Luz looked at Eda incessantly for over half a minute before she managed to recover from the shock. She couldn't believe that the person in front of her was the fairy who gave her the life her friends had told her about. "Really?" she said in a voice like a whisper. "You are the one... who gave me life?"

Eda shrugged and made a knowing face. "I confess that I'm guilty" she admitted. "Well yes, it was me. Long story short, Hooty and I had gone to pick up some Palistrom wood and were bringing it home, but I dropped it on the way and of course my dear familiar didn't tell me anything until I I noticed it myself since he was too busy discussing the shape of the clouds. I went back to look for it but by the time I found it Camila had already built you. I was sorry that that Palistrom wood would never have the chance to come alive and that Camila was so alone, so I decided to do everyone a favor and put a little of my magic inside you, just enough to allow you to start moving, breathing, thinking, talking and everything else of the package"

Luz remained silent again, then she leaned in slightly. "Eda" she said in the most serious voice she had ever used. "Are you my mother?"

Eda couldn't hold back a laugh, but then she composed herself realizing that the puppet wasn't joking. "Of course not, kiddo" she answered. "Your mother is Camila, she always has been. She is the one who shaped you and built you with so much love. I just arrived at the last moment and... gave you a little push so you could be born. A bit like a midwife when she helps the mother get the baby out of her... uh, okay, for the sake of your innocence I better not finish this sentence"

"Okay...?" Luz wasn't understanding much; she was happy that the fairy had confirmed her kinship with the woman she used to call mother, but this was confusing her more than ever. "So… what exactly would you be to me?"

"Well, you can choose it" the fairy replied. "I can be many things. You can think of me as a mentor or a teacher, or a fairy godmother, or a particularly eccentric and bored aunt who..."

"A fairy godmother?" Luz interrupted her while her eyes widening. "Really?"

"Well, I've never done it before, but I can try. After all, you don't need a license for this job... since it should be considered more of a hobby for us fairies since no one pays us. However, I really don't think that I will ever be like those always smiling fairies like my sister, who choose a pupil and then give them gifts and direct them towards a certain path. It's not my style" Eda said with a mischievous smile. "I'm more the type of fairy who prefers kids to have their own life experiences, and who just watches over them so they don't get into serious trouble"

"Damn, you've tried hard so far" Willow muttered sarcastically in disappointment. Luz had literally gotten into one trouble after another and nearly died more than once in the span of three days.

"Well, I admit I'm not very reliable. But in my defense I didn't expect Luz to get into trouble after such a short time... I had planned to return to Gravesfield after a week or two, to give her time to settle in, but how We know well the circumstances led to this premature meeting" Eda said with a little embarrassment; in fact she wasn't very good at being a fairy godmother. "By the way, how did you end up in this corner of the woods? And why were those assassins attacking you?"

"They wanted to rob me" Luz explained. "They noticed that I had some gold coins with me so they ran after me from the path to here..."

"Gold coins?" Eda looked confused. "How come you had gold coins? Last time I checked Camila she didn't seem like the person who would have that much money. Did she happen to have a secret chest hidden somewhere?"

"Oh, no! She didn't give me the gold coins. It was a circus owner, a kind man named Bump" Luz said.

At those words Eda's eyes widened. "Bump? Is that grumpy old man still alive?"

"Huh? Do you know him?" Luz asked in surprise.

"Oh, yes! When I was about your age I went for a ride at his circus. Well... at the time it was still Mr. Faust's circus" Eda giggled. "Ah, what memories... I didn't even have a sign of gray on my thick orange hair at the time..."

"The orange-haired fairy was you!?" Gus exclaimed in amazement. "Bump told us about it..."

"Yeah, he said you almost got him fired" Willow said.

"Tsk! It wasn't my fault, but Mr. Faust's. He was a bigot obsessed with order and who hated children, and he was furious because I dared to do magic tricks without authorization" Eda explained. "All I had done was help the acrobats with their tricks using my spells. I hadn't done any harm, also because, you know, even if I'm eccentric I'm still a fairy, and fairies are always good... I couldn't hurt someone even if I wanted to, not without suffering very negative consequences. But even if both the acrobats and the audience were happy, Faust was still annoyed because I had refused to blend in with his idea of order, and perhaps also because I had used the fire to make everything more pyrotechnic, and he took it out on poor Bump, who had instead taken my side. Poor man... he really had a tough time that day, but in the end everything was resolved for the best"

Well, if things had gone like this then Eda wasn't wrong at all. Sure, she could have asked before using her magic on the acrobats, but Faust had still overreacted and had been rather mean to take it out on the person who supported the fairy instead. "Bump said it was you who gave him that weird little devil he keeps on his head. Is that true?" Luz asked.

"Yes, I wanted to give him a small thank you gift. It was the first Palisman that I created, after my Owlbert" Eda answered showing her magic wand, which had the shape of a little owl with orange feathers and lively eyes . "Bump is not a fairy, but with a wand even humans can do some small magic. Ideal for his shows since he was a magician at the time"

Luz smiled; the story she had just heard was really beautiful and interesting. "Bump said he's too old to perform on stage anymore, but he's very grateful for the gift you gave him. And he continues to use that Palisman as a headdress... I think to see better since it seemed to me that his eyes weren't in very good shape"

"Well, by now that grumpy guy will be at least eighty years old if I haven't miscalculated. It's normal that he can't see very well anymore. I'm happy that he found a way to use my gift even after he retired" Eda said, then she scratched her chin enigmatically. "But I'm still missing pieces of the story. Why would Bump give you the coins? Better yet, how did you meet Bump? Shouldn't girls like you go to school during the week instead of the circus?"

"Uh... um..." Luz hummed awkwardly. Now what could she say to her? She didn't want Eda to know that she had disobeyed her mother and skipped school...

But before she could come up with anything, Willow spoke up: "She actually had to go to school, but she was too lazy and listless to do so"

"Hey! That's not true! I really wanted to go to school!" Luz exclaimed even more embarrassed than before. "I also had a lot of plans. I wanted to learn to write, and read, and do numbers, and..."

"If that's the case, then why didn't you go?" Eda asked her.

"Well..." Luz sweatdropped slightly. "I didn't go... because the school was closed!" she lied, and as soon as she did so her nose immediately became two centimeters longer.

Eda frowned slightly, but she gave no other sign of having noticed anything and continued speaking calmly. "Really? I'm no expert on human schools, but from what I know they should be closed only on holidays"

"Well, maybe they had some accident. I don't know, I just know that it was closed" Luz said, and her nose grew even longer.

Normally Willow would have already told the puppet that she didn't believe a word of it, but in that moment she was paralyzed by what was happening. She looked at Gus, expecting him to reveal that it was some illusionist trick of his, but the spider seemed just as confused as she was. What was happening?

"I see, so the school was closed" Eda said pretending to buy it. "So you went to the circus?"

"Yes. I heard the music on the way to school and wanted to see what it was like, so I went there" Luz replied. "So I went in and..."

"And what money did you pay with?" Eda interrupted her. "I doubt Camila was the type of person who would leave you enough money to enter the circus"

"No, indeed! But... that day there was some occasion, and so the entrance was free" Luz lied again, and her nose continued to grow. At that moment she noticed it too and her eyes widened.

"And that's where you met Bump?" Eda pressed her again.

"Uh... Exactly! It happened by chance, he learned of my economic situation and therefore altruistically chose to help me by giving me five gold coins! Unfortunately, however, on the way home I took a wrong turn and ended up in the woods where I met the murderers" Luz said, and her nose became even longer. By now it was about the size of her forearm. She touched it several times to be sure she wasn't hallucinating.

"And now where are these five coins?" Eda asked.

"Uh… I lost them" Luz lied again, not wanting Eda to know she still had them in her pocket in case she wanted some for herself, and of course her nose grew even longer.

"And where did you lose them?" Eda asked again.

"In the woods, of course. I kept them hidden in my mouth, but I must have opened it when I passed out" Luz replied, and her nose grew again.

"If so, then you don't need to worry, kiddo: whatever gets lost in the woods near my house will always be found again" Eda said. "I'll send Hooty after them, and he'll find them before this evening"

"Uh... er... it's no use. Actually, now that I think about it, I didn't lose the coins... I swallowed them when I drank your bitter medicine!" Luz said, and her nose grew so long that it now reached the end of her bed. At that point she couldn't hold back any longer: "W-What's happening!? My nose...!"

"Ah, so I'm not imagining it!" Willow exclaimed, then she looked at Gus. "I thought you were doing some of your tricks!"

"Me? What are you saying?" Gus replied. "I'm an illusionist, not a wizard! That's beyond my abilities! I can fake myself on a coin, not make a nose grow...!"

"Stop bickering and tell me what's happening!" Luz almost screamed as she held her nose in her hands and her voice began to shake.

At that point a loud laugh filled the whole room. It didn't take Luz, Willow and Gus long to realize that the source of the sound was Eda, who was literally doubled over with laughter. "W-Why are you laughing?" Luz murmured.

Eda regained her composure and although she didn't lose her smile her gaze became very severe. "Yeah, why am I laughing? There's nothing to laugh about here. I've never met a kid who told so many lies, at least not all at once"

Luz blushed. "Lies? What lies? I always tell the truth and... AAAAGH!" she screamed, seeing her wooden nose grow any second more under her terrified eyes.

"If I were you I would stop" Eda warned her. "Every time you lie your nose grows, and if you continue like this I don't know how far it will reach"

Tears began to form in Luz's eyes. "W-What? How is this possible? Please help me!"

"My dear Luz, there are only two kinds of lies in the world. The most common are those with short legs, who are not destined to go very far; and then there are those with long noses, who instead grow more and more until they're as plain as the nose on your face" Eda explained. "Yours in particular are the ones with long noses. Look: the last one you said was so big and obvious that it's still growing!"

"What!?" Luz screamed as she looked up, and saw that her nose was actually still getting longer. "EEEKH! Eda, stop it! Please! Make a spell! Something!"

She tossed her head from side to side as if hoping to shake the nose off, but all she achieved was rapidly losing energy due to the weight she now had to support and knocking over several knick-knacks. Willow, realizing the danger in remaining in her vicinity, grabbed Gus and immediately flew out the window. Eda, on the other hand, continued to giggle and dodged Luz's nose with an agility that didn't seem possible for a woman of her age, at least until she felt a small pain in her back and remembered that she was no longer twenty, and so instead of continuing to pose as if she were a gymnast she simply walked out of the room.

Luz soon ran out of energy and fell onto the pillow, and all she was able to do was grab her nose and hold it tightly in an attempt to make it stop growing. "Aaagh! Go away, you ugly nose! I don't want you! Go away!" she screamed in tears, but the nose obviously didn't listen to her and continued to stretch until it went out the window; there it stretched for at least another five meters, and then it finally stopped. Luz let out a few sobs, and then she burst into tears.

In the original book, Pinocchio is more sincere and tells the fairy his true story, and the lies he tells are only three (those relating to where the coins are found, which in this dialogue are the penultimate ones that Luz tells). I deliberately expanded the dialogue to make it more plausible and to prevent Eda from saying her opinion regarding certain facts (for example, if Eda had known about Adrian and Terra, she would have immediately understood that they were two cheaters and would have warned Luz, and therefore it would have been impossible to continue with Collodi's original narrative).

P.S.: The more comments you leave, the more I will be encouraged to continue the story for as long as possible. Readers' opinions are the authors' daily bread, even the negative ones. So indulge yourself as much as you can in the comments, even the smallest gesture of appreciation is very important for an author