Safe to say bathing a palismen was an interesting experience to say the least but Luz hadn't felt right about returning the adorable cat totem to its owner all covered in dirt and caked-on mud from the palismen's adventure before the pair had crossed paths.

"You don't mind, do you?" Luz questions looking from the half-filled bucket of water down at the magic cat seemed to be quiet content snuggling in the crook of her arm. "Can't be too careful with what's good mold and what's bad mold on the Boiling Isles, can you?" she goes on once again eyeing the worrying amount of dirt that seemed to have attached to the cat's underbelly whilst remembering a few of the lessons on the causes of tree rotting from her more human schooling.

Now she was wishing she'd paid more attention to them instead of trying to get away with reading a new page of whatever new Azura book she was trying to hide between the pages of her actual textbook.

Ghost gives an amused sounding trill as if the cat were actually laughing at her, but the move was softened by the light nuzzling the cat's head gives the inside of Luz's elbow before dipping its long white tail into the waiting water as if testing the temperature before making the small jump from Luz's arms into the makeshift bathtub the human girl had constructed.

"Better you than me, magic cat." King says from the direction of the sink where the furry tweenager demon was currently balancing whilst turning a brush through his tangled fur before his newer earlier bedtime since his grounding.

Luz had offered to help but King had only looked between the brush in his paw and Ghost's mud-caked outline in Luz's arms and given a sigh "Ghost is going to knead your tostal attention Luz, I'll be all rye for one night." Earning a low chuckle from the human at the attempted late-night string of bread puns.

Luz leaves the purring cat long enough to press a kiss to King's head. "I ryely loaf you, you goober." The human whispers ruffling his fur before heading back to the waiting paliasmen watching them from over the side of the 'tub'.

Forgoing gloves for the moment considering just how bubbly the water had gotten in the small time between her leaving the tub unattended Luz lathers up her hands with what passes for toddlers' soap on the boiling isles that had been somehow knocking into the water since she'd taken her eyes from it.

Most of the dirt and bits of stuck-on grass and twigs wash away easily until Luz manages to coax Ghost onto their back so she can reach the trickier part to remove. The thick layer of grayish mud caked to the magic cat's underbelly.

"Um, Luz. I think you should put the gloves on now." King advises having finished brushing both his fangs and his fur but hadn't decided to go back to his room just yet.

Even some part of the human girl's mind slated to agree considering the questionable color state of the final mess keeping the wondering paliasmen from being completely cleaned up.

"What's the worst that can happen," Luz waves off already lathering up her bare hands once more.

She'd never had a pet other than maybe Wit (the nickname she'd given the Echo Mouse) but she was nervous about bathing him and risk destroying the last few pages of the diary she'd yet to copy down the mouse was still keeping in its considerable memory considering what water did to paper. Ghost seemed to be enjoying her more hands-on approach to washing them and she could already see King's eyes start to droop from drowsiness.

The demon's answer comes in a yawn that Luz caught as "common rolled" so she laughs it off as King's last attempt at a bread pun before bedtime. "Sleep tight you little goober." She called after him in a whisper so as to not alert any other still awake Clawthorns's that King might be staying up a few minutes over his newest curfew.

Ghost having already fallen into a sleepy dozing as well as the human had been tended to them.

Had Luz been paying more attention as she gently dried the now squeaky cleaned and sleepy palismen cat off with a dry towel she would have noticed the growing spot of mold now clinging to the sides of the bucket she'd used as a stand-in tub.

"You okay, kiddo?" Eda asks pausing on her way to go check that King was actually in his room for the night noticing Luz's sudden coughs despite the human's attempts to cover them as she carried the dozing yet still purring magic ca towards her own room.

"I'm alright." Luz nodes her throat suddenly becoming very dry as she talked. "just a tickle in my throat." She shrugged off with another small cough. "It's a human thing." She says at Eda's blank expression as Luz and Ghost slips past her towards the direction of the human's room.


An ominous "Luz it's for you" call from Hooty and a growled hiss from the snuggled-up totem cat burrowed against her stomach wakes her the next morning making the groggy human girl pull her pillow over her head to quiet the sound as Ghost gives another grumpy hiss at another of Hooty's attempts to wake the restless human.

If her head was any clearer Luz would have been smiling at the sweet protective side the paliasmen were showing.

Kind of reminded her of Amity.

"Titan's teeth, bird tub I'm not in the mood for this, so either you let me in or so help me…."

"Easy Blight Bright, no throwing that abomination yuck everywhere I just finished having King clean him." Eda's cool tone interrupts as Luz struggles to find the energy to even roll over onto her back given the led-like feeling of the rest of her body.

What Luz had originally thought to be a little tickle of cough had somehow turned into whatever passed for a bad case of coughs, aches, and runny noses on the Boiling Isles.

Her first since landing here.

Again, if Luz could find the energy she would have been oddly pleased by this point.

The noisy squeaking of her window opening earned a pitiful whimper from the human girl once more hiding under her pillow to muffle the offending sound as Eda and Amity talked outside.

Ghost gives a muffled trill from the direction of the door. The totem cat having newly returned dragging yet another plushy toy from King's room to Luz's as the cat had been doing most of the night until some part of Luz's still functioning mind was positive, she now had command of King's entire 'army' as Ghost nuzzles against at the human girl's sock-covered hand.

A cautionary measure of Eda's to stop the dusty gray of the mold from spreading any farther than Luz's wrists after Ghost and Owlbert had both gone to wake her because apparently, Luz's mumbling about the two being totem traitors despite her congested nose had only seemed to amuse the paliasmen rather than guilt them into staying.

"You'll be fine in a few days, kiddo but this is for your own good." The magicless most powerful witch on the isles promised fastening the mismatched socks around the sickly human girl's wrists. "Also, good thing you humans don't have claws otherwise you'd be needing new foot covers too."

A warmed hand against Luz's flushed cheek jarring the dozing human's eyes opening just enough to squint in the person's direction.

Soft purple swims over her.

"Hey, Luz." Her amazing girlfriend greets now sitting cross-legged on the floor beside Luz's bedroll.

"You're pretty candy." Luz smiles in congestion husked Spanish as she reaches out a sock-covered hand towards the now blushing face beside her.

Ghost gives an amused trill from Amity's lap drawing Luz's clouded eyes downwards. "My kitty, kitty, snow." Luz coughed only to pout when the blurry white cat was pulled out of her sock clade reach.

"You mean My kitty, actually." Amity corrects scratching the totem cat under its chin as Ghost nuzzled against her hand affectionately "I found the staff in the attic looking for something for another of my Dad's side projects." Amity goes on her gaze finding that of those soft sky blue of her totem partner. "Lucky I wasn't to blame for my mother's wrongs." She finishes in a whisper not really knowing if Luz would even remember this talk when the human girl was feeling better. "

Going by the way Luz was now cooing softly to the worried-looking Echo Mouse watching them from the side table the lavender-haired young witch was guessing not. "but how did you know? I only sent you the message about Ghost being missing this morning." The top student in the Abomination track wonders.

"Luz."

The twin calls of Gus and Willow have Ghost arching with a protective hissing growl from the end of Luz's 'bed' when the door was pushing open allowing Luz's two best friends entry.

"You never said you got a paliasmen too." Willow says noticing the interlock on Ghost's clawed paws batting at the separating space between the pairs keeping the newer two away.

Ghost giving a denying scoffed trill before padding deliberately back towards Amity to curl up against the seated witch's lap.

"Amity." The two say at the same time with mirrored levels of surprise.

"Don't look so shocked, Goops and Willow always nice to see you around here." Eda scoffs from the doorway. "Now come on lets let Luz rest whilst the rest of us make sure this place is ready or whatever else Emperor Smellos is planning."