It's cold… the wind feels different here. It feels so quiet. If it wasn't for the drumming of my heart and wind in my ears, the silence would be deafening.
I remember this place. She's sitting on the cliff that Eda brought her to when she first started learning magic. The stars were always so beautiful from here. She just continues to sit and stare at the stars and the splendor of the world below. It is until her claws started getting cold and she heard a familiar growling from behind her…
_
Luz woke up to a reminder on her phone. She just looked at it and closed her phone with a sigh. Todays going to be difficult. Knowing she won't be able to go back to sleep she decided to finish her secret project.
While Eda was working on breakfast Luz worked on her 'portal board' and King napped on the couch. Luz looked over to what remained of Amity's old glove regretfully. There were only two fingers left and the palm, and regretted how she wasted the other fingers. The first portal experiment's, first portal door, Philip, all of them felt like such a waste, and with every failure her hopes seemed to be slipping away. This time though she hoped she finally had a breakthrough. After seeing Philips teleportation combo she thought it might be the key to making a portal. After all, something good had to come from that trip.
As Eda called them to eat she looked out and saw that Luz seemed distracted and wasn't putting her full focus into her board. "Hmm. You're avoiding something. Spill it."
"I am not… Maybe I am… Okay, I definitely am," admitted Luz as she sat down on the couch and looked down, hiding her face and eyes.
King and Eda just walked over surrounding her, and Eda placed her old letterman jacket around Luz.
"Eda do you remember a few nights ago when you told us about your dad? Well every year, me and Mom have this little ritual we do… It's nothing big… We just pick flowers and… Eda, my dad died four years ago, this is the first year I'm not there. Mami is going through this all alone and its all my fault," Luz admitted, as tears began to run down her face and land on the floor.
"I'm so sorry kiddo. I know its rough but if your moms got half the strength you do, I know she'll be fine. Not to mention she's not alone. She has that basilisk you mentioned, Vee, to help her, and neither are you. If it makes you feel better King and I will go out with you later and help you pick some flowers," Eda said, holding her close.
"Thanks guys," Luz thanked them as she wiped her eyes and finally looked up at them.
"What you need is a healthy distraction from your problems. Like breakfast," King asserted, trying to help.
"Yeah. Okay. I could go for a griffin egg, and some quilboar bacon," Luz agreed, trying to push her emotions down.
After breakfast Amity walked into the Owl House. "Luz! I have a problem, and it could distract us all day!" She announced.
"Tell me all about it and don't spare a single detail!" Luz exclaimed excitedly, thinking this was just what she needed today.
_
Earlier that morning at Blight Manor.
"Dad, look! It's the Bonesborough Brawl tonight. And since I'm finally old enough to participate, I- I was thinking do you think you'll be able to take me to the Brawl tonight?" Amity looked at her dad hopefully.
Alador grabs a book made by Darius titled "Abomination Creation" and looks at it with disgust while tinkering in his lab.
"Dad!" Amity yelled to get his attention.
Alador yawned saying, "Ah, Mittens! Didn't see you there."
"Clearly," Amity pouted. "So do you think you'll be able to take me to the Brawl tonight?"
Alador yawns again, "No. Uh, tonight they're holding the Emperor's Coven tryouts in town. Your mother already signed you up, and I've prepared a chaperone to make sure you get there safely. Your moms got me working non-stop on these new upgrades. I haven't slept in days."
"Aah!" Amity huffed. "You mean to make sure I get there. Dad... I don't want to go to coven tryouts. I wanna enter the Brawl, and maybe win the champion belt. Like you did."
"I goofed off a lot back then. But you have a bright future and shouldn't waste it on that nonsense," Alador sulked, looking exhausted and sad.
"Uh, but-" Amity stammered.
"You're welcome," said Alador with the smallest warm smile. As an Abomaton walks off while holding Amity.
_
Back in the present and at the Owl House.
"I don't even want to join a coven anymore. And this thing is so embarrassing, I even tried disguising it," angsted Amity.
"Yeah. I actually think Eda has the same outfit," stated Luz as she stared at the Abomaton's outfit and touched it.
"The Bonesborough Brawl is the one cool thing my dad did before joining the Abomination Coven. It would've been nice to share something with him," Amity sighed as she leaned into Luz's shoulder and pulled out a picture of her dad as a teenager holding the brawler's belt. Below the stage, some of the people among the audience include: Warden Wrath, Odalia, Darius, Eda and Raine. The last two were in the background goofing off together.
"Well, hey, I'm here to help... you ditch the tryouts and enter the Brawl!" Luz suggested, trying to help her girlfriend out of her bad mood.
Amity just stared at Luz. "What?!"
"Come on. You should know I always go for the chaotic route," winked Luz flirtatiously, and Amity turned red. "Maybe if you win you can use it as a chance to tell your dad that you don't want to join a coven anymore."
Eda and King appear at the doorway to the living room noticing that Luz and Amity's conversation was at least paused while Amity considered.
"Did somebody say the Bonesborough Brawl? I used to love going to those. Your pops was great in duels. Plus, if you go, you can get that ugly thing out of my house," Eda said, trying to act like she hadn't been listening from the other room the whole time.
After another minute Amity exclaimed, "Hmm. You know what? I'll give it a shot," and makes a spell circle to make her voice change into her dad's voice. "Abomination, fetch me, a, uh, rare and- and difficult to find emerald dagger from the Night Market!"
At which the Abomaton leaves the Owl House.
"My dad can't find out that I ditched tryouts. Not until I win that belt though. Otherwise I'll be in a lot of trouble," Amity shuddered.
"Don't worry. I got you, boo. Here just in case we need to book it or get separated, hold on to this invisibility glyph. They are oddly convenient," reassured Luz.
In the forest later. Edric and Emira join Amity and luz. "Hey, Mittens!" the twins called, as Amity gets annoyed, and Luz chuckles.
"We're proud of you, sis," cooed Em.
"Yeah, you're becoming more of a delinquent every day," added Ed.
Emira then turned to Ed, "All right, Ed. Hand over your Concealment Stone."
"Like I need one of those," sputtered Ed as Em pulled him to her. "Hey!"
"Don't play games, Ed. I saw you take one this morning," Em giggled while searching her brother.
"Well you saw wrong!" yelled back Ed.
"This won't take long," sighed Amity.
"Wait.. What's that supposed to mean?" asked Ed as he looked at Amity.
"Found it!" declared Em after checking Ed's sleeve.
Edric's look suddenly changes. He's wearing a t-shirt, sweatpants, glasses, with his hair pulled back with a headband, and his little uneven mustache growing out.
"Here's mine too for a little extra flair," Em offer's as her look also changes. Her face is covered in acne growing out, her beauty mark is gone and her hair is messy.
Amity grabs the stones and starts to combine them together. Her whole look suddenly changes within a poof too. She's wearing an abomination-themed dress, boots, golden earrings and pink shades, and her hair is tied up in a bun.
"Ooh, so pretty!" Luz exclames as she runs up to Amity, hugging and spinning her around.
Luz and Amity blush. Both Amity and Emira giggles.
A ways away Eda and King are watching Luz, Amity, Emira, and Edric.
"Hey, Eda! Maybe we can find out what Belos is planning," King hinted while looking at Warden Wrath over by the stage.
"And why Raine was acting weird," smiled Eda, as they headed toward the Warden. "Boo!" Eda yelled after sneaking up.
"Oh, it's you," Wrath yelps.
"Been training since my student humiliated you in battle? Hmm. Twice?" chided Eda. "All right, button eyes. Just answer me this: Heard any good castle gossip lately? Maybe something about the Day of Unity?"
"I see. So you finally need something from me, don't you, Owl Lady? But why should I help you?" chuckled Wrath.
"You know after chopping off my head, stealing King's crown, and imprisoning my student/child, I think you owe me," threatened Eda as she turned one of her arms into her harpy beast mode threatening Wrath, and he snapped.
"Sorry, Owl Lady. No fighting outside the ring," demanded the security scouts.
"Okay, okay. Watch the goods," Eda waved as she walked away and started looking up a recipe for Blabber Serum in a potions book. "Don't worry King, I have a plan."
"Witches and demons, welcome to the Bonesborough Brawl! You know the rules. Contestants will fight one-on-one. Not for honor, not for glory, but for the ultimate bragging rights as the toughest dueler on the Isles! Last one standing will get the chance to snag the coveted Brawler's Belt from our reigning champion, Warden Wrath!" roared out the announcer, getting the crowd to start a deafening cheer. "For our first round, we have Scab the All-Knowing… versus The Mighty Mittens!"
Amity getting to the arena by riding an abomination to the arena sees Luz, Edric, and Emira. They wave back at her, and Luz blows Amity kisses.
"Now let the brawl begin!" the announcer bellows.
At which, Scab jumps and takes off starting to blast a ray from their orb to Amity. Amity blocks it by using her abomination.Then she launches it behind Scab and punches them from behind. While the fight continues Lz looks away as her phone starts ringing again, reminding her about the other event she was desperately trying not to think about, and Edric and Emira emerge from Luz's back.
"Hey, Luz. You ok?," Em asks, seeing her distracted
"Ooh, what's that?" Ed marvels.
Luz stares at her phone for a while, then ignores the event reminder again. "Yeah! Uh, yeah, I'm fine," Luz lies. "Cause I just remembered the other part of the plan. Amity's gonna kick butt, like, for sure." She considers joining Amity and fighting too, but decides against it. She knew it would help distract her but this mattered to Amity and she didn't want to get in her way. For now she'd let her awesome girlfriend show off just how strong she was, as Scab gets thrown by Amity's abomination and crashes out of the ring.
After her match, Amity went over to Luz and they moved off into the treeline for some privacy. "Is everything okay? Eda told me today is special for you, but she was really cagey about it. She said you'd explain when you're ready," Amity nervously asked.
"She did? I mean, i- it's nothing for you to worry about. Not even worth talking about right now. Really, I- I just wanna be here to cheer for you. You're going to destroy them. Just don't get hurt, okay, hermosa? ," Luz reassured, blushing before looking away.
Amity blushes, "Thanks Luz. With you cheering for me, how can I lose?"
Before they went back to watch the next couple rounds Emira and Edric joined them.
"Hey Em, do you know any healing spells?" Luz wondered.
"I've got it," laughed Em.
"Ooh, I can help too. I can make Batric sing for moral support.," excitedly interjected Ed. As he tries to make a circle in the air to make a spell, but it fails. "Ah, sorry. New spell. Let me try again," as it fails again.
"It's okay, Ed. Maybe you can just cheer from the sidelines?" Em pats her brother's shoulder in support.
Emira, Amity, and Luz walk away to the ring and, seeing the Flexicutioner and an old goat demon knock each other out. Apparently eliminating both. Edric just slumps sadly and walks into the forest. "Man, I can't get anything right." As they walk Edric and Batric notice something on the ground. Batric chirps, then flies away. It's revealed to be goreberries. Edric walks over, and tries to touch them, but a voice from the rustling bushes interrupts him.
"Hey, sweatpants! Scram!" King whispers/yells.
"You'll scare away the Skin Badgers! We need their dandruff," assorted Eda.
"Oh! I thought Skin Badgers ate shushrooms, not goreberries. Also, they're strong, so you'll need a fortified rope." He traces a spell circle in the air, then touches the rope, which turns gold as King and Eda look at each other and Edric stands up. "Sorry. I'm probably messing stuff up. Just forget I said anything," mumbled Ed as he turned to walk away, but Eda called out to him.
"Wait! You know beast keeping magic?" asked Eda.
"A little," Ed admitted. "It's just a hobby though. Probably not anything good," as he begins to walk away.
Eda and King smile at each other, and yell out, "Hey! Blight Brother! Uh, Edric?" Ed turns back around. "Nah that won't work. Too close to Eda. Here's the deal. I'm trying to make a blabber serum. I need to get certain information out of a certain demon. But, without magic, I'm having trouble getting some of these more lively ingredients. Your beast keeping know-how could really help."
"You think I could help?" Ed smiles. "Okay, I'll do it!"
"Dang! I didn't even have to offer to pay," laughed Eda."Let's get started!"
Back to the Bonesborough Brawl, the Announcer yells out to the crowd again, "Let's keep the brawl going! In one corner, The Mighty Mittens… and in the other ...the Spellbinder! "Let the brawl... begin!"
Amity faces off against the Spellbinder. They rush towards each other and attempt to push each other back, creating a power force strong enough it causes both of them to fly backwards. The Spellbinder summons a large rock from the ground and launches it at Amity. She immediately forms a shield with abomination goo, which successfully blocks the incoming stone, but the force of impact is still strong enough to send her flying backwards. She hits the ground and rolls over multiple times, but eventually manages to sit up bruised and with a bleeding scratch above her eye. She then summons some abomination goo, wraps it around the Spellbinder's foot, and throws him off the stage. Below the stage, Emira sees Luz cringe and start holding her chest, while having a hard time catching her breath, as Spellbinder smashes into a pile of dirt next to them and then falls face down onto the ground. The audience cheers.
Back with Edric, Eda and King sitting around the pot of some purple boiling liquid, while Eda stirring it with a spatula.
"So the Blabber Serum should get your ex to tell you about your other ex? Man, being an adult gets complicated," winks Ed.
"Warden Wrath is not my-" Eda starts angrily, but groans exasperated. "King, can you stop telling people that?" King just laughs. "Wrath may know something to do with the Day of Unity as well. But, with this, he'll tell me everything I need to know."
King starts smirking, "You're enjoying this, aren't you, Blight brother?"
"It's just... nice to be taken seriously for once," sighs Ed happily.
"Yeah. I know what you mean," whispered King as he climbed up Edric's shoulder and watched Eda stir the pot.
Back at the brawl venue, Warden Wrath is tossing a contestant in between his hands while laughing. Below the stage, Luz is looking on feeling powerless while Emira is trying to cure the wound on Amity's eye with Healing magic.
"You doin' okay, Amity?" Luz grimaces staring at Amity's wound.
"Ya. This is just a nasty one," Amity reassures through clenched teeth.
"Ha! Reminds me of the Grudgby match when-" Luz starts before holding her chest again. Luz's phone starts buzzing and ringing again, which startles her. "I'm gonna go take a walk."
Amity stares at her with a perplexed expression on her face as Luz walks away.
When Luz gets near the entrance. She takes out her phone from her pocket and turns off the reminder. "Next time, I am throwing you into the ocean!" she huffs as she puts her phone back into her pocket and accidentally bumps into something. She steps back and notices that it's the Abomaton Amity sent out earlier, now holding an emerald dagger in its grip. "It's you! Geez. Did you actually find an emerald dagger?" Luz asks as the Abomaton tries to walk past Luz. "Hey! Wait! Amity is so close to winning. Just stay back!" Luz futally runs up to the front of the Abomaton and tries to hold it back, but it keeps advancing forward, which frustrates Luz more. "Fine! If that's the way you want it…" Luz warns as she takes out an Ice Glyph and slaps it, taking out an ice bat. "Hi-yah!" Luz swings the bat at the Abomaton's head and hits it. It wobbles and then restores itself. A warning light bulb pops up from atop the Abomaton's head and flashes, along with the sound of an alarm going off. Luz gasps, screams, and covers her ears as her eyes go black and begin to glow again. "Get out of my head!" Luz slams a Plant Glyph into the ground, creating a wood stump below her which pushes her upwards. She then jumps off it and swings at the bulb, breaking it and knocking it onto the ground. After landing, Luz looks up at the Abomaton with a horrified expression. Her bat has shattered and her hands are now covered in bone-like claws. As the hammering in her chest continues to get worse she runs off into the forest.
"Luz!" Em screams as she sees her running away.
On the stage, Warden Wrath begins spouting fire. The audience cheers as Amity strikes a fighting pose. "Now, we're getting close to the end, folks! Will the Warden lose the Champion's Belt?" hypes the announcer. "The Mighty Mittens versus the Warden! Now, let the brawl-" The ground suddenly shakes, causing the announcer to glance down in shock.
"Stop!" shouts Alador as he emerges from the ground wrapped in a layer of Abomination goo. "This child forfeits the match." The crowd silences in shock.
"Dad? How did you find us?" stammers Amity.
Alador's abomination starts to lower him on the ground and is eventually scooped back into a container attached to his back. "Not only did you ditch the coven tryouts, but someone set off your Abomaton's alarm. I just followed its signal," retorted Alador, clearly disappointed.
Amity looks around for Luz, hoping to have her support. Not seeing her anywhere, Amity's worry for herself is quickly overtaken by a new one for Luz.
Warden Wrath pipes up angrily, "Hey! I'm tired of standing around. I came here to fight!" Alador and Amity look towards him as he turns his hands into tentacles. Before he can attack, Alador counters by summoning abomination goo, and encasing Wrath's body, whisking him to the floor.
"Oh, well, it looks like the Champion's Belt goes to…" the announcer tries to declare.
"I already have one," Alador spits as he turns around and walks toward Amity. "Mittens, go round up Edric and Emira. We're leaving."
"But-" Amity stamers again.
"And if we beg, maybe we can sign you up for the next tryout," Alador interrupts seriously.
Emera comes running up yelling, "Amity there's something wrong with Luz. She just ran off into the forest."
After processing for a moment. "No! I'm not going anywhere with you Dad. I have something important to do," Amity yells and activates the invisibility glyph Luz gave her, running off the find her girlfriend.
Behind Alador, King and Edric peek out from a tree in the distance.
"Aw, weak. Your dad's here," King wines.
"But look! Wrath's tied up. This is the perfect chance to give him the serum!" excitedly points out Ed.
"But it isn't ready!" King continues to wine as Ed runs back to camp and unties a sack.
Scrambling through the things inside, Ed mutters to himself, "No, not this one. Oh!" He pulls out a jar of Fire Bee honey and runs to the cauldron.
"What are you doing?" wonders King as he watches Ed open the jar.
"If the Blabber Serum needs more heat to finish, then this should do just the trick." Ed comments as he pours a drop of honey into the cauldron. "You find Ms. Eda. I'll head over to Wrath as he carries the cauldron with a spell.
_
Meanwhile, Amity starts flying back to the Owl House assuming that's where Luz would go. But when she gets there Hooty admits he hasn't seen her since they left together. Almost frantic now, Amity tries to think of anywhere else Luz could have gone. Its then that she feels the reassuring nuzzle of her palisman Ghost and they share a look.
"Ghost, are you trying to say you know where Luz is," Amity begs. The cat just looks away at the knee and turns back into a staff. Amity, trusting her partner, hops on and lets them take her where she needs to go.
A few minutes later by a familiar cliff, Amity jumps off her palisman and starts walking. Ghost leads her to a cave that Amity remembers from the last time they had been there. The time they almost got eaten by the Slitherbeast. It felt like a lifetime ago. As she enters the cave, at Ghost's prodding, she hears crying. Somewhere close by Luz was crying. Amity rushed forward, throwing away all caution until she found a dark alcove at the end of one of the caves deadends. She could roughly make out a shape in the dark. It didn't look like Luz but she'd recognize her voice anywhere so she called out, "Luz, botata, is that you?"
The shape jerked at the sound of her voice, "Amity? No you can't be here. Run away! Something is happening to me. I'm scared but more than that I don't want to hurt you."
"Luz, you would never hurt me. I don't know what's going on but I promise we will figure it out together," Amity tried to reassure her. Amity slowly crept closer till she could see her clearly, and she gasped.
Luz had taken on a new form. Where her forearms and shins had been they now had boney white armor covering them, and claws covering the ends of each hand and both feet. Her limbs, while never being super gangly or overly muscled, now looked slightly longer and more toned. Fur had sprouted above each boney segment ending at her shoulders and just below her navel, and she now had a bushy tail. She was still wearing a black sleeveless undershirt but it didn't seem long enough anymore as her navel was showing at the bottom. Her hair had grown out, now almost reaching her shoulders, and matching the fur had turned a richer black, almost looking dark blue. She now sported a single white fang that hung out of her top lip and two white swept back horns traced by geometric lines that seemed to constantly shift between colors and hues as Amity watched. Most striking though were her eyes. Amity had always loved Luz's eyes. They made her feel safe and she always saw love in their amber depths. The love was still there but it was overshadowed by terror. Her sclera were now pitch black pools and at their center glowed a more molten version of her Luz's amber irises.
Amity stood in shock and awe. Whatever was happening to Luz had caused some major changes, but after a minute of stunned silence Amity came closer. When she got close enough she leaned down and just hugged her with all the tenderness she could. It didn't take long for Luz to relax her muscles, and bury her head into Amity's neck/shoulder. For the next few minutes, it could have been an eternity for all they cared, they just held each other like the rest of the world didn't matter and they just cried happy to be in each other's arms again regardless of the circumstances.
Slowly Amity got Luz's attention without breaking their hold on each other, "Luz… are you ok? I know it's a dumb question but did it hurt? Are you still in pain? How long has this been going on?"
Luz whispered back in her ear, "No it doesn't hurt anymore, and I swear this has never happened before. Before it happened it felt like there was a terrible cramp in my gut and my chest got tight. I couldn't catch my breath. Amity… how bad is it? I can see some of it but I'm too afraid to find something to look at myself in. I know I must look terrifying. Do you still… Could you…"
Amity pulled back enough to stare into Luz's new eyes, "Luz I'm not going to lie, I am scared. But it's not of you, its for you. I swear to you, no matter what happens and no matter what you look like, I will always love you. Even now after everything that's happened to you, I look into your eyes and see the quirky lovable human who changed my life. As I said we will figure this out together." At those words Amity could almost feel the fear and anxiety fade away from her partner as she continued to hold her close.
Unfortunately, that's when they heard the growling from behind them. As Amity looked back she saw a huge Slithbeast crouching at the mouth of the cave ready to attack, oddly it looked like it had already fought a rough fight not that long ago. It still had fresh cuts and bruises that couldn't have been more than a day or two old.
Fearing for Luz again, Amity freed herself from their embrace and rushed forward to defend her now very furry girlfriend. It didn't matter though, after fighting all afternoon, desperately searching for Luz, and their tearful reunion Amity just didn't have much strength left to fight. It only took seconds for the beast to fling her aside, hard, into the rock wall of the cave. It knocked the wind out of her and she must have hit her head because she couldn't move, only lie there dazed.
As the thought crossed her mind that this is were she'll die, she heard a roar coming from the back of the cave, "STAY AWAY FROM MY AMITY." Then she felt warm. Above her stood Luz but she had changed again. She was now on all fours and build like a bear or some other kind of large beast and as she stood open she roared at the Slitherbeast like some kind of wild monster. The roar seemed to push the Slitherbeast back and after a few moments it simply turned away and left. Apparently this fight just was worth it to the beast. After it left the monster that was Luz just seemed to nuzzle Amity for a moment till she groaned and then curled up defensively with Amity against its chest.
_
Back in the arena, a woman screams as other people run away, and Eda arrives with King on her shoulder.
"What the heck happened?" asks Eda.
"I-I added fire bee honey to the blabber serum! There were side effects…" admitted Ed.
Eda yelled, "You changed the recipe?" Eda unleashes her harpy form, and pulls Edric away as Wrath, now a roaring monster, causes chaos in the arena. "Hey, Wrath! You still in there, buddy?" Said Eda trying to calm Wraith, and he swats her away.
Just then, Aladon controlling Amity's Abomaton gets a hold of Wraith while trying to summon another abomination to give support, and protect his children.
"Dad! I got your back! I'll try to distract him," Em announced, as she ran up to her father.
Alador uses some goo to drop her back with Edric and King.
"What the heck, Dad!?" angrily yells Em.
Edric boo's as Alador continues to hold off Wrath.
Eda lands nearby asking, "Are you guys doing okay? Nothing phases this guy, and we have to turn him back to normal."
"Well, if the heat from the fire bee honey caused the potion to mutate, then maybe something cold would reverse it?" suggested Ed.
"We don't have time for a new potion! Eck, I guess I'll have to try using Luz's glyphs," groaned Eda.
Alador, meanwhile, is having trouble controlling the Abomaton, which is cruelly being smashed by the monster Wrath. The Abomaton gets thrown off and is smashed by Wrath's jelly hand. Just as Eda rejoins the fight.
"Dad, hold him down!" Yells Ed.
Eda throws glyphs in mid-air and activates them creating large amounts of snow that encase Wrath, and Alador's abomination releases him. Everyone comes back to where Alador and Eda stand slightly winded.
"Edalyn," Alador says neutrally.
"Alador," Eda responds in kind.
"Were you always able to do that?" Alador asks after catching his breath.
Eda turns back into her normal form in a puff of smoke. "Don't you have family stuff to clear up? Also, I heard about the factory incident with Luz. I've got my eyes on you, Blight," Eda mutters, obviously unpleased by the whole situation. Pulling Wrath out of the snow, "What's going on at the castle? What's really gonna happen on the Day of Unity? What happened to Raine after she was captured?" Eda interrogated.
Warden Wrath just sputters, "I don't know! I don't know. I actually got demoted for stealing my coworker's lunches. I just wanted to feel in control again, you know?" Eda growls angrily and her arm turns into a claw. "Okay, okay, okay. I don't know about Raine, but I have heard some things. The Day of Unity is supposedly going to unite us with the Titan, but some of us don't think this "new world" would be very inviting to magickind." Eda's claw arm turns back to normal, and she pushes him back into the snow. Eda ponders this new information for a minute.
"Ms. Eda! I am so, so sorry. I messed everything up," apologized Ed as he ran over.
"Are you kidding? Instead of making a blabber serum, you made a horrifying transformation serum! Well, the side effects aren't pretty, but I can sell this. Illusions, beastkeeping, and potion magic? Keep it up, kid. You got a future in wild magic," jokingly reassured Eda, feeling a bit of pride, and throwing Edric a "Bad Girl Coven" t-shirt.
"Thanks, Ms.-" starts to say Ed.
Till Emira runs up, "I want a t-shirt too!" They all laugh.
After Eda and King left the twins went over to Alador.
"Dad, Amity does want to join the Emperor's Coven anymore," declares Em.
"What? She doesn't want to join the Emperor's Coven anymore? But that's- that's always been her dream," Alador answers in shock.
Em just looked at him frustrated, "No, that's always been Mom's dream. And you just went along with it. I bet you didn't even know she was dating Luz!"
Alador looked back more confused, "Edalyn's kid?"
"See? You don't talk to us anymore! You're too busy making these monsters for the Emperor, and Mom's been too busy trying to dye her hair green," shouts Em. "You still don't get it. You two hurt Amity. You let mom push her for years. She was almost crushed under both of your expectations. The whole time where were you? I know your work means alot to you and its very important, but what about us? Don't we matter? Thank Titan for Luz, because for the first time in years Mittens is happy."
Alador stands there for a moment taking it all in and says, "I... I like her new hair color. It's abomination-colored."
"Finally someone gets it. Can you tell Mom that? Maybe get her to back off her a bit? You need to talk to Mittens too. You don't realize it but what you pulled today hurt her," sighed Ed.
Alador looked away, ashamed, "I'll talk to your mom and Amity. Maybe you're right. Maybe I lost sight of what's really important." He reaches out to hug the twins and they hug him back.
"It's a start, and don't worry we'll be here to help. It took us a while to realize we were hurting Mittens too, but we've come a long way and you can too," sighed Em.
_
An hour later in the Slithbeast cave on the knee Amity wakes up. Her head ached, muscles were sore, and for a second she couldn't remember how she got there, but then she looked around and saw Luz curled up behind her. Luz looked as human as she had the day before too. Amity reached down and pushed a strand of hair out of her girlfriend's face. For a moment she just marveled at Luz and kissed her forehead. She couldn't help but cup her face and slowly caress her cheek until she heard a soft moan. "Good morning me botata," Amity whispered sweetly.
Luz just smiled back for a second before abruptly sitting up and scooching back as fast as possible looking terrified again. "Amity? Are you ok? Did I hurt you?"
Amity calmly moved over to Luz and embraced her again, "Don't worry, I'm fine. You protected me from the Slitherbeast and you look fully human again. Which is kind of unfortunate, because you looked kinda cute when you were all furry and stuff."
Luz looked back at Amity wide eyed and then started to laugh, "Sometimes I wonder what I did to deserve the chance to be with you, me amor. Thank you. There's something else I need to do. Can you help me?"
With that they got up and started the trip back to the Owl house. It was getting close to dusk when they arrived. They found Eda and King waiting, but instead of landing Luz motioned for them to follow after them.
At the Grom tree, Amity and Luz sit down by the cliff.
"Amity, I think its time I explain why today is important," Luz sighed and handed Amity her phone. Amity presses the reminders Luz had been avoiding all day. It said "Anniversary at Gravesfield Graveyard, 5:00 p.m. "Today's the anniversary of my dad passing away. It happened four years ago so you'd think I'd be over it, but I, uh… didn't want to bring it up because I guess I'm not." Amity starts to scroll through the photos Luz has with her parents, eventually the later ones with only her and her mom when she was younger. "He always brought us flowers on our birthdays, so, after he passed away, we started picking flowers for each other. And then we'd visit his grave, and me and my mom would spend the day together. It's nice. But, this year, I-I'm not with her, and... I don't have any flowers. And when you told me about the problem with your dad, I don't know. Maybe I was jealous or, just, needed a distraction. I was dumb. I'm sorry."
Amity was about to console Luz but instead she said, "I've always wanted to enter this Brawl. I thought it would be fun to bring home the belt. And I thought I could understand my dad better. Maybe if I did he'd praise me and… idk it all feels too selfish and unimportant now. I don't know what rituals you have in the Human Realm, but I'll help you pick some flowers, and we can do something here!"
That's when Eda and King come out of the tree line and lead the girls to a small meadow. They all pick a few flowers each, making a beautiful wild bouquet.
"Now what?" asked Amity.
Luz led them back to the cliff and had Amity summon abomination goo from the jar in her pocket, and it morphs into a balloon, which she hands to Luz. Luz ties the flowers to the balloon and after closing her eyes for a while, she lets it float away.
"Do you think they'll reach the Human Realm?" Amity asked Luz.
"Probably doesn't work that way, but... it's a nice thought, right?" Eda answered as she came up and put a hand on the girls shoulders.
Luz and Amity hold hands as petals flow across them and away with the balloon.
_
Back in the Human Realm, at the Noceda residence, Camila soberly places a flower in the vase that's on a windowsill. Vee can be seen behind her, mixing something. As Camila looks up at the sky, she sniffs sadly. Then, she smiles faintly and walks away. Not too far away a bouquet hanging from a purple balloon floats by a grave and pops.
Ok all. I really hope you enjoyed what I did with this chapter. It was one of the chapter's I was most looking forward to along with 'hollow mind' and 'kings tide'. I'll admit I took some inspiration from the alternate designs for Luz's titan form and a really cool image I saw while searching (I'm sure you'll find it with a quick google search), and don't worry this isn't all there is to that situation. If anyone has questions feel free to pm me and as long as it doesn't spoil anything I'd love to explain why I changed what I did (that goes for future chapters too).
In other news, I had to do a massive rewrite for chapter 4 and because of that it became chapters 4 and 5. So I have a nice little backlog incase I hit a wall, but if this story continues to pour out of my head the way it has I might move to a Wednesday and weekend release schedule instead of just each weekend. Idk yet, so keep an eye out.
Todays shout outs will be spiritgamer and LumityForever1234