Luz returned home as her mother had ordered; even though she would have much preferred to go back to running in the fields or chasing butterflies, she didn't want to create more problems for her than she had already caused. So she quickly reached the shop and went inside, and there she sat down on the floor and stared at the ceiling, trying to think of a way to pass the time.

Who knows if her mother would scold her when she returned... when she reached her she hadn't seemed too angry, but maybe it was just the concern of the moment. Even though, technically, Luz didn't think she had done anything wrong. Even the behavior of that guard or that blonde girl had seemed exaggerated to her: after all, all she had done was try to make friends and play a little joke. There was no need to make all that fuss.

While she was thinking, however, she heard a strange noise: it seemed that something was going 'cri-cri-cri' continuously. She tried to follow the sound and discovered that it was coming from the plant in the window. She approached and saw a small cricket that continued to rustle and seemed to want to attract her attention at all costs. "Uh… are you calling me?"

"Oh, you finally noticed me!" the cricket exclaimed, jumping with happiness. "I've been calling you for ten minutes!"

"Sorry, I didn't hear you" Luz replied holding out her hand; the cricket immediately jumped onto her, and the puppet was then finally able to bring her before her eyes and talk to her face to face. "Who are you?"

"My name is Willow. I've been living in this house for... well, a long time, along with my friend" the cricket replied. "Actually, could you take him too?"

"Your friend? Wait, there's another cricket?" Luz murmured as she looked back at the plant, but she saw nothing. Only after several attempts she was able to glimpse a brown spider that was waving his arms in an attempt to be noticed. "Oh, it's you! Sorry, you blend in so well, I didn't see you!"

"It's my specialty. I'm a master of illusions and transformation" the spider said jumping onto her hand. "My name is Augustus, but you can call me Gus. Much pleasure"

"The pleasure is all mine! I'm Luz" the puppet greeted them with a smile.

"We know, we were here when Camila built you!" Willow said. Technically they had also witnessed something even more incredible... but this was not the time to address such questions. "Anyway, where is Camila? She went out looking for you and she hasn't returned yet, and we're worried. Nothing happened to her, right?"

"Don't worry, she's fine! She told me to go home and wait for her, which as you can see I did!" Luz answered.

"Oh, good! I'm happy about it" Gus said rubbing his paws satisfied. "Now that we've made sure that kind woman is okay, can I ask you a few questions? You know, I've always been interested in humans, but you're even more interesting! For starters, how does it feel to be a puppet?"

Willow rolled her eyes. Gus was very interested in learning as much as possible about humans: she couldn't blame him, humans were fascinating and mysterious creatures and could do incredible things, so it was normal to be curious about them. Willow had always supported Gus in his 'research', even if sometimes it turned into a real obsession and she was forced to bring her friend back down to earth. Until that day Gus had spent a lot of time studying Camila, her husband, and all the people who came in and out of the shop, but now it seemed he had found a new object of interest; after all, who would have been the fool who would have wasted time studying humans when he had an animated puppet at his disposal?

"How does it feel to be a puppet?" Luz muttered, thinking about it for a second. "Well, I don't know. How do you feel about being a spider?"

Gus realized that perhaps his question was a little too complicated. "Right... so let's change the subject! Tell me, can your hair change its cut, or since it's wooden does it always stay the same?"

Luz ran a hand through her hair, which was made of thin slivers of wood emerging from her head, but that however it moved as if it was made of rubber when she touched it. "It would seem that I can style my hair in all the ways that I want"

"Fascinating... you're clearly made of very hard wood, yet you move as if you have normal joints and muscles, and your hair is even moldable like real hair!" Gus exclaimed with his eyes shining. "Oh, I have so many more questions! When you eat, do you feel the food go into your stomach, or does it go to a completely different place? And can you sweat? And if so, do you lose water when you do, or..."

Normally Willow would have helped Gus in his passion, and in fact she too was intrigued by Luz (how could she not be?), but as usual she had to be the voice of reason: "Gus, not now. Luz, I want a clear answer: where is Camila now?"

Luz felt strangely pressured by the cricket's stern gaze. "Well... a guard came, a very tall and imposing guy, who said she had to go with him to the police station..."

"What!?" Willow exclaimed, and Gus also dropped his happy expression and took on a worried one. "Camila was arrested!? Why?"

"I don't know! I was just trying to make friends with a girl my age, and then that guard came and told me I didn't know education, and started insulting my mother saying she was inadequate, and then I got mad and talked back to him, and he grabbed mom and told her she had to follow him..." Luz explained quickly.

"Luz, did you get your mother arrested!?" Willow said with wide eyes. "How could you!? Poor Camila...!"

"Hey, I didn't do it on purpose!" Luz tried to defend herself. "I was just playing!"

"Your mother specifically told you that you could go play later! If you hadn't run away she wouldn't be in trouble now! It's your responsibility!" Willow pointed out. "Don't you have a shred of conscience?"

Luz felt anger rising inside; she couldn't tolerate that stupid cricket scolding her like that. With a jerk she grabbed a hammer resting on a shelf and raised it in the air. "You know, dear Willow, that all I have to do is lower this tool to finish you off?". She wasn't being serious, she just wanted to scare the cricket so that she would know who was in charge.

But Willow didn't give up; even though she was clearly intimidated, she didn't let her push her around. "Oh, so your way of reacting to criticism is to threaten those who give it to you? You're such a bad girl!" she said. "Don't think you can scare me with that hammer! You may be bigger than me, but you're still a blockhead!"

Luz tightened her grip on the hammer. Maybe hitting the cricket wasn't such a bad idea... but at the same time she didn't like it... but she had to teach her a lesson somehow... but luckily for both of them, Gus's voice broke that tense atmosphere that she had created: "Hey hey hey, girls, stop it! This is not the way to resolve conflicts!" he exclaimed, waving his paws to make himself appear bigger than he was and thus be more noticed. "You'll discuss it later. Now we have to think about helping Camila!"

Those words were enough to restore calm; even though Willow and Luz continued to glare at each other, Luz lowered the hammer. "There's no need to help her. She's fine, I told you. The guard only said he wanted to have a chat with her"

"Ah well, in that case there shouldn't be any problems" Gus said breathing a sigh of relief. He had already imagined very bad scenario after scenario, some of them in which Camila even got a life sentence, but perhaps he had let his imagination run a little too far. After all, how could someone be imprisoned just because their daughter had behaved badly? "Of course, it's not fair for Camila to be scolded for something she didn't do, but if that's the case, then it's really better to just wait until she's let go and await her return..."

But Willow wasn't sure. "Wait until you say it. Luz, who was the guard who took her away?"

"Uh... I don't know his name, but he was tall, massive, with shaved white hair and an authoritative voice" the puppet explained trying to remember as many details as possible.

"I knew it! It's the Principal!" Willow exclaimed. "I hear about him from all the kids who come here to buy puppets. He's a pompous troublemaker, obsessed with his idea of how to raise children. He's very good at brainwashing parents into feeling bad and inadequate. That's what what he will do to Camila too!"

"But... my mother is not bad and inadequate!" Luz protested.

"Of course she isn't, but she'll end up thinking so after the Principal lectures her!" Willow replied. "You have to go help her, Luz! It's your fault this happened, you can't let your mother suffer the consequences!"

Luz frowned angrily again, but her mind still went to her mother. If she really was in trouble, she couldn't waste time teaching that cricket that he couldn't talk to her like that. "Okay" she said, then she raised the hammer again. "But you two are coming with me!"

"Did we ever say no? We love Camila too!" Willow exclaimed putting her hands on her hips. "Anyway, if you need help, just ask, don't threaten! You're such a bad girl, and for your information, those who act like you usually end up in prison or the hospital!"

"Well, for that matter, those who act like you, dear Willow, usually end up in the cemetery!" Luz countered by waving the hammer in her hand.

"Girls, girls! I can't be the only one thinking here! I should be the funny little friend who is good at mimicry and makes stupid jokes!" Gus said bringing the calm back. "If we want to help Camila, we have to cooperate!"

Luz looked at him for a moment, then she finally put down that big hammer, making the two arthropods breathe a sigh of relief that they still tried not to let her notice. "Ok, let's go!" she said, and with Gus and Willow in her hand she left the shop again and headed towards the police station.

In the original novel, Pinocchio meets Jiminy Cricket in his house after returning from having Geppetto arrested, and Jiminy Cricket tries to scold him and make him see reason, but obviously Pinocchio doesn't listen to him and crushes him with a hammer. Here the scene is a little different because Luz would never do something like that, so she only took the hammer as a show of strength and didn't really use it. Furthermore, in the original novel Pinocchio didn't care about having Geppetto arrested, but this obviously doesn't apply to Luz, given that she would never leave a person dear to her in difficulty, therefore the next two chapters will be exclusively of my invention and are not present in the original book. I made this choice to outline another important trait of Luz's personality, namely that she is disobedient and capricious, but if she realizes that she has put someone in trouble with her actions she does not hesitate to try to help him and repair his mistake, precisely like canon Luz.