and the rivers were none {Red}

[Nick Wilde]

Despite the fact that Nick had been born and raised a very urban fox, there was still something in him that found wild places strangely comforting. And after that whole escapade in the cafeteria, a little space was definitely a welcome change of scenery. He was not interested in poking around in any more close dark spaces at the moment, that was for sure. He'd taken his leave of everyone else, and had gone for a walk.

Everything had been happening so quickly since he'd gotten here. Spirit fox-deer-bird. Judy. Blob monsters. And he was navigating it all in a body he was still not even remotely familiar with. He kept catching sight of his reflection in things - puddles, shiny metal surfaces, even mirrors on some of the interior walls, and it was so foreign and unfamiliar to him. It was like watching someone else mirror his every move, and it made him highly uncomfortable.

There were no mirrors out here, though, just some old park furniture, a lot of long grass, and a lot of open space. Nick had said he was coming out here to clear his head, and that was exactly what he intended to do as he walked into the middle of a large clearing in the park space and laid down on the ground, spreading out in the grass that had grown up through the cracks in the pavement. He stared up at the sky, and he thought for a moment about the way nature reclaimed things for herself. The sky was as blue as anybody could hope for, and while he didn't fall asleep there, he definitely zoned out a little. When he was looking up at the sky, it was easy to forget that he was in a strange human body in a strange human landscape at a strange human school. The sky didn't belong to anybody, it just was, and somehow, that was comforting.

"Nothing but blue skies..." he hummed quietly. Ugh. Even his voice was strange. "I'm Nick." he said, out loud, tasting the way it sounded. "I'm Officer Nick Wilde, Zootopia police. Here I am. Looking at the sky. The sky is blue. Nick Nick Nick. Blech."

[Red Riding Hood]

Red had already been far more social here than she had been anywhere for as long as she could remember, and so far it had all gone fairly well. She'd even told someone about her wolf blood without it going badly, although admittedly he'd had wolf blood as well so it was to be expected, but even that! Finding somebody else who understood what it was like!
Despite her newfound ability to actually interact with other humans (or wolves. or snowmen) she still spent a lot of her time in the wilder parts of the school and the town - now that more and more of it was being reclaimed by the teachers and students, her options began to fall back to the forest and other areas of natural greenery that were being left that way, so she'd decided to come up to the town to explore a little more.

The former park was almost like a meadow now, and under the blue sky it was calming to walk through the long grass, feeling it brush against her calves. There were areas here where her wolf form would be entirely obscured, and she was almost tempted to change...the temptation was too great this close to a full moon, and it was only a few moments before a white and red wolf was standing where she'd been just moments before. Gathering up her clothes into her mouth, she set off bounding across the grass, making it whip around her as she ran.

She was having such a good time that the sound of someone else talking didn't catch her attention right away, whoever was speaking they were only a little way ahead of her, but she was moving too fast to do much about it. She skidded to a halt, trusting on the grass to keep her hidden... only to find the height of the grass fell away into a clearing where the man was lying, and by the time she'd slowed her momentum enough to stop, she was clearly visible.

[Nick Wilde]

If Nick had known anyone was nearby, he definitely wouldn't have been talking nonsense to himself just to get used to his weird human voice. That was just embarrassing, even by his standards of embarrassment (which were somewhat lower than most people's). He was just launching into a series of sounds that were undeniably gibberish when there was a sudden burst of movement in the grass off to his right, and then before he even had time to react to that, a wolf burst out of the taller grass and into view.

Oh, great, he thought, here we go again. He eyed the wolf cautiously. Was this a wild sort of wolf, or a civil wolf, or...was it his spirit guide, coming back to give him some more guidance out another broken window? Nick sat up slowly, not wanting to spook it, whichever of those things it might happen to be.

"Hey there," he said. "Don't mind me, I'm just...lying here getting some sun on my weird pink skin. You here to take me someplace? I gotta tell you, that bird thing last time, that didn't work so great for me, so if you can take it slow this time I'll be able to keep up way better."

He held a hand out to the wolf, open, palm facing upwards. Even as he spoke, he felt like there was something different this time, something about this wolf that hadn't been there when he'd been following the fox-deer-bird around. Maybe it was just that it was daylight now, and there wasn't any darkness or creepy exploding plants to endanger them both, but this wolf seemed way more confident than the fox-deer-bird had been before.

[Red Riding Hood]

No chance of turning tail and running when the man noticed her, and he started chatting away as if they'd already met. Were she human, she would have frowned, but in her wolf form she just tilted her head, confused. She'd never seen another wolf with colouring like her, and she dropped the bundle of clothes in her mouth to lean forward a little and sniff at his hand, just to check there wasn't anything familiar about his scent. There wasn't.

She hesitated, looking down at the bundle of clothes and then back up at him, coming to a decision, she barked at him once, nodding her head at him and tapping the clothes with one paw before giving him an expectant look, trying to express without the usual human abilities that he should look away so she could change back and dress. She had no idea if he'd understand her, she'd never had to try communicate with a human while in wolf form before.

[Nick Wilde]

Something weird was going on here. The wolf was giving him...some clothes? Nick picked up the bundle and inspected an article of clothing. Maybe his spirit guide was trying to help him change out of his uniform. Was he not supposed to wear his uniform here? He knew by now that he wasn't in the afterlife; Judy was here too and it was some other place entirely. But hey, maybe his spirit now-wolf knew better than he did. Maybe he was suppose to be completely in street clothes. Only...

"Uh, buddy," he said, laughing a little awkwardly. "These are not gonna fit me. These are definitely like...girl clothes." He took the clothes out one by one and laid them out, making sure none of them were suitable, which...nope.

"I really appreciate the thought, though," he added, not wanting to sound ungrateful. "Like, this is really cool of you to bring me these. I just don't think I can even get 'em on my body, you know?"

[Red Riding Hood]

If it was possible for wolves to give someone a withering stare, Red would be giving him a withering stare. As it was, she was making a damn good go at it. She wanted to grab her clothes from him but she also didn't want to get into accidental tug-of-wars with him and end up with her things getting ripped, so she waited until he was finished being an idiot and then went over to the clothes, picking them up again in her jaws and dragging them back into a pile.

She barked at him again, walking over to him and nudging him with her snout, looking up at him and turning around before nudging him again. This was ridiculous. If she tried to leave he was probably just going to follow her - he said he would, after all - and there was nowhere nearby she could change without basically being naked in front of him, but if he didn't hurry up and get the picture she was just going to throw caution to the wind and do it anyway.

[Nick Wilde]

Nick was not following this at all. The wolf almost looked...exasperated with him? How was he supposed to react that that? His spirit wolf was even ready to give up on him, that didn't do much for his confidence. He clearly had offended the wolf or something by laying the clothes out, so he didn't try to touch the clothes again once they were back in a pile. Then she came right up to him and nudged him, which was way more physical than the spirit guide had gotten before.

"Hey, yeah, um..." Was he supposed to nudge back? He reached down and rubbed the top of her head gently. "Good...spirit wolf. Thank you for the clothes, even if they won't fit. Really. It was so nice of you to bring them to me." She was turning in a circle now, and he wasn't quite sure what that meant. Was he supposed to turn in a circle, too? He did so, turning slowly 360 degrees until he was facing her again. Maybe this was some kind of ritual.

[Red Riding Hood]

The touch on the top of her head made her growl. She was not a dog to be pet, she was a wolf. Even if it did feel kind of nice, it was humiliating and if he tried it again he was getting his hand bitten off.

At least he started to turn and-nope, he turned all the way around. She wished she could just decide he was an idiot and have done with it, but even she could begrudgingly admit her instructions were not the best, there was only so much she could do with the body she was working with.

There was nothing for it, she'd have to just get it over with. Huffing an annoyed sigh and shooting him as effective a glare as she could manage with her canine features, she padded back over to her clothes and changed.

The shift was probably unpleasant to watch, it wasn't all that pleasant to experience, and she hoped that would at least get him to turn round, though she was still grabbing for her clothes as soon as she had hands and dressing quickly.

"I was trying to tell you to turn around." she told him, annoyed, as she finished dressing.

[Nick Wilde]

Yikes. His spirit wolf was growling at him. He was definitely screwing this up somehow. He pulled his hand back immediately. "Sorry, sorry about that," he said hastily, taking a step back. She moved back over to the clothes again, and this time...oh god.

"Augh," Nick choked out. "What the flock. What the flocking sheep is..." He put his hands over his eyes, but couldn't quite seem to look away. And then suddenly she was a naked human girl, and...wait, his spirit guide was a girl? Huh. That was interesting. For some reason, Nick hadn't seen that coming. Up until now he had thought the spirit guide thing was supposed to like...represent himself, somehow, so he'd assumed it was also male, but...okay, he could roll with this.

She was very different from Judy, who was the only other human girl he'd spent any time with. She had different hair, different eyes, different...everything, although he certainly hadn't seen this much of Judy.

"I..." He couldn't seem to make his voice work once she spoke. He cleared his throat. "I'm so sorry," he managed. "I didn't...you were a wolf, just then, how...how does that work?" If she could turn into a wolf, maybe he could turn back into a fox somehow.

[Red Riding Hood]

"It's fine." She cleared her throat, turning back around to face him again now that she was properly clothed. It wasn't totally fine, but she couldn't blame him for her poor directions, however much she wanted to.

And then of course he had to ask about the wolf thing and it was different, somehow, to admitting it to Will, after figuring out that he had wolf blood in him as well. There was...something similar about this guy, but it was nothing like Will, and it was entirely different admitting you had wolf blood and full on shifting in front of someone.

"I'm... I have wolf blood," she tried to explain it, wishing she could just ignore the question, watching him cautiously "I think the technical term is werewolf..."

[Nick Wilde]

"I'm really...so sorry," Nick said again. "I thought you were trying to get me to wear the clothes, because...for a reason, or something." He glanced down at his clothes, which he'd been second-guessing for the past five minutes.

He was still entirely shaken by what he'd just seen. He had watched the spirit-thing turn into a deer and a bird and back to a fox again before, but there was something uniquely unnerving about watching a wolf turn into a human.

"Is that...wow, okay." He put both hands up to his face again and took a deep breath. "This is a lot. I'm sorry. Everything is a lot. And you can also turn into...a fox, and a bird, and a deer? Can you turn into just about anything?"

[Red Riding Hood]

"I'm... not sure what that reason might be, but okay..." Red said slowly. It seemed like a weird assumption to make, but maybe he came from a world where... no, she didn't have anything, there was no way there was a world where that would have been even remotely normal. Clearly he had just misunderstood her in the weirdest way.

"I can also turn into what now?" she frowned, suddenly confused. The way he was asking was so specific, it wasn't about turning into anything else, it was as though he thought she could turn into those exact things... which would probably tie into why he'd seemed to think he knew her when she'd first arrived. Was there somebody else running around looking like her as a wolf? That was unnerving and strange, her wolf form was... well, hers. It was unique enough that she'd used it to get herself out of a few scrapes in the past, when a witness to a supposed crime committed by her had described a completely different wolf when questioned.

"I can't turn into anything except a wolf..."

[Nick Wilde]

To be fair, Nick hadn't been able to make much sense of anything he'd been picking up from his spirit guide so far. But as she talked, he became even less certain, until...oh, no. He had assumed...well, this was awkward.

"You weren't...that wasn't you, then, was it?" He rubbed at one elbow, scratching at a place where the grass had made him itch. It was so inconvenient, not having fur, everything was too sensitive and itched and tickled and felt naked. "I'm sorry. This is...we should start over. Can everybody around here just...turn into other things?" He was just firing questions at her, and if she wasn't the being he thought he had at least encountered before, she was probably about a half a shake short of just running away from the weird guy who'd been lying in the grass and then refused to look away for her to put clothes on.

"Let me just...I'm Nick. I got here just a couple days ago, and when I did, there was a weird fox leading me around and it turned into a deer and a bird, and then vanished into the night, and I thought you were it, coming back here to...guide me more, or something."

[Red Riding Hood]

He seemed pretty confused about the situation, and when she listened to his somewhat awkward explanation she could see why. She'd yet to encounter anybody who could do what he said, but given that she had encountered another woman with strange powers she wouldn't be surprised at this point if she did.

"Not everybody, I don't think," she shrugged "I've not yet met anybody else... although I met someone who says they used to be a snowman..." she could see why anybody would get confused, with people like that running around.

"I'm Red, I am neither a fox, a deer nor a bird, only a woman who can become a wolf. I've only been here a few days myself."

[Nick Wilde]

A snowman. What. That wasn't even an animal. How could someone be a snowman? Nick put both hands up to his face and rubbed his forehead again, trying to wrap his mind around all of this.

"Okay," he said slowly. He had a million questions; could she always turn into a wolf? Was she a wolf on the other side of the magical portal? Or was this something new since she got here, and could she show him how to turn back into a fox if he wanted to? "You...could always do that, though? Even before you got here?" He was sounding nosy and invasive and he hated that, didn't want to seem like he was interrogating her.

"It's nice to meet you," he said, remembering that he hadn't said that, he'd just said okay, which was also incredibly rude when meeting someone new. "And I'm sorry for all the questions. I'm trying to figure out what to do with this body I'm in, because...it's not really mine."