# Foxy Goes Dark

Author: KevinFoxboy
Tags: Fantasy, Fox, Spiritualism, wildlife

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.

Source: https://sofurry.com/s/lmX4jL0m