Foxy Goes Dark
The Wildlife Protector Fox starts down the Dark Path...
Foxy Goes Dark - 2010-0128.2158
I'm a Wildlife Protector Fox. I useta be human but got shot and killed trying to protect some deer. The hunters didn't need the food, they just thought it was 'fun' to chase and kill someone. How come you humans think it's OK to just kill us animals? You're just being naughty; we're not attacking you!
Especially since you don't kill quickly; you just hurt others. That makes you *really* naughty, and I go Dark! I have to kill to end someone's suffering, feel their pain; so I catch the hunter and put that pain on *him*!
It's a moral struggle every time. Lester the previous Pro- tector died saving me, so I never got to talk with him. He passed his power to me, but not his wisdom. You humans even hate each other, and I have to get that hate in me because I'm Protector.
And when you shoot someone just minding their own business in the woods, they feel hate too; for the act, not always the human. I have to get their hate and pain in me, and I want to kill the hunter.
But if I just kill predators I break Nature's balance. That's the struggle; I can't just do what I feel like. The hate rises and festers, and has no outlet. Often I go to a secret spot away from everyone else, and vent my frustration and rage!
*
You humans just see strange lights in the woods, and hear weird loud noises. The forest dwellers know to stay away when I'm like this; they've passed down stories of previous Protectors going Dark.
Sorry to disappoint all you Fox Mulder fans, but most of The Truth That's Out There isn't extraterrestrials, it's just a furry Fox like me drawing on the life force all around us and venting his rage. Especially on the unfortunate humans who get in my way; you shouldn't be out in the woods at night anyway!
It was only about a month after I became Protector that I found the Ring of Death. My forest animal friends seemed nervous about the area as I explored the woods. As a Fox I chewed on some berries in between pouncing on insects and small lizards, rodents and birds. They're quite yummy, don't knock it till you try it.
And Lester's scent was all over the place, so intense it was almost sickening. I thought somehow Les was back and heard his laugh; I thought I was going nuts already until he got angry at my weakness. I was sure I was nuts now.
Lester Fox had been Protector for fifty years. He'd Gone Dark so many times fighting humans, come here to vent, left part of himself. You can call it his soul if you want, or his ka, or whatever. The hate he'd gotten from all those humans had poisoned his soul, turned his innate goodness against itself, left him bitter and spiteful and ...
*
Lester didn't need Lord Sauron or his One Ring to poison him; all it took was humans with their hate, bitterness, and disdain for us animals. This part of the forest had been a beautiful meadow, with a stream wandering through; trees lining the banks, fish jumping and frogs croaking. Just a wonderful relaxing sunlit place to doze off and revel in Nature's beauty.
Until humans came. They saw and thought it restful and lovely. So they had to light a fire and kill the fish and frogs. Les got really mad and went so Dark he never really came back. He killed the humans, fried the grass; his rage and hate sucked on the life force of the forest and turned the meadow into a raging inferno!
Everyone got scared of their Protector Fox, and Les fed on the fear too. He was beyond talking to, beyond reason; he'd stop the humans from coming back here by turning the beauty into a Ring of Death where nothing would live, nothing grow, nothing bring the evil humans back!
Lester's hate consumed him, burned his flesh; when nothing remained alive he relented and went looking for more humans to kill. In that state, his fur burned off, his hate still seething, he didn't need to walk on his paws; he just floated above the ground with his eyes burning red -- the legends of werefoxes explained.
He didn't look like a normal fox, but a burned, twisted monster bent on revenge.
*
That's the story the forest animals told me, I guess to warn me about the danger I faced: more than from the humans, the danger was from myself!
As I said, Lester never really came back from his inferno. Sure he Protected the forest, it was his destiny; but the Dark Path dominated from then on. He stopped teaching predators and prey, and the balance of life in the woods suffered.
And then I came along. I'd hiked around the West End and through part of the woods, coming out on weekends for about a year and trying to learn. OK, yeah, I wanted to treat animals like my pet cats, holding them and rubbing their furry bodies for my own fun, not theirs. But the cats kept coming around me, even knowing what I was gonna do to them.
That's actually what I had in mind when I saw the deer. Sneak up on em and fondle em, like it was a petting zoo. I never saw the red burning eyes of the Dark Lester on my walks; but he realised I wasn't shooting anyone so I wasn't naughty, and he didn't crisp me with a lightbolt.
He was busy at the Ring of Death venting his anger when he heard the shots. He moved faster than any animal, at the speed of thought because of his power; but by then he was old and weak, and he still couldn't get to the deer fast enough to save them all.
He saw me run in front of the deer, between them and the hunters who'd shot two. Not for food, so they were naughty. He was gonna go Dark again when something stopped him; I was trying to stop the bleeding of a shot deer, crying over her pain. Then the second hunter fired, his shotgun choked so the buckshot slammed into me like a solid fist.
Lester the Dark Fox saw my sacrifice and fell to the ground. His eyes went normal as I died, and he knew his destiny lay with me. I'd given him back his soul, brought him back from the Dark to the Light, and his last redeeming act as Protector of the woods was to pass his power to me.
*
I'm sure George Lucas got his Light and Dark Side of the Force from watching some Wildlife Protector Fox, cause we were here before. Yeah, we draw on the life-force all around us, made by living things. The plants and animals humans can see, but also the teensy ones you can't see, and the whole planet.
Can't see the forest for the trees? And you can't see the planet for the horizon, can't even see that all people live and have needs and wants. Y'all just think about yourselves, like you're still cubs: gimme, gimme, gimme!
Part of being a Wildlife Protector Fox is, I don't get the luxury of just thinking about myself. Not just a few squirrels, or a fox or wolf; I get the whole woods in my mind, all of it at once, everyfur and everything pounding away at me!
Remember way back, I said I got the responsibility first, then some power. It's like reaching out to a hurricane, touching just one part, trying to make sense of it and bring order to it. Luckily it's not hard to keep it that way.
I think the woods got so messed up because Lester dropped the metaphoric ball when he Went Over. He stayed Dark, and sucked the good from the woods. Humans came to the woods and destroyed the beauty, and Les got scared he couldn't handle them all. His mind retreated, back into the hurricane.
Lester the Protector Fox was getting old, had a crisis of confidence, and got scared. Then he got angry at himself for his weakness; so fear led to anger, anger led to hate, hate led to suffering.
I admit I'm not that strong either. I was mad at Lester for forsaking his promise and duty. I've never been tested that severely. But y'know what? I found his Ring of Death, the proof of his weakness and site of his anger and hate. And I don't blame him, don't ridicule him, don't trample his memory.
I blame the humans who did this to him.
*
I buried Lester's deflated body the day I took over the duty. I was too surprised at being alive, being a fox with intelligence, to notice what hate had done, burned his fur and twisted his body. When I found the Ring, I figured I was nuts because he talked to me, and I answered.
He wanted to be whole, and I didn't know how. I went back, found his body, brought it to the Ring. None of the little bugs had dared feed on the Protector; maybe they were afraid he'd make them go Dark too. But I don't think they're that bright.
My act of sympathy and sacrifice brought Les back to the Light. I put his burned foxbody on the rock in the center of the Ring like a sacrifice on an altar, and watched the Light take it and disperse the pain.
But I still have the same feelings of fear, anger, and hate. I've Gone Dark because I need the power to fight humans, who attack us for no reason. I'm scared of how easy it is for them to kill and destroy the beauty. I'm scared of myself for the anger and hate; it's getting harder to remember to hate the sin but love the sinner.
So I visit the Ring of Death and vent, like Lester did. I still talk with him; maybe it's just a part he passed on to me with the job. It feels *so very good* to Go Dark, feel the power flow through me; it's not really *me* chasing and scaring humans, burning and ripping, it's the Dark Protector just doing his job.