A/N: And here is part one for Chapter 1. Part 2 will come soon next week. And I've also made a fanmade theme song based on The Owl House's original theme. I hope you'll like it. :)
Chapter 1: World of Witchcraft Part 1
The next thing Ben knew, he was unconscious. But after a while, he tried to open his eyes, albeit with a groan. The first thing he saw was a bright lavender sky shining above him. The young boy became confused by the color.
"Huh? What's up with the sky?"
Ben sat himself up as he yawned before looking around. Even the woods seemed different than how it was before. For instance, the log that he stopped to rest on wasn't there anymore. And for another, the trees' leaves appeared to be dark blue rather than mint green.
"And what the heck happened to me?"
That's when he remembered. Just before he ended up here, wherever here was, he found an odd item that looked like a demon's eye with a crack at the bottom right corner of it. And when he picked it up, it glowed so brightly, it must've blinded him. Ben looked down beside him to find just the item next to his right foot. He picked it up and looked at it, wondering how it was possible for it to take him here. But more importantly, he was somewhat furious about the fact that it put a wrench in his plans to find his mother.
"Great. So this is all your fault, isn't it?"
Ben tilted the eye left and right for a moment, seeing nothing else out of the ordinary. But before he could examine it thoroughly, he heard a roar above him. Ben looked up ahead to see a silhouette of a large beast. It was something he'd never seen before, not even from Luz's Azura books. But from the sound of it, he could tell it was dangerous.
"Okay, time to go!"
Ben took off in a huff, but not before putting the broken eye in his pocket. With that, he was running for his life as another large, unearthly roar echoed in the forest. He jumped over a log ahead of him before he continued his sprint, knowing if he stopped, he'd surely be doomed. If he knew his day would turn out like this, he would've stayed in bed. Then all of what he experienced may never have happened. But there's no use trying to change it now. All he could do for himself now was to stay alive. Although, wings would be more useful to him in this situation, not that he could grow any.
A dark shadow loomed over him, its own wings outstretched. He looked up to see the beast swoop down on him as he tried to jump away from it, causing the beast to miss as it sent up a lot of dust into the air from the collision just as he landed onto the mud, splashing it all over him, including his backpack. After that, he turned around to see the outline of a horse's body with the wings of an eagle. And to top it off were glowing white eyes that appeared fixated on him. When the dust cleared away, it turned out to be a creature only mentioned in fantasies, yet even they couldn't have come up with this creature in particular.
It was a giant bulky creature with a long neck, wild messy white feathers that covered half of its upper body, a flat big head, a bright silver curved sharp beak with a few scrapes and cracks in it, two big sliver blue eyes, two long sliver Horse-like ears on each side of its head, long big Eagle-like silver wings on its upper back, a brown lower horse body with a few scars on it, strong back legs with thick black hoofs, a long silver-colored bushy horse tail, two front yellow Eagle talons with silver claws on it, and a scar under it stretching from its stomach to its chest. Ben closed his eyes as he expected the worst to come from the beast.
"Why did I have to get out of bed today?"
The beast leaned closer to Ben, sniffing him closely. After a short moment, the beast made a disgusted face, as if it smelled something rather unpleasant. Without a moment to waste, the beast flew away from Ben, sending a gust of air on him as he held his arm over his face to shield from the overpowering wind. When the gust was gone, Ben heard flapping in the far distance before he set his arm down.
"Okay, what just happened?"
Ben looked at himself, noticing the mud he inadvertently got on his clothes from jumping out of impact. Then he realized it must've smelled the mud. If it hadn't, that thing, whatever it was, would've eaten him quickly. He drew out a sigh of relief as he laid down on the ground to catch his breath. Although, the fact that a giant beast came after him put one important question in his mind.
"Where the heck am I?"
Ben looked around from where he laid, seeing countless trees all around him. Even if he stood up, there was no way to know for sure. But then, he had an idea. What if he were to climb up and see for himself? For one thing, he wanted a better heads-up in case anything else attacked him. And for another, Ben needed to know if there was anything dangerous on the ground, too. Normally, he wouldn't think much of the ground, but after the ambush of a giant beast he'd never seen before, he'd rather err on the side of caution.
With that, once he got his breath, Ben climbed up on one of the trees, albeit with his clothes stained in mud. Even though he got the mud right off of his clothes, the stains they left behind had already made their mark. Regardless, Ben's priority was to figure out where the heck he ended up. He put his hand on one branch and used his feet on the stumps to anchor him while pushing himself upward. But when he reached the top, Ben's eyes widened in utter surprise and disbelief.
What he witnessed is practically an entire archipelago that was situated in an ocean. It also seemed to be made from the decaying remains of a fallen giant as he could practically see the whole skeleton just laying down, as if it was taking a nap that went on for too long. Ben had never seen anything like this back home, not even in World Geography. But whatever this strange land was, Ben knew one thing was for certain.
"Well, looks like I'm not in Connecticut anymore."
(Play "The Owl House" Main Theme by T.J. Hill)
The intro opens up with a demon-like eye in the dark background as the camera zoomed in closer to it as it glowed brightly before it was engulfed in a blinding light. Following this, it showed Ben waking up to see a giant monster looming over him before he ran as it roared and laid down its paw, just missing his backpack before it sent up dust into the air. When the dust cleared away, it showed a big, dark, wooden Victorian like manor with a stretch of long vertical windows in the front of the building with a small stained glass window in the shape of an eye on the tower structure on the house. The roof is black tiled with two wooden beams holding up the long porch of the building, a red door into the house with a small peek hole, a bronze raven-shaped door knocker and bronze door knobs on the middle of the door, a three-step stairway to the porch, a rooftop with black, metal spiked fences around it, a small metal statue of a raven on the top of the tower, a small wooden grey gazebo, a big metal gate with a big hand print type of lock, two stone gargoyles standing over the gate entrance that stare down, thorn-like leafless trees that sprout out around the front yard, and a small cobblestone pathway that lead to the front door.
When the red door opened, it showed a tall, lithe and dark man at the door. He had silver-golden yellow eyes resembling an eclipse, pale white skin, and glossy black hair that is styled to come out as slick, sharp spikes from the back of his head. As for his outfit, he wore a long-sleeved two-tone dark gray cloak and dark gray-laced boots with an obsidian gemstone in the shape of a raven on his chest, and a black raven staff in his hand as he stared down at Ben, unnerving him a bit. But as dark as he appeared, the little girl that popped up beside him with a smile was of great contrast.
She had long curly orange hair that went to her shoulders (though one eye could be shown due to the length of her hair, a pale white skin tone, a small round cute nose, long thick eyelashes, a mint green colored eye, pointy elf like ears (with one ear pierced with a black crystal earring), small hands, thin fingers with black nail polished fingernails, a short, slightly curved petite body build, a long fancy black simple dress with grey leggings, black boots, a red raven shaped Ruby in the middle of her dress, and rounded thin framed glasses. The girl extended her hand out to Ben before he took it, and without a moment's notice she ran into the house, taking the surprised Ben along with her.
Next, the intro showed a stone background stage of sorts with tree branches at the top of the stage, a mist around them, and carvings if an ancient figure as well as two swords in between the frames as they came up in the three empty slots with one of them being Luz, the other being the girl who brought Ben into her home, and the third being a girl with a skinny frame, pale skin, chin-length hair with a ponytail pulling the front hair out of her face, and bright golden eyes. She also had pointy ears, and her hair was two-toned, composed of shades of aquamarine with brown hair visible at the roots.
She was wearing a gray tunic with a dark gray belt, cowl, and boots, and her sleeves and leggings are a greyish-pink color. The rest of her attire included wearing triangle-shaped black earrings, black nail polish, and dark grey, heeled boots, with a light grey top.
Luz was giving a smile and waving while the girl in the second slot was holding her arm on her elbow with a shy smile. And the girl in the third slot had an unamused look on her face before she turned away with her eyes closed. Next, the three frames flipped themselves to show Luz standing with her cape looking soberly as she held an owl-like staff. As for the orange-haired girl, she was in the dark with a yellow lizard-like slit where her other eye was obscured and a claw against the wall. And the girl in the third slot showed a sad and dismal look on her face as she looked down before three claw marks suddenly appeared, disintegrating the screen to show two golden eyes glowing in the dark as the camera zoomed out to show a cloaked figure with a thorn like arm as it had claws for fingernails and spikes around the arm before she thrusted the claws at the camera.
Next, it showed Ben running through town as Luz flew past him on top of an owl staff as she waved to him before he noticed a couple of buff guards in front of him, forcing him to duck with a slide, barely missing them just before the orange-haired girl held her hand out to him on top of a Raven staff before he took it and flew off with her to the skies, only to encounter the same monster Ben ran from before as it roared before flying towards them.
After the beast's body zoomed past the camera, Ben and the girl were on top of a roof as the former stared at the picture of his mother with sadness before he felt her hand on his shoulder with a smile, making him smile back to her before looking at the sky to see a ball of light floating to from far away before it engulfed the two of them in its bright light, then revealing the title "Disney's The Owl House: Coven of Shadows", as well as the words below that said, "Created by Dana Terrace". After a moment, there was a brief dark purple and light yellow slash forming an X before they faded into sparkling lights.
(End "The Owl House Main Theme" by T.J. Hill)
Ben couldn't believe the sights he'd seen. First, he was blindsided by an attack from a giant monster, and now this. All of this seemed like a dream to him.
"This is where I ended up? I think I might be dreaming. Wait. Am I?"
To find out, Ben pinched himself in the arm, eliciting an OW! from the young man.
"Nope. Not dreaming."
Where did that little demon eyeball take him? It was the only question the young man could think of as he dug into his pocket, took it out, and looked at his apparent portal.
"How did this thing take me here? And why?"
Ben looked back out to the town, wondering what to do with himself. The whole reason he left was to find his mother. But he can't do that in this place. Or could he? He looked back out to the town with a determined look on his face. If he could find a solution somewhere over there that can take him back home, then maybe he'd get back home and continue trying to find his mother. At least, he hoped that he could.
"Well, I can't worry about that. I gotta get back home. Maybe there's something in that town over there?"
It took quite a while for Ben to find his way into town. And he had to go through quite a lot of bushes to prove it, with his hair full of leaves that he had to shake off. But when he did, he found himself at the entrance. And to his surprise, he found quite a myriad of oddities there.
One of the citizens was a green slime man working a sort of hot dog stand (albeit named Not Dog) with a visible brain inside him, as well as a centaur with eyes on his Orcs and a mouth in between his two sets of abs. Astounded as he was, Ben couldn't help but get a feeling that most of the town might see him as food, or worse, a target.
"Yeah, something tells me they wouldn't like to see a living human being here."
To lower the chances of that, Ben put his hoodie on over his ears to conceal his round human ears. That's the best he could do to conceal himself at this point, along with the muddied clothes he wore. As he walked through the bizarre crowd, Ben looked around for who to ask. With the likelihood of being eaten, Ben had to go about it carefully. One wrong person and he could end up on the short end of the stick in more ways than one.
He first laid eyes on a citizen who had purple hair and horns on her head as he assessed her.
"Seems pretty friendly. But then again, I don't know if I should risk getting my head hit a bunch of times."
Ben looked at another denizen who had a slender figure with pink skin, gray-blue eyes, and violet hair tied back in a bun. Along with a third eye on her forehead.
"Pros: three eyes. Cons: also three eyes. Might have the same appetite as a cyclops."
Hoping to find a better turnout, Ben looked up ahead at what appeared to be a library to see a girl with a skinny frame, pale skin, chin-length hair with a ponytail pulling the front hair out of her face, and bright golden eyes. She also had pointy ears, and her hair was two-toned, composed of shades of aquamarine with brown hair visible at the roots. Compared to the rest of the group she saw, she seemed pretty tame by comparison.
"There we go."
Ben ran up to her, cautious not to let his hoodie drop out of his head as he caught her attention, almost bumping into her in the process.
"Hey! Watch it!"
Ben stood up straight with a stiff look on his face, a little nervous by her attitude.
"Whoa. Sorry about that. I just figured you could tell me what this place is."
The girl gave him a stern look of annoyance as she replied.
"Uh, it's Bonesborough. On the Boiling Isles?"
That didn't seem to make any sense to the young man. But at least it gave him something to go by.
"Oh! Oh, right. Sorry. It's kinda my first day being here."
The girl only closed her eyes as she walked down the steps.
"Well, I can see that. Just try not to bump into anyone else."
When she had gone out of sight, Ben felt himself free to give his opinion about her.
"Well, she's a little standoffish. Hope I don't have to see her again."
At that moment, Ben heard nasty laughter far away and turned to the direction it came from. He saw a thug near another young girl on a bench with long, curly orange hair and a mint green eye, with her other one being obscured by the hair. Ben saw her in danger and didn't quite like the look of it one bit.
"Oh, great. Even in another world, there's bullies."
Ben cautiously went closer to the scene while listening in to their conversation as the bully leaned closer to her. He had shaggy brown hair, pointy ears, and crimson eyes as he belittled her.
"I saw you smile. Yes, I did. Yes, I did."
The bully held his hand out as he cleared his throat.
"Ahem."
The girl only paid no attention to him as she closed her book, stood up, and walked away, peeving him a bit as he made an angry face before he spoke to her, but not before clearing his throat louder.
"I think you owe us a little something."
The girl only continued to walk away before he grew more agitated. Ben saw this and became worried for the girl. He may be more accustomed to this kind of pressure like back home, he's afraid she wouldn't hold out as well.
"This isn't looking good. What do I do…?"
Ben scratched his chin with his fingers before looking out at the nearby trash cans. This gave him an idea as the bully spoke out to her again, having had enough of her ignoring him.
"Hey! I don't care if you are related to Lilith Clawthorne. Out here, I run this part of town, so you should give me the respect I deserve!"
The girl only gave him an angry stare before Ben spoke out from far away. He heard these words before. And he had just the words to reply to him.
"Oh, sorry, big guy. Just an honest mistake. Maybe we'll give you the respect you deserve after all, won't we?"
The girl became puzzled as she spoke up to him.
"Wait, we?"
Ben gave her a subtle wink to her before she seemed to have caught on. She didn't seem too certain, but for now, she had to play along, if only to see where it would go.
"Oh… yeah. Sorry. I guess we do owe you."
The bully seemed satisfied with himself as he smirked.
"Yeah. That's better."
Ben only crossed his arms as he spoke to them.
"Actually, we weren't talking to you."
The bully became baffled before turning around to see nobody there. Ben took advantage of the lapse as he grabbed the girl's hand before dashing off with her.
"Yoink!"
"Hey!"
As the girl yelped, the main bully gritted his teeth from how easily she slipped from his hand.
"That does it!"
He took off after the two of them as Ben and the girl ran by the trash cans, only for Ben to tip them over, causing the bully to stumble over it and fall to the ground, covered in trash before he growled to himself. He got up from the ground, growling like an angry beast as he looked around for any sign of Ben and the girl. When he could see none of them, he got back up from the trash he collided with before he gave chase in the direction he believed they took off from, which was straight the last time he saw them. But as he ran across the street to find them, he didn't notice Ben and the girl hiding in the alleyway. Once he had gone away, Ben and the girl exited the alleyway before he spoke to her, almost out of breath.
"Whew. I think we lost him."
Ben looked back at the girl, noticing that she was giving him a stare of suspicion as she inquired of him.
"What?"
"Well, not that I'm ungrateful for you getting me away from Scab, but why did you bother to help me out?"
Ben felt puzzled by her response before he answered plainly, though he gave out a confused response first.
"I would've been okay with a 'thank you'… Anyway, I just wanted to help."
The girl gave him a curious look afterwards. It looked as though she was interested in his act of selflessness, like she'd never seen such a thing before. Nevertheless, Ben felt it best to introduce himself as he held out his hand.
"My name's Ben. A gentleman, and a generally awesome guy."
The girl's curious look went away before being replaced by a deadpan stare as she took Ben's hand and shook it.
"And I'm Judith. A witch-in-training, and a girl standing next to a weirdo."
That earned an exaggerated response from Ben as he gasped before he made a small frown, making Judith laugh as Ben began to blush at her introduction. After a moment, Ben's blush went away and he got back to the task at hand: finding his way back home.
"Well, it's been… cool, but I really should be going now."
However, as Ben turned to leave, Judith noticed the indent of his ears on his jacket. She wondered why he'd try to hide them in a place like Bonesborough. For her, there was only one explanation. Before Ben could go anywhere else, Judith called him out.
"You're a human, aren't you?"
Ben froze where he stood and began to stammer his words. He knew he had been caught. If he can't keep up the charade that he isn't, who knows what could happen to him? Despite his stammers, Ben tried all he could to keep her from finding that out.
"What? N-No way! I'm not-"
Before Ben could continue any further, though, Judith raised her hand and shushed him.
"Before you say anything else, I can tell from the indent on your jacket. It's not even trying to hide your ears."
Judith pulled down his hood to expose his ears before she gestured to the rest of his outfit.
"Not to mention the clothes you're wearing aren't just something anyone on the Boiling Isles has. Then there's your human slang terms when you 'yoinked' me. And, my nose can actually smell the human on you."
Ben looked stunned at Judith. Done in by a girl he'd just saved. She was surprisingly smart for someone who was a damsel in distress. But he knew better than to deny anything at this point. Still, he felt as though he should expect the worst as he sighed.
"Alright, fine. I am a human. But just what are you going to do about it?"
Judith only shrugged her shoulders as she replied.
"Well, nothing."
Ben looked at her confused. From what he'd seen, he didn't think it possible for anyone to do "nothing" with a human intruder.
"Nothing? You mean you're not gonna lock me up to experiment on me?"
Judith only maintained her look as she gave him her answer, only for him to ask another question, to which she gave the same answer.
"No."
"Or send me to some meat factory to turn me into a meal?"
"No."
"Or turn me into a slave?"
"What? No. I'm not gonna do any of those things."
"Oh. Then, what are you gonna do?"
Judith only held her hand out to Ben with a stare.
"I'm gonna ask you to follow me somewhere."
Ben had a feeling about where this was going as he began to blush. Was she trying to ask him out? It was an admittedly nice pace from how things were back home. No girl ever thought about asking him out before, at least not that he'd ever seen. He assumed his status must be what terrified them or made them steer clear of him at the very least. But as nice as the gesture was, he had a home to go back to.
"Okay, look. I get that you like me, but I just want to go back home."
Judith's stare didn't change.
"Well, that's why I'm asking you to follow me. Where I'm going, I can help you with that."
Ben gave her a cautious stare as he looked deep into her stare.
"And how do I know you're telling the truth?"
Judith's eyebrows lowered themselves a few inches as she maintained her stare. She had a serious tone in her voice as she responded.
"You don't. But you also don't have a lot of options in the Boiling Isles, either."
Ben knew she wasn't wrong. A lot of faces he saw in the Boiling Isles, whatever it was, were either scary or likely to kill him. Well, apart from that one girl he "bumped" into, but she felt a little too cold for him to go near her. And Judith, the girl he just saved, turned out to be terrifyingly observant. She must be bound to know something about this place. Ben sighed with a nod before he took her hand.
"Okay. You got a good point. Is it far from here?"
To answer him, Judith turned her head away from Ben back to where they ran from as she answered him.
"Actually, we won't have to go too far."
Later, Ben and Judith were back where they first "met". Back then, Judith was being bullied by the bench, not that she viewed him as a problem. Ben had a hard time believing how it was supposed to help if it had no computers for him to look up anything.
"The Library? But does it even have computers there?"
Judith only shook her head before she asked him her own question.
"What's a computer?"
Ben only groaned in frustration. This lack of information only told him that they wouldn't have anything to help him look up anything. However, Judith didn't lose her optimism, or whatever counted as such as she replied to him while the two of them walked inside.
"Don't worry, Ben. If there's anything here that can tell us about how you got here, it's in the library."
"Yeah, right. How am I supposed to believe that if you guys don't even have any-?"
Before Ben could finish, he found himself in awe. Apart from looking like your average college library, it also appeared to be something out of a Harry Potter book. There were books flying in a row as they hovered in the air. And they were headed to the main checkout as a man in a black and red cloak was holding a red circle over the books as they passed through them before buzzing.
"Late. Late. Late."
To add to the list of surprising developments, Ben noticed a lot of shelves with a dewey decimal system sign above them with eyes that were open. Then, he noticed the crystal balls on the table where a lot of its patrons were looking into them in the reference section. It was showing a how-to-fly guide with someone riding a staff before another showed a cat playing a keyboard while the third was still loading up. The sights made Ben rethink his interrupted statement.
"And I'm shutting up."
Judith and Ben noticed another crystal ball that was available for use as the former spoke to him.
"We may not have your computers, whatever they are, but we have our crystal balls."
Judith sat down in the empty chair before she tapped on it, turning on the crystal ball to show a search bar called "Boiling Eyes" with a keyboard just below the search bar. Ben thought it was pretty odd to see such a thing as he realized that they had the same principle as the computers back home.
"Wait, the crystal balls work like computers, here?"
Judith rolled her eyes at Ben's surprise, although she still didn't know what computers actually were. But nonetheless, she got the concept from Ben's question.
"Well, apparently, yeah. But it's not that exciting. The fact you're here, that's a different story, though. Speaking of, how did you get here?"
Ben dug into his pocket, getting out the demon eye that marooned him on this crazy place as he answered her.
"All I know is I picked up this thing in my world, and then it blinded me with a bright light. And the next thing I knew, I ended up here."
Judith looked at the demon eye in fascination. It was a puzzling thing to see that in a human's hand, let alone the fact it seemed to work despite its damaged state. She held her hand out as she asked for it.
"Can I take a look?"
Ben handed the demon eye to Judith before she examined it. She saw that there were a lot of cracks in its bottom-right corner as she put her other hand on her chin, as if contemplating in deep thought.
"Hmm… It's not something I've seen before, but I'll type it the way I see it. Maybe it'll tell us something."
Judith then typed on the keyboard, searching "Demon Eye Jewel". But when she entered it, nothing popped up as a buzzer sound was made. This made Ben infuriated that it couldn't tell him what he needed to know about it.
"What? Come on."
Judith looked back to him, putting a finger over her mouth before promptly shushing him.
"This is a library, Ben. You still need to be quiet."
Ben's face made an embarrassed look. With the necessary rule of the library being to be quiet, Ben felt he shouldn't have to be reminded. Although, his voice did come out louder than he meant it to be out of frustration, so she had a point.
"Sorry."
Judith took another look at the item in front of her before revising her search.
"Okay, how about… 'Demon Eye Relic'?"
Unfortunately, that didn't bring up any better luck than the last search. Keeping in mind that he had to be quiet, Ben made an annoyed sigh this time before Judith looked over to him.
"Yeah, this might take a while. Unless you like to get bored watching me, I'd suggest you look for something around here to do in the meantime."
"Like what? Read a book?"
The instant it left his mouth, however, Ben realized how smart an idea that actually was. Perhaps he could ask around and see if there's a book that covered anything about portals. If he could find that, then he'd be back on track for getting home.
"Actually, now that I think about it, that's a good idea. Thanks, Judy."
Judith began to blush at the name, making her give a small, flustered glare to him as she corrected him.
"It's Jud-ith…!"
"Oh. Right, sorry."
Ben then began to walk away from Judith as she sighed and went back to her search as she looked back down at the gem in front of her.
"Just what in the name of Titan are you…?"
Meanwhile, Ben conducted his own search for anything relating to what had taken him to the Boiling Isles. To do that, he needed to get help with finding the right section for it. And aside from looking at an endless selection based on what came to his mind, especially in a library he didn't understand, he needed to go to the librarian. If anyone had a better understanding of where to find the book, it'd be him.
"Okay. All I gotta do is find a librarian in this place, and he can tell me where to find a book about that portal."
As luck would have it, Ben found the librarian still checking out the books as he passed them through the circle in front of him. Most of the books were in red as they were late. But they were green whenever they were on time. Ben could never understand this world if he tried on his own. Thankfully, Judith could take care of that for him. For now, though, he had to focus on the task at hand. And while Judith knew what he was, he didn't know if he could afford anyone else to know that he was a human as he put the hood back on him.
"Uh, excuse me? Sir?"
The librarian took notice of Ben and became curious. He hadn't seen him around before, so it made him cautious within reason.
"Oh. And who, may I ask, are you, sir?"
Ben made a nervous look on his face. He was afraid that the librarian had gotten wise to him. Nevertheless, Ben had to tell him to avoid suspicion, or at least as much as he could.
"Oh! Um… My name's Ben Kingston, sir. And I was wondering if you had anything about, uh… portal traveling?"
The instant he made his request, the librarian had a look that could freeze people to death. Whether or not that's a possibility here was up for debate.
"Portal traveling, eh?"
"Uh, yeah. Do you, uh, have anything like-?"
Before Ben could finish, the librarian raised his hand and stopped him.
"No need to say anything else, Mr. Kingston. I've never seen your face, but I know who you are…"
Ben was beginning to sweat profusely at this point.
Crap! He knows I'm a human?! How?! Was I that obvious?!
"You must be someone transferring from Glandus, am I right?"
Ben took a mental sigh of relief. He wasn't expecting that answer to begin with. And as much as he didn't know what Glandus was, he had to keep up the charade.
"Oh! Yeah, yeah. I'm still a little new to Bonesborough."
"I'll bet you are."
The librarian then looked into his crystal ball before he conducted a search and found the results.
"Okay. They're in the Transportation Spell Aisle just down the hall. And be sure to mind the floating books on the way."
"Okay. Thanks."
Ben began to walk down the hallway with a relieved look. For a moment, he was sure that he'd be exposed. But luckily, no one else seemed to notice why he kept his hood on. Hopefully, he can keep up the charade long enough to get back home.
"Whew. That was way too close…"
With the worst of it behind him, Ben walked to where the librarian told him to go. But as he did, he recalled what he called the aisle.
"Wait. He called it the "Teleportation Spell Aisle", right? And what did he mean by spell?"
When he got to the aisle, Ben found a lot of books that explained it. As he pulled a book out of the shelf and looked into it, he noticed the title had said…
"A Witch's Guide to Traveling Between Realms? That's a thing?"
However, he also got something else out of it.
"Wait a minute. It said 'Witch'. Does that mean…?"
Ben had heard about witches before. Back home, there were a lot of them used in dictionary elements, like Wizard of Oz, Harry Potter, and even the Good Witch Azura books. But the main heavy hitter was what he learned from history class, or rather what he was able to learn with Kyle and Susan disrupting him. The Salem Witch trials.
It lasted from 1692 to 1693. But in that timespan of a year, 25 people had died. If their technology was advanced, the casualties would be way worse. And with this book in his hand, Ben came to realize that they must've visited his realm before. If that Demon Eye that brought him to the boiling isles wasn't enough proof, then what else could there be? But that wasn't what worried him. What truly mortified him was the possibility that they must have harbored a grudge for what they had done to their kind. It was strange that Judith didn't harbor such a hate, but he can't afford to see it from anyone else.
"Oh, man. The Salem Witch Trials. I am so glad they didn't know what I am."
However, as he said this, Ben wasn't aware of a woman standing behind him.
"Which is what, exactly?"
Ben's sweat couldn't have gotten colder if it tried. He tried to come up with something to hide who he is on the sly, but it was incredibly difficult to find a more convincing one, especially under pressure. But he had to say something to throw off his identity as a human, or they might do a witch trial of their own on him.
"Uh, that… I'm a super nerd for portal transportation!"
Ben added an unconvincing nervous laugh at the end. But it didn't seem to faze the person who called him out.
"Well, aren't we all?"
It was then that Ben took a good look at her. She was wearing a black long tunic with golden trim on on the sides of it with long sleeves covering up her arms and having a baggy hood to cover her head, long shiny black high heeled boots, a purple and blue neon flower brooch on the left side of her chest, black shorts, black painted fingernails, purple leggings and long sleeves under her tunic. She also had a fair skin tone, a skinny curved body type, short, slicked down, ashen-black hair, bright reddish-yellow colored eyes, thin black eyebrows, and pointy elf ears with black earrings. Ben couldn't believe how beautiful she looked. He began to blush at the sight of her before she gave him a smirk, noticing his blush.
"What's wrong? Never seen another witch before?"
Ben snapped out of his blush for a moment. Beautiful as she looked, he didn't need to lose focus on finding his mother.
"Uh, yeah. Yeah. It's just I'm kinda new here."
The woman kept her smirk as she replied with a wink.
"I'll bet. I don't think anyone's seen you around before. You're from… Glandus, right?"
Ben saw the wink and became confused. He never told her where he was from.
"Uh, how did you-?"
Ember only placed her hand on his shoulder before reassuring him.
"It's okay. Your secret's safe with me."
That was a load off for him. Ben drew out a sigh of relief, happy that he found one more person who wasn't trying to kill him for being human.
"Thanks a lot. Really. I'm still trying to get used to… a lot of things."
The woman gave him a soft smile as she held her hand out to him.
"I know what that's like. My name's Ember. Ember Autumn."
Ben looked at Ember in surprise. He couldn't believe that she would be willing to shake hands with him. Granted he believed it was because she didn't know he's human, but nevertheless, it was nice to see someone willing to shake his hand for once. Nobody could do that for him due to his status as a Kingston, and even then, the only time they'd do it is just to get in good with him. Somehow, even if it was in another realm, he felt that she was different. He got his hand to shake hers as he introduced himself.
"Nice. I'm Ben. A gentleman, and an overall awesome guy."
Ember made a small laugh at his title before she spoke.
"In that case, I'm glad I met you."
Ember's eyes then looked over to her right, noticing a gap on a shelf before walking over to it. She then pulled out the item that was causing the gap: a chessboard with the pieces in a drawer that was just below it as she looked back to Ben.
"Are you interested in a game, by any chance?"
Ben wanted to refuse, and he was about to. But he realized that doing so would only make her suspicious. And it'd only be a matter of time before she'd notice he was human. But if he stayed and played a game with her, she'd be bound to notice. Although, despite the circumstance, it would help him get his nerves straight. Traveling to another realm was just as stressful as it can get.
"Uh… sure. Sure, I'd like to play."
Ember gave Ben a smile as she walked away with him following her.
"Then come on. I know a good place to set it down."
As Ember walked away, Ben followed her, holding onto his book that he planned to check out.
Meanwhile, Judith was at her wit's end. She'd done as many guesses as she could come up with to figure out what the demon eye was. And yet, not one of them seemed to know what exactly she was talking about. She wondered how hard exactly that was supposed to be.
"Come on! It can't be that hard for you to know what this thing is, can it?"
Judith took another look at the object in front of her in frustration. She could practically feel it taunting her as she grumbled. However, it didn't go unnoticed as she heard a voice behind her.
"Is something bothering you, my little Ruby?"
Judith's eyes widened in surprise before turning around to see a woman behind her. She was a tall, slender middle-aged woman in her mid-to-late 40s with ivory skin, pointed ears, navy blue lips, long, dark teal hair, and mint green eyes. She had dark claw-like nails and was dressed in a long-sleeved two-tone dark gray dress and dark gray laced boots. She also had an inverted kite-shaped sky blue gem located on her sternum, which was attached to her dress. Judith was particularly happy to see her as she beamed brightly and started to shout.
"Mom!"
Judith covered her mouth quickly the moment she realized how loud she had spoken. Unfortunately, that didn't stop the librarian from shushing her far away. Judith became sheepish as she spoke softly.
"Sorry. What are you doing here, Mom?"
Her mother gave Judith a smile as she petted her orange hair and explained herself.
"I just figured I'd drop by to check on my little Ruby before I go to the Emperor's Coven. And yet, I came to see you worked to the bone on something."
Judith smiled back to her mother, but it wasn't just out of the fact that she came to visit her. She hoped she would know what it was about.
"Well, yeah. I might as well be. I saw something weird today, and I kept trying to figure out what it is, but this stupid crystal ball can't crack it."
The mother had a puzzled look on her face as she wondered what she could be talking about.
"Is that so? What is it?"
To answer, Judith held up the item Ben gave her with a deadpan expression.
"Just this thing. It looked pretty broken."
The mother took a look at the Demon Eye piece. But when she did, she gasped as if it surprised her. Judith caught onto that and became puzzled. Could that mean she knew what it was?
"What is it? Do you know?"
The mother looked back to her daughter and spoke to her in surprise.
"Actually, I do. It's a centerpiece for a portal."
Judith made a gasp of surprise. She was no stranger to portal spells, but this was news to her for certain.
"A portal centerpiece? But what's it doing here?"
Curious as her daughter was, she had questions of her own.
"Never mind that. Where did you find this?"
Judith scratched the back of her head as she explained her earlier answer.
"Well, the thing is… I didn't find it. But someone else did. He was asking about it himself, and I wanted to find out."
Judith's mother began to blanch at the thought, appearing under the impression that someone else must be after it. And she couldn't afford it to be anyone dangerous. All the same, she had to make sure she wasn't stressing her out as she looked at Judith with a puzzled look.
"Really? And what was his name?"
Judith didn't see the harm in telling her his name, but she knew that she shouldn't give away the fact that he's a human. If she were to find out, she'd never hear the end of it.
"He said his name was Ben. And I think he's looking at a book somewhere. Or he was, last time I saw him."
Her mother put a finger up on her cheek as she tried to determine if it was anything to take seriously. Although, with the item in her hand, she had a feeling she shouldn't take any chances.
"Well, I suppose you won't mind introducing me to him?"
As it happened, Ben was just starting a chess game of sorts with Ember. He had all the white pieces while Ember had the black pieces. He had the order set up with the Queen piece and the King piece beside each other in the back of the board while Ember's queen was at the front lines. Ben was confused at the setup as he looked at her.
"Uh, why's your queen at the front lines? Don't they usually go back with the King?"
Ember gave him a smirk as she replied.
"Take a move, and you'll see."
Ben looked back at his own set and picked up one of the pawns before setting it on the square. Ember only made a small laugh with the shake of her head before she spoke to him.
"Good move. But… not good enough."
With that, Ember took her queen piece and moved it all the way across to where Ben's pawn was, and just as quickly, the queen materialized a Sword before beheading Ben's king piece, making him widen his eyes in surprise while Ember spoke in satisfaction.
"Ah-ha! Check and mate."
Ben blinked his eyes a few times, still trying to comprehend how the chess pieces moved, let alone how quickly she finished the game.
"How did you do that?"
Ember didn't think much beyond what she had to tell him. It was a simple philosophy for her.
"Well, you just left an opening, and I took advantage. Maybe think more wisely on who you move up first next time."
Ben made a small groan of defeat. He couldn't ever imagine a time when a chess game ended that quickly. Clearly, he had much to learn.
"Yeah. Maybe."
At that moment, Judith and her mother took notice of Ember and Ben playing chess. Judith was happy to know he didn't go too far as she walked over to him with her mother by her side.
"Hey, Ben. It looks like you're having fun."
Ben looked back to see Judith with her mother behind her, though he didn't know who she was at the time. It was then that he realized that in meeting Ember and playing a game of chess with her, he'd almost forgotten that she was trying to figure out what the Demon Eye piece really was, and how it brought him to the Boiling Isles.
"Oh. Well, yeah. I mean, she got me pretty good in just two turns."
Judith looked over to see Ben's opponent, bearing a look of surprise as her face (which began to show a tear leaking out) looked back at Judith's. She immediately recognized that face as she went over to her and gave her a hug, befuddling Ben.
"Ember! What are you doing here? How are you here?"
"Can't an old friend come and visit?"
Ben looked at the two of them in awe for a moment. Granted he only just met Judith, but it was certainly news to him.
"Wait. You two know each other?"
Judith nodded before she answered. However, as she continued, she had a momentarily sober look on her face.
"Of course. We have known each other since we were kids. But we haven't seen each other since… well, a long time."
Judith's mother had a surprised look herself before it began to sadden as she looked at Ember. Ben became perplexed to see this happen between them before Ember spoke up to her.
"Oh, by the way. It's nice to see you again, Ms. Clawthorne."
Ember held out her hand for a mutual handshake, which shook Lilith out of her train of thought before she felt it best to return with a soft smile of her own, as if nothing had happened.
"Please. Call me Lilith."
While Ember and Lilith shook hands with each other, Ben felt like he was out of the loop on a lot of things. He wanted to ask them what exactly was going on, especially what went on between them, but as much as he wanted to go home, he had to be delicate about it.
"Yeah, so… uh, Judith. Did you find anything about that weird Demon Eye thing?"
Judith only shook her head as she replied.
"Unfortunately, no. I was hoping my mom could help me figure it out, but then she asked to meet with you."
Ben looked back at Lilith. Compared to her daughter, she had an air of coldness to her. He felt it before from his father, and he didn't like the reminder one bit. He could practically feel the shivers in his spine just looking at her. Lilith leaned closer, making the feeling even worse as her eyes focused on the indent on the sides of his hood he began to break out in a cold sweat.
"So, you're the new friend Judith met today?"
Ben tried his hardest to keep his cool as he answered.
"Uh, y-yeah. It's nice to meet you, Lilith."
As he got his hand out to shake hers, Lilith clenched onto it tightly, her nails digging into his hand as she corrected him.
"That's Ms. Clawthorne to you. And if you do anything with my daughter, it'll be the last name you'll ever hear."
Judith saw how hard she was crushing Ben's hand and tried to stop her from making it worse as a blush formed on her face.
"Mom…!"
Lilith saw the embarrassment on her face as she removed her grip on Ben, forcing him to tend to his hand as he winced. While Ben rubbed on it, Lilith turned back to Judith as she spoke coldly.
"Judith, come with me for a moment."
Lilith then walked away as Judith had a weary look on her face before she followed close by her side. Ember looked back at Ben, puzzled by Lilith's cold tone towards him.
"What exactly did you do to get on her bad side?"
Ben was as much at a loss for that as she was. He looked back at Lilith and had a scared look towards her.
"I don't know. But I'm not sure I wanna face her death grip again."
Once they got far enough away, Lilith brought up the issue at hand as she looked to her daughter.
"This new friend of yours… he's a human, isn't he?"
It was Judith's turn to break out in a cold sweat next as she tried to deny it.
"What? No. He's not a human."
Lilith only made a sharp glare at her as her tone grew darker.
"Judith…"
Not willing to face that glare, again, Judith changed her answer.
"Okay, yes. He is a human, but why does that matter?"
Her mother had a stern look on her face as she reminded her of their history with humans.
"Don't tell me you forgot about what they did to us at the Salem Witch Trials."
On the contrary, Judith hadn't forgotten. She knew all about what happened that day. About 25 witches perished that day. 19 of them were hanged, five of them died in jail, and one of them was crushed to death. It was too grisly an image for her not to forget. However, she also wasn't blind to how long ago it occurred. Surely, they must've changed for the better since then.
"That was over 300 years ago, mom. How do we know they're the same people that acted the way they did all that time?"
She took her daughter's point. However, it wasn't in the way Judith would've preferred.
"Exactly. We can't trust that they want anything to do with making peace."
"Why not? He's not as dangerous as you said they were. You kinda proved that when you crushed his hand."
"And how do you know that?"
Judith glanced back at her mother before she answered her.
"Because he stood up for me. When I was being bullied by Scab,"
Judith's face made a small frown, as if she was tired of the routine.
"...again, Ben distracted him and got me away from him."
This gave her mother food for thought. However, she was still adamant on her belief that humans were and are dangerous as she gestured to the Demon Eye gem in her palm.
"Perhaps he's the exception that proves the rule. But can you honestly believe all humans have changed? The Emperor's Coven received a report of a human breaking into the Conformatorium alongside the Owl Lady last night. If he's here, who's to say there aren't others? And besides, how do you know he's not the same one?"
This shook Judith a little bit as she looked at the hood on Ben's head. Even now, he's still trying to hide his identity despite Judith knowing what he is. Could her mother be right about him? Or was he trying to hide it to protect himself? It was most likely the latter with the way Lilith introduced herself. But the more important question was, how did he manage to find a way to their realm? She had a lot of questions in her head, but her mother couldn't answer them. Her mother may have made her own point, but she was just as adamant in her own stance on humans.
"Well… I don't. But either way, there's only one way to find out."
Judith took the gem from her mother's palm and walked over to Ben with a determined look on her face as Judith spoke up to Ben.
"Yeah, sorry about that, Ben. She just doesn't have much trust in people who are… different."
As Judith gave a passing glance to Lilith with her own stern look, Ben found it to be an understatement as he soothed his hand.
"Yeah, I think that's been established."
Judith helped Ben up while cautiously holding his crushed hand. Thanks to Lilith's nails, blood was beginning to leak out from the incisions she made. It utterly stupefied him how sharp her nails were.
"Let's get out of here, Ben. There's nothing here that can help us."
Judith and Ben then took their leave before Ember followed, mostly out of curiosity for what they were planning to do. However, before they could exit, Ben spoke up.
"Hold on. We got to check out my book first."
In the meantime, Lilith couldn't decide if Judith was doing this to spite her, but she knew that if he were to try anything with her daughter, she wouldn't let him hurt her. As a member of the Emperor's Coven and as a mother, she just can't allow it.
"If you think I'm going to just leave you with that human, you better think again, daughter…"
A/N: And that was part 1 for Chapter 1. As I said, Part 2 will come next week. But if you're curious about the lineup, I'll show it to you in the form of a message: "A WITCH FINDS HIS TRUE HOME". What that entails, I won't disclose it. But I'll say this. It'll be a different direction than Luz would take. And for the voices of Judith and Ember, Judith is voiced by Alyson Stoner while Ember is portrayed by Jessica Nigri. And the voice for Judith's bully, Scab, is portrayed by Marc Worden. If you're interested to see where this is going, be sure to follow along. ;)