Drah si sdrawkcab gnitirw!
PS. This chapter will be rated T due to some suggestive content. But it's not what you're thinking, these kids are still 14. Just adding this rating to be safe.
To say it had been a restful night was a stretch. To call it a productive night was a downright lie. Even trying to think of the one or two measly hours of sleep that finally came along would not cut it. Basically, it had not been a good night for either of the Clawthorne sisters, and it showed. When Eda finally hauled her tired toosh out of her nest and stumbled downstairs, she found Lilith sitting at the kitchen table nursing a mug of stiff black tea. Her dual-colored eyes stared groggily out the window at the Boiling Sea, but when Eda entered the kitchen, she glanced her way and nodded a greeting. Snorting, Eda shuffled over to the fridge and pulled out a carton of apple blood.
"Long night?"
"You could say that." Lilith set down her mug and rubbed an arm. "I take it you didn't sleep much either?"
Eda scooped up her own mug, a picture of a furry critter with the words "For Fox Sake!" painted on the front, and leaned against the counter. "It shows?"
Sighing, Lilith took a sip of tea while Eda inhaled her drink, both enjoying the moment of silence in the house. In fact, at this time of the morning, it was usually noisier. Frowning, Eda pushed off the counter to look at the clock. Shouldn't Luz be down here by now eating breakfast before school?
A muffled thump came from above, followed by a yelp and shuffling. A door slamming and feet pounding down the stairs was the only warning before Luz tore through the kitchen like a gorenado in the Armpit, tugging her uniform in place and pulling her bag over her shoulder.
"SorryIcan'tralkrigjtnowgottagettoschoolloveyoubye!" Barely stopping to grab a Rot Tart that conveniently popped out of the toaster, Luz yanked open the door and disappeared in a human-shaped cloud of dust. Eda did not even bother trying to rescue King's breakfast. He'd just have to get something else.
Lilith blinked. "Well, that explains the prolonged quiet. It's not like Luz to sleep in so late on a school day."
Grunting, Eda walked to the pantry to find her own breakfast, opening a box of Grubbin' Gremlin Goober cereal and giving it an experimental sniff. It wasn't growing anything, so it was safe. Taking out a bowl, Eda poured the cereal. "Not unless she snuck out during the night." She heard Lilith's mug hit the table.
"She what?"
"I heard her last night 'borrowing' Owlbert from my room. Kid was gone for most of the night. I don't know when she came back, must'a been when I finally fell asleep." Dumping milk over the partially stale cereal, Eda walked to the table and sat down. "Dunno what she was up to."
Frowning at the news, Lilith returned her attention to the window as her sister began shoveling cereal into her mouth. While she had a hunch Eda was far more proud of her apprentice than she would admit for executing that level of behavior, it made her worried. What would drive Luz to leave the house during the night, alone, when she could become an easy target for the Emperor's Coven? Was it the Dreamscape? Or, she thought back to what the human had said yesterday regarding Amity. Was it something else?
"And you're not at all concerned?"
Looking up from the bowl with her spoon sticking out of her mouth, Eda shrugged. "Eh, it's not that hard to guess. You heard her yesterday going off about that little green-haired girl. Kid's over the moon for her, she probably went off to go 'confess her love' or whatever sappy thing teens do these days."
Lilith couldn't argue against that, but still, to just go out like that was risky. Even for someone as daring and look-before-you-leap as her sister's apprentice. Sighing, Lilith finished the last of her tea and stood from the table to deposit her cup in the sink, leaving Eda to continue with her breakfast. There were many questions buzzing through her mind, but they all kept returning to Luz's actions, which did not help her at all with the main issue at hand. Feeling the prick of an itch under her sleeve, Lilith scratched at the irritated spot and headed back to her room. She had work to do.
With literal seconds to spare, Luz flew through the halls and darted into her morning potions class to plant herself in her chair right as the bell went off. The teacher hardly gave her a second look and she relaxed, feeling relieved she had managed to yank her butt out of bed when she did. She hadn't meant to sleep in so late! After she got back to the Owl House in the early morning hours, Luz had flopped down on her bed roll expecting to just stare at the ceiling as she contemplated everything that had happened between herself and Amity. Instead, the moment her head hit the pillow, she was pulled back into the echoing darkness of the Dreamscape with the purple door standing before her.
Only this time, instead of her opening it, the door creaked open all by itself, showing not the mess of other doors from before, but a set of stairs that split so one led down and the other led up. The same dark purple and black void swirled around her to obscure anything else that was possibly close. Intrigued, Luz walked through the door and, after a quick round of eenie-meenie, chose the staircase to the right and descended into the void.
It was only after a few moments that Luz spotted something through the surrounding haze: a picture hanging beside the steps like a photo in a hallway. It was of herself, flying through the twilight sky on Owlbert. But, that was less than an hour ago. Squinting, Luz gasped when the picture suddenly came to life, playing the moment like a short movie. After just a couple more steps down, Luz saw another "picture" and when she approached it, she felt her cheeks heat up.
She was asleep on Amity's bed with her arm hugging the witch tightly, both their faces relaxed in deep slumber. Amity's head was tucked under Luz's chin with her arms pulled into her chest, the only thing separating them. A tiny groan slipped from her lips and she lifted an arm up to snake over Luz's shoulder to tug her closer and they snuggled even tighter together. Luz heard Amity mumble something under her breath, to which her sleeping self mumbled a response, but she tore her eyes away and jogged down the stairs. Even though that was her in the picture, it felt strange to watch such an intimate moment. Especially if she wasn't awake during said moment, it felt creepy.
The staircase continued down in a shallow spiral with more pictures of past moments appearing in the void; Luz fighting the Emperor's Coven, the grudgby incident, her dance with Amity against Grom, facing Grom in the arena, the Greater Basilisk rampant in Hexside. It was then Luz knew where she was, she had seen plenty of movies and read enough books to know she was looking at her memories. The Dreamscape must be allowing her to literally walk down Memory Lane.
"I guess I don't have to worry about studying for my tests anymore." She muttered to herself. "I just need to read through my notes once, then I can come here and read through them again!"
Hello perfect score!
Luz continued on down the stairs, passing more and more memories. It was not hard to guess that the deeper she went, the older the memories became. When she reached the end of her memories of the Demon Realm and came to her memories of home, Luz felt her excitement quickly disappear. She saw her mom wishing her a good time at summer camp, that fateful meeting in the principal's office, and many more memories of her time in the human world that she did not want to see. Seeing a picture of her locker with the word "Luzer" painted on it, Luz turned around and jogged back up the stairs, not stopping until she was back in the Boiling Isles memories. Guilt washed over her like cold water as the thought registered in her mind she did not want to see anything that reminded her of her time back home.
Of course she missed her mom and her home where she grew up. But everything else? Luz shook her head. It was crazy, but if she was going to be honest with herself, the Boiling Isles felt like the place where she truly belonged. And that made her feel worse. Thankfully, her alarm blaring in her ear yanked Luz from the Dreamscape and sent her bolting upright in bed.
"Luz Noceda, please report to Principal Bump's office after the end of the third period."
The voice over the intercom startled Luz out of her reverie and she instantly shrank down in her chair when everyone looked at her quizzically. What had she done for Bump to see her so early in the day?
"Somebody's in trouble." Boscha said behind her in a sing-songy voice.
Luz shot a glare over her shoulder at the three-eyed witch and hunched forward in her seat in an attempt to look smaller. Her tablemate, a half-demon-half-witch student named Argenta, leaned over.
"Don't worry, I got called in too. All of the Oracle track students are going to be meeting with Bump." She was a tri-track student; Oracle, Potions, and Bard, which meant she and Luz had similar curriculars.
"Why?" Luz whispered back.
Argenta shook her head, her black hair held back by the two horns curling up from her forehead. "Someone from the Emperor's Coven is going to be interviewing Oracle students about what they've learned this week. Has to do with a break-in at the Conformitorium last night." Her gold eyes flashed in the classroom lights and her silver-frosted wolf tail flicked the air. "He had a weird tattoo on his face, a triangle with an eye in it."
"Cyrus?"
"Yeah," Argenta stared at Luz. "You know him?"
Unfortunately. Luz nodded in response, turning her attention back to the board when the teacher cleared her throat. What was Cyrus doing back here so soon? And why was he interviewing Oracle Track students? Unless...Luz glanced down at her school bag. She didn't have the time to drop it off at her locker before the start of school, which meant she was still carrying all of her work. Including the prophecy she had written down in class.
Time was not on her side that day because the remainder of her home room potions class flew by, as did second period Construction training, which basically was the Hexside equivalent of art class. Normally, Luz enjoyed slapping the power glyphs onto her arms and chucking building material in an attempt to complete a house, but her mind was too preoccupied with her impending meeting. Which was probably why her two-story condo reformed into a gnome village. At least she got kudos for being creative. Even Mattholomuel held back on his normally snarky comments when he looked over her work.
"Not exactly the goal of the assignment, but, not bad for a human."
Luz grunted out a thanks and wandered out of the room when the bell rang, her feet feeling like they were glued to the floor. She had just one class left before Bump's office, and it was the one she had been both excited and terrified to attend today. Abomination Formulation. Even though Amity was indeed the top student of her track and had already advanced well past the basics of what went into an abomination formula, she had been selected by the professor to act as a Teacher's Assistant, and was always willing to mentor their class's only magic-less student. Under normal circumstances, Luz was beyond ecstatic to spend more time with her fellow Azura Book Club member. But, that was before she had openly confessed to Amity just how amazing she thought the witch was and had left her a rose on her windowsill. Luz face-palmed as she hurried past the lockers to her class. Why did she have to do that? Out of all the things she could have done, she had to pick the corniest and cliched gesture. Thanks to that, Amity probably thought she was making fun of her or was trying to oust whomever it was she had wanted to ask out to Grom.
A rock dropped in Luz's stomach from the spike of disappointment and jealousy twisting in her mind. It hadn't bothered her before knowing Amity had wanted to ask out another student or that she was afraid of being rejected by said student. Sure she was curious who it was, but she wanted to respect Amity's feelings and let her tell her when she felt ready. As much as Luz loved a good mystery, she knew when there were lines she could not cross, contrary to popular belief, and this was not one she wanted to cross. Still, as she finally walked into the classroom and sat down in her respective seat, glancing up to see Amity talking quietly with the professor, Luz couldn't help but wonder just what would have happened if Amity had asked her?
Sighing, Luz reached under her desk to pull out the large pot containing the starter for what would become her abomination. Hopefully, this one wouldn't explode. Luz remembered the death stares the class had shot her way after the smoke had cleared, absolutely positive her human butt would be hauled to detention. The only one who wasn't glaring at her with thinly veiled threats was Amity, who had the expression of someone who wanted to simultaneously strangle Luz and laugh with her. Instead, she just sighed and wiped the viscous formula from her face, telling her she would help clean up the mess. That had been two days after Grom.
At the front of the class, Amity nodded to their teacher and, as if knowing she was being watched, looked over her shoulder. Her amber eyes locked with Luz and the lid of the pot slipped in her suddenly sweaty fingers, dropping back onto the container with a bang.
"Miss Noceda," the teacher shook his head as his abomination carried him to the board. "Please try not to destroy every possible abomination formula we have?"
"S-sorry sir!" Luz gingerly lifted the lid from the pot and set it on the floor under her table, kneeling down to avoid a repeat performance.
"Luz?"
The soft voice made Luz stand up quickly and ram her head against the underside of the table. Hissing, she pulled back and looked up to see Amity looking at her with concern. "Heeey, Amity. What's...up?" She snapped a finger gun while rubbing her tender head with her free hand and dropped into her seat. Her heart proceeded to leap out of her chest to perform the kan-kan when Amity sat down beside her. Seriously, what was wrong with her? Luz grabbed the formula sheet for the class and began to scan the ingredients in an effort to look like she wasn't at all nervous that Amity was in the same space as her.
"Are you alright?" Amity watched Luz fumble with a jar lid.
"Uh, yeah, totally fine! I'm a-okay! Just peachy!" Her grin was painfully wide. "How're you doing? Sleep okay?" She regretted those words instantly as Amity's face went completely nuclear, which didn't help Luz's racing heart with just how cute she looked. Friends, friends, they were friends.
"Fine!" Was the high-pitched response before Amity cleared her throat. "Fine. I take it you were able to get back to the Owl House safely?"
Luz nodded slowly, mentally counting backwards from ten to calm down. "Yup! Owlbert is a speedy flyer, I was back before anyone noticed." Opening the jar, she began to measure out the required dosage of manticore venom and they both fell into a hushed silence as she concentrated on the assignment while Amity stood up and walked around the room to check everyone else's progress. Following the ingredients listed, Luz set down the last vial she needed and watched the formula slowly congeal on itself from the reaction of everything she had put in. This part always made her nervous because if she had the formula right, then the next challenge would be to actually imprint her will to bring the abomination to life. And, if she had it wrong, then the class would have another reenactment of Mount Saint Abomi-Luz. Luz had previously tried to watch the writhing goop to see if it would give her a glyph she could use, but one had yet to show.
"What about the one I saw in the Dreamscape?" Luz had drawn it down in her notebook when she got back to the Owl House, but had been too tired to see what it could do. Taking her pad of paper out, Luz bent over the table and traced the odd assortment of intersecting lines while she listened to her abomination formula cook. No explosion yet, that was good. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Amity return to their table and, cautiously, look in the pot.
"Wow,"
Luz looked up quickly. "What? What's wrong?"
"Nothing, actually," Amity gave her a surprised smile. "It looks like you actually have the formula right for this one. Nice job, Luz!"
Forgetting the glyph, Luz dropped her pencil and eagerly looked into the pot, almost bumping heads with Amity. "Really? Oh my gosh, this is so cool! So…" sticking her hand into the cold sludge, she looked expectantly at Amity. "Now what do I do?"
Thoughtfully, Amity looked from Luz to the formula and back. "Well, now we have to figure out a way how you can bring it to life and find a way to control it. Have you found a glyph you could use?" She looked at the one Luz had been working on. "That looks...interesting. Where did you find that one?"
"In the Dreamscape." When I was with you. Luz kept that last part out, but still felt her face flush at the memory and quickly turned away before Amity could see. "I haven't tried it out yet, but maybe it could - "
"Guuuuuugh,"
Luz and Amity looked at each other. "That wasn't me,"
The sound of a bubble popping from the container made them turn to the writhing formula, where a single glowing eye rolled up at them. Luz's jaw hit the ground. Was...was that? Amity grasped her free hand, making her heart shoot to her throat, and a mouth split the formula to form a low groan.
"Luz, you're doing it!"
Words failed Luz as she just gaped at the face of the abomination slowly forming in the pot to stare up at her as if waiting for her command. No flipping way. Cupping her hand in the goop, Luz lifted a large wad of formula to her face, feeling Amity's fingers close around hers.
"Imagine it taking shape," Amity's voice had taken on a mentoring tone as she reached a hand over Luz's arm to hover over the ball of goop. "Picture the form for it to take, but keep your mind clear of everything else. Focus your will into it as if it's body was your own."
A clear mind was the last thing Luz felt she could maintain at the moment, Amity's fingers lacing tightly with hers, but still she tried, closing her eyes and sending every ounce of willpower she had into the clammy sludge. She felt her heart hammering inside her chest and took a deep breath, forcing the beating to slow, and imagined it in her hand. What felt like an eternity later, though it had probably been no more than five minutes, Luz felt a tiny beat against her palm, and she peeked an eye open. There, standing like a toy on her open hand, was a small, lumpy, three-eyed abomination.
"Congratulations, Miss Noceda!" The professor appeared at her side. "You've succeeded in your first abomination!"
"I," She stared at the petite gollum.
"And without the assistance of a magic bile sac or one of your paper glyphs! Keep it up, and you just might pass my class!" Nodding to Amity, the professor's abomination carried him back towards his desk. Luz just stood there, her mouth hanging open as she tried to process through her lagging brain just how in the heck she had managed to succeed in finally creating an abomination. She felt Amity tighten her grip and she turned to see the witch smiling at her, not noticing the abomination's body waver.
"Luz, that's amazing!" She pulled her hand away to lean over the pot to check the contents. "Do you think you could do it again?"
"Um," Luz put her hand down on the table, missing the warmth. "I think, but I don't know how - " A violet light flared up from the table surface and the next thing Luz knew, she was projected straight up to the ceiling, like she had been yanked by a cable. Then, that invisible cable snared her front and pulled her right back down, landing head-first in the vat of abomination sludge.
The professor's abomination rotated on its heels as he took in the sight of Luz's lower half sticking out of the pot, her feet pedaling in the air over the lip, and he sighed. "There goes another starter."
By the time Amity had finally succeeded in pulling Luz from the purple goop and guided her to the girl's locker room to shower off, class had ended and it was time for her to meet with Bump. "I'll go tell him what happened and," Amity looked over Luz's stained clothes. "See if he has another Hexside uniform to spare."
"Thanks Amity," Luz kept her eyes on the tiled floor, mostly because she could barely open them from the excess goo, but also out of pure embarrassment. Once she heard Amity's footsteps disappear from the locker room, Luz ducked into the nearest shower stall, peeling off her sticky uniform and tossing it over the side. Cranking on the hot water, Luz scrubbed at the abomination stuck to her skin, pumping as much soap out of the nearby dispenser as she could and lathering it in her hair. Why did abomination magic have to be so messy? And what the heck happened back there? That wasn't an explosion from her abomination formula, otherwise the classroom would have been full of the stuff. The only things she had on the table had been her list, the ingredients, and…her eyes widened. The glyph from the Dreamscape.
The locker room door opened and Amity's voice echoed through the space. "Luz? Bump didn't have a spare multi-track set, so I had to borrow a single-track uniform, I hope that's okay? Also, he's good if you're late-"
"Amity!" Excitement taking over, Luz shut off the water and shoved open the shower stall door, sending clouds of steam everywhere. "That glyph I showed you in class? I think that's what tossed me up in the air! It must have something to do with force! I'm not really sure how it works yet but," She stopped when she saw Amity standing stock-still, face burning red with her eyes glued to the ceiling, holding an Abomination Track uniform in her arms, and then she looked down. Oops.
Even after she found her towel, dried off in the shower, tugged the spare uniform from Amity's stiff fingers, and dressed, it took a few minutes to get the catatonic witch to move, and that was after Luz had to tow her out of the locker room by her arm. Thankfully, by the time they made it to Principal Bump's office Amity was able to form coherent words again.
"So sorry about that Amity," Luz had released her arm when they left the locker room, but Amity had still elected to escort her to Bump's office. Neither of them could meet the other's eyes without both their faces turning into tomatoes, so Luz stared down the hall until the door to Bump's door came into view. Giving the magneta sleeve of her temporary uniform a tug, Luz pulled open the door and shot a quick look at the green-haired witch. "Thanks again for the uniform and for walking with me to the office. I'm sorry I kept you from class."
Amity cleared her throat in an attempt to find her voice. "Um, that's okay Luz, it's my study period, so you're not keeping me from anything." Tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, Amity took a step like she was about to leave, then turned back to Luz. "Luz, about last night, I-"
"There you are!"
The girls looked up as Bump walked through the door, staring at Luz. "Ah, I'm glad to see you were able to make yourself presentable for our guest. He has given me every assurance the Emperor's Coven will not have your name in the list of students he will be speaking with." Bump then nodded to Amity. "Thank you, Miss Blight, you may wait here in the office for the remainder of your study period, if you wish?"
"Oh, thank you Principal Bump," she spared a glance at Luz and shook her head. "But I don't want to get in the way. I'll see you later, Luz." With that, the witch about-faced and retreated down the hall to wherever her chosen study spot would be.
Luz had to bite back a sigh as she watched Amity leave, but Bump's hand on her shoulder broke her thoughts and she followed him into the office, worried just what the Coven would want with her prophecy. At least she had found the time to stick her journal into her locker between classes. No one would be able to read it there.
Since we have yet to see much of Abominations, other than episode 3, I took a couple creative liberties with how I imagined Luz in the class, of course with Amity. Plenty of things happened in this chapter, but I promise they will all come together!
Hope you all didn't mind my sneaking in my witchsona into the chapter...I can't draw her, but I can write her! I'll leave it at that.
See you all in the next chapter!