Feral: Days of Darkness

Chapter 5: The Power Inside

The sun rose over Feral. A new day was born. A small bird woke from its nest a began to fly and begin its day.

Prior to being eaten by a dark kitsune, of course. The way this day began was a stark contrast to how yesterday began. Yesterday's morning was cheery and happy, while today... it didn't need to be said.
It was 9 AM. Emerald and Ruby were still asleep on floor, next to each other. There weren't any windows in the room, there were instead lights on the walls that resembled windows that only activated during the day. The light from the 'windows' shone like a peaceful morning in the room.
Ruby opened her eyes tiredly. She squinted because of the light at first, but eventually opened them up. She yawned silently.
Emerald opened his eyes tiredly as well. And looked to his side.
"Good morning, Emerald." Ruby quietly said as she still had some sleepiness in her.
Emerald then looked around the room. It was still the dormitory in the FRG HQ. He sighed a groan of despair. "So that whole thing wasn't a dream?"
"I'm afraid it all happened."
"I was hoping that was only a bad nightmare. One that we could wake up from."
"Me too, Emerald. Me too." Ruby moved her paw onto his paw. They two smiled at each other.
Suddenly the door opened without their consent. "Hey Emerald, Ruby?" Azure walked in. "It's morning time. They're giving ratiIIIIII-" To his surprise he had found them still under the covers, on the floor they looked shocked upon seeing him enter all of a sudden. "Uhh, am I interrupting... something. Cause, I can..."
Emerald and Ruby talked at the same time. "Oh no no no no." "This is NOT what you think it is. At all." "Yeah, we were, uh, about to get up."
Azure looked embarrassed for barging in. He backed up slowly. "Err. Okay. I'll, uh, wait downstairs for you." He turned around and closed the door, mumbling to himself. "Not cool, Az. Really should've knocked. Don't think about it don't think about it..."
Emerald got out of the covers and stretched. "How's your leg today?"
Ruby kicked the covers away and tried to stand up. She fumbled a bit, but managed to at least walk. "The pain is barely noticeable." She stretched her leg, trying it out. She tried walking, but her injured leg kept tripping and slipping. It wasn't too major for her, but she thought it would get irksome.
"Perfect. Try and keep that bandage on, don't wanna take chances."
The two walked to a room where refugees were being give supplies. Ruby and Emerald were given their rations, neatly contained in a box.
Ruby examined the box. "So, what's in this?"
Emerald opened it, revealing that it was filled with enough food for three days, three square meals a day.
Suddenly a horn echoed through the halls of the FRGHQ. "Attention, everyone!" Yelled a staff member with a megaphone. "Meeting in the Grand Hall! Repeat, meeting in the Grand Hall! Everyone is advised to join!"
A few minutes later, most of the refugees entered the grand hall. Everyone was crowded close to each other beneath a large platform, like a stage.
"What's going on?" Olivia asked, her front legs in a wheelchair.
"I don't know, but it sounds important." Azure replied.
Ruby looked around at all the people around. "Is this how many survivors there are? Where have those things struck?"
Emerald looked around. "I don't know, but I think we're about to find out."
Decorated personnel with loud horns emerged onto platforms on the walls. They played a regal fanfare, alerting everyone in the room. "Citizens of Feral," a messenger on the stage alerted. "Please bow in the presence of your queens, Delilah and Aradia."
The two queens of Feral themselves walked onto the stage. They were rarely seen by anyone in Feral. Gazing upon them, even, was the greatest honor. The two walked onto the stage. Everyone in the audience bowed in the way they could. Kitsunes, senris, and Phoenixes bowed their heads and fronts of their bodies, dragons only bowed their heads, werewolves bowed their head and put their paws on their knees.
Emerald and Ruby opened their eyes and whispered to each other. "It's them." Emerald whispered.
"They truly are magnificent." Ruby silently admired.
The fanfare concluded. "You all may rise." Delilah commanded with her soft voice yet commanding voice. Everyone stopped bowing and either still stood, or sat down.
"Thank you all for coming." Aradia thanked everyone in the room. "We are glad you have made it. We are sorry for what you may have endured to get here. What you have seen."
"Fear not, for you are under the care of the FRG, the Feral Royal Guard." Delilah assured to everyone. "We have enough supplies to support everyone under our care."
"As the Queens of Feral, we serve at the Guard's leaders. We formed the guard for one reason. To coordinate resistance efforts in the events of a catastrophic event covering all of the Realm. The Guard is composed of the greatest warriors, magic-casters, and researchers we could find in Feral. The guard has never seen action. Until now."
Delilah raised her hand, using her powers to show images of the dark monsters. "We face an enemy from beyond our world. Fueled by hatred, born from hunger, and forged from the stars: The Dark Sparks."
"The Dark Sparks are not unlike the Spark all of us bear within us. Unlike us, however, which urge to bring happiness to themselves, each other, and no desire to intentionally hurt, the Dark Sparks are different. They only want one thing: our very Sparks."
"The Spark is a very peculiar thing, indeed. It can change how their vessel looks, manipulate certainly built objects, and give passion to one and another. Even though we are Sparks, ourselves, we do not know the full extent of our powers. Some believe we have powers to show, locked deep within our souls. How we unlock them, let alone use them at will, even we, the Queens, do not know."
Emerald perked up upon hearing that. 'Hidden powers?' That reminded him of what happened yesterday on the path to Mugmyre Marsh. He was curious, needless to say.
"That hidden power, is why we believe they are here." Aradia stated. "We are not being hunted for food. We may be nothing more than a farm to them. A farm for harvesting. They must want our Sparks to utilize its powers. For what reason, we don't know, but we must assume the worst."
"If handled incorrectly, the Dark Sparks must want our essences to do the worst. To take over Feral... or destroy it."
The audience gasped. Silent murmurs echoed around.
"It is our goal to stop this possible event from happening. As you have seen, the dark ones have been stealing Sparks from the heads of citizens. These people, though sparkless, still live, in a sense. If their sparks were returned to them, they would come back to life, like nothing ever happened. We have three top priorities: defend any survivors from our assailants, recover the missing Sparks and bring everyone back, find the 'leader' of this genocide. And destroy it."
"Though we are composed of the greatest in Feral, we need as much help as we can get. We cannot do this by ourselves. Which is why, dear citizens. We implore you..."
"Pick up a weapon. Volunteer yourself to bring back peace to our world. It is your choice, but we implore you to help. As of now, dear Sparks..."
"Welcome to the Feral Royal Guard. And thank you for listening."
Fanfare blared through the halls. The queens walked away from the stage. People walked away and went back to their stations or rooms.