The dust swirled as a dark breeze filtered through Bonesborough's early morning streets, almost devoid except for the rare criminal or mysterious figure. Amongst those few walking on this lonely morning was Amity Blight. Glittering rays begin to peak over the horizon to penetrate the stifling darkness. She almost always enjoyed watching the colors spread and diffuse in the morning sky. But today was not such a day. The heavy clouds above contributed to the sullen mood.
She took a deep, wistful breath. The smell of the Boiling Isles on a stormy morning produced interesting results in the fauna and flora. It brought a slight smile to her face watching the avians streak across the sky. It was going to be a bittersweet day. Without warning, the skies burst in a bout of light acid rain.
Before it could hit her, Amity pulled out a plant glyph and tapped it into activation. An acid-proof, plant material umbrella unfurled into her hands. She continued walking along despite every else scattering. Stone streets echoed as she walked over them and through forming acid puddles.
The rain soon intensified, threatening to eat away at the umbrella and then her. Amity bit her tongue as a small driblet hissed off her fingertip. Her pace hurried. She had passed the closed library. It wouldn't be far now. The organic umbrella slowly withered under the increased pressure of the precipitation as the magical strength seeped.
Soon, the glass dome in the town's center came into view. Amity produced another glyph from her pocket and shot forth a slide of ice. Without hesitation, she threw herself onto it and slid through the doorway, just as the acid melted both ice and plant, slamming into a bush.
Amity was not about the join the rank of the memorial to a bout of stupid weather. Standing up and brushing herself off, she began to walk to the center. Not even acid rain could penetrate the Earth-imported glass. Hence, vines, flowers, small insects, and an assortment of small, and regulated, life thrived here. Walking to the statue in the middle, memories came back.
As of today, it'd been five years since Luz defeated Belos at the cost of her own life, alongside many others. Everyone had moved on as best they could, but everyone still had a hole in their heart from that day.
She reached the statue, and looked up to Luz in Titan form, beckoning forth the final charge against the monstrous Belos, memorialized and frozen in stone. The stone captured her essence, almost as if it was her. Below it, her remains lay. Underneath the entire dome, in fact, was a grave site.
"I miss you, Sweet Potato. I'll see you again someday."
The statue did not answer back.
"Today was going to be the annual service, but the weather postponed. I came to visit myself, though." A few tears rolled. "You were brave, my beloved Luz. May you rest in peace."
Harsh winds blasted against the dome in fury, as if in response.
"We will make sure that everyone remembers you and those who rest here, for as long as we can."
A crackle of thunder, followed by flashes of acid lightning, boomed in the distance. Now was the time to leave to avoid electrocution. The glass was great against water, but not so much electricity.
Turning to leave, she released a light glyph to brighten against the storm-induced darkness, she noticed an ivy-black splotch of ooze on the bottom of the gravestone fit into the statue's bottom.
Kneeling, she burnt the ooze off with a small fire glyph, muttering about no one keeping this place clean. She got up and walked away to seek shelter. A Boiling Isles pub would do since she suddenly felt hungry.
As Amirt exited, the ooze began to crawl back onto the lower part of the gravestone.
–
Two days later than intended, everyone gathered in memoriam, for a day which was cruelly and coincidentally both Luz's birthday and death. Despite the somber mood, everyone at least tried to be a little bit cheerful. Giving positivity encourages positivity, so that's what they did. Friends, former foes, family of those lost, and respectful denizens of the Boiling Isles, mingled around the dome.
A banner read: "In Honor Of Luz Noceda, And The Fallen, Heroes To Us All, Forever."
It left many unspoken facts, such as that Luz would have twenty as of two days ago.
Amity knew she wouldn't want to see everyone sad everything sad, so she tried to make it as lighthearted as possible. Luz's favorite foods, glyphs you can activate by touching them, tons of copies of "The Good Witch Azura", and the other assortments are disturbed as part of the almost silent ceremony. But during the middle of the quiet party, a loud bang sounded from the direction of the grave. Everyone went to the dome to see what had happened.
The statue was gone.
A hole was in the ground, in its place. Everything else around it remained undisturbed.
. The entire statue, and Luz's gravestone with it, was completely missing. All that remained were a few tiny pebbles and some upturned dirt. Questions of 'Who could have done this?', 'Why would they do this?', What is going on?', and 'How is this possible?',. erupted from the crowd. Only cold winds swept in reply.
"No no no, why did this have to happen tonight of all nights?!" Amity said as she panicked. "Who would even take the statue in the first place?''
Willow Parks saw her panic and came over. "It will be okay Amity. We'll find who did this."
The two went to the hole to see if they could find anything, but there was nothing. An informal searching committee was formed impromptu, and many volunteers began searching right away.
"Whoever stole it couldn't have gone far," Willow said, "Let's go check outside, they're probably still out there."
The two girls went out of the dome to see if they could see any sign of the statue or grave. As they looked on, they saw nothing. Almost like it had simply vanished. No one else reported much, either.
"It can't just be gone!" Amity said as she felt tears forming in her eyes. "It just can't be…"
Willow put her arm around Amity as she cried. "Let's go home, Amity, we'll figure this out tomorrow." Willow comforted, as they walked back to the dome to tell everyone was time to go.
Amity was so upset by all of this that she didn't notice the same goo from earlier around the gravesite, where the statue should be. She thought she heard a faint chuckle as she left the attempted memoriam party disintegrated, but she brushed it off as nothing. Sudden stress had gotten to her. She needed to find who was responsible and set things right.
The next morning, Amity got up, determined to find the grave robber. She started a search party to cover more ground.
"All right," Amity said, more ready than ever to start looking, "If we start now, we could find who did it by the end of the day. I've divided everyone into groups so we all know where to look. "
Friends and volunteers alike gathered outside the Owl House.
"Hunter and Willow, look around town and ask people if they have seen anything suspicious. Lilith, Steve, you two search by the heart. Someone could have taken it to where the emperor's castle used to be. King and Eda, check the ruins where King was first found. Someone might have hidden it there, thinking no one would think to look. Camilla, Vee, look in the human realm. See if there's anything weird there. Gus, Matt, could you look at the knee? The person that took it could have taken it there, thinking it would be hard to find in the snow. And Collector, since you're still here, look from the stars. See if you can see spot anything. Ed, Em, and I will look at the skull. Because of how sacred it is, someone might have hidden it there, thinking no one would dare to look. Meet back here at around 8:00 pm if you haven't found anything. Good luck to everyone."
As everyone split up, Amity had a sinking feeling that they wouldn't find it. Emira came up to her, noticing the worried look on Amity's face.
"Don't worry, we'll find her. I promise."
Amity weakly smiled as everyone began their assigned routes.
Later, as Willow and Hunter were asking around town, they couldn't find anything. No one had said that they had seen anyone doing something suspicious and had no clue what could have happened to the statue.
Willow had an idea. "Maybe we should take a look at the town from above." She called over Clover.
"Yeah, let me find Waffles. She likes to hang back a bit sometimes." Hunter replied, nodding.
He figured Waffles was distracted by a scrap of trash or two nearby. As he went to get her, he heard a quiet sound, like something was in the alley. He turned to face it and saw a distant silhouette of something or someone. A squirming flash of black, purple, and gray blurred away the moment he looked. It looked too familiar, and his heart jolted.
"No!" Hunter cried out, clutching his chest.
Willow heard and rushed to his side. "Hunter, are you ok! Did you see something!" concern drenched her voice.
Hunter looked back and the figure was gone, no trace of it visible.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just… nothing, I think. What I thought I saw is impossible. I suppose it might be a practical joke. Let's go."
As they left Hunter couldn't get one thought out of his head, He couldn't be back, could he? No, he can't. But if not, who was that? The thoughts were quickly swept away as the couple took to the skies.
Twisting, dim, yellow eyes watched. Then, they fled into the darkness of the alley.