As night fell on the residents of the owl house Luz felt a bit off. On the one hand the villain was well and truly dead this time. The collector was on, or at least saw the morally right path. But the titan was dead and so was his magic. Sure, she was sure she could still use Stringbean, but it wouldn't be the same. "Kind of wish I still had my titan form. But I guess it really just was a final boss battle power up. Ah well I'm alive and so is everyone else so I'll call that a win." Unable to stop herself she thought I still wish I could have kept that form though. Sure, I only saw myself on an icy reflection for a few brief moments, but I looked amazing! Not to self, use memory tweezers so I can show everyone and never forget.
As everyone was exhausted both physically and mentally, they'd decided to crash at the owl house. Amiy, Willow and Gus had excused themselves to be with their family, which Luz understood completely. Which left Raine and Lilith to spend the night. Everyone was sleeping in Eda's nest, all except for one little titan who kept staring at Luz. He'd had one thing on his mind since the battle ended.
She nearly died today! No, technically she did die! Then my dad saved her and then he died!
He nestled further into her arms before she sleepily squeezed him to her chest. "Night little bro" Hearing this King knew he had to do something.
But what? I'm not my dad. If only she still had her old form or even a small amount of it, she could do magic and be with me longer. He'd done his best not to think about how we were going to outlive everyone eventually.
Wait, maybe I can do something! He didn't know if it would work but he still had to try. Moving her arm, he found a small cut with a band aid over it. Peeling it back just enough to expose the open cut, he used his claw and cut himself just enough to draw a single bit of blood. Wait...should I do this? He thought long and hard on this before convincing himself that it would all work out in the end. His blood fell onto her wound but when nothing happened after five minutes he sighed in disappointment before rebandaging it and kissing it.
"It was Worth a shot." he mumbled before cuddling against her and going to sleep. If he had paid more attention, he would have noticed her cut starting to glow.
As Luz woke up the next morning, she felt hotter than usual. But also better, as if she was a completely new girl. Stretching, she saw that she was alone but after a moment heard her family downstairs. She heard the words "Luz Noceda Clawthorne" followed by "No Luz Clawthorne Noceda!" which made her smile.
After meeting with her mom Eda had asked to adopt her saying "I'm adopting her even if I have to marry you to do it" To her Suprise her mom had agreed to the adoption but had politely passed on the marriage much to Luz's disappointment. When she'd asked why she'd told her "I'm not losing anything by saying yes. In fact, I'm gaining another two family members." She then proceeded to snatch up and hug King while Eda did the same to Luz.
"I guess they're hammering out the final details now." Moving to the bathroom she splashed water on her face and looked at herself in the mirror. And then promptly screamed.
She fell back hearing rapid footprints before the door was swung open and four eyes stared at her.
"Luz what happ..." her mother had to stop herself and clean her glasses as she saw her daughter, or to be precise her daughter's new form. Luz from head to toe was covered in black fur that poked out from her Azula outfit, her hands ended in claws as did her feet. Her hair was now down to her shoulders and slightly purple. Two large horns were sprouting from her head and let's not forget her now black and golden eyes. Luz was freaking out as she ran her clawed hand over her body feeling her soft fur with every stroke.
"How! How?! The titan said I'd only have his magic for a short time, and I changed back after it left last time!"
Eda and Camila were on her in moments both hugging and examining her.
"Luz don't worry I'm sure it's only temporary." her mom said both hopeful and worried as she felt Luz's claws. Eda ran a hand over her horns before patting her head.
"Yeah, Cammy's right." She then transformed into her harpy form. "Besides be thankful it's not feathers or having to eat small creatures every now and again. And hey at least now we have matching eyes." Luz's eyes shot to the mirror seeing her and Eda's black and gold eyes. She then let out a excited whine making Eda nuzzle her head.
Luz couldn't help but stare at herself in the mirror. She felt the horns on her head and the sensation of long hair for the first time in years. In her excitement she asked. "Do you think you can teach me that whole hair storage magic now?!" Eda burst out laughing before hugging Luz proudly. "There's my happy magic loving Luz. Sure, we just need to wash it with a magic potin first, should only take a day or two to get."
Camila was still worried and before she could stop herself, she'd asked a question that made everyone stop and wonder. "Luz... sweetie just how much does your new fur cover...?"
Luz opened her mouth to answer but after looking down and seeing the sheer amount of fur she simply and embarrassingly muttered "privacy please."
Her mom and Eda quickly left the room but soon had to stop from rushing back in after hearing "oh my god!" After a few more minutes of this she timidly opened the door.
"Soooooo?" they said in unison.
"Everywhere." was her embarrassed response. The last time she'd transformed her fur had essentially become her clothes but now it fully covered her body. From the back of her head all the way down to her two clawed feet. She didn't have any bony side parts like last time, or the glowing titan symbol on her chest. "Well Luz don't worry like I said I'm sure this is just temporary."
"Yeah, and besides, we could always shave it later. Or you could bathe in a hair removal potion, but that could leave you hairless permanently so let's table that for now."
As they were about to go downstairs Luz had a simple but embarrassing question. "Wait... do I still need clothes?"
I'm completely covered by at least a few good inches of fur that hides everything. And King does walk around just fine without clothes without anyone batting an eye. Not that I want to walk around naked or anything... but I am rather curious. I mean it wouldn't be any different than Eda's harpy form.
Camila, however, shot this idea down instantly. "Absolutely not young lady!" Her tone made it very clear that this wasn't negotiable. So, with a slightly disappointed groan she redressed and walked downstairs where upon seeing her King was overjoyed and jumped on her.
"It worked!"
Four eyes locked on the little titan. "King, what did you do?" Eda asked, trying and failing to pry her son from her daughter.
"I didn't want to lose her again! And now we don't have to." At hearing this Luz and Eda let out a small "awwwww" while Camila simply picked him up by his scruff.
"King while I know your heart is in the right place that didn't give you the right to do this."
"But...but... I can't lose my sister again!" This time even Camila couldn't resist and hugged him. "Oh, my adorable little bebé peludo!"
Eventually they all sat down at the table for breakfast, and he revealed what he'd done.
"So, all this was caused by a single drop of blood?" Luz asked, unable to stop enjoying the food that before had giving her pretty bad food poisoning. I've always wanted to try these blue finger things. Camila had to look away as Luz happily ate what Eda had told her were vegetables in the shape of fingers.
"Guess it's not just her appearance that changed. It makes me wonder what else has changed. Lilly is going to have a field day with this. First, she finds out she's the aunt of a god and now apparently her nephew can transform people into gods, demigods? Whatever you are now." she said too tired to fully think about it.
Hearing this Luz got an idea and tried to perform a spell with her finger. Unlike the last time she couldn't feel the same overpowered magic, and while she did create the spell circle it was weak and little more than a speck of light. "Huh... well, I can do magic, but it feels different." Do I have a bile sack now? Let's try glyph magic. She attempted to carve a glyph using her new claws but when she poked the symbol it glowed in random places before dying. "Okay that's a hard maybe."
"Yeah, I know the feeling. Still begs the question though how did a single drop of blood cause this? Didn't you say last time king's dad had to grant you the last of his power through a magical handshake?"
King and Luz shared a look before shrugging. Camila, being a vet, had a theory. "It is possible that King's blood acted as a trigger for some dormant part of his dad's magic that was still lingering in your body. That trace amount of magic mixing with a small amount of blood might have been just enough to transform you."
All eyes were on Camila in pure astonishment. "What? I'm a doctor and a lover of sci fi. Something similar happened in cosmic frontier season two episode six."
"So, do you think I'm stuck like this forever? I mean last time It only lasted like ten minutes and I've been like this all morning."
Her moms gave her a look that screamed "we'll figure it out" which didn't help her as the excitement was starting to turn into worry.
What if I'm stuck like this forever? I can't go to school like this! They already called me Luz the weirdo before. If I show up with fur and horns, they'll either shoot on sight or call an exorcist. After this thought another popped up. Wait... that's only if I attended a human school. At Hexside they'd probably just roll with it. And I can do magic now, even if it means I have to start relearning it. And I do have a palisman I can use. My friends and girlfriend are here and if we get a new portal made, I could still live with my mom and Vee. The more she thought the less appealing turning back sounded. If anything, it sounded more and more like the only feasible option.
Curling a bit of hair around one of her clawed fingers she let slip "wouldn't be too bad to stay like this." She tried to be quiet, but everyone still heard it. Thankfully out of kindness they didn't call her on this. Namely because they could see Luz was on the verge of breaking down. Even Stringbean slithering up and licking her face barely made Luz smile. "Thanks Stringbean."
"Alright we can figure this out later. You three finish breakfast then we're going into town." Eda said snapping her fingers.
"For what?"
"Food, my old furniture, or better furniture whichever we can find or steal." Camila gave her a look making Eda relent. "Okay buy or find only, but more importantly clothes for you and Cammy. Lilly and Raine already went ahead with some of the others."
Camila tried to protest but Eda wasn't having it. "No objections, we don't know how long you'll be here and I'm not about to miss seeing you and Luz in some true boiling isles clothing." Camila rolled her eyes but did have to admit she was at least curious.
Luz just listened as Eda gave her "clothing ideas" while Camila sternly but politely refused, namely because she kept saying "ripped and torn is all the rage now". While this went on Luz had one simple thought. If this does turns out this is permeant, would that be such a bad thing?