“Stop here,” Lars prompted.
Paddy stopped.
The Zootopia police jeep came to a halt on the road, sinking into the mud.
“Should we get out?” Lars asked, agitated.
“Wait,” the lion stopped him.
Meanwhile, under the bright headlights and the heavy downpour, two guards from the “Utes” prison got out of the truck and headed to the rear door where the prisoner Harry was.
“Open it,” Paddy heard one of the bulls’ voices.
Harry clenched his fists and breathed heavily, quietly repeating: “Please, fate, so unkind, give me a chance.
One last chance, I ask for nothing else.
Please, give it,” he spoke as if praying, “give this brave little rabbit good luck, so she might guess and decipher my message.
Please.” In this final prayer, he wasn’t praying for himself; he was praying for his last chance.
That last tiny and fragile chance at justice that he had kept for himself, as a hope, having believed in one who was braver and nobler than him.
He was praying for Judy’s chance.
That she might understand his message.
He clenched his jaw so hard that all his teeth howled in pain.
Old wounds began to bleed again.
He had known where they were taking him from the very beginning.
They weren’t taking him to prison.
They were taking him to the scaffold.
The big metal door opened, with a creak, letting cold, darkness, and the downpour into Harry’s cell.
The huge black limousine, standing not far from this place, looked ominous under the bright flashes of lightning, like a hearse.
Inside the cabin were many animals.
They had all been waiting for the prison convoy for a long time.
And as soon as it appeared, all the animals sitting inside stirred.
“Well, what can I say, almost on time,” remarked one of the lemurs sitting by the window, “very good.” The snow leopard sitting next to him glanced at the watch on his paw’s wrist.
The first to speak was an old, elderly lemur.
His fur had long since become coarse, and his body was hunched with age.
He spoke slowly, with frequent shortness of breath.
His gaze was dull and peered out from under his brows.
He sat, watching as the two bulls shoved the crocodile out of the prison truck.
“I’m still against it,” objected another lemur — a younger one, sitting opposite, “I consider this step risky, Father.
We should have acted in the prison.” “You know we have little time, Eko,” the father interrupted his son, “we need to finish everything today.
Besides, tomorrow is the inauguration of your son, Vayner.
This is a very important day.
I think you’ll handle everything quickly.” The old lemur slowly raised his gaze to his son Eko and his grandson sitting nearby.
It was his grandson who was to go through the inauguration process to join the club.
The old lemur was very proud of how his son had raised his grandson.
He had big plans for this young one.
At the mention of the inauguration, the young lemur’s eyes lit up.
He sat next to his father.
Like any young animal, he was flattered by the fact that he was now being treated as an adult.
He smiled openly, looking at his grandfather, the old lemur, with great gratitude.
“I won’t let you down,” the young lemur began firmly.
“I have no doubt in you, Vayner,” the old lemur said, smiling tenderly, with an old man’s loving affection.
“Mr.
Erhordon,” the snow leopard spoke grimly.
All this time he had sat still, not joining the conversation, occasionally glancing at his watch, “I apologize, but we are pressed for time.” “Yes, yes, of course, Eisi,” the old lemur, Mr.
Erhordon, agreed.
“Pull up closer,” the snow leopard Seng Eisi said loudly to the driver, taking his gaze off his watch.
The limousine moved off and slowly pulled up to the truck with the prisoner.
“Try to get it done quickly, Eko,” Mr.
Erhordon said to his son Eko.
“Yes, Father,” he replied.
While the limousine slowly approached the truck, the two huge bulls in prison guard uniforms shoved the chained Harry out of the van.
He fell with a crash into the mud next to the police car.
The flash in his head from the impact brought up an old image.
An old family photograph.
Over time it had darkened and yellowed.
Its edges and corners were scorched.
The photo itself was crumpled and chewed.
Neither time nor fire had spared it.
Only in Harry’s memory did it remain as he remembered it.
It was the first thing he saw when he entered his family’s burned-down estate.
In the photo, his father stood at full height.
A stern crocodile.
He had spread his paws wide, as if embracing his family.
Father stood in the background.
Only Harry could read in his father’s stern face that small note of love that his harsh gaze expressed.
He truly loved them all, every single one.
He remembered his father’s smell.
Every night when he came home from work, he would quietly enter the bedroom where he and his brothers slept and very gently stroke their heads.
The memories vanished as abruptly as they had appeared.
Now Harry felt the rain soaking him, making his body pleasantly wet.
He felt bits of dirt and clay getting into his mouth.
They mixed with the blood.
The cold wind made him shudder.
His body became limp and less mobile.
He felt he was at the bottom of the pit.
Now Harry understood what pit his father had been talking about.
But he was wrong.
He wasn’t at the very bottom yet; that was still ahead.
Hello!
I am ready to translate this fragment.
This is a very dramatic scene from a story about Zootopia.
Harry tried to get up, but a powerful bull’s hoof immediately slammed his snout into the ground.
Bound all over his body with straps and chains, he lay there, unable to resist.
“Don’t mess him up too much,” ordered the second bull.
The headlights from the police car blazed into Harry’s eyes.
He could see the lion and the rhino sitting quietly in the police car as two sturdy bulls hoisted him onto his feet.
On the car’s hood was the emblem of the city of Zootopia and the police motto: “To protect and serve.
No matter what.
Always and everywhere.” Harry was lifted onto his feet and turned toward the limousine that had pulled up.
The two bulls held him firmly, not letting him move.
The limousine stopped beside them.
The young lemur, Vayner, pressed his face against the limousine’s window, watching as the enormous crocodile was lifted from the ground.
He even stood on his tiptoes to get a better look.
He saw the crocodile stop resisting and, resigned, stand waiting for the limousine to approach him.
Vayner looked at the reptile with disdain, but deep down, he felt a pang of sympathy for him.
He didn’t fully understand why or for what reason he was being treated this way.
This was the first time Vayner had been allowed to take part in his family’s business.
He was very excited and a little scared.
Vayner tried to make a good impression on his father and grandfather.
At that moment, lightning flashed, and the limousine’s interior was lit up by a bright burst of light.
The cat’s green eyes were looking off to the side.
Thunder.
The puma sharply shifted her gaze from the window back into the cabin.
The first thing she saw was Seng Eisi staring intently at her.
Staring straight into her green feline eyes.
Puma Maina was the last animal in this limousine.
The cabin was truly spacious, easily accommodating three lemurs: Mr.
Erhordona, his son Eko, and his grandson Vayner, as well as the head of security for the Lemur Bank, the snow leopard Seng Eisi, and the puma Maina, the deputy chief of SOOB.
Maina sat upright, without slouching, her posture perfect.
She averted her gaze from Seng Eisi and turned it to the young lemur, Vayner, sitting beside her.
She easily noticed how he was rubbing his fingers nervously.
He was clearly a little scared.
Maina slowly extended her left paw towards him, touching his back.
Vayner flinched.
He instantly glanced at Maina.
“Everything will be alright, sir,” she said confidently and gently.
“Yes, yes,” he replied, trying to sound resolute.
But a note of anxiety was still audible in his voice.
“Thank you, you’ve always supported me, and I’m grateful for that.” “And I will continue to support you, sir,” she replied politely, smiling sweetly.
Maina withdrew her paw, and at that moment the limousine stopped.
Seng Eisi was the first to get out.
The car door opened, letting the cold wind and rain into the warm cabin.
A shiver ran down Vayner’s spine.
He looked once more at the unflappable puma.
Drawing courage from her eyes, he turned his own to the window.
The snow leopard’s strict black suit, tailored to perfection by the most expensive and renowned tailors in Zootopia, quickly became soaked through in the torrential downpour.
His snow-white shirt and black tie lasted a little longer.
Plastic bags were tied over Seng Eisi’s hind paws.
By the time he walked around the limousine, his entire outfit was drenched through.
Only his fluffy white fur, hidden beneath his clothes, repelled the water.
He gave the impression that he couldn’t care less about the raging storm around him.
Seng Eisi’s hind paw, encased in the bag, sank deep into the mud and clay.
He slowly approached the crocodile.
Harry watched him.
He snarled at him viciously, trying to break free from his captivity.
But all attempts were futile.
The snow leopard, like a silent, soulless machine covered in animal skin, approached him quietly and grimly.
Harry looked down at him.
Seng Eisi didn’t even reach his shoulders in height.
The limousine’s window slowly rolled down, and the lemur Eko’s snout poked out.
He looked at Harry with a piercing, arrogant gaze.
Soaked, frozen, beaten, but unbroken, Harry lifted his chin.
He looked at Eko with an arrogant gaze full of hatred, disgust, and malice.
“The last of the Drago line,” Eko said, “the youngest son of Alan, Harry.” Harry’s face twisted into a grimace of anger.
“I told you,” Eko continued, “I told your father, and I’ll tell you again.
You will all rot in a pit.
Your whole family.
There.
See how life has turned against you and your family.” “Hate,” Harry rasped in response.
“Eko, hurry up, stop wasting time,” the old lemur, Mr.
Erhordona, rasped.
“You’re letting all the warmth out.” “My apologies, father,” Eko apologized and continued, addressing Harry: “This is a formality, but I must ask.
The council requires it.
Harry Drago, where are the documents for your father’s land?” “I curse your entire bloodline,” the crocodile hissed in response.
Eko instantly nodded to Seng Eisi.
The snow leopard didn’t make him wait.
Seng Eisi’s paw struck like a bat, hitting Harry’s knee.
The crocodile dropped to one knee, groaning in pain.
Immediately, a second blow, this time an elbow, slammed into Harry’s powerful chest.
It was incredible to watch how such a small creature, compared to the crocodile or the bulls, could contain so much ferocity and power.
The two bulls barely managed to hold Harry’s body as it flew backward from the force of Seng Eisi’s strike.
Even the police officers—the lion Paddy and the rhino Lars—involuntarily exchanged glances.
Harry’s vision went dark.
His breath caught, and before he knew it, he had fallen to one knee before the snow leopard’s cold snout.
A barely audible crack sounded in his chest.
From the sharp blow, a bit of bloody saliva involuntarily flew from his jaws.
Eisi looked at him with cold feline eyes.
“Where are your father’s documents?” Eko repeated harshly.
“In your family’s crypt,” Harry rasped.
He wasn’t even thinking about giving up.
Two powerful blows to Harry’s face landed in the same second from Eisi.
They were so fast that the crocodile simply didn’t have time to see them.
And they hit the exact same spot, as if guided by an invisible sniper.
“Last chance,” Eko said more calmly.
“Please, be reasonable, Mr.
Drago.” Drago’s head was ringing, as if he’d been struck against an anvil.
He was constantly swaying from side to side.
A flash of light carried him once more into the depths of his memories.
There, he feels no pain, there is no malice or cruelty.
There is his family.
There is the old photograph of his family.
On the right stands his little sister.
She was always called the youngest.
Although, in fact, Harry was the youngest in the family.
In her paws are flowers.
She loved them dearly.
His father even built a greenhouse for her.
The most interesting thing was that she always wore a cute little bow on the tip of her tail.
Every day it was different.
But reality pulled him back into its cruel world.
Harry came to after the blows.
He smiled and rasped through clenched teeth: “Get lost, you sewer rat, you reek of rot!” “Stop!” Eko managed to shout.
Eisi’s fist froze a centimeter from Drago’s nose.
Harry stood on one knee before the snow leopard and smiled.
“On your knees!” Eko commanded.
Before Harry could do anything, the two bulls, pressing down on him from above, forced him to his knees.
He snarled viciously.
“You’ll die on your knees, just like your father,” Eko taunted him.
Drago roared in humiliation, howled, spitting out blood: “Don’t lie, my father died with honor.
He couldn’t be broken!” “Is that so!” Eko continued to mock him.
“How do you think he behaved when we shoved your little sister into an industrial fish grinder?
Poor Penny, she begged her daddy so desperately to save her…” “You’re lying!” Harry roared in anger.
“Don’t you dare!” “And then we pressed the button,” Eko smiled.
“She was ground up quickly, she barely suffered.
Well, except for the first five seconds.” Harry exploded with rage and lunged with all his might at the lemur.
He was ready to tear him apart, again and again.
To sink his teeth into his body and never let go, savoring his warm, rotten blood.
But the chains pulled taut, and Harry, like a helpless child, fell into the mud.
Tears streamed down his cheeks as he whispered softly: “Penny.
My little Penny.” “Then we slit your mother’s throat,” Eko continued.
A flash.
Mama…
so much in that word.
She gently caressed him in his cradle.
She gave him her last piece of food when she herself was starving.
She was always gentle and kind.
Harry regretted only one thing.
He had been a bad son.
And what he had lost could never be regained, even with all the money in the world.
Harry howled.
He began to thrash his head chaotically against the ground, trying to inflict upon himself even more pain than the agony raging in his soul.
“They beat your brothers to death and gutted your uncle,” the lemur Eko finished.
“Well, you already know that.” Again, memories pierced him, this time more chaotically.
The family photograph flickered in his mind here and there.
His two brothers were always arguing and kicking him.
But when it came to a real fight, they stood up for him with their whole chests.
Harry remembered how they protected him at school.
How they didn’t rat him out when he crashed his father’s car.
Harry banged his head even harder.
Splatters of mud flew in all directions.
He thought—this is it, rock bottom!
The bottom his father had told him about.
Harry had fallen to the bottom of the pit.
But, as the first time, he was wrong.
The bottom of the pit was still ahead, but it was close.
“Oh, for crying out loud, pick him up!” Eko finally lost his patience.
Harry was lifted again and set on his feet.
He was completely covered in mud, tears streaming down his cheeks.
His whole body ached, and his soul was in agony.
He stared into the void with an empty, sorrowful gaze.
“But you know,” Eko continued quietly, “all of them, even the little sister, went standing on their feet, even fighting.” Harry raised his eyes to him.
Eko grinned.
“They were worthy,” he said proudly.
“Yes, they were enemies, but they were all worthy in battle.
Except you.
You, Harry.” Eko furrowed his brow and spoke ominously: “On his knees.
Good thing we killed your father earlier; at least he doesn’t see your shame.” The order was carried out.
“Only you, Harry, out of your entire family, will die on your knees, like a cornered beast.” But not a single tear fell from the crocodile’s cheek.
Crocodiles cannot cry.
And at that moment, something cracked in his mind, something broke within him.
Harry looked up at the snow leopard; his last request was to die with dignity.
“Please,” Seng Eisi read in his eyes.
But the snow leopard, like a soulless machine, ignored his pleas.
Harry lowered his head, bowing to fate.
This is how Harry Drago broke.
This is the bottom of the pit.
This is what his father had talked about.
The bottom of the pit is when you break.
Behind the glass, the young lemur Vayner watched him.
He was torn by conflicting feelings.
He felt for the crocodile.
Vayner was next to his father and had heard their entire conversation.
Finally, Eko spoke: “Mr.
Eisi, kill Harry.” The snow leopard instantly drew a pistol.
It gleamed with polished metal in the crocodile’s eyes, and its muzzle froze at Harry’s head.
“Stop!” the young lemur Vayner shouted at the last moment.