Gray Hills - Chapter 3
So in celebration of what is (probably, don't know because I am releasing this before the election is over.) a new age of Trump I have released an early update to the story, which is also the length that I hope to have chapter near from now on. (About 2 thousand words.) Also, it was nice knowing you all of my American friends. Come on up to Canada if you need a place to stay.
Disclaimer - I do not own Star vs The Forces of Evil
Marco frantically ran outside the front door to see a column of fire to the south, reaching higher than the buildings it demolished as it expanded, swallowing everything in its path. Marco knew what this meant, and ran inside.
"Star get your scissors, we need to leave!"
"What's happening Marco?"
"No time to explain just open a portal."
"To where?"
"Anywhere!" Star did as she was told, as Marco's parents started pushing the teenagers through the portal until Star remembered.
"Glossaryck! We need to get him. You guys go through, I will only be a second." Star exclaimed as she pushed them through the portal. Marco's eyes widened as he knew what was about to happen. He looked around for only a second.
As he looked he noticed something. They were on mewnie, in the throne room. The only thing Marco thought about the time though was getting to Star before it was too late. He immediately jumped through the portal, only hearing his mother, "Marco!" before a force blew him back, where the portal should have been.
When he woke up, Marco hurt all over. The only thing he could smell was burning rubble. "Star!" was the first word he spoke, voice coarse and short of breath. He pushed himself up, noticing the shattered glass and china all over the floor. Shakily, Marco started walking towards the stairs where he knew Star was last.
Each step he took, the wood creaked and he rounded the top of the stairs, coming in front of Star's ajar door. He pushed it open and saw her sitting on the ground, tears streaming from her eyes. He rushed over as fast as he could and star beside her.
"Star, we have to go." She nodded and pulled out her scissors, attempting to open a portal to her home dimension. The Scissors sputtered and nothing happened when she tried to open a portal. Nothing happened after that.
"We're stuck" Came the monotone voice from behind. Glossaryck was standing there, no expression on his face.
"What do you mean we are stuck?" Asked Marco.
"It means that whatever that was has some side effect. It is disrupting magic, which means no wand, no dipping down, and no scissors." To this Marco started panicking.
"What are we going to do then?"
"We need to leave the city and find a place with no interference." Glossaryck approached Star and observed her arm. There was glass shards piercing her right bicep. "A little help Marco?"
Marco moved, and ripped part of the fabric from Star's bed, as glossaryck tried to calm her. "Don't worry Star soon enough you will be back on Mewnie, we just have to get this out of your arm first." She nodded in agreement and Marco held her hand, as he started to ease the large shards out of her arm.
She cried out in pain every time he removed one, and by the time they were done she had four large gashes bleeding profusely. Marco gently wrapped the cloth around the wounds, tying his best attempt at a knot to keep pressure on it.
Eventually she gained enough strength to stand, and they made their way downstairs. Now that he could look around Marco saw that the entire house was destroyed. Anything that could shatter, did and everything was blown off of the walls.
"Sit." was all Marco said to Star as he stood a chair up, and moved towards the pantry. She said a quiet "Thank you." and sat. Marco tried to flick the lights on, but the power was out. Inside the pantry he found an assortment of canned meat, vegetable and beans. There was also a case of water along with cleaning supplies and rubbing alcohol.
He left the cleaning supplies and gathered everything else. "Star, do you have your purse on you?" She nodded and handed it to him as he started loading everything individually into it. He then grabbed his backpack and loaded the spellbook, wand and scissors into it. Glossaryck stopped him before he put the scissors in. "Don't bother they were de-enchanted by the blast. Anything enchanted was."
"Even the wand?"
"The wand is a source of magic, so no it can still produce magic similar to Star or me, but not with whatever removed the magic from the area."
Marco simply nodded and left them on the kitchen table, slinging the backpack onto his shoulders. "Can you walk star? We need to leave the city." She only nodded, and they opened the front door, stepping onto the ash covered street.
Marco woke startled. "Just another dream." he thought to himself. Looking around he saw it was still dark, Star curled up against him. How she could look so peaceful in the middle of all of this he would never know.
Standing up, Marco brushed the sand from himself. Looking over to the fire he saw that it was only embers. Walking over he put more sticks on the fire and looked around, while warming his hands. Glossaryck was nowhere to be seen. Marco stopped moving and heard the faintest of sounds over the beating water above.
It sounded like voices nearby. He brandished a larger branch as a makeshift weapon and crept around the makeshift wall, seeing who it was. All he saw was Glossaryck sitting on the ground, near the edge of the bridge overhang. Because of the rain he couldn't make out what was being said Glossaryck quickly noticed Marco without turning around, and stopped talking.
"You should be asleep Marco." was all Glossaryck said when he finally turned around.
"Who were you talking to?" Marco asked.
"Myself. I am just remembering a time, long ago." The vague answer didn't satisfy Marco but he didn't inquire further.
"Come back to camp, it's cold out here and we can play cards." Glossaryck accepted his proposal and the two played go fish into the night.
After the third game, Marco opened his mouth to speak. "Do you really think we will be able to leave when we get north?" Glossaryck was silent to this question and just responded with.
"Got any threes?"
"Hmmf." was all Marco replied with as he handed his three to Glossaryck.
Star eventually woke up after dawn, observing the two playing. Beside the two were a series of lines drawn in the sand. Beside Marco were fourteen lines, and beside Glossaryck were fifty seven. Not bad for Marco considering Glossaryck was clearly cheating with the book sitting behind Marco. "You two have fun last night?"
"Hold on Star, I'm about to win. Got any kings Glossaryck?" Marco shushed Star, deep in concentration to the match.
"Go fish Marco, and do you have any aces?" Glossaryck smirked as Marco grumbled, handing over his ace. "And with that I believe that makes it fifty eight in my favour."
"Best seventy three out of one forty six?" Marco asked.
"Sorry Marco but I believe that it is time for breakfast. Maybe another night."
"Alright, what do you want for breakfast Star?" Marco asked, as Glossaryck collected the piles of cards, packing them away for use at a later date.
"What do we have?" She asked, trying to remember what kinds of food they had.
"I'm not the one with the food." To this Star facepalmed and opened her magic purse, digging around for a can. Pulling out a can of dried pears she smiled, as Marco pulled out his swiss army knife to open the can. As the two metals scraped together, Star cringed at the sound.
Throwing the rest of their wood on the fire to warm themselves before setting out they dug into the peaches, devouring them in no time. When they were done, Star stared into the empty can, craving more but saying nothing. Marco wanted to give her more, as he hated seeing her that way but considered their limited supply. He didn't know when they would get more so instead he opted to run his finger along the inside wall of the can, gathering juices before licking them from his finger.
He handed the can to Star and she did the same. Eventually there was nothing left in the can. Marco threw the can into the fire before helping Star clean their makeshift camp up. Carefully packing everything neatly to maximize space efficiency, they wrapped it all in a sheet and placed it into Marco's backpack.
The Rain had stopped sometime during the night, but it left the ground slippery, wet, and cold. Climbing the hill to get back to the road they slipped every now and then, sliding down the hill, or being splashed in mud. By the top they were filthy, but ready to move on for the day.
As they walked, Marco studied the map they carried with them. "We need to avoid going through the city, so we will be going around taking a small road east before heading north again."
"How far after that until Vancouver?"
"I don't know, maybe a few months. We will stop in Oregon for however long we need. If we get snowed in that is alright, there is a lot of wildlife to hunt."
Star was silent for a minute before asking "How will we hunt? We don't have any weapons."
Marco thought about this often. As Star lost more weight, and they encountered more people on the road Marco saw their need for at least one gun. "We need to get a gun and some ammunition." Marco was lost when it came to guns, having never held one before.
"Maybe we could try to trade with the next friendly people we see." Star said hopefully.
Marco quickly retorted, "And if they say no?"
"Then we could steal one, I don't know." After this things went silent for a while until she asked, "But are we still the good guys if we steal?"
"Of course we are star, just look at what we did for people before and after all of this. The ends justify the means." Star grumbled something similar to "A whole lotta good that did." Marco pretended not to notice her remark, and trudged on.
"Look Marco!" Star nearly shouted. She was pointing towards the ditch on the road. Frightened on what she may have seen he rushed over, looking where she was pointing. He scanned the tree line, looking for anything out of the ordinary. But there was nothing strange. Only trees, slopes and more trees.
"What? I don't see anything out there."
"Not out there, down there. Star pointed down into the ditch as the sun glinted off of something, catching Maro's eye. A can, and wrapper of some sort. Dropping into the ditch Marco inspected the can, sniffing it.
"Wiped clean." Marco sniffed the can. "But opened less than an hour ago."
"Does that mean that someone else is nearby?" Star asked, not knowing how to feel about that prospect.
"Yes, and not that far ahead."
"Well, what are we waiting for. Let's go find them!" Star impulsively yelled, grabbing and pulling Marco before he could protest.
Dropping the can so that he could put his full focus towards Star, he grabbed her forearm. "Star, we can't just go and approach this guy. They might be dangerous. We have to be smart about this."
"But Marco, we're so lonely, we can't defend ourselves, and four is better than three." Star argued. She kept trying to drag him forward. "What if this guy can help us get north?"
"And what if there are more than one. What if there are three or four. What if they're the bad guys? You're not thinking Star." At this Stars face fell, as tears threatened to spill.
"Alright…" Star let go of Marco, and started sulking forward.
"However, I never said we weren't going to see who they are."
Star instantly piped up, and turned to a smirking Marco. "So here is the plan."