Wow! Another chapter out sooner? Hope I get a lot of views of this. Thanks for the over 200 reviews and close to the number in favorites, as this story may as well be a hit. Love season 2 already and I've got tons of plans for this fic after many ideas offered, suggested and considering. Once again thanks to BuckJohnson for being a beta-reader for this fic.
Owl House belongs to Dana Terrace and Disney. Enjoy the fic
Chapter 12: Heart to Heart
Keep on running, that was her mantra. She kept on running alongside the shore of the Boiling Seas. It had been a few days since the sleepover and Luz decided to go for a morning run to blow off some steam. It was good exercise for her, she had asked her mom and King if they would like to join but they declined. It was still really cathartic for her to do this as she took some time to think about what happened back at the Moonlight Conjuring and about what happened the following day after she and her mom dropped off Amity and headed back home.
Flashback
In the woods, Eda helped Luz get in a meditation stance. She then joined her and they meditated together. It was something that Eda made Luz do in order to channel any negative energy she may still have left from her… episode last night.
"How are you feeling now?" Eda asked.
Luz gave a deep sigh, her eyes closed. "Crummy," she answered.
"Does it have anything to do with what happened with those demon hunters last night?" Eda asked, suspecting that this would eat up her daughter.
Luz looked down in silence until she sighed in admission. "Me and Willow had an argument. We argued over how I can take things too far with my pranks and payback. Like the slingshot we made. I was gonna show it off by using it to target Boscha."
"The bard girl with the macabre fetish, or the three eyed potions track girl?" Eda asked.
"Three-eyes," Luz answered. "But Willow stopped me from using the slingshot at her, saying that it isn't right. Like, even though Boscha gives her a bad time and I've stood up for her, she ranted that I've taken things too far. Am I not allowed to stick up for my friends? I want to make sure that no one bothers, harasses, and picks on my friends… okay, I may have gone too far with the pepper spray on Boscha, or with egging the demon hunters…"
"Or the Abomination Track's ghost infestation?"
Luz looked up to Eda with a surprised look. Eda raised her eyebrow "Why do you look surprised? I was just like you when I was your age, okay maybe I was a little worse. But you're up to exactly the same type of stuff as me during my time at Hexside, you've honestly taken after me a bit too well." She sighed while looking at Luz, eye to eye. "I think it's best if you tell Amity the truth."
Luz was shocked. "W-What? Why should I tell her now? After this long, she's really going to get mad at me!" She was running her hands through her hair, looking not only guilty but panicked as well.
"So you are worried about what she thinks of you now?" Eda asked Luz, giving her a look.
"W-What? No! I-I mean, who cares what she thinks. I mean, it's not like I'm scared of how she'll react if she figures out." Luz turned away.
"Well from the look you have, you're still feeling guilty about what happened back to the Abominations Track," Eda pointed out. "So I believe that it would help get the weight off your chest if you were to tell her." They both stood up. "Besides, she's going through some hard stuff as well."
"How would you know that?" Luz questioned.
"Not my place to say," Eda stated, walking back to the house with Luz following her. "Just tell her what you did. The Abomination Track's now a breeding ground for those ghosts. It's like a hippy commute, and I should know, we almost lived in one!"
Luz remembered the advice her mom gave to her. She really got into thinking if she should tell Amity about the Abomination Track incident… she had thought of many ways of how Amity could react.
"You did what? You are so dead!" The imaginary Amity summoned her Abomination, smashing Luz with its huge purple fist.
Luz shook her head, trying to imagine a different reaction.
"I'm sorry, Luz, but I can't be friends with someone who sabotaged my future career." Amity had Luz tied to a rocket and she pressed a button, causing the rocket to launch as Luz screamed.
Luz realized that was too far-fetched. Witches here wouldn't know what a rocket is, so Luz thought of another reaction.
"Oh Luz, I'm glad that you told me the truth about the Abomination Track incident," Amity told her sweetly, sounding calm. But for some reason eerie music played as Amity held up a knife "But the only way for you to make up for it, is with your LIFE!"
"GAAAH! Why does it always end with me dying!?" Luz cried out in irritation, pulling at her hair out of stress. "How am I going to tell Amity about this?" she asked herself. She fell onto her knees, her hands pressed onto her face.
Afterward, Luz walked back home from the beach. While making her approach, she saw a raven haired large headed woman with bat wings and talons by the door, dropping a basket. Curious, she hid herself behind a tree while the creature flew away. Luz quickly recognized the woman.
'The Bat Queen?' Luz thought as she ran toward the Owl House to find a basket at their doorstep. It looked like a gift basket, but it came with a note that Luz picked up and began to read.
Eda was drinking her apple blood when Luz came inside with the basket. "Mom, the Bat Queen was at our doorstep!" she announced.
"The Bat Queen?" Eda asked. "What was she doing here?"
"She wants us to take care of… this bundle of joy." Luz showed Eda and King the inside of the basket, revealing a sleeping blue haired bat. "She'll be back for Yi Yi in the morning."
"Yi Yi?" King scoffed. "Great, we can't eat it if it's already named."
"Oh this is perfect!" Eda exclaimed. "Doing a favor for the richest demon of the Boiling Isles, we'll be set for life!"
"Enough to make up for the underground gambling parlor we owned before the Coven guards busted us with a sting operation," Luz mentioned, remembering the gambling parlor they used to run.
"Well taking care of you was hard enough so taking care of the Bat Queen's kid should be a breeze," Eda stated. "Oh, and I need you to return these books to the library. Then come back and you can help me take care of this rugrat, got it?" She summoned several books for Luz to grab.
"These are all of our overdues," Luz pointed out, holding the pile.
"Well if you wish to stick around and take care of Yi Yi now…" Eda offered, but Luz was already out of the door. "Just be back to help us!"
"I will!" Luz replied as she went on her way to turn in the books.
"These books are overdue, Clawthorne," spoke the librarian.
"I know, can they still be turned in?" Luz asked, annoyed by his tone.
"I'll add to your charges," the librarian answered as he summoned a long list, writing down the charges under the Clawthorne name while the books were turned in. "By the way, the library will be closed early for the Wailing Star meteor shower tonight."
"Ah, that. Forgot that it was occurring tonight." It was then that Luz noticed someone struggling to get his books to the counter and dropping them. She recognized the Hexside student, one of the customers that she had sold items to at school. Levi Thians from the bard track, a green scaled fish boy witch with a cast on his arm.
Feeling bad for him, she walked over to help him pick up his books "Here, need help?"
"L-Luz Clawthorne?!" Levi asked in shock, nervous around the human as she handed him the book he dropped. "Man, I'm surprised that you're here."
"Yeah, well, I had to turn in some late books for my mom," she replied, then indicated the cast on his arm. "I see you've been released."
"Yeah, the witches from the Healing Coven said that my arm should be good in two weeks," Levi explained while Luz placed his books on the counter. "Thanks for helping me out."
"Hey, it's no big," Luz replied, looking at his cast. "I'm sorry about what happened to you, Levi. You didn't deserve that."
"T-Thanks," he said. "At least you stepped in. Not many help out a guy like me much, they only pity and watch while I struggle. Not even Blight was much of a help."
This got Luz's interest. "You mean Amity's here?"
"Yeah, I saw her in the children's section. She volunteers here regularly. I offered to let her sign my cast, but I guess she was busy or in a rush because she didn't want to talk to me."
"Really?" Luz asked. "I figured that she would at least ask how you're feeling."
"Yeah, but she did sign her name on the get-well card while I was at the general," Levi brought up. "It's tough being on this cast, on account that my dad's part of the fishing business. It's been hard to find someone to help with his boat… as an entertainer since I usually play the accordion to keep the fishermen's spirits at bay."
Luz nodded, thinking about Levi's situation as she replied. "Hey, maybe I can help you and your dad out sometime."
"Really?" Levi asked. "Wow, that's surprisingly generous of you."
"I can be generous," Luz said defensively.
"Yeah well, I'll mention your offer to my dad," Levi said as Luz grabbed a pen to sign his cast.
"There, hope you get better." He waved at her and she waved back as she headed to the children's section of the library.
Once she made it there, she heard Amity's voice and noticed the Blight girl reading to the children from a book that Luz recognized. It was a copy of Otabin the Bookmaker.
"'We're your friends, we want to help' said the Tin Boy with a yelp," Amity read the book while showing the illustrations to the group of kids. "'Otabin smiled and paced the floor, 'I've never had real friends before.'"
Luz walked over and as Amity read she noticed that among the kids she was reading to, Luz suddenly appeared up sitting alongside them. Amity tried to remain indifferent with a hunt of embarrassment while Luz motioned for her to keep going.
"'Then we'll be your first.' the chicken witch clucked, Bookmaker Otabin couldn't believe his luck." Amity continued. "So Bookmaker Otabin, surrounded by friends, bound a book of friendship, and that's the end." Amity closed the book and the children cheered. Luz clapped her hands along with them, making Amity try to cover her face with the book to avoid her gaze. She felt a hug from one of the kids, Braxis.
"Thank you, Ms. Amity," Braxis said to her in his usual deep monster voice.
"You're welcome, Braxis," Amity replied, patting the young monster boy's head before he left with the other children. The Blight girl turned to Luz, who was standing up.
"Guess Little Miss Perfect likes to read to children," Luz commented with her hands in her pockets.
"I-I wasn't expecting to see you today…" Amity said while looking at the book. "Isn't the library above the bad girl life?"
"What? Like I can't be in a library? I thought this was a free island. Besides, someone mentioned that you read to kids here."
"It's for extra credit," Amity clarified, putting the book down on a small table.
"It was Levi that told me," Luz clarified as well, making Amity freeze up. "He said that you didn't even want to talk to him. The least you can do is show him some sympathy-"
"Did you do your work like I asked?" Amity interjected, wanting to change the subject.
Luz was surprised by Amity's sudden response, as if she was purposely avoiding the topic of Levi. "Y-yeah, I did it back home but Amity-"
"Then that's what you should care about," Amity told her strictly. Luz was a little put off by Amity's sudden switch towards her and she wanted to say something, but was interrupted again by a familiar sing-sang voice.
"That's not a way to treat your friends, Mittens," said Edric Blight and Luz turned around to see him along with his twin sister Emira Blight.
"Yeah, especially with this bad girl." Emira swung her arm around Luz and tapped her on to her chin. Luz stepped away from her, feeling that she was getting too close and personal.
"What are you two doing here?" Amity questioned and her brother held up a pink lunch bag with rabbit ears.
"Mom wanted us to bring your lunch," Edric said as Amity swiped it away from him. "To make sure you don't come back starving and all that."
"And to make sure that you treat your friends with some respect," Emira added while patting Luz's hair, feeling it all tangled. "Oh, when was the last time you had your hair done?" She found a caterpillar crawling on her fingers and wiped it off on her brother.
"Aw, sick!" Edric yelped.
"Look you two, don't bother me when I'm working here!" Amity said while pointing at them. "The last thing I need is for you to mess with me, when are you two going to grow up!" She seethed her teeth at them, then gave a tired sigh as she turned her back at them.
"A little harsh, Ams?" Luz asked her. Amity closed her eyes, not wanting to take her frustration out on Luz.
"I'll see you at our next tutoring session, Luz. I'm just…" She sighed. "I-I just can't waste my time with you right now."
Luz, feeling a bit hurt from Amity's reply, lowered her head. But she didn't yell at her or anything. "Alright, see you around," she replied simply, walking out with her hands still in her pockets.
"So you're gonna let her talk to you like that?" Emira asked as she and her brother followed Luz.
Luz turned to them, startled. "Are you two following me or something?" she asked.
"Oh no, it's just that what's a cool bad girl doing around in this nerd factory?" Edric asked with his usual smirk.
"Just turning in some overdue graphic novels and some of the books my mom kept. I'm pretty sure we owe this place a lot of debt."
"Well if you want, we can go have some fun around here," Emira said with her own smirk as she stepped in front of Luz.
"Like pranks!" Edric suggested and the twins grabbed both of Luz's hands.
However, Luz pulled away from them and stepped back, much to their confusion. "Look, I like pranks and creating chaos as much as the next witch, but I'm not in the mood for them. Plus I did promise to help out my mom…"
"Oh yeah, helping out the owl lady with what, a jewelry heist?" Edric asked.
"Or a plan to swindle cart parts for a chop shop!" Emira chimed.
"Actually, taking care of a demon baby," Luz said as she walked past them. "See you at school, or whatever."
"Hey wait!" Emira called out to Luz. "Me and Ed are going to be seeing the Wailing Star shower tonight. You're welcome to join us, we'll be waiting for you outside the library."
"Really?" Luz asked. It was rare for her to be invited to something, especially with the older teens. "I don't know, I got this thing at home-"
"Oh don't worry, it won't take long" Edric assured.
"Besides, if you wish we'd like to… hire you for your service," Emira mentioned, making Luz curious.
"Hire me?" Luz asked. "What do you want to hire me for?"
"Oh we just want your help in looking for something here in this library," Emira explained. "If you help us, you'll get some good pay."
"Yeah, and it can be our little secret mission!" Edric added.
"Look guys, I'm not sure…" Luz saw the two gives her puppy dog eyes.
"Oh come on, Luz, please help join us," Emira pouted.
"We just want to hang out with the coolest human we know!" Edric pouted as well.
"Okay, okay, stop with those puppy faces!" Luz told them off, pressing her hands against their faces. "If I help you two, would you really pay me and not pester me that much?" They nodded and Luz sighed. "Well okay, I'll help you with whatever."
"Great! Just meet us outside the library at night after it closes!" Emira said. She and her brother grinned before they headed toward the exit of the library. "See you then!"
"And don't worry about Mittens, it will just be the three of us!" Edric winked at Luz as he followed his twin sister.
Luz blushed but averted her eyes to the floor. 'What have I gotten myself into?' she thought while rubbing the back of her head. 'Maybe it won't be so bad. I can help mom and King with the baby bat and once they're asleep, I can go check back here.'
She didn't know it, but a certain witch with dark skin, brown wavy hair and squared glasses had overhead them.
Luz ignored Hooty as she entered the Owl House, where Eda and King were taking care of Yi Yi. Luz was met by Eda cradling the young bat baby.
"Aw, looks like you're doing a good job as it is," Luz commented.
"Eh he wouldn't stop crying so I had to do what I had to do with you when you were this size," Eda replied while rocking Yi Yi to sleep.
"Oh yeah, Luz, you got a globe call from this one girl from Hexside asking to speak to you, " King said while having pillows tied to his head.
'Globe call… Willow!?' Luz thought hopefully. She rushed to her room and went to her globe. She tapped on it and saw a missed message as she called back. The globe buzzed as it rang, but despite Luz's hope that it was Willow, instead it was Viney's name that appeared on the pending call line.
"Oh," Luz simply said, sounding disappointed. She saw Viney pop up the viewing globe, looking tired and a little manic. "What's up, Vin-"
"Luz, we have to tell Amity and Bump the truth about the Abomination Track incident!" Viney told her in a panic, shivering in a manic manner.
"W-Wait, what? Viney, calm down!" Luz tried to calm her detention friend down. "Why are you so panicky right now?"
"I don't know, maybe I haven't slept for a while and anytime I do I can't help but think about what Willow said back at the Moonlight Conjuring," she stated, trying to ease up her mind.
"Okay, if you just breathe in and out, you're gonna get an anxiety attack…" Luz calmly told her.
"I'm already agitated!" Viney interrupted. "Willow told me that we need to fess up and now I can't deal with the guilt."
"Okay, okay, you're right," Luz assured her, calming Viney down who was breathing in and out. "Now, take a deep breath, and cuddle with Puddles. We'll tell Amity and Bump once we're back at Hexside, okay?"
"Right, got it," Viney said with a sigh of relief. "Thanks Luz, it will be nice sleeping with a clear conscience again." She then hung up.
"So you're really gonna tell Amity, eh?" King spoke up which startled Luz.
"How long have you been listening?" Luz asked him.
"Well I needed to take some time off from helping Eda with Yi Yi. I mean, dealing with you was easy enough, but taking care of a bat kid is way harder, you know? So you're finally going to tell the Bright girl about the incident I keep hearing about?"
"Does everyone in this house know about the Abomination Track incident?" Luz asked.
"Do you want us to answer?" said the many object demons around Luz's room.
"Why do I keep forgetting that the walls here literally have ears and eyes?" Luz muttered to herself. "But anyway, I'll tell Amity… soon."
"Look Luz, they say the truth will set you free or whatever, and from the looks of things you look like you're avoiding the subject a lot," King said as he opened the mini-fridge and took a can of demon cola.
"I said I'll tell her… just, at the right moment."
"You hear that?" King asked. "That is the sound of a coward."
"Hey!" Luz protested. "I am not a coward! A Clawthorne never backs down on anything they put their mind to!"
"Except if it costs a friendship, just like what caused the fallout between your best friend Willow," the mini-fridge spoke.
"See, I couldn't have said it better myself," King agreed.
"Okay, maybe the talking mini-fridge does have a point." Luz pinched the bridge of her nose before she and King heard noises coming from downstairs.
"Luz! King! Yi Yi's spawned out more of him!" Eda cried out as she appeared in the doorway to Luz's room.
"Don't let them in-!" Luz warned but it was too late as Yi Yi and his new siblings flew into the room, creating chaos and causing everyone to scream when one of them burped out fire "AAAHHH!"
Luz knew that what she was doing was dangerous because of the recent muggings. But she had made a deal with the Blight twins, so as soon as she, Eda and King were able to calm the bat babies down for the night, tuckering out Eda and King in the process, Luz successfully snuck out.
She made it to the entrance of Bonesborough Library, where she waited for the Blight twins to show up.
"Where are they?" Luz asked herself, pacing until she bumped into Edric. "Gah!"
"Whoa, whoa, it's us, Luz," Edric assured as he stood next to Emira.
Luz adjusted herself properly, "Well, you two kept me waiting for too long. Can we just hurry this up so that I can get home quicker than a jackalope?"
"Hey, relax, just help us find what we're looking for and you'll be home with payment." Emira summoned a big bag of cash. "This is just half of our allowances."
"Just how much money do you Blights carry around?" Luz questioned as Edric and Emira held up a large unlock page over the keyhole of the door.
"Enough," Emira answered as the page glowed and crumbled, causing the keyhole to expand and allow the three to walk through into the dark, dimly-lit lobby.
"Okay, so where do we start?" Luz asked while looking around the dark room.
"Hey look, the Wailing Star!" Edric pointed and they looked up to see the crying star pass above the library's skylight.
Luz, Edric and Emira waited, but felt nothing. Luz turned to the twins. "So… is something supposed to happen? Are we going crazy or is it like the blood moon harvest?"
"We're expecting something to happen…" Emira said, confused.
"Guess it was for nothing?" Edric shrugged, but Luz saw that the books on the shelves were glowing.
"I don't think so," Luz said, curious. She walked over to a shelf, grabbing a book and opening it. It shot out tons of birds from the book, which surprised the human as well as the twin Blights.
"The Wailing Star makes the books come to life!" the twins concluded in amazement, seeing all the birds flying around.
Luz closed the book, which caused the birds to disappear. "Okay, that's whimsy, but cool." She saw the twins run off and she followed. "Hey, where are you guys going?"
"Come on, let's check out what else happens when we open these books!" Emira called out.
"Hey, wait up!" Luz said as she tried to catch up.
She saw them opening up a magazine that gave them different clothing. It looked to be the Isle's version of Victorian-inspired fashion modeled after birds. "Come on, open one!" Emira encouraged.
Luz picked up one magazine and when she opened it she was put into some heavy armor gear with a large sword on her back. Due to the weight of the armor, Luz fell back and dropped the magazine.
After closing the magazine and causing the armor to disappear, Luz chose to open a manga. "Nothing happened," she said, disappointed. But then she realized that a word balloon had popped up with what she had just said.
"Whooooaaa," the twins commented, a word balloon appearing for them as well.
Luz then spotted a comic, specifically a trade paperback. She picked it up and on the cover was a black and purple masked man holding up swords, covered in pouches containing potions. "Oh hey, Spellpool. King used to bring me these comics as a kid since I wasn't old enough to buy them." She opened it and the masked Spellpool's head popped up.
"Hey! Where am I? Is this the real world?! Why is it so blank and full of texts and things I say!?" Spellpool cried out as he looked at you, the reader. "Help! I'm trapped in a parody! My name's no-"
Luz closed the book before he could finish.
"Oh cool, they even got Captain Coven here," Edric opened up a comic and out popped a tall, broad shouldered coven guard with an angular crow-like mask. He struck a heroic pose.
"By the Titan's Will and the good of all that is magic, I, Captain Coven, will fight those that threaten our way of life!" the captain declared, holding a sword in one hand and a staff in the other.
Luz rolled her eyes at the character. "Of course you'd be into something that's for babies."
"Hey, Captain Coven isn't for babies!" Edric defended. "Captain Coven's for the general audience."
"I will fight all wild witches that threaten the coven system!" Captain Coven declared and Luz just sighed in a deadpan manner.
"And made as propaganda," she points out.
"Oh please, no one can compare to Sabine the Teenage Hex Girl," Emira argued as she opened another comic. A gothic, teenage girl in a crimson long dress with black boots, long arm gloves, a guitar and long black swampy hair appeared.
"What are you looking at, punk?" Sabine asked Captain Coven.
"Surrender, you fowl wild witch!" Captain Coven declared, causing the two characters to fight each other. This caused a commotion that Luz found herself in the middle of.
Luz dodged Sabine's spell attacks while Captain Coven threw spell potions at her. She ran to hide behind the children's section. "Just close the books!" Luz cried out to the twins. She then noticed on the small table in the section was the Otabin book. She smiled at the book, walking over to open it and bring Otabin to life. "Hey, old friend," she whispered, petting the pink rabbit who appeared.
Flashback
"Otabin the Bookmaker, by some author with many legs. Oh wait, the author's name is Manylegs." Eda said as she opens the book, holding Luz close to her as King sits at the end of the bed. "'Otabin spend his days alone, amongst the many books he's sewn.'" she took notice Luz looking at the book with interest.
"Is that how books are made?" Luz asks, her mind setting off from what made her upset.
"Well, in a way, it may be." Eda answered, continues to read "'With every needle and thread…'"
"'...the pages he mend.'" Luz reads while looking at Otabin "'But all the while he longed for a friend.'"
"Friend?" Otabin asked as Luz petted his little head.
"Yeah, little bud," Luz commented, smiling at the pink rabbit warmly.
"Hey Luz!" Luz heard the twins, so she closed the book and turned around to face them while keeping the book hidden behind her back. "After we ended our superhero fight, we discovered this," Emira said while opening a children's book about a duck.
"Wack, wack!" the small yellow duck quacked once he appeared.
"Yeah, it's a duck from a children's book, what else is new?" Luz asked.
"Check what we can do." Edric held up a pen and drew on the original illustration of the duck, adding man legs. This caused the duck to grow human, muscular man legs as well and he quacked in panic.
"QUACK! WACK! WAAACK!" the duck cried out in horror.
Luz looked sick as Edric and Emira laughed and closed the book. "Okay, drawing on books causes… that."
"Now's your turn, Luz!" Emira said after noticing the book behind Luz.
"I-I don't know, it just seems-"
"Come on, how about with the book you have there?" Edric handed her a pen while trying to take the book from her. But Luz pushed the pen away from her and held the book closely.
"NO!" Luz shouted and the twins stepped back. Luz looked at them and then the Otabin book, sighing. "I mean, drawing on books? That kind of stuff is so 90s. I think I should go home now." Luz placed the book down on the table.
"Hold on, Luz." Emira halts her. "There's still one more thing we haven't checked out yet." Emira pulled Luz out of the children's section and Edric was going to follow, but then he noticed the Otabin book with a smirk. Soon Luz was pulled into the library's romance section just as Edric caught up to them.
"Romance… didn't think you two would be into that," Luz commented while looking at the section's selection. She felt Emira's hand touch under her chin so that she was looking her in the eyes.
"Would you like to find out?" Emira asked with a smirk. Luz blushed, wondering if Emira was flirting with her…
"Come on, sis, stop teasing her," Edric told her as he tapped his hand on a book. Edric grabbed the book which turned out to be a lever for a secret hideout as the shelf opened up. Luz and the twins saw the inside of the hideout. The ceiling had model stars and moons hanging from string, there were two book-covered shelves on each wall, and a desk with a candle and some books on it, as well as a chair in front.
"Whoa… cool hideout," Luz said as they stepped inside. "But for a clubhouse you two have, I expected something less nerdy."
"Oh, we don't hang out in the library," Edric said before making a goofy mocking voice. "'Uh, teacher, I'm in love with a dictionary!'"
"'I need to study for the dork-arts!'" Elm replied in a mocking voice as well, before switching back to her normal voice. "See, this is actually Amity's hideout."
Luz's eyes widened. "Wait, what!? What… why are we here?!"
"See Luz, Amity's been starting to get too full of herself," Edric explained. "Always rats on us for skipping classes, showing off her good grades to everyone, making us C-students look bad…"
"So we're here to teach 'Haunted Amity' that she shouldn't mess with other people by finding her diary," Emira revealed, shocking the human Clawthorne.
"And we're going to post the pages all over the school for everyone to see!" Edric finished.
"But… you can't just do that!" Luz told them, stepping away from the two. "Don't you think that's going a bit… too far?" She looked down, thinking about how her own actions could go too far. She felt Em's hand on her shoulder.
"No, Luz, it's different cause we're her family, and this is considered tough love," Em clarified, but Luz glared at her and smacked the hand away.
"Don't touch me!" Luz shouted, shocking Ed and Elm as she glared at the two. "You know, I thought you guys were cool until now, but you shouldn't be crossing the line like that! Especially to your own family!"
"Whoa, calm down, Luz. No need to be angry about it." The two started to search for their little sister's diary.
"Yeah, Mittens needs to learn-HEY!" Emira felt her ponytail getting pulled by Luz, knocking her on the floor. Ed stopped his search when he saw what Luz was doing to his sister.
"I don't think Amity wants you two, or me here," Luz told them coldly.
"Luz, what the heck?" Ed asked, confronting Luz. "You can't just grab other people's hair and-" As he raised his hand toward her, Luz grabbed it in a tight squeeze "OW!" he screamed, trying to get Luz to let go. But she made him kneel. "Owowowow, let go, let go, let go, you're breaking my hand!"
"This is what happens when you skip gym class," Luz muttered. She felt herself being grabbed by Emira, who wrapped her arms under Luz's and pulled her away from Edric.
"Let go of my brother!" Emira shouted as Luz stepped back to shove Emira into a bookshelf to get her off of her, knocking some books down. "Come on, Luz. You know what she's like, thinking she's better than everyone else! Putting us to shame! You've seen how she treats others, including poor Levi! Including you!"
"That still doesn't make it right!" Luz shouted while struggling with Emira. "I will not be a part of this heartless prank just to hurt her!"
"Funny, you didn't mind pepper-spraying Boscha's eye that time!" Emira pointed out, making Luz stop struggling. "Look Luz, I'm not saying that you're just as bad, but you take things just as too far. You're just no different." As she felt Luz relaxing, Emira let her go.
"And you're kinda crazy, no offense," Edric added while rubbing his hand before offering it to Luz. "But we have an understanding now, right?"
"...You're right," Luz said, grabbing Ed's hand… then pulling toward her as she headbutted him in the nose, causing him to be knocked back onto the floor with a bloody nose. "I am crazy. And you shouldn't be messing around with crazy."
"ED!" Emira shouted as she grabbed Luz's shoulders. "What's your problem, Lu-!?"
*SMACK*
Luz gave Emira a hard slap, leaving her with a red hand print on her cheek and knocking Emira into the shelf where the Azura books were. One of the books fell off the shelf, spilling out the pages. A miniature Amity rose from each of the pages.
"There was this human. Saw her with Willow… I don't know why-"
"Ed and Em keeps getting away with things and I have to clean up after them-"
"Crap!" Luz saw the pages of little Amitys, now realizing that it was her diary. She went to grab the pages and put them back in the book while Edric and Emira slowly got up. While collecting the pages, Luz heard excerpts from them.
"I called my teacher mom again-"
"There was a plant incident with Skara and Amelia-"
"I had to cancel my plans for the Moonlight Conjuring-"
"Lilith was disappointed in me at the convention, but she said I could make it up to her if-"
"Sorry that I didn't write- wait, why am I apologizi-"
"They keep calling me 'Haunted Amity' and I hate it-"
"I don't get why the human gives everyone a hard time-"
After grabbing the last page, Luz immediately closed the book. The twins tried to take the diary from Luz, but she growled at them.
"Get out, right NOW!" she told both the twins as she snarled at them, giving them death glares. The two had never seen her this wrathful before.
"L-Luz, we-" Emira tried to talk, but Luz cut her off.
"GET OUT OF MY SIGHT!" Luz shouted at them. "Take your money and leave me alone. You two are worse than Amity, at least she isn't some heartless jackass like you two!" The Blight twins backed away and made their retreat, thinking it was a good idea to just leave Luz alone.
Luz placed the diary on the desk before falling to her knees on the floor. She covered her mouth as she began to pant rapidly. She didn't know why she was like this, this was just like… years ago at the slayground. 'They can't see me like this… nobody should,' she thought as she started having an anxiety attack. Everything felt tight for some reason, including her chest. She couldn't breathe, why couldn't she breathe!? She closed her eyes…
"Luz! Luz!"
Luz opened her eyes and saw the golden eyes of Amity, who had placed her hands on Luz's shoulders "Luz, breathe slowly! Look around the room and tell me what you see."
"I… see a desk… the star roof…"
"Okay, tell me more."
"I see a candle… the carpet floor… books… the entrance that leads out to the library…" Luz finally calmed down. The room didn't look smaller to her anymore.
"Are you good?" Amity asked.
"Y-yeah, I'm good…" Luz replied, breathing normally. "H-how do you know how to do that?"
Amity helped Luz up. "Believe it or not, Willow taught me that. Her dads taught her a trick in handling an anxiety attack when being nervous around certain situations. I followed you and my siblings here after Cat told me that she saw you with them. I overheard what you said and heard the fight…" Luz looked down, but the Blight girl continued. "I just want to say, thanks for sticking up for me… even if I don't deserve it." A surprised Luz felt her chest tighten less. "I'll admit, I'm not the nicest girl around. I just… can't show weakness in front of others. That's something we both have in common at least, I can't let them see that they're getting to me."
Luz looked down again, guilt rising up her throat. "I… don't think you should be tutoring me anymore," she said, sounding upset with herself.
"Hey, if it's about what happened here, I forgive you for that," Amity told her. But Luz looked at Amity, ready to tell the truth.
"No, no you shouldn't." Luz gripped her fingers together, feeling ashamed. "What happened at the Abomination Track with the ghosts… it was me." Amity's eyes widened. "I know a… pocket dimension that can let me go to any place throughout the school." Tears fell from Luz's eyes. "I was so worried for Willow, especially since she was going to get picked on if she failed." Her voice cracked a little when she said this. "So I threw a ghost ball into your cauldron… it was a stupid joke and could've been in anyone's pot but I threw it in yours! And I didn't care how it would affect you... so that's why you shouldn't have to tutor me anymore. I'm so-"
"With claws and fangs to break bones…" came a voice.
Luz's eyes widened and she turned to see a large, bulkier version of Otabin from the children's book. He looked monstrous with the book attached to his chest like a beating heart, open to a page with a drawing of Otabin besmirched.
"...I have found a friend to make my own!"
"Otabin…" Luz whispered in shock.
"RUN!" Amity cried out as the two girls tried to run past the now monstrous rabbit. Otabin went to reach for Amity, but Luz pushed her away and was grabbed instead.
"LUZ!" Amity cried out, watching as Otabin held up Luz.
"Otabin, stop!" Luz shouted. "This isn't you!" She noticed the besmirched drawing on the book in his chest. "Dammit, Edric did this to you, did he?!" She bit Otabin's finger, causing him to wince and let her go. "I'm sorry, Otabin, I don't want to fight you!"
"Abomination, rise!" Amity summoned her abomination and it charged at Otabin, restraining him. Luz looked toward Amity and saw the girl holding her diary, which allowed her to dress up as her own design based off of the Great Witch Azura, including a black dress and witch's hat and staff.
"Okay, is this really the right time for cosplay?!" Luz asked as she pulled out her glyph cards.
"Less talking and more restraining Otabin!" Amity told her as she waved her staff while writing in the diary. "By the power of my staff, I restrain Otabin in chains!" Her staff summoned chains to wrap around Otabin, pulling him away from Luz.
Luz held up her glyph card and slapped it onto the ground, creating large lines to wrap around Otabin. But the children's book character brought to life managed to break both bonds with his claws and the recoil knocked both girls down. Amity dropped her diary and it closed, poofing her staff and costume away.
The abomination continued to try and restrain Otabin, but it was slowly losing. Amity ran up to use her purple fire spell to draw a circle, but Luz stopped her.
"Luz, what are you doing?" Amity asked while Luz brought her away from Otabin.
"We can't fight him… his book is attached to his heart!" Luz pointed at Otabin's beating book on his chest. "We need to get close to him enough to wipe that drawing off of him! This wasn't supposed to happen, especially to Otabin."
"You really care that much for him, do you?" Amity asked her, Luz blushing as she quickly looked around.
"I-I mean, my mom read it to me as a kid… the first time being after the slayground incident…" Luz revealed. "I even made Otabin my imaginary friend at one point, before I met Gus and Willow. Otabin may be a fictional children's character, but he helped me through some hard times."
Amity gave a sympathetic and understanding nod. "Otabin was a favorite of mine when I was young too," she said, realizing what needed to be done. "Come on, we need to help him." She noticed some nearby books. "And I think I know how."
Meanwhile, Otabin finally managed to get the Abomination off of him and he marched down the library aisles in search of his "friends." He saw two shadows out of the corner of his eye and began heading toward them, only to be hit with a flaming pumpkin. He turned around to see a headless centaur holding pumpkins, while Luz popped up with the book the centaur came out of.
"Fear the wrath of the Headless Centaur, who won the battle of the Lagahoo in 1820!" Luz declared as the Headless Centaur charged at Otabin. The two clashed against each other. "Covenhead and Hex Girl! You're up!"
Captain Coven and Sabine's books were opened by Amity and the two charged at Otabin. "For the honor of the covens!" Captain Coven declared as he punched Otabin..
"Nobody understands me!" Sabine the Teenage Hex Girl declared with angst as she used her guitar to strum goth music blasts at the Otabin monster. The music turned into arms as it punched Otabin. The rabbit was beyond mad at this point.
"Those who seek to attack me, are not the friends that shall be!" Otabin cried out as he struck Captain Coven and Sabine away.
"For the cove-OOF!" Captain Coven was knocked to the side along with Sabine.
Otabin then spotted Amity bringing up another book and opening it, causing snowballs to fly from the pages and at him. She kept it open while she and Luz ran to the children's section. Otabin charged after them and saw that they were near a large book that he had planned to sew them into. Luz placed down another glyph card which sprouted large roots to entangle him.
Amity quickly wrote something down in the book. "'Luz must right a wrong.'" A large, magic eraser popped up from the book. "Catch!" Amity shouted after grabbing the eraser and throwing it at Luz.
With eraser in hand, Luz ran toward the restrained Otabin. She launched herself off a table and landed on his chest so that she could place the eraser on his book-heart, erasing the crude drawing that Edric had made completely. This caused the monster to lose his monstrous appearance and change back to the pink rabbit he once was. The vines released him as Luz caught the little guy.
The large book that the monstrous Otabin was going to use disappeared and Amity looked at Luz as she comforted Otabin.
"I'm sorry… I don't know what came over me…" Otabin sniffled and Luz patted him on the head.
"Hey, it's not your fault," Luz replied softly, petting the rabbit. Amity came over to help Luz comfort him.
"You didn't mean to hurt anyone," Amity assured Otabin, petting him as well. "But we're still your friends."
Luz held up his book, sighing as she closed it and Otabin disappeared.
"Luz," Amity said and Luz turned to her. "We need to talk about the Abomination Track."
Luz looked like she wanted to run away, but after everything that had happened, she didn't. She could only look down in shame. "I know, I should've told you or Bump about it sooner."
Amity sighed. "You know, I kinda already suspected that you were behind it. And you're right, I should be mad at you and hate you for it…"
Luz's head fell down even lower, knowing where this would lead…
"But what's the point of only living in the past?" Amity asked, causing Luz to raise her head up. "I'll admit, I am still upset that you have a hand in it. However, I don't want to hold a grudge over it. I wasn't on friendly terms with you back then, but we shouldn't let that completely determine what we think of each other now. We can be better. Both of us."
Luz found herself nodding in agreement. "Yeah, we can be better. Like I want to be a better friend so that me and Willow can start talking again." Now it was Amity's turn to look down in shame.
"At least you have a chance, I burned that bridge years ago and… it's too late for me to fix what I broke," Amity said solemnly.
"Maybe it doesn't have to be," Luz suggested. "It'll be like when Fae Dora and Lucifer Bedlum made a peace pact between the fairies and imps in 1766."
"Hey, you have been learning your history," Amity pointed out, smiling at Luz.
"It just popped into my head, no big deal," Luz replied before looking around at the mess they made. "We should clean this place up."
"Fair maidens, has the monstrous beast been here!?" Captain Coven asked as he popped up.
"…We really need to close the books," Amity said, to which Luz agrees.
Morning came after Luz and Amity finished cleaning up the library, Luz yawning as they exited the building. "Man, our folks will be so mad at us for coming home in the morning," she said.
"Last time, my parents took my penstagram," Amity mentioned. "But I'll make sure to tell what Ed and Em were up to. My siblings really shouldn't have messed with you like that."
"Hope you give them a good ass-whooping," Luz added before she noticed that Amity was handing her a book. She looked at the cover. "The Great Witch Azura?"
"Yeah, I thought you might want to give it a read," Amity said, sounding awkward. "First Volume. We both liked Otabin, so maybe we can both like Azura."
"Well, it's not my style," Luz told her. "Hell, my mom read me this as a kid too, but she hated it for how much it sugarcoated things and I thought that I outgrew as well… but you know, I think I'm willing to give it another shot for ya, so… thanks. So uh...see you around school?"
"Yeah, see you around Luz," she waved and Luz waved back while starting the walk back home. It would be safe in this time of morning now that the shops were opening.
Luz looked back one last time and felt her heart skip a beat when she noticed that Amity was smiling at her. Her own reaction surprised her. 'W-What was that?' Luz thought as she faced forward to hide her blushing face from Amity. 'It's probably nothing. Yup, definitely nothing.' But her heart wasn't buying it and it raced even faster the more that Luz thought of Amity on her journey to the Owl House.
Luz finally made it home and was greeted by Hooty. "Boy Luz, you sure are in trouble when Eda and King wake up! Those bat children kept screaming and hollering and she had to read them to sleep-"
"Hooty, just let me in," Luz told him and Hooty opened the door for her. She entered to see Eda and King tired out on the couch with the bat babies.
"HOOT-HOOT, VISITOR HERE!" Hooty announced and Luz hushed him.
"Hooty!" Luz hissed, but then she saw the Bat Queen coming in. She backed away from the large headed demon with wings. "Had fun on a date night?"
"Ye, ye, I the Bat Queen am here for babies," she declared, whistling for the babies to wake up and fly to her. "Hope they not cause trouble?"
Luz smiled. "Hey, they're good kids. A handful, but good kids nonetheless."
The Bat Queen allowed her children to sleep in her hair, then dropped a large treasure chest onto the Owl House floor along with a skull whistle. "Payment, your mother is owed," she said before flying off with her children.
"Mmm… babies." Eda was waking up, thinking she was still cradling the bat babies until she saw that they were no longer on the couch. "The babies? Where are they!?"
"They flew the coop," Luz simply replied. "Lucky for us we were given some treasure for the service, plus this whistle that you should definitely wash before using." She held up the whistle.
"Yeah, we did all of that… for the money…" Eda said solemnly, already missing the bat babies while looking at the skull whistle that Luz handed to her.
"NOOOOO!" King cried out, awake as well. "They grew up too fast! I wanted to teach them how to pick locks like you, Luz!" He went to hug Luz's leg. "Don't leave us like they did!"
"Relax, I ain't going nowhere," Luz told him as she went to sit down on the couch.
"But you did sneak off to go somewhere last night, which we need to talk about…" Eda interjected.
"I told Amity the truth about the Abomination Track incident," Luz explained, surprising Eda. "I'm going to come clean with Bump as well and make up for it however I can."
"Oh, well how did she take it?" Eda asked. "Amity, I mean."
"She was upset, but I think we can still be friends," Luz replied with a smile, as she held up the Azura book.
"Well, looks like you proved me wrong, Luz," King stated proudly.
"Yeah, you'll make an honest witch someday," Eda said, proud that her daughter came clean.
"There's also something else…" Luz said while rubbing the back of her neck. "I uh… think I like Amity."
"Well, that's great that you like her," Eda replied.
"No, I mean I like Amity," Luz emphasized, her face turning red.
Eda raised her eyebrow in confusion, but then realized. "Oh…"
A few hours earlier…
"Man, I can't believe she almost broke my hand." Edric winced as he looked at his swollen red hand. The two were walking home from the library.
"Guess you shouldn't have skipped out of gym class," Emira told him while using a handkerchief to cover her bloody nose. "Man, I thought humans were supposed to be fragile. But that Luz was really something."
"Yeah, especially how she snarled at us," Edric added. He then heard a nearby snarling noise. "Like that!"
Emira was alarmed by the snarling noise and she looked nervous. "Um, I think we should run."
Edric saw a large shadow looming over them. The two froze up, slowly turning their heads as they saw something so horrific, they screamed and ran off.
"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!" they cried, taking off so quickly that Emira didn't notice that she dropped the bag of cash that was originally going to be Luz's payment.
Once they were gone the monstrous shadow was revealed to be from nothing but an average-looking teen, who walked forward to claim the bag of cash. As he picked it up, the wind blew through his brown messy but short hair, which had noticeable small horns sticking out. His pointy ears wiggled in excitement as he laughed to himself.
"Now that… was a good joke."
Who is this mysterious figure that scared Edric and Emira? Find out next time on Digimon: Digital- wait, no wrong title.
And now some trivia notes:
1- "Captain Coven" is inspired from the anime One Piece's in-universe comic strip "Sora, Warrior of the Sea" which is a similar premise: heroic Marine go on to battle pirates, specifically the Germa 66. Captain Coven is based off of heroic acts of coven witches as propaganda for the Emperor's Coven to fight wild witches, just as Sora is used by the Marines in the One Piece universe to spread for Marine causes. Captain Coven is popular to the children of the Boiling Isles.
2- Sabine the Teenage Hex Girl is a mixture parody of Sabrina the Teenage Witch and the Hex Girls, specifically Thorn, from the Scooby Doo franchise.
3- Spellpool may be an obvious parody of Deadpool(looks around my surroundings, then continues).
Now to answer for reviews:
BuckJohnson: Another great chapter. The highlight for me are the interactions between Amity and Luz, they're really cute and it's a joy to see them getting closer. The flashbacks are also great and so far they're definitely one of the best things in this fic, exploring Luz's childhood in the Boiling Isles and taking advantage of the AU's premise. There are so many great little touches that add to the chapter and set up what's to come as well. In particular I liked seeing Barcus' adoptive parents, which was a very nice surprise. Can't wait for the next chapter, which I know is going to be fun...
Thanks, I thought about Barcus's parents and thought yeah, Barcus's parents would be more like pet-owners except Barcus isn't a pet, he's an adopted son to them.
DragonEmperor999- thanks for the reviews, and hope you like this chapter.
ultimate-drax: ... JESUS CHRIST! How can anyone just attack a helpless innocent child like that?! I'm glad Eda gave those people that curse. Nothing but a pack scumbags, that's what they are. To hell with them.
Yeah, and sad truth is like I've said through our PMs, this kind of stuff happens in real life. Even in a demon and witch world where homophobia and transphobia is non-existent, by accordance to Dana Terrace, but there'd be a sense that the Boiling Isles has never seen or met a human, so this is what they would react. Not even cared if Luz is just a little kid, that kind of stuff happens way back when society was less civilized and sterile...the 1950s.
RonaldM: Do you think witches should use weapons more often?
That I can answer, and no. Witches aren't clarified as a warrior race, they're spellcasters. They don't really need weapons if they can just poof magic out of their hands. They really don't need guns and only those like the demon hunters and pirates would be shown using swords. Like seriously, the only weapon a witch needs is a wand, magic staff, and potions.
ReviewerDWJ: Whoa the Emperor is trying to cover up Luz existence? That is a bit of a shocker.
Well hope that can also explain why Lilith has never heard of her niece until now.
The Great Fossil King: So the library episode is next, right? Now this is the one where Luz will see the Good Witch Azura books from Amity secret hideout. Can't wait to see Luz who is a Bad Girl falling in love with the book like her canon counterpart. Plus, how would the whole 'characters coming to life' going to play out?
Guess this answers your questions. Remember, this version of Luz is pretty much different than canon.
OMAC001: Well, that was an ominous ending. Though I guess the Emperor knowing about Luz was a forgone conclusion. Hope Willow and Luz make up!
Yeah, the Emperor sure knows how to cover certain details up when it comes to use the media for his propaganda. And Luz and Willow will make up soon, just not at any time. Which would leave some interesting character development of this coming of age story.
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