I woke one morning from uneasy dreams to find myself transformed into a magical creature:  A strange and mysterious animal that looks like a mix between a chimaera (part lion, snake and goat) and a fox. The majority of my body is covered in thick, pearl-white fur. I am not, curiously however, covered by fur on my lower legs and feet. The first thing you would spot if you saw me now would be my luscious tail, which loops back around my body as if it were a fan to cool myself down. My face, to some comfort for me,  is very similar to how I was before - a human. My senses changed however: My sharp eyes will gaze hypnotically at you if you encounter me. My glare is so powerful, it seems to penetrate the subject's mind. In the dark, my eyes can glow like a burning ember. My smile curls unnaturally far revealing my yellowed teeth, as if stained with a bag of dark tea.

In my new guise, I was unfortunately sighted once by a human, in the deep woodlands near my habitat in the Rocky Mountains in 2025. I was sitting, as has become my habit, on a precariously placed, snow-covered rock, grooming my fur when our eyes locked together. When he tried to sneak closer to take a better look, I leapt into nearby pine trees and vanished from his sight. Leaving only remnants of my paw-prints behind, fortunately too meagre for the humans to conclude anything from.

I am now classified by human scientists as a “Chimaefox”. As a nocturnal, I hunt at night. Those who have seen my tracks, in the morning dew, have felt as if  they were being stalked at first. These same human scientists have deduced that I travel alone, but are unsure if I am searching for company, or could be out simply to hunt civilians. I can comfort you by my admission that I am not however hostile to humans: I won’t attack unless I feel threatened. Out of grief in remembrance of my former human glory, I often sigh and cry. These quite peculiar noises, to some, ironically sound like laughter. This is also why locals have taken to calling me “The Laughing Lion,” adding to the speculation that I relish preying on humans.

Humans, being curious and inquisitive beasts themselves, have persevered in searching me time and time again after this initial sighting, but despite that, no one has any idea of my whereabouts, thankfully! Otherwise I am sure I would end up trapped in a zoo, prodded and glared at to my very end. I am hopeful that with the passing of time, if I remain concealed, most people will start to question my very existence; and if this one sighting was just a hoax after all. In either case, it gives me some pleasure to have become one of the greatest unresolved mysteries of the human race.