Chapter 3: Welcome to the Owl House
Katrina didn't know what was more crazy. Jett's flight manoeuvres, or the fact that Luz completely forgot about her fear of flying and encouraged Jett to do more tricks.
Jett playfully flight his staff as if he was in a roller coaster.
"Jett, stop." Katrina pleaded as she stopped her eyes from spinning, "You two are making me lose my breakfast. Since yesterday."
"Joykiller." Jett stuck out his tongue at his cousin.
"I just don't want to you or Luz threw up. Besides..." Katrina suddenly grinned, "This is how you flight a staff."
They watched in surprise as Katrina stood on her staff while it continues to fly. Following her owner's lead, the staff flew in twists and circles and loops. During these times, Katrina never fell down. She kept her balance on top of the staff at all times.
The human girl was impressed by witchling's moves that she took long moment to look up at her. When she set her eyes back to Jett's face, she realized he got some crazy idea.
"Hang tough."
Luz nodded as they accelerated to 60 miles per hour. The owlcat on top of staff sounded happily as they flew in just a craziest loop-de-loops in order to entertain the owner. Although it was making them dizzy, Jett and Luz screamed in glee.
Katrina was showing off too. She even did a spin during a loop-de-loop and still landed safely on her staff.
This crazy fly contest continued until the witch staffs sapproaching where the teenagers were heading.
Then both staffs slowed down until they came to a steady stop, in front of house on the cliff.
"We reached our destination. Thank you for traveling on our palisman today." Jett said getting off the staff and Luz followed his example.
She looked to see their destination.
It was a strange yet mystical looking large house made from white brick with a sloping blue roof, a stained glass window above the wooden door gives the impression of a large demon eye and most of the house consists of a crumbling stone tower with moss growing on it. The front door had an owl head emblem on top of the surface.
"Do you live here?" Luz asked.
"Eeyup. This is my mom's house." Jett nodded as they walked up to the door.
"Little Clawthorne wisdom ignore most of things that Hooty will tell you." Katrina told Luz, "He is sweet but also sort of quirky."
"Who is-" Luz didn't even finish her question.
"HELLO!" A wooden barn owl face on the door extend itself out the door and stared at Luz. The shock of it knocked her to the ground.
"This is Hooty. Our house demon and the best Security System on the Boiling Isles." Jett briefly explained, grabbing the back of Luz's hood and lifting her to her feet.
"Hoot, hoot! That is me!" Hooty wrapped himself around Luz's shoulders like a owl-feather boa, "I'm super glad to have a new friend come by to hang out!"
Luz just blinked as Hooty looked at her with the dopiest smile she'd ever seen.
"Dude, do you remember that talk we had about people's personal space?" Jett gently chided Hooty.
"I love being part of people's space." Hooty seemed to have made a home around Luz's shoulders.
So, Jett reached out with his hand and flicked the house demon on the forehead. Hooty yelped in pain, retracting into the door. "Oh, right. Five foot radius."
"Good bird demon." The orange haired witch boy patted him on the cheek. "Now let us in."
"Hoot! Hoot! Password please!"
"This is a tragedy but we have no time to this, Hooty. Just let us in."
"You never want any fun." Hooty made a offended 5 years old face, "HOOT!"
Then, Hooty opened his mouth wide as the door's entrance, as they walked in the house demon close his mouth then burped.
The ceiling lit up and light sparks up on the candles showing the living room.
"Wow..." Luz watched as the fire place went blazing and cleaning equipment began to float in the air and clean, amazed by the magic around them. This place seems to live. And technically, it was live. Because part of the walls were acutually breathing air.
There was a large, red couch against a wall, which was adorned with a myriad of weapons of all kinds and various objects.
And shining outlines depicting some sort of owl creature decorated the ceiling.
The warm color scheme and blazing fire place, give homey feel. The atmosphere of candle light was cosy and with a subtle scent of wood just relaxing.
"Welcome in the Owl House." Jett said with a smile, "Place free from social pressure, stress related to all responsibility..."
"And proper weapon safety rules." Katrina effortlessly picked a axe twice her head size up off the floor and leaned it against the wall.
Jett ignored the comment and cried aloud, "Mom! King! I'm home! And I brought you a special visitor!"
Instead of hearing his Mom or King as Jett expected, a silent answered him back.
"Hooty, where is everybody?"
Hooty's response was to cough up a paper ball which landed on the floor in front of Luz and Katrina. The two girls cringed and both had the same response: "Ew!"
Curious, Jett picked up the wet paper ball and straightened it out. The note simply said "B back late, Don't wait up! Dinner's in the fridge. Just heat it up with a fire spell."
It was signed Mom, but there was also a slightly sticky red pawprint.
"So the bad news is you could be stuck up here for a little longer, but the good news is you stuck with us so you certainly won't be bored." Jett said, turning to the human girl. "The attraction of the day - The hunt for shadow monster!"
"You want me to join you in this?" Luz gulped uncomfortably, not sure how she feel about this.
Because on the one hand she always dreamed about experience such an unforgettable adventure. And, on the other hand, she almost got killed, when she had her first contact with the gytrash.
She was pretty certain that she'd been showing fear of seeing the gytrash again with her eyes because Katrina put a hand on her shoulder.
"If you prefer, you can stay here with Hooty." Katrina offered.
"Company! Hooray!" A falsetto voice called from the outside, and then Hooty opened the door to face them, "Finally, someone to listen to my stories! Okay, one time a sparrow flew into my mouth and then-"
The house demon coughed up a sparrow that flew into his mouth.
Luz shared a look with Jett, and it was as if he was advising her not to ask about it. Then Katrina opened the window to release bird back into the wild.
"I'm pretty sure that your stories are... exceptional," Luz wanted to be nice to the house demon, "But I'm in the Magic Realm. So if I'm going to spend the rest of day here, I'll take any opportunity to experience a real magic adventure."
"No one ever wants to hear me." Hooty give a blank face then retracted back into the door and closed the house's front opening.
"Even with our magic, this is not going to be a walk in the park. Are you sure you want to be a part of this?" Katrina asked.
Luz gave that one just a little thought that showed on her face, then she nodded.
She've always wanted to experience the adventure in the style of The Good Witch Azura. Plus, she had a hunch that getting alone with Hooty can be as traumatic and shocking as the hunt for the gytrash.
"Yes."
"Okay, great. Let's do it, then!" Jett summon his staff and pointed at the door.
"Let's do it!" Luz clapped her hands as she feel the call of adventure.
"Hold your Hippogriffs, guys." Katrina said with a tiny smile. "We need to to equip ourselves with all the necessary items for the hunt before we can move. So, where does aunt Eda keep her Sealing Crystals?"
"I have no idea." Jett didn't seem too concerned, "So we can have a who-finds-it-first contest. Keep your eyes peeled for chest or a small box."
He walked off into the hallways.
"I'll check out the basement." Katrina stated.
Luz thought about where to start looking for a moment, before she walk to check in the sofa cushions.
Two hours had passed as three teenagers were searching this missing crystals.
Katrina returned to livingroom, where she saw her cousin going through a large pile of human treasures/trash.
"So far, no sign of Sealing Crystals. "
"Same here."
"Maybe Luz ha-"
She was interrupted by a loud bang from upstairs.
After five full seconds of silence, they barely heard a bit muffled "I'm okay!" from the same place.
And when Luz finally returned to livingroom she was covered with dust and cobwebs, and held a a small chest in her hands.
"I found this in the attic." She told them, picking small spiders out of her hair. "You've an impressive collection of animals skeletons and bones, by the way."
"This isn't a collection. It's a bit left over after Hooty's midnight snacks from last month." Jett explained as he reached for the chest.
He opened it and the others stared at awe. In it was a small collection of crystals in a variety of shapes and sizes.
"Okay, Red, gems and crystals are your thing, then take your pick."
"Let's see what we have here." Katrina sat on the couch. Laying crystals out on the table she arranged them loosely in a line.
Jett and Luz, too, sat down on the opposite side of the couch.
"So, what we need to seal the gytrash?" Luz asked, watching as crystals glisten in the soft light.
"Due to the fact that our shadow monster evolved into a higher form, it would be sensible safety to stock up with Lightning Opal and Lunar Sapphire."
The first gem was quite a weird kind of crystal, two conjoined gemstones that form an inverted lowercase "Y". And their colour was ivory.
And the other crystal, in turn was pretty normal. The tetradecahedron shape stone, light yellowish with orange and red blotches.
"Lightning Opal and Lunar Sapphire is a good combination." The witchling seemed to think of something. "But..."
"But?" Luz got the feeling that she'll like what Katrina's going to say.
Katrina reached for the crystals put them back in the chest before said, "But the best thing would be go all the way to seal the gytrash. And use the Dawn Crystals."
"There's just one problem, Red." Jett said as he lean back on the couch, "Dawn Crystal are as rare as Titan's blood. How are we supposed to get them?"
"Easy." Katrina said as she snapped her fingers. A pot of head size and thick book emerged and so did a couple of miniature pouches. "We'll make them."
A giant smile spread across Luz's face, "Wait a second!"
Before the witchlings could ask, she'd already gone to another room. She remember that this one room was full of potions, hats, robes, and brooms.
She dressed in 30 seconds like a volunteer fireman. And now she was wearing a black hat, robe, and red sash.
"I'm ready!" Luz was excited when she returned to livingroom.
"What the hex are you dressed like that for?" Katrina asked, surprised and a little entertained.
"We will do magic things, so I put on witchy clothes." Luz said, grinning ear-to-ear and practically bouncing in place.
"I don't know how to tell you this, Luz but you're wrapped in a bathrobe and wearing the dirty traffic cone." Jett was trying hard not to laugh out loud.
Luz reached on top of her head and took off the "witch hat" she was wearing and wiped it off to reveal it was actually a traffic cone covered in dust and grime.
"Aww man!"
As Jett brushed the last bits of Amber Ogia fruit from his hands and Luz put crumbled remains of a crushed unicorn bone into a cauldron — the mixture in front of them turned a pale, misty orange, illuminating with soft flashes of gold as it caught the light coming through the window.
It was difficult to not be entirely entranced by the swirling, pulsing rhythm of the liquid in the bowl in front of her, but Luz tore her eyes away, wiping away the dust left clinging to her palms.
"We are ready for the next ingredient," Luz announced, turning his body towards Katrina. The witchling nodded, a look of serious concentration on her face, and consulted the instructions on the book's page.
"Almost finished." Her brief comment was directed to herself, lost in her own world as she read. "Now we only need to add a owl feather and one Phoenix tear."
"A fluffy owl feather, coming right up." Jett said, rooting around in the couch cushions until felt the point of a quill press into his hand. He wrapped his fingers around a long soft shapes, and he pulled it out with a flourish. "Here you go."
Katrina and Luz studying the offered plumage. Two were medium length, greyish-silver and fuzzy at the edges, witch almost white tip. The other was a knife shaped, all onyx-black and slightly shimmer.
"They are too old." Katrina said, leaning back over the book regardless to double-check. "The feather must be taken straight from the bird."
"I'll handle it." Her cousin said before turning to the door and shouted, "Oh Hooootttty!"
Hooty suddenly swung his door opened as he shouted. "I heard my name. Hoot! Hoot!"
"Tell me, dude. Want to help us?"
"I love being involved into joint activities." Hooty went over to Jett. "What's my part?
Instead of a verbal answer, Jett pulled a feather from the house demon's long body. Hooty let out a great squeal, but it was rather because of the surprise than pain.
"Thank you for your input, my friend." Jett threw feather into the pot.
"I feel abused; so objectified!" Hooty fell down sobbing, "You lost my trust. Forever!"
Jett just summoned a bag of jelly worms from his bedrom, "Gummy worms?"
"I forgive you! Hoot! Hoot!" The house demon fast get up then grabbed the candy packet and swallowed it whole.
"And the last ingredient." Katrina reached behind her hair, revealing a tiny bottle of pheonix tears.
Then she took the stop out of the bottle and held it over bowl. They all watching as the drop slid forth from the mouth of the bottle.
"Speed up a little bit, will you?" Jett said as the drop fell.
The tear splashed down into the pot, turning the potion yellow as the Sun.
Apparently Luz and Jett had the same ideas so they leand overs their heads over the pot, but Katrina's hand covered their eyes.
And then the potion exploded.
A bright light shown around, so full of color it was as if there was a prism in the pot splitting the light into rainbows as it burned so bright, Katrina's vision was lost for a moment even thought a pair of sunglasses emerged on her face.
Once Jett and Luz's eyes were uncovered a few crystals sparkled in the cauldron.
"Perfect Dawn Crystals," Katrina held one of crystals up.
It glowed a bright and unearthly for something so small, shining like some an holy beacon in the darkness.
"Okay, all we have to do now is find the gytrash."
"Maybe the gytrash's still at the glade where we left it." Luz spoke up.
"I highly doubt it." Jett said and then he drew a spell circle to summoned a small scroll that looked unfurled. He logged into his account on the social media app.
Katrina stared at him like he had just sprouted a second head sporting a monocle and a top hat. "The gytrash is on our heads and you want to update Penstagram."
"Penstagram is a great way to track somebody, especially if you want to found a cool looking giant monster." Jett defended.
Only minute later, he showed girls post on website with a picture of gytrash.
"Looks like we're going out on a trip to..."
Author's Notes:
Please do comment down your thoughts!