Eda awoke to soft, fast footsteps pattering past her doorway. This puzzled her. She'd been a heavy sleeper for the past 15 years or so– she was confident that the Emperor's Coven could no longer find her home, so she was out like a light from nine to six-thirty. Nothing woke her up.
Ever since the human arrived, though, she found herself on high alert around her. It embarrassed her to no end to admit this to herself (forget telling anybody else), but she felt a strong urge to protect that oddball of a teenager. Maybe it was an obligation– Luz had been so kind since her very first day there, plus she could get herself killed very easily– or her maternal instincts (blech) finding another creature for her to latch onto, but either way it was becoming hard to ignore the feelings.
So when she heard distressed noises coming from the bathroom in the middle of the night, she was absolutely going to investigate. She wrestled on her slippers, left her bedroom, and padded to the slightly ajar bathroom door.
She knocked first, resting her hand on the doorknob. "Hey, uh, Luz? You alright in there? You better not be messing with anything, I do have a system-"
Eda was interrupted by the sounds of retching and a rather pitiful-sounding whine afterwards. Luz spoke up with a scratchy tone, "I'm fine, Eda… I'm just having some, uh, human problems."
Strangely, Eda felt the need to defend this point. Eda barfed things up all the time– had Luz never seen her owl pellets? Besides, even if it were just a 'human problem,' she still deserved whatever help Eda could offer.
"I'm going to come in," Eda announced, voice as gentle as she could make it.
As she slowly guided the door open, she grimaced at the sight of the human. She lay on the tile floor, back propped up against the wall near the toilet. Her hair was messy, to say the least, and her forehead gleamed with sweat. Her flushed cheeks grew even redder when Eda spotted her, and her lanky legs folded up to her body.
"Titan, Luz, what happened? You look horrible."
One of Luz's hands made its way up to her own sweaty locks. "I got sick… I think it might have been the takeout." The girl's eyes were glued to the floor; she looked like she was trying to make herself one with the wall. "I'm really sorry. You should just go back to sleep, I can clean up in here."
Just as Luz said that, her eyes widened as another wave of nausea came over her. She scrambled over the toilet and retched again. This was what made Eda finally step over the threshold of the bathroom. She cautiously kneeled over next to the panting human and put a hand on her shoulder as Luz's grip on the toilet bowl lessened. She turned to Eda with teary eyes.
"I'm sorry." She rasped again as she wrapped an arm around her midsection.
"You gotta stop saying that. This isn't on you. I should be sorry for giving you a bunch of exotic Demon Realm food. Honest to Titan, I didn't even know what half of those things were called."
That made Luz crack a bitter smile.
"Anyway," Eda returned the grin, "You should get cleaned up. You think you're, uh… finished?"
Luz nodded, her gaze still downcast.
"Okay, so quit looking like a sad puppy and hold this on your forehead. Also, don't worry about cleaning up. You should go back to bed." Eda offered a wet washcloth to the teen. With a quick spell circle, she also summoned a water glass that she snatched from the air and offered to Luz.
Luz took the water, the washcloth already pressed to her face. "I think I should still–"
"Whatever it is, no. You're a growing teen, aren't you? You need your sleep so that I don't have to deal with a tired apprentice. Also, don't worry about the mess, I'll make Hooty clean it as punishment for eating your socks."
"Alright," Luz reluctantly stood and shuffled toward the doorway. "I had fun trying that food with you, though. On the bright side, I know what not to eat here now. Maybe on another night, we can go find some more familiar food and not… whatever that was."
"It's a deal. See ya in the morning, kid."
Luz retreated down the hall, her expression warm. Eda found herself smiling as she rose to make her way back to her bedroom.
Before retiring to her nest, Eda cracked open the window, poking her head out to see Hooty stubbornly chasing a rat that was trying to make its way inside the house. "Hey, Hooty. I know you heard us talking upstairs. It's time to clean."
"YOU CAN'T MAKE ME," Hooty declared.
"Oh, you know I can."
"WHO KNOWS WHAT THAT HUMAN'S GUTS ARE MADE OF," He made a triumphant noise as he caught the rat's tail in his beak. "I'LL GET POISONED!"
"The heck you will! Now get to work, or you're gonna regret it."
"OKAY, GEEZ!" Hooty flipped the rat into his mouth and began stretching to the back of the house.
Eda closed the window and yawned, landing in her nest. Her eyelids quickly grew heavy and she dozed off to the faint clatter of Hooty's cleaning.
Luz's adjustment to the Demon Realm was bound to have bumps along the way. That girl was endlessly optimistic, though, and she'd already made at least two friends (and one enemy, but she'd be on Luz's good side soon enough) in the span of a couple of weeks.
Eda couldn't predict what exactly the future held, but she knew she'd stay by Luz's side no matter what.
It was the least she could do.