Gehetag 2, Sixth Lunar Disappearance, 50 CE | The Owl House
Eda cracked open the front door to her home before peeking her head inside. Yup, just as she had expected. Luz was passed out, laying horizontal on the couch. In the background, the CB droned on with some conspiracy theory about mind-controlling slugs while the basilisk dreamt about Good Witch Azura or whatever. An occasional snore forced its way out, breaking the look of serenity on the girl's face. As Eda quietly got closer, she noticed that the kid was hugging her own tail like some kind of stuffed animal, and the faintest of smiles could be seen on her face as she slept.
Aww, she looks so cute with her – NO! Stop it, Edalyn! You can't get so attached to the kid.
Eda shook her head to clear the intrusive thought.
Not yet, anyway.
Now was not the time to be all lovey-dovey.
King scampered over to the coffee table and grabbed something from a box that Eda hadn't noticed. Pulling out a slice of pizza (Oh, so that's what the kid bought.), the tiny tyrant went to wolf down the pie before he caught Eda's gaze, the Owl Lady shaking her head to tell him no. The little gremlin had eaten his fair share (and then some) of the chocolate-covered coffee beans that Eda had bought from O'Malley's. He didn't need more food to keep him up into the early hours of the next day. With big, sad puppy-dog eyes, King slowly put the pizza back in the box.
Stealing a glance at the CB, Eda saw that it was nearing midnight, which meant it was time for everyone to go to sleep. (Well, Luz was already asleep so it was time for her to get in bed.) As such, Eda first closed the pizza box before storing it in the fridge. Maybe they could have some for lunch? Then, she switched off the CB. Luz's brain was probably rotting from all that conspiracy junk that was playing.
Squatting down, Eda hooked her arms under Luz and scooped the basilisk up bridal-style. At this sudden jostling from her sleeping position, Luz buried her head in the crook of Eda's arm, as if this was no different from her spot on the couch. Slowly, Eda carried the girl across the living room and into the kitchen before she began to climb the stairs. Suddenly, when the two were halfway up the stairs, Luz, still asleep and unaware of her surroundings, said something.
"Gracias mamá. Te amo," she mumbled.
Eda froze. There was that word again. And some other stuff she didn't quite understand, but she got the message anyway. She stood still for what felt like forever. No, she was not going to cry. She was not! She was the Owl Lady, dang it! Steeling herself, Eda completed the trek up the stairs and deposited Luz in her bed before drawing the blankets over her now-sleeping-again body. From seemingly out of nowhere, King hopped up onto Luz's bed and plopped down after getting comfy. Within seconds, Eda was the only one awake in the house.
After collapsing into her nest, Eda thought about what had happened today. And then she ugly cried. Hard.
Kriegstag 2, Sixth Lunar Disappearance, 50 CE | The Owl House
Luz's eyes fluttered open as the light of the morning sun streamed through her window. Wait, she's in her bed. Hadn't she passed out on the couch? The last thing she remembered was laughing at the demon on the TV who was ranting about some stupid conspiracy theory involving giraffes. Maybe Eda had carried her up when she and King had returned from the store? That was probably it. Eda was nice like that, even though she put up a grumpy façade.
Deciding it was time to face the day, Luz rolled out of bed, her tail falling to the floor with a loud THWAP after a few steps. Oh, she still had that. After questioning whether or not to morph it away, she decided to keep it. She may be half human, but the other half of her is basilisk, so it was only right that she got to show off both sides of her heritage, just like how Mamí had both Puerto Rican and Domincan flags in the house.
Now Luz was faced with an even bigger question: what to wear. The weather report had said that it was supposed to be insanely hot out, so any shirts with long sleeves or pants with long legs were instantly a no go. She eventually decided that a tank top and athletic shorts were probably her best outfit to beat the heat.
As Luz gave her outfit for the day a once over, a thought struck her. What exactly did happen when she morphed? That book in the library had said it was like a full-body, corporeal illusion, but that didn't explain everything. Like, when she morphed something larger than her natural state, like a horse or the Kraugh, where did all that new body mass come from? Was there some sort of anti-reality dimension thingy that just stored blobs of mass for any random basilisk to use when they needed to gain a few pounds to complete a disguise or something? That was probably something she would have to ask to Tre or Ivy whenever she saw them again.
After a quick stop in the bathroom to brush her teeth, Luz descended the stairs to see what everyone else in the house was up to.
King was on the couch, the portal door open next to him, and he had stolen her phone so he could videos of kittens fighting each other. Given, her phone's reception kinda sucked out here in a different realm (Thanks a lot, Horizon, Luz thought sarcastically.), so the best video quality she could get was around 480p on a good day. Nevertheless, the cat videos brought King joy, so she would let him stealing her phone slide.
"AH HAH! YES! DEATH IS YOUR GOD!" King shouted as the orange tabby lightly batted the Maltese on the nose and rolled over. Luz chuckled at the tiny demon's reaction.
A sudden knock at the door drew Luz's attention. Going over and opening it revealed one Gus Porter.
"Hey, Gustanamo. What brings you to La Casa Búho?" Luz greeted, resting her arm against the door frame.
"I need your help," the illusionist explained.
Luz raised an eyebrow before stepping aside. "Alright, come on in."
As Gus took a seat on the couch, Luz wanted to learn more about the situation at hand. "So, what do you need my help with?"
"You know how I'm the president of the Human Appreciation Society at Hexside?" Gus began. Luz nodded in affirmation. "Well, today we had a new member show up, Mattholomule, and everything was normal until he started doubting the authenticity of my Human Realm artifacts. And then, he dumped his own 'artifacts' on the table and said that people at his old school were able to touch them all they wanted, which goes against rule number one of the H.A.S. Obviously, I couldn't let this stand, so I said that I would get a genuine human to come in and verify the authenticity of both of our artifacts to see which were real."
Luz blinked a few times while her brain caught up to what she just heard. "So, let me get this straight. A new guy shows up, calls your artifacts fakes, and then pulls out his own artifacts and lets people get all handsy with 'em, so you say you're gonna have a human come in and say whether they are real or not?"
"Yeah, that about sums it up," Gus said cheerfully. "So, can you come with me to the H.A.S. meeting and prove Mattholomule wrong?"
"Totally!" Luz responded without a second that. But then that second thought reared its head. "Though, if I want to not out myself as a basilisk, I'll have to come in disguise as another human."
"Why's that?" Gus asked.
"Well, think about it," Luz said. "If I come in looking like myself, then when I start going to Hexside, I'd have to do it as human-me, not witch ears-me, and I really don't want to be the center of attention for having round ears. But if the human you bring in looks nothing like witch ears-me, then I can attend Hexside as a normal student."
Gus nodded. "Hmm, that is a good point. Though, how will you cover up your lack of a bile sac when you enroll as a student?"
"I could just say I'm a magic-less witch," Luz supplied. "Those exist, right?"
"A witch can be born with a deformed or missing bile sac, yeah, but it's extremely rare," Gus answered.
"Then that means I've got a cover story for enrolling," Luz said, before clapping her hands together and cracking her knuckles. "Alright, Operation Show-Up-Mattholomule is a go."
Luz, or rather, "Alex Zura", examined herself in the mirror, turning every which way to see her disguise in all its glory. What used to be a dark brown pixie cut was now a chaotic mess of red and orange, falling just past her shoulders. Her eyebrows had thickened, while her nose had become more pointed. Her eyes, usually brown, were now a vibrant green. A leather jacket (which Luz would never wear normally in this type of weather) and an orange undershirt were complemented by a yellow pleated skirt and a pair of black boots. All in all, nobody would be able to confuse "Alex" and Luz.
After firing a pair of finger guns at the mirror and giving a smirk to an imaginary camera, Luz ran down the stairs to show Gus her disguise.
"Hey, Gus! How do I look?" Luz asked, entering the living room.
The illusionist gasped and chuckled. "Woah, that looks great!"
"Oh, stop it," Luz said sarcastically, brushing the compliment off with a hand wave. "So, you ready to laugh in Mattholomule's face once we debunk his phony artifacts?"
"I wouldn't go that far, but yeah I'm ready," Gus replied.
"Alrighty then. Let's get this show on the road!" Luz replied enthusiastically, raising a fist to the sky and charging out the front door.
Though Principal Bump knew that someone would come busting through his office door unannounced at some point in the day (it was practically guaranteed), he would have never expected it to be Augustus Porter and some fiery-haired human at such an early hour in the morning. Before the Porter child could even open his mouth to begin talking, though, Hieronymous raised a finger to silence the young prodigy. Only after taking a long sip of his apple blood and mentally preparing himself for whatever chaos was undoubtedly going to occur did he allow Mr. Porter to explain his sudden entrance with the unknown human.
"Principal Bump," Augustus began.
"Yes, Mr. Porter?" he answered.
"I was wondering If I could get my friend Alex here a visitor's badge. I want to give her a tour of Hexside and have her sit in on a meeting of the Human Appreciation Society. She might also help verify the authenticity of some artifacts," Augustus explained.
Principal Bump mulled over whether he should allow Mr. Porter's friend access or not. Against his better judgement, Bump decided it would be fine to allow the human entry into the halls of Hexside for the day. Spinning up a spell circle, Bump summoned a visitor's badge.
"What is your full name, Miss?" Bump asked the human.
She hesitated for a split-second before answering, "I'm Alex Zura, sir. It's a pleasure to meet you."
Bump swore he recognized that voice, but he couldn't quite place it. Nevertheless, he filled out the badge. Handing it over to the human, she pinned it on her jacket. Whether it was some human fashion to wear long sleeves in sweltering heat, or if he was just behind the times, Bump wasn't sure.
"Thank you, Mr. Bump." That was the moment it finally clicked, and Bump realized who he was talking to.
"Now hold on just one second, Miss Noceda." The human let out a groan of frustration.
"Aww, come on! How did you find out? This looks nothing like me!" Luz couldn't believe her disguise had already been seen through so quickly.
"Your voice," Bump explained. "You kept it the same."
Luz facepalmed. "I didn't even think of that. Do I still get to keep the badge, though?"
"I'm a witch of my word," the principal replied, "so you may keep the visitor's badge. Though, please try to not cause massive damage to the school again. I don't think I can handle another meeting with the Construction Coven just yet."
"Awesome!" Luz said, giving a celebratory fist pump. "Thank you, Mr. Bump."
"Yes, yes. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go feed the Choosy Hat." With that final goodbye, Luz and Gus exited the principal's office and braved the halls of Hexside School of Magic and Demonics.
"Well, Miss Zura, are you ready for your first officially sanctioned tour of Hexside?" Gus asked in an exaggerated manner.
"Of course I am, Mister Porter. I can't wait to see all the wonders this school has to offer." Luz re[plied in a similarly overt-the-top voice.
The two stood in silence for a few seconds before bursting into peals of laughter.