Chapter Text
After we asked for help, the Pixies immediately started to fly away, wanting us to follow. I was, of course, the first to react but it wasn’t long before Star caught up with me, Marco right behind her. None of us wanted to lose sight of the Pixies but they started to guide us into the forest.
“Uh,” I heard Marco started to call out to Star and I. “Are you sure it’s safe to go out here?”
“I know know, Marco,” Star responded, looking at me for a few moments. “Tom?”
“I’m not going to stop running to find out!” I called back towards them. My instants are pretty good and something told me I could trust these little creatures.
We continued following the creatures and not the long, I saw something in the distance. It was a small portal but it was a rainbow. The Pixies started to slow down and once we were closer to the colorful portal, the pixies stopped moving altogether. I examined the portal while Marco caught his breath. The portal moved slowly in place, flashing a little bit when I got closer to it. Is this...
“What is that doing here?” I heard Star say with shock in her voice, pulling me out of my thoughts. I looked back at her.
“Is this a wormhole?” I asked bluntly.
“Yes, but,” Star stepped closer a bit. “It’s different colors. Wormholes are usually just green.”
“Maybe it’ll help us,” Marco started, suddenly in between Star and I. “This could be an entryway since the ice dimension is locked off. There has to be some way in, there’s no way not to.”
“Wow,” I huffed a bit. “That’s actually a good idea, who knew you were actually capable of having one?” I looked at Marco who was smiling cheekily. “Why don’t you go first?” Marco’s smile faded fast and he scoffed.
“I knew it!” he narrowed his eyes. Marco started to argue something but I tuned him out and looked at the Pixies, holding out one hand. Without saying anything, one Pixie sat on my hand, already knowing what I was going to do. I turned back to Marco.
“Takes one of these guys,” I started. “These Pixies are pretty protective.” I placed the Pixie in Marco’s hand and rubbed it’s head softly with my pinky. “Protect him, okay?” The Pixie nodded and flew up to sit on Marco’s shoulder, looking at him. Marco was silent for a moment and stared at the Pixie, smiling a little bit.
“You’re actually gonna let them protect me?” he asked, rubbing the Pixie’s head.
“I’m sure Star would be upset if we lost you,” I explained then started pushing him closer to the wormhole. “We’ll be right after you.” Without another thought, Marco let himself get pushed into the wormhole. Before I could look back at Star, she shoved me into the wormhole as well, turning everything a bright rainbow color. The colors around me started spinning and I felt my body floating although I wasn’t trying to levitate. I felt like I was flying around all of the colors.
Within a matter of minutes, I felt a harsh pressure against my back and the colors were suddenly gone. I landed on the ground, on my stomach, on top of something hard. A low growl came out of my mouth, feeling a throbbing headache coming on. Before I got the chance to move, I felt something lands on my back and lost a little amount of oxygen I needed. I heard a small whimper from under me.
“Sorry!” I heard Star’s voice yelp, feeling the weight on my back get taken off. I breathed in slowly, allowing the low amount of oxygen I actually need the return back to my chest. Yes, I need some oxygen but not much. I felt whatever I was on top of start to move, pushing me off and onto my back on the ground. Opening my eyes, I found another pair glaring darts at me.
“You pushed me to be your cousin?!” Marco raged at me, rubbing his scraped chin. I shrugged, sitting up.
“That wasn’t my intention,” I smirked. “But it worked out perfectly, don’t you think?” Marco pouted and stood up.
“Whatever,” he mumbled. “You’re lucky Star wants to help you.”
I ignored his comment and stood up, not wanting to argue right now. Looking up, I saw the Pixies slowly start to pour out of the wormhole. Once the last one was out of the wormhole, I saw the wormhole slowly start to close.
“What?” I narrowed my eyes. “Why is it closing? They’re not supposed to close!”
“That is weird,” Star added, watching the hole shrink very small with a concerned look on her face. “There has to be another one then.” The Pixies started to fly around Star a bit, bring a smile to her face. “Am I right?” She asked excitedly. One Pixie stopped flying in circles and stopped in front of her face, nodding to her. “YAY!” she cheered, hugging the Pixie that was in front of her.
Relief washed over me as I held out my hand for another Pixie to land on my hand, looking up at me. “You brought us here for a reason, right?” The little Pixie nodded. “Alright, you lead the way.” Smiling a bit to myself, I watched the Pixie fly back to the group and they were off again.
We started to follow them again but they were moving more quietly this time. I took this time to look at the new dimension we were in. There were vines everywhere along the path and connected all the trees together. Much more green than the last dimension.
“Where are we?” Star asked in awe.
“I don’t know,” I answered, shrugging a bit.
“Can we hurry this up?” Marco asked, walking really close to Star. “This place sucks.”
We walked further down the path, staying close to the Pixies. After several minutes of walking, the ground started rumbling. I stopped walking for a moment and looked around, noticing something flying towards us. The Pixies stopped flying and lined up in front of us. A few moments later, the Pixies separated, holding onto different looking Pixies. These ones were deep blue with little horns sticking out on either side of their heads. Their eyes were a light pink shining through. A small smile grew on my mouth.
“More Pixies!” I heard Star gasp happily. I looked over to her and watched her and Marco walk closer with twinkles in their eyes. A small chuckle left my mouth as I watched them.
One of the Pixies flew up to me and stopped inches away from my face. I watched the Pixie calmly, letting the creature take in my appearance.
“These are probably more citizens,” I spoke quietly, not wanting to spook the Pixies.
“Why are they here then?” Marco asked, holding a few of the Pixies.
“Maybe this is where the Queen's army was traveling,” I responded, lifting one hand to let the Pixie rest on. Once the little creature landed, I looked up to see Star trying to hug all of the creatures. She looked over to me with a bright smile on her face.
“Let us try to find more hieroglyphs!” she suggested. I looked back down at the creature, watching it snuggle to my hand, hugging me like how the first set of Pixies did.
“Hey little guy,” I spoke calmly. The Pixie looked up at me, like the little nickname. “Can you show me anything about your Queen?” The little guy perked up and released my hand, flying back to the other Pixies.
Immediately, they started to fly down another path quickly. Not wasting any time, we were all off once again. Within a few minutes, we were approaching a large lake and the Pixies started to dive in. I groaned a bit, knowing we were going to be taking a swim. We jumped in and followed their light to a small cave. I suddenly felt something push against my head and attach it. My heart dropped and I tried pulling away but instead, I let out too much air and got sucked into whatever grabbed me. My hearing got clear for a moment and I heard a laugh from Marco’s voice. I looked around and breathed in a bit, seeing Star and Marco swim really close to me.
“You’re in an air bubble,” Star smiled and giggled a bit.
“You should have seen your face!” Marco laughed. “You looked like a fish out of the water!” I glared daggers at him.
“We are trying to follow the Pixies!” I exclaimed at him.
“Oh, don’t worry about them,” Star said, pointing behind me. I turned around and saw the Pixies right in front of us. “They must have seen we didn’t go in yet.”
“Can we go now?” I asked, still feeling annoyed.
We started to move once again and the Pixies lead us to a large air pocket room in the cave. Once we got to the surface, Star’s air pocket and we looked around in awe. The room was a decently big size and the walls were covered in more carvings of my own face along with the queen. There was some land with many rocks on the ground and all of them had carvings with the same markings in the other dimension.
“Wow,” Star looked around in amazement, reading the walls in interest. “You were right.” She went up to one of the walls and read carefully. “This is where the queen first stopped on her journey. She left some men behind because some of the citizens in this dimension were on verge of war.” Star paused and looked back at me. “Do you think she left too many behinds? That’s probably why she couldn’t defeat the attackers, she didn’t have enough people.” A deep sigh escaped her as she slumped her shoulders. “She has a big heart.”
My heart started to race and beat hard. I felt a small bump on my cheek and looked down to see one of the Pixies trying to snuggle to my cheek. “Are any of these the actual citizens from this dimension? Or is this just her people?”
Star looked back at the wall to continue reading. “When the attack started, the war with these people and whoever else also started. The men after the queen only harmed these soldiers but before they could escape, they suddenly vanished from thin air. Since the citizens here now unarmed, the war ended fast.” Star’s voice trailed off and she turned away from the wall. “I can’t read anymore.”
I started to walk towards her but Marco beat me to her. He hugged her tightly as she started to cry softly on his shoulder, hugging him back tightly. My eyes fell to the ground, feeling-realization of not ever getting Star back finally hitting me. The room was silent for a few minutes until the Pixies started to move closer to me, allowing the blue Pixies to attach themselves to me. All except for two. I watched two blue Pixies and two green Pixies fly over to Star and Marco, all attaching themselves to Star’s back. A little bit of courage came inside of me, wanting to comfort Star as well. Not as a crush or lover though, just as a friend. She was the only one that had to read such harsh words. I walked closer to her and placed one hand on her back as well, rubbing it softly.
“You don’t have to read them anymore,” I spoke softly. Star began calming down and she looked over to me with her head still on Marco’s shoulder.
“I’ll read the stones if you want,” she sniffed. I smiled softly. That’s just like her, still wanting to help no matter what.
“Only if you want to.”
After a few minutes, she pulled away from Marco and thanked him before walking over to one of the stones. She stayed quiet and looked at a few of the stones. After she inspected the last stone, she looked back at me with a smile.
“They’re protectors as well and there is also some that talk about legendary lovers again,” she explained sweetly.
“Hey Star,” Marco called out, standing at the very back of the room, pointing at a carving on the wall that was separated from the disaster descriptions. “What about this? It looks like that weird wolf we ran into in the last dimension.”
Star and I walked over to Marco quickly. Any information about what that thing is, the better. Once we got to him, Star immediately started to examine the wall. I watched Star intently, wanting to know as soon as I could. Out of nowhere, her eyes widened and she gasped.
“What-what-what?” I asked quickly. She didn’t respond, instead, she covered her mouth. “Starship? What is it?” She looked at me and uncovered her mouth.
“T-they’re the attackers,” she whispered to me as if they could hear her. My jaw dropped.
“Like their souls?” Marco asked quickly, just as shocked. Star nodded to him.
“They were imprisoned,” she started, pointing at some of the writing. “This is the being they become when they come together.”
“That explains the balls that came from the last beast,” I responded, feeling my mind run. “Why did they take the spirits to their resting place?”
“Maybe,” Star rubbed her eyes a bit and turned away from the walls. “That’s what happens when it dies. Those balls didn’t have eyes so there’s no way they could be alive.”
“We have to find it,” Marco said, pumping himself up and looking ready to fight someone. “We need to kill it, maybe that opens the next wormhole!”
‘It could be,’ I thought to myself. ‘I mean, when we got to the wormhole, the beast was already dead.’
“Yeah,” I smirked a bit. “Let's go kill that beast.”
We left the cave with the Pixies, Star putting us in her magic air pocket once again and we flew to the regular surface. Quickly, we got out of the water and started to follow the Pixies again. They knew we wanted to kill the beast so they were now attempting to find it. Suddenly, we felt the ground start to shake hard. We fell to the ground and I tried standing once again but was tripped when I tried walking. Marco and Star were crawling very carefully, trying to get closer to the Pixies. Out of nowhere, part of the ground cracked and dark gray smoke came out of the ground, seeing as it picked Marco up, as though it was a regular hard.
“Marco!” Star screamed as she started calling out spells to attack the smoke. Unfortunately, it wasn’t affecting the smoke at all. As fast as I could think about it, I fired a few fireballs, trying to get it to let the human go. Instead, the smoke hand pulled Marco through the ground.
“Star!” he screamed, frantically trying to break free. Before we could do anymore, the smoke arm vanished into the ground and the shaking stopped. At this point, Star and I were panting. The Pixies then flew to us, flying around quickly.
“C-can you find Marco?” I asked them. One of the Pixies stopped flying for a few moments before nodding and flying off. The rest followed in unison and Star and I was back on our feet, sprinting with them.
After a while, we got to a huge room where the ground breaks off into a huge cliff. I kneeled down and looked at Star. “Hop on.” She looked at me weirdly then looked for her cloud to carry her. I rolled my eyes and started to levitate.
Once she was on her cloud, we continued chasing after the Pixies. We had to fly up a giant waterfall and over a large valley of ruins. Star looked as we passed over and she started to tear up again. Her eyes closed for a few moments then she looked ahead with a determined look.
“We’ll get them!” she cheered, trying to keep herself positive. “I’m coming for you, Marco!”
We finally arrive at another cave, but this one was on land and much bigger than the last one. Both of us ran inside, not wanting to waste any time. Right on cue, the room started to fill with the gray smoke and slowly formed into a ghostly wolf. This one just one shade lighter than the last one. I got this.
I shot fire out of my hands, allowing my eyes to glow red as I threw a fire ring at it. It was like the same one as before, but a little bigger. Unfortunately, once it landed on the wolf, it completely obliterated. I stopped in my tracks, my eyes immediately fading away. It didn’t work. It didn’t work? What the hell?! I narrowed my eyes and started to throw dozens of fire bolts and fire rings but nothing was working.
Star aimed her wand at the wolf and started firing everything she could think of, nothing doing too much damage. I stopped firing and looked back to Star then at the Pixies. While Star was still trying to do damage, I went over to the Pixies quickly.
“Can you get Marco?” I asked quickly, not wanting Star to be fighting on her own. The Pixies nodded and the hoard flew past the wolf. Star noticed this and started to run after them. This is not what I was expecting. “Star!” I called after her, starting to run as well.
The wolf howled loudly, now not getting the shot at, and jumped up. I got to Star quickly and shoved her closer to the Pixies, watching her fall and rolling a bit. Looking up, I saw the wolf for a split second before getting consumed by darkness.
“TOM!” I heard Star’s voice call. My eyes shot open but I couldn’t see anything.
I was on something but I couldn’t tell what it was. One thought ran through my head though; I had to have been inside of the wolf. My mouth opened as I tried to speak but no noise came out. Suddenly, I saw a flash of colors in front of my face and the wolf started to move again. This wolf is a lot stronger than the last one and more active. Moments after seeing the flashes of color, I felt pain rise in my chest. The wolf stopped moving and I heard Star scream out different spells. My eyes widened as I saw the spell cracked the darkness in front of me, causing a said spell to hit my right horn. I groaned and flinched, trying to wiggle my hand up to cover the wound. I got hit! After a few minutes, I heard Marco’s voice.
“Star!” he yelled. “Where’s Tom?!”
I heard Star choke back a sob. “T-the thing ate him!” She cried out, firing the same spell again, this one hitting my hand that was covering the wounded horn.
Dammit! I winced, feeling my hand sting from the spell. I heard Marco start to talk again but I was in too much pain to pay attention to their voices. A few quiet moments pass and the wolf started howling again. I opened my eyes and saw a faint light coming closer to me. Thinking this was another one of Star’s spells, I closed my eyes tightly, waiting for the impact. Instead, I felt tiny hands touch my wounded horn. My eyes shot opened and I was greeted by wide eyes that belonged to the Pixies. I smiled, feeling thankful for these little guys.
I couldn’t speak but I could tell the Pixies knew I was thankful for them. I released my injured horn and let the Pixies cover me. Once they were all settled down, their eyes began glowing brightly, shooting beams out. The beams shot through the wolf and I felt myself getting lifted into the air. My eyes closed quickly, not sure what to expect. A huge explosion went off, causing my body to flinch. Immediately, I felt the pressure around my body release and I slowly opened my eyes. I was in the air, being lifted by the Pixies. I breathed out and looked around, not seeing the wolf.
Star.
My eyes flickered to the ground where I found Marco and Star on the ground being covered by a purple bubble. Sighing out in relief, I looked at the Pixies on my left arm.
“Thank you,” I spoke softly. The Pixies that were looking at me smiled back and started to set me back on the ground, releasing their hold.
Once back on the ground, the purple bubble disappeared and Star and Marco came running to me.
“Tom!” I heard them call, stopping once they were in front of me. Star was smiling brightly.
“You’re okay!” she cheered happily. I smiled at her.
Aw. She was worried.
“Man,” Marco chuckled softly, placing one hand on Tom’s shoulder. “You have no idea how worried we were!” I looked at him and tilted my head a bit.
“You?” I questioned. “You were worried?”
Marco frowned a bit and retracted his hand. “I-I mean... Yeah?” he stuttered, rubbing the back of his head and looking away. “I don’t want to lose the one thing that will make my dad’s haunted house scary to just die.”
I rolled my eyes a bit and rustled his hair. “Yeah yeah, whatever Mr. Under Estemated Bad Boy.”
“Hey!” Marco protested, fixing his hair while Star just giggled.
I pulled back my hand and felt arms wrap around my chest, pulling me into a hug. I looked down a smiled at the sight of Star. My arms wrapped around her as I hugged her back, appreciating the closeness. I know we’re here to save my soul mate, but Star was still my first love. A small sigh escaped my lips when Star pulled back and grabbed Marco’s arm.
“Next dimension, here we come!” She threw a fist in the air and started marching past me. In unison, the Pixies started to fly in front of the two in order to guide us to the next wormhole.
“Wait,” I called out to them. “What was that shield that was protecting you?”
Star and Marco looked back with smiles on their faces. “The Pixies!” Star replied cheerfully. My eyes widened.
“They protected you guys?” I couldn’t help but feel myself smile. They protected the ones helping me.
“Yeah!” Marco chimed in. “They put that over us and went inside the wolf’s mouth.”
“Now let's go!” Star started pulling Marco’s arms again. “We have a Queen to save!”
As I started to walk, I felt a small bump on my left shoulder. There sat one of the blue Pixies leaning against my face. I smiled more and scratched its head.
We followed the Pixies for a while before coming up to another small hole in the air.
“You go in first,” Marco said quickly, hiding behind Star. “I’m not. Not again.” He stuttered a bit, possibly thinking about our arrival in this dimension.
My eyebrows scrunch a bit. “Fine,” I rolled my eyes and went closer to the Pixies. My arms opened and I smiled when the Pixies began covering me again with their hugs. Once they were all settled, I jumped into the wormhole.
This wormhole was a lot hotter than the last, not that I mind though. I looked around as I fell deeper inside and took in the detail of this wormhole. Are all of them different? While the last was colorful, this was dull gray with bright deformed looking stars. Where was the heat coming from? Before my question could be answered, I popped out on the other side. Before hitting the ground, I was able to catch myself and hovered away from the spot, waiting for the other two. Seconds later, Marco was spat out and he hit his back on the ground with a loud thump. When Star popped out, she landed butt first on Marco’s chest, knocking out the rest of the oxygen out of his small frame. After thanking the human, Star got up and looked around.
Taking my eyes off the two, I started to look around as well. This was a lot different than the other two dimensions; this dimension was covered with large volcanoes and lava. Huh. That’s why it was so hot. I could see something in the distance though. Squinting, I felt the Pixies let me go and flew directly to what I saw in the distance. Without looking back at the human and princess, I followed them at the same pace and came up three bright red Pixies. Only three? The other dimensions had at least 30 Pixies together. Were there not many survivors after this? Are we getting closer?
Once we got in front of the red creatures, they lifted their heads from the rock they were sitting on but didn’t fly up to greet the other colored Pixies. Something wasn’t right.