Luz remained in the shade of the tree for a long time, even after she stopped crying. She had nowhere to go after all, and the mere thought of getting close to another person terrified her. The last thing she wanted was to find another charitable person trying to help her, only to watch her die when she would promptly do something wrong. For a long time she considered the possibility of never moving again and remaining under that tree until the wood it was made of took root.

The world would have been a better place if she would disappear like that. In fact, the world would have been a much better place if she had never existed.

However, after a while hunger and thirst began to take their toll on her stomach and throat, and although she initially tried to resist it she eventually gave in and headed towards Bonesborough. When she arrived in the town the sun was starting to set and the streets were already almost completely empty; furthermore, the appearance of Belos had previously convinced many people to take refuge in their homes for that day, so the town was even emptier than it would normally have been. Luz walked aimlessly for a while, without meeting anyone, until suddenly someone caught her attention: a woman covered in a long black cloak and with a veil in front of her face that prevented her from seeing her, who was carrying a large jug of water and a basket full of bread with evidently a lot of effort. Albeit with some reluctance, Luz stepped forward and asked: "Excuse me, kind lady, would you be so kind as to let me drink some water and eat some bread?"

She expected to have to insist a little, but contrary to her expectations the woman nodded. "Absolutely yes, you can have as much as you want" she answered. "But in exchange I would like that when you finish feeding yourself you would help me carry these things to my house"

Normally Luz would have turned her nose up at the mere mention of working, but right now she didn't care. Actually she didn't care about anything anymore. So she grabbed some bread and put it in her mouth; it was a very sweet and tasty bread, the kind that under normal circumstances would have made her jump for joy as soon as she tasted it, but now it had no effect on her, as if there was no difference between that good bread and one made of sawdust. Then she took the jug and took a long sip of water, finally quenching her thirst, and then without saying a word she held it in her hands and waited for the woman to show her where to go. The woman in turn didn't say many words and, holding the basket of bread in one hand, led her onto a road that led towards the countryside just beyond the town.

When they were far enough away, the woman finally spoke to Luz: "You didn't complain for even a moment, well done. There aren't many kids your age who would carry such a heavy jug without even saying a word. You're really hardworking"

Luz chuckled sadly. "Me? Hardworking? I'm the complete opposite. I simply don't care anymore"

The woman was silent for a moment, as if she were considering what to say to her, then she stated: "Your nose is much longer than normal. Have you by any chance told a lie recently?"

Luz nodded. "Yes, I lied to my friends"

"You shouldn't do that. Lies hurt people" the woman told her.

"I know I hurt them, and I hate it. I hate myself for hurting them. They... they didn't deserve it" Luz replied biting her lip hard, so much so that she hurt herself. "But it had to be done. Now they won't want to stay with me anymore"

"So, you lied to them because you wanted to make them go away? Why? They weren't good friends? You didn't enjoy their company?" the woman asked again.

"Of course not! I loved them! They were the best friends in the world!" Luz said without thinking twice. "And that was exactly the problem. Since they were the best friends in the world, they would stay with me forever... and in the end they would get hurt, like everyone else got hurt. Because this is how all the people who are next to me end up... they get hurt"

"Oh… did something bad happen to you?" the woman asked in a sorry voice, putting a hand on her shoulder. It was a very soft hand even if a little bony, and strangely Luz felt like she knew its touch.

The puppet trembled slightly. "Forget it... you'll feel better knowing as little as possible. Let's get to your house and then just forget about me. You'll live better if you don't have me around"

"I don't think that's the case" the woman told her without letting her go; Luz was trying to free herself from her grip, but she found that she was very strong, even though she wasn't causing her the slightest pain. "You don't seem like a person who hurts others"

"Well, I am!" Luz exclaimed, struggling even more forcefully, but still she couldn't free herself; the woman's grip was really strong, and it almost reminded her of that of a bird of prey... and also, for some strange reason, her own body was refusing to move as she would have liked, as if it didn't want to go away from that lovely touch that, for some reason unknown to her, seemed so familiar to her. "Trust me... I'm dangerous. Let... Let me go, please. I don't deserve any kindness"

"With all due respect, I don't think you're the best judge of yourself right now. You seem very hurt" the woman replied. By now she had stopped completely and since she was holding her she had forced her to stop too. With a thud she dropped the basket of bread and placed her other hand on her shoulder as well, effectively standing in front of her and looking her in the eyes... or at least that's what Luz thought she was doing, since she couldn't to look her in the face because of the veil. "Please, tell me what happened to you. Let me be the judge for you, and tell you whether you really don't deserve any kindness like you claim... even though I'm already sure the verdict will be negative"

Luz sniffed. "How can you be so sure?"

"Because a person who voluntarily hurts others doesn't have all this remorse in their eyes" the woman replied caressing her cheek.

Luz felt herself trembling at that loving touch; she knew it, she was sure of it, but she couldn't understand how... and that caress and those kind words went through her body like an electric shock. Finally she let out a sob and couldn't hold it back anymore, and so she said everything she was thinking: "I hurt all the people who loved me. They loved me so much and I returned that love by doing nothing but putting them in danger and make them suffer. Now they are gone and it's all my fault. Because I'm nothing but a poison that corrupts and destroys everything it touches, nothing but a stupid bad girl with no judgment and no brain. That's why I lied to my friends, because I know that if they stayed by my side they would end up the same way. I would make them end up the same way. Lying and hurting them to send them away is probably the only good deed I will ever do in my life. It would be better for everyone if I were never..."

"THAT'S ENOUGH!"

Both Luz and the lady jumped when they heard that voice, which, despite being shrill, resonated strongly around them; the puppet looked down at her interlocutor's dress and saw that a brown spider and a cricket were emerging from the folds of the dress and were trying in vain to hold him back. "Gus? Willow? What the…?"

"Gus, you asked us to wait and let you do the talking!" Willow exclaimed, trying in vain to stop her friend, but Gus didn't listen to her in the slightest and jumped, ending up on the edge of the jug that Luz had in her hands; from there he moved up her arm and then onto her neck, and finally he positioned himself on the puppet's long nose and looked her straight in the eyes. "Now you listen to me without opening your mouth, do you understand!?"

Luz swallowed; she couldn't remember ever seeing Gus look so angry before. "Um… okay…?"

"Perfect. Then let's start like this: you really are stupid!" Gus exclaimed in a stern voice, drumming a paw on the puppet's forehead. He certainly couldn't hurt her, since his strength would never be enough to leave a mark in the hard wood that had resisted even the shock wave of a cannon, but at least he could be annoying. "If you think you're poison when you literally brought happiness to everyone around you, then Willow is right when she says Camila forgot to build a brain in your head! The only good deed you'll do in your life is to send us away from you, huh? Really? Do you really think such things!? If it hadn't been for you, Vee would still be in prison! Masha would never have had a girlfriend! An entire town would have been prey to a greedy and cruel greater basilisk who would then have been killed by Hunter, effectively making him a murderer! Hunter would never have met Flapjack! And I could go on for hours listing all the good things you've done, but that you can't see because you're too stubborn and busy blaming yourself for everything!"

Even though Luz was quite intimidated by Gus' sudden domineering nature, that didn't stop her from trying to argue back: "Did you perhaps miss the part where all those people were in the sea because of me and a giant monster ate them!?"

"No, I didn't miss it! It just doesn't mean shit!" Gus replied. "Bad things happen, Luz! None of us could stop that monster from jumping out of the water and starting to eat everything in front of him! What happened wasn't your fault, it was bad luck! If you try to give yourself the fault only because Camila was there to look for you, then in hindsight I can tell you that it is actually my fault because I should have accompanied you to school that day instead of hiding in the plant that served as my home like a pathetic coward and therefore preventing you to skip it, or that I should have left Eda's house with you instead of wasting time with Hooty and keeping you from trusting Adrian and Terra, or a lot of other things! And Willow could tell you very similar things! It's your fault, it's my fault, it's Willow's fault, it's everyone's fault, who cares! It doesn't change the fact that none of us could have done anything to avoid what happened! And above all, it doesn't change the fact that the solution to solving the problems is not run away from your friends!"

"I was trying to protect you!" Luz exclaimed. "If you stay with me you're going to..."

"Are we going to get hurt? Are we going to die? And how do you know it? Did you become a seer by any chance? We've had a lot of adventures together and we're still here! What do you think you're going to achieve by trying to send us away? Do you think we'll obey your will? Of course no! We will chase you anyway, and no matter how fast you run, sooner or later you will get tired and will be forced to stop to rest, and then we will catch up with you, and when you start running again we will chase you again until we catch up with you new, even at the cost of doing it day and night without ever eating, drinking or sleeping! That's until you'll accept that having us in your life is our choice, not yours! Because, whether you like it or not, we love you, Luz!" Gus said.

"YOU SHOULDN'T!" Luz screamed, and a few tears formed in her eyes. "I only caused you grief! I made you do a lot of dangerous things and forced you to face deadly situations! You were happy before I came into your lives and..."

"I WASN'T HAPPY, YOU STUPID WOODEN GIRL!" Gus yelled back at her.

Luz froze. "What...?"

"Do you think that a peaceful life is automatically a happy life? Since I met you, I discovered that I hated my old life!" Gus exclaimed. "Is it happiness for you to always live locked up in four walls, without the company of anyone except that of a cricket and the owner, without the possibility of seeing any other place, constantly fearing even just looking out the window? I hated that life! A stagnant and monotonous existence without any prospect of improvement, that's what my life was! Then you arrived and even though you entered my life with the same force as a hurricane, finally thanks to you it regained color! I left home thanks to you! I felt the thrill of flying, both hanging from a cricket and on the back of a Palisman! I could see the cities, the woods, the sea... I had always only dreamed of that immense and magnificent blue expanse, but traveling with you I really saw it! I talked to an owl, the animal that I feared most in the world! I was able to make fun of Willow for her crush on Hunter! A crush, you realize How could Willow have felt like that locked up in your mother's workshop? And again, I could laugh at your jokes, which were some of the funniest I'd ever heard! I could get emotional watching Masha and Vee kiss, which was the most adorable and romantic scene I had ever witnessed! I was able to experience an infinite number of extraordinary emotions that I had never felt, and all thanks to you! I love this life, Luz! I love being with you, both in good times and bad times!"

Luz was stunned and her eyes widened more and more with every word the spider said. But they opened even wider when Willow flew next to Gus, who looked like he was about to hyperventilate from how loudly he was breathing, and after gesturing for him to stop for a moment and let her talk, she said: "What Gus means is that he likes staying with you. And I like it too, Luz. I know it sounds absurd since I'm always complaining, but I would gladly give up a hundred years of the peaceful life I used to lead if it meant spending even just a second with you. You're a magnet for trouble, but you also bring with you a lot of happiness, joy, love, hope and countless other beautiful things, which make the lives of everyone around you full of colors so wonderful that no one could ever even imagine them before. Meeting you was the best thing that ever happened to me"

Luz was paralyzed for a few more seconds, then she began to sob: "But... but I put you in danger so many times... and I even told you those things before..."

"Luz, for starters, we don't need this to know you were telling a lot of lies" Gus said, pointing to her long nose. "But in any case, this is how friends act: they forgive each other! And above all they support each other in bad moments! You can't make negative situations disappear, they are part of life, but it is much easier to keep their weight from crushing you if you can share it with someone else!"

"Luz, what you said hurt me, it's true. It really, really hurt me". Willow said. "But it doesn't matter, because I love you. You have no idea how much I love you. And as a small but at the same time great friend recently pointed out to me, if you love a person then you have to continue to support her even when she doesn't want it. Especially if that person is in a really bad situation". The cricket touched her forehead as if she wanted to caress her. "Luz, we know you're scared and that you have a lot of pain in your heart right now, and that's why we're not going anywhere. Tell us whatever you want, hurt our feelings as much as you want, but we're staying with you. And we will always stay with you. Because, whetever you like it or not, Luz... we love you, and we will always do our best to help you carry whatever burden you have on your shoulders. We may be small, we may be weak, we may be not very smart... but we will not give up anyway. And if we want, we can be even more stubborn than you"

Luz remained silent for a moment, as if she couldn't understand her friends' words; then her eyes filled with tears and she began to stammer. "I'm sorry, guys! I'm sorry for everything! You are so good to me... there's nothing I could do to deserve two friends like you!" she exclaimed. "And... And I'm sorry for everything I said to you! It's not true that I hate you, I love you, so much! Willow, you are the strongest person I know, and you're also wise and rational, and I think that your flight, even if it isn't perfect, is very beautiful because it shows how much you work! And Gus, you are very brave! You have always been ready to help me in the most absurd and dangerous ways! You never hesitate to put yourself at risk for me! And you are also sweet, nice and adorable, and the best illusionist I've ever met! That's what I really think of the two of you!"

Willow and Gus' hearts sank when they heard those words. Luz's nose hadn't grow even a centimeter, proving that everything she was saying was what she really meant. It was touching for them to know that Luz thought of them that way. "We are not... that amazing" Willow stammered scratching her head as she visibly blushed, but as she did so Gus grabbed her arm and brought them both even closer to the puppet's face, and there the two of them opened their little arms wide and they spread them on her cheeks, as if they were hugging her; in return, Luz moved her head slightly to make their task easier, and even though she couldn't return the hug since she would crush them, she still seemed to do so, and finally after a long time a genuine smile formed on her face again.

They didn't know how long they remained in that position, but what distracted them from it was a light laugh; Luz turned and saw that the woman next to her was clapping her hands. "It seems like at least you guys made up. I'm glad about that" she said in a loving and proud voice. "And by the way, now that the truth is come out, I'd say there's no need for that long nose anymore. Hooty?"

"I'll handle that!"

To Luz's surprise, an owl's head appeared out of nowhere, suspended on a very long neck, and it went towards her face and after moving Gus and Willow onto her shoulder, it began pecking at her nose until it returned to the normal size. Luz was speechless throughout the entire process, and only when the owl looked up and stared at her smugly, as if expecting compliments for the work, she regained the ability to speak: "Hooty!?"

"Well yes, hoot hoot! It's good to see you all again, friends!" the owl exclaimed, twisting his long neck in happiness. The woman next to Luz moved her hand and suddenly the air in front of them shimmered and then the landscape changed completely, revealing that it was just an illusion, and showing the presence of the Owl House, which was right in front of them.

Luz seemed to have completely lost the ability to suspend disbelief. "The Owl House? But... but... how did it end up here?"

"I brought it! Look!" Hooty exclaimed, and the entire house lifted in on itself, revealing two enormous chicken's legs beneath it. "I've finally managed to control my entire body! Now I'm exactly like Baba Yaga's familiar, hoot hoot!"

Luz would probably lose her jaw if she kept spreading it like that. She looked at her friends expecting explanations, but they simply smiled at her and motioned for her to turn around. She turned in the direction indicated and looked at the woman next to her. "But... what does this mean...?"

The woman removed her hood and veil from her face, and a cascade of silky gray hair fell down her back. Luz's heart missed a beat: it wasn't possible... but that white skin, those pronounced cheekbones, those big and golden eyes and that loving and at the same time slightly cheeky smile... she was really... "EDA!"

Luz dropped the jug and literally threw herself into the fairy's arms, so much so that she almost made her fall to the ground, and hugged her so tightly that for a moment she seemed intent on crushing her. "E-Eda... Eda, is it really you? You're fine! You're not a monster anymore! You... you don't have feathers anymore, right?" she exclaimed with tears streaming down her face.

Eda rubbed her hair lovingly, in the same familiar way she always did so. "I'm fine, kiddo. Don't worry, I don't have even a single feather of the Owl Beast on me anymore"

Luz couldn't stop crying with joy. Her tears were so big that Gus and Willow preferred to move on top of Hooty to avoid being hit and submerged by them. "But... but how is this possible? Hooty told me..."

"Hooty told you what he thought was true, and what I too thought was true. But you managed to do the impossible. You brought me back even after the transformation" Eda answered her.

"But... but I didn't do anything..." Luz stammered.

"You've done much more than you think, kiddo. But now come, let's go inside; it's dark out here now" Eda told her, and almost as if this were an order, Hooty lowered his body and the house settled back on the ground, and the door opened for them to enter.

Luz's heart almost fluttered when she entered the Owl House again. Nothing had changed: all the furniture was in the exact position it was in when she had said goodbye to Eda for the last time. There was no longer any sign of the destruction unleashed by the Owl Beast; it was as if it had never existed. The tables, the wardrobes, the paintings, the stills full of potions, the cauldrons, everything: everything had returned to the perfect state it was in. Luz almost laughed and cried at the same time; she felt like she was in a dream.

Eda guided Luz to the same nest-shaped bed where she had hosted her some time before and made her lie down there, and then she called Owlbert who flew into her hands and transformed into a magic wand. "You need to rest now. I will cast a spell that will make you have a long and dreamless sleep. Then tomorrow we will talk"

"NO!" Luz screamed grabbing her arm. "No, please... I don't want to sleep... and wake up tomorrow... and find out... that none of this is real... that I'm just dreaming..."

In response, Eda gave her a kiss on the forehead. "It's okay, kiddo. You have my word, tomorrow you will find me here next to you. I won't move for all the night"

Luz trembled at that touch, feeling a wave of happiness hit her, a wave that she wanted to never end; then, with extreme reluctance, she nodded in agreement. Eda touched her forehead with her wand and whispered something, and immediately her eyes closed and she fell asleep on the bed. Eda took her and made her comfortable under the covers, and then she pulled up a chair and sat next to her. And finally Luz managed to sleep a long, peaceful sleep.


In the original book, Pinocchio, after arriving at the Town of Industrious Bees, simply looks for someone who is willing to feed him (since he is not as traumatized as Luz), but despite many people offer him a job he refuses because he doesn't want to work, until when he meet a lady who offers to give him everything he wants in exchange for his help carrying home a jug of water, a lady who later turns out to be the blue fairy. Furthermore, in the book the fairy doesn't disguise herself, she has simply become an adult (before she was a child), and Pinocchio recognizes her because of her goodness. Here the situation is a little different because Luz is seriously traumatized by the event she has experienced and in fact she no longer cares about having to work, and furthermore Eda is forced to disguise herself so as not to be recognized since she was already an adult right from the start (about the reason why she disguised herself, she will explain it in the next chapter). In any case, we finally have the long-awaited reunion between Luz and Eda.

One last little note about Luz's nose: in case any of you were wondering why when she calls herself a poison her nose doesn't grow even though that is absolutely not true, this is because in that moment she considers that to be the truth. Luz's nose grows only when she is aware that what she is saying is false (also because the long nose is actually a punishment for having told lies, so if she doesn't know she has told them she would have no reason to be punished). Therefore, for example, if any of you asked Luz: "Is the universe infinite?", whatever answer Luz gives, her nose will not grow anyway, because she simply doesn't know the right answer and therefore even if she gives the wrong answer she still cannot knowing that she had told a lie, and therefore, despite having told a lie, her nose would not grow. On the contrary, if someone asked Luz: "Do you know if the universe is infinite?" and she answer yes, in that case her nose would grow, because she actually doesn't know it and she know very well that she doesn't know the answer