"So, what do you want to do?" Luz asked. She didn't want to be bored and she was sure that the twins would have some fantastic idea to pass the time; they certainly seemed like people who knew how to make a boring day interesting.

"Well, we wanted to have some fun obviously" Edric replied. "The original plan was to ruin the signs to make the customers get lost, or move the books to drive the librarian crazy, but unfortunately with Mittens around it will be impossible to do that"

"Yeah, our sister is a spy, as well as a killjoy. She would get us caught right away" Emira said with a disappointed voice, but then he returned smiling. "But I'm sure we'll figure something out with you here anyway. Why did you come here, by the way?"

In a certain sense, Luz was happy that Amity was there and that her presence prevented the two twins from dragging her into their pranks: she had promised herself to behave well, but as soon as Edric and Emira had suggested that they do some mischief, she had immediately felt her 'bratty side' get stronger. At least now she didn't risk falling into temptation. "Well... I was looking for some books to help me understand what it means to be a real girl..."

"Right, those snooty Mittens friends said something like that. Are you really trying to be a real girl?" Emira asked her.

"Yes, exactly, but unfortunately I don't know exactly how to do it" Luz replied.

"Well, if a wooden puppet wants to become a real girl, then there must definitely be some magic involved!" Edric exclaimed, pounding his fist into the palm of his hand. "The solution is the forbidden section!"

Luz smiled; she was happy that at least for once someone other than Eda, Gus or Willow wasn't making fun of her ambitions but was actually supporting her. "I thought about it too, but unfortunately the forbidden section is forbidden to all unauthorized people..."

"Oh, but that can be remedied" Edric said with a wink. "You must know that the librarian, Mr. Malphas, sees so badly that he is practically blind, so to avoid making mistakes he has put the same lock on all the doors of the library, so he doesn't have to waste hours looking for the right key. And Mittens, as usual, is the big man's favorite girl, and consequently she has a copy of the key that allows her to enter the library whenever she wants and take out any book. A key which, consequently, can also open any door in here"

"She obviously uses it to come here when it's closed and get some stupid study books. Imagine, she's never entered the forbidden section even once! She says it's irresponsible... ridiculous!" Emira winked at Luz in turn. "Do you understand everything? All we have to do is get hold of that key, and with it we can enter the forbidden section!"

Luz's eyes lit up at the prospect, but she quickly darkened. "But… I doubt that Amity will agree"

"That's the beauty of staying with us! We know our sister very well and so we know where we have to search. In lesser words, we don't have to ask her permission. She always brings her key with her when she's here in the library; she keeps it in her left pocket" Emira explained, rubbing her hands together and smiling as if she were a classic story villain planning something evil. "All you have to do is go to her and take it from her! We would do it, but unfortunately Mittens is now used to expecting the worst from us and she wouldn't let her guard down. She'd be more calm and less careful with you"

Luz considered. What the two twins were proposing to her was basically stealing Amity's key and as a result perhaps also getting her into trouble with Mr. Malphas, which was a very bad action; but it also had to be said that that was an opportunity that might never happen again. The forbidden section could have the answer to making her a real girl, so she absolutely had to enter it. Besides, Amity had never been very nice to her, so… why worry about how she would react? She would return the key to her once she was finished and if Mr. Malphas got angry she would just confess everything to him and get Amity out of trouble. Amity would certainly have been furious, but the relationship between the two of them was already certainly not a bed of roses, so...

Her thoughts however ran to Eda: what if because of that bad action she would have transformed into the Owl Beast again? But it also had to be said that last time it took a lot of bad deeds before she transformed, and the broken promise was just the final blow. If she had committed that little crime and then regretted it immediately afterwards, everything would have been fine, right? Wait, but even thinking those things could be considered a bad action, right? Indeed, why was she thinking about it? A good girl would have refused right away, and she was a good girl… right?

Her 'bratty side' was growing stronger any second more; it was like an itch that she couldn't help but scratch. The more she thought about it and tried to convince herself that she shouldn't have done that bad action, the more justifications formed in her head that authorized her to do it. "Are you sure you can't do it?" she asked the twins, hoping that they would offer to steal the key from Amity instead of her, and thus at least partially exonerate her, and reduce her only to the role of tacit accomplice rather than perpetrator of the crime.

Edric and Emira laughed. "We could do it... if we changed our eyes, nose, face, body size, hair, voice, personality and anything else that would allow Mittens to identify us. You've seen her, every time she sees us she immediately jumps to attention. We need it someone less suspect"

Luz thought about it for a moment longer, then she gave in and as usual surrendered to her 'bratty side'. A small bad deed couldn't be that problematic, right? "Okay, but when we're done we'll give the key back to Amity and apologize to her, and if she gets in trouble with this Mr. Malphas we'll take responsibility and confess what we did!"

"Wow, you're pretty nice to Mittens" Emira commented. "How can you find her tolerable when she's so snooty?"

"It's not a question of whether I can tolerate her or not, it's a question of what is right. Stealing is still a bad act" Luz pointed out.

Emira shrugged. "Mh. As you wish. The two of us have never taken responsibility for anything and in fact we have fun like crazy. But the choice is yours after all. Now go and get that key!"

Luz nodded and, although a little hesitant, headed towards the other wing of the library, where Amity, Skara and Boscha were discussing something. When they saw her Amity immediately raised an eyebrow: "Didn't I tell you to stay away?"

"I know, but please listen to me!" Luz exclaimed, running towards her with such exuberance that it came within inches of her face; Amity blushed as she felt the puppet's body on hers. "Maybe we started off on the wrong foot, but I'm sure that if we talk to each other sincerely we can be friends..."

"Respect personal space!" Amity screamed pushing her away. "And I don't mean to be your friend! I could never be friends with such a weirdo! Go away!"

Even though Luz had expected that response, she was still a little hurt by it. "Okay... I tried" she said, and left very quickly.

"Tsk! She really had courage to come here and say things like that to you" Boscha commented acidly.

"Yeah! After she humiliated you at school and only caused trouble, she makes such requests! She knows no shame at all" Skara said thinking the same way as her friend.

Amity snorted. "At least now she surely get the hint" she grumbled, and then she put her hands in her pockets. Too bad that when she did it she noticed that something was missing: where there should have been something very hard and thin, now there was only emptiness... "My key! That damned puppet, I'll...!" Amity screamed, realizing what had happened in less than two seconds, and she rushed to find Luz so fast that she almost seemed to vanish before the eyes of her two friends, who quickly followed her.

In the meantime, Luz had already reunited with Edric and Emira, who were waiting for her directly in front of the door of the forbidden section. "The honor is yours" they said, pointing to the lock.

Luz looked at the key in her hand; she was feeling very guilty for what she had just done, but the desire to find out how to become a real girl was stronger than the remorse, so she inserted the key into the lock and the door opened with a click. The three entered the forbidden section, which turned out to be a gigantic system of corridors dotted with shelves full of books, many of which seemed to emit an evil aura. Despite the guilt she was feeling, Luz felt euphoric: in there she would definitely find the instructions to become a real girl! Edric and Emira in turn rubbed their hands. "Yay! We've been wanting to set foot here forever. Let's make sure we find the best spells and then we'll use them in the wisest and rightest way"

It didn't take a genius to figure out that the 'wisest and rightest way' for the twins was to use them to pull every kind of prank possible; Edric and Emira were already known throughout the entire town for their mischief, but if they had learned to control at least a little magic they would have become practically unstoppable. However, all three of them's dreams of glory were nipped in the bud when they heard a very familiar voice behind them: "What do you think you're doing!?"

The three of them whirled around and saw Amity standing behind them with an expression so furious that she looked like she was ready to kill someone; behind her were Boscha and Skara, who had evidently made a great effort to keep up with their leader as they were panting. Edric and Emira took a step back guiltily, but the one in awe was undoubtedly Luz, since Amity's eyes were focused on her, and if looks could spit fire, only a pile of ashes would remain of her. "Amity, I can explain…"

Amity's murderous eyes aimed at her two siblings, making them shiver. "You two are the worst" she said, then she looked back at Luz. "But you..."

Luz cringed under that gaze; she had thought that making Amity angry wouldn't have any effect on her given the less than friendly relationship they had, but now just looking into her eyes made the sense of guilt tear her soul apart. But there was no time to apologize or say anything else, because a loud bark rang out in the forbidden section; everyone turned and saw that a large mastiff dog almost as tall as the kids with white fur and sharp yellow teeth had just come between them and the exit, and was staring at them with eyes so red that they looked like two embers. "Intruders!" he growled. "I will eliminate you!"

As soon as the dog charged, any enmity between Luz's group and Amity's was immediately forgotten and all six found themselves running at breakneck speed in an attempt to outrun the beast. "Who the hell is he!?" Luz exclaimed.

"He is the guardian of the forbidden ward! Mr. Malphas put him here to defend it from intruders like you!" Amity replied without hiding her furious tone. "His name is Slitherbeast; he is a champion who won first prize at every dog race in his youth!"

"If so, then we will never lose him! We must find another way!" Emira exclaimed grabbing a book as she ran; it was a book with a finely bound cover and closed with a belt, which had no title but on the front of which was painted a boat with what looked like a very strange fisherman on it. "This place is full of magic; there must be something that can help us!"

As soon as Emira undid the belt that held the book closed and tried to open it to see if it contained any useful spell, she found herself hit by a waterfall of water that soon expanded, filling almost half of the forbidden section. In the end, what looked like a small lake was formed with the book in the center, open exactly halfway, which remained suspended about a meter from the water without moving and shining like a small star. Luz, Amity, Boscha, Skara, Edric and Emira emerged from this lake and swam towards the nearest shore, which was nothing other than the upper part of a large shelf, and took refuge on it soaked like chicks. "I hope you are happy!" Amity exclaimed. "Look what you've done!"

"HELP!" Slitherbeast's cry was heard throughout the forbidden ward; the poor dog was desperately moving his paws in an attempt to stay afloat. "I can't swim! Help me!"

"Of course, of course! If we take him out of the water, he will surely tear us to pieces!" Edric grumbled.

But the dog continued to bark desperately: "I'm drowning, I'm drowning! Please! Someone help me!" As much as they all tried to ignore it, Slitherbeast's cries quickly moved them to pity, and finally Luz couldn't take the whining any longer and jumped into the water, and after swimming to the dog she said: "Hold on to me! I'm made of wood, I float!"

Slitherbeast did as he was told and indeed finally managed to stay afloat, but Luz realized that the dog was too heavy for her to lift him out of the water; but when she began to think that she should just stay still and hope that by pure chance the current would carry her close to a solid surface, Amity exclaimed: "Ugh, you're such a weakling!" and she jumped into the water too, and after taking her by the arm she began to swim and drag her towards a nearby shelf. Needless to say, at that point Boscha, Skara, Edric and Emora also rushed to the rescue and together all six managed to carry Slitherbeast towards a shelf large enough to contain the dog, and there they left him, and then swam away very fast. "You don't need to run away" the dog told them, who had drunk so much water that he was no longer even able to move. "You saved me, and good deeds must be repaid; I will not attack you again, I promise"

"Maybe, but anyway we prefer to leave!" was the response of the six kids, who swam as far as they could before stopping again and climbing onto a piece of furniture that was floating.

Once everyone was on board, they finally allowed themselves a sigh of relief. Or at least, everyone except Amity, who approached Luz with a look so furious that no one would have been surprised if she had tried to turn the puppet into sawdust. Faced with those angry eyes, Luz could only lower her head: "Amity, I'm sorry..."

Amity didn't let her finish; with a quick movement of her hand she took her key back and put it back in her pocket, and then she looked at the puppet with disdain. "I finally understand" she said with a lot of disgust in her voice. "All this time I wondered what kind of person you were: a crazy one, a false one, a troublemaker, a dork, a nerd, a sweet but strange person. But now I finally know the truth. You're a bad girl, Luz"

Luz had heard herself called that way many times and by many different people, but hearing it from Amity strangely hurt her more than usual and she didn't have the strength to reply.

Amity also threw a furious look at her two siblings, but she didn't even feel like wasting words on them since she knew they wouldn't have any effect; rather, her gaze focused on the book floating in the center of the lake. "All of this happened because we opened it, so if we close it everything should theoretically go back to normal" she muttered to herself. "Here's what we'll do: we'll swim over there, we'll close the book, and then we'll put everything back and leave. And don't let anyone try to get more than three feet away from me: I want to make sure you don't cause any more damage"

And so the group dived back into the water and began swimming towards the book. The road was almost completely clear and they were almost there, when suddenly they were hit by something that enveloped them and dragged them away, and then even pulled them into the air; and to their enormous surprise they found themselves inside a fishing net made of a strange phosphorescent green material among dozens and dozens of fish of all shapes and sizes. The net was transported onto what seemed a small boat, and there a very happy voice exclaimed: "What a wonderful day! Even today I will have a nice feast of fish!"


In the original book, after a rather particular adventure (which I will not reveal in this moment) Pinocchio ends up in trouble with some gendarmes who throw a hound named Alidoro at him, who chases him until they both end up in the sea and the dog risks drowning, but Pinocchio takes pity on him and saves him and then runs away again, taking advantage of the dog's tiredness, who however promises to repay his debt. In this AU, as I have already specified several times, I have sometimes moved some parts of the story to make it easier to adapt them, and in fact "that particular adventure" will happen later; in this case therefore neither Luz nor anyone else end up in trouble with the gendarmes, but rather they meet the big dog because they break into the forbidden section of the library, and the hound risks drowning because they open a book that anyone in the world would have understood that it was better not to open and materialize a lake (keep in mind: a lake, not a sea. This will be important later). Furthermore, Luz is again not alone but in the company of both the Blight twins and Amity and her friends. The name of the dog, Slitherbeast, refers to the creature that in canon lives on the Titan's Knee and that Luz must face in order to learn her second spell; in canon he doesn't speak, but here all the animals can speak, so who cares.