Allegory to show similarities between the farm and Soviet Union
A participle is a verbal form that can play a role of adjective: here it's "talking" : it's a form of the verb " to talk" but it's in the same place a true adjective, for example "cute" would be.
Answer:
Since you don't know what it is, it's natural to be scared cause you haven't been introduced to it. For example, if you saw a species that has never been discovered most people would be scared because they haven't seen it before. Hope this helps :)