A Lost Owl

by Marzek

AU: Luz was not able to save Eda from petrification. Or King. Or Lilith. During her fight with Belos, she was ripped from the Boiling Isles by an unknown force and brought to Amphibia, where she crashes Anne and Sasha's reunion party. Toad Tower later fails to be destroyed. The events following that, now unfold differently than previously anticipated... TW: Death, Violence & Trauma

25. The First of Many?

Only a few moments have passed after Amity and Luz have said their goodbyes for the day and both set off on their respective ways home, Amity stops again, turns around, and watches as the human girl who has turned her life completely upside down gradually disappearing into the horizon. Even though she eventually could no longer see Luz, she still stood rooted to the spot, wrinkles forming around her eyes, because she can't stop smiling so much.

At some point, however, she turns around anyway, since she is expected to arrive at Blight Manor in time. Nevertheless, the way to the manor is still long enough for Amity, in the midst of lush trees, bushes and grasses, to think about the somewhat surreal event that happened earlier. Although 'thinking' is probably a bit of an exaggeration at the moment. Amity's brain is free of clear thoughts, filled only with squeals of happiness and excitement.

In fact, Amity was so caught up in it that she didn't realize she had been walking for twenty minutes and was already at the front door of Blight Manor. She summons her scroll.

'Okay, good. I am not late yet. I think so, at least...'

The term 'on time' has never been officially declared by any of her parents. It's usually a game of being lucky or not to guess the correct time. Amity opens the door and enters the antechamber of the manor, a comparatively small room compared to the rest, which so far is actually only used as a wardrobe for guests whenever her mother has invited some people or is hosting yet another big gala, to which she has always forced Amity to attend.

The room itself is not particularly furnished in a major way. Besides the dozens of coat hooks, there is a rather large portrait of her parents hanging on the opposite wall, and on the floor lies a very large and very old carpet, without a particularly striking pattern.

'It's so peaceful in here... Perhaps nobody's home yet', Amity thought to herself as she walked through from the antechamber into the large living room. The living room is sort of divided into three parts: the living area itself covers most of it. Several fancy rugs on the floor, couches and sofas arranged in a semicircle around a brick fireplace, in front of which, a safe distance away, is a classy, low wooden table. And hanging right above the fireplace is one of the many family portraits distributed throughout the manor. On the rest of the walls are hanging several more, fairly expensive paintings, portraits and so on.

The next part of the room is actually just a passage separated from the rest only by the backs of two couches. The last part consists of a rounded elevated walkway leading to Amity's and the twins' rooms, separated from the rest of the living room only by a wooden railing.

And just from that exact direction Amity now hears voices, one of the doors opens and Edric and Emira come out of his room, having a lively discussion about... something, when they noticed their younger sister on the way to her room at the end of the walkway.

"Heey Mittens", Edric teases as he always does, right before Emira gasps in shock and stares at her younger sister.

"What?", Amity asks, pretending to be annoyed. She doesn't want her siblings to notice how in a really good mood she actually is right now.

"E-Ed, are you seeing what I'm seeing?", Emira whispers loud enough to her brother that Amity can easily hear it too. Edric squints his eyes as he examines Amity as well.

"Oh, yeah, you're right. But I don't believe it...", he whispers back.

"Ugh, cut it out guys.", Amity said as she walked past her siblings while they themselves just smirked at each other.

"Okay, Mittens...", Edric said before Emira continues.

"...But I think you'll really appreciate our help when you go on your date with Luz..."

Instantly, Amity stops dead in her tracks and turning around, with her face gone pale.

"HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT? ... I mean... N-no"

"Oh, little sister... There's no point in denying it. Your ears have given you away. I recognize those fwip-fwips instantly", Emira teases, to which Amity immediately slaps her hands over her ears. Giggling briefly, Emira continues, "Oh, Amity, that's nothing to be ashamed of. I am seriously happy for you. But now: I want to know everything"

'Do I really want to involve my annoying siblings in my date with Luz?', Amity considers for a moment, but growls softly as she does so, 'I don't think they'll ever leave me alone otherwise.'

She sighs, "Okay. Come on in."

Grinning, the two twins give each other a fist bump as they follow Amity into her room. Her room is the last one in the corridor. Edric and Emira have the two previous rooms with Emira, being the oldest sibling has the first and Edric having the room in the middle. The twins used to share one big room until they started a month-long discussion with their mother about privacy and things like that, many years ago.

The three of them enter Amity's room and Amity sits down on her bed. Her two siblings join her to her right and left. Now that she is in a 'safer' environment, her smile gradually returns. The twitching of her ears, however, is still there.

"So... You've been away for the last three days, all of a sudden Luz shows up back at Hexside with you, and now the two of you are dating...", Emira summarizes.

"Hmm, yeah... Apparently, she appeared again at Hexside, right after the club fair", Amity tells them.

"Apparently?", Edric follows up.

"Well, I wasn't actually around. Later that evening, Willow, Augustus, Skara, and Viney showed up at the Owl House with Luz in their arms. She was unconscious and wearing only pyjamas", Amity continued.

"So that's what she meant when she texted me that something had happened...", Emira thought aloud and Amity immediately turned her gaze to her sister.

She gasps, "Oh my gosh... You're dating Viney!", whereupon Emira is blushiest Amity has ever seen her.

"So so so... The beast taming healer... I can see why you wanted to keep that to yourself", Edric teases.

"Ed, shut up! It's not about me right now", Emira tries to take the focus off herself again.

"Alright... Oh boi, I'm going to have soo much fun soon, I'm telling you." Edric was already starting to make plans, while Emira and Amity went back to the initial topic.

"Okay, so she was at the Owl House now... and then?", Emira asks, still slightly blushing.

"It had taken a while for her to wake up. When the storm hit us, I went off with her as she wanted to see the Owl Lady. She was really miserable and as Luz is, she had tried to hide it. I also have to admit, I really didn't expect her to ask me out. I had thought she wasn't ready yet- Em, why are you grinning like that?"

"Ed, you- Ed? Ed!"

"Huh?", Edric asked, completely lost in thought.

"You owe me forty snails", Emira demands, full of pride, while Amity just blinked in confusion.

"Seriously? Oh man, I really thought... Well, never mind. Here."

Edric handed Emira the demanded amount and Amity seemed to understand what it was all about.

"You were betting on us?", she asks presumptuously, "Why am I actually surprised...? How long has this been going on?"

"Um... Say Ed, when was the time we were in the library with Luz during the wailing star?", Emira asks her brother. Angrily, Amity gets up from her bed.

"Out!"

"But-"

"I said: GET OUT!", Amity firmly urged her siblings. Oh, and with a fireball in her hand, whereupon they both quickly left her room.

'Wanted to help me, my ass', Amity thought to herself as she dropped eye-rolling back onto her bed. Shortly after, Ghost comes to her and snuggles down next to her head, purring. Amity closes her eyes and takes a deep breath before she summons her scroll opening Penstagram.

---

HELLO_WILLOW

[A]: Willow, I need your help

[W]: What happened? More stress with your parents? ^^

[A]: Luz asked me out on a date

[W]: O.O

[W]: Although tbh, I was actually expecting that to happen at some point. Just a bit later...

[A]: Please don't tell me that you were part of the bet of my siblings as well

[W]: Okay

[A]: Willow!

[W]: What? You told me not to tell you ;)

[A]: *sigh*

[W]: Okay, okay. What do you want me to help you with?

[A]: I had asked Luz to accompany me to the Bonesborough Brawl and she had later asked me if we should make it a date. However, I am in fact fighting most of the time. That doesn't seem very date-y to me.

[W]: Yeah, I think I see the problem.

[A]: So, can you help me out?

[W]: Possibly... Not right now, though. My dads would like to spend some family time with me. But I would get back to you later...

[A]: Thanks Willow. You are a gem

[W]: I know ;)

---

Amity lets her legs dangle off her bed as she lays her scroll down next to her, just staring at the ceiling.

"Meow."

Amity frowns, "Skara? I don't know."

"Meow"

"Yeah right. But Grom is not comparable to this. Besides, Skara and Brad had only spent about an hour together until Luz had then engaged Grom"

"Meow", Ghost growled.

"Fine... You're lucky you're so cute", Amity finally conceded defeat, ruffling Ghost's belly before taking her scroll back in her hands. Ghost purrs contentedly.

---

EMERALD_BANSHEE

[A]: Heeey Skara...

[S]: What's up, Ams?

[A]: I could maybe use some dating tips

[S]: ...

[S]: From me? o.o

[A]: Well, you are the only one of my friends who actually has dating experience

[S]: U sure?

[A]: Well, it's either Willow, Augustus or you. I already asked Willow, but she currently made other plans as for now, Augustus is still a child and probably doesn't even know what he might be interested in.

[A]: Then that just leaves you. And I know you were with Brad last Grom. So, you're the one with the most experience.

[S]: And you can't ask Luz because she's the one you're going out with... I don't know. I barely know Luz

[A]: That in itself is not the problem

[S]: It isn't?

[A]: No. We're going to the Bonesborough Brawl together tomorrow, but since I'm actually actively participating, it doesn't really feel date-y to me.

[S]: Ahh, now I get it... I think I can help you. Wait, I'll call you on your crystal ball

---

This conversation with Skara lasts nearly two hours before Willow also checks in with Amity once more, and also the two ended up chatting for a little over an hour. In summary, they came up with some pretty good ideas for her date with Luz. However, Amity hadn't thought about two things yet: Her outfit and her pseudonym.

The thing about Brawl is that not many of the contestants compete using their real names, with one exception being last year's winner, in this case Warden Wrath. Even though she hasn't decided on a pseudonym yet, she has picked out several outfits to choose between, laying down on her bed.

The first outfit consists only of a pink dress. Light at the top, a little darker at the bottom and with white ruffles at the end. In addition, a thick, black bracelet.

The second outfit is already slightly more extensive, consisting of a dark purple jacket with a gold pin as an accessory, underneath a lavender shirt and a short dark blue skirt, under which she wears black leggings.

The third of the three outfits is both simple and fancy at the same time. In general, it consists as her favorite black dress, from which, however, she would remove parts of the sleeves, so that her shoulders are visible freely, as well as her arms starting from the ulna. In addition, a simple cyan leather belt around her waist, a bracelet and a crescent moon shaped amulet as a necklace. The outfit would be completed with gray leggings.

Amity looks thoughtfully back and forth between the three outfits and tends not to be one hundred percent satisfied with any of them. Another hurdle is that she has to have enough mobility in the outfit to be able to fight with it.

'I like the pink dress, but it's way too long and too heavy. And with the ruffles, I could get caught everywhere... Although, while I'm at it, the dark blue skirt is definitely coming off too. Same problem. And it doesn't work with my hair... I think the black dress would be really the best option... Although-'

A knock on her room door snaps her out of her thoughts.

"Amity? May I come in?"

"What do you want, Emira?", Amity asks with an annoyed tone before her older sister enters the room.

"I just want-"

"I didn't say you could come in...", Amity notes. Emira, on the other hand, just shrugs.

"Well, I'm already here now."

Amity sighs, "Fine. I hope you're here to apologize."

"Um, no. I stand by the bet."

Amity grumbles.

"Alright, you don't need your head to pop right off", Emira jokes as she gets a look from her sister that's not just annoyed anymore, but almost angry. "I have something for you", she adds, pulling out two stones from her pocket, piquing Amity's curiosity. However, when she realizes what exactly it is, her curiosity turns to confusion.

"Concealment stones? What for? And why two?"

"One is from me. I stole the other one from Ed...", Emira calmly tells her, "I had said I would help and I do. So please, take them. And hold them against another."

Amity does so and an illusion cloud appears around Amity. As soon as it disappears again, she is wearing a whole different outfit. Positively surprised, Amity looks down at herself.

"Ed and I figured out that trick a while ago. I kinda thought you'd have trouble finding a suitable outfit for your date tomorrow. I mean, I know your closet."

Amity finds herself in a generally dark knee-length dress. It's part dark gray, part velvet. The pattern of the dress is remotely reminiscent of an abomination, which can also be seen on the two very short puff sleeves that end at half-length to her elbows. In addition to the dress, she now wears dark gray pants and, matching the dress, her fingernails are alternately colored in dark gray. As an additional accessory she wears purple glasses, with slightly pink lenses. The concealment stones themselves have turned into golden earrings, each set with a diamond.

"Wow... Em, thank you…", Amity said gratefully

"You're welcome. After all, I want you to have a great day tomorrow. Aaand as a reminder, Viney and I have postponed our date until next weekend."

"Yeah yeah, alright. I will help you as best I can then"

"Perfect." said Emira, who was about to leave Amity's room again, "Your girlfriend is also welcome to help if she wants to."

"Luz is not-"

But before she could complete the sentence, the door was already closed, although not for very long.

Whilst Amity stands in front of a mirror to admire her new outfit in its entirety as her mother Odalia suddenly storms into her room.

"M-mother... You're home", Amity stuttered, startled.

"Your ability to describe the obvious is getting stale... What are you wearing? I don't remember seeing this dress before", Odalia commented in a rather reproachful tone.

"Emira had shown me a trick involving concealment stones", Amity explains as she removed the earrings from her ears and her school uniform reappeared. Odalia strikes a pensive pose and Amity puts the stones back on.

"It looks... appropriate", Odalia remarks without any visible emotion.

'Of course, she's not able to give a proper compliment... As always'

"Thank you, Mother", Amity says, hoping her mother didn't catch the eye roll.

"I have just stopped by to officially un-ground you. I hope you have learned your lesson...", Odalia expectantly stated.

"Yes, mother", Amity lied. Honestly, Amity doesn't even remember what exactly she got grounded for. It could be changing her hair color away from green, letting Hooty loose on the Manor, deciding not wanting to join the Emperor's Coven anymore...

"Very well. Now, come down to the living room in a moment. I have an important announcement to make", Odalia demanded before leaving Amity's room again without any further comment.

Knowing that her mother doesn't like to wait unnecessarily long, Amity changed from her school uniform into her everyday outfit and went down to the living room where the rest of the family was already waiting.

"Finally…", Odalia annoyedly comments, as Amity sat down next to her sister on one of the couches. On the other side next to Emira sits Edric and next to him their father Alador, who interestingly also has no idea what this is all about.

"I have gathered you here because I have a big announcement to make: Blight Industries will be expanding, very soon. For the large orders of Abomatons that have come in lately, I had applied for a building permit for a new factory at the knee, which was granted today. The construction should be completed in one month from now, at the very latest."

Silence fills the room completely as Odalia waits expectantly for a reaction. Edric, Emira and Amity just look at each other in confusion before Alador gets up from the sofa and speaks up with carefully chosen words.

"Are you serious?", he asks accusingly, "Another factory? First you fire ten of my workers just like that and even without my consent and now you want to open another new factory, are you insane? How is that going to work?"

"Oh darling, don't worry about that", Odalia says in an attempt to calm her spouse. Only further upset, Alador stomps around the room muttering something under his breath.

"Oh great, now it's just going to be even more overtime..."

"Excuse me Mother", Emira began, "but if this is apparently a Blight Industries matter, why did you call us in as well?"

"It is very simple, darling. Since you two have no chance of ever accomplishing anything in any of the covens at all, I expect you to work for this family in other capacities. You will take care of the new factory part-time until you graduate from Hexside."

"WHAT?" the teenagers yell aghast.

"Oh don't act so shocked, someone has to do this job. And this way you can repay all the benefits I have granted you over the course of your lives."

"'Repay the benefits you granted'- are you kidding me? Under no circumstances are we going to-"

Quite quickly, Amity had decided for herself that she had no interest in participating in, or even listening to, the now inevitable fight between her siblings and her mother, so she tuned it out completely and virtually perceived only white noise. This is a skill that Amity had perfected over the last few months in order to be able to endure her mother's numerous lectures.

However, when her name suddenly came up, Amity perked up again as Emira yelled at her mother.

"AND WHAT ABOUT AMITY, HUH? ARE YOU GOING TO MAKE HER A SLAVE OF YOUR WILL TOO?"

"Unlike you, Amity has a bright future ahead of her as a coven head. She won't be such a disappointment as you two are!"

'You have no idea...' Amity thought to herself.

"Ohohoho, we- didn't meet your expectations? What a shame... MAYBE WE WOULD HAVE TRIED HARDER IF YOU WEREN'T SUCH A CONDESCENDING ABOMINATION OF A MOTHER FIGURE!"

Amity snaps her eyes open in surprise, 'That one hit hard'. It's only now, by the way, that Amity notices that Edric hasn't said a word yet, but just looks enraged while Emira and her mother are... arguing.

"THAT'S ENOUGH!", Odalia yells at them, "GO TO YOUR ROOMS! NOW! I will think of something for your insolence later".

Odalia sighs in defeat after the twins, furiously stomp into their rooms. Amity, on the other hand, feels bad that she didn't stand up for her siblings, after all, some extremely nasty things have been said. She would check on them later.

"Amity, be a good child and get your father out of his study. I need to have a serious talk with him."

"Yes, Mother"

Blind obedience - The only way to keep Odalia somewhat pleased. Of course, she will never be completely satisfied, after all, there is something to complain about absolutely everything. 'What, only ninety-nine points, Amity?', 'The grass from our lawn is too short. The gardener will be fired immediately', 'What? My youngest daughter has made a decision on her own that doesn't affect my life in any way? That's four weeks of grounding', Amity mimicked her mother in her head.

Any day she doesn't have to interact with her is a good day. And speaking of 'a good day', Amity has now reached her father's study and that she is there now is for two reasons. Amity knocks on the open door.

Her father does not respond.

She knocks again, this time a little louder.

Again, no reaction.

"DAD!" she now shouts.

"Huh? Oh, Mittens... Didn't see you there"

"Clearly... Um, two things: mom wants to talk to you-"

"Ugh... but of course she does", he interrupts Amity visibly annoyed, getting up and leaving his study while just ignoring Amity. Feeling disappointed, she mutters to herself, "I wanted to tell you about the Brawl tomorrow..."

Feeling dejected, Amity walks back towards the living room, only to see that her parents are no longer there. She only hears muffled yelling from a distant part of the house before heading to her siblings' rooms. Just before she knocks, Amity, hears two voices coming from Emira's room.

She knocks on her room door and finally steps in when told to come in. Edric is sitting at her sister's desk, while Emira herself is lying on her bed with a book cover in her hand and the pages of it ripped and tattered all over the room.

"Whoa, you really gave that book one hell of a beating", Amity comments casually.

"Heh... That is- was one of mom's books. 'Business Strategies' or something like that. It had it coming", Edric comments from the window where Emira's desk is.

"Listen guys... I'm sorry I didn't say anything earlier. What mom said was really messed up."

Emira takes one deep breath before getting into an upright position and gesturing to Amity to sit with her. Once there, Emira takes her sister's hands in her own.

"You don't have to apologize. I can certainly understand why you don't want to risk anything right now", Emira says empathetically.

Edric adds, "Your date is more important. And mom has been unhappy with us like forever. One more time of her bitching at us, what difference does it make?"

"B-but what she accused you of is not okay. I should have said something", Amity says feeling guilty.

"No. You did what was best for you at the time. Besides, we are in fact a disappointment. Actually, we are the biggest disappointment of all time. Aren't we, Ed?"

"Absolutely. We're totally going to ruin the 'Blight' name", Edric adds with confidence, to which Amity chuckles.

"Besides, if mom wants us to run the new factory, that's exactly what we'll do", Edric says with outrageous determination.

"And when we're done, mom will never want to assign us to anything ever again", Emira adds, whereupon the twins give each other an energetic high five. The three of them spend the rest of the day together. One of the Abomination butlers brings something to eat in with the news that dinner would be cancelled for the day. As it grew darker, however, Amity went back to her own room and to bed early, knowing it would probably take her a while to fall asleep.

---

The next morning came very quickly, not only for certain residents of Blight Manor, but also for those of the Owl House. Although, that's not quite right. It's already almost noon when Luz wakes up, all limbs completely stretched out or twisted into each other, with her entire blanket lying next to her.

Slowly she opens her eyes, which she quickly snaps shut again when the sunlight from outside hits her directly in the eyes. She tries to protect herself from the blinding sun with one hand before she eventually gives it another try.

Carefully, she opens one eye to make sure she is not getting blinded, then the other. She recognizes that there is something directly in front of her, but her vision is still a little too blurry to make out any details. She squints her eyes as she suddenly notices something coming towards her, along with the sound of claws tapping on wood. It is Owlbert, who now whispers a soft 'Hoot'.

Luz smiles. "I wish you a wonderful good morning too, my little cutie", she says in a sleepy voice.

Owlbert spreads his wings, tips to Luz's pillow and cuddles up to her while she herself tries to get her limbs back in the right positions.

After a few more minutes of silently cuddling with Owlbert, Luz starts to sit upright when suddenly Hooty bursts into Luz's room from a window.

"Heellooo Hoot-house. I hope you all slept well. In fact, I did."

Luz turns to him, "Good morning to you too Hooty."

"Well, I hope you're ready for your date with Amity in two hours", Hooty says expectantly, to which Luz's face freezes. She blinks a few times in disbelief.

"Wait a minute... Did you just say 'in two hours'? How do you know that?"

"Yep. The Brawl starts in two hours. Just like it does every year.", Hooty replies with typical enthusiasm.

"Aand I slept until noon?", she asks, still in disbelieve.

"Yep", Hooty replies again, at which point Luz begins to panic.

"Just two hours... Just two hou- Hooty, you promised yesterday that you would wake me up if I overslept", she reminds him. Hooty, however, is absolutely unaware of any guilt.

"You tried so hard to fix my tower yesterday that you had every right to sleep in."

"HOOOTY!" she groans in frustration.

In fact, Luz had spent quite a few hours yesterday making makeshift repairs to the tower, if only to relieve her panic about actually having asked Amity out, and to distract herself from thinking too much about it. She had also taken the opportunity to look around the tower itself, but found nothing in the damaged part but large wooden crates and boxes. Practically an extension of the basement. She had filled the hole partially with some of the more undamaged bricks and the rest with compressed vines. This dragged on until late in the evening, until she was eventually done. Before she went to bed, she wanted to make a small snack and saw that the music box was still in the kitchen. Although it was not standing upright, but knocked over and with several pearl necklaces and other jewelry sticking out. However, she was then already too tired to still deal with it.

Before she finally went to bed, Luz had told Hooty to wake her up after sunrise, if she wasn't already awake by then, so that she would have enough time to think about her date, hopefully with a clearer mind.

But exactly this plan Luz can now throw into the garbage, as she now gets up from her sleeping bag panicking again and hastily running towards the bathroom to have at least taken a shower before Amity arrives. Whenever that will be.

'Dammit Hooty...' she curses him mentally before losing her grip on the floor and slipping in her socks. Fortunately, she gets up quickly and without any injuries before disappearing into the bathroom.

'This day is off to a really great start...' she grumbles sarcastically to herself, 'I better start making a plan. This bit of multitasking shouldn't be a problem... I hope'.

Just about twenty minutes later, Luz already leaves the bathroom again, refreshed and feeling thoroughly cleaner. Additionally: With having a plan.

Step one: The Outfit.

It was pretty much clear to Luz, that she didn't really want to go on the very first date of her life wearing the same clothes she already wears almost every day. And the fact that she promised Amity to be her personal cheerleader for today doesn't make things any easier, because it means that her pink otter onesie is out as well. But only because it doesn't offer sufficient mobility. No other reason.

Luz ponders for a while over her so-called closet, which is really just a heavy, wooden chest in which everything she owns that isn't somewhere else in her room, lies tucked away wildly and disorganized.

"I think I really should have gone buying clothes more often with Eda...", Luz mumbles ruefully to herself.

"How awoup whif when?", Hooty asks as he suddenly enters her room with a coat hook in his beak. Attached to it is a cheerleading uniform.

"Heh, King wore this once before. It was soo adorable... But I'm afraid it won't fit me. And I'm not sure I have a glyph to resize an outfit like Eda could", Luz confesses, before a flash of inspiration hits her, lifting her spirits again, "Eda's closet! Maybe I'll find something there!"

Luz bursts out of her room, Hooty right behind her. Owlbert not. He remains dozing on Luz's still warm pillow.

Luz and Hooty are now facing Eda's closet. By the way, a real closet, not just a wooden chest. It wasn't particularly surprising that Eda didn't have a lot of variety among her clothes: several identical sleeveless maroon dresses with black ends, the brown two-piece suit with pink shirt Eda had worn to Grom, and her pink-cyan pyjamas. Most likely, Eda possessed more clothes as well, though she wasn't keeping them in this closet.

"Nothing in here really works for me. Everything in here screams... Eda...", Luz whined before closing the closet doors again.

"Did you look in the hidden compartment too?", Hooty asks, which immediately catches Luz's attention.

"Hidden compartment?", Luz asks with great interest, to which Hooty nods, if you can call it that in his case, since he doesn't have a heck... Or nothing but a neck...

"Eda was more nostalgic than you might know. She never threw away anything that belonged to her just like that. She kept her favorite things hidden in the secret compartment right beneath her shoes."

"And you know that how exactly, if it was secret?", Luz asks, raising an eyebrow.

"That's also where she hid her diary.", Hooty explains shamelessly.

"That's not an answer to my question, but meh...", Luz says dismissively before opening the closet doors again, moving some shoes from the bottom of the closet and after some blindly fumbling around, discovering a rope anchored to the floor. "Reveal your treasures to mama..."

Cautiously Luz opens a small, but all the louder squeaking bottom hatch. She sticks her head into the hole in the closet and sees several objects lying around: a few books, a metal box and a jacket. Somewhat mystified, Luz pulls everything out and places it in front of the closet for a closer inspection.

The first object Luz turns to is the jacket.

"Hm... this one might actually fit", Luz remarks as she holds it to her torso. She puts it on and stands in front of the mirror in the corner of the room.

"That's Eda's old Grudgby jacket", Hooty explains, and Luz's gaze travels down it and she sees the red E with white outline carefully sewn into the jacket.

"Hooty, wait here for a minute, I'll be right back", Luz says in a hurry as she exits Eda's room to slip from her pyjama pants into her light grey shorts over her dark grey leggings before rejoining Hooty.

Looking at herself in the mirror, Luz says "Hm... Sporty. I like. What do you think Hooty?"

Luz turns around and sees that he is no longer in the room. "Hooty?", she asks with no reaction. However, when she hears noises from outside, she walks over to the big window and sees Hooty outside chasing bugs.

Luz just shrugs before going back to the other items she found in the compartment.

Next up: the metal box.

'Uhh, I remember that thing. That's Eda's cheating box', she realizes. Luz opens the box. Nothing.

'Seems like Eda didn't restock it after I cleaned it... It really needed a good cleaning though', Luz puts the box aside and now turns her attention to the books.

The first one is quite plain. A light blue book, with alternating owl faces stamped into the material and brown leather spine. And it is only when Luz turns the book over that she realizes what exactly it is.

'That' s Eda's diary... Nope, ain't gonna read that', she thought to herself and put the book back in the drawer within the closet.

The second book, upon closer inspection, turned out not to be a book, but rather a red cardboard box containing several unsent letters.

"From Eda to... Raine?", she reads on the first sealed letter.

'To Raine... For Rainestorm... Raine, Raine, Raine...' There are 23 letters in total, all addressed to someone named Raine and none of them were actually ever sent.

'This seems to be more than just some ex... Another mystery that needs to be solved', Luz concludes triumphantly. 'And... maybe I'll be able to deliver the letters as well. I'd just have to find out-'

"HOOOT!", Hooty shrieks, suddenly appearing immediately behind Luz, causing her to jump out of her skin.

"HOOTY!", she yells, "don't scare me like that".

"Guess whose date just arrived", Hooty teases her.

"Amity? She's already here?", she asks in genuine surprise, "How long have I been up here?"

"I don't know. Maybe forty minutes."

"FOURTY MI- ugh... Brain, why do you keep doing this to me?", Luz mutters to herself in frustration. "Hooty, tell Amity I'll be right with her".

"Yes, ma'am.", Hooty saluted(?) and retreated all the way to the living room, where Amity was probably already waiting. Luz hurriedly ran after him but back to her own room. Luz could hear Hooty talking from the living room.

"Hiiiii bestieee... Whoa, you look totally gorgeous. Luz can really consider herself lucky-", and Luz shuts her door blushing as she unwillingly imagines how Amity might look like.

Step Two: Everything else

Originally, Luz' plan consisted of five steps in total: pick out a suitable outfit, prepare a few extra sets of glyphs, eat a small breakfast, prepare a gift for Amity, and talk Hooty out of coming along.

Luz leans back against her closed bedroom door in frustration and slides down it. Owlbert notices her and flies to her side. He chirps questioningly.

"You know, today was supposed to be an absolutely perfect day: My first date ever with the most amazing girl on the Isles. Amity deserves nothing but the best, but so far the whole day has been nothing but one big disaster."

Without hesitation, Owlbert flies to Luz's backpack, which is lying lovelessly in a corner of the room, and pulls out a few glyphs from it. He spreads the glyphs out directly in front of Luz and hops between several plant glyphs, which he activates in the process. In total, about fifteen colorful flowers grew out of the glyphs. Owlbert clips them off with his beak and arranges them in a bouquet shape in front of Luz. He chirps cheerfully after hopping onto Luz's knee.

Luz looks at him and gazes at his creation. She begins to smile.

"You're right, hope is not lost yet. The day can still change for the better", Luz says with newfound motivation.

Luz grabs the unactivated glyphs in front of her, then walks to her backpack to pull out a few blank sheets of paper and a pen before she is ready to leave her room yet again. She picks up the bouquet and turns to Owlbert.

"Thank you. You are truly the best wingman anyone could ask for", Luz says with a wink before leaving the room and descending the stairs to the living room as quietly as possible, hiding the bouquet behind her back.

"No Hooty, you can't come with us!", Amity orders in a firm tone.

Hooty had almost completely retreated into the front door of the house, now looking disappointed to the ground as Amity had to explain to him, in detail, why he is not allowed to come with them on their date.

"Hooty, you know I like you, but this date is between me and Luz. Between me and her only. Do you understand that?"

A quiet, disappointed "Mhm" comes out of Hooty's beak. But, in typical Hooty fashion, his mood changes within a split second when he suddenly sees Luz appear behind Amity, hearing her gasp heavily at seeing Amity.

Amity turns around quickly, her eyes sparkling. "Luz", she exclaims overjoyed and rushes towards her date, but stops short. "Hi", Amity grins, trying not to create an awkward situation.

"You- you look really pretty", Luz marvels, blushing, to which Amity looks down at the ground, grinning a bit sheepishly. She's wearing a short, black, sleeveless, asymmetrical dress along with a cyan leather belt around her waist, gray leggings, and her crescent moon necklace.

"Gracias. Tú también eres bonita", Amity suddenly replies, whereupon Luz tears her eyes open speechlessly and her jaw almost drops to the floor.

It takes a few moments for Luz to regain her composure. "That... That was Spanish... Amity, you learned Spanish? For- for me?", tears of joy form in Luz's eyes and a relieved and satisfied smile forms on Amity's face.

"I wanted to surprise you with this. Gus had lent me a human language book a while bac-"

Amity's explanation is unceremoniously interrupted as Luz throws herself at Amity with the tightest and most grateful hug she has ever received. Neither of them dares to ruin this moment. At least not until Amity hears a ruffling sound from behind her.

"Huh? What is that?", Amity asks, just before the hug breaks open and she sees the bouquet of flowers Luz is holding. With her free hand, Luz wipes the tears of joy from her face.

"Um... just some flowers for you. Even if it doesn't even begin to match the gift you gave me-"

"Luz, they're beautiful", Amity interrupts Luz. "However, I'm afraid we can't exactly carry those around today..."

"Uh, I have an idea", Luz says, placing all but one flower on the living room table.

"This one is a pink ranunculus. A flower from the human realm... One of the most beautiful flowers I know... Here", Luz explains as she stands in front of Amity again. She moves a little closer to her and weaves the flower into her hair so that it peeks out from behind Amity's ear.

"It's beautiful... Thank you."

The two girls look into each other's eyes, smiling a bit dreamily, before Amity breaks the silence after a few seconds. "We should get going... The brawl will start soon"

"Yeah, you're probably right", Luz agrees but still lost in Amity's eyes.

---

'I really don't deserve her', Luz thinks to herself as she leaves the Owl House with Amity and they make their way towards the Bonesborough Brawl. And once they were out of Hooty's sight, Luz put on her illusion bracelet.

"Why are you putting the bracelet on just now?", Amity asks curiously as the two girls walk side by side.

"Well, when I arrived back here yesterday, Hooty was quite... let's say, confused."

"Uh, let me guess: He thought you were an intruder and wanted to eat you", Amity guessed jokingly.

"Uh-huh", Luz nods in confirmation.

"Wait, seriously?", Amity asks incredulously.

"Oh yeah. You have no idea how quickly I ripped the bracelet off my arm before he could get to it.", Luz tells her half-jokingly.

"Yeah... I can imagine...", Amity replies thoughtlessly before both girls now walked side by side in silence, for minutes.

'Come on Luz, say something, this can't be that difficulty. Or do something or Amity's gonna get bored otherwise... '

As they gradually approach the area where the Brawl is being held after a few more minutes, Luz slowly begins to close the distance between herself and Amity until their arms are almost touching.

'Come on Luz, it's now or never'

Luz grabs Amity's little finger with her own pinky. Amity notices this, looks down at their hands and blushes, but smiles.

'Very good. Now go for the whole thing'

Luz grabs the rest of Amity's hand and she sees a huge, excited smile form on her dates face. Luz even thinks she hears a squeak from her. Luz herself now begins to grin to herself but to relax as well, while her inner self is just squeaking like crazy. The two of them continue walking, both being blushy messes as their hands now intertwined with each other.

A few more minutes later, the area where the brawl is taking place gradually comes into view. With a name like 'Bonesborough Brawl', Luz was expecting something more stadium-like, but this looks rather provisionally organized. It could be described as a clearing, immediately in front of a cliff that leads straight into the boiling sea. On the sides, several small hills emerged from the ground, from which all kind of bones protrude, some of them quite high, and where many dozens of witches and demons have already gathered and are eagerly waiting. Right in the middle, there is a few meters high stage erected by construction witches, which will later serve as a fighting area.

"Hmm... Not quite what I expected...", Luz mumbles to herself as she and Amity walked past the first torches marking the way towards the Brawl.

"What do you mean?"

"Well... I was expecting something more arena or stadium-like thing...", Luz explains, which Amity unfortunately doesn't fully understand.

"Don't let the appearance here fool you. The Brawl has been held at this location for many centuries and it takes place once every year."

"Cool", Luz comments.

"My dad used to compete here regularly himself... Well, at least until he joined the Abomination Coven at some point...", Amity tells.

"So, you are participating for him today, right?", Luz asks to which Amity nods.

"I'm hoping that if I win the Champion's Belt, like he did back then, that I can grow a little closer to him...", Amity tells hopefully, to which Luz quiets down a bit before responding.

"I thought... you didn't like your parents. I'm just thinking about that thing with Willow, that your mom grounded you just because you made a decision for yourself once-"

"That's mostly mom. She's the one who wants to control every aspect of my life. Dad, on the other hand... he just goes along with it... In fact, he's pretty much just been working for years now. I rarely get to see him, let alone spend any time with him..."

"Let's make sure then that you get that Champion's Belt", Luz exclaims with determination as the two finally arrive.

"Attention witches and demons... The Brawl will begin in five minutes. Those who have not yet registered should do so quickly".

Luz and Amity had meanwhile chosen a comfortable spot on one of the hills and sat down there, when the host, who looks quite familiar to Luz, makes this announcement on stage.

"Ugh, this can't be that hard...", Amity whines.

"You'd think it would be. I mean, I wrote a whole book once and it wasn't nearly this hard... Why don't you want to compete under your real name again?", Luz asks feeling slightly overwhelmed.

"Mom and Dad would know before the first fight even started. Mom gets everything regarding the Blight name...", Amity explains.

"Alright... Hmm... What do you think of 'The Pink Storm'? Or 'Oracle Smasher'? Or 'Mighty Mittens'? Or 'Abomina'? Or 'The Incredible Ghittens'? You know, a mix of Ghost and Mittens..."

Amity laughs, "For something that's supposedly to be so difficult, you're bursting with ideas...", causing Luz to blush again. "I'm wavering a bit between 'Mighty Mittens' and 'The Pink Storm'..."

Luz shifts into a strained pensive pose.

"From a purely sonic point of view, I think 'Might Mittens' sounds better..."

"Really?", Amity asks to which Luz nods softly smiling, "Okay. 'Mighty Mittens' it is... ... You know, I do have another surprise I'd like to show you."

Luz raises an eyebrow in anticipation as Amity stands up and pulls out two stones from her pockets and holds them together. Illusion clouds appear around her and when they disappear again Amity wears a brand-new outfit. Luz's jaw drops to the floor yet again.

"So, what do you think?", Amity asks expectantly.

"So... pretty...", Luz stammers almost whispering causing Amity to giggle happily.

"Will you wait here? I'm just going to register myself for the Brawl."

"Uh-huh", Luz replies, her brain not yet able to cope with Amity's new outfit; No thoughts, just admiration. Her dark purple dress with abomination pattern and same color glasses as an accessory.

'To think that she can actually get even more beautiful... And she is going out with me. With me! And I'm just sitting here, wearing Eda's old jacket, while the most beautiful girl of all times is about to finish off the strongest witches and demons in the Isles... Mm, it's nice that she wants to do all that for her dad- dad... Dad's death anniversary is coming up... Or was it already and I... missed it? ... No, stop! Bad Luz, no bad thoughts today! I have to be there for Amity'

And just as Luz had cut short her self-inflicting self-conversation, Amity returned.

"Good news", Amity announces, "I get the third fight. The original fighter backed out at the last second."

"Uhh, very nice", Luz responds, trying to sound cheerful. An attempt that backfires, as Amity's smile suddenly disappears and is replaced by a frown.

"Ohhh, I know that look", Amity says.

"What look?"

"The look that tells me something's bothering you... Do you want to talk about it?"

Amity sits down next to Luz and looks her straight in the eyes.

"Nothing is bothering me, I'm fine", she says. But Amity continues to look Luz in the eyes.

"Really... I'm fine", Luz adds.

Amity closes her eyes and takes a deep breath before she finally says "Okay. I believe you."

"But…", Luz begins again, "I have been thinking of a way to actively help you. Well, in-between your fights, I mean."

"Really, how?", Amity asks curiously. Luz digs in her pocket and pulls out a stack of glyphs. Amity is a bit confused

"b-b-b... Where is it?" Luz sums quietly as she sorts through the glyphs in front of her until she finally finds the one, she was looking for.

"Aha!", Luz exclaims, "This, my dear Amity, is a regeneration glyph. Created by the great glyph expert and curse user Maddie Flour."

"Curse user?", Amity asks skeptically.

"No need to worry, it is more harmless than it sounds. Can't compare to curses from the Isles", Luz says reassuringly.

"Alright... What does it do?", Amity asks curiously.

"Basically, this glyph is able to heal destroyed tissue. And that of anything that is somehow alive or otherwise organic. It heals everything from minor scratches to deep and deadly wounds."

"It can bring dead people back to life?", Amity asks incredulously.

"No", Luz contradicts, "It can't heal diseases either, only physical injuries."

"Okay wow, that still sounds really cool. Let's hope we don't need it".

"Amity, I'm a hundred percent convinced that you're going to crush all of them with ease", Luz says with a motivational smile on her face.

"Thank you for believing in me like that. It means a lot to me."

Amity takes Luz's hand in her own as the actual brawl is about to begin and the host enters the stage. The number of spectators has multiplied again since Luz and Amity arrived on the site and those who couldn't find a place on the hills are standing close together around the stage.

"Witches and Demons, welcome to... THE BONESBOROUGH BRAWL!", the host shouts into his microphone. The audience erupts in cheers.

"You know the rules: The contestants will fight one on one. Not for honor. Not for glory. But for the ultimate bragging rights as the toughest dueler on the Isles.", The audience is cheering even louder.

"Last one standing will get the chance to snag the coveted Brawler's Belt from our reigning champion... WARDEN WRATH!"

Warden Wrath enters the stage and holds up the champion belt for everyone to see. A purple belt accented with emeralds and rubies and a solid gold belt buckle with the word 'CHAMP' engraved in large letters in the middle.

"Today we have sixteen contestants who will compete against each other. Sixteen contestants will fight for the title. ARE YOU READY?"

The crowd goes wild.

"That's what I was hoping for... For our first round, we have 'The Gardener'... versus 'Gogola'. LET THE BRAWL BEGIN!"

Gogola charges at the Gardener without hesitation, creates an abomination shield, knocks the Gardener down and throws her to the ground.

The Gardener quickly straightens up again, and Gogola prepares another attack.

The Gardener lets vines shoot out of the ground, pinning Gogola's legs to the ground. She's falling. Even more vines appearing to lock the hands and her torso.

"THE GARDENER WINS", the host announces, the audience cheers loudly.

"Whoa, that was intense...", Luz comments, "Does it always go this fast?"

"It depends. I'd call this fight something about average. From what I've heard, most fights end up far bloodier", Amity tells.

"Let's keep going. In the next fight... 'Junsouk Bolical' versus... 'Cravei, the Blacksmith'. LET THE BRAWL BEGIN!"

Junsouk and Cravei engage in a stare-off before either of them even makes a move.

Cravei's finger twitches, which is enough for Junsouk to throw a steam potion at him. The whole stage is shrouded in fog.

Glass can be heard breaking.

Boulders fly out of the fog into the audience.

A mighty rumble shakes the area and the steam evaporates.

"UNBELIEVABLE, Cravei just crushed Junsouk with a huge rock. What a shame… But anyway, CRAVEI THE BLACKSMITH WINS!"

"He never had a chance", Amity says dryly.

"Huh?", Luz asks.

"Well, Junsouk had already gambled it away when he threw the steam potion. You have to be able to see your target if you want to use potions in ranged combat"

"Makes sense"

"So, it's my turn now. Wish me luck"

"Good luck. I believe in you", Luz calls after Amity as she runs to the stage.

"So far, this is probably the fastest Brawl yet. Let's see if this trend continues... For the next round we have 'Scab the All-Knowing' versus... 'The Mighty Mittens'. LET THE BRAWL BEGIN!"

Amity creates an abomination moments before Scab takes off and fires a beam at Amity from their orb.

Her abomination shields her, but she gets thrown back a few meters.

In a quick and fluid motion, Amity transforms her Abomination and resummons it right behind Scab.

The Abomination strikes from behind, nearly flinging Scab out of the arena.

With a skillful backflip, Scab gets back to their feet summoning two spirits that fly towards Amity from two sides.

Amity creates an abomination-gauntlet and destroys the ghosts in a spinning motion. Amity runs at Scab and hurls them out of the arena with just one strike.

"THE MIGHTY MITTENS WINS", the host announces. The audience is cheering and Luz is waiting in front of the stage.

Amity slowly descends the stairs from the stage and practically falls into Luz's arms.

"This. Was. Amazing!", Luz rambles heavily gesturing, "You were like whoosh, they're all like umpf and then you again-"

"Luz...", Amity interrupts her.

"Huh?"

"Can we go back to our seat? I think I scraped my knee", Amity asks. Luz looks down at her and sees a few drops of blood rolling down her leg.

"Oh yeah, of course. Come on, I'll help you."

Luz supports Amity on the way back to her place on the hill, just before the next round begins.

"And now, 'Bianca, the Beekeeper' versus... 'Tinella Nosa'. LET THE BRAWL BEGIN!"

Luz eyes widen as she turns her head towards the stage, "She had a name this whole time?", she asks in surprise.

"Luz, my knee", Amity says, focusing Luz attention back to her.

"Oh yeah, right... Sorry."

The two girls slowly walk up the hill, paying no further attention to the fights. Hissing in pain, Amity sits down while Luz takes out her regeneration glyph and places it directly on Amity's angled knee. As Luz activates it, it lights up and disappears into Amity's knee moments before the injury heals itself tremendously quickly. After just a few seconds, the wound is gone as if it never existed in the first place.

"Whoa", Amity says in amazement, and Luz smiles at the result, "It seems I owe Maddie Flour a thank you if I ever meet her..."

"I'm sure you will. And I bet she'd love it here-"

"And BIANCA, THE BEEKEEPER WINS!" the host suddenly yells in between, however the two girls pay no attention to it currently.

"Do you miss Amphibia?", Amity asks. Luz snorts out.

"Of course I do... The number of places and people I miss could fill the whole island..." Amity chuckles softly before Luz continues, "But if I were there right now, or in the human realm, I'd miss everyone here tremendously as well... Not sure there's a perfect solution for that."

"A truly unique problem", Amity concludes. She turns to Luz so she can look her face to face. "Luz, tell me: Where would you most like to be right now, at this very moment, if you could choose?"

Luz thinks about that for quite a while.

"Hmm... Right here", Luz finally answers.

"Are you sure?"

"Pretty sure... This is where I am right now. Just with you...", Luz starts to smile slightly again and the two girls look towards the stage again.

"It's funny…", Amity begins, "Just a few months ago I thought my life was perfect. I always had the best grades, powerful 'friends'... If I ran into my old self today, she probably wouldn't believe me that I'm happier now than I was then..."

"You're happy?"

"Pretty much, yeah...", Amity answers, leaning back in a relaxed manner before resting her head on Luz' shoulder.

Sitting together, the two girls watch the other four fights until the first round of fighting is over and the second round is about to begin.

"What a first round this young evening... and only one death, a new record!", the host yells into his microphone as the crowd erupts in cheers, but some boos as well-. "We clear the stage of the last leftovers of the last fight and then we're back with the second round of the... BONESBOROUGH BRAWL!"

"The body parts can be purchased for three snails a piece", he quickly adds.

Luz gives Amity a disgusted look as she hears that last part.

"I don't understand the appeal of that either", Amity agrees.

Amity had insisted during the last battle that Luz stopped watching as it became apparent that the fight was going to be more brutal than any of the previous ones. 'Captain Bluejacq' is definitely one of the opponents Amity would have to be wary of if she were to face her. Fortunately, a lot can happen before that could be the case.

"Witches and Demons, this is the second round where the winners of the first round face off against each other. Everything is still open; everything is still possible. But now... a gigantic applause for the winners of the first round 'The Gardener' and 'Cravei, the Blacksmith'... LET THE BRAWL BEGIN!"

The Gardener immediately launches an attack using vines to pin Cravei's feet to the ground. Same strategy as earlier.

Cravei rips several boulders out of the ground and throws them one after the other at the Gardener.

A spin, a crouch, a jump to the side and suddenly a stone reinforced fist lands in her face. She was distracted and Cravei was able to free himself.

The counterattack; a huge magic circle has been drawn, the ground shakes slightly and Cravei loses his balance.

Several thick, sharpened tendrils shoot out of the ground, ready to pierce Cravei.

Suddenly, the Gardener skyrockets. Cravei has created a small, but all the faster stone pillar shooting out of the stage, launching the Gardener into the air.

She attempts to create several bushes to land in, but they are all getting instantly destroyed her opponent.

The Gardener hits the ground, the crowd flinches. She is severely injured.

"CRAVEI, THE BLACKSMITH WINS!"

"Whew... So, now it's my turn again...", Amity says while the Gardener is still being carried off the stage and tended to by healers.

"You can do it!", Luz calls after her for encouragement.

Amity smiles back at her as she enters the stage.

"What a fight... And you know what? Right here comes the next one! 'The Mighty Mittens' versus 'Bianca, the Beekeeper'... LET THE BRAWL BEGIN!"

Amity doesn't waste any time and launches the first attack of the round: A simple fireball at her opponent.

Bianca doesn't dodge it though, but picks it up and hurls it back at Amity, who in turn is forced to dodge it.

Bianca creates two growing flames in her hands. However, they are not flames; they are two swarms of fire bees that Bianca has summoned and is now launching towards Amity.

Amity, now in the defense, summons her abomination fluid and slides it right through the two swarms. All the fire bees drop paralyzed to the ground.

Her opponent now without her only weapon, Amity resumes the rest of her abomination fluid and hurls it all at Bianca, who is consequently thrown off the stage.

"THE MIGHTY MITTENS WINS", the audience cheers and Luz once again waits at the bottom of the stairs.

"That was great.", Luz cheers before going for another hug but holding back, "Wait. Are you hurt? Do you want me to carry you?"

Amity giggles, "Don't worry, I'm fine. See? Completely uninjured.", Amity assures Luz after spinning once.

"YAAY", Luz cheers and gives Amity a warm hug before they both walk back to their spot and sit back down on the hill.

"I don't know if I could have done it that way- Okay well, I didn't even know there were burning bees here either...", Luz admits.

"Yeah, most of them are kept by Beast Keepers. Only a few swarms live in the wild... Hey, by the way, do you want me to tell you a secret?", Amity whispers and leans towards Luz.

"A secret? Sure", Luz answers before Amity looks around, secretly, to her left and right.

"I learned that trick from Ed", she whispers.

"Your brother knows about beastkeeping?"

"Kinda. He picked it up as a hobby a few years ago. Emira hadn't been interested, so he'd shown me a few tricks now and then. One of them was how I could render fire bees harmless without killing them", Amity tells, "Basically, there are two ways: The most common way is by just freezing them. But the downside to that is that if you don't free the bees quickly enough, they die. What Ed had discovered was that abomination fluid can glue the wings of fire bees together, causing them to fall to the ground. The advantage here is that I can remove the fluid completely without harming the fire bees."

"Uff, wow... Call me impressed..."

"Yeah... When he's not busy playing stupid pranks on me, intelligent things come out of his mouth every now and then."

"Ooh, that's mean. He's your brother... You love him…", Luz states to which Amity sighs.

"He's annoying... Ed and Em both...", she says, "But I wouldn't trade them for anything in the world."

"Awww-"

"Don't you dare to tell them that!", Amity dares her.

"My lips are sealed", Luz promises with an appropriate gesture over her mouth.

"I am as secretive as... as... um, an otter. An admittedly quite talkative otter."

Amity gives an amused but doubtful look.

"But don't worry. Since I'm an otter, no one understands me when I try to talk... Unless someone invents an otter translation device..."

Amity giggles, but Luz smiles as well. Her giggling is quite contagious.

The two girls goof around for quite a while, resulting in them completely missing two of the following fights entirely. Not only that, Amity almost missed her own next fight. But fortunately, just almost.

This time Amity goes to the stage together with Luz and Luz gives her date another hug to wish her good luck.

"Witches and Demons... We have already seen many exciting fights today and there are only four participants left! FOUR PARTICIPANTS, THREE FIGHTS! And the winner gets to face our defending champion: WARDEN WRATH!", the crowd goes wild. Amity hears Luz's voice among all the shouting, cheering for her.

"The first fight in this semi-final... 'CRAVEI, THE BLACKSMITH'... versus... 'THE MIGHTY MITTENS'. LET THE BRAWL BEGIN!"

In a split second, Cravei flings himself into the air, sweeping a huge rock along from underneath him and hurling it at Amity at high speed.

A quick reaction is called for. Duck? Too little time. Dodge? Same. Shield?

In a blink of an eye, Amity creates an Abomination Shield in front of her, just before the rock hits her and hurls her to the edge of the stage. She hears Luz calling after her.

Cravei prepares another attack, but abomination fluid coming from below the ground grabs him by the leg, lifts him into the air and hurls him out of the stage.

"UNBELIEVABLE, fellow Witches and Demons. That was probably the fastest fight I've ever seen... THE MIGHTY MITTENS WINS!"

But now there seems to be a problem. Whereas before Amity went straight down to Luz, she is still sitting in the same position on the stage. She is unable to get up.

Somewhat distressed and in pain, she looks to Luz, who immediately runs up the stairs and sprints to her.

"What's wrong? Are you hurt?", Luz asks worriedly.

"Ugh, I- think I broke something when I landed", she hisses in pain.

"May I?", Luz asks as she holds her hand over Amity's knee. Amity nods and Luz carefully touches different place as Amity suddenly screams extremely loudly in pain.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry".

"We... need to get off the stage"

Without thinking Luz grabs Amity, lifts her up, carries her down the stage and slowly back to their spot on the hill, where luckily there is already a regeneration glyph ready to use.

Extremely carefully Luz sets Amity down and now has a better view of her legs. Especially her left shinbone looks anything but healthy. The fracture is clearly visible through the skin, even if no blood is visible from the outside.

"Amity, this is probably going to hurt pretty bad for a bit..."

Amity nods vigorously.

Carefully, Luz places the glyph on Amity's broken shinbone and takes Amity's hand. As she taps the glyph to activate it, Amity lets out a short but all the more intense pain-filled scream, and Luz sees the bone beneath her skin move back into place and heal.

It only took a few seconds, but felt like an eternity.

"Ahhhh, ffff..." she grunts in relief as the pain suddenly subsides.

"I hate to see you suffer like this... Are you sure you want to keep going? That was already a pretty nasty injury", Luz asks worriedly.

"I'm very sure", Amity confirms. Luz turns her gaze to the ground.

"Hey hey, look at me", Amity pleads with Luz, "trust me. I can handle this"

"... Alright. I trust you", Luz says after thinking about it.

"Besides... That wasn't my first broken bone. I used to play Grudgby, remember?"

"Yeah, you're right... Okay, if you want to keep fighting, I insist that I help you", Luz says.

"Well, how do you figure on doing that?"

"Well, first I'm going to assume that you'll win the finals and going to fight Warden Wrath as well", Luz begins.

"So?", Amity asks.

"I've already fought him twice and I can try to prepare you for his strengths and weaknesses", Luz suggests, however Amity looks a bit incredulous.

"You've got to be kidding me... You fought him twice?!" she asks incredulously.

"I'm serious. The first time was actually the day I first came to the Isles and met Eda. In exchange for her helping me get back home, I was supposed to help break into the Conformatorium and steal back a crown for King- AAAH!", Luz suddenly recoils and falls backwards as she realizes how close Amity has unexpectedly gotten to her.

"Sorry, sorry. I like backstories. Especially yours", Amity confesses, helping Luz back into an upright position so she can continue telling.

"Aww, thanks. Where was I ... Oh yeah. I had given King the crown, and Wrath had found and surrounded us with a few of his guards. But then he asked Eda out on a date..."

"You're kidding..."

"No, seriously. He had even chopped her head off before that."

Amity doesn't even react to that anymore, but just sits there with her mouth open as Luz continues.

"But well, that's when I learned that nothing can knock her down that fast. Eda refused and I had hit him on the back of the head with Eda's staff and he went down. One of his weak points already. We just escaped from the Conformatorium, he had hit us with his... I don't know, transformable tentacle arm things and knocked us to the ground. He and Eda had then fought against each other, but Eda had wanted to send me away on Owlbert. Oh, speaking of which, Wrath can turn his arms into all kinds of weapons and breath fire, just for the record. We had then defeated him when I fired some rockets at him that exploded in his mouth."

"So largely Eda had fought him...", Amity points out.

"Hey! ... I helped", Luz admits.

"Heh, okay and the second time?", Amity asks.

"That was when Eda was captured by Lilith and King and I had tried to rescue her. The plan was simple: get to the Conformatorium as quickly as possible and rescue Eda-"

"Very detailed", Amity said sarcastically.

"Thank you. So, to be taken to the Conformatorium, we had to do something so deviant, something so evil, that the guards had had no choice but to take us right there."

"You didn't-"

"Oh yes we did. We actually stepped on grass even though there was a 'do not step on gras' sign nearby."

"That... Is not what I had thought, but okay.", Amity commented.

"When we arrived at the Conformatorium, Wrath was one of the first to cross our path, and I had frozen him with an ice glyph and forced him to tell us where Eda was."

"Wow... I'm impressed Luz. So... is ice one of his weaknesses?"

"Kinda. I have three guesses. Either ice, the inability to move, or knives."

"Knives?"

"The icicles were very pointy. Like a knife", Luz adds.

"Okay, I see... Strengths: Fire Breath, Transformable and Extendable Arms, and I'm guessing he's pretty strong too... Weaknesses: weak spot on the back of his head, immobility or ice or pointy things."

"Exactly", Luz confirms proudly.

"Honestly? I think this is going to be a piece of cake", Amity opines.

And once again, another fight has come to an end, which the two girls missed out on entirely. This is bad in that Amity doesn't know who she's up against and what their abilities are. Nonetheless, she gets up and walks to the stage with Luz. Luz had made more regeneration glyphs very shortly before they got up, if only just in case.

"WITCHES AAAND DEMONS! We've seen a lot of brave brawlers today, trying to make a name for themselves", the crowd cheers. "And two fighters lost their lives... BUT THAT IS NOT A REASON TO STOP THIS YEARS BONESBOROUGH BRAWL!", the crowd cheers even louder.

"That's what I wanted to hear... There are only two contestants left, fighting for the chance to face our returning champion. HERE IS 'CAPTAIN BLUEJACQ'... VERSUS... 'THE MIGHTY MITTENS'! LET THE BRAWL BEGIN!"

"Seriously?", Amity asks, "I'm not going to fight an old woman like that".

Her opponent, an old goat demon just screams "That's what everyone says!", breaking her walking cane on her knee in half. She starts shrieking and forming a battle aura around her.

Amity realizes in a split second that she massively underestimated her opponent. She also seems to have forgotten that she had already killed at least one other person in the preliminary rounds.

Bluejacq scrapes her hooves on the ground before dashing forward with great power. Amity uses her abomination fluid as a jumping aid and is barely able to dodge Bluejacq's attack.

Amity lands and immediately creates an abomination to attack her opponent. Bluejacq simply runs through it head first, but also slams into Amity's torso, throwing her several meters backwards.

Amity lies on the ground with a hurting chest and Bluejacq prepares another sprint with Amity's head as the target. She hears Luz anxiously calling for her to get up.

The options are vague. She is too fast and with her head she just runs through everything that would block her way. Play for time and let her run out of energy? Go for a counterattack?

Bluejacq charges at Amity, but she doesn't budge. Luz keeps yelling for Amity to get up.

She's getting closer. And closer.

Just before Bluejacq hits her, Amity quickly rolls to the side, creates her abomination-gauntlet and hits Bluejacq with a skillful twist in the back, causing her to fly right off the stage using her own momentum.

The host enters the stage and Amity manages to stand up with difficulty, albeit in pain. He approaches her, takes her arm and holds it up victoriously. He pays no attention to her pain-filled face.

"There you have it, Witches and Demons... 'The Mighty Mittens' is going to take on 'Warden Wrath'! After a short break."

He remains in that position with her for a few seconds until he releases her without further comment, leaving the stage again and leaving Amity just there. Luz runs on the stage to her.

"Where are you hurt? On your back or on your stomach?", Luz asks hastily, already holding the glyph in her hand.

"Heh... I hate that guy...", Amity mutters. "Luz? How long have you been here?"

"Amity, how many fingers am I holding up?", Luz asks anxiously to which Amity doesn't answer. Her eyes are unfocussed.

The fact that Luz and Amity haven't left the stage yet was reason enough for the healers to go on stage and check things out themselves.

"Is there a problem?", a taller, green demon in a white healer's uniform asks.

"She's hurt. Maybe a concussion."

Luz actually has no idea about witch physiology, or medicine in general. Another healer, a male witch performs a diagnostic spell while Luz stands by, deeply concerned.

"Various fractures in several organs, spine bruised, probably due to impact on the ground... Laceration to the back of the head... Concussion present. Good guess, Kid"

Suddenly the host rejoins as well. "So, will she be able to fight?"

One of the healers turns to him.

"The concussion and the laceration can be easily treated. The internal injuries and the injured spine, on the other hand..."

"Will. She. Be. Able. To. Fight?" the host asks again with urgency. whereupon the healer puts on a doubtful expression. The host sighs in frustration until Luz suddenly speaks up.

"I can help"

"Sure. You can hold her hand", the healer says dismissively as both healers place her on a gurney.

"I mean it"

"Of course, kid", he says, still not taking Luz seriously.

The healers carry Amity from the stage to a more secluded tent. Luz does not leave her side the whole way and keeps holding Amity's hand.

The healers drop Amity from the gurney onto a table. Amity is hissing in pain. She lies on her stomach and her bleeding laceration is now clearly visible to Luz.

"What kind of healers are you?", Luz screams, "She's hurt and you just drop her like that?"

"HEY! If you don't like it, you should leave! We're only here to make sure no one dies outside the stage. We don't care about anything else!", one of the healers hisses back.

Luz leans down to Amity, as the so-called healers are distracted, to whisper something in her ear. "I'm sorry..."

She lifts up her dress so that a small part of her back is visible and places the glyph directly on Amity's spine. Amity cries out in pain yet again.

"HEY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?", one of the healers yells at Luz just before she activates the glyph. He grabs her and drags her away from Amity as her torso suddenly begins to glow.

After a few very long seconds, it disappears again and the healer lets go of Luz, who immediately thanks him with an enraged glare.

"What did you do?", he asks.

"See for yourself", she says. "You pseudo healer!", she added in a whisper as he performed a new diagnostic spell on Amity and now turned to Luz, completely dumbfounded.

"How?"

"Heal her head injuries and then I'll show you!", Luz demands. He immediately set to work and only minutes later Amity was completely healthy again. She sits upright and Luz immediately runs to her around the table to look her directly into the face.

"Amity..."

"Luz... What happened?", she asks, puzzled. Luz, on the other hand, is just relieved right now.

"You defeated Bluejacq, but got hurt. Brain injury, internal bleeding and injured spine", Luz explains.

"Not to mention the laceration on the back of your head", the healer added, which only earned him a nasty glare from Luz.

"Am I... Am I still in the competition?", Amity asks. Luz's expression changes from relief to dread in a flash.

"Please don't tell me you want to keep fighting…", she pleads.

"I want to... I've made it this far... It's just Wrath now."

Luz knows perfectly well that she's not going to be able to talk Amity out of it, so she doesn't even try. She just looks worriedly after Amity as she quickly leaves the tent and walks back to the stage. She hears the host calling again.

"It seems the title contender is doing well enough that she wants to take on our longtime champion"

Luz sighs in defeat and is now about to leave the tent as well when one of the healers whistles her back.

"Hey. You promised me something"

Luz rolls her eyes and pulls out a regeneration glyph and flings it onto the table where Amity was before.

"Put it on the wound and tap it! That's it... Only works for injuries, not for illnesses", Luz explains before briskly exiting the tent and going after Amity, who is already climbing up to the stage.

---

"Amity Blight?", Warden Wrath asks in disbelieve, "I wasn't expecting to face you today..."

"I'd better hope you don't spare me", Amity says with misplaced self-confidence. Wrath, on the other hand, just laughed.

"Definitely not... I just wanted to let you know that Braxas will miss you", he replies in a somber voice before walking to his side of the stage, laughing. Amity does the same just before the host enters the center.

Amity looks down into the crowd, hoping to hear Luz cheering her on.

Eventually, she finds her. But instead of cheers and shouts of encouragement, Amity only sees pain and worry written all over her date's face. However, at this point it was already too late to drop out.

"Now, we're getting close to the end, folks! Will the Warden lose the Champion's Belt?"

Warden Wrath takes off his mask and begins to spout fire, growling. He takes his head back and spouts again, only this time with an even bigger flame. Amity swallows nervously.

"'THE MIGHTY MITTENS'... VERSUS... 'WARDEN WRATH'! LET THE FINAL BRAWL BEGIN!"

Amity creates an Abomination, but it is immediately crushed by Warden Wrath with his fist, which he turns into a giant hammer.

He melts another one with his fire breath.

She generates several smaller ones to run wildly around him and to confuse him. He tries to crush each small Abomination, so he doesn't notice Amity running towards him with her abomination gauntlet.

She hits him in his stomach with all her might and... nothing.

He laughs. "How amusing... Is that about all you have to offer?"

Again, Amity gulps hard. She runs away, but something grabs her ankle. She goes down.

Wrath has his arm tied around her ankle and is now holding her upside down in front of his face. "I'm going to show you how to do this properly", he threatens her and throws her extremely high into the air with ease.

She summons the abomination fluid of the trampled abominations to her as she falls back down and uses it as a kind of surfboard to glide through the air in a more controlled manner.

She recreates her gauntlet out of some of the surfboard's mass, hurtles straight at Wrath at extremely high speed, and as he tries to breathe fire, she hits him squarely in the head.

She tries to slow down as quickly as possible, but falls to the ground and rolls uncontrollably across the entire surface.

The audience mutters, mesmerized about the fight so far.

Wrath falls forward to the ground. All the spectators gasp in shock.

Amity is visibly hurt by her landing, but she gets back up, breathing heavily. She looks around and sure enough, Warden Wrath is down. No visible movement. Amity looks at Luz, who is equally shocked and holds her hands over her mouth.

Amity was about to celebrate her victory when she hears a deep roar. It is Warden Wrath. He stands up again. And he is angry. "Okay Blight!", he spits, "I've been nice so far... That's over now"

Intimidatingly he straightens up and transforms his arms into a huge hammer and an oversized axe. He slams them against each other several times and growls deafeningly loud.

He races toward Amity, his axe narrowly missing her. She dodges by running between his legs. A mistake, because suddenly the hammer hits her on her head.

Amity flies several meters from her feet. Blood slowly pours down past her ear. She tries to get up, but she can't. Her arm is dislocated. With the other arm she helps herself up and turns to Wrath. She tries to throw a fireball at him, but the hammer hits her again.

Countless scratches and wounds cover Amity's body. A strong throbbing in her head, her vision becoming partially blurry. She lies on the ground, trying to get up with her functioning arm.

"Stay down!", Wrath growls, standing immediately behind her, until suddenly Abomination fluid covers his entire face from behind.

Wrath towers backwards and Amity knocks him off his feet with a battle cry and her gauntlet. He's falling again.

Furiously he rips the abomination fluid off his face as he gets back up. He breathes fire so hard that Amity barely manages to leap away to the side, falling straight onto her dislocated arm. However, the fire hits a few of the audience members who are standing too close to the stage. But Amity's dress also gets a few fire marks on it.

Amity is about to get up again when the hammer suddenly hits one of her legs, breaking every single bone in an instant. Amity screams at the top of her lungs out of pain and the air feels increasingly charged.

Wrath raises his fist hammer again and completely distraught, Amity looks at her completely destroyed leg and then up at Wrath who is about to unite both fists into an even bigger hammer to ultimately end the very life of his competitor.

Completely panicking and helpless, she looks at Luz, who returns her gaze exactly the same way. She looks back up at Wrath, who is about to deliver the final blow. Amity holds her functioning arm protective over her face.

"AMITY, NOOOO!", Luz suddenly yells, and an extremely bright beam of energy hits Warden Wrath, hurling him not only off the stage but all the way across Bonesborough within a split second.

Silence falls. The charge of the air has vanished. Everyone, without exception, is suddenly looking at Luz, who is standing on the steps to the stage with her arm outstretched. A few small twinkles of lightning dance across her arm.

Completely stunned, Luz looks down her arms all the way to her hands. A final small spark of lightning forms between two of her fingers.

It's still completely silent. Only scattered whispers can be heard, as well as moans of pain. The bolts of lightning on Luz's arm are gone.

When she suddenly sees Amity collapse, she pushes all her current thoughts aside and immediately dashes to Amity's side.

Overhasty, she pulls out several regeneration glyphs from her pocket and spreads them all over Amity's body. In the meantime, there is no spot that doesn't glow.

"Please, Amity... don't do this to me... Come back", Luz cries, feeling completely desperate and helpless.

One wound after another closes. Even her shattered leg puts itself back together. Still, she does not move.

"Amity...", Luz bends over Amity's body and starts crying.

"Oh, well", the host suddenly announces, having entered the stage. "It looks like the Champion's Belt is going to-"

"SHUT UP! NOT. A. SINGLE. FUCKING. WORD!", Luz yells at him, crying furiously.

He slowly exits the stage again, walking backwards, looking rather intimidated. And Luz turns back to the motionless Amity with teary eyes.

"You- you can't leave me. I just got you back...", Luz cries as she suddenly hears a soft painful moan. "Amity? Amity! Oh my gosh", Luz keeps crying.

"I... didn't know... that you... could... could curse like that...", Amity jokes softly between her pains. Luz laughs under her tears.

Infinitely relieved, she lays her head on Amity's.

"Ouch", she hisses.

"Sorry, sorry", Luz apologizes. "Can we finally get one of those amateurs of healers?", Luz shouts before turning back to Amity. "Don't worry, you'll feel better soon".

And indeed, so it was. The healers eventually came and carried Amity back to the medical tent. This time, far more carefully. The crowd had mostly cleared out and while Luz and the healers healed Amity's injuries together, the host of the event quickly visited to bring the Champion's Belt.

"Your friend really took a beating...", said the sympathetic old chief healer, who joined Luz outside the medical tent after they healed Amity together.

"Yes, unfortunately...", Luz replies.

Fortunately, the procedure did not take long. Only making new regeneration glyphs took its time. After all the injuries in Amity's body were healed, Luz had to leave the tent. Not because she was told to, but because she needed some distance. Because although not physically, Luz felt hurt. Deeply.

"Those things-"

"Glyphs.", Luz says.

"These glyphs are extremely handy. I've never seen anything like them before... How did you discover them?", the chief healer asks.

"A friend had developed this particular glyph. There are others, all a gift from the island", Luz explains.

"I understand...", she says. "Although not really. But it's nice to see that they can do so much good. Your friend needs some rest before she should get up. Even though these glyphs don't consume any bile, they seem to take quite a bit out of the body."

"Seems so... One question: You are the first healer here who is halfway nice to me. Why?", Luz asks. The chief healer laughs.

"All these other jerks here are like... Mercenaries. Just doing exactly what they're told to do. Not a damn thing more. And once they get their payment, they leave. I, on the other hand, am a full-fledged healer with my own clinic and all the rest."

"But you're not on duty here, are you?"

"Officially: no. But if it is necessary, I am always available. And if it so happens that a new kind of healing magic has been discovered in the meantime purely by chance, then all the better."

"Heh... I'd better show you exactly how this glyph works then"

"The glyph can wait. Look... here, take my card. If you don't have any plans tomorrow, stop by my clinic. Then you can show me how it works, and I'll see about passing the knowledge on to as many clinics as I can."

"That sounds like a good idea.", Luz admits.

"Speaking of good ideas, you might want to keep your friend company. Just some well-intentioned advice from me."

"Thanks. I'll take it to heart..."

Luz and the healer get up from the ground together and say their goodbyes as Luz heads back inside the tent while the chief healer leaves.

Amity is lying on the small treatment table that is in the middle of the tent. She is awake and lying on her side when Luz enters the otherwise empty tent again. She takes a stool and places it directly in front of the table.

"Hey."

"Hey."

"How are you feeling?", Luz asks softly.

"Exhausted...", Amity answers.

"Me too... though probably differently than you...". Amity raises an eyebrow.

"I think I know what you mean", Amity admits, ashamed. "I've gone too far."

"You almost died Amity, you almost got yourself killed...", Luz almost cries, "And all for a stupid belt..."

"I know", she admits.

"Was it worth it?", Luz asks.

Amity doesn't answer.

"I see... I mean, I get that you want to get closer to your dad, but if I... I didn't..."

Actually, Luz doesn't even want to think about what would have happened if Luz hadn't intervened by pure luck. Would anyone have stopped Wrath? Would the audience have just watched if he had really gone through with it? Might they have even cheered and applauded?

No. No one would have done anything to help Amity. And if Luz hadn't been there...

"What exactly happened anyway? I just saw that Wrath was suddenly just gone...", Amity wonders. This time, though, Luz is the one who doesn't answer. "That was you, wasn't it?"

"I... I don't know. Maybe."

"Luz, look at me... you're half Titan now. And I think, that was a first impression on your own magic", Amity guesses.

"But for a price like that? I don't want magic at the cost of your life… I would never have forgiven myself"

"But those very skills saved my life... YOU saved my life"

A small smile spreads across Luz' face. However, it also disappears again pretty much as quickly.

"Can you help me up?", Amity asks. Luz takes Amity's hands in her own and helps her to her feet. She is still a little wobbly but is able to catch herself quickly.

"I guess you want to go home?", Luz asks heavy heartedly.

"Actually, I had a little more planned for today, but I'm really exhausted."

"I can understand that-"

"But... There's one thing I'd like to show you. And don't worry, it's not a huge detour."

Slowly, hand in hand, Luz and Amity leave the event area. They are among the last ones. Only a few workers are still there to restore the area to its original state.

"Say, where's your... your... thingy?", Amity begins, but seems to have forgotten a word.

"The belt? It's right here over my shoulder", Luz states neutrally and Amity giggles.

"No, you dummy... I mean your illusion-thingy"

"Oh, my concealment bracelet? Um... it's on my arm?! Like it has been the entire time..."

"Good, good... Not to blow your cover...", Amity says in an unusual playful tone.

"Amity, is it possible that you're a little more than merely exhausted?", Luz asks.

"Hehe... Maybe... Uh, we have to go that way"

---

Amity leads Luz through one of the outer districts of Bonesborough to the immediate vicinity of the Conformatorium.

"What are we doing here?", Luz asks uneasily as the two girls sneak through various bushes and dodge patrols.

"Here.", Amity eventually says. Luz and Amity step through some dense bushes and enter a garden area of sorts. "My parents restored a city park once quite a few years ago. And my mom, being my mom, then bought the park, closed it to the public, and then forgot about it. Gardeners still come here now and then, but basically the park is unused."

"It's a nice story... But not really an answer to my question..."

"Let's walk a little further. Then you'll see."

Amity leads Luz, holding hands, along a small gravel path to some exceptionally large menhir stones that have been arranged in a semicircle around a small statue.

Tears well up on Luz' face as they get closer to the statue.

"King..." she whispers as she drops to her knees immediately in front of him.

"Look at the plaque"

"King... Clawthorne? But... But...", looking for answers she looks to Amity who smiles tiredly.

"As I said before, this park is unused. To preserve your memory, Willow, Gus and I had thought of making this a small memorial park when you were gone and we thought, you might not come back. We stole King's statue from its original place and brought it here. Actually, we wanted to do the same for the Owl - I mean, for Eda, but unfortunately, she is too heavily guarded", Amity explains and Luz only cries more, only now they are tears of joy.

"That's beautiful... And who had the idea to make him Eda's son?", Luz asks with tears in her eyes.

"I actually don't even remember. We just thought: pretty much all statues have first and last names. King doesn't have one, as far as we know. So, we thought, since he was always with Eda anyway, let's make him a Clawthorne."

"I... don't know what to say...", Luz admits as she wipes a tear away from her eye.

"You don't have to say anything-", Amity was about to start when Luz suddenly embraced her in a heartfelt hug, which she was only too happy to return.

They lingered there for a while, but then set off to take Amity back to Blight Manor. Amity is getting squishier in the head and should get some sleep urgently.

"Luz, wait!", Amity commanded as they both arrived at the large metal entrance gate to the Blight-property.

"What is it?"

"Luz Noceda... Do- Do you want to be... my girlfriend?", Amity asked in her semi-drowsy state.

This question was rather unexpected for Luz, and admittedly she hadn't given this aspect much thought yet. But fortunately for her, she doesn't have to, because before Luz even has the chance to say anything, she is torn out of her thoughts by a snoring Amity who has fallen asleep on the ground.

'I'm not sure anymore...', Luz thinks to herself, 'Well, luckily the manor is not that far.' Luz picks Amity up from the ground and carries her the last little bit to the front door of Blight Manor. With an extremely complicated and unusually elegant move, Luz managed to ring the doorbell of the manor without having to set Amity down.

'Uh-Oh... I hope I didn't wake her parents.'

The large, wooden front door opens.

"Hey, Em...", Luz greets Amity's sister, who simply stares at her younger sister with wide eyes.

"Was wondering when you'd finally get home...", Emira says dryly.

"Yeah... A lot has happened.", Luz admits.

"I see."

"Can I come in? Amity's starting to get a little heavy", Luz asks whereupon Emira steps aside.

"Up the ramp, last door", she calls after Luz.

Luz carries Amity up to her room and gently lays her in her bed, with the Champion's Belt right next to her. As she is about to leave the room, Luz is slightly startled to see Emira standing in the doorway with her arms crossed.

Luz closes Amity's door behind her as she leaves the room.

"So, I guess your date was pretty successful?", Emira guesses.

"More or less.", Luz replies.

"Are you guys girlfriends now? How well did Mittens fight? Uhh, have you two kissed yet-"

"Em-", Luz interrupts her, "I'm extremely tired! I'd really like to go back to the Owl House and get some sleep right now. I'm sure Amity will be able to answer all your questions tomorrow...", Luz says tiredly and exhausted.

"Hmm... sounds rather unsatisfying. I mean, I'm waiting here all day for the latest gossip, and you just want to go to sleep?", Em asks sarcastically pretending to be offended.

"Yup."

"Fair enough. Want me to fly you there?", Emira offers.

"That would be really nice... I'd even be willing to answer one of your questions for you."

"DEAL!"

---

At the same day in another realm...

Two figures are standing in front of a stone, holding hands with each other. The taller of the two kneels directly in front of the stone and puts down a bouquet of flowers.

"Hola mi amado…", the taller woman begins in a rather sad tone, "I still can't believe that it's been another year already, time really flies by way too fast... ... I won't lie, it has been a tough year for us. There's always way too much to do at the clinic, we're always understaffed and I'm rarely home... you know how it is... But well, enough from me. I wish you could see your daughter right now. I, uh... I sent Luz to a summer camp over the summer and when she came back, she was like a whole new person. Luz's grades have improved massively, and guess what? She even had a sleepover at a friend's house the other night."

She wipes a tear of joy from her face as the smaller figure hugs the older woman's arm.

"Do you want to tell anything as well, mija?"

"We miss you, papi."

The two of them remain in that position for a few more minutes, hand in hand.

"Luz, be so kind and go ahead to the car. I'll be right there. And when we get home, we'll make pizza together. I even bought the right cheese this time, so that we don't make the same mistake as last time".

Giggling briefly, the younger girl walks off and the older woman puts her hand on the stone one last time.

"Te amo y te extraño mucho"