Part 1 – Encounter

Alester had his arms folded, looking at me with a rather concerned expression. "Are you sure you don't need me to go with you?" he asked as he watched me toss the remainder of my supplies into my satchel. It was probably the 12th time he'd asked me this question now, and again I would give the reply, "I'll be fine. You know I have my own duties to attend to. You do, too, and you've done yours. It's been a while since I've been on my own. I'll keep in contact, but you know better than anyone that I'm going to be alright. Besides, you'll know immediately if anything happened to me. We are two halves of a whole, after all."

He sighed in defeat despite having already expected I wouldn't agree to him tagging along in my field mission. Still, he pulled off the gold ribbon that held his hair up, letting his pure white tresses fall free past his shoulders before pressing the accessory in my hand. "For good luck." Alester said, folding my fingers in to clutch the fabric tight, a quiet insistence that I keep it. I couldn't help but smile at the gesture, proceeding to tie it to my left wrist, making sure it was tight so I wouldn't lose it.

"Safe journey, Enicara." Alester bade as he raised his hand forth to open a portal to my target destination; the Realm of Mewni. I nodded once to acknowledge his well wishes before stepping through the gateway, thanking him as I did. He sealed the glowing white portal behind me after one final smile, and I was now alone in a foreign land. The sun was high in the sky, and it looked to be midday. It didn't matter where I landed, for I wasn't exactly sure as to where I had to be, what the exact problem I had to solve was. Well, I also had to make a trip to the royal palace to check in on the current ruling Queen, as well as the state of the kingdom and the dubbed 'monsters' of the place. There was a whole list of things to do...

Well, first thing's first; the kingdom of Mewni wasn't that far away, just a short walk and I would be there. That was where I would head to first, then. As I approached the town, I noted that it seemed much larger than I'd last recalled it to be. I rough map of Mewni from my satchel, scanning the contents whilst pacing onward to the town. Indeed, the civilisation was much, much larger than previously marked on the map. Perhaps I had to update it and do a little reconnaissance to see for myself just how large the scale of expansion was.

Engrossed in my thoughts, I hadn't been too aware of my surroundings and consequently, bumped into a passerby. The map fell from my hands, and I yelped as I braced myself for the ground that I would soon meet. However, the person caught me before I fell and steadied me, though I noted that it wasn't exactly a Human that I'd bumped into. Under the hood of the cloak he wore, the figure had concerned eyes as he picked the map up and handed it back to me. Sharp teeth that lined a snout, slick, smooth scales instead of skin, amber eyes and black hair. Septarians; I'd heard of them, passed by a few of them from past visits to Mewni, albeit I'd never actually talked to one. "I'm so sorry for that, and thank you, Sir. Are you hurt?" I asked, dusting his cloak off and receiving the map from him. I rolled the parchment up, chucking it into my satchel before turning my attention back to the stranger.

"It's fine, and I'm not hurt… You're… Nice…"

"Well, it is basic courtesy I've displayed. It is expected of oneself, is it not?"

"You're… Different." he finally concluded after a small pause, glancing around to make sure no one was listening in on the conversation. However, there were a few suspicious gazes cast upon us from various onlookers, though most didn't think too much of our interaction and moved on – which was the reaction I'd expected of all of them, really. Yet, that wasn't exactly the case. The Septarian pulled the hood of his cloak tighter down over his head, trying his best to cover the part of his snout that had slipped out of his hood when he had bumped into me earlier.

He seemed to notice the attention we were gaining and told me, "It'll probably be bad for you if you're seen talking to me… How about we pretend that this never happened? It might be better for both of us this way." It was then that a nearby shopkeeper began making his way toward us, his eyes narrowed as they focused in on the Septarian. I was both curious and concerned as to the tension that was building between him and the rest of the Mewmans. Was there something going on between the monsters and the Mewmans? That couldn't be good…

Before either of us could react, the shopkeeper roughly tugged the hood off the Septarian's head, a loud gasp coming from him, followed by the exclamation, "A monster! A monster! It's snuck into town!" I could see the fear in both the eyes of the man and the Septarian as the latter scanned the area a mile a minute, panicked and looking for a place to run. A passerby from the crowd came forth and shoved me back, getting between the Septarian and myself as she snarled, "Don't you dare hurt her, you filthy monster!"

"No," I tried to reason, although angered cries were already rallying from a growing crowd that closed in on us, "he wasn't trying to hurt me! He helped me! Would any of you listen?!" My voice was drowned out by the chants to expel the Septarian from town as some of the folk raised their fists in anger, some even throwing their groceries at the monster. Words wouldn't get through to anyone now, and I got the feeling we'd overstayed our welcome. I got this Septarian in trouble; the least I could do now was get him out of it.

Stepping out from behind the man, I shoved him back and pried the shopkeeper's hands off the Septarian, forcing him back. "All of you, stop!" I yelled, holding my hands out and standing protectively in front of him. A moment of silence, and then little murmurs among the crowd that got progressively louder, beady eyes and furrowed brows donning the faces of the townsfolk.

"Get rid of the girl too! She's with the monsters! She's a spy!"

"A spy! How despicable!"

Clearly, there was some deep-seated hatred for monsters. I knew the two groups disliked each other in the past, but it wasn't this bad… I bit on my lower lip, glancing back to the worried Septarian that was ready to fight for his life, hands raised in preparation for combat. "I'll get you out of here," I reassured, drawing in a deep breath as Darkness began gathering at my hands, arcane energy crackling around me to kick up a wind in the area. That seemed to deter them quite a bit, and I was glad because hurting them wasn't going to be one of my options. I couldn't exactly damage relations with the royals by harming their people for a multitude of reasons, one of which was diplomatic compromise to solve whatever issue was going on between the monsters and Mewmans.

"Step away, now." I commanded, the orbs of ominous Darkness in my hands growing ever more. "The Queen will get you!" one of them cried, followed by several more confident shouts along the same vein. I clicked my tongue in annoyance, letting the orbs go. They exploded, shrouding the area in complete black and freezing the Mewmans for a handful of precious seconds. I grabbed the Septarian and teleported the two of us away from the crowd, away from the town.

The sun was dipping below the sky, and I noticed the couple of bruises the Septarian had sustained from the prior episode. "I'll escort you home. Lead the way." I offered, looking up into his eyes to see that they held a great amount of surprise. He blinked a couple of times before beginning to walk, and I followed behind.

"Why can you use magic? Are you related to the Queen?"

"No, I'm not related to the royals here. Not by blood, at least. Are you badly hurt?"

"No. Nothing that won't heal over time, at least."

"Does that happen often?"

"More often than you think. How are you not aware of the tensions between the Mewmans and us monsters?" he asked as he continued forth, though night was beginning to fall and he looked visibly worn out. "Stop. We'll set up camp and I'll get you back in the morning. You need rest." I commanded. He appreciated the break we were going to get, albeit he did seem as though he wanted to continue home despite his physical state at the moment. I shook my head to dissuade any intention he had of refusing and his shoulders slouched. I retrieved a bundle of sticks from my satchel and laid them out on the ground, getting a fire going.

It didn't take long to get a small pot of water boiling, and I was now preparing two cups of tea. We'd set up a simple tent to rest in, and we weren't doing much other than sitting around the fire in silence now. Admittedly, it was a little awkward… I handed him a sandwich, along with a cup of tea, insisting that he took it despite his protests. He finally conceded when he was certain I wasn't going to let him go without the nourishment.

"You haven't answered my question about the magic." the Septarian reminded, biting into his sandwich. I scooted closer to him, raising a hand over his wounds and bruises to heal them while I sipped my tea. "Well," I said as I healed him, "I just can. I'm not a Mewman either. I'm not the most normal either, really." I chuckled, setting my teacup down once the last wound had closed. I fished my map out of the satchel again, as well as my quill and inkwell. I began attempting to update the map, though he soon took the quill from my hands and marked the new outline of the kingdom for me. He went beyond that as well, drawing out where the new monster village was, and filling in whatever knowledge he had of the place on the map.

"Thanks…"

"It's no trouble."

When he finally handed the map back to me, I tucked it into my bag and said, "I haven't exactly gotten your name, Sir." He seemed to contemplate for a moment before finally replying, "Toffee. My name is Toffee. I'm a Septarian, though you probably know that by now." I smiled; it was a cute name, a sweet name. I pulled a blanket over his form to keep him warm as we watched the glowing fire. "What's your name?" he finally asked after a small period of comfortable silence.

"Enicara. Enicara Leirin Cagaerius Fenrir… I'm the Goddess of Darkness."