Star Darlings; The Starlight Mirror

IX. A New Appreciation For Nature

"So that's eight of us, only four left." Darling Sagittarius remarked. The girls had un-transformed to their original forms. "Now that I think about it, lava isn't all that bad." Libby said, staring at the lava. "And it's best we get going, I'm afraid that this joint will erupt once more," Astra said. "Right away then." Hoshi said. With that, they were teleported from the volcanic red desert to a more pleasant, peaceful place - a forest. And I'm sure some of the Star Darlings go through the roof at that point - Sage opened her eyes and resisted the urge to scream and rant. "How many more forests do we have to keep going through?!" She thought, aggressively. Piper appeared to be the only one not frustrated by or curious about the circumstances, as she found forests (and jungles for that matter) relaxing, like Luminous Lake back in Starland. They advanced through the forest with mixed feelings, some unhappy by having to go through another forest, a few being curious as to what's going to happen, and Piper (as I said) taking it all in. "Maybe this will be the last time we have to go into a forest." Leona said. As they continued to walk, they realised that some of the trees were cut down, but then more and more were cut down. At some point, all of the trees were cut down. "This isn't good! All of the trees are gone!" Hoshi exclaimed. "For stars sake! It's like on Wishworld!" Scarlet exclaimed. Sage had regretted getting angry over a forest, and thought that the Star Deities did this as a punishment. It was very sad to walk among the destroyed trees, how could someone do such a horrible thing to trees? It wasn't long after that they found a flowering garden...which had mostly torn-up and dried flowers.

"I really, REALLY, don't think this is a good sign!" Cassie said anxiously. Sage turned and shook her head in agreement. As they continued to walk through the "forest", it didn't take long to realise how bad the situation actually was. Poor little squirrels, deers, and birds went around, unable to find food or shelter, and bees and butterflies flew around, hungry, some animals succumbed to their anguish and hunger, and perished. It was a gut-wrenching scene, indeed. One starving squirrel came up to the Star Darlings. "What?" Hoshi asked. The squirrel directed them to a tree stump that had a hole in it. "But we can't fit in there." Sage said to the squirrel. "Actually, I could shrink us all down!" Hoshi said, brightly. In the blink of an eye, Hoshi shrunk itself and eight of the Star Darlings down to fit into the hole. In the stump was Tessa tied up with grass standing next to a Dark Darling that resembled her. "Really? Of all things this girl chose grass?" Hoshi complained. "Well excuse you, pipsqueak." The Dark Darling retorted. "Leave them alone, Asset!" Tessa exclaimed. "You shouldn't have done that to those poor animals, trees, and flowers!" The Star Darlings were stunned. "You did this!?" Sage accused. "Eh, not a big deal." Asset sighed. Sage went and untied Tessa. Hoshi went into Sage's satchel and handed Tessa a light green, flower-shaped Star Pact. "Listen, Tessa, say: "Taurus Star Formation!" Take the puff, and transform. Then say: "Taurus Star Supernova!" To un-transform." Hoshi explained. "Taurus Star Formation!" Tessa exclaimed. She patted her entire body with the puff, producing leaves, plants, and flowers. Her Star Darling costume was green and had Taurus motifs. "I am the Star Darling, who represents the sign of The Bull! I am Darling Taurus!" Darling Taurus announced. The other eight Star Darlings watched on as Asset tried to attack Darling Taurus. "Taurus Flower Whip!" Darling Taurus produced a vine whip decorated with flowers and slashed Asset with it, reducing her to negative energy. Once Asset was gone, something magical happened outside. The trees grew bigger and stronger, the flowers were revived, and the animals were no longer starved. As the Star Darlings walked out of the tree stump, another magical thing happened; Hoshi and the nine Star Darlings grew bigger in size. "Taurus Star Supernova!" Darling Taurus exclaimed, returning to her regular Starling form, the others did the same thing. "Now I know to never take nature for granted." Sage said, gazing at the happy creatures. 

Author's Note: Yes, I know, this chapter is quite short. At this point, I'm preparing for the last chapter of The Starlight Mirror, but that doesn't mean I'm not enjoying writing this, I'm actually loving it.