"Are you going today?" asked Penelo, unpacking their newest order of potions.
Skunk looked up from her book and shrugged. "I wasn't really planning on it."
"You," Tomaj said, motioning to Penelo from the register, "will not being going. We've got inventory to do."
Penelo rolled her eyes. She flipped one of her blonde braids and said, "I'm just saying, Lord Larsa's going to speak in front of the whole city. It seems like we should be there."
"No one knows what it's about yet?" Skunk asked, putting a bookmark in her place and closing the book.
"I'd bet it's about that storm that showed up in the sky last night," Tomaj said, leaning and looking out the store window toward the sky. It churned with dark clouds that had yet to drop any rain. "Seems off." He picked up another box and turned back to Skunk. "Those thunder crystals you asked me to order arrived."
Skunk hopped up and walked over to open up the box. It wasn't unusual for her to act like she worked in Tomaj's shop; she was there often and had been close friends with him and Penelo for a long time. The box was full of small thunder crystals that glowed yellow and made small sparking noises when they jostled with each other. "Perfect. Thanks for contacting the supplier, Tomaj. They didn't seem like they wanted to sell a whole box to a fourteen-year-old."
He shrugged of the thanks, and Penelo asked, "What did you want them for again?"
Skunk picked one up and rolled it in her fingers, feeling a slight charge in her hand. "I'm trying to make a long-range communicator," she explained. "I need these to give it power."
"That'll be cool," she agreed, straining a little with a large, heavy box.
The door to the shop opened, and Spot walked in. He grinned at his younger sister and walked over, peering into the box. "What's that, Skunk? Also, greetings, friends."
Penelo and Tomaj both smiled and waved to welcome him.
"Thunder crystals," she said as she began putting them in her bag. "For my communicator I'm working on. I told you about it."
"Oh yeah. I remember." His grin made her slightly uneasy, as if he was imagining all the ways he could misuse the device to goof off and annoy her. "Anyway, you ready to go?"
"Where?" They didn't have plans as far as she could remember.
He sighed and rolled his eyes. "Lord Larsa's gonna speak. We're gonna go together."
"I thought you said you weren't planning on going?" Penelo said to Skunk with her hands full of air crystals.
"I wasn't," Skunk said. She stared at her brother with one eyebrow raised. "We didn't have plans to do that."
Again, Spot sighed and rolled his eyes. "No, but I know you're not busy and I wanna go, so you'll go with me and we'll have a great time."
Skunk stared at her brother for a moment, but his grin wore her down and she sighed. "I'll see you guys around," she said to Penelo and Tomaj as she hopped off her chair and headed to the door.
"See ya," Spot called to them as he chased after her. He cast a nervous glance toward the sky. "I have a bad feeling about this storm." A bolt of purple lightning shot down above them, and he jumped back slightly.
"It's just a storm, Spot," Skunk assured him. She led the way toward the palace; it wasn't far from the shopping district. There were only a few people on the street, and all of them were walking the same direction. Anyone who didn't have to go out wasn't going to. "Mom and Dad leave?"
Spot nodded. "Before I did. Said they'll be back in a few days." The Halls were archaeologists, and they often left their children home for days at a time. The two had long ago learned to make it work without their parents, though Skunk was only fourteen and Spot only sixteen. It had reached the point where they both secretly longed for the days their parents were away; that way, at least, there was no one their to lecture them.
"Let's take the shortcut by the library," Skunk suggested. She spent nearly all her time at the library, and she knew the streets and alleys surrounding it by heart.
Spot agreed and followed close behind. It was getting dark, though it was barely past noon, and the uneasiness in each of them began to grow. "Skunk," Spot said with a warning tone, his eyes darting all round, looking for a danger he couldn't identify.
Suddenly, feet in front of them, a pool of darkness on the stone walkway began to coalesce. Skunk and Spot watched, frozen, as the shadow took form and became a small, nearly humanoid figure with glowing yellow eyes.
"What is that?" Spot asked in horror, backing up.
"Do you have your sword?" Skunk asked, turning quickly.
Spot shook his head, unable to take his eyes off the small creature in front of them. "I can't even use it. Or did you forget?" He pointed at the scar running down his cheek that he gotten last year while trying out for Alexandria's Royal Guard.
Skunk turned back to the shadow that was creeping toward them. "What are we supposed to do?" she wondered aloud, fear gripping her tightly.
In the distance, someone screamed. Spot turned and took a few steps forward, the instinct to help briefly overcoming his fear of the shadow, but his feet felt like they were stuck in mud, and he looked down and gasped. He and Skunk were sinking into a pool of darkness. He turned to his sister. "Skunk!"
The world was beginning to shake, the wind was picking up, and the shadow looked as if it was satisfied with the fate in store for its prey because it scurried away in search of someone else to terrorize. "Spot!" Skunk yelled back. Her legs were stuck now, and Spot's burst of heroism meant that he was now an arm's length away.
He was sinking fast, though, as tendrils of darkness reached up and pulled at him. He tried to reach out to his sister, to hold onto her as they sunk into this dark abyss, but his arms were stuck. "I can't move! Help me!" Fear strangled the words, and his eyes were getting wet with fear.
Skunk was starting to cry, too, and she reached out to her brother. She managed to grab hold of the red bandanna he kept tied around his neck. "I've got you!" she cried, and the words were nearly triumphant. Whatever was happening, they would face it together. That's what they always did, face things together.
Spot felt a small smile worm its way onto his face, though his heart still beat hard and fast as they sunk deeper into the pool of darkness. Around them, the world was beginning to crack apart, and chunks of building and road were being picked up by strong winds and began circling above in the dark sky. "Don't let go!"
"I promise!" Skunk's knuckles turned white around the fabric.
A chunk of stone from the library beside them fell off the building and came crashing to the ground beside them, but Skunk held tight.
Then Skunk felt something give. She watched in horror as the bandanna came untied and she fell backward, away from Spot with no way of reaching back out to him. "Spot!"
"Skunk!" he cried, and he sunk farther into the darkness. "Whatever happens, I'll find you!"
"Promise me!" she called back, her vision blurring.
"I promise!" he called back, but the word disappeared as his head was swallowed by darkness.
And then Skunk too fell beneath the surface of the shadow.