Nicholas Piberius Wilde always had a voice in his head …
At any moment when he became scared of the world around him, at the back of his mind was the Voice screaming for him to hear … FIGHT BACK …
When the fear became too much … the Voice provided anger … when the pain became overwhelming, the Voice provided a refuge …
When the world tried to push him down … the Voice provided an exit … just close our eyes and let go … everything will be fine …
And when Nick became tired of surviving … the Voice gave him life …
***
Zootopia was always an experiment, it's inception a tentative step on the direction of integration …
After a brutal world war and with the tensions rising between the powers that may be … the desperate ‘Zootopia’ was concocted … a social experiment at a scale never seen … a city for all …
… Expectations were at an all time high to make the city work at any cost … another war could not happen again … fear gripped the heart of every mammal when the threat of a nuclear end loomed above their heads … and fear makes people accept a lot of things …
And so the T.A.M.E initiative was born … Transformative actions to modulate emotions …
A socially acceptable training camp for behavioral and emotional conditioning …
Prey and Predator, big and small … Species didn't matter, biology was secondary … instincts were irrelevant …
A mammal was to be segregated in a group of ‘like-mammals’ and anything that made the cohesion falter was ground smooth …
A palatable blob of ‘acceptable’ behaviors to make cooperation smooth … and aggression wasn't smooth, confrontation wasn't smooth … individuals couldn't have sharp edges if order and unity was the name of the game …
And in that ‘smoothing’ of sharp edges … predators were the ones that lost the most, because they were the sharp ones … they had to be made dull …
But that loss was seen as honorable … acceptable even … too much aggression wasn't cohesive, competition wasn't cohesive, confrontation wasn't cohesive … Zootopia had to succeed, no matter the cost …
Even if the cost was what made change happen in the first place … even if the cost was dulling the sharp edges on the tools used to cut through new ground …
*** *** ***
Progress stalled for years after that … everything became slow moving … people adapted, bureaucracy evolved and the cracks in the system were filled …
The megalopolis of Zootopia was born … the City State and the PR showcase for the world to see what was possible …
Zootopia grew beyond its initial boundaries, it became a stage for the politics of the rest of the world … periferic districts were born out of a need to keep close to the new center of the world … and soon, too many things revolved around Zootopia.
Politics made everything a game of power and perception … nothing was actually done anymore, change was dangerous to the intricate stability that the world saw itself in …
The status quo couldn't change …
Sharp edges could cut through the curtain that hid the truth …
*** *** ***
Nicholas Piberius Wilde was born in that status quo … molded by it … he learned at school how to be TAME, he learned how to act and how to react before he even learned how to read …
It was a part of his education after all, breathing methods to keep emotions in check, little acts of body language to others at ease … How to act and react under pressure …
It was conditioning presented as education … and Nick always tried his best …
Because little Nick always tried to make his mother proud … he was the Little Man of the house after all … his dad died before his mother gave birth to him, making him the man of the house …
But costs rose and a single mother, a lowly predator like a Fox at that … didn't have many opportunities in the city …
So little Nick, the man of the house, tried to make money, to relieve a part of his mother's burdens … to make her proud and to belong …
That's when little Nick tried to be a part of the scout unit …
To learn skills, a possible trade … to make a little money on the side performing the chores and services the Scouts were hired to perform … a part of the community … a respectable part of the community …
But there was darkness inside that place … Monsters wearing the skin of prey … Monsters that made tame children become … broken, submissive, placid …
When it was time for Little Nick to be initiated … Nick, for the first time felt true fear …
He thrashed and snarled against the straps binding him … he shook and cried as he was beaten …
When they told him that his mother was already ‘taken care of’ and that by law the Scout Master would be his guardian, Nick was broken …
… And when they took off his clothes … Little Nick closed his eyes and gave in, he begged for help, he begged for safety, he begged for revenge … And a Voice answered.
*** *** ***
Nick watched with a sense of detachment everything happening around him …
His body moved almost without his input … wrists flexing muscles he almost never used …
His own heartbeat drowned out the noise and voices … it was slow … everything felt slow …
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
A sharp but brief sting in his wrists told him that his paws were free … his claws … his claws freed him … the sharp claws that Nick forgot to dull that morning … the sharp edges that TAME taught Nick to never reveal …
The monsters took a step back when the hopes fell … the muzzle around his face was uncomfortable but Nick felt almost glad to have it … for he was laughing … a full belly laugh … he smiled a smile that was full of teeth … the sharp fangs he learned to conceal …
There was a smell in the air, an intoxicating smell that made Nick take a deep breath, like he was finally breathing for the first time …
… Fear …
His laugh became deranged … they felt fear … they feared him …
Nick could feel tears running down his cheeks, his face constrained by the muzzle, his own heartbeat so loud to his ears that he could listen to nothing else …
When little Nick stepped forward, the monsters stepped back … When Nick's claws were unsheathed … the smell intensified …
When Nick moved … it felt like he was underwater … everything moved slower than it should … it didn't feel real, nothing felt real … it was a dream, a nightmare … but it was fine … everything was fine, everything felt fine now … the monsters … the Monsters weren't scary no more …
… They never were … Nick could almost hear another part of himself saying …
Nick felt excitement like never before … his body felt hot, his heart was almost beating out of his chest, Nick felt himself on the verge of fainting but there was an all consuming need to stay awake, to see how it all would end … to see them pay …
Nick felt his claws scraping against soft skin … he was sharp …
Nick smelled the blood of the monsters … and he felt light …
They marked him … he marked them back …
They took something from him … he would take something back …
TAME little Nick was alone no more …
Something else was with him …
*** *** ***
Nick ran out of the building, muscles burning and claws still fresh with blood after making sure his captors would forever remember …
… Consequences …
Nick could hear it behind the loud drum of his heart … that feeling of agreement that he did good … Nick felt a wave of pride at that … but he needed to run, and run he did …
***
Nick never knew he could move so fast and for so long … At some moment, Nick ran off on all fours … his paws ate the ground below him with a voracity that left him in awe of what he could do …
The world almost zoomed around him as he jumped between walls and cars, dodging other mammals and covering ground like an animal possessed …
He needed to get home, he needed to see, he needed to see if his mother was still there …
Mammals screamed at the savage fox kit running through the streets with a bloody paw and a muzzle in his face …
But Nick paid no mind to that, he had somewhere to be …
***
His home burned down … Firefighters were drowning the ashes of his den in water … but even from a distance, Nick would feel the smell in the air … burnt fur and something else …
… Burnt flesh … something whispered …
Nick suppressed the bile that rose to his mouth … His paw flexed, ready to go, to approach … and that's when Nick saw … a black plastic bag stored at the side of the fire truck …
Nick wanted to run up there, rip the plastic open and see for himself … but his body remained frozen on the spot … his muscles burned from the effort of standing perfectly still in his hiding spot …
… Retreat …
And Nick remembered what just happened … what was told to him … what was done to him and what he did to escape …
His paws felt sticky… the blood drying out and staining his fur a deeper red …
Nick felt his head spin, his eyes clouding with dried tears … he needed to run … he needed to escape … it wasn't over yet, it wasn't over …
… Safe den …
And Nick felt himself nodding, he needed a den … a den to hide, to sleep, to think …
*** *** ***
The police arrived late as was customary …
The local scouts were attacked by a savage fox kit that left many teens mained for life … jagged scars on their faces, with the Scout Master having lost both eyes at the savagery as he valiantly tried to defend the rest of his unit …
On the streets, many saw the savage fox running with blood in his paws throughout the streets …
Investigations were called and over the next few weeks, nothing was found …
The trail was lost at the river that crossed over Zootopia and went into the rainforest district …
The undeveloped parts of that territory, still heavy with untamed forest, made finding a single kit much too wasteful for police resources, despite the damage it caused …
Over the next few months the incident became an urban legend and things moved on like they always did …
The status quo wasn't even shaken … but for that single neighborhood where the scouts were attacked, the cases of poor households burning down unexpectedly went down dramatically …
No real investigations were made into why … but a few mammals whispered of rumors surrounding the Scout Unit there … rumors that were silenced when not many months later, the Scouts Master hanged himself, unable to cope with blindness for much longer …
***
While Zootopia recovered from recent events … a small kid thrived in the untamed forest and river surrounding the city proper …
Eating his fill of fish and fruits, selling some of the exotic plants he found while keeping others for personal use …
Stealing some clothes from unguarded stores was quite easy … and using the public library to learn in secret became something Nick came to deeply enjoy …
Nick had his own home deep in the untamed forest … his own den, dug with his own paws and furnished with his own conquests …
The pain dulled in his heart … the loss of his mother was still recent … but Nick found her grave beside his father’s and paid his respects …
But he was his own mammal now … he had his own home … his parents would be proud of what he could do … of what he was learning to do …
When he grew up, he would find his way back into the city proper, it was fine … everything was going to be fine … he just had to listen …
… Chemistry …
Nick smiled, trusting his own gut as to what he should learn and do next … people always wanted some of the plants he found … maybe he could do something more with them, make them even more valuable and desirable …
*** *** ***
Getting in a public library took more work than Nick wanted to admit, he didn't really ‘fit in’ anymore …
The way he walked, the way he behaved, his smell … there were too many ‘Sharp’ things about him …
He was still a kit, but he got a growth spurt, he was bigger and leaner … his fur was rugged and his senses sharp, his eyes and ears scanned everything around him while his steps carried him with little sound …
Everything about his mannerisms drew unwanted attention, even trying to keep to himself, Nick felt like he was unconsciously dragging attention …
But despite all that, there was something about listening to yourself, a sense of being in tune … of feeling … unburdened …
***
Elysa Haredotir was a stern manager and librarian …
Her tiny fortress of learning was a well kept library and bookstore that had this antique feel to it … none of that new pop trash that polluted every other place, only educational material and classics …
Hers was one of the feel places that offered actual physical copies of scientific articles for perusal … not the most recent ones of course, those were behind a gigantic paywall and she was far from rich …
Elysa was a bit of an odd one out in her family, it was uncommon for a Hare to be by themselves with little family around … living in a big familial community was in her species blood … but she had her community right there with her …
The silence of books and the few long term clients she had … different mammals, different families, but familiar faces …
Except … there was this one fox now …
***
Elysa didn't know when the teen became a fixture in her place, one day he just appeared there …
He was polite and well spoken … he respected the rules … he took care of the books and was very silent during his readings …
But there was something about him that always made Elysa be on edge …
Now she didn't really have a problem with predators, sure, some were quite scary with their sizes … but none drew her attention like that teen fox … it was instinctive …
Whenever the kit was close, she had to know exactly where he was and what he was doing, her anxiety spiked whenever he came close and gave her a polite smile with a few too many teeth when thanking her for the help finding books …
And that fear made her curious … who was he ? … He always came alone and spent most of his time reading some rather advanced educational courses … was he a runaway ? Was he self-studying ? Did he even have a home ? He didn't look unkept nor hurt, he looked well fed and healthy …
Elysa felt that she was fussing over the kit more and more and every day he didn't show up, she got worried …
She kept vowing to ask the kid one day about it, but she kept pushing it further away, the kit looked happy enough, should she really get involved ? …
*** *** ***
… Good batch …
Nick listened to his gut as he mixed the plants he was now carefully breeding in his little slice of freedom … Midnicampum holicithias … the highly controlled if not outright banned natural bug repellent …
The botanic books didn't do it justice … it was a beautiful flower and with a fiery taste …
After he ate one, Nick felt on fire … everything felt like more, almost too much … there was this burning energy to him that felt almost out of control …
But he was in a forest, and he was in tune with his inner self …
After burning some of that excess energy and becoming used to it … the trip felt wonderful … it was like balancing on a fiery edge of freedom and power … but his gut said it was too much … he shouldn't sell that plant yet …
… So Nick went to research about it …
The old articles about its use in the war and the almost world wide control of the plant made sense the more Nick read about it …
Like the poppies used to make most drugs round …
Why didn't it affect him the same, Nick wouldn't question it … but the list of effects was eye opening …
Highly toxic, savagery indulging …
But that wasn't how Nick felt … and maybe he could fix it … there was potential there … potential to sell something unique …
That's why when he felt he had a good batch, he was almost giddy to sell it to one of his better clients … that shrew who was starting to take over a slice tundratown with his gang of bears … they would appreciate a fiery edge for the cold …
***
