A Little Bonding with the grandparents
Night had long come to the Boiling Isles, and only the night creatures were up. In some unknown area of the dead titan, something was stirring. The creature rose from an unknown long slumber, shaking off whatever had covered it during its long sleep.
The creature let out a roar/yawn and looked around to get its bearings. Once it was fully aware, it sniffed the air, and surprisingly, found a distant scent that it was familiar with. The creature was a little confused as the scent seemed younger than when it first encountered it.
Still, it began to follow scent, a primal urge to find the owner of that scent and protect it at all costs.
(The next day)
"You are going to spend the entire day spoiling them, aren't you, dear?" Dell asked warmly.
The Clawthorne patriarch and monarch were currently in town, having just eaten lunch and were planning on taking the "knocked-down" human to one of the most popular children Plays on the isles.
"Shush you," Gwen retorted in a good nature way. "This is probably going to be my only chance and I plan to silk-milk it for all it's worth."
Dell nodded and thought back to yesterday. After Lilith returned home, she had explained the plan she had set-up with Luz's friends. Gwen had nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard that Lilith wanted Luz to spend time with them.
So the three Clawthorne had quickly made a plan. Dell and Gwen would take Luz out for the day and Lilith would take care of Eda. Eda, surprisingly, has some complaints(not limited to the titan-awful taste in her mouth) about her mother watching her apprentice/daughter.
Looks like Eda wasn't completely over all of these crack-pots schemes she tried over the years. Gwen had promised to be on her best behavior, and Eda had reluctantly agreed, but she had warned her mother better be good or something bad will happen.
Strangely, when that threat was made, a weird image pooped into the patriarch's head. It was of Eda and some human woman, probably Luz's mother, burying his wife alive, and then, for added measure, finished filling the hole with boiling water.
Dell decided to make an appointment with a healer and see if he hadn't gotten infected with a dream-bug. That image was too vivid to be just nerves.
The male Clawthorne let these memories from yesterday go, and focus on the now. He looked at Luz, and smiled as he watched her skip a few feet ahead of them, hugging the Otabin she just got to her chest. It truly brought a smile to his face, recalling happy times with his daughters.
A noise brought his attention to his wife, and he looked at the squirming demon in Gwen's hands. King wanted nothing more than to jump down and run after his sister. Gwen wasn't going to have any of it, due to the demon nearly hurting an ankle when he jumped from the table after their lunch. To Dell, it didn't look that bad, but he wasn't going to argue with his well-traveled, beast-keeping wife.
Dell frowned slightly when he saw the new collar King was now sporting. It was 100% leather collar with metal studs all over it. Normally, this wouldn't be cause for alarm, but the collar was actually a beast-taming collar. The collar itself was designed to help tame the worst and most savage beasts the isles had to offer.
Thankfully, Gwen was a well-traveled beast-keeping witch and she had deactivated the spells on the collar when King didn't want to pick out another item.
"Abuela! Abuelo!" Luz's adorable voice caught the elders' attention and they looked at the young human. "Wook!"
Gwen let out a sharp gasp as she saw the bug demon that had caught her granddaughter's attention. If a human would have looked at it, it might make them think of a scarab beetle, only the size of a normal King, and with a third horn.
The best-keeping witch quickly handed King off to her husband and made a spell-circle. The bug was encased in a magic bubble mere moments before Luz was to touch it. Gwen rushed over to the human and kneeled down. She checked Luz's hands and was relieved that nothing was on them.
Luz, on the other hand, knew she did something bad again, and was getting ready for the scolding to come. Gwen must have sensed the toddler's distress and offered a gentle smile.
"I'm not mad, sweet flea," Gwen spoke softly. "But mud scarabs had slime on their bodies that could make you really sick."
"Wike the mold?" Luz asked curiously.
Gwen's smile faltered slightly, but kept it on for appearances. "Yes, but it would be ten times worse." She chose to keep that it could also be deadly, especially to children.
Dell looked at the mud scarab held in wife's spell. Most witches often forget that more than the ghouls come out during this time. He made a note to get in touch with the local BK house and request them to search the area.
He looked back at his family and a smile graced his lips when he saw his wife giving Luz soft kisses. After everything settled down, the family continued on toward the theater.
None of them were aware that someone had been watching them for the last five minutes.
(five minutes early)
Tibbles Grimmhammer the third wasn't having a good day. His latest scheme had fallen apart before it even began, because his two lackeys had decided to take a day off.
"That two-bit owl hag can make a killing selling human junk but I can't make two snails!" Tibbles screamed in frustration. "If I even see that hag or her-her-"
The pig-like demon had to do a double take when he saw an elder witch couple walk by the alley he was hiding in. No, it wasn't the couple that caught his attention, it was the toddler and the demon that did it
He was confused as to why the owl hag's demon and human pet were so small. It didn't take him long to figure it out and it made him furious.
"That two-bit hag has rejuvenation potions and SHE DIDN'T SELL THEM!" Tibbles nearly screamed at the top of his lungs. "That hag is an insult to scam artists everywhere!"
He might have gone into a rant if a plan hadn't come to him. He grinned devilish as he rubbed his right hand. He would kidnap the human and use her to ransom all of the owl lady's potions from her.
"And knowing Eda The owl Lady, she probably had stolen a bunch of rare potions. Oh, Tibbles, you sly demon, you finally hit paydirt," the pig-like demon boasted as he actually patted himself on the back.
He began to tail the group, keeping to the shadows as he waited for his time to act. It was less than five later when his window came. The couple had happened to run into the principal of Hexside and the three began to chat.
Grinning the demon made a spell circle and a fishing pod with a lollipop on it appeared. "A sucker for the little sucker," he cackled wickedly as he sent the bait out.
It didn't take long for Luz to spy the piece of candy and began following it when it moved away from her. It wasn't long before the "knocked-down" human had entered the alley and came face to face with the demon.
"Well, well, hello human, it's been awhile," Tibble said creepily. "How about you help me make me one rich demon."
Since Tibbles probably wasn't aware of how the potion actually worked, he didn't know that Luz recognized him and acted. She pulled a glyph(seriously, where does she hide them) and activated it.
Two plant spikes came flying out of the paper, but they were so slow even someone like Tibbles could dodge them.
"Ha! Human you have to get up pretty early to pull one over on Tibblet-Tibblie Grimmhammer the third!"
What Tibbles failed to realize was that the first attack was meant to be slow, as the plant spikes had suddenly turned into abomination goo and turned around. The two messes of goo began to spiral around each other and then merged into one, single mess. The mess turned into a giant fist and hit the demon in the back.
Tibbles screamed as he was thrown into the right wall, bounced off and hit the other building. The demon moaned as the goo that held him to the wall gave away a second later.
"NO NO NO NO NO!" Tibble screamed as he hit the ground with a small thud, with the sound of a bathtub breaking.
The pig-like demon rose up from the goo, suspended by a few thin vines. Tibbles moaned as his head bubbed slightly, and Luz walked up to him, smiling sly.
"What are you looking at?" Tibbles grumbled.
"Meanie," was Luz's retort before she kicked him in the shines.
Tibbles screamed and was thankful for being suspended in the air; the kick had a lot of power behind it. If he wasn't hanging in the air, he would be hopping around on one foot and holding the others.
"You no good brat," Tibbles shierked. "When I get out I'm going-"
"You're going to do what?" a voice asked sharply.
Tibbles looked to the mouth of the alley and saw the hexside prinprical and the two elder witches, all giving him a glare that could make the emperor cower in fear.
"Abuelo, Abuela," Luz squealed happily as she ran to the elder witches. "Bumpy!"
The three adults began to look over the "knocked-down" human for any injury when she reached them, and Tibbles took that as his cue to leave. He was lucky that his hands were loose enough to make a decent size spell-circle and a potion vial fell from it.
The potion exploded on impact and a thick smoke quickly filled the area. The three witches, one demon and human began to cough while the pig-like demon was unaffected. Tibbles next used another spell to destroy the vines and made a mad dash once he was on the ground.
He had reached the end of the alley when something suddenly jumped in front of him and growled at him.
"What in Titan's name is that?" he screamed when he got a good look at the dinosaur-like creature staring down at him.
Tibbles wouldn't get his answers; he was lifted up by the sniff of his neck, and turned around. The group had recovered quickly than most when he uses his smoke bomb potion. Sure, their eyes were irritated and their breathing was slightly shallow, but they still recovered quicker than most.
"Oh my, is that a stone sleeper?" Bump asked in awe.
Gwen looked up at the creature, stars exploding in her eyes when she finally noticed the creature. "I believe you are right, Principal Bump." That look of awe disappeared as she looked back at the con-artist. "Now, about your punishment."
Tibbles made a squeal as Gwen began to head towards the town's square. Dell just shook his head, actually feeling pity for the demon, as he ushered Luz towards the theater and Bump took his leave.
"Come along, Luzura, what your grandmother is about to do is not something a child of any age should witness."
(Later)
"Can this really be the same stone sleeper that Luz tamed during our time puddles exploration?" Lilith mused softly to herself.
It was late in the afternoon, and Gwen and Dell had returned to the owl house with the kids, and the sleeper. Currently said kids were doing their own things; King had worn himself out and was napping in the house. Luz, however, hadn't left the sleeper's side since returning home and was scratching behind its ear.
Gwen couldn't hide her own excitement as she studied the rare creature. "If it is, sweet flea, then that old beast keeping theory might be true," the elder witch mused softly.
Lilith's eyes sparkled as she began to pester her mother about the bonding event. She had heard the rumors, that the beast keepers believe that if certain types of beasts were tamed they would bond themselves permanently to their tamer and last only as long as their tamer were alive.
As Lilith continued to question her mother, Dell and Eda watched this with mixed results; Dell was happy that his wife and eldest daughter were finally bonding. Eda, who was over her mold, just groaned at the sight.
"Uhh, and I thought one nerd in the family was bad.
Dell just smiled at his youngest, and asked kindly, "How are you doing, witchlet?"
Eda offered her dad a lopsided grin and replied, "I want to dive head-first into the boiling seas to get that taste out of my mouth, but ma's soup did the trick."
"Mommy Edy! Mommy Edy!"
The two Clawthornes turned their attention as the "knocked-down" human ran up to them and Gwen and Lilith joined their family.
"Yeah, witchlet?" Eda asked with a soft smile.
Luz was literally hoping with excitement as her next question. "Keep, keep?" The Clawthorne family exchanged worried looks, but what Luz did next made it impossible to say no. "Pwease?" she asked with big eyes.
Well, that did it for the entire family and before Eda knew, she had nodded her head.
"Yeah! Roca staying!" The entire family smiled brightly as they watched their little witchlet run back to the newly-named Roca.
"She may not be our blood, but she is our family," Dell said warmly as he looked at her daughter. "You should be so proud of her."
Eda looked at her dad, her smile getting warmer at her father's words. She suddenly frowned as a thought popped into her head, and she looked at her sister.
"Ah, farts. Lily, help me whip up a pop-a-way potion after I put Luz down for a nap."
Lilith didn't even try to hide her disgust at the mention of that potion. While the potion would clear up any mess the stone sleeper would make, the smell was titan awfully. She would even say, it smelled worse than her mother's soup tasted.
"By the way mother, I wanted to know what you did with Tibbles?" Lilith asked, trying to distract herself from thinking about that potion's smell.
Gwen just looked at her daughter as a dark smile crossed the elder Clawthorne's face.
In the town's square, hanging from the statue of the emperor himself, was a certain pig-like demon. His usual attire changed, to a comically undersized, pink shirt and a soiled bib. Under Tibbles was a sign with a large paddle next to it.
The sign read as this "I have been a very nausty child and deserves all the spankings I can take '' and judging from his red cheeks, that is what he has been getting.
(M Corner)
Normally, I'm not one for this sort of thing, but for some reason I feel like sharing. This chapter went through a few redesigns while I was writing it. First, I was going to use Bria from the 'Through the Looking glass ruins' episode, and she planned to use Luz to get to Gus. But I came to realize how petty that would have been, so I made Tibbles the villain in this chapter. He would also have a deeper connection to the Clawthorne family, but I also decided against it and just went with wanting to get his hands on Eda's R-potions.