy was already prepared. She pulled up her trusted little dart gun and shot the bear with one of her tranquilizer darts. It made its effect within the next second. After two unsure steps, the bear collapsed on the floor, and before his thugs could do anything she already reloaded her gun with the next dart in it in case one of them chose to attack.

“Boss!” The hog blurted towards the bear who was already in deep sleep. “What did ya do?”

“Don’t worry, he is just sleeping. He will wake up in a few hours.” She said while still having her weapon in his paws, just in case. She lowered her voice and leaned closer to the hog “If I were you, I would get him somewhere else before the gossip starts spreading that a… ‘Coward’ rabbit downed him in 2 seconds.” She knew her plan would work out. She had more than enough witnesses to clear her. Everyone saw who attacked first, even the mammals sitting nearby.

Without their leader both of the thugs were clueless about what to do, and because they didn’t want to end up like the bear they just lifted him and carried him outside.

“What kind of magic was that?” Thane asked, a bit amazed.

Shrugging, Judy pocketed her tranq gun. “Not magic. Just a bit of science. Who were they?” 

“Mercenaries,” Thane answered with a bit of disgust. “They would do anything for a bit of gold… Discounted if murdering is involved too.”

“You might want to slip your sword back to its place.” Judy pointed at Thane’s paw, which had the sword ready to strike.

“Oh… Yes, of course. Excuse me.” He quickly did what Judy advised and apologized to everyone staring at them. “They might want to go after you, you know… I advise you to be on high alert for a few days. They will forget, eventually… But don’t give them the satisfaction of catching you off guard.”

“Don’t worry. I know a few tricks.” She said and looked at Amber, who tried her best to look away. “Amber? Are you alright?” After a quiet sob, she couldn’t keep it in. She just started crying.

“Well… That’s embarrassing...” She said with a forced chuckle between two sobs, trying to hide her face. “I... I’m sorry you had to see me this… weak… I...”

“Don’t be ridiculous! How about we take a walk?” Thane said softly, then quietly added. “Away from all these curious eyes.”

As more and more pairs of eyes got focused on them, Amber nodded, and they finally left the inn.

Chapter Text

As they left the inn, the sun itself wasn’t seen on the horizon anymore, only the final rays before night would take over. Merchants were pacing away their goods for the night, mammals were heading home, and the trio was heading outside of the town to set up a camp.

Judy saw on Amber how badly the discussion with the polar bear affected her mood as she kept on silently staring at the ground. The wolf next to her noticed this too, as he kept on stealing glances at the white doe, wondering what to say.

Finally the prince broke the silence, unsure how to bring this up. “So… Ehm… Did that bear… I mean I understand if you prefer not to talk about it but… who did he…” 

The wolf couldn’t finish his question, as Amber already answered with the tears gathering up in her eyes again. “Guppy… He talked about Guppy.”

For Judy it was the first time to hear this name, but he definitely meant a lot to Amber. 

“Oh… oh… I’m sorry. I should have known. You never went anywhere without the little guy... I’m really sorry.” Thane said

“It’s all my fault!” She blurted. “I should have been on high alert! I knew… I knew…”

“Hey! It’s okay. It’s okay. Just… Just deep breaths! Tell me what happened.” The wolf suggested

After a bit of thinking Amber slowly started talking again. “I’ve heard rumors about an ancient place that nobody had looted. Everyone thought it was only a myth, but I didn’t... It was at the edge of Armello, inside a thick forest. A few days of walking with a map, nothing bad, really… I never heard anyone following us, and I made sure to cover my tracks! After days of walking there, and seeing the cracked walls, I got so excited, so… Careless… I got blinded by the possible treasure!” Amber stopped for a few seconds, taking a shaky breath, while staring in the distance.

“Guppy had a bad feeling, he wanted to turn back, but I just ignored him. I told him to stay behind, to be on the lookout, I was so stupid! The wooden chest was there! I got too distracted and… The moment I turned back, there they were, holding a knife to Guppy’s throat… I don’t know when or how they got there so fast… Before I could do anything, they already...” her voice cracked, as the tears flooded her eyes again and picked up eye contact with Thane “Do you know what his last word was? ‘Help’ I saw in his eyes that he was so terrified! And the worst part is, nobody cared! Not the Peacekeepers in the Rabbit clan, not even the members of the iron guard. He was an outsider to everyone, even though he was born in Armello! I buried him next to the lake near the rabbit clan… I met him there when he was a tadpole so it felt right to say goodbye at the same place.”

Judy had no clue what to say. She knew Armello wasn’t the safest place, but to hear a story like this, where someone was killed in cold blood while others didn’t even care… Poor frog had a cruel end.

“I’m so sorry to hear that. Losing a close friend is always painful.” Thane placed a paw on Amber’s shoulder. “But you are wrong. It’s not your fault. Look, I know this: Whenever I saw you two, he was happy… Well, on his reserved, quiet way of course. He loved adventuring with you. The fact that those lowlife scum of the earth mercenaries snuck up on you, is not your fault! I’m happy at least you managed to get away from them unharmed.”

Amber’s reaction seemingly caught the wolf off guard. She just turned to him and hugged the wolf as hard as she could. After taking a quick alarmed look around, to see who watched them, he slowly returned the hug. “Uhm… Alright. It’s alright.” He said awkwardly while patting Amber's back “Let it all out.”

"If I can't protect whoever is by my side, what kind of 'hero' am I? The king may have given me that title, but I don't deserve to be called that."

"Hey! You ARE a hero. And to me, you are much more than that! Without you guarding my back at the fight for Armello… let’s just say I wouldn’t be here.”

“Heh.” She let out a weak chuckle, swiping tears from her eyes. “We guarded each other’s backs with everyone there. That’s why it worked so well. Everyone was so organized, able to trust each other, under the lead of the king. Sometimes I wish those times back. Not the fight! The trust…”

"Yeah… The trust."

Realizing she was still hugging the wolf, Amber quickly pulled away. "I… Uhh… Please forgive me for getting you in an uncomfortable situation."

"No, that's alright! Really.” Thane said with a genuine smile. “It’s fine. I just hope it made you feel just a bit better.”

“And… Ehm… What happened to you?” Amber cleared her throat, hoping to divert the attention from herself. “OH! Ehm did you find the perfect ‘princess’ in the end? If I remember correctly last time we spoke you were troubled who to choose.”

Scanning Amber’s eyes for a while, he finally decided to not to talk about her lost friend and kept on walking. She most definitely didn't want to talk about it anymore. 

“Heh… Well… No. Not really. To tell the truth, I feel a bit ungrateful. My parents’ marriage was forced on them, they had no choice but to comply. I have the privilege to choose who I want to marry yet I’m not picking anyone. Part of me expects to arrive to my clan with a feast prepared, and a significant other picked by my mother… She never hid who she preferred. I just…” He suddenly finished his monologue, as his ears shot up alertedly. “We’re being followed.”

He quickly turned around and both him and Amber readyed their sword, just to see a rat with held up paws, a few steps behind.

“It’s alright, Sir Greymane, I'm not here to cause any trouble!” The rat claimed in a calmer tone, still showing his empty paws, A hood was on his head barely covering his eyes, it was obvious he didn’t want others to recognize him. 

Looking at each other, the wolf-rabbit duo pushed their sword back into their place, and Amber asked “Then why were you following us? How long were you there anyway? What do you want, Mercutio?”

“I didn’t want to disturb the private moment.” The rat claimed, but it was obvious he was up to something else that Thane picked up on too soon. “Erm… Not to be blunt but I’d like to talk to your squire, if you don’t mind.”

“My… Squire?” Amber asked, confused, then looked at Judy. “Why?”

“I saw her little… Ehm… Performance back there, with that thing on her side.” He pointed at Judy's tranquilizer dart. “Now… I’ve never even seen even spells working that fast on a bear. I was wondering if you would be willing to sell it for an honorable price?” He grinned with a golden teeth peeking out of his mouth, and showed Judy a pack full of gold. On one side of the coins a crowned lion was seen, while the other had some kind of shield imprinted. It didn’t really move Judy’s fantasy, but taking a look at Amber’s widened eyes, she guessed it meant business.

“Where did you get this much? Did you steal it from someone?” Amber gave the cautious question. To which Mercutio gave a dry laugh.

“Me? It’s disappointing from you to even think I would do such a thing. No, I earned it with honest work.”

“Can’t be that honest if you got paid this much...” Thane commented, and only received a stinging glare from the rat before he turned back to his hoped business partner.

Without listening to either white doe, or the wolf, the rat was now fully focusing on Judy. “Now.. I would be willing to pay for your little equipment, 20 gold, and 5 for each arrow.”

Arrow? Does he mean the dart? Judy wondered.

“Not a chance.” Amber closed the deal. “We need to go. Come on.” She signaled, but Judy just held up her paw. 

“Give me a minute.” She didn’t want to sell her only defense tool, but knowing they needed the money, she was up for selling one of her darts. Let’s see if I managed to learn anything from Nick… ‘Door-in-the-face’ technique should do the trick… Give an unreasonable offer first, then ‘generously’ lower the price. “I will sell you one of the arrows for 60.” 

"60 huh?” The rat asked with a half frown, ”What makes you think it's worth that much?"

"Well as you said, it worked faster than any kind of magic, and you could search through this whole place just to find out… There are only 5 ‘arrows’ left in this whole world, and all of them belong to me. So you either accept my offer or hit the road.”

“No one in their right mind would pay that much for one single arrow, lady!”

“These are special, as you've seen for yourself already. But you know what buddy? Just for you… 30 for one dart. I think it’s a reasonable price. 50% off. One time offer.”

The rat was still seemingly uncomfortable with the offer but after a bit of thinking, he agreed. “Erh… You do know how to bargain Ey? Erright… 30 for one.” He said and started counting the coins one by one, meanwhile, Judy detached one of the darts, and patiently waited until the rat was done with the counting. 

Nick would be proud of me… Judy thought. Not sure if it’s a good or a bad thing though…

Was selling police property illegal? It sure was, but no one expected anyone to get stranded in a different world so morals had to be put aside. Perhaps even the chief would agree this time, besides she would pay for the ‘lost’ equipment anyway once she gets home. 

After making the transaction, Amber took a coin and gave it a thorough look. “You should still check the gold. The rat clan is not really known for its... Fairness with transactions.”

Groaning, Mercutio just glanced at Amber “Don’t worry, it’s all there and real gold. I would never dare to fool a well experienced adventurer like yourself.”

Still twisting the little coin under the torch light Amber said “Just so you know… If it turns out to be fake…”

“Yeah, yeah.” Mercutio just waved “I will wish I was never born. Heard it a few times, and I’m still kickin’. But trust me… It’s all real. You know lady Amber… It’s ironic how you talk about trust but refuse to give it to others…”

“Maybe stop eavesdropping on others for information first.”

“Heh. You got me there.” Mercutio said, while gazing at the small dart, and giving the liquid inside a slight shake, he just nodded at them, and left. “Was a pleasure doing business with ya! See you ‘round!”

As the rat got outside of hearing range, Amber gave the coin she took back to its owner. “That weapon seems really powerful. I hope you won’t regret selling one.” 

“Nope...” Judy said and gave all the gold she just got to Amber “I definitely won’t regret it.”

“Wait… Did you seriously just sell it to give it to me?” Amber asked in disbelief, glancing at the gold then back to the other rabbit.

“No, I sold it so I could have something to give you as payment for your services. Plus you were ready to sell your ring! Since we are a team for the time being, I should be ready to do the same.”

“No-no this is too much, I can’t accept it! 30 gold is like… It’s a lot! A whole family could live off it for months!”

“You WILL accept it, or I’m gonna force you to do so!” Judy said, locking Amber’s paw on the money. “Look, you are way too kind to me, and you already helped a lot, knowing I can’t pay you. I just hope you will be able to get us a place to sleep, because as you said, night might not be the best time to spend out there.”

“Okay… But you tell me if you need something, understand?” Amber agreed, while pulling up her coin pouch, and grabbing it a bit tighter after doing so.

“Loud and clear. Ma’am.” Judy saluted

“Well… Let’s get ourselves a place to sleep shall we?” She said and started walking, but noticing that the wolf wasn’t following she turned back. “You can still… Lead us to the inn.”

Thane hesitated for a bit, then nodded. He seemed slightly disappointed that he couldn’t help setting up a camp, Judy even felt a bit guilty for ruining his moment, but safety was too enticing of an offer to pass up!

Even though the wolf accompanied them for a bit more, the moment they reached the inn he said his goodbye. Amber offered that he should stay, which he kindly refused. Perhaps going inside a room with two rabbits would have fired up some gossip which the prince understandably wanted to avoid, so he went on his merry way.

Paying the cost for the room, which was scandalous according to Amber, they finally had a place to spend the night in. She had to admit, it felt nice to be able to finally lay down on a semi-comfortable bed, even more so since the alternative was the hard ground.

“Thane seems nice.” Judy said, laying on her bed. “I’ll be honest, I expected him to be more…”

“Arrogant?” Amber finished with a grin.

“NO! I didn’t mean it like that! Not arrogant, just more of a… Royalty.” 

“Heh. You wouldn’t be the first to think that. And…. When we first met he was a tiny bit arrogant, I have to admit. But he meant well.”

“Actually, how did you two meet?” Judy gave the question.

“Oh, yeah of course. You don’t actually know the full story about the war against the reptiles. Did you have war with them where you came from?”

“Well, Not really. We did have… wars... but it wasn’t against reptiles, because… It’s complicated.”

“I see… Well… It was 8 years ago. The king was going around, gathering soldiers for the war, to protect our land. No matter what mammal you were, as long as you were able to fight, you had to go. So the 4 clans got united to defeat a ‘Common enemy’. We had the bears on the back, as they knew how to ‘Use the Wyld’. There were a lot of them on the front lines too, but most of them stayed behind, to heal our wounded, and cast spells from behind. The members of the rat clan were our eyes and ears, they gathered information about the enemy’s whereabouts, and came back to us at a record speed, without being seen.

Wolves and rabbits were on the front. For the wolves it’s obvious why. They train their kids to be fighters from the start. Mainly to protect their clan, but it helped in protecting Armello too. For the rabbits, I think the king counted on our quick reflexes… Well it worked out, so I suppose he was right. Every woman was working from behind the front lines too. The bear clan tried to teach us how to use the Wyld, potentially helping to heal our wounded. 

I gotta admit, I was a horrible learner. I’ve had some success at the start, and I can still do a few easier things but… I was just a dead weight, because I couldn’t figure out how to ‘Feel the wyld’s presence’ or ‘Imagine the words as I say them’... I wanted to help, and I didn’t want to just… sit there, while others sacrificed their life on the front. I was determined to sneak into the fight, once I figured out how to wield a sword. So… I started to go out in the middle of the nights to train. One night I’m out there like every single time, training by myself, and suddenly he is there, leaning against a tree. Do you know what his first words were?”

“I don’t know… What?”

“He just chuckled and said ‘You look pathetic with that sword, you know that right? Come on, let me show you how to fight properly’.” Amber imitated Thane’s voice. “He didn’t ask questions like why I was out there in the middle of the night, or why I was training with a sword. He just helped. I think it was our fifth session when I confessed my plans to him, that I wanted to join the fight. He just grinned and said. ‘Well, It's a good thing I’ve found you then, because you would have killed yourself with that poor grip’. 

We kept on training during the nights, and I got better. I couldn’t defeat him of course, but I definitely got more confident. One day… The rats came back exhausted from the running. They told us the reptiles are on the way with an all out attack, and will arrive in a short amount of time. Thane figured out I would sneak my way into battle, so he seeked me out and helped me under one condition. I would stay as close to him as possible. He got me out of way too many tight situations and even received a few scars in the process. Nothing our healers couldn’t handle, but still… He got them because of me. But of course I helped him out too wherever I could! We made a good team… Well, we won in the end, and Thane proposed me to be my clan’s representing ‘hero’ which to my surprise, was accepted by our clan members.”

“Oh, that’s why you have a statue?”

“Right… The statue. I almost forgot about that… Honestly I’m still confused why I was the one to get this honor. I was most likely chosen by my clan so they could earn the wolf clan’s favor since the ‘prince himself’ suggested me. I will never be sure.”

“Whatever the reason may be, I think you earned that title.” Judy reassured receiving a smile from Amber.

“Thank you. Well, let’s get some rest. Tomorrow will be a big day. Hey, hopefully you will be able to sleep in your own bed by the evening!”

“Heh… Yeah. Hopefully.” Judy said, and didn’t give voice to the hundreds of worries she had on the topic.