Chapter 11: Sense and Insensitivity

Morning in Bonesborough, a few days had passed since me and Luz went through the Bat Queen's trials to earn Owlbert's trust back. Of course, me, Juniper, and Luz didn't say anything about it to Mom and we were glad that she forgot about it as something else seemed to be on her mind. While I was concerned about that, me and the girls brushed it off as this gave us a lucky break from her wrath. As of today, we were back to work trying to sell items from the human realm items at the marketplace. After setting up shop in the right spot where no Coven Guards would spot us, we all then waited for any customers who might be interested in our "merchandise". After a while with business being slow, we all decided to do our own thing with King putting something together to get people's attention, Luz walking over to explore the town, Mom lounging around with a pair of sunglasses on, and me and my sister talking about the plans in a couple of days. What we have planned was the video chat we had with Dad since he sent me a text that he wanted to have a video chat to see how I was doing while he had the time. He remembered that he had one day off planned and, because of it, he had enough free time on his hands for a chat. Considering this was the perfect time for it, I decided I would tell Dad when he called that I now knew that the Owl Lady, the very person he sent me to help me with my curse, was actually the mom who I got the curse from and the person I always wanted to meet. I also thought this would be the perfect time for Juniper to properly meet our dad. Needless to say, my sister was pretty excited.

"This is awesome!" Juniper said with a bright smile. "In just a few days, I finally get to talk to Dad!"

"Yeah, and I bet anything he'll be happy to find out that you know you're his daughter." I told her with a smile of my own.

"I still can't believe you didn't tell Dad you found out the secret him and Mom had kept from us." Juniper said to me. "It's been over a few weeks now since Mom told us."

"What? I didn't know what to say." I told her. "I was still getting used to the fact that the witch he said would help me was the mom who I wanted to meet my whole life and that I actually had a twin sister. Besides, I actually want to see the smile on his face when I tell him that I finally got to meet the other half of the family that had been living here in the Boiling Isles."

"But you'll leave out the part about meeting Lilith, right?"

"Yeah. Considering how her and Mom have been like with each other, I'm pretty sure she might be the last person of the Clawthornes he wants to hear about."

"Partake of my free snack samples! I demand it as your ruler, the King of Demons!" Hearing King's voice, me and my sis turned to see him holding up a tray with a magic 8-Ball, a Santa pez dispenser, a gross-looking hotdog covered with toothpaste, and two strands of bacon. After a little while of people ignoring and walking past him, the little demon then threw the tray to the ground in frustration. "Nyah! Why isn't anyone paying attention to me?"

"Maybe because they don't care?" Juniper sarcastically commented, getting a light laugh from Mom.

"I'm their rightful overlord!" King claimed. "Intellectually and such!"

"Uh-huh." After my sister said, I then looked around as the way people were walking around the streets was usually a sign of something going on.

"Even though we haven't had many customers, it seems like the streets are pretty busy." I spoke up as I watched people go by. "Especially considering it's early in the morning."

"Yeah, you're right." Mom said as she took off and tossed aside her sunglasses before she grabbed this passerby and sniffed him. "And it reeks more of geek than money today. Something's up."

"Guys!" Just like that, Luz came out of nowhere with an excited smile on her face, slamming her hands on the table and startling all of us to where Mom dropped the student she had. "You will not believe what's going on!"

"Good God! Luz, don't scare us like that!" I told her.

"Whoops! Sorry." She said, giving me an apologetic smile.

"It's fine." I said as I then recomposed myself. "So what's going on?"

"I'll show you. Come on!" Luz excitedly said, grabbing me by the arm and pulling me to show me what got her all excited with Mom, my sis, and King following behind.

After walking for a while, we finally reached where Luz wanted to take us, Luz having me cover my eyes before we walked right over to where she wanted to go.

"You're not peeking, are you?" Luz asked me as we continued walking.

"I'm not. Don't worry." I told her with a smile. "Are we almost there yet?"

"Yep! Just minute…" She said just before we finally stopped. "Okay, you can look now." Removing my hands from my face, I gasped at the sight as Luz did a pose underneath a banner that hung at the entryway to a street full of stands that were stocked with different kinds of books.

"A book fair!" I said as I walked over to stand by Luz, having the same excited smile she had. "The place where books come to life!" Just then, a book from one of the stands jumped off its stack and landed in my hands.

"Hello." The book greeted me, surprising me.

"Whoa! Literally." I said as I then put the back with its stack. "I didn't know the Boiling Isles had this."

"Talking books or this nerd fest?" Juniper said with a blank expression.

"Come on, Juni." I told my twin. "A book fair is amazing!"

"A fair without rides?" King questioned in confusion.

"Oh, it's got its own sorts of rides, King." I told him with a proud smile.

"He's right." Said a short warlock wearing a backpack who then held a book in front of King. "Who needs those kinds of rides when this can take you on the ride of a lifetime?"

"Nyah!" Annoyed by his presence, King threw a strip of bacon on the guy's head which caused this winged demon to swoop in and take him away, getting a chuckle of amusement from Juniper.

"Oh, come on, guys." I said, trying to encourage the three to find some enjoyment here at the fair. "Give it a chance. You might actually like it."

"Okay, one: ew." Mom said as she then picked up a book from a cyclops girl's stand before then dropping it on the ground. "Two: the only nerd I need in my life is my Axey. And three: I'm only gonna walk around ʹcause I feel like pickpocketing some dork while they browse."

"Great. Now I got a reason to be here." Juniper said in exasperation before running off after Mom. "Mom, wait up!"

[Ryuji's aside]

You know, considering how both my mom and sis are, I really shouldn't be surprised they wouldn't be much interested in something like this. At least I still got someone who loves book fairs just as much as me.

"Well, at least now I won't have to wait at the stand all day." I said before I smiled at my friend. "Thanks for bringing me here, Luz. You made my day."

"Aw! It was nothing." She told me, looking a little proud of herself before turning to King. "Come on, King! Give it a chance! I'll let you ride in my hoodie!"

"Oooh-hoo-hoo-hoo!" The canine happily accepted before he jumped into her hood.

"Okay, guys! Let's see what a Boiling Isles book fair is all about!" I said as we then walked into the book fair.

Walking in there, I was amazed by what the book fair had to offer. There were all kinds of stands that showed different parts of the world of literature, like a reviewer stand called "The Reviewnicorn" ran by what looked like a humanoid unicorn and one for ghostwriters manned by an actual ghost. And, much like the first book I encountered here, it wasn't in short supply of living books as I saw a book that resembled the monster book from Harry Potter trying to eat a young witch kid.

"This place haves everything!" I spoke out as we walked through the book fair. "A zine-making workshop, meet and greets. I wonder if they have manga around here."

"Hey, what's going on over there?" Luz spoke up and we soon stopped as we looked over to one stand that was pretty popular.

One of the warlocks managing it had a nearly shaved head with dyed green strands of hair swept to the right along with a thin, brown mustache and goatee dressed in a blue jacket, a red scarf, and purple-shaded sunglasses and the other was a humanoid reptile-like demon dressed in small, round glasses resting at the end of his nose along with a long, red jacket with yellow trimming, and a blue hat that curved over to the left. Seeing the lines of people holding books, it looked like the stand was holding a book signing. Though I then saw it was much more than that as I looked up and gasped at the sight of a banner that said "Writing Competition: Enter today and become a published author".

"A writing competition!" I said, excited to discover this event here in the Boiling Isles. "I've always wanted to become a writer!"

"Yeah, me too!" Luz added, sharing the same smile I had.

"Writer?" King said as he looked at us. "I thought you wanted to be a hero and a witch."

"Of course, I want to become a witch." Luz said as she explained. "But where I'm from that's kinda… impossible. So my runner-up dream was to be a writer." She then brought out a picture showing her when she was younger, wearing a space dolphin sweater and posing against a window. "I even have my own author picture. I know how to get my good angle."

"Yeah, but I still can't believe you've had that since you were seven." I said as my friend put her picture away.

"Okay, so what's your deal with this writer thing?" King asked me.

"It's part of my retirement plan. It's also my cover." I told him.

"Come again?"

"Well, sure I want to be a hero, but I can't always be one forever." I explained. "I need something else to do when I decide to put away the sword. I've always had a knack for writing, so being a writer is my career choice after retiring from the hero business. Plus, it's also a good-paying job since being a hero isn't all 'money, money'."

"And I'm gonna be his cowriter!" Luz added with a proud smile.

"Which is why I think we should join in on this." I said with a smile of determination. "Who knows? Maybe we'll win and become published authors here in the Boiling Isles!" Just then, one witch girl ran right past us while laughing like crazy, the rudeness of the girl making me lose my smile. "Hey, excuse you!"

"Ugh! What are these basement dwellers doing out in natural sunlight?" King asked with a groan of disgust.

"Um, we're in line for Jon De Plume." Said a familiar voice as we looked down to the side and saw the conspiracy prisoner standing there while holding a book.

"Jon De Plume?" I asked before pointing to the sunglasses-wearing warlock who was signing books given to him before giving them back to their owners. "You mean that guy with the sunglasses which don't really go well with that scarf or that hair?"

"Hey, don't you dare insult him!" the midget told me. "He is the most famous writer on the Boiling Isles, the famed author of the Wealm Warriors series!"

"Realm Warriors, huh?" I said, a bit intrigued by this. "Must be a really good book if he's got this many fans."

"Uh, yeah, it's amazing!" the conspiracy prisoner said. "Which is why I'm going to have him read my story. Once he weads it and loves it, I'm going to ask him to marry me." She whispered that last part to herself in determination.

"Yeah, good luck with that." I told her as we watched the author she admired sign away like crazy.

"Jon, will you sign my child?" Said as a demon who walked up and held a baby demon up to the author.

"I'll sign anything!" Jon said as he then wrote his signature on the young demon before giving off the laugh of a real jerk.

[Ryuji's aside]

Seriously? That guy's the most famous author on the Boiling Isles? I can already tell that guy's nothing but an asshole. He signed somebody's baby! A baby! Honestly, who does that?

"Such power, such command he holds over his minions. I must have this!" I heard King say as I turned to see he was entranced by how many fans the author had. "Luz, Ryuji, I too shall enter the competition!"

"You? King, this is a competition full of people who know about literature more than you." I said, a little amused by the little demon's declaration. "Do you even know how to write a great story?"

"Uh… no?" King said, sounding unsure how to answer before getting that overconfident tone of his back. "Doesn't matter. Whatever I write will be a masterpiece that will make everyone grovel before me!"

"Yeah, right. You might beat some amateurs like yourself," I said before pointing to myself with my thumb as I gave King a confident smile, "but you can't beat a pro like me. I've been doing writing since middle school and studied the art of literature. With Luz helping me out, whatever you write will be nothing compared to the story we'll write together."

"Ha! You know nothing what the people here want! I bet you anything my story can beat your story!"

"I might not know the audience that Isles has for literature, but me and Luz can still make a story that everyone can enjoy!"

"Ha! Good luck with that!" With that, me and King growled at each other with glares of anger for a moment before Luz spoke up.

"Guys! Guys! Guys!" Me and King then stopped glaring at each other and gave my friend our attention. "Maybe instead of competing against each other, we could work together!"

"What?" Me and King said in disbelief at what she was suggesting.

"Well, you both have good points." Luz said as she explained. "King doesn't know how to write a story, but he knows what people here like in one. Ryuji knows how to write a story, but doesn't know what people look for in one. If we all work together, I bet we can make the best story the Isles has ever seen! Plus, we're best friends, so we'll make the best team!"

"She does make a good point." I said as I turned back to King. "Our chances at winning would be better if we use both experiences in writing and knowledge in what the people want in a story." With that, I then offered my hand to the little demon. "What do you say, King? Wanna team up and make the best story ever?"

"Hmm…" King thought for a moment before he then shook my hand. "Okay, but my name goes first on the cover."

"Fine by me." I told him before we broke the shake and I gave both him and Luz a smile. "Okay, team! Let's get the stand packed up and get to writing!"

"Team! Yes!" King cheered out as we then went on back to back up the stand and then head on back to the Owl House.

[No one's view]

Elsewhere at the book fair, Juniper was searching around for her mother, hoping to find her before she pickpocket anyone. Unfortunately, she had managed to lose while trying to avoid dragging attention to herself along with all the people offering her books.

"Damn it. Where did she go?" Juniper whispered a curse as she stopped in front of a bookshelf right before a random book fell from it and hit her in the head. "Ow! And there's the only reason I hate book fairs." After rubbing her head for a moment, Juniper looked to the ground to see what was dropped and her eyes widen as the title of the said book caught her attention. "So You're Cursed: Expert's Guide to Curses and How to deal with them?" Picking it up, she flipped through the pages, humming in interest as she carefully looked through them. "Maybe looking around here isn't a bad idea after all."

"Boring." Juniper flinched in surprise at hearing the familiar voice, quickly tucking what she had into the back of her shirt.

The reason why was that the voice she recognized was a clear sign that her mother was nearby and, by the sound of her tone, was not enjoying the book fair one bit as she was throwing and knocking down books left and right before picking up another book with a mirror on it. While she was occupied with it, Juniper took this chance to walk up to her.

"Boring." Eda said before she looked into the mirror and gave a sudden gasp of shock. "Oh, no."

"Mom?" Looking into the mirror, she saw the reflection of her daughter behind her own.

"Oh, Juni." Eda said as she turned to Juniper. "How long have you been standing there?"

"Not long." Juniper told her. "What's wrong?"

"Another wrinkle. The curse is getting worse faster than I thought."

"Eh, I'd say don't worry about it." Juniper casually waved it off. "It's just a wrinkle. You're fine."

"Easy for you say. You're still young." Eda then turned her attention back to the mirror. "You don't have to worry about wrinkles till you're my age." Hearing this, Juniper gained a very teasing smirk.

"Well, maybe this isn't the curse. Maybe it's just a sign you just need to stop frowning so much. Frowning makes more wrinkleeees!" Her singing that last part pissed Eda off and made the Owl Lady start to yank on her daughter's ear. "Owwwww!"

"You better apologize!"

"No!" The young witch replied back in defiance. "Ow-ow-ow-ow!"

"Apologize!"

"I ain't taking it back! Ow!"

"You, lackey." Upon hearing the voice, Eda grabbed Juniper and ducked behind a banner that said: "READ OR… DIE". She lift the banner and glared at the owner of the voice, her sister standing in front of the stand belonging to a mammal-like demon and one of the masked guards from the Emperor's Coven beside her.

"Lilith." Eda whispered sourly while her daughter gave a scoff.

"Do you have the item we discussed?" Lilith said to the demon.

"Oh, yes. Right here." The demon said as he opened a drawer and took out a rolled-up parcel before giving it to Lilith.

"Excellent. A map to the Bloom of Eternal Youth." Lilith said as she gained a very pleased smile after opening up and seeing what the parcel contained before curling it back up. "The Emperor will be very pleased."

"Ma'am, shouldn't we be searching for the Owl Lady, the Demon Flame, and the Dragon Kid along with that other kid to join the coven?" the guard with her asked. "Remember that whole plan?"

Lilith laughed at what he said. "My sister's curse has left her frail. She'll still be here when we get back." Eda then growled, insulted by what she said. "As for Juniper and Ryuji, as well as Cameron, we'll deal with them soon. This comes first. It's for the Emperor after all."

"Yeah! All hail the Emperor!" The soldier exclaimed before knocking over the merchant's books.

"Very good, Steve." Lilith said, patting him on the shoulder before walking away.

"Shoulder pats for Steve!" The guard said before he then followed her.

With both the Emperor's lapdogs gone, both mother and daughter nodded to each other before they both jumped over a table.

"Hey, bub. What'd you sell my prissy sister?" Eda asked the merchant.

"Oh! It's a map to the Bloom of Eternal Youth." The demon answered.

"Bloom of Eternal Youth?" Juniper asked with curiosity.

"Yes, it's a rare flower that only grows once a millennia." The merchant explained. "Like the name suggests, it gives eternal youth to whomever holds it."

"Interesting. So Lilith wants to nab this power for the Emperor, huh?" Eda said, gaining a smug smile. "Well, won't she be surprised when I get there first and get it for myself! Hah! That'll show her who's frail." Seeing this, the merchant gained a malicious grin which didn't go unnoticed by Juniper.

"Well, we'll see, won't we?" The demon said as he opened up another drawer that was filled with more maps. "Can't go without a map, of course."

"You have more maps?" Juniper asked with a raised brow.

"Of course. I provide to anyone who seeks rarities such as this." He said as he hands Eda one map. "It does keep me busy after all." Taking and opening the map, Eda grinned away as she looked forward to foiling her sister's quest.

[Ryuji]

After getting the stand packed up and back to the Owl House, me, Luz, and King then got to work on our entry story for the writing competition.

"Okay, guys." I said as I used my magic to bring a large corkboard into Luz's room. "Before we can write the story, we need to come up with a plot. So let's come up with ideas for what it will be about."

"We can write anything?" King asked with surprise.

"Of course, we're brainstorming." I said as I handed him some notecards and a crayon. "That's the first step of the whole writing process."

"Yeah, any idea is a good idea." Luz said as she had a pencil and her own set of notecards in hand, giving the little demon a wink.

"Okay, now let's get to brainstorming up some ideas." I said.

"I got one." King said before he took one card and wrote on it. "There." With that, he then pinned it on the board, the card saying "VIOLENCE".

"Okay, I guess that's a good first idea." I said. "But is that all you want to see?" With that, King then wrote on another card and became shocked when he showed he wrote "BLOOD" with a smiley fave below it. "King, it can't all be just violence, especially with bloody content. That's horror genre and it doesn't seem like to me people are interested in that."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." King said. "With what we got here, it might bore people to death."

"Though I think you were on the right track with the violence thing." I said as I wrote down one idea I had for this and pinned it on the board. "Seeing how people seemed to be interested in this Realm Warriors thing, maybe we should go with a story that has action." I then came up with another idea. "And unique locations."

"Hmm…" Luz hummed as she thought for a moment before she smiled and started writing on her cards, putting the ideas she came up with on the board. "Romance! Magic! Heartbreak with shimmer tears! And the main character is, of course—ahhh!—Luzura!" She then pinned up a drawing of a witch who resembled her. "A young teen witch on a quest to save the world from evil, accompanied by her trusted companion Ryudolf the Dragonoid Knight." She then pinned a drawing of a knight who actually looked like me next to her Luzura picture. I know it's kind of cliché, but what's wrong with cliché?"

"Not bad, Luz. Not bad." I said to her with a smile before turning to King.

"Nyah! And my main character is the King… err, I mean…the Ruler of Demons!" King said before putting up a simply drawn picture of himself wearing a crown and wielding a scepter that seemed to be burning with flames.

"Less original than the OCs Luz came up with, but okay." I said, deciding to go along with it. "Now that we have our main cast and ideas for the plot, we can start putting it together."

"Yes! With our totally original story, victory will be ours!" King proudly said, pumping a paw into the air.

"Then let's get to writing." Luz said as she then brought in a green demon typewriter which mostly looked like a normal typewriter only with the demon's face on the back of it.

"Alright then." I said as I walked over and sat at the typewriter. "Now we got most of the easy part done, all we need now is a title."

"The Tale of the Ruler of Demons!" King put in. "Quest of Unstoppable Conquest!"

"King, that doesn't really fit with the plot." I told him. "Not to mention a mouthful. Besides, it's not all about Ruler. This story follows him, Luzura, and Ryudolf. We need a title that follows their journey."

"How about 'Luzura's Awakening'?" Luz suggested.

"That can work." I said, liking her idea. "And I think I've got the perfect storyline for it. With the land under threat of great evil, the young witch Luzura goes on a journey to save the world and bring peace back to it."

"And, on her journey, she meets two great friends who help her save the world: the cool and brave Ryudolf the Dragonoid Knight…" Luz said, knowing where I was going with this.

"And the Ruler of Demons, who seeks to be the only major ruler of the land himself." I followed up. "And together…"

"They take on everything the world can throw at them…"

"And become the greatest heroes to ever live!" We both said at the same time.

"Wow. Do you two always know what each other are thinking?" King asked with surprise.

"Yeah, kinda." I told him.

"Just one of the reasons why me and him make such a good team." Luz added with a smile.

"Okay, now that we got the title and our plot, let's get to work!" I said before we all then got to working on the story.

In those few hours, Luz and King brainstormed ideas while I typed them out. It was all going pretty well. Luzura's Awakening, as cliché as it was, proved to be an idea that worked perfectly. Though things started to get rough when we're closing in on the final chapter.

"'Struck by the grief of her lost, Luzura's let her tears fall on the frozen Dragonoid Knight. At that moment, an aura of light surrounded Ryudolf and Luzura becomes overjoyed as he is brought back to life'?" King said as he read the scene where Ryudolf was turned to ice before being brought back to life. "Ehhh. It just seems kind of unrealistic."

"Yeah, but it's better than your idea." I told him as I stopped typing for a moment.

"He's actually got a point, King." Luz put in, backing me up. "In your version, Ruler just destroys everything. I think a little romantic tension could help the scene."

"Luz, nobody wants a bunch of romance. There's more to life than shipping." King said, making me gasp in shock.

[Ryuji's aside]

Oh, boy. King's in for it now. No one loves shipping more than Luz.

"Don't you dare insult shipping in my presence!" Luz snapped, pointing at the little demon.

"Ryuji! Apprentice! Living room!" Mom called out from downstairs.

"Coming, Mom!" I said to her before I turned to Luz. "Come on, Luz. You know she only calls you 'apprentice' when she got something important for us."

"Yeah." Luz said as I got up and we both walked out of the room. "We'll be right back, King. We'll figure this out later. Okay, writing buddy?"

[No one's view]

After the two teens leave, King looks over to the typewriter with interest.

"Well, time to show them how to make a good story." King said as he then went over to the typewriter. "It's my turn to write."

[Ryuji]

Heading to the living room, me and Luz found both my mom and my sister dressed in their cowls with Mom looking at the piece of paper that was giving off this weird blue glow.

"Alright, we know where we need to go?" Juniper questioned as she walked up, getting a nod from Mom.

"Hey, Mom. Hey, sis." I said as me and Luz walked over to them. "What's up?"

"Me and Juni are popping out for a few days to an undisclosed place to do undisclosed things." Mom told us. "Ryuji, you and Luz are in charge. No questions."

"Great!" Luz replied as the two witches put on their hoods and made their way out.

"Wait, you're leaving? For a few days?" I said, confused by this. "Why?"

"I said 'no questions'!" Mom told me as she closed the door before it opened up again and Juniper poked her head in.

"Sorry, Mom just really wants to get this done." My twin told me.

"Hey, I just want to know what exactly you two are doing." I said to her.

"We're going out to find this magic flower that can make people forever young." Juniper said, explaining things. "Mom found another wrinkle and thinks the curse is getting worse. Honestly, I just think she's just getting old and only wants that follow to look good when we do that video call with Dad. Ow!"

"Come on, you! We need to get that flower before my sister does!" I heard Mom say as she had my sister by the ear.

"Alright! Alright! I'm coming!" Juniper said before she turned back to us. "Don't do any stupid stuff while we're gone!" With that, Juniper then left, closing the door as she went with Mom.

"Oof! Should know better than talk about Mom's age, sis." I said to myself as me and Luz then started our way back upstairs. "Well, at least now we can keep working on Luzura's Awakening without interruption."

"Yeah. This is gonna be great!" Luz said with an excited smile as we got back to her room. "Hey, King! Juni and Eda just left, so looks like it's just gonna be you, me, and Ryuji for a while…" Luz gasped as we looked with shock at what become of the room.

In the minute we were gone, King had covered the idea board with pictures of him, screaming people, and scenes of bloody horror and put our transcript in the trash, all while the little demon was typing away.

"King!" I called out, getting the demon to stop typing and turn to us.

"Oh, hey, guys!" King casually greets us.

"Dude, what are you doing?" I said as me and Luz looked at him in disbelief. "Why is Luzura's Awakening in the trash?"

"Because we don't need it anymore." King told me. "I just took what you guys wrote, made some little edits to it, and now this baby's humming. Check it out!" With that, he then handed me his own transcript which had a drawing of his character Ruler as the cover along with a new title.

"Ruler's Reach?" I said as I then took a look at what he wrote and was shocked by all the changes he made to the original plot. "Little edits? King, you completely changed the plot! There's not even a bit of what we came up together in it! It's all just scenes of horror, murder, chaos, and destruction!"

"Give me that!" Luz said as she then took the transcript and scanned through it before she became just as shocked as I was. "You killed off our characters?! Luzura and Ryudolf didn't even get to have their first kiss!"

"I know, right? What a twist!" King said, not bothered by this at all.

"King, I know you just want to help and win the competition," I said as I pinched the bridge of my nose for a moment, "but you can't just make edits like that without our permission. We're supposed to be a team and you just crossed a line with it."

"Yeah, into greatness." King said to me. "Don't you want us to win?"

"Yeah, not if you take control of everything." I said as I then took our original transcript out of the trash bin. "Which is why we should go back and try to finish Luzura's Awakening."

"Yeah. Come on, King." Luz put in, backing me up. "If we just put our heads together, I'm sure we could…"

"Luz, no one wants to read anything that is just full of your stupid shipping!" King said, making Luz gasp before she then gained an upset expression from what the little demon said hurt her feelings.

[Ryuji's aside]

Okay, I know he's a demon and all, but what King said was totally uncalled for. Me and Luz worked just as hard as he did to write that story and he just rewrote the whole thing just because he didn't like our ideas. Just because he wants to win, it doesn't mean he has to be an asshole about it.

"King, this is the last straw!" I said as I was angry at King for what he said, exchanging Luzura's Awakening for Ruler's Reach. "If you're not gonna cooperate, then we won't work with you!" Using a small magic circle on the tip of my finger, I then went through King's transcript and use a spell to remove any trace of Luzura and Ryudolf from it, the letters of each part that mentioned the two OCs Luz made disappearing in black mist as I traced my finger over them.

"Hey, what are you doing?" King said as he stepped away from the typewriter.

"I'm removing Luzura and Ryudolf from your story." I told him. "They aren't your OCs, they belong to Luz. I'm also removing Ruler from our story since he's your OC. Since we're no longer a team, you've lost the right to use any character me and Luz come up with." Once I was done, I canceled the magic I put on my finger and tossed King his transcript back, his story now void of Luzura and Ryudolf. "Now, because I'm a good sport, I'll only give you a little help in filling the blanks out." Using my magic, I then brought out the small box I had packed in my bag but never thought I would bring out and gave it to King. "Here. These are some red-shirt OCs I made, characters that I could never be able to fit into my story, especially not for a long time. Seeing how your story is, I'm sure they can be of good use to you. Come on, Luz. Let's leave the King to his work."

"Hey, where are you going?" King asked as the two of us walked away, me with a look of anger and Luz with a look of despair.

"To work on our entry for the competition." I said as we walked out of the room and stood at the door, me turning to glare at the demon. "You think it's so easy being a writer? Let's see how well you do without any help from experts!" With that, I then slammed the door before turning to head downstairs.

"Come on, Luz. We got a lot of work to do." I said as I walked away from the door with Luz following behind.

[No one's view]

After the teens left, King looked at the door with shock before he gained a glare as he growled in frustration.

"Fine! I'll show you! I'm going to write a story and then we'll see who's the better writer!" King said before he turned away from the door. "Bah! What does Ryuji know anyway? I can do this all by myself."

"What the hell, man?" Said the typewriter, shocked by what had happened. "That kid knows what he's doing. Learn to collaborate."

"Hush you!" King snapped. "I'll prove to all of you my story is superior!"

After a while of typing and with the use of Ryuji's failed OCs, King managed to complete his transcript of Ruler's Reach and soon went out to Bonesborough to find someone to read his story. Making his way over to a place called Grimgrub's Pub, King barged through the doors with his transcript in hand.

"Hey, you scum!" King yelled out, drawing the attention of everyone in the establishment. "Which one of you wants to read my literary masterpiece? Anyone brave enough?" In response, the patrons only growled in annoyance before they then threw King back outside, the little demon landing face-first into a mud puddle.

As he lifted up his head, the manuscript of his book comes flying out and hits him in the back of the head, making his face reconnect with the mud.

"I'll read your ssstory." Said an eerie voice as King picked himself up as someone takes his book off his head.

Who took his manuscript was the reptilian demon that was with Jon De Plume at the book fair who had a smile with his teeth sticking out of his mouth as he eyed King's book, interest shining in his two blue eyes. After wiping off the mud, he then opened the manuscript where he opened a third eye on his forehead. With all three eyes glowing, he flipped through the pages, not even staying on one with his pleased smile still on his face. When he finally finished, his eyes stopped glowing and his third eye closed before he turned to King.

"You wrote this?" The reptile said with surprise.

"Yep, that's me!" The little demon replied, wiping mud off his face. "Only me."

"Let me get you a fruit punch." He offered, motioning inside the pub.

"Ooh. I love punching." King said as he accepted the offer.

Once they were inside, the reptile snapped his fingers and it wasn't long until a glass of fruit punch slid on the counter toward King.

"Allow me to introduce myself." The reptile said to him. "I'm Piniet, as in of the Piniet Publissshing Houssse. And your name isss… King?"

"It's more of a rank than a name."

"I loved your story, so much better than the submissssionsss we got for the competition."

"Well, I just know what the people want."

"I can sssee that. You truly have a talent. Listen, I have been the publisher for the greatessst writersss the Isles has ever known. I believe that your story is one for everyone to read. If you allow me to publisssh your book, I can make you asss famousss as Jon De Plume."

Looking over to the side, King saw Jon De Plume as he was getting cheered on by fans of his book as he does finger guns. While falling backward, two female students rush to act as a chair for him.

"I've always wanted a people chair!" King then turned back to Piniet. "I'm in! This will be my first step in my reclamation of power!"

"Wonderful." Piniet then pulled a contract out of his jacket and puts it on the counter. "Then all you have to do is sssign here." Without hesitation, King dunked his paw in the punch and smacked it on the signature line, the contract giving off a weird red glow as Piniet picks it up, rolls it, and puts it back in his jacket.

"You're ominous. I like it."

"Get ready to be famousss, Mr. King." The two of them then shake hands.

Over the next few days, King's book was instantly published with multiple copies of it being stocked in bookstores all across Bonesborough. From this, it wasn't long until people began reading it and became engrossed in it. Ruler's Reach had quickly grown in popularity as everyone seemed to love it. It had even managed to receive great reviews from book critics like the Reviewnicorn.

"It's the perfect blend of heart and heartlessness." The Reviewnicorn said, speaking his thoughts of Ruler's Reach. "The noblest of writing that combines a demon's rise to greatness with gruesome iron fist and a tale-telling of great gain and tragic lost." Using a spell circle, he then made the words "Tour de Horse" appear beside him before he gave off a neigh as he received applause for a wonderful review.

Seemingly overnight, King had managed to become famous as an author as his book practically flew off the shelves. Everywhere he went, King was instantly swarmed by fans. He even managed to get the admiration of one certain midget who's manuscript he signed. Needless to say, King had managed to obtain what he wanted and enjoyed every moment of it.

Elsewhere on the Isles, Eda and Juniper were making their way through the forest and made it to a clearing with Juniper consulting the map while Eda ripped vines off of a statue that revealed to be a minotaur that was giving a thumbs-up.

"Okay, Juni." Eda said after removing the vines. "What does the map say?"

"From the Minotaur, we head due north." Juniper said before she tuck the map into her shirt. "That doesn't sound too far. We should get to the Bloom of Eternal Youth before Lilith does."

"Who's frail now, Emperor dorks?" Her mother laughed with a bit of snorting before she stopped at the sound of a branch snapping. "Someone's following us!"

With a snap, Eda then summons a blue sword before she and Juniper ducked behind the statue. Looking over to her daughter, she nodded her head. Nodding back, Juniper then made a fireball in her hand, the two now ready to attack. After a brief second, they both sprung out from their hiding places ready to attack who was following them.

"Die, you mother…" Juniper said as they both charged before skidding to a halt with shock to see the one that was following them was Lilith who yelped upon seeing them while looking worse for wear.

"Lily?" Eda said, surprised to find her older sister.

"Edalyn? Juniper?" Lilith said, just as surprised to see her younger sister and niece.

"Oh, crap." Juniper said with a blank tone as she and Eda's weapons disappeared, making Lilith sigh in annoyance.

"And, of course, you would be here just to be a nuisance." Lilith said to them. "And you have the audacity to bring one of your own children into this mess. Why don't you go home and rest? Wouldn't want you breaking a hip."

"Maybe you should look in the mirror. You don't exactly have that perfect image you love so much." Juniper retorted. "By the way, is that a wrinkle I see?" Her smug comment earned a frown and growl from her aunt while Eda laughed at her daughter's words and happily pat her on the back.

"Sorry, sister. I'm stronger than you think." Eda said before running off. "We're here to save the Bloom of Eternal Youth from the likes of you."

"And we're gonna get there before you!" Juniper sang as she ran with her mother.

"Aah! No, you won't!" Lilith said in a panicked tone.

"Catch us if you can, ya old hag!" Juniper taunted as she and Eda kept on running.

[Ryuji]

After finally finishing our rewrite of Luzura's Awakening, me and Luz then headed down to Bonesborough to try and submit our story and hoping we would win the competition.

"Well, we finally did it." I said as we walked down the sidewalk, holding our complete manuscript in hand. "Took us a while, but we finally did it."

"Yeah, things seemed to be easier than when we were working with King." Luz said with a nervous look. "Do you think this is the right way to go? You know, leaving King out all of this?"

"Luz, King was the one being unreasonable." I told her. "King needs to learn that being a writer is not all about just writing anything you want on paper. Though I will admit that I hope he isn't too crushed with the results of his efforts."

"Ryuji! Luz!" Hearing that voice, we stopped as King ran over to us.

"Oh, hey, King." I flatly said to him before I noticed he was now dressed in a brown padded jacket, a green scarf, and a pair of red-shade sunglasses. "Why are you dressed like that?"

"Just looking the part of a famous writer." King said before he raised up his shades. "Guess who won the writing competition and became a blockbuster writer superstar."

"Wait, you won?" I said, looking at him in disbelief.

"Yep! Told ya my story was good!" King said before he then held up his scarf. "Do you wanna touch my scarf? A fan crocheted it out of their own hair! Smells bad, but…"

"Seriously? The first book you make and it's a huge hit?" I said, still finding a hard time believing all this.

"Yep! I told you I know what the people wanted." King proudly said. "And I gave it to them. My publisher's even throwing a huge party for my book, Ruler's Reach."

"You're having an author's party?"

"Yeah." King then pulled out and held up a red envelope out to me. "And I, uh… I want you guys to be there."

"King, you're getting way over your head." I told him with a glare. "May I remind you that your 'book' is only your rewrite of the transcript you, me, and Luz wrote together?"

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever." King said to me, not getting the hint I was giving him. "Right now, I'm a famous writer and now I got my own minions."

"King, the only reason these people like you is because they're fans of Ruler's Reach." I told him, getting straight to the point. "They only gather around because they think you're a great writer."

"What? I am a great writer!"

"No, you're not. You only just started being a writer. You don't know the hardships that come with it, especially when you get published. Sure, it's good to be famous, but that's only because people love the book you got published. Sooner or later, people are going to want more pieces like that. What are you going to do when they ask for you to a sequel of Ruler's Reach?"

"Then I'll do that. I'll write Ruler's Reach Volume 2!"

"Yeah, but can you make it just as good as Volume 1?" With that, I then tossed Luzura's Awakening into his face where it landed on the ground. "Listen to me when I tell you, King. Being a writer is a lot harder than it looks and, sooner or later, you're going to see just how hard it is." I then took the envelope. "I'm only taking this as a little memorabilia, something to look back at when the little demon who me and Luz saw as a friend turned out to be the biggest asshole we've ever met! Enjoy your party."

[No one's view]

With a look of shock, King watched as Ryuji turned around and walked away, what the young Frank said had hurt him emotionally.

"Luz?" King said, his hopes that Luz would be more forgiving crushed as the human girl turned away with her arms crossed in disappointment before she then walked off and followed Ryuji. Disheartened that the teens no longer considered him a friend, King's look of disbelief turns into one of anger as he snaps at them. "Alright, fine! Be that way! I'll have fun being the best writer in the Boiling Isles!" After saying that, King looks down and sees that the duo had left without their manuscript which he then picked up. "Hey, you forgot your book!" The two ignored him and only kept on walking. With this, King then turned and walked away with the manuscript in hand. "Whatever."

[Ryuji]

After walking far enough away from where King was, Luz spoke up with that despaired look on her face.

"Ryuji," Luz said, placing a hand on my shoulder as I stopped to look at her, "let's go to King's party."

"Seriously? After the way he acted?" I asked her in disbelief.

"I know, I know." Luz said to me. "I don't want to be around him right now, but I don't want to mad at him either. And I know you don't want to either. Please? He's already become a big hit. The least we can do is congratulate him for it."

Thinking about this for a moment, I saw that she was right. While King really pissed me off, I didn't want to be angry at the little guy. Sure, he annoys me most of the time, but he has shown to be a good friend. With a sad sigh, I then opened the envelope and look at the invitation inside, a golden paper that said "Meet the Author! Tonight only! Bonesborough Library!" with a picture of King in a blue sweater in the middle of it.

[No one's view]

Later that night, at the library where there was an extensive line outside made of all of the young and old followers the little demon who beyond excited to meet him in person, King sat at a table while waiting for his fans to enter where he would then start giving out autographs and answering some questions his fans had. King, unlike his followers, was absolutely depressed from what happened between him and his two teen housemates. Looking at the manuscript Ryuji and Luz had left behind and had placed on the table, King sighed as he then picked up the book and decided to read to pass the time.

"Wow, this is some really great work." King sarcastically said as he flipped through each page. "This sure is a great book." King then stopped when he saw something that caught his interest. "Weh? 'Chapter 3: Meeting the Devil Lord'?" From there, he then began to read the chapter, specifically about what was said about a character called Devil Lord. "'Out of all the people to make allies with, one would think that the Devil Lord would be the least likely. While his title would make him sound intimidating, this proved to be false when would actually meet the devil. Despite what many would think, the Devil Lord was actually quite small in stature, being no taller than two and half feet tall. The Devil Lord proves to be even less threatening when he yells out in frustration like a small child throwing a tantrum. Truly, the Devil Lord is nothing as many would think'?" It didn't take long for King to realize who this character was based from. "Okay, that's just mean." King then became skimming through the chapter, feeling more insulted with the way Devil Lord was described. But soon King stopped when he reached the end of the chapter and read the last few lines of it. "'Despite his rude behavior, his headstrong ego, and his tendency to annoy his companions, Luzura and Ryudolf had also come to see there was more to the little devil. Devil Lord may not admit it, but he had a caring heart that ached out of loneliness. While his title placed definition on him, Devil Lord always felt that he was alone.'"

"'Out of anything, he wanted someone who cared for people like him, understood and accepted him for who is. What he wanted more than anything was a friend. While trying his best to be proud and strong, Devil Lord only wanting to appear as he claimed to be, his pride being only a cover for the despair he felt inside. With him coming to aid the two and helping them when they need it most, Luzura and Ryudolf were able to see the good in Devil Lord. The good of which made Devil Lord a hero, a great ally, and a trusted friend, one of which Luzura and Ryudolf are happy to fight alongside with'."

What King had read at the end of that chapter made the little demon feel so touched that Luz and Ryuji had made a character like him and saw that how Luzura and Ryudolf saw Devil Lord was how Luz and Ryuji saw him. Even while they were upset with him, the teens still considered King a friend. In realizing this, King now felt terrible for the way he acted toward them and knew he had to apologize to them when he returned to the Owl House.

"Are you ready to meet all your adoring fans?" Piniet said as he came over and sat beside King at the table, the little demon quickly hiding the manuscript he read before his publisher could notice it.

"Oh, yeah. I'm psyched!" King said, trying his best to appear excited right before he looked to see all his fans rushing to meet him.

[Ryuji]

After getting to the library, we both watched with surprise as we saw a horde of King's fans rush in with security trying to keep the line orderly.

"Wow. King really outdid himself." I said, a little impressed by King's new fan base.

"Yeah." Luz said before she then grabbed me by the hand. "Come on, let's go congratulate him." With that, the two of us then went on to join the crowd, heading into the library.

[No one's view]

Back in the library, with a line of fans in front of him, King did some autographs and answered some questions given to him with not much vigor as the ones who asked him. He then became surprised when he heard one certain question.

"Your fans are dying to know. When Ruler's Reach 2 comes out?"

"Uh… That's between me and my publisher." King replied, lifting up his shades and playfully nudging Piniet in the arm. "Right, Piniet?" This apparently surprised the reptile as he quickly recomposed himself.

"Yessss." Piniet replied before addressing to the crowd. "Ooh, pardon me! I need a few momentsss of King'sss time." With that, Piniet then walks off, leaving the little demon confused. Deciding to see what was going on, King looked back at his fans and threw a peace sign which makes them scream in excitement before he then took the manuscript of Luzura's Awakening and ran after his publisher.

When they got a safe distance away from the crowd, King lost the confident face he had and regained the look of disappointment he had earlier as he walked with Piniet.

"You've certainly come pretty far, King." Piniet said to the little demon as they stopped in front of the romance section. "They jussst absssolutely love you."

"Yeah." King said before he then tried to change the subject. "Hey, where's Jon De Plume? I wanted to compare sunglasses with him."

"Oh, he'sss taking a break to finish his latest masterpiece. Fame can really box you in, you know?" Piniet suspiciously replied. "Uh, ssspeaking of, how's your sssecond book coming along?"

"Oh, that? I actually finished it." King said as he spoke more confidently, pulling out a manuscript titled "Ruler's Reach 2". "Bam! Haha! Ruler's Reach 2! Now with more swears!"

"Ahhh! Sssplendid!" Pleased with this, Piniet took the manuscript and read through the story. Unlike with the first one, the publisher was a bit surprised before he then chuckled a bit. "Oh, you cad! Not only are you a great writer, but a practical joker as well."

"That's true…" King said right before he caught on to what his publisher said. "Wait, what?"

"This is truly awful! It lacks almost everything the first Ruler's Reach has." Piniet then gave King back the manuscript. "It's good for a writer to have a sense of humor. Looking forward to the real draft." With that, he then walks away, leaving King both stunned and confused.

"Truly awful? But I'm a best-selling writer. How?" King said before the realization and he looks to the other manuscript he had and gained a look of guilt as he remembered what Ryuji said to him. "Ryuji was right. I'm no writer. I'm a faker."

Looking around, King became surprised as he spotted Luz and Ryuji, who both had only recently entered the library, with Ryuji generally disinterested in being there due to the mixed feelings he was having and Luz trying her best to cheer him up. With this, King then dropped both manuscripts and started running over to the two. Unknown to him, Piniet had come back and picked up the manuscript for Luzura's Awakening before looking over to see King running towards the two teens, leering in suspicion.

[Ryuji]

After standing there for a while with Luz trying to get me to be more supportive towards King, we both turned from hearing his voice.

"Ryuji! Luz!" King said as he ran over to us.

"Hey, King." Luz greeted him despite her feeling betrayed. "Sorry about earlier. We don't wanna be angry at you. We're happy for your success. Even though you were a jerk, you're our friend and we love you." She then turned to me. "Right, Ryuji?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah. Congrats." I said, trying my best to put aside my anger.

"Yeah, thanks, but I got something to tell ya." King said as he took off his shades and I saw the guilt in his eyes. "Ryuji, you were right. I'm not ready to be a famous writer. The only reason I got my book published was because you and Luz helped me. You guys are the real writers. I'm sorry for being such a jerk."

I was actually surprised by this as I saw that King was being sincere in his apology. From seeing him show some humility, I chuckled as I smiled before I kneeled down to him.

"It's okay, King. Me and Luz forgive you." I told him as I pat him on the head. "You were just being yourself. No one can blame you for that."

"Thanks." King said to me. "And, from now on, I'm leaving the writing to you. Being a writer is a lot more work than I thought."

"Well, I'm glad you learned your lesson." I said before I stood up. "Now let's go talk with your publisher and then get back home."

"Excussse me." Hearing that hiss, the three of us then looked to see King's publisher walking over to us. "Pardon my intrusion, but would you two happen to be Ryuji and Luz?"

"Yeah, that's us." I said to the publisher.

"Sssplendid." He said with a pleased smile. "Are you fans of Ruler's Reach?"

"Actually, King's a friend of ours." Luz told him.

"Are you now?" he said, briefly looking at King before turning back to me and Luz. "Well, I suppossse that thisss make thisss a wonderful meeting." It was then that he pulled out a manuscript and held it to us. "You sssee, I sssaw that King reading thisss. After reading it for myself, I sssee that King had made friendsss with sssome wonderful writersss like himself."

"Our story." I said as I then politely took it from him with surprise. "You actually like it?"

"Well, it certainly isss an interesssting piece." He said to me. "You two truly have a talent."

"I know. These two are the best writers I know." King told him.

"I sssee." The publisher said. "If you two are looking to share your book, I can have it published for all to read."

"You want to publish our story?" I said as me and Luz looked at him with surprise.

"Of courssse. It would be a ssshame to let such talent like yoursss to go to wassste."

"But aren't you King's publisher?"

"I've been a publisssher to more than one writer before. Besidesss, I believe I can make you all huge hits among the Isles."

"Well, actually we wanted to talk to you about that. You see…"

"How about we talk about thisss in private?" The publisher then placed an arm around me and Luz. "We don't want anyone dissscovering any ssspoilersss for the next blockbussster, can we?"

"Alright. Lead the way, mister…"

"Please, call me 'Piniet'." He said as he then guide us away from the crowd with King following behind.

[Ryuji's aside]

Okay, I'm starting to get some creepy vibes from this guy. This guy was the publisher to that asshole Jon De Plume before King. And the fact that he became interested in Luzura's Awakening when he seems to favor Ruler's Reach makes him more suspicious. The way he talked too was off. Much like the animal he looked like, the guy seemed like a real snake.

[No one's view]

Back in the forest, Eda, Juniper, and Lilith continued their race through the forest. Despite the fact that the three of them had been doing this all day, they were all showing no signs of slowing down. But as they were doing so, they were all unaware that a shadow was following them.

Juniper yawned as she ran. "This is getting boring. Are we almost done yet?"

"I think so." Eda said as she laughed at what her daughter said. "Hey, Lily? Doesn't this remind you of how we used to race to the kitchen?" After getting no response, Eda looked back to see her sister wasn't behind them before skidding to a halt. "Lily?"

"Huh, maybe she skipped out." Juniper commented until they both heard muffled cries from up above, both of them looking to see that Lilith was wrapped up in some sort of silk and being held by a crab-like monster. The monster growled as the witch tried to free herself.

"Lily!" Eda said before she looked over to her daughter. "Juni, help me out!"

"Do I have to?" Juniper asked, clearly not wanting to do it despite what was going on.

"Juni!"

Juniper only scoffed in response. "Fine."

Both of them then made their own spell circles and sent a fireball that hit the crab monster, making it fly off into the distance and dropping Lilith who gave off a muffled yell as she fell into a bush.

"There. Happy?" Juniper questioned as her mother went over to help her aunt up.

"Alley-Oop!" Eda said after doing so, the silk wrapping her sister up undid itself.

"Ugh! Thank you, Edalyn." Lilith said with a grateful smile. "I wasn't certain that you'd save me."

"Stow it!" Eda told her. "Ugh! We might fight, but you're still my sister. And besides, if someone's gonna be putting you down, it's gonna be me. Ha!" With exclaiming that last part, she lightly slapped Lilith's back, her sister giving a slight chuckle. She exclaimed lightly slapping Lilith's back.

"I appreciate your help too, Juniper." Lilith said as she turned to Juniper, only receiving a huff as her niece turned away from her gaze, making her sigh. As she turned over, Lilith became surprised as she spotted something in the distance. "Oh, is that?" Pressing her face to Lilith's, Eda looks through the trees to find, in front of a statue of some sort, a majestic, glowing pink flower.

"The Bloom of Eternal Youth!" Eda confirmed as they all then walked towards it.

"Finally." Juniper said in a dry tone, yawning once more before glancing between her mother and aunt. "So… we gonna fight or what?"

"Nah! We don't need to." Eda said before she pushed Lilith into the ground. "That baby is good as ours."

"Why are you always like this?" Lilith said with a growl in annoyance.

"Because, Lilith, you think I'm just some tired old biddy. Ah, but I'm more than that." Eda said as she then used a magic circle to cut the flow off its stem and held it up proudly. "And, with the Bloom of Eternal Youth's power, I'll show you!" Just then, the flower suddenly burst and disappeared in blue flames, much to the Owl Lady's surprise. "What the hell?"

Upon seeing a shadow fall over her followed by a sinister chuckle, Eda turned to the statue to see a figure atop it, Lilith and Juniper walking up beside her.

[Ryuji]

As Piniet was guiding us to a place where we could talk about Luzura's Awakening getting published and letting King leave the writing business, the small party at the library had ended and everyone had headed off somewhere. Where Piniet took us was backstage of the building where the Covention was, more specifically, he took us backstage of the center theater there where I heard cheering going on from the other side of the curtain.

"Hey, what's that sound?" I said before I went over and took a peak to find the stands full of people, becoming more surprised and confused to find that they were King's fans when I saw copies of Ruler's Reach in the hands of members of the audience. "Um, what's going on? What are these people doing here?"

"They're here to hear the announcement on Ruler'sss Reach 2." Piniet told me.

"Uh, Piniet, about Ruler's Reach 2…" King said before Piniet stopped him.

"Come, let's discusssss this in the dresssssing room." With that, we then let the publisher guide us into one of the dressing rooms of the theatre.

"Okay, Piniet, I got to come clean." King said with a nervous look. "I'm afraid there isn't gonna be a Ruler's Reach 2."

"No need to explain, King. I understand." Piniet said before he then gave us an evil grin. "It would be hard to write without your writing partnersss."

"What?" King said right before this purple, translucent appeared, trapping the three of us inside.

"Whoa! What the…" Luz yelped in shock.

"Don't worry, guys! I got this!" I said as I then reached for my Saisho, but became shocked as I looked back from not feeling the grip and finding my sword gone. "Wait, where's my…"

"Looking for thisss?" Piniet said as we looked to see him holding my Saisho before placing it on a nearby desk.

"Piniet, what are you doing?" King spoke up. "Let us go!"

"Not until you three provide me with Rulers Reach 2." Piniet told us. "Yes, I know that you three wrote Ruler's Reach together. When I saw that poor excuse of a draft you showed me, King, I thought you were simply joking. But I now realize that what you presented was all you could do. It turned out that you were only one part of the story, something I discovered after reading the minor manuscript of your friends here."

"Minor?" I said, surprised by this.

"But you said you liked Luzura's Awakening." Luz added.

"Are you kidding me? The plot is so unrealistic and full of clichés. No one in their right mind would want to read that." Piniet told us.

"Told ya." King said with his arms crossed.

"No, I was talking about your true masterpiece: Ruler's Reach." Piniet said to us. "You three created a story that everyone adores. We can't stop with just one book. Now, if you want to make the deadline tomorrow, I suggest you get to work unless you want to get crushed." By tightening his fist, the box then shrank a little.

"Seriously? You're pressuring us to write?" I said as King and Luz gave him kicked-puppy looks. "This is inhumane! Unethical even!"

"Oh, don't be ssso melodramatic." Piniet said, still bearing his smirk. "Some of the best books were written in crunch time." He tightened his fist again, making the box shrink some more startling Luz.

"Yeah, but not literal crunch time!" I told him.

"That's a toxic mentality that contributes to burnout and unrealistic expectations!" Luz pointed out.

"Well, I've done it quite a few times and there have been promising results." Piniet told us. "Don't bother trying to escape. That cage is made to withstand any magic used within it. And the cage will keep shrinking until you three are turned crushed into little cubes of flesh."

"You can't do this!" I told him.

"Oh, I believe I can." Piniet said before he then pulled out a contract that had King's paw print on it, the contract giving off a red glow. "King is under contract to give me my bestseller at whatever deadline I want."

"A binding pact." I said as I recognized what it is.

"Is that bad?" Luz asked me with worry.

"Really bad. Binding contracts are magic items that make whoever signs them do whatever they say." I said as I explained. "Failure to do so means they're met with any punishment the owner of the pact chooses." I then turned to King. "King, why did you sign it? Didn't you read the fine print?"

"I didn't know!" King told me right before a stack of papers and a pen landed in front of us.

"Make your deadline or you'll never be able to hold a pen again. Just like…" Piniet said in a threatening tone as then raised up his hand to show us what looked like a little cube-shaped doll but was actually Jon De Plume who was now shrunk and crushed into a cube.

"Help me!" the writer said as he was trapped in his publisher's grasp.

I gasped at the sight as Luz clung to me in fear. "Jon De Plume!"

"Noooo!" King screamed.

"This is what happens to those who don't keep up with demand." Piniet said as he then pulled out a briefcase and opened it. Much to our horror, it was filled with dozens of people who were turned into cubes like Jon, all of them screaming for help as they were stuck in cube-shaped slots.

"Oh, my God!" I said as we watched Piniet place Jon into an empty slot, the reptile closing the briefcase, muffling the screams of his cubed victims.

"Now if you excuse, I have an announcement to make." Piniet said as he made his way to the door. "Looking forward to what you three come up!" After he closed the door, the box shrunk again.

"There's no way we can write another story like Ruler's Reach." I said, now scared out of my wits. "If only I had my Saisho, I could bust us out of here."

"Guys, I'm so sorry. This is all my fault." King said with a look of despair. "All this happened because I couldn't compromise with you. Now we're gonna be cubed meat because of it."

"Hey, you didn't know this was gonna happen, none of us did." I told him.

"Yeah, you just wanted to win the competition and I wanted to write a story with my friends." Luz put in. "There's no one to blame."

"Yeah, and speaking of the competition, why were you so determined to win?" I said to the little demon. "Now that I think about it, you're never such a jackass when you want something."

"I know, it's just…" King said as he tried to explain himself. "I just wanted to have something like you guys."

"King, what are you talking about?"

"Ryuji, you got so much going for you. You got all this magic power and that sword. You can basically be a hero whenever you want." King said to us. "And you, Luz, you're living your dream. You're becoming a witch. Meanwhile, I'm just sitting around the house, being the king of nothing. Being a celebrity was the closest thing I could ever get to my dream."

"King…" Luz said, feeling sorry for him.

"It all went to my head and I hurt you. I'm sorry." Hearing this apology, both me and Luz smiled as King owned up to his mistakes.

"Hey, King." I said as I put a hand on King's shoulder. "We totally get it. If it makes you feel any better, one the best things about this journey I'm on is getting to make friends like you."

"Yeah, being with is one of our few favorite parts of this dream." Luz added, King happily wagging his tail for a moment before the box shrunk again, reminding us of the situation we were in. "Oh, right. Maybe we should save this for after we get out of here."

"I have a plan, but we need to work together this time." I said as I gathered the paper and pen.

"Okay, DK. We're with ya." Luz said.

"Just tell us what to do." King added before I then went on to tell them my plan.

"I'll show you. Come on!" Luz excitedly said, grabbing me by the arm and pulling me to show me what got her all excited with Mom, my sis, and King following behind.

[No one's view]

Back in the forest, Eda, Juniper, and Lilith were now face-to-face with a shadowy figure which turned out to be the very same merchant that gave them each a map to the supposed legendary flower.

"I know you must be confused. The Bloom of Eternal Youth, dead?" The merchant said as he crawled down from the statue. "What if I told you the Bloom never existed at all? Yes, this was all a trick to lead you all into my nest!" The two older women exchanged a look while Juniper rolled his eye as they continued listening to the mammal demon who tried to scare the three witches and was doing a terrible job at it. "Now I'll suck all the life out of you to satisfy my unending hunger!"

"He scammed us. Can you believe he scammed us?"

"I thought there was a 50/50 chance going in." Eda replied to her sister's question.

"Not really. Everything he was doing was a dead giveaway." Juniper chimed in. "I mean, seriously. Who has multiple copies of the same map and hands them out to random people to make a profit like that?"

"Yeah, that's true." Eda admitted, patting her daughter on the head. "But hard not to admire the tenacity though."

"Good entrance, but that outfit? Ha!" Lilith said, amused by the merchant's failed attempt at intimidation.

Eda pointed to something else. "Look at his little shoes!" Eda pointed out as she started to laugh, Lilith joining in while the merchant covered his said shoes.

"Aw! Look, the big scawy monster is embarrassed!" Juniper said in a mocking tone, making both her relatives laugh.

"Maybe you've never been led into a lethal trap before," The merchant said, "but the response should be 'Aa! No! Spare us!'" Eda and Lilith shared a look while Juniper burst into laughter, slapping her right knee.

"This…this guy thinks he's scary? Oh-ho-ho!" Juniper exclaimed, wiping away a tear. "Wow. That's rich."

"Stop mocking me!" the merchant snapped.

"Okay, sure." Eda said as she stepped onto the stone, walking up to him with Lilith right behind her. "Spare us."

"Woe to us whose fates are sealed." Lilith sarcastically said as she summoned her staff, her sister cracking her knuckles.

"Tha-that's right, witches and brat." He stuttered as the two older witches towered over him. "Cower! Cower?" He gulped nervously as to knowing full well what was going to happen. But, before the sisters could do anything, Juniper cleared her throat and grabbed their attention.

"I know what we're going to do, but mind if I add in my own personal touch?" Juniper said with a sinister smile.

"You know what? That's fine. Go ahead." Eda said, grabbing Lilith's hand to move out of her daughter's way.

With them out of the way, Juniper's began to glow dark red before it then turned into a burning flame. Upon it doing so, her hair then transformed into dozens of burning tendrils which quickly started to entangle the mammalian demon who then began to scream in fear.

"Wh-what are you doing?" The demon asked as he was brought to the young witch's face.

"Showing you what a real monster is like." Juniper said with an evil grin, causing the merchant to whimper in fear.

From the sidelines, Eda and her sister watched as Juniper started her torture, not bothered by the screams or what sounded like sizzling. Only for a moment, Lilith flinched at what she was witnessing.

"I know that she is only trying to teach him what happens to those who try to fool others, but will he be alright?" Lilith whispered over to her little sister's ear. "It seems like she is trying to kill him."

"Nah. It's fine." Eda replied, very pleased to see her girl didn't take crap from nobody just like her and Axel. "Juni might be rough on people, she's not much of a killer. Much like her dad, she knows when not to kill someone when she's got other options."

Back at the Covention hall, Piniet is stacking the cubed authors into a tower with some muscular reptile guards, trying to pass the time while waiting for the three authors to write the sequel to King's best-selling book.

"Aw, damn." The publisher said after he placed another author on the tower and it fell over.

"Hey, Piniet! We're done!" King called out, grabbing his attention.

[Ryuji]

With that, we all then watched as Piniet opened the door and come into the dressing room. We were hoping that this plan of mine will work as the box had gotten so small that we had to rearrange ourselves just so we were crushed. King was fine as he laid under my legs which I had bent in order to fit, but me and Luz were in a pretty awkward position as I laid on the floor with her on top of me, my waist in between her legs and our faces just inches away from each other. Both of us were practically bright red from this, so we wanted to get out of this box as soon as possible.

"Fassster than I expected!" The reptile commented in surprise as me and Luz tried our best to smile.

"That's the miracle of teamwork!" King said, hoping like me and Luz that the publisher would buy into it.

"Yeah. Here's the draft, complete and read for you to check out." I told him, holding the manuscript before a hole opened in the top of the box.

Holding the manuscript out through the hole, I let Piniet take it and flip through part of it. After a quick moment, he paused a bit and the box slightly shrunk again.

"This is much more gussshy than your lassst book." The reptile said as he turned back to us.

"Skip to the finale! It is quite a payoff." King said, making his publisher roll his eyes.

Piniet then kept reading and me and my friends prepared to move as Piniet got to the last page.

"What isss thisss all about?" Piniet said as he got to the last page and flipped the manuscript to reveal the light glyph we put on there, making me smile at his confusion.

"Oh, just something to make things enlightened." I said to him before I then called out. "Luz, now!"

"Light spell!" Luz cried out as she reached through the hole to touch the glyph, the manuscript catching fire as it turns into a blinding ball of light that rapidly disappears and obscures the reptile's vision, causing him to stumble around.

"Nice quip there, Ryuji." Luz said to me.

"Ugh! I just realized I should've said 'enlightening'." King said, groaning as he missed his chance at a quip. "'Skip to the finale! You'll find it enlightening'."

"King, quick! The contract!" I reminded him as we all looked to see the binding pact sticking out of Piniet's pocket.

"Pretentious scarf, go!" King said, using the scarf as a lasso to pull Piniet toward us.

Once he was close enough, Luz then grabbed the contract and she ripped it in half with her teeth. As the binding pact was no more, the three of us were then freed from any punishment and the box explode, sending Piniet flying across the floor.

"Geez! That was close." I said as we all separated from each other and stood up before I then went over and took my Saisho back.

"I made you a star and this is how you repay me?" Piniet as he pulled himself back up to his feet and unwrapped the scarf from him.

"No, this is!" King replied back as he opened up his former publisher's briefcase, the cubed authors all jumping out to attack Piniet who screams as he tries to fight them off.

With the publisher distracted, Luz picked up King as me and her ran past him and made our escape. Before we left the room, two big, muscular reptile demons appeared and blocked the doorway. They run into the two reptilian guards at the door. While Piniet frees himself of the authors.

"You are making this harder than it needs to be!" Piniet said as he freed himself of authors. "And, believe me, I am being very patient!" He then stepped on a cubed author, stomping down on them. "But let's…" Pulling a pen from his jacket, Piniet then popped the cap off and presses a button, causing the nib of the pen to extend into a large, two-headed battle axe which he raised above his head. "Cut to the finish!"

I was ready to fight him, but before anything could start, the door suddenly burst open and sent the guards flying, making all of us look to see who had just barged in. Surprisingly, it turned out to be conspiracy prisoner herself.

"King, I am your biggest fan!" She said as she ran over a guard, leaving a trail of dust as she then stands between us and Piniet. "And I fought my way back here for you…to read my story?"

"I'm sorry." King said as his fan held her manuscript out to him. "My lawyer advised me not to look at unsolicited work."

"But… but—eep!" She flinched as Piniet snatched the manuscript out of her hands in annoyance.

"Ugh! If I read thisss, will you go?" Piniet asked as he then pointed his weapon over to me and my friends. "Ssso I can annihilate these three in peace?"

"Of course!" She answered.

Piniet tossed his battle axe aside, adjusted his glasses, and slowly read what she had written. I exchanged a look with Luz and King at each other, then one of the guards who only shrugs as Piniet became interested in the manuscript. After he finished, we all watched as he looked like he was about to cry.

"Oh, it's beautiful!" Piniet said before he kneeled down to the conspiracy prisoner, putting his arm around her. "You—you must let me publish this! I can make you a star!"

"Really?"

"Wait a minute, what about King?" King asked as Piniet got annoyed and took King's jacket.

"You're old newsss." Piniet said as he then draped the jacket and sunglasses over the midget. "Sssshe, on the other hand, isss the future!"

"The only future you'll have is in prison!" I said as I put my Saisho back on my back before using my magic to bring the cubed Jon De Plume over to me and rest in my hand. "I'm taking Jon here to the Coven Guards where he'll tell them about your twisted publisher methods."

"Ha! You think anything he says would cause my arrest?" Piniet said with a smug smile.

"Maybe not alone." I said as I watched the other cubed authors run over to me where I then used my magic to place them in my jacket's pockets and my hood. "I'm pretty sure the guards will believe it when they hear it from missing people."

"Why you little…" Piniet said as he got used his magic to bring back his axe, right before I used a wind blast to knock him to the floor before he had a chance to attack.

"Come on, guys. Let's get out of here." I said to my friends as Luz then picked King up and we all made our leave.

[No one's view]

Back at the forest, the merchant was slammed into the ground, beaten to a pulp and with all of his hair burned off, as Juniper stood over him with her returned to normal.

"Well, Juni, good job on wrecking this chump." Eda said, patting her daughter's head again. "But I guess the Bloom of Eternal Youth isn't real."

"Well, if it makes any difference, I don't consider you to be a tired old bitty." Lilith said, surprising her sister.

"Really?"

"If you were, you'd be much easier to catch."

"Oh, great." Eda asked in annoyance. "You're gonna cart me and Juni away to the coven now, are you?"

"Not now…because I want to give you a chance to join on your own." Lilith said with an honest tone before she held out her hand. "Join me in the Emperor's Coven, Edalyn. The Emperor could even heal your curse, give you a chance to reunite with Axel… We could even be a family again."

"Really? This again?" Juniper spoke up, getting her aunt's attention. "Lilith, you know that we don't want anything to do with Belos. Plus, what happened here isn't enough for me to ever consider you family. Especially when you did nothing to help Mom when she got cursed, not like you cared." Hearing this hurt Lilith knowing full well what he was talking about.

"Juniper, there was much going on with my life at the time." Lilith said, trying to appease to her niece. "I had only just gotten accepted into the Emperor's Coven and I couldn't afford to lose my place."

"Bull crap!" Juniper snapped, poking a finger at Lilith. "You had a choice! There's always a choice and you choose that bastard over your family, people that actually cared and loved you!"

"Juni, back up there…" Eda said as she tried to calm her daughter down which didn't work as Juniper snapped her head over to her mother.

"Mom, are you defending her? How can you even still talk to her like everything's okay? It's not!"

"Juniper, please just listen to me…" Lilith was begging for her niece to let her explain, but Juniper was too consumed by anger to reason with.

"No! You listen!" Juniper continued, directing her finger back at her aunt. "You lost the right to call us family, much like you lost Cam!"

"Cameron?" Lilith was surprised to hear this. "You saw him?"

"No, but my bro did." Juniper sourly told her aunt. "And he's doing fine without you. Makes me wonder just what horrible things you did to drive him away."

"Don't you dare bring my son into this!" Lilith finally snapped back as bringing Cameron up was like drawing the last straw, but Juniper didn't back down.

"Why not? It's not like it's the first time you did something that could drive your family away!" As Juniper continued, the sclera of her right eye slowly turned black and the iris of said began glowing red, her voice becoming demonic and her hair glowing dark red. "You chase my parents around, you chase me around, saying that you're trying to do is help us! Well, guess what? You're not helping us at all! You lost your chance to help anybody in my family when you choose the Emperor over your own sister! He treats us like criminals because we don't do what he says and all you're doing is just listening to every damn piece of crap he says! You really want to help us? Then stop chasing us, stop trying to talk us into joining your damn coven, and leave us the frickin' hell ALONE!" With that, Juniper's hair then burst into a bright flame, shocking Lilith and Eda.

"Juni, that's enough!" Eda finally said with a stern look and a firm hand on her daughter's shoulder.

Panting for a bit, Juniper then turned to Lilith and saw her aunt turn her gaze to the look of shame, causing the young Clawthorne to lower her finger as she then calmed down. Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath in, Juniper's hair returned to normal as she then opened her eyes as she then looked at Lilith with remorse, her right eye returned to normal.

"If you think for a moment… that I take pleasure in disowning you… you're wrong…" Juniper said as she fought back the tears building in her eyes. "I would like to be family… but you broke all our hearts." With those words said, Juniper started walking off, making Eda sigh as she watched her daughter go and looked over to her sister.

"She's right you know, sis." Eda said, getting Lilith to look at her. "I love you, but even I can't forgive you for working for Belos. I get it that I once wanted to be with you in the coven, but I don't want to be in any coven now. Look, I appreciate what you're trying to offer, but I'll heal the curse on my own terms. I don't want to owe Belos anything." There was a moment of silence between them before Eda spoke up again. "Well, I better get going. Catch you later, sis."

Lilith smiled back replying. "Not if I catch you first." Lilith replied back with a smile.

Eda returned her own smile and brought out her staff sitting down and flew off to catch up to her daughter. "I'll see you around." Lilith only sighed now that she was left alone even though the merchant was still there.

"You're welcome for the chance to bond." The merchant said only for Lilith to glare at him and shot him with a fire spell, making the demon yell out in pain.

"I'll show you. Come on!" Luz excitedly said, grabbing me by the arm and pulling me to show me what got her all excited with Mom, my sis, and King following behind.

[Ryuji]

After dropping off the authors at the station so they could get help from the Coven Guards, me, Luz, and King then headed on back to the Owl House.

"Man, this had been a long night." I said as we walked into the house and I went on to lay on the couch, resting my back on the right arm. "At least we're all back, safe and sound."

"Yeah, and we never have to do it again." King said as he then got up on the other side of the couch.

"That's for sure." Luz said as she then sat down next to me before she turned to King. "But I guess this means you won't be a celebrity anymore. Sorry, King."

"Nah, it's okay. I'm over it." King brushed it off. "Besides, it was way too much work. Right now…" King then gave out a yawn before curling himself up. "I just want to sleep."

"Yeah." Luz said as she then gave out a yawn, starting to drift off to sleep like King. "Sleep sounds like a good idea."

"Yeah, a nice nap sounds good right about now." I said as I then drifted off to sleep with my friends, wanting to relax as much as they did after what we went through. After what seemed like a brief moment of sleep…

"Home, sweet home." I heard my sister sigh as I woke and looked to see her and Mom standing at the doorway He headed over to the loveseat.

"You and me both." Eda agreed, dropping her staff and cracking her back to where it popped. "That was a rough couple days."

"The last couple of days weren't easy for us either." I said to them.

"Yeah, I'll say." Luz said as we turned to look at each other. It was then we lost our smiles as we saw that she was laying on me while I had one arm wrapped around her.

From this, the two of us then put a bit of distance from each other and sat up straight on the couch as we both blushed from embarrassment and tried our best to look at anything but each other.

"S-sorry, Ryuji." Luz nervously said to me.

"It's fine." I told her, just as nervous as her. "I know you didn't mean too. You're pretty tired."

"Welcome to the club, bro." Juniper said as she then sat down on the loveseat.

"Yeah, but luckily I know something that can help." Mom said as she then scooted Luz over to me to sit down between her apprentice and the little demon. "Nothing that a bit of apple blood and a good book can't mend." Me, Luz, and King became shocked at what she suggested, the mention of books reminding us of what we had experienced tonight.

"Wow, would you look at the time?" Luz said, coming up with an excuse for us to head upstairs.

"It's getting late. We should probably head off to bed." I added as me, Luz, and King got off the couch.

"Yeah, good night!" King said as we then hurried off upstairs.

[No one's view]

After the trio left, Eda and Juniper looked at the stairs before they exchanged a look with one another and shrug their shoulders, both of them confused by what was going on until Eda then noticed a copy of Ruler's Reach on the coffee table.

"What the…" Eda said after she turned the book over to see King's author's picture on the back.

"Girl, you do not want to know." The typewriter said who was sitting nearby, knowing of what happened the past few days.

"Yeah, I'm with the typewriter on this one." Juniper agreed before she heard her brother's voice from upstairs.

"Juni, get up here!" Ryuji called out. "Dad's about to call at any minute!"

"Oh, that's right." Juniper said as she remembered what she and Ryuji were planning to do before rushing upstairs. "I'm coming!"

Watching Juniper run off, Eda couldn't help but smile, glad that her daughter was excited to talk to her father.

[Ryuji]

Sitting on my bed with my phone in my hand and the video chat app on, me and Juniper waited for our dad to call, my sister being absolutely ecstatic.

"Okay, Juni." I said to my sister with a smile. "Let me talk things over with Dad and tell him that I found out about the secret him and Mom had kept from us and then I'll hand it to you, okay?"

"Okay." Juniper said just as my phone started ringing.

"Okay, here we go." I said before I then answered the call, pointing the camera at me as Dad appeared on the screen. "Hey, Dad."

"Hey, Ryuji." Dad greeted me with a smile. "So how are things at the Owl House? Are you having fun?"

"Things have been great here and I've had lots of fun." I said before I then remembered about the portal key I got from Bat Queen and pulled it out. "Oh, I also got this from a friend of yours."

"Ah, the Vallake portal. So you met the Bat Queen." Dad said, keeping his smile. "Let me guess: you earned it after you went through her trials?"

I was surprised by this. "How'd you know?"

"I've known Bat Queen for many years. I happen to know her habits." Dad then raised a brow at me. "Speaking of which, I suppose that this also came with a bit scolding from Eda? You know, from hurting Owlbert?" I cringed from when he said that.

[Ryuji's aside]

Damn it! I thought I could slip by the reason for why I did those trials. I hate it when he busts me like that.

"I thought so." Dad said to me. "Recklessness does seem to run in the family. Though I bet Eda's scolding is nothing compared to the flaming rage of Juniper Clawthorne, huh?"

"Oh, yeah. Juni was pissed. I'm just glad she didn't burn me for it." Dad chuckled at this as I then earned a playful punch from my sister.

"Well, I'm glad to see you getting along with everyone. Well, I guess we can call this a night. Keep having a great summer."

"Dad, wait!" Stopping my dad from hanging up and losing my smile, I then went on to tell him what I found out. "Actually, there's something I need to tell you."

"What is it, son?" Dad asked me as he gained a look of concern.

"Well, during my second here in the Boiling Isles, I learned more about your relationship between you and… the Owl Lady."

Dad then regained his smile. "You found out the truth, huh?"

"That Eda's my mom and Juni is actually my sister? Yeah."

"I wanted to tell you for so long. I wanted to tell Juni too. But, with your mother's curse and all, I wasn't sure if you kids were ready for that. Both of us were just trying our best to keep you both safe. I can't lie that I didn't feel terrible that I had to lie to my own children like that, especially the daughter who grew up without me in her life."

"I get it, Dad. You and Mom were just protecting us. I'm just glad I got to meet Mom."

"I'm glad you got to meet her too."

"Well, with all this said, there's someone who would really like to talk to you." With that, I then handed my phone to Juniper.

"Hi… Dad." Juniper said, both happy and nervous as she talked to Dad.

"Hi, sweetie." Dad greeted her. "How's it going?"

"Doing great." Juniper said.

"Been keeping out of trouble?"

"Try to, but trouble always seems to find us."

Dad chuckled at this. "I bet. Have you been keeping your fire under control, Demon Flame?"

"Yeah, I've been keeping it under wraps."

"Good. ʹCause if you burn anything down, we're gonna have talk, young lady."

"Dad!" My sister chuckled.

"Hey, I'm just kidding! Anyway, anything new happened?"

"Well, me and Mom went on this quest for a few days to find this flower that could make her look young again. Turned out to be a scam and I beat up the chump who tricked us."

"I see you got your mother's feistiness. Well, anything else?"

"Well…" Juniper lost her smile as she spoke again. "I'm gonna be attending Hexside soon."

"Hexside?" Dad was surprised by this. "Wow. I didn't think your mother would enroll you."

"Well, we don't really have much of a choice. Mom made a deal with Bump and, as long as me and DK go to school, then…"

"Then he won't tell anything about us being at the school to the Emperor's Coven!" I put in as I quickly covered my sister's mouth before she told Dad about Luz, my twin trying to talk while muffled by my hand.

"Well, that's good. I hope you two will have a wonderful time at Hexside."

"Thanks, Dad. Now, you mind? Just got talk to my sis for a bit."

"Not at all. Go ahead." Dad told me.

"Thanks." I said to him as I then took my phone, turned off its mic, and put it on my bed before I then turned to my sister, losing my smile and glaring at her as I removed my hand from her mouth and found spit on my palm. "Ew! Juni, did you lick my hand?"

"Bro, what the hell was that about?" She said to me as I wiped the spit off my hand. "You know that the only reason we're going to Hexside is so your little girlfriend can go to it too."

"Juni, I didn't tell Dad Luz was here. He still thinks that she's at summer camp."

"What? Why didn't you tell him?"

"Because she wasn't supposed to be here. Dad didn't want her to go with me because he thought it would be too dangerous for her."

"What? But she's already got a good handle on things. You know, for someone who always gets into trouble."

"Yeah, but I'm not so sure Dad is gonna be okay with Luz being around. If he finds out, he might flip his lid!" Juniper then raised a brow at me. "Look, I'll tell him the truth eventually. Just keep this between us until then, okay?"

Juniper thought for a moment before she then gave a sigh of defeat. "Alright, I'll keep it to myself until you tell Dad you got Mom to let Luz stay here."

"Thanks, sis. By the way, Luz is not my girlfriend."

"Whatever." With that, I then grabbed my phone and turned the mic back on, both of us smiling as I had the camera facing both of us.

"Sorry about that. Juni was trying to make a crack about me." I said to Dad, making an excuse for the talk.

"That's quite alright. Your mother was known to make cracks at me as much as your Uncle Luke." Dad told us.

"Yeah, by the way, I heard that you actually went to Saint Epiderm before you went to Hexside."

"Yeah, I don't regret transferring. Especially since Saint Epiderm is located at The Knee."

"The Knee?"

"It's the coldest place in the entire Isles." Juniper told me.

"Yeah, I practically had to layer myself up just to make it through the walks up there." Dad said to us.

"Is that the reason why you transferred to Hexside?" I asked.

"Actually, no." Dad told me. "Even with the cold weather, it was the best option I had since it had been the school for many Fire Dragons that came before me including my father."

"Grandpa Jamey went there?"

"Yeah, and going there is where I thought I could learn more about him and follow in his footsteps. Because of that, despite hating the cold, I didn't have much of a reason to leave Epiderm. That is until I met your mother. Back then, I was stuck in rut with being the same old thing over and over again. Sure, I had your aunts and uncles there with me to make life at Saint Epiderm more lively, but I couldn't really feel much of anything in whatever I was doing after a while. Unlike most kids, I had started magic school when I was thirteen, part of a new special program where I could start things ahead of time."

"But you started at Hexside when you were sixteen, right? Does this mean you studied at Saint Epiderm for three years?"

"Almost three years, but yeah. It all changed when I met your mother. Her sense of humor really brought light into my dull life. She taught me how great it was to mix things up, to make the unexpected out of the expected. It was because of her that I finally got a reason to transfer out Epiderm. The friends I had there who then joined me were pretty much happy for this. From there, I would go on to do a lot more that would change life for the Boiling Isles."

"Like starting the Warriors Track!" What I said in response made Dad nod.

"Been wondering about that." Juniper added. "How exactly did you manage to get a new track into this whole thing?"

"Oh, that is quite the story, one of which involves hard work and determination." Dad told us. "Would you kids like to hear it?" With that, me and my twin nodded our heads. "Okay then…"

From there, the two of us gave Dad our full attention as he told us the story of how he started the Warriors Track and the many steps he took in order to make the tenth magic track a reality.

Well, these past few days turned out crazier than expected. Who would have thought that we would end up tangling with a madman publisher in the world of literature? At least me, Luz, and King managed to escape that nightmare and save anyone else from falling prey to Piniet's unruly publishing methods. While I didn't get to be much of an author, I do believe I managed to create a meaningful friendship with King. Best of all, I finally got to tell Dad that I knew the truth about Mom and Juniper was finally able to talk with the dad she had been wanting to meet her whole life. Not only that, but we also got to learn more about Dad and what he did when he was our age. Not sure when I will tell Dad the truth about Luz, I just hope he doesn't get too mad about her stay at the Owl House for the summer. Anyway, with this stressful day done, there was now something else to focus on: school life at Hexside. The next semester is just around the corner and me, my sis, and Luz are gonna do our best to be ready for it. Hopefully, this will come to help us in creating a new chapter in our lives. No pun intended. As to how it will turn out? I guess we'll just see and find out. DK out!

Author's Note: Hey, guys! I hope you all like the new chapter. Yeah, I decided to make a few changes to differentiate this chapter from the canon episode plot. While I thought the episode was good, there were things about it that would leave someone unsatisfied, such as how Piniet was left to continue pressuring people into writing books whenever he called for it. Though it seems the Owl House residents sure had a crazy couple of days, huh? Though it does appear that Ryuji had formed a better bond of friendship with King and it seems as though the quest had allowed Eda to begin mending the bond between her and her sister. And Juniper had now managed to speak with the father she had always wanted to meet and Axel was able to speak with his daughter. By the way, I would like to dedicate this chapter to great actor Jason David Frank. May he rest in peace. In the next chapter, Ryuji and Luz learn more about their enrollment into Hexside and Eda takes the two and begins to train them to prepare them for it. That's all I got for now. Don't forget to leave a comment to tell me what you think of it. See you all in the next chapter!