The next day Luz slept until almost ten in the morning, demonstrating how all the adventures she had experienced in the last few days had seriously tired her. After all, in the space of a few hours she had been kidnapped, almost burned, freed, chased by assassins, almost hanged, and she had been scared like few times in her life when she saw her nose grow until it came out of the window. She urgently needed a long rest.
Not that the other inhabitants of the house had woken up before: Eda had fallen asleep on the sofa at the entrance and was snoring in a way that was not at all befitting of a fairy, and only when the sunlight penetrated forcefully through a window and hit her straight in the eyes and finally she decided to get up, not before having directed quite a few insults against the celestial object and having covered her mouth immediately after remembering that she wasn't alone in the house, only to then breathe a sigh of relief when she realized that they were all sleeping. She then dragged herself (in the true sense of the word) to the kitchen where she drank at least seven liters of coffee, which still wasn't enough to wake her up completely, but at least she would have avoided maintaining her usual grumpy morning look in front of her guests. At that point, even though she didn't really feel like it, she still decided to behave like a decent host and started preparing breakfast.
The second to wake up was Gus... well, actually he was literally dragged out of bed, since Hooty was eager to talk to someone and had come to remind him of his promise, even though for him 'remind him of the promise' was equivalent to 'grabbed the little spider by the scruff of the neck with his beak and carried him out to the front door, where he had placed him on the letterbox so he could talk to him face to face. Hooty had acted so quickly that Gus hadn't had time to scream, but Willow had still sensed that her friend was no longer lying next to her and had rushed to look for him, and when she saw him in front of the owl's face she was panicked and had grabbed him from the air and taken him immediately to the kitchen, where she jumped on top of Eda asking for protection. It took a while to explain to Willow that Hooty wasn't trying to eat Gus at all but rather just wanted to chat with him and the spider was happy to do so despite the rude awakening. Well, eventually all four of them were sitting around the table, including Hooty who had craned his neck through a window so he could join them and talk to Gus, and they had just started eating breakfast when Luz woke up and was came out of her room. "Yawn! Good morning everyone, what did I miss?"
"Just a familiar who doesn't know how to respect living spaces intent on kidnapping a spider, a cricket who rushed to the rescue, and the aforementioned spider who apparently has a slight hint of Stockholm syndrome since instead of running away with his savior chose to stay and talk to his kidnapper" Eda replied in a thick voice.
"What?" Luz murmured having understood practically nothing of what the fairy had just said.
"Long story short, Hooty wanted to chat with Gus for a bit so he came to get him this morning, I noticed it and I was afraid that the owl wanted to hurt him, but then we cleared up the misunderstanding and so now they're conversing calmly" Willow explained, pointing to the two people directly involved. Hooty had been talking incessantly for almost twenty minutes now, but despite his shrill voice Gus didn't seem annoyed at all, but on the contrary he was managing the owl quite well. In fact, it almost seemed like he was enjoying that conversation. Willow was happy that her friend got along so well with Hooty, but throughout the meal she hadn't taken her eyes off the bizarre familiar; even though he was friendly he was still an owl, so she was ready to intervene at the slightest sign of danger.
"Uh... I see" Luz said as she sat down between them, then noticed something else that made her raise an eyebrow: "Um... Gus, is that a shoe you're eating?"
"Don't worry, it's made of sugar. I cooked it for her on purpose" Eda reassured her. "And in case you're wondering, no, I don't understand the reason for that request either"
"I told you, it's for a bet" Gus told her as he continued to munch on a silver shoe made of sugar cubes.
Willow giggled. "The bet was actually just for you to eat your shoe"
"We never specified what material the shoe was to be made of" Gus corrected her.
Luz was even more confused than before. "What bet are you talking about?"
"Believe me, you're better off not knowing," Gus grumbled. He didn't want Luz to know that he and Willow had a bet on whether or not she would behave well. Well, technically it wasn't really a bet but more of a stupid statement by him in the heat of the moment, but that didn't change the outcome much.
Luz wanted to ask for more details, but decided that this time it was better not to investigate, so she simply took a plate and a fork and took some pancakes from the tray that Eda had placed in the middle of the table. It was the first time she had tasted such sweets and she couldn't hold back a moan of ecstasy as soon as she felt the sugary taste on her tongue. "Mmm, delicious! You're an amazing cook, Eda!"
The fairy smiled and her cheeks became a little redder. "Well... I'm not that good. I barely consider myself average" she said without hiding in her tone of voice that she felt flattered. "Anyway, I have a gift for you"
Luz's eyes sparkled. "A gift?"
"Yes. Here, it's yours" Eda replied, and she tossed her a brown jacket. "That rag you have the nerve to call a shirt probably won't last another couple of days. Finish eating and then go try this on"
Luz looked at her shirt, and in fact she had to admit that it was in really bad shape: after being chased into the forest by the assassins it had been torn in several places and had stains everywhere, so much so that you could almost not see the original color of the dress. She really needed a replacement. "Thanks, I'll go and try it right away!"
She quickly finished eating and then ran to her room, where he took off her old shirt and put on the jacket Eda had given her; after which she looked for a mirror and looked at herself in front of it. The jacket that the fairy had given her was beige and brown, and gave her an almost sporty look; and she could feel that, unlike her old shirt, this one was very resistant and would hardly tear. She was really happy to have received such a gift.
As she looked at herself in the mirror she also noticed another detail, not on her jacket but on her forehead: where the assassin's knife had hit her there was now a scar, not very deep, but very evident. It was located just above her left eye and cut one eyebrow in half, then it continued across her forehead. Touching it she could clearly feel the depression created in the middle of the wood she was made of. She had mixed emotions when she saw that scar: on the one hand she thought it gave her a tough look, on the other she was sorry that her face had been ruined like that, especially after all the work her mother had done to carve her without create defects.
As he thought this her mind went to Camila. Who knows how worried she was about her at that moment: she had been missing from home for almost two days now. Her mother was probably going crazy with fear and was wandering around desperately trying to find her. The happiness of having just received a gift suddenly vanished as she imagined poor Camila wandering around Gravesfield alone asking everyone if they had seen her daughter.
With a bitter taste in her mouth, she returned to the kitchen where Eda had just started clearing the table. As soon as she saw it the fairy gave a satisfied smile: "Look at you, it looks great on you! You know, that jacket was mine and I wore it a lot when I was your age, and since I was a bit reckless it was perfect for me, so... . uh, is everything okay, kiddo?" she stopped, noticing the puppet's heartbroken expression.
Luz lowered her head. "Eda, I thank you for your hospitality and for all the help you gave me, but now I have to go home to my mother. She will definitely be worried and I don't want her to suffer any more. So... thank you for everything you you did it for me, but now I have to go"
But in response Eda let out a giggle. "You don't have to worry about your mom. I already took care of her. She's coming here right now"
"What?" Luz exclaimed in surprise.
Eda took what looked like a crystal ball from a shelf and handed it to Luz. The puppet looked inside; initially she saw nothing, but then shapes and colors began to appear, until it showed Camila walking calmly in the woods following a map that would lead her to Eda's house. "How did you warn her?" Luz asked the fairy.
"Magic, of course. Look" Eda replied taking a piece of paper; she wrote something on it, and then she took out her wand and touched the paper, whispering: "Willow". In an instant the paper was enveloped in a purple aura and then it hurled itself at the speed of light against the poor cricket, who was hit full in the face and shortly after emerged from it angrily: "Who made a caricature of me while I scold Luz!?"
Eda giggled, completely not caring about sounding childish. "See? Thanks to this spell I wrote your mom a letter explaining everything that happened, and I also sent her a map so she could find my house. She'll be here by noon, more or less"
"Really? Thank you so much, Eda!" Luz exclaimed as she hugged the fairy, who, despite making an annoyed noise, didn't seem at all sorry for that contact. "But if so, then I want to go towards her! I know the way after all!"
The smile faded from Eda's face. "Are you sure? The woods are thick, you might get lost... wouldn't it be better if you stayed here and waited?"
"Don't worry, Eda! I won't stray from the road, that's a promise!" Luz assured her.
Eda looked uncertain for a moment, and Luz wondered why the fairy was hesitating so much. But in the end Eda nodded: "Okay, I want to trust you, kiddo. You can go if you want" she said, and then she turned to Gus and Willow: "Do either of you want to accompany her...?"
"Hoot hoot! No way, my friend here promised he'd be with me all morning!" Hooty exclaimed as he wrapped himself around Gus, almost crushing him.
The spider struggled past Hooty's serpentine body. "Unfortunately he tells the truth... sorry, I made a promise"
"And I'm not so cruel as to leave you alone with him" Willow said. She would have gladly accompanied Luz, but she didn't want to leave Gus unsupervised. As much as she kept repeating in her head that Hooty wasn't dangerous, all she could do was look at his bird of prey head to fear for her friend's life. She wouldn't be comfortable walking away leaving Gus alone. "We'll get to you when Hooty lets Gus go"
Luz smiled: "Eda, you worry too much! I made you a promise, I won't abandon the road! I'll be back with mom at midday, in the afternoon at the latest!"
"Yes, I understand, kiddo. And I told you that I would trust you, you don't need to try to convince me" Eda said, but a strange light continued to be present in her eyes that Luz couldn't identify. The fairy accompanied her to the door and the two went out into the garden, and there Eda pointed to a point between the trees. "In case you don't remember, you always have to go straight that way"
"Don't worry, I remember!" Luz replied, and was already about to leave, when suddenly the fairy's hand grabbed her shoulder, holding her firmly. "Eda?"
The fairy had a strange expression on her face; she lowered herself until their eyes were at the same level: "Luz... remember that you promised me not to leave the street. So please, whatever happens, don't do it" she told her in a voice that seemed almost pleading. "Breaking a promise to someone who trusted you is a very bad thing, much worse than lying. So... don't do it, okay?"
Luz was a little confused by so much apprehension, but she nodded vigorously, "Of course, Eda. I'll keep my promise, you'll see!" and having said this she ran away into the woods.
Eda looked at the spot where Luz had vanished, then she undid her dress slightly and looked at her chest, in the center of which embedded in the skin was a beautiful oval, golden stone; but this stone seemed dirty, contaminated by a strange black liquid that created hideous stains, and around it the skin was covered in feathers, but not beautiful, smooth and colorful feathers like those of her true fairy form, but rather square feathers, ruined in several places, and with a horrendous blackish-gray color, which made it look more like a hideous tumor mass. "Please, kiddo, at least this time behave well... because otherwise I won't have time to regret having given you my trust"
In the original book the fairy calls Geppetto to meet Pinocchio at his house and Pinocchio decides to go to meet him; however this happens immediately after he has told the lies and the fairy doesn't give him too many recommendations, unlike this story where Eda is very worried for... reasons.