FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Zootopia Blues

• Chapter 21 of the Legends of the DragonRider

(...)

When Judy and Nick knocked on the door a couple of hours later, Anitra could thus receive them in a suitably throne-like chair, flanked by her two gleaming bodyguards - resplendent in Dragonforged Plate Armor, glaives in hand - while Direza once again played the role of the loyal handmaiden, mithril chainmail and spell-focusing bracers hidden beneath her robes. The pair had officially been on duty as her 'honor guard' since dawn, but in truth had been pursuing their own end of the investigation since last night. Clearly, they were taking it seriously - or, at least, Judy was, judging by the hand-crossbow that now hung on her belt instead of the night-stick she'd been sporting yesterday. Nick, meanwhile, seemed like the sort who didn't take anything seriously if he could help it - slouching into the mansion with his halberd casually resting across his shoulders and neck.

"Well? What did you find out?" Judy demanded without much preamble. "I found out that you were right." Anitra replied, before hesitating and narrowing her eyes. She liked these two well enough, but it was worth keeping in mind that their interests only aligned up to a certain point "...there is definitely a link between this 'Howler' drug and the therianthrope rampages. As for the specifics - why don't you tell me what you have learned, first?" The rabbit seemed rather unhappy with this response, and looked to be on the verge of objecting and demanding that she coughed up the results - but this time, it was Nick who stepped in, shaking his head. "Leave it, honey. This is how these kinds of relationships work. Payment on delivery, no credit." Was that slip a sign that the two were intimates and not just close friends and partners, or was Nick just the sort who called any female 'honey' if he thought he could get away with it? Honestly, Anitra could easily believe either of those. But regardless of their exact relationship, Judy seemed to accept his advice - taking a deep breath and nodding.

"Fine. As we discussed yesterday, we shook down every dealer in the Pleasure-district we could lay our hands on..." Judy recounted. "...with a little help from an old friend..." Nick interjected with a lopsided grin, glancing down at his long-eared partner. She shot a death-glare back, but it seemed to bounce off his smarmy grin. "Come, now, cottontail - every good watchman has a few underworld contacts..." he carried on, making his halberd wobble with a shrug. "I'm just awed at how good you are at that." Ignoring him as best she was able, Judy cleared her throat and continued, with Anitra not failing to notice the way she was strategically leaving out the matter of how they'd found all these dealers, and how they'd managed to make them talk. It wasn't as if they could sweat them back at the nearest guardhouse while running this kind of off-the-books investigation, after all...

Well, the results were what mattered. All of the dealers had reported that they received their 'inventory' - and delivered a healthy portion of the resulting profits - via cut-outs and dead-drops. Nobody knew where the drug was coming from, or who was making it - something they'd apparently stuck to even when asked very... emphatically, as Nick put it. However, they'd also confirmed that they had orders only to sell to Lagos, and to inform both their customers and any interested non-rabbits that the drug was poisonous to both Vulps and Therianthropes. A few of them had admitted to occasionally selling to therianthropes anyway, but only when the customer made it clear that he was buying it for a Lagos 'friend' of his.

"I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of those particular pills have wound up getting stealthily slipped into someone's drink..." Nick remarked darkly at that juncture, his customary grin giving way to a more cynical expression for the moment. "Contrary to popular belief, not every bunny is ready to bend over and lift her skirt at the drop of a hat, and some folks seem to take offense at that. Damn hard to prove after the fact, too." Judy's expression hardened as well, her ears drooping - and her reply was rather soft-spoken, seemingly directed more at herself than anyone else. "We catch the ones we can." Then, she seemed to shake it off and squared her shoulders again. "Anyway, I doubt accidental consumption of Howler is the cause behind the rampages - if it was, we'd be seeing most of them start in the Pleasure-District, but they're happening all over town. Actually, there's hardly been _any_in that district..."

That, it seemed, was all they'd managed to learn so far - which meant that it was Anitra's turn to cough up the results of last night's 'experiment'. "I gave a were-rhino a single dose of Howler." She told them, not bothering to sugar-coat it. "It sent him into a five-hour berserk rage mixed with a violent rut. He wore himself into complete exhaustion and finally passed out. Even then, there were trace amounts of the drug still left in his system - best estimates, it might've lasted for a total of seven hours, had it run its course uninterrupted. And yes, the 'test-subject' is fine - he left here quite cheerily, if a bit sore, a couple of hours ago."

The effects of this message wasn't quite what she'd expected. Judy's eyes widened - then her ears once again fell down the back of her head, and her paw reached down to touch the small hand-crossbow on her hip as her normally energetic face took on a downcast expression. "So... it is temporary..." she mumbled, pulling her hand away from the crossbow again, balling it into a fist. "They could've been saved..." Nick's expression was more indecipherable, but his usual, sardonic grin was certainly nowhere to be seen. "Hey. We do what we can, save who we can..." he remarked softly. Judy violently shook her head, as Anitra silently watched. For the moment, it was almost like they'd forgotten that there was anyone else there. It was just the two of them.

"If we'd simply... locked them up. Chained them down." Judy protested, squeezing her eyes closed. "Maybe they were exposed to a larger dose, maybe it would've taken a few days instead of a few hours, but... they were victims, just like the therianthrope community has kept saying. We should've saved them. That's our job. Instead, we just..." she angrily pulled the crossbow from her belt, and seemed about ready to throw it aside in a fit of fury and self-hatred - but one of Nick's paws shot out and stopped her, gripping her wrist tightly. "...that were-panther would've ripped right through that family if we hadn't stopped him when we did." His voice was flat, matter of fact. "Even if we could've captured him afterwards, even if he returned to sanity eventually... what kinda' life would he have had? Knowing that all that blood was on his claws? Cubs, Judy! We saved them. And if_he_ was someone worth saving in the first place, I think that's how he would've preferred it anyway."

This was a rather different side to what the fox usually showed, Anitra thought as she watched the exchange. More earnest, more genuine. His usual demeanor was one that eloquently said "I don't give a shit and you can't make me." This, though... this was him_caring_. Mostly, it seemed, about his partner. Regardless, the speech seemed to have had the intended effect. Judy lowered her arm, and while she still seemed to take personal offense to the crossbow in her hands, she no longer appeared inclined to wreak terrible vengeance on it. "You're right. I know you are. But I can't bring myself to be happy about that..." she said quietly. Nick sighed. "I know. But look at it this way - we aren't equipped_to catch were-beasts. Not sure _anyone is equipped for that. We're equipped to kill them if they become a threat to the city. That is our job. Straight out of that book you love so much, miss top-of-the-class."

With a slight shiver, Judy nodded - which apparently closed the matter. Or at least, Anitra didn't have the patience to let it continue any further. "If I understood all that right..." she interjected, making both of them jump slightly as they seemingly realized that they weren't actually alone. "...that tiny crossbow in your hands can kill a therianthrope? Even a big one?" Nick's flat glare suggested that he'd rather have let that particular topic drop at that point, but Anitra was curious now and, besides, it could very easily turn relevant. Judy, for her part, sighed and lifted the weapon again to show it off. It was a rather advanced little thing - suitable for small creatures like Lagos, but equipped with a closed magazine on top, and enough tiny little gears to mark it as an automatic crossbow, capable of reloading with the pull of a handle as long as there remained bolts in the box-magazine. Though, with the sizes involved, each bolt had to be little more than a large needle... "Potentially..." was Judy's answer, her voice still morose.

"But not by itself, generally." Nick interjected, seemingly taking over the conversation to spare his partner. "The bolts in there are tiny, but they're solid metal and long enough to punch through even a were-elephant's hide, if only just barely. The tips are coated in Wolfsbane Venom. A single bolt won't deliver much, but get a dozen or so into a target, and it'll be seriously weakened." Anitra nodded, catching on at last. "Wolfsbane - I've heard of that." She mused. "A poisonous plant that's particularly deadly to werewolves. It works on therianthropes too, then?" Nick nodded. "Yep. Big enough dose can kill them, but it's usually just used to slow them down. The watch has a whole playbook for dealing with were-beasts gone savage. The Lagos go in first, put a dozen or two needles in them while staying out of range with their speed and agility. Then, when the target's suitably wobbly, the Vulp go in - with these - and finish the job." The halberd that had previous laid across his shoulders came down, slamming its pommel into the marble floor for emphasis.

It looked like a fairly ordinary halberd at first blush... but, the edge of the axe-head, it had a rather silvery sheen, didn't it? And sure enough, as Anitra focused her eyes on it, she became aware of a shimmering, golden glow surrounding that edge. "Blessed silver..." she commented offhandedly. "Great against both weres and vampires. Where do you get it blessed, though? I haven't seen much sign of religion around here." Nick lifted an eyebrow slightly at how quickly she'd caught on, then shrugged. "There's a Temple of Thoth over in the academic quarters. Thoth is pretty big in the rest of the kingdom - favored by the king and all that. Several generations ago, they bargained with the Mayor at the time for the right to build a church here and preach to the populace - in return, they provide the city with all the usual Clerical services, as well as keeping the weapons of the Watch blessed up. Pretty decent deal, for us - especially since they never managed to convince very much of the populace to sign up. Some scribes and other brainy types worship Thoth 'cuz he's a God of Scholarship and Wisdom and so on, and a few of the more feathery therianthropes do too just because he's got a bird-head I guess. Temple's barely half-full for services most days from what I hear. We Zootopians are a secular lot, by and large."

All very enlightening - and it was good to know that the two guards, however quirky, were fully capable of protecting themselves from a raging were-beast if it came down to it. For now, though, it was time to discuss the results of their investigation so far, and figure out what to do next. Telling Judy about how she had 'allies' out in the woods, looking for any of the therianthropes who had been driven from the city after going on a rampage helped cheer the rabbit up, and soon the debate was flowing freely. "You said that your 'test-subject' was just as horny as he was angry, right?" Nick queried after some back-and-forth. Anitra nodded. "If anything, hornier than he was angry." Judy, despite a slight blush in her cheeks, seemed to be picking up on the line of reasoning. "There was no particular sign of arousal in any of the... victims of the past incidents." She commented. "Maybe because they got a bigger dose, or... a different formulation, perhaps?"

Anitra sighed. This stuff was beyond her - and, indeed, everyone else in her party. Direza was knowledgeable about magic, theology, mysticism and various other esoteric fields, but had never made a study of alchemy - and Blake was in a somewhat similar spot, just with a rather more practical attitude towards magic. Back in the Utopia, there were several brilliant minds they could consult with, starting with the Bicorn, Keltinor, who had provided many of the more specialized potions and infusions they'd used in the past. "We need to get the input of a good alchemist..." she declared out loud. "Who's the best one in town? If you can't get him to cooperate with your city-guard credentials, I've got a purse full of very persuasive gold..."

Both Nick and Judy winced slightly at the mention of alchemists. "Ah, well, about that..." Judy said evasively, while Nick sighed. "There's a handful of them around, sure. But most of them are low-tier practitioners, cooking up healing-potions and rat-poison, with maybe some cosmetics on the side to help pay the bills..." he remarked dryly. "We've tried running the Howlers past a couple of them, but all we got out of it was 'They're plant-based, probably'." Glancing down at Judy, he raised an eyebrow. "But, there is one exception. And I think it's about time we went to see him. Don't you?" Anitra's eyebrow was rising to mirror his. "Is there a... problem with this 'exception'?" She asked curiously.

Judy nodded, rubbing her forehead. "Kind of. He's a therianthrope - a were-reindeer, to be specific. Name of Tony Tony Chopper, but most people just call him Doc Chopper. Very skilled, very knowledgeable, real pillar of the therianthrope community, aaand our superiors have made it very very clear that we are not to bother him, considering the current tensions. Seeing their 'Doc' get hassled by the law could be the spark that sets off the current powder keg, is the worry." Anitra nodded slowly. 'Doc Chopper', huh? Kwato had mentioned him the previous night, hadn't he? From the sound of it, he was particularly knowledgeable about the therianthrope condition. "Sounds like we definitely need to talk to him..." she commented, jumping up from her chair. "Or rather, I_need to talk to him. And since you're currently assigned to protect and guide me, I'm afraid _you two have no choice but to come along, hmm?"

---

PREVIEW ENDS - read the full story, and find out who's behind it all, at my Discord-server. The link is on my front page, in the 'About' section.