Camila sighed in relief as she saw the abandoned house through the trees.
She had spent almost the entire morning shopping in the Human Realm to restock the Owl House with food she and her daughters could eat. Turns out Vee and Luz could really burn through food pretty quick.
Shopping in the mornings was always hard (Especially without coffee), but Camila had managed to get through it and was now on her way back to the Demon Realm.
She pulled out the key Lilith had made for her, and unlocked the portal door. Stepping through the glowing entrance, she found herself back in the Owl House's living room.
"Hello? Anybody here?" Camila questioned.
"We're in the kitchen, Mom!" Vee's voice answered from the kitchen.
Camila walked into the kitchen, and found Vee along with the Collector sitting at the table. Luz was at the stove, putting an omelet onto a plate.
"Morning mamá!" Luz greeted, seeing Camila enter the kitchen.
"Morning Mija! I see you're all awake." Camila remarked, putting down the groceries on the counter.
"Hi Luz's mom!" The Collector waved from the table.
"Hello, Estrellita..." Camila couldn't help but smile, returning the greeting.
"How was shopping this morning?" Vee asked, as Camila leaned on a nearby counter.
"Long, hard, and irritating with a severe lack of caffeine..." Camila replied rather flatly.
"Sorry to hear that... But at least you're back now!" Luz remarked, looking at the bright side... When Camila remembered something.
"Oh, and I also ran into Masha at the store as I was shopping... They're still planning on coming hija." Camila said, facing Vee.
Vee grinned. Masha had agreed to take a couple days off work, and come to the Demon Realm for a small vacation and to check everything out. Vee couldn't wait to spend the day in Bonesborough with them.
"You know, if Masha is coming today... We could all spend the day exploring town. A good chunk of the town has been rebuilt already!" Luz suggested, to which the others seemed to like the sound of.
"Hey yeah, that could be fun!" Vee agreed, and she turned to the Collector. "Would you wanna come, Collector?"
"Uh, sure! I guess that could be fun to do!" The Collector replied, smiling a bit.
"It's settled then! Once Masha arrives, and King wakes up... We can start heading to town." Camila decided... To which Luz seemed confused.
"Wait, didn't King go shopping with you?" Luz asked
Camila shook her head. She had been tempted to take the little Titan with her (would have helped with her emotional state during the shopping trip), but had decided against it and had let him sleep.
"No... I haven't seen him all morning." Camila replied, "I thought he was still asleep along with the rest of you."
Luz, Vee, and the Collector blinked in confusion.
"Huh... Then where the heck IS King?" Luz questioned out loud.
Lilith and Raine looked out at the Boiling Sea. This early in the morning, the waves were actually quite soothing to watch. The way the boiling water would hit the shores, and the slight sizzling sound it made each time was quite nice.
Eda could agree with that sentiment after a few bottles of Apple Blood woke her up completely.
"You know drinking while flying is a horrible idea, right?" Lilith deadpanned at the sight of her sister
"I've done more dangerous things while drunk before." Eda casually replied, as she polished off the empty bottle.
"Yes, I remember the Great Fire of '79..." Raine murmured, thinking back.
"May those poor souls rest in peace..." Lilith sighed, "But that's besides the point, one wrong move during this trip and you could plummet into the boiling sea!"
Eda scoffed, "Oh calm down... I can just cling to your back while you fly in your raven form..." she reasoned.
"I won't BE using my raven form. I have Hootsifer to help me fly!" Lilith explained, as Hooty beamed proudly.
"I'm useful!" He exclaimed.
Eda rolled her eyes, and shoved the bottle back into her bag... To which the bag yelped in pain.
The three witches all jumped in surprise. "Edalyn, did your bag just... Express pain?" Lilith asked, eyes wide in shock.
"Huh, this isn't my living bag..." Eda remarked to herself, as she took the bag off her back and looked inside... To see King cramped inside looking back up at her.
"...Hey Eda." King greeted sheepishly. "Nice morning, huh?"
"KING, WHY THE HELL ARE YOU IN MY BAG?!" Eda exclaimed, dropping the bag and pulling him out by the scuff.
"Ow! Geez, could you be a little gentle? My neck has a cramp from being in there so long!" King complained, wiggling around in Eda's grasp.
"Oh, my bad... I shouldn't have crawled into your bag and tried to stowaway on a dangerous trip to an island filled with psychos who want to kill me. OH WAIT! That was YOU!" Eda snapped back.
"Why were you even in Eda's bag, King?" Raine questioned, "I assume you overheard where we were going exactly."
"Yeah, I did... But I want to come help!" King explained.
"Are you crazy?! We're going to an island filled with lunatics who want nothing more than to rip your SKULL off!" Lilith exclaimed. "You'd be risking your life for no reason..."
"We'd have to be even more careful if you were to come with us." Raine added, before King could even refute Lilith's exclamation.
"It'd be worth the risk! I want to help you both with your Owl Beast curse thing!" King claimed, "...Plus, the sooner we control the Owl Beast, the less chance I have of being randomly eaten."
"...We. Are going. To. An island. FULL. OF. LUNATICS. WHO WANT. TO KILL YOU!" Eda emphasized, exclaiming as she did so.
"I'd be fine! I just would stay hidden!" King assured her, "Plus, I'm here now. I might as well go."
"True... Guess we don't have any choice other than to take you with us..." Eda sighed.
"Really?" King asked, surprised by Eda's response.
"NO! Of course not!" Eda exclaimed, "I'm taking you back to the council building, THEN we're leaving while you stay here!"
King crossed his arms and pouted as Eda turned into her harpy form and flew off, leaving Raine and Lilith at the shoreline.
"Hm, I thought I had seen Edalyn's bag moving earlier..." She murmured to herself.
"...And yet you didn't think about saying something?" Raine questioned.
"Raine, my sister is very... Questionable, at times." Lilith defended, "If I had to question every weird thing she did, I'd waste at least half of my life."
"...Okay, fair point." Raine shrugged, looking around at their surroundings to pass the time.
They swore they saw something move in the cloudy sky, but chose to ignore it... Believing it to be nothing.
Alador poured a cup of Blackroot coffee into his mug as he peered out the window of Blight Manor. It looked to be a nice day out in the Isles, though there seemed to be some dark clouds on the horizon.
The Blight father shook his head. He always disliked the boiling rain, it seemed to only happen whenever he thought about getting some fresh air. That is why he left the lab for a few moments, to possibly get a drink and breathe in the warm air of the Isles to take a break.
Alador had just taken a first sip from the mug, when Amity walked into the study he was standing in.
"Hey dad!" Amity greeted, approaching him.
"Hello Mittens... How are you this morning?" Alador asked, putting his mug back down.
"I'm good!" Amity responded, before clicking her tongue. "Listen uh... We're kinda running low on groceries, so me and the twins are heading to town to get more. I wanted to ask you, if you wanted to come with us?"
Alador clicked his tongue. "Ah... You know, I would love to... But I still have a lot of work to do down in the lab..." He murmured as both an answer and reminder to himself.
The robotic arm he was creating for Eda had turned out to be a more complicated job than the Blight father had thought it would be. The first model had only exploded, but the second one... Okay, he wasn't even gonna go into how bad the second one ended up.
Amity's face noticeably fell. "Oh... Okay. We'll be back later this evening then..." She told him, before turning away to leave the study.
Alador blinked a couple times as he thought for a moment, having noticed his daughter's disappointment at his answer. He remembered the mental promise he made to himself just before the Day of Unity occurred: That he'd make a much greater effort to actually interact with his children in the future.
"Mittens, wait..." Alador held out his hand, and Amity stopped midway through the sighed, "Yes, I'll pick up more Blackroot coffee while we're out..." she said, flatly.
"Thank you, but actually... I think some fresh air would be good for me. Been in the lab for a while anyways..." Alador claimed, rubbing the back of his head as he smiled slightly at his youngest daughter.
Amity immediately perked up, and a somewhat excited smile appeared on her face.
"You really want to come?!" Amity exclaimed, excited... Before she seemingly grew sheepish of her tone, and cleared her throat. "...Well, alright then. Let's go, we can take our Palismen."
Alador chuckled in response to his daughter's reaction. "I'll get Ratador, and meet you out front." He told her.
Amity nodded, and walked out of the room... This time, much happier. Alador smiled as she left, almost just as happy as she was.
He totally had this fathering thing down. Darius was so wrong about him... He doubted the witch could do any better himself anyway.
Hunter had been through a lot in the past year.
He met Luz, found out his origins as a grimwalker (Titan, the shock of that still lingered), met Willow (The happiness of that still lingered), watched his old uncle figure be slammed against a wall like pudding, went to the human realm, he lost... Well, he didn't really want to think about what he had lost... It was still painful for him.
Course, it was almost as painful as being in this sandworm's mouth was.
Hunter could feel the hundreds of needle-like teeth biting down on his clothes, barely missing flesh. He had managed to keep himself from being swallowed by the titanic creature, but he didn't know how long he could keep it up.
He was just about to call it quits, and let the worm take over... When his eyes were blinded by the sudden burst of sunlight that beamed through the worm's now forced open mouth.
"Hunter! For Titan's sake, get out of there!" Darius exclaimed, using his goo-turned arms to hold the worm's maw open.
The grimwalker didn't need to be told twice, as he leapt out... Only to be stopped when the worm's tongue wrapped around his leg, forcing him to hang out of the worm's (thankfully) still open mouth.
That didn't stop the pain of his right leg being pierced by a single tooth in the jaws of the creature from hurting any less though.
Hunter yelped out in pain as he felt the tooth in his flesh. He tried to climb further out of the mouth, but found that he couldn't do to the tooth holding his leg in place.
"Darius! Help! I can't get out! My leg's stuck!" Hunter yelled out, as the worm began to shake in an attempt to get rid of the goo holding it's maw open.
"Hold on kid, I got this under control!" Darius claimed, splitting his right hand into two different goo arms. One continued to hold the maw open, while the other rooted around near Hunter in an attempt to get him free.
"Try and hold still!" Darius yelled out, struggling to get a proper hold on the grimwalker's leg.
"KINDA HARD TO DO THAT WHEN I'M IN SOMETHING'S MOUTH, YOU KNOW!" Hunter yelled back in response, his tone still conveying the pain he was currently in.
After a few more moments, Darius finally managed to get ahold of the tooth Hunter was stuck on, and snapped it off. The worm shrieked in pain, and Hunter was able to teleport out and plop onto the sandy ground.
Darius used his goo arms to deal as much internal damage he could to the worm's maw, before the pain got to a point where the sandworm was forced to retreat back under the ground. The two heard the creature burrow away from them, as they both sighed in relief... Though Hunter's was more pained.
"Oh, Titan... My leg..." Hunter wheezed out, his breath weak from how much pain he was in.
"Let me see." Darius told him, kneeling down to get a better look at the grimwalker's leg.
Hunter groaned in pain, as he removed his hand from the wound area. The broken tooth had stayed lodged in his leg, and broke through to the other side of it. Darius was tempted to remove it, but knew if he did there would be almost no chance of him being able to get Hunter to a healer in time.
"Hmm, you're lucky it wasn't a juvenile sandworm... The adults don't have venom." Darius murmured.
"How can you call THIS lucky?!" Hunter groaned, wincing as he tried to stand.
"No, no... You're not walking, not with that leg." Darius stopped him from getting up.
"But we have to go! And warn everyone about- Agh!" Hunter yelped, falling back to the ground as he tried to stand up once more to no avail. He felt tears form in his eyes, but quickly blinked them away.
He wouldn't cry, not because of this. He had been through so much in the last year, he wasn't gonna let something like a small injury make him shed tears! Hunter knew he was stronger than that, better than that, he wasn't weak.
Darius exhaled, looking around the empty sands as he thought things over. He couldn't turn himself into his goo form to get back to Bonesborough and carry Hunter at the same time. Darius considered for a moment to leave Hunter here, and return after warning the council... But decided against it. If there was an adult sandworm nearby, that meant there were most likely juveniles nearby as well.
Leaving Hunter here alone while wounded like he was, would be a death sentence for the grimwalker. Which meant Darius only had a single option left.
"Alright, we're walking it then. Come on, let's hurry." Darius decided, bending down, and picking up Hunter.
"Agh, hey easy..." Hunter winced, feeling the tooth in his leg shift slightly with the sudden movement.
"It's gonna hurt a bit, kid. But we don't have much time!" Darius reasoned, to which Hunter had to agree.
"Yeah... You're right..." Hunter nodded in Darius' arms.
He sighed as he began the long walk out of the Palm Stings, toward where Bonesborough was. This was one of the worst situations to be in, and at the perfectly wrong time as well.
Darius just hoped that this other coven hadn't decided that today was the perfect day for invasion.
Eda landed in front of the council building, and sighed as she opened the door. King had struggled in her grasp almost the entire flight.
"Come on! Just let me come with you, I can help!" King pleaded.
"Help what? The Titan Trappers kill you easier?" Eda snarked back, walking into the building as she did.
"Stop treating me like I'm a baby! I can handle myself!" King argued, as Eda put him down.
"Yes you can... You can handle yourself right here safe and sound at the council building." Eda remarked, patting his shoulder. "Now go on, annoy Darius or something... He should have been back by now anyways."
King rolled his eyes, and scurried off with an annoyed huff. Eda sighed as he left her sight. She had to admit, she found it nice how eager King was to help her and her sister with this curse of theirs. But she couldn't risk losing sight of King on the island... She didn't even want to imagine what the trappers would do if they got ahold of him a second time, actually knowing he was a Titan now.
Eda exhaled, not wanting to think much more about it, and began to walk back to the door to go meet up with Lilith and Raine once more... But was stopped when she heard the faint sound of something smashing, and the familiar sound of King's yelp echo out from the other room behind her.
Eda quickly turned, and approached the same room King had walked into. "King? You okay kid-"
She was cut off when she opened the room's door the rest of the way, and was met with a group of about 12 witches and biped demons, all armed with various Artificial Magic weaponry. Those with ranged weapons aimed them at Eda before she could even say a word.
"Don't do anything stupid that you can't back up with magic." One of the biped demons threatened, holding an Artificial Magic sword.
Eda glanced around, weighing her options... When she noticed a steel masked witch with more armor on than the rest of the group. They were holding King in their left arm, and holding a crossbow threateningly to his skull.
"Edalyn of the Clawthorne family, isn't it?" The masked witch asked, keeping the crossbow aimed at their hostage.
"No, I'm a mutated owl." Eda deadpanned, eerily calm.
"Hmm, yes, she said you'd be sarcastic..." The witch remarked, tightening their grip on King. "So this must be your pet?"
"My adopted son, actually..." Eda scowled, "And who's she?"
"I'm sure you'll find out soon enough... She and her associate will be coming to meet us all here shortly." The witch claimed, sitting down on a nearby stool with King still in their arm.
"Eda, ru-!" King tried to yell out, but was smacked over the head by his captor.
"Shh, that's much better... Silence." The masked witch murmured, as Eda snarled.
"You son of a-" Eda began, only to be cut off by the witch.
"Oh come now, let's be civil. I'm sure you have plenty of questions... And I'm also sure I can answer most of them while we wait." The witch smirked, "So go ahead, sit down and ask away... We have plenty of time to spend together, Ms. Clawthorne."
Eda scowled, but relented and sat down in a chair across from the witch, still in her harpy form as she glared at King's captor. Yeah, this was gonna suck.