Hooty, unlike usual, wasn't very talkative; on the contrary, he seemed to have no idea what to say. A veil of sadness and helplessness was painted on his face. "Didn't you hear me? Tell me what happened to her!" Luz urged him.

The owl closed his eyes. He didn't seem to have the strength to look at her face. "She's been corrupted, Luz"

The puppet's heart skipped a beat. "What... corrupted? But... what does that mean?"

"It's what happens to fairies when they do bad deeds" Hooty explained. "Fairies are creatures composed of magic, light magic to be precise. You know, light magic is..."

"I know what light magic is!" Luz interrupted. "Get to the point!"

Hooty visibly gulped; he was surprised that the puppet knew what light magic was, but he avoided asking how she learned about it. After all, that was neither the place nor the time for such questions. "The... the fact is that light magic must always be used for good purposes... and since fairies are beings composed of light magic, they must always be good too. This is why there are no bad fairies. If a fairy would start to perform bad deeds... the magic that composes them would begin to convert into dark magic. And the more bad deeds were performed, the more the dark magic would grow like a cancer, infecting their body and their powers, gradually depriving them of their ability to do magic and to reason correctly. And in the end... if too many bad actions are carried out... they surpass the point of no return. The dark magic definitively supplants the light magic, and the fairy turns into that: a hideous, deformed and destructive beast incapable of reasoning, who spends her life continually looking for someone to hurt. The beast in question normally reflects the original nature of the fairy, so in Eda's case... I think it would be correct to call her Owl Beast"

Luz remained petrified. When she finally managed to speak, the voice that came out of her mouth sounded like a whisper: "But... but this is impossible... Eda... Eda was so good... she... she couldn't have done bad things! That's not possible! There must be some mistake! Hooty... Hooty, Eda's never done bad things, has she?"

The owl retreated slightly into the door, as if afraid to answer, but then said sincerely: "No, she never did any. She wouldn't have been capable of it, it wasn't in her nature. Eda was eccentric perhaps... but not evil"

"Yes... yes, that's it!" Luz exclaimed; her voice was getting shriller with each passing second. "But then... if she didn't do anything bad... why did she transform?"

Hooty looked down. "I'm sorry. Eda ordered me not to tell you about it. She didn't want you to know"

"Know what?" Luz asked. "Hooty... please... I need to know! Can't you ignore your mistress' command just this once?"

Hooty looked rather indecisive. "As a familiar I am loyal to Eda, even if she is no longer conscious now" he replied, and then he added: "And honestly... I'm not sure it's a good idea to tell you that..."

"HOOTY!" Luz screamed at the top of her lungs. "I need to know what happened here! That's the fairy who gave me life! Please! I... I need to know why she is like this!"

Hooty was silent for a few moments, then he let out a deep sigh. "Okay… but remember that you were the one who asked me" he said, and although it was hard to tell since he didn't have lips but a beak, Luz was sure he had just bitten his tongue. "She transformed because of you. It's your fault"

Luz felt as if a boulder had just fallen on her and crushed her to a pulp; her body lost all sensitivity for an instant and her wooden heart missed a beat. It took her several seconds to recover, and when she did she stuttered: "What... what do you mean that it's my fault?"

"Fairies are beings made of magic, as I told you. When they perform one, they share some of that magic with their creations. Simply put... when she gave you life, Eda poured out a small part of her essence inside you" Hooty explained. "And... ever since that moment, the two of you have been connected. Even if the amount of magical energy within you is minimal, it is still enough to create a deep bond between you and Eda. You don't notice it... but everything you do, Eda suffers as if she had done it. In practice, every bad action you do is reflected on her like a mirror and causes the transformation. Every time you behaved badly, every time you disobeyed your mother, every mischief, every lie... for Eda it was like poison. When you arrived in this house, Eda was already very debilitated due to all the bad deeds you had already done. Breaking the promise you made to a person that had trusted you and that loved you so much... that was the point of no return. A few hours after you left, Eda transformed definitively. Her last order to me was to lock her up inside forever the house so that she wouldn't hurt anyone and not to tell you anything so that you wouldn't know what you had done to her and suffer. Even in her last moment she worried about you. But... well, you convinced me to violate this last order, so now you know the truth". The owl twisted his long neck so much that he almost twisted himself. "For what it's worth... I am sorry"

For a brief second, silence reigned supreme; then the forces abandoned Luz completely. Her wooden body fell to her knees, but she didn't feel the pain in the slightest. After a few moments she wasn't even able to stay upright anymore and almost hit her face on the ground, but luckily Hooty grabbed her by the hair at the last moment. "N-No... no, no, no!" she screamed. "T-This can't be true! No... no! What did I do!?"

Luz curled up on the ground and burst into tears; she even tried to pull out her hair, but she couldn't since it was made of wood, and then she started slapping herself. She was completely out of her mind. "Eda... why, why!? It's not fair! She was so good... she didn't deserve this! And all because I behaved badly! Stupid, stupid, selfish bad girl!"

Willow and Gus were just as shocked as she was. They had never thought something like that could happen. "Isn't… isn't there anything we can do, Hooty?" Gus tried to ask the owl. "I don't know... a spell, a ritual, a potion... find someone who can help her...?"

But Hooty shook his head in despair. "There is nothing. I've never heard of a fairy who managed to return to normal after transforming. It is common knowledge that once this happens... there is no going back. Eda will remain like this until the end of her days"

"No!" Luz screamed in tears. She dragged herself to the window, where Eda was still struggling to break it. Seeing those dark and empty eyes, so different from the bright and loving ones of the fairy, the puppet began to cry even more intensely. "Eda... Eda, please... I made a lot of mistakes, I know, and I have to be punished... but I am the one that has to be punished, not you! You are so good and kind... you... you are not like this! You're not a monster! Please... come back to me... come back to me!"

Eda emitted the screech of an owl again and stuck one of her paws between the beams trying to grab her, and surely if she had done so she would have shattered the puppet's head with those long claws, or at least she would have left visible scars; but fortunately Willow reacted quickly and grabbed Luz by the hair pulling her backwards. The puppet was unable to put up any resistance, as her limbs seemed to have lost all kind of energy, but she still begged: "Leave me! Maybe... maybe if she hits me... maybe if she kills me, she'll be back to normal! If I really am the source of her misfortune, then I must disappear! Please... she doesn't deserve it... it would be better, a hundred times better, if it were me who died...!"

"Luz, Eda wouldn't want this!" Gus yelled at her. "She... she..." but he didn't know what to say either. His mind was blank; the furious screeches of the Owl Beast resonated in his head, destroying all thoughts. He couldn't think of a single way to console Luz, or at least prevent her from doing something stupid.

"Stop talking as if you know what she would want!" Luz screamed. By now her voice had reached such acoustics that soon only bats would hear it, but she showed no signs of stopping. "She... she became like this... because of me! Because I'm just a lazy, selfish, good-for-nothing puppet! She... she knew, when I was here, that she was very close to transforming! That's why she begged me to behave well, to keep my promise! And yet she trusted me anyway, even though I had fully demonstrated that I didn't deserve that trust! And here's the result! Now she's... she's stuck in that horrible bestial form, because I didn't keep my promise! Because I'm too arrogant, capricious and reckless to be able to do even something so simple!". She turned her tear-stained face towards Hooty and looked at her pleadingly. "Please... please tell me there's a way to help her! Anything!"

Hooty, who had always been smiling and jovial, at that moment didn't even seem to have the strength to raise his neck more than half a meter off the ground. "I'm sorry... if there was a way, I wouldn't hesitate to tell you about it... but there isn't. It's too late now"

"It is not possible!" Gus exclaimed, who now also had tears in his eyes. "Luz hasn't just been bad since she left here! True, she broke her promise, but she also welcomed Vee into the family, and helped save a town...!"

"A few good deeds don't erase a bad deed. If everything were that simple we wouldn't have so much suffering in the world" Hooty replied simply. "And breaking a promise you made to someone who loved you so much and who put so much trust in you... is a very, very bad action. An action that often has no remedy even when there is no magic involved"

Even though Hooty had no intention of making Luz suffer for what she had done, his every word was like a stab in the heart of the puppet, who cried harder than ever. By now she couldn't even see anymore because of all the tears in her eyes. "It's... It's all my fault... damn me! Why, why didn't I do the right thing!? Why didn't I obey such a simple request? No, I had to do my own thing, as always! And now... now what do I do? Eda... oh, Eda... I'm sorry... I'm so sorry...!"

Suddenly she felt herself enveloped by something warm; it took her a few moments to realize that something was Hooty's long neck, which was wrapped around her as if he wanted to hug her. Owlbert too, shortly afterwards, flew to her shoulder and rubbed itself on her face. "What... what are you doing!?" Luz screamed. "Why are you hugging me!? I ruined Eda's life... you should hate me!"

"Will hating you bring Eda back?" Hooty asked in an incredibly serious voice, which definitely didn't suit him.

Luz's eyes trembled. "What… what are you saying?" she slurred.

Hooty held her tighter in response. "Hating you won't bring Eda back, it will only make us feel even worse. And Eda loved you, she loved you until the last moment, and so did we... and we still love you"

Luz's body began to shake so violently that she almost seemed a blender. "No! No... don't do it! You shouldn't console me! It's my fault that Eda is like this! Only my fault! Scream at me! Punish me! Hate me! Do something...!"

"Luz" Gus climbed up to her nose, dodging the tears that were now the size of thumbs. "Punishing you wouldn't change anything. And it won't make you feel better"

Luz shook like a leaf. "Please... I deserve it... don't forgive me... I don't know why... but it hurts more this way..."

"I'm sorry, Luz" Willow said flying into her face. "But yelling at you, punishing you, slapping you, or whatever else… won't make your guilt go away"

The puppet mumbled something that no one could understand; her eyes continually darted in any direction, looking for any sign of blame or anger in Hooty, Owlbert, Gus, Willow... but she found none, only strong compassion and pity, and that only intensified the pain she felt in her chest. She felt like she was about to die. Eventually, she stopped talking completely and just cried, so loudly that the echoes could be heard in the surrounding hills. And she continued like this without stopping until sunset, and she would have continued even if she hadn't completely run out of tears. In the end, when the sky began to be colored with a thousand colors and the sun began to take on a reddish hue as it calmly descended towards the horizon, the puppet was sitting leaning against the wall of the house, a short distance from the window from which the Owl Beast continued to screech and growl, and she was so still and energyless that anyone who saw her would have thought she was no different from any ordinary inanimate puppet. The only part of her body that still moved were her lips, from which only a continuous whisper emerged: "I'm sorry... I'm sorry... I'm sorry...!"

Gus and Willow looked at each other, both unsure of what to do or say. Luz had finally stopped crying, but she was clearly terribly distressed by what had happened. Finally it was Willow who spoke up: "Luz... I know you're sad, but we have to go. We have to go back and get Vee, remember? She'll be waiting for you..."

"And what should I tell her? That because of me and my stupid choices the family I promised her isn't here anymore? After all, what is another broken promise!?" Luz wanted to scream, but she no longer had the strength. "What should I do now? Where should I go? Where should I take Vee? Eda is gone, she's become that... that thing because of me. And my mom... who knows where she's gone now. Probably I'll never see her again...!"

"It is not true!" Hooty immediately exclaimed. "I know where she went!"

At those words, Luz seemed to regain some vitality. "What? Please tell me now!" she begged him.

"She went that way" Hooty said, pointing with his beak to the same spot in the trees where Luz had headed days earlier. "She arrived here a few days ago, shortly after Eda transformed, so she asked me for directions. When she heard that you were going that way, she said she would follow you, and that she would continue in that same direction until she found you, even if it meant crossing the ocean or even traveling around the world"

"So she went that way!" Luz exclaimed as she jumped up, albeit wobbling a bit as her legs, even though they were made of solid wood, seemed to have turned to jelly at that moment. "Where could she have gotten to now?"

Hooty quickly did a couple of calculations. "Given how many days ago she left... I'd say she must have reached the sea by now, and she is probably looking for a boat to set sail"

"The sea... I have to reach her!" Luz was about to run, but suddenly she stopped and looked at the Owl Beast. Eda's horribly deformed face caused another stab in the heart for the puppet. She didn't want to abandon her... but she had no choice. "Hooty, Owlbert... I have to go find my mother and reunite with her before she gets hurt too. You... you take care of Eda, please"

"Don't worry. We'll never move from here" Hooty replied, and Owlbert nodded in response. "Go and find your mother. We will take care of the things here"

Luz let out a whisper: "Thank you… and again, I'm sorry. For everything". And having said that, she turned and started running without looking back, because she knew that if she looked again at what she had reduced Eda to, she would no longer have the strength to leave.

"Luz!" Willow grabbed Gus and flew towards her, and with a great effort she managed to catch up with the running puppet and jump onto her shoulder. "Luz, there's no point in running! The sea is far away, you'll never get there in time with your legs!"

"Then I'll go with some wings!" the puppet replied determinedly.

"Luz, you don't have wings!" Gus reminded her.

A light passed into the puppet's eyes. "No... but I know who can have them!"

In Collodi's original book Pinocchio, once he returns to the fairy's house, finds a tomb where she is buried, discovering that she died of pain because he abandoned her. Since I didn't want Eda to die, I decided to use the Owl Beast gimmick, since it's technically the closest thing to death she's ever had (since in the Owl Beast state she can't think straight anymore, so in fact it is as if his conscience had died). Furthermore, even the fact that Eda transforms due to pain didn't make much sense, both for logical and character reasons (Eda wouldn't feel sorry for herself, but would go looking for Luz even after she abandoned her), so I changed the nature of the Owl Beast making it not a curse but a natural condition of the fairies and their magic, and I invented that Eda and Luz were somehow connected and therefore everything that Luz did wrong was reflected on Eda. Another variation: in the original book it is a dove who warns Pinocchio that Geppetto has headed to the sea, while here it is Hooty, and furthermore while the aforementioned dove also carries Pinocchio to the sea, here Luz goes to look for another type of help. SPOILER: don't worry about Eda, in Collodi's book the blue fairy comes back to life, so Eda will also return... later in the story. But in the meantime, Luz has suffered quite a trauma. Time to start preparing the hugs, because it won't be the last one