Zootopia Adventures

The Stranger IX: Roadtrip

"Hey, those suckers really suck you know that," Nick snapped.

Judy raised an eyebrow. "About that; what's so harmful about the spray? I had never seen it in action yet," she asked, curious. I was intrigued as well – one being that I do wished to see how it worked in the movie; and second being that it mattered to me as well since it was relevant now. The closest guess I could base it off of was it being like a pepper spray, which was quite worrying as I have seen daredevils pulling off challenges involving exposing their faces to the spray. It definitely did not turn out well for them, of course.

"Getting a speck of that distasteful concoction into your eyes would make them burn like the eighteen layers of hell," Nick explained in a serious tone, ears pulled back and pointing a judgemental finger at the slot where Judy used to keep hold of that item. "I know that from past experiences."

"That must have hurt a lot," I pictured, making a mental note for myself. Fox repellent equals to pepper spray – avoid at all costs.

Judy snickered as she concentrated on the road ahead. "Then you are real lucky that I did not use that on you when you first hustled me."

"Believe it or not; I kept my eye on it throughout the whole time – could not afford a dumb bunny to be dousing me in that poison," Nick smirked as he spoke. "You should really get your dad to dump all those harmful products. I still have shivers thinking about him having a huge stash of multiple anti-predator related merchandises in the storeroom."

"He needs a while to adjust, Nick. It has not been long since he just started trusting predators," Judy noted, filtering to the side of the highway. She was silent for a brief moment. "So Richard, how old are you?"

Oh boy - here it comes.

"Sixteen," I answered.

"Gosh, you make me feel old just by saying that," Nick exclaimed. "I am exactly twice of that."

Judy chuckled slyly. "Maybe you should adopt him and be a father then."

"No thanks, I have Finnick to babysit already. I do not wish to be shorthanded," Nick noted casually, gazing out of the side window. "That fuzzy little stinker is already a tough one to handle – noisy, rude, violent... and always hungry for junk food."

"Aw, come on Nick; he isn't that awful. He helped me out went I was searching for you the previous time," Judy reminded him.

"Speaking of which, where do your parents live, Richard? We can escort you back home that way."

The question struck me like a crossbow bolt aimed straight into my forehead. My mind was a blank slate, devoid of an answer. It felt like as though I was a clueless participant in a famous quiz show - being riddled by a problem that I had zero knowledge of it. A set of multiple choices are shown; but only one was the correct answer. Should I approach it with a makeshift backstory, admit that I knew nothing of what happened, or give them a fake address? Worse still, the timer was ticking – counting down each and every precious second I wasted pondering on which course of action to choose from. As disarrayed as I was, I could not continue to entertain Judy with an absent-minded stare. I decided to go with my gut feeling.

"Actually, I don't really have a place there. My parents left me when I was very young; leaving me to fend for myself in the streets," I 'confessed'. Providing a fake address was dumb – I knew none of the street names to begin with.

Judy's ears drooped from my response as Nick somewhat appeared to freeze in his seat. "That must have been real tough for you, I'm so sorry," she apologized.