Star's POV
The badlands were true to their name. It was a daunting place with steep ravines and spectacular rock formations. The sky was a deep purple. They were also quite deserted, which was worrying since all the monsters were supposed to be here. I grasped Marco's hand tightly, having a bad feeling about this place.
We made our way towards an old rock building. On the way we started noticing something rather creepy. There were bones littered on the ground,smashed into small pieces, and some of the rock structures looked suprisingly like they were made of bones. We entered through the doorways into building, which was suprisingly well lit by crystalline structures. "What is this place", I whispered. "I think we are about to find out", Marco said, pointing towards the dark figures approaching from the distance.
We got ready for a fight, with Marco taking out his sword, and me readying my spiked club. I blocked the first hit of the cloaked figure, smashing my club into the handle of the axe and breaking it in two. A quick hit to the head and my opponent was knocked out. "Well that was easy", I remarked with a smirk, looking over at Marco who had finished dealing with the other one. Before he could reply though, I felt a needle pierce my neck, and everything went black.
Tom's POV
It was turning out to be pretty fun to help with the repairs, not often was I able to use my fire powers without any restrictions. Also, hanging out with Jackie was turning out to be pretty fun. It had only been a few hours, but it felt like I knew her for much longer. "What about we take some time off?", she asked, clearly tired. "Yeah, why not, we've been working for quite a while", I replied, and we made our way over the the small 'kitchen' that had been set up in one of the relatively intact hallways.
"The food here might not really suit your taste, it's not like earth food", I told Jackie as we reached the kitchen. She looked at me with a confused expression before replying,"But,This is just like earth food" and pointed at the food racks. And she was right, there was everything here from cereal to pizzas. Intrigued, I went over the the chef and asked her how she made this. "Oh no, I didn't make this, I couldn't even if I wanted to, she broke all my vessels, that monster. King River asked me to get food from earth.", she paused, before continuing," I got all this food for just one sack of gold, it's amazing how cheap food is over there". "Actually ma'am, gold isn't...", Jackie started, before petering out. I made a mental note to ask her what she was about to say later.
We both took a plate and left, thanking her for the food.
On our way back to work, we passed through the tapestry room. I wondered how much of this was true, now that we knew the High Magic Commission had tampered with Mewni's history before. "Who is she?", Jackie asked, reaching out towards the portrait of Eclipsa. Before I could tell her not to, she touched it, resulting in a brief flash of light, and the potrait swung outwards. It almost seemed like Jackie's cheeks had lit up for second, but it could just be a residue from the flash. Inside was a small dimly lit chamber, with books lying everywhere.
"Wow, what is this place", I heard Jackie say. "I have no clue, but it's best to be careful", I replied, just as suprised by this development. I had been to the Butterfly castle many times, but I had never seen anything like this room. But then again, Marco had told me something about there being hidden passages in the castle which were used by Eclipsa. Maybe this was one of those. I lit up a small flame in my hand to see things better. There were footprints in the dust,as if the room has recently been used. We carefully made our way across the room, careful not to disturb anything.
The book on top of a table caught me eye. Unlike most of the room it was completely dust free, so it must have been recently used. Jackie went over to it, she must have noticed it as well. "Can your read this? I haven't seen this language before" ,she asked. I took the book in my hands, trying to understand what was written. "This is a combination ancient mewnian and some strange dialect of monster speak. I haven't seen an like this before", I told her. I was just able to understand a few words in the text, it seemed to be something about lost gods and interdimensional travel. The yellowed pages crackled under my hand, as I looked for any other information, but there wasn't anything else. Just some mentions of a prophesy. I decided not to mention any of this to Jackie since I didn't want to scare her.
A sudden sound came from the corner, causing Jackie to jump into my arms with fright. I took her hand, not wanting to get seperated in a possible fight. However our fears were unfounded,since it turned out to be just a rat. We quickly untangled ourselves from our rather compromising position,both of us blushing madly. "Well we should get back to work now",I half stuttered, ans we made our way out and shut the painting behind us.
I hope Star and Marco return soon, we've got a lot to talk about, I muttered underneath my breath, hoping that they were safe.
Sorry for the lackluster ending, I was thinking of making a larger chapter, but I liked the idea of having a cliffhanger. Svfoe and all characters in the chapter do not belong to me. PM me any suggestions for the story.