The Tale of the Dream Fox
A morbid fairy tale about a hungry spirit from the land of dreams
Hungry spirits have always haunted the Zone wilderness. They follow the joys and sorrows of mortals. Mostly sorrows, I'm afraid. They are watching us now, children. So mind your tongue, listen to your Em and Pap, and sleep soundly. The worst spirits are hidden in nightmares. The Dream Fox is one of these nightmare ghosts!
Introduction
The common tales of the Forbidden Zone's spiritual horrors have long made up a significant portion of the folklore of the Zoner nations. The rise of solar worship has largely displaced the shamanic tradition of spirit talkers in the realms of Pimaca and Pachuco, but the old spirit cults endure in the common folklore of the Zone. This folklore lives on mainly in traditional tales and fables. In fact, many of the weird tales of the old spirits are now told as children's stories, and even though they are somewhat modified from their original sources they retain a peculiar darkness.
Summary
The most common story of the Dream Fox is the Tale of the Mournful Mother. It begins with a mother whose young son has recently died. Her daughter, unable to console the mother, goes to the river to fetch water for her distraught family. At the water's edge the girl meets a Fox on the other side of the stream. The Fox is bony and lean and asks why she is crying. Tearful, the girl explains her family's sad situation.
The Fox tells her he possesses powerful magic and can reunite her with her brother, but she must first follow him back to his lodge in the woods. When she quite sensibly refuses to go he asks if he can visit her at her home instead. The girl, not wanting to invite the Fox thinks about it and realizes her father will kill the Fox if it comes to their home, so, believing it poses no danger, she invites it anyway. The Fox grins and says, "I'll see you tonight."
That night the girl is happy when the Fox doesn't turn up and she goes to bed relieved. In her sleep, however, she has disturbing dreams of a shrouded figure standing at her bedside. The figure doesn't show itself or speak, but the girl knows it is her brother's spirit. At her window, the Fox perches to watch and tells the girl to rise and embrace the shrouded person. Paralyzed with fear, she is unable to respond until the dream ends.
The girl experiences the same dream for weeks. Every night she is visited by the dream Fox and endures the same ordeal. She notices every night that the Fox grows fatter and stronger. Meanwhile, the girl, haunted by restless nightmares, begins to grow pale and thin. Her mother, noticing she is distraught, asks the girl what is wrong. She tells her mother about the dream and says, "Em, I'm so sorry! I want to bring my little brother back from the land of the dead but I'm too frightened to touch him." The mother, understanding her daughter's pain tells her that she needs to let her brother go and that trying to keep him will only make the sadness worse.
That night the nightmare happens again, but this time the girl sits up and tells the shrouded spirit to leave. The Fox warns her that if she does this her brother will be lost to the dead forever. She answers that her brother is already lost. With that the shrouded figure withdraws and disappears behind a crimson curtain. The Fox, lean and bone thin once again, leaves as well with a hungry look in its eyes.
The story is an exemplum warning against extremes of sorrow. It is right to mourn, but grief beyond measure is no help for the dead and can be dangerous for the living. Children who do not understand death and are unable to let go of lost loved ones are warned about the Dream Fox who always hungers for those who have extra suffering to spare. Alternatively, the fable serves as a warning against dabbling in matters of the spirit realm.
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