#bloodypanic

Ok ummm one time there was this mysterious creature that was the only one of its kind in a tremendous forest. On the edge of the woods was a small village, filled with strange people who knew not of what lived in the woods, for they feared its darkness and depth. So the creature, sad and alone, set out to find another of its kind. It set off into territory unknown, further into the woods than it had ever been before. It sprinted wildly, the world blurring around it. Suddenly, the creature felt a sharp pain on its back. Skidding to a stop in a bush, it looked at its back to see what was wrong. Thick, red blood oozed out of a gash square in its spine. The blood dripped down through its maroon fur. It reached back to tend to its wound, letting out a sound--a strange sound, that startled it. He had never heard such a sound before. In fact, he had never made a sound before, save soft purrs in the lonely night. The sound echoed through the woods, startling birds and other small animals into flight away from the source. The creature lay there, confused and in pain. An existential crisis was at hand. The sound broke out of the forest and into the village. Shocked, the villagers whipped around to see from where it came, only met with the darkness of the forest. A council was established, to elect five of the bravest men to boldly go where no man had gone before: into the woods. The five men prepared themselves as best they knew how, readying there weapons and defenses. They slept one final night--perhaps their last--in the village with their families. When dawn struck, the men gathered at the forest edge. With baited breathe, the five men took their first step into the unknown. Days they traveled, searching far and wide for the source of the noise. Meanwhile, the creature remain where he stopped, nestled in a bush of berries, barely keeping himself alive. He was still in shock over the noise he had made. What was it? What purpose did it serve? Why had he never heard such a sound before? Did that mean he really was...alone? Such thoughts and more flew through his mind as he lay, still injured, on the forest floor. As depression fell over him like a wave in an unknown sea, he made a decision: to attempt to recreate that which so baffled him. Carefully reaching back, he again attempted to nurse his wound. Again the noise, louder, more intense this time. The five men froze where they stood, on rocks and tree stumps and patches of freshly moved dirt. They all heard the noise, they felt the noise. They now knew where to go. Charging they went, after the source. Pushing branches and leaves and small animals out of the way until they found what they were looking for. The creature, still shocked at its noise, heard a ruffling in the nearby trees. Paralyzed with fear, he remained as still as possible. He would not let this new ability be the death of him. In his weakened state, he reared his sharp teeth and turned his familiar lonely purr into a fiercely defensive snarl. The men heard this and stopped--their search's end in earshot. They carefully spread out to surround the bush where the creature lay in wait. Together, they jumped out and surprised the creature, who involuntarily let out another cry, a different one, a cry filled with anguish and despair and a plea for help and a call of defense. The men looked at the creature amazed. Time froze. The creature stared at the men, the men at the creature, overhead birds at the lot of them. One of the men leaned down to the creature and looked into its eyes. "What are you?" He whispered. "What is that noise that you make?" The creature resumed his purr turned snarl. The man attempted to mimic the sound with his unsuitable vocal architecture. "Fffffffff-" the creature, unsure what to do, pounced with what little energy he had at the man. "-fffOOOOOOHHHKKKssss" he screamed. The other men looked at him, and he turned around to stare at them. "We shall call this-" he said with astonishment, "fox." The newly named fox recognized his new identity. "I am fox" he thought, a sense of pride building within him. "But that sound, what shall we call that?" One of the men asked. The fox looked, as if he understood, at the group of men. At that moment, he vowed to never make that sound again. Though it led to this moment, the torment he experienced from its discovery was traumatizing. He couldn't bare to think about it. The men, gathering the fox into their arms carefully, to take it to the village and heal its wound, collectively agreed one thing: "That sound. That sound shall have no name.”