Summary:

Judy finally makes it back to the city that she loved that beyond time, Zootopia. She came back to finish the menace of Dawn Bellwether and her band of merry henchmen, but all she is left with instead is a mystery. At a loss as to where to begin, she falls back on what she knows and returns to the pole, seeking time to figure out a plan. But a month goes by, and she is no closer to finding a way to complete the mission that has defined two lives. Fate intervenes and she meets two mammals that will change the course of her life for ever.

Notes:

This is it. The last chapter in The Measure of a Mammal, of what we shall call Act One of the Legacy of Latrans. When I first started writing this story, I had planned to write the prequel and the current day stories as to separate stories, side by side. It ended up being too confusing for my test readers, so I commingled the two threads into one single story. A story that had originally been budgeted at 50 chapters and 150,000 words. Yet here we are at chapter 36 and the story is almost 2000,000 words. By chapter 10, the chapters began to grow, as works-in-progress tend to do, and it's now reached it's current size. At 200k words, It's a novel now in it's own right, and it has begun to groan under it's own weight. Thus with this latest chapter, we have come to a natural breaking point to finish out the first act of this epic journey that Judy has undertaken.

Flashback: Deep inside Zootpia

Judy sat quietly in the Beast's driver seat, parked on a side street just around the corner from her target. It was an ideal location, occupied but not busy so that her camper truck didn't seem out of place, and it provided visual coverage of all approaches. She didn't know if Dawn's rams maintained any form of over-watch of the locations, but for something as important as this location, she certainly would have, so she watched for observers on the grounds or in the windows. Sheep had excellent vision, with lots of coverage, and fairly good night vision; better than hers, at least.

That being said, it had been a minor miracle that she had even managed to find the entrance to the place. She had thought she had been sure of the location, but after 20 years of broken memories, some of those from a lifetime ago, she had been unable to find it on her first try, much less after a day's worth of searching. She had just not anticipated just how hard it would be to find the right abandoned subway station.

72 hours earlier

Judy arrived in Zootopia after driving cross country five days straight, only stopping to sleep in the camper shell when she was too exhausted from a full day's drive. Her transit time cross country had been stretched even because she had avoided the toll roads and major highways, trying to stay away from traffic cameras and any roving police patrols. She was a wanted bunny so that made her cautious, but she still had a mission she knew she had to complete, so that called for creative thinking on the route to Zootopia.

But as she approached the city's outer burrows and boughs, her risk of detection began to increase exponentially and she finally had to throw caution to the wind to drive the final miles into the heart of the city as quickly as possible. She had found a quiet spot, hidden under a bridge in the Rain Forest district by the shadowy gloom of tall trees, and waited a full day to see if her approach to the city had been noted. But after seeing that there were no ZPD patrols wandering by her vantage point, she felt safe in venturing out. She set out the next morning for some visual recon, dressed casually in shorts and a hoodie, just one more gray bunny tourist in from the Tri-burrows, merrily taking pictures with her camera.

As she wandered through the city, meandering here and there on a semi-random spiral in towards City Hall, she also soaked up the tension of the city around her. A general feeling of unease peculated up from the citizenry that she passed by, an unease echoed and amplified by the newspaper headlines. The rumors abounded on the mystery of the missing mammals, which had originally just been missing predators but now included some missing prey species as well. The rumors bounced all over the place, some saying the mammals had been kidnapped by a cult, or harvested for their organs, or even to make fancy rugs for mobsters.

Judy just snorted in laughter as she read one article in a tabloid that claimed the missing mammals had been abducted by giant hairless aliens with flat faces and glowing eyes. She shook her head in disbelief before depositing the newspaper in a park trashcan, just across from City Hall. She settled down on a sunny park bench with a good view of the front steps of that building and waited.

She knew where those missing mammals actually were and she was considering how to get the information to some mammals who could actually help. The mayor's office was right out, since it was Lionheart who had kidnapped them in the first place using a private security force of wolves who had hauled them off to Cliffside. The ZPD was the next possibility, except that according to the news reports Chief Bogo still wasn't taking the situation seriously, and she couldn't understand why not. Any anonymous tip she sent in might not actually get acted upon, or even worse, she might even accidentally open an investigation into herself which was an investigation she could ill afford at the moment.

No, if push came to shove, she would just drop a news tip to the ZPN, maybe with some photos of wolves guarding an abandoned Cliffside asylum. She could get those photos tonight , maybe sneak in from the forests that surround the waterfalls and take some night-vision footage to send to the network. Then perhaps an ambitious reporter looking to make a name for themselves would going poking about in all the dark places that Lionheart had thought he had well hidden from the prying eyes of the desperate public.

But for now she was conducting covert surveillance of her most dangerous target, figuring that it was best to get that task out of the way first. It wasn't going to be easy to get close to Dawn and pop her one, since there had been in an increase in security recently around both the Mayor and the Assistant Mayor. Some crazy whack-job of a honey badger had been making idle threats, blaming the current missing mammal situation on both of them, as proof that they were stooges of the Great Sheep Conspiracy. The ZPD had grabbed her out her barricade home and put her into an involuntary mental health hold while they tried to calm things down, but there were still enough of the loon's fans out there who believed her that they had increased security around the two mammals just to be safe.

Well, the whack job was right after all, but being right hadn't made Judy's self assigned mission any easier. It was going to be next to impossible to get in close now to do the job with a knife or pistol, and shooting her with a scoped rifle was right out. The best location for taking a shot at City Hall was right across the park behind her, and that building was none other than ZPD's own headquarters. She sure as hell wasn't gonna be able to waltz in there with a rifle. The next best location was the balconies that lined the roof of Central Station, and it was crawling with transit cops. Not that it really matters, since she didn't have a rifle, mind you, nor had she spent any time in the last few years getting proficient as a marks-mammal.

She watched as a pair of low slung black sedans drove past her vantage point and pulled in front of City hall. She could tell by their low suspension and weirdly tinted windows that they were heavy armored, and the growling note of the dual exhaust pipes indicated plenty of power under the hoods. Not something she was going to be able to chase down with a camper truck, even with Skye's modified turbo. The two cars parked in front of the City Hall steps and sat waiting. Moments later, a handful of city hall security guard came out on the steps and took up positions on either side of an imaginary path from the front door to the cars.

Watching them, Judy caught a glint from the upper balconies behind the entrances. Lifting up her camera, she zoomed in on the trees that lined the balconies, and there she quickly spotted first one, and then two separate snipers, one on either balcony, their body outlines obscured by their camouflage. She was only able to spot them because they were right where she would have put them, with easy coverage of the entire park and surrounding buildings.

Bringing her camera back down to the front door, she watched as a brace of rams in ZPD uniforms walked quickly out of the front doors in a diamond formation, shielding a much smaller mammal between them. Their eyes darted back and forth, seeking threats to their principle as they quickly made their way to the second sedan. She watched as they stopped by the passenger door and quickly open and closed it before piling into the other sedan. Both cars then quickly moved off, not back the way they came, but down a side street and disappeared around a corner. She looked back at the steps, but the guards there had melted back into the building, and it was like Dawn had never even been there.

Actually, Judy wasn't sure if she had been at all, since she never even saw the little ewe. Well, crap on a stick. This isn't going to work. This is the only location the ewe was consistently at, and that made it the best location for an ambush. On to plan B. She thought to herself. If Dawn was too well protected, she'd just have to cut Dawn's strings, and that meant finding Doug and his lab.

Except first she had to find it. She drove around Zootopia the next day, trying to find one dilapidated, closed and locked off subway station, and she just couldn't find the right one. She had found a few she could get into, but they didn't have a familiar abandoned rail car in them. At a loss, she retreated to the library to look up information on ZPD subway stations. There, as she conducted her research, she stumbled across an urban explorer's website, complete with photos. And toward the bottom of the page she finally found what she was looking for.

She sat outside as the evening sun dipped below the horizon, bathing the city streets in amber and gold, a veneer of gilding over the abandoned urban decay that surrounded her just blocks from the old Wilde Times amusement park. As the evening faded and night began to fall, but before the nocturnal citizens began to stir, she slipped from the driver side door and hopped around back of her truck. Taking a small gas can and some rags with her, she closed and locked the camper door before scampering across the quiet street to the building corner. Peeking around, and listening with both ears, she could detect no other mammals nor see any cameras covering the subway entrance, so she darted over to the gate and squeezed through. Hurrying down the stairs, she entered the gloom of the long abandoned station, lit only with old yellow florescent emergency lights. She waited as a subway train hurtled past before making her cautions way across the old tile floor, strewn with newspapers and discarded needles. And across the platform, and across the tracks, sitting on a siding, was her target, long abandoned and rusted, covered in familiar graffiti.

Slipping down of the platform, she gingerly stepped across the tracks, making sure to avoid the electrified rail, before walking over to the abandoned car. Quietly mounting the steps, she laid an ear on the door and listened for a moment. Nothing. Not a sound, so she chanced the door handle. Yanking down and pulling, it opened with a shrill squeal. She froze, waiting for some ram to come investigate, but nothing happened. She squeezed in through the gap and waited for her eyes to adjust to the darkened interior.

An adjustment that was harder than it should have been, since there were no purple lights hanging from the ceilings. She sniffed, but couldn't smell anything but the dusty ozone of the railway tunnel blowing in. She took out her flashlight and played it about the now empty space. No lights, no tables, no benches with chemistry equipment, not even the cork board with photos on it. The car was empty.

She played the light across the floor, and all that she could see were scrapes that indicated that heavy things had been moved and some random dark stains. She bent the floor and took a tentative sniff, but only the faint scent of pinewood from commercial floor detergent remained. Those bloody sheep had removed all evidence of Doug's lab, and mopped away the scent of Night-Howler, leaving Judy with nothing but echoing emptiness.

And no clue as to where they had moved to.

A month later, Judy still had no idea where to find her targets. It was if they had vanished along with all the other mammals that had gone missing. She had tried to send in that tip to the ZPN, but nothing came of it, as there were no reports of Cliffside in the papers or on the television in the past few months. Her photos and videos had just disappeared, and she was loathe to try again for fear that any further contact might be a trap for a careless bunny.

The disappearances had paused as well, and the city held it's breath, hoping that the worst had passed, that maybe it had all been the work of a serial killer who had moved on to new hunting grounds. Judy knew better, but she couldn't fathomed why Dawn had stopped the attacks. Had she reached some threshold in her plan to control the city? Was she waiting for Lionheart to screw up somehow, so that she could swoop in and save the city from the big bad predator? Or had her gang moved the lab to a more secure location and they were still setting it up, and then the attacks would recommence?

She didn't know. She needed information. She needed intel. But she didn't have any contacts she could trust in the city. She didn't dare get another phone in the city, just in case any new cell phone purchases were being monitored by the ZPD. She should have probably purchased one when she had passed through Podunk county, but she hadn't thought of it at the time.

Not that it mattered, since she couldn't figure out where Officer Nick Wilde had gone to. He, and his family, didn't appear to be living in the city anymore. His mom's old place was now occupied by some very pleasant beavers who had absolutely no idea were the former tenant had gone. She hadn't be been able to find Fennick at any of his former con haunts either. So she fell back on what she did know, and that was to seek employment in the city's centers of vice. Maybe there she might find some careless mammal who would boost of his misdeeds to an attentive bunny, and that would eventually lead her to Dawn and her goons.

Judy slowly slid down the pole upside down until her ears just touched the stage below her, her eyes lidded as her song drew to a close. It was a quiet night in the Sahara District club with only a few of the regulars at their seats behind the stage. She grabbed the pole and swung lightly back to her feet. Grabbing the bills that lay on the floor, she blew a kiss to her fans; maybe they would be up for some personal attention tonight.

But as she was ducking backwards through the curtain, she saw an older tod sitting in the corner watching her. He was sitting with his back against the wall just under the lighting sconce, his sky blue eyes sparkling as he leaned forward now that she was looking his way. She made eye contact with those eyes, and he raised his bourbon glass to her in salute, and she nodded back. Okay, so maybe he wasn't a regular, but she might start with him tonight anyway, and see what she could negotiate for later. It had been so very long since she last had a handsome fox to play with.

No reason she couldn't miss business with pleasure, right?

A few minutes later she came skipping out of the dressing rooms dressing a black mini and silver tank top, and made for the bar. She jumped up on a stool and ordered a carrotini from the bartender. While she was waiting for her cocktail, a rather inebriated badger clad in a rumpled evening jacket lumbered up to the bar and demanded to know, "Hey bunny, how much for the night for me and my companions." He leered down at her.

Judy looked over at him, a slight look of discomfort on her brow as she tried not to recoil from the whiskey on his breath, "You and your?" She asked.

The badger jerked a thumb claw over his shoulder at a brace of wolves, dressed like the badger, their tongues hanging out and a hunger in their eyes. Judy shook her head as she picked up her carrotini from the bartender, "Sorry, I don't do gang-bangs." She replied as she hopped back down and made her escape toward the back.

"Your loss!" The badger smirked as she disappeared into the crowds.

Judy made her way over to the corner were the tod was sitting and pointed to the empty booth seat across from him, "Is that seat taken?" She asked him. He just smiled and waved at it expansively. Judy set her cocktail down on the table and climbed up into the seat across from him.

She took a sip as he gestured with a paw back at the bar, "What was that all about?" He asked her, his modulated voice quiet and cultured.

She quirked a brow at him, "The badger? He was trying to arrange something for later for him and his buddies. It was a bit too much, so I turned him down." She shrugged, "Besides, something smelled off about him, besides all the whiskey on his breath." She beamed a heart melting smile across the table at him, "I much rather prefer gentle-males."

He looked embarrassed for a moment before continuing his questions somewhat innocently, "You mean like a personal dance, perhaps?"

Aw, is he was going be a sweetie?, she asked herself. "Among other things. Probably more, upstairs in his suite, later on. But five on one is a bit much for a simple country gal like myself. I much prefer more one on one interactions…. More intimate, don't you think?" She asked him as she gazed over her drink at his blue eyes.

"Ah? Oh. Um, yes, I suppose so." He stammered for a moment, before inquiring further, "Really? More? Can you do that here? I would have thought that all to be rather illegal."

Judy laughed lightly as she stirred her drink, "Not all. No, this is the Sahara Casino District. Most everything is negotiable here, as long as it's discrete." She snuck out another one of her sunny porn smiles onto her muzzle as she asked a few questions in turn, "Are you just visiting, perhaps? Your first time here?"

He smiled guilty, "To the club? Yes, sorry. I'm from the Isles, originally." He waved to the east vaguely. "Anyway, sorry… I just wanted to compliment you on your form. It was excellent." He held up his bourbon glass to her.

Judy ducked her head slightly and returned, "Thank you. I do what I love, and I love what I do. And I certainly appreciate that compliment." She let that all slide out to see what his response would be. She was certain that the older tod was very interested in what other services she could offer him tonight, but he was taking his sweet time getting to the point. Not that she minded, since he was courteous, and polite, and handsome. And achingly familiar. He was turning her on something fierce, unlike that gross badger, and it was always more fun to do a job while turned on.

"Oh, I know. I could see that. I'm a tailor myself." He fiddled with his glass for a moment, "Actually, young miss, um… I was wondering, um… I was wondering what else might be negotiable I mean, for later. Um… I'm John, by the way." He finished in a rush.

Sure you are. She thought with amusement . But he's hooked, so who cares if he wants to be anonymous. She swirled her glass a bit before downing the rest of her drink, and set it down gently to the side. She leaned onto the table table toward him and responded silkily, "I'm pleased to meet you, John. I'm J.J. As for your question, I'm sure an appropriate accommodation could be reached between you and I." Now she just needed to land him.

Judy lay on his bed panting, her paws clenching at the sheets, her eyes staring unfocused at the textured ceiling. HOT DAMN… the old t od knows how to use his tongue! She thought, as another shuddering ripple ripped up from her groin and traveled up her belly to her chattering teeth. If he keeps this up, I won't be in any condition for the rest! She reached out with both paws, almost screaming as she tugged on his ears, "Enough! I can't… I can't… Please, no more of that… I just need..." She pulled him up to her lips for a lingering kiss.

That was the other thing. John knew how to kiss. He didn't slobber all over her muzzle, or just peck dryly at her lips. He reached in and connected, fully and without hesitation, but sweetly and softly at the same time. She kissed him passionately as she waited for her hips to stop shuddering. She wanted the rest of him, and she wanted to be fully in control of herself when that happened. This was not one of those clients where she had to act like she was enjoying it, oh no.

She could also tell he was enjoying it just as much as she was. Once she had made it past the awkward negotiations downstairs and up to his room, he had proved himself to be ardent as well as skilled. Skilled and well endowed with paw, muzzle, and member. In fact, as she chanced a glance down to his sheath, she wondered if accommodation was actually even possible tonight. She hadn't had a male as well endowed as that in such a long time. She reached down to caress the tip before she turned her amethyst eyes back to his deep blues and whispered, "Please..."

He smiled gently as he moved upward, positioning his hips over her thighs. She reached down to guide him in, thankful for the two proceeding orgasms that had left her well lubricated and relaxed. As he slid the tip past her opening, her breath quickened as she struggled to accommodate the ever increasing girth. He slid to a stop deep inside of her and paused for a moment to let her catch her breath. He reached down with his muzzle and placed a small kiss on her brow, looking down at her with concerned eyes.

She smiled back up at him and reached up with a paw to caress his chin, nodding at him to continue. He turned and laid his jaw between her ears as he set up a slow rocking rhythm, like he had all the time in the world to make slow, sweet love to her.

Judy lay beneath him, her hips moving in time with his, her paws on his red forearms, her breath and his mingling hot and heavy on the still air. She was awash with pleasure, her mind going white behind her eyes as thought became difficult, and she was left with just one little regret.

It's been so long since I've been in the arms of a caring tod …

And he so good…

It's a shame I charged him the full rate…

Later, she stood in the room's shower, steam billowing around her as she let the hot water cascade down her, her loins pleasantly sore from the energetic endeavors of the evening. While she might regret those exertions tomorrow, tonight they had been well earned. She smiled besides herself. She had enjoyed that, more so than she had any right to.

She sighed to herself as she reached down shut off the water. Reaching out for the towel, she stepped lightly from the stall, and began to dry herself off. Once assured that she would no longer drip on the carpet, she wrapped the towel around herself and picked up her purse, which she had taken into the bathroom with her. He had been a sweet client and all, but she didn't need to leave him the temptation of seeking of a four fingered discount after he had already paid. He had been fun, and she had enjoyed it, but a gal couldn't be too careful.

Stepping out of the bathroom, she paused for a moment while she let her eyes adjust to the dim light. Her ears came up as she listened for his quiet breathing. Nothing. She grimaced, but wasn't surprised. She flicked on the room light, and her suspicion was answered as she looked over at the well-tussled bed.

He was gone.

She walked over to the dresser where his suitcase had been, but it was gone as well. He had left while she had still been showering, dressing and packing his things, leaving her without a whisper. But as she looked back at the bed with wry resignation, she spotted a little square of green. She reached out for it and picked it up. It was a folded up fifty buck bill with a note and a business card tucked inside. She unfolded the note.

-J.J.

I am afraid I must fly, as I have an early flight I must catch, but I wanted thank you for a most exquisite night, and I look forward to seeing you again should I return Zootopia in the future.

Sincerely,

John

Aw… He left his business card too, along with a tip. She grinned knowingly. He'll be back. She liked repeat clients, especially ones as charming and well behaved as he was.

She slid the bill and note into her purse as she looked down at the card. On one side was embossed a phone number, and on the side other were five short words in black ink.

Wyeld Fashions in Magic City

Judy started to slid the card into her purse, but froze for a moment. She brought the card up to her nose, and sniffed, taking in the older tod's scent. He had marked the card, and she breathed it in deeply. It was so very familiar to her, but she was having difficulty placing it.

Then it hit her all at once, like a cascade of crystal shard through her mind.

John

John Wyeld

John Wyeld, tailor

John Wyeld, tailor, with those deep liquid eyes, ardent paws, strong and supple body, and oh... that achingly familiar scent.

A scent she had never, ever, thought she would smell again in this lifetime.

The mingled scent of sun t ouched blueberries and wind swept violets.

She knew of only one tod who ever had smelled like that, but she had resigned herself to never smelling that scent so intimately again. It turned out that fickle fate had other ideas.

I'm sorry! I thought he was dead! He's supposed to be dead! She wailed inside herself. She darted to the door, hoping that perhaps he was just in the hall, and she could catch him before he left. But as she stepped out into the echoing hall, she knew that was a fools errand. The hall was empty. Dejected, she hung her head, and turned to return to the room.

Closing it behind her, she sat against the door and slide to the floor, as tears started to trickle down her cheeks. She sent out a silent plea, a prayer, a whisper, seeking forgiveness from the one mammal she had sacrificed everything for.

I'm so very sorry, Nick. I never knew he was your father!

Later that evening, deep into night, she sat back at the strip club's bar, nursing another carrotini, staring morosely at the wood grain on the counter top. A noise at the entrance, a bleat, and she looked up, hoping for a distraction to the cascade of guilt and pleasure coursing through her mind and body. But it was no sheep ram, no easy mark to distract for the evening, just a goat dressed in a black jacket and dark jeans. He smirked at her when their eyes met, but he made no move to join her as he instead put his back and a hoof to the wall behind himself. He leaned back and stared at her. What's his problem, she wondered, as she was sure she had never seen him before. Hadn't she?

On the other side of her, behind her still turned head, a small mammal was struggling to climb into the bar stool. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched as the bartender poured out a small tumbler of tonic and gin and set down in front of the new arrival. With a quiet, sing-song, almost kit-like voice, the other mammal asked her a question.

"What's got such a pretty young doe like yourself looking so sad this evening?"

Without turning away from the gaze of the goat, and thinking of her little dalliance with John, Judy answered honestly, "Males..."

The voice besides her agreed, "Yes, they're awful, aren't they?"

Judy turned her attention back to her drink, draining it before she added, "Sons stained by the sins of their fathers..."

"Males do tend to turn out that way..." the little voice observed.

Judy snorted, as she laid the empty martini glass back on the counter top, "Predators, all of them..."

"Oh, I know! They're the worst, aren't they? Awful predators. Just awful!"

Still in a bit of a haze, Judy turned back to look at the little fuzzy mammal sitting next to her, sipping her tonic and gin. She smiled up at the larger bunny, and pointed at the empty glass before Judy, "May I get you another?" She asked.

Judy stared down at the white fluffy furred female in shock and bereft of words, she just nodded. The bartender set another carrotini before her, having made one in advance for Judy. Shocked to her core by the sight of the mammal who was sitting just next to her, Judy took several quick sips of the drink to orientate herself. So fortified, she slipped her professional game face back on and turned back to the little ungulate to bathe her in a brilliant smile.

"Thank you, umm..." She left hanging, expectantly, even though she knew exactly who the bespectacled little female was.

The little ewe smiled up at her, "The name is Dawn."

Judy beamed down at her with a smile that radiated all the warmth and welcome she could muster at that moment.

"Why thank you, Dawn. I'm so very pleased to meet you. You can call me J.J."

Notes:

Measure of a Mammal may have ended with this chapter, but not Judy's story. Join us next week as as we start Act Two: The Measure of a Mission . The flashback chapters will show where Judy undertakes to infiltrate Dawn's nefarious organization, and seeks to bring about the end to the ewe's evil plans. In the Current Day chapters, the mission begins anew, as the echos of Dawn's machinations begin to overtake those mammals who have gathered around to support Judy in her time of great need. The first two chapters (Current Day and Flashback) will contain summaries of the two relevant story lines from Measure of Mammal, with hyperlinks back to the chapters so that new readers, or old, can reference back to previous story lines and important plot points. I have to thank you all for coming this far with me, and I hope that you can stick around for what is coming next.