Willow and Gus had taken refuge in the branches of a tree near Eda's house. They had hoped they were far enough away, but even from that distance they could hear Luz's cries. "If she'll continue like this, she will end up shattering our eardrums" Willow murmured.

"Poor Luz, I feel sorry for her" Gus said in a pitying voice. "Do you think her nose will ever go back to normal?"

Willow shrugged. "I have no idea, I've never seen anything like this. But Eda seems pretty calm to me, so I assume there's a way to resolve the situation"

In fact, instead of being worried, the fairy seemed not to be affected in the slightest by what was happening; in fact, instead of trying to invent something to help Luz, she had left the house to hang out some clothes, and she was doing it extremely calmly. Which could mean either that she didn't care at all about the situation, which was highly unlikely given all the attention she had paid to the puppet up to that point, or that she already knew how to help her but preferred to wait a bit. "Maybe we should go to her and ask her to intervene" Gus suggested.

Willow shook her head. "If Eda doesn't want to do it, she must have her reasons. And personally, I don't think it's a bad idea at all to let Luz cry and despair for a while. Maybe this is finally the time that she learns that bad actions have consequences."

"Come on, Willow!" Gus begged her. "You don't want Luz to cry like that either, do you?"

Willow sighed. In fact, every scream and cry from the puppet was like a knife in her heart. However she maintained her position. "We can't give in to her whims every time! She needs to learn a lesson every now and then!"

"Oh, I'm sure she learned it" Gus pointed out. After such an experience he was sure that Luz would never tell a lie again in her entire life. "Willow, please..."

Willow tried to maintain her stern composure, but she then gave up. She didn't have the heart to remain impassive against both Luz's crying and Gus's pleas. "Okay. Go and talk to Eda, in the meantime I'll go back inside the house and try to calm that walking plague"

"Wait! Could you give me a ride first?" Gus exclaimed, but unfortunately Willow had already taken off and returned to Luz's bedroom window, and due to the puppet's cries she couldn't hear him. "Obviously not... and now how do I get to Eda?"

But an instant later that was the last of his thoughts because behind him he heard a voice that immediately made his blood run cold: "What are you doing here, little friend?"

Gus jumped back when he saw Hooty's face appear through the leaves; his survival instinct kicked in immediately and he desperately began to scamper in an attempt to escape the owl. Even though Eda had assured him that Hooty would not harm him, Gus couldn't help but be terrified of him since he was very reminiscent of a predatory bird, and above all he couldn't forget that during the battle against the assassins he had tried to eat it. He took refuge in the first hole he found in the bark of the tree and remained there trembling; Hooty's eye appeared shortly after at the entrance of this hole. "Hey, don't run away, little buddy! You make me so sad if you do that!"

Gus was literally paralyzed with fear, but despite this he couldn't help but notice a certain displeasure in the owl's eyes. It didn't sound like he was pretending that his behavior made him sad. And while he was thinking this, Gus also remembered another interesting feature of Hooty that would have been very useful to him at that moment; so he took a deep breath and asked him: "Sorry if I ask, but how far can you stretch your neck?"

"Oh, endlessly!" Hooty replied satisfied. "And that's a good thing. If I couldn't do that I would always be confined in the door, and then how would I be able to keep watch?"

"In the door?" Gus repeated confused.

"Oh, yes! My body is embedded in the door of Eda's house. In a way the house itself is my body, but what's on the door is what I control best" Hooty explained. "I am part of a very rare species of houses that are called House Demons, although unfortunately this term is often used in a derogatory way. I am very young so I don't yet know how to control the house in which I am nestled well, but an aunt of mine who is the familiar of a certain Baba Yaga has so much control that she can lift the whole house on two crow's feet and wander around as she pleases..."

"Wow..." Despite his fear of the owl, Gus couldn't help but be fascinated. Now he understood why that place was called the Owl House... the house was literally the body of an owl! "But we saw you at Camila's house together with Eda..."

"That's thanks to the Porta-Hooty! It's a little bird house in which I can contain my body for a limited period of time, and through it Eda takes me with her on her travels!" Hooty explained.

Gus had to admit that although Hooty spoke very annoyingly, he was very interesting. Maybe he had misjudged him... but now wasn't the time to think about it. Summoning all his courage he came out of the hole in which he had taken refuge and asked: "Look, since you can stretch your neck endlessly, can you take me to Eda? I promise you that in exchange I will spend an entire morning listening everything you have to say"

"Oooh! No one is ever here to listen to what Hooty has to say! You make me so happy!" the owl exclaimed almost with tears from his eyes, and then he opened his mouth wide. "Jump in, I'll take you to Eda!"

Gus nearly fainted as he looked at what seemed like an endless, obscure, dark pit. "Um... no, thanks! I prefer to go like this!" he said climbing up Hooty's neck and positioning himself on his head, far away from the beak.

"Whatever. But hold on tight!" Hooty said, and then Gus was hit by what seemed to be hurricane-force winds; fortunately his paws were very resistant and he had had the foresight to hold on tightly to the owl's feathers, or he would have been catapulted away in an instant. In less than half a second Hooty had craned his neck the entire distance from the tree to the drying rack where Eda was hanging clothes. "Eda, my new little friend wants to talk to you!"

"Oh, hello, Gus" the fairy greeted him, biting her tongue to keep from laughing as the spider looked like he had just witnessed a tsunami. "Did you make friends with Hooty? I'm happy about it. You're really very brave, little animals like you never liked Hooty"

"Well, after talking to him for a while I decided it wasn't that bad. Besides, I needed his help to get to you" Gus responded by jumping onto Eda's shoulder, all the while trying to push down her hair which had stood up due to of fear and wind. As soon as he managed to get himself together a little he asked: "Listen... do you know how to make Luz's nose go back to normal?"

"Of course yes" Eda replied without even hesitating, but after giving that short answer she went back to hanging the clothes nonchalantly.

Gus realized he had to be the one to keep the conversation going. "So, if you know… what are you waiting for?"

"I'm waiting for that kid to learn her lesson properly" Eda answered. "I want that next time she will think twice before telling so many fibs"

"Well, I can't say she didn't deserve it..." Gus admitted. "...but I think it's enough now. She got quite a scare and has been crying for almost half an hour. I'm sure she's kicked the habit of telling lies by now. I think it's time to get that nose back to normal"

"Nah, I think I'll leave her there a little longer. I know better than you how unruly kids can be. Trust me, if you give in to their whims too quickly, no matter how much you punish them, they'll always pull another mischief on you" Eda said. "I won't keep it like this for too long anyway. Let's say... until sunset? That seems like enough to me"

"But it's not even noon now!" Gus pointed out to her. "Before sunset Luz will have torn her throat out from crying!"

"Don't worry, there is no such risk. I checked, the wood she is made of is too hard for this eventuality to simply occur with a cry" Eda corrected him without showing the slightest empathy.

Gus lowered his paws in defeat. "Sorry to tell you, and don't take it as an offense... but you really suck as a fairy godmother"

Eda raised an eyebrow at those words, feeling a little insulted even though Gus had specified that it wasn't an insult. "I told you, I'm not like other fairies, all good and always kind. Obviously, since I'm a fairy I'm always ready to forgive, but I at least want the person I'm forgiving to have learned well the consequences of their actions" she said. "I don't know what happened to you three the last few days, but I'm smart enough to understand that Luz hasn't been behaving well at all. Making her pay a little bit won't hurt her"

"I know she didn't behave well, but this is a punishment too severe!" Gus protested. "Listen, Eda... I know that Luz is capricious, listless, arrogant, stubborn, lazy, spiteful, naughty and numerous other unpleasant adjectives, that her head is always in the clouds and that she is anything but honest, but she's not evil. She has a heart of gold, even if buried under several layers of rascality. She was ready to be burned for a person she barely knew and who had also treated her badly, and in the woods she refused to leave the coins because she wanted that her mother could become rich. She genuinely cares about me, Willow and Camila and she would do anything to make us happy, even if she often ends up wrong. Despite everything she's done, she deserves a second chance" He looked at the fairy with pleading eyes: "Please, Eda. I can't continue to hear her cry like this anymore"

The fairy looked at him carefully and seemed somewhat undecided, then she finally closed her eyes and let out a deep sigh. "Luz is lucky to have a friend like you. Fine, I'll turn a blind eye this time" she said putting down the basket of clothes. "Come on, let's go in and put an end to this situation"

In the original book the fairy lets Pinocchio cry for at least half an hour, but then helps him out of pity. But Eda obviously doesn't have this tender heart and wouldn't be moved by crying, so I chamged the scene and I let Gus convinced her to intervene.