During the next few days, Luz slowly recovered her strength. She was taking a sleeping potion to help her sleep. Eda had added a secret ingredient to help suppress any dreams for the forcible future.
The teenager had found a blank diary and started writing in it. She had filled the first fifteen pages of it with her time serving Emperor Belos. She was just finishing up an entry before heading to breakfast.
Today was supposed to be my first day back to Hexside. I would love to be with Willow, Gus, and secretly, Amity, on our first day of advanced lessons. I wish I could tell Amity that I like her. I know I can't, not if I want to keep her safe.
So today will be a different first day of school. Instead of being the student, I'm going to be teaching Eda and Lilith a few basic glyphs. Since they can't access their magic, the only way they have to protect themselves will be glyph magic.
I hope I have the patience to be a teacher. Showing my friends my glyphs is fun. Teaching someone to use them is nerve-wracking. I'm wishing myself good luck."
Half an hour later, Two desks had been set up outside. Some of the tree branches had been clipped to let more sunshine into the yard. Hooty had regurgitated a chalkboard for Luz to use. King would be her assistant.
Eda and Lilith were sitting at their desks. Lilith looked very prepared and organized. Eda was fidgeting in her seat as she pulled a sharpened pencil from her hair.
Luz stepped outside in her school uniform. Lilith had mad skills when it came to sewing. She had tailored the uniform to Luz's new body in less than five minutes, without magic!
"Good morning class. Today we're going to be learning about glyph magic. Glyph magic allows you to use the magic outside of you to perform spells. We're going to practice two spells today."
Eda interrupted her by whining. "Two spells? Come on, you know eighty-plus glyphs! You can teach us amazing combos."
"Eda, don't interrupt when the teacher is talking," Lilith urged her.
Luz bit her lip, un-confident of what she should do. At least her assistant knew what to do.
"Alright, both of you be quiet! The next person who talks without raising their hand will be serving dentition! In case you're wondering, I've decided dentition will be having to bath the bat babies!"
Luz shuddered at the memory. She swore she had a scar from when one of them bit her head. With both Clawthorn sisters quiet, she took charge again.
"I think learning two glyphs will keep you busy for the next few days. I'm going to teach you my first two spells: light and ice."
She carefully drew the glyphs. "Remember, the glyphs will only work if you draw it correctly. I once drew an ice glyph hastily and I felt my body turn ice cold without the aid of real ice."
She asked them to copy the light spell. "Remember, direction matters as much as size. You don't want the spell to backfire and strike you."
"Because that would be dumb!" King giggled in delight.
When the sisters finished drawing the glyph they were instructed to gently tap it. The amount of force used would help determine the strength of the spell.
Two tiny orbs of light floated up. Lilith looked very pleased with herself. Eda seemed a bit disappointed with how tiny her light was compared to her sister's.
"Practice making light spells. When you're both comfortable with it, we can work on making it bigger."
None of them realized they were being spied on. Hunter had found a good vantage point and was using his telescope to watch what was happening. He couldn't see what they were drawing. Only that it caused small orbs of light to appear.
"Whoa, controlled wild magic. Uncle won't like this. At least he can counter it," Hunter whispered to himself.
He adjusted his aim so he could get a look at the rest of the Owl House's inhabitants. The weird house demon was playing in the mud in the backyard. Well if you considered dunking your head in the mud, playing.
The weird skull-headed beast had abandoned the human. Bat Queen's kids were flying after him. The babies must have been teething because they kept trying to bite the creature's horn.
As for the human herself, Hunter started to feel a tug on his heart. She was prettier than her picture had shown. He felt slightly jealous of her Hexside uniform.
She had been a powerless human and she still got into Hexside with her glyph magic. The first student to learn from all nine tracks. He wished that glory was his.
Artificial magic was powerful and very reliable. It also made him vulnerable should someone take his staff away. Having even a tiny bit of his own magic would be nice.
He pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind. Right now, he had a mission to complete.
Later that evening, Luz went out for a walk to clear her head. The others hadn't wanted her to go off alone. They had compromised by having Owlbert and Nevermore accompanying her.
"Isn't the forest beautiful tonight? Sure, there are scary beasts and monstrous plants that want to attack you. Yet, they have their own charm if you take the time to observe," Luz told the palismans.
Owlbert hooted in agreement. Nevermore shook his head in disagreement. He was a daytime bird and greatly disliked the nighttime. He slightly increased his grip on the teenager's shoulder.
The trio had been walking for about twenty minutes now. Unknowingly, Luz had walked close the border near Amity's parents' company headquarters. The light of the moon illuminated her.
Odelia Blight was in her office pacing in anger. Tonight had been their annual private investors' auction. A chance to sell the latest designs before they were sold to the public.
The evening had been going well, until her husband's latest design, the Abomaton 2.0. She had arranged for her daughter's lower-class friends to be expelled from Hexside. She had promised that if they helped at tonight's presentation, she would use her influence to get them back in school.
The real plan was that she planned to have the Abomaton kill them so Amity would fall back in line. Her daughter was straying from the path Odelia had set for her and needed to be punished.
That plan had backfired spectacularly. Amity had saved her friends and forced Odelia to agree to let her friends back into school. Alador had made sure she kept her promise pointing out how strong Amity had gotten because of her friends.
Then the worst blow happened. They had sold the entire Abomaton army to their investors only for Emperor Belos's right-hand woman Kikimora to swoop in and take them instead. This forced her to refund the investors and promise them Alador's next invention for free.
Odelia slammed her fist into her wall. "Can something go right for me tonight?!" she shouted out loud.
She looked out the window and saw Luz walking in the forest. She had heard the rumors about Emperor Belos's human pet escaping. Imagine the snails he would pay to get her back.
"Good thing, I kept the Abomaton version 1 as a servant," she grinned wickedly.
Outside, Luz was getting ready to return home. "It's getting late. I could use some rest. I don't want Eda and Lilith to burn the house down tomorrow because of a lack of sleep."
The palismans' agreed and they started heading home when the ground started to shake. Luz toppled to the ground barely catching herself. "What's going on? Is this an earthquake?"
She got her answer when a huge abomination in armor appeared a few feet from her. Unlike other abominations, this one had a sinister face. Its eyes locked onto her before attacking.
A large green blast burst out of its right gauntlet. Luz managed to roll out of the way. The Abomaton formed a scythe on its left hand. He slashed down again and again at Luz.
The teenager was able to get on her feet after the Abomaton got its hand stuck in a tree. "Owlbert, Nevermore! Go get help!" she shouted as she started racing through the trees.
Nevermore took off, but Owlbert refused to leave Luz behind. He hooted for her to follow him deeper into the forest. The teenager trust him and continued to run as green blasts took out several trees.
The duo weaved between trees before sliding into a gully. There was a small tunnel opening in the rock wall. It was too small for her new body to fit in, but that wasn't why Owlbert led her here.
He tugged on her jacket and Luz realized what he wanted her to do. "Good idea, Owlbert. Let it think I went into the tunnel. She dropped the jacket in front of the tunnel and followed the little owl out of the gully.
A few minutes later, Luz had to stop. Her lungs were pleading for air and her legs were starting to get wobbly. "Just give me a few minutes," she huffed to the little palisman.
She had only just managed to catch her breath when two smaller abominations popped out of the ground in front of her. Their slimy arms pinned her upper body to the tree.
"NO! Let me go!" she shouted. The mindless creatures' only response was to increase the amount of sludge covering her legs so she couldn't run.
Owlbert swooped in shooting energy beams from his eyes. The abominations dissolved into the mud. With them gone, Luz was able to pull away from the tree.
"It's not safe on the ground. I doubt abominations can climb. Owlbert! Find the tallest tree I can climb up! We can fly away once we're higher up," the teenager commanded.
Luz was halfway up a very tall tree when the Abomaton stomped over to the tree. It saw Luz halfway up and started to shake the tree trying to bring her crashing to the ground.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Luz shouted. She was clinging to the tree as tightly as she could. A fall from this height could kill her. Owlbert tried to get closer to her, but the branches kept whipping him away.
"Someone help me!" she shouted. An orange aura surround her body and then carried her cries throughout the forest. The teenager pitched backwards as her chest tightened. Just then her limbs gave out.
She started falling toward the ground. There was no way she was going to survive. "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Out of nowhere, a small green and yellow dragon caught her on his back. This barely registered to the teenager as she looked down and let out an awe.
A giant mole erupted out of the ground, sending the Abomaton flying through the air and landing on the ground. A second mole emerged from the ground a swallowed the living weapon whole.
The teenager whooped and thanked the dragon and the moles. The dragon was just touching down when the teenager blacked out.
Around mid-morning the next day, Emperor Belos was working with Kikimora to write some new laws when the entire palace shook back and forth.
"What is going on? GUARDS! Do something about this!" Kikimora shouted as the guard flailed around.
The glass shattered and walls started to cave in. The Emperor grabbed his staff and banged it on the ground. The shaking stopped and the walls restored themselves to normal.
Without a word, he strode towards the palace gates. Slamming the staff again the portcullis pulled up and the drawbridge lowered. He walked to the end of the bridge and waited.
A minute later a giant black and white hooded snake popped out of the ground scattering rocks everywhere. It hissed at the Emperor before shrinking until was as tall as the man.
"My queen has a message for you. She does not take outright attacks on her subjects lightly," the snake hissed. He vibrated his tail against the ground.
One of the giant moles from last night popped out. It gagged a few times before spitting out the remains of the Abomaton at the Emperor's feet. The man stared at the mess before looking directly into the snake creature's eyes.
"My queen is going to set up a border fence around her kingdom. Should any member of your coven violate that or anyone comes in without an invitation, she will make sure next time your palace crumbles into dust. The same will happen to all the other covens' strongholds."
"Do you understand?" the snake creature asked. The look in his eyes said he was hoping the Emperor didn't so he could eat the man.
"Assure your queen I understand. No one will be trespassing in her kingdom again as long as she leaves enough forest to gather potion ingredients from."
"I'll tell her that. Good-bye." The creature dove back into the dirt and was gone within seconds.
Emperor Belos was raging inside. He couldn't afford to be fighting a war with the Bat Queen and her subjects, not when he was this close to achieving his goal. Kikimora better have answers to what just occurred.
Back in the forest, the Bat Queen was already getting started on her border fence. "The slime worms are already marking off the border," she said tapping a map with her ring finger.
As requested, there were small patches of forest that would belong to the Emperor. Just enough for potion ingredients if they used it carefully. If they wanted more they would be dealing with her.
She tapped five-star markings on the map. "These points are where we start construction. Each team will build half a fence in both directions. When the teams meet up, we will set up a watchtower to keep an eye on our borders."
"Emperor Belos may rule the witches and demons of this isle, but he doesn't control the creatures of the forest! Let's get to work."
The members of the Owl House were expected to help with the border construction. Everyone except Luz, who was still unconscious in her bedroom. A few of the palismans had agreed to keep an eye on her while the others worked.
Eda looked back at her house. She was supposed to be acting as Luz's foster mother. She should be here helping her, instead of working on the border. In the end, she rationalized this by saying the border fence would keep Luz safe from any more abomination hunters.
The forests of the Boiling Isles were spread all over the fallen titan's body. There was no way to declare they all belonged to Bat Queen when she only patrolled one part of them.
So instead of wasting time bordering off parts she didn't use as frequently, she chose to set up her barrier only around the forests on the right arm and halfway down the titan's chest.
Those were the parts she used frequently and would give her guests enough freedom to roam. Once her babies were a little older she would increase the borders again.
Lilith was chosen to work the part of the wall around the arm. Right now she was carrying heavy wooden posts over to several wild beasts. "This is exhausting work. No wonder the Construction Coven only accepts people who work out their muscles."
Two cockatrices picked up the posts with their beaks. Trouncing about twenty feet away from each other, they started pecking the posts into the ground making sure they were in tight.
Several Gefs ran back and forth between the posts tying magically enforced barbwire. Simurgh birds worked with dragons to create metal poles that would screw in on the top of the posts.
The top parts of these poles would turn inward forming a barrier to the sky. Flying into the forest would be dangerous. There was just enough room for the Bat Queen to fly in or out on top. That would be guarded to make sure no one snuck in that way.
Hooty was tasked with helping create tunnels leading a long way down through the earth. As soon as he was finished, those tunnels were lined with traps or magical cement. No one was getting inside the forest from underneath.
Meanwhile, King got to do what he loved best. Bossing people around. His team was at one of the smaller rivers that ran through this section of the forest.
"No slacking off critters! We need those water gates pronto. Come on put your backs into it!"
One of the kappas sprayed water on King after having had enough of his bossiness. "If you want us to do it right, then get in here!" he screamed.
King yelped and turned down his bossiness. Satisfied, the water crew got back to work.
At the Emperor's palace, Belos had summoned Kikimora to the throne room. She was lost in her fantasies of what the emperor wanted from her that she didn't consider the likelihood it was for a bad reason.
She entered the throne room confidently and bowed deeply. "My Liege, I am your humble servant. Should I start assimilating the Abmomatons into your glorious coven?"
Emperor Belos reached out with his power and lifted the demoness into the air and started to choke her. Her eye was popping out of its socket and the hair on her head started to go black.
A few seconds later, Emperor Belos dropped her. He didn't even give her a chance to catch her breath before he was on his feet. He strode down to her and pressed his staff against her throat.
"You are on very shaky ground, Kikimora. The earthquake that nearly brought the roof down was because one of those monsters you acquired attacked a subject of the Bat Queen!"
"My Lord…."
"SILENCE!" Emperor Belos bellowed at the demoness. "The Day of Unity will soon be upon us. I don't have time or resources to spare in a war with the Queen of the Boiling Isles Forests!"
Kikimora started to tremble uncontrollably. "I swear My Liege, I personally inspected and took every version of the Abomaton 2.0 from Blight Industries."
Emperor Belos's eyes flashed red in ire. "Did you make sure the prototype versions were no more? I'm guessing no because one of them had to be behind the attack!"
Kikimora sputtered Bat Queen must be mistaken about what attacked her subject. The emperor smacked her with so much force she went flying into a pillar. It was only now that she understood how bad her position was.
"Do you think I am blind to your efforts to search the forest for the Clawthorn sisters or my valet? That I am deaf to hearing you put down the Golden Guard? Perhaps you think I'm mute, which is why you're ordering my soldiers to do the opposite of what I want them to do?"
Kikimora opened her mouth only shut it as she was zapped by her master's staff several times. By the time he was done, she looked almost as bad as Lilith did after being mauled by Luz-Beast.
Emperor Belos forced his right-hand woman to her feet. "You should consider yourself lucky. Because of years of loyalty to both my coven and me, you are being given a second chance to make up for your blunders."
"You will resume your duties and continue being my right hand. You will carry out my will and relinquish pushing your agenda ahead of mine. You're to cease your rumors against the Golden Guard."
"Most importantly, you will leave the Clawthorn sisters and my valet alone. I already have a plan in place to retrieve her while keeping the Clawthorn sisters in check."
"If I find out that you have betrayed my orders, you will be stripped of your magic and thrown into the Conformtorium for the rest of your life. Do I make myself clear?"
"Yes, My Liege. I thank you for my second chance. I will not let you down," Kikimora atoned. After being dismissed, she headed back to her room.
That was a close one. I need to be extremely cautious moving forward. I'll have to prove I'm better than that blasted Golden Guard. More importantly, I need to make sure that the human girl never learns I was the one who caused her to turn into a rampaging monster.
Four days passed and finally, Luz woke up at ten a.m. "That was a nice nap. I wonder how long I was asleep for."
She came down the stairs and was surprised to find the rest of the house was empty. Going into the kitchen she found a note on the fridge written by Eda.
"Dear Luz, if you wake up today don't be alarmed that no one's there with you. After the attack on you, Bat Queen needed every able body to create a border fence. The fence is almost finished and we should be back by dinner time.
There's a fizzy drink in the fridge for you. The contents are equivalent to three full meals so make sure to drink it all. There are some beginner potion books in the living room for you to read.
Stay inside and don't use your witch magic until I get back. Love Eda."
Luz sighed and got the fizzy drink before plopping on the couch. "Great, thanks to being me, Bat Queen's now fencing us in. Nothing like a fence to remind you that you're a prisoner."
Taking a few sips, she begrudgingly picked up one of the potion books. "Who knows, maybe this will be easier to learn from than listing to a teacher drone on and on."
She skipped the introduction and started reading about the first potion. It was making bubbles. "An easy and fun potion to make, you can spend endless hours in an array of colorful bubbles. Easy to pop and doesn't leave a mess behind."
The illustration showed a picture of a pink bubble floating over a kid's head. The ingredients were pretty basic and if she followed the directions she couldn't cause any trouble.
Going back into the kitchen, Luz assembled the tools and ingredients to make the potion.
"Alright, I've got my cauldron, measuring cups, and the ingredients. Okay first step, fill your cauldron halfway up with fresh water."
Luz did as the book said and moved on to step two. She needed to cut in half three cotton reeds, making sure to add the stalks and not the top into the potion. Next, the potion required three drops of swamp gas. She used an eyedropper to ensure it was just three drops.
After doing that she checked the recipe again. "Alright, next I need to add three bubble berries and I can pick the color I want." She chose to use a blue, purple, and green berry.
"Okay, last ingredient. One large red…" she squinted, but the last word had some grime covering it. She tried to remove it, but it was stained too deeply
"Okay, what is large and red?" Luz tapped her finger to her chin thinking. She snapped her fingers a few seconds later. "It has to be a piece of red meat. The word piece has probably faded away."
She went to grab some meat out of the fridge. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw something at the window. She turned and saw a face in the window. "AHHHHHHH!" she screamed.
The face in the window yelped and fell to the ground. Recovering quickly, the person took off running.
Luz recovered and ran out the door. The figure was squeezing through a small crevice in the back of the cave.
She followed and called out. "Wait! Come back! Who are you?"
The figure who looked like a small teenager moved with grace and agility that she couldn't match. Eventually, he outran her.
Luz stopped running and started panting hard. Besides her and the Clawthorn sisters, she didn't think any other witches would be this far into Bat Queen's territory when a border fence was being built.
"I better head back and let the others know about this," she said to herself. Taking one last look at the horizon she hurried back home.
Luz arrived back just as the others were coming in from their last day of work. "Hey, guys! I have something important to tell you!"
"LUZ!" King cried out as he gave Luz a big hug.
Luz pushed King off. "I'm happy to see you King, but I…"
"Ah! You're awake and look at this. You almost completed your first potion. Let's see how far along you are," Eda exclaimed as she headed into the kitchen.
"Eda, wait!"
Eda ignored her and took a look at the potion. "Ah, you just need to add one red beet. Hope you weren't going to add in any meat. That would just make rancid smelling bubbles that would burst all over you."
Luz stopped trying to speak startled by the revelation that she almost messed up the potion. If she hadn't seen that person in the window, the others would be complaining for weeks about how she smelled.
Maybe she should keep this mysterious person a secret for now. She would find out who they were and what they wanted on her own.
