Darcy by @sky-dumby-seer
Astral and Arkaya by @amarald-sky
Pomari and Pipi by @ari-0kay
Hennessy by @lunathenut
Eli by a friend, SA, who doesn't have a tumblr
Darcy was currently in the sliding race. They were smiling a bit, enjoying themselves just the slightest until Pomari slid by them at her top speed. She was smiling more as she looked back at Darcy, expertly sliding around a couple of pillars. Darcy's smile disappeared, turning neutral as they pushed themselves farther forward. Immediately, Pomari frowned a bit, remembering that Darcy didn't get much fun, and only really expressed it when they were either leading in a race or playing an instrument.
They hadn't played an instrument in a long time, was the main problem, and she just took away their smile. That made her feel kinda bad, knowing that Arkaya was always trying his best to get them to smile again. Even so, once they were tied, Pomari grabbed Darcy's hand, just before they went to the next area of the race, to let them lead.
They looked down at her with a bit of surprise, though moved forward regardless, determined to at least get to the end. One light shard. Two light shard. They looked up, expecting to see the sun and to smile at it, for it to smile back.
Instead, they were met with darkness. The sun was hidden. More so, disappearing. It was disappearing behind a thick veil of dark clouds. That wasn't good. They looked like eden clouds. Darcy tried as hard as they could to go faster, but they wouldn't be fast enough. They were only halfway when the winds started to blow back on them. They looked up. Heavy snow was going to fall soon. Pomari didn't seem to notice until the area descended into darkness.
Quickly, she looked up at Darcy, just in time to see their face lined with worry just before they slung her into the stadium as hard as they could. The doors started to close on her with heavy thunks as she regained her balance and tried to go to Darcy, to make sure they got in the temple too. The seccond door was creaking shut and, over the high winds, Darcy's voice could be heard.
"Get the elders to go to Vault! Grab as many spirits as you can on your way!"
Then it shut with a loud slam that echoed through the stadium. Running into the temple, Pomari sat, calling for the elders to meet with her. Soon, their tall, skinny figures appeared and she stood, obviously looking panicked. Sah carefully tilted her head up to look at them properly with the end up their staff, begging her to speak.
Only she couldn't. Instead, she steadily moved her hands so they could see it, both kneeling to get a proper look at the small sky kid's hands.
The Valley! It's being overrun with snow! There's a bad storm- my friend's stuck out there! We were in the race and it got dark before I got thrown here! Please, please you've got to help them and get out of here!
The elders paid attention quietly and, once she had it all out, Mek set a hand on her shoulder and spoke rather calmly.
"Go home. We will collect your friend and bring them to vault with us. We must make sure everyone else is clear of Valley too."
The chibi simply nodded and went home, hoping all of her friends would be ok. Arkaya would kill her if she just let Darcy freeze out there.
~~~~~
Arkaya was walking through wasteland, carrying two moths with him. He was close to the temple, but not close enough for there to be dark dragons. The only thing was... the darkness seemed to be thicker that day. The farther he'd gone, the thicker it got, twisting up towers and trees reaching dangerously close to the sky and dragons. He couldn't burn it all, or even attempt to. Not with two moths and especially not without the group.
He'd have to ask for help to burn it all. So, he'd made sure to burn all the small parts, but the battlefield was the worse so far. The darkness was everywhere. The lookout scout was gone. He couldn't see either of the winged light. The darkness was twisted far up the stone tower, almost impossible to burn. And then he heard it.
The growl of a dragon rising.
But much more than one. Quickly he dragged the moths toward the temple, trying his best to dodge the watchful eyes. He was halfway through the battlefield, holding tightly onto the moths' hands when he heard the growl of someone being spotted. He had to hurry.
Quickly, he looked back. The dark dragon was looking right at him with a pointed gaze, one intent to attack. He allowed himself two more jumps forward before he pushed the moths closer to the temple and ducked, huddling down in hopes it would save some of his winged light. The dragon struck. Four stars fell. Almost immediately, all four were picked up snd he felt someone grabbing his wrist to pull him up.
"Come on. We're standing and getting out of here."
Eli. He had the moths holding hands, leading the two, and was helping Arkaya up and toward the temple.
"Hey, do you know what's happening?"
His voice was a bit gravely, since he was regaining his light, and Eli shook his head.
"Our best luck would be asking Darcy. I think they're in valley with Pomari right now, or going to head there."
"So where were you?"
The temple gate creaked up and, quickly, Eli rushed everyone inside, letting it slam closed behind them all.
"I was in eden when it got so much darker and so much worse."
"So... the darkness is spreading?"
"Kind of. They're gonna light all the lanterns in Vault. We need to get these moths up there and make sure they stay safe with the elders."
Arkaya nodded and they worked on getting the moths through the doors and into Vault, hoping to fly them to the top quickly and recon everyone else. Though, by the third level, they could tell it wasn't going to work that way. One moth was being extremely noisy and honking a lot.
The other was trying to light the stance spirit. Alright, maybe they could take a small detour.
~
Astral was walking through Hidden Forest with Hennessy. They were, obviously, getting soaked and they didn't mind at all, since they would just deepcall to give light back to each other. Currently, they were in Forest Brooke, splashing the water at each other and just laughing in general. They almost didn't notice anything changing until Astral's cape started turning white faster than normal.
Quickly, they grabbed hands and hid under a tree, wondering what was happening. Why was the rain suddenly more dangerous than before? Would they be able to get out of there? Astral's main thought was about the moths. Would the gates to the rainy area be permanently closed? Would the moths be resourceful enough to friend each other and make it to the temple?
God, she hoped so, because Hennessy was soon trying to drag her to get to temple themselves. Hennessy also tended to be strong, so there was no escaping her grip as she dragged Astral through the rain, under trees, and closer to Forest's end and the safety of its temple. They were both glad there were a lot of hides.
Quickly, they managed to get to the end stretch, to the area right before the broken bridge. They didn't notice the darkness that was curling up things behind them. Not until Hennessy tripped over one that was swiftly growing in front of them. The mantas weren't even out, too ensared in the growing darkness to help. So, Astral mustered all the strength she could and dragged out Hennessy, who'd gotten her foot caught on the darkness.
Together, they rushed to the broken bridge and lit each part of it. One, two, three. Then they ran forward to stop the rain. But it didn't work. All of the candles were lit. Everything was correct, so why wasn't it disappearing? That's when Astral noticed one of the bells had stopped ringing, and the darkness that was twisting its way up them all.
"Hennessy, we have to go!"
"But it's not working! The rain will kill us without it."
"Well, why don't you call the jellies yourself then. They can handle it but the darkness is getting worse, and fast."
Hennessy nodded slightly, took in a breath, and let it out again. Taking in a bigger one, she used it to call the jellies as loud as she could. It seemed to work, because a few measly ones managed to make their way up. Quickly, Astral grabbed her hand and dragged her forward, taking off faster than Hannessey could really react. But, Astral was a quick flier, so she just trusted the slightly smaller sky kid.
It wasn't even a minute before they landed and shoved the doors open. Once they were inside, Astral worked on making sure the doors were open for moths, but not darkness. It seemed a few skykids had already burned the darkness inside, so they were safe. Hennessy stepped forward.
"Teth!"
Quickly, the elder would've come down.
"What is it? Is it eden?"
"Kind of. The darkness. It's everywhere and it's growing fast. The rain is worse than before. The moths aren't going to make it to the temple and some of the ikemen won't either."
"Let me see."
Teth wrenched one of the heavy doors open to look outside and, sure enough, the darkness was crawling over their towers, silencing bells while the rain silenced panicked honks.
"Mm. I'll have to bring this up with the other elders. Go home. This is much more then your business."
Astral dutifully nodded and bowed to the elder before moving to drag Hennessy down to go home. Hannessa just followed, wanting to make sure their friends were all ok.
~
Pipi was in Prairie Village when the darkness got worse. She tried her best to burn it all and keep the bells ringing, but a firefly could only do so much alone, especially since she needed the mantas to get to the temple. Obviously, the extra growth was strange, but not too strange. It has grown back in simply a second before, so it's not doubtful that it might grow just a bit more this time.
However, Pipi knew she was in danger when the darkness wrapped around her wrist, essentially trapping her. Quickly, she began honking worriedly for help and, quickly, an ikeman came to the rescue. They burned the darkness and gifted her a candle before taking her hand and flying her up to the temple. She just let them, knowing her measly amount of stars couldn't.
Carefully, they set her down on the bridge before going to fix the darkness. So, with all her wax, Pipi went inside the temple, collected the last bits of candles resting there, and collected her candles before leaving again. She flew across the bridge, going in the direction of bird's nest, when she faltered. All of the towers had thickly growing darkness on them, preventing the bells from ringing.
Pipi also noticed the darkness was crawling up toward the temple. She had to warn the elder and spirits. As fast as she could, Pipi made a u-turn and flew back into the temple.
"Ayin!"
She meditated to gain the elder's attention and, quickly, the elder turned to her.
"Hello, Child. Long time no see."
"I know, but there's no time for hellos," she was panicking a bit and Ayin paused when he noticed.
"What's wrong?"
"The darkness! It's growing faster than usual, the bells can't ring, and it's coming up here!"
Setting his pot down, Ayin stepped forward.
"I will make sure everyone makes it to safety. Please, go home and remain safe yourself."
Nodding, Pipi meditated to go home. When she got there, she noticed everyone else was there except...
"Now that we're all gathered: Where's Darcy, Ari?"
They should be in Vault, at the top. Sah and Mek were going to bring them there until we can get them.
"Eli, what's happening with vault?"
"They're going to light it up to protect the elders and spirits for as long as possible, but the darkness might already be trying to go up."
Akraya nodded, "So we have until the darkness gets to the top of vault to save Darcy. Astral, how fast do you think you can get up there?"
"Well, I think it could be semi fast, but I could sling Pomari up to get Darcy faster."
"I can climb up pretty quickly, but I can't bring anyone extra," Eli took out their staff, their main instrument for their climbing and jumping.
"Maybe I could get some ikemen to help, too?" Pipi looked up hopefully, wanting to be involved for once, since they usually always protected her.
"But Pipi, going up there might not be the best for you. You should stay here, and I can stay with you if you want!" Hennnessy smiled at the firefly softly, hoping she's agree.
The firefly just nodded and sat, looking at the ground.
"I know, Pipi, I'm sorry, but we're dealing with something so much bigger than the normal vault."
"I know... it's ok, Arkaya... just... go work on saving Darcy."
We will. Don't worry.
Hennessy sat by Pipi and started trying to make her laugh as the others walked into vault.
~
Their plan was set. The would get to the top, grab Darcy, and leave as fast as possible, after waking them up. Astral flew them up the first part, though, once she was out of light, Pomari took over, pushing up as far as possible. As soon as Pomari ran out, Eli was flung to one of the walls to climb up quickly, leaving Arakaya to almost get there, thanks to his torch and platforms, a minute or two after they did.
He found Eli kneeling next to Darcy, who was currently unconscious, and gently slapping their cheek to try and wake them up. Arkaya moved to shake them, a bit roughly but enough to wake them up.
"Darcy! How do you feel?" Arkaya's voice was laced with worry, but Darcy just smiled weakly before becoming extremely focused on something behind him. Quickly, he turned, only to see a krill looking right at him.
Before he could do anything, Darcy was pushing themselves up, unsheathing the sword on their back. It glittered a bit in the low light, the brightest thing within the entirety of vault. Quickly, the krill refocused.
Not all 11 of their stars were lit, but that didn't matter. It was focused, almost hypnotized by Darcy's sword. It gave them time to undo their cape, slowly moving the sword to keep its attention. Then, the shiny cape was thrown in the air, and the krill charged right at it.
"Down!" Darcy's voice was commanding, especially to Arkaya and Eli, who had almost frozen with the krill.
"What?!"
"I said down!" Quickly, they sheathed their sword and dragged the two back and over the edge, quickly falling with them.
"But what about your cape?! You'll get hurt if you try to land!" Arkaya was now even more worried about Darcy's split decision.
"Then land for me!"
They focused on keeping the sword in its sheath, their only permanent possession, as they dived down, dodging the platforms that were flying by. Astral could see them, coming down faster than Arkaya and Eli, though Arkaya reached forward, trying to grab them, even by the foot.
They had a countdown in their head, how many seconds they were ahead of Arkaya. The diving was just a quick way down. Seconds before they would've hit the ground, they flipped into an x, slowing themselves down majorly.
Arkaya took this chance, grabbing their arm, pulling them against him, and flapping up as hard as he could with one arm. Darcy just wrapped their arms around Arkaya as they both softly landed.
"You have got to be insane..." Arkaya just gently ran his hand through their hair, assuring himself they were ok.
"Well... it got us out, right...?"
Astral cut in, "Kind of. It's coming."
Darcy looked up tiredly, seeing the darkness that was wrapping itself around the ladder. The winged light was gone. They had to be quick. Taking in a breath, they pushed away from Arkaya and walked to a small pile of lanterns, taking out their candle.
"What're you doing?"
"I'm lighting them. These are rigged to the entirety of the lanterns. It'll stop the darkness until it burns out. Maybe the elders and spirits will find a safe spot until then."
"And... you're sure about that?"
Darcy stood as one of the lanterns lit, then the rest of the pile, "Positive, Ark..."
~
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