Luz was taken by Adeghast to a smaller tent, where there was what looked like some sort of office full of props and strange toys. Once there the man finally let go of the puppet, who fell to the ground on her knees with a thud; and when she looked up, a shiver ran down his spine. In front of him, standing and with a grim expression, was a very tall man who, although he looked rather old, still inspired a lot of fear and gave the impression that he could destroy her with a finger if he wanted. He was wearing a black robe with shades of blue and on his head was a strange demon-shaped headdress that covered the upper half of his face, leaving only his eyes uncovered, giving the terrifying impression that he actually had horns on his head and so that he really was a monster. Plus, his nails were long like claws and his teeth were clearly sharper than normal, so perhaps this definition wasn't too far from reality. "Mr. Bump, I brought you the troublemaker" Adeghast announced.

The circus owner stepped forward and looked Luz straight in the eyes. The puppet cowered under that stern gaze. "I am Hyeronimus Bump, owner of this circus. Who are you?"

Luz swallowed. "My... my name is Luz Noceda" she replied in a small voice.

"Luz Noceda? Mph. Well, now tell me immediately why you came to cause trouble in my circus!" Bump said out loud.

Luz trembled slightly; she wanted to start crying, but she gathered courage and answered: "I didn't want to bother anyone! I just... made a mistake. I thought those puppets were alive and I wanted to help them. I'm sorry if I messed up"

"Do you expect me to believe that there could be a person in the world who could believe that puppets were alive and... oh, wait..." Bump seemed to only then realize that what he was talking to was a living puppet. At first he looked somewhat confused and for a moment dropped his grim expression, but then he simply shrugged. "Well, believe it or not, you're not the strangest thing I've seen in my life, and the mess you've made is far from the worst I've had to deal with in my entire honorable career. Today I feel good, so just promise me you won't come back here and go home"

Luz cheered in her mind, and hidden in her pocket Willow and Gus breathed a sigh of relief; in the end it seemed that everything had worked out for the best. But suddenly Adeghast spoke: "Mr. Bump, don't you think you're being a little hasty? Who can guarantee that the puppet isn't lying?"

"Huh? Why do you think I'm lying, Adeghast?" Bump asked raising an eyebrow.

"I'm not lying!" Luz tried to say, but no one listened to her.

"She may be a puppet, but for that very reason shouldn't she have been able to recognize an inanimate puppet from a living one?" Adeghast continued to say. "I'll tell you, Mr. Bump: this troublemaker came here with the express purpose of causing trouble! I bet she snuck in secretly and doesn't even have a ticket!"

"Eh!? But you're the one who let me in!" Luz protested. "It was you at the ticket booth! I lent you my spelling book for this!"

"Tsk! I don't remember ever seeing you!" Adeghast said feigning ignorance. "It's obvious that you're making excuses. Who could you believe, Mr. Bump, this reckless kid or me, your faithful puppeteer? I propose to punish her properly. She has to repay the damage she's done, so let's keep her with us until she did so. Entrust her to me; I'll make sure to make her a star of my puppet theater..."

Luz clenched her fists and gritted her teeth in anger; it was clear that the damn octopus-faced man was trying to take advantage of the situation! Gus and Willow also understood this and were quite furious. Luz was already about to get up and punch Adeghast, but Bump's booming voice froze her in place: "Enough is enough! You've both tired me out. Adeghast, get out of my sight. As for you, Luz Noceda, don't I know which version is true and personally I don't care; when in doubt, I will assume that it is my puppeteer's. Therefore, I will punish you as I want". He lifted a bell and shook it, and just a second after the ringing two tall, thin guys with masks resembling an upside-down skull and strange iron sticks in their hands entered the tent. "Tonight I want mutton. Take this puppet and use her to light the fire"

Adeghast seemed rather annoyed by Bump's decision: he had really hoped to be able to use the animated puppet for his show since the moment he saw her at the ticket office, which is why he had let her in without paying and had lured her into the theater of puppets sure that she would give him an excuse to capture her. A cordless marionette would be a star of his show and make him the principal attraction of the circus. Unfortunately, however, he knew that it was better not to contradict his boss when he made a decision, so he accepted the situation passively.

But the same couldn't be said of Luz; if Adeghast was displeased, she was literally terrified. She tried to run away, but one of the masked guys raised his stick, the tip of which opened like a hook and wrapped around her neck, preventing her from escaping. "No, please!" she screamed desperately trying to free herself, an obviously vain action. "I don't want to die! Please, Mr. Bump! I swear, I didn't come here to cause trouble! Please... my mother is waiting for me, and she will be so sad if I never come back...!"

Bump had turned away and was standing proudly upright with his hands behind his back, but even though he tried not to show it he cast a quick glance at the crying puppet. He began to think that maybe he was making the wrong decision. Even though he seemed scary, Bump wasn't a bad person at all; on the contrary, he was always very attentive to the needs of both his employees and his customers. His reputation as a ruthless man was created with the sole aim of better maintaining order in his circus, but in reality he couldn't help but feel empathy towards the desperate puppet.

Suddenly, however, there was a buzz and a cricket jumped out of Luz's pocket and, albeit with a very awkward flight, landed in the face of the guy who was dragging the puppet away; the man was hit in the eye and due to the pain he let go of the stick he was holding Luz with. "Willow! What are you doing!?" the puppet exclaimed as she saw her friend repeatedly hit her tormentor's eye.

"Run, Luz!" the cricket screamed at her. She didn't know where she got the courage to attack a person at least two hundred times taller than her, even though until a few hours earlier she was afraid to even leave the house, but in that moment she didn't care. "I'll hold them back! You run and..."

But Willow's attempt didn't go as she hoped: the other masked man in fact took advantage of the distraction created to raise his stick and capture the puppet again, while the other instead grabbed the cricket with his hands and tore it off his face. "WILLOW!" both Luz and Gus screamed, as the man seemed to have every intention of crushing her. Luz moved instinctively and despite the pain in her neck she twisted and kicked the man, who let go of the cricket just before it could kill her; Willow fell and couldn't get back into the air, but luckily Gus jumped out of Luz's pocket just in time and flipped onto his back to create a soft surface with his paws for the cricket to land safely. But even though Willow had survived, they were still far from danger. "Die, you stupid insects!" the masked man growled as he raised his foot to kill them.

"NO!" Luz screamed, her face now streaked with tears, so much so that she couldn't even see well anymore. "Don't hurt them! Please! They had nothing to do with it! They..."

"ETCIU!"

Everyone seemed to freeze on the spot; they turned to Bump and saw that he was doubled over and was clearly crying, but at the same time he was sneezing profusely and looked quite angry: "Stop it, you stupid Palisman! Your tears are tickling my nose and... ETCIU! Damn you!"

Under the surprised gaze of Luz, Gus, and Willow, Bump grabbed his strange headdress and took it off, and a cascade of knee-length black hair emerged from it; but that wasn't the strangest thing at all, because contrary to what it seemed when he had his hat on, Bump's eyes were not healthy at all, but one of them was completely blind and the other had a deep scar over it. Bump placed his headdress on a shelf, and there to everyone's surprise it came to life, revealing that the yellow and red eyes the man appeared to have were actually its. "May I know what's wrong with you? What, are you moved? How many times do I have to tell you that this is not a job for the faint of heart? You can't lose control like that! Now because of you I can't stop... ETCIU!"

Luz, Willow and Gus didn't know what to think: so Bump's strange headdress was actually a living creature!? From its appearance it looked like a little red devil, but from the way it moved it was more like a monkey. It was undoubtedly a magical creature, and it seemed quite moved by the scene it had just been forced to witness.

Seeing an opportunity, Luz didn't hesitate to take advantage of it: "Mr. Bump, please... I know I have caused you pain, and I know I must be punished, but please, not like this! I can't die... if I If I did, my mother would cry, and I've already done too much mischief on her to add this one too!"

The devil-like creature cried even more; Bump was clearly annoyed by the sound, but even though he was trying to look sullen, he was annoyed himself. "Oh, fine. Just make this stupid Palisman stop crying" he grumbled, feigning nonchalance. "You two, let that puppet go. Throw Adeghast into the fire in her place"

"What!?" the puppeteer screamed.

"Yes! Wait, what!?" Luz exclaimed in turn. "Wait! That's not what I meant..."

"Why? After all the mess you and him made, someone has to pay" Bump replied. "I want my mutton well done for dinner. I must use one of you to light the fire!"

"But... but that's not right!" Luz protested.

Willow flew next to her ear. "Luz, please... I don't like the situation either, but this is the time to keep your head down and shut up! Otherwise you might..."

But to Willow's surprise Luz dropped to her knees even more than before. "If this is really the rule... then set me on fire! It's my fault that all this happened... don't burn anyone else!"

"Luz! Don't say that!" Willow and Gus exclaimed in unison. "You can't die! Think of Camila... think of how much she would suffer!"

Luz closed her eyes and clenched her fists. "Guys... tell mom I'm sorry for all the trouble I've caused her... and tell her I never wanted to cause her any more pain... but I can't let anyone else die before my eyes... and I'm sure she would have done the same..."

"So you're sure?" Bump asked her, walking closer and looking her straight in the eyes. "Do you want to be the wood for my fire?"

Luz trembled like a leaf, but nevertheless she answered: "I don't want it... but I have to. Do with me what you want"

"That's right! You heard her, Mr. Bump!" Adeghast exclaimed, waving his arms. "She agreed to get burned, so there's no problem with it, right? There's no reason to burn me, right? And everyone lived happy ever aft... OUCH!"

The imp-like creature that served as Bump's headdress leapt at Adeghast and punched him in the face; despite its small size it must have possessed considerable strength, because it sent the man to the ground with a black eye. Adeghast looked furious, but he froze when he heard Bump's dark voice: "This is your reaction, Adeghast? Are you happy because she offered herself in your place? Interesting... so she, what you call a reckless kid, was ready to throw herself into the fire for you, the man who had attempted to turn her into an attraction for his show, while you, who call yourself my faithful puppeteer, rejoice in her imminent death?"

Adeghast immediately understood that he had made a mistake, but he couldn't even justify himself because his master's fiery gaze silenced him. "You asked me who I was willing to trust. Well, given your different reactions, I'm now much more likely to believe this puppet's version of events than yours" Bump said, then he gestured to the guards. "Lock him up. You can be sure that I will investigate whether or not you defrauded my clients, Adeghast. And when I'll do it, I'll tske care of you very properly. I have several friends in the police station who would be very happy to do me the favor of locking you up in prison... although I don't rule out the possibility of tasting human meat at least once in my life". He wasn't serious about the last part, but Adeghast believed it anyway and began begging for mercy as he was dragged away by the guards.

Bump looked at Luz. "Forgive me if I scared you. Now I believe you: no person with a heart pure enough to be willing to die for someone who cheated them could have come here to willingly cause trouble. Maybe you're a little naive and bratty, but you're not a troublemaker"

The puppet was silent for a moment, then she whispered: "So... you won't burn me anymore?"

Bump shrugged: "I'll eat my mutton raw this time. It might be an interesting experience after all, a return to the origins that might... HEY!"

Luz had literally thrown herself at Bump and pulled him into a hug. The circus owner blushed and he was clearly uncomfortable, and he tried to shake off the puppet, but despite he wanted to maintain his authoritative facade a small smile had formed on his lips.

In this story Bump plays the role of Collodi's original Mangiafuoco: a monstrous and threatening man who initially intends to burn Pinocchio, but who then forgives him and lets him go, proving that he actually has a good nature. In the original Mangiafuoco he started sneezing because that was his way of being moved; It wouldn't have made much sense here, so I edited the scene so that the cause of the sneezing was actually the Palisman that Bump is holding on his head. Furthermore, in the original Mangiafuoco he was the only antagonist at this moment in the story, but here I wanted to expand the number of characters to include other characters from The Owl House; Adeghast consequently plays a role similar to that of Stromboli in the Disney film, intending to use the puppet to get rich; this is because firstly Adeghast was perfect for the role of puppeteer much more than Bump, given that he himself practically was one in the canon, and secondly to create a greater dichotomy that highlighted Bump's severe but at the same time good nature . And in case any of you had any doubts that Bump would ever consider using Luz as firewood... I remind you that in canon he threw detention students into a giant devouring mouth and that during the school dance he had them fight a sacrificial vict-ehm, a champion against a monster who made fear real. So yeah, throwing a person into a fire is exactly something Bump would do, even the canon one. Lastly, in case you haven't understood, the two masked men employed by Bump are practically the Hexside guards seen in the first season, with the difference that here they are normal people with threatening masks and not real monsters.