Zootopia: Worlds Apart

29. Savage Side

Luke's POV

It had been about an hour before Legoshi finally came to. I felt really bad for him: He'd been knocked out twice in the past 24 hours. Once just now, and once this morning when we went to Gohin's.

"Why are we in a cell?" He asked. He was in my arms again. I'd been cuddling him ever since the lions put us in here.

"Louis put us in here," I replied. "Well, Louis and Zack."

"He's here?" He asked, his eyes beginning to open. I simply murmured in agreement as I hugged him tighter.

"I'm glad you're awake," I whispered in his ear. "Without you I feel really anxious."

"I'm glad I'm awake too," He replied. "I was having a terrible nightmare."

"About what?" I asked.

"I can't really remember, I just remember it being scary." He replied.

Then, we heard a noise. We heard footsteps coming down the corridor until they stopped in front of our cell.

"Dinner." Zack said, tossing a raw steak into our cell before walking off.

"Aww man," Legoshi said, looking at the steak laying on the floor. "Why'd he have to give us meat?"

"Look, I know you don't want to but you need to eat something." I said, sitting him up.

"Luke," He said. "You don't understand. I'll lose control of myself if I eat even the tiniest sliver of that steak."

Then, I thought of something. If Legoshi really loses control when he eats meat, maybe we can use that to get out of this cell. I had a plan, but I didn't know if it was going to work.

"You said you can't concentrate if I talk to you, right?" I asked. I saw Legoshi looking at the steak, his eyes twitching as he was completely zoned out. When he heard me talking to him, he turned to me.

"Yeah, that's right," he replied. "So zip it."

I knew it probably wasn't a good idea, but I needed Legoshi to eat that steak and I knew for a fact he wouldn't do it willingly.

"For me." I said.

"What for you?" He asked.

"Eat it for me." I replied. Legoshi looked at it and sighed.

"No," He said. "Not for you, not for my parents, not for anyone."

"Oh come on," I said. "It can't be that bad! Just one bite. That won't hurt, will it?"

Talking to him wasn't working, so I moved to the next approach. I grabbed the steak and moved it closer to us. I heard a gulp! come from Legoshi.

I tore a bit of the steak off and moved it close to my mouth. I knew full well that if I ate this I would probably get sick, but if it was going to get us out of here I'd do it.

"Look," I said. "What a lovely, juicy, tasty steak."

I bit down on it and chewed it slowly. It was extremely gross. The steak was cold and it had some sort of liquid in it. I pushed past the revolting taste and continued chewing.

"Luke, please stop," Legoshi pleaded. "I don't want to lose control of myself and hurt you, okay?"

"Oh I'll stop," I said, continuing to chew the steak. "Just as long as you eat a bit of this."

I tore off another bit of the steak and waved it in front of his snout. I saw it twitch. Legoshi's eyes started scrunching up. He was clearly getting very angry.

"Mmmm," I said. "What a nice, raw, juicy steak. It's a shame there's no-one to share it with."

"Luke.." Legoshi growled.

"Hey, how was your day?" I asked suddenly.

Come on I thought. Lose your concentration and eat the bloody steak you stubborn son of a bitch.

"It was good..?" He replied, confused as to what I just asked him.

"That's good. What do you like to eat?" I asked.

"Stop trying to get me to eat the steak!" He yelled. "I'm not gonna do it okay?! Take a-"

Before he could finish the sentence, I shoved the bit of steak I was holding into his mouth and forcefully tried to close his mouth. I pushed extremely hard but nothing was happening. Legoshi had an extremely strong jaw, which was only making my job harder. Then, his jaw snapped shut.

He just sort of stared there for a second.

"You okay?" I asked. Legoshi's head twitched. I heard another gulp! come from him, before he looked at me.

"W-w-what have you d-done?" He stuttered, his face still twitching.

"Congratulations, you just ate your first bit of steak." I said victoriously.

"You need to... run.." He said, moving his paws around his body.

I could visibly see that Legoshi's eyes were literally beginning to turn red. He also looked a little taller.

"I'm staying right here." I said, crossing my arms.

"No, you- Ahh!" He spat, slamming a fist down on the concrete floor. He began writhing in pain as I saw his body grow to proportions much larger than they were originally.

"Wow, I didn't realise you carnivores grew stronger when you ate meat." I said, watching as Legoshi grew larger and larger.

"You need.. to go.. before I... hurt... you..!" He growled. As he talked, I got a view inside his mouth. His teeth had grown much sharper and larger than before.

That's when I thought that maybe what I had just done was a mistake.

"Before you turn savage and try to kill me, could you just.. you know.. tear down that cell door?" I asked, pointing to the door. Legoshi slowly got up, which made me nervous. Every part of his body had grown. He was at least a foot taller now, and his physique had gone through the roof.

I didn't know what to feel when I first saw Legoshi's new appearance. I didn't know whether to be terrified by it or whether to be in awe with it. As he turned to face the door, his shoes split open with a CRACK! as he began to walk towards the door, revealing his large padded feet.

Sheesh, remind me not to piss him off  I thought.

He grabbed the door with his now extremely muscular arms and tugged at it. After a few moments, the door was torn off its hinges and was thrown onto the floor.

"I thought you said you lost control when you ate meat." I remarked as I made my way out of the door.

"Uhh.." He stammered. "Yeah, I kinda lied about that."

"Why?" I asked. He pointed to his massively larger stature. "Oh."

"I didn't want you seeing me like this," He said. "The only time this side of me has ever come out was when I fought a guy a couple of months ago."

"Oh." I said as we made our way down the corridor. Legoshi wasn't exactly quiet now that he was larger in every way possible; Every step he took shook the entire building.

"Where do we go?" He asked.

"To Louis," I said. "We can use you to scare him into letting us go."