Notes:

Hi, I enjoyed this chapter a lot more than the previous version - it feels more natural to me. It's a little slower, the next chapter(s) will be too, but I think that's okay. That's good, I'm looking forward to including more hard-hitting scenes, dealing with loss and such in the short-future.

Reviews:

Slimster22 - Thanks :)

Celestialfyxen - I'll keep my reply short 'cause I don't want to make a wall of text: Thanks for the advice, and compliment - I've made a notepad on what you've said, outlaying your biggest problems with the chapter and suggestions, they're very helpful - thanks a million! I'll split your paragraphs into (1) (2) etc, (1) My idea wasn't to have him become a completely apathetic criminal, it was for him to drown himself in something - make himself forget, the future would've had him talk to Star and say "I've thought about them 0 times recently, I'm actually enjoying life and you want me to stop?!" Which would lead to more drama but eh, it's a shit in retrospect. Kelly didn't tell them she killed a guy, doubt she would've anyway, for the last point there he doesn't have much of a choice - he needs her skills.
(2) Fair point, 100% agreeable and I get it. I need to work on my Star character :) The thing about him 'not wanting to steal' from his own social-group is a bit of a misstep, he doesn't have a problem. He needs to survive, he wants his friends to survive, he wants Samantha to survive, he owes Susan that much - to make sure she has a good, healthy life. If he needed to steal from a baker who produces a lot of bread per day to make that happen, or a fruit seller: He would.
(3) I think you meant Tom? I'll get to it eventually ;)
(4) He is, I hope to explore him more - he might have started correct and been corrupted or he might've always been corrupt :) We'll see.
(5) If I did contradict myself, like I said, I had 6 hours of sleep - I wasn't thinking straight, but thanks for pointing that out :)
(6) I hope you enjoy, and I'd appreciate anymore thoughts you have! I love hearing them.

Enjoy~

"I-… I don't know." Marco said, his eyes were sunken and his breath harsh – it felt as if someone was choking him. The boy didn't have a lot of time to comprehend what had happened back at the castle, now that the group had successfully escaped the manhunt, it had finally set in that Alfonzo died… Dash, Susan, Roxie, Daniel, Craig, Dave, Mike, Tess… All dead: Ophelia killed them, in front of him and it was him that dragged them to their graves.

"Well, that went dreadful," Kelly noted, stretching her arms. The rest of the group turned to face her after the comment, "What?"

Emilia sighed, "Aren't you a ray of sunshine." She mentioned in a quiet voice.

This seemed to provoke Kelly a little, "Name's Kelly, I don't think we've met."

"Emilia. Pleasure." The maid spat back, something about the green-haired youngster irked her, she wasn't sure what.

The group found themselves in a lush green forest, it seemed the King's corruption and greed hadn't spread this far yet, Mewni was a country known for its lumber & fruit trade, something in the soil helped fruit & vegetables grow to be quite exquisite. The King exploited this miracle to put the country into a pool of wealth, however, the cost of which meant that near any civilisation there was a drought of forestry. The closest thing you'd be able to find was a bush of nettles and random weeds that cracked their way through the stoned streets. "Wow." Tom observed, "The air feels so fresh here." At that comment, everyone took a deep breath in.

"Yeah, that feels great…" Star replied, her voice felt faint and lacked her recent energy.

Samantha chimed in; she didn't really understand what was going on – perhaps that was a good thing, "Wowie! I've never been somewhere that smelled soooo good!" The little girl brought a small smile to Star's face.

"What's your name sweetie?" Star asked as she crouched down slightly to meet Samantha's eyes.

"Samantha Caulwind, what's yours miss?"

"Star B-…" The name made her voice quiver… Thinking that someone which shared her blood: Her father, allowed the murder of so many people – he could've stopped Ophelia, but he didn't… "Butterfly." She added at the end with a fake smile.

"WOAH! You're royalty?!" The girl exclaimed, her mouth agape – she started pulling on Tom's top, "Did you know she's royalty?!"

Tom snapped out of his daydream, "Uh, yeah I did." The girl gasped.

Emilia chuckled and asked if she should get breakfast started, the group unanimously agreed that they were famished. Everyone managed to put on fake faces for Sam, it was a silent agreement that they'd try to keep her farthest from the truth of why she had to leave so suddenly… And what happened to her aunt. The task was difficult for Marco, a joyous bundle of fluff constantly reminded him that there'd be a time when he'd have to tell her that it was his fault her auntie wouldn't be coming back.

Tom had managed to swipe good survival food; a couple of loaves of bread which were high in carbohydrates. Some sealed foods that were good for replenishing salts and ions, and a few slices of meat that were from the day before's menu, they'd go bad pretty quick so they were what was eaten for breakfast, Marco only took a few bites of his then handed the rest over to Sam who happily gulped it down. The rest of the group noticed Marco's abnormal behaviour, nobody wanted to say anything yet – the majority were still thinking about things themselves. The food wouldn't last them long though, their current mission had to be to find a way to procure food, whether that was wildlife in the forest or trading with some sort of nearby settlement. The horses would also need quite a substantial amount of food for the distances they'd been travelling, fruit and veg that wasn't poisonous or berries would be hard to come across naturally, their only hope for that would be a human village or town.

"Welp, shall we get a move on?" Kelly asked, patting her stomach full.

"Where do we go?" Tom asked, he'd never left the town that birthed him, but there was nothing left for him there.

"Wherever we want to!" Kelly exclaimed, "We're free now. We can just leave." She seemed quite set on the idea of leaving. It was an appealing offer too, at least everyone took a moment to think the offer through.

"We can't," Marco added, he was currently sat down on the grass, looking into the dirt.

"Marco," Tom replied, "you said it yourself… The castle won't ever be that defenceless again. We probably wouldn't be able to do anything."

"Tom… I only knew the people at the Tavern for a few days. You knew them your whole life, are you really contempt letting the murderous bas—" he cut himself off because of Sam, "letting the destructive hierarchy of anarchy continue their stampede over everyone? People have to sell their bodies to survive, people murder to get daily food, people have to sit in dark, dirty, damp caves and swing pickaxes at rocks in hopes of finding a few pounds of coal." Marco's voice wasn't loud, or angry, it held a sympathetic tone – his eyes looked like they'd been glazed by liquid. "I know there are people out there who sympathise with our cause, the Taverneers are proof of that, you are proof of that: We just need to find them."

Star was the first one to reply, "You and those people saved my life… I owe them to at least try and do something, besides! We've come this far, giving up now seems a little anti-climactic don'tcha think?"

Emilia sighed, "I'm with you, 100% Boss… The castle is all I've known for a long time; my home village was burned to the ground by those heathens over in Danafor so I doubt I'd have anything to return to either. I'd like to try and return there, even if I might die for it." It was comforting to know that Marco still had Emilia & Star on his side, he'd make sure to properly thank them someday.

Tom shook his hands in an attempt to protest but couldn't think of a retort so he gave up and submitted to the idea, "Yeah… Alright! I swear I'm going to make them pay!"

That only left one person left to commit.

"Y'all insane," Kelly uttered, trying to get them to see sense. "Seriously? You're gonna take on the monarchy… Again? After you lost this badly? That's madness! Count me out." She said before starting to take a walk down the road.

"Wait!" Marco called, standing up now, "What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to find my family. Then get out of here. Now let me go." She said before turning back around.

"But! … What if… Ophelia's well-informed? Yes, so that means she'd probably eventually find out where you are with your family? Yes, what do you think she'll do when she finds you? Torture you again? Torture your family—" That pissed Kelly off a little, it seems her trigger was her family being threatened. It was at that point where Kelly stopped in her tracks before mumbling to herself and returning.

"Listen here kid, I don't trust you to be my leader – you've successfully managed to lead a surprise attack into hell… I vote Star." Her message was short, she gazed at Star with a small smile. "I trust her, she genuinely cares – which is infinitely more than what I can say about this guy." Star seemed shocked at the demand Kelly put forth, Marco gulped, realising that she was in fact correct. What qualifications did he have for leadership anyway? The best experience he had before this was ordering a jigsaw with his mother they found at a waste-site.

Emilia complained, "What gives you the right to tell us who we have in charge? Marco's done an excellent job, we sure couldn't do any better—"

"She's right Em." Marco whipped back, "I don't think I'm in a good place to be a leader right now… Star can do a much better job." He finished with a smile before turning to Star and walking over to her. "I vote Star." He said, looking her in the eyes wearing a sincerely sweet smile before bringing into a hug. "I love you." He whispered; her eyes seemed to light up at this. Recent events reminded him how quickly people could go from being perfectly fine and happy to be… dead. Star's throat seemed paralysed at the words Marco said.

"I vote Star too!" Sam cried, "I like her!"

"Welp… If Sam likes her, and Marco trusts her… I guess I'll vote Star too."

"That's the majority." Marco said, "Good luck, captain." He continued before adopted a salute, the two chuckled.

At first, Emilia seemed a little opposed to having someone as secluded and naïve as Star positioned as the leader but those feelings were quite trivial compared to the situation the group was currently in.

"Well… If I'm the leader, I think we should find a good place to let ourselves recover. Do we have a map?"

Everyone looked towards Tom.

"Wa-Me? No, I didn't bring one… It didn't cross my mind." A communitive sigh could be felt from the group, "Don't judge me! I was a bit pre-occupied at the time…"

"Hey, Emilia do you know this area?" Marco asked.

"Sorry, I didn't pay attention to where we headed while I was steering the horses. I know we went south, but that's about it. We could be anywhere that's more southern."

"Tsk. Well no use crying about it, let's just get going then – we'll figure it out while we go!" Star said, with that command, everyone jumped on the carriage and Star got up front with Emilia along the plank used by the driver. The rest of the crew sat in the back.

The time flew, the group had morally centred around Samantha's optimism, it could be said that she was the glue holding them together. They had to be strong: For her. Marco learned some sleight-of-hand tricks from Kelly while they were in the back, I suppose being a master assassin taught you a little bit of magic too. They didn't have a pack of cards but she was able to do coin tricks, the teen was originally opposed to using her talents for something so stupid but once Sam's face lit up at her first trick, it was revealed that Kelly did, in fact, have a heart in that steel chest of hers.

Last Night – Castle

"Well that was exciting wasn't it?" Ophelia had come down from the balcony and returned to the ballroom, the guards had cleaned up the bodies and scrubbed the blood from the floor. However, that didn't change the fact that nobody really wanted to dance on a floor that not 30 minutes ago had executions carried out. The Chosen's families had to make their own way there, Alfonzo's parents couldn't make it due to the fact that they lacked sufficient funds for a ride. It was sad that they'd receive a notice saying their son had been 'Executed for Treason against the Crown.' Even though that was a complete bullshit lie. "Ah, I see there's a problem with the current venue… Very well, let's take this outside!" The Princess said before clapping and a group of servants flew to the aid of the families, directing them to the gardens.

Matthew kept trying to push his way through the crowd to Ophelia but the swarm of people was simply too great for him to make it. That was when a tap on his shoulder alerted him, spinning around he was greeted by a fat short man with brown hair, "Hello son!" He cried, a nasally, annoying voice bellowed from the lard-ball.

"Oh… Dad." Matt responded, his face seemed to drop, a little disappointment in his tone.

"What's with that attitude?" His father cried before taking his son into a hug. Matthew rolled his eyes.

"I uh… I'm having some girl troubles with Ophelia—"

"Ophelia? Are you with a chance to win this thing then?" His father seemed more interest in the mention of Princess Ophelia's name rather than his son's troubles.

"Perhaps, but that's not the—"

"That's great news! Wait until your mother hears about this." Matt was about to try and retort but stopped himself, 'Pointless'.

Garden's

Ophelia took a stance on the infamous fountain, addressing all the families. "Well, the time has dragged on now, so I'll make this quick. It's been a pleasure meeting all of you, to name a few standouts: Desmon, you were bold, courageous and I wish you the best – but you're not the one. Phillip, you had a comedic mind and I'm sure that will come in handy during the future, but you're not the one. Aasim, I was actually really impressed with your skill with a sword, truly magnificent – I'm sure you have a bright future ahead leading a squad/troop/maybe even an army. But you're not the one. Matthew, you were able to see things from a unique perspective, you had wisdom in ways most lacked; for this reason, I, Ophelia Butterfly choose you to be my suitor." A wave on applauds on-looked the not-so shocked Matthew. His father struck him on the back with a mighty pat.

"Well done boy!" He cried, excited at the business opportunities opening up to him now.

"Yeah…" Was the only thing Matt could reply, a part in his brain nagged him still, he still saw Al's dying face looking at home: Staring into his soul.

"Come on, join me up here!" Ophelia shouted down, an obviously fake smile on her face. Matt had to put his on otherwise it might seem suspicious. River and Moon were stood at the back of the crowd.

"Our little girl has finally found a suitor Moon, isn't this great?!" The King cheered.

"Yes dear…" Her mind was still wondering what happened to Star, last she heard, Star was in the dungeons but if Marco burst through the ballroom door late – did he get her? She'd have to check later, hopefully, they got far enough away.

Matthew jumped on the fountain side with Ophelia, "Surprised?" She whispered in his ear.

"Well yes, it could've been anyone." He sarcastically whispered back, she rolled her eyes and addressed the crowd.

"This concludes the Choosing!" She said, as soon as Ophelia finished speaking, Matthew swallowed his inhibitions and grabbed her, bringing her in for a kiss in front of everyone which only earned more cheers. They broke after a few seconds, "What was that for?" She asked.

"They're loving it." He replied, "Isn't it good to be on the noble's good side?" She smiled 'I chose wisely.' The Princess thought to herself while smiling.

Mid-Day – Star's Group

"Ahhhh… It's sooo hottt." Star complained, she attempted to block the sun with her right hand but it only left the rest of her body melting, with the sun now in full beam it was easiest to summarise their current attires.

Emilia's servant clothing was messy, the bow had become untied at some point and fell while her shirt was untucked from her suit pants as it'd usually be tucked in and some of her hair strands were prickling out now.

Star was still wearing the same clothes she wore yesterday, a blue dress with rippled down one side – it had darker laces around the arms. Her bottom part had become slightly ripped, it got caught on a sharp rock while she was in the cell. Her hair remained pretty straight as per usual.

Marco's dark clothing had got really muddy from sleeping on the floor of the carriage, his right side was mostly dust-brown coloured now, likewise with Kelly who had her black and white jumper and a dark skirt on.

Sam wore a plain dark green dress, being from the lower-class she didn't have access to expensive dresses. Her face was a little mucky but that could be easily fixed after a small wash.

Tom wore similar attire to Marco, except his back was muddy as he slept against the wall of the carriage.

Kelly had finished performing her magic tricks now, promising to do more for Sam tomorrow. Most of the people in the carriage were beginning to feel the effects of dehydration, "God, my tongue feels like sandpaper." Tom complained as he kept swirling his tongue around in his mouth.

"Same," Kelly added on; head tilted over the edge of the carriage. They'd been riding for hours now; it was a real shame that they hadn't seen any signposts yet to give them an indication of their position. It was still a rather beaten road which meant there'd been a lot of travel down here, so if they kept following it – the group would eventually reach some sort of settlement. However, there was no telling how far that'd be. During Kelly's time of viewing the world upside down, she saw something through a break in the trees, it looked like… A deer?! "Guys!" She cried, "Look!" Marco and Tom peeked their heads over to follow her line of sight and eventually reached the same target.

"Emilia, stop the carriage!" Marco yelled to the front. The team assembled, "I went hunting with my father once, but I only remember how to gut and prepare meat, anyone good with hunting?" The obvious choice would be Kelly, so that was everyone's first choice.

"Me? Well with a bow I could do it, or a dagger, or a sword, or a throwing knife, or a throwing axe, or a regular axe… But I don't see any of those laying around, do you?"

It was then that it hit the group… They forgot to get weapons.

"Do you think we could… Choke it?" Tom asked, Emilia just gave him a 'WTF' face. "Just an idea."

Star sighed, "There's no point, we'd probably end up getting hurt if we tried to kill it. Let's just move on." With that blow to their morale, the group ventured forward for about another hour until they finally laid eyes on what they'd been hoping for. A sign that read 'Arcanretia' Emilia's face slightly lit up. "What's with that face Emilia?" Star asked.

"Arcanretia is the city of relaxation, we servants were granted to go there a few years ago – it was beautiful. It's one of the few cities that isn't destroyed by the poverty."

"Sounds like a plan," Marco added; he had stuck his head through the cape that covered the carriage from the driver. Star seemed a little off-put by the floating head advising them.

"Okay floating head," Star began, "To Arcanretia it is!" Marco went into the back again to inform the others of the choice, it appeared to be another couple of hours until they reached the place. Morale had taken a significant boost from the news of a city based entirely on recovering strength.

End Notes:

There we go, I know some of you might be thinking - "Oh wow they're not bothered at all." They are! But from my experience, during the day - when our bodies are constantly taking in information, and it's bright outside, we as humans prevent others from seeing our weakness. But as the day drags on, we become tired; night falls, that's when we become most vulnerable, and alone, when everything is dark. I hope to explore that more in the next chapter.

Really though, this chapter was rough to write for me - I've spent maybe 4 hours on it, I procrastinated after 400 words because I really wanted this to be a decent chapter. Hopefully I achieved something of decent quality, perhaps in the bigger picture this chapter might seem better. I hope.

I go back on the 23rd actually, as the 22nd is a bank holiday! WOOoooo! So I'll aim to get 1 more chapter out before I go back. *Fingers crossed* but I'm busy... today? It's the 21st at 1:36 AM when I'm writing so it's technically Sunday, which means I won't be in for a few hours the rest of today, but I'll aim to get a chapter out either tonight or tomorrow :)

Thanks for your continued support,
vK