Chapter One: Books and Magic and Monsters Oh My!
In the Boiling Isles, anything that the humans think or create in the human realm the Isles will appear in the demon realm. And that's the truth! The streets were filled with habitants of all shapes, sizes and abilities. Fairies, giants, minotaurs, cyclops, creatures that walk on multiple legs, those who can see everything, and much more.
"Luz, come on, quit mopping around and pick up the pace already," a voice cried out.
A small furry creature was running on all fours. This was the king of all demons, King. He was a little furry creature, with part of his head being a skull with a missing horn. Nobody knows what he is, but he acts like a dog and looks like a dog. King looks behind him to see if the person following him is there, and a voice is heard.
"Coming, King," a sad voice came from behind.
Walking behind the little demon king was a brown-ish skin human girl named Luz. This short pixie hair human was wearing a white and purple hoodie with little cat ears on the hooding, jorts on top of leggings and white tennis shoes. She was filled with flesh, organs, and sadness like every other human.
Luz let out a sigh and continued walking with King down the streets of the Boiling Isles with thoughts about what they had done today. King said he was glad they were almost done with this stupid delivery that Eda put him through, even though Luz did most of the work. Luz was thinking about today's events, from getting her arm swallowed by a doorbell to trying to interact with locals of the isles, which one of them tried to eat her whole. She was going to have nightmares from now on after that. She thought the Isles would be this amazing place filled with wonder and magic, but it didn't live up to her exception.
Luz looked down at the book of Azura and thought about how the book was different from the Isles. Azura was already meeting and befriending multiple people, learning magic and finding herself to be the prophecy that everyone was waiting for. Luz stopped in place, and disappointment filled her mind. She thought she could do or find something to make everything better for her, but nothing came up until a blinding light shone on her book. Luz looked up and went from a sad smile to a wide grin. King found something that filled him with joy too. A stand filled with mouth-watering not dogs.
"Luz, I demand that you order me a not dog," King demanded as he turned toward Luz. He climbed onto the human's back and shook her head violently.
"King demands your attention and the money Eda gave you." He kept trying to grab her attention, but she wasn't even listening to anything he was saying. King jumped off of Luz and tugged her leg.
"Luz?"
"Hey, Luz, come on, King's hungry here." King cried out as he kept tugging, pushing and shoving the human girl, but Luz wasn't budding.
"Yeah, give me a second," Luz said, waving him off, still mesmerized.
King looked over to where Luz was looking and immediately groaned. Luz was looking at one of the Boiling Isles' oldest buildings: Bonesborough Library. She was mesmerized by a library, wow…. Humans are really easy to entertain, King thought as he pushed and tugged on Luz's legs to get her attention.
"Serious? Are you shocked to see a library? Wow, books filled with words and no pictures," King said sarcastically as he tugged on Luz's legs more.
Luz couldn't remove her eyes from the library as her thoughts were going into overdrive. She thought of the amount of knowledge collected over the years, magic spells, potions that actually use magic, and probably somewhere in there, could help her learn…maybe become an actual witch. She broke out of her trance, picked up King, and spun around in a circle, laughing in joy. King was struggling to break free, but she kept turning and laughing.
"Come on, King. This world is filled with magic, and I should read up about it. Think about it, mysteries that are yet to be solved, waiting for the one true witch to find and discover them," Luz energetically said, pulling King in for a tight hug.
"Pass," King said as he pushed himself out of Luz's hug.
King turned around, facing away from the human girl with his snout in the air. Luz was sad that King was not allowing her to explore the library. Even if he doesn't have to go inside, she couldn't leave without having a few head-ups for anything that won't get her to kill, eaten or both. Luz got onto her knees and pestered the demon king with promises of belly rubs, hugs, kisses, and attention from her. King chuckled and said that she already does that no matter what. Luz cursed under her breath, for that was the truth. She could not deny giving King her undevoted attention. She thought about ways to convince him to join her, but nothing seemed to come to mind until she smelled something that made her cover her nose in disgust. She looked over and saw a stand with the Isles versions of hot dogs. She remembers that King wanted something to eat and a smug smile appeared on her face.
"If you allow me to journey to the library, I'll give you all the money that Eda gave to me and allow you to get as many not dogs as you want," Luz smugly said, pulling out the coin purse and shaking it.
King's eyes widen in shock after hearing the words 'as many as he wants.' He knew what the human was trying to do for him, but he couldn't resist the temptation of eating as many not dogs as he could purchase. He turned toward Luz and was disgusted by the cat face Luz was making. King sighed as he gave in to Luz's "deal."
"Fine! Just hurry up so we can deliver this last package," King stated as he crossed his arms.
"Yes! Yes! Yes! Magic books, here I come!" Luz happily shouted, pumping the air in excitement.
Luz looked down at her book and was filled with hope and inspiration to search the library high and low for anything and everything about the Boiling Isles. Luz started to run away from the demon and straight toward the library.
"Hey! Where's my money?" King screamed out.
"Oops, sorry," Luz chuckles, running back to King and handing him the bag.
She kisses him on the head and waves goodbye to the little demon dog. King places his hand on the kiss and is about to rub it off, but he keeps his hand there. Luz made her way up the steps to the library, and with each step she took, her excitement reached a new level. Luz took a deep breath and opened the door. Once she opened those doors, Luz was in awe of how magic works for a library in the demon realm, from books using the pages to fly around the area to the magical crystals used as computers. She couldn't stop smiling at everything she saw and couldn't wait any longer. But, as soon Luz got any further into the library, someone screamed for her to stop where they were. Luz turned her head to where she heard the voice and noticed the librarian giving her the stink eye.
"And where do you think you're going?" The librarian coldly asked.
"Oh, well, I'm just exploring," Luz chuckles.
The librarian looked Luz up and down and let out a huff of air through his nose. He didn't care if she was a human or not; nobody was allowed to continue without a card. He set down his book and leaned forward on his chair, giving a fake smile to the human.
"Do you have a library card?"
"Um…no." Luz chuckles. "Can I have one?"
Luz leaned on the desk, getting close to the librarian's face with a smile of her own. The librarian's expression stayed the same as he pointed in a direction away from the rest of the library. Luz looked at where he was talking; it was a little photo area. Luz thanked him, running over to the area, and the librarian returned to his book.
She walks to the photo booth, noticing that somebody is walking over with a vintage camera. She thinks that they're the ones to take the pictures. Luz asked the photographer if she should make a cute or furious pose while she was making the poses. The photographer removed the covering, revealing that the lens was his eye. Luz jumped after seeing it. But what shocked her the most was that the flash was his mouth. In a friendly tone, the photographer said to make a cute pose because many people do that. Luz nervously chuckled, taking a seat and trying to pose cute, although she was freaked out about the camera. The photographer screamed, and his eye blinked. He asked Luz to hold out her hand, and Luz did just that and was about to ask why, but it was too late. He held out his flash mouth and barfed the card from his mouth. Quickly wiping up the slobber and walked away from the photographer, thanking him.
Luz walked by the librarian, holding her newly obtained library card with a smile. The librarian didn't care. Luz kept walking until she reached the middle of the room and looked around her. The isles of books had many more books than a regular library. She grabbed the nearest book, immediately opened it to the first page, and quickly looked through the pages. And Luz's mind was blown by how the Boiling Isles worked, along with the magic and its system. She went down the isles with hastened pace looking down the rows of books and their titles. From potion making and how it can predict your future to creature biology and how not to get eaten whole. Luz went to the second level of the library and went to the edge to get a better view of the entire thing. She still couldn't believe being here in a magical library. It felt like everything was starting to go her way.
"Amity, can you come here for a second?" A voice called out.
Luz looked down to where she heard the voice, and her curiosity got the better of her. She slowly made her toward the creature and hid behind a bookcase. She leaned her head over the bookcase, spying on them. Luz thought to herself as her eyes turned into stars.
"Wow, who's this?"
On the ground level, there appeared to be a sizeable humanoid bluish-gray bird creature that towered her over in size. He wasn't the biggest creature she had seen, but she was still amazed. The birdman looked around, trying to find the person he had called for. Luz looked around, curious about whom he was calling.
"Yes, sir, I'm coming," a voice called out.
The person he called for started running over to where the birdman was. And Luz felt a tint of blush wash over her. This was Amity. She is around the same height as Luz, with pale-looking skin and an aquamarine ponytail. She wore a short black sleeve dress, orchid leggings, and black point shoes. Luz shook over the blush and listened to the conversation between the two. Amity stopped and looked up at the birdman with a worried look.
"What seems to be the problem, Malphas?" Amity asked.
Malphas chuckle after seeing Amity's reaction. He got down to her level, patting Amity on the head as he kept laughing.
"Everything is all right, Amity. If you're not busy, do you mind accompanying me to the-"
Malphas stopped mid-sentence as he looked around him, high and low, to ensure that nobody was listening to him. Luz ducked down underneath the bookcases, peaking her eyes out to listen. Malphas leaned into Amity, whispering to her. Luz leaned in to hear what was so secretive.
"The forbidden section of the library to put some books away from everyone."
Amity nodded to Malphas's request.
"Forbidden section?" Luz thought quietly to herself. "If there's a forbidden section of the library, it must house many magic books and spells that could teach me to use magic properly."
Luz giggled, kicking her feet in excitement as her thoughts went into overdrive. Amity turned her head and asked, "who's there" with Luz covering her mouth after she let a giggle out. After some time, Amity looked back to Malphas and promised to help him. Luz quickly descended the stairs and followed the two to this 'forbidden section.' As they were going far from the rest of the regular part of the library, Luz noticed that it started to have less lighting due to the lack of windows. She looked over the bookcases and noticed they stopped in front of a larger door than the library's front door. She thought this was a bit overkill, but it kept people away, except Luz. Malphas's eyes began to glow, waving his hands in front of the door. The section doors were open, and the two made their way in.
"Alright, Luz, stay far behind them and make no noise," Luz thought.
Luz quickly made it through the door before it slammed shut behind her. Luz looked around and noticed that they were far ahead of her and decided to make her way quickly but quietly toward the end of the tunnel while trying to hide from them. Once they reached the end of the tunnel, Luz was in awe. The forbidden section was covered in old books that collected dust, small creatures roamed the area, and ghost hands grabbed books from the shells. She looked over and saw Amity and Malphas descending one pair of stairs and already at the ground level. She went down the other pairs of stairs and the opposite direction of the two.
Luz 'ohh' and 'ahh' at the books section that they had hidden away from everyone. The forbidden section was littered with hundreds of books filled with exciting covers and serval scrolls sitting around them. One book talked about a calamity box, while another had a cover with a six-finger hand with a 3 in the middle. Luz pushed them aside and continued down the aisles, looking for something that dealt with humans and learning magic for them.
Amity and Malphas were putting up the books that he wanted to put away. As they were putting away the books, something caught Amity's eyes. The book's cover was one of the books she was reading a while back. She didn't understand why this or any other books were being removed from everyone else. She looked up at him and hesitantly asked the librarian.
"Malphas, if you don't mind me asking, why are we putting these books down here? They don't look forbidden or anything dangerous."
Malphas stopped halfway and let out a sigh. Amity could tell that she touched on something he didn't want to talk about and immediately apologized for asking that question and went back to putting up the books. Malphas placed a hand on Amity's head and smiled slightly. He put up the last of his books away and began to speak.
"Well… from what I've heard around the streets, people are disappearing and later found cut opened and missing their blood," Malphas stated.
A shiver went down Amity's spine after hearing about the cut-up and missing blood. She listened to that from her family, but it still scared her that it was still happening. She looked down at the books and turned her head after hearing something from a distance. She shook it off as one of the creatures that roamed around here. Malphas continued talking with Amity finishing up the last of her books, and the two returned to the library's main hall.
"It turns out they have been combining multiple books and spells to create something horrible. Nobody knows what it is or why they need blood from people, but all we know for now is to make sure that nobody uses them to harm nobody else at all."
"But it won't stop them from using other books," Amity said as the two neared the tunnel.
Malphas let out a sigh as he nodded his head. She knew they couldn't just block off the rest of the books from everyone but could at least try to protect everything else.
Luz kept looking around the books to see if any got her interest, yet most of them mainly dealt with demon summoning, blood and dark magic and how to enter into someone's mind and take over their body. She brushed them off and continued walking the sections until her foot hit something. She looked down and noticed it had a cover of a witch in the middle with monsters and creatures coming out of her. The title read…
"Witches guide to transformations? That sounds interesting."
She picked up the book, and before she could open it, a loud slam echoed throughout the empty sections. Luz's heart plummeted when she heard that. She dropped the book and ran toward the door. She reached the door, pushing and pulling it with all her might, but it wasn't budding.
"No. NO! Wait, I'm still here!" Luz cried out, pounding on the door, but no sound came.
Luz kept pounding and pounding, falling to her knees as tears fell down her face. She curled up, crying into her knees. She kept crying until she felt a gust of wind blow by her, looking up to see the candles being blown out. She pushed herself up and ran to the end of the tunnel to get to a light source, but the candles were being blown out. Luz made it down the stairs, where the last lights were extinguished. She was left in the dark with the sounds of creatures and the faint glow of the ghost hands moving around. Luz quickly took out her phone and turned on the light, hoping her phone would help out at least. And it did.
She slowly begins to walk before speed walking and then to run with each sound of the creatures. She didn't know what kind of creatures were in the dark but didn't want to stay around and find out. She kept running until she slipped on something slimly and threw her on the ground. The light began to flicker on and off. She curled up next to her dying phone, telling it not to go out. But no matter how many times she begged and pleaded, the light finally gave out. She closed her eyes tight with her breathing became faster with each sound of creatures in the background filling the area. She could hear her heartbeat pounding in her chest like a drum. Her heartbeat grew louder and louder until the sound of thunder came into her mind.
The rain was coming down at high speeds, and thunder was cracking in the background and trees were uprooted. The houses on the streets stood firm, with the lights flicking on and off before completely turning off. Inside one of the houses, a man was paced around the room on the phone with someone else, letting out a cough with each sentence.
"Are you sure you're doing okay at the hospital, Camila?" The man worryingly asked.
"Manny, I'm fine. We have a backup generator here." Camila said as people were running around her. "Look, I have to get back to work now. Please stay with Luz. I love you."
Manny hung up the phone, turned on his flashlight, and went through each room, looking for his daughter, Luz. He looked everywhere, underneath every table and chair, but he couldn't find her. He started to get worried until he heard soft crying. Stopping in his tracks and flashing the light around him, he continued looking around the house.
"Luz. Where are you, Luz?"
The cries started to get louder as he neared them. Manny stopped before a doorway and flashed his light on a massive lump on a little bed. A young Luz was crying under her covers, sniffling and crying. Manny walked toward her and sat down at the edge of the bed.
"Luz…. Come out from under there, sweetie," Manny said.
"No, I can't. It's dark and scary. I don't know if something is going to get me," young Luz cried out, holding her covers closer to her.
"Well, I'll just hide with you and make sure that nothing grabs you."
Manny grabs a massive cover and places it over the both of them. Luz felt the blankets on top of her covers. She removed them to find her dad with the light on him as he held a big smile for her. Luz wiped her tears as Manny put one in a brave yet silly voice that if anybody came in and tried to mess with her, then they'll face Manny, the night wizard and the light holder. Luz chuckles at her dad's voice. He grabbed his daughter and pulled her into a hug. Luz hugged back.
"Just remember this, Luz," Manny calmly said.
Everything around Luz starts to fade as she grows up and turns back to her teenage self, in the same position she was in. A flicker of light went off beside her, and father faded away with a smile.
"You're my light."
"Huh?" Luz perked her head up.
The phone's light had died, but the light was still there. Well, some of it. The light turned into a circle with something in the middle of it. Luz cautiously tapped the center of the circle, and it started to react. She jumped back as the light circle began to form and flash around her. Once the flash was going, the light circle was an orb of light. She cautiously walked over to the orb and tapped it to see if it was really and …. It was.
"Did I… just do magic?"
Luz placed her hand underneath the orb and lifted it underneath her face, and a smile appeared on her face as she jumped in the air with the light orb in her hand. She couldn't believe that she just did magic and this light was much brighter than her phone. Luz went further down the Isles of books, holding the newly obtained glyph magic she had learned to find her way back to the gates. She heard a little squish sound near her. She turned around and found a blue slime ball the size of a tennis ball moving toward her, and she squealed in joy upon seeing the little ball. She held out her hand for the slime ball to climb onto. The slime ball slowly made its way onto Luz's hand, and she brought it up to her face and started to pet it.
"Hey, little guy. Aren't you cute?"
The slime smiled as it somehow purred like a cat. Luz didn't care how it did it but kept petting it. She sat down on the floor and watched the slime ball move around in her hand.
"I guess you know how it feels to be small, weak, and powerless. But you have something about you that makes you unique. Me? I'm just a weirdo that likes magic, books, and anime edits," Luz disappointingly stated.
The slime looked at her confused, before jumping onto her shoulder. Luz looked down at her fingertips as it was covered in slime from the slime. And an idea popped into her head. That light spell she saw looked like something she could create, and she had something with ink contents. Luz started to use the slime as a pen to recreate the light spell, and once it was finished, the glyph began to take form.
"Huh? Is it working with slime? It's working with slime!"
She happily shouted as the light spell began to take form. However, it started to shake, and the light began to lose its shine and fall to the ground with a splat. The light ball suddenly turned into a slime ball. She got onto the floor and inspected the ball.
"Oh, this is new."
Luz's mind began to think about what could happen if she tried to pick it up. One, it could have created another slime creature and another friend. Second, it could have been some nightlight; if she touched it, it would light up. Or third, it's just a slime ball, nothing special. She keeps thinking before concluding.
"I'm going to touch it."
"Boop."
Luz tapped the slime ball to feel its jiggle, but touching was a big mistake. Instead of the slime ball jiggling, it attached itself to her finger. She flicked her finger to remove it, and it stayed on. She kept flicking it, but it wouldn't go away. It spread across her arm, then up to her body and down to her legs. Luz tried to remove the slime from her body, but it only made her remove the slime already on her arm.
"AHHH! It is consuming me! Get it off! Get it off! Get it off!"
Luz's flesh transformed transparent and slimy, showing her organs, veins, and bones. She was freaking out when she saw them, but her freak out turned into a horror show as soon she felt and saw all of her insides disappearing. She was screaming in pain as she felt her insides disappear in front of her. She kept screaming until it stopped. Luz looked at her and was frightened at everything that had happened. Luz's body became a purple, slimly transparent creature beside her clothing, and she was just like the little slime ball.
"What the? I'm slime now!?"
Luz looked around for the slime ball and found it staring at her before climbing up and sitting on her shoulder. Whatever that slime ball did to her, her body felt stronger, stretcher and sticker than before. She was freaking out until an idea popped into her head, and she started to run toward the entrance. He stopped before the door, still with the slime ball on her shoulder. With all her knowledge about reading magic and creatures… from her books, slime can slip through any cracks. So, Luz placed her hand through the door crack, and it could slip through it quickly. She laughed as she pushed the rest of herself through and landed on the other side of the door, free from the forbidden section. Luz looked down at herself to see that everything was still on her.
She let out a sigh as she made her way to the entrance of the library to meet up with King. King was still sitting on the same curve after sending almost everything Eda gave them besides the money they earned. King looked around him to see if Luz was back, and she wasn't. King chuckled as he reached down into the earned money pouch to buy himself another dog until he heard someone calling his name.
"King!"
King quickly closed up the pouch and pretended he was still patiently waiting for her. King sarcastically answered, closed his eyes and turned toward Luz with his nose high.
"Well…. Look who's finally decided to…."
King stopped mid-sentence after coming face-to-face with a slime girl wearing Luz's clothing. His brain was going haywire, thinking that someone had just kidnapped Luz and tried to impersonate her, but that was exactly like Luz.
"What happened to you, Luz?"
Next Time on The Metamorphosis House: Luz is the true hero!? Exploring the forest!
Author's Note: That is a wrap of the first chapter of the new series: The Metamorphosis House; An Owl House Transformation AU. The first thing you notice is that Luz obtained the light spell earlier on. I thought it would be cooler if Luz found it in the darkest section, only for the flashing light of her phone to reveal the spell.
There are a few things that I want to do for the first season of the original series.
First: I want to expand the Boling Isles. It will be the same size, but I want to add new areas using the current Island, such as using the arms as a desert and underwater town, using the head as a dangerous place to explore if they want to learn about powerful creatures. This would give Luz more transformations to find and use in combat. (I know some areas were shown, but I want to expand on them.)
Second: I want to add more "episodes" to the series instead of sticking to the original nineteen.
As for the second and third seasons of Owl House, I'm still thinking about it. But, for now, I want to focus on the first season. For my schedule, I hope to create one chapter a week.