2017-04-01: The Skies Darken
- Cutscene: The Skies Darken
- Cast: Maria, Joseph, the Aquvy Merchant
- Where: Adlehyde
- Date: April 1, 2017
- Summary: A terrible mistake is made. The cuccos are summoned.
"So... you're sayin' these birds are from Aquvy, huh?" Maria asked. She was a farmer from the Adelyn Ranchlands, and she had learned to be skeptical. As she lifted the bird's head, she thought that it looked no different than any other chicken. She was a Guardians-fearing woman, who didn't trust ARMs and the other things only display in the Ancient Culture Exhibition.
But, it was a good time to make deals and get some supplies that she couldn't elsewhere.
The bird looked back at her with a beady black eye. Maria found it unnerving, so she looked back at the merchant in his red tunic. It was a strange cut, unlike ones that she usually saw in Adlehyde. He nodded, nervously clutching his hat between his hands. "They are, milady. In the Great Sea region, they are known as... cuccos. But you won't find a bird more docile, more kind, more plump and succulent, more tolerant--"
His sales pitch was interrupted by Maria's son, Joseph. Joe always had a wild streak in him -- and, really, she thought, a cruel streak. He said that he was Janus Cascade's biggest fan. She needed to work that out of him. The boy now had a cucco, which looked uncomfortable as it wiggled in his arms, and he wore a big, mean grin on his face. "Oh yeah? So one won't mind," he stated, "when I do..."
He dropped the cucco, then kicked the bird -- it squawked terribly -- so it flew like a football. "...THIS!"
"Oh," the merchant murmured. "...oh no. Oh no, no! Run--run, all of you!" the merchant screamed, then, and turned -- and began to bolt towards the exit to the Ancient Culture Exhibition. "Leave the boy! He must die for his sins!" A few people stopped to stare. Maria turned, frowning sharply and mightily at Joe.
"Joseph!" she yelled. "That was utterly uncalled f--oh, what in the name of the Guardians is that!?"
Everyone on the fairgrounds, everyone in the city, stopped and stared. Mouths agape, eyes turned upward, every soul in Adlehyde witnessed as the eastern horizon began to darken -- with the beating wings of tens of thousands of cuccos. Their buckaws cut through the sky like a knife.