Becoming Human: Scamper's Story
A quiet day in the forest by the big city, though the machines could be heard if you trained your ears the sound of the running stream and the birds drowned them out easily. This was her home, a tiny female red fox who bore no name, one among many in the forest who had lived the normal life of a wild animal. They were born, they grew older, they searched for food and mated when the season came, life was both simple and beautiful to the no nothing vixen but life could not remain the same for her, a greater destiny awaited the feral girl.
The vixen lay curled up in her den, a small hole in a bank stuffed with leaves and dry twigs to make a comfortable bed, she picked them out herself so she knew they were the best quality. The little vixen had just devoured a rabbit so she was good for her meal and the rain had come just yesterday so water was plentiful from the stream. The sun beamed down on the forest floor and made a warm spot just outside of the mouth of her den illuminating the rust orange fur she prized so dearly cleaning it fastidiously every morning, afternoon, and night. Though she had just eaten there was always room for berries and other sweet things in the vixens expansive gullet so with a stretch and a yawn she rose to her paws and began to tread out of her den into the forest to find a berry bush and snack. As she left the den she heard strange noises, spinning around she saw two humans dressed in heavy padded clothing, bite marks all around their arms and hands and a bag across their backs.
"Jesus Christ Bill how are the foxes harder to find than the rabbits?" One of the humans asked as he searched around the tree trunks for dens, dens like the one the vixen had.
"It's not that they're harder Bob rabbits are just more plentiful, I'd say there are probably only about seven or ten foxes in the entire forest because of the amount of territory there is to claim, rabbits also breed more so there's just an abundance." Another human holding a strange item, it had a long body like a stick but it was black and had wooden bottom, nothing like the vixen had seen before. The berry bush would have to wait these humans were intruding on her territory she had marked the entire area everyone in the forest knew this was her home. Jumping up onto a rock the vixen positioned herself high snarling and folding her ears back telling the humans to leave.
"Oh shit, there's one!" Bob spun around when he heard the snarling his heavily protective suit making him not fear a bite in reprise. "Come here little thing." Bob said as he approached the snarling vixen ready to grab her.
The vixen took no chances as soon as the bulky human approached dashing off the rock and into a bush nearby hiding as her heart raced, why were humans so stupid, she snarled and flattened her ears she couldn't have been any clearer about her intention to hurt them so why did they try to pick her up? A bad memory of the park and a particularly thick human child surfaced in the vixen's mind, her first and last encounter with humans by her own will. The vixen tried to listen to the humans and remain hidden until they left crouching low to the ground and listening with her ears perked.
"Got ya!" Bob sang as he snagged the vixen by the tail reaching through the bush, clamping his hand around her sensitive tail and lifting her out of it. The vixen thrashed and yapped as hard as she could trying to bite the human but his skin was thick and hard to get her teeth through. "Bill, put her out will you she's going nuts on my padding might even tear through." Bob asked in concern and Bill took a picture of the vixen with his phone.
"Yeah, don't be such a baby, you think the foxes are tough wait until we need to get some bears." Bill replied raising his tranquilizer gun and firing a shot directly into the Vixen's side making her fall limp as the sedatives pumped through her.
A sharp pain struck the vixen and then suddenly she felt tired, more tired than she had ever been before hanging upside down by her tail until she saw the fabric of a bag close around her and seal shut, then darkness.
The vixen came too on the floor of a metal cage, bars all around her, water hung upside down from a strange bottle and a small dish of food that smelled like something she already ate then regurgitated. The vixen rushed the cage trying to bust through the bars but it was too strong only serving to shake some of her water out onto the floor of the cage soaking the news paper that lined it. She was confused, her tiny heart raced as she looked around, similar cages lined the walls with rabbits, cats, dogs, birds, lizards, mice, snakes, fish, and a single bear cub.
"Where are we?" The vixen called out to the others but no response came. "They don't understand me..." She thought and looked around her cage for some kind of exit. All the cages were lined up next to one another like prison cells, the front latch controlled by a remote switch, the rest of the room was empty and wide, there were no windows just a single door and a light that hung above the room illuminating it. "HEY LET ME OUT, I WANT TO GO HOME!" The vixen yapped and barked causing the other animals to start crying out in their own tongues raising an unholy commotion.
After enough noise was raised a uniformed human came to investigate finding the room in utter chaos he began clapping and shouting.
"SHUT UP, ALL OF YOU, QUIET!" Daniel groaned, every single time they got a new arrival they riled up the others. "You!" Daniel walked over to the vixen and pointed. "I know you started this the rest of them know better." Daniel removed his phone from his pocket and slid open an application. "No name huh..." He browsed the cage numbers until he found hers and with a press of a button administered discipline.
The vixen felt a bright white hot pain run down her spine causing her legs to fold and her tail to perk straight up a hard shock nearly putting her on her side. "AAAAAAAH!" she screamed in her feral tongue howling before the shock stopped, her heart racing even faster now as she panted and gasped recovering.
"You keep making noise like that and I'll do it again." Daniel warned and pressed the ALL button sending each one of the animals into a paralytic shock causing the noise to immediately cease. The vixen fell onto her side and twitched after the second shock whimpering softly in regret and rolling onto her back submissively, this human who could hurt her like this was obviously the boss. "Oh you get it, smart one you are.. lets see you need a name I was going to call you Trouble but you're a pretty cute little scamp when you behave...AH!" Daniel selected the vixen's cage and began typing. "S-C-A-M-P-E-R" He read out the letters as he input them then showed his phone to Scamper. "Look, now you've got an official name, okay Scamper if you're a good girl and you behave you'll get rewarded but if you make trouble I'll punish you, you don't like the punishment right?" Daniel asked Scamper raising his finger to hit the button again. Scamper began to whimper and beg showing him he had made his point. "Good girl." Daniel smiled and exited the room leaving the animals alone.
"That hurt so badly." Scamper whined noticing the collar around her neck, it was light and made out of some kind of weird ribbon with a big box on the back that pressed two diodes into her neck which kind of hurt after they were activated, the collar burned hot after the double shock and looking around she could see every other animal besides the fish who were absent from the punishment because they were quiet had a similar collar on. "Humans are scary." Scamper whimpered curling up to go back to sleep, today was awful.