The Collector slowly stirred in his sleep when he felt rays of sunlight poking into his eyes.
Wait, sunlight?
He opened his eyes and looked around... To see he was in a storage closet. Well, a storage closet with a bedroll and a bunch of human stuff scattered around.
"What the...?" The Collector said, confused by where he was.
"Morning Collector!"
The Star Child turned to see Luz and Amity standing in the doorway. "Luz? Amity?" He asked, surprised to see the two.
"Yep, it's us!" Luz answered, "Did you sleep well?"
"I... Guess." The Collector hesitantly answered, "Why am I in here? I thought I was on the couch."
"Oh, you were! But me and Luz moved you in here so you could sleep better." Amity explained.
The Collector was surprised. He had fallen asleep? Last thing he remembered he was laying on the couch, snuggling comfortably against Amity-
Okay yeah, The Collector could see how he fell asleep now that he thought about it.
"Well uh... Thanks for letting me sleep here, I guess. I'll uh... Go now." The Collector awkwardly told them, before trying to float past the two girlfriends.
He was stopped by Luz.
"You don't have to, you know." Luz said, her voice softening.
The Collector seemed confused. "I don't? But I thought..."
"Collector, nobody ever asked you to leave." Amity assured him."
"But, I thought that you all-" The Collector quietly began.
"You can stay if you want." Luz added before he could finish, "I already talked to Eda. She's completely fine with you living here."
"I can... Live here? Really?" The Collector asked, a twinge of happiness appearing in his voice.
"Of course!" Luz said, smiling. "We really won't mind-"
Luz was cut off when the Collector rushed up and hugged her. She couldn't help but smile, and hugged back.
"Well, with that said, how about we head downstairs for some breakfast?" Amity suggested, glancing at the stairs.
"Sounds good to me!" Luz agreed, before turning to look at the Collector. "You hungry?" She asked, before pausing. "...And, can you even get hungry?"
She hadn't really thought much about if the Collector even ate food or not. He did seem to have powers equivalent to that of a god. But she never really wondered what his diet was like. For all she knew, the Collector could eat gravity or something.
"I could eat!" The Collector answered, more than just one question for Luz.
"Okay then!" Amity smiled, "I'll meet you both downstairs. I'm gonna go see how Ms. Noceda is doing in the kitchen, and if she needs help making the pancakes."
"Alright!" The Collector smiled as Amity walked away downstairs. "Uh, hey Luz?"
"Yeah Collector?" Luz responded.
"What are pancakes?" The star child asked curiously.
Camila was honestly surprised how easy it had been to get used to cooking in the Owl House's kitchen.
Although it was a bit different from the kitchen back home, the kitchen was pretty similar to the ones in the Human Realm. Camila was a bit weirded out when it came to using griffin eggs (Seriously, why is the shell SO hard?), but she got used to it.
Camila had just finished making the twelfth pancake, when Amity walked into the kitchen.
"Hey Ms. Noceda! You doing okay in here?" She asked, joining Camila over by the stove.
"I'm managing, thanks for asking niña." Camila replied, putting a couple pancakes on a plate.
Eda was nearby leaning against a wall, eating pancakes from off another plate as she scrolled through Penstagram.
"Seeing some pretty positive posts about the Titan's Coven on here!" She remarked, taking another bite of the pancakes.
"Yeah, it's as if having an actually trustworthy Coven in charge makes people happy." King added, as he sat on a stool next to the table.
Raine walked over with two mugs, they put one on the table and offered the other to Eda. The mug was filled with what seemed to be heated up Apple Blood.
Eda put away her purple scroll, and took the mug with a smile. "Thanks" She said simply in response.
"Of course." Raine smiled back, sitting down at the table.
"How's Vee doing? Last I saw she was passed out on the couch..." Camila asked, not turning away from the stove.
"Still passed out." Raine answered, "Guess she was a bit worn out from exploring the town yesterday."
Camila snorted a bit. Vee had been hesitant about coming to the Isles only a few days ago, but she had surprised Camila by being very interested in exploring Bonesborough.
"What about Luz? Is she awake yet?" Eda questioned, sipping from the mug as she did.
"She is. Found her sleeping in the bathtub upstairs a little while ago." Amity answered.
Turned out all the work from loading a wagon with supplies, getting robbed of said supplies, chasing said robber, and falling into an open witchhole was pretty effective at tiring Luz out. Who knew?
Speaking of the human, Luz walked downstairs... The Collector floated down next to her, holding her hand.
"Morning everyone!" Luz said as she entered the kitchen.
"Morning kiddo. Morning Collector." Eda said in reply, sipping from her mug once again.
"Uh... Morning?" The Collector said, a bit of awkwardness in his tone.
"Hey Collector!" King waved from the table.
The Collector smiled a bit at the sight of the titan. "Hey King..." He greeted.
Luz sat down at table, making sure to also pull out a chair for the Collector to sit down in. He did so, and Camila quickly put down the last two plates of pancakes in front of them both.
"Thanks mamá!" Luz said, getting some syrup as she did so.
"Of course hija." Camila replied, walking back over to the stove to turn it off.
"So... These are pancakes?" The Collector asked, poking at his plate with a fork.
"Yep! Just gotta put a little syrup on them first..." Luz answered, putting a little syrup on top of the Collector's pancake stack for him.
The Collector hesitated for a moment, before finally using his fork to take a bite. As he chewed, his eyes lit up in delight.
"Mmm, these are good" The Collector exclaimed, swallowing the mouthful of pancakes.
"I knew you'd like them!" Amity claimed, chuckling a bit.
Just then, the kitchen door opened, and in walked Lilith. She was holding a couple scrolls in her hands.
"Edalyn, you are NOT going to believe what we found in-" Lilith cut herself off once she saw the Collector at the table.
"...What is he doing here?" She asked, taken aback with a slight firmness in her tone.
Everyone was quiet for a moment, only giving each other slight glances, until Eda spoke up.
"Long story short, the kid's staying here for a while." Eda answered, not moving from her leaned position as she took another sip from her mug.
"I see..." Lilith murmured, not keeping her eyes off the Collector.
It was silent for a moment, with nobody having much idea what to say to ease the tension... Until Luz spoke up.
"So, how'd the other Coven leaders take the news of the supply robbery?" Luz asked, trying to change the subject as she poked at her pancakes with a fork.
"Well, there was a lot of yelling and groans when Eda broke the news." King answered, "So I assume they didn't take it well."
"They want to track down the biped demon who stole the supplies in hope we can get them back." Raine added. "But we don't have anyone qualified or available currently to do so."
Luz was perplexed. "Why not get Eberwolf to do it?" She questioned. "He used to be in charge of the Beast Keeping Coven."
"Because Eberwolf hasn't been around the council building recently. In fact, nobody's seen him in a while now." Eda replied, putting her now empty mug and plate next to the sink.
"Huh... That's weird." Luz remarked.
She didn't interact much with Eberwolf in the past, but she knew enough about him to know he wouldn't have just randomly wandered off.
"So what, we're just LETTING this Valera person keep the supplies?" Amity asked, a bit of irritation slipping through her tone.
"Meh, we figure that biped demon was just a small-time thief looking to get supplies for building her home or something... It's probably nothing to worry about." Eda remarked, leaning against a wall.
Luz shrugged, and continued to eat her food. She figured Eda was probably right... But she couldn't shake the feeling there was something else going on behind the scenes involving Valera.
It was clear nobody had dared to enter the Titan's skull in a VERY long time. Since the Day of Unity, the lair Belos had built in the skull had been abandoned. It was doubtful anyone had entered it much since then...
That was exactly what Kikimora was counting on.
With the skull abandoned, so was all the old artificial magic weaponry and such that the Emperor's Coven had been so fond of using. Kikimora knew that in order to get an advantage over the Titan's Coven... Those weapons and artificial magic items would be a necessity.
Valera used a spell to blow open the loose rocks that had covered the entrance, and the two walked inside.
"To think this used to be sacred ground once..." Valera remarked, looking around the hollow inside of the skull.
It had taken same damage during the Collector's first day of freedom. The ruins of the now destroyed portal laid in a scorched pile by one of the walls.
"Yeah, sure... That's what Belos WANTED everyone to think." Kikimora rolled her eyes.
She had to give Belos credit, the madman was rather clever in his decision to create an entire hierarchy centered around the Titan "speaking" to him.
Kikimora led Valera down a narrow path leading deeper into the darker sections of the Skull. Eventually they reached a metal door, which Kikimora picked the lock on with her red crystal dagger.
Many various types of artificial magic weapons were hung on racks, stored in crates, and even shown off in glass display cases.
"Kiki, I think we've hit the jackpot here..." Valera said, eyes gleaming at the sight of it all.
Willow was pretty happy with how the day was going so far. After breakfast with her dads, she had decided to head over to the Owl house and practice her plant magic with Amity like they had planned a day ago.
She didn't expect to be met with the sight of Amity sitting next to the Collector in front of the door of the house when she arrived.
"Hey Willow!" Amity waved after noticing her friend.
Willow waved back slightly, still taken aback by the presence of the Collector.
"Hey... Amity." Willow replied, "What's the Collector doing here?"
"Oh, he-" Amity began, but stopped when she saw the Collector's hesitant face. "...It's a long story."
Willow was curious, but decided not to pry for more.
"Alright then..." Willow said in response, before turning to the Collector. "It's nice to see you again... I guess." She said to the star child.
The Collector smiled slightly at that, as Amity got up to face to Willow. "So, you still up for practice?" Amity asked her.
Willow grinned. "Of course I am!" She answered, before a question popped into her head.
"Hey, why are we practicing these magic combos again?" Willow questioned, "There's no longer any real threats on the Isles anymore that require these combos..."
"It's just in case. You never know if something will arise that'll require us to band together to defeat." Amity reasoned.
Willow nodded, understanding her reasoning. Belos had been the singular leader of the Isles for a LONG time (The Collector was only in charge for a few months, but still). Now that he was gone, people would probably try and reinstate the Emperor's Coven at least a few times... And they needed to be ready in case that happened.
Well... Happened again.
"Let's target that dead tree over there... See how much damage we can do in one blast." Amity pointed at a nearby rotted tree, far enough away from the Owl House that it wouldn't cause any damage if it fell over.
"Alright, let's do this." Willow said confidently.
Willow then focused as she began to summon plants from the ground to sprout up rapidly. Amity followed up this action by summoning a blast of abomination goo. As the goo flew through the air, it fused with the plants, and propelled itself further down in a straight line toward the tree.
The bottom of the rotten tree burst apart, and the remaining top portion fell over. It was stopped from hitting the ground by another alive tree, holding it's weight.
The two witch girls smiled at the result, when they heard clapping from behind them. Amity and Willow turned to see the Collector clapping from his spot on ground.
"That was cool!" The Collector said as he finished clapping.
Amity smiled at him, "Thanks Collector!" she said in response.
Willow smiled slightly as well, turning to look at the tree. "That combo doesn't need much more practice, huh?" She remarked.
"Yeah, I think we've got that one pretty much perfected... Let's try some new ones!" Amity replied.
Willow nodded with a smirk, and they prepared to do another magic combo as the Collector watched on.
Meanwhile, inside the Owl House's kitchen, Luz was sitting at the table with King and Eda... Listening to Lilith rant about how horrible of an idea it is to let the Collector stay.
"Lily, don't you think you're overreacting-" Eda began, leaning near the kitchen window.
"OVERREACTING?! You're talking about letting the being that enslaved the entirety of the Isles LIVE here with us!" Lilith exclaimed, flailing her arms around in exasperation.
"Enslaved, is a loose term here." Luz reasoned, "He didn't do it out of selfishness, he just wanted to have friends."
"Well his 'wants' caused a lot of damage to the isles, and to the people who lived in them!" Lilith snapped back.
"Don't you think Belos did most of that damage, though?" Eda remarked, "The kid barely did anything compared to him."
"That 'kid' turned me into a PUPPET! He turned Raine into a puppet! He turned pretty much EVERYONE into a puppet!" Lilith exclaimed, trying to reiterate her point.
"And he regrets it!" King pointed out, "Like I said before, he's a good person. Just... Misguided and full of trust issues."
"It wouldn't be right to send him back to the stars... The Collector would be all alone up there!" Luz explained.
Lilith sighed heavily, and pinched the bridge of her nose. "I don't think this is a good idea, nor do I support it... I just want to make that clear." She said.
"You've made that pretty clear from your shouting, not gonna lie." Eda deadpanned, "I bet half the town heard your ranting from here."
Lilith sighed in annoyance. "I'm... I'll just be in my study. Need to check on Hootsifer anyways..." Lilith relented, walking off with a faint huff.
Luz, Eda, and King were silent as they sat at the table watching her go.
"Well... She took that better than I thought she would." Luz remarked, which Eda and King slightly nodded in agreement to.
"Alright, that's pretty much all of it Kiki." Valera said after putting the last crate of weapons on the Snorse wagon. She had kept one of the Artificial Magic Staffs, holstered on her back, almost perfectly her size.
Kikimora said nothing in reply, as she looked at the empty storage room for a few moments.
"Are... Are you seriously checking to make sure I got all of it?" Valera asked, slightly annoyed.
"Just making sure. Can't be too careful." Kikimora replied, not turning to face Valera.
"Oh come on, you can't take my word for it? Don't you trust me?" Valera questioned, leaning on skull's inner wall.
"I do... But I'm reminded of the time back when we were younger, when Princess was still just a little hatchling..." Kikimora began, as Valera rolled her eyes.
"Don't even start with the whole 'missing food' story again!" Valera snapped back.
Kikimora chuckled slightly, before turning to face Valera. "Okay, let's go. We got a long ride ahead of us..." She said.
"Alright, I'll driv- Oof!" Valera was cut off when she tripped on a black vine that was growing from out of the cracked ground.
Kikimora walked over, having noticed the weird plant.
"What in Titan's name...?" She said as she kneeled down to look closer at the vines, as they slowly grew more.
"Guess it must be some ancient plant Belos brought to life sometime back when he was emperor." Valera theorized, prodding at the vines with the bottom of the staff she was holding.
Kikimora nodded. She knew Belos had a habit of reviving previously extinct species... Like Basilisks and Boiling Leviathans (She was VERY happy she never had the 'pleasure' of encountering one).
Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of faint footsteps nearby.
Kikimora and Valera both turned to see a small figure, not much bigger than either of them were, standing near the other side of the hall.
They couldn't make out who the figure was, as the darkness of the skull concealed most of the figure's facial features. What they could make out however, was the figure seemingly tending to more of the black vines, and giving them space to grow.
"Hey! You!" Kikimora called out, unsheathing her dagger.
The figure in response dashed away into a nearby tunnel... That the two demons noticed had black vines coming out of as well.
"Look, more vines." Valera pointed at the vines that were growing out from the tunnel.
Kikimora sheathed her dagger as she looked curiously at the vines. "Weird..." She said, before holding out her hand and conjuring a light orb.
It floated over to the tunnel... Before a vine extended out and swatted it out of existence, as if it had absorbed the orb itself.
"Well, that's not creepy at all." Valera sarcastically remarked.
"Titan, it looks like it's completely overgrown in that tunnel..." Kikimora observed.
It had only been a few months since the Day of Unity. How had a plant managed to grow this fast, and from out of nowhere as well? Whatever the reason was, it slightly interested Valera.
"That person went into that tunnel, you think it's safe to follow?" Valera questioned, taking a small step forward.
Kikimora was hesitant. "I don't think it's worth taking the risk... Let's just go. We got what we wanted anyways." She decided.
Valera nodded, and they both walked away to the wagon.
Everything was falling into place. It was almost time to make their first move on the Isles...
The sun had begun to set under the waves of the Boiling Sea, casting the usually red skies with an orange glow.
Luz was in her room laying on her bedroll, having decided to turn in early, and just watch a few random videos on her phone. The light from the screen being the only thing illuminating the dark room. She scrolled through her library of downloaded videos, until she came to a folder that surprised her.
"Huh, since when did I download season 3 of Spellrun on here...?" Luz asked herself, not remembering doing so.
She shrugged, and decided catching up on binging her favorite web series would be a good way to unwind for the night.
Luz was looking for an episode to start on, when she heard her door creak open slightly.
There peeking through the now open doorway, was the Collector. He was holding Francois in his hands.
"Collector?" Luz asked, noticing the star child peeking into her room.
The Collector seemed taken aback by Luz noticing him. "O-Oh! Hi Luz..." The Collector stuttered out.
"Shouldn't you be asleep?" She asked him, putting her phone to the side for a moment.
The Collector rubbed his right arm hesitantly, and Luz realized what the problem was: He didn't HAVE anywhere to sleep.
Vee and Camila were sleeping on the couch, King, Raine, and Eda were sleeping in the latter's room, and there weren't many other bed choices for the Collector at that point. Luz thought for a moment, before she got an idea.
"Hey... Why don't you bunk with me for the night?" Luz offered, and the Collector looked up in slight surprise.
"You wouldn't mind?" The Collector asked, still clutching Francois.
"Not at all! I'm used to people sleeping with me." Luz claimed.
She really had to work on her wording sometime in the future.
"Well, okay then..." The Collector accepted, floating through the doorway.
He laid down onto the sleeping bag next to Luz, as the human picked back up her phone, and scrolled through the Spellrun episode list on her phone.
"What are you doing?" The Collector asked, curiously.
"Oh, I'm just trying to pick an episode to watch..." Luz answered, continuing to scroll as her eyes looked at the various thumbnails for each episode. "
The Collector seemed fascinated by the thumbnails. "These episodes look cool! Can I watch too?" He asked, a twinge of excitement in his voice.
Luz shrugged, "Sure... But you can't start from season 3, the story wouldn't make sense." she told him, as she scrolled back to season 1.
"It starts out kinda slow, but it gets a lot better the more episodes you watch!" Luz claimed, as she finally scrolled to the pilot.
"I can explain stuff as the episodes go on if you want." Luz offered.
The Collector nodded, "Okay! Now press play" he said in reply.
Luz pressed play on the episode, and laid down on her pillow as they both began to watch. The Collector snuggled a little closer to Luz to make himself comfy, which made her glance at him slightly. Luz couldn't help but smile.
Yeah, she could get used to this.