Welp, here I am again.
After posting a chapter on my other ongoing fanfic, Built to Last, and receiving overwhelming positive support, I've decided to update this fanfic as well.
I've been struggling to find a beta reader which was the main reason I didn't upload, but since it's been impossible I've just decided that I'll send you guys on a scavenger hunt for mistakes instead x)
I've also had a hard time with some self-doubts because of some people but I hope I'll feel better about my writing soon. In case you want to support me, some kind words always brighten my days and help a lot with my confidence 3
That being said, I hope you have a lot of fun reading!
Because it's been a lot of fun writing x)
Read you soon!
It was early in the morning when Eda crawled out of the tent, stretching her cracking back and reaching up to the sky as high as she could as she loosened up her stiff limbs. She was yawning and huffing when she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, then she patted King's head who had followed her outside for a quiet morning. The sun was just barely shining through the thick treetops, the earliest rays of the still very young light barely grazing one of her knees.
She yawned again, before starting to get dressed in sturdy boots and her usual get-up that was worthy of a retired knight, her heavy jerkin that reached down to the middle of her thighs and had worn elbows as well as the chest plate that she strapped to her torso.
Only when she wore all of her armor she felt protected and whole. When Luz had started sleeping in her tent with her, and later when Gus had joined, she had taken off the armor around the children so they had it softer, but at the war front, she had always slept with it. Way too many times, their camp had been raided and attacked, way too many times she had had to jump up in the middle of the night and start fighting for what her life was worth, while some other unlucky soldiers had been stabbed in their sleep.
Humming, Eda looked around, before deeming them safe and searching for the chest of food she always kept away from their tent in case wild animals and monsters picked up the scent despite their protective barrier. If they ate their supplies, so be it, but she'd never forgive herself if anything hurt the two little children that were still sleeping in the tent.
Sometimes both their sleeping habits were a gift to Eda. They allowed her at least one small timeframe in the morning when she could relax and listen to the silence for once.
The earliest birds now awoke with the first rays of sunshine and began chirping, a wonderful symphony of animals singing about the joys of being alive.
Eda had never been one for romance, but these were the moments she felt like she could be writing poetry.
Breathing through, she took a long swig from her water bottle, before patting King's head again who was curling up against her leg, seemingly resting for another little bit before Luz would be keeping him entertained the whole day.
Smiling, Eda blinked against the early morning sun and waited a few minutes until one of the sunbathed spots would graze her face. A little bit of warmth kissed her cheek and she enjoyed that for a moment before stretching once again and starting to eat the bread she had found in the chest earlier. After a bit of rummaging around, she had even found a bit of meat left, which she had carefully hidden from King.
This was her kind of time, she decided. Funnily enough, back when she had still been a knight and younger, waking up early had been the thing she had hated most. But now, with the children still sleeping and the world just so waking up, without giving her responsibilities yet was such a nice feeling.
Humming, Eda ate the bread and meat, before giving King a little bit as well so he wouldn't have to hunt for bigger prey this afternoon. He gratefully accepted and started devouring the scrap she had given him before she started packing up as quietly as she could, not to destroy this moment of peace.
When just the tent was left over to fold up and stash in her pocket dimension of the bag she had slung around her shoulder at all times, Luz just poked her head out, her hair sticking in all the wrong directions while she blinked against the now warmer sun. Following shortly, after the older girl had crawled out of the tent and started stretching much like her mentor, Gus looked outside and was greeted by Eda scooping him up and greeting him for the morning before ruffling Luz's hair.
"Are you two rested?", she asked but before Luz, who was trapped in a yawn, could answer, she continued, "We'll start towards Bonesborough today! It'll be a long way ahead and I need you two fresh and early so that we can best the journey before sundown."
Luz gave a nod while she was still struggling to wake herself up, and Gus just hid his face in Eda's shoulder.
She wouldn't admit how adorable that was, mainly because they needed to get going already. But contrary to Gus, Luz was already fully charged with energy and practically bouncing in place.
"How long is it to Bonesborough?", she asked with a gleam in her eyes that Eda could only describe as absolutely ecstatic, even if she didn't know why her apprentice would be so overjoyed to go to a city. It turned out that Luz would explain to her in full and excruciating detail why exactly she wanted to go to Bonesborough since their journey was long and the child could, curse Eda's pointy ears, walk and talk at the same time.
"Just about one day of a journey by foot, so you better get ready and eat something before I'll leave you behind.", Eda playfully threatened, and Luz quickly vanished back in the tent to put on her boots and jerkin. Looking down at her younger kid, she couldn't hide a grin.
"Gus.", he looked up with a questioning gaze, "Were you lazy this morning?"
The innocent expression he feigned quickly dissolved into mischievous giggles while Eda looked right through him and sure enough when she playfully swatted at his legs, the illusion boots he had conjured vanished in a blue puff.
"You better follow your sister, or I'll tell King to clean your ears, mister."
The young boy laughed and kicked in her arms while she let him down on the floor again to watch him vanishing in the tent again, shaking her head.
She had talented kids. One was fast and sneaky and practically nothing could bring her mood down, and the other was already insanely skilled with magic at the tender age of five years old.
Eda smiled to herself, before propping her hands up on her hips and looking out to the forest while she heard the siblings squabbling inside the tent.
They had a long walk ahead and she would probably have to carry Gus a bit of the way because he couldn't walk as far yet, and she didn't want Luz to carry his weight. Maybe she should get some leaves ready for him to sit on so the ropes wouldn't make him feel uncomfortable. The tarp tree would have some bigger ones, maybe even big enough to wrap the boy's legs in like a diaper.
Boy, was Eda glad she had only adopted them after the diaper age.
Huffing, she pulled her sword and searched for a nearby tree growing these big, sturdy leaves before returning and stashing them away in her pocket dimension. Maybe, she'd even be able to use them for a temporary roof above their tent, because even with magic enhancements, the boiling rain would always leave its marks on the poor, worn fabric while the leaves of the tarp tree had a heat resistant surface.
After she had rolled them up and put them away, the kids were crawling out of their space and she was able to collapse the tent to stash it away, too, without any weight being added to her shoulders.
These pocket dimensions were truly a gift.
With that, the small family was ready to leave. Eda had already kicked out the ashes of their fireplace and spread them over their campsite to ensure nothing would be burning and to cover up their traces before they found their way back on the road and started walking away from the village where they had been working yesterday.
The sun was still young, throwing long shadows in its way up the sky, and there was fog lying all over the fields and soaking the grounds. Eda took care that their sleeves were all pulled down properly and that she could conjure a shield anytime they got too close to the steaming fog that was wavering over the gentle slopes, hotter than most would think and easily causing burns.
After a while, the weather cleared up to show the bright blue sky and Luz visibly breathed through.
She had never liked the oppressing heat of the rain or morning fog, but she loved the dry heat of the sun. It was shining right into her face, making her feel dry and comfortable as she was stretching again and charging her energy, even more so if that was even possible.
Humming, the girl started skipping, before turning back to Eda, walking backward.
"I wanna see all of Bonesborough!", she announced to her mentor who all but lifted her eyebrows at that statement.
"Why?", she asked, taking Gus' hand who gestured for her to grab his, not minding guiding the small kid on her hand, "What do you know about Bonesborough that you want to see?"
"I heard it's a big city!", Luz exclaimed, her arms drawing the estimated size that she found appropriate. Which was a big gesture, "I heard there's a lot of people, more than I've ever seen, and buildings so big I'll have to put my head to my back to see their top."
The old knight couldn't help but smile at that and nodded fondly, watching her kid grinning as brightly as the sunrise in the East.
"Oh yeah? Where did you hear all this?"
"The people on the streets talk!", Luz explained, skipping to her place next to Eda's other side now and taking her hand. She smiled warmly at that.
"They talk to you about Bonesborough?", Eda questioned and the girl on her hand shook her head rapidly, furrowing her eyebrows.
"No, but I listen to them. They say Bonesborough is the biggest city anyone has ever seen, and that there are so many people there. They say that the marketplace is overcrowded at any time of the day, even at night, and that it's dizzyingly interwoven."
At that, the witch had to chuckle, causing Luz to look up to her with a questioning expression. She watched the older woman laugh, before pouting.
"Who taught you these words, Luz?", she finally forced out and Luz huffed, slipping her hand out of Eda's to cross her arms. For once she had wanted to sound smart, and her mentor had nothing better to do than to make fun of her. Pouting, she looked in the other direction but soon felt a hand ruffling her hair.
"You're really smart, kid.", she reassured the child and sometimes, Luz asked herself if Eda was reading her mind or if she was just such an open book, "What else did you learn about Bonesborough?"
For a moment too long, Luz was contemplating while pushing her hand back in Eda's, and Gus instead chimed up, his other hand that wasn't holding on to his mentor's tightly buried in King's thick fur.
"Rich people!", he exclaimed and earned an amused gaze from the adult, as well as his sister's face lighting up.
"Right! There's a lot of rich folks, so rich that we can't imagine it. Like, the guy with the necklace I saw yesterday, he would steal from them!", she explained, but instead of chuckling, Eda just nodded. Luz saw that as a motivation to continue to somehow humor her mentor again, "And I've heard of weird animals! They keep them in cages. They're like the monsters that you sometimes hunt, but alive!"
Eda snorted. With a proud smile, Luz finally looked away from her mentor and back over the wide plains of the countryside, the fog slowly lifting. The day got a bit cooler and it became easier to breathe the more the steam vanished.
"Kids, that's called a zoo. They bring dangerous and exotic animals and monsters there to look at them."
At that, Gus seemed puzzled.
"They don't hunt them?", he inquired and Eda's gaze wandered back down to him and his big dark eyes staring up to her. Shaking her head, she squeezed his hand softly, "No, they don't hunt them. They just catch them and showcase them. Many think that that's crueler than killing them."
She hadn't been able to leave that comment out. Eda wasn't a big fan of zoos and she would do her best to teach her kids that keeping an animal caged was not a very ethically right thing to do.
Luz thoughtfully nodded at that, while Gus just looked ahead and tried to put two and two together, before speaking again.
"Is-… Is King caged?", he tried and Eda immediately understood that he had mistaken a caged animal for a pet, or rather, a companion.
"King came to me when he was tired and hungry, much like you two. Do you two feel caged to be with me?"
Luz immediately shook her head and Gus followed, even if he was a little more hesitant to do so. This wasn't because he was troubled but rather, because he was still thinking very hard about that.
"No, I don't.", he finally conducted and Eda nodded at that.
"There's a big difference between wanting to be somewhere and being forced to be somewhere Gus.", she explained and Luz nodded importantly.
"Yeah, it is a very big difference.", she started educating her brother who peeked past Eda's knees, to make eye contact with Luz, "Because, people look at me all the time like they look at stuff they don't know, but you don't and I'm happy to be with you guys."
She hadn't exactly made a point, yet Gus seemed to take it as a pearl of very important wisdom. Luz nodded again, and Eda gave a small smile while looking up. Kids could be so easy to shape, another thing why she loved having adopted them. She could form the new generation, teach them the wisdom she had had to find out for her own, and with a bit of luck, she would be able to lighten up the world just a little bit, even if it was a small start.
Maybe Luz and Gus would continue carrying Eda's lessons out to the world, and it would make a difference someday.
There was something powerful about being able to teach children, Eda found.
"… People look at you strangely?", she finally asked, though, and looked at her daughter again. At that, Luz merely shrugged. She seemed to be used to it, and while Eda had picked up on it as well in the few years Luz had stayed with her already, she hadn't thought the kid would pick it up. She must have underestimated her ability to walk through crowds with open eyes.
"Yeah, they do.", she nonchalantly replied, looking ahead again but not without squeezing the knight's fingers, "I look like a witch but I don't perform magic and have no pointy ears. But I don't mind."
She did mind. Eda knew she minded not knowing what species she was, even if it was just an annoying thought every now and then, but she knew her daughter did ask herself that question.
It wasn't a big issue.
There were so many species of demons on the Boiling Isles, and so many variations, Luz was just some sort of demon. There were a lot of demons, looking very similar to witches, who could not do magic.
She just assumed Luz was another weird demon hybrid with witch ancestors, but without a bile sac, and she knew Luz was probably thinking the same thing. It wasn't that she wasn't aware of the incredible variety of species.
Yet, and Eda could understand that she did ask herself sometimes what biped demon species didn't have a bile sac.
Humming, she squeezed her daughter's hand back and reassuringly smiled at her.
"Don't mind them. People sometimes have strange views of what's supposed to be normal, but we know better, alright?"
In an instant, Luz puffed her chest out, proud by the implication that Eda considered her smarter than most, and nodded. Her smile was as bright as the rising sun, and her eyes as clear as the sky above them as she looked up to her. Sometimes that kid had an aura that almost scared Eda. She was so positive and clear about what delights her.
"That's right!", she agreed, "We know better!"
Gus still seemed to wonder, but that was because of his naturally curious spirit and because he was still so small. Tugging on Eda's hand, he caught her attention and made her look down to him, furrowing his eyebrows. She softly tugged back to assure him she was listening and he hesitated, but finally spoke.
"But what is Luz?", he asked and Eda smiled.
"She's your sister.", she answered, humming, "And my daughter."
That made him nod, yet it didn't smooth the deep, thoughtful wrinkle from between his eyebrows, his chin pushed up front and his lips tightly together. That's how he always looked like when he was thinking hard.
Eda tugged on him again to make way for a carriage, coordinating both her children and her wolf pup off the road and back on again without stepping into any boiling puddles, then she checked back on Gus again.
His gaze was turned up front, seemingly still in thought, while Luz had moved on already. She had let go of Eda's hand and skipped ahead two paces, wandering through the world as if it was hers, looking around without so much as a care in the world. Sometimes, Eda wondered if she would grow up to be the same or if she would learn some seriousness in her life. Half of her wanted her daughter to grow up and learn to take some things more seriously, for her own protection, but another part wanted her to keep all the childish innocence she was living right now.
Gus tugged on her fingers again and spoke before she even had time to look down at him.
"But, we can do magic and Luz can't.", he finally said, and once again, Eda had to marvel at the perception a five-year-old like him already possessed. Nodding, she agreed with him and he huffed slightly, before puffing his cheeks out. Another very "Gus" thing to do.
"But Gus, not everybody can do magic. For that, Luz can do other things. She can steal really fast and she has the funniest jokes, doesn't she?", Eda made him think hard again when she said that. She had always been eager not to let Luz feel in any way less than her or Gus ever since she had taken that little girl into her heart. And she would do her best to teach that to her young son as well.
"Yeah, right…", he agreed, still in thought, but Eda was sure he wouldn't start treating Luz differently than him. He loved his big sister and always enjoyed going out to steal with her and find new fun things to come up with, new techniques and plans, and most of all, new mischief to spread.
She knew he adored Luz's quick wit and her ability to think up ridiculous plans that worked most of the time.
Humming, Eda looked ahead again and let Gus have his thoughts for a bit while Luz had discovered something on the road a few paces ahead and was curiously poking at it.
Eda immediately recognized it as a swamp slug and let her be, those would be harmless.
The further the sun rose, the more of the clear sky became visible and they were able to take their jerkins off in the heat since they didn't need their sleeves anymore to protect them from the hot fog.
The world had fully awoken now and merchants began filling the streets, carts, and carriages wobbling down gravel paths, bakers and farmers wandering to the nearest village to sell their goods, travelers up and about on their merry way, wherever that may go.
Back in the days before the war, there would also be knights on roads like this, but since everyone had gone to fight at the fronts, there were none around except Eda.
Some younger knights in training, squires, could be found around bigger cities and monster-infested areas to enrich their experience and train their skills in tournaments and hunts, but out here on the countryside, Eda was quite a sight.
Luz and Gus were used to it, yet some did turn their head after her chest plate and sword, eyeing it with skeptical glances.
If Eda was here and not at the front, these people suspected, something must be fishy about her. Most probably suspected she was a thief in knight's clothes, Eda knew of these folks, but she actually had all the training to be a knight. She kept to herself with a smug grin, quite enjoying the quizzical looks people gave her, the second glance demons took when passing.
It took them about half a day with some breaks so Gus could rest his little legs, to reach the Owl House where Eda resided when she wasn't touring through the lands.
Her little house was hidden in the forest, away from prying eyes, and held all her belongings and goods that she had collected over the years. It was also her bank, where she kept all her stolen goods and her money, so nobody could find it.
Sighing in relief, she approached the little house with the big, circular window at the front, smiling at the familiar sight. Gus was on her back and dozing away, yet the little girl next to her wore the same expression on her face.
Luz hadn't seen the Owl House very often, at least not that she could recall it.
Eda took her on the road most of the time, to steal from the rich and travel the lands for missions and mercenary work. Because her mentor knew that mercenaries never stood still.
Following the older witch inside, she immediately ran upstairs to her room, where she had collected some of her stuff that she had found, stolen or that Eda had left her with after a particularly successful job or coup.
She opened the little box she had pushed under the bed months ago and blew the dust off of it, just as Gus sleepily followed her and sat down next to her.
He had his own little box, yet he was more interested in what Luz had accumulated in hers, mostly because she was older than him and had been with Eda for longer already.
Inside, she pushed away all the little trinkets and memory holders she owned, before pulling out a very special piece to her. It was a little necklace, very fragile and detailed, yet it had never been broken. She had had it for as long as she could think, even before Eda, and she had never given it away.
Eda had told her to put it away whenever they were on the road because other thieves might be interested in the jewelry and others could identify her as their thief if she kept it on. Such a piece made her recognizable and Eda had urged her to become one with the crowd, a face one would soon forget again to stay safe.
Mesmerized, she put the chain over her hand and observed how the dim light from outside was broken by the beautiful little pendant.
It was a little circle with some odd symbols and markings in it, wearing the littlest clear stone she could imagine, and it shimmered and shone in a way that always left Luz with goosebumps.
"Why don't you wear it?", Gus asked and Luz hummed with a shrug, not necessarily eager to explain to him why she didn't. All she was interested in was that it was back with her, back in her hands. She never felt complete without it.
Slowly, she pulled it on and immediately felt the warmth surging through her chest as the little pendant rested against her skin, making her smile wider.
"It's special to me, I don't want it gone.", she finally replied and for Gus, that was all the answer he needed to get up and wobble out of the room towards his bedroom, undoubtedly to search for his own little treasure chest.
Luz was still entranced by her most valuable piece of belonging, feathery touching the little pendant. She believed her mother had given it to her when she had still been a baby, but she wasn't entirely sure.
The delicate, golden metal was warm against her skin, as it was always when she put it on, as warm as if it had just been worn.
Luz once again tapped against it, something she only did when she was alone and to herself, and watched it beginning to glow. The intricate lines of the tiny symbol started illuminating her skin, but it didn't feel too hot. The light from the pendant was soft and nice, and she liked it a lot.
Concentrating on the light she willed it to come out of the pendant and watched as a little glowing orb, no bigger than the nail of her thumb, extracted itself from the metal and floated in front of her.
This was magic, she was sure of it. She had watched Eda creating little balls of light for her when she had been younger, and when Gus couldn't sleep.
She hadn't figured out how she could produce magic by herself yet, without a bile sac and any witch skills, but this was her little magic. She had kept it a secret for now, because even if her memory was foggy, she thought she had heard her mother telling her not to show anyone when she had been given the pendant.
She had just been an infant, and no other child of her age had reported they could recall their infancy times, but she had been sure of it that she had known her mother. She had supposed that was just another demon thing her species had, and since she was some sort of unspecified biped demon, she had figured that was normal for her, to remember such early stuff.
At Eda's call, the girl perked up and the light of the pendant faded to her command, returning to be a normal necklace.
She hadn't told Eda her necklace could do that. It wasn't that she hadn't wanted to, especially after Eda had slowly started adopting her and caring for her. Her mother had been insistent that she shouldn't tell anyone, it was hers alone, and Luz would be honoring that request, especially since it was her mother who had asked her not to do that.
She quickly ran down the stairs and stood at the ready by the front door, not carrying any belongings but the clothes she had on her back since she didn't have anything but her pendant that she could've gotten from the Owl House.
Everything else they needed Eda was carrying around in her bag, she called it something weird like a pocket thing, and there was nothing of value that she could be needing.
All she had wanted to get was the necklace, she had been parted from it for too long and with the brand-new jerkin she was wearing now, she could easily be hiding the necklace from the outside world. Not even Eda noticed when she was calling Luz downstairs, ready to get going towards Bonesborough again. If they were lucky and fast enough, they could still arrive at the city before sundown and possibly get a room in a tavern or inn.
Gus came wobbling down the stairs and Eda checked on everything one last time, her run-down furniture, her hidden stashes of goods, and her bag if she had everything packed before leaving the Owl House again.
Luz got a good last look.
The carpet was stained and dusty, the walls kind of damp, and the furniture looked like it had seen better days, with stains of wax running down some unlucky corners, but it was the home of her mentor and she felt comfortable in it.
Just as fast as they had arrived, they had already left again. Gus had taken a little polished stone he had found by the Boiling seas once and was playing with it in his hands while Luz was rubbing her chest, where the pendant was hanging and warming her.
Eda curiously glanced at the stone in her son's hands but was quickly more interested in her daughter and her neck, where she had seen something golden blinking.
"Did you put on that necklace again?", she asked and the small child nodded, smiling up at her.
"I think the jerkin will hide it. And I wanna wear it again, I missed it.", she said, softly rubbing at the spot under her shirt where the pendant was hanging.
Smiling, her mentor left her alone about this. Luz was a smart little kid and if she thought the necklace could be hidden sufficiently, she wouldn't object.
If there was something she wanted her children to learn early on was independence, the ability to think and decide for themselves and bear the consequences. If Luz would lose the pendant that would be sad but she would have learned the chance of that happening and kept an eye on her belongings more closely.
Mostly in silence, though accompanied by Luz's humming, they continued down the path down to the busy road where they had come from. The direction towards Bonesborough had only become busier while they had been away at the Owl House, and now, merchants, young knights, travelers, beggars, and aristocrats were to be seen on the paved road towards the closer-knit villages just before the city.
Luz and Gus stumbled between the carriages, pack animals, and folks by foot, but Eda noticed with a slight gleam of pride, that her children wasted no time assessing the rich and sneaking their hands in their pockets to possibly snatch something of value. Especially Luz was good at playing the amazed, wide-eyed child while scheming and strategizing her next move.
She was in her element.
The child snuck in between carriages to appear seemingly out of nowhere next to unsuspecting travelers who were wealthier than most, quickly sneaking her nifty fingers into their pockets and bags to grab belongings, mostly money, and some jewelry.
Gus was looking up to his sister and tried to mimic each one of her little tricks and quick movements, even if he was still a little wobbly and less elegant than the older girl. He managed to pickpocket some witches and demons, though, even if Luz once caught him stealing from a less rich-looking demon and pushed him to attract their attention and lie about their pouch falling from their pocket.
Eda had to snicker at that, shaking her head.
Even if she was a thief, Luz still had her very developed sense of justice and she wouldn't let Gus steal from someone who didn't have any reserves to fall back to.
That was something Eda had taught them as a little way to feel better about herself teaching kids to steal.
And luckily, Luz had caught on quickly and was teaching Gus in her place. Smiling, she observed as her children bickered among themselves, before Gus took the pouch and snuck it back into the pockets of the unsuspecting demon, not daring to attract their attention or give them their money back while risking eye contact.
Occasionally, both her children came running back to her and emptied their loot into her pocket dimension which she carried at her hips, before running off again to try and make more where that came from.
While her children did the job, Eda didn't dare give into her urge to help them. She looked like a knight and eyes were on her at all times, she couldn't afford to get caught in the act.
Her sword and armor attracted to many stares and too many demons could be observing her doing shady stuff, so she wouldn't think of pickpocketing.
Not even when King joined the kids on their shenanigans, nudging Luz's hand as if to ask her what he could do. After Luz explained a plan to him, the wolf pup would jump to action and act like a wounded puppy or a happy one, to pull some gazes while Luz and Gus would empty the pockets of the wealthy.
Humming, Eda kept her hand on the hilt of her sword, her gaze wandering over the plains and the far away forests just before Bonesborough. It was midday and the sun had risen to a more tolerable level so that she didn't have to blink against the low rays anymore.
The fog had lifted completely now and she could see the workers on the fields, as well as some villages down the roads that left the main one, or some farms that lied in the middle of nowhere, only to be reached over a dirt path. She had picked up one of Luz's odd melodies, the tune playing in her head over and over again, and she annoyedly asked herself where the kid always got these catchy melodies.
Shaking her head, she stared ahead.
There, between the dark lines of the forest on the horizon, she could make out Bonesborough. The city had only gotten bigger since the last time Eda had seen it, even if the landmarks stayed the same. She saw the big library building, the town hall, and some other, taller buildings like the famous dome of the roofed market.
Sighing in annoyance, Eda only found dread returning to her birthplace.
Quite in contrary, her kids were delighted to finally see the city in all its glory. The sheer abundance of houses impressed them, the seemingly endless spread of roofs over the valley they were overlooking. The bigger buildings were something of a treasure hunt for them, one finding a bigger and more beautiful building than the other and pointing these out to their sibling. King excitedly barked at their side every time they squeaked in joy at the possibilities they could have in this city.
Luz couldn't believe her eyes when she stared over Bonesborough.
She had never seen a city that big, with houses everywhere, markets, noises, inns, and taverns, more than she could count from the distance, but widely visible due to their raised roofs and most times colorful appearances. The city was gigantic.
There was a wall she could see surrounding it, standing tall in a protective manner, and as far as she could tell, it was guarded as well. She had never seen anything as well protected as this city.
And all these buildings!
There was a big one with a colorful window as it looked like, and a big roof, bigger than she had ever seen. She hadn't even known a building could be bigger than an inn, but even the houses sometimes left the biggest she had seen in their shadows. There were mansions sprinkled through the area, big, gigantic palaces of wealth and pride. Some were white-clad in marble, some others were big wooden manors, with windows and gardens and even some springs. Luz hadn't seen many windows in her life, but with the angle of the sun, some reflected into her eyes. The hill they were standing on, still, a few hours away by foot from the big city, gave her a good overview and she could even see some windows that were being opened and closed this second.
She had never seen that much wealth piled up on top of each other.
With a start, she realized Eda had already gone ahead, with Gus and King, and she quickly shook the stupor off to follow her little family down the hill, towards the biggest collection of wondrous things she had ever seen.
There were some domes, some houses suspended in the air by curious-looking arms, some hills here and there, a lot of bridges to suspend over the multiple odd gaps, and a lot to see. She could make out a building a little to the side that had a big eye in the middle of one of its towers, as well as some double-towered buildings, higher and higher than she could have ever imagined, some roofs even blinking in other colors to attract attention from afar.
Some streets were visible, crowded, and full of life, and she couldn't wait to finally mingle with the folks down there, to mix herself into the crowds and see as many different people as she could, to observe and learn and maybe even find one like herself, with brown skin and round ears and no magical abilities. Well, except the little illuminated pendant that she was wearing.
Reaching up to her shirt she still found it dangling around her neck, as she had left it, and a strange reassurance that she wouldn't lose it washed over her.
She wouldn't.
It was bound to her spirit and she would never lose it, she was sure, no matter how small it was and no matter how much she would shake herself.
Smiling, she caught up with Eda, Gus, and King again and allowed herself a moment of relief when she took Eda's hand, to be guided through the road without having to take her eyes off the city.
It was magnificent, seeing this spectacle in front of her.
There was a stadium in the distance, and she could only imagine the cheers and the sheer noise that would wash over the city whenever there was a tournament.
Judging by the colorful tents next to the stadium, there would be one or one that had just ended. Though Eda had actually told her that tournaments in the Bonesborough stadium rarely ended, they rather continued endlessly, one after the other, even if that had been before the war. She didn't know how it was now, that most knights were at the front, but Luz supposed Bonesborough knew no boredom.
When she let her gaze run further, she spotted some other buildings which she didn't know the meaning of, but for such a big city, they looked important. She supposed a lot of official stuff was going on there.
There were buildings as tall as mountains, she thought, with big windows and colorful drawings on the side that shone over the lands, telling stories of ancestors which held great importance to the people of the Boiling Isles.
Humming, she looked more to the side and finally spotted the biggest landmark of Bonesborough.
It was a gigantic palace, a castle of sorts, with a lot of towers and banners and decorated in the most precious things. The spires were blinking golden in the sunlight and Luz didn't doubt they were probably made of gold for real.
She saw a big entrance, a huge gateway that was big enough to have a whole Owl House walking through it, she was sure. It was opened, currently, and some little demons and witches passed through it, looking like ants from the distance.
Eda had told her that the King of Abomin lived there and ruled their kingdom from this castle. His name was Darius and she remembered Eda telling her on a rainy night with a lot of thunder that Luz was scared of, that she had met him twice, once when she had pledged her loyalty to him as a young knight when she had been of age, and one other time ready to be sent off to the front of the war.
She had described him as a tall man, a young king whose father had died early and left him the throne, of a strong statue and a steady stance, a ruler fit for a kingdom as beautiful and powerful as this one.
Luz could only dream of meeting him once since she was a common thief. She could probably see him in one of his processions through the crowds on festive days, though, as Eda had told her.
If there was something Luz really wanted, besides being a knight, it was meeting the king of their kingdom.
The castle was practically shining in the sunlight and she could only imagine he would be shining the same. For a second, she wondered for how long he had already been king, and for how long his family had already been ruling. Would they take squires?
Maybe she could become a royal knight!
The daydreams made it hard to walk, but luckily for her, Eda was there to catch her every time she was falling over a pebble on the side of the road, while she was caught up in a dream about wielding a sword, wearing the royal crest, charging into battle on a horse and winning the war for her king. Maybe he would be so grateful, he would make Eda a knight again. Because Luz had thought long and hard about Eda leaving the army and she had decided that she found it impossible that Eda had done that on her own terms.
And maybe he would pay her enough, as a decorated war hero, for her to stop stealing.
It wasn't that she didn't like it, because she did enjoy the anticipation and the excitement of pickpocketing and stealing, but she had other plans for her future, that was for sure. Her gaze wandered back over Bonesborough, away from the giant castle that was blinding to look at, as magnificent as it was built, and her eyes caught onto the building with the big, round, colorful window in the middle of the city. Before she could even ask what it was, she had stretched out a finger and Eda recognized what she meant, smiling down at her.
She explained to her that that was the library and as a young squire, she had studied there. There and in the big building to the other side of Bonesborough, the one with the eye in one of its towers.
That's why Eda could read and write and knew a lot of things about history and politics.
Luz yearned to study there.
She could be learning about so much, there was so much knowledge that she was excited to suck up and internalize. How did the world come to be?
How many different species of demons were there?
Who had ruled before King Darius and who had implemented certain rules and guidance?
Where did taxes go, something weird Eda refused to pay, and how did the farmers know when to plant what?
Her head was spinning with all the questions she knew Eda would have the answer to, but she wouldn't want to bother her too much. She could get very grumpy if annoyed and Luz didn't want to risk being cared for.
I hope you enjoyed it!