{"sf1_id":529522,"sf2_id":"J1Oy3a4m","title":"Foxy Dream","author":"KevinFoxboy","words":2523,"posted_at":"2013-04-22T02:13:00.000Z","tags":["Deer","Fantasy","Fox","Human","Spiritualism","Wolf"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/529522-foxy-dream","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/s/J1Oy3a4m","image_url":"https://cdn.sofurryfiles.com/submissions/thumbnails/c1/10/c1108783-b043-468e-9223-eaba4b55ab26","description":"Another real life dream fleshed out a bit. My Spirit Guide Fox does this sometimes...","content":"    Foxy Dream - 2009-1009.0153\n    OK, I'm trying to write one of these stories for a general\n    audience. I'm an older adult, and it's frankly easier to use adult\n    language, but I'll try to keep it clean.\n    First off, I'm a Fox; that's the first thing you should know\n    about me. Second, a Fox isn't a fox, the dumb animal. And I don't mean\n    the group of Native Americans. No insult to them, they were here before\n    us, and sorry for what my European ancestors did.\n    Third, I'm dead. I mean the human I used to be is dead. I'm\n    not trying to make Christians, Jews, and Muslims mad, it's just what\n    happened to me. And I named the religions in alphabetic order, no\n    insult intended.\n    I've gotten a lot more sensitive to people's feelings as I've\n    aged, and getting shot by hunters while I was trying to protect some\n    wildlife is what got me this gig. Some of the hunters died too, shot\n    by still other hunters, and they think being an animal themselves is\n    a cruel irony.\n    It's also ironic they depend on me to protect them from the\n    humans who were their hunting buddies. Karma's a b- ain't it?\n\n\u0026nbsp; Even if you don't believe in it. OK, a Fox is my term for  \nsomeone who has the size and body of an animal fox but the intelligence  \nof a human. Yeah, I'm not the best example of either, or even a good  \none. It's really depressing to think I'm the best the last Fox had to  \nwork with.  \n  \nI frankly never understood why blundering around the woods with  \na shotgun or repeating rifle could ever be called 'sport'. Maybe a  \nhunter out there can explain it, calmly and unemotionally. I don't mean  \nthe ones who shoot game for food, butcher and wrap meat and hike it  \nhome; I mean the ones who kill and leave the dead thing. Sure, the Law  \nof the Forest says some die so others may live, but people, that means  \nEAT WHAT YOU SHOOT; if you don't eat, DON'T SHOOT!  \n  \nI tried to protect some deer cause they were an endangered  \nsubspecies, I got shot and killed. Sorry, youngsters, bad things  \nhappen in real life.  \n  \nThe old Fox who found me and brought me back was pretty sad  \nlooking. He'd been in the woods almost fifty years, he was getting  \nold, he was weak and he knew it. He couldn't get to the deer fast  \nenough to save them all, he just made noise so they ran away.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; He used up the last of his power saving me, his replacement.  \nThe first painful thing I had to do was watch him die, his little body  \nlike a deflated balloon as I shrank from human size to American Red  \nFox size, two and a half feet long and then about a foot of tail. He  \nhad to use my body to power the saving.  \n  \nI guess I had to learn humility, or that's all the body I  \nshould have. I never used the human one as well as I should, so  \nmaybe I had to start small.  \n  \n\\*  \nAt any rate, the real problem was I had nobody to teach me  \nhow to be a Wildlife Protector Fox. I had to learn on the job. What  \nI did have was a mind that got bogged down in the details, a skill  \nfor complex gadgets nobody could make in a forest, and a buncha well-  \nmeaning animal friends to protect. None had hands, most had paws;  \nhooves can't get a grip on things.  \n  \nSo making traps to catch hunters was out. Still thinking like  \na human, sigh. What I could do was move thistle and thorn bushes to  \nslow em down, make it less 'fun' to slog through. The older forest  \nanimals had seen this from the last Protector, and knew how to help.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; Deer hooves can't hold anything, but they can scrape ground.  \nThey made little grooves in the dirt. How's that help? Cover it with  \nleaves, trail sign any cub who can walk would recognize, but humans  \nrearing up on your hindpaws all the time're too far away to see. I  \ndon't think you even look, you expect \\*us\\* to watch out for \\*you\\*!  \n  \nHa! You humans stumble around the forest cause it's rough,  \nnot smooth like a floor. Then you're too dumb to just stand still  \nand get your balance, reach out to the life-force all around you  \nand \\*feel\\* your way. \\*Lift your heels UP, people!\\*  \n  \nNope, you keep walking, trip over the hidden grooves, and  \nyou're still too dumb to let go of the gun! You tighten your grip  \ninstead, and are stupidly surprised when it fires!  \n  \nNone of this really hurts you. You just get mad, throw a  \ntemper tantrum, and blame the ground, or the woods. For not doing  \nwhat you want?! I'll say it again,  \n  \n\\*We're not here to serve YOUR needs!\\* Get the h- over your-  \nselves! Get in balance with nature, or you'll all die by her wrath!  \nEven a Wildlife Protector Fox can't just wave a paw and push the  \nevil humans away, best I could do was make em go somewhere else.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; But I had the whole woods to protect, not just a few acres.  \nWhere were all the other Protectors? It was a shock to know, I was  \nit. Oh, Boy, were we in trouble! Did Superman ever feel overwhelmed?  \n  \nBut like a comic-book superhero, I did have some power with  \nthe responsibility. I found out about an hour later. The hunters,  \n'sportsmen' they called themselves, were still bumbling around, making  \na racket even when they tried to be quiet. Hey, guys! \\*We can hear you  \ntalking to each other!\\*  \n  \nOK, I was the one knew the odd sound meant something. I could  \nhear better than humans and smell them a half-mile away, and forest-  \ndwellers hear and scent better than I can. But they're not bright  \nenough to know it means danger; I am. So I sneak up to em and listen.  \n  \nHere's the fun part. I'm still dead, y'see. So I don't show  \nup on infrared nightscopes! Especially since lots of humans don't  \nknow how they work, don't know how to set them up, don't know how  \nto use them! I've actually heard humans say the dang thing ain't  \nworkin, there's no blinking dots!  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; They think it works like a videogame, or a movie, with grid  \nlines and blinking red dots! \"Here's the target, X marks the spot!\"  \nAnd some idiots think there's gonna be a beeping sound, like a trea-  \nsure finder, wave it around and \"... beep... beep... beepBeepBEEP!  \nthere's the animal to shoot!\"  \n  \nI really wish the fate of the whole human race depended on  \nthese idiots! Just fool the few dummies, and the threat to us goes  \naway!  \n  \n\\*  \nBut of course it isn't up to idiots, and you humans don't go  \naway. In fact you keep coming, closer and closer and think you have  \na right to cut down OUR homes for YOURS!  \n  \nI guess that's why the dead hunters are so mad they're forest  \nanimals now; they think they were better than us and it's not fair.  \nWell boo-hoo, humans; guess what, life's not fair! But it's Protectors  \nlike me who balance the scale.  \n  \nIt really digs their furry craw now to ask me for help! I say,  \nlet the stupid fools get run down by dogs! Let em get scared out of  \ntheir wits, serves em right for doing this to us! Sometimes it's  \nreally tough to feel anything but contempt for 'sportsmen'.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; That's how I feel, not what I do. See, my power as Protector  \nflows from the animals I protect. If I mess up and someone dies, I  \nfeel it! Not just sympathy, I mean quite literally I feel their pain!  \n  \nAnd I feel weak and dizzy for a short time. So I got an incen-  \ntive to do a good job; I lose when they lose, but I gain when they do.  \nYeah sure, the forest predators have a right to live, but so does their  \nprey; so I insist they do their work quickly and cleanly. No suffering!  \n  \nAnd I can enforce the Forest Law I suddenly understood when  \nthe previous Protector passed the mantle, so to speak. I shrank, he  \ndeflated; but something passed from him to me. I've tossed other foxes  \nand even some wolves away from prey because they were playing; but  \nsometimes it's an old animal who got pushed aside by neighbors and  \ncan't hunt for him- or her-self.  \n  \nThen it's my sad duty to provide -- one animal dies so another  \ncan live. I do it quickly so there's no suffering; one's loss is  \nanother's gain. It may seem cruel, but the choice is this: old animal  \ndies now, young one dies later; or young one dies now, old one lives  \nawhile.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; And if a member of a predator or a prey species happens to live  \nand get old, I have to take his or her pain away. They die, and their  \nsuffering ends; and I gain their knowledge. When a youngster needs to  \nlearn, I help predators hunt and prey escape. I keep the balance of  \nlife.  \n  \nMaybe this is why Lester looked so old in spirit as well as  \nbody. Fifty years of life-and-death decisions would wear anyone down.  \nI had to learn to stay out of fights for mating rights; even the girl  \ngot mad at me for interfering! Now I just watch and let the power flow  \nover me, around and through.  \n  \nIt feels really good to let the power flow. If humans kill  \nanimals, I get angry first. As Protector I can put the animals' pain  \nonto the killers. After, they recover and run away. Most never come  \nback, at least not to \\*my\\* woods!  \n  \nBut more and more often they do come back, with more humans!  \nWhy the bloody heck do you humans feel it's OK to invade land the  \ngood earth provides?! It's not yours to steal, it's already some  \nprey's feeding ground and some predator's hunting ground.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; Animals kill only to survive. They feed, and leave the rest  \nfor scavengers, lower life forms, and plants. Then plants feed the  \nprey, who feed the predators, and so on. It's nature's cycle.  \n  \nHumans just take and take and never give back. Well, not on  \n\\*my\\* watch! Humans hate, and kill, and I have to get that hate in me  \nbecause I'm Protector.  \n  \nSo I'm gonna show you humans why you fear the unknown! You  \n\\*will\\* remember why you fear the night! Every horror y'all have locked  \nup in those brains of yours is mine to know and mine to bring forth!  \nY'all \\*will\\* fear these woods and fear the wrath of the Protector Fox!  \n  \n\\*  \nGood. I can feel the hate rising within you. Watch your forest  \nfriends fight and die. You can't help them with kindness. Let the hate  \nflow, feel the power of the Dark Side ...  \n  \nIn case you didn't know, George Lucas wasn't the first human  \nto figure this stuff out. He wasn't even the first to write it down,  \nask Herman Melville. Or did you think Captain Ahab was a friendly old  \nfisherman until he lost a leg chasing Moby Dick?  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; Talk about going over to the Dark Side of the Force! Ahab's  \ninsane hatred led to his and his crew (well, not Ishmael)'s death. He  \ncouldn't just let it go, a misfortune caused by his own stupidity. No  \none made him stand on the rope to the harpoon, he just wasn't paying  \nattention and got the injury he deserved!  \n  \nA Wildlife Protector Fox walks a thin line between Good and  \nEvil. Why not just kill the humans who invade my woods? Then they'd  \nnever hurt my friends! Kill enough of them, the rest will stay away  \ntoo.  \n  \nAnd it would feel really good! Kill the killers, never mind  \nit would bring me down to your level. And you call us inhuman beasts?  \nClean up your own thoughts and souls first, humans!  \n  \nI have to kill some animals so others may live. Kill the hunter  \nbefore he kills us, it's a fair trade, right? I heard this argument  \neven back when I was human, kill them before they kill us. Still used  \nto trick people into wars and genocide.  \n  \nThe forest needs both prey and predators to keep the balance.  \nToo many predators leads to too few prey and starving predators. Too  \nfew predators leads to too many prey, too much eating, and prey starve.  \nSo sure, we need some humans as predators; but there're way too many  \nof ya, and we prey suffer. And now you're having trouble feeding all  \nthose humans!  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; We're out of balance, and it can't go on forever. OK, I can  \nonly protect the woods, not the whole planet. Remember I said I can  \nsneak up and listen to ya talk; some humans remember the balance and  \nonly kill for food. Them, I respect, and so do the animals. We  \nprovide for their needs. They kill, take the meat, leave the rest  \nfor scavengers.  \n  \nSo I can't just kill every human, that'd break the balance.  \n\\*But I can kill the naughty ones, and I do!\\* They kill for 'fun' and  \nthat makes em naughty, so I run up and I do 'that voodoo that Protec-  \ntors do' that takes the animals' pain and puts it on the human.  \n  \nThen I keep the balance by letting predators and scavengers  \nknow someone's dead. The cycle of nature continues. If it's a new  \nhuman I've punished, he's off-limits; he recovers and leaves. Ever  \nbeen chased by a ticked-off Wildlife Protector Fox?  \n  \nIt ain't pretty! And if I've seen the evil hunter before and  \nknow he's not just providing for himself or his family, then he's  \nreally naughty and I go Dark. That ain't pretty either; in fact it's  \nterrifying. And that's the whole point.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; Maybe George Lucas is a hunter and saw Lester or another  \nProtector go Dark; or maybe he heard a story sitting round a campfire.  \nBut he pretty much nailed the unholy calm, the thunder and lightning  \ndirected at the human.  \n  \nWhat he couldn't show in a PG13 movie was what that does to  \nflesh; leave a potroast in the oven a few extra hours and you'll see  \nand scent what I mean. And that's about all that's left of some hunter  \nwhen I get through with him!  \n  \nWhen his friends see me go Dark they get all goofy and run  \naround like they're blind; so I send a few lightbolts in the general  \ndirection of 'get the h- outta here!' for em to follow. Leaves a weird  \ncircle pattern in the grass where he useta be and some odd burn marks.  \n  \nSome humans run when they see me coming, but I chase em out of  \nthe woods and into the cornfields. Then I catch up and use the light-  \nbolts anyway. Crop circles? naw, just me Protecting the forest!  \n  \n  \n  \n\n"}