Luz had quickly gotten Amity to update her on the latest events, and especially on the plan they had in mind. "Let me get this straight" she said in a somewhat skeptical voice. "Basically your plan now is to move us all to the Collector's realm?"

"Pretty much yes" Amity confirmed. "It's the only way to escape Belos"

"And how do we get back?" Luz asked. "If we all go, we will be prisoners on the other side!"

"Well, at this point it doesn't even seem that terrible to me considering what's here..." Hunter commented.

Luz glared at him. "You shut up! I don't care if you're on our side again, if you regret iyour actions or any other nonsense, as soon as this story is over I'll punch you in the face!"

"I think you'll have a lot of company" Hunter said, gesturing to the others, many of whom had scowls on their faces, especially Amity who almost seemed to hope she could lure him into spontaneous combustion with her gaze.

Such words only infuriated Luz even more, and she threw herself at him and slammed him against the wall of the airship while holding him by the collar; even though Hunter could have easily freed himself, he let her do so. "The only reason I'm not throwing you off the airship right now is because there's a kilometer-long monster ready to tear us to pieces, and unfortunately we need everyone's help and even a profiteering asshole like you!" she growled. "Don't try to be sarcastic with me anymore, do you understand!? Don't test my patience!"

"Luz, stop! There's no reason to..." Willow tried to stop her.

But the puppet glared at her. "Don't defend him! It's because of this dickhead that I've lived the last few months in total remorse, convinced that my family was dead!" she said in a voice that was very similar to a hiss, and then she looked at the boy again: "You've lost the right to be nice to me, so don't use sarcasm or make jokes, or I'll punch your teeth out!"

Hunter didn't react; he simply looked the puppet in the eyes. "I wasn't using sarcasm" he told her. "You can hate me all you want, I'm fine with that. But now we have to cooperate, whether you like it or not. So please... hold your anger and let go of my collar"

Luz clenched her fists and teeth. Holding her anger? It was easier to cut off her legs...

Suddenly, however, she felt a familiar hand rest on her shoulder. "Luz" her mother told her. "That's enough now. I can imagine how much you suffered because of him... but now he's here to help us. Let him go"

Luz shivered at that touch, and with extreme reluctance let go of the boy's collar, although she still didn't lose sight of him. Hunter straightened his dress without meeting her gaze, and then he said: "To answer your previous question, to avoid being trapped in the Collector's realm we will place Odalia on top of Ghost and send her to the land"

"Wait, you didn't tell me that part!" Odalia exclaimed, blanching completely. "Should I stay here!?"

"Yes, sorry, I forgot" Amity replied. "You are our door, so either you stay here, or I stay here to summon you, and in the latter case it would start a lot of arguments where Luz or Lilith or my friends won't want to leave me here alone. With you no one will make a fuss. Oh, and also I can't leave the Belos border since he's got me stuck here"

Odalia bit her lip. "If Belos kills me, you'll still be stuck in the Collector's realm!"

"All you need to do is fly to high altitude. Belos won't be able to reach you there" Hunter told her. "All you need to do is reach the land and reopen the portal there to let us return"

Odalia swallowed. "Well... at least unlock my magic!" she said to Amity. "So I can defend myself..."

"And risk you running away halfway through the plan?" Amity grumbled. "There's no talking about it"

"Amity! I wouldn't leave you here! I'm a bitch, okay, but not that kind of bitch!" Odalia protested. "And from what I understand you are trusting the traitorous monster hunter who practically handed you over to Belos! I know you're mad at me, but I'd say I'm on a slightly lower level of bastardy than him!"

"Great, buddy. Now you're the measure of the wickedness of this bunch of misfits" Gus said as he jumped onto Hunter's shoulder, who responded with a grunt.

Amity narrowed her eyes, clearly not trusting her mother in the slightest, but then she sighed and concentrated her magic, and she broke the seal she had placed on Odalia's heart. "Here. But know that I will restore it once this story will be over"

Odalia felt her magic flow back into her body, and she couldn't help but smile; she felt as powerful as she once had, even more so since she still had the essence of the Collector within her. "Don't worry. I'll make sure to reopen the portal for you as soon as I'm away from here" she told her daughter.

Luz leaned close to her girlfriend's ear: "Are you sure we can trust her?"

Amity shook her head, and her donkey ears folded slightly showing her disappointment. "No, but we don't have much choice" she said. "Now, please step away while you're talking to me! With these ears every sound is amplified so much it makes my brain hurt!"

"Oops... sorry!" Luz replied, though she didn't hold back a laugh. "Don't worry, we'll take them away... somehow"

"Yeah, we'll figure something out" Eda said with a laugh.

Luz looked at her. Eda was still a prisoner in the Owl Beast's body, but at least she seemed to be able to speak and think normally. And her body seemed to be slowly returning to normal. "How are you?" she asked her.

"Good" Eda assured her. "Even though I feel super bulky with all these feathers"

Luz lowered her head. "I'm sorry" she whispered. "Maybe if I regretted more..."

"Hey, don't think about it now" Eda replied. "You've already had enough trouble for today. You'll regret it once you get home... also because you're grounded for a month, young lady"

"Excuse me, those are words I should be saying" Camila said, entering the conversation. "Anyway, yes, Luz, you're grounded for skipping school and leaving home without your fairy godmother's permission"

Luz gave her a slightly sad smile. "Only for this?" she asked her with a bit of hesitation.

"Why? Is there something else I don't know about?" Camila asked looking at Eda with knowing eyes.

The fairy winked at her. "No, before I handed over the house to her a few days ago, she hadn't done anything to deserve punishment. And she's already paid for any mistakes she made while living with me… which by the way were very few"

"Oh, good! I'm glad to hear she behaved well" Camila said jovially.

Luz wasn't convinced. "Yes, but... because of what I did before..."

"Luz, weren't you listening to me when we met again in the middle of the ocean? I already told you that I forgave you everything" Camila replied with a sweet smile. "You don't have to be afraid that I will reproach you for something I have already forgiven you for"

Luz's heart skipped a beat. "Really? Even after everything that happened...?"

Camila rubbed her hair in response. "Of course. I've forgiven you everything, Luz. And I'm not mad at you for what happened. I'm just happy to have found you again"

Luz stood still for a moment, and even her breathing seemed to vanish; and then she threw herself on top of her mother and hugged her tightly, as if she were afraid that she would disappear at any moment if she let her go. Camila returned that hug and looked at Eda with gratitude, thanking her with her gaze for everything she had done for her daughter in her absence, who simply smiled at her as if to tell her that for her it had been a pleasure much more than a duty.

Alador's voice shook them from that position: "We have arrived"

In front of where the airship was landing was a large group of at least a thousand donkeys, which had once been the Bonesborough's kids. "Okay, everyone, it's our turn!" Darius exclaimed as he threw the lamp at Alador, "Come on, buddy! Make the wish!"

"Are you sure you can do this?" Alador asked him skeptically.

"I can at least partially transform them. Which, given the circumstances, isn't a bad idea" Darius replied. "I think they'll be happy to at least have their opposable thumbs back"

Alador nodded, trusting his friend, and then he rubbed the lamp: "I wish all these kids to return to normal!"

"Your wish is granted!" Darius exclaimed, and his magic flowed from his hands; all the donkeys were enveloped in his purple liquid, and then in their place normal kids reappeared, even if just like Amity all of them had retained asinine characteristics; in most cases it was ears and tail, but some also still had hooves or a bit of fluff. As soon as this happened, Flapjack, Owlbert and Mike Socks flew out of the airship and one by one the voices of all of them were healed, so that they could shout for joy again.

"Oh, finally!" Boscha exclaimed as soon as she was able to speak again. "I will never complain about my voice or my body again!"

"You can say it loud! Oh, I missed you so much, hands!" Skara said while doing a pirouette. Unlike her girlfriend who still only had ears and a tail, she also still had hooves instead of legs, but she didn't care much: at the moment she just was happy to be able to stand up and have her human face back.

"Wow, sister! I didn't think I would miss your face!" Edric laughed as soon as he regained his human form again, even though he still had a few tufts around his neck, as well as obviously his ears and tail.

"Go to hell, Ed" was Emira's acid response, but still the first thing she did as soon as she was able to stand up and use her hands again was hug her brother.

Amity also jumped off the airship, followed by the Collector: "Okay, guys, listen to me! Now my friend here will open a portal, and all of you will have to go inside! Once on the other side we will be safe from Belos... "

"Wait, what do you mean Belos!?" Emira exclaimed.

"Oh, right, you guys don't know that yet. Well, long story short, we're on the back of Belos and he was the one who turned us into donkeys" Amity answered her, and of course an exclamation of shock and fear went up from the other kids. "I'll explain it to you later, okay? Now just go through the portal and..."

"I'm staying" Salty said suddenly. "I still have to find my crew"

"It's true! Masha is still missing!" Vee supported him. "We can't leave them here!"

"And we won't. We'll search them. We won't abandon anyone. Well, except maybe you" Luz said looking sideways at Hunter, then she turned to the others. "You precede us through the portal, we will follow you just..."

"Hey, let's not talk about it! You just said we won't abandon anyone!" Boscha pointed out to her with Skara's agreement. "We won't leave you behind"

"Yeah! I still want to have a little sister!" Emira said back. "Having only Edric would be such a drag"

"Hey, I'm still here next to you!" her brother reminded her. "Anyway, yes, we don't leave anyone alone"

Luz was flattered by her friends' support, although she wished they weren't so willing to stay with her on the back of a giant monster. "Um... thanks, but it's really better than..."

Without any warning the earth began to shake with such violence that everyone was knocked upside down; and suddenly the ground split, and cracks the size of crevasses formed all around them. Every hill, plain and even mountain that made up the island split in on itself, revealing to be a huge tangle of fins, tentacles and insect legs moving furiously.

"Okay... this is even more terrifying than before!" Luz exclaimed, realizing that what her feet were resting on was not the ground, but the tip of a giant paw. "Belos must be really angry!"

"You can say it loud! He's definitely angry!" Hunter said with a lot of sweat on his forehead. "Collector, quickly, bring us..."

Suddenly a tentacle the size of a building emerged from the ground and hit the Collector squarely; the child wasn't too hurt, after all he was still an almost immortal semi-divine entity, but still he was thrown away as if he had been a fly hit by a swatter. "Okay... goodbye escape route" Amity commented upon seeing this.

Belos' back continued to open more and more, freeing all the hideous legs and tentacles that until then had remained curled up on themselves to make it look like a very ordinary island. One of the aforementioned tentacles wrapped itself around the airship and hurled it away with all its components. "Dad!" Edric and Emira exclaimed in unison when they saw this.

"Raine!" was Eda's reaction, but she didn't have time to worry about it because even the ground where they were standing began to crack; in a fraction of a second, what were cracks a few centimeters wide became tens of meters wide, and everyone was pushed away from each other, unable to do anything but hold on to the piece of ground they were standing on so as not to fall. Boscha, Skara, Cat, Amelia, Emira, Edric and all the other kids were dragged away until they were no longer visible. Willow tried to steady herself, but then she slipped and fell off her feet, dragging Gus and Matt with her; Hunter also threw himself with his staff and managed to catch her just before she crashed to the ground. Vee also lost her balance and fell down, but luckily she managed to transform her arms back into wings enough to glide towards a ledge and grab it.

"VEE! WILLOW! GUS!" Luz screamed as she saw them disappear into the chasm, but she didn't have time to despair because the piece of ground where she, Amity, Camila, Eda and Lilith were standing rose up revealing it to be a gigantic tail that had been folded along the back; it was a tail with serrated edges that ended in a hook, and it carried them all at least a hundred meters from the ground. In front of them, the huge mountain on the other side of the island cracked open, revealing two enormous arms and a horned head that turned to reveal one of his monstrous eyes, and his roar rang out across the ocean like a hurricane: "LUZ!"

In Collodi's original book, the giant shark doesn't realize that Pinocchio and Geppetto have escaped and therefore doesn't chase them. In this AU... let's say that Belos didn't exactly take it very well