The commotion that Pink had started, while not unnoticed, didn't warrant as much attention in the eyes of the wider public as the strange sky of today. Faira, having not yet arrived to be bewildered by her dreams being painted on the wall next to the candy shop, had made a point to inquire of the city's early birds about it. 

She had gathered that the clouds had rolled in from the Pine Barrens outside of town, starting shortly after sunrise. She had started to head that direction when she was confronted with every single person from her dream the night before, gathered in one place. On second reflection, she realized that Gatta had not been there, but that there had been another, stranger sort of person. 

Her hand shifted on her whacking stick, but something in her didn't want to fight Kupori. Something in her heart saw her, bizarrely and for the first time, as a friend and comrade. She couldn't make sense of the feeling, and tried to shake it. Glancing around, Faira spotted the painting for the first time. Her hand raised to point at it, and her mouth fell open, but she was uncharacteristically speechless. 

Just then, before she could gather her wits, a strange thing happened. Visible above and beyond the painted wall, it was like the opposite of lightning. For a split second, what little light was filtering through the clouds disappeared, and was back just as soon as it had left. The strange darkness had been centralized a little less than a mile away, directly over the Pine Barrens. Promptly following the anti-lightning was anti-thunder. An expanding bubble of soundlessness that passed over not only the unwitting key bearers, but the whole town. 


“What was that?” Faira asked in her lowish gravelly voice. 

~~

Out in the Pine Barrens, a black bolt reached from the sky, sucking the light out of the forest in bursts. With every strike, shadows pooled on the ground, Darkness hitching a ride on the otherworldly storm. From these pools, small figures rose, moving jerkily as they scented the air with their antennae. They liked the scent they got, and started marching toward town.