Luz had initially thought of overtaking Amity and getting ahead of her, taking advantage of the fact that since she was made of wood she tired less quickly, but then she realized that she didn't know where Mirkwood was and so she had cleverly let Amity lead her and she had conserved the energy to be able to overcome her later. The two girls had run for at least a couple of kilometers through the countryside until they reached a rather gloomy grove whose trees had very few leaves and stretched their branches upwards like hideous bony hands. Luz gulped at seeing it even from afar, and when she entered it she felt quite in danger even though there was nothing threatening her. "Okay... we're in the right place, I'd say" she said; she didn't have confirmation, but that was definitely a forest where she would have expected to meet a witch.

"Come on, what are you waiting for? Look for something that belonged to witches! A shard, a vase, a magic circle!" Gus urged her on.

But Luz was seriously starting to doubt that challenge. Even though shortly before she had promised herself that she would win and make Amity pay, now she was starting to get scared. "What if they're cursed? You heard Boscha, there might be remnants of witch magic here!"

"Come on, Luz, it's obvious that Boscha only said that to scare you or to make the challenge seem more exciting. In your opinion, if there was still something dangerous here there wouldn't be dozens of armed guards preventing the kids from coming here, or at least some signs warning not to enter the woods?" Willow pointed out. "Look at Amity: she may be a snotty arrogant pomp, but do you think she'd be this calm if she was actually taking a risk?"

Luz looked at Amity, who was searching the ground without showing the slightest fear, and as soon as she found what looked like an old curved claw she picked it up without even a moment's hesitation. In fact, she didn't seem to care that the thing may have been cursed... wait a minute! Luz only realized then that Amity had already found something and was already on her way back! "Oh, no! Now what?"

"Now we'll step in" Gus said, rubbing his paws. Even if a third-party intervention wasn't exactly fair or even just honest, it was best to leave moral scruples aside for the time being. Even though that challenge wouldn't have changed anything in Luz's life, both Gus and Willow knew how important it was for the puppet to become a real girl, and they knew that she would feel humiliated if she had to admit otherwise, so they weren't willing to leave win Amity. And in a way they also wanted to see her lose and teach her a lesson. "You just think about finding something. Willow, get me on top of Amity!"

Willow did as Gus told her and grabbed him, then flew directly over the mint-haired girl and dropped it. Gus landed directly on Amity's face, who let out a scream and fell to the ground, dropping the claw she had found, which rolled away and disappeared into the mud. Gus immediately jumped off Amity's face and ran away before she could react. The mint-haired girl was clearly shocked, but quickly pulled herself together and searched for some object again, which she managed to find in a few minutes; but again Gus jumped on her, scaring her, this time on her leg. That scene repeated itself a couple more times, and in the end Amity began to get suspicious: "Hey! How come every time I find something a spider jumps on me!?" she asked Luz.

The puppet bit her lip. "Maybe that spider is tired of your haughtiness too!" she answered her; it wasn't exactly a lie, and in fact her nose didn't grow an inch. Just then Luz finally noticed a glimmer in the bushes and pulled out what was clearly the fragment of the neck of an ancient flask. She put it in her pocket and waited a moment for Gus and Willow to climb onto her legs without being seen by Amity, and then she ran away.

Amity became livid; as quickly as she could she looked for another object and as soon as she found it she ran after the puppet. Luz thought she had a decent lead, but Amity quickly caught up and soon passed her. "Damn! How can she be so athletic!?"

"Apparently Skara wasn't lying when she said she's a champion at sports" Willow commented. "Leave it to me!"

She took flight and grabbed a rock, and then she flew towards Amity and threw it between her shoes, causing her to stumble and force her to stop; Luz thus managed to regain the lead, but again Amity demonstrated considerable athletic skills and overtook her. Willow continued to trip her two more times, but on the third Amity had enough and as soon as Luz tried to pass her she grabbed her arm. "That's enough! You're cheating!"

Luz broke out in a cold sweat, but she tried to look as innocent as possible. "Do you have any proof?" she asked her, since she couldn't deny without her nose sticking into her opponent's eye.

The veins on Amity's forehead were throbbing with anger. "I don't know how you do it, but you're doing it! There's no way all these accidents are just bad luck!"

Luz didn't have a suitable response, so she simply tried to wriggle out of her opponent's grip. It was incredible how much strength she had in that bony hand; she would never have said it given the skinny body the mint-haired girl had. "I asked if you had any proof! If you don't then let me go! Even holding me back is cheating!" she said, even though she did so with the acrid taste of hypocrisy in her mouth.

"You...!" Amity pulled Luz towards her, perhaps with the aim of also grabbing her other arm and blocking her even more, but the puppet's movement unbalanced her and since they were on slightly sloping ground they slipped and rolled over each other until ending up in a nearby grape field. The two girls were quite dazed for a few moments, and they didn't even realize they had ended up on top of each other; but it didn't take long before they regained the ability to think, and as soon as they did Amity grabbed Luz by the collar and started shaking her. "I want to know how you cheat! Tell me now!"

"Ugh... weren't you the one who said that using violence was barbaric and primitive?" Luz grumbled, mimicking her.

Amity's eyebrows were now so crooked they almost looked like an inverted isosceles triangle. "Listen here, you stupid, impertinent puppet...!"

She didn't have time to say anything else: suddenly a large hand grabbed her arm and dragged her to her feet. Amity turned around in fear and saw a bald man with a long white beard that completely covered his mouth; the only visible part of his face was his nose and his blue eyes, but even so it was clear that he was angry. The man then also grabbed Luz with his other hand, with the difference that he grabbed her directly by the hair since he didn't risk tearing it since it was made of wood, and forced her to stand up. He glared at both her and Amity and then growled: "Look, look who came to my field! So you're the ones stealing my chickens, huh?"

"What? No!" Amity exclaimed.

"It's true! We just fell! We were arguing on the road and we slipped..." Luz tried to explain.

But the bearded man didn't listen to them; instead, he shook them rather violently, instantly cutting off whatever they were trying to say. "Silence! If you think I'm stupid enough to believe you then you've come to the wrong place. Youngsters like you have been robbing me of my chickens for too long; now we sort this out!"

And having said this, completely ignoring the pleas and protests of the two girls, he dragged them through the grape field until he reached a rather bare farm. There he took them to a kennel and after taking two large chains he put a collar around the neck of each of them. "I don't know who you are and you probably wouldn't give me your real names if I asked you; by now I had completely understood how petty thieves like you think. Therefore, I will wait. Sooner or later your parents will notice that you have disappeared and they will come looking for you; until then, you will stay here, even for days if it will be necessary. Unfortunately last night my poor old dog died; since you have so little respect for the private property of others, now you will replace him, so you will experience for yourself how difficult it is to keep watch!"

And having said that he left them there and went away, returning towards the grape field probably to work. As soon as they were alone, Luz pulled a hand over her face. "Wonderful! I promised myself I would do things right and now because of you I'm imprisoned here, and Eda will worry about me! I hope you're happy, I'll lose her trust and... Amity?"

Luz stopped as she realized that Amity seemed to be hyperventilating next to her. "No, no, no! How could this happen!?" she was saying in a voice so soft it sounded like a whisper. "What will I tell mom now? What will she think when she sees me like this? Oh, no... she will believe that I too have become a hooligan like Edric and Emira! She will be so disappointed! I can't disappoint her! I can't... I can't..!"

"Hey, hey, calm down!" Luz wanted to use the opportunity to mentally torture Amity a little, like she had done for hours during school, but after seeing her in that state she didn't have the heart. Besides, maybe it was just her thinking that, but that reaction definitely didn't seem normal to her. "There's no need to get so anxious! You'll just have to tell your mother the truth, which is that it's all a big mix-up and that old man doesn't listen to reason..."

"What if she won't believe me? What if she'll think it's all an excuse?" Amity stuttered, and it seemed like she was talking more to herself than to Luz. "What if she'll think I'm telling her a lie? What if..."

"Oh, come on, Amity! Anyone would understand that the old man is crazy. He's probably spent so much time in the sun that he's lost his brains in addition to his hair!" Luz tried to reassure her. "I don't know what type of person your mother is, but if she's even half as smart as you, she'll understand what happened here before she even hears your explanation. I mean, just speaking to that old man is enough to understand that his tree goes all the way to the top branch! When she gets here she'll probably just have a big laugh..."

But Amity didn't listen to her at all; instead, she put her hands in her hair. "What if she feels that I'm no longer worthy of her trust anyway!? Oh, no... I don't want to disappoint her! I don't want to see her disappointed face as she looks at me!" Amity's mouth twisted into an angry snarl and she glared at the puppet. "It's all your fault! If you hadn't cheated we wouldn't be here!"

Even though she was worried about her and even felt a little guilty for cheating, that didn't stop Luz from getting irritated at those words. "My fault? At most it's your fault for behaving that way with me! We're in this situation because you weren't even able to say a kind word to me, or at least thank me for trying to help you!" she replied with a hint of anger in her voice, but it vanished as soon as she saw Amity's eyes. They gave her a strange sensation: it was as if the mint-haired girl wanted to cry, but was holding herself back from doing so almost as if it were something forbidden to her.

Amity stared at her with those strange eyes for a few more moments, then she let out a furious growl. "You didn't help me! You just tarnished my reputation as the perfect girl!"

"Is it really that important to you to be perfect? No one is without flaws in this world!" Luz protested.

"Well, I was! I was before you humiliated me in front of the class and dragged me here!" Amity screamed, and Luz froze as she heard her voice crack. "I worked my whole life to be perfect, to be a daughter my mother could be proud of, to wear the name Blight with pride! I never needed anyone's help, it was others who asked for mine! I never got into trouble, I was the one who got others out of trouble! I always had perfect grades, gave perfect speeches, wore perfect clothes, walked with perfect poise! And now because of you I will lose everything! When it will be known what happened here, the entire Bonesborough will laugh at me! I will never be able to rebuild my reputation again! My mother, who always tried so hard to give me a luxurious life, will be terribly disappointed! No one will give me the respect I had before! I will lose trust, admiration, reputation, my position, my future! And all of this because of you, a stupid puppet who takes everything lightly!"

Luz wanted to reply, but she didn't have the strength. Amity looked like she was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Looking into those desperate eyes, Luz felt every word die in her throat. She at least tried to say a few words of comfort, but Amity left her no time and pointed an accusing finger at her: "You lost! You cheated! Say it! Say you're not a real girl!"

Silence fell between the two, broken only by Amity's deep breathing. For an instant that seemed infinite, not even a fly could be heard flying. Then Luz lowered her head and whispered: "I'm not a real girl"

Amity widened her eyes slightly in surprise and for a moment she even seemed a little remorseful, but she quickly recovered and made an annoyed noise, then she turned and entered the kennel, where she put her head between her knees and closed her eyes. But she was soon shaken from that position because she realized that the light that penetrated the entrance to the kennel had changed; she looked up and saw that Luz had come in too and was now looking at her. "I'm not a real girl... but I'm training hard to be one. I'm really, really trying to be one" the puppet said. "It's my dream, my greatest wish. I want to be made of bone and flesh like you instead of this wood, and I want to be able to experience all the joys and sorrows of a real person, even the bad things. So... I have to ask you to have respect for my dream, even if you don't like it. Can you do just this one thing for me?"

Amity seemed to get lost in the puppet's eyes for a moment. She could clearly see that she felt humiliated at having to admit that she wasn't a real girl, but at the same time her look was full of hope. Instinctively she recoiled slightly, as if she were afraid of getting burned by contact with that expression so bright and full of life, and she looked in another direction at random angrily. "It's a stupid dream. People should accept themselves as they were born, not set unattainable goals. You can't change who you are. If you are born a certain way, you will always be that way"

"So what about your trying to be perfect? Is that also accepting yourself as you were born?" Luz asked her.

Amity looked hesitant for a moment, then she blurted out: "Of course it is. I'm a Blight, we're always perfect". But it was clear from her tone of voice that she wasn't entirely sincere.

Luz noticed it and decided not to rage any further. Whatever strange beliefs Amity had, that was not the right time to discuss them. "Whatever. But even if you don't believe in my dream, at least accept and respect the fact that I instead believe in it. Is that too much for you?"

Amity looked down; she seemed quite conflicted. She remained silent for a while, then she finally replied: "Okay, feel free to believe in a fantasy then. I don't care anymore, my life is destroyed anyway"

Luz cracked a smile. It wasn't much, but from his perspective it was enough. "Don't be so sure. If we try hard, maybe we can escape and get back to the town before anyone notices"

Amity rolled her eyes in disappointment. "See that you're living in a fantasy? Have you forgotten these collars and chains? How do you plan to make us escape? Can you by any chance magically make them disappear or cut through some hard metal?"

"Well, we certainly won't escape by staying here and feeling sorry for ourselves! I learned the hard way that crying and despairing over mistakes already made is useless. It's liberating, but in situations like this it's better to get busy" Luz replied. Amity looked at her somewhat confused: she couldn't understand where the puppet got so much confidence from. "If we think well and work together, maybe we can..."

Her words were interrupted by a loud knock on the right wall of the kennel; Amity and Luz froze fearing that it was the old man again, but then they heard a voice that undoubtedly belonged to a young girl: "Hey, old dog! It's me, Bria! Are you asleep again? Hurry up, come out so we can start!"


As I said several chapters ago, I moved some pieces of the original book to make them more suitable for continuity in the story. In the original book, immediately after being released from prison (therefore after the scam of the Cat and the Fox and after being convicted because he was innocent), Pinocchio enters a field to eat some grapes, but gets trapped in a trap and then found by a farmer who, mistaking him for the one who stole his chickens, imprisons him and forces him to act as his guard dog in place of his old dog, Melampo, who had died the day before. Here the situation is a little different: first of all it happens much later in the story and Luz is not alone but with Amity, and neither of them tries to steal some grapes but they fall into the field by mistake. As for the farmer, he is the old guardian of the Galdorstones who appeared in the fifth episode of the second season (another character that Dana obviously left unnamed for our delight, so be happy with me calling him "old man"). The conversation between Amity and Luz instead follows that of the fifth episode of the second season (precisely that of the Witch Duel), the first real moment of understanding between the two of them.

Oh, just to clarify, what Amity is saying with "people should accept themselves as they were born" doesn't mean "they shouldn't blame themselves for having a disability/different skin color/different sexual identity/etc. but they should be proud of it", which would be a good message, but rather it is intended as: "people should accept that they were born in a certain condition and that they will remain in that condition forever, without ever being able to change or improve, so you, who are not a real girl, must accept to live for always a half life and being denied all the things that I, who am a real girl, can have". In lesser words she is justifying classism, even if, as can clearly be seen from her hesitation, she doesn't really believe it either but is just parroting what she was taught