It wasn't at all close to what he would consider an off day well spent.

"Marco, I got a few more things for you to carry."

Star came with another bag of god knows what. It's getting ridiculous as he now had to hold 23 different bags on him. Tom beside him didn't fare much better, but over half of them were his own.

"Star, no more. I physically cannot hold more. My hands are cramping and my fingers have cramps on top of cramps."

"Consider it training from your royal princess."

"A magical one which reminds me. Why can you not conjure a wagon or let it levitate and follow us?"

She straightened her posture and used a specific voice that wasn't too dissimilar from the one Moon uses. How she imitated her mother always came off as amusing to him.

"Because if I showed that I was using magic "nilly-willy" it could negatively impact the royal butterfly families reputation."

Taking the chance he dropped the lot in his hands and retorted mostly to lengthen the break, but also just to tease her a bit for all the bags he was carrying.

"Fancy way of saying you're irresponsible when it comes to magic."

She had her arms crossed and defensively said, "Hey! I'm a lot better at magic now."

Tom joined in the break and slumped his bags down too. Marco and Tom shared one look and a tag team was formed.

"It's true. Last week she only blew up half the plain we trained in."

Marco lifted an eyebrow and saw the slight blush Star was having. She uncrossed her arms and grabbed his shoulders and shook him as she complained. "Tom! You said you would hold that between us!"

Tom conceded and was fortunate that Star took mercy on him, "Sorry, but it's funny." And like that, he was in for a world of shaking.

Seeing as they were having fun by themself a thought occurred, "I mean. You did say I was an extension of you, so-"

Star stopped shaking Tom who was laughing during the assault.

Her attention was solely on him and she was annoyed. She already knew what the next word would be. "Stop, I know you're going to say technically... And I guess you're right, but on that note, I feel you've been saying technically a lot lately?"

"Maybe because I'm getting good at this lawyering stuff. Besides in law; if it's gray it's white."

"Is that one of those metaphors from Earth?" Tom asked, "I mean if not then I'm white in the eyes of the law. Hmm, is being white a good thing or not?"

Marco stood for a good second as he processed Tom's reasoning. He wouldn't even try to open that whole can of worms. Long enough to let Star interject.

"It is- which by the way I totally have gotten good at."

Marco looked skeptically at Star who refused to budge from her statement. "Just yesterday you thought "killing two birds with one stone" was literal. Besides it's not a metaphor, but a saying."

"I have no idea what you're "saying" about." She refused to look at him and he knew that would be the closest to him being right on this matter would get.

"Anyway, Let's go back," He was more than happy to stop questioning her Earth knowledge to be done with the shopping. It would also allow him a little bit of time to go for a dimension-hop.

Marco stood in the teleportation room armed with a fanny pack and a shovel. A weapon that had grown on him. He felt a connection with it. They were pretty lame compared to others, but they are reliable and got the job done.

"Are ye portaling or not?" The gruff words from the guards were like an alarm.

He hurriedly slashed with his scissors and jumped through. He hadn't thought of the place he wanted to go, but just somewhere he could let steam off.

He took a look around and he was surrounded by a dense jungle-like environment. It was hot and muggy. Despite that, he kept his hoody on as he would rather sweat and be restricted than have to deal with whatever was equivalent to mosquitoes here.

He cut his way through the vines and bushes with the shovel. He hadn't meant to let off steam by sweating, but since he came here by chance he could explore a bit.

It would be kinda cool to see what kinda creatures lived here. Cutting through the jungle was a bitch and a half, but it would prove fruitful as he heard the sounds of roaring. He got more and more excited as it evolved into the sounds of clashing metals.

He felt his heart pump and when he finally got to a clearing he saw a giant feline creature that was facing fur-covered humanoids. They had eerie long limbs and a face that was long in the sense that they had a snout rather than a nose.

The canine people growled as they held wooden spears in hand. Slowly but surely they surrounded the elephant-sized predator. One of them poked the beast on its hind leg and in retaliation, it swiped and turned in one motion launching the bold dog person and leaving him bleeding.

At the sight of the attack, the people barked and attacked the giant predator. Being surrounded it couldn't defend itself from all sides. Despite being poked to death it kept its ferocity and kept them on their toes.

With its big paws and claws, its claws ripping and tearing anyone foolish or incompetent enough to be in its way.

Marco having seen enough approached the bleeding canine person. As he got closer he could identify that the person reminded him of a beagle. The injured beagle had turned itself on its back and was weakly growling at the gap-closing stranger.

"Easy, I'm here to help stop the bleeding."

Just as blood was universally red then too was English universal. The beagle eyed him warily, but it wasn't like it could put up a fight. It stopped looking as even that was beginning to be exhausting. It had accepted its fate and just hoped the strange almost hairless dogmanoid was telling the truth.

Marco open his fanny pack and quickly located the tightly wrapped bondage. If he bound the beagle just as tight it would likely die as its ribcage gets crushed and so he bound it only half as tight as he had done when it needed to be in a fanny pack.

Marco had to first clean his wounds with something disinfecting, but he wasn't sure if they were advanced enough to know how or why wounds could become infected. Still, he pulled a minor bottle of mild soap, however, he lacked water to dilute it.

Oh well, his blood must be the substitute.

He smeared the soap on a little cloth and wiped the four cuts. The beagle gritted its teeth in stinging pain. " I hope you have more fight in you as I'll have to stitch the wounds."

"Bring it on!" He had a fighting spirit in his eyes but regretted shouting as it irritated his wounds further.

He quickly placed the bandage on three of the open gashes hoping to slow the bleeding and keep them clean until it was their turn to be sewed shut.

In his fanny pack, he had dissolvable tread, but he opted to get some thin regular tread as it could cause complications as the beagle person obviously wasn't human which it was intended for.

Marco pulled his shovel near the bleeding person, " Here bite onto the shaft."

He complied and then the aid began. The shovel received many new marks from the beagle gnashing in pain.

"Whew, 17 stitches, and now only three more to go." He said satisfied with his work. It wasn't pretty but it was more than adequate for it to heal.

He could hear it whine at the mention of three more rounds. Marco ignored him binding the sewn wound and turned to the next in line to be sewn. Many stitches and pained grunts later.

"And there." He looked over the good work done, "I gotta say, you took those stitches like a champ."

"Tha-" He struggled to voice his words, but it was relatively clear what he wanted to say.

"Be quiet, save your strength."

His barely lifted head fell down and his breathing was calming down. Marco took an extra look at his four deep slashes. The bondage was bloody and soaked over the treated wounds, but it would seem the bleeding was stopped as the blood stain stopped growing on the bondages.

He wasn't in immediate danger now and Marco then focused on the battle that was still ongoing. The beast was properly exhausted as it bleed from its many, many wounds. It was rather uncomfortable, it could be comparable to the death of a thousand cuts just holes instead.

But it wasn't inflicted without repercussions as three more were down and two of them weren't breathing. It would only be a matter of time before the beast will die of blood loss. The battle easily lost his interest as they kept using the same simple but effective approach.

The only survivor of the three was holding his guts that threatened to pub out of the gnarly deep gash. If it was just the skin then he could help a bit. He could sew the wound shut and just hope that his body could organize his organs.

"That bad?"

"Don't worry. I will patch you up right away." Marco tried to sound reassuring. He put on a mask with a confident smile as he instantly began sewing and not bothering to clean the wound as blood was seeping out fast.

Playing doctor wasn't exactly what he had intended to spend his free time on. Still, it felt more meaningful than his other duty as the royal squire.

The fighting in the background stopped and he soon felt a firm point in his back. "Who are you?"

"The guy that's treating your wounded. So remove your weapon and let me concentrate."

"Punka, stand down and help us."

The one name Punka snarled but relented anyway. When he got done being an acting doctor he was invited to their village. Following them he learned as he asked questions. He learned that what he had stumped upon was a trial of sorts. As a young generation transition to adult, it is tradition for them to hunt and bring down a tigon to prove their resolve and strength.

The village was bigger than he imagined. They had utilized the giant trees to build levitated tree-houses. The stares he got were not subtle, but infinitely better than the ones he got in the butterfly castle. Cheers rang out from the spectators when the graduates returned victorious.

They got to an open ground in the middle of the village. Where presumably the returns family greeted and congratulated them.

"And who might you be, young one." The one who spoke was a textbook example of a village leader. He lacked skin to have wrinkles that told of his age, but his fur was greying out and his posture was slightly hunched back.

"Grandpops! This here is a friendly man who saved Punka and Bent."

"I see. Do you have a name?"

"Yeah it's-"

"Did I ask you?"

"Right sorry."

The leader's gaze hit Marco who was amused at the slightly embarrassed grandson. "I'm sorry about him. He lacks patience."

"It's fine. My name is Marco. I'm honored to meet you."

"The name's Lycan and I'm grateful for your help. Please, stay the night. We are going to hold a great celebration." He invited him with open arms.

It was tempting, but there was work tomorrow... To hell with it. He just wouldn't get any sleep tonight.

"How can I say no to such a generous invitation."

"Haha- You can't! I just know we are going to get along just fine."

The excited grandson left presumable getting ready for the celebration to come. It kinda hit him that he had nothing to do. He could go and see what they would do with the beast that was hunted. Maybe learn some of their local cooking.

"Can I speak with you? Just for a little bit."

That did set off a few alarms in his head.

"Worry not. It's just my curiosity."

"If you say so."

Marco followed Lycan throughout the village. He still got stares and while times better than what he was used to. It still screamed outsider in his head, but to be fair he was.

"Hello, chief!" A little girl from the village greeted them. She had addressed Lycan but her eyes were only on his company. "Hello to you too mister."

"Hello, little one," he really had to fight the urge to use the higher pitch voice he would normally do to a pub. He could even see her tail wagging in excitement.

"Say, why did you shave off some of your fur?"

Lycan was about to reprimand her, but Marco's laughter stopped him. "I didn't shave anything. I'm born this way." To show her further he pulled the sleeve of his hoodie to show his arm. She watches his naked skin bare for the few hairs on his arm.

She looked on in amazement and tried to mimic him by pulling her own fur near her wrist. He had laughed at how stupid he felt. It confirmed for him that they were curious about his almost hairless nature. He had let the experience from Mewni carry on as prejudging to them.

The rest of the way was very pleasant. The attention he got was now appreciated. It also helped that they had a herd following them like sheep. The little girl and her friends kept pace with them.

They asked questions left and right. All about what they could see. The clothes he wore especially confused them after they learned it wasn't fur. The people here only had cloth on their hips, their fur covered everything else.

They reached the house of the chief and reluctantly did the kids leave, but only after he promised to tell them stories later.

"I'm sorry about the little whelps. They are just excited."

"I know." He then sat down near the table in the room, "so what did you want to talk about?"

"hmm... How about something to drink first?"

"Sure."

Lycan left to another room and soon returned with two crude cups. "It's a blend of herps and some honey."

"It's nice." The warm drink was soothing, it was like a heavy burden was lifted off his shoulders. "It's really nice."

The provider nodded in agreement. "It's made for the purpose of appeasing not just your body, but also your soul." Marco lifted an eyebrow in intrigue. "It's a recipe from many generations ago."

"My soul? Don't know about that, but it's making me relaxed. I can't remember the last time I just took time to sit down and drink some tea."

They sat and silently sipped the homebrew. One thing was certain. He needed to do what he can to get herbs for this tea. Maybe he could get the information from this Lycan here. Since entering the village this old man wasn't so confused with Marco's different nature. It all pointed to one thing, he knew about different dimensions.

"What do you need?"

Lycan seemed to perk up at the question, " What do I need? Nothing much. I just wanted to ask you a few questions."

"Voice them then," his voice was a little dejected. He could hardly ask for the multiple-generation-old recipe for mere questions.

"No need to be so alarmed. You don't need to answer if you don't want to." Marco motioned with his head for him to ask. "How did you get the mark of the bloodmoon?"

"Bloodmoon? What do you mean by a mark?"

The question he got asked confused him like a newborn and his question only served to confuse the one who asked the original question. In their confusion, Lycan opted to take a sip and Marco imitated.

"Listen, I don't know anything about a mark of the bloodmoon, but there was this one time when I participated in a bloodmoon ball. So I guess that's how I got the mark as you said."

"Well. I don't have any more questions. It's unfortunate but I apologize to waste your time."

"Hold on. What is this bloodmoon you speak of?"

"She is one of the deities who my family worshipped."

"Really? Mind preaching to me?"

"Ha, what a foolish question. The question you should ask is when will I stop."

Star was in a carriage. Guarded by the sir knights of her kingdom. 30 in total which if she had a say was excessive. But it was another display that they haven't become weak.

"All this just for puffing up our chest. It's annoying and a waste."

"Princess Star, I'm afraid it is necessary. The butterfly kingdom and the spider kingdom had never seen eye to eye and we don't want them to do anything in our vulnerable state."

"Manfred I know! I also know their use of spider venom and their reputation for being sly."

"That is good, Princess Star. But fret not, they won't do anything on a diplomatic visit. Only if they want to earn distrust and isolate themselves."

"Thanks, Manfred. But that was unnecessary."

The one accompanying her wasn't Marco. He was currently squireing for the wash. Really weird if she thought about it. She had told her mother that he was assigned to the wash but then forgot to mention that she had changed it to her own personal squire the day after. The result was that he was now the squire of the wash and not a royal squire. When she gets back she's going to change that and get back Marco.

She had nothing against Manfred, but she imagined he was the perfect one to serve her mother and that meant he wasn't good to serve her. She could be silly and have fun with Marco. Plus she could ask things of him she couldn't ask of Manfred.

She couldn't have him help with eclipsa as her trial was a secret. She also couldn't get him to use dimensional scissors or get him to make nachos. The only thing he did was to correct her.

"Star, you mustn't rest your head on your hand. You need to have a proper posture."

She rolled her eyes, "It's just us here. I won't be messy when I'm there meeting the spider-bite princess."

Getting there could only be too slow. Letting out a tired sigh, she closed her eyes.

So from here, it will focus more on Star. I feel we got a pretty good understanding of Marco and now it's time to understand her and her perspective going forward.