Ed and Amity waited for Luz to meet them at the market before heading to the zoo.
"Ed," Amity said. "Please, just this once, don't embarrass me in front of Luz, OK? Please?"
Ed smirked. Didn't she realize that saying that only made him want to embarrass her more? He opened his mouth to say so, but then he noticed the painfully earnest look on her face.
"OK," he said. "Just this once." He ruffled her hair.
"Hey!" she said as she tried to fix her hair.
"What? You said, 'in front of Luz.' She isn't here yet."
"Amity!" It was Luz, as if on cue.
Amity looked away. "Oh, hi Luz."
"Thanks for taking me to the zoo!"
"Sure, any time," Ed said. "Ready to go, Mit– uh, Amity?"
He looked at Amity and saw that she was still looking away. Wow, just a couple days ago, before Grom, Amity had been acting completely normal around Luz.
"Well, let's get going," Ed said.
As they made their way to the zoo, Luz chattered on cheerfully, but Amity was completely silent. It looked to Ed like she wasn't even walking normally. She was kind of stiff, and she seemed like she didn't quite know what to do with her arms.
"So we did the whole Luz and King Comedy Hour, and then we found out Eda had cast a spell to make her deaf for the whole thing! Can you believe that?"
Amity just laughed nervously. Ed figured he'd better do something to try to bring his sister into the conversation. But he didn't really know much about her. What would she feel most comfortable talking about?
"Hey, Luz," he said. "How's everything going at school?"
"Pretty good," she said. "I've been making progress, but the one type of magic I haven't been able to crack is abomination magic."
"Oh?" Amity said. "Well, you know, maybe I could help you with that. I mean, as top student, it's my duty. Maybe I could... come by the Owl House sometime and help out."
"Oh, thanks, Amity, but I don't know if you want to do that. The way I learn magic is so unpredictable. I mean, we might need to spend hours and hours together waiting for some symbol to reveal itself. I can't ask you to do that."
Amity blushed and looked away. "Well, if I'm going to be working on abominations anyway…"
Ed had to suppress a laugh.
Once they reached the zoo, the conversation turned to all the creatures on display. Ed found it funny how Luz was so amazed by some of the creatures that Boiling Isles natives took for granted. After all, what was so weird about a Chupacabra? Luz had told them about something called a platypus that sounded way weirder than that. Ed also noticed that Amity really wanted to linger by the otter exhibit. He wondered why.
"Hey, look!" Luz said. "Up next is the roc exhibit! I've heard of those!"
Ed shuddered. He still had bad memories from his last run-in with a roc. But at least this one would be safely behind a glass barrier.
The three went over to the exhibit and saw an absolutely mammoth bird looking away from them.
"Wow! It's ginormous!" Luz said.
"Yeah," Amity said. "This must be pretty new. I've never seen one before."
Ed's attention wasn't on the roc but rather a distinctively shaped emerald in its enclosure.
"Huh, I remember it being bigger."
"What?" Amity asked.
"Nothing, I just happen to… know that roc."
"You know it?" Amity asked. "How?"
"It's from when you were really little. I... may have tried to steal that emerald."
"Whoa!" Luz said. "You've got to tell us about that!"
"Maybe later," Amity said. "Ed, we'd better get out of here."
"Relax! I'm sure it doesn't remember me after all these years.'
At that moment, the roc turned around, and as soon as it laid eyes on Ed, it let out an ear-piercing shriek and flew over to the barrier, clawing at it.
"Ed, let's get out of here," Amity said.
"Relax! These zookeepers know what they're doing. That barrier is unbreakable!"
At that moment, the roc banged its beak on the glass, and it cracked. The other visitors started fleeing.
"You know, maybe we should get out of here," Ed said, and the three of them started running.