Hello there! And Happy (belated) New Year everyone! So, I'm starting out the year, less than a week before the next episode...! (Which I know will destroy me in some way), with a chapter slightly smaller (in more than one ways ) than the latest ones, but one that is pretty special to me. I really hope you will enjoy it as well! I won't stall any longer, let's go!

Chapter 17: Time off

"Go be kids, that's an order."

That's an order...

Hunter kept hearing that phrase in his mind, whenever he considered even looking back.

He couldn't be worried. He had no reason to be. The Owl Lady knew what she was doing, she had already done this once and who knows how many other times with her own palisman. And besides, now he had an ord- something to do!

Be a kid! Great! He could do that...! Probably...

...

"Hunter? Hunter?" The human called out, returning him to reality. To the living room of the Owl House, where she, the Blight girl and the Owl Lady's pet were staring at him.

"You didn't hear a word we said, did you?" The tiny demon asked, in a tone that was hard to tell whether it was sarcastic or genuine.

"...Hey, don't worry. Flapjack's gonna be all right." The human quickly spoke again, touching his shoulder as a reassurance for a moment. A touch that was so fleeting, almost like a push, or a brush, but still too gentle and fast to be either of those...

That was... differrent.

"Yeah. Eda knows all about how to take care of a palisman. If you knew half the times she had to fix Owlbert up..."

"I-I'm not worried." He said, fully aware of how unconvincing he was, even to himself. "Too much."

"Well, then as we were saying, you need something to keep your mind off." She proclaimed (probably too seriously), before giving a smile. "We were thinking of having an Azura book club meeting. You in?"

Hunter glanced at the floor for a moment (avoiding the expectant stares again), as if he was negotiating with himself.

Sure, he probably didn't really know about this... book club thing or what he was supposed to do, but the others seemed to know. He could watch and learn. He was good at that. And it definitely would be better than sitting alone without a clear objective or...

After what felt like an eternity, he turned back to the others and gave a small nod.

"Then it's settled! Come on!" The human exclaimed excitedly and made for the staircase, after picking up the tiny demon. Hunter and the Blight followed close behind them, on the latter's staff."Okay, so to catch you up on the story a bit: The books are about a young witch named Azura, who spends her whole life wanting to become a powerful witch, who according to an ancient prophecy..."

Hunter's hand was moving at the speed of light, writing down basically everything the human was saying about this book series they were having a meeting about.

Apparently, it was taking place somewhere similar to the Boiling Isles, except the land wasn't of a Titan's corpse and the witches didn't have pointy ears and were using magic in different ways (seriously, they didn't have palismen?). And instead of... an emperor they had a... witches' council? Yeah, witches council (kind of like the coven heads, perhaps). And there was also some prophecy about a single witch, that was supposed to grow into the most powerful witch there was, defeat an ancient evil and restore the land to its former glory. And the main character, the good witch Azura, was apparently that special witch. And she was excited about it... For a good reason surely, who wouldn't want a future like that?

A future that promised power, greatness, the chance to be part of a cause and help so many people...

"...and no spoilers, for those who haven't read it yet, but the fifth book ends on a major cliffhanger regarding Azura and Hecate. All I will say is: 'It was in the name of love.'." Luz finished with a sigh and a dreamy smile, turning her attention at the others, who seemed to have been listening intently. Hunter was even keeping notes.

While Amity, as the only other person who had read the book, was smiling excitedly, looking like she'd either give the spoiler edition the series' events or burst into laughter.

"Hey! You heard her! No spoilers, Blight, I still haven't finished this!" King called out, pointing a finger at her, and she simply laughed. Before getting hit with a stuffed animal.

"Guys, come on." Luz was about to step between them, before they got her carried away too and ended up having a full on pillow fight (though that didn't sound so bad either).

But then the toy came on her face.

Oh. It. Is. ON!

Without missing a beat, she grabbed it and lunged to Amity and King with a battle cry, smacking them in turns with it, while they laughed and made to reciprocate with other stuffed toys and pillows around them (Thankfully there was many of them.).

"Who did it?! Who threw it? Tell me and perhaps I will show mercy!" She demanded in a fake rage, the grin on her face erasing the remaining possibility of a serious threat.

Before it received a cupcake pillow from Amity. "There's no mercy here, human! Only death and destruction!"

"And a good bonk for you!" King called, waving a long giraffe-pillow towards Amity's head, only for her to duck and-

"Ah! What?!" Hunter immediately dropped the notebook and the pen and got a defensive position. Before falling back down, after putting weight on his leg.

And then everything felt frozen again. Everyone was looking at him again, worried, confused, probably annoyed that he ruined their... pillow battle (?)-

"Sorry about that. I was going for miss loose-lips over here." The little demon apologized, shooting a quick glare at the Blight girl, who just gave him a playful eye-roll.

"It's okay. I'm okay." Hunter said, quickly gathering the notebook in his hands, upon noticing the human looking at it.

"Well... since you did get hit, isn't it fair to get revenge?" She asked slyly, a glint in her eye.

"Luz...? You wouldn't!" The Blight gasped, scooting a bit farther.

"You said there's no mercy here." She grabbed the cupcake pillow and then procceded to hand him a stuffed toy. Still with that same glint, still with that smile... "Well, Hunter. Ready to rumble?"

...He nodded with a determined smile of his own (one he was almost missing) and they both turned to their opponents, who quickly came at them screaming.

The Owl Lady's pet immediately came for him (apparently jumping at the opportunity to have this duel he wanted in the morning), waving that giraffe-pillow, which was honestly about twice his size.

Hunter managed to dodge it the first time, but for the next ones he wasn't so fast. And even though he tried, the stuffed animal the human gave him wasn't a very good shield. But a bigger pillow was, and the aformentioned toy worked better when he threw it at the demon's direction. The second time he went for a throw though, his opponent returned it to sender, along with a few others.

Once King was out of throws, Hunter pushed towards him, behind his pillow-shield. He managed to get out of the way in time and once Hunter was open to an attack, he grabbed the closest stuffed animal and started hitting him again (while being careful not to be too hard or hit any bandaged-up area). However, he soon had to step away, as the pillow shield came back and barely missed him. It didn't miss someone else though.

With an exasperated hand movement, Amity removed the pillow from on top of her, glaring playfully at the direction it had come from.

"Oh no, you didn't!" She laughed and came for the boys, armed with two pillows, while Luz came right behind her (so they were allies now, even though she got her tackled down at some point with that big stuffed pinguin.).

King was able to run and avoid her hits, though he wasn't as fast to avoid Luz's, while Hunter wasn't so lucky. Amity's hits weren't heavy, but the way the laughter seemed to subside after about the fourth hit, was making her worry. Was she going too rough? Did she hit his shoulder? One of her pillows was a bit big since-

"Got you."

...!

Just as she heard those words, she was on the floor, one of her own weapons in Hunter's hands. Ready to hit again. But this time instead of her, it met her other pillow. And then again and again and again. Weren't for the pillows one would think they were having a sword fight. Until it was cut short by a cupcake-pillow from the side. And while Hunter was dealing with a surprise attack from King, she raised her hand to face her ambusher.

Luz was looking at her, her eyes welcoming an attack, playfully mocking her. Like a child running and yelling 'come and get me!'. And Amity returned that look, along with the cupcake-pillow.

"Let's rumble, girlfriend." She said, her voice almost lost in a whispered laugh, and rushed towards her, basically a breath after the pillow.

Luz got hit as soon as she grabbed it, but just as quickly, she returned the hit and dodged the next one with a twirl. Which ended with her bapping Amity on the head and was followed by another hit to her direction. One that was too close, and probably a little slow as Luz... grabbed the pillow's other side and they turned around together. And as she tried to pull it away, Amity followed the pull, letting go only after she did a little twirl of her own. And after stealing Luz's pillow and bapping her head from behind.

The human girl turned around quickly, basically tackling the witch to the floor and as they both fell down, the boys threw two large pillows on top of them, before joining them on the pile.

After that they just laid there, laughing their hearts out. Maybe it was just for a few seconds, but it felt like the sweetest forever. Just this joy that wouldn't go away, that remained even as the laughter was subsiding, giving way to soft sighs and then silence. A silence that felt warm instead of awkward, falling like a blanket in the room.

"Whew... Now that was a pillow fight." The tiny demon said, stretching a little.

"I'll say. I haven't had actual fun in one of those in years." The Blight girl agreed.

"Then we'd better do it more often." Now the human piped up excitedly. "We have a lot of catching up to do."

"Yeah..."
"Yeah."

...!

Hunter wanted to slap himself, right after the word left his mouth. He could feel his stomach tightening, even as he tried to keep his body relaxed.

This is different. This is different. I didn't speak out of turn, I just joined the conversation. I couldn't have known-

"So you enjoyed this, huh?" The Blight girl's voice cut off his thoughts (Thank Titan), in a playful, fond tone.

He answered with a nod, looking at the ceiling, a smile forming across his face, as the uneasiness from before started to fade.

"That's good to hear. A first pillow fight must always be special. I still remember mine."

"Ooo, backstory...!" Amity heard Luz whisper excitedly under her breath, as she turned to lie to the side to look at her with stars in her eyes.

Now she had to elaborate. How could she resist that face? "I was really little, five, maybe six. And one night I was restless, just didn't want to sleep. My Mom almost had an aneurysm from me screaming for some attention, but since she had better things to do, she just locked me in my room with an abomination baby-sitter. But then... my brother and sister snuck into the room with a few extra pillows... and started throwing them on my face." She paused for a moment, laughing at the memory. "I remember I got mad at first. My face turned red, I was screaming at them... then I grabbed my pillow and started smacking them too. And not much later, I was having fun. Nothing better than chasing your siblings with a pillow in the middle of the night, I guess. After that, it became some sort of tradition, every so often to have a midnight pillow fight..." Again she stopped, this time the fondness fading from her voice, along with the smile from her face.

"Amity?" Luz ventured worriedly, as she held her hand and everyone turned to look at her. All with the same eyes from yesterday. From every other time she was talking about her family...

"But over time... we stopped. We grew up. I didn't have the time to indulge in such... 'childish games' and they didn't have the mood to deal with a snitching stick in the mud... I... really missed out a lot." Amity's mouth felt bitter saying this, especially the words that weren't her own.

It really wasn't until now that she realized how much she loved this, how she missed it. How hollow the sparse pillow fights she had had with her posse felt in comparison to the ones she had before and the one she had just now...

"Well, that's all the more reason to have more." Hunter suddenly piped up. "Since you did miss out a lot and this was my first time, we have to catch up, like the human said. And we won't have to worry about anyone calling us childish here. We were ordered to be kids after all."

"Uh, you do realize that this wasn't an actual order right?" King asked, clearly catching him a bit off guard.

"O-of course I do! I just... wanted to emphasize my point." Yet another convincing answer... Well done, Hunter...

However, nonetheless the others seemed to smile (hopefully not out of pity.).

"You know, you're right." The human said, and he felt a weight falling off of him. Now he was just hoping she would- "But if we're going to do the whole... being kids thing, I think we should do it right." leave it at that and change the subject (Another relief.)...

"You mean operation high school break in?" The Blight girl sat up at this and the human nodded with a confident, sly smirk.

And that is all for now! Next chapter shall be up in the next month, but I'll try to have it up sooner. Only time will tell (and my stupid perfectionist brain...). Please leave a review and stay safe. Byeeeee! :)