Hey sorry for the long wait, I had to prepare for exams, it took me three weeks since I published the last chapter to start writing again, so now you know…
If you notice that there's something different with the dates is bc I've been editing some stuff. As I mentioned in the last chapter it's been less than a month since Luz arrived in the human realm (you can check that if you've been keeping up with the dates) and that feels a short amount of time for her to develop a good relationship with Eda. Because of that I decided to go back to previous chapters and edit the dates, now it's been more time since she arrived, also I felt like time was advancing really slowly so this felt like a needed change.
I have gotten so much inspiration to write a fanfic based on my own version of an ending of s2 (it was good, but I feel like it could've been better) and maybe make my own AU of S3, mostly based on the theories I had while the season was airing. The sad thing is that with my slow writing and my attention span this fic would take more time to update (since nowadays I'm basically updating once a month it would take two month to get another chapter done more or less). What do you guys think? Would you be interested in this? Everything up to s2e10 would be cannon and the chapters would be the same length, probably would be a short fic of ten chapters.
The usual crap:
If you could send me a review that would be great! (not that I´m forcing you), all feedback is appreciated! As long as you don't yell at me XD
English isn't my first language, please tell me if you spot any mistakes!.
Disclaimer: I don't own the owl house, all the characters except my OCs belong to Disney and Danna Terrace. This AU idea belongs to moringmark (Plz go read his comics, I beg you).
-Hunter-
A motel outside Gravesfield / Tuesday August 16th 18:00 PM
Two months
Two long freaking months in this stupid dimension.
Hunter thought that at this point he would've pulled his hair out of stress but luckily he had things to keep him busy, otherwise he could have gone mad a while ago. First of all was his research: Since he was the only one of his group who cared about knowing human customs he was in charge of investigating all about paranormal events. Hunter had to admit that his time on the internet wasn't always productive, now he knew more about humans than he needed to know.
Then it was the constant chase from local authorities, it seemed that they were way past the point of trying to make a good impression with them. His group learned how to evade these 'cops' after a while, it wasn't that hard.
Also the main issue that consumed his comarade's times was the categorization of the magical items they found when they raided those human strongholds, they still had a few that didn't know how worked but it was just a matter of time. In fact Hunter wanted to be back at their motel room to do that but sadly he had other duties; Since Wrath was a demon whose appearance could scare off humans and Abigail was still injured, it was up to him to bring food to the table. Since stealing ended up being counterproductive in the long term, he had to resort to a more… radical solution.
It meant that he had to find a part-time job.
It was so stupid! Back in the isles he belonged to the most prestigious of covens and had one of the highest ranks there, not only that but he was the emperor's nephew! That made him practically royalty. Here he was just another teen trying to survive by working retail, he was glad to have something to occupy his mind, but he just couldn't tolerate customer service.
With a sigh he entered the motel and went directly to his room to change, he did not want Abigail to see him in his uniform. After cleaning himself and eating something he felt much better, he then joined the other two in the common room. Wrath was watching a romance movie on the flat crystal ball and Abigail was typing on a portable device humans called laptop (where did she get that and how did she learn to use it? Hunter had no idea)
"Greetings" Wrath waved at him while Abigail merely nodded her head to acknowledge him "Did you bring some food?"
"No, Wrath" Hunter groaned "The deal was that I bring the money and you guys do the grocery shopping, I can't do everything"
The grey demon gave the other witch a hopeful glance but she just looked at him with annoyance. After a few seconds of this silent exchange Wrath gave up.
"Ok, fine. I'll go" then he went to get dressed in his room.
"He's going to eat the groceries before he gets here" Abigail commented once he left the room "are you sure that you want to send him?"
"No, but I'm too tired to do anything else. Besides I meant what I said, it's only fair that you people do some of the work"
"What even is your work? From the way you complain it seems that you are being whipped daily"
Hunter gulped. There was no way he was going to tell her that his job consisted of flipping burgers and attending customers. She would laugh and tell him to go get a real job.
"I-it's none of your business! Besides, why don't you get a job and see for yourself how hard it is? That way you won't be sitting around here doing nothing!"
"Excuse me? I've been doing research on the human bases where they hold magic items, I even found the perfect target for our next heist!" Then she showed him an image of a storage facility on her laptop "I also been tracking the wild witch's appearances to determine her exact location"
Hunter grunted, even if capturing the wild witch was one of their priorities it was clear that she was just eager to have a rematch.
"Well that's good, but shouldn't we be searching for rumors of magical artifacts? Raiding human facilities will create problems in the long term, they will start to expect us and become more hostile. Look at how well armed they were last time, if we keep doing this they will step up their game"
"Pfft, and what are they going to do? Try to beat us with sticks? Humans aren't my concern" she added with a smile as she stretched herself "the wild witch should be our only focus right now"
"Right, all of this just because you want to fight her again" Hunter rolled his eyes.
"While I admit it would be fun to kick her ass it's not just that" she crossed her arms in defiance "she was the nearest person to the plane-shifting staff, so she has to have a piece!"
"That's no guarantee that she has one! And even if she did we'd still be stuck here, do I have to remind you that the piece that I have is the middle part? So that means that at best we have two other pieces to worry about"
"She is still our only lead! What else do you want me to do?"
"How about capturing one of those humans for information and learning about the places where they found their magic relics? If they appeared out of the sky like us we might have a better chance at finding the remains of the staff by figuring out how the humans found those relics"
"Humans don't know shit about magic, what do you expect to find out if we interrogate one? I'm pretty sure that the only reason why they are able to find all of these relics its because they have enough numbers to sweep the entire area, unlike us who are lacking in manpower"
"I don't know what they are aware of but at least we could try! It's not like we have anything to lose, and it feels like something more productive than just waiting for your leg to heal so you can have a rematch with an enemy we have no way to track"
"That 's not… I don't need my leg to fight her!"
"Really? Because the last time she beat you easily when you were completely healthy, are you going to fight her while limping?"
Hunter knew that was the wrong thing to say as soon as his words left his mouth, but it was too late by then. Abigail's face shifted to one of pure rage and swear words were already forming on her mouth. He barely had time to get out of the room before she started throwing whatever was on the table at him. Luckily she had enough restraint to not use spells, it would be a really stupid way of having their cover blown.
"On second thought, it's a good thing that she doesn't have a job. One day in retail and she'd disintegrate everyone in the block"
Hunter started going to his room when he accidentally bumped with Wrath who was getting ready to go outside. The poor demon had to cover his entire face with a hood to not frighten the humans, it wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for the intense heat.
"Oh, sorry big guy"
"No problem" The demon had actually become nicer when he got past his infatuation with Abigail. In fact the female witch treated him better now that he didn't behave like a lovesick puppy, which was quite ironic "I was actually looking for you"
"Yeah, I'll accompany you to buy the stuff…"
"No its not for that, I swear I won't eat the food before paying… again" Wrath then pulled something from one of the inner pockets of his trenchcoat, it looked like a tiny wooden statue of a red bird with a scar on its left eye "I wanted to give you this"
"Is that one of your toys?" The demon had an enormous amount of plushies back in the boiling isles, and he recently had been using part of their money to restock his collection.
"No, I found it in our last raid and I've been keeping it to myself for when we present ourselves to the emperor again. This is a palisman"
Hunter felt goosebumps going through his back. Palismen were infamous for being the tool wild witches used to cast their wild magic spells, they were quite common (and still are in some parts) but thankfully Emperor Belos outlawed them and decreted that they should be delivered to his castle in order to protect the citizens from their evil magic. Palismen were living beings made out of palistrom wood which was pure wild magic, it was dangerous to even be around one.
"Wha-what are you doing with that thing!? Do you want to get imprisoned for using wild magic? Palismen are dangerous! We need to contain it before-" Wrath held a hand and interrupted his rambling.
"Relax it's petrified, it can't do anything on this state" upon further inspection he saw how the palisman looked like it was made out of stone, instead of wood like usual "It must've been confiscated from a wild witch and thrown into the vault, then it must've been teleported with us"
"And the humans found it… I kept telling them that we needed to have a better inventory of the vault! But wait, why do you have it?"
"I was planning to give it to the emperor when we came back, I know he likes to safeguard these things personally. But then I thought that you should give it to him, you are his nephew after all"
It was true that emperor Belos kept all of the palismen in his castle, but he didn't guard them like other magic relics. The truth was that the emperor was cursed by wild magic in his youth, with the same magic that killed all of their family members. Belos managed to survive but at a cost: in order to keep the curse from corrupting him he needed to consume palismen on a regular basis, his uncle used to say that wild magic can only be fought with wild magic.
Sadly the emperor's curse was kept as a secret in order to protect his health and public image. If his enemies knew about it they'd surely find a way to exploit it, so the curse had to be kept a secret for most of the population.
"Uhh, thank you?"
"No problem, take it as an apology. I wasn't really kind to you when we met and I haven't been of any help these past days, I just felt like doing something to compensate"
With that he opened the door and left. Hunter stood there grabbing the palisman on their doorway. Wrath had meant well but he made him think about his uncle, something he avoided doing all this time out of the pain that came with those memories. He clutched the palisman with his hands as sadness washed over him.
"I'll make my way back to you uncle, I promise"
-Eda-Gravesfield mall / Sunday August 21st 12:00 AM
"Luz stop staring at them, we are not going to get one"
"But they are so cute Eda! Their legs are so short…"
Right now they were in the mall because they needed supplies for a celebratory meal: Luz (barely) approved her entrance exam thanks to the help she received from Lilith and her friends, so she felt like a celebration was in order. Also today was the two-month anniversary of Luz coming to earth and the girl was feeling really down after not finding a clue about the staff for so long, she tried to hide it but she wasn't good at it.
Eda thought that a shopping trip and a celebration would cheer her up, and she was right, but she didn't consider that dealing with a cheerful Luz in a place full of distractions would be so tiring. Right now she was basically dragging her away from the pet store.
"Eda, that one was wiggling its tail! I didn't know that you guys had creatures that adorable in this realm!"
"Yeah and the reason why I haven't brought you here before is because I knew you'd act weird around cute animals"
"Oh come on! You can't blame me for that, one of them was begging me to take him home with his eyes…"
"Ok, no. Back away from that idea"
"What?"
"Between King, Owlbert, and that murderous plant of yours I have more than enough living things in my house. We are not bringing more"
Luz whined a little but luckily dropped the subject. With that settled they resumed their shopping trip and went after the next item of the list: cat food food for king.
"This reminded me of something. We need to check King for fleas soon, so I decided that you are taking him to the vet tomorrow, since you love animals so much"
"What? But I was planning on hanging out with Willow and Gus!"
"Well tough luck kid, the cat has been extra grumpy since you brought that killer plant, and I don't want to deal with his attitude while being stuck with him for a day. Especially after he realizes that we are taking him to the vet, he hates that place"
"And you are going to leave me to deal with him? You know he's still mad at me for puking on him"
Eda snorted as she remembered the first night Luz tried human pizza, at first she loved it and ate more slices than she should. Then after a few hours they found out that she was lactose intolerant the hard way when she started puking and then rushed into the bathroom to do some ungodly things to the toilet. To make it worse she was playing with King when it happened and the poor cat got drenched in puke, it had been a challenge to find it and wash it afterwards, Luz ended with more scratches that she could count.
Later when they were trying to find out what could've caused all of that Eda remembered a highschool friend talking about being lactose intolerant, and the symptoms matched. She explained to Luz and the witch told her that she should've seen it coming: There weren't any cows in the boiling isles so it made sense that her body wasn't designed to digest milk, still they didn't know if all the witches were like this or if it was just her. It was one of the most embarrassing memories Luz had of the human world and the witch made her promise to never talk about it.
"Well, you can use your time with him in the vet to mend your relationship" she couldn't help the smirk on her face upon remembering the incident.
Luz just glared at her but remained silent otherwise. They bought everything on the list and were deciding on a place to eat when Luz suddenly decided to sprint away.
"Hey, kid! Where are you going?" She knew that Luz could be hyperactive and random, but this was too much.
"Sorry! it's just that I thought I saw.. there they are! Gus! Willow"
She kept running and hugged two surprised teens: A small dark skinned boy who was carrying a backpack that was almost as big as him, and a big girl with a braid and round glasses. Judging from the way they interacted they were the friends she always talked about.
"Luz!" The girl exclaimed "I heard you passed! Hello new classmate" The two of them shrieked in excitement
"What are you doing here?"
"I was shopping for groceries when I saw you guys! Where are you going?"
"Gus finally convinced me to try his nerd card game"
"Excuse me? Magic the gathering is not for nerds! How dare you"
"Any card game that uses more than one number per card is for nerds, sorry Gus" then she noticed her coming from behind Luz "Who is that?"
"Yeah Luz, how come you haven't told them about me?"
"Ah yes, sorry. Guys this is Eda Clawthorne my… guardian? Mentor? Tutor?" She looked at Eda for clarification but the woman just shrugged, honestly she couldn't put a name to their relationship either "Or something like that, she's an old family friend and I'm staying at her house in the meantime. Eda these are Willow Park and Gus Porter, the friends I told you about"
"Pleased to meet you Mrs Clawthorne" the other girl waved politely at her.
Eda felt a chill run up her spine and shuddered. The girl was being nice but she addressed her like a teacher or a parent, it just didn't feel right with her.
"Eugh don't use the 'Mrs' kid, I'm not married… anymore. Just call me Eda, or the owl lady if you prefer"
"Wait… the owl lady? You are famous in the world of magic antiques! Is it true that you know how to read tarot cards?" The little guy's eyes were sparkling with joy.
A mischievous smile started forming in her face upon meeting a new possible customer… and victim. She looked at Luz and saw how the girl was starting to sweat, she casted a worried glance towards Eda and shaked her head.
Eda sighed and gave up on the idea to try to lure them, she admitted that Luz was right to worry: One of the rules that she had was to never scam people she might interact with in the future, and considering that they were her friends, it was likely that she'll see them again. Besides she wasn't going to scare them away, it was a miracle that Luz managed to have two friends considering how weird she was. Also they were kids and it was morally wrong or whatever.
But just because she couldn't scam them didn't mean that she couldn't have a little bit of fun.
"Aha! I see that you are well informed about the world of the occult my new friend" she said with an exaggerated accent as she entered her 'owl lady' persona "Ah yes you are correct, I am Edalyn Clawthorne, the infamous Owl lady! Need to know about future events of your life? The cards hold no secret to me dear boy! Need to contact those who passed away? I am a seer with no equal! Potions? Medicines? Problems that require a little… not so legal solution? I have everything you need!" She emphasized her speech with exaggerated poses each sentence and Luz cringed back each time she did it "Sadly I am not on my working day so I won't be able to perform one of my tricks for you kids, you have to rest from being awesome sometimes!"
When she ended the boy was jumping up and down with excitement and part of her regretted not being able to trick him out of his money, he was the kind of dweebus that would make her rich. Luz facepalmed so hard that it sounded like it hurt her and the glasses girl was looking at her with distrust.
"My dads warned me about you, they said you were a scammer"
*Snort*"Then I would say that your parents are pretty darn smart! Don't worry kid I won't do anything, like I said I'm off duty" she switched back to her normal voice.
"Thank you" Luz whispered to her and then turned back to her friends "I didn't know that you guys were going to be here, right now we were going to have something to eat, but I'm free afterwa-" Eda cleared her throat and pointed towards the bags of groceries they had with them "Aaand I also need help Eda organize these things, but other than that I'm free. We could hang out if you want!"
"Sure, but before that Gus here has something to show you!" She then nudges the small boy.
"Oh yeah! I was saving this for your first day of school but I guess now it's better than never" With that he grabbed his backpack and pulled out something that looked like a flag, it was decorated with multiple colors and a text that read:
BETTER LUCK NEXT TIME
Eda laughed and Luz just frowned, the boy looked at the flag and yelped.
"Ah I grabbed the wrong one! Sorry, I was just… covering my bases you know?" The glasses girl facepalmed and the boy pulled another flag that read "congratulations".
"Wow, thanks for having faith on me I guess"
"Sorry…"
"Anyway, yes sure. We can hung out after you are done with your things and we are done with the nerd event"
"It's not a nerd event!"
"Well you three sure are cute, but we have stuff to do. Come on Luz, see you later dweebuses"
"Did she just call us…"
"Yes I'm sorry she can be like that, see you later guys!"
"See you around classmate!" The boy waved and pulled another flag that read 'GOODBYE FOREVER'. The girl just shaked her head and the boy laughed awkwardly "I'm just going to get rid of these…"
An hour and a half later
They had their (very late) lunch and were carrying their stuff into the parking lot and Luz was pouting because Eda refused to let her stay with her friends.
"A deal's a deal kid, you have your shift in the shop today"
"But Eda my shift doesn't start in a couple hours! I could stay with them until it's time to open"
"We have get these things to the owl house, remember? And there's no way that I'm going to be driving back and forth just so that you can hang out with your friends for a couple hours, once my ass touches the sofa it's not moving from there!" Luz whined pitifully and gave her the puppy-eyes "Agh, grow up. I don't know why you are pestering me to be your personal diver, you can fly! I'm ok with you using your staff to get over here if you can get to your shift in time"
"I can't use owlbert, he's still too tired from our two last fights remember?" Right Luz recently had to fight against a gigantic slug that got bigger by eating trash and a creep that used a magical artifact that allowed him to become invisible, the worst part is that he used that to spy on the girl's bathroom.
That had been a busy weekend.
"Well if you can't fly there why won't you just teleport to the mall once we are done?"
"There aren't any long-range teleportation spells Eda, don't you think that if I could use that I wouldn't need Owlbert to move?"
"Well, it sucks for you kid, because there's no way that I'm going to- WHAT THE HELL?" She suddenly halted and made Luz bump into her.
Her car had been entirely covered with some kind of white substance, the hood, the windows, the wheels, some of it even splashed in the ground. It smelled so bad that Eda almost puked right then and there.
"WHO THE FUCK DID THIS-blegh" The putrid smell interrupted her mid-swear.
"I was sure that I got used to the weirdness from the human realm by now, but this is on another level. Eda is this a common occurrence? Did one of your ex-husbands do this?"
"Those cowards live in far away states and are too busy living their happy remarried lives to worry about me" She regretted checking their facebook profiles.
"Then who else could've done this? Do you have that many enemies? I mean I know that you tend to have your disagreements with the police…"
"Those goodie two-shoes are too dumb to try this, it has to be someone else" She attempted to approach her car but the smell was too much for her.
"But isn't having two shoes a normal thing?" Luz mumbled behind her.
"I've had a few pissed customers before, they tried to prank me as a payback either from the prices at my shop or from my scamming act. Usually it's something inoffensive and they are never successful, but this is on another level" If that was the case she needed to talk to Lily and change the locks "Ok kid, I know we have a 'no magic to help manual labor' agreement, but I think the situation demands it"
"Huh?"
"Do you think that I have the patience or the resources to deal with this? No. We need a magical solution here kid, quickly before someone sees this mess"
"But people could see me!"
"Who? There's no one around besides us" The parking lot was surprisingly empty "Now you should hurry up before that situation changes"
Instead of doing her magic Luz stood there with a thoughtful expression. After a while she turned back at Eda with a mischievous smile.
"I don't like the look of this"
"Ohh actually I'm feeling reeeeally tired, I ate a lot and we've been walking around all day. I don't think that I can do magic right now"
"Luz I've seen you destroyed after a full day of work and studying and even then you have the energy to fly and do your superhero shit after all that, don't try to bullshit me"
"I'm being truthful Eda, if I do magic now then I'll be drained for the rest of the day. So maybe if I had time to hang out with my friends after this it'll give me enough time to recover"
"Seriously? That's what you are going with? Alright kid, I'll play"
"Ok first of all let me congratulate you for having the guts to try, but you are way out of your league kid"
Luz just looked at her with an innocent expression, as if she didn't know what she was talking about. At first Eda thought of handling this like her mother would (and wasn't that a scary thought?): Ground her, remind her that she was the one paying for the housing and food, try to bribe her with favors, tell her that she was better than this, the usual stuff. But then she thought that she could handle this situation in a more Eda way.
"Ok fine, you win kid"
"I do?" Luz sounded really surprised.
"Yep, let's go" With that she turned around and started leaving.
"What?"
"Since you are too tired to clean up my car then you must be too tired to hang out with your friends, I don't have the energy to clean up my car right now so I'm calling an uber. You better come with me and rest in order to feel well for your shift"
"Ah-But" This wasn't in the teenager's calculations "You are really going to leave your car like this?"
"What else am I supposed to do? My magical housemate doesn't feel like helping and I don't have cleaning products in hand"
"Won't people be mad at you? That paint is everywhere!"
"I didn't do this and the cameras of the mall can prove it. Besides, I can deal with the police just fine"
She sent her a smug smile and crossed her arms to watch the witch struggle with a comeback.
"Gah! Fine…" Luz turned back and started marching towards the car.
"I'm proud of you kid, but you should choose a better target for next time. Now hurry up before someone comes"
The witch nodded and looked around for possible witnesses, once she double checked that the parking lot was empty and quickly drew her magic circles. Water and bubbles rushed from these and wrapped themselves around her car, lifting it up in the air, with some quick motions the vehicle was completely cleaned and then it landed softly on the ground as if nothing happened.
"Phew! Thanks Luz, I might've commited a mass murder if I had to deal with that one on my own" Eda for once was thankful that Luz wasn't like her. If she would've been in the witches place she'd totally wouldn't have backed down.
"I don't think this was a prank Eda, maybe it was an accident? Because they didn't just vandalize your car, the paint was splashed everywhere"
"That wasn't paint kid, it was something else. In fact I think I recognize that smell from somewhere…" She was talking as she loaded the things inside the car and was thankful that there wasn't any smell inside.
"Yeah it smelled familiar for me too… wait a second" Her face paled and she started looking around "It did smell familiar. Eda, are there any animals on earth that are able to cover your car with excrement like that?"
"What kind of question is that?" Luz wasn't paying her any attention, she was drawing more of her magic circles in the air "Well… I think that there are quite a few? But their shit won't look like this, the only animal that could leave this mess is a… bird" That's where the smell came from! She smelt this every time she stood near a public place with a lot of pigeons.
"Yup! Just as I feared, come on Eda!" She then sprinted towards the other side of the parking lot"
"Hold on kid" She ended unloading everything into the car and raced towards her direction "Would it kill you to… wait"
They were outside the parking lot and now they could see that something was resting in the side of the shopping mall building. It was bigger than a truck but still managed to lay on the balcony without collapsing the floor, its front part was covered with grey feathers and it had two enormous wings with the same conoration, while the rear was covered in brown fur. The weird part were its limbs: It had four, the two front ones were talons while the other two were paws that resembled those of a big feline with retractable claws. Right now it was curled into itself so she couldn't see its face, but the deep rumbling and the rise and fall of its chest told her it was sleeping.
"Yep, thought so" Luz was whispering to not wake the monster up "that was a griffin"
"A griffin?!" Eda whispered-yelled. Because she was a self-proclaimed magician (and because she had a sister who was a complete fan of fantasy like Lilith) she knew a lot about ancient history, so of course she knew what this creature was "why did it get up there? And how come no one has seen it yet?"
"1: maybe its searching for a nest, griffins are natural cliff-dwellers. 2: I don't know, it's been two months since the rift opened, a creature this size should bring attention to itself"
"Why is it covered in spiders?" The beast had multiple arachnids crawling over its fur.
"Griffins have spider-breath"
"What?" Eda raised her voice unintentionally upon receiving that information.
Luz grabbed her wrist and dragged her behind a corner while she put a finger in her lips, asking for silence. Eda peeked around and saw that her sudden yelling startled the griffin, who was waking up. Now she could see its head and she was actually confused about it: She always imagined these creatures as a noble mix of a lion and an eagle, but this one had the head of a pigeon, which made it look quite goofy.
"Ok, sorry" she went back to whispering "So is this what happened to my car? It got shit on by a giant mythological pigeon?" This wasn't on her 'shenanigans from living with Luz' bingo card.
"Yeah" Luz had summoned her witch clothing and was hiding her face behind her cowl "You should back off Eda, I'm going to try to relocate it to somewhere safe but it'll be harder because I can't fly"
"Ok, good luck. Whatever happens don't bring him to the owl house" She then proceeded to run towards her car
She left the groceries inside the car and waited outside the parking lot for several minutes. The time passed and she grew anxious but didn't want to go back inside, judging by the roars coming from inside the battle was still going on and if she went there she might end up being a liability for Luz.
She did eventually move when she noticed that Luz's friends exited the mall and were headed for her direction. The battle sounds had been quiet for a while so she didn't know if Luz managed to subdue the griffin or if the fight still went on, and these two were walking right where a monster could appear out of nowhere and crush their heads or cover them in poop. Cursing her morality, she rushed to meet them halfway and possibly take them somewhere else.
"... I gotta admit Gus" as she got closer she could hear their conversation "once you get past the learning curve that game can be pretty fun"
"Hah! I told you so! And you had the gall to call it a 'game for nerds' before!"
"Yeah I still think that" the little guy gave her a sad look "what? I've never said that being a nerd is a bad thing"
"Ok fair enough"
"Good, now shush. I'm trying to call Luz's cellphone but it doesn't… Oh her Mrs Cla- I mean Eda"
"Oh hey, we were just looking for you guys. Wait, where's Luz" the boy started looking around for her.
"Oh hey guys!" Eda tried to pretend as if everything was normal "I… forgot your names already, sorry"
"Willow and Gus" round glasses provided.
"I am not even going to try remembering"
"Right. So Luz… went to the bathroom, yeah that's right. She is lactose intolerant and accidentally ate a lot of cheese, she's gonna be there for a while"
"Oh ok, too much information"
"Yeah she went to the bathroom inside the mall, so why don't we go back inside and wait there for her?"
She led them back inside without giving them much time to answer. Eda looked up from time to time half expecting to see a giant bird and a witch crashing on them at full speed but nothing happened, she was also wary of the girl: All the time she was looking at her in a suspicious manner, she assumed it was because her parents warned her about Eda (which was a logical thing to be honest).
"Miss Clawthorne"After a bit of waiting in an awkward silence the girl spoke up "which bathroom did Luz go into? Was it on this floor?"
"Well at least she ditched the Mrs"
"Umm well she went to…" then a figure to her right caught her eye "there she is!"
"Luz, hey!" The boy waved at the girl who just noticed them, she got closer and all of them noticed her appearance "What the- what happened to you!?"
The girl was in a bad shape: She was covered from head to toe in scratches and bruises, her clothes had several tears on them and her shirt had a red strain that Eda was certain it was blood. To top it all off she was panting as if she just ran a marathon.
"Hey guys! How is it going?" Luz had a sheepish smile on her bruised face.
"Oh my gosh! What happened to you?" The boy had a dumbfounded face.
"Are you okey? Do you need help? Do you want us to take you to the hospital?"
"No it's fine. I… just… fell"
Eda facepalmed.
"You fell? Where? Inside of a box of rabid cats?"
"No Gus I fell" her eyes darted around "from the top of the mechanical stairs and tumbled down"
"Ouch, that must've hurt, are you good?"
"Yes don't worry. I was always falling from places back home so I developed a high pain tolerance, see?" She then proceeded to flex her muscles only to wince from the pain.
"Okey that's it" she then moved forward and put an arm around Luz "Listen guys Luz here needs to rest so I'm going to take her home, so I'm sorry but your little playdate would have to wait.
"It's okey, we understand. I hope you get better"
"Yeah, you gotta be careful next time!"
Luz pouted but didn't protest, she waved goodbye to her friends as they left the mall.
"Okey well that was something" Eda just managed to relax when they entered the car "What happened to the griffin?"
"I don't wanna talk about it" Luz was looking outside with a depressed face. Eda wasn't sure if it was because she got beat up by a pigeon or because she didn't get to go out with her friends, maybe both.
"Ok listen kid, you know I had to pull you out of there right? Humans don't just magically recover from those injuries, your cover would've been blown if you stayed"
"I know, I get it" She still looked sad so Eda had an idea that might cheer her up.
"Hey, remember how we were planning stuff for your two-month versary on earth?"
"Uh-huh"
"Well originally I was thinking of having a fancy dinner and doing stuff that you liked, but now think that having your friends over might be a better plan"
The witch turned around to look at her with round eyes "you mean it?"
"As long as you don't burn down the house, yes and they'll have to bring stuff to collaborate with the party and clean afterwards. Because there's no way I'm cleaning after three teenagers myself"
"Oh my titan! Yes Eda!" Luz launched her into a hug "Thank you!"
"Alright Kid, let me drive" with that they left the parking lot and started the journey back home "Oh by the way, you can heal yourself right? I don't want to be a part-time nurse again"
"Oh yeah sorry, I forgot" she drew a circle in the air. Her body emitted a light for a few seconds and her injuries started to heal "It'll take a couple hours to completely heal"
"Perfect, that means that you are going to be in great shape for your shift at work"
"WHAT?"
"You thought I forgot about that? Now you have no excuse, it's not like you have something else to do"
Eda would deny it with her dying breath, but the moment Luz sweared for the first time since they knew each other, she felt a bubbling sensation of pride in her chest.
"Fuck!"
-Luz-
Near Cliffside school, east Gravesfield / August 29th 7:40 AM
Luz hurriedly walked past gardens and houses, several people were exiting their homes to start the week and their workdays, but she sprinted past them without paying attention. Normally she would've walked slower to enjoy the nice day: Not a single cloud in the horizon, birds were singing, flowers were blooming, it would be nice to for a walk with a weather like this.
The problem was that she did not have time for that. Today was her first day in school and she was already arriving late because Eda didn't drive her there. The woman was in a deep sleep and no matter what Luz did she just wouldn't wake up, in hindsight Luz should've expected that: Eda hardly ever woke up before noon. Without any alternatives she had to fly towards the school with her staff, she had opted to land a few blocks away just in case someone saw her. Once she found a place without people she landed and started running.
"Come onnnn! I gotta give a good impression and I can't do that if I arrive late"
Finally she arrived at the front of the school and cowered at the sight in front of her: Tons of teenagers more or less her age were all around the place arriving to class, she was never good with crowds but she has never seen so many people in just one place. Not even in the schools back in the boiling isles.
"It's okey that's just the nerves, you got this. I could really use some familiar faces to cheer me up"
Luz scanned the crowd to look for her friends but she couldn't find them. She was about to grab her phone to text them when she spotted a familiar green mane.
"Amity, hi!" She still was unsure where she stood with the human girl: on one hand she bullied Willow and acted on a mysterious manner, but she was also nice to her when she gave her that guided tour last time. Luz still had to figure her out, so what a better way to do it than go to class together?
"What do you- Oh hi Luz!" Amity was scowling at first but she calmed down when she saw her "Since you are here I assume that you passed your entrance exam, right?"
"Yes! I'm so thankful for those books that you gave me, you're a lifesaver!" After she left early in her tour day Bump gave her Amity's number so that the other girl could contact her for assistance (she was a tutor after all), Luz wasn't ashamed to admit that besides asking for her help in the exams she also used this to send her cute King pics.
"It's no big deal, I enjoyed doing it. How was your history test?"
"Oh you have no idea how nervous I was, national history is really hard when you are new to the country you know? But after reading about it I can honestly say that you americans are and have always been crazy" That last bit made Amity chuckle a little bit "I'm sorry about the way I left the last time, I had to attend some really important matters"
"I could tell, what's 'code W' by the way? You were screaming that when you left"
"Uhh, that's kinda personal" she made that keyword for whenever she wanted to speak about witch stuff with Eda but the older woman thought it was dumb.
"Oh, nevermind then. Are you excited for your first day?"
"Yes! I barely slept last night, I can't wait to have classes together" she paused mid-rant because something caught her eye: a familiar face appeared from the multitude of teenagers "Oh, hey Willow! How are you doing?"
"What?" Amity's voice was an octave higher than usual.
True enough the black-haired girl emerged from the pile of students that was pushing to get inside the building, she was holding a paper and Luz assumed it was her schedule "mental note: I need to remember to grab my own schedule". When Willow saw Luz her eyes lit up and started walking towards her, however she stopped when she saw who was with her. Amity's and Willow's eyes met each other and for a couple of seconds they just stood there with their mouths open, then it seemed they snapped out of that trance: Willow's expression hardened and Amity recoiled with fear.
"What are you doing here?" Willow asked as if Amity couldn't be near them.
"What's happening? Why did- ohh" for a moment she had forgotten about their relationship.
"That's right, they hate each other… How could I be so stupid! Well, this is going to be awkward"
Luckily she did not have to deal with whatever this was, because the bell that announced the start of the day rang at that moment.
"Oh well would you look at that we have to go, catch you later Amity?"
But the green-haired girl didn't answer her, she had a look of sadness on her face that quickly changed into a cold glare. She looked at Luz with disdain and then walked towards the opposite way.
"Well that was weird"
"Why were you with her?" Willow was looking at her suspiciously.
"I'll explain later, can you help me grab my schedule first? We are going to be late to class"
"Fine" it was more than clear that she wasn't happy with the situation.
"Great I managed to annoy two girls that were nice to me in like ten seconds, this is not a great start"
And here we go, I honestly do not like some things about this chapter but I do not know how to make it better. I've spent a lot of time trying to make it work so I'm like whatever at this point.
Hey let's do something: I want Lumity fics recommendations, so why don't you give me some and I'll answer you with some of my own. I don't mind any other secondary ships, I don't like much angst, other than that I do not have any preferences.