Chapter #3Max and the gift of Domestication by: iReed   Footsore and aimless, a certain species of mammal walked through the metropolis' open streets. This particular mammal was not as tiny as a mouse, as heavy as a rhino, nor as tall as a giraffe. He looked, from a distance, almost absurdly unremarkable in a place like Zootopia, in which the range of any and all physical factors were unbelievably vast. Still, this particular creature was sure to keep his hood up, head down and any skin completely hidden until he was out of the crowded street.
At first, he had assumed that the back alleys were going to be his primary walkways. However, when he wasn't getting lost, he was running into trouble from crooks and thugs. Not to say they weren't taken care of, but he found that the open streets had been far less irksome, so long as he did not draw attention.
Leaving the crowd, he walked on, desperate for a sit down and an opportunity to relax for the day. Today hadn't been any more successful than any of the others he had spent in this colossal concrete jungle. That truly did bother him and he wanted to, at the very least, sit in a real chair and sleep somewhere warm, next to a fire.
It really did make him long for his home. He had wished on numerous occasions for at least one of his kind to accompany him, so he would not feel so isolated and alien here. However, he knew as well as his elders that the larger entourage meant a larger chance of detection. At the moment, he was fairly confident that he had done a good job at staying covert. Once he has what he needs, he can be as brazen as he wishes but as of today, he is still limited... and vulnerable.
Still, he has enough power to make life a little easy for himself.
At that moment, he spotted a sheep... or maybe some wooly goat, or something, preparing to shut up the shutters to a storage unit. No other creature seemed to be around at that moment, so, if he was going to act, he had to act fast.
Taking his bone-thin and hairless hands out of his hoodie pockets and closing the distance, the pasty biped grabbed a hold of the wooly bovid by the horns, startling the prey animal.
Before the sheep had a chance to yell or plead that he had nothing worth stealing, the pallid creature removed his hood, revealing a gaunt but unmistakably human face.
Human pupils stared straight into the horizontal pupils of the goatman, mesmerizing him, implanting him with this unusually mutual understanding: this is a human; I am an animal; I must do as the human says.
Whereas he was about to shout out, the goat instead gave a humble bleat.
"Good boy," said the human, releasing the horn of the passive animal, "Let me rest in here for the night. You will give me the keys, go home and forget you ever saw me."
"Yes, Sir," the sheepman baa'ed out, handing the human the keys to the storage unit, along with the rest of the keys on his keyring and turned away.
The human watched the retreating bovid and hoped that he didn't have any issues getting into his house without his keys, but that worry didn't stick with him long. He'll get in somehow and, by the time he realizes that his keys are missing and comes back here to look for them, the human will be long gone.
Taking in the room, it was littered with this and that, but there was at least a chair. An old chair on its side, but a chair.
Closing the door and removing his simple, worn out shoes, which he had been wearing for the entirety of his journey here, the human allowed himself to take a long relaxing breath for the first time in months. This wasn't home, but this was far better than the back alleys, train cars and trash bins he had been sleeping in previously. He was going to sleep here, get rested and, hopefully, try to his luck again tomorrow. All he needed was to get into a proper, state-of-the-art lab without causing too much attention. Then, he just mesmerizes one of the scientists and... he wasn't sure of the details but something to make his hidden powers resurface.
Setting up the chair, the exhausted human was quickly fading into unconsciousness. He clearly needed this.
Suddenly, he was back in the wickiup in attendance to the elders of his community.
"Do you know what the name Max means, young one?" one asked.
Max, a common human boy born amongst the Sapien Nomads, respectfully, albeit awkwardly, answered, "My parents always said it meant... uh- "The Greatest," Sir."
It seemed so wrong to say that, sometimes. Especially to an elder.
His head was bowed, which served him well in hiding his anxious expression. He had no idea why he had suddenly been called here but Max assumed the worst. He didn't know what he had done nor whom he offended, but that was almost always the reason a "young one" like him would get their own private meeting with the elders.
"That is correct, boy. And only now do we realize just how fitting a name it is," another claimed, mirth in his voice, for some reason. He was probably enjoying the nervous energy Max was radiating.
"Excuse me, Sir?" said Max, unsure where this was going.
Another elder; this one tall and skeletal, spoke up.
"You have, of course, been told about the history of Humans and the other races of beast. 'Long ago, Humans and Animals walked in tandem, but soon the Animals became the dominant species and humans were cast into the fringes of society.' That is true, of course. However, it is also important to know why all the other animals all united to turn solely on humanity."
Lifting his head, Max gave the slender elder a confused look. What did this have to do with him? If this was important, they could have arranged an assembly with the whole community. Why were they only telling him?
That being said, Max waited to him to continue because this actually was interesting. He was aware of the basic history and tension between Humans and the other Mammals. He knew that was why humans travelled as nomadic communities and he knew that was why children should never venture too far away from home. He also suspected that it was their union against humanity that lead to them blossoming into a far-reaching civilization and founding giant cities like Zootopia, which is a place he had only heard in hushed conversations or wild tales. He had not met many animals, beyond spying the occasional visitor. What he did know is that there were many, they were everywhere, and that most of them would be able to kill a human without even trying.
He also knew that they were made up of so many different types of mammals; some predator and some prey. The idea that both hunter and hunted would ever want join forces just to turn on humans always did confuse him, but it was only now that he was actually curious enough to know the answer.
The elder continued, "Once, humans had this... 'gift' over the other mammals. It was a sort of... 'mesmerizing' ability. We could make animals do what we wanted, change their thoughts, make them less intelligent or even make them savage, if we wanted."
"Like hypnosis?" asked Max, before he stifled himself and bowed his head again, chastising himself for interrupting an elder like that.
The old man carried on regardless, clearly forgiving the behavior.
"We have weak bodies; no claws nor fangs to defend ourselves. We aren't big enough to intimidate nor small enough to hide in burrows. Maybe this gift was the universe's way of giving us a fighting chance at survival.
"However, the animals that were not under our power aimed to annihilate us for this gift. Various species, from small to large, predator to prey, all put their differences aside and exterminated us. Our population dropped to small clusters and we have been forced to live as travelling tribes, on the outskirts of society, in constant fear of eradication ever since then.
"It seems that our gift too has been fazed out. No human has had the domesticating gift for centuries."
The elder paused, causing Max to automatically look up at him. They ended up meeting eyes.
The skeletal old man's face was full of wonder and hope that Max had never expected to see.
"Until you."
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