Star's Strife
Chapter 2: The Long Line of Knights
The fields of daisy and buttercup greatly contrasted the following Knight known as Strife, his gait was quiet as he followed the struggled Star through the flower field, he walked through the flowery meadow with a life-dulled stare, her mind deep in thought.
"The road to recovery is paved through...Peace and harmony..." Strife spoke, his voice deep and monotonous, yet despite his tone, the words he spoke of were poetic and deep, it made Star think, plucking several flowers within the flowery field and staring at them intently.
"If you served my Mother, why didn't she tell me about you?" Star suddenly asked with a slightly unnerved brow, the Knight of Strife hummed under his breath before he answered the Princess of Mewni with a truthful tone.
"Your Mother was a great queen...She did not need me for long..." Star felt a little down from this fact, needing to have such a knight by her side to help her through her wicked Heartache.
"What does that mean for me then? Am I seriously...This bad of a princess, that I need someone like you to help me get out of it?" Star said as she felt her eyes starting to water with a sense of self-hate in her eyes, the Knight was silent, his breathing even muted as he kneeled down to the Princess of Mewni, the current Wand bearer, his queen that he must serve no matter what.
But instead of kneeling down to Star like a Knight to ones queen, he instead, presented himself to her, like a kind aged friend, despite his face being only a flaming horizontal line of a visor, Star could feel the look of sympathy that Strife was giving to her, his breath was calm and slow as he brushed the Princess's hair with his metal hand, to Star, she expected it to be painful due to the jagged metal and protruding spikes coming out of Strife's gauntlets.
He caressed her hair like some hair brush, the touch was tendering and warming, despite the cold metal that Star felt.
"Every Princess...Every Queen...Faces heartache...The only difference is the pain that they feel, it doesn't mean you are weaker...It only means that you are growing..." Strife said kindly, Star wasn't entirely convinced, but she did wiped the welled up tears from her eyes.
"...Can you tell me about your time with my mother and the ancestors before me?" Star asked suddenly, wanting to learn about this Knight known as Strife, the Knight was somber and sober, he was completely silent as he rested his weapon on the ground, planting it with a slow but powerful motion.
"You are my Queen...My Princess, your words is the only speech I will listen to beyond my own." The Knight spoke obediently as Flower sat on the ground, the flowers acting as a sort of cushion for the Princess of Mewni, ready to listen to the tales of the Knight known as Strife.
Star's mother sighed under her breath as she trekked through the many forests of the Kingdom of Mewni, she was younger than she was now, still growing and ready to become the next queen, she gripped her wand with more effort as she began to hear whispers of a conniving and cruel voice, the voice was tinged with echoes and growls.
"What do you want...Doubt?" She asked aloud, the voice began to giggle wickedly as the shadows of the forest began to group together, the blots of the shadows being akin to a black ink, tainting any form of light with its trail of shadows, the shadows began to mold and form, with a knight sprouting out of the mass of shadows.
The Knight was thin and tall, towering over Star's mother like a pine tree to a lumberjack, the knight wheezed and cough out bits of black tinted spew and sinew, before flashing a smile that was riddled with rows upon rows of white-shined teeth on its featureless face, its armor was decaying like rusting metal, flakes of its formerly strong armor simply flaking off at various edges and ridges of the Knights armor.
"I was just making sure...That the Queen doesn't need me..." Doubt said with a grin, crouching down to the upcoming queen of Mewni so the Knight of Doubt can level with the upcoming princess.
"I won't ever need you Doubt..." The queen said, the Knight giggled in response, not at all being convinced by the queen's words, her sullen attitude and her somewhat weakened stance.
"Oh really now? What I see...Is just a weak Child! Who isn't fit to rule the land...Who isn't fit to rule anything...Who isn't fit to be a hero to her people..." The Eyeless knight said as it jabbed a accusing and cold finger to the upcoming queen's chest, he berating caused Star's mother to glare at him in a defiant manner.
"Just admit it, you wastrel...You are weak...And you will bring your kingdom to its knees!" Doubt mocked with a fiendish laugh, raising the ire of the queen even more so, she shadowed her eyes by looking at the grass and moss-covered ground.
"Its to the point...That I'm ashamed to even be linked to you..." The Knight of Doubt said with a whisper to the Queen's ear, Star's mother was absolutely silent, as she heard the Knights words.
"ENOUGH!" She said with a roar, Doubt laughed as he disappeared into figments of shadows as Star's mother attempted to blast the Knight of doubt with a beam of golden-bright light.
"I am not...A weakling...I am not afraid...I am ready to become queen...No matter what Doubt!" The upcoming queen said, completely ready to blast the Knight of Doubt into vaporized dust, the demoralizing servant giggled as he formed back into his more malleable and knightly form.
"Prove it." Was all the Knight of Doubt said as a sword appeared out of the shadows, the blade was beautifully-crafted and heavenly-balanced, a perfect contrast to the deteriorating and monstrous-looking Knight.
The Knight and the Princess of Mewni clashed with one another, the ground shook like an earthquake, the trees splinted and the leafs burned within the battle between The upcoming Queen and the Doubt within herself raged on.
She stood between a horde of monsters and her kingdom, she was the last defense of her home, if she would be slain in battle, then the Kingdom of Mewni will cease to exist, they growled and roared at the lone heroine as they waited for their leader to command a charge against the lazer-sword wielding queen.
The queen was heavily wounded, blood spurted out of her many cuts and gashes as she still remained standing, around her was littered with copious amount of monster corpses, each of them heavily differed from one another.
The only difference is the death-defying wound they received when they attempted to slay Mewni's last defender, a burning gash that roasted the monsters insides while purging their scales, skin and fur.
Solaria, the Monster Carver remained vigilant, silently breathing out heavy breaths as the commander of the monsters finally moved up to the front of the line, her valiance was respectable and impressive, willing to go against any form of evil, no matter how much or how powerful.
"Your wounds are impeccable, their weapons are sharp, their shields broad...But that only means one word: Unacceptable!" The Monster carver heard.
But...There was someone that accompanied the War hero, from the many blood pools of various slain creatures and beasts they began to clump together like butchered pieces of meat being packaged together, the Knight arose from the pools of the slain, the Knight roared a beastly roared as it shook off the coat of monster blood,
Its heavy armor was massive and gigantic, as if the armor was solely dedicated and created for protecting the innocent rather than seeking out destruction, mountain-like shoulderpads, mallet-like gauntlets, tree trunk-like legs along with a demonic-looking helm, covering the entity of the Knight's head and face except its two emerald green eyes.
The blade of the Knight was massive and crude, looking like a piece of heavily sharpened stone rather than actual metal, with many spikes protruding out of the blade like a serrated edge
"Do you require the blade of Justice Oh Queen? " The Knight said quietly as its green eyes stare at Solaria, she simply pointed her blade at the horde of monsters.
"I need you right now...Justice." Solaria ordered as she sprinted towards the army of monsters, not caring about her well-being.
"I will do it my queen..For I am...JUSTICE!" the Knight roared loudly before charging into the army of monsters, joining his queen with this battle.
Star was silent as she heard the tales unfold before her, she thought for a moment before speaking to Strife.
"So, you were Doubt...And Justice?" The Knight of Strife nodded obediently to Star's question as he continued to instruct the young blonde princess.
"Every Queen has heartache, no matter how strong or smart they are...In the end...No one can accept...Strife..." The Knight said almost ironically, Star couldn't help but sigh from the Knight's words.
"So then Strife...I'm not sure frolicking around a field of flowers will help me..." Star said with a tinge of doubt in her voice.
"the many queens before you, would always love to tread through the fields of daisies, it gave them harmony...And I admit, throughout years upon years of doing this, it gives me harmony as well." The Knight known as Strife defended the pass time of walking through a field of flowers.
"But I'm not like my mothers before me...I'm far different than them!" Star shouted back, catching Strife's silence.
"I don't want to be like mother...I don't want to be like my grandmothers, I just want to be myself..." Star continued throwing away the plucked bundle of flowers that she picked earlier, the Strife Knight was surprisingly taken aback from such a claim, after a split second of thinking from the Knight of Strife, he finally spoke up.
"Your words are golden Princess Star...What is something that gives you...Harmony so I may help achieve it?" He asked in a gentle voice, Star got up from where she was sitting at, as she placed a finger on her chin in contemplation.
"I think I have an idea, I never tried it before, but Marco showed it to me a couple of days ago." Star concluded, somewhat lighting up from her idea with a small but hopeful smile on her face.
"I have never experienced...This...Kind of gathering before..." Was all Strife said as he noticed several black three-holed balls being roll through a shiny lane, where a set of white pins were knocked down before.
The two Mewnians were at the local bowling alley, it was quite busy, almost every single lane of the bowling was already taken,
"I never have either, so its going to be quite a learning for the both of us! Anyway, Janna, how do you bowl?" Star asked her black-haired friend who didn't seem to mind the quiet but ominous knight known as Strife.
"Eh, its nothing to crazy Star, you just got to roll the bowling ball down the lane to knock those pins down, just watch me." Janna said in a confident voice as she charged up a shot, with some patience Janna got the ball rolling down the lane at blazing speed, getting a strike within her first try.
"Yes! See? Its pretty easy Star, you try, remember to put three fingers into the bowling ball." Janna instructed the curious and willing to learn Star, she listened with a quick nod and a grin on her face.
"What is this...Sport called?" Strife asked suddenly, he was like a curious cat, staring at the rolling bowl ball.
"Well, it isn't really much of a sport, but its called bowling." Janna answered as she watched Star get a gutter ball from her first attempt.
"Oh darn...I got a gutter..." Star said in dismay, Janna only giggled as she patted Star's back.
"Don't worry about it, no one's perfect." Janna said as she gave Star another bowling ball, this ball felt more lighter for the Princess, with a understanding nod from Star, the Princess attempted to knock some pins down once more, she rolled down the ball through the lane, the lightness of the ball being easy to throw down to the lane, getting five of the ten pins down.
"See! You're a swift learner Star, good job." Star smiled from her accomplishment, she then noticed that Strife was simply just watching the whole ordeal play out.
"Here Strife, you try." Star handed the Bowling ball to the Knight, Strife actually yelped from such a sudden change.
"...Me?" He squeaked quietly, Star urged the Knight to try at least.
"Yeah Strife, I'm kind of having fun, you should be having fun too." Star responded, Strife grabbed a hold of the bowling ball, grabbing it in a clunky way with both of his hands.