The following morning, after a hearty breakfast, you work with Eda to make yourself a soundproof identification for the Boiling Isles. Surprisingly, faking a birth certificate is easier than adoption papers, you double-check with Eda over a dozen times that she was okay with claiming you as her family. As you fill in the paper, you discover why it was so easy to fake. It just needs your name, the name of one parent, your date of birth, and your eye, hair, and skin color(s). When you finally manage to ask Eda why it was so simple, she tells you that it was because most witches of old had homebirths. Even nowadays, unless the midwitch(midwife) taking care of the pregnant witch had expressed concerns, witches would take a home birth over one at the healing center.
Then you wonder aloud about King, thankfully outside his hearing range. Eda winces slightly before leaning toward you and telling you that she had forged adoption papers for the little demon years ago, mostly because she knew that she wouldn't have been able to pass him off as her bio kid, so she did the next best thing to keep him tied to her, though she did mention that King could at any time reject the adoption papers, but she didn't see that happening anytime soon. You also find out that birth certificates don't really matter for most things, since witches can change their names and pronouns/gender identity without consulting the local government, and they only really need it when they file for a partnership, or as you would better know them marriage.
This prompts you to ask Eda about Boiling Isles courtship norms since you don't want to snub someone who you were genuinely interested in accidentally. Thankfully, it seems that Witch Customs are somewhat similar to human customs from your first life. However, she does tell you that witches have a different way of proposing a partnership. Witches apparently will gift their attended with a personal item that they themself have a deep bond with, for example, a necklace or a set of earrings that they have worn for years. This initially causes you to fret, mostly, because you've never had to think about something like this. Most of what you wear is practical, and the only accessory you've ever worn was your old headband(that you had tossed months ago when you had left Konoha), though you would wear goggles, scarves, or cloaks if the environment caused you to need them. And you had never been a huge fan of jewelry, mostly because of your past as a cook, and anything physical could potentially end up in the food you were making.
Your mind tries to figure out what you could potentially wear so that you could one day propose to your future wife (or partner if they preferred that title). You start to pace back and forth in the kitchen, thinking. And then it bloody hits you. A bracer, made of leather, or the Boiling Isle equivalent, that you could add a seal or two to, like a storage seal or, if you figured it out, your birth father's Flying Thunder God seal(ie the teleportation seal). You immediately turn to Eda and ask if the bracer idea has any merit. Thankfully, your foster mother doesn't see any problems with that idea, and when you ask about Boiling Isle leather options, she has several ideas.
The first is griffin leather, the second is hand dragon leather, and the third is slitherbeast leather. Eda doesn't have a lot of the last two but has plenty of griffin leather lying around that you could experiment a bit with it without worry. Using the griffin leather, you make a few rings that you hope you'll be able to inscribe storage seals into them. Unfortunately, when you go to use the other types of leather, you find that either they are unsuitable for what you have planned or that you're not skilled enough to work with this material just yet. Still, now that you have a plan, you plan on slowly working your way to making a bracer, even if it takes years, you have plenty of time right?
Dinner that night ends up being a bit of an experiment, in that you're using a mixture of Elemental Nation and Boiling Isle cuisine to recreate dishes that you had made 'religiously' in your first life. Using the milled Bone Meal as a substitute for wheat flour and griffin eggs, you make a pasta dough that comes out decently well. While the dough is resting, you start on the tomato-based pasta sauce. Using Elemental tomatoes, carrots, and bell peppers alongside BI garlic, oil, and butter, you manage to create a pasta sauce that you wouldn't call authentic but would call flavorful.
Taking a few cutlets of cockatrice, you bread and batter them using bone meal, griffin eggs, and homemade bread crumbs using some leftover(and slightly stale) Dead Bread. The pasta dough you split it into two balls, one is made into spaghetti while the other is used to make ravioli, which are filled with sauteed shiitake mushrooms mixed with a Boiling Isle cheese similar to mozzarella.
When you serve it, Eda goes for the spaghetti with cockatrice cutlet, while King goes for the ravioli. You take the smallest cutlet with a small helping of spaghetti with a few ravioli wanting to taste how well everything paired with one another. Before heading to bed, you ask Eda when Owlbert will be making his next Elemental Excursan, because you were hoping you could join him, wanting to pick up a few food items and seed packets if you could. She tells you that since you'll be gone with your friends to the sports game tomorrow, she'll send him out the day after that while she and King man the stand, to which you thank her.
The next morning, you awaken before anyone else in the house and head down to make breakfast, not only for the household but to make some extra to pass along to Gus and Willow. The first thing you make is crepe batter, which you then set aside to rest to focus on strawberry scones. After the double batch is in the oven you break out the crepe batter and start making crepes. Once they're all cooked you start to fill half with an orange and cream mixture, while the other half is a peach and cream mixture. You finish plating the final crepe when Eda and King stumble into the kitchen, both still slightly out of it. You motion for them to start eating what was set out on the table since you had preemptively sealed the food you would bring to Gus and Willow later so that it wouldn't be accidentally eaten, and get out three glasses that you fill with apple blood, something that was slowly growing on you... slowly.
After breakfast, Eda brings you and King to the slayground which as you had assumed days previously, was just like a human playground, covered in bones and eyes, not too dissimilar than the one you had visited as a young child in your previous lives. You sit down beside Eda as King runs off to climb on the tallest structure of the play structure, making you slightly worried for the tiny guy. Trying to not let your worry fill your voice you 'casually' ask Eda what the tallest height King could survive a fall from, as you watched him climb higher and higher until he was standing on a platform, connected to a slide, that was twice your height if not more.
Eda is quick to brush off your concerns, though when she sees you eyeing him climbing all over the structure she relents and tells you that ten to fifteen feet is nothing to King. It's when the predator birds in the area try and make off with him, is when you have to worry... though that is mostly due to the whole eating him thing and not the falling part.
Out of the corner of your eye, you see movement, and like a cat, your attention is quickly brought to focus on that particular object. You quickly find that Owlbert has found his way out of the rat's nest that Eda calls her hair. You watch as he hops from foot to foot, knocking loose an old memory of an old anime you had watched as a child in your first life, one that would ignite your passion for video games and other 'nerdy' things. Ironically, the thing Owlbert reminds you of is also an owl... (or would it be owl adjacent in this case?) you struggle to remember the name since it had been almost ninety years since you had last thought of the strange hopping owl creature. You mentally shake those memories away and focus on the little owl.
With all the hoping he was doing it takes a moment to realize that he has something on the bottom of his claw which drags all your attention to it. "Hey Ma... whats that thing on Owlbert's foot?" at your question Eda turns her attention to the thing you had seen and stares at it for a moment before she huffs a small laugh as she finally realizes what you were asking about. You pout slightly, assuming that this was a normal witch thing and something that you would definitely have known if you were actually her blood child. After her small laughing fit Eda explains that the thing you saw was Owlbert's interlock, which means that the only staff that he'll fit on is her's, which prompts you to stifle a laugh, not wanting to make a dirty joke or a 'that's what she said' comment.
You decide to ask a question before your bloody teenage hormones could get the better of you (again. You'd think that going through puberty for the fifth time would make things easier, but nooooo), "So if this interlock thing is normal for Palisman, and each Palisman has a single witch... how does one acquire a Palisman in the first place?" Your foster mother tells you that she had carved Owlbert herself, with a slightly distant look on her face before she shakes off the memory, before telling you that Palisman carving was a slowly dying craft, and due to the decreasing amount of Palisman trees being grown, having a Palisman was slowly becoming a rarer thing.
At this point, you hear King let out a loud 'Weh?!' making your head swivel over to where the noise came from, only to find a little witchling had 'pushed' him down the slide. You watch as King, seemingly unhurt, runs over to where you and Eda are seated and starts to whine, "Eda! That monster took my throne," while pointing at the witchling, that you notice is making their way over to your little family unit. Eda is quick to wave his demand of using Owlbert to explode the 'Upsurper' who you notice is almost within touching distance of King. You watch with slight fascination as the witchling, seemingly unaware that King actually wants the kid dead, pushes him over while exclaiming 'Tag' and running off.
You watch King push himself off the dirt floor, into a sitting position as you hear Eda mention something about a 'squeak of rage'. This so-called squeak of rage quickly becomes apparent as King starts to throw a temper tantrum, that causes, you guessed it, a rage-filled squeak that has you clamping your hands over your ears as the sound pierces the air. You watch with a pained wince as he picks himself up and runs after the kid who had pushed him. Once he reaches a fair distance away you cautiously remove one hand and then the other when you realize that whatever sound King had made is no longer being made.
A chuckle from beside you pulls your attention back to Eda as she wipes a tear from her eye as she compares the noise to that of a tea kettle, which almost gets a chuckle from you in turn. You and Eda watch King chase the child around for a few minutes before you notice that Eda has gone completely silent. When you turn to her, you freeze at the look on her face. Blank face, eyes cloudy staring off into the distance, and unable to interact with the world around her. Your breathing becomes slightly labored as you reach out and lightly place your hand on her shoulder, waiting for her to lunge at you... only for a squeak to escape your lips as you throw yourself backward off the bench and onto the dirt as your foster mother seemingly comes back to herself with a gasp of your name.
Eda looks around wildly for a moment before her eyes land on you on the ground. You can't help but cough slightly in embarrassment, and mentally you can't help but lightly scold yourself for getting worked up for 'nothing' despite knowing that what just happened was more of a PTSD reaction than anything else. Looking at the witch before you, you slowly realize that whatever happened to her was most likely worse on her end considering how she was reacting. You get to your feet and help her to hers as you turn your head around to look for King. You find him on the far side of the slayground, still chasing the little witchling. You yell his name, just as he is about to corner the younger(?) being, making him flinch and turn to look at you. Raising your voice isn't something you usually do, something that had been beaten into you in your third life and it had unfortunately carried over into your following lives. So for him to hear your voice come out higher than usual made him immediately turn his attention toward you.
When you tell him to get over to where you and Eda are and that you are leaving you can see him start to protest which you raise an eyebrow which seeming makes him change his mind. He briefly turns his attention toward the witchling for a moment, and you think he mutters a threat or two before dashing over to where you're standing. You help Eda get situated on Owlbert after she almost falls over before getting on behind her with King perched on your shoulder. Thankfully, it seems that Palismen are relatively self-sufficient enough that Eda can give Owlbert an 'order' while in staff form and he would do it, though you assume that the requests that are made have to be reasonable enough. Even so, you're tense the entire way back, ready to pounce if Eda looked like she was about to fall off the staff.
After a tense ten-minute ride back to the Owl House you watch as Eda flops onto the couch and King settles in beside her on the floor to start doodling on paper using a surprising amount of red 'crayon' or whatever the Boiling Isle used in place of crayon that is. You try not to fret over your foster mother, her blank gaze from earlier was still making you feel things you weren't quite ready to unpack. Instead of forcing the issue, you head into the kitchen and whip up a quick batch of broth, throw in a few vegetables in a pot of boiling water, and have to wait and allow it to simmer for at least an hour before consuming. You figure if nothing else this would be a simple lunch for the two while you were away at that sports game.
You head back out to the living room and say your goodbyes after making sure that Eda doesn't need you to stay home. You make sure to mention the pot of stock on the stove, to which you receive a grunt of thanks that is somewhat muffled by the couch. Before you walk out the door you pat King on the head and quietly tell him to keep an eye on Eda since you would rather not come home to her beast out again if you could help it. You give Hooty a small nod before you walk toward the city.
When you arrive at the school you find Willow and Gus in the large group of students. Next to them are a few students that you vaguely recognize, including Matty and one of the students who usually hangs around near Bosha. As you walk up next to them you see a sign with the words Hexside vs Glandus, with their school colors being yellow and blue, and purple and white respectively. Your eyes pan down to your clothing and while you doubt that black would stand out that much all things considered. You get within greeting distance when your... friends... whoa that was both weird and great to say... how long has it been since you had an actual friend anyway? (Especially one who didn't end up being your significant other later down the line).
When they notice you, you give the two of them a small wave and smile before deciding to do a sleight-of-hand trick to pull out the crepes that you had made. Somehow you end up shocking them, which makes you feel slightly smug that you managed to pull one over the young illusionist before you push the feeling down. Before you end up forgetting you bring out one of Eda's old potion bottles that you had managed to swipe and clean after she had taken her cursed potion dose and had filled it with a bit of water and the orange seeds that you had managed to pick out of the oranges that you had cut up this morning along with the seeds from the other day. You hand it over to Willow with a small smile and tell her to be careful when growing the plant since while you doubt that it will be as dangerous as any Boiling Isles plant this one originates from the human realm, and anything new from there should be looked upon with caution before anything else. Thankfully Willow agrees to be cautious with the plant before she stashes the bottle away in her clothes.
You make small talk as the two enjoy the treats that you have brought them waiting for your time to board the flying dragon boat not too far away from your small group. As your two friends lead you onto the boat you look around and catch sight of a few more somewhat familiar faces. Near the front near Principle Bump, you see Bosha and two of her hanger-oners, along with them just slightly off to one side you catch sight of Amity, who seems to be focused on her scroll. You realize that this is the first time that you have seen her in almost a (human) week, at which point you realize that you still have her book... and that it wasn't currently on you. You internally curse yourself for leaving the borrowed book next to your sleeping bag.
Instead, you pat your sides a bit looking for a scrap piece of paper and a pencil to write with. Thankfully, as a fuinjutsu user, you always have some paper and a writing utensil, so you jot down a small note on the paper you find. 'Amity, if you would be so kind as to meet me in the market three days from now, I would like to return the book I have borrowed from you. ~S.C.' With the note in hand you lightly tap a finger on your chest, and only have to wait a few seconds before Senna's head pops out of your hanten. You give them a small smile before asking if they mind playing carrier pigeon for a moment. They look at you before nodding their head. You give them the small note before pointing them toward Amity.
You watch out of the corner of your eye as Senna slinks through the crowded dragon bus, while also trying to maintain a steady flow of conversation with Gus and Willow. Once you see them reach her, you try to make yourself appear a bit more nonchalant. You only decide to look back at her once Senna returns to your side, sans note. This time you decide to let your eyes sweep the entire boat, only for them to stop the moment they land on Amity. A light, unwanted blush is quick to make an appearance when you lock eyes with hers. Before it can become too awkward you tear your eyes away from her and try to focus on what Gus and Willow are currently telling you, which apparently was the rules of this game... Grudgby you think it was called.
The flight to Glandus takes both longer and shorter than you had expected. Longer since you were used to traveling barely twenty minutes(on a good day) to get to the opponent's school, and shorter since you distinctly remember Eda telling you that Glandus was located near the ribcage and the Owl House was on one of the shoulders/upper biceps and Hexside wasn't too far away from it.
Grudgby ends up being a pretty brutal sport, and this is coming from someone who used to play pick-up games of (American) football with a group of superpowered individuals. While you're watching Bosha, and wasn't that a kick to the face finding out one of Willow's bullies was the school's top athlete, you find yourself frowning here and there as you catch yourself somewhat recognizing some of the plays for whatever reason. Your friends would probably believe that you had watched Eda perform said plays, or that she had taken you to a game when you were younger, but you knew that wasn't the case.
Despite this, you end up having a bit of fun. You've never been much of a sports person, but you figure you could 'suffer' through the occasional game with your friends. The Hexside side of the bleachers erupts into cheers when time runs out with the 'Banshees' winning the game. And despite it being Bosha who scored the winning goal, Willow and Gus leap out of their seats to cheer with their fellow Hexidians, so you clap your hands quite loudly to join in with the cheer. You join the other two as they get on the dragon boat once more and quietly listen to the two of them as they go through the entire game, play by play the entire way back to Hexside.
When the bus gets back to Hexside you walk the two a bit of the way to Willow's place, before you have to break off from them to head into the forest. Just before you depart you pull out the scones you had made earlier and pass them out before you leave with a jaunty wave thrown over one shoulder. As you walk through the forest your mind can't help but wander, between the talk about Palismen and the eerie feeling of remembrance about Grudgby, your mind has no shortage of things to think about. But as you walk further and further into the woods you start to notice something... or the lack of something as it is. The usual background noise of 'birds' and 'insects' is nowhere to be found and that just causes the hair on the back of your neck to rise.
You can tell that something isn't quite right here, and before you can second guess yourself you're vanishing into the treetops. Pushing chakra into your ears, you strain to hear anything within the woods. It takes a few moments but your ear twitches as you hear something in the far distance, almost in the direct opposite direction of home the Owl house. You hesitate a moment more before you decide to check it out, after all, if it was nothing you could just turn around and act like nothing had ever happened right?
It takes a few moments, but eventually, you find yourself high above a group of what you realize are Emperor scouts, with one donning a slightly more impressive uniform, which you take to mean that they are the captain of the remaining three scouts. You squat down on the tree limb and carefully take in what is happening before you. The four scouts seem to be gathered around a middle-sized cart, that shakes and wobbles every couple of moments as if something inside the cart did not want to remain within said cart. You tilt your head slightly, as you hear the sound of a distressed bird, (or something very similar to one) coming from the cart.
At first, you have no idea what is happening before you, and think that you should probably split before the four stooges down there realize that they have an audience, before the cart shakes quite violently. A side panel on the cart bulges outward for a moment before the nails holding it down can no longer do so allowing something to free itself from its confines. Your eyes widen as a seemingly normal-looking red snake pops its head out, and that is when you notice the two 'orge' fangs popping out of its mouth, with one being a bit broken.
You watch as the captain harshly grabs the red snake and shoves it back into the cart. The captain spins a quick spell circle and the broken panel is quickly fixed back in place. Once the animal is secured, the captain starts to berate the scouts around them asking them why they hadn't ensured that the container they had acquired hadn't been tested to ensure that the Palismen couldn't escape. The captain continues to berate the guards around them but you've stopped listening to them after you heard the word Palismen. Your foster mother's words from earlier flash in your mind, this was no longer a recon mission, this was a rescue mission and one that you could not bear to fail.
Your eyes scan the clearing and slowly a plan comes together, with plenty of room to improvise if need be, which it probably would in true Team 7 fashion. Quietly you pull out a premade paper bomb and carefully roll it around the handle of one of your duller kunais. Once it is firmly in place, you take aim, take a deep breath as you line up your throw, pull your hand back, and snap your hand forward. At the apex of your throw, you release the throwing knife, allowing it to soar through the air, to land a foot behind the one you had pegged as the captain of this troupe. All but one of the scouts seem to hear the dull thunk of the knife sinking into the earth, but as the three turn to face where the sound came from you bring the pointer and middle fingers of your dominant hand up to your mouth as your remaining fingers form a loose circle as your chakra flares slightly, igniting the paper bomb with a soft fizzle.
It's probably the only reason why the scouts fail to react at all, which is due to never encountering a paper bomb before. So you get a front-row seat to them having a bomb blow up in their faces. Unfortunately, it seems as if their uniforms are protected against explosives, and on top of that the crate holding the Palismen is also caught in the crossfire. With a snarl on your lips, you flare your chakra subtly to transform your clothes into a non-descript black hoodie, boots, and pants with a blank white mask covering your face. With disguise firmly in place, you drop from your hiding position directly on top of the captain.
With a firm crack, you land with your feet on their shoulders, forcing your entire weight and the momentum you had built into their body. They let out an 'oophm' that is cut off as they hit the dirt. Your eyes sweep the three remaining scouts before you throw yourself at the closet one. Your fist lands directly in the middle of their mask-clad face, and you can feel what feels like a nose, or something similar to one, break under your attack. The minor scout falls to the ground, hopefully, knocked out, but if they're dead then you won't be crying over their corpse later.
The two remaining scouts look at their captain, lying prone on the ground, and then to the scout you just dealt with. They look at you, then at each other, then back at you before turning around and booking it down the forest path heading towards the city. You raise an eyebrow at their cowardly actions before your attention turns to the captain who is slowly getting back to their feet. As they try to get their things in order you decide to try and take them out before they can cause any more trouble for you.
You strike out with your dominant hand and hit them across the mask just as you had with their underling, your punch however damaging it is, isn't enough to knock out this person like the other scout. Finally, it was their turn to attack you, and they pulled out a thin-looking blade and swung it at you, seeming competent with their weapon of choice. Two slashes appear along your chest, and as they carve through your flesh you concentrate on holding your transformation and thankfully succeed.
Now you were angry, a bit of Kurama's chakra flows into your hands and your nails grow into claws. With a hiss you throw yourself at the captain, ready to rip their flesh from their body. Two large gouges are slashed into their uniform and armor, allowing their blood to flow to the surface of their wounds staggering them and leaving them open to one last attack. With one mighty punch, you lay them out like yesterday's garbage. Their limp body goes soaring through the air before landing with a dull thump as they make contact with the earth once more. You made sure not to outright murder the fool where they stood and when you check on the minor scout you find that you're two for two, for living opponents.
With a sigh, you allow Kurama's chakra to slip away but you do keep on your disguise, in case reinforcements show up. Before that can happen however you focus on the now slightly charred cart that contains at least one(1) Palisman. You find the panel that the snake Palisman had popped open minutes earlier and ease one of your sharper kunai in between the gaps of the wooden boards. It takes a few minutes but the panel comes off without a problem. Before you take it off completely you speak directly to the Palismen inside the cart, "Hey little guys, if you could maybe not attack me when the panel comes off that would be great. What those scouts did was wrong, sickening even, and I would love to help you get back to your homes if you allow it, but that is totally up to you okay? I'm now going to remove the panel... please don't attack me."
Before you can think twice you ease the panel away from the cart and thankfully nothing strikes you as you pull it away. However, when you look closer you do notice that the red snake seems to be ready (and willing for that matter) to strike at you if you are a problem to them. You give them a small smile before backing off slightly while showing them your hands, trying to show them you mean no harm. The snake looks at you and then seems to notice the downed forms of the scouts behind you. They flick their tongue at you like a regular snake would before they slowly inch their way out of the cart. After the snake exits and looks around they hiss to what you assume to be other palismen, which is proven correct when five more crawl out of the cart. A bird with claw marks on one side of its face hops out alongside what you think looks like a dragonfly, but you might be wrong about that. What looks like an imp mixed with a cat with one missing eye leans against a three-headed monkey with a crack splitting the middle head and doing some damage to the nearest eye. The last one to exit looks like a demonic toad, who at first glance doesn't appear to have anything wrong with them, though you know that doesn't necessarily mean anything nowadays, mental problems are just as deliberating as physical ones.
You eye the two guards still lying on the ground, before turning to face the snake, assuming that they were the one in charge of this group. "I don't want to alarm you guys, but I have no idea when those two are going to come around, and since the other two scouts fled, reinforcements might be on their way too. So with all that being said, do you folks need an escort home?"
You wait for a moment while the six converse amongst themselves, you can hear hissing, croaking, tweetering and more sounds fly between them, and not for the first time you wished that you could still understand snakes, but that would only help you with part of the conversation. Eventually, the six seem to come to an agreement and the snake turns to you and with an obvious nod of their head, they let out a comfortable hiss. You then offer to let them use you as a carriage so that you could get out of here that much sooner, which after another brief hissing conversation they all agreed. Soon you have the snake curled around your neck/shoulders, the dragonfly is perched on top of your head, the bird can fly short distances but when they need to they rest on one of your shoulders, the imp cat and three-headed monkey you scoop into your arms, while the demon toad is placed into the hood of your hoodie disguised hanten, and you make the mental note to wash the thing before wearing the hood.
You double-check that the palismen are all accounted for before you hop into the trees, drawing a cacophony of noises from the palismen. You don't bother to look at your victims as you hop away, you just want to put some distance between you and the potential rescue party. Once you're a decent distance away you ask the bird if they could 'show' you where to go, or at least point you in the right direction. Thankfully the bird can show you where their home is, though you do eventually have to stop tree hopping and return to the ground after you reach part of the forest that had the trees growing too close together to be any faster than walking through the woods.
You eye the palismen that you had helped get this far as they get off of you, before eyeing the dark forest that lies before you. You sigh quietly to yourself as you finally allow your transformation to drop revealing your usual appearance. 'Well in for a penny, in for a pound as they say', you think to yourself. You carefully follow the Palisman through the dark forest, making sure to not step in or on anything that could give your position away. 'Really' you think to yourself, 'Kidnapping Palisman... just how far can the Emporer's Coven fall.' The walk is a long one, seemingly following a route only the six wooden animals seem to know. Their path swerves to and fro until you all eventually come upon a cave entrance encased by trees and undergrowth.
The Palismans continue to lead the way, as your eyes constantly sweep around the space, waiting for a potential ambush. You can only blame your paranoia as the reason why you almost miss the sight hidden in the undergrowth along one cave wall. You eye the Palisman before veering over to the cave wall, curiosity almost bashing you over the head.
You get a bit closer to the cave wall and realize what exactly you're staring at. Despite being in a different universe there is no denying that these carvings are tombstones and old ones at that. Two no longer have visible names on them, but on the stone itself, you can make out what appears to be a mixture of a frog and a duck while the one next to it appears to be... a Selkidomus? You're not quite sure, having just briefly seen the creature while flipping through King's Encyclopspedia a couple of days back.
Turning your head to look at the other two, you find that while they are in a similar state of disarray, their names are only partially worn away. On the headstone with a cardinal, you find the letters 'E l ' inscribed leaving you slightly baffled about what name could have been inscribed here originally. The last headstone however takes the cake as it were. The animal on this one could only be best described as the unholy love child of an albatross and an axolotl. Inscribed above the creature are the letters 'K b I mu '.
You run your hand across the tops of the two graves and almost have a heart attack right then and there as a part of the stone breaks off in your hand. Mechanically you place the broken piece back into its original spot and vow to never touch crumbling old headstones again. You gaze upon the four headstones for a moment longer before chirping catches your attention from above you.
Your eyes look up without moving your head to find a small, red cardinal hopping around in the tree that hides the graves mostly in view. You look at the small bird then you look back at the grave before you then back at the bird. Both birds have only one eye, and both are cardinals... is it speciest if you wonder if this bird is the same one depicted on the headstone? No matter if they were or weren't you weren't here to mess with crumbling gravestones, so before your palismen escort can get too far away you quickly catch back up.
You follow them for a bit longer, behind you, you can hear the sound of wings lightly flapping so you assume that the cardinal is following you as well. Eventually, you reach a large cavern within the cave... well it would have been a cavern if it had a ceiling, instead, you can look up and find a canopy of tree leaves past where the ceiling would have been. Suddenly, your ear twitches as the sound of larger wings then the little bird reaches them. Your eyes dart around before they land on someone that you had briefly seen before. The bat that had Eda babysit for them, or rather her, since you had since learned that her name was, aptly put, Bat Queen.
Her eyes land on the palismen that you had brought home, and you can almost see the worry and stress evaporate from her wings(?). But then her attention turns to you and her previous emotions are promptly hidden away as she puffs herself up, probably trying to intimidate you, and glares at you. With an internal gulp, you straighten(hah) your spine and stare up at her without making any abrupt movements. She lets out a growl as she asks, more like demands, to know what you are doing here. You calmly state you were escorting these six palismen home after they had been captured. When she hears this she gets a shocked look on her face before she turns to the six you returned with, and before you know what was going on you watch as seven sets of eyes light up brightly.
You almost have to shield your eyes but you manage to get by by just squinting them. For a moment the clearing is quiet before the eyes dull back to their regular selves. She seems to settle slightly after the light show disperts and turns her attention back to you. "Jasper told me that you helped him and the others when you didn't need to, for that you have my thanks young one." You wave off her thanks, you had never done something for the thanks, it was always to help the little guys in your mind.
The bat queen then seems to look you over again seemingly trying to place where she knows you from. After another moment you decide to introduce yourself to her. When you tell her that your last name is Clawthorne, you can see her eyes almost light up in recognition. She asks you to confirm that you were Eda's kid and when you say yes she almost seems to perk up in happiness. She goes on to tell you that the Clawthornes had always had a special place in her heart, and despite your mother's criminal past, she knew she could always count on her when the ratworms needed wrangling. You don't quite understand the saying, but you could speculate slightly.
Then you realize that she had said Clawthornes, as in multiple. You hesitantly ask the Bat Queen about the other Clawthornes, stating that your mother didn't really talk about her past or her family. BQ tells you that while she knows several Clawthornes, mostly Eda's ancestors, she does know that most Clawthornes are master woodworkers/carvers. You remember what Eda had told you earlier, that she had carved Owlbert herself, and that makes you wonder if she had had help from one of her family members to carve him, sort of like a family tradition.
Bat Queen eventually asks if she could escort you home, and you politely decline. You give her and the palismen that she cares for a small wave, which is when you realize that most of the trees in this clearing have a group of palismen in the branches, most of which appear to have some injury affecting them. Your eyes fly from tree to tree, taking in all the unique-looking palismen, some of which resemble human realm animals too much for it to be a coincidence. You pull your eyes away from them and place them back on Bat Queen and you give her a small bow before turning and walking away.
Walking back through the cave and the dark forest that surrounds it takes more time than you would have liked, mostly because you don't remember the exact way though. But you do eventually get through it, and immediately hop onto the tree branches high above you, and jump through them on your way home to the owl house!
When you do finally make it back, you're a bit surprised to find the house empty... that is it would be empty if Hooty wasn't stuck in the front door. Looking through the house, you find that the pot of broth you had placed on the stovetop is still there, with the pilot light still on. So you check the contents and while there is less liquid than you would have liked, the vegetables in there aren't burnt to the pan's bottom. You refill the pot with more liquid to rehydrate it and start to make some Dead Bread to wait for King and Eda to return. Almost half an hour later the front door swings open to reveal the two. And you can't help but stare.
King is his normal self if slightly chastised. And Eda... seems to be covered with her cursed body's feathers. Quietly you reach over to one of the hiding spots of her potions and grab one for her. You pass it to her before you dish up the broth, lightly toast some of the dead bread, and set the table. As the three of you eat Eda tells you what happened while you were gone. Apparently, King was still so worked up about the 'Ursurper' stealing his throne that he wanted to head back to the slayground with or without Eda. When he had gone to her to tell her that he was leaving he had found her in her Owl Beast form. But unlike last time the beast was somewhat friendly and not outright murdery.
Eda tells you that maybe you had some itching on how to contain the beast, since she had started meditating a few days ago, she had been able to interact with the owl beast within her mindscape. Using her wits she was able to trick the beast into not attacking her at first sight, and through this, she managed to keep it from recklessly attacking everyone around her. Unfortunately for her, while she was stuck dealing with this the Owl Beast had entered a neutral state, that was highly suggestible, which King found out.
To make a long story short King took Owl Eda to the slayground, where they proceeded to claw up the place, which resulted in the Demon Control folks showing up. From there the two had to give them the run around while King tried to get Eda back to normal. At the same time, within the mindscape, Eda struck a deal with the Owl Beast, which would allow her to keep her mental facilities while under the effects of her curse. Eda of course came to inside the Demon Control 'vehicle' with King. After scolding him the two of them managed to break out of the DC vehicle and ran out of the city back to the Owl House. Part of the way back the curse lifted enough that she was no longer in the larger beast form, but was stuck with an annoying amount of feathers everywhere.
Eda eventually manages to ask about your day, and you tell her what happened with the Grudgby match, and then about the Coven Scouts rounding up Bat Queen's palismen. Your foster mother curses when you tell her that the scouts had managed to round up a few palismen, she might not know what they wanted them for but she could guess that it wasn't for a good thing. When you mention you had rescued them, she gives you a wide grin and slaps you on the back. A warm feeling settles in your gut, but you try not to pay it any mind.
You explain that you brought the palismen back to BQ, but you don't mention the graves or what she had told you about the Clawthornes. You do mention the large amounts of palismen and ask her if BQ ran some sort of Palismen Sanctuary or something similar. It takes a bit of back and forth for Eda to understand what a sanctuary is, but she does confirm that BQ took in injured or abandoned Palismen, which explains the markings on most of them. You mentally pat yourself on the back at that, after all helping an abuse victim was the best thing you could do with your life.
Eda eventually waves you off as she starts on the dishes, which allows you to finally finish the book that Amity lent you. By the time you finish, it's time for bed.