Announcement

Before Emile emerged from the staircase he heard the typical rambunctious conversation from down the hall. Foxes ran back and forth yelling various numbers and information across the hall.

Emile looked down and made eye contact with a handful of the foxes and none of them seemed any wiser. Instinctually, Emile sighed in relief. If the foxes didn't immediately become hostile towards him, it's likely Michaelangelo was bluffing.

He ignored the production hallway for now, although he still planned on returning for his seeds later. He descended to the first floor and entered the main hall, it was still packed with foxes and bustling with life.

Emile approached the fallen tree and rest his arm on its trunk, while looking at the receptionist he bobbed his sword playfully on his shoulder before finally speaking:

"Hi, I'm looking for two of my friends; a tall woman with red hair and a smaller boy with a tattoo of an eyeball on his forehead."

The fox pushed her finger against her chin like she just entered a considerably deep thought, then her eyes flashed with clarity as a smile encroached on her attitude.

"From what I remember, I last saw them enter the cafeteria! It's through the big door's over there," she pointed to Emile's right, at two cafeteria doors.

Emile crossed the main hall and pushed open the wide double doors, although they were considered large to the foxes, these doors were essentially normal sized doors.

Upon entering, Emile was immediately assaulted by a rich aroma in the air. To his left, multiple blast furnaces radiated extreme heats while three foxes rhythmically chopped an assortment of nuts of vegetables.

One of the foxes, a gray fox wearing a brown apron, used his knife to slide the mound of chopped produce into the massive pot next to him.

He struck a match and lit the boiler, allowing the vegetables to simmer in the pit twice his size. He opened a drawer beneath the table and tossed in handfuls of white crystals and orange powder, then he cut the large lavender coconuts in half and squeezed their juices into the pot.

Lost in the sauce, as they say, Emile momentarily lapsed on his current objective and stared at the amalgamation of ingredients, causing his mouth to salivate uncontrollably.

"Spright!" Willow yelled across the cafeteria.

Emile snapped out of his daze and located Willow, luckily, Roy sat beside her. The two sat alone at one of the center tables.

The table was littered with bowls and plates, each of them licked clean without any residue of having something on it to begin with. While she held her hand high up in the air and waved at Spright, she kept her other hand occupied with the yellow ring Emile saw in the gardens.

Emile rushed towards the two. He still kept his sword at his side, since at this point he had no idea what Michaelangelo had planned for them.

"Hey buddy —" Willow said through a stuffed mouth, "how long have you been up?"

Willow swallowed a huge piece of fruit and instantly replaced it with another bite. The juices dripped from her chin and ran down her chest, Emile couldn't help but shudder at the thought of how sticky she's going to feel later.

"We have a situation —" Emile got down to business, "Blood killed the leader of the foxes."

Willow's chewing stopped. She held the yellow ring an inch from her mouth, ready to take another bite, when Emile dropped the bombshell.

She slowly pulled the fruit away from her mouth and moved her eyes up Emile's torso to match his eyes.

"Blood what?" Willow asked.

"He also should have killed the rest of their council by now, but that might be my fault," Emile sighed as he looked around at the packed tables filled with smiling and laughing foxes.

Willow swallowed whatever food she had in her mouth then wiped her face clean. She stood up and leaned over the table, grabbing Emile's body and pulling him towards the center of the table as well.

"What did you two idiots do?!" Willow hissed through clenched teeth.

"I didn't do anything!" Emile retorted, "The fox leader or whoever threatened you and Roy so Blood staked him to the wall!"

"And?!" Willow coerced.

"And then I told him to kill the rest! There?! Are you happy?!" Emile raised his voice as much as he could while still maintaining a soft whisper.

"Am I happy?!" Willow's venomous tongue whipped at Emile, she grabbed his collar and pulled him further over the table with a clenched fist.

But before she struck, the lights in the cafeteria died. Darkness engulfed the wide open space, Willow froze too, casting her attention at the world around her.

Before anyone could mutter a word, the lights switched back on and nobody had moved. Foxes were frozen stiff, some of them paused their chewing, some still held utensils stuffed with fruits and veggies before their lips.

Then, a voice drowned the cafeteria:

"Emergency! The gate has been breached! Emergency! The gate has been breached! Emergency!"

The slightly monotone and robotic voice repeated its two phrases over and over. In a matter of seconds, chaos erupted.

The foxes in the cafeteria dropped their food, trays and plates crashed against the floor and shattered. Drinks and dressings splurged underneath their feet causing many of them to trip and fall as they rushed towards the entrance.

They beat and pushed, cut and cheated all in an attempt to make it to the door first. Their screams echoed within the large cafeteria, giving the illusion of hundreds of voices yelling and screeching.

As they made it to the door, the foxes aggressively toppled one another. One grabbed another's ear, pulling him back from his escape and throwing him to the ground.

Another fox did the opposite and pushed his paws forward, slamming his body into the others as severely as he could, trying to push them all through the small doorway.

Meanwhile, Emile and his cohort remained at the table, watching the crazed foxes around them deter themselves from fleeing. Emile picked up the yellow ring Willow had dropped and spun it around, inspecting it from every angle he could find.

He ran it under his nose before he finally sunk his teeth into the strangely shaped fruit. His teeth immediately sank, without any extra pressure, it was soft like a pear, but tasted nothing of the sort.

It was remarkably sweet, like an artificial candy. He swirled it around his mouth, biting on each side, making sure to coat his tongue with the viscous liquid the fruit produced.

It reminded him of agave, a ridiculously sweet nectar found in the deserts of Mexico. He wiped his chin as the juices overflowed from his mouth and ran down his cheeks.

"This is pretty good," Emile exclaimed before taking another bite.

Willow squinted her eyes at the boy sitting across from her. By now the cafeteria had been deserted, even the select few foxes behind the kitchen ran out to God knows where.

"I'm assuming I have you and Blood to thank for this?" Willow nodded towards the corner of the cafeteria, a small crystal pulsating in line with the emergency announcement.

"I don't think so —" Emile covered his stuffed mouth with his hand, "I don't know what gate could have been breached, I just told Blood to kill a few of them."

Suddenly, the emergency announcement changed and a very real, clearly panicked voice replaced it:

"There are intruders in the tunnel! I'm seeing —" the voice paused, but his heavy breaths continued to air through the speakers, "I — I — Run!"

Then the voice disconnected.

And the monotonous emergency message returned.