Hello hello hello! Welcome back the Life on Earthni, the collection of short stories revolving around the adventures of Star and Marco and friends as they navigate life on this strange new dimension. Thank you again for reading my story. It is so fun to write. Hope you enjoy this next chapter-it is honestly one of my favorites! I don't own Star vs the Forces of Evil.
Chapter 23: Watermelon Felon
"OH NO!" Star began panting as she chased after the bus. "WAIT FOR ME! WAIT FOR ME! WAIT FOR-oh, corn. I miss Cloudy." Skidding to a halt, Star leaned forward, placing her hands on her knees as she panted. Great. She was going to miss school again. Mom is going to KILL me. Shaking her head, Star looked to her left as her breathing slowed. Blinking rapidly, she gasped in surprise. Wait-MOM?
"Mom?" Star straightened up and dashed toward her mother, who was peering at a map in her hand in deep concentration. Moon jumped in surprise, turning toward her daughter with a hand to her chest. Piercing her lip, Moon crossed her arms over her chest.
"Star. Why are you not in school?"
Waving her hand nonchalantly, Star brushed off the question. "Mom, what are you doing here? Why are you…not wherever moms are at during the day?"
Moon rolled her eyes. "Star, I have a life outside of you, you know."
"You have a life?!"
"Star."
"Sorry. But seriously, Mom. What are you doing here at this time of day?" Star cocked her head to the side. She resisted the urge to smirk. She had learned this tactic from Janna. Turn the attention on someone else so they don't question what you're doing.
Sighing in defeat, Moon uncrossed her arms and gestured toward the forest and farmlands behind the shopping center. "There has been some trouble at the local farms. There have been a series of complaints of thefts of produce by Mewmans, monsters, and humans alike. As the representative of Mewni in the Echo Creek Tribunal, it is my duty to assess the situation and report back." She shrugged her shoulders. "It's probably just flocks of dragoncycles eating the vegetables but I still have to evaluate the situation."
Star furrowed her brow and placed a finger on her chin. "Curiouser and curiouser."
"My dear, that is not a real word."
"Of course it is, Mom! Marco showed it to me in one of his boring books!" Star snapped her finger, beaming at her mother. "Let me help. Back on Mewni, Marco and I did a little bit of detective work when Mina tried to Yada Yada Eclipsa! I mean-we never found out it was really her but we got really close!"
A doubtful frown appeared on Moon's face. "Are you sure it is wise to skip school? You already have missed so many days already and I probably could-"
"Ahh, come on! What is more important? Sitting in a classroom where I won't pay attention to a word that is said and not learning a thing OR spending time with my mother and helping to make a difference in society?" Star clasped her hands together, eyes dancing as she gazed her Moon. "Plus, who knows how much time we have left together."
Moon blew a strand of hair out of her face and looked up at the sky before answering her. "Fine. You can come." Star leapt into the air, pumping her fist as Moon muttered to herself, "How old does she think I am?!"
After adventuring through the farmlands, the mother and daughter arrived at a large, empty field. In the middle stood an angry farmer, tapping his foot with his arms crossed over his chest. "And I thought I had enough of tardy, lazy monarchs when Mewni was destroyed."
Star and Moon glanced at one another with a grimace before turning back to the man. "Good morning, sir. We have received a report of a series of thefts. Your farm was the most recent report on our document."
"Queen Moon, coming down to mingle with the commoners. Well, you're one of us now, aren't you? Just Plain Moon. No magic either. What good are you?"
"Sir, I am here to interview you about your crops being stolen, not debate Mewman politics." Venom dripped from Moon's voice, causing Star to shutter. She was glad she was not on the receiving end of her words-been there, done that. The Mewman farmer paled and dipped her head for her to continue. "There now. So you initially reported your cropped going missing yesterday during the evening. Could you tell me what is missing?"
The man threw his hands into the air, gesturing to the empty field around them. "This answer that question for ya?"
Biting her lip, Star resisted the urge to giggle as the corners of Moon's lips tightened.
"Could you tell us what type of crops that were stolen?"
"ALL OF IT! My corn. My rutabagas. My corn. My cabbages. My corn." He raised his eyes to the sky, taking off his hat and holding it against his heart. "But worst of all, they got my watermelons."
"NO! Not the watermelons!" Star gasped. Ever since Earth and Mewni had merged, the Mewman people had learned the amazing properties of watermelons. It had become the most popular food-second only to corn. But some would say that watermelon was even better. The farmer bowed his head, slowly putting on his hat with tears in his eyes.
Sighing, Moon shook her head with a blank face. "Now, let us calm down. Could my daughter and I take a look around your farm to see if we can find anything that could help with the investigation?" With a sad grunt, the farmer gestured toward the field and began to walk away without another word.
As Star began to walk away, she whispered to the farmer, "You will be avenged."
The pair began their search, looking around the field. After an hour, Star groaned in frustration. "This place is huge! It will take forever to find a clue!" She glanced over at her mom (who was obviously ignoring her) before rolling her eyes and turned her eyes down to the ground-and something caught her eye. "Oh never-mind! I found something! MOM!" Kneeling down, Star looked at the footprint next to hers. It was around the same size as her boot. Looking forward, she noticed tracks of the same boot leading toward the now named 'Not So Certain Forest of Certain Death'. Moon reached Star just as she straightened up and began to dash toward the woods. "Mom! There's tracks! Let's go!"
"STAR! Dear, let's think it through! STAR!" Moon called after her and began to follow her toward the forest. The two raced into the woods, jumping over giant, man-eating flowers who lurched at them. Star's vision narrowed as she dashed into the woods and just as quickly, she broke through a clearing. And halted in her tracks.
Moon accidentally slammed into Star, causing the two to fall forward. "Star-you can't go wandering off like that! You could run into…danger…" The two slowly stood up, eyes wide. "Well, I think we know where all the crops have gone."
The former monarchs were surrounded by a sea of people, all staring at them , frozen in place. Everyone seemed to be busy working, in the middle of building or moving supplies. Each face glared at them in anger or shock. With a jolt, Star realized that she recognized many of these faces from the Kingdom of Mewni. It seemed they had stumbled on a war camp.
"Uhh, hi?" Star timidly waved her hand, awkwardly backing away.
"GET 'EM!"
In a flurry of punches and kicks, Moon and Star fought but were soon overwhelmed by the enormous group. Before she knew it, Star and her mother were bound in tight ropes with knots that would have made Marco's Miniature Miniature Book of Knots proud. She strained against the ropes and with a frustrated groan she threw her head back against her mother's. "If we still had magic we would totally already be free."
"Well, dear, you put an end to that."
"Low blow, Mom."
"Well, well, well." A familiar voice called out, causing Moon and Star to jolt up in shock. Turning to the left, they saw none other than Mina Loveberry, looking haggard with a strange glint in her eyes. Star couldn't believe it-she honestly hadn't even given Mina a second thought since Earth and Mewni merged into one dimension. "Look what the cat dragged in. Former Queen Moon and Stella Butterfly."
Star cocked her head with a frown. "Umm, my name is Star."
"Nope. Your name is definitely Stella." Mina jerked down, getting right into Star's face. Star gagged, Mina's breath smelling of mushrooms and something that smelt suspiciously like dragon poop. Mina turned toward Moon, tossing her hair behind her. "Bet ya didn't think you'd be seeing me again. But there is nothing that can get past Mina Loveberry!" She stood up, flourishing her hands as she began to pace. "You're probably wondering, 'How did Mina survive all alone out here in the forest?' Well-let me tell ya!"
"Ugh-this is going to take forever." Moon muttered under her breath but Mina continued, not having heard her.
"You thought I had gone crazy. Bananas. COO-COO! Well-I'm more not-crazy than ever! I've been waiting my time, living in the wild, surviving off the land. My followers have heeded my call-they understand what it means to truly be Mewman." Many of the workers on the camp gathered around, nodding their heads and calling out support as she continued. "Our lands have been invaded by monsters and strange invaders who look like us. The world has changed but we know what it truly means to be Mewman!" A cheer went up in the crowd. Star and Moon glanced at one another. Neither had to say just how crazy Mina had become but they didn't want to interrupt. She was giving them everything-plus, she seemed like she might tell the crowd to eat them so they didn't want to play with those chances.
"We've been building our cause, taking what we need to build our army. We take what is ours-these farmers must pay their taxes to their future ruler. Their food contributes to the cause and supports their army." Star raised her eyebrows-Mina was more into monologuing than Ludo. "We will take our army and save our fellow Mewmans from the tyranny of Echo Creek-this new kingdom that has strange mechanical dragons and warnicorns on its streets. We shall save the Mewmans and banish all monsters and Mewman look-a-loos and Mewni will be ours!"
A cheer exploded from the crowd, one person fainting in exciting. Moon glanced at her daughter with a fearful eye. "Does she not realize that this isn't Mewni anymore?"
Star shrugged, shaking her head as she continued to fiddle with the bindings. "Who cares? Mina is crazy! I mean-look at her!"
Moon grimaced as the crowd finally began to calm down. "I don't know, Star. She seems to have a lot of followers. I'm not sure what we can do to-"
"Now, my fellow believers! I sentence the no-longer-Queen Moon to death by man-eating flowers-for being a traitor and siding with that monster-lover queen." A cheer broke out from the crowd, one man shouting, "Go Queen Moon!" and getting shushed by his wife. Moon and Star gasped and began to work harder on breaking each other's bonds. "And as for Princess Stella…" Mina turned her gaze to Star with a smirk. "Let's keep her and use her to get more stuff!" Another cheer grew though confused looks were exchanged. Obviously, they wanted to have another person to give to the monster flowers.
The bonds slowly began to loosen but Star realized she needed to buy more time. Tapping her mom and winking at her, she used her mom's back to push themselves into a standing position and looked around the crowd. "Hey Mina!" Well, she may not have been the most eloquent queen but she still had some training. "That was a great speech-but let's think about this for a minute." Glancing around herself, she nodded her head to one guy. "Hey you! What do you do here?"
"Me?!" A former nobleman blinked, pointing to himself. "I build the catapults."
"You build the catapults?! That is so cool-uhh, but that's not the point. Do you get to decide what else to make or how many to make?"
The nobleman cocked his head to the side with a frown. "No-no I don't."
"Wow. You don't get to make any decisions." Star shook her head and struggled to walk forward. Moon stumbled behind her, almost being dragged by her daughter. She grunted, 'Do you have a plan?' but Star ignored her. "How many of you can talk about what you think or do you have to listen to Mina tell you what to do?" The crowd began to look at one another, frowns on their faces. Some tentative called out 'Mina?' Star nodded her head and gestured with her elbows since her hands were tied to her mom. "Exactly! Mina tells you what to do. But in Echo Creek-in lots of places on Earthni-people let you say what you think and you can vote to make decisions. You don't have to steal watermelons or hide in the woods. You can-"
"STOP SPREADING YOUR LIES, STELLA!" Mina roared, rushing to block the former princess from the view of the crowd with her body. "We don't make decisions by talking and happy-good-fuzzy feelings like my doctor told me to feel! We make decisions I tell them to make and by fighting and ordering people around." She turned toward the group with narrowed eyes. "And anybody who doesn't like that can say 'Sayonara' with a catapult down the river." She snorted, hands on her hips. "That's how we work here- order people around and get rid of anybody who says anything bad about us-just like those modern day American politics you feel so good about."
With a shrug of her shoulders, Star caught her mother's eye. "Well, she's got a point."
"Star…"
But before Star could reply, a sword slashed down between the two, cutting the bindings. With a yelp, Star lurched forward, whirling around to stand in a fighting stance. "You wanna 'opinion' Stella? You gotta fight to have one of those!" Mina banished her sword at the former princess. "It's either fight me or your mama will be a nice afternoon snack for our pet flower monsters."
Star caught her mother's eye, who was being held hostage by four, burly Mewmans. Furrowing her brow in concentration, Star turned to face Mina, fists held up in front of herself. "Being it on, Loveberry."
The warrior slashed her sword down at Star, who ducked into a roll, popping up behind her. "Missed me!" With a growl, Mina swung the sword behind her. Star leapt back, feeling the blade tickle her dress. Gulping, she took a step to her left. "Missed again!" Mina howled in frustration, her eyes reddening, as she lurched forward with a jab. Star was extremely glad that magic was gone-Mina would probably have pummeled her to princess dust by now.
Mina kept slashing at Star, who merely danced out of her reach. Each thrust of the blade caused Mina to become more enraged. A couple times, she almost stabbed Star but the former princess kept her cool. Usually she had Marco or even Tom to help her battle monsters in the past-but Star only had herself and no magic to help her. Glancing up, Star saw a low hanging tree branch. With a smirk, she dashed behind Mina, sprang onto her back and leapt into the air. She grasped the tree branch and caught the blade between her feet. Jerking up with her hips, Star pulled the sword out of Mina's grip and hoisted herself up onto the branch.
Banishing the sword down at Mina, Star winked down at her. "I'd say it's time to get to the point." Flipping off the branch, Star landed in a crouch and swept her leg, toppling Mina to the ground. As Mina moved to retaliate, she froze as Star pointed the sword into her face.
Mina raised her hands above her head and sighed. "Fine! You got me!"
Star smiled, keeping the sword pointed toward the villain. "What can I say-I was trained by the best!" She smiled over at her mom, who beamed back. "Now-let my mom go!"
Nodding her head, Mina gestured toward Moon. The Mewmans thrust Moon forward, who walked over to her daughter. Once Moon was standing behind Star, Mina slowly stood up, hands still above her head. "Fine, I surrender. You now rule the clan and can take your place as leader by taking my head."
"WHOA-WHAT?!" Star lowered her sword, shaking her head in horror. "No way! I would never do that!" She glanced at the crowd, who looked confused, one person standing backward as if not sure what direction to look. "Uhhh-how about this?" Star paused, looking at her mother for confirmation. Moon shrugged, wordlessly saying this was Star's show. With a tug at her heart, Star realized that her mom trusted her to make her own decisions. Slowly, a smile built on her face as she turned to face Mina and the crowd. "Why don't you do what the first Mewmans did? Move somewhere else and start a new colony. You want to keep the Mewmans pure or whatever-but really, the first Mewmans were actually humans."
"WHAT?!" Moon gasped, holding a hand to her mouth in shock.
"Mom-get with the picture! Yeah, they wanted a fresh start so they took boats and sailed across the sea to find a new land and somehow came to Mewni!"
One Mewman gestured behind herself. "So you mean for us to use these boats and go across the ocean to find a new place to live like the first Mewmans?" Everyone turned toward where she was pointing. Moon and Star caught each other's eye as they saw a fleet of hand-crafted boats piled on top of one another. Star wondered how they could have missed that.
"May I ask-why do you have those boats?" Moon questioned with a raised eyebrow.
"For the naval attack on Echo Creek of our invasion strategy."
"Right…but why aren't they near the water?"
Everyone was silent for a second before one person cheered. "TO THE BOATS!" With a roar, all the Mewmans raced to the boats. Cries of 'Mewni II' and 'New Mewni' filled the clearing as the Mewmans began to work to free the boats. Each began to push and pull at the boats, huffing and grunting with the strain. The boats slowly began to budge, one by one each inching toward the direction of the ocean…many miles away.
Taking Star's hand, Moon tugged her back toward the woods. "And that's our cue to leave." Gripping the sword, Star dashed after her mother back toward the farm. After many glances back and tripping over roots and one invisible goat, they finally broke through the forest onto the farm. Gasping for breath, Star clutched her knees and looked back up at her mother. Moon held a hand to her chest, catching her own breath. The sound of huffing caught their attention as they turned to see the Mewman farmer slowly making his way over to them.
"Did you find my crops? Did you arrest the culprits?"
Catching her mother's eyes, Star shrugged her shoulders. It was her turn to deal with crazy Mewmans. Moon turned toward the farmer, her face a cold statue. "No one else will steal your crops. You may now go home. And maybe rethink your choice of shoes." The farmer glanced down at his stiletto heels that were poking into his dust. Shrugging his shoulders, he turned around and marched back to his house, his heels poking holes deep into the dirt.
With a whoop, Star thrust her sword in the air and whirled around to her mom. "Wow! That was great! Can you believe-OOPH!" Star was cut off by Moon thrusting her arms around her. A smile grew on her face, slowly bringing her arms around her mother.
"Star-I am so proud of you! You handled the situation wisely and with tact. You would have made a good queen."
Her cheeks grew warm and a wide grin split her face as she pulled away. "Ahh, thanks, Mom. It just felt good to make a difference again. Plus-I got a cool new sword."
"Umm. No." Moon gently took the sword from Star's hand, who frowned and crossed her arms across her chest. "But yes. I am proud of you. And you can make a difference-it just may look a little different in this new world. It takes time and changing things at the institutional level."
Star slowly nodded her head, an idea forming in her mind. "Yeah…I can change people's minds and make everyone get along."
A soft smile grow on Moon's face as she shook her head. "Changings laws will be easier than changing minds." Star realized her mother was right-despite how she wished she wasn't.
With a nod, Star looked her mom right in the eye. "Yeah-I guess…And I might know what I can do to start making some positive changes. But I think I need your help to do it."
And Star the lawyer was born! It makes sense to me for Star to want to make a positive change in the world after all that she had done on Mewni as princess and queen. To me, her being a lawyer in the new world and fighting for monster, Mewman, and human equal rights and making a positive change in the world is exactly what she would do. Anyway, hope you enjoyed the chapter! This was a fun one to write. Let me know what you think about this chapter. Thank you again for reading! Only three more chapters left! Until next time!
Starco4everr: Thank you so much-I appreciate all your encouragement! Glad you enjoyed the chapter!
SugarQueen97: Haha Star always seems to do what you least expect-that's what I love about her character. And I love all your ideas-thank you so much for sharing. Let's just say great minds think alike! (I won't say which ideas but there may be many of those in the works-insert smirky emoji face.) I can't wait to hear what other ideas you have and for you to see what the next three chapters hold!