The Blight Manor turned out to be even more impressive on the inside than on the outside: as soon as they passed the enormous entrance door the boys found themselves in a huge hall illuminated by crystal chandeliers and adorned with gold-plated frescoes. It was such an incredible vision that Luz remained motionless for a moment with her mouth wide open observing everything, at least until Willow gave her a light pat on the forehead to bring her to her senses. "Wow, Amity! Your house is really big!"

"Well... it's not... so enormous as it seems" Amity replied blushing slightly. She didn't know how to behave: it was the first time in her life that she had invited friends to her house. After thinking about it for a while, she decided that the first thing to do was to avoid making too much mess, since even though her mother had allowed her to let Luz and the others sleep at her place that didn't mean that she agreed to the fact that made noise or caused damage, especially due to the fact that the house was full of objects of great value, so she said: "Come with me, I'll show you my room" and led them up the stairs, to the wing of the house where there were fewer precious things and therefore less risks.

Normally, a person would have had a lot of trouble hosting nine friends in their room, eleven if she counted her two siblings, but Amity's bedroom was so large and spacious that all of them could fit in freely. "Wow! Amity, that's super soft!" Skara exclaimed as she jumped onto her bed. "So this is the rich people's bed? I want to die here, it's too comfortable!"

"And these pillows? They look like they're made of clouds!" Boscha said as she rubbed her face in them and felt a softness that she had only been able to dream about until now.

Willow disapproved of them wholeheartedly: "Girls, seriously does this seem like the way to behave in other people's homes? Be more respectful of Amity's things and... oh, damn, is this a carpet or a flowering meadow!?" she exclaimed as soon as she touched the carpet at the foot of Amity's bed, and completely forgetting what she was saying until two seconds before she started rolling on it.

Amity giggled. She wasn't angry even if her friends were invading her personal space a little too much: she was just happy that they were having fun. After all, she didn't really care about her bed or her pillows; the smile of her friends was much better than material things. Just then Luz almost jumped up from her shoulders and put her hand in her hair, ruffling it and exclaiming: "Amity, now that your mother finally realized that you didn't like green hair, you can't leave it like that! We have to change it immediately!"

"Right! Leave it to me, Mittens!" Emira said with a smile.

Amity raised an eyebrow. "Really?" she asked her sister, quite suspicious.

Emira nodded. "I promise I won't make you the wrong color or cut it ridiculously or put a spider in your hair. Okay?" she said, strangely very specifically. "So, what color do you want to dye it?"

Amity touched her hair and played with it a bit, quite unsure how to respond. How did she want to make them? She could finally get rid of that mint green, but she didn't want to go back to having it brown: beyond the fact that her mother had asked her not to, she too didn't like it since it would have reminded her too much of her father, and she absolutely didn't want that. Maybe she could try a new dye? It would have been nice, maybe combined with a new style too. But which?

She tried to think of things she liked: prunes, her favorite food. The purple skirt that Lilith often wore, which she had always thought was a great garment and which she had always wanted to own one of. A certain puppet's rugby uniform, which had purple gloves, decorations and even drops painted under her eyes... she blushed slightly at the last thought, but at least she managed to reach a decision. "I have an idea" she said, and she went into the bathroom accompanied by Emira.

Not even ten minutes later the two of them returned, while the eldest of the Blights was still holding the scissors with which she had cut her sister's hair; as soon as Amity entered the bedroom again, all eyes immediately turned to her. The kids were so stunned for a moment that they thought the person who had just entered was someone else, and Amity scratched her head in embarrassment, not knowing what to say. In the end it was Luz who broke the silence: "It's... different"

Amity had shortened her hair by at least half a hand and dyed it lavender, with the brown color barely visible in the undercut at the temples. Her new hair completely framed her pale face, almost making it stand out. "So… what do you think?"

"Amity, you look great!" Luz answered her after recovering from the shock. "Your hair looks like cotton candy!"

Amity blushed visibly. "Is it a good thing?"

"Of course it's a good thing! You're beautiful" Willow interjected.

"Yeah! It almost makes me want to bite your hair and eat it!" Skara said, and judging by the drool that was dripping from her mouth, maybe she wasn't completely joking.

Amity smiled. She was happy that her friends liked her new style. She cast a quick glance of thanks at Emira, and she winked; even though she didn't want to admit it, she couldn't deny that her sister was very talented as a hairdresser. "Um... so, we still have about an hour before Willow, Gus and Matt turn back into arthropods! What do you want to do in the meantime...?"

She was still talking when a large pillow landed on her face. "It seems obvious to me what we do!" Boscha exclaimed as she jumped out of bed. "Pillow fight!"

"Huh? But... aren't you tired...?" Amity tried to say, but she hadn't even finished the sentence before Luz grabbed the pillow that had fallen to the floor and threw herself at Boscha, wielding it like a sword, and the magenta-haired girl obviously immediately accepted the challenge and the two of them began to duel each other with pillow hits. Needless to say, within five seconds everyone in the room had armed themselves with a pillow and were throwing them in each other's faces. At that point Amity no longer asked any questions and threw herself into the fray too, grabbing a pillow and slamming it with all her might into the faces of everyone who came within her range.

In less than a minute the room turned into a battlefield; no one knew how, since they hadn't even exchanged a word, but the group split into two factions, one led by a particularly exuberant Luz and made up of Amity, Willow, Gus, Edric and even a rather amused Hunter, who despite had been tense since they entered Blight Manor seemed to have suddenly softened, while the other was led by a Boscha who seemed to have completely recovered (or almost) from all the physical effort of that day and was composed by Skara, Amelia, Cat, Matt and of course Emira, who obviously couldn't miss the opportunity to hit her twin brother with pillows. Soon the battle changed from a simple exchange of blows with pillowcases to a real war of strategy: two forts made up of blankets and pillows arose on opposite sides of the room, without anyone knowing how and when exactly they had been built, and the two parties began to throw the pillows as if they were cannonballs, trying to break down as many 'walls' as possible and then proceed to charge using the pillows as weapons or even covering themselves with them and tying themselves together using sheets as ropes, forming real armor.

The turning point came when troops led by second-in-command Skara launched a surprise attack while general Boscha distracted the enemy with cannons, managing to take them from behind and capturing enemy general Luz in the process, who was then dragged and imprisoned in their fort. "Tsk! Don't think this is the end!" the puppet exclaimed as she wriggled free from ropes made of blankets woven together. "My companions will come to free me!"

"Oh, we're sure of it. But before they arrive, you're at our mercy!" Boscha, who to emphasize her authority wore a pillow on her head tied with a sheet as if it were a military cap, said with a laugh. "Speak! What are the secrets of your military strategy?"

"Do you really think I will talk? I will never confess such things to the enemy general!" Luz replied bravely.

Boscha narrowed her eyes. "Okay, you asked for it! Call the torturers!" she ordered, and after a few moments Cat and Amelia appeared armed with feathers torn from the pillows, with which they began to tickle the puppet, who started laughing so much that her eyes watered. "No...! Ah ah! You won't bend me! Ah ah! I will never speak... ah ah ah!"

The scene was so ridiculous that soon even Cat and Amelia were giggling so much that they couldn't even tickle Luz anymore, then Skara started laughing too, and finally even Boscha, despite trying to keep her imagination alive of the game, couldn't stop herself and burst into laughter. The five girls laughed for several minutes, then they forced themselves to stop because their bellies felt like they were exploding, and they collapsed on the wall of pillows to recover. That's when Boscha looked at Luz and whispered: "Thank you"

The puppet looked at her in surprise. It was the first time Boscha had spoken to her in that kind tone. "Why?"

"For Amity" Boscha replied, and a smile appeared on her face. "I don't know how you did it... but I've never seen her so happy since I've known her. Today was the very first time I saw her give up on competing, on being the best, on pursuing an unattainable goal. It had never happened before. Since you entered her life, she has always smiled with an intensity that I didn't think possible from her". She let out a little laugh: "This is ideal for a good story to tell to children: the puppet with the smile as bright as the sun that melted the frozen heart of the cotton candy hair princess. I'm sure they would love her"

Luz smiled back. "It would actually be good" she admitted, then she asked: "You all care a lot about Amity, don't you?"

"Of course we care about her. She's our friend... even if we haven't always been perfect friends" Skara said, sitting down next to them. "So... thank you. Today it's as if she freed herself from a boulder glued to her back. We have never been able to understand her and console her enough to do this"

"I'm not saying I like you now" Boscha said, then she punched her shoulder. "But you've earned my respect"

Luz was happy with those words, but still she turned up her nose. "You know, you're really mean"

"I know. It's part of my personality" Boscha replied without the slightest remorse. Too bad that an instant later the wall was broken by a ball of pillows tied together by a sheet, hitting her and throwing her to the floor. "Attack! Let's free our general!" Amity screamed as she entered and grabbed Luz by the shoulders, while Gus and Edric behind her helped her make her way; but after a few moments Boscha recovered and called out for the troops, and Matt and Emira threw themselves on them armed with at least three pillows each. Needless to say, within a minute the pillow war was back in full swing, and Luz found herself being carried by Amity like a princess while she dueled Boscha using the pillows as swords; and strangely, even though it was just a game, Luz found herself unintentionally thinking that Amity looked truly heroic in that moment, and for some reason she felt a strong heat on her cheeks and felt like woodworms were nibbling at her stomach.

The conflict continued for a long time, and the forts expanded and became increasingly larger and more varied, each time adding new pillows and blankets; the two contenders began to draw maps and send spies into enemy territory in order to obtain an efficient strategy. Soon the forts were too large to be considered simple outposts but real neighboring countries, and therefore obtained a name and a flag drawn on the pillowcase and proudly hoisted above the respective fortresses: Boscha proclaimed the birth of the Legit Republic of Blanketsburg, while Luz that of the United Forts of Pillowtown (she wasn't able to think for a better name). The two pillow nations continued to fight using strategy games and psychological warfare with the aim of weakening their respective opponents more and more. That conflict that seemed eternal, however, came to an end when the spell that made Willow, Gus and Matt human vanished, transforming them back into small arthropods, and therefore it was necessary to stop to avoid risking crushing them; the armistice was thus declared. The touching moment when General Luz of the United Forts of Pillowtown shook hands with General Boscha of the Legit Republic of Blanketsburg and proclaimed peace would forever be remembered in the long history of pillow fights. After that, all the kids collapsed into the sea of pillows that had been created around them, completely exhausted. "I've never had so much fun in my life!" Amity admitted. "Why didn't anyone ever tell me there was a game like this? It was amazing! We have to do it again!"

"Absolutely! It was amazing!" Luz said almost breathlessly; until then she hadn't felt any hint of tiredness, but now that she had stopped she was feeling so exhausted that she couldn't even move her wooden arms. "Next time we should do things bigger! Let's get all the pillows in the town and use the whole manor to fight!"

"We'll take care of the pillows" Emira said, with Edric's agreement. "Hunter, for once we will use your staff for good: we will ransack every tailor's shop and house and get all the pillows we can!"

"And this would be a use for good?" Hunter asked rhetorically.

"Yes!" Amity sat up abruptly. "Yes, it's definitely a good cause! Let's make things even bigger: let's get all the pillows, gather all the kids in town, and then let's turn the whole of the school into a giant pillow fort and spend our days having fun in there!"

"Look look, Mittens who not only doesn't scold us for a potential dishonest action, but who actually proposes an idea that could prevent people from studying?" Edric looked like he was about to cry. "I'm touched... Mittens is finally starting to understand the true values of life!"

Amity laughed at her brother's joke. In fact she felt strange, as she had never felt in her life; but she didn't mind at all, actually she felt like she was become super light. "Well, I admit that I would really like playing like this every day. Can you imagine what it would be like?"

"Oh, that would be amazing!" Luz replied dreamily. "Imagine if there really was a place where every day was continuous fun!"

"A place where kids like us spend their days having fun instead of going to school and submitting to the tyrannical rules of adults? If there is such a paradise, please give me directions because I'm leaving to reach it this very evening! Provided that there is a rugby field, of course" Boscha said with a grin.

The kids laughed heartily and began to discuss what they would do if such a place really existed; soon they started listing all the things they wanted to do, from indulging in sweets, playing from morning to night, sleeping until afternoon, going to bed late, and even tearing up and burning their school books. During that discussion Hunter had become strangely silent; not that he had been very talkative before, but now he had almost darkened. Willow noticed this and, thinking that the boy was just a little indecisive, flew onto his shoulder and asked: "What about you? What would you do if such an idyllic place existed?"

Unseen, Hunter clenched his fists slightly. "I don't think such a place would be so idyllic" he said, then seeing that the others were looking at him in confusion he tried to find a plausible excuse: "I mean... the reason we had so much fun tonight is mainly because Amity faced her mother and obtained permission from her. And the fact that this fun will not last forever, but tomorrow we will still have to go to school or in my case to work, is what made us put all our strength into this fight with pillows, because we wanted to make the most of it before our free time ends. I think that even if it seems nice to talk about it, in the long run a place where only fun exists, and kids like us would know that tomorrow they will have fun anyway, in the long run it would be boring. A bit like the sunrise: it's nice to see it, but after you've seen it a hundred times, and you already know that the sun will rise tomorrow too, you start to not even consider it anymore". A small grimace passed over his face: "And even if that wasn't the case... experience has taught me that if something seems too good to be true, it almost always is... and when the reality comes to light, you can rest assured that you won't like it"

Silence reigned for a few moments, then Edric said: "You speak in a... very specific way about the matter"

Hunter trembled. "Like I told you, I've had my experiences"

There was silence again, then Willow asked: "Do you want to... well, talk about it...?"

"No" was Hunter's curt reply as he stood up and walked towards the door. "Sorry, I'm going to the bathroom for a moment" and with that said he went out.

"Uh... is it just me, or did he seem scared?" Luz murmured, and the others nodded. "Should we follow him?"

"I don't think you'd like to go into the men's bathroom. Ok that we're friends, but let's not take such liberties" Edric said standing up. "I'll go talk to him"

Willow would have liked to go with him, but in fact even she, despite being a cricket, wasn't very eager to go into a bathroom if a boy was there... and the thought that it was Hunter only made her less inclined to do so. She glanced at Gus, who didn't say anything for a moment, then he sighed: "Okay, okay! Edric, take me with you, I'll come talk to him too" he said climbing from his legs up to his shoulder. Edric waited for him to arrive at his destination, and then he left the room taking him with him.

The girls stood waiting, wanting to wait for them to return, when suddenly a loud mumbling filled the room, reminding them that they hadn't eaten anything yet despite it was already getting late in the evening outside. "We'd better go get something to eat" Amity said. "Follow me, I'll show you where the kitchen is"

Everyone agreed. "Yay! We'll taste rich people's food! I bet it's delicious!" Luz exclaimed jovially. Amity blushed visibly and promised herself to provide the puppet with the best food she could find, even if it meant ransacking the pantry from top to bottom.

As they were going towards the kitchen, however, Emira seemed to think of something, and said: "Sorry, I have to do something. Go ahead, I'll be back in five minutes!" and with that she quickly disappeared into the corridor.

Amity was a little confused by her sister's sudden behavior, but soon another growl from her stomach reminded her that she definitely wanted food, and the same went for her friends, so she ignored that oddity and continued walking towards the kitchen.


Luz: "Can you imagine a place where kids like us can have fun every day?"

Everyone: "Yay! It must be heaven!"

Hunter: *Vietnam flashbacks*