"And where do you think you are going?" smirked the woman, her single gold fang glinting in the light.
'Well,' thought Luz, panic bubbling in her stomach, 'This isn't good.'
"Uh… I was going to go back through that door, but it looks like that's no longer an option. So now… distraction!" Yelled Luz, throwing a random pillow that was sitting on top of one of the boxes at the woman's face and hightailing it to the back of the tent, she slipped under the edge and ran, well attempted to at the very least.
"Woah!" cried Luz stopping dead in her tracks so as not to topple over the edge of a large embankment. Looking out over the city below she couldn't believe her eyes, it was like a surrealist painting come to life, a monstrous city made of flesh, bone, eyes, and stone. Equal parts deeply disturbing and strangely comforting to the young girl.
"Am, am I in the Bad Place?" muttered Luz to herself shocked at what was in front of her, she clearly wasn't in Gravesfield anymore, she probably wasn't even on Earth anymore, to be honest with how simply odd everything was. "Did I fall and die in that old shack?"
"You wish!" called the woman, grabbing her shoulder and twirling Luz to face her. "Now I admit that little trick with the pillow was a good one, but it's the end of the line kid."
"Please don't hurt me!" shrieked Luz covering her head with her arms
"Hurt you? Why would I hurt a…potential customer!" flourished the woman, pulling Luz back through the tent to the front and setting her down on an old wooden stool. Getting a good look at the strange woman for the first time, Luz is surprised by how at odds her appearance is. A wild mane of gray hair coupled with lily white skin and wide golden eyes, a look that should be weirder than it actually is in her mind. Grabbing several items scattered about the tent, which turns out to be some sort of merchant's stand, the woman starts into what has to be the weirdest sales pitch that Luz had ever seen.
"So kid," presented the woman, holding up an old green croc, "can I offer you a human foot filled with holes? What about this bar of green human candy? Or… how about this black shadow box that reflects only sadness!"
During her little sales pitch, the items just seemed to get weirder and weirder, or at least what the woman was trying to sell them as at least. Speed stick deodorant as candy? Yeah, she would rather pass, biting into a stick of that is not a mistake that Luz was going to make a second time. And that portable tv could do more than just reflect sadness if it had some juice. Actually, that gives her an idea.
"That's not all it can do. Here, let me see it for a second," said Luz grabbing the old portable tv. Looking around the stall for a second she spots some batteries that look to be the right size for it, why they were in a bowl labeled as 'Human Candy! (?)' of all things though was a question for another time, she just hoped that no one actually ate anything from that bowl if the other items were anything to go by.
Putting the batteries in and shutting the battery door she sets the tv on the counter facing the woman and pushes the power button. It flares to life, oddly enough an old workout video, that she vaguely remembered her mother following once, is what played.
"Voilà!" pointed Luz, the woman just blinking at the now working contraption.
The sound of the video seemed to be a siren call to anybody nearby. Shoppers from all over, what to Luz appeared to be a marketplace, and even some of the merchants flocked over to the strange woman's stand. The sheer amount of people gathered around was kind of astonishing to her, from what she could see no less than thirty people were crowded around the small tv. The sight was more than a little comical, and kind of reminded her of a scene from an old movie she vaguely remembers watching with her mother before she died.
One of the…people? monsters? She honestly didn't know what to call them, to be honest, and for now, was just going to go with people to save her sanity. Well, what was left of it at least if her sheer non-issue with the frankly odd and monstrous, for lack of a better term, the appearance of the people surrounding her, well other than the question of what to call them. Pushing the thoughts of the looks of the crowd around her she focused back on the woman, who was taking advantage of the sudden interest like the true businesswoman she seemed to be.
The woman seemed to have somehow gotten a bidding war going over the TV, several people in the crowd were calling out bids in what she thought was probably the local currency. Sails of all things apparently, she honestly wasn't sure if they were actual snails if those even existed in this strange world, or if it was just the name, she didn't know if she even wanted to know at this point, but it seemd like it was a moot point right now as the woman turned her attention back to her.
"What'd you say your name was again?" Asked the woman, giving her a much more appraising look. Almost like she was reevaluating her opinion of her.
"Luz, Luz Noceda."
"Well Luz, That was pretty good," said the woman, leaning in a little bit closer, "well, for a human at least."
That was…odd to say the least. The woman was almost implying that she wasn't human. Sure she had some weird features, the pale skin and golden eyes for one, but to be honest, Luz couldn't really talk about that, she had bright purple eyes up until a few years ago. She still wasn't sure what caused the change but she missed their original color, her father had the same color eyes and it made her feel just that much closer to the man that she sadly didn't get a chance to really know before he died.
"That a weird thing for another human to say," spoke Luz trying to sus out if the woman wasn't the human that she appeared to be.
The woman simply smirked back at her, her single golden fang once again flashing in the light as she grabbed the old bandana wrapped around her head and ripped it off revealing long pointed elf-like ears. "Oh dear child, I'm not like you." cried the woman, climbing onto the table, "I'm Eda the Owl Lady! The most powerful witch on Boiling Isles!"
"A witch?" muttered Luz, more than a little surprised at the claim. It may have been her going full bore into her rebellion against her former caretakers, or her mild addiction to all things 'The Good Witch Azura", but she really liked the sound of that.
The woman, Eda, if her little introduction was anything to go on, seemed to be on something of a roll with her introduction, "I'm respected, I'm feared, I'm-"
"Busted!" yelled a large man slamming his fist down on the TV with enough force to destroy the device completely. The man to Luz appeared to be some sort of guard or policeman if the uniform and billy club were anything to go off of. Although the uniform was rather odd like someone mixed a plague doctor with an old-timey British bobby.
It seemed that she was right about the guy being a guard as one of the people in the crowd seemed to notice the man as soon as he smashed the TV and called out for the rest of the crowd to run. In seconds the once bustling market was all but devoid of life leaving just the guard, Eda, and her.
"Eda the Owl Lady!" called the guard, holding up a wanted poster with Eda's likeness on it, and a number with a rather concerning amount of zeros for a bounty. Just what did Eda do to get a bounty THAT high? "You are wanted for felony misuse of magic and demonic misdemeanors."
"A witch criminal," whispered Luz, she didn't know whether to be impressed by that or worried.
Reaching over the table, the guard grabs Eda's arm, "you are hereby ordered to come with me to the Conformatorium." Eda gave the guard's hand a harsh glare, seemingly more upset about the man touching her than the fact that she was currently being arrested.
Pulling her arm free, Eda went off on the guard "would you guys quit following me around?! I haven't done squat."
"You're coming too for fraternizing with a criminal." said the guard, grabbing Luz by the back of her shirt and lifting her up out of the seat. Blinking she looks up at the guard, "to quote the lady here 'I haven't done squat!' i literally met her like five minutes ago and didn't even know who she was till she introduced herself!"
"Doesn't matter kid, ignorance isn't a valid excuse!" sneered the guard, giving Luz a bit of a shake, "and you Owl Lady, you have five seconds to surrender or the kid gets it!"
"Oh, alright, alright, you win. Just let me get my stuff." huffed Eda, reaching under the table and grabbing her staff. Moving quicker than she honestly had any right to, Eda brought the staff down on top of the guard's head with enough force to drop him to the ground out cold.
"Well that's, that," muttered Eda as she taped the table with the butt of her staff. A pulse of energy shot out covering her stall and tent and levitating both and with a quick flick of the staff everything packed itself up nice and neat. "Oop, can't forget that!" reaching into her hair, Eda pulled out a strange-looking skeleton key with what looked like an eye set into the bow like a gem. Pressing the eye like a button the door that Luz went through to get this odd, yet strangely familiar world flies out of from somewhere and into Eda's waiting hand.
"Follow me, kid, that guard is probably going to be waking up soon. You don't want to be around when he does. Unless you want to spend some time in the slammer that is." called Eda as she walked off towards the other side of the market. Hearing the guard start growing and shifting around Luz weighs her options and finds that she'd much rather go with the lady who at the very least didn't threaten her just because she was talking to someone. Rushing off she catches up with Eda, sparring a quick glance back at the guard who seems to be fully awake and starting to stand up.
"We might want to book it, tall, dark and stupid back there is back up."
"Don't worry kid, I won't let 'em hurt you. A human like you is worth more to be alive than dead."
"Wait. what's that supposed to-"
Getting cut off by Eda grabbing her and plopping her down on the end of the now flying staff, Luz lets out a squeak as they take off into the sky. The guard rushes after them only to give up after a few steps realizing that he won't be able to catch up to them.
"You won't get away with this, Owl lady!" calls the guard shaking his fist at them as they fly away, looking down he just sighs "who am I kidding, she already got away. Well, time to go tell the warden the Owl Lady got away. AGAIN!"
"You can open your eyes now" chided Eda as they fly a few hundred feet off the ground and quite a bit slower than when they were escaping the guard. Opening her eyes Luz nearly falls off the staff, when she sees just how high off the ground they are.
"Flying staffs, crazy monsters, you're a witch. What the hell is this place?!" exclaimed Luz, hanging upside down on the staff, her arms, and legs wrapped around it hanging on for dear life.
"You're pretty close with that hell comment there. This is the Boiling Isles. Every myth you humans have is caused by a little bit of our world leaking into yours. That includes hell and demons." explained Eda, grabbing Luz and righting her on the staff.
The sound of flapping wings drew Luz's attention, several strange winged creatures flew by, almost as if being chased. Just as she was about to comment a griffin burst forth from behind the clouds chasing the fleeing creatures. "A griffin!" whispered Luz, excited about one of her favorite fictional animals. It looked eerily similar to the griffin that she had made for an art project in elementary school. Her grade on which was something that was still a bit of a sore spot for her, it wasn't easy for a nine-year-old to rig up a griffin model WITH anatomically correct spider's breath. Her art teacher though had other ideas and gave her an F of all things, even if the spiders got free the effort that was put in should have counted for something right?
Watching the creature for a second she was caught off guard by the chimeric beast letting out a screech and a stream of spiders "I knew it! Suck it Mrs. Williams!" she was right, it honestly made her anger at her F double, the spider breath was an actual thing!
"Yep. Griffin, vampires, giraffes…" continued Eda, naming off a few of the many legends and myths that came from here apparently.
"Giraffes?" questioned Luz, she knew that the things creeped her out more than a little, their long necks and gangly legs making them look like a badly resized JPEG picture and a creature that really shouldn't exist. Also, the one time that she saw them in real life she swore that the thing was looking at her like she was food or something, so she could full-heartedly believe that they weren't from Earth.
"Oh, yeah. We banished those guys ages ago. Bunch of freaks."
Well, that explained a lot, from what little she has seen of this world she could honestly say if something managed to be banished from this world for being a freak, a giraffe would definitely be it. Her thoughts on giraffes and their banishment were interrupted by Eda landing the staff and hopping off. Only she left one of her hands attached to it, and it was moving! Jumping back away from the Thing wanna be she let out a little scream. It was more out of shock than anything, seeing someone's hand just casually fall off and then the person not even notice.
"Ooops," said Eda, grabbing her wayward hand and screwing it back onto the stump left behind. "That happens sometimes."
"Well, today has certainly been fun," started Luz, deciding that it would probably be a good idea to get back to the human realm or whatever it was called in this strange world. She at least knew the lay of the land there and if she was going to be living on the streets being a runaway she should probably do so somewhere she was at the very least familiar with. "But I should probably get back home if you mind opening that door thing of yours for me?"
Eda brought her staff up to bear in front of her stopping Luz in her tracks. "Only if you help me first," said Eda continuing on down a small trail, her belongings following behind her as she flicked her staff back upright. "Now come along human."
Sighing, Luz followed behind Eda, it was pretty much the only thing that she could do at that point. She didn't like her chances of surviving for very long if she just booked it back to the city they were in previously and tried to make a living there. Also, there was the fact that the guard would probably report her as an accomplice of Eda, and it seemed that the local government really had it out to get her if the bounty she saw on that wanted poster was anything to go by so that would further complicate things.
Trying to steal the portal from Eda was also out of the picture as she was seriously running on empty and she doubted the effectiveness of the few things that she knew how to use her 'abilities' for would work well against someone who at the very least has some experience with something similar. That left her with only one option, follow Eda to where ever she was going and hope that she would hold up her end of the deal and send her home after she helped with whatever it was that she needed her for. She just hoped that she was making the right decision and if it was worth it to risk running.
The two continued for about two minutes down the path, Luz was honestly wondering why they even got off the staff in the first place if they were just going to walk through the woods. it would have probably been easier just to fly all the way to their destination. That's when she saw it, or at least what she thought was it, a large cottage-style house with a crumbling tower attached to the back sitting sandwiched between the woods and a shear cliff face.
"Aren't you afraid those guards are gonna find us? This place is kinda out in the open…"
"Nope! My house has a state-of-the-art defense system," said Eda walking up to the door.
"Hoot-Hoot! Password please!" demanded the door knocker of all things, it seemed that the owl-shaped door knocker was alive and that it was the security system Eda mentioned. Its voice was honestly enough of a deterrent in Luz's opinion, it kinda reminded her of nails on a chalkboard, loud, annoying, and slightly painful.
"We got no time for this, Hooty. Let us in," ordered Eda, giving the living door knocker, Hooty, a few seconds to open. It seemed that he wasn't going to without the password though so Eda just poked him in his eyes. It seemed a little cruel, but with how annoying the thing seemed in the ten seconds that she knew of its existence she really couldn't fault Eda any.
"All right! All right! Geez! You never want to have any fun! Ow! Hoot!" cried Hooty, his mouth opening wide and completely encompassing the door. Luz didn't know what to think about that, on one hand, it was definitely an effective deterrent. Not many things would willingly walk into the mouth of what was obviously a demon of some sort. On the other, she had to admit it was a rather cool way to open a door. Although she really hoped that it wasn't the ONLY way to do so, it'd probably get old, and fast.
Following Eda into the mouth of Hooty wasn't sure what to expect, from the outside the house looked fairly normal, that is until you got close enough to have to deal with Hooty. She was hoping that the inside would match normalcy to an extent and NOT have another Hooty waiting for them, she's not sure if she could handle one Hooty, let alone two.
"Welcome to the Owl House…"
With a snap of her fingers, Eda lights up the house. Candles flickering to life along with the fireplace, brooms, and a large wooden stir stick in a cauldron suddenly animating and going about their jobs, it was honestly magical. Luz looked around in awe, so far this has been the single most impressive thing that she has seen since she got to this weird, wonderful, and terrifying world. She just hopes it won't be the last…