Yay new story! Here we go. Chapter 1 is longer than expected, sorry. And I also didn't bother to proofread. Again, sorry... Enjoy!
"WHOA, no no no, OH no, Star, that is NOT food."
Star paused mid-bite, examining the apparent piece of fruit she had been excited about eating. She wasn't sure what kind of fruit it was, but it looked tasty. She hadn't had the chance to eat anything all day, and she was STARVING. "But- Look, it was sitting right next to the apples and oranges in this basket! It's just some... weird-looking fruit, right?"
Marco wiped his hand across his face. "Well, yeah, it is a fruit. It's a tropical food called a starfruit. Excuse the coincidence. But it's not real, Star. Look, that's just a fake display piece." Star followed her friend's gesturing hand to the basket of fruit she plucked the object from. It was sitting on a table with pamphlets meant to promote local farmers. Approaching the basket, she examined the contents carefully.
"Hmm," she murmured thoughtfully, "you may have a point. This apple here does look a little... suspicious." She poked one of the red plastic apples with her eyes narrowed. "I'm watching you, apple. One wrong move, and I'm taking you out," she threatened with a hushed voice, raising her wand for the apple to see. "Don't think I can't see what you're planning..."
"Come on, Star. We've gotta finish shopping for groceries. The sooner we leave, the sooner we can eat lunch. I'll even buy you a starfruit if you want." Star glanced to her left hand, still holding the strange piece of plastic fruit. Placing it back into the basket, she gave one last glare towards the apple.
"One wrong move..." The princess reluctantly parted ways with the basket, and pranced her way back to Marco, who was waiting for her to finish her one-sided conversation. Stopping next to her friend, she pointed forwards with a determined look plastered onto her face. "Onwards, to satisfy the needs of my hunger!"
Marco just looked at her for a couple of seconds. "...Yeah. Well, let's get this show on the road then."
The two roamed around the supermarket, picking up the things they needed, and a few things they didn't. Though, it could hardly be called a supermarket. It was awfully small, and it didn't take even ten minutes for them to find and purchase their goods. Soon enough, the friends were on their way home, bags in their hands. Star tried to eat her starfruit during the walk back, still unsure why it was named that. It looked as far from a star as Marco did from a bodybuilder. But, Marco told her to wait until they got back. She complained, but he promised the fruit would make sense once he prepared it.
"Ohhh, THAT'S why it's called that! I thought you were just messin' with me, Marco," Star exclaimed, holding up a thick slice of the yellow fruit near her face. The two had returned to the Diaz household, and as promised, Marco cleaned and sliced the starfruit for his friend. "This fruit was made for me..." Star had a twinkle in her eye as she admired the gloriousness that was the foodstuff before her. Soon, the teenager was shoveling slices of it down her esophagus, unable to get enough. "Ughh, thish ish sho gooh," Star mumbled, her mouth blissfully full of the starfruit, before she swallowed the last of it. "Mm, delicious. Why don't we have this on Mewni?"
"Well, wouldn't different dimensions have different kinds of food? What kind of stuff grows there?" Marco asked. "Surely Mewni has some fine dining options too."
"Mmm, I wouldn't be too sure. There's some things there similar to apples, and grapes, and stuff, but most of the fruit isn't something many would want to eat."
Marco narrowed his eyes. "How so?"
"Well first of all, most of the trees near the castle are part of the Forest of Certain Death. You've been there," Star stated pointedly. "And most of the fruit found in there is too dangerous to eat. Hence, the name of the forest. If it wasn't, there would probably be way less citizens facing hunger and poverty. You saw how miserable the people looked the last time you were there. I feel bad for them, but there's nothing I can do as it is." She expressed her sadness for a moment, before moving back on track. "But aside from the limited fruit options, we have a great variety of veggies and meats!"
"Wow. Mewni is really in that bad of shape? That's awful..."
Star nodded in agreement. "Yeah... But, that's my mom's job right now. She's the one that deals with inter-dimensional imports and junk. But so far, Earth has more natural foods and stuff than any other dimension I've seen. It's amazing. So many new things to eat. Like meatballs, nachos, starfruit... I've never even heard of some of these things before! Maybe I should tip off my mom about this place."
Marco panicked a little. "EHHH, maybe not. O-our planet has enough food shortages as it is. I'm not sure it could handle the... impact of feeding another dimension?" He laughed nervously. "Of course, you're always welcome, Star. I mean, since you live here and all right now, you're guaranteed to eat the food here. Plus, when you have to go back to Mewni, you've always got those dimensional scissors, right? You could come and buy some starfruit and stuff anytime," he said with a smile. "Just... don't tell your entire dimension to come and take our food. Minimum wage is only $8, heh."
Star furrowed her brow in thought. "Minimum wage, huh... You'll have to tell me what that is sometime... But for now... Did I hear you say 'Dimensional Scissors'?" The princess pulled out and started waving around her pair of the magic blades, with a mischievous grin on her face. "It's a Sunday, and only half past noon. And I know you don't have anything to do in your boring life, so..."
"Hey! I have lots of stuff I can do! Like read a book, make some origami, decorate a hat, do some homework that's due next month... Uh..." Marco struggled to come up with ideas.
Star just kept grinning. "As I said. You've got nothing to do. So... why not go on an adventure through the universe? Just spend the afternoon sightseeing the many parts of the cosmos, perhaps fight a few monsters here and there..."
"Hmm... I do enjoy fighting monsters..."
"Then let's do it! C'mon, Marco!"
"Eeehhhhh, alright. You've convinced me, let's go."
"Yesssss," Star whispered triumphantly.
"So, what places did you have in mind?"
"I dunno. I just thought we could kinda wing it. Have the scissors take us wherever."
"Mmmmmokay. Sounds good to me."
"Alright! Let's go!" Star snipped the dimensional scissors a few times, and sliced them through the air. They made a rather jagged portal, with a swirl of warm colors filling the gap between the two worlds. Without a second thought, the two friends leaped into the rift. After a few moments, it closed behind them.
Marco looked around in awe. He had been to deserts before, but none quite like this. There were smooth hills of blood red sand stretching for miles all around, and a sky as white as porcelain. There were numerous clouds, unexpected in a desert, but he could hardly be surprised. Anything can go when you're in an unfamiliar dimension. And considering the clouds were almost as red as the desert sand, one might even think the sand itself rained down from them.
"Ooh, I know where we are!" Star exclaimed in excitement. "These are the Dunes of Doom. Sand rains down from the clouds, and covers what legends of old say used to be an oceanic paradise," she explained, wiggling her fingers towards Marco. Well, he supposed that was to be expected.
"Hey, why isn't it really hot out? It looks like it should be, but it only feels like average room temperature to me." It was exceptionally comfortable, he had to admit. If only Earth's deserts were this liveable.
"Pfft, not every desert with sand has to be scorching. This planet's star is a little further away than Earth's and Mewni's. It's bound to be a bit colder out. Besides, the whole planet is covered in this sand now. Some places are gonna be warmer than others."
"The whole planet?! So does anything even live here? Or did we just stop off in an empty dimension?"
Star shook her head. "Oh, no, a bunch of stuff lives here. Maybe not on the surface, but there's tons of monsters and things underground." Some of the sand a few dunes away started shifting and sinking into a hole. "Oh look! There's one now!"
Marco waited anxiously to see what popped out of the sinkhole. He was a little nervous as to how vicious one of these monsters could be, but still ready to fight nonetheless. And after just a few moments, a loud squawk rung out through the stillness of the air. Slowly emerging from the sand was a large onyx reptilian creature, about the size of a greyhound. Its neck was long and thin, and it had a narrow spiked snout. It didn't have a set of eyes, but it sure must have had a good nose on it. Once it got a good whiff of the intruders, it began to sprint towards them on its three sets of legs. Its speed mixed with its appearance kind of took Marco off guard. "Wow, that thing is way creepier than any of Ludo's henchmen. It's probably smarter, too. Think we can take him?"
Star grinned with a wild look in her eye. "Oh yeah. We've got this." She pulled out her wand, and got ready to say a ridiculously fluffy, cute, and violent spell. However, her voice got caught in her throat when she felt a strange tremor in the sand. Feeling it as well, the black lizard creature stopped running. For a while it just stood there, gently sniffing the atmosphere. After a few moments, it suddenly bolted off, and dug back under the sand.
The shaking and the lizard's actions made Marco a bit uneasy. "Uhh, is this normal? Or should I be worried?" He looked to Star for assurance.
"I, um... don't... know," she replied, looking to her friend with a nervous glance. Her eyes travelled to the sand beneath their feet as it began to shift around suspiciously. "Uhh, maaayyybe we should move." The entire sand dune started to sink in a similar manner as earlier, like when the mutant reptile appeared. "Like right now," she said, rushing to get a grip on her dimensional scissors. She then pointed her wand at the ground. "Marco, grab on! Quick!" Like lightning, the boy took a firm hold of Star's arm, understanding what she was planning. Somewhat.
"Glitter Rainbow ROCKET PROPULSION!" Star's voice boomed across the landscape, and the two streaked up into the sky, with a trail of sparkling light falling behind them. Marco screamed like an infant. Not a moment after they left the ground, a giant obsidian worm creature burst out of the dune. Its mouth was like a vortex, lined with teeth going in a spiral down into its throat. It looked horrid, with its beady red eyes, and ghastly white innards greatly contrasting its darker exterior. In one word, it was terrifying. Star and Marco could only stare, as the monster rose into the sky. By the time it was 500 feet up, part of its body was still underground. Its circular mouth had to be at least 50 feet in diameter, and each tooth near the entrance to its mouth was about half the size of an average person.
Marco screamed even louder, and gripped onto his friend for dear life. He was morbidly terrified. Star herself was frozen in fear, even as the effects of the spell she had cast started to wear off. So when they begun falling from the sky, the boy got really worried.
"Uh, Star? Star?! I think another spell would be VERY helpful right now! Before we get eaten, maybe!?" Marco shouted, his eyes wide with terror. Luckily his shouting brought the princess out of her daze, and she scrambled to get her bearings.
"Oh, right, uh..." Her voice was shaken, but she held up her wand at a diagonal to the ground. "Umm... Sparkle Heart Wind Turbine Stream!" The wand lit up for a moment, before letting out a small gust of air. No effect. "Er, Purple Fire Confetti Beam!" A small puff of purple smoke rose from the wand. Again, nothing else happened. Then, Star heard a familiar beeping sound. "Oh no."
"Oh no?! WHAT DO YOU MEAN OH NO!?" They were quickly approaching the worm monster, and their trajectory hadn't changed in the slightest.
"Uhhm, you might not like this Marco, but we've got a bit of a low-battery issue," Star replied, her voice quiet but panicked.
"WHAT! A LOW BATTERY NOW, OF ALL TIMES!? Oh, my god. Oh, my life is over. If there's a god out there, just take me now." Marco closed his eyes tight, and waited for the inevitable. They were just moments away from being eaten, and nobody would even find their bodies. There would be a funeral, but nothing except old clothes and decorative objects to bury. They would never see their families again. It was over. The poor kid hyperventilated, and passed out within seconds. His grip slipping from her arm, Star grabbed onto the back of his shirt instead. But in the process, she had forgotten what she had been holding in that same hand.
The Dimensional Scissors.
Once she had dropped them, Star realized her awful mistake. She watched them tumble down, and fall into the worm's gaping mouth. Those scissors were their only means of escape. Boy, was she having an unlucky day. At this point, Star herself gave up any remnant of hope. She relaxed her body, and just let herself fall with a great sigh. And soon, she could feel the breath of the beast roll across her skin as they fell towards its mouth.
At the same time, the monster couldn't gain much more altitude, and began to topple over. In that process, one of its outermost teeth happened to scrape across, pierce, and hook onto Star's dress, leaving her dangling. The impact of being pulled back from their descent made Star gasp, and shocked Marco in consciousness.
"Uuuggh, are we dead yet?" He asked, opening his eyes with a groan. He looked down, directly into the monster's throat. It was like a never ending black hole, with only a dizzying spiral of spikes to show you the way. "Nope, not dead! But it looks like we're about to be, ohh my god."
"Marco, calm down. We're okay right now. We'll... We'll figure a way out of this! Just, grab onto this guy's teeth or something! You're heavy." Marco looked up, and realized that Star was holding onto the back of his shirt with much strain. So, he began to swing a little bit, so he could reach and grab ahold of the wall. Once he had a good handhold, Star let go of him. She herself grabbed a large tooth, and freed her dress. There were tiny hooked divots in the bone's surface, so getting a grip wasn't hard. Keeping a grip while the giant worm beast was falling towards the ground? That was much more difficult.
"This thing is gonna hit the ground any second, brace yourself Star!" Marco looked around, to see how much it might hurt if his grip slipped. Based on the look of things, it would hurt. A lot. "Oh boy," he whispered to himself.
Just before it hit the sand, the creature swiveled itself to be perpendicular to the surface. Shrieking, it opened its mouth wider, and allowed a bunch of sand to enter upon impact. The two trespassers got pummeled by the red fragments, closing their eyes tight as to not get blinded by it. Sand, pebbles, and stones scratched and tore at the teens for a few minutes, as they desperately clung on to the teeth. And after what felt like millennia, the onslaught ceased, and everything became still. The worm stopped moving, probably having found a place underground to rest.
Marco was a bit bloodied from the sharp rocks scratching at his skin, but he instantly felt a wave of relief. "I-is it over? Please tell me it's over."
"Well, I would tell you it's over, but I would probably be lying," Star answered through the darkness. "I've seen worms like this before, Marco. I'm not great in school, and those worms were smaller than this one, but I can tell you one thing. This worm is PROBABLY still planning on eating us. Nothing has happened yet, but... I'm pretty sure it knows we're here." As if on cue, the worm's mouth was suddenly lit up in an array of bright fluorescent blue lights. Once the two friends' eyes adjusted to the change in lighting, they noticed that the glowing was coming directly from the creature's teeth. Each one of the little hooks was a pocket of light. It was nerve-wracking, but beautiful all the same. Marco just stared at the lights, almost as if in a daze. The glowing shifted and pulsed with each beat of the monster's heart, and the human boy just couldn't look away.
He did happen to notice one thing however: some of the more distant lights were gradually drawing closer. This didn't bother him much though. He was just interested in watching the strange but enticing light show.
"Hey, Marco?" Star's voice sounded distant, but the boy was still able to acknowledge it.
"Yeah?" He didn't bother to tear his eyes away from the lights.
"As much as I'd hate to break you out of your trance, I just wanted to let you know that I think we're about to be eaten."
"Okay," he said, not paying attention.
"Marco," Star said, raising her voice a bit.
No response. The princess climbed down from her toothy ledge, and walked over to her friend.
"MARCO!" She shouted in his ear. That seemed to do it.
"Huh... What? Star, when did you get over here?"
"I can't tell you, we don't have time right now. This guy is planning on suffocating us. Look, the walls are closing in. Do you have any bright ideas to get us out of this? My wand is dying, and we're really deep underground... I'm scared Marco," she said, on the verge of tears.
Marco took a deep breath of air, and exhaled to calm himself down. He then hugged his friend tightly, hoping to help calm her nerves as well. "It's okay. Um... What happened to the dimensional scissors?" He assumed something went wrong with them, since Star hadn't used them yet. He didn't want to believe it though.
"You passed out, and started falling, so I grabbed onto you, and... and they fell. Right into the monster's mouth. I'm sorry, I should have realized... Ahh, this is all my fault," she cried, hugging Marco tighter. "I'm so sorry."
Marco felt bad. Usually he was the one apologizing, so it felt awful to see one of his good friends breaking down like this. "N-no, no, this isn't your fault. Stuff just happens, you know? You couldn't have known we'd get stuck in a giant... monster's... mouth." He scratched the back of his head. He tried his best to comfort her, but it wasn't helping much. No kind words could deny the inevitable - they were going to die if they stayed in this creature's mouth. Escape seemed impossible at this point. "Hey, if we're going to die soon, we may as well make the best of it. This view is pretty charming, if I do say so myself," Marco told Star, as he broke the hug and gestured towards the back of the worm's throat. The glowing lights were still dancing away, in a gentle attempt to lull its prey into a hypnotic trance.
Star looked over to where Marco suggested. "Y-yeah, I guess it does look pretty cool," she reluctantly agreed. Wiping her nose from the departing tears, she sat on a big tooth and watched the lights. Marco joined her, shoulder to shoulder, and both looked on as if gazing at the stars in the night sky. Their minds wandered, and the walls drew ever nearer, bringing the two closer and closer to their end.
Marco awoke with a start. The worm creature had emitted a loud and sickening screech, which shook him into consciousness. He didn't know how long he had been passed out, but it probably wasn't for any extended period of time, since he didn't quite seem to be dead yet. The walls of the mouth were squeezed dangerously close, but it didn't look like they were moving any closer. Was something disrupting it? Maybe the worm's cry had something to do with it. He looked around. The teeth were still glowing and shifting, but something seemed a little off. The lights were jerking around in random patterns, seemingly more chaotic than the relaxing feel they gave off before. Odd. Marco looked to Star, who was sleeping just as he was moments ago. "Man, those glowing teeth are no joke," he said to himself. The sound of his voice seemed to disrupt the worm though, and it let out another screech before thrashing its body around for a couple of seconds. Marco was thrown upwards, and he hit his head on a tooth. "Ow!" He shouted, rubbing the tender spot. This only made the creature more agitated, as it tried to constrict its throat once more to suffocate the source of the sound. However, its body trembled, and it only managed to wheeze out another pained scream. Something was obviously hurting it, and keeping it from closing its mouth all the way. An injury maybe?
The boy started walking a bit down towards the back of the throat. He wanted to try to find out what had saved the two teens from their death. And after a minute, sure enough, he found something. He almost missed it, but his eye caught something different about the bioluminescent worm teeth. To his left, he noticed a small, maybe 2 square meter patch of smaller teeth, that had lost their glow completely. The fleshy part of the wall there was twitching and trembling as well. So naturally, Marco seized the opportunity. He waltzed up to the defective patch, and took a look at the problem. He examined the teeth, looking for an abnormality. And then, he found it.
Besides the the amazing dental hygiene, there was something else not right. It was hard to tell through the dim light, but he noticed some sort of thick liquid oozing out from behind some teeth. It was a dark and shiny, and the color wasn't discernible. So, curious, the boy tugged at the teeth. Since the walls of the worm's mouth were flexible, it wasn't hard to manipulate the bones. But the worm definitely felt it. Another ear-splitting shriek echoed throughout the chamber, and the lights around Marco all glowed extraordinarily bright. More stuff gushed out from between the teeth, and with the enhanced lighting, he could see the source of it all.
"The dimensional scissors!" Marco gasped in excitement. "Ah, Star is NOT going to believe this!" There the blades were, stuck right into the side of the beast's mouth. The oozing liquid was clearly some sort of blood substance, which grossed out the teen quite a bit. However, thanking the universe for preserving their lives, he tore the scissors from the flesh, and made a beeline back to where he left Star. "Hey, Sleepyhead! Wake up! I found out ticket outta here. We gotta move quickly, I don't know how long we have until this guy starts trying to kill us again!" No response. Star just laid there, snoozing happily. "Ugh, come on!" He shook the girl, trying to break her away from the world of dreams. Unsuccessful.
Meanwhile, the worm had noticed that the thing causing its pain had vanished. Meaning the walls could begin to close once more, and the monster could finish his meal. How exciting. This threw Marco into a panic. He couldn't wake Star, and and they were on death row once again. And now, looking at the scissors in his hand, he wasn't even sure he would be able to use them. They were all bent up, and some parts of them were even chipped off. They most likely got damaged by the worm's teeth pushing against them as the mouth tried to constrict earlier. Wonderful. But, you can't gain anything if you don't try. So, in a desperate attempt, the boy snipped the scissors to the best of their ability. The bent blades scraped together with an awful high pitched noise, making him wince. They barely fit together, but he forced it to work nonetheless. And with a hefty heave, he tore the scissors through the dimensional plain, and created a portal. He didn't know where it would take them, but he honestly didn't care. Anywhere was better than here.
The portal was abnormally jagged, with lots of strange angles, and the hole was filled with what looked like television static. The border itself was glitching and spasming, as if unstable. And Marco wouldn't blame it for being unstable. The dimensional scissors looked like scrap metal at this point. But whatever the case, the boy was getting the two of them through that portal. He was feeling extremely claustrophobic at the moment, and he really wanted to vomit. He guessed that the worm wouldn't take well to that though, so he sucked it up.
Slinging Star's arm around his shoulder, he trudged his way to the opening. The scissors were secure in his pocket, and the sleeping Star was gripping tight to her dying wand. They had everything they needed. So, with one final heave, he tossed the girl through the dimensional hole, took a deep breath, and forced his way through right behind her. Without even bothering to see where they landed, he fell to the hard ground with a huff, and passed out from pure exhaustion and relief.