Gehetag 2, Sixth Lunar Disappearance, 50 CE | Outside The Den of the Bat Queen
Luz uncurled her tail from around Owlbert as she dismounted the palisman before she set King down on the ground. Eda hopped off quickly after. Owlbert crawled into his witch's hair and disappeared into whatever pocket dimension the Owl Lady's hair held.
Before the trio stood what could only be described as a glitch in reality. Even though there was a giant opening in the trees right in front of her, Luz felt like her eyes were being forced to look off to the right. If she focused hard, she could see the gap in the treeline, but the second her focus was broken, the gap was filled as if it wasn't even there.
"This the spot?" Luz asked, doing her best to keep the gap visible.
"Yup," Eda confirmed, placing her hands on her hips. "BQ should be here any second."
"This feels so weird," King commented, constantly whipping his head around, making the gap appear and disappear before his eyes.
"That's the point. It helps keep prying eyes away from her territory, but if you know what you're looking for it also helps you find it," Eda explained.
"So are we just gonna wait around –" King started to say, but was cut off by a shadow descending from the sky.
Yi Yi gracefully landed in front of the group, fluttering her wings as she touched down.
"You here. Good. Tre, Ivy not know," the Bat Queen said in her everpresent thick accent.
"Wait, why didn't you tell them?" Luz asked. If she was in Tre or Ivy's position, she would want to know everyone coming in and out of the den.
"Ivy sad recently. Say she bored. You be fun surprise. Come, follow." Turning around, Yi Yi motioned with a wing for the others to follow her.
Not wanting to let her chance to meet other basilisks slip through her fingers (or, as she was now, claws), Luz quickly slithered after the Bat Queen. Eda scooped King up in her arms and trailed behind the basilisk. As they entered the forest, the trees towered over them, the canopy blotting out nearly all light, casting the path into near total darkness. Thinking on her feet (even though she didn't have any), Luz quickly cast a light glyph, holding the ball so she could see what was just in front of her. Eda had a similar idea, casting her own light ball and illuminating the surrounding area.
As they walked, Luz began to feel itchy again. Every so often she would stop to scratch at whatever the offending body part was. Unfortunately, her vision was starting to blur as well, and there wasn't anything she could do about that.
The group made their way further into the forest. Every so often, they would see a stray palisman that the Bat Quuen had taken in. Each time this would happen, Yi Yi would stop to briefly chat with the creature, greeting them all by name. "Hello, Diane." That was a little pink… something. Luz couldn't tell what exactly Diane was on account of it bouncing around them so quickly, never giving her a clear view. "Greetings, Tobias," she said to a red-tailed hawk with a broken wing, who chirped back cheerfully. "Morning, Jeremiah." A bullfrog missing its right fore leg ribbited in response.
As they all made their way closer to the den, the sunlight began peeking through the canopy, gradually revealing more palismen as they delved deeper into the forest, all of whom were living amongst the trees. A snake with ginormous fangs, a three-headed monkey, a dragonfly, and countless more roamed the vicinity. Luz couldn't help but notice that all of the palismen had oddly-shaped holes, as if they were meant to be joined with something bigger.
"What's with all the hole thingies in the palismen, Eda?" Luz asked, turning to face the witch.
"Those are their interlocks," the Owl Lady responded. "They exist so that each palismen can only fit onto one staff."
"So each of these precious little babies once belonged to someone?" Luz reached out and pet a red cardinal who had been following after the group. The bird leaned into Luz's hand, basking in the attention it was receiving. The cardinal chirped a few times before flying over to Eda, who brushed it off with a hand.
"Yup, and since BQ took 'em in, that means their witch either abandoned them or went to meet the Titan." Luz hoped most of them were here because of the latter. She couldn't believe that anyone would willingly want to part ways with any of these angels.
The group continued to trek in relative silence for the next few minutes before the Bat Queen suddenly stopped at the base of a hill and held out her wing, motioning for the others to halt.
"Past hill my den," she explained. She looked at Luz. "You ready meet Tre, Ivy?"
"I'm as ready as I'll ever be," Luz replied, scratching behind her ear.
"Good." With that, Yi Yi turned and crested the hill, Luz following right behind her.
In front of Luz stood an animal lover's paradise. Hundreds, if not thousands, of palismen, coming in all shapes and sizes, milled about. The winged ones flitted to and fro, chirping and singing happily as they conversed in their own language. The ones on the ground were similarly exuberant, chasing each other in games of tag, hide and seek, or just relaxing under a tree or by any of the numerous streams that cut through the meadow. A dog-like creature sporting six legs and three tails broke away from a game of tag it was playing and ran up to Yi Yi.
The Bat Queen squatted down and pet the creature with one of her wings. "Hello, Chee. You get Tre, Ivy? Have surprise for them."
The palisman nodded and let out a mix between a bark and a chirp before running off back down the hill and disappearing in the mass of palismen.
"Tre, Ivy here soon. Chee good tracker," Yi Yi explained.
As the quartet waited for Chee to return with the Tre and Ivy, numerous other palismen would come over to check out who the newcomers were. A goose-like palisman with a bell piercing its beak was the first to come investigate, though Eda eventually shooed it away once she realized it was trying to steal her wallet. The next to visit was a manticore, who flew over and began to buzz around King, trying to get him to join in on some type of game, but King declined the offer. The final palisman to visit was a white cat who had taken a liking to Luz, brushing against her and batting at her tail. Luz had to admit the feeling of the cat toying with her tail was a little funny. She began playing with the cat by raising her tail and watching the cat jump up and paw at it, only for Luz to move her tail just out of reach. Eventually, Luz let the cat bat her tail one more time before scooping it up and rubbing its stomach. After a few seconds, though, the cat leapt out of Luz's arms and returned to its friends.
"Hey, Yi Yi," a new voice said. "Chee said you wanted to – Holy Titan, Five is that you?!" Luz turned to see a pair of basilisks following after Chee, who was practically sprinting up to the Bat Queen. The basilisk on the left had light brown scales, not dissimilar to Luz's, with splotches of lighter-toned scales on their underbelly. Their long ginger hair flowed down their back and was done up in a complicated braid. The other basilisk had more of a red tone to their scales, but also had a white underbelly, all of which was complimented nicely by their mop of curly brown hair.
The light brown basilisk slithered up the hill at a speed that Luz didn't think was possible and wrapped her up in a tight hug. Luz was caught off guard by the sudden embrace, but cautiously reciprocated the gesture. The other basilisk's tears leaked onto Luz's shoulder.
"We – We thought you were dead!" they said through sobs.
Luz slowly pulled herself out of the hug. This would be a little hard to explain. "I hate to burst your bubble, but I think you have me confused for someone else. My name is Luz, not Five. I've never met either of you. Sorry."
The teary-eyed basilisk sniffled and wiped away more tears that were forming. "What? But, but you look just like her."
Luz nervously laughed and rubbed at her neck. "Well, I guess I've got a doppelgänger I didn't know about." She then added on, "Can I, uh, get your names? I know you two are Tre and Ivy, but I don't know who's who."
The basilisk with braided hair wiped at their eyes once again before introducing themselves. "I'm Ivy. Sorry about what just happened. I got so excited thinking that Five was back."
"No, no, that's fine," Luz said. "If I was in your situation I would probably react the same."
The third basilisk finally spoke up. "Hi, I'm Tre," he said with a wave.
"I would say my name's Luz," the girl began, "but you guys already know that. Anyways, these two are Eda, my mentor, and King, my roommate." Eda gave a two-finger salute to Tre and Ivy, while King just picked at a flea that was annoying him, not even tuned into the conversation.
Tre's face lit up in recognition. "No way, you're the Owl Lady!"
Eda chuckled and struck a pose for imaginary cameras. "I see that my legend precedes me. Hope you've only heard good things."
"Only the best!" Tre responded. "Especially the way you stick it to Belos."
"Yeah. You may not know it, but seeing your posters everywhere reminds us that we can survive on the run, no matter the circumstance." Ivy chimed in, finally having recomposed herself.
"Well hot dang," Eda said. "Didn't know I meant that much to ya."
"So how did you and Luz meet? She said she's your apprentice or whatever, so how did that happen?" Ivy asked, looking back and forth between the two.
"Do you want to explain or should I?" Eda asked Luz.
"You go ahead. I would probably have a bajillion tangents if I tried." Luz scratched at her arm. She knew her own tendency to ramble, and she didn't want to make herself look like a fool in front of the only two other basilisks on the Isles. Well, unless Five was out there somewhere, whoever they were.
"Alright," Eda began. "It all started 'bout a month ago. I'd just sent Owlbert out on a collection run when he came back early, and chasing after him was a human, Luz."
"Wait, why were you in the Human Realm?" Tre asked.
"That's because I'm kinda sorta a human-basilisk hybrid?" Luz nervously smiled and shrugged her shoulders.
"What." Tre deadpanned.
"My working theory is that either my mom or my dad is a basilisk, but I've got no clue which. I grew up thinking both were human until I came here to the Demon Realm," Luz explained.
Ivy sighed. "Whelp, there goes the chances of any of us having a normal childhood."
"What do you mean by that?" Luz inquired. She felt like she'd had a pretty normal childhood. Given, she didn't have as many friends as other kids her age, but it wasn't like she had grown up living in a cage.
"Think about it," Ivy said. "Since you grew up thinking you were human, that meant that whichever one of your parents was one of us lied to you about what you are your entire life."
"Well, they probably had a good reason for doing it. I don't care if one of them was lying to me. Both Mamá and Papá loved me, and I know that as a fact," Luz fired back.
Ivy sighed again. "Whatever helps you sleep at night," she mumbled.
Luz thought back to what Ivy said. "Wait, what do you mean when you guys say you didn't have a normal childhood?"
Ivy opened her mouth to answer, but Tre beat her to the punch. "So, you know how we're supposed to be extinct as a species?"
Luz nodded. "Yeah, I've heard that fact a few too many times."
"How do you think we became not extinct?" Tre asked.
Luz wracked her brain, trying to think of a way that a species could come back from the dead. The closest thing she could come up with was some mad scientist pulling a Paleozoic Park, but that was just a movie. There was no way that would actually happen, right?
"Mad science?" Luz supplied, hoping she was wrong.
Tre laughed at the response. "Sure, that's a way you could describe it."
"Tre and I, along with Five and the others, were all born in a lab," Ivy explained. "Belos wanted to know how our kind drained magic, so he had us made through some necromancy-type magic on a basilisk corpse he'd found in the forest. If ya think about it, that corpse is kinda like our common parent linking us test tube babies together. Well, except for Five. She sprung up from the corpse of a Titan-damned child they'd exhumed from a grave."
"Hey, Luz?" Eda said, finally speaking up.
"Yeah, Eda?" Luz responded.
"Cover your ears for the next five seconds," the Owl Lady instructed.
Luz complied, sticking her fingers in her ears, making her nearly deaf.
"SHUT THE DUCK!" Eda yelled. Or, at least, that is what Luz hoped she said. Knowing Eda, though, that sentence was probably a lot spicier.
"Feeling better now?" Luz asked Eda, cautiously withdrawing her fingers, lest the Owl Lady let out another barrage of swears. Luz scratched at her cheeks, as the itch had decided to reappear in full force.
"Barely," Eda grumbled. "I knew Belos was a deplorable excuse for a witch, but I didn't think he would go so low as defiling a child's grave."
"If you think that's the worst thing he's done, you are sorely mistaken," Ivy said.
Eda massaged her temple. "Oh Titan, what else has he done? Wait, no. Don't answer that. I don't want to go to the Conformatorium on regicide charges."
Luz scratched at her throat. Titan, this itching was bugging her to no end.
"Hey, uh, are you okay?" Tre asked, noticing Luz's odd behavior.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just itchy, that's all." Tre didn't buy the excuse. He got up close to Luz and inspected her eyes, noting their cloudiness.
"When's the last time you shed?" he asked.
It took Luz a solid three seconds to comprehend that question. Why would she need to shed? It wasn't like she's a rept – Wait a minute, she is a reptile! Luz facepalmed. She had seen Reggie go through the same things she was going through at least a half dozen times. How had she not realized it until now? The weird itching, the cloudy eyes, the decreased vision. It all made sense!
Luz nervously laughed before answering. "Never?"
Tre sighed.
"Well then, kid. Are you ready for the weirdest half hour of your life?"
