Schlimmtag 2, Sixth Lunar Disappearance, 50 CE | The Owl House
Leaning back from the typewriter, Luz flexed her fingers to get some feeling back in them. She really wished that she had packed her laptop in her backpack when she'd crossed over into the Isles. Why? Because whenever she'd make a typo, she'd have to grab some White-Out, paint over the mistake, and then wait for it to dry before spelling the word correctly. In her opinion, that took way too much time when she could have been spending it making the story even better. Still, though, it was super fun to actually get into the groove while writing about Luzura and Oraios dressing up in all sorts of cute outfits and traveling together, visiting tons of cool places that definitely weren't modeled after places in Gravesfield.
All told, the story - tentatively titled "Chasing Rainbows" - stood 9 pages long, and it had taken shape through the combined power of Luz and Amity's incessant nerd-dom. Luz could count at least 17 different Good Witch Azura references that she had snuck into the manuscript. Ranging from surface level nods, like mentioning The Sandwich, to deeper cuts, such as a suspiciously named side character running over trash cans with a truck, anybody who was as obsessed with GWA as Luz was would pick them up easily.
The story wasn't all Luz, though, as she and Amity would switch off on who was writing every time there was a new scene or a change in the point of view. It was a pretty good system in Luz's opinion, giving both of them a chance to read over what was being typed out. It was especially helpful to make sure that everything was getting explained in enough detail. From Luz's experience of writing GWA fanfics, she knew how important it was to have someone else check over your work to make sure there wasn't anything missing.
Removing the final page from the mouth of the typewriter, Luz stacked the paper together and tapped them on her desk to straighten them out. "And we… are… done!" Laying back in her chair, the basilisk took in a few deep breaths.
Hopping off Luz's bed, Amity picked up the stack of papers and slowly flipped through them. "Wow, I can't believe we got the entire thing finished in one sitting."
"Yeah," Luz replied. "And my fingers only hurt a little bit!"
Pulling out her scroll, Amity checked the time. Yup, just as she had suspected: the library had already been locked up for over an hour by now. "Dang, they've already closed up for the night."
Luz pouted at the news. "Well, drat. We can turn it in tomorrow, though. Plus, it'll give us more time to look it over and make sure it's the best story it can be."
"That's a good way to look at it," Amity said before a buzz from her scroll drew her attention. Checking the notification, she saw that Edric had sent her a few messages in quick succession.
bestBlight: yo have you packed for the trip to the Knee tomorrow
bestBlight: em and I already got our stuff together
bestBlight: mom says you gotta do good on the presentation "or else"
bestBlight: also dad isn't coming
Amity groaned. She'd completely forgotten that she was supposed to go to the Knee with Ed and Em to train for her part in the presentation. Each of the nine tracks had picked a representative to show off their skills for an inspector from the Emperor's Coven, and Amity had been chosen and the representative from the Abomination trick. What made the trip to the Knee worse than normal was that dad wasn't even going to be there. Since he was on par with Head Witch Deamonne in terms of knowledge about Abomination magic, her father would probably have given her some highly-detailed lecture about how to make the Abomination bend to her will. Given, that would only happen if he could find the time to actually care about his children more than his inventions, and Amity knew that was rarer than finding a fairy that didn't have a taste for flesh.
Noticing Amity's dour look, Luz frowned. "What's got you down in the dumps all of a sudden?"
The witch sighed before fully responding. "I've got to go to the Knee tomorrow to train with Ed and Em. I was chosen to represent the Abomination track for Hexside's annual Emperor's Coven inspection next week, and Mother will be… not happy if the presentation goes poorly."
Luz inhaled sharply. "Dang, that sucks."
"Tell me about it," Amity responded, flopping onto Luz's bed and spreading her arms out, draping them over the bed frame.
"Well, would it be less sucky if I was there, training with you?" Luz offered.
"Yeah, that'd make it more bearable," Amity responded, "but you'd probably get bored just watching me do the same spells over and over. What would you even be training for?"
"The placement exam at Hexside," Luz said. "Eda told me about the two spell requirement, and we're pretty sure glyphs will count for it."
Propping herself up on her elbows, Amity met Luz's eyes. "Wait… You're going to Hexside?!"
"Yep," the basilisk answered. "Did I not tell you?"
"No! That's awesome, Luz!" Amity was amazed that Luz had kept this great news from her. "Do you know what track you're going to join?"
"Right now, I'm leaning towards Beast Keeping," Luz responded.
"Oh, really? I thought you would take after Eda and go down the Potions track," Amity said.
"I've considered Potions," Luz started, "but I feel like Beast Keeping would be a better fit for me. My mom is a veterinarian, after all, so I'd be sorta following in her footsteps."
"What's a 'veterinarian'?" Amity asked.
"Oh, right, that's a Human Realm thing," Luz said. "A veterinarian is kinda like a mix of Beast Keeping and Healing. Mami specializes in pets, so dogs, cats, snakes, things like that."
"Huh, that's interesting," Amity replied. "I've never considered mixing types of magic like that."
"Yeah, well us humans don't have magic, so we make do with technology," Luz explained.
"I've heard Gus talk about human technology a lot," Amity said. "Is it true that you guys actually have giant metal birds that can fly you around?"
"Ahh, those are airplanes," Luz recognized what Amity was talking about after a second. "Yeah those are pretty common in the Human Realm because of how spread out we all are."
"Wait, 'spread out'?" Amity was confused. "Do humans not all share the same Titan?"
"No…" Luz replied slowly. "We've got continents, though, and I guess those are kinda like Titans. Well, except for the fact that they're just giant chunks of Earth's crust floating on the mantle."
"The Human Realm sounds weird," Amity said. "Nice, but weird."
"Well maybe it won't be so weird once I show you around," Luz responded. "I know some cool hangout spots." (That was a lie, but Amity didn't need to know that Luz was a friendless loser back in the Human Realm.)
"I'd like that" Amity mentioned.
"I think I would, too."
Slamming the door to her office shut, Lilith threw off her cloak, letting it pool up on the floor. Burying her head in her hands, she let out a muffled scream. How her sister was turning a blind eye to the fact that she was living with an indubitably blood-thirsty (and most likely magic-hungry) monster, Lilith wasn't sure. The beast had somehow convinced Edalyn and her former protégé that it meant them no harm.
But what if they were telling the truth? When Lilith had been training under Flora D'splora in her early days of the Emperor's Coven, Ms. D'splora had drilled into the impressionable young Lilith that the historical record can never be blindly trusted. Falsities and half-truths could easily be passed off as gospel if it was backed well enough, so perhaps she was wrong about basilisks.
That was a train of thought for another time, though. Right now, all Lilith wanted to do was to retire for the night. After she had changed out of her uniform and into more casual attire, Lilith began mindlessly flipping through channels on the CB. After a few minutes of a whole lot of nothing, she gave up on that plan and decided that she might as well put a dent into the mountain of paperwork clogging her desk that she'd been ignoring for the past few days.
The monotony of filing papers was one that Lilith enjoyed. The repetitive actions allowed her to turn her mind off for a few hours as she sorted everything into its proper category and signed the occasional document. After she'd gotten through the first few papers, Lilith slowly got more into the zone, tuning out the outside world as she worked. That was until she was staring at a report that numerous students and faculty at St. Epiderm had been attacked by an unknown assailant and left without magic. Maybe the historical record surrounding basilisks was accurate after all, because Lilith had an idea of who she thought the culprit was.
A knock at the door drew the witch's attention. Barely picking her feet up off the ground, she shuffled over to the door to see who was willing to pester her at such a late hour. If they were willing to bother the leader of the Emperor's Coven when it was nearing midnight, then they were clearly also willing to part ways with their post in the coven. Opening the door revealed that it was Kikimora who was standing on the other side. Great, one of the two people Lilith couldn't fire. (The other being that obnoxious Golden Brat, and Lilith was about 90% sure the current Golden Guard had gotten their position solely on the fact that they were related to the previous Guard.)
"What do you want?" Lilith snapped, hoping to get this interaction over with as quickly as possible.
"Emperor Belos has requested an audience with you. I suggest you not keep him waiting," the demon said in that grating voice of hers.
Throwing on her cloak, Lilith forced her way past Kikimora and began walking to Lord Belos' chamber.
"Oh, and one more thing," Kikimora called out.
"What?" Lilith turned around, an annoyed look on her face.
"Don't think that your little escapade off to the library didn't go unnoticed. Now hurry along. The Emperor is not a patient man."
Zorntag 2, Sixth Lunar Disappearance, 50 CE | The Knee
Luz shivered and wrapped her arms around herself in a sort of self-hug, doing her best to conserve warmth. This coat was not helping. Blowing into her hands, she tried to warm them up to no avail. She was starting to doubt whether she was really warm-blooded, because this place was capital C Cold.
The trek up the mountainous terrain had not been kind to the basilisk. She really wished she had a thick layer of fur like that giant Abominable Snowman looking thing she'd passed by on the way up. What had Eda called it? "Slitherbeast" or something along those lines? Luz wasn't really paying attention to Eda's impromptu lesson at the time, instead being more focused on not freezing to death.
"Are you sure that you're good, kiddo?" Eda asked. She had tagged along with Luz, claiming that she "didn't want to see her kid get turned into a Popsicle" and that the basilisk needed adult supervision.
"Never better!" Luz said with a fake smile, giving a weak thumbs up.
"We can set up a fire if you want," Amity supplied. "That is one of the spells I'm learning, after all."
"Yeah, that'd be nice," Luz replied through chattering teeth.
"We can go get some firewood," Ed and Em said at the time.
"You can give that fire spell a shot while we're out," Edric mentioned to Amity before he and his twin disappeared off into the woods.
Once the two were out of earshot, Luz turned to the remaining Blight sibling. "Do they… know?"
"Know what, exactly?" Amity replied, a look of confusion on her face.
"About me being, ya know, scaly?" Luz explained, hoping the emerald-haired witch would get the implied message.
"Oh, uh, no. I haven't told them," Amity said. "Unless you want me to, that is."
"I'd rather you not," Luz responded. The less people who knew about her true nature, the better. "I wanna keep it on a need to know basis. Guess I'll have to keep the witch disguise for the next few hours, then."
"That's reasonable," Amity stated before changing the topic away from Luz's heritage. "So, what spells are you going to be performing for your placement exam? I know you've got that light spell, but you need at least two to get out of the baby classes."
Luz gasped. "I never showed you the plant glyph!" Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out her notepad and a tiny pencil. Quickly sketching out the glyph, Luz tapped it, and out of the piece of paper sprung a small gardenia flower. Plucking it by the stem, Luz offered the flower out to Amity.
"Boom, plant spell!" the basilisk said with a smile.
Taking the flower, Amity examined it. "That's amazing. Thank you, Luz." Tucking the flower behind her ear, the witch brushed her hair back so that the gardenia was more clearly visible.
"How do I look?" Amity then asked, striking a pose for the basilisk.
Luz laughed. "You look like you just stepped out of a magazine that sells winter gear."
"I hope that's a good thing," Amity replied.
"Hey, we didn't come here for a fashion show, you two!" Eda interjected. "We're here to train, not galavant around in the snow."
"I guess we probably should start training," Amity admitted. "Don't want to be out here in the cold for nothing."
"What spell did you say you wanted to work on, Blight? A fireball or somethin'?" Eda asked.
"Fireball, yeah. I can't even summon one with a training wand, though," Amity replied, clearly exasperated.
"Well that can't be right," Eda said. "Any witch your age should be able to cast a basic elemental spell. Lemme see the wand."
Reaching into her back pocket, Amity pulled out a smooth wooden stick with what looked like a power gauge attached to it. Handing the wand over to Eda, the Owl Lady examined it.
"This thing's in perfect condition," Eda stated before handing the wand back to its owner. "It is charged, right?"
"Of course. I made sure to charge it all night," Amity replied.
"Hmm…" Eda tapped at her chin, thinking. "Well, if the wand ain't the issue, then I'm pretty sure how you're using it is the problem. How do you try to cast spells with it?"
"I try to cast them like I would an actual spell circle," Amity said slowly. "Is that not how you're supposed to do it?"
"No," Eda responded flatly, "and that's where your issue comes from. When you cast magic with a spell circle, you have to focus that magic from your bile sac to your finger and out. Training wands, on the other hand, already have the magic primed and ready to go, so you just have to point it in the right direction and hope you don't blow anything up."
"So I'm basically asking the wand to do too much and then it doesn't know what to do?" Amity hoped for clarification.
"Basically," Eda said. "Now try to cast a fireball spell, but don't overthink it this time."
"Alright," Amity said hopefully. "I can do this." Taking a deep breath, the youngest Blight aimed her wand at a patch of snow. With a quick flick of the wrist, a small fireball formed at the edge of the wand and waited to be released.
Staring at the fireball, Amity cracked a smile. "Yes! Wooh!" Jabbing the wand forward, she sent the fireball screaming towards the snow bank, where it melted a hole straight through the pile, only to be filled in when the pile collapsed in on itself.
"Yeah! Go Amity!" Luz cheered, happy to see her friend happy.
"Good job, Blight," Eda congratulated the other witch. "Now how hard was that?"
"What's all the yelling about?" Edric asked as he and Emira returned. Ed had his arms full of chopped up logs, while Emira carried a bundle of kindling in one hand with a bag of tinder in the other.
"I got the fire spell to work!" Amity said proudly.
"Oh, nice. Good job, Mittens," Emira congratulated her sister on the accomplishment.
"Alright, let's get this fire started, then," Eda said. "I'm freezing my tail feathers off over here."
"You have tail feathers?" Edric asked, confused by the expression.
"Yes, I really do have tail feathers," Eda replied in a deadpan voice. "No, I'm just cold. Did any of you richy-riches bring a fire pit?"
"No," Emira said. "Mom said they were a waste of money."
Eda sighed and rubbed at her forehead. "Of course she did. Looks like we're doing this the hard way, then. Ready for a survival lesson?"
Clapping her hands together and rubbing them, the Owl Lady then started scooping out the snow with her hands. Eventually, the hole began to take on a square shape, and when it was completed, Eda patted the remaining snow down so that it was level.
"Tinder," she proclaimed, motioning for Emira to add it to the box, who complied. Eda bunched the small sticks and leaves until they were in a roughly circular shape.
"Kindling." The larger sticks were smushed together into a roughly cylindrical shape sticking out of the square. Holding the kindling in place, Eda moved onto the final step of constructing the fire.
"Logs." The first log was squished into the square and was soon joined by its companion on the other side of the kindling cylinder. Finally, the two other logs were placed atop the first two, laying criss-cross, acting as a sort of outline of the square.
"That wasn't hard, was it?" Eda said as she got to her feet.
"Where'd you learn to do that?" Luz asked her mentor.
"Human realm," Eda replied concisely.
"You gonna elaborate on that?" Luz followed up with.
"Nope," Eda said, popping the "p" emphatically.
"Now come on, let's light this sucker up," Eda proclaimed. "Hey, Baby Blight, how bout you do the honors?"
Stepping aside, Eda gave Amity the floor. Kneeling down in the snow, Amity pulled out her training wand and pointed it at a section of the tinder in the center of the pit. Summoning a tiny flame at the end of the wand, Amity attempted to light the tinder, but nothing happened.
"Hmm, looks like the wood is still wet from the snow," Eda noted, "Put some more magic into the flame and see if it'll catch."
"You got it," Amity replied. Willing the flame to grow bigger, she put it to the tinder once more, but the sticks still refused to light.
"Come on, work with me here," Amity said to the wand. The wand seemed to listen, as the flame grew far bigger, instantly lighting both the tinder and a chunk of the kindling.
"Nice work, kid," Eda praised the young witch. "Wanna see if you can get the logs going too? Speed up the process a lil' bit, ya know?"
"I guess I can give it a shot," Amity replied. Pouring even more magic into the flame, it grew bigger still, now nearing the "that's way too big to be safe" size, and Amity reacted accordingly. Falling on her behind in surprise, Amity launched the fireball off in a random direction so that she didn't turn himself into roast witch.
Luz watched as Amity's fireball arced across the sky before dipping below the treeline and disappearing.
"Think you might have put too much power into that one, Mittens," Emira said, clapping a hand on her sister's shoulder.
"Well, uh, let's hope that I didn't hit anything," Amity said, forcing a laugh.
Suddenly, a roar echoed through the whole of the Knee, and a shadow fell across the camping party. Looking up, Luz saw a giant mass of white fur flying through the air, and it was headed right towards them.
Landing with a loud THUD in front of the Blights, the slitherbeast roared, droplets of goo flying from its mouth and landing on their faces.
"Oh Titan," Amity squeaked.
"Everyone scatter!" Eda yelled. Grabbing Luz's hand and dragging the basilisk along, Eda dove to take cover behind a boulder.
As Edric and Emira ran for the woods, Ed noticed that his younger sister wasn't following. "Amity, come on!" he yelled.
Amity stood frozen as the slitherbeast got closer. The smoking wand in her hand was a dead giveaway that she was the one who had woken the beast from its slumber. She wanted to run and join her siblings, but her legs refused to cooperate, keeping her rooted in place.
I wonder what they'll write on my tombstone, Amity thought as she felt the slitherbeast wrap its paw around her waist. (The grip was lighter than she expected. Maybe the beast wanted to play with its food before eating her?)
"HEY UGLY! LET HER GO!" Luz shouted, running from her place behind the boulder.
"Luz, what are you doing?" Eda hissed.
The slitherbeast slowly turned around as it faced the weird two-legged creature yelling at it.
"YOU HEARD ME! LET GO OF MY FRIEND YOU BIG OAF!" Luz continued. She just needed to draw the slitherbeast a little bit closer and it'd be in range.
The slitherbeast took slow, lumbering steps as it stomped towards the two-legger. Once the tiny creature was within arm's reach, the slitherbeast swiped to grab at the annoying pest, only for it to dive out of the way and open its mouth.
As Luz drained the slitherbeast of its magic, she hoped that it wouldn't have enough energy to fight back, because if it did then she was as good as squashed. Fortunately, luck was on her side, and the slitherbeast fell to its knees before eventually face-planting in the snow. Unfortunately, Amity also ended up with a faceful of snow as a result, but Luz hoped that the snow would also cushion the witch's fall. After a few seconds of waiting to see if the slitherbeast was truly unconscious, Luz dashed over to her fallen friend.
"Amity! Amity, are you okay?" Luz asked as she helped the girl get to her feet.
"I'm… I'm fine," Amity replied after a pause to gather her bearings. "Just a little shaken up, that's all."
As Luz checked her friend for any injuries, she couldn't help but feel that something was off, but she couldn't quite place what exactly. When Amity whipped her head back and forth to shake the snow free from her hair, only then did Luz realize what was missing: Amity's flower.
Luz gasped. "Where did the flower go?!"
Amity was confused. "Luz, it's fine. I don't –"
"I'm finding that flower!" Luz proclaimed.
Scouring the surroundings, the basilisk searched for the gardenia, cursing the fact that it was a white flower hidden on a backdrop of white snow.
"Hey, uh, Mittens?" Emira slowly approached her sister. "Were you ever gonna tell us that your friend can… do whatever that was?"
"Not really," Amity said, fidgeting, trying to figure out how much she should divulge about Luz's true nature. "That's more for Luz to decide."
"Yeah," Eda chimed in. "Luz's powers are none of your beeswax. If she wants you to know, she'll tell you."
"Oh my Titan, I found it!" Luz called out. Running up to Amity, the basilisk held the gardenia gently in her hand. Amity couldn't help but notice that Luz was coated head to toe in snow, and Amity doubted that that could feel good.
"Luz, you didn't have to go through the trouble of finding me a silly flower," Amity said.
"But I wanted to," Luz retorted. "You deserve the flower."
Getting closer to Amity, Luz brushed back the witch's emerald locks and gently placed the flower back behind her ear.
"See?" Luz gestured to nobody in particular. "Now the outfit's perfect! The flower ties the whole thing together."
Off to the side, Eda saw how Amity looked when Luz got close to the young Blight, the subtle blush not slipping past the Owl Lady's watchful eye.
Oh, that kid's got it bad.
Deciding that it was time to run intervention before Amity melted into a puddle, Eda got everyone's attention with a shout. "Anybody know what we should do with Big Ugly over here?" Summoning Owlbert, Eda poked at the sleeping (Well, hopefully sleeping.) slitherbeast with the butt of her staff to see if the thing was still alive. When the demon weakly batted at the staff, Eda let out a sigh of relief.
"I vote that we just leave it be," Luz offered.
"I agree," Amity said. "Just because it gave me a spook doesn't mean we should… kill it."
"Alright, half the ballots have been cast," Eda said. "Dweebus One, Dweebus Two? What do you guys think?"
"Can I keep him?" Edric asked with a childlike expression.
Everyone turned to stare at the teen.
"What? He's cute, and I want a pet!" Ed said, trying to argue his case.
In response, Emira grabbed her brother by both shoulders and stared him in the eye. "Ed, I love you, but that is the stupidest idea I've ever heard."
Edric frowned. "Fine, no slitherbeast. How about a bat instead?"
"No!"