Previously on Calamitous Intervention
The annual Covention was in town, and Anne, alongside King, knowing Eda's business will be quiet for the entire day, convinced Eda to take them there. When she arrived, she met up with Willow and Gus, and came across Amity, who challenged her to a Witch's Duel. The human accepted and they had a battle in the theater. After saving King's life, Eda discovered Amity's power glyph and humiliated her in front of the crowd. Anne went to talk to her and now the tension has lessened between the two.
Chapter Twelve - Market Mayhem
In the living room of the Owl House, Eda and her palisman Owlbert were playing a card game; the two fiercely invested, as Anne and King watched. Eda pulled out some cards from her hands, which magically glanced up at her as she sported a very fierce and cunning stare. Owlbert did the same back, perching on the table.
"Watch closely, Anne," Eda advised the human. "Hexes Hold'em is the most tricky game on the Boiling Isles. Any proper witch knows how to play." She grabbed one card from her deck already in her hands and lifted it in the air.
Anne could only stare at the two of them, not too invested or attracted to this game. Despite this, she couldn't help but record it with her phone. Not every day do you see a witch playing a magic card game with an owl.
Eda took the card with a red demon figure on it and rested it on the table, already neatly populated by several other cards. Suddenly, the cards began to electrify, crackling with energy and shaking up this game quite a notch, startling the owl as he flew onto the floor right below the table for safety.
As Owlbert peeked up to barely see the table and cards, the cards had sprung to life, sprouting thin black arms and legs, equally divided into two teams. One of the cards suddenly roared, making the other cards do the same. Owlbert's cards all charged toward Eda's side, startling King a bit, but Eda showed no fear.
"Now, when it looks like the deck is stacked against you," Eda confidently said, "that's when you break out… the wild card." She snatched another card from her deck depicting a fork-shaped tower on a red background and held it up proudly with a large grin on her face, aiming the card at the table.
Eda's wild card glowed green, radiating a curious but dangerous amount of energy, as it instantly disintegrated Owlbert's cards, reducing them to tiny flaming piles before disappearing altogether. Suddenly, a batch of fire materialized above the table before revealing the text "WINNER: EDA", spelled out in large flaming letters, before fading away just a second later.
Owlbert hopped back onto the table, the game over, and hooted at the witch as he extended his wings.
Having felt a sense of pride and accomplishment, Eda cheerfully raised her fists into the air and whooped in victory. "I win!", before lowering her stance and pointing at Owlbert, still perching on the table and playfully teasing him. "In your adorable owl face."
The witch stood back up, slightly stretching her back, knowing she was at the top of her world right now. "I love the feeling of victory," she boasted with her eyes confidently closed, excelling at one of the most popular games to play on the Isles. "It feels… fluffy?" She opened her eyes and glanced aside in confusion, not noticing her arms had begun sprouting little black feathers, a very uncomfortable warning sign.
Anne gasped when she saw this, having already spent a full night seeing the horrors of Eda's curse. "Oh, no… Eda, your curse!"
"What's that about my curse?" Eda said, not looking too concerned, and still not knowing what she was talking about.
"Your curse is returning!" King yelled, and this brought Eda up to speed. She looked at her arms, the feathers growing ever so slightly, and her expression instantly switched from uninterested to panicked, as she yelped in fear. Whenever she felt the curse returning, she had always relied on those good old (bad-tasting) elixirs. Would she still have enough?
Eda walked up to a chest near the couch, which had always stashed her curse-tempering elixirs, and confidently opened it up, Anne and King looking on. Her determined face quickly gave into one of disappointment, as she saw no more elixir in the chest–just empty old bottles surrounded by spiderwebs. "Oh boy, this is terrible. I'm out of elixir," she resigned as she grabbed an empty elixir from the chest and shook it, trying in vain to get anything out of it.
"You're telling me you don't check until you're out of them?" Anne remarked. She didn't care too much about Eda so far, but she was concerned to at least know if she could get any more, and where she could get more. "I thought this whole curse thing was a priority to you."
"It's probably cause she's addicted to that stupid game that she forgot," King told her.
"We need to head to the market," Eda told them as she lay her fist on her other hand. Anne didn't really wanna go out right now, especially after what she had seen of Bonesborough, but in this case, she might have to again.
"This reminds me of grocery shopping," she muttered. "Such a chore." She started walking toward the door, and King happily followed behind her. "I'm gonna steal everything that's not nailed down!" he cheered as he raised his arms into the air.
Eda stayed behind for a bit, watching the two move ahead of her, before coming up with an idea. "Before we go, would anyone like to play one more hand of Hexes Hold'em?" She reached into her back pocket, hoping to feel her cards, but found them suddenly missing. This really worried the witch, who otherwise had kept a good eye on her belongings. Pickpockets were everywhere in the Isles, and she had built up a strong paranoid attitude over the years.
Eda, Anne, and King wandered out into the busy streets and shady dealers as they approached a small stand with a sign reading, "MR. ELIXIR" above it. The stand was currently closed, as some metal bars shielded the stand's window.
Eda and King stood right in front of the closed stand, while Anne rested on a bench several feet away. Eda furiously pounded on the bars, wanting to be serviced ASAP. "Hey open up, Morton!" she demanded. "Uhh, just, just a minute," Morton's voice reverberated from inside the stand. King figured he'd get bored, so while Eda wasn't looking, he headed on over to the bench with Anne.
"This reminds me of how busy the mall was on Fridays," Anne remarked. "There was lots of disorganization and homeless people sneaking in to find some shade." She rolled her eyes. "I'd rather be anywhere than here right now." She picked up King and let him sit next to her, both observing the surrounding craziness.
They both saw three demons waiting at what Anne recognized as a bus stop, as a massive egg easily towering over the three rolled and stopped right in front of them. It cracked open to reveal a large pink featherless bird, as it flew away screeching, leaving the egg empty. The three demons walked up and stood inside the egg, as one of them closed the egg, and the egg continued to roll away from the stop.
Tinella Nosa desperately ran toward the stop, yelling, "Wait, wait!" Unfortunately, by the time she arrived, the egg had long left. "Aww, dang it," she whimpered in resignation.
This whole world could not get any stranger in Anne's eyes. Just how could an egg bus and transit system that still heavily resembled her world make any sense? Still, she continued to find the tiny-legged demon weirdly endearing.
As Tinella Nosa sadly looked toward the ground, the next egg probably a good while away, she suddenly felt loud footsteps, so she screamed and ran away. A tall hooded witch wearing an eyepatch entered the scene, looking around before silently gesturing with his hand. A large cart with a large demon tied up followed behind him, with several other witches dragging the cart along.
Disturbed by this sight, and really wanting to go back to the Owl House right now, Anne walked up to Eda, who was still waiting for Morton to open the elixir shop. "Aren't you the Owl Lady? You can probably just make these potions yourself." She could only fear the worst and assumed this stand was some illegal underground scheme.
"It's a hassle to worry about that," the witch replied. "Besides, Morton's got some cheap prices."
Eda turned around to look at the streets, her eyes quickly narrowing and warning of what was to come. "Those are demon hunters. Dangerous nomads who capture and sell the most powerful beasts..."
The giant demon strapped to the cart suddenly regained consciousness. As it tried to resist and break free, the demon hunters desperately restrained it with the ropes. The demon tried to bite at the hooded hunter leading the cart in front. He turned around and formed a green spell circle with his hand, creating a small, green crackle of lightning. He proceeded to electrocute the demon as it returned to an unconscious state. The hooded hunter suddenly glanced at Anne, jumpscaring her.
The unpleasant sight and elixir in her mind made Eda snap. "... Which I'm about to become if you don't open up, Morton!" she yelled as she hastily pounded on the shop's gate, having lost all her patience.
Luckily for her, Morton finally lifted the window's gate and explained, "Sorry, Eda. I was up all night poison tasting and, for some reason, I don't feel great."
"Gee, I wonder why," Anne muttered.
Eda handed Morton one of her empty elixirs as she quickly glanced towards the street, just to be safe. "I'm all outta my juice, pal."
Morton looked at the empty bottle, visibly concerned. "Oh, gee. Lemme see what I can do," he said as he lowered down to rummage through several bottles and inventory in his stand.
As Anne stood around with nothing to do, she saw the demon cart pulling away, revealing two familiar young witches dejectedly walking along the street. She recognized Willow and Gus, but the two seemed unusually depressed for some reason. She didn't think too much about them, but she still wanted to know why they'd been acting that way.
She decided to check it out, walking up to the two witches. "Hey, guys. What's got you all bummed out?"
"Them," Willow simply stated, pointing and showing two teenage witches laughing together with Amity, the girl who Anne had had a few confrontations with. Watching the three was Boscha, a three-eyed girl with neatly tied-up pink hair. She stared at them with a large creepy smile. The human could immediately tell something was not right with her.
Willow explained the situation to Anne. "Amity's having a moonlight conjuring and invited everyone but me," she sadly muttered while looking down at the ground.
"And she keeps posting about it on her Penstagram account," Gus added as he formed a small spell circle with his hand, making a purple phone-sized scroll materialize in the air. The scroll rolled open as it hovered over to Anne so she could read it.
The scroll showed a social media post of Amity and a few other teens, including Boscha making exaggerated faces at the camera, posted by the user 'WITCHCHICK128' with the text 'IT"S CONJURING NIGHT! NO DORKS ALLOWED! 🎃💗👻'.
Anne was amazed, yet disgusted at the same time. She was impressed that the Demon Realm had its own social media platform, seemingly popular with teens all around. Maybe she could look into getting one of those scrolls for herself to at least not be as bored here in the Demon Realm. But right now there were bigger things to worry about. She could definitely feel being left out of others' parties or fun and as much as she hadn't been too attached to either Willow or Gus, she felt the need to make things right for them.
"Well, not everybody needs to be in the popular group, right?" Anne smiled, but then paused. Sasha was popular. Was she like that? No, her best friend wasn't like that.
Still, she was very frustrated that they left Willow out. "Well, forget them. By the way, how did you get those scroll thingies? They look really cool."
Willow stared blankly for a bit before saying, "Oh, people get those at Kiona stores. They're a big chain in the Boiling Isles. Anyway, Gus and I were thinking of doing a Moonlight Conjuring ourselves, but we realized we need three people."
Anne tapped her chin, not really trusting the idea, nor did she want to go through with it herself. "There has to be someone you can do it with…" Despite her skepticism, she was curious about it. "What do you guys do, anyway?"
"You spend the night at someone's house," Willow explained, "telling stories, playing games…"
The human slowly nodded. "So, like a sleepover?"
In response, the young witch pulled out an open book, showing an illustration of three small elves holding hands in a circle. "Then you bring something to life with moon magic!"
"Right," Anne replied, "this is the Demon Realm. Sometimes I forget that fact."
"Gus and I have never been to one," Willow told her. "You need at least three people and an inanimate object."
"Well, as much as the conjuring stuff sounds sketch, maybe I could be the third person," Anne said.
As they were talking, Boscha and her gang, including Amity, walked past the trio, smugly staring at them and laughing. "Sorry you couldn't get an invite to the conjuring, Willow," she taunted before looking at Amity, standing behind her. "Only real witches allowed."
Amity could only stare blankly and emotionlessly as she sighed. "Leave her alone. It's not her fault she was born without talent." The four teens walked away from Anne and her group.
Anne just scowled as they walked away, biting her tongue to stop herself from saying anything. Willow got very angry at being shot down by Amity yet again. She grumbled in anger, causing several thorny vines to grow from the ground, the ground shaking like an earthquake. Anne was fearful, knowing how bad things got the first time she saw her consumed with hate and anger or the first time Anne saw Willow, period. The human tried to knock the vines away, thankfully making them shrink down to the ground.
"Just ignore those jerks," Anne told her witch friend. "Maybe we can do our own Moonlight Conjuring, but only if Eda's okay with it. I'm pretty sure she'd feed me to Hooty if I did it without her permission."
"Are you serious? This was on my bucket list," Gus said, his eyes lighting up as he pulled out a piece of paper listing the things he wants to do in his life. "... After owning a real human bucket!"
"There are way cooler things to own than a bucket," Anne assured him. "I'll tell you later. Right now, I'll go ask Eda."
Meanwhile, Eda was still standing in front of Morton's shop, unamused at how he had been taking so long. As Morton got up from going through the shop's inventory, he prepared to tell Eda with a solemn expression on her face. "I've got bad news and good news. Bad news is I'm all out 'till next week." He decided to liven up the scene a bit by making a joke. "Good news is feathers are a good look for you."
Eda was speechless at this. And with perfect timing, right as he finished, a feather sprouted out of Eda's front hair. "Morton!" she yelled as she threateningly walked closer to Morton, stopping just in front of his window.
"Well, gee-E. Why'd you wait to re-up 'till now?" he genuinely questioned as he could only wonder how this lady even lived her daily life.
"I've been very busy!" Eda retorted in a frustrated and almost sarcastic tone.
"Yeah, playing Hexes Hold'em," King fired back from his bench, having listened to her and Morton this whole time. "She's obsessed with it!" He pointed at the witch, not getting up from his bench.
"I am not obsessed!" the witch aggressively denied.
"You're playing it right now!" King said in bizarre bemusement. And sure enough, Eda had some cards laid out in front of her on the shop window's shelf, the witch holding some in her hand as well. After a short, uncomfortable pause, she went back to her blissful competitive mindset as she happily asked, "Am I winning?"
Morton could only stare at her with solemn sorrow before thinking of a strange yet possibly useful idea for her. "You know I wouldn't suggest this to just anybody, but if you need your elixir, you could try your luck later this evening."
Eda stared at him with a realization forming in her mind. "In the night market?"
Morton whispered to her, cautiously looking to the right of him. "There's a guy with a stand, goes by Grimm Hammer. If anyone has what you need, it's him."
Eda realized she'll have to venture out into a dangerous place, but if she had to choose between either going there or turning into a hideous giant beast with no control or awareness of anything, well, the choice seemed pretty clear to her.
Anne walked up to Eda, feeling some excitement for the first time in days. "Hey, Eda, can I bring my friends to the Owl House and do a Moonlight C-"
Eda held up her hand, interrupting her. "Not tonight, I'm going out." Anne frowned as the witch grabbed her staff and started walking away from the stand, going towards the bench where King had sat this whole time. "I need you to watch the house. I have many precious objects in there."
King wanted to be praised and talked about by Eda, so he happily said, "Like me!", rocking his legs back and forth, before suddenly being picked up by Eda by his collar, yelping a bit.
"You're coming with me," Eda told King. "I need an extra pair of eyes looking out for pickpockets." She turned towards Anne with a smug sideways grin on her face. "And an extra pair of hands in case I want to pickpocket." The two excitedly shouted, "Pickpocket!" in unison.
"Come on, Eda," Anne protested, "Can't I just at least hang out and do the whole voodoo magic thing with Willow and Gus?"
"No!" Eda shut the door on that chance once and for all. "Besides, conjurings are dumb. Sitting in a circle holding hands. Pfft, it's like magic for babies," she said while gently swinging King around with her arm, before walking away from the human.
Anne felt frustrated with Eda. Why couldn't she just let her be a normal teenager for once? She sighed as her two friends walked up to her from behind.
"Anne! What did Eda say?" Willow asked hopefully.
"Uh, about that-" Anne began, but was cut off by Gus, who pointed at the sky above them. "Oh, look! The moon is rising into place. And the celestial powers only align once a year."
"Oh, I can't believe I finally have enough friends for a moonlight conjuring!" Willow said, excited to have this opportunity finally. "Thank you, Anne! Did Eda say it was okay?"
The human frowned. "Sorry, guys, but Eda said no. As much as I hate it, I'd much rather skip out than risk going missing because of her anger."
This greatly disappointed the two young witches, but they understood. "Oh, well… I guess there's always next year," Willow said dejectedly. They walked away, with Gus comforting her. "Maybe we can hold one next year!"
"But that's like forever!" Willow wailed. Anne watched them leave, feeling guilty, but knowing she probably did the right thing.
Near the end of the day, everyone had gotten home. Anne sat on the couch on the Owl House's first floor, with Eda about to leave for the market. "Anne, you're in charge while I'm out," she said, standing near Anne as she put on a dark red cloak, covering her hair and most of her body. "Make sure Hooty doesn't get into any trouble," she warned as well.
Hearing this, Hooty didn't want to be babied around, so he hooted before opening the door by himself, facing toward the inside where Anne and Eda were. "I don't need a babysitter. I'm a big boy house!" he insisted.
"Yeah, cool," Anne muttered, "it's not like there is much for me to do here, anyway. Too bad you couldn't let me have fun with my new friends."
"If you're trying to guilt trip me, it ain't ever gonna work," Eda told her. Anne groaned in defeat, knowing it will be a boring night.
"Also, what are you gonna do with King?" She asked, wanting to at least know where the adorable little demon was.
"He's right here," the witch lady said as she opened her cloak on the front to reveal a sleeping King, strapped in a pink carrier, peacefully snoring in front of Eda's stomach.
"His little body just conks out when he's weightless. Look at this." Eda invited Anne as she gently moved side to side, not disturbing King as his arms and legs swung around. Anne found this sight absolutely adorable as her eyes sparkled. "You're so lucky to have him. He's the best little guy anyone could ever wish for…"
"Anyway, really going now," Eda put an end to it as she got up and started to leave the house. Before leaving, however, she turned back toward Anne, having followed her outside the front door. "And Anne…"
Her voice suddenly turned very threatening and almost to the point of exploding as she ominously warned, "If you mess up the house, I will never trust you again."
She effortlessly switched back to her jolly unassuming tone as she called out "No pressure, byeeeeee!", as she activated her staff and jumped onto it as it flew up in the air and into the distance as she disappeared, King still asleep all the while.
Anne waved after King, disappointed he'd be gone for a while since his antics were always entertaining to her, but her sadness quickly faded away as she started to wander back into the house, being tasked with looking after it. "This shouldn't be too bad, right? Just me and a weird owl tube thing…"
As Anne walked back inside, Hooty tried to stir up some conversation with her. "Hooray! It's just you and me now! Okay, one time, a sparrow flew into my mouth, and then I-"
She wasn't really interested in hearing the bird tube's shrill voice or stories, so she shut the door once she got inside, leaving him facing the cold outdoors without any company.
Hooty wasn't amused. "Hey…" he groaned in disappointment before coughing out a sparrow, just like in his story, as it quickly flew away.
For nearly ten minutes, she lay on the couch, browsing her phone, and going through multiple social media apps for anything interesting. She also texted her parents to let them know that she was okay. They had been constantly texting her, telling her how worried they were about her.
She quickly got bored, wishing she'd at least brought her old 3DS. All the good phone games cost money, and she didn't have that. She slumped on the couch, thinking of what to do.
Eda and King landed in the Night Market after a few minutes of flying, and right away, its creepy and seedy atmosphere unsettled the witch. Pikes and skulls were all around the market, and creepy red lights illuminated the stands. Eda walked with her hood on for a bit before stopping and sighing. She suddenly started to feel weak and drained of energy as a few feathers sprouted from her left arm. She covered the feathers with her hand, knowing she barely had any time left.
"The curse. I need that elixir, quick," she whispered to herself before suddenly noticing a hooded demon sitting next to a crate in the distance. She urgently needed to get her elixirs, and she was determined to get them in any way possible.
"Hey, you. You know where I can find a Grimm Hammer?" she asked the demon, and the demon nodded. A very small green creature suddenly popped out of the demon's left eye socket like a skull and pointed in front of them. Eda saw a large ominous stand consisting of a large purple curtain with a giant demon-like skull on top of it, illuminated by purple candles.
Knowing this was her best shot at finding any sort of solution to her curse, even if temporary, she silently started walking towards the stand, soon approaching its huge curtains. The Owl Lady peeked into the small opening, initially showing nothing but darkness. "Hello?" she wondered. "I seek the one they call Grimm Hammer."
A small demon suddenly rose from a table, revealing only his shiny glasses. "I'm the one they call Grimm Hammer," he said in an ominous, scratchy voice, before briefly disappearing as he prepared the stand, the curtains rising and the lights turning on, revealing lots of fantastical items lining the shelves of this stand.
The demon hopped and jumped onto the counter, looking like a pig and wearing a dark purple suit. "Welcome, welcome, welcome!" he introduced as he held various items showing off his inventory. "I've got weaponry from the Hinterlands, curses from the Winterlands, and jellybeans!" True to his words, he grabbed some jellybeans and tossed them up in the air, all falling down like snow.
This sweet surprise delighted King as he yelled, "Jelly beans!", catching one of them. To him, he was so nice that he offered free jelly beans for him! And as a snack-loving demon, what was not to love?
"They're lethally delicious," the pig demon casually advised, but King, not really understanding or caring about this, opened his mouth wide to eat it. Eda wasn't too amused by him or his offerings, as she flicked the jellybean out of King's hand before he could eat it, all while sporting a skeptical and disgusted look on her face.
"You are Grimm Hammer?" Eda questioned, not paying attention to a disappointed King resting just below her neck.
"Tibblet-Tibblie Grimm Hammer the Third," the pig demon called himself as he dramatically bowed. "Please, call me Tibbles."
Hearing this cheered up King a little as he laughed at Tibbles' name. "He wants to be called that," he says, not taking him too seriously.
"Okay, Tibbles," Eda knew this was her best shot at finding any sort of solution to her curse as he handed him one of her empty elixir bottles. "I need some of this elixir."
Tibbles grabbed the empty bottle before a scheming, and joyous expression formed on his face. "Oh, this is one wicked brew. Lucky for you, I just stocked up!" he proclaimed as he grabbed a full bottle of elixir with his tail, proudly showing it to the owl lady, exactly the one Eda wanted!
Eda was delighted by this, with her days of worrying about finding elixirs hopefully at an end. "Huzzam! I'll give you ten snails," she told him as she pulled out her wallet.
Unfortunately for Eda, Tibbles wasn't gonna make things this simple. "Add two more zeroes and it's a deal," he said, not changing his delightful and cheery tone.
"A thousand snails?!" the lady seriously questioned him. "What kinda game are you playing?"
"Capitalism!" Tibbles effortlessly shouted as he hopped off the counter back into his stand. "Where everyone wins, except you."
Eda got very frustrated at him, as she got closer to the stand's counter, slamming her feather-covered arm onto the shelf. She suddenly saw a familiar deck of playing cards on the stand, and with no other straightforward solution in sight, she got a (risky) idea.
"Say, you play Hexes Hold'em?" she wondered, as a clever smirk formed on her face. King, however, didn't like this idea too much. "Really? Now?" he said in frustration, knowing Eda definitely had an addiction to this game.
An idea formed in Tibbles' mind as he stopped and looked back at them. "Oh! Is that what that game is called? I was just using these as coasters," he said as he hopped back onto the counter, a deck full of cards in his hand.
With her knowledge of the game and her endless victories against Owlbert, Eda planned something risky but potentially rewarding. She didn't know if Tibbles might cheat or plan something against her, but her confidence was too high to really worry about that. "How about we make it interesting? I win, you give me the elixir. You win, you can take something of mine."
Tibbles agreed as he chuckled a bit. "Oh, what fun. You're on." Eda silently smirked back, hoping she would win.
Back at the Owl House, Anne was browsing her phone some more when Hooty suddenly snuck up behind her. "Hi, Anne! Whatcha up to?"
The human flinched at this, gasping and looking at him. "Eda seriously needs to put a bell on you or something!"
"She already tried that," Hooty replied. "I ate it, though. That's a weird-looking scroll."
"It's called a phone," Anne corrected, stuffing the device into her back pocket. "Why are you interested in it, anyway?"
"I don't know," he ominously said, "I just wanna be included. Hoot."
The way he stared at her made her uncomfortable. She couldn't tell what was going on in that head of his, nor did she want to know. "Uhh… Look, a fly!" She pointed to the kitchen.
Thankfully, this immediately got Hooty's attention. "WHERE?!" He rushed into the kitchen and Anne took this moment to tip-toe toward the window. "I'm sure the house will be fine, right?"
As soon as she opened and hopped through the window out of the house, she felt freedom. Finally, no guardian to tell her what to do. She walked off as Hooty was distracted by the fake fly, frantically searching for it. She hoped Hooty didn't cause too much trouble, as Eda would become furious at her. As she got farther away from the house, she stopped. "Wait, I don't have my friends here. What the heck am I supposed to do?"
She pulled out her phone, looking at Sasha and Marcy on her contacts. She had sent them a lot of texts asking if they were okay, but not a single response. Did they lose their phones, or worse?
The human decided not to dwell on this possibility, confident her friends were fine. Instead, she continued walking, strolling through the woods. Luckily, the light of the moon was helping her see. Unluckily, she noticed a familiar face getting closer and closer to her.
She spotted the three-eyed pink-haired girl she saw earlier, talking to her mom through a crow. "Ugh! Yes, Mom. I'm going to a moonlight conjuring. No, Mom. You can't come. And yes, Mom, it's sad that you're asking." She let go of the crow, which cawed and flew off.
She stopped when she noticed Anne and rolled all three of her eyes. "Oh, it's the big-headed human with her round, beady eyes and her twig limbs."
"What do you want?" Anne replied, already wanting to be done with her. Of course, she was just like Maggie. "I didn't ask for a triclops Troll doll to lecture me."
The witch walked up to her, glaring at her face-to-face. She didn't know what a Troll doll is, but nobody insults her. "You wanna say that again? I'd choose my next words very carefully if I were you, human."
At this point, Anne had enough of bullies picking on her. First in L.A., and now the Boiling Isles. She couldn't get any break. The human walked forward, pushing past Boscha. She watched as Anne walked away. "That's what I thought. If I ever see your face again, you won't be so lucky."
Now in a bad mood, Anne continued along the forest path, heading to Bonesborough. Maybe then she could find her friends, or if she's lucky, find Eda and King. As she walked along the forest in the shade, a buff, teal demon with an eyepatch and robe watched her from behind a tree, finding the bushy hair to be unusual.
As she finally got to Bonesborough, she wandered along the streets, noticing some familiar strange creatures as she passed by them. Thankfully, none of them had tried to eat her (yet). She didn't know where to go, but some places caught her attention, such as a Scroll Shop. She approached it, looking through the window and seeing an entire stock of them available to purchase.
She could only wonder what it was like to use one of them, though she reckoned it was probably just like using an ordinary phone. At least she'd be able to contact Willow and Gus that way.
Anne could imagine Sasha next to her, pressuring her to sneak in and steal it, but she knew better than that. If she had never stolen that music box…
She'd have to ask Eda for a scroll later on. In the meantime, she sighed, walking past the shop and continuing down the streets. She stopped in front of an empty playground, reminiscing about her past with Sasha and Marcy. The playground reminded her of when she first met Sasha.
Cut to a flashback back to Earth, Anne and Marcy, as young girls, were swinging back and forth on a swing set toward the end of the day. The place was mostly deserted except for them. Anne laughed, swinging higher and higher. "Look, Mar-Mar, I'm an eagle!"
"Cool! Well, I'm a twin-engine cemax amphibious aircraft!" her friend Marcy replied. They swung forward together, but unfortunately, two hands grabbed the ropes of the swing set, halting them and making them tumble into the dirt.
Two older girls smirked at them with mischievous expressions. "Aw, how cute," one of them remarked. "Now beat it. These swings are ours." In response, Anne and Marcy teared up at their bullying, on the verge of breaking down.
Suddenly, they heard another voice from behind them. "Not so fast, evildoers! Leave those kids alone!" The figure was a young Sasha trying to look intimidating while standing on the top of a slide. She slid down and lept up, kicking out her leg to try to hit them. "HI-YAH!"
Anne and Marcy watched her performance in awe as she flew toward them, but the two older girls just simply scooted out of the way, making Sasha miss her targets and fall flat on her face. She growled in frustration as she quickly got back up, disregarding the bruise forming on her head and charging them.
Just as before, the two bullies moved out of the way, making her face plant into a turtle-shaped sandbox. She got up, spitting the sand out of her mouth. "I'm not done yet! I'll never give up! No matter what!"
She charged again, but she tripped and fell on the ground, completely humiliating herself in front of the others. Even the girls didn't want to deal with this any longer. "This is getting weird," one of them muttered.
"Yeah, we're outta here," the other bully said as they got up and walked off. "Enjoy your swings, babies."
Sasha got up onto her knees, laughing triumphantly while brushing herself off, despite her self-humiliation. "Swings are all yours." Before she walked off, Anne reached out to her. "Hey! You wanna swing with us?"
The young blond was surprised at this, but smiled. "I-I'd like that." Anne took Marcy's hand, running up to her. "I'm Anne, by the way. This is Marcy."
"Hiya!" Marcy waved shyly.
"I'm Sasha. Sasha Waybright!" Sasha introduced herself. Anne cuts back to reality, realizing she had a smile on her face the entire time, but she didn't care. She missed those days, and it was too bad things may never be the same.
As she continued walking along, getting further away from anybody, she thought hard about what she had to do to find her friends. She yawned, realizing it was getting late, and decided to start searching for Eda and King.
Before she could, however, multiple bolts attached to ropes struck the surrounding ground, surprising her. "What the heck?!"
Three hooded figures surrounded her from every side. She reached behind her to pull out her tennis racket, only to realize she had forgotten it at the house. She was completely weaponless, but that didn't stop her from considering Muay Thai.
The card game between Eda and Tibbles was long and fierce, but it ultimately ended with all her cards lying on the counter, bursting into flames. King winced a bit. "Oof. That was painful to watch."
Eda was extremely frustrated at this, not happy at all that she lost. "You card shark. You hustled me!" she hissed at Tibbles with pure rage on her face.
Tibbles could only chuckle as he pointed out his strategy for victory. "Looks like you forgot about my… wild card," he revealed as he showed her a red card with a tower on it–the same one she used to defeat Owlbert earlier in the day. As much fun as she had getting a cheap victory out of others, she forgot that others could still use this against her.
The card hopped onto the counter as it roared, and flipped to reveal a picture of a sunglass-wearing orc wearing a T-shirt, and the card somehow tore it off with its arms to show its muscular buff body.
With his path to victory all cleared and his prize offered to him, Tibbles had a smart, cunning idea. "In any case, I'd like my prize now. And I choose… the little bone boy." He grabbed King from Eda's neck and carried him around, smugly showing his personality in full force. "I've always wanted a tiny servant to model my line of baby clothes."
King whimpered and worried about what Tibbles would do to him–and possibly never seeing Eda again. "No! I don't look good in clothes! I'm all natural. Eda, do something!"
Not allowing this trickster to get away with her only friend, she twirled her finger, hoping to form a magic circle, but nothing happened. Her arm just poofed out with more feathers, scaring the witch. "Ahh! I can't perform magic," she said in a defeated tone.
Tibbles smugly snapped his fingers, causing magical glowing chains to burst in front of his stand, quickly wrapping around Eda and restraining her. She tipped over and crashed onto the ground, her staff and cards smacking onto the ground and flying out.
Still not deterred by this, Eda still threatened him. "You think this can stop me? I can still bite your ankles."
Unfortunately for her, Tibbles knew more about her than he let on at first. "You don't think I know who you are? Eda, the Owl Lady," he revealed, punctuating his words for emphasis. The Owl Lady gasped, not having had many options at this point.
"That's right," Tibbles continued, rubbing the salt in the wound as he pulled out one of her many wanted posters, smugly leaving it out for her to helplessly see. "I've seen your wanted posters around here. I wonder how much the Emperor's Coven would pay me to hand you over?" Eda kept glaring at him, snarling at him more.
The demon hunters surrounded Anne, leaving her surprised. They all aimed crossbows at her, all in front of a giant one in the back. "What's going on here?!"
The giant crossbow fired, and she lept out of the way, now ready to fight. The hooded figures approached her, all holding weapons. One of them said, "Never seen anything quite like you before. A skinny big-headed demon. We can take your skin and sell it to restaurants as exotic meat!"
"I'm not a demon!" Anne replied, backing away as they get closer. "I don't even look that strange! You have giant baby-faced caterpillars and I'm the weird one?!"
One demon stopped in front of her, aiming a spear at her chest. "We'll make a lot of snails off of this thing. Just stand still and make things easy, and your pain will only be brief."
Obviously, the human wasn't gonna let it happen. She winded up her leg and kicked the spear out of the hunter's hands, surprising him. She then lunged forward and wrestled him with all her strength, throwing him to the ground. This enraged the rest, and they engaged her in battle.
However, she quickly realized she was outnumbered. They rushed her with swords and axes, and she had no choice but to flee the scene. She ran through Bonesborough, trying to lose them. Unfortunately, the demon hunters didn't have any intent on letting their prey escape so easily.
She ran into an alleyway, realizing it was a dead end. She turned to see them quickly approaching her and made a last-second decision to leap onto a crate and try to hang onto a wall's ledge. Thanks to her athletic prowess, she was able to get up on top of the building, running across rooftops as the hunters tried to reach her. "Why can't you jerks just leave me alone?!"
Back at the night market, Eda was still chained to the ground, unable to move. King sat on the ledge of the booth, looking miserable in a sailor outfit. He was angry that Eda made a bet as recklessly as she did.
"King, I'm sorry," Eda apologized, knowing she messed up.
"King? Who's King?" King grumbled, crossing his arms and turning away. "I go by Little Bone Boy now."
"I know I have a problem. I get obsessed with Hexes Hold'em," Eda continued. "But I'm done with that stupid game. Look." She reached over and took one card off the ground with her teeth, chewing on it.
This made the little demon feel a little better, but he was still hesitant. "You promise?"
"I promise," the Owl Lady confirmed, her voice sounding muffled with the card stuffed in her mouth. King chuckled at this, forgiving her. "Okay, okay. Nyeh!" He pushed the weak chain holding his ankle off. "I'll grab you the elixir and then we can bust outta here."
"Bone Boy!" a familiar voice growled, surprising him. Tibbles had returned. "You will do no such thing! The Emperor's Coven is already on its way to send this witch here to the Conformatorium." He held up a ridiculous-looking dress toward King. "And I just rustled up some more clothes for you to try on." He chuckled as he approached the little demon.
King had enough, as he grabbed his little sailor hat, throwing it in front of him. "Just because I have a model's body doesn't mean you can use me like this!"
"I can and I am, Bone Boy," the pig demon replied as he climbed onto the ledge where King was standing. Tibbles wasn't much taller than him, but he could still easily subdue the defenseless little demon. "I've got the cards stacked against you."
In the distance, he could faintly hear a commotion stirring up, but disregarded it. "And nothing can stop me. Nothing!"
They all suddenly heard a yell and turned to see Anne being chased by the demon hunters. One of them tried to slash her, but she ducked, narrowly avoiding it. She looked up to see Eda and King. "In trouble here!"
Unfortunately, the Owl Lady could only watch, not having the power to help her. One demon grabbed her, yanking her backward, but she elbowed them in the gut, making them gasp for air.
"What is the meaning of this?!" Tibbles yelled, raising his finger and drawing a spell circle. "You're scaring away all my potential customers!"
Seeing he was about to attack, Anne made a quick decision to grab one of the demon hunters and throw them toward the stand. King yelped as he hopped out of the way. Tibbles's eyes widened as the demon crashed into him, making him grunt as the entire stand was decimated.
As a result, one of the elixirs dropped down onto the ground next to Eda. King ran over and grabbed it. "Eda, quick!" He tossed it toward the witch, who catched it in her mouth and drank it down, feeling a surge of power run through her once more. Tibbles got up from beneath the rubble and watched in horror as she drew a spell circle, shattering the chains holding her.
"No, no, no!" Tibbles cried out, knowing that he was the one out of options now. "My scam stand!"
"Sorry, Tibbles, old boy," Eda smirked, reaching down and grabbing her staff and a couple of cards. "It looks like you forgot about the wild card." She threw the cards at the pig demon, who pathetically cowered to shield himself from them. Meanwhile, the remaining hunters were still fighting Anne, and Eda spun her staff, launching fireballs that startled them.
To make things more chaotic, some coven guards rushed to the scene, having heard the commotion. Soon, a fight broke out between the demon hunters and coven guards.
"Curse you, witch!" Tibbles yelled. "Curse you, Bone Boy! I'll have my reve-"
Anne walked up to him, looking at King and then looking at the clothes lying around. She quickly connected the dots when she saw King's outfit and his frustrated expression. "King, did he do that to you?"
The little demon nodded, and she cracked her knuckles, feeling the veins on her head bulging. She stomped up to Tibbles, picking him up by the collar. "If you ever mess with us again, let's just say I know some delicious Thai dishes that would be even better with some fresh bacon."
Tibbles stared in horror as she tossed him to the ground, picking up King. Eda snorted with laughter. "Didn't know you had that in you."
"Nobody messes with my friends," Anne said. "Anyway, let's get out of here before we're caught up in this chaos."
When they left and got their thoughts back on track, the Owl Lady realized something. "Hey! You were supposed to be watching the house!"
Anne groaned with frustration. "But it's soooo boring! Can't Hooty just take care of things?"
"No, he's probably gotten himself covered in mud since there's nobody there to keep him in check," Eda told her. "You're gonna be the one to clean him, alongside my house, top to bottom."
The human rolled her eyes, but knew she deserved it. When they got back, King tried to take off his outfit as Eda gave Anne cleaning supplies. She went outside in the dark to clean Hooty, using her phone's flashlight as a light source. As she scrubbed the mud from the owl tube, she thought about how much danger she got herself in and how she could've just stayed.
Despite her frustrations, she couldn't help but find Hooty's antics amusing. She wouldn't admit it, but he was strangely endearing and fascinating. At first, she found him completely weird and disturbing, but realizes he really wasn't as bad as Eda or King treated him to be.
"I wonder why she was being chased," King told Eda, confused.
"Those demon hunters will hunt anything that looks even slightly out of the ordinary," the witch replied. "Bunch of nutcases."
In the morning at Amity's residence, Boscha, Amelia, Skara, and Kat were sitting around a lifeless doll they had failed to animate. Despite them properly making preparations, their magic wasn't strong enough.
"Ugh. So what if we couldn't move a doll?" Boscha muttered, not really caring about this whole Moonlight Conjuring business in the first place. "Now we have time for what really matters. Penstagram!"
Immediately, the others' faces lit up, completely forgetting about their failures as they each pulled out their scrolls, browsing Penstagram. Boscha looked through pictures taken last night in the night market and came across a post of Anne, Eda, and King in the middle of a chaotic fight between the demon hunters and coven guards.
She scoffed as Amity walks up behind her, looking at the pictures. "That human always causes trouble wherever she goes."
"She's all bark, no bite," Boscha told her. "I saw her last night. She's weak and brittle, just like her twig body." Amity didn't respond, recalling everything that happened at the Covention.
To Be Continued in Chapter Thirteen
As I mentioned two chapters beforehand, there would be 1-2 art pieces per chapter, but I'm unfortunately going to have to go back on that statement for now. I have a limited amount of artists I can commission for a relatively cheap price, so unfortunately, art will not be added to the chapters until later on after they're released starting with this chapter.
The story is far more important than the artwork, and if I keep letting that delay the chapters, it will take years before the story finishes, and I don't want you guys to wait weeks upon weeks per chapter. However, it could still possibly happen if I can get more artists. I'm willing to pay 20-30 per art piece.
If you're a fairly experienced artist who would like to create artwork for the story, please join the Discord below and hit me up. I'd love to have you on the team!
KCKptqYn8P
~ Scruffy