After many rewrites, losing interest, regaining interest, losing it again, and so on, I finally composed the official first chapter of "The Lost Owlet" that I like. I wanted the story to explore the lives of Eda and Lilith before the youngest Clawthorne finds herself in the Human Realm and is taken in by Luz. I hope you all enjoy what I have written, and I want to thank the readers that supported the story despite the long wait.


After school, six-year-old Edalyn Clawthorne and eight-year-old Lilith Clawthorne were doing their favorite activity, playing tag in the forest. Eda was "it," chasing after her older sister with a big grin on her face, both laughing as they ran. Not a single care in the realm. "I'm gonna get you, Lily!" Eda shouted, almost grabbing a handful of Lilith's puffy, red hair.

"Nuh-uh," Lilith responded, picking up the pace.

Both girls kept running and laughing until Eda tripped on a twig and fell onto the ground. "Umph." She forced herself up and noticed she had scraped her knee. Tears welled up in her eyes, and she began to cry.

Lilith stopped, turned around, and ran to her sister. "It's okay. It's okay." She silenced her, wiping a tear from Eda's face as she stopped crying. Lilith placed her forehead against her sister's. "With this spell declared, let this pain be shared." There was a bright light, and Eda's scraped "healed" partially, while part of the scrape appeared on Lilith's knee. She winced from the pain at first but was able to ignore it upon seeing a smile once again beamed on Eda's face. "I think that's enough playtime for today. Time to head home."

"Aw, do we have to?" Eda pouted.

"Yes, Edalyn. We promised to study with mom after playing." Lilith helped her sister up.

"Okay. Last one there's a rotten griffon egg!" Eda ran ahead of her sister.

"It won't be me!" Lilith ran after her.

Eda kept running through the forest back to her home until she started feeling winded, taking a moment to catch her breath. Then she heard rustling and looked to her left. "Hello?"

"Aha, I caught you!" Lily arrived from behind, tapping her sister's back. But she noticed Eda was distracted. "Are you okay?"

"I think something's in the bushes?" Eda pointed at the foliage, which she and Lilith saw move. The sister backed away from it as the rustling increased, and whatever was causing it jumped out.

"Weh!" What jumped out was not what either sister was expecting. It was a canine-like creature with dark grey fur and a horned skull that fit perfectly on its head.

"Aww." Eda was immediately fawning over and slowly approaching it. "Hey there, little guy."

"Weh?" The creature looked at the younger sister.

"Edalyn, wait." Lilith grabbed her sister's arm. "You don't know if it's dangerous."

"Weh." The little thing walked over to the sisters on two legs, getting about halfway there before falling face down.

"Oh, he's just a baby, Lily." Eda freed her arm and knelt to the creature's level.

"Weh?"

"Do you have a name?" Eda slowly extended a hand outward, and the little one placed his head against it.

"I've never seen a demon like him before," Lilith said, kneeling next to Eda.

"Where did you come from, little guy?"

"Weh?"

"Where did it go?" A deep voice said, making Eda and Lilith freeze in place.

"It couldn't have gotten far with those stubby legs." Another voice said.

Eda carefully walked over to the bush where the little demon popped out from behind. She moved it aside and gasped at what she saw. "What is it, Edalyn?" Lilith asked in a whisper. She saw what her sister saw and gasped, too. They now knew who the owners of those voices were. "Demon hunters."

"Keep lookin'!" One of the two hunters ordered. "If we don't bring in the demon, we don't get paid." He was a large man with green skin and tusks, wearing leather armor with a crossbow and a sword strapped to his back. His partner was slightly shorter with light green skin, adorned in similar armor, and held a sword in each hand.

"We should go, now." Lilith grabbed her little sister's arm.

"Not without him." Eda protested, pointing at the sitting baby demon, bobbing his head left and right.

"Those demon hunters are after it."

Achoo! The sisters jumped when they heard the sound and realized it came from the baby. He looked at them. "Weh?"

"I heard something. Over there." The lead demon hunter said as he and his partner approached where the sisters were hiding.

Without thinking, Eda immediately scooped up the demon into her arms and made a run for it. "Edalyn!" Lilith shouted.

"Go get mom!" Eda shouted as she ran.

"Hey, that girl has our prize!" One of the hunters shouted.

"Get her!" The other hunter responded as they chased after the six-year-old. "Stop running!"

Eda ran aimlessly through the woods. The only thing on her mind is keeping the baby demon away from those hunters. Something then zoomed past the little red-head, and she realized it was a crossbow bolt. They were shooting at her. But that did not stop her, and she just kept running.

Eda made it out of the woods but was forced to stop short upon seeing no more ground. She was not standing at the edge of a cliff with a long drop to an inevitable demise. "End of the line, kid." The lead hunter said with a chuckle. Eda turned around to see her pursuers blocking her only other way out. "Give us the demon, and we won't push you over the edge."

"What do you want with him?" Eda asked, holding the furry baby close to her chest.

"Our employer gave us lots of snails to bring that thing to him." The shorter hunter said. "And disappointed customers are bad for business."

The hunters took a step closer. Eda wanted to back up but remember there would not be anything left to back up onto. "Now, hand it over!" The lead hunter demanded, taking out his sword. The scared baby demon whined and buried his head into Eda's shoulder.

Bwoosh! Before the hunters could step any closer, a pink fireball dropped out of the sky, blowing them back. Suddenly, two massive, gooey hands stretched out of the ground and ensnared the hunters. They struggled but could not free themselves. Once the fire died and the smoke cleared, in the fireball's place stood a tall witch. She had brown and green hair that went past her shoulders and wore an elegant black and dusky pink dress. She carried with her a long staff with a black, winged kitten palisman. She is one of the most feared witches on the Boiling Isles and head of the Emperor's Coven. She is Eda's and Lilith's mother.

If the look of fear on the hunters' faces was anything to go by, they knew exactly who she was, too. "High Priestess Amity Blight." The leader said, quaking in his boots alongside his partner.

"Mommy!" Eda ran to her mother, hiding behind and clinging to her dress with one hand.

"Give me one good reason as to why I shouldn't annihilate you both where you stand?" Amity Blight threatened the hunters, drawing a circle and manifesting a fireball in her hand.

"High Priestess." The shorter one began. "We were just doing our jobs. We just want the demon." He pointed at the baby in Eda's arms.

"And of what value is this demon to have given chase to and threaten my daughter?"

"We're not paid enough to ask questions. Our employer just paid us each five-hundred snails to bring him that thing."

"No, mom. Don't let them take him." Eda cried, she and the furry baby looked at Amity with big eyes.

"You each were paid five hundred snails for the demon, correct?" Amity asked the hunters, and they nodded. She drew another circle, and with a poof, a large bag filled with snails appeared before them. "In that bag is ten times the amount you were being paid. It's all yours if you leave the demon alone and get out of my sight." Amity snapped her fingers, and the hunters were released. They scrambled over to the bag and lifted it together. They took the money with them as they got as far away as they could from the mother witch.

With the hunters gone, Amity knelt to her daughter. "Are you alright?" She asked with concern.

"Mhm," Eda said, hugging her mom tightly.

"Come on, let's get you home. Your sister and aunt and uncle are worried sick." Amity picked up Eda and the baby with one arm and sat on her staff. "Take us home, Midnight." The palisman's eyes glowed pink, and the three of them flew through the air. The next thing they knew, they were home, at Blight Manor.

Greeting them at the door was Amity's abomination butler. "Hi, Goobert." Eda greeted the abomination she and Lilith have affectionately nicknamed.

The abomination stood aside to allow Amity to walk inside. "Edalyn!" Lilith ran from the kitchen with her Aunt Emira and Uncle Edric.

"Is she okay, Mittens?" Emira asked her younger sister with concern.

"I got to her just in time." Amity put Eda down, holding the furry baby tightly.

"Is that the little demon Lily was telling us about?" Edric asked, kneeling to his niece's level, and she nodded. "Hey there, little guy. You're safe now." Edric extended a hand to the little demon.

"Weh." Like with Eda, he accepted the act of affection. Suddenly, he wiggled his way out of Eda's arms. The little demon ran past the twins, and climbed onto their living room sofa.

"Hahaha." The uncle laughed. "Only been here for a minute and thinks he's the king of this place."

Standing on the cushions, the little demon looked at the family. "King." He spoke in a high-pitched, young-sounding voice. "King!" With his latest exclamation, he lost balance and fell on his rear.

"He spoke," Eda said with bewilderment, walking over to the sofa.

"King. King. King." The little demon repeated, pumping his tiny arms into the air.

"He can speak," Amity said. "Fascinating."

"What is, mom?" Lilith asked.

"Most demons that small are incapable of communication. Which is why they are treated as house pets."

"Does that mean we can keep him?" Eda asked as the little demon climbed on her messy hair. "Please. He has nowhere else to go." Eda gave her mother the cutest expression she could, and the baby mimicked her look.

There was one weakness Amity had. One that everyone who knew it knew not to exploit or face the consequences. That weakness was her children and how they were impossible to deny, especially when they looked at her like that.

"Alright, Edalyn." She sighed. "I'll go into town tomorrow and find a collar for—"

"King," Eda answered. "His name is King."

"King. King. King." The demon repeated.

"But he's your responsibility, understand."

She ran over to and hugged her mom's leg. "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" She then ran back to King. "C'mon. I'll show you where Lily and I sleep." She scooped up King with no protest.

"King! King! King!" The little demon shouted with joy.

"Aww, she's like you when you made your first abomination, Mittens," Edric teased his younger sister.

"Edric, the three of us are in our thirties." An annoyed Amity reminded them. "Can you stop with the nicknames?"

"Not in your lifetime, Mittens." Emira answered for him in the same teasing manner.

"But what if those demon hunters come back for him?" Lilith asked her mother with concern.

"They won't come for him or any of us," Amity reassured, bringing comfort to her eldest daughter with a hug. "They'll have to go through us first."

"Technically, they'll have to go through Goobert first. Then they'll have to go through us." Edric clarified.

"Nothing bad will ever happen to our family," Amity whispered into Lilith's ear. "You believe me, don't you."

"Yes, mom." Lilith hugged her mother more tightly.

"That's my little girl. Say, since I haven't ordered Goobert to prepare us dinner, how about we all order in tonight?"

"Oh, there's a new restaurant in town specializing in human food called hamburgers," Edric suggested.

"Sounds delicious," Emira admitted.

"Yummy." Lilith squeaked, getting a chuckle from Amity.

"Alright, hamburgers it is. Go and find your sister and tell her and King to get washed up." Amity said. "I'll call in the order."

"Okay." Lilith ran off to find Eda and King while the twins went into the dining room to get everything set up as Amity went to make the call. All were looking forward to enjoying dinner with the newest addition to their family.


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