The Axe & The Monument

There is a group of animals that once ruled a kingdom.
They are now forced to live on the move due to all the kingdoms collapsing under the weight of The Dark.
They find a temporary place and make it home.
As a record to those that may survive The Dark, the group decide to build a monument and everyday, they will paint a new picture on one of it's blocks. When all 365 blocks have been filled, they will know a year has passed and that they must move on.

On the 32nd day it is the turn of the youngest animal there, who people thought was the worst artist of the village. They laughed at him all morning until it got to noon and his time had come to paint, by this time he was mad with rage and instead of taking his pen, he walked to the monument and grabbed the first thing he sees, which is an axe.

He hacks one enormous cleft into his block, drops the axe, and leaves never to be seen or heard of again.

The rest of the animals are stunned. But decide to overcome the cleft by making their art more and more impressive above it. The remaining 333 blocks become the most beautiful crafted works of art ever seen and on the last day, the king himself paints the final image, depicting an axe being burned by the sun and a people exalted.

They then leave, as The Dark looms.

The Dark comes in the form of a storm this time and washes the monument clean, leaving nothing but the cleft and the monument.
Madness and Physical Manifestation surviving the tempest. Art being not what they intended.

"Freud postulated that human beings are dominated by two basic instincts: Eros (the sexual drive or creative life force) and Thanatos (the death force or destructiveness). The mythical characters of Eros and Thanatos were used by Freud in his formulation of drive theory to represent the two primary outlets of biological energy. Eros represents life, creativity, growth, and increase in tension; and Thanatos represents the movement toward homeostasis (elimination of all tensions), dissolution, negation, and death. We are constantly stimulated and driven into action by a balance of these energies."

http://www.trans4mind.com/mind-development/freud.html#thanatos