Luz gazed slack-jawed at Amity, having come to a startling realization. "You're... you're not human, are you?"
Amity, still flustered by the human's unwarranted contact with her ear, was taken aback slightly by the question, seemingly answering one of her own. "No... so you're not a witch, then?"
"A witch?" Luz repeated. Now she was the one to be surprised, as much as she already was. "I don't think so," she chuckled, "otherwise all those time I've tried to shoot fireballs would've been a lot more effective."
"Then... is this the Human Realm?" Amity asked, as she they started walking again, the young witch looking again at her unfamiliar surroundings.
"If that's what you call it," Luz replied, quizzically, "but we just call it Earth."
She stopped when the reached a small clearing in the woods. As she looked up, she wasn't greeted with the purples and pinks she'd come to expect from the skies above the Boiling Isles, but a soft blue that incited a sense of safety, instead of danger. "It's... not at all what I expected."
"Well, what DID you expect?" Luz questioned.
"I... guess I don't know, but..." She knelt down by a bush in the clearing with a small flower sprouting on it, "it's a lot prettier than I imagined."
"Well, don't expect much more than that," Luz shrugged, "it's not all that interesting." Luz had tried for years to make the world more exciting by bringing fantasy into reality, so she knew exactly how dull Earth could be. "Wait, so if you're not from Earth, where are you from?"
Amity huffed lightly, standing up. She was supposed to be asking he questions here. But this human seemed nice enough, so she decided to flatter her. "I'm from the Demon Realm, in a place called the Boiling Isles," Amity explained, continuing their walk through the forest, "everything that you consider 'magic' comes from there; witches, demons, vampires, everything." She looked back to the human to see if she was even listening, but was met with eyes as wide as saucers.
"Oh my gosh, your home sounds amazing!" Luz practically screamed at hearing just a vague description of the Demon Realm. It sounded like a place right out of her fantasies. "You have to tell me everything! Is it amazing? Fantastic? Super fantastic?"
Luz was bouncing up and down in anticipation like crazy, which, surprisingly, made Amity chuckle to herself a bit. She's never met anyone this excitable before, and she wondered if most humans were like this.
"Well, it's good, at times, but it's also dangerous. For every cute little faerie or friendly gnome, there's a dozen demons or creatures that would skin you alive in a heartbeat. And that's assuming the faeries or gnomes don't do it first."
Amity assumed that this would deter Luz's excitement, but that just seemed to get her even more riled up. "Danger? Excitement? Gnomes? This place sounds amazing! You gotta take me back with you, I have to see the Boiling Isles!"
While she was surprised at the idea of taking a human back home with her, it also gave Amity pause for a moment. She was so focused on where she was, she didn't stop to consider the how or why. How did that door take her to the Human Realm? Why was it there? Was it even still there?
"Maybe." Amity replied slowly, as they finally reached the end of the forest. "One thing at a time for- EEP!" Amity jumped backward as a giant metal beast roared past the two of them. It was travelling, surprisingly fast for it's size, along a dark paved road, passing a series of buildings and even more beasts, which appeared dormant.
"What... what was that thing?" She said, voice wavering slightly, as she thought her life was about to end.
Luz giggled at Amity's unexpected reaction. "That was a car, Amity." She put a hand on the startled girls' shoulder, hoping to ease her fear, "It's how we get around here. Well, most of us... some of us." She wasn't quick to point out her family's lack of motor vehicle.
"So... you tame and ride metal creatures?" Amity asked, recomposing and dusting herself off. "I thought you said not to expect much."
"Trust me, once you get used to it, it's pretty boring. And speaking of boring..." she gestured to their left to a small, two-story house with a can full of trash out front, "...welcome to Casa de Noceda."
Luz's home was actually surprisingly homely, with a row of bushes and even some flowers out front. It wasn't all that big, only being about as big as her family's guest house. Still, having grown up in such a huge, luxurious home, a quaint little home like this was a pleasant change of pace.
"It's nice." she said.
"Pfft, please," she waved her hand dismissively at Amity, "I'm sure this is nothing compared what you guys... have..." Luz trailed off as she saw a vehicle approaching. Amity took a cautious step back, as she also caught sight of the approaching vessel.
"Is... that a car, too?" she asked, cautiously.
"No... that's a bus," Luz replied, a hint of sadness tinging her voice. That was her bus, the one that would take her to Reality Check Camp, robbing her of not only her Summer month, but her creativity and imagination.
"That's a bus?" Amity asked, incredulously. "That's nothing like the buses we have."
Luz looked over at the witch and stroked her chin. Before she left, her mom did say that camp would be a chance to make friends. And what did she have here? Obviously a new friend! So clearly she didn't need to go to camp!
"Yeah, well, how about you tell me all about those buses once we're inside?" Luz quickly grabbed the spare key from under a rock to the left of the door, unlocked it, and pulled Amity inside, the witchling yelping at the sudden motion. Just as the front door closed behind them, the bus bound for summer camp passed right by, leaving Luz home for the summer.
