Luz ran happily along the streets. For the first time in her life, she felt the shiver of her feet tapping under her shoes. It was a wonderful feeling. It made her feel free, as if she could almost take flight.

She knew her mother was chasing her, but she didn't want to listen to her at all. She loved her mother, after all it was she who had carved her with so much love, but she thought that she was too... angular, that's it. People had to try to be free in life. Work? Who wanted it? It was much better to run along the road, and maybe do a few somersaults...

When she was sure she had outpaced her mother, she finally stopped to catch her breath. Note to herself: running was very tiring, although she still felt energetic. So instead of running she started walking around the town, which was really very interesting. Everywhere there were shops, stores and stands of all kinds, and lots of people. Luz had only met her mother so far, and maybe even a few others when she was still a piece of wood, but she wasn't sure... and now she could finally meet other people. She could make friends with other kids and go to play together!

But... how did the kids make friends?

Luz realized she didn't know. Well, after all, she had been born less than a day ago. Maybe she should have asked her mother for advice... no, that was out of the question: if her mother had found her she would surely have brought her home and even scolded her for disobeying her. She had to get by on her own... but how?

She tried to think clearly. She just had to choose some of the guys there and try to talk to them: it wouldn't be that difficult, right? She looked around carefully and finally noticed a girl with blonde bob hair who seemed to be more or less the same age as her and who was carrying a basket full of buns. Luz had discovered that she loved buns, so if she could befriend her she would not only get her first acquaintance, but also a good snack. So she reached her to said hello: "Hey, hi! I'm Luz! Who are you?"

The blonde girl looked at her rather confused. "You… are you a puppet?" she murmured, looking her up and down. She wasn't the only one: many other people had started looking at her with inquisitive eyes.

"Yup! But don't worry, I can talk just like you!" Luz replied with a smile.

"Uh… ok" The blonde girl was clearly uncomfortable. "Sorry, but my mother always tells me not to talk to strangers. And then I'm working, I have to bring these buns to the bakery's customers"

Luz swallowed. Her first encounter with a girl of her age wasn't going very well. So working was normal for the kids in that city, or at least carrying out some tasks? The mere thought made her shiver. She had to impress her interlocutor if she wanted her to stay and talk to him. But how to do it? "What about... this?" she said, and with her fingers she lifted her eyelashes slightly, revealing the eyelids underneath which, despite being wooden, still pulsated as if there were actually blood vessels inside. The poor blonde girl let out a scream and fell to the ground almost unconscious, and with her the basket full of buns also fell, which fortunately Luz managed to save before they fell to the ground. "Hey, you dropped them..."

"N-No! Don't come any closer! You're completely weird!"

"Huh? I was just kidding!"

"What's going on here?"

Luz looked up and found herself in front of a very tall, stiff man, so imposing that he seemed almost twice as tall as her mother. His hair was shaved and white and he looked quite advanced in age, and his gaze was grim and menacing. The sight alone made her swallow and she suddenly thought that maybe she had made a big mistake. Judging by the uniform he was wearing, he was clearly a guard or at least a guardian of the law, and he seemed very angry. "Are you robbing this girl, miss?"

"What? No! I just played a prank on her, she fell and I tried to give her the basket back!" Luz was quick to explain.

But the guard didn't seem convinced. "Even if that were the case, you still caused quite a mess. Don't you know good manners? Your parents raised you really badly. Who are they?"

"I don't have a father, only my mother. It's Camila Noceda" Luz answered.

The guard raised an eyebrow. "Are you kidding me? Everyone knows that Camila Noceda has no children"

"But now she has me! She made me yesterday!" Luz protested vehemently.

"What are you...?" the guard tried to say, then he noticed that the skin of the girl in front of her didn't look real at all. He couldn't see very well so he had to concentrate a bit to focus, but then he realized the detail he hadn't initially noticed. "Are you a puppet?"

"Exactly!" Luz replied, happy that the guard finally understood. "And I'm still learning, it's the first time I've left the house, so I'm sorry if I've been..."

"Luz!" Camila's voice rose through the small crowd that had formed around the puppet and the guard, and the woman made her way over to them. She had evidently been running around looking for her, because her hair was all disheveled; Luz felt a little guilty seeing her like that, but she still didn't think she had done anything wrong; after all, she hadn't asked her to chase her. She expected a scolding, but instead Camila simply ruffled her hair. "Luckily you're fine! I couldn't find you and I was afraid something had happened to you!"

"Don't worry, Mom. I was just trying to make friends" Luz replied with a smile.

Camila sighed in relief, but her relief was short-lived as the guard gave a loud cough to get her attention. Seeing him, the woman recognized him immediately and had a shiver: that guard was known throughout Gravesfield as a man obsessed with punishing kids and even their parents. He considered children only as vessels into which the necessary knowledge had to be inserted to transform them into responsible adults; everything else, from play to initiative, was superfluous and had to be eliminated. And that guard considered it his personal mission to punish all the kids who didn't follow the rules he imposed and to scold all the parents who, at least from his point of view, made mistakes. Because of this behavior he was nicknamed by everyone 'the Principal', because just like a classic severe principal he patrolled the streets as if they were the corridors of a school and used his truncheon as if it were the teacher's wand. "Mrs. Noceda, did you really create this puppet yourself?"

Camila looked around; there were many people watching her. Well, maybe that wasn't totally a bad thing: at least this way she could have eliminated all doubts from the entire town in one go. "Yes, I made her. I don't know how she came to life, but personally I don't care. She's... well, she's my daughter now"

A murmur spread through the crowd, but rather than being scared the citizens of Gravesfield seemed curious and partly almost happy for Camila. As she had imagined, no one was too surprised that Luz had come to life: the people of that town were too accustomed to any kind of strangeness to be surprised by a talking puppet. The only thought in the townspeople's minds was that Camila finally seemed to have someone to care for in her life, which could only be a good thing given her recent tragedy, and so they couldn't help but be happy for her. But the Principal thought differently. "The town's laws say nothing about magically creating living puppets, so I too have nothing to say about that. However, regardless of whether this little girl is made of flesh or wood, she should have a birth certificate. Does she have it?"

"Huh? Sir, I only found out she came alive this morning! I haven't had time to get her to do it yet..." Camila rightly pointed this out.

"Bad, bad. The town's laws also require that the girl must have an education. Does she go to school then?"

"Like I told you, I only found out everything this morning, I still have to sign her up..."

"A good mother would have already done all these things. The well-being of her child comes first, and a child who doesn't receive the adequate tools to be part of society cannot hope to have well-being in life. You are an inadequate mother"

Camila felt anger rising inside her; what right did that man have to tell her that she didn't know how to be a mother? Even though... technically speaking, she didn't know... she had become one less than a day ago... she suddenly felt insecure. Camila was a woman who didn't let others push her around, but now that the Principal had touched on that particular topic she didn't know how to respond. Maybe it was better to stay quiet and go home...

Too bad Luz wasn't of the same opinion. "Hey! My mother is not inadequate!" the girl protested. "And you have no right to talk to her like that! Take back what you said!"

The crowd murmured and nodded in agreement: everyone thought the Principal was exaggerating. But even if the people were of a certain opinion, the guard wasn't at all and in fact he felt anger rising. He couldn't possibly let the matter drop now; he had a reputation in the town and had to defend it. "So you weren't even able to teach your daughter not to talk back to adults, hm?" he said grabbing Camila by the arm. "Please follow me to the police station. There we will have a long chat about how children must be educated"

Camila wanted to free herself, but the guard's grip was quite strong. In the end she decided it was best to indulge him, at least this once. "Okay, sir, I won't resist. Luz, go home and wait for me there"

"But mom...!" Luz tried to protest. "He can't force you to go with him!"

"Yes, he can. He's a law enforcement officer, so if he orders me to go to the police station, I have to go there" Camila replied.

The Principal looked pleased and puffed out his chest proudly. "Mh. Maybe I was at least a little wrong, you are not so irredeemable, Mrs. Noceda. Of course, you have a lot to improve as a parent, but at least you know how to teach your daughter the basics of good society"

Camila rolled her eyes trying not to be noticed; even though she was just trying to please the Principal, her triumphant smile bothered her a lot. Even if, in a certain sense, the teaching she had just given to Luz was not wrong... respecting the law was the right thing after all. Maybe she should have told her sooner... she didn't want to let the Principal's words poison her mind, but at that moment she truly felt like an inadequate mother. "Luz, seriously, go home and wait for me"

Luz looked quite hurt, then she nodded. "Okay, mom" she said. She didn't know what was going on but she had clearly messed up; she didn't want to make things more difficult for her mother, so even though she would much rather have stayed outside and played, at least this once she would obey her. And so Luz headed towards her house, while Camila was dragged away by the Principal roughly, who seemed to take pleasure in taking advantage of the woman's lesser physical strength.

In the original Collodi's Pinocchio, after running away from home he causes a big mess in the town and is captured by a carabiniere who initially returns him to Geppetto, but who then, hearing the criticism of the crowd who are moved to pity by the puppet's cries, changes his mind and arrests the poor carpenter. Yes, basically Pinocchio in the book makes his father end up in prison, and the interesting thing is that he practically doesn't care and actually goes home happy. Obviously Luz isn't like that though, so I deliberately changed the whole scene to something more suited to her: this time, Luz gets in trouble because she tries to make friends the wrong way (since, as we can see in the first episode of The Owl House, she has a lot of difficulty relating to kids her age) and Camila is arrested because the guard who stops her is an asshole who loves to abuse his power to impose his idea of order (any reference to situations in the real world It's purely coincidental). In case someone hadn't understood, the girl Luz tries to make friends with is the blonde girl who appears in a scene from the first episode of the series (the one in the play), whose name unfortunately we don't have but who knows why she became rather popular among fans, while the Principal is the principal of Luz's school who appears in the first episode of the third season in the flashback where he scolds Camila because in his opinion she is not raising Luz in the right way (unfairly moreover); they are both marginal characters in the canon, but given that at this moment we are still at the beginning of the book and that the situation is still very Camila and Luz-centric rather than just Luz-centric, I decided to use them since also in the canon they reflect perfectly a society in which Luz is unable to integrate and who try to impose a certain teaching style on Camila. Don't worry, much more well-known and beloved characters from The Owl House are coming soon. For now, thank you for all your support!

P.S.: there are also some other reference to the canon in this chapter. Let's see if someone notice them. If yes, I'll mention his or her name in the notes of the next chapter!