Schlaftag 1, Sixth Lunar Disappearance, 50 CE | The Owl House
"Breakfast is ready! Come get something before I give it all to Hooty!" Eda yelled from the kitchen, the smell of sizzling… something wafting up the stairs and into Luz's room.
Luz shuffled her way out of her sleeping bag and loosed a massive yawn. She was not a morning person. She quickly shifted herself into some sweatpants and one of her favorite Good Witch Azura t-shirts. A nice, comfy outfit.
Uh oh, bad decision, Luz! She had forgotten about the whole moonlight fiasco from last night. As her pajamas were replaced with her chosen attire, Luz doubled over in pain, clutching at her stomach. She felt like she had just taken a left hook directly to the kidney.
"Sweet mother of Titan, that hurt," Luz said through gritted teeth. She took in a sharp breath and blinked a few times. Composing herself, the basilisk slowly walked down the stairs, rubbing at her side to try and alleviate the pain.
"You alright, kid? You aren't lookin' too hot," Eda said as Luz entered the room. The Owl Lady was busy frying up some bacon, but stopped once she saw the state her apprentice was in.
"I've been better. Do you have any, like, magical painkillers?" Luz replied, taking a seat at the table.
"Is this about that moon thing that happened last night?"
"Yeah. Whenever I try to shapeshift it hurts."
"Don't worry, I've got a potion or two somewhere that can fix that. Shouldn't take it on an empty stomach, though, so get some food in you first," Eda instructed while scouring through the cabinets.
Not wanting to know what horrible thing would probably happen to her if she took the painkiller on an empty stomach, Luz grabbed a freshly-washed apple and bit into it. As she chewed, she pondered over how weird it was that so many things from the Human Realm had a one-to-one analogue here in the Demon Realm. Given, eating apples from the Human Realm that had spoiled didn't get you intoxicated and stuck on the roof. Luz had discovered that nifty fact when she had found Eda atop the Owl House, surrounded by a bevy of rotten apple cores. That night had been a struggle.
"Found it!" Eda called out, holding up a glowing blue potion. The witch handed the medicine over to her ailing housemate. "Here ya go, kiddo."
"Thanks, Eda. How long should this last?" Luz asked, weighing the bottle in her hand.
The Owl Lady did some quick mental math. "I'd say it should hold for about 12 hours, give or take."
"Alright. Down the hatch!" Luz proclaimed before chugging the potion. It tasted oddly sweet, like someone had mixed an energy drink and a cappuccino together. The potion kicked in almost immediately, and Luz let out a sigh of relief as she felt the pain subside.
To further test if the potion was working, Luz morphed into her basilisk form, waited a few seconds to see if it hurt, and and then back to human., all with no pain whatsoever!
"Now that that's settled, you want some breakfast kid?" Eda asked.
"Yes please, I am starving." Luz responded, her stomach grumbling, clearly not satisfied with just an apple.
"Then feel free to help yourself to some-"
"HOOT HOOT SPEEDY DELIVERY!" Hooty burst his head through the window, sending shards of glass flying into the meal that Eda had just laid down. The house demon then lightly placed down a basket covered in a blanket.
"Hooty! Why did you just-" Luz let out a groan, not even bothering to finish the sentence.
"Is it some kind of gift basket?" Luz asked, examining the package.
"It's probably someone trying to sacrifice their firstborn to me, even though I keep telling people to stop doing that," Eda supplied.
Eda slowly pulled back the blanket, revealing a snoring bat creature. "And I was right. Dang it."
Luz noticed a small slip of paper stuck to the underside of the blanket. She removed it and began reading. "Owl Lady, I am to go away from home for the night. I entrust you to keep child safe."
Eda flapped her hand dismissively, cutting Luz off. "Psh. Like that'll ever happen."
"If child stay safe, you shall be handsomely rewarded. And then it's signed by someone named Yi Yi."
Eda ripped the paper out of Luz's hand, reading it herself to make sure she didn't just imagine what Luz had just said.
"Luz, do you know who Yi Yi is?" Eda asked.
"Not necessarily. Should I?" Luz responded.
"Should you? Should you?! Yi Yi is only the wealthiest demon on all of the Boiling Isles. If you get in her good graces, you'll be swimming in snails for the rest of your life!" Eda would've been dumbfounded that someone didn't know of the legendary Bat Queen, but then again Luz had only been on the Isles for a little under a month.
"So all we've gotta do is keep a baby alive for a few hours and then we can practice diving into our pools of snails. How hard could that be?" Eda said.
"This'll be so fun!" Luz exclaimed. "What games should we play to keep the little sweetie occupied?"
"'We'? There is no 'we' here," Eda said pointedly.
"What? Why?" Luz asked.
"Because I have lots of overdue books that need to be returned to the BPL." To emphasize her point, Eda cast a spell circle, causing a giant stack of books to fall in front of Luz, who quickly caught them before they could tumble to the ground.
"Aww, but the baby is so cute!" Luz argued.
As if to spite Luz, the baby decided to wake up. Having no idea where it was, it became agitated and flew up to the ceiling, breathing fire to try and scare away the strangers.
"Never mind. I've got to go. Have fun babysitting, Eda!" Luz said, slamming the door shut and running off with the pile of books.
As Luz entered the main foyer of the BPL, she regretted not getting a wagon or something to carry all the books in. They were heavy. Like her prayer had been answered, the books suddenly began levitating, flying off to the main desk, which was still being run by the same witch from before.
One by one, each book flew through a spell circle, and one by one each was marked as LATE. The librarian then took particular offense to a grimoire that Luz had seen Eda reading late at night a few days prior. They opened the book and grimaced at the quality it was in.
"Apple blood, dirt, and potion residue. These were Eda's weren't they?"
"Hehe," Luz nervously chuckled. "Got it in one."
The librarian sighed. "I'll just put these on her tab. Which she still hasn't paid in over 13 years. Oh, and we'll be closing early for tonight's Wailing Star meteor shower."
"Ooh, what's that?" Luz asked.
"Something that a young witch like you shouldn't mess with," the librarian responded flatly.
"Well that just makes me want to know even more!" Luz exclaimed.
"Fine, go. I'm not paid enough to care, anyways," the librarian replied.
Luz made her way over to the Demon Decimal System. "Do any of you know where I can find a book about the Wailing Star?" she asked. One of the heads lolled out its tongue, and Luz grabbed the strip of paper. 523: Celestial bodies and phenomena was her destination. With a quick thank you, Luz set off, steadfast on her quest.
Until she got distracted by a certain emerald-haired witch who was currently reading to kids.
"'And so the Opossum used the thorn to stab at the Wolf's paw. Believing the Opossum to be the Snake, the Wolf ran off, leaving the Opossum in its hole.'" Amity finished reading and closed the book to a round of applause from the gathered witches and demons.
After the crowd had dispersed, Amity walked over to greet Luz.
"Hey, Luz!"
"Hi, Amity."
"So, uhm, about the… thing… that happened at the Covention. I'm sorry for snapping at you," Amity apologized nervously.
"No problem," Luz replied, brushing it off. "It's all water under the bridge."
"I have no idea what that means," Amity said candidly, confused at the odd turn of phrase.
"Oh right, human expression. What that basically means is that what happened in the past can't be changed, so should just accept that it happened and go on with our life."
"Hmm. The Human Realm has a lot of weird phrases," Amity posited.
"Oh you have no idea," Luz said with a laugh.
"Hey, Mittens!" A voice called out. Amity's face instantly grew a shade of bright red.
Luz and Amity both turned to see who had called out to them. Just outside the entrance to the Kid's Section, two witches, both looking to be about 16 years old, stood waiting. The two appeared to both be members of the Illusion track at Hexside, donning the powder blue variation of the school uniform. The girl on the left had her long, forest green hair braided, trailing down her back. Alongside her uniform, she also wore a white pearl necklace and had on a pair of small gold earrings. Her face was blemish free, save for a small beauty mark under her left eye. The boy, who stood to the right, also had the same color of hair, though his was short and messy. He had a mirrored version of the girl's beauty mark, with his being under his right eye. His attire seemed to be more simplistic, lacking the accessories that the girl had on.
"Ugh, what do you two want?" Amity questioned the new-comers.
"Mom says that you forgot your lunch. Again." The boy then held up a bright pink lunch-bag with a rabbit face sewn onto it. He then walked over, the girl trailing behind him, and tossed the bag at Amity, who begrudgingly caught it.
"Do you know these people, Amity?" Luz asked.
"Unfortunately, I do," Amity responded. "Luz, these are Edric and Emira, my older siblings and perpetual thorns in my side."
"So you're the witch who bested our baby sister in the duel at the Covention? Mittens would not stop talking about you," Emira said.
"Stop calling me that!" Amity yelled.
"Which one? Mittens or baby sister?" Edric chimed in.
"Both, thank you," Amity said, clearly annoyed.
"Hmm. Nah. Teasing you is too much fun." Edric said after tapping his chin, miming being deep in thought.
"You two can leave any second now."
Emira gasped. "Are you implying you don't like our company? Oh how you wound us so, Mittens!"
"Leave. Now," Amity growled.
"Fine, Mittens. We'll go," Edric said, dragging out the goodbye.
"Thank you," Amity replied with a huff.
The twins then jauntily walked away, leaving Luz and Amity alone in the Kid's Corner.
"I'm guessing those were the twins you told me about?" Luz replied.
"Yeah. Sorry you had to meet them like that. Ed and Em can be really annoying when they try," Amity apologized.
"So typical sibling behavior?" Luz asked.
"Pretty much. How about you? Do you have any siblings back in the Human Realm?"
"Nope. It's just me and my mom. I've always wanted to have a younger sibling, though." Luz said with a small frown.
"Well if that ever happens, promise not to turn into Ed or Em, alright?" Amity asked.
Luz laughed. "Yeah, I'll keep that in mind."
"If you don't mind me asking, why did you come here? I doubt it was to see me," Amity said.
"Well, originally I was just here to return some overdue books for Eda, but then the librarian said that they were closing down early tonight for this thing called the Wailing Star. Obviously, me being me, I wanted to see what that was but then I got distracted by you reading to kids and I just realized that sounds kinda weird. Sorry, I'll shut up," Luz said quickly, silently cursing her tendency to motormouth.
That earned a chuckle from Amity. "No, no. That's fine. You said you wanted to know more about the Wailing Star?"
"Uh huh." Luz replied with a nod.
"I'm no expert on celestial happenings, but I'm pretty sure that the Wailing Star is supposed to cast some sort of spell on the books in this library. It apparently has something to do with the stained glass window over the front entrance and the way the light from the meteor shines through it, but that's about all I know." Amity had been given a brief rundown by Malphas about the Wailing Star before, but she was only half paying attention when he began talking about the intricacies of the event.
"Woah, that sounds awesome! Why would they close down the library when super cool magic stuff happens?" Luz asked.
"I'm not really sure, but I guess they could be concerned about safety or something," Amity replied with a shrug.
"Well, if it was up to me, I would be throwing an epic party whenever the Wailing Star was nearby," Luz said.
"And what would be at the party?" Amity inquired.
"I dunno, Wailing Star cupcakes and a piñata?" Luz supplied.
"Do you mean a pain-yata?" Amity was confused by the basilisk's pronunciation.
"No, I mean a… oh this is another one of those weird Boiling Isles analogues. Sure, a pain-yata," Luz said after realizing what Amity meant.
"Well, I would definitely go to that party, then."
"I'll be sure to invite you."