Chapter 5: Let us show you the world
As they finally reached the exit to the cave and Luz felt the warmth of the sun on her skin, she couldn't contain her excitement.
"We managed to grab a monster of shadows. That was awesome! What shall we do now?"
"We'll make sure this." Katrina pointed to the quartz in Jett's hands. "Will come into the hands of the right people. And before you ask, no, you can't keep it Jett."
"I bought this thing all legal." Jett protested, putting the dark quartz inside his bag.
"And it's your legal responsibility now, cousin." Katrina remarked dryly, "Might I remind you, the Hawktopus incident?
Jett was silent again. He appeared to be deep in thought, yet he made no attempt to fasten the bag with the loops.
"Fine." He finally said, "So, who are we giving it?"
About an hour later, they were in the Bonesborough City, looking at the building named "Police Precinct 128" with large symbol on the side of the building.
"Nice place." Luz said as they reach a tarp covered doorway.
"Too many windows for my taste." Jett said with a justified criticism.
"I would want to live here." Luz continued, "It looked so much like a castle."
"Keep this in mind. Castle are owned often by psychopaths and fanatics."
"Often they are also headquarters for heroes such as Azura..."
Katrina, meanwhile, just ignored their argument and rung the door bell of the building. A second later the door opened, allowing them to go inside.
Walking inside, the trio faced the lanky biped demon who looks vaguely arthropod/cat-like with brown skin, a blue tongue, fangs that were the exact same color as her skin, and tan horns on her neck. She was the only person in the public lobby.
"So, what is it this time?" She not kindly greeted them.
"Chill, Ms. Severine," Jett took geode out of his messenger bag, "We're only here to drop that off."
Severine blinked, "Is it..."
"A crystalline substance that originates from shadow zone and, when forged by a Umbrasmith, is used to free beings from the shadows or can be a trap for a second-class monsters. Yes." Katrina said, "By the way, you should tell Steve to pay a visit Cozbi 'The Twilight Sorcerer of Monsters'. This guy is definitely working without a license."
"We will check it." Severine said mostly to herself. Then she took the quartz in her hand. "Do I want to know how have you come into possession of one of his products or who is your new friend?"
"I'm just normal teenage witch." Luz said with her cat eared hood up.
'Oh Titan, she is terrible at lying.' Jett thought as he saw Severine get suspicious of Luz.
"What part of Boiling Isles are you from?" Severine gave Luz a scrutinous look. "I haven't seen you before, and I'm good with faces. Especially to faces with cat ears."
"Luz come here due to Enchanti+ exchange program." Katrina lied without batting an eye.
Luz nodded at her declaration and tired to act naturally.
"She is from the Glandus High." Jett added in a stage whisper.
The middle-aged woman observed the red head teenagers and human girl for a moment, then nodded, uttering, "Well, in that case, I have no further questions. Now, skedaddle before I change my mind."
She then kicked the trio out.
"Soooo... What do we do now?" Luz asked when the door slammed behind them.
Jett just put his arm around the girl and led her away. "Do you want to go explore the city, Luz?"
Luz was looking like her birthday had come early.
The trio walked down the path to the city.
"Whoa..." Luz murmured at all of the different kinds of creatures. They all ranged from vaguely human to something out a nightmare
Even some of the buildings have certainly unusual or living elements. Luz crouched down in front of something that was combination of the multi-eye demon and street lamp. "So cool."
"Luz, it's literally a street lamp." Katrina seems to be slightly amused, "I'm relatively certain that humans uses them too."
"But this one has goo demon attached to it." Luz replied, taking selfie with this demonic street lamp. And he seemed to be happy with her being so thrilled with his person.
"Well, if it makes you feel so excited. Then prepare to a real delightfully bomb." Jett said when they turned off toward the main part of the city.
"Sunbeam, you are seeing something very few human eyes ever have seen... The Market!" He smiled with his arms spread towards the huge expanse of stalls and booths.
Luz beamed looking around at the market. The items up for sale included everything from most exotic fruits to enchanted dagger. The human girl, feeling like a kid in a candy store, was led by Katrina and Jett through the market.
"Over there is where you go if you want enchanted fabrics." Katrina said as Luz turned her head. The seller was some kind of hybrid. He had the normal human body of a adult man from the neck down but had the body of a giant daddy long-legs type of spider (albeit with four legs instead of eight) for a head.
"That booth has the best seasonal fruits and herbs." Katrina continued describing the booths.
"These people are selling haunted mirrors." Jett pointed at conjoined twin with short maroon hair that was styled up to a point at the top and light blue skin. "The mirrors are a real funny thing."
"Look at that booth with the nice sign, the demon running it have the best gossip." Katrina whispered to Luz as they passed a small group of blabbering people.
"And over here we have- Forget it. Just follow me!"
"Jett wait!"
Luz and Katrina were dragged along by Jett until they were in front of what looked like a Burrito Food Cart.
"Hey Mrs. Aldabra. I hope you have something special 'cause I brought someone by to try your delicious Hellbeast burritos." Jett said.
An elderly lady behind the stand, who looked like a turtle wearing a simple black dress, smiled at him before said, "Hello Jett. As I promised, this time I'm showing you a new recipe with nundu meat."
"Cool! Three pl-." He stopped in the middle of the sentence. "Two please. And one special burrito for someone with a delicate stomach."
Luz's eyes roamed over the various ingredients for Hellbeast burritos, most of them looking completely normal and others, like those purple meat-like things, were clearly trying to squirm out of the frying pan.
"Thank you," Jett said as the lady handed over three burritos.
"Do you know how heaven taste, Luz?" He asked, giving both girls the food, "Because you're going to find out."
Katrina wasted no time chomping right into hers and making audible "yummy" sounds as she chewed.
Luz examined the food closely, it looks almost the same as a normal burrito. The only difference was a darker color and purplish tentacles protruding from it.
It was then her stomach began to growl before and figured she should eat something.
She have to admit that she had some fears about eating this burrito.
But after the first bite she knew that this was an amazing food.
"This is sooo good. I think my tounge is crying." Luz chomped on the burrito with obvious pleasure.
"Told ya." Jett said with a smirk as he summoned bottle of hotsauce from the other booth to pour over his burrito.
"You put too much." Katrina told him.
"Shut it, Red."
"You can't even see the burrito."
"That's the point." Jett take a big bite, chewing noisily. He swallowed, then let out an average-sized burp. A small cloud of smoke came from his mouth as he did. Luz just thought it was cool.
"Yummy!" He added even more sauce to his food. His cousin shook her head.
"...how am I even related to you."
They had hardly finished their food with the claim: "That was delicious", before Luz gaze settling on the centaur.
She approached him and nudged. "What has four hooves and wants to buy a potion? This guy."
He sighed, putting down the apple with spikes. He opened up his eyes from his chest, as that was where his true face was. "My eyes are down here."
"I'm sorry, sir." Luz backed away, seeing a fairy and smiling. "Hello little fairy."
"GIVE ME YOUR SKIN!" the pixie roared in her face, revealing huge teeth.
"AAAAH!" the teen human punched the tiny carnivorous horror, sending it into the wall of building that was pretty far away.
"Wow, Luz—that must've been fifty feet." Jett whistled with admiration.
"Did I kill it?" The tone of Luz's voice was definitely panicky.
"The green stain on building is the answer to your question." Katrina pointed out in a too calm voice. Seeing the shocked look on Luz's face, she added, "Don't worry fairies are quivalent to the human mosquito."
"Your realm is clearly not the PG fantasy world I read about in my books." Luz said when she noticed a cloaked figure holding an ice cream cone which eats someone.
"It's definitely not." Katrina agreed with her.
"It's better!" Jett interjected with a smile, "Come on girls. We still got a lot of booths to visit."
They were stumbling ahead and Luz wisheds she had about four more eyes. She turned her head in every direction as they walked up the market, trying to look at everything at once: the stalls, the things sold by witches and demons, the people doing their shopping.
A demon with eight eyes and huge mouth where their stomach should be outside a purple tent was shaking their head as they passed, saying, "Crescent Moon win this year's Grudgby season, they're mad. . . "
A low, soft squealing came from a booth with a sign saying Sweet Delights - A fairy pie of ten kinds. Luz took a closer look to see fairy wings and hands twitching from each of those pies.
Several witches of about Luz's age had shoved each other and threatened to witches duel when they thought it was their turn to buy a giant jar full of purple goo.
"Sweet," Luz heard one of them say, "With this my Abomination will be number one at Professor Hermonculus next lesson."
There were stalls selling talking wig, people selling meat and strange fruits Luz had never seen before, booths stacked with box of unicorn spleens and cows' eyes, tottering piles of books with fangs, quills, and rolls of parchment, potion bottles, swords forged from the breath of dragons . . .
The last one particularly caught Luz and Jett attention.
When the trio were going through all the sharp and dangerous blades, some blue-skinned guy on the other side of street was singing loud and proud to something Luz didn't quite equate to music at all.
Although his singing made her ears hurt, it was something curious about it, and specifically the way this hypnotising two dozen of absolutely adorable tiny creatures.
The creatures were the size of a human fist, with large heads, big eyes, tails in different sizes, and tiny bodies.
"They are sooo cute." Luz murmured while her eyes shined. She want to come a little bit closer so she can see well. Then she remembered that the fairy looked cute and quite harmless too.
"They are not a cute animals which appearance is trick to weaken vigilance, so they may attack people because they exists solely to implant a monster eggs within a living host creature via their mouth, right?" She asked as pointed at the tiny creatures.
"Puffs are completely harmless and friendly little creatures." Katrina assured. Luz brightened.
Jett smirked, "But I like how you're thinking, Sunbeam."
They came closer, pushed their way through the crowd.
At almost exactly the time the music was changed.
The fluffy creatures jumped out of positions and into a ground.
The blue-skinned guy sing another song, making Puffs began their another act.
First they got into a large (well large for them) circle around their master and then together began to fly and make shapes.
Symmetrical diamond.
Long heart.
The spade suit.
And a three-leafed clover leaf.
The music plays louder and faster as the Puffs dance in front of an increasingly disconcerted and amazed people.
And then suddenly...
As quick as they can the Puffs flew into the air and came over to blue-skinned guy coming over to him and going up his sleeves. As the last Puff got to the left sleeve, the music ended and the blue guy draw spell circle. He disappeared in a blast of yellow-white flame.
And then the fire turned into a sign - The amazing Elusive and his dancing Puffs will perform at "The Bloody Fang" tavern on Thursday.
"Awww. It's over?" Luz was clearly disappointed. "I wanted to ask him if I can pet the Puffs. I really want to do it."
"Well, it's your lucky day then." Katrina said and then she led them through the Market and out into the Menagerie.
There wasn't much room inside. Every inch of wall was hidden by cages. It was clean but very noisy because the occupants of these cages were all squeaking, squawking, jabbering, or hissing.
The witch behind the counter was a teen girl with tanned skin and long pinkish hair pulled into a braid, wearing a dress that went down to her knees, with various animals stitched and sewn onto it.
She was already advising a snakelike boy on the care of snadger, so Luz, Katrina, and Jett waited, examining the cages.
A pair of insects resembling a mix of a wasp and a scorpion stood twitching very slowly their tails and feasting on green fruit. A gray rabbit with a horns was sleeping near the window. Poisonous tiny snails were oozing slowly up the side of their glass tank, and a bluish lizard with leaf-life growths on head and paws kept changing into a exotic flower and back again with a soft popping noise.
Then there were a noisy cage of multiwings birds, a basket of funny white furballs that were humming loudly, and on the counter, a vast cage of lemur-like creatures that were playing some sort of tinikling dance using their long, furry tails.
The snadger client left, and the witch behind the counter noticed Katrina. She waved at redhead girl, and Katrina approached the counter.
They spoke for a moment, then the pinkish hair girl went into a back room and Katrina back to Luz and Jett.
"Diana will be right back. Be nice to her, she's really shy." Katrina told them.
The girl, Diana, emerged from behind a curtain that separated the store from the storage room. She was holding a giant box with with markings.
"I've got what you aske...oh I see you brought someone with you." Diana noticed Luz and Jett and the tone it her voice start to down.
"This is my cousin Jett. I told you about him."
"Sup." Jett smirk, while giving some finger guns.
"And this is Luz, sge's an exchange student with a passion for cute animals."
"Hello." Luz said congenially.
"Guys, this is my best friend, Diana Labbutamer." Katrina put her hand on other teen witch's shoulder.
"Nice to meet you." Diana said this so low like, it was actually harder to hear than a whisper.
"So, what's inside the box?" Jett asked, to fill awkward silence.
"Oh... Kat asked me to wake up my Puffs."
"You have a Puffs?!" Luz almost shouted out, her eyes shining.
"Yes." Diana said with her the voice sounding more normal. "I have raised them singlehandedly."
"Can I pet them?"
Diana was looking at Luz with a shocked face. Then her face went from shocked to happy.
"Yes."
She opened the box and draw spell circle that released the pets inside. As soon as the eleven Puffs jumped outside, they started bouncing off the walls and exploring the room.
"They are adorable!" Luz said, which made the Puffs noticed her. Their eyes sparkled at her oddly.
"Uh-oh." Diana saw what it meant to do. "I hope that you not ticklish, Luz." she mumbled quietly.
"What do you mean by that?" asked Luz... and get an immediate answer.
Most of Puffs squeaked and converged on Luz, burying themselves in her hair, her clothes and in her pockets.
She could see herself in the mirror that was across the room. She was covered in multicolored Puffs.
"They love to make new friends to play with them." Diana explained in her quiet voice, "Sorry."
"No, no, don't be sorry. This is the happiest day of my life!" Luz said in happy voice.
The Puffs themselves were extremely warm and fluffy, and it made her super comfortable to have all of them snuggled right up to her body.
A cat-like Puff burrowed herself beneath Luz's hand, staring up at girl expectantly. Luz smiled and ran her thumb over the top of her head.
Puff began purring as the petting began building up to a good rhythm.
"Eres tan lindo como un balde de gatitos."
"I don't know what you have been told, but I agree with you that this little guys are cute." Jett said when one of Puffs sat on his shoulder, hugging the side of his neck as the teen rubbed her back.
"The cutest." Katrina held her hand out to touch horned Puff, and tiny creature hugged her index finger like a baby wrapping it's tiny hand around someone's finger.
"If you want, I can..." Diana shyly started to saying, "I can show you the other animals."
"More cute creatures?" Luz asked with a star eyes. "Totally Best Day Ever!"
After an hour in the petshop, Jett and Katrina decided that the next point of the tour will be the place where Luz can get acquainted with the local music.
"They really have everything here," Luz commented, her eyes almost overwhelmed as she took in the music store's interior.
Katrina walking beside her hummed her agreement. "That's what makes Soul Vocal the best music store in this realm. Have you decided which one you want heart first?"
Luz looked pensive. She saw so many albums. They were artists she didn't know, but from what she could tell, they all played music that she'd like.
Naturally, that made choosing all the more difficult.
"Mm, not yet," she admitted, then joked, "Maybe I could just pick the one with the coolest cover?"
Katrina chuckled, joking back, "You could. That might work."
"In that case, allow me to recommend the band "Vesper & the Phantoms"." Jett shows her an album: "Scream of the Banshee", with a photo of vampire girl holding an axe-like guitar on the cover.
"You know you want to, Sunbeam." He smiled and hand her the headphones.
She put it on headphones in less than a heartbeat. The tune was a something between the heavy metal and the ballad. It's the lyrics that really get her.
My heart cries out
Like a banshee in the night
It longs to be heard
It screams to take flight
I'm a unicorn bold
Gotta hold on tight
While we rock it all night
While we rock it all night
While we rock it all night
All the othwr songs on the album were written in demonic language. Luz can't understand lyrics but she liked the music, especially the music from the song "The Eldritch Dark".
The teens continued traversing the store, partly idling while they looked for the particular section that would have what Luz could like.
"I think I'm into this one," she said, pulling a album titled, "I Am... Lonely Witch".
A store employee put a spell on black headphones and gave it to Luz. She thanked him and put headphones on.
Music began playing, a funky tune that was quite catchy, then the lead singer of the band started singing, producing an enjoyable and energic song:
The moon is high, it's the witching hour,
Like a raging river, come feel its power.
The moon is full, blue in its glow,
Like a giant blizzard, come feel its cold.
It's the witching hour, a time for magic,
Anything can happen if you try to imagine.
Listen to the beat, don't fear the power,
'Cuz tonight we're staying out 'til the witching hour!
Let's cast a spell together, me and you.
Dance in the moonlight so blue.
It's the witching hour and whatever you do,
I'll always be fright there for you.
For you, yeah!
Magic moves in rhythm that will reach out and grab ya,
Feel the magic like abracadabra.
Magic and motion, you know you can live it.
You heart and devotion, I know you can give it.
Now give it your all, just let yourself go,
Tonight is the night for the magical show.
Music has power, I'll show you how,
In the witching hour, yeah the time is now!
Let's cast a spell together, me and you.
Dance in the moonlight so blue.
It's the witching hour and whatever you do,
I'll always be fright there for you?
"I like this band." Luz reached for a next album.
Half an hour later...
As they finished listening to many different kind of albums in this section Luz decided to buy the debut album "Howling Rage" by The Midnight Sisters.
They were already at the checkout when Katrina asked; "Is there any particular destination which you would like to visit next in our realm, Luz?"
"A place where books are," Jett protested, gesturing to the building, "Serious?"
"It's called library." Katrina said turning to look at him.
"I know this is a library. I read books, especially horrors." Jett waved it off. "What I don't understand is why you want to see this." The question was directed to Luz.
"This is a library." Luz said excitedly.
"I thought we'd already established that."
"This is a library in the magic realm. With book about magic thing!" She voiced with an eager grin.
Sighing in defeat, Jett replied, "Okay, I see your point."
They stepped in and Luz's eyes shined at it.
"Whoa!" Was her expression as she saw the enormous library.
"So what are you going to do here?"
"We are in a library. I will read a book!" Luz gestured to all of the shelves full of books.
"Boooooring!" Jett groaned.
"Shh!" The librarian called out to him.
"Cool your glasses."
The teen told him before turned back to girls. And before he could ask Luz what she wants read, Luz and Katrina'd already gone to another room.
He caught up with them and kept walking until reached the stairs as they saw a number of books moving in the air.
Luz reached for one of them but instead of her taking it the book took her away as she screamed. "Cool!" Jett grabbed another book and was also taken away.
Luz screamed, earning shushes from those down below. "Sorry."
Once Katrina were finally able to get them out of the whole 'flying book' carousel they reach a section named 'Demon Decimal System DO NOT FEED'. The shelves all had one eye, seeming to be alive as they snored.
Luz took out a candy ball and fed a shelf one while Jett fed shelf three salted licorice. Both shelves purred and later vomited a lot of papers on them, burying two of them in tiny pieces of paper.
"You two are very much alike." Katrina smirked down in amusement. She draw a small spell circle and floated paper back into a right shelves.
And then they came to the Reference section, where people were looking at crystal balls to look up information rather than computers. One person knocked at a crystal ball that was stuck on a loading screen.
Jett showed Luz his favourite video of Minotaur juggle 15 burning swords at once. Katrina found great video about a guy showing a very impressive spells for advanced magic users. Then Luz watched another ten videos with two witchlings and three of them really enjoyed it.
After that they stepped further and peeked into the children's section
So both witchings could showed Luz their favorite book when they were a kids - Otabin. And the human girl, in turn told them about fairy tales for children from her realm.
"Let me get this straight. The most popular books for kids in your realm are stories about people getting eaten by animals, poison, and some old lady getting cooked in an oven..." Katrina counted off, disgusted by the last one.
"Yeah." Luz said slowly.
"No wonder kids are so messed up."
"Not all tales are so dark and grimm. For instance, Cinderella."
"What's that, an illness?" Jett asked.
It took Luz ten minutes to explain to him what exactly is Cinderella tale.
Then they stopped at the romance section, where there was nobody at that time.
"Oh, wow. Boiling Isles romance. That's totally lame." said Luz, trying to be cool, "I mean, unless you guys are into it?"
"Romance?" Jett stuck his tongue out and gagged. "More of horror writer such as Stephanie Queen fan when it comes to reading. But personally, I have nothing against romance fans." He added.
"I'm into this one," Katrina took Hungry Like A… book and she handed it to Luz. "This is a love story that began in the 15th century. Main protagonist is a Nāga and..."
Few moments later, Luz and Katrina were sitting on the ground, and surrounded by books from the Uroboros Heart series.
Jett rolled his eyes and pointed behind himself, "I'll be in the Crime section."
But Luz and Katrina did not look at him. Both girls were discussing the different types of ship pairings.
And when Jett came back, they were still talking about the pros and cons of slow burn trope in both fanfic and canons.
At the end of their tour, Jett and Katrina take Luz to a Grudgby field.
The trio sat on the bleachers and two witchlings explained the rules, which nearly all made sense.
"That sounds like so much fun." The human teen's eyes sparkled. "Can we play? I always wanted to try magic sport."
"I don't think that's a good idea for you to play Grudgby." Katrina told Luz apologetically.
"Why?" Luz pouted.
"You'll soon understand." Jett pointed to a group of six teen witches who just walked on the field.
"Okay losers, Grudgby Season hasn't started yet. But I'm still going to show you who's champion of this game." exclaimed a three eyes girl with pink hair and a uniform with yellow sleeves and leggings while her friends in a similar uniform with red and blue sleeves and leggings just glared at three witches in front of them.
"And I would love to show how to play Grudgby." said back the girl with short purple-blue hair and mint green hair clips on each side of her head.
"Remember our bet, Captain." she added in, tossing the ball into the air.
And when the game started, it got exciting.
Luz wasn't sure what she was expecting but seeing two teams trying practically all possible magic and aggressive
ways to score was the worrying thing.
"Wow... Grudgby is a very...intense sport." Luz said as she watched one witch take off towards the goal, avoiding traps and spells.
"Like everything in the Boiling Isles, our favorite game is so delightfully dangerous." Jett smiled, waving his hand in the direction of the Grudgby field.
The witchling with ball continued her race to a goal, efficiently avoid fire, vines, ice, and then finally run into a stone pillar.
"That had to hurt." Luz said, watching the girl with short purple-blue hair takes the ball.
She then draw a spell circle; summoned a arm of stone hammer and hit the ball into the goal.
"In your face, Hexside!" The witchling exclaimed with satisfied smirk. But it was until the three eyes girl grinned too self-satisfactio.
And then everyone suddenly stood still.
Both teams turned to the three eyes girl, who held up a golden beetle with jeweled eyes.
"Do you have a clue what just happened?" Luz looked at the scoreboard, and for the triclops girl's team, 9 increased into 999.
"She caught the Rusty Smidge." Jett answered.
"The what?" Luz asked with a confused look on her face.
"If any player locates and attains the Rusty Smidge, their team automatically wins the game."
Luz frowned, "That just invalidates all teams efforts. If catching that thing is so important, why do anything else? There's no reason to watch any of the other players. That's such a stupid rule!"
"That's why I prefer Twelve Ball." Katrina commented, still watching an argument between triclops girl and purple head girl.
"What's it?" Luz looked at her with a quizzical expression.
Katrina turned to Luz, "Twelve Ball is a popular magic sport that was created and conceived by wizards."
"It's just ping-pong with more balls." Jett interjected maliciously.
"You take that back, you big giraffe. Twelve Ball is nothing like ping-pong." Katrina said, strongly emphasize the nothing in the sentence.
"Titan, sometimes I forget you are an ardent fan of Twelve Ball."
"And the best player in the junior league."
"You're a champion? Luz asked before gasping, "You can teach me how to play!"
"Sure." Katrina said with a full smile which she returned. "I know a great place we could do the lessons and then have a cocktails."
"Hole of Unseen Sphinxes?" Jett asked, his voice noticeably more chipper than when they had started their conversation.
"Yes."
"I'm in!"
And with that, the trio jumped on staffs and flew away. Unaware that if they waited a two minutes, they would've see a great witch duel between the capitans of two Grudgby teams.
Author's Notes:
I would love to hear your thoughts :)