Diaz plan for grandbabies SVTFOE AU (COMPLETE)

Chapter 16

The next morning, when Marco awoke and climbed a tree to get a sense of where they were, he spotted columns of smoke rising in the distance, which, after some observation, he figured were from chimneys, though he couldn't see any houses for the trees, yet.

Janna was awake already, having been the last to take watch last night. She whistled appreciatively as Marco climbed down the tree. She seemed to have recovered from what had happened last night, regained her confidence. "Smooth, Diaz," she called, as he tripped over himself on the landing. Marco pinned her with what he hoped was a smoldering look, and she blushed and glanced away. He kind of liked that.

"It looks like there's a village somewhere up ahead," he said, as he began to remove the pegs to his tent. Ferguson's tent was already down, and his chubby friend was nowhere in sight. That worried him. "I think we should head towards it. Maybe they'll be able to tell us something about where Star and my parents are? I imagine an interdimensional warlock would be big news."

"Didn't you say Mewni is sort of a...medieval world? Would we really fit in with the peasants and everything in our clothes?"

Marco shrugged. "I've been here before with my parents and we didn't get THAT much attention. Maybe they're just really used to interdimensional travelers."

"Hey...while he's not here...Marco, maybe we should talk about Ferguson? When I came out for watch last night, just went back to his tent and packed it up, then went out into the woods. The NOISES I heard..."

Just then, Ferguson popped through the bushes behind Janna. "My ears are burning!" he said cheerfully, and Janna shuddered. "There's a path up ahead," he continued, "With a sign on it pointing to some place called 'Bandit's Point'."

"Bandit's Point?" said Janna, skeptically. "Sounds great."

"I also have some stuff that may help us blend in," said Ferguson, unloading a heavy sack from his back. Within were some rough tunics, weird caps, the sort of thing that peasants in Mewni might wear. And three rusted, worn swords.

"Uh, Ferguson? W-where did you get these?" Marco lifted up one of the tunics.

"Let's just say I 'found' them," said Ferguson with a ghoulish grin.

"Is...is this blood on this one?" said Janna, lifting up a tunic.

Ferguson's grin grew considerably more ghoulish.

It took them most of the day to reach Bandit's Point. The path, originally little more than a dirt trail, eventually grew larger, paved, leading them out of swamps and ruins and into a more pristine area of forest. It was dusk by the time they reached the village.

True to its name, Bandit's Point was a dim, nasty looking place, a small collection of ramshackle buildings that seemed to have been hacked together out of rotten, splintered wood, with filthy, crowded streets, and small, rat-faced inhabitants. As soon as they entered, Marco couldn't help but feel like they were being watched.

Marco wanted a place where they could maybe talk to some of the locals and ask them a few questions, but there didn't seem to be much in the way of public space in this town. Finally, Janna pointed out one run-down little building with a sign on it that seemed to indicate it was an inn. Kind of. There was no writing on the sign, just a beer mug, with a knife stabbed through it. But enough noise and light seemed to be coming from the place to indicate a common room.

They came in through the door, attracting nothing but a few incurious dances. The patrons seemed to be too busy crudely cheering on as a toothless old man played the piano, and a fat, ugly old woman did a 'dance' on one of the tables that exposed way too much of her pallid flesh.