Finally, I got around to writing the next chapter!
As promised, I'm keeping 'em short and crispy at around 1.5k to 2k words
I'm trying to chuck these out as fast as possible now, because I started on a big project and I want to have finished all my started stories by the time I publish the first chapter of my big fanfiction for the Owl House.
I intend to pass the time of the hiatus with the big project xD However long the hiatus may be sigh
Be a real witch. Be a real witch?
Amity had absolutely no idea what a real witch was. She had tried swapping the word witch with different nouns and professions to get a feeling for the definition and where she wanted to go with her search of what a witch was. A real one.
What was a gardener? Well, a person attending to and building gardens, knowing a lot of stuff about plants, planning and organizing gardens, parks, locations… But wasn't a garden planner just as much a gardener as a lawn mowing professional?
What was a real monster fighter? Someone who took out monsters with physical effort or someone who coordinated the mission and instructed teams, tasking them what to do?
Who was a real student? The one who sat in the classroom bored and sleeping or the one actually studying? Both had the title of a student, but who was the real one?
What was a real king? Someone caring for their people, or someone ruling them from above, someone who tried solving all their problems, or someone organizing everything so everyone would be treated equally?
What was a real diary? Were the diaries that were written every single day the real diaries or did the ones for emotional distress diaries, too? Someone who had only in their life written one single entry, did they write a diary entry, or does that count as a diary? Where does a diary end? Is it still a diary if it was written into daily before and then skipped one single day? Does it still count as a diary?
After just a day, Amity's head was spinning from definitions and the attempt to find rules and limits. Where did a definition end, where did it start? Were exceptions allowed or not?
Giving up, she finally got up to make her way towards the Owl House, the bucket list carefully folded up and pressing against her chest. With the endless diversity of the Boiling Isles, she supposed she wouldn't find a real answer to the initial question.
She had already attempted to find one, but she supposed it wouldn't be enough for Luz. She knew Luz herself had often asked herself what a real witch was. She also knew Luz had never really found an answer, not because she hadn't tried hard enough but because she had been distracted by other, more important things. Like, what she wanted to define herself as, what she wanted to do in the future, how she wanted to explore glyphs and utilize them. How she planned on getting home.
But what was a real witch?
Was a real witch part of a coven, giving up some of their magic to give the Boiling Isles some sort of order? Was a real witch someone constantly striving for new ways to utilize magic or was a real witch striving to perfect the known skills, to technical perfection and utmost usability?
Was a real witch just someone who felt comfortable with their powers or did a real witch always go for more power? Did a real witch even exist?
She sure didn't know, and she didn't even expect Eda to have a clear answer for her. She almost expected Eda to go on her own journey already, asking herself a bunch of questions about what a real witch was.
Was being a witch linked to the personality and existence of a being or was being a real witch apart from what made someone that specific person?
Was abomination magic what made Amity a real witch or did she just make abominations her magic, maintaining her personality and her essence apart from being a witch? Was she a real witch by being herself or was being herself and being a real witch two different paths that just ran parallelly? Where was the limit, then? Her abominations professor was a real witch but an abomination was carrying him at all times. So, he was using magic at all times. Did that make him still an independent being from being a witch or did that make the witch part of his being?
He would be a different person without magic, but how different would that make him actually?
Soon, Amity didn't even know anymore what a witch really was. Sometimes, actually most times, people used witches as a race. She wasn't human, she was a witch. But Luz was human and a witch. Some demons were witches and there were hybrids between demons and witches, like Boscha and Willow, that were also witches but only partly demons. How much demon gene was in Amity, actually? She knew her father's mother was a demon. So what was her race, actually?
Mostly, on the Boiling Isles, nobody cared, but when Luz came along as purely a human and nothing else but a human, she had insulted her that she could not become a witch because she was human. Yet Luz had worked hard towards becoming a witch. She had been a witch, a powerful one at that, and yet she was still as much human, one hundred percent human actually.
Amity had told her that she was a witch, though. So what was Boscha then?
What made a witch with the physical attributes of witches being associated with, pointed ears and a bile sac, an actual witch? Was a witch a purely biological thing or was being a witch a job?
Yet, it wasn't exactly a job. Not everybody could be a witch.
Quickly, Amity shook her head.
That had been the propaganda. Luz proved her wrong by her as the ultimate magicless being becoming a witch.
That didn't help her in her definition, though.
Was being a witch a lifestyle, then, if bile sacless beings like King or Hooty could be witches, too? Being able to use magic naturally and using magic with the help of glyphs apparently didn't make a difference, as Luz had demonstrated.
When she arrived at the Owl House, her head was only swirling with more questions. Hooty didn't even bother her, once he saw how troubled she seemed. He just swung the door open, letting her in to speak with Eda.
The casket that had been in the living room was gone by now. Despite her not wanting to, Amity's eyes strayed to the spot where she had last seen Luz, before making her way to the kitchen and sitting by the counter where Eda was leaning over a mug. The loss of the human had hit the older witch hard. Maybe it'd be nice to distract her.
Eda looked up shortly to acknowledge her presence, before lowering her gaze again. Amity slowly put the bucket list down, after taking it out of her coat, and Eda eyed it tiredly.
"What's that, Minty?", she asked and Amity swallowed thickly, pushing it towards her friend to open it. Eda's movements were slow and shaky as if Luz's passing had made her older and drained her of all strength.
After opening it, she could see the tears welling up in Eda's eyes, but the older witch didn't allow them to roll down her cheeks, she just nodded.
"Ah, I see.", she lamely replied and Amity carefully took the list back, folding it up neatly and putting it back down on the table.
"I-… I was wondering if I could get your help.", she mumbled and tapped the folded-up piece to paper, getting a snort from Eda.
"I won't help you with sky diving. I've done enough flying to know that falling is not good."
That made both witches chuckle, but Amity soon shook her head.
"I meant the first thing. A real witch.", she swallowed, "I want to ask you what a real witch is."
Something in that staggered Eda and Amity could tell. The witch straightened up and looked back at the teen, her eyes blown wide when she stared at her, before sniffing and rubbing her eyes.
"You know, at the covention, right after your duel, Luz asked me the same question.", she mumbled and Amity's breath hitched. After their duel… She had been upset. Had claimed Luz could never be a real witch. Had Luz really put so much weight on her words to ask her mentor about this?
She tried her best not to start sobbing right then and there when Eda continued.
"I told her she has to be her own witch. And she did, didn't she? She discovered glyphs and glyph combos. She became powerful and even enrolled in Hexside to learn more.", Eda sighed, "She was a hell of a kid."
Amity still swallowed around the lump in her throat before looking back up to Eda.
"Does that mean a real witch is someone who always strives to find more?"
At that, Eda tapped her chin, before putting her hand on Amity's shoulder. The younger witch looked up to her, hopefully, just like Luz had looked at Eda back at the covention.
"Amity, a real witch is not a thing. What's a real witch, you ask? I have no idea. But that shouldn't keep us from becoming what we want to be. I gave Luz the same advice and she became what she wanted to be. A witch, using magic, jumping around doing cool stuff. She managed to become a real witch, whatever that means."
Amity couldn't hold back her tears anymore.
Let me know if you liked it!
