Someone special in Zootopia

59.- Working calmly

Nick and Francine were talking during the patrol in the Sahara district because, even though they had barely worked together, the fox always tried to stick to his slogan: 'I know everyone'. He couldn't let that reputation go to waste.

"From what you tell me, McHorn is still in the same line of thinking. It seems like he has a hard time expanding his horizons." Nick commented, shrugging.

"You know it already, he has a hard time accepting that small mammals can do more than he thinks." Francine snorted, frustrated. "I'm tired of telling him not to underestimate the small ones, but no, he's headstrong."

"It makes sense, his head has to support his horns, right?" The fox took the opportunity to tell a joke of his own, although it didn't do what he expected, there wasn't even the slightest attempt at laughter from the pachyderm.

"Do I have to put up with those jokes of yours? What a shift I have ahead of me..." She put her hoof on her own head.

"Tschk..." Nick shook his head from side to side. "You don't appreciate my humor."

That did make Francine laugh. "No one has ever laughed at your jokes!"

"Bluey and Carrots have, I think we're not in the wrong here." He gave her a mischievous look with an accompanying smile.

The elephant ignored him and continued looking around, monitoring the situation. Still, it wasn't her who caught anything... Nick's right ear twitched and he pushed up his sunglasses, trying to figure out where the problem was coming from.

"Stop, I already have a criminal to arrest." Francine decided to listen to him despite not seeing anything.

"Don't you need help?" The fox shook his head as he got out of the vehicle. "I'll wait for your call in case you need it."

Nick gave his companion a confident smile. "All under control, no problems." He headed to the street where the noise was coming from, and as he turned the corner, he saw the problem: A mouflon was trying to steal a purse from a red lynx, but they were still struggling.

"You won't take it, thief!" The feline kept pulling, holding on to her belongings as tightly as she could.

The criminal yanked, but she didn't let go, until the lynx had to avoid a headbutt, which was the moment the thief took advantage of to take what was stolen.

"Well, well, such bad luck, don't you think?" Nick stood in front of the mouflon, with the pawcuffs spinning around his finger. "If you're so kind as to return the purse, you won't be in jail for too long." His confident smile appeared again.

The herbivore didn't think twice and threw a punch that forced the fox to dodge. He tried to headbutt him now that Nick was vulnerable, but still missed... the fox rolled out of his way. The mouflon started to run as fast as he could, but Nick didn't even move.

"Aren't you going to stop him?!" The feline screamed desperately.

Nick turned around to answer. "Stay calm, I'll give you your bag back." Without further ado, he started walking calmly through the alleys of the district.

The thief already felt safe, he didn't see Nick following him, but he wasn't going to stop running anyway. He kept going until he found a hiding place... but a paw appeared and the mouflon fell face first to the ground. He had been tripped and the fall was quite painful. In a quick movement, and before the criminal could recover, Nick got on top of him and pawcuffed him.

"I warned you, now you'll spend more time in the shadows, let's see if you learn to take advice." Seriously and with a bit of his humor, he arrested the mouflon and took him to the car, with a surprised Francine seeing that he caught a bigger criminal than him while he was alone.