My nostalgia makes the wonders of the landscape for the production of my adoration. Past-presents and present-pasts combine to the rigging of the universe about myself; my own world being made for others. The stage sets and the players take stage, two unaware but participating in the secondary reality. I shield against Beelzebub, who wishes to steal away those who I shelter; his pestilence batters the theater hall. Though I fear that his insects make way through the cracks, sowing seeds of corruption for my little charges.
Deathly shadows roam over the dank forest floor, the full moon's light sending pale speckles onto the underbrush. The ivory skinned rouge stands at the mouth of the haunting landmark, his eyes gazing about the solemn visage with an analytical gaze. "Make haste," he says, one foot emerging from his long, robe-like shawl, "we must make use of the night."
Star moves with him, taking into a brisk walk behind the de facto leader. Her eyes dart about the shadows, already aware that something was strange about the forest. Even the hallows from mewni, as deadly as they are, didn't give off such a foul aura. Marco even, who's mostly blind to such feelings, senses a strangeness to the grove, sending a shiver down his spine.
"I don't like this place," he comments quietly, trying to keep in close proximity to Star, their shoulders nearly touching.
"Then you aren't a moron," Alexander says dismissively. "I suspect even you can feel it. The air is evil. The forest has changed." He stops down, looking over the mossy floor, the lichen a foul shade of grey and brown. His hand reaches out, touching the soft under cushion before recoiling back, a look of displeasure dancing across his face, his hand retreating under his jacket. "It's worse than I feared, do not touch the forest. Ideally put on gloves, if you have them and try not to fall down. It will be an experience best left to the imagination." He wastes no more time in moving forward.
The display leaves Marco even closer to Star, almost huddling by her. Even the princess isn't left unshaken, her grip tightening about her blade, this was not something to take lightly. Real danger lurked in these woods, a danger she hadn't felt since Toffee.
The start of the trek moved slowly, the high brushes and tangles of roots and thorns slowing the party to a snail's pace. Often times Alexander would have to push out thorny vines or villainous looking branches to let the under armoured Marco through, and each time a rather grisly, twisted, face of pain would grace him. The whole trek marks itself with macabre overtones and vague, unsettling premonitions.
A clearing soon opens up, the forest evaporating away to reveal the moon sitting high on its heavenly throne directly above. Though as Star's eyes adjust to the sudden light of the fool moon, she finds herself wishing to be back in the forest. The clearing is littered with bodies, grizzly bodies of dead men, all fresh, all red. The reek quickly reaches her nose. Her body tightens as she gags, the sudden urge to vomit having to be beaten down with most of her willpower. Marco does not fare nearly as well.
As Marco attempts to recover from his newly vacated stomach, Alexander is quick to draw his rapier. "There were abductions in the last few days," he says solemnly, firmly keeping his back to his two charges, the normal self-importance having fled from him. "May you forgive us for what is to come, as I forgive you for the acts you will commit." He nearly chokes on his words of pseudo-prayer. One step, his foot moves. Two steps, his body inching closer to the field of corpses. Three, they barely even seemed like they were human, too mangled, too many stains of coppery crimson. Some were defiled, vast cavities ripped from their stomachs.
"W-," Star starts, but can't get words out, utterly captivated by the morbid scene set before her.
Steps creak through the far underbrush, Alexander holding out a hand, asking for silence from the two of them. They move slowly forward, the soft sound of crumpling underbrush following it. First her back appears hunch forward and slowly dragging something with her. Her hair, raven black, held white, patchy streaks, her plain dress stained with blood. She drops the body she was dragging roughly to the ground as it fully enters the clearing, turning to survey for an empty spot. Her face was pale, white as snow, her mouth dripping crimson as her tongue flits out to clean herself. Her young face shined with a contrasting beauty as she speaks with excitement and whimsy, "Ooh, company, I wasn't expecting anybody to come to my woods. Especially two handsome men." Her eyes narrow onto Star, "but you had to bring such an ugly thing with you."
Star looks between her and the body she dragged in, rage welling up in her. "Monster," she says before charging headlong at her. Her target cocks her head to the side, not moving as she starts clearing the distance between them.
"Star, don't," Alexander says, trying to catch her.
Her blade comes down hard, but finds no purchase. A shooting pain runs from Stars head as she pulled back roughly by the hair, forcing her onto her toes to try and prevent her hair from being ripped out. "ugly and ill-mannered, tisk, tisk," the woman says. "Guess I'll just have to deal with you then," she sings out, a wide, manic grin crossing her face.
"Star!" Marco shouts, suddenly fully alert.
"Let me deal with her," Alexander commands, his tone dangerous. "Put her down Alice, I don't want to have to kill you."
"Aww, you flatter me Alex, but you see, I oh so want to kill her." She yanks at her hair before throwing Star to the ground, her face burning in agony as it slides against the mossed forest floor. Star quickly scrambling to her hands and knees, pained tears rolling down her face. How did Alexander bear touching it? The respite is short-lived as a rough heel slams her face back into the black lichen, the plants ripping through her with pain like fire.
Star braces her hands onto the ground before roughly pushing herself up, knocking Alice off balance. She pants, recovering, and looks to the mad woman with blazing eyes. "What is wrong with you," she says in a breathy voice."
Alice catches herself as Alexander continues his steady, calculated approach. "Nothing, something was wrong, but I didn't know it. then everything started making sense, and now," she turns to face Alexander with a wide grin, "I get to have fun with my favorite killjoy." She raises and hand, one of the corpses nearest to Alexander jauntily rising and diving towards him.
"You were always so cold to me," she says, Alexander quickly reacting to the new threat, running it through with his blade, but it doesn't deter it. "And you were around so rarely, you sometimes wouldn't show up for months." The gast tries to claw and bite into Alexander's arm, its bloody teeth bared. He kicks it off his blade, sending clumsily to the ground with a loud thud. "I get to hear you sing for me like all these men did. I imagine your song will be the sweetest yet."
"Sickness," he mumbles, "you're ill." His grip tightens about his blade, "but you can not be allowed to continue this. "You two, run now. This thing isn't human. Not anymore. It isn't even alive, not in a true sense."
"But," Starr begins, stumbling to her feet.
"NO, run you damn fools!" He lunges forward, thrusting his blade forward, sinking it into the girl's stomach. She doesn't even flinch, blood soaking around the wound as she simply smiles, smiles with a wicked grin beyond words.
Star looks on in a state of shock before moving to Marco, her armour clattering as she breaks into a run. "Move, now!" she says, taking him by the arm into the forest depths, vines and gnarls digging into the two of them as they flee.
"Chase? I love playing chase!" she says giddily, stepping off the blade as if it weren't there. "I'll let you play with these for now," she says, snapping a finger, the whole field of corpses
"Move, now!" Star says, rapidly dragging Marco by the hand. "We've got to move, and quick."
Marco picks up his feet, starting to keep pace, "why are you running, you never run from anything." He looks behind him as he moves, his heart pounding in his chest.
"And standing up to that would be a bad idea, that woman, I could feel it. She felt wrong." She slows down, taking a rest from her sprint, panting hard. Her blade was long gone, left in the clearing. "All of those bodies," she breaths out thoughtlessly, "she..." Her head shakes, trying to clear out all the idle thoughts and focus.
"Talking about people while they aren't around is really rude, you know?" A chilling voice chuckles out, full of morbid glee. Star looks upwards, the woman, Alice, sitting on a high branch, her legs swaying idly back and forth. "Didn't your parents teach you anything about manners."
Marco looks on, steeling himself to her unsettling presence and startling gaze. "You can't run away from me. There's nowhere in this forest where I can't find you." She giggles a bit, holding a hand to hide her mouth. "But I suppose you haven't any reason to believe me, so you might as well try." Her eyes narrow onto Star, "lest you want me to finish this now."
Star draws out her wand, taking a step forward, "you try and hurt Marco and I will make sure that you're the one running." She puts on a false grin, her confidence betrayed by the fear in her eyes.
"Oh, I don't think that will be the case." A snap rings out, followed by the sinister, guttural growls. Bursting forth come a pack of wraiths, barreling toward the two of them, deftly moving through the thicket of the forest. "I'm calling a fox hunt!" Breaking into laughter she hops down onto the forest floor, "and you two are the prey!"
She looks out, seeing at least twenty of the hound like wraiths chasing towards them, "I won't play games with you." She holds her want out, bracing herself. Pushing forth is a blast of white light, barreling through the forest and the back of wraiths, clearing both the way of enemies, but also of the obtrusive plant life.
"Ooh, impressive," Alice purs in an almost sultry tone, "the little warrior has some neat tricks. They won't help."
Marco starts out through the new path, looking behind him to make sure Star was keeping pace. "So, plan?"
"Get out of the forest, don't die," she responds keeping up with him despite the bulky steel armor. "Worst comes to worse we fight, though I'm not certain how well that will go."
"Are you alright? You were pushed into that grass, and I learned that that smarts pretty badly."
"I'm fine, it wasn't too bad," she lied, instinctively touching her face as she moves.
"Also, why are we running, it seems unlike you, not that I'm complaining, at this point I don't want to mess with a psychotic demon lady."
"I'm trying something new," she says, " I'm trying to play a bit smarter, and right now I'm pretty sure the wise thing to do is to not hang around."
A loud crash rings out, the gem star cracking and the armour plates bowing inward as a pale hand slams into it. "I told you, you can't get away from me," she says pushing the panting Star to the ground, the blow knocking the wind out of her. The steel plates press into her stomach, making it hard to breathe.
She starts to fumble about with her wand as Alice turns to Marco, a devious smile on her face. "Now that she'll be struggling just to breathe, I should be free to have my way with you." Marco gives a hard jab to her stomach, the fist finding her soft stomach. "Ah, why do you have to be difficult," her hand reaches out, gripping him by the hair and ramming him against the trunk of a nearby tree.
Star whispers a few, breathy words, her armor disappearing and leaving her back in her teal dress. Clutching her chest she begins to breathe normally. "Get off him," she says, getting to her feet."
Alice chuckles, pushing his face against the rough, burning bark of the tree, his mouth and face tightening from the pain. "Why would I do that?" She looks to the east, a bit surprised, but quickly regains composure, "there isn't anything that you'll actually be able to do to stop me. I can just start ripping into him," she licks her lips, "I wonder how he tastes."
Star scrambles to her feet, bringing her wand to bear against her. Vines burst out from the ground, entangling the which, forcing her to drop Marco from her vile grasp. "Let him go," she says, moving to help him up. Alice grips at the vines, growling in rage. The flowered tendrils wither away, turning to a fine ash, releasing her from their grasp.
"Will you quit it!" Alice screams, her eyes blazing. She takes a step forward, "and just lay down and die already!" She fishes through her dress, drawing out a wicked knife. She lunges forward, a silver glint cutting through the air as Star just barely moves to the side. She advances, swinging her blade manically, lunging forward to end the hindrance to her fun.
Star rolls with the rabid slashing, deftly staying out of range of the deadly blade, her wand morphing into a short sword. "Will you let us be!" she retorts, parrying the blade, artfully knocking Alice off balance before returning a riposte. The tip of the short blade rips into the maddened woman, finding home in the soft tissues of her side, though for little gain. Alice grins, unfazed the blade digging into her, instead stepping forward, the tip protruding out the other side, glazed in scarlet.
Star pulls out the sword, its form returning to that of her wand, her eyes full of shock and terror. "You should be on the ground," she says, "that much pain..." The slash of Alice's knife rudely interrupts her thoughts, the edge dancing across her face, leaving a shallow cut across her face.
"Pay attention," Alice giggles, "someone might get hurt!" She takes a step forward, drawing for another slash, but suddenly falls forward, the hard boot of Marco's slamming into the back of her knee.
"Star, I think it's back to plan A," he sputters out, panicked. Hastily he starts to move through the forest, Star quickly catching up with him. "Who is she?"
"I have as much an idea of what's going on here as you do." Star turns her head to look behind her, Alice having already disappeared. "Though I don't think running is a good plan anymore. She can teleport or something, either that of move inhumanly fast." She stops, panting lightly and taking a good look around. "I think we have to fight her."
"You're insane, she's been stabbed, twice, and walked it off. She's a demon." He looks about nervously, his head craning at every noise.
"She's playing with us. Enjoying us running. I have a feeling she's only letting us run at all because she enjoys it. It's a waste of energy."
"Who knows, maybe we can get out," he says, his tone defeated and desperate.
"No, that isn't going to work," she pulls out her wand, starting to think, "I have this, whatever she is won't be able to stand up to this if I get serious. I've surprised myself with it, and if there were any time for that to happen, now would be nice." She looks back to him, giving a little smile, "We'll be fine. I know we can stand up to her."
A shrill cackle echoes through the forest brush, Alice moving out into the open, her long locks flowing haphazardly about her. "You keep saying things like that, but I can tell you're scared."
Star turns to face her, her heels digging into the dirt as her wand erupts into a beam of white light. Alice manages to react, but not soon enough, her monologue being cut short as the magical spell engulfs her right side, a look of pain and horror crossing her face. As the blinding light fades she falls to one knee, her left hand clutching at the stump of her arm, cradling it. Her head looks up, hair falling over her, obscuring her eyes. She flits away in a storm of dark mist, leaving nothing behind, save the ash of her arm.
"Woah," Marco says, looking surprised.
"We can talk about it later," Star says, taking his hand, "she'll be back soon or later and I'd rather not be here when she does." She looks around for a moment, trying to get her bearing in the forest. She summons forth a compass and points them towards the direction of Bulwark. "Come on, I don't know how she's going to react to that."
The pair step over the ridge of the forest onto the plain of Bulwark, the fort visible from the crest of the large hill. Marco takes a few more tenuous steps and falls to his hands and knees, panting, the day's insanities catching up to him. "We're alive," he says in a relieved tone before taking to his feet again. "Let's, ah, get back to the fort. I need to sleep, it's just been too much. Wh-what do you think happened to Alexander?"
"That doesn't matter," she says, starting off down the hill, her body starting to ache in its entirety as the adrenaline starts wearing off, her body trying to fend off the vertigo and nausea that goes with it. "Hopefully, he makes it out, but what's important is that we're alive." She gives a half-hearted smile back to Marco, come on."
The walk is slow and silent, neither of them in the mood for talking about much of anything, their only focus on dragging themselves back to the fort. The gate opens for them as they near, a grizzled man stepping and out lending support to Marco. "Come on," he says, "I'm the fort's doctor. He leads them both to the infirmary, having them both sit down.
"Hold on, I'm just checking for any breaks or sprains." He looks at him, "strip off your shirt please, it'll be easier if I can see." He looks to Star, "I can pull the curtain if you want."
Marco nods, "that would be nice." THe doctor nods, pulling the curtain back.
Marco gives a few grunts of pain, "don't be a baby, looks like you're just a bit banged up. Just cuts and bruises. What did you find out there? I was watching the fighting earlier and you both seemed capable." He steps out of the curtain and looks to Star.
"A mad woman," she says, "and I'm fine. Nothing broken, just sore." She sighed, laying down, "Alexander called her Alice."
The doctor looks at her in disbelief, "you must have heard wrong. Alice is dead. She worked for me as a nurse, gather herbs from the edges of the forest. This was before the forest was acting up, you see." He sits down, "she never came back and a search party was sent out. They couldn't even find the body, but there was no way she survived a night in the forest."
"Well, she did, and she nearly killed me and Marco." She sighs, "but, I don't think she was alive. Not really. She wasn't human, not anymore."Marco was already wrapping himself in the blankets, drifting into sleep from the exhaustion of the night.
The doctor sighs, stroking his tangled beard, She was a good kid. Smart, would have made a good apothecary." He looks away, standing to leave. "You're probably tired, you're welcome to rest in the infirmary for now though I think General Lee will want a debriefing soon.
Sleep, though, eludes Star, having turned over to herself as the infirmary door closes. Her body aches, the memories of the forest's sting fresh in her mind, her thoughts mulling about the insanity of this place and on the dreams that haunt her nights. She tried to think, to not let pride stop her, taking things methodically, striking when no other options made sense but was that just another form of doubt?
"You're alive," Alexander says, having walked in while she concentrated. "I will admit, I'm relieved. I didn't want any more blood on my hands."
Star looks up, the thin man sitting on a chair in the far corner of the room. "Anymore?"
He shakes his head, a weary grin on his face, white locks falling disheveled over his face. "It's nothing of concern, just know I'm glad you're alive."
"I could say the same for you though I'm more concerned on how you made it out. Me and Marco were barely able to make it out of the woods, and with so many bodies in that clearing... You must have had to fight them all."
He nods, "I did. It wasn't particularly easy, but I managed to clear a path and run." His voice was even, but it held distrust in it. Star could tell there was something unusual about him, something he wasn't saying.
"No," she says, "that isn't how you got out."
He lets out a light chuckle, pushing his hair back into some semblance of order, "I can only tell you what happened, whether you believe me or not really doesn't matter. Besides, how else would I get out. I'm just a swordsman." He stands up again, making his way to the door, "I would sleep now. Hannibal will want to hear from the two of you about what you saw in the forest."