FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Zootopia - Spirit Chronicles

Chapter 1 - Encounter with Fate

The morning sun shone brightly through the blinds of the room of a certain apartment building. The light agitated the wolf's eyes, making him turn over in his bed to avoid the intruding rays of the sun. He tried to get back to his much-needed sleep, but the alarm clock on his desk had other plans. It proceeded to blast his sensitive ears with loud obnoxious music as if to say "Get up lazy butt!" Rolling out of bed he fell onto the floor with a thud, managing to take his alarm clock down with him. After turning it off he slowly picked himself off the floor, yawning loudly and scratching his tummy.

The wolf that stood up had light brown fur, with a big fluffy tail that stuck out of the tail hole of his blue boxers. He had dark green eyes that he barely managed to get open as he continued to yawn. Slowly the wolf made his way to the bathroom to perform his morning routine of showering and brushing his teeth. He inspected himself in front of the bathroom mirror as he dried and brushed his fur after a nice long shower. A little on the short side for members of his species, he stood at about 5 feet in height which was about one or two heads taller than a fox. As he continued to brush, he sighed heavily while looking at himself. The reflection in the mirror showed that he was skinny and weak compared to most other wolves. In ancient times he would be considered an 'omega' the runt of a wolf pack.

Placing the brush down he grabbed a large black dog collar around his neck. It was an odd but necessary fashion choice. The wolf placed it around his neck to hide the severely burned and bruised marks on his neck. Doctors have said that fur wouldn't grow there anymore and for the rest of his life he would have to cover it up to avoid unwanted attention. It was caused by an accident he had as a small pup, but it had been so long he couldn't even remember how it even happened. Or rather his mind permanently blocked those memories to prevent emotional and psychological damage. Either way most animals he knew seemed to like him wearing it, and he saw no reason to stop now. Another one of his favorite accessories to wear was a silver necklace with a picture of a wolf's silhouette howling at the moon. He smiled as he put it on; it reminded him of his father who gave it to him as a 'charm' of sorts. His father said it would help him be brave and strong, and while that stuff is inspirational to a small pup, the now jaded adult wolf just wore it in memory of his late father.

Grabbing his hooded sweatshirt with a crescent moon graphic on the chest area and brown shorts, he gave himself one more look in the mirror and stepped out of his bathroom. A large collection of video games was scattered across the room from his late-night gaming that made him oh so tired this morning. Walking over to his night stand he grabbed his prescription glasses and cleaned them before putting them on. He grabbed his messenger bag containing his laptop, portable game system, smart-phone, wallet, and some snacks, and headed out the door to go to work.

The brown-furred timber wolf ran down the stairs, passing by the landlady of the apartment, a small female porcupine named Mary. She was in her mid 50s, but she was both stern and fair with all of her tenants. "Oh my, if it isn't Mr. Alex Lykos! Have a great day today and please keep the noise down at night! I've been getting complaints that there is too much beep boop booms coming from your room!'

He stopped in his tracks and gave a goofy grin back to the landlady. "Sorry ma'am. I'll remember to keep the noise down." His voice was timid and gentle to the ears; he wasn't the type to raise his voice or get angry easily over petty things. Waving goodbye as he rushed out the door, he stepped outside into downtown Zootopia. The area used to be dangerous when he moved in a few years ago but it had been recently renovated as part of a city restoration project, and it had improved a lot in both appearance and safety.

Alex was a programmer by trade. He took on various freelance jobs to make a good living, and more recently he helped to code the wildly popular "Dancing with Gazelle". It was simple to program but he didn't understand the appeal of pop stars like Gazelle. It was good money so he couldn't complain too much. Soon he should have enough money saved up to move to a nicer part of the city with a larger room with which to put more video games and other electronics in. Basically Alex was a geek, making him the perfect bully magnet when he was younger: a predator that looked like easy prey amongst others of his kind.

Lost in thought, he wandered through the streets to the bus stop. As he sat on the bench made for larger animals he started to get sweaty. Even though it was a relatively cool day outside, he panted heavily as his tongue rolled out of his mouth. He felt like he was hallucinating and starting to see bright lights flickering in the distance, voices whispering dark secrets into his ears. 'Hehehe your soul looks oh so delicious! We are coming for you soon! Teeheheee!' The voices shouted as his view suddenly changed from a normal street with busy traffic to a nightmarish landscape. Rivers of blood covering the streets, bodies of dead animals hanging all around. The air smelled of death, and he couldn't get the smell of blood out of his nose. Suddenly he felt like he was being choked by an invisible force. Struggling to breathe he grabbed a hold of his neck trying to force the air in, coughing in the process.

"Hey buddy, are you ok?" said a nice and concerned deer in a business suit sitting next to him. Alex was snapped back into reality. Finally able to breathe, he dropped to the ground, his eyes wide in shock and horror as to what just happened. This wasn't the first time this sort of thing happened to him. When he was younger he would get these kinds of "attacks", but they stopped ever since he moved out on his own. Now a 26-year-old wolf was on the ground gasping for air in broad daylight and making a scene. He felt so embarrassed. The wolf got up and brushed himself off before he turned to the nice deer he said, "Yes I'm fine! Sorry!" and proceeded to leave the bus stop to get as far away as possible, not wanting to face the other animals or have them whisper things about what a weirdo he was. In the past when he tried to explain what was happening to him others would call him crazy or not believe him in the slightest.

He decided to just walk to work, even though it would take a lot longer. Luckily he got up early enough that he would still make it in on time. Walking along the busy sidewalks he came to a relatively empty street but soon saw a figure walking towards him. It was hard to make out at first but he soon noticed a police uniform and the large hulking canine in it. "Oh crap that can't be him, that jerk from high school..." he muttered under his breath. The wolf was large with jet black fur, yellow eyes, and large fangs used to intimidate others. The other wolf seemed to notice him, much to Alex's displeasure. Grinning as if he found his prey, he walked faster towards Alex. Panicking, Alex decided to duck into a nearby alleyway, but it turned out to be a dead end. "Great this sucks..."

"Well well, if it isn't Alex," the black-furred wolf said walking towards him, grinning.

"Jake Hunter, since when did they let you into the ZPD?" he questioned backing into the wall.

"That's Officer Hunter to you, runt! I just graduated recently. I would have been in the news due to my greatness but they had to make a big deal about the first ever fox police officer." he said in a loud authoritative tone.

Right, the first fox police officer, Alex thought to himself. He couldn't believe it had been more than a year since that savage case occurred. Alex lost a few jobs just because of his species during that time, all because of comments made by the first every bunny police officer Judy Hopps during that news broadcast. Luckily she managed to make up for it by bringing the mastermind to justice and making him and everyone feel safe around each other once more.

"Well it was nice seeing you again. If you'll excuse me, I gotta get going," he said trying to squeeze past him but ended up getting pinned to the wall by the large wolf. Jake was a huge bully back in Zootopia High School. He was a typical predator jock, but he seemed to love picking on Alex and other weaker predators more than the prey species, most likely because he would get away with it more. It would be a big deal to attack a prey species, but no one would bat an eye to a predator species attacking one of their own. This would later develop into a slight phobia for Alex against other large predator species.

"Sorry shorty... I'm kind of the law here, you need to offer me a little protection money if you want to be safe... can't say what will happen to you if you don't pay up," said Jake menacingly.

"Geez, you must have graduated most likely to be a dirty crooked cop from the Academy," Alex mumbled under his breath. He gasped to himself, eyes wide with shock. "Oops. I said that out loud, didn't I? Sorry... I didn't mean it." Alex had picked up a bad habit of keeping his feelings bottled up inside. Sometimes his mind would slip and he would blurt out whatever what on his mind. This did not make Jake happy in the least.

"You sure got a mouth on you, runt!" he said, slamming his claws into the wall and barely scraping Alex's cheek. "Just like old times...I'll make you regret being born!"

Closing his eyes, he waited for an impending attack to hit him, but just then he heard a young woman's voice yell. "Stop this right now Officer Hunter!"

The voice was coming from a young female rabbit in an officer's uniform, her arms crossed angrily and glaring at the offending officer. Her partner, a young fox named Nick Wilde, was sitting in the nearby parked police car and eating a red pawpsicle, keeping one eye open on Judy as she confronted the other police officer.

"Oh, sorry, Officer Bunny. I was just saying hello to an old high school friend. I wasn't trying to do anything to him, honest." Jake said, lying through his teeth to the bunny.

"That's Officer Hopps to you! That didn't LOOK like a friendly hello. I should report you for misconduct!" she said angrily.

While Jake was distracted, Alex took out his secret weapon against predators: a tiny spray bottle of 'Wolf Away'. He knew one day he would have to use it, even though he was almost starting to get used to being near larger predators. Carefully he opened the cap and sprayed it in the officer's face. But there was one small problem: in his haste the spray bottle was pointed towards himself. A spray of highly pungent odor made to make wolves prone got into his nose, his eyes, and a large amount of his throat. Part of the spray got into the other officer's nose as well, causing him to run off shouting, "You'll regret this, Alex!"

Unable to see or breathe, Alex collapsed to the floor. The bunny officer went over to help him with concern in her eyes. "Are you alright?" she asked kindly. Alex shook his head at the bunny. She frowned and said, "You took a large amount of this 'Wolf Away' spray; let's take you to the hospital just in case. Nick, help me get him in the car! ...Nick?"

Judy turned to her partner, only to see him laughing his tail off at what just happened. "What a dumb wolf! Hahahaha! Who ever heard of a wolf carrying 'Wolf Away' spray! This is so funny! Thank god I recorded that on my phone!" Nick said as he played the clip back.

"Nick! This is serious! He needs medical attention!" Judy said. Alex started to feel numb. The earlier 'attack' and this new one took its toll and he passed out from the pain. "Hey, Mr. Wolf, stay with me! Nick, hurry! He just blacked out!" Judy shouted. Nick quickly stopped the video and put his officer game face on. He put his aviator sunglasses on as he helped Judy take Alex to the hospital.