Jeez I haven't posted in awhile. Welp, now I actually have some inspiration for Gumdorps: The Angel of Hope. Yep, I changed the title, because The Legend of the Angels: The Second Generation was just a mouth full.

Anyways, there is a poll going on right now! I need help deciding what story idea sounds best for the story!

Want to help me get ideas for the story? I'm opening up a forum for the series! Its the Gumdrops Series Page! Go check it out! On the forum, you can submit OCs, send me ideas, and even ask the cast a question! This will hopefully help with my working!

And now, onto the story!

Chapter 14

Waiting was hard.

Arana was working on a way to get into the Dark World, as well as sending out notices for more Guardians to come from their respective universes.

It didn't really help that I was losing hope, and barely gaining any from the others around me. Sure, the Guardians radiated hope whenever they were near me, but I just didn't have the energy to absorb it. And, I was using whatever energy I had to help with managing the survivors.

This meant I was constantly without sleep.

And to make things worse, with such a low amount of hope in my system, colors were starting to get dull- as if I was going color blind.

As I seemed to be making myself sick, Dad was barely getting up out of his bed. Nothing I could do would get him to not be depressed, at least not for a good while. He just really missed the family.

And Lucas, well, he was trying his hardest to train. He was in a organized training program with some of the other survivors. It hurt me to see him struggle with keeping up with the others.

"Hey Ariel?"

I jumped, startled, as I had been dozing off. In front of me with was a worried Arana. "Wha- oh, hi…" I said, sighing in slight relief.

"You really should get some rest," the Creator sighed, grabbing my arm and helping me stand up. "We're getting closer to heading out the Dark World."

"You found a way in?" I asked, surprised.

"Oran helped," Arana said with a slight pained expression. "He's in it right now, and Dream says he can feel his good emotions clearly."

"Oran?" I asked with a tilt of my head.

"My younger brother," Arana said with a sigh. "He's… not as powerful as me, and I'm worried about him. He says he could easily tracked there, so he's had to keep low."

I frowned. "You have a brother?"

"Not in the Creator world, but as a 'character' I have my own backstory, where I have a brother," Arana explained. "I'm really just a Creator-sona, as the real 'author' is using me a way to communicate with you guys."

I blinked. Of course she'd use her odd sayings. Shrugging it off, I asked, "He can be easily tracked?"

"He's hiding in a rebel village," Arana said. "From what he's said, everyone's been stripped of their hope, and those who did not fall entirely to Veil are stuck in a colorless existence. Oran's apparently the only thing with color on him, and he trails colors wherever he goes. Thank Arceus that the color drains like footprints in a snowfall."

"So, without hope, there are no colors?" I asked.

"You haven't noticed how dull you guys are?" Arana said, with a frown. "I have brighter colors than all of you. It's Veils magic, I think, affecting it."

Now that she pointed it out, her colors were brighter, and her "footprints" were more colorful than what I saw.

"How do we return the color?" I asked.

Arana grinned. "We're going to use music to fill them with hope again!" she said. "It worked last time!"

"OK, Ariel, focus."

My brows furrowed, as I struggled to bend the hope-energy to my will without absorbing it.

Arana was teaching me how to manipulate the hope-energy that others gave off and give it to other people. So far, everyone was looking a little bit brighter, but then again, I had been using a lot of energy to maneuver the hope-energy. I reached up to the cap that now rested on my head- Arana had made it for me with a symbol that represented me. A Save Point with white wings on each side was stitched to the front.

Deep breath in, deep breath out, repeat. I had to get control of my feelings- controlling my other souls was getting a little easier, but they all wanted to do their own things. Jackson was having a hard enough time getting them to calm down himself.

Finally, a sense of calm went through me, and a shimmer caught my eye socket. It was the hope-energy, and it was beautiful. But I couldn't let myself get distracted.

I carefully wrapped my aura around the energy, bringing it towards me, letting it congregate at my shoulder blades and smooth it out. Molding it. Soon, I felt an extention of myself in the energy. It was growing more solid.

"OK, relax," Arana instructed.

I breathed out, before blinking. I still felt the hope energy.

"Well, you did good! Try to move 'em!" Arana said with a smile.

Moving them, right.

I closed my eye sockets, focusing on my new "limbs." I slowly, carefully, forced them to fold. Then, I stood up, making them unfold, and spread out to my sides.

"Keep going, try to lift yourself off the ground!"

Move them up, then down. Up, down. Slowly, I felt myself lift, and soon my feet were not touching the ground. Opening my eyes, I found that my new wings worked just fine, except that I needed to use them way more often, as I soon grew tired and my wings dissipated, making me fall to the ground from my two foot hovering.

"Good job!" Arana said with a smile.

I let out a huff, cracking a grin, and brushed myself off.

And that's the chapter! Hopes you enjoyed!

~Arana the Ten-Tailed and Oran the One-Tailed Kitsunes

P.S.

Arana was born with a mutated tail, making it split in two, but it counts as one tail in Kitsune power struggles. Please do not leave comments saying Kitsunes cannot have more than nine tails.