Gus and Willow… weren't exactly sure what had happened that morning. Hooty had spoken so quickly and in such a high-pitched voice, ranging from one topic to another in the space of just a couple of minutes, that their brains seemed to have been literally disconnected from the rest of the world. At first they had managed to keep up with him and even enjoyed that conversation, but the more Hooty spoke the more rapid and shrill his voice became, until their minds seemed to end up on a roller coaster. When the owl finally said it was enough for him and let them go, Willow didn't waste a second and immediately grabbed Gus, and then she flew away as fast as she could, completely not caring about the possibility of being spotted by birds or other predators; her only intent was to put as much distance as possible between her and Hooty, and she was sure Gus felt the same way.

They flew aimlessly for almost a kilometer before coming to rest on a tree branch. Willow would have gone even further, but her wings were hurting from too much effort. She tried to console herself and tell herself that even so they were far enough from Hooty... even though she remembered well that the owl could stretch its neck endlessly and come looking for them there too, and the mere thought sent shivers down her spine. "Urgh... finally, I couldn't take it anymore. That owl may have orders to not harm us physically, but Eda certainly didn't tell him to preserve us mentally too. If I had listened to him for another ten minutes my mind would have completely collapsed. I was on the verge of killing myself" the cricket murmured in the most exhausted voice that had ever come out of her mouth. "Let's hope we never have to do it again, right, Gus? Gus?"

Willow only in that moment realized that the spider was lying on the surface of the tree branch where they were on as if he no longer had any strength in his legs and he was holding his eyes so wide that they could have jumped out. Willow became worried: even though she too had suffered the Hooty's treatment, she had merely observed it from the outside; Gus on the other hand... he had taken an active part in the conversation. She didn't dare imagine what state his mind was in at that moment. "Ehm... Gus? Is everything ok?"

The spider trembled. "I've seen things that the majority of people could never even imagine" he whispered. "I saw a fairy enter a shop and animate a puppet... I saw a circus director who used a Palisman as a headdress... I saw a fairy prepare a magic potion to heal internal wounds... I saw a ghoul enter a room complete with a mount... I saw a puppet's nose stretch out the window... and I saw a fairy extract memories from a person with pliers... but I never... never, never, never thought... that I would witness something as terrifying, unhealthy and disturbing... as a conversation with Hooty". He scratched his ears frantically. "I... I can still hear his voice..."

"Ok, ok, that's enough. Please... think about something beautiful and focus just on that" Willow interjected, fearing that if Gus didn't immediately divert his attention from the experience he had just had he would probably commit a murder... or more than one.

Luckily Gus seemed to listen to her, because even though he remained motionless and stared into space for a good ten minutes, so much so that Willow feared he had completely disconnected from the world, he began to move and talk like a normal spider again. "Please, if I ever make a promise like that again... grab me, take me ten thousand meters and then throw me down. At least I will have a quick death"

"I don't think I can get to ten thousand meters. I'm not even sure I could get over a hundred" Willow replied.

"A hundred is fine. Any height is fine, as long as it's fatal" Gus said.

Willow raises an eyebrow. "Um... you remember, right, that thanks to our very hard exoskeletons and the fact that we weigh too little we can survive falls of even more than one hundred meters?"

"Don't remind me!" Gus almost screamed. "At least let me dream that I can have a painless death instead of… that!"

Although the situation seemed ridiculous from an outside perspective, Willow had absolutely no intention of laughing at Gus. In fact, she was praising him for managing to maintain his sanity. "So… what do we do now?"

"Well, let's catch up with Luz, of course!" Gus said. "We told her, don't you remember?"

"Of course I remember! Just... which direction are we going?" Willow asked.

The two of them realized they didn't have the faintest idea where to go: when Eda had explained it to Luz they had been busy listening to Hooty and hadn't heard anything. Plus, as soon as the owl had let them go Willow had flown in a completely random direction, so now they didn't even have a point of reference. "We could go back and ask to Eda..." Willow proposed.

"Don't even talk about it!" Gus exclaimed. "Before I go back to the Owl House and especially to Hooty, I want to be hermetically sealed inside one of Luz's pockets! And I don't want to come out of it for at least the next three days!"

"Okay... well, let's wait here then" Willow said. "We're not that far from the Owl House and Luz can be very loud, especially when she is happy. I'm sure we'll hear her coming"

Gus nodded, "Right, right, you're absolutely right! So, what do we do while we wait?"

Willow shook her head. "I don't know. What do normal spiders and crickets do when they're alone in the woods?"

Both Willow and Gus widened their eyes when they realized what was happening: they were alone, outside the house, in the middle of a forest full of birds and all kinds of predators... yet they weren't the slightest bit afraid. Even now that they remembered it they weren't feeling their usual fear for the outside world. They knew they should be scared, yet they couldn't. They felt calm as if they were still within the safe walls of their home. "Wow... being with Luz is really making us brave, hm?" Gus said.

"I guess facing assassins and flying through the skies looking for her is good training" Willow commented, then she smiled: "I have to admit… we have Luz to thank for this. Despite everything, after so many years we're finally back out here… "

"Heh heh! See? That puppet has merits, even you can't deny it!" Gus exclaimed triumphantly.

"Yeah, but it would be better if such merits weren't almost entirely involuntary" Willow said, even though she didn't really believe it herself. Eda was right, Luz knew how to bring out the best in people... even if with her own methods which often included the risk of her life. "What do you say? Since we're out, let's play tag?" she proposed, and without even waiting for her friend's response she began hopping from leaf to leaf.

Gus immediately accepted the challenge. It wasn't the first time they played together but they had never done it outdoors, only in Camila's shop and almost never leaving the plant where they lived since they didn't want to disturb their host; playing outside, even if it was a silly game like tag, gave them a very different feeling. The air was decidedly revitalizing and seemed to give them even more strength and fun, and soon the two were so immersed in the game that they completely forgot the rules of prudence. They were having as much fun as they ever had in their lives, so much so that they lost track of time. Only when the sky began to change color did they realize that they still hadn't heard Luz's voice anywhere. "Maybe we were wrong... maybe we went in the completely wrong direction, or maybe Luz strangely chose to stay quiet for once" Willow murmured, even though she had a strange feeling. "Let's go back to the Owl House, we'll find her there, and she'll probably be wondering where we are"

Although Gus wasn't at all thrilled about risking meeting Hooty again, he knew there was no point in waiting forever, so he let Willow grab him and drag him back into the air. The two of them headed towards the Owl House, but they hadn't even gone ten meters away from the tree where they had spent the day when a shadow passed over them. They both froze for a moment and when they dared to look up and saw a large pair of feathered wings panic completely took over them: "AAARGH! BIRD, BIRD! HELP!"

Willow flew away as fast as she could, but the bird behind them had wings much larger than hers and was getting closer and closer. Gus turned slightly and realized that the creature chasing them was a red cardinal, known to be an excellent predator of insects, and this terrified him even more. "Willow, speed up! It's catching us!"

"I'm trying!" Willow screamed, beating her wings even harder, but she had now reached her limit. The red cardinal behind the two reached them and nudged them with his beak, completely throwing them off balance and sending them tumbling into the air. Willow lost her grip on Gus, who thought he was going to fall to the ground, but then he was grabbed by the bird; he felt doomed for a moment, but to his surprise the red cardinal placed him gently on his back without hurting him.

"Let go of my friend at once, you damned flying chicken!" Willow screamed rushing to help her friend, but the bird was faster than her and grabbed her with its beak; the cricket tried to punch it, but although the red cardinal seemed annoyed, it didn't let her go. After all, Willow's legs weren't long enough to punch in the eye or any other sensitive spot on the bird, and so she could only hit it on the beak, and therefore she could at most cause a slight pain. "Argh! You won't eat me, you damned…!"

"Willow"

"Don't tell me that you love me and that it was nice meeting me, Gus! It's early for last words! We can still win this fight!"

"Willow, I don't think he wants to hurt us"

The cricket froze and she looked at the spider, who had climbed up to the bird's head and yet was not being chased away. And furthermore, Willow realized that if the bird wanted to kill her, it could simply clamp its beak even tighter and cut her clean in two, which it hadn't done yet. But despite these doubts she still didn't trust. "Then why is it holding me in its beak!?"

"I think it wants to take us somewhere and it doesn't want to risk you flying away" Gus replied, and the red cardinal nodded. "Did you see? It nodded!"

Willow was silent for a moment, then she sighed. "Okay. Let me go, I promise I won't try to escape... if you don't try to eat us" she said looking at the bird. In response it opened its beak and placed her on its back as it had done with Gus, and then it began to flutter towards the edge of the woods.

"Can you tell us where are you taking us?" Gus asked. "Hey, are you mute? Where are you taking us?"

But the red cardinal only chirped in response. Gus and Willow were confused: even though they were different species, as animals they should be able to understand each other. Then Willow got suspicious and drummed her paws on the bird's body, which was surprisingly hard. Too much for skin. "You… are you a Palisman?"

The red cardinal chirped, nodding vigorously. Now everything was clear: that creature was not an animal, but a Palisman like Bump's little devil or Eda's strange owl-shaped wand, that's why they couldn't understand its language. Both Willow and Gus hoped that the Palismans didn't need to eat, or at least that they didn't feed on insects: even if at the moment the bird didn't seem to have bad intentions, they would have preferred to be sure that it wouldn't suddenly change its mind and would try to eat them.

After about half an hour of flying they reached a large city, and the red cardinal flew towards what looked like a prison; there it headed towards one of the cell windows and there it finally stopped. Then it grabbed them both of them and placed them on the windowsill, motioning for them to come in. "Why? What's in there?" Willow asked suspiciously, even though she knew she wouldn't understand the Palisman's response.

But from inside came a voice that they both knew very well: "Guys! You're finally here! Sorry if I scared you by sending that bird to get you, that wasn't my intention!"

"Luz!" they both exclaimed in unison and rushed in: the puppet was there waiting for them, locked in the cell, and next to her there was another girl who, although she tried to remain aloof, seemed quite curious about what was happening. Willow and Gus reached Luz and jumped onto her hands. "Luz! What are you doing here?" Willow exclaimed. "What have you done this time...?"

But she stopped when she saw the puppet's expression. This time was different from the others: it was as if Luz had really been hurt deeply, not in the physical sense obviously but in the heart. Gus and Willow never thought they would see the cheerful and always smiling Luz with such sad eyes. In an instant they both understood that that wasn't the time for sermons at all. "Luz..." Willow told her worriedly. "What happened?"

Just to clarify: in Collodi's original book all the animals seem to talk. Not only does Pinocchio converse with Jiminy Cricket, the Cat and the Fox, but he also speaks with dolphins, crabs, owls and many other creatures. Some of them, like a gorilla, even hold public offices. Even Pinocchio, after becoming a donkey, is still able to make himself understood. This is because in Collodi's book all the animals are representations of certain types of people (for example the Cat and the Fox are the smart ones, the Jiminy Cricket is the wise advisor, etc.). In this AU, to keep it similar to both Collodi's canon and partly to The Owl House's one, I decided to imagine that all animals have a sort of Esperanto with which they can understand each other, and therefore can also speak with humans (since humans are animals too); in other words, all 'mortal' or 'physical' creatures share the same language. On the contrary, 'spiritual' and 'magical' creatures such as the Palismen, given that they belong to another branch of existence, have another language and therefore cannot make themselves understood by 'mortals', except those with whom they have a deep spiritual connection (for example, Palismen can make themselves understood by their masters) or if they are particularly close to humans (like fairies). Furthermore, even those who are not very close to humans have the possibility of learning the human language, even if it takes a long time and they normally don't do it since they don't interact much with them and when they do it is generally with people who can understand them anyway because spiritually linked to them (for example the Palismen always speak their language with their masters, their masters simply understand them, and in the same way they understand their masters even though they do not understand their language, and therefore they do not even feel the need to learn the human language).