Star vs. The Forces of Evil: The Hidden Truth

The Well

A very long tunnel. Crystals under his feet. Crystals to the left and right. Crystals above his head. For a person that spent over 300 years in one of them, this wasn't exactly a pleasure cruise. The fact that his height was barely one meter didn't help it at all. But he stood firmly. That is, as firmly as a small person that was shaking to the bones from fear possibly could.

"A pretty long tunnel, I would say, heh," he nervously chuckled. If he didn't know Eclipsa, he'd actually hold her dress like a child who didn't expect the ice-cream man to be an old grumpy dude. "Are we close?"

"I wouldn't know."

Eclipsa's calm voice didn't make him feel reassured. If anything it made him feel like a walking chow for an angry dog that would be guarding the wicket at the end of the tunnel. This idea sent his mind down the spiral of endless fear, until he actually grabbed her dress. Eclipsa didn't say a word. She just looked down at him with her cold, bottomless eyes. Suddenly, the prospect of being food for a hungry, angry dog seemed like a more promising outcome. He quickly let go of her dress and grabbed the clothes attached to his skin instead. But this didn't help him feel any better.

His face was gently caressed by a breeze. Eclipsa's hat was smoothly waving and her wardrobe enjoyed fresh air for the first time in 30 decades, when they emerged into...

"Ah, a bit of fre-" he looked around him with a hint of panic. "-sh air?" He took few steps in front of Eclipsa. "Really? After 300 years of staring at Bambino's butt, we got out to.. to... the Forest of Certain Death?!" In the heat of his frustration, he didn't realize he overstepped. Eclipsa lifted her umbrella and smacked him on his head.

"Oh, I mean - yay, Forest of Certain Death! What a great day to be alive for." He retracted his previous statement in a false burst of enthusiasm. "For however long that might be," Laar added silently.

"It's a necessary evil."

"But why, milady? You could just swoop into the castle and pick it clean."

"I have no interest in that chunk of rock. I didn't spend so many years trapped in a crystal just to reopen old wounds. Mewni is dead to me."

"I see. But then why come here?"

"I'm going home. My real home. That's what I wanted to do ever since I got trapped in Rhombulus's crystal. That's what I ever really wanted..."

The Forest of certain death - the only place on Mewni where paranoia is a sign of good mental health. If you fear that bunnies behind the bushes are sharpening their knives to butcher you, if you hear wind plotting ways to kill you, if you ever felt that trees want to burrow you into the ground by smacking your head into oblivion, be assured - such things are certainly possible here. It won't help you to survive by any means, but you'll die with a smile, knowing that you knew, unlike those tourists sniffing the cute little flowers.

Laar knew all of this, and then some. This place took his left arm and he had no desire to lose another limb. But something felt off. The whole forest was calm, as if some greater force than itself was walking across the endless acres of horrible death. He looked up at Eclipsa. If she had any emotions, she was hiding them well behind an impenetrable wall made of steel and concrete. Her walk was stoick, her posture firm, with eyes unshakably focused on her destination. The Forest knew better than to intervene.

"If you don't mind me asking, milady, why is it that the Forest doesn't mind us being here?"

"Me."

"Sorry?"

"He doesn't mind me. If you took five steps away from me, you'd probably be in several places at once."

"So, u-uhm, why is that?"