The still night sleep was suddenly shattered by a resounding crack, like a thunderclap ringing through the house. Marco, who mumbles idly from his drooling lips about one miss Jackie, shots up in fright, the colossal boom shaking him from his midnight slumber. While certainly neither the first nor the rudest way he has been woken in the night, Marko still moved with urgency and haste.
In a flash he moves from his room, the door closing behind him as he steps into the second floor hall. An odd green glow leaks from behind the hardwood door to Star's tower, bathing the hall in a dim emerald tint. The door seems to bow inward from some unseen force, the heavy wood creaking and groaning loudly under its stress.
Soft slaps accompany the light weight's trek across the hall, the door to the room swinging open roughly. A sudden suction pulls at him, forcing Marco to grab onto the door frame as the door itself flap widely in the faux windstorm. In the center of the room was a green rip in space, sucking in papers, random objects and even the bed towards it.
"Marco!" Star calls out, hanging onto the banister as her nightgown flaps wildly, her body completely horizontal. "Strange meeting you here."
Marco looks at her with a dejected expression, one that said this was in no way unusual. "What did you even do Star," he shouts over the roar of the rip that threatens to drown him out.
"Well, I found a spell to jailbreak the scissors, and well, you can see what happened." She grins excitedly, "but you're here, which means that we can kick this adventure off." How dangerous could it be on the other side of the portal, in any case Star was well prepared to find out. She lets go of the banister, turning around to wave Marco into it before being swallowed in the green glow.
"Star," he shouts before giving a long sigh. Breathing deeply, he gathers himself, then, letting go of the door frame, he dives into the portal himself. As soon as his body passes through the gate it closes, leaving the room in complete disarray.
Marco lands into a soft patch of grass with a loud thump, his body turning over multiple times before finally coming to a stop feet before where an elated Star stands. "Wow," she says, quickly clamoring up a tall rock to get a better view of the area.
Marco stands shakily, clutching his stomach as he fights with a sudden fit of motion sickness. He dry heaves a few times before straightening out to see exactly what Star seemed so captivated by.
Before the pair lays something so magnificently story book that it forces a dumb smile onto the ill teen. "Wow is right," he says, looking over the bright meadow covered in flows that created a spectrum of color that seem to shift and shimmer with the light breeze. The temperature was balmily, but pleasant, the sun sitting high in the sky.
"I know," Star says, that's what I said." She places her hands above her eyes to help peer over the distance. "It's like it goes on forever, and it's so pretty. Oh, look at that," she says, pointing to the distance, a silver castle jutting out over the plains at the delta of three shimmering rivers. The flat terrain made it difficult to dicier the true distance, but it couldn't have been too far. "Let's go there!" Star says, hopping down from the rock. With a wave and a smile she suddenly starts to move, "and the spell said this place would be dangerous."
Marco begins after her, "hey, wait Star. Maybe we should just head back for now, given we're working on half night's rest."
She chuckles and blushes a bit, "I couldn't sleep anyway, so don't be lame and come on." She continues on with quick strides, Marco following behind, knowing he was safer with her than without her.
"Why did you even do what ever it is you did?" He calls out, running to catch up with the princess, "couldn't you have done anything else?"
"That would have been boring, and you know how I feel about boring." Skipping down through the field of bring flowers she begins to hum a happy little song. "Come on, not even you are stingy enough to not love this."
Marco blusters a little, panting as he tries to keep up. "Yes, very pretty, but under the circumstance I feel like we should head home." He looks around worriedly, "I mean, we don't even have shoes, and you don't have your little devil headband thing."
"You think I'm going to go back just for my headband? Instead of this? If this is what meets us at the door anything could be here." She stops and begins to daydream slightly, ideas of ridable seahorses, nice dragons (she heard a song about one of those, a sweet little Puff), and maple syrup rivers. "Come on," she says, grabbing Marco's wrist and starting to barrel through the field, dragging the poor green belt with her, "I want to know who lives in that castle."
"If these were poppies, I'd suggest a farce," he says dryly as he vainly attempts to resist the super humanly strong Star, his heels digging uselessly into the dirt.
Star looks back with a little bit of confusion, "What do poppies have to do with anything Marco? That's just silly. Besides, first you learn is to never take poppies from someone. This is basic stuff."
Marco sighs. "I was talking, never mind," he says, catching himself. Clever allusion tend to fly over Star's head, all things considered she wasn't a big reader on Mew, and the last time they tried to watch a movie they got kicked out of the public theater, the concept of staying quiet for two or more hours not particularly appealing to Star.
"You're just being a spoil sport and can't admit I did something right on the first try for once." She looks back and sticks her tongue out at Marco.
"Not even, I'm just worried. You said that this should be dangerous."
"Well given that this spell is centuries old, it is possible the dimensions that were locked off are nice now. I mean, who in their right mind would lock of a land of flowers away?"
"Who would think a group of fairies would be a tyrannical set of mine bosses? If've learned anything from you it's that cute things are terrifying."
The pair start down a slight decline heading towards a shimmering crystal lake, the flowers slowly shifting from a rainbow to a more consistent teal hue as they approach. On the lake a small house stands over looking a dainty dock. From the distance a form can be seen casting a line out into the lake. A wooden dike stands to the north damming up the river's southern flow.
"Look at that! It's a cute little lake shack!" Star says with a grin, her pace picking up as her grin seems to grow to absurd sizes.
"Yeah, and it looks like someone is already living there, so maybe we should just head home and come back later," Marco pleads.
"What's with you Marco, you love adventure."
He sighs, "I'm very, very tired and am working on a half night's sleep, so yeah."
"Well get over yourself, I'm ready and raring to go." They continue down until the house comes into clearer view. From the outside a group of five dwarfish creatures conglomerate. They wear suspenders that cover their stout body, leaving their piggish faces on display. Small tusks grow from their lower jaw. The skin on the beasts varies, but they are all dull, muted colors ranging from green to red, from yellow to puce.
"Look at this Gerald, we have some visitors,
Some very curious inquisitors."
The leading monster says, waving to his friends.
Another, presumably Gerald, steps up at the end.
"Aye, I wonder why the come to out place?
Perhaps they wish a change of space.
Or maybe they seek shelter
From the Sickly Skelter."
He knocks his finger against his fat chin,
wondering what had brought them to him and his kin.
"They look not like our kind,
Perhaps mysteries they seek to find.
What do you think Keek?
What is it you suppose they seek?"
A third of them walks up
Hands holding his chin in a cup
"Tis nothing to me for you see
Time is a precious commodity."
Gerald grunted with a dismissive sigh
Turning around to see who might try
"How about you Kevin, our undertaker,
Why have these two come as seekers."
Kevin looked up from a hole in the Earth,
Thundering up to show his impressive girth.
"I take little stock in the living,
My concerns lie among the death things."
All throughout the gremlins' conversation Star begins to bristle with excitement before bursting forth and interrupting the midgets, all of which barely stood to her thigh. "Marco, look at this!" She cries, "they're little rhyming goblins!" She takes him, looking intently into his eyes, "rhyming. Goblins."
Before Marco could respond,
The Goblins moved from the pond.
Those before the pair clutched their ears
Trying to block what they hear.
"Little missy, with voice so sheer,
Why do you threaten what we hold dear."
Gerald says, a pained, twisted smile on his face
Trying to take the deepest of pain with grace.
Marco frowns, picking up quickly exactly where this was going, but the ever impulsive Star gave no such thought. "My voice isn't sheer, what ever is it you mean by that."
"Star," Marco tries to interrupt, "I don't think..."
"Shhhh, Marco I'm talking," she interjects almost immediately. "I'm talking with the very nice rhyming goblins."
Of course, by then it was to late
Her blathering had sealed their fate.
The gremlins, once so idle
Now stood tall and fetal.
Naught less than eight feet tall they towered
Their moods all so very soured.
The pair's eyes go wide in fright,
Marco backing off, breaking Star's might.
"Little miss," it booms, "what dreadful noise you make.
Now die, for all our sake!"
The not-so-dwarfish dwarf cries into the sky
Making the crows and the sparrows fly.
His brothers all begin to shift
Their flesh bubble and rip.
Still further the pair peddle away,
Knowing it would not be wise to stay.
With a flash another charges forth,
The pair barely able to change course.
"Not so fast, little men.
There is no avoiding this most bitter end."
"This is bad," Marco says, "this is why I wanted to go home. Maybe sleep the day and watch the Republican debate tonight." He keeps his eyes open, hands up defensively. With a hard crack his hand smashes into the gremlin nearest to him, but his blow seems to leave the beast unfazed, Marco's hand screaming in pain.
"Nonsense," she says, taking out her wand, "we can handle them. I mean, they're only three feet taller than you. Besides, why would you even want to watch those debates. From what you've told me it all sounds really boring."
The quintuplet of baddies soon move in around then,
Each bearing the strength of ten great men.
One swats at Star, only to be grappled in an counter attack
The little girl flipping the beast onto its massive back.
The one who Marco failed to harm
Seeks to do the same to the man's arm.
Trying to take it in his grip,
Flesh intending to bit ripped,
Marco barely slips away,
Very happy to be okay.
Marco ducks and weaves about the beast
Trying to find what was protected least.
Deftly he climbs up its body,
His face morphing to something cocky.
With a hard smash and a thundering clap
The tiny man strikes where one would wear a hat
The beast stagers and begins to claw,
Trying to move the menace to his maw.
"Insufferable whelp!
Can't even die without my help."
Marco, sensing his plight
Began to ardently fight with all his might.
Grunting and groaning he pulled away,
His intention no longer to stay.
Still, during this masterful melee,
The tiny girl would have the beast shout "mayday."
In her strong grip, she would toss them,
With a mighty heave condemn
To a slumber taken on by force
To later awake all the worse.
Three of the beasties she felled
Nary a second her wand held.
All by her strength and prowess
Her martial might did this princess
Did this princess ward the lumbering beasts,
Did she banish the great Cretans to the east.
The final two, knowing the fates
Both abandoned their struggle post haste.
Like children they ran from the battered Marco,
Not wanting to antagonize Star or her co.
Marco pants, laying flat to the grass, chest heaving up and down rhythmically. Star plops herself by his head, beads of sweat gently rolling from her forehead, dark patches appearing on her nightgown from the sudden excursion. "The reason I want to watch the debates," he heaves, "is so I can be an educated citizen. You're taking civics with me, you know that right?"
Blinking, Star stares blankly, trying to recall. "Oh right, I thought that was a class on, like, court etiquette. I kind of already know all that stuff so I just tune it out most of the time. Besides, all of that is really, and I mean really boring." She begins in a mock, stuffy voice, "When greeting foreign dignitaries refer to them by their tittle and last name, not 'Mr. Insectiod' regardless of how much the moniker may 'fit.'"
Marco just gives a small sigh, sitting up slowly and rubbing the back of, his now aching, neck. "Right, I should have figured you would think like that. I'm not certain how it is on Mewni, though I can take a guess that it's not exactly like it is on earth. Just for context, one of our early leaders was an orphan child born to a poor family name, kind of a jerk, but an orphan none the less."
Star laughs, "oh, you're always funny Marco. An orphan peasant being king." She hops to her feet, suddenly grasping Marco by the wrist to pull him up. "Come on, we still got a few miles to cover before we reach that castle."