The Owl House of Amphibia

by Iron117Prime

Four human girls, so different and so alike, find themsleves thrown into new worlds of magic, danger, wonder, and horror. As they explore their new surroundings, they not only meet new friends and new enemies, but also discover more about themselves than what they felt before. All it took was a box and a door to change their lives, and the lives of all those around them, forever.

12. Claws of the Owl Beast

Hi everyone, welcome back and Happy Holidays! To my faithful followers, consider this chapter an early Christmas gift from yours truly (if you celebrate Christmas, that is LOL).

I know you've been rather excited for this chapter, as have I, as our favorite frog family and adopted humans meet a certain side of Eda… and a few other surprises are revealed along the way.

Now, with that out of the way, let's get started!

Claws of the Owl Beast

"And here we have the most fearsome creatures in the world…" Luz began, speaking like a someone from a documentary as her phone's camera zoomed in on King's eye. "The King of demons."

"Along with the Queen of Polliwogs." Anne spoke in the same manner, recording just like Luz as her camera focused on Polly's eye before zooming out to reveal the two little creatures were caught together in a Christmas sweater. "Facing their mutual natural enemy… the Christmas sweater."

"Notice how it's itchy fabric ensnares on its prey." Luz continued. "Can the King of Demons and Queen of Polliwogs escape from its deadly grasp?"

Both King and Polly appeared to struggle in an old Christmas sweater with King stuck in one sleeve with Polly stuck in the other. They both gave up on trying to get out through there and sunk deeper into the sleeves, making their way to the center to burst out from the chest area together with mighty yells.

"Die, sweater!" King exclaimed as he used his claws to tear out an even larger hole.

"Rip baby, rip!" Polly cried out as she bit down to tear up the fabric like a wild animal.

"It seems they have learned from escape methods from the Xenomorphs." Anne went on.

"Xeno-what, now?" Sprig asked as he sat in-between Luz and Anne in the living room of the Owl House.

"One of the greatest horror monsters in human movie history. We'll show you later." Anne replied as King and Polly both managed to finally pull free of the Christmas sweater.

"Hey, what's going on here?" Hop Pop asked as he came into the living room.

"King said he wanted to show us something." Luz answered, still recording on her phone.

"Hang on a sec..." King climbed up to the top of a chest where a curtain was covering something. "Humans of the Human Realm, frogs of Amphibia, you've all been so obsessed about witchcraft, that you haven't learned anything about my kind. Prepare yourselves for…" He pulled the curtain down to reveal a large bulletin board that had various pictures and photographs of demons pinned to it. "…Demons 101!" He announced as he put on a teacher's hat.

"Oh, a lecture about demon realm wildlife." Hop Pop looked interested as he sat down himself. "This could be interesting to learn."

Polly gave her scoff. "Lecture-smecture, this is a lesson on how to subdue and control an army of demons to take over the world!"

"Awe, whose a cute little tyrant queen?" Luz zoomed her phone in on Polly and put all sorts of emojis on the screen of cute animal faces.

"Call me cute again and see what happens, lady." Polly warned.

"Ahem, focus please!" King got all their attention as he began his lecture. "There are three basic types of demons: Bug, Biped, and Beast."

"Ooh, bugs!" Sprig bounced as King went on.

"Bug demons are small and insect-like, kinda like fairies." King went on. "But don't be fooled by their small stature, they are vicious and hideous tricksters of the twilight who enjoy causing mischief."

"Kinda like this cute little guy right here." Anne zoomed in on King.

"I am not a bug!" King pointed to her before resuming his lesson. "Biped demons are a lot like witches, they walk and talk and do magic…"

"So, if I was born in the Isles, I could be a Biped demon." Sprig raised his hand.

"Exactly, they're among the most civil demons." King continued. "But compared to witches, they are physically stronger. Their only weaknesses being purified water and passive aggressive comments, sometimes."

"Awe, you guys are sensitive." Luz gushed.

"Even demons have inner demons." King said seriously.

"What about the last one?" Hop Pop asked, having a notepad out as he looked and listened to the lecture very closely.

"Yeah, get to the good stuff! The kind of demons that'll rip you apart from the inside!" Polly declared with Hop Pop putting his notepad to Polly's face to calm her down.

"Lastly are the Beast-type demons." King continued. "I guess you could say they're like Amphibia's own wildlife…" He gestured to a banner that had all kinds of misshaped demons on it. "They are vicious and unreasoning, living only to eat and cause chaos to the civilized world, like yours truly." He said with pride.

"Wait, is that a giraffe?" Anne asked in genuine surprise upon seeing a giraffe on the picture alongside other demons.

"Yeah, apparently giraffes are from the Demon Realm." Luz said to her.

"What's a giraffe?" Sprig asked.

"Only the most chill animal on Earth." Anne answered.

"No! Not even close!" King countered. "Giraffes were among the most vicious Beast-type demons out there. There's a reason they were banished."

"Yeah right." Anne brushed off. "I see giraffes at the zoo back home all the time. They even let em eat out of your hand."

"You tame beasts in your world and let em eat out of your hand?" Sprig asked the two humans.

"Only the cutest and most adorable ones." Luz said with a smile. "I really should take you guys sometime."

"Sounds like fun." Sprig smiled.

"Kids, pay attention!" Hop Pop stated, leading them all to refocus. "Please continue, King."

"Thank you, Hop Pop." King went on with his lecture. "Now while giraffes were certainly dangerous, even they pale in comparison to…" He ripped away one photo to reveal another demon that had pink skin, long slender arms, razor sharp teeth, and a large spiked shell on its back. "The Snaggleback!"

"Oooh." Polly hoped up on the same chest as King as she gazed at the picture with a star-struck expression. "Now that looks terrifying. Tell me how to tame that one so I can use it to slay all my enemies!"

"All hail Queen Polly, the cutest bad girl in the multiverse." Luz gushed as she put more cutesy and bad emojis around Polly while still recording on her phone.

"Ugh, when are you gonna stop calling me cute?!" Polly complained.

"Never!" Luz grinned.

"Hey, how come Hop Pop's the only one really paying attention?" King questioned. "This info could save all your lives one day!"

"I'm paying attention!" Sprig said.

"Oh really? Then what are the three types of demons, boy?" Hop Pop tested.

"Uh…" Sprig tried to think. "You got demon bugs… the type that got banished to Luz and Anne's world… and the uh…"

"The cute widdle guys like this bad boy right here." Anne interrupted as she zoomed in on King with her phone and put some emojis herself.

Hop Pop and King both rolled their eyes in annoyance before the sound of thunder was heard outside. "Uh oh, looks like it's gonna rain." King said.

"Oh, Demon Realm, rain!" Sprig hopped up and went outside, with Luz and Anne right behind him.

"Hey, wait!" King tried to stop them but they were already outside as Sprig took off his jacket and hat.

"You really like the rain, huh Sprig?" Anne asked with a smile.

"I'm a frog. Rain and water are totally my thing." The pink frog boy answered.

"Same here, I love the rain." Luz smiled, twirling around a bit. "I always love feeling the first few drops in my hair."

"Me, I just like listening to the sound of rain outside. It soothes me to sleep." Anne said with a relaxed smile.

"So, bring it on Demon Realm! Give this frog a nice cool shower!" Sprig proclaimed as he opened his arms out, exposing his chest…

But when a raindrop hit him in his right arm, he felt a burning sensation. "Ow!" He held that spot, much to Anne and Luz's concern, especially so as they saw a few more drops fall from the sky and hit some flowers, causing them to burn up on contact.

"What the…?" Anne questioned.

"Boiling rain!" Eda called out, running straight for the house as more rain began to fall down, the ground sizzling from contact as the rain itself was apparently boiling hot. "Everybody inside now!"

"Wha… Ahh!" Luz screamed as she, Anne, and Sprig were grabbed by Eda and she dashed right into the doorway, running into Hop Pop, Polly, and King as they all tripped. The Salamander watched from the top of the couch with a wince as the sound of a loud crash echoed through the house.

"Wheh." Eda sighed in relief, sitting on the ground as she saw the boiling rain fall down hard outside. "That was close, but the important thing is, everybody's okay."

Looking back, Luz, Anne, Sprig, King, Polly, and Hop Pop were all piled onto each other, having crashed into King's lecture spot, as various books and pictures were all piled on top of them with their limbs all hanging out in various directions.

"Ow…" Anne groaned.

"Yep. Totally okay…" Luz groaned as well.

"I can't feel my legs…" Sprig also groaned.

Even Hop Pop gave a grunt as a potted plant from the shelf above fell on top of his head.

---

Boiling rain began to fall all across Bonesborough as the many native witch and bipedal demons living in the town tried to find shelter from the scolding hot rain however they could. The rain was so hot and intense, that some of the more poorly made structures were already starting to collapse.

Willow ran out to collect her potted plants from her balcony. "Ow! Ow! Ow!" She winced as several drops hit her head before she brought her plants back inside and closed the shutters with her teeth.

Tiny Nose ran through the streets as the boiling ran continued to come down before spotting a crack in one building and dove into it. A rat with an extra eye on its back was thrown out as Tiny Nose hissed at the rat, clamming the hiding spot for herself.

---

Back at the Owl House, Anne had put a bandage on Sprig's arm, covering where he got burned with Luz doing the same to Anne's leg where she got burnt and King put a bandage over a burn mark on Luz's arm before putting one on his snout.

"Look, now we're boo-boo buddies." King said.

"Awe, come here you!" Anne squealed as she pulled King into a hug.

"I regret this!" King squealed.

"How in the heck does rain boil here?!" Sprig questioned as he, his friends, and his family were all outside the doorway, the overhang protecting them from the boiling rain.

"They got a boiling ocean, so…" Luz figured out.

"Yeah, it's kinda obvious." Polly pointed out.

"How do you people drink water if it's all toxic here?" Hop Pop called out to Eda who was out in front of the house, a magic forcefield erected over herself as she spun a magic ball in her hands, currently working on a spell.

"It's not toxic, it just boils." Eda explained. "As for how we drink it… all this boiling water gets soaked up inside the Titan's corpse, where it spends some time cooling down, and then we dig it up with plumbing and use it for everyday purposes."

"So, it's like well-water." Hop Pop said.

"A boiling rainstorm on the Boiling Isles…. Demon Realm weather is so fun!" Luz said excitedly.

"Yeah, we don't have weather, we have plagues." Eda said as she continued to work on her spell. "Gornadoes, shale hail, painbows…."

"Pain-what, now?" Anne questioned.

"It's like a rainbow, but looking at it turns you inside-out." King explained, causing Anne and Sprig to look with widened eyes while Luz pulled her sweater over her head.

"Awesome!" Polly smiled.

"Please tell me you don't have anything like that in Amphibia!" Anne hopped, looking to Hop Pop.

"Nope. Our rain is nice and cool and rainbows non-deadly." Hop Pop assured, causing Anne and Luz to breathe in relief.

"But we do got wildfires, tornadoes…" Polly added. "Plus plagues like locusts, and even flaming locust tornadoes…" This caused Anne and Luz to cling to each other, just imagining it, while Polly just snickered.

"Alright everyone, until the boiling rain stops, no one is allowed outside tonight." Eda said with finality.

"And if the rain doesn't get you…" King reached into his hat to pull out a book and opened it to reveal a certain demon. "… The Snaggleback will! Their shell protects them from the boiling rain, so it's the perfect time for them to come out and feed on lost and boiling tourists!"

"Hope one comes here so I can tame it and make it my own!" Polly proclaimed, only for Hop Pop to grab his granddaughter and look to the witch outside.

"Eda, seriously, is there any kind of predator that comes out in a boiling rainstorm that we need to be worried about?" Hop Pop asked.

"Nope. Nothing comes out when the rain comes down, so we should be good once this forcefield spell is up and running." Eda said as she continued to work with her spell, twirling her hands around the magic sphere.

"Hoot! Well hurry it up with that forcefield!" Hooty exclaimed. "That rain is getting closer to my precious stucco!"

"Yeah, yeah, I got it." Eda said as she put the magic sphere into the head of her staff, spun it around before throwing her hands outward to expand the forcefield over herself so that it enveloped the entire Owl House, including the tower in the back where the Plantars resided.

"Wow, someday, I'd like to be as cool as Eda the Owl Lady." Luz said in awe. "Magical, sassy, surprisingly foxy for her age…"

"Yeah, she is a legit badass." Anne agreed. "Pretty sure she could take over the whole world if she wanted to."

"Hey, why do they call you the Owl Lady, anyway?" Sprig asked as Eda joined everyone else inside the forcefield.

"Cause I'm so wise." Eda said proudly.

"I always thought it was cause of your owl-staff thing." Anne assumed, pointing to Owlbert.

"No, it's cause she coughs up rat bones." Hooty put in.

"I think it's cause she gets distracted by shinny objects." King said.

"No, I don't!" Eda countered. In response, King reached into his hat to pull out a novelty pen and clicked it to shine the diamond on top, causing Eda's pupils to widen as she smiled mesmerizingly. "It sparkles and shimmers and shines and delights… I must have it for my nest…!" She hopped towards King, who pulled the pen down, causing Eda to vault over him and land face-first on the ground.

Anne and Polly both chuckled at that. "Okay, that's pretty funny." The former said.

"You have a nest?!" Luz said as she excitably went over to the downed Eda. "I want a nest! Nest party!"

"Humans make nests?" Sprig asked Anne.

"Nah, that's just Luz being Luz." The Thai girl replied.

Eda pulled herself up with a groan and held her head. "Ugh… that forcefield really took it out of me."

"Uh oh, moving a little slow. Age finally catching up to ya?" King joked, only for Eda to pull his hat down over his head. "AH! Darkness!" She then tiredly walked back into the house.

"Looks like you got company, Hop Pop." Polly joked as well, to which Hop Pop's eyelids to lower before lightly flicking his granddaughter on her forehead. "Ow!"

"This is perfect!" Luz said excitedly as everyone else came inside. "Since we'll be stuck in the house all night, Eda won't have any excuse not to teach me a spell!"

"Ooh, a magic lesson! I want in!" Sprig said immediately.

"Wait, don't you guys want to finish our lesson?" King asked. "I was gonna let you scratch a demon's tummy! Me!"

"Awe, you want a belly rub? All you had to do was ask!" Anne scooped King up into her lap and rubbed his belly. "Whose a good widdle demon? You are! Yes you are!"

"No! No! After the lesson!" King tried to squirm out of her grip.

"Uh… sorry King but… ya know… magic!" Luz said.

"Or…! You could all learn a thing or two about Amphibia agriculture." Hop Pop offered.

"Um... why?" Anne questioned after putting King down.

Hop Pop pulled out his own book. "Since ya'll gonna be staying in Amphibia some time, I thought it be best to learn all you can about the farmhand." He opened the book to show its contents. "Such as what vegetables best grow in which season, and what attracts deadly critters, and what to do in the event said dangerous critters come to the farm. What do you think?" He asked with excitement.

Anne, Sprig, and Polly all looked unimpressed while Luz looked unsure at first. "Um… are there any magic spells to ward away dangerous critters?" She asked.

"Nope." Hop Pop confirmed. "No magic required when you got wit, fortitude, resourcefulness, and experience."

"Them maybe later." Luz said as she walked past him.

"Yeah, I wanna learn magic!" Sprig hopped and followed her.

"Let's go, Polly." Anne picked her up and went after their friends.

"I thought you weren't into that stuff." The polliwog said to the Thai girl.

"Still more interesting than some lame farm stuff." Anne replied, leaving King and Hop Pop alone as both their eyelids lowered in annoyance, while King's hat deflated somewhat from a boiling raindrop.

Eda tiredly walked behind a privacy screen, which had some laundry hanging around it, before snapping her fingers to change into her pajamas as she emerged from the other side and fell back on her couch with a tired and relaxed sigh. A large shadow loomed over her, causing her to gasp as she saw Luz, Anne, Sprig, and Polly all looking down at her.

"Oh Eda, have I told you how rad your fang looks today?" Luz complemented.

"Yeah, it really goes well with your face-bump." Sprig added, referring to her nose.

"Whatever it is, no." Eda told them in partial annoyance.

"You don't even know what we're gonna ask!" Sprig complained.

"You want me to teach you some magic, but not tonight. I need sleep." Eda said as she pulled down her blanket and put it over herself. "I'm a sleepy little owl."

"Hey, question, are there any magic spells that'll let you control an army of beasts?" Polly asked.

"Beast Keeping magic, but I'm not teaching you that." Eda said as she curled herself up on the couch, only for Polly to jump from Anne's shoulder and onto Eda's stomach to wake her up.

"Teach me how to be a Beast Keeping Queen or I'm gonna cut off all your hair!" Polly threatened, only for Eda to grab Polly by the sides and look her dead in the eye.

"Cut my hair, and I swear I'm gonna drop-kick you into the boiling ocean!" She yeeted Polly backwards, with Anne quickly moving to catch her.

"Please, Eda! Please! How am I supposed to earn my witch's staff if I don't know any spells!?" Luz pleaded.

"Witch's staff?!" Sprig hopped on Luz's shoulder. "I want a witch's staff! I'll be the first frog to ever have use a witch's staff!"

"No. Sleep." Eda pulled the blanket over herself, much to Luz and Sprig's disappointment. Anne happened to narrow her eyes at that. Nobody disappoints her best friends. She spotted the novelty pen from before on the ground, causing her to smirk as an idea came to her.

"Hey Sprig." Anne got his attention and clicked the pen, causing the diamond on top to glow. She clicked it again to turn it off, and then again to turn it on.

"Oooh." Sprig found himself mesmerized by the glow and the clicking, and quickly leapt from Luz to Anne to grab it himself and began to rapidly click it to turn it on and off again over and over. "Oh, I love this!" He continued to click it rapidly. "This is amazing!

Polly and Luz looked to Anne in confusion as she smiled knowingly to hold up three fingers, which came down to two, and then one…

"Sparkle thing!" Eda was stirred from her slumber, rising up as she held the blanket over herself and stared at the pen that Sprig continued to click and turn on and off.

"Hmm, Sprig you sure do love that shiny and sparkly pen, don't you?" Anne asked knowingly, looking towards Eda.

"I'm never letting go for as long as I live!" Sprig gazed into the light, still clicking the pen.

"Not even… to learn a magic spell?" Anne looked to Eda with raised eyebrows. Luz and Polly both figured out what Anne was doing as they looked to each other with smirks.

"It's so bright and shiny." Luz said in a feeing mesmerized tone.

"So shiny… so sparkly…." Polly said in the same manner.

Eda hopped onto the arm of her sofa and perched herself to stare at the novelty pen as Sprig continued to click it. She slowly reached her arms out before trying to grab it, only for Anne to pull Sprig up by the hood, out of Eda's reach. "Nope." She grinned, just as Eda fell face-first on the ground, all while Sprig continued to click the pen. "Teach my friends just one spell, and this cheap dime-store pen is all yours." Anne proposed.

The Owl Lady looked to the Thai girl with an annoyed expression. "I respect your cunning, but I also hate you for it."

The sound of thunder was heard outside, followed by another flash of lightning as Eda picked herself back up, grabbed Owlbert in staff-form and stood up straight while Luz, Sprig, Polly, and even Anne sat in front of her.

"If you all want a witch's staff like mine, don't make me repeat…" She almost dozed off. "Myself…"

"Yo, lady!" Polly called, stirring Eda awake.

"Witch's staffs like this are called Palismen, like Owlbert and our salamander friend up there." Eda gestured to the Salamander that watched from atop a shelf. "They are living beings carved from Palistrom trees here in the Isles and have magic embedded into them."

"Give me!" Luz and Sprig both said simultaneously, hoping to hold Owlbert or some other staff that she had on hand.

"Hey, how come we don't see you go all staffy on us?" Anne questioned towards the Salamander, who curled up to go to sleep and didn't even bother to answer. "Oh, silent treatment, huh? Not cool dude."

"That guy up there might be a special case." Eda said, getting their attention again. "But usually, witches carve their own Palismen, but…" She quickly pointed to Luz and Sprig who looked overly excited as they were about to probably ask if they could carve their own. "Before any kind of staff is earned, witches have to do magic on their own. If you use a magic tool like a staff all the time, you become too dependent on it."

"Okay, makes sense." Sprig nodded. "Question, can I make my own magic slingshot?" Sprig asked, holding up his own slingshot.

"Maybe, but again, you gotta cast a spell yourself first before you use any kind of tools." Eda said before throwing her own staff away. "Tonight, I'll show you all how to create… light." She spun her finger in the air, creating a golden magic circle, which shinned brightly as a ball of light magic shined up above them Luz and Sprig looked it at in awe, while Anne and Polly just continued to listen and watch, though not as intently as the others, even as the ball of light extinguished itself.

"Yawn." King said aloud as he and Hop Pop hung in the back. "Who needs another spell lesson when you can learn about all the ways a demon can kill you?" He held up a drawing of a demon with giant teeth that was eating a person alive. "Look how teethy! Bite-bite!"

"And you don't need magic to make a light source." Hop Pop added. "All you need is some wood, timber, and good pair of hands. And that can also be the difference between life and death."

"Not now King/Hop Pop! Gotta focus!" Luz and Sprig said at the same time, causing King and Hop Pop to look away.

"Boo, boring light spell?" Polly spat her tongue. "Show me the good stuff, like controlling an army of beasts!"

"That's way too advanced." Eda countered. "You gotta know the basics first. Now, humans think magic is made out of thin air, but that's stupid. Everything comes from something. So, tell me kids, where do you think magic comes from?"

"Hmmm…" Sprig tried to think of an answer, but Luz already had one.

"From the heart?" She asked excitedly.

Anne giggled. "Sorry Luz, but that sounds a lot like one of those cliché fairy tale things. No way that's true." That caused Luz to look away.

"Actually… she's right." Eda said, sounding surprised herself.

Luz gasped with excitement as she blushed and smiled with sparkly eyes.

"Wait, seriously?" Anne questioned in actual shock.

"Seriously." Eda confirmed as she reached into her hair and pulled out a paper diagram of a biological heart that had a much larger green sack attached to it. "It comes from a sack of magic bile attached to a witch's heart."

"Ew! Gross!" Luz and Anne both cringed.

"Can I keep that?" Polly asked.

"No." Eda said as she put the diagram away.

"Well humans don't have that." Anne said. "Do frogs have that?" She asked Sprig.

"Let me check. Do another light spell." The pink frog boy pointed to Eda, who rolled her eyes and spun another magic circle to generate a sphere of light. Sprig then hopped right in front of it, the bright light shining behind him as he opened his jacket to show everyone a silhouette of his organs as the light shinned through his skin, much to Anne and Luz's disgust as they cringed while Eda just blinked. Sprig looked down at himself for a second as the light spell wore out. "Nope. No bile sack for me."

"So, you just spin your finger around and conjure whatever you want? Seems simple enough." Polly didn't seem all that impressed.

"Light spells are the most basic form of magic; anyone can do it. But the principle remains the same for all types of magic." Eda explained. "Everything depends on the spell circle, the bigger the circle, the more powerful the spell." She drew a much larger magic circle above her head, creating a larger sphere of light above herself, which quickly dissipated.

"But… we don't have bile sacks." Luz said. "So… how can we do magic?"

Eda thought for a second before a blank look formed on her face. "You know, I'm not actually sure."

"What?!" The two girls and frog siblings all questioned.

"I know that witches did magic differently in the past, but I never bothered to figure out how." Eda snorted a laugh.

"Eda!" Sprig complained.

"Don't worry, you'll figure it out. Both of you." Eda kneeled down to ruffle both Luz and Sprig's heads. "Now…" She straightened out her back with a yawn. "I need to lie down." She was about to walk away…

"That's it?" Luz questioned. "Wait, I need to see you do the circle-thingy again! I'll record it on my phone this time!" She pulled out her smartphone.

"Why didn't you just do that before?" Polly asked.

"I was too excited to learn more about magic!" Luz replied.

"Might as well do it too." Anne pulled out her phone. "Not every day you record actual magic."

Eda gave another over-the-top sigh as the girls began to record her. "Come on Eda, one more spell won't kill you." Sprig told her.

"Fine." Eda smacked her face before trying to draw the spell circle again. "Now you see… the spell circle…" She drew a golden circle, but just as she finished, she fell to the side, causing the spell to vanish just as she hit the floor face-first, unresponsively.

"Welp, looks like one more spell killed Eda." King said bluntly, causing Luz, Anne, and Sprig to all scream as the held each other.

"We murdered Eda!" All three cried out.

"Calm down! All of ya!" Hop Pop flipped Eda over on her back as he put his hand just barely over her mouth and nose to catch the air coming out. "She's still breathing, she's probably just tired and overexerted herself."

King then came over and slapped his paw on Eda's face. "Bap!" He got no response from her. "Yep, she's out." King laughed as he slapped her face again. "Bap!"

"Let me try! Bap!" Polly slapped Eda on the nose, causing both her and King to laugh.

"Alright, alright, that's enough." Hop Pop pulled them both back.

"We should get help, right?" Luz asked and was about to run outside, only for Anne to tackle her to the ground.

"Whoa, whoa, did you forget about the scolding hot death rain outside?!" Anne reminded.

"No, let her try. It'll be funny." Hooty encouraged, only for Anne to look annoyed as she slammed the door shut.

"But what if Eda is stuck in some kind of magic coma?!" Luz asked in a panic as they all looked to Eda, still lying flat on the floor as Hop Pop appeared to tend to her.

"…Shiny thing…" She muttered between snores. "…Big nest…"

"She'll be fine. Just needs some sleep." Hop Pop said.

"Yeah, besides didn't you say that she got her head cut off before?" Anne asked Luz.

"Whoa, what?!" Sprig asked in shock. "She got her head cut off?!"

"Yeah, and that's not even the worst that's happened to her." King said in assurance. "Trust me, that woman can survive anything."

Polly thought for a moment. "Hmmm... So, her head is removable? Let's test that…!" She pulled an axe from out-of-nowhere, only for Hop Pop to snatch the axe from her hand.

"Nobody, panic, okay?" Hop Pop addressed all of the kids. "I'm sure Eda's gonna be okay. Give her a couple hours of rest and she'll be right as rain."

"Rain." Anne chuckled. "You did that on purpose, what with the boiling rain outside."

"That wasn't funny, Anne." Hop Pop's eyelids lowered.

Luz did seem to calm down a bit, knowing that Eda was going to be fine was a relief. "W-well, we can't just leave her on the floor."

"No, we can't and we won't." Hop Pop agreed as he picked the sleeping witch up by her shoulders. "Sprig, help me with the front. Luz, Anne, grab her legs. King, show us where Eda's room is."

---

The little demon led everyone upstairs as Hop Pop and Sprig both carried Eda by her shoulders and arms, while Luz and Anne carried her by her legs while Polly followed close behind. They came into Eda's room, which was at the uppermost floor of the building with the stained-glass eye window at the other side of the room and a semi-open window leading to a balcony next to the large nest that Eda apparently slept in.

"Wait… she really does have a nest?" Anne asked in surprise as Luz brushed away a rat skeleton inside before they hauled Eda over and into the nest. "Kinda going the whole nine-years with the theme, huh Owl Lady?" She asked the sleeping witch rhetorically.

"Sorry for pushing you so hard Eda… Please don't get mad at us when you wake up…" Luz hoped.

"This is probably a dumb question but… witches don't eat frogs, right?" Sprig asked nervously.

"Calm down you big babies." Polly rolled her eyes.

"Should I bap her again?" King requested.

"No, we're gonna let her rest." Hop Pop said firmly as he lightly pushed down on King's head. "Now let's get going kids." He led all of them out of the room, all except Polly who just looked at the sleeping Eda...

"Bap! Heh, heh." The polliwog slapped Eda's face again and chuckled as she hopped her way to the door before spotting something out of the corner of her eye. "Huh?" She saw a vial of a glowing yellow-orange liquid with a tag on it, which she read aloud. "'Al elixir a day'…"

"Polly! Get down here!" Hop Pop called.

"Ugh! Coming Hop Pop!" Polly hopped out of the room, leaving the slumbering Eda alone.

---

Back in the living room, Hop Pop watched as King drew a demon on a notepad, using a guidebook as a reference. "So, this multi-mouthed demon vomits out locust?" Hop Pop looked with interest. "Glad we don't have that in Amphibia. My crops wouldn't last."

"Ha, you think that demon's scary, wait till you see…" The young demon was about to show the elderly frog some of his book's contents, when a pair of frustrated grunts caught their attention, leading them to turn to Luz and Sprig who continued to try and spin magic circles in the air with their fingers while Anne and Polly just watched.

"This is all she does! Draw a circle, right?!" Sprig spun a circle in the air.

"Uh, didn't you hear her? You need a magic heart-sack or whatever." Anne reminded. "Maybe if you had magic gloves…"

"But Eda said not to become too reliant on magic tools." Luz argued as she played the recording of Eda on her phone.

"Now you see… the spell circle…" The video was interrupted as King put his notepad over the phone.

"Hey, you know what else is interesting? Let me tell you all about the most spine-chilling demon…" King showed a drawing on his notepad, which looked like a cute little fish demon with limbs. "Smoochy Pie, the sweetie-baby!"

"Oh wow. That is the stuff of nightmares." Polly said in clear sarcasm.

"He… He's a lot more threatening than his name implies." King tried.

"You wanna know something that's really threatening? The heron!" Hop Pop pulled out his own book to show a picture of rather large bird-like creature that stood over a city. "The apex of Amphibia! No creature has ever survived an encounter with this beast, and you all should be prepared if you happen to encounter one!"

"N-not, right now, Hop Pop, King." Luz said as she turned back to her video. "Gotta figure out this spell."

"Yeah, if we learn how to use magic, we can actually fight back against Herons." Sprig said before flopping back on his ground in frustration. "But if we don't got any magic bile sacks, then what's the point?"

"Why do you guys wanna learn magic so badly, anyway?" Polly questioned. "I mean, sure. Eda's cool, but all this magic stuff seems more like just for witches and demons. Frogs and humans can't apparently do it."

"It just looks like so much fun!" Sprig threw his hands up in the air. "There so much we can do with it and I wanna learn it all! See it all! I'm tired of just being confined to Wartwood when there's so much more out there!"

"You gotta learn to look before you leap, boy." Hop Pop told his grandson. "Sure, maybe magic can be useful, but it's also dangerous. There's a reason people don't practice it anymore in our world!"

"Well… just because maybe bad people used it doesn't mean magic itself is bad." Luz tried as sat back down, leaning back against the chair as she took out her BFF photo. "Learning about magic might help us find our friends, or even learn more about the music box." That caused Anne to look away as she too thought about Marcy and Sasha and hoped they were doing alright. "But… there's another reason." Everyone listened to Luz as she looked away. "Back on Earth… I was a nobody. Before I met Anne and the others…" She gestured to her aforementioned friend. "...Nobody wanted anything to do with me. I was always the weirdo... People even called me 'Luzer'… the freak that nobody wanted to be around… or just someone to use or make fun of." That caused everyone, even Polly, to look at Luz in sympathy. "But coming here… meeting Eda and learning about magic… becoming a witch… the first human witch… maybe I can actually be somebody. Do you guys know what it's like to have nobody take you seriously?"

"Hey, I take you seriously." Anne said as she kneeled down to Luz's level and put a hand on her shoulder.

"And I appreciate that… but I just… I just feel like I can be something more…" Luz said as Sprig hopped over to Luz and put his hand on her knee in sympathy.

"I hear ya." The pink frog understood that all too well.

Hop Pop and King both happened to look towards each other as they both happened to feel the same way before the young demon sighed. "If I help you guys learn that spell, could we finish our lesson?"

That got Luz and Sprig's attention. "Really?!" They both exclaimed excitedly.

"Wait… you actually know a way they can do magic?" Anne asked somewhat skeptically.

"Well… I have a theory…" King said.

"Tell us everything you know, and you can tell us everything about demons!" Sprig said eagerly.

"You can even teach us all week about em if you help us learn this spell!" Luz said as well.

"Well, let's hear this theory of yours." Hop Pop was rather curious himself.

"Okay, so Eda said that witches used to do magic differently, so there has to be a way, right?" King began as he drew something in his notepad.

"Yeah, and that she never bothered to figure out how." Polly reminded.

"Or maybe there's more than she's letting on." King showed them all an illustration he had drawn on his notepad. The illustration had a picture of a bottled potion, a plus sign next to it, and a drawing of Eda herself next to that. There was also an equal sign in the middle, and the word 'magic!' written at the bottom. "Every day, I notice Eda sneaking drinks of this special elixir, see?"

'An elixir, huh?' Polly thought back to what she saw in Eda's room, particularly the tag that read 'an elixir a day.'

Even Hop Pop narrowed his eyes a bit as he recalled a few times he saw Eda take a swig of something when she thought nobody was noticing. Even back in Amphibia she did just that.

"Then she always gets a boost of energy, see?" King went on. "I think that's where she gets her powers! So, if you guys happen to drink this stuff…"

"We could use magic powers like Eda!" Sprig finished as he and Luz looked to each other with joy and excitement.

"Of course! Magic potions!" The Latina girl said with a wide smile. "Why didn't I think of that?!"

"Okay, seems easy enough." Anne smiled. "Maybe I can take a swig of that too… shoot fireballs from my hands!"

"Not so fast!" Hop Pop stopped them all. "Let's think about this for a second. Eda says witches get their magic because of some bile sack attached to their heart, right? Why would she need to drink some kind of potion to give herself magic power if she already got the means to do it naturally?"

"That… actually makes sense." Anne seemed to go along with it.

"And even if that were the case, we have no idea what it'll do to ya if you drink that stuff." Hop Pop said, looking to Luz and Sprig. "For all we know, it could burn you up from the inside!"

"You don't know that for sure, Hop Pop!" Sprig told his grandfather.

"You're right, I don't. But you know who might? The sleeping witch who does drink that stuff." Hop Pop replied.

"But she's asleep…" Luz tried.

"So just wait until she wakes up." Hop Pop sighed and shook his head. "Listen, Luz. I get that you're worried about all your friends, and you want to find them, maybe learn more about the music box… but do you really think you're going to solve all of that in one day?"

"Well… no, but…" Luz tried.

"And I understand that this is also something you want for yourself." Hop Pop continued. "But you gotta be patient. Newtopia wasn't built in a day."

"New-what-now?" Luz didn't quite understand that.

"The point is, if you want something… you gotta work for it." Hop Pop continued. "That means no shortcuts, even if you feel pressured. Sometimes, you just gotta take the long way. Take it from an old frog who's made more than his fair share of mistakes: take it slow, step-by-step, and you'll get there, one hundred percent. And if you need help, then ask for it. I'm sure that Eda will be more than happy to help, if you're willing to wait for her to wake up the next morning. The Boiling Isles will still be here tomorrow… hopefully."

Luz took a second to look back at her BFF photo of herself, Anne, Sasha, and Marcy. More than anything, she wanted to find them, to know if they were okay. But she also remembered what happened when she thought she was a sacred chosen one, being told all that by a demon pretending to be a wizard, only to get kidnapped and had to be rescued by Eda. She was in a strange world that she knew nothing about, and Amphibia was just as strange, and she didn't know anything about it either. Maybe… taking the long way could be for the best. And at the very least, she wasn't alone here. She had found Anne, and she also had Sprig, Polly, King, and Hop Pop with her too.

"Okay Hop Pop, I can wait." Luz accepted.

"Atta girl." The old frog patted her on the shoulder.

"Yeah, I think I can afford to wait a bit too." Sprig also sat down. "So, King… about demons here…?"

King looked excitedly as he squealed before pulling out his book as well as the hat he previously wore. "Resuming Demons 101!"

"Awe, Professor King." Anne gushed as she recorded it all on her phone again while sitting down alongside Luz, Sprig, and Hop Pop. But as they listened, none of them seemed to notice Polly, smiling deviously, as she rolled her way out of the living room.

---

The little polliwog had hopped her way back to Eda's room, the Owl Lady still fast asleep in her nest. She looked around again, hoping to spot what she had saw before… the vial of elixir that was on the nightstand right next to Eda's nest.

"There you are." She silently hopped closer, but soon came to a stop in front of a bear trap that closed up right in front of her. "Ha! Missed me, sucka!"

The beartrap opened its eyes on the sides and stood up on its legs. "Nah, my heart wasn't in it." He said before leaving the room.

Polly then hopped her way to the nightstand and up ontop of it to read the tag on the elixir again. " 'An elixir a day…' Gotcha." Polly smirked as she took of the tag and put it in her bow tie. She held the bottle above her head and hopped back to the ground. She briefly looked back to the sleeping Eda, feeling a tad bit guilty before brushing it away and hopping out of Eda's room…

Unaware that as she did… the hair on Eda's head began to grow… and her nails extending into claws.

---

In the kitchen, Polly was on the table as she licked her chops as she held the elixir in her hand. "Come to mama…" She uncorked the bottle and looked ready to drink it.

"Polly!" The tadpole was started upon hearing her grandfather shout her name , leading to her to drop the elixir, the bottle shattering on the ground and spilling the potion all over the floor.

"Now look what you guys made me do!" She exclaimed, looking to the doorway to see Hop Pop, Sprig, Luz, Anne, and King.

"What in the name of Frog were you doing?!" Hop Pop questioned.

"Wait… was that Eda's elixir?" King asked upon noticing the orange-yellow liquid on the ground.

"Polly were you gonna drink that stuff and give yourself magic powers?!" Anne questioned as the group came to the table.

"No fair! I wanted to be the first frog to use magic!" Sprig complained, only to get elbowed in the side by Hop Pop.

"Didn't you just hear what I told all of them about looking before leaping?!" Hop Pop questioned his granddaughter.

"What? Pttf. I wasn't gonna drink it and poison myself. I was gonna soak myself in it." Polly corrected. "See if I can get magic-proof skin!"

"Same difference, Polly! You shouldn't mess with stuff that you don't know anything about!" Hop Pop told her.

"And I thought you didn't care about using magic!" Luz added.

"Well not all that boring light spell stuff." Polly corrected, rolling her eyes. "But if I can learn something that'll have me create my own monster army, then I'm game!"

"Where did I go wrong with her...?" Hop Pop groaned as he pinched the bridge between his eyes in frustration.

"We should at least get this cleaned up though." Luz said upon seeing the glass shards on the ground. Suddenly, the lamps inside the kitchen all turned off, leaving the group in near total darkness, save for natural light from the window behind them.

"What was that?" Sprig asked nervously.

"Uh… somebody blew a magic fuse…?" Anne wondered.

King rolled his eyes. "Hooty controls the house lights, he probably just fell asleep…"

Suddenly, a loud crash was heard from outside, followed by Hooty's distressed screams. "HOOT! HOOOOT! OOOH! HOOOT!"

"Hooty!" Luz exclaimed as she and everyone else ran from the kitchen and into the hallways, but when they went to the living room, Hop Pop was at the front and quickly extended his arms to keep all the kids behind him as they all gasped at what they saw…

The Salamander was now wide-awake, standing in the middle of the torn up living room, which had claw marks all over the walls, and nearly all of the furniture was destroyed. The multi-colored Palisman hissing violently at a dark and obscured beast that had ripped off the front door, Hooty included.

The creature hissed and narrowed its own eyes, clawing at the torn off door before dashing off to the side. The group ran to the door with the Salamander being at their feet as Luz checked on Hooty while Hop Pop looked at the claw marks that were all over the doorway.

"Hooty! Are you in there?!" She poked at his nose and only got a tongue sticking out and tried opening up his eye-lids, which had X's over them, but still got no response. "I… can't tell whether he's dead or not…"

"Forget Hooty, what the hell was that?!" Anne exclaimed. "Did you guys even see that thing!?"

"I didn't get a good look, but I think it went out into the rain!" Sprig said.

"Out in the deadly, scolding hot, boiling rains?! What could survive that?!" Anne questioned.

King's eyes widened in realization. "Oh my gosh… the Snaggleback! It feeds during the rains! It must have stumbled across our house and seen us inside!"

"Eda said though that nothing comes out in the rains!" Hop Pop argued.

A demonic howl caught all their attention, leading the group to run outside just by the barrier of the forcefield over the house, where they saw something very large and very fast smash its way into one of the upper windows.

"Well, whatever it is, it's still here!" Polly said. "And I bet it's hungry!"

"Oh no… Eda!" Luz began to panic. "She's asleep and defenseless upstairs!"

"This is terrible! So, why are you looking so happy, King?!" Sprig exclaimed questionably as he saw the excited look on the little demon's face.

"Because this could be a lesson!" King chuckled gleefully. "This would be a great way for you all to see a wild Beast-type demon up close and personal!"

"Are you kidding me?!" Anne exclaimed. "You want to go towards the scary potentially man-eating monster?! No freaking way!"

"Um kids…?" Hop Pop tried to get their attention.

"But we can't just leave Eda! We gotta go save her!" Luz argued.

"Kids…" Hop Pop still couldn't get their attention.

"I say we go up and smash the thing!" Polly argued.

"Kids!" Hop Pop was still being unnoticed, that is until the Salamander came at his feet and gave him an idea.

"Smash it?! We don't even know what it is! For all we know, it could have tentacles inside its mouth that'll grab and eat us alive!" Anne exclaimed.

Suddenly, a bright flash of multi-colored fire had got their attention, directing them all to Hop Pop as he held the Salamander up high, with its back lighting on fire before it all died down.

"Now, you all listen up right now!" Hop Pop stated firmly, causing all five kids to stand up straight and give the old frog their undivided attention. "Nobody is running anywhere! We're going to find out what that thing is, we'll save Eda, and nobody is gonna get eaten on my watch! So long as you all do exactly what I say! You all got that?!"

"Yes, Hop Pop!" Luz, Anne, Sprig, King, and Polly said at the same time.

"Good. Now, arm yourselves. Tonight, we hunt!" Hop Pop said as he narrowed his eyes and lightning flashed outside for dramatic effect.

---

Heading back inside, the group armed themselves with whatever they could find. Anne had retrieved her tennis racket from her backpack, which she slung over her own back. Luz had pulled out hockey stick from the broom closet while putting bandages under hers and Anne's eyes. The two girls put rubber gloves on and duct tapped pillows to their front while doing the same for King and Sprig, the latter pulling on his slingshot and making sure he had enough rocks in a sack he tied around his waist while King retrieved his stuffed bunny, Francois. Polly, who had a pillow tapped to her own back, pulled out a rolling pin from the drawer in Eda's kitchen while Hop Pop took out a butcher's knife.

"Trade ya." Polly said to her grandfather.

"Nope." Hop Pop denied, causing Polly to pout before he addressed the other kids while the Salamander crawled up on his shoulder. "Luz, Anne, you two stay in back and watch the rear. The Salamander and I will take the front. Sprig, Polly, King, you guys stay in the middle and no matter what… nobody goes off on their own! Understood?"

"Yes, Hop Pop!" They all replied.

"This dude would totally kill it in a horror movie." Anne whispered to Luz.

"Time-and-place, Anne." Luz lightly scolded.

"Sorry."

With that, the group began their hunt. The Salamander had a small flame on its back to provide some illumination as Hop Pop took the front and slowly walked up the stairs to the upper floor. In the middle, Sprig kept his slingshot at the ready with Polly holding her rolling pin, and King holding his beloved Francois tightly to his person. Luz and Anne walked backwards up the stairs, keeping their eyes open for anything dangerous as they held their respective weapons.

All was silent as the group made their way through the hallways of the second floor before going up the stairs to the third floor where Eda's room was. Hop Pop peeped around one corner to make sure the coast was clear. He silently waved for everyone to follow, holding his butcher's knife firmly as he moved forward, his grandkids and their friends right behind him. The silence was broken by a creaking noise, prompting Hop Pop to hold his arm out and stop them, with all eyes setting to the source of the sound… the semi open door that led to Eda's room.

Hop Pop put his finger to his mouth, motioning for them to be quiet, to which they all nodded as they followed him, moving slowly towards the door and sticking closely to the walls. Once they close enough, Hop Pop used the tip of his knife to slowly push the door open and reveal Eda's room…

Which was torn to shreds, most particularly with the large window at the end of the room being smashed, and Eda herself was nowhere to be seen.

"Oh my gosh! Eda!" Luz exclaimed as she ran into the room with Anne, Hop Pop, and Sprig right beside her.

"She got Snagglebacked!" King exclaimed with Polly right next to him by the doorway.

When they were at the nest, Anne picked up a pillow that had claw marks on it. "Slash marks…"

"Oh no… the monster ate Eda!" Sprig screamed.

"Hold on a second! Nobody panic!" Hop Pop quickly said. "Somebody, get me some more light here!"

"I got it…" Luz pulled out her phone and shined the flashlight into the nest as Hop Pop got in to take a closer look, running his hands along it.

"There's no blood…" The old frog said. "No bone fragments… no torn skin… No sign of any kind of struggle…."

"How do you know all this?" Anne questioned. "Aren't you a farmer?"

"I may be a farmer, but I've handled more than my fair share of beasts and wild predators in my day." Hop Pop said. "And whenever a predator attacks, it's never this clean. There's always some form of remains left behind, but right now I'm not seeing any…" As Hop Pop felt more around the nest, his hand happened to touch something. "Huh…?" Picking it up, with Luz shinning a light over it, they all saw that it was a big grey feather.

"A feather…?" Anne looked in confusion.

"Yep, which means… the creature is bird-like. Only avian creatures have feathers." Hop Pop said.

"Maybe in Amphibia, but is it like that in the Demon Realm too?" Sprig asked. "I mean, you might know predators from home, but what about wild demons?"

"That's…" Hop Pop thought for a second. "Huh… You know, you might be right Sprig."

"King, do you know any wild demons with feathers?" Luz asked as Anne appeared to be thinking of something herself.

"I'll go get my demon book!" King ran off into the hallway.

"Hang on, I'm coming too!" Polly hopped after him.

"Wait…!" Hop Pop tried to stop them, but they were already gone. "Dang kids, I literally just said stay together! Sprig, you and the girls stay here and don't move until we come back!" Hop Pop pointed to his grandson before looking at the Salamander on his shoulder. "And you stay with them just in case they need help."

The Salamander nodded as it scurried off Hop Pop, allowing the old frog to run into the hallway. "Polly! King! You get back here!"

Once he was gone; Luz, Sprig, Anne, and the Salamander all crawled into the rectangular cutout by Eda's bed and into the balcony, ducking under the open window to avoid being seen as they tried to make sense of the situation.

"This is terrifying…" Luz said as Anne pulled out her phone and appeared to be searching through it. "I hope Eda's okay…"

"Hey, it's Eda we're talking about." Sprig said. "Ya know, the super cool witch lady that fought of a nest of scorpions and a deadly tomato plant? She can handle anything!"

"But she's knocked out right now, all because I was pressuring her to teach me magic! Eda could be in danger and it's all my fault!" Luz looked ready to panic, only for Sprig to hop in front of her and slap her across the face.

"Pull yourself together, Luz!" Sprig scolded. "We're gonna save Eda, we're gonna make it through this, and we're gonna stop the demon that made the mistake of picking a fight with us! Right Anne?!" He looked to the other human girl, who still seemed to be paying attention to whatever was on her phone. "Anne, what are you doing?"

"Looking through old horror movies." Anne answered.

"Old horror movies?" Luz took Anne's phone from her and saw that Anne was browsing through the library of downloaded classic horror movies, including 'The Bride of Dracula', which she recognized. "Isn't this from that horror movie marathon Marcy had us watch last Halloween? How's that gonna help us?"

"Well, you said that Eda told you, that all the magic fantasy stuff that we got on Earth is based off real stuff from here, right?" Anne recalled as she took her phone back. "Well, maybe there might be something here that can help us."

"Anne, you're a genius!" Sprig hopped over to her and hugged her with relief.

"I know." The girl smiled smugly before looking down at the Salamander, who looked up at her expectantly while having some kind of paper in its mouth. "What you got there?" She took it from the Salamander and read the words aloud. "...'Keeps the curse at bay'…?" There was even a small image of a horned demon at the bottom.

"Curse…?" Luz wondered aloud.

"Wait… why does that sound familiar…?" Anne wondered. She knew there was at least one fictional monster deals with curses. She went back to her phone to browse through the downloaded movies. "Let's see… We have 'The Mummy from Peru', 'The Sister of Frankenstein', 'The Living Slime', 'A British Werewolf in New York'…"

"Wait, wait… stop right there!" Luz went over to Anne and looked at the promo image of a certain movie on Anne's phone, one that had a humanoid wolf-like creature standing atop a pile of cars. "Werewolf…"

"What's a werewolf?" Sprig asked.

"A monster that changes between a human and a wolf-like creature, but why…" Anne's eyes then widened as she and Luz both looked to each other as they appeared to have come to the same conclusion. "Hop Pop said there was no blood or any kind of a struggle…" She then took the tag from Sprig. "And this talks about a curse…"

"And there was a feather in that nest…" Luz went along. "Feathers come from birds… Eda's called the Owl Lady… and an owl's a type of bird..."

They all gasped in realization, Sprig included. "That's it!" All three said at the same time. "What's it?" Sprig asked, causing the two girls to look at him. "I got no idea what you guys are talking about, I was just going with the flow is all." Both Luz and Anne's eyelids lowered slightly at that.

---

Meanwhile, King and Polly both made their way down the hallway. But when they came around a corner, they stopped as a dark blur move past them and down the perpendicular hallway.

"Did you see that?" Polly questioned.

"It's gotta be the Snaggleback!" King assumed.

"Then let's go get it!" Polly hopped in the direction she saw it move, her rolling pin at the ready.

"Polly, wait…!" King ran after her.

"Get back here, Snaggleback!" Polly called out as she hopped down in pursuit. "Hold still and get murdered like a frog!" She and King both rounded one corner and saw a closet door at the end of the pathway, the door just being closed. "It's in there! Let's go in and jump it when it's cornered!"

King looked a tad bit nervous, before remembering that this monster may have taken Eda, and quickly got serious. "We'll make it give up Eda back even if we have to force it to! Let's go!"

The two went to the door, with King being the one to open it and Polly hopping in behind him. They spotted something hiding behind all the hanging coats and looked towards each other. Polly motioned King to the coats while patting the rolling pin in her hands, King nodded in understanding. He would open the coats up quickly, and Polly would jump in and smash it with everything she had.

"There's nowhere for you to run…!" King pulled the coats apart as Polly gave a warrior's call and leapt forward, only to stop in shock at what she saw.

It was the Snaggleback! But it looked like a small pink-furred monkey with a spiked tortoise shell, and it cowered in fear, shaking as it covered its head with its hands.

"Snaggleback?!" Polly and King both exclaimed, causing the aforementioned demon to open its eyes and look at them in fright.

"Are you sure this is the right demon? Cause he seems pretty scrawny. Disappointingly so." Polly said with lowered eyelids.

"Yeah, he is a lot shorter in person." King added.

"I-I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" The Snaggleback said shakily. "I just needed a place to hide from the rains!"

"Can't your shell protect you though?" Polly asked. "Isn't that why you guys go out in the rain?"

"Not when it's this windy out! Our shells could get blown off and then there'd be nothing to protect us!" The Snaggleback replied.

"Then why did you break down our door and kidnap Eda? That's not cool, man!" King pointed to him. "Bad Snaggleback!"

"I-I didn't do any of that stuff!" The Snaggleback replied, much to King and Polly's confusion. "I snuck in through a window just now!"

"Huh? Then what…" Polly was interrupted by a crash from above, followed by a large clawed hand bursting through the ceiling to grab the Snaggleback by its shell.

"Oh no! A twist!" The Snaggleback screamed as he was pulled up into the hole, much to King and Polly's shock and surprise.

They both heard the sounds of a large creature moving just above them, before something crashed down from the door behind them. The two shakily turned around just as the door began to open… though they couldn't completely see the creature that stood on the other side, being obscured in shadows, it was clearly big. It stood on all four of its legs and appeared to have glowing orange eyes. Its mouth was full of something before it spat out the Snaggleback's empty shell, which was covered in drool. It then eyed the two small creatures directly in front of it, growling and showing off its fangs before roaring at the pair.

Polly and King both screamed as they clung to each other and backed into the corner. "S-stay back! I know how to use this!" Polly frighteningly swung her rolling pin.

"I-I am the King of demons! Okay?!" King tried, despite being clearly frightened himself. "And as such… I demand you to barf Eda out and leave my home this instant!" The creature growled in response as it raised its claws and looked ready to slash, leading to King and Polly to cling to each other and close their eyes…

Only for the creature to give a cry in pain as it felt a slice across its back, causing it to turn and see the one who did it, with King and Polly looking in shock themselves.

"You get away from them kids, ya hear me?!" Hop Pop demanded.

"Hop Pop?!" Both King and Polly shouted at the same time.

The obscured creature growled at the elderly frog, giving him its undivided attention as he held his butcher's knife, tossing it in-between his hands and spinning it around like a master and pointing the blade at the beast, narrowing his eyes at it. "Let's go."

The beast gave an unearthly roar as it charged at Hop Pop, giving King and Polly a chance to flee. Hop Pop leapt backwards to avoid the claw slice that tore up the floor. While airborne, Hop Pop shot his tongue out to strike the beast's face and temporarily blind it, allowing him to land and leap forward, slashing at the beast's side with his knife. The creature roared in pain again as Hop Pop slid to its rear and quickly sliced at its back legs, causing it to stumble to the ground. He then leapt on top of its back and tried to slash again, only for the beast to roar as it leapt up to smash its back, and Hop Pop, into the ceiling and ran on through the hallway, though Hop Pop continued to hold on as best as he could.

King and Polly continued to watch as the monster slammed its sides and back into the walls and ceiling to shake and smash Hop Pop off, which it was finally able to do after a third smash into the wall near a window that had a drape over it. Hop Pop rolled off and was quickly pinned to the ground with one claw while raising its other…

"Hey!" Polly had thrown her rolling pin at its head, causing the obscured creature to turn to her and King. "Get away from my Hop Pop!"

The beast growled as it turned its attention to the two little ones, letting go of Hop Pop, who was initially worried for his granddaughter and her friend, only to then take notice of the drape from the window next to him.

King and Polly both backed up to the wall in fright as the beast loomed its way closer to them. But before it could make a move, the drape was quickly thrown over its face as Hop Pop had appeared on its back again, pulling on the drape he had just pried from the window, shinning some natural light into the darkened hallway and pulled the blinded beast to slam it into the wall. It had rolled up to expose its underbelly while Hop Pop continued to hold it down as he drew his knife again.

"You kids look away!" Hop Pop told King and Polly.

"B-but…" King stuteted.

"Turn your heads away!" Hop Pop raised his knife and was ready to stab and end the beast…

"Hop Pop, no!" Sprig suddenly leapt to tackle Hop Pop off the wrapped up beast, all while Luz, Anne, and the Salamander arrived to, standing in front of King and Polly.

"Sprig!? What are you doing!? I told you to stay back!" The old frog scolded.

"We we're so wrong, Hop Pop!" Sprig told him. "That monster didn't eat or take Eda! That monster is Eda!"

Right as he said that, the creature had torn off the drape from its face, revealing its full form in the natural light provided by the open window. It was a massive, quadruped, owl-like monster. Its body was covered in dark teal fur and feathers with dark gray wings on its back. It also had a black oval gem attached to its sternum. It had razor sharp claws and talons on its feet, but the face was what stood out the most. Despite the eyes being completely pitch black, the face was unmistakable… for it was the same face of the witch that they all knew.

"What the frog…?!" Hop Pop all but screamed.

"Holy crap… It is Eda!" Anne exclaimed.

The transformed Eda then turned her attention on the two humans and the smaller creatures behind them. She looked ready to pounce on them, Luz and Anne both screamed as they held King and Polly close…

Only for the Salamander to quickly appear in front of them, standing in-between them and the beastly form of the Owl Lady, his whole body lighting with multi-colored fire as he transformed once again…

But when all those bright flames shinned, the sudden source of bright light caused the Owl Beast's eyes to change from their all-black state to the same yellow eyes that belonged to Eda as she recoiled, holding her face while hollering in pain, something Hop Pop noticed.

With the Owl Beast temporarily distracted, the Salamander, now in his Komodo-dragon form, leapt at the transformed Eda to tackle her to the ground, the two creatures rolling across the floor as Hop Pop and Sprig quickly rejoined the others, with Hop Pop holding his arms out protectively in front of them all as they saw the Salamander wrestle with the Owl Beast.

The Salamander ended up on top of the Owl Beast's back, biting and clawing at her, but the Owl Beast pushed up to smash her back into the wall and shake the Salamander off before tackling and pinning him to the ground with her claws, only for the multi-colored fire to light up on the Salamander's back and force the transformed Eda off, roaring at the Salamander, who got back up and hissed at her in response, the flames around him shinning brighter, while also positioning himself in front of Hop Pop and all the kids to keep the Owl Beast from them. He snarled, hissed, and stepped forward, the flames growing brighter, and forcing the Owl Beast to run away down the halls.

Seeing the beast run away, the Salamander, while still remaining in his larger form, made his way back to the group, all of the kids were still in a state of hyperventilation before Hop Pop addressed them all.

"Is everyone okay?"

"Y-yeah… we're okay… Hop Pop…" Anne said in-between breaths as everyone recollected themselves and let what just happened process.

"Did you guys see her eyes?!" Luz questioned. "They were like… rar!" She pulled down on her own eyes and snarled to imitate the beast she saw.

"How did you kids know that was even Eda?" Hop Pop questioned.

"Y-You said there was no blood, right? No sign of a struggle…" Sprig began. "Then Luz and Anne started talking about some kind of transforming monster from their world's stories… and we found this!" He pulled out half of the tag that they had found and gave it to Hop Pop, which he read aloud.

" '….Keeps the curse at bay'?"

Polly gasped as she snatched that tag from Hop Pop's hands and reached into her bow to pull out the one she found from the elixir she took and put the two together, fitting perfectly and revealing the whole message.

"'An elixir a day keeps the curse at bay'!"

"Oh my gosh…!" King's eyes widened in horror. "The elixir I told you all about doesn't give Eda powers! It prevents her from turning into that thing! I shouldn't have told you guys about it! She's turned into a monster and it's all my fault!"

"Whoa-whoa, King this isn't your fault!" Luz tried to tell him. "You didn't know! none of us knew!"

"And I'm the one who took the elixir because I wanted my own crazy magic powers!" Polly added.

"But if I hadn't told any of you… I'm sorry…" King curled up on the floor. "I wanted you guys to be into demons like you're all into magic! I don't have any friends and… nobody even pays that much attention to me… I thought maybe if I taught you… then somebody would finally care about creatures like me…"

Luz and Sprig instantly felt empathy for King, knowing exactly what he was talking about, with not having many friends, if at all, and being misunderstood by everyone else. Anne, Hop Pop, and Polly all felt sympathy for him as well, with the elderly frog reaching forward to put a hand on King's head.

"So, let's hear more about that lesson of yours." That got King's attention as Hop Pop looked to him with a caring smile. "I might know how to fight off predators, but I don't know anything about demons, or how to turn people back when they've been turned into one. You do."

"Eda's been turned into some kind of demon, and we gotta save her. But it's gonna take all of us working together to do it." Sprig said.

"Me the slippery little tadpole who started this whole mess…" Polly began, admitting that last part with shame. "Hop Pop, the frog who surprisingly knowns how to actually fight; Sprig the agile frog; Anne and Luz, the humans who… probably have something to offer and I'm sure we'll figure it out eventually… and this walking tank right here…" She gestured to the Salamander in his Komodo dragon form, who smiled with appreciation. "And you… the king of demons." She gestured to King himself.

"Yeah, the rest of us are clueless on what to do…" Anne added.

"And who better to teach us about how to handle demons, then the best demon teacher in world?" Luz added, offering King the novelty pen.

King brightened up at that and pointed to himself, to which everyone else nodded before he leapt into Luz's arms as everyone else all hugged him, even the Salamander wrapped his tail around them all before they got to work.

Picking up some paper from some fallen books and the pen, King drew a picture of Eda's transformed face. "Let's see… she was bigger… covered in feathers… and had giant black eyes. Demons with black eyes are usually sensitive to light."

"I think you're right." Hop Pop said. "Whenever the Salamander here transforms, it lights itself on fire. The fire it used before was bright enough that it managed to push Eda back."

"So, all we gotta do is wave a fire in her face?" Anne asked. "Like a torch or something?

"No! We could burn her if we do that!" Luz stated.

"We also run the risk of burning the house down." Hop Pop added. "And with the boiling rain outside, we'd have no place to escape to."

"Okay… so we can't use fire…" Sprig began to think before looking towards Luz and noticed the phone in her pocket. "That's it! Luz! Anne! Your square things! They can be bright without fire! Just shine that in Eda's face!"

The girls both pulled out their respective phones as Anne turned on the flashlight. "This could work…"

"But I doubt that thing is gonna hold still long enough for us to shine it in its face." Polly put in.

"Oooh, what about that light spell?" King suggested.

Luz slid back against the wall with a sigh. "You all know that's impossible." She drew a circle in the air for emphasis. "I can't draw magic circles, I'm not like Eda…" She said with sad reluctance, while also pulling out her phone and watched the recorded video again…

"Now you see… the spell circle…" She happened to pause it on Eda completing the circle for whatever reason…

But as she did… she potted something.

There was some kind of symbol in the circle. A vertical line stretched from the bottom of the circle and up about two thirds to a smaller circle and two tangent lines connecting to the top almost like a triangle. A perfect horizontal line stretched from the sides near the bottom of the circle, with two more emerging from the sides of the circle to stretch up to the small circle, forming a triangle, with two slanted bars cut in the middle of the vertical line just above the horizontal line.

Luz gasped as she saw it. "There's a pattern in the spell circle!"

"What?!" Sprig, Polly, and King hopped onto her shoulders as everyone else closed in. "Where?!" They all questioned, trying to find what Luz was seeing.

"Right there! In the middle of the circle!" She showed her phone to Anne and Hop Pop, both looking in confusion.

"I don't see anything…" Hop Pop said.

"Just a circle and a tired Eda… are you sure you didn't get hit in the head, Luz?" Anne asked.

"You… You guys really don't see it?" Luz was confused herself. How could she be the only one to see this? Well, maybe she could show them.

Luz took a small piece of paper and put it over her phone, the light from her screen shining through. "It looks like this." She used the novelty pen King had and began to trace the pattern herself, drawing the circle and all the separating and connecting lines inside. "There." She tapped the tip of the pen to it to complete it…

Only for the symbol she drew to glow a bright gold, much to the surprise of everyone, especially Luz herself, as they watched the paper fold in on itself and form into a sphere of light. Luz cupped her hands over the ball of light as she slowly stood up with everyone watching in absolute speechless awe…

"It's… beautiful…"

"Luz… you…" Anne stuttered. "You just did magic…"

"I just did magic…" Luz muttered in disbelief herself. Did she really just do magic…?

"You just did magic!" Sprig hopped up on her shoulders and looked at the ball of light.

"I just did magic…!" Luz began to perk up as excitement and joy began to fill her being.

"You just did magic!" Hop Pop stated in genuine surprise.

"She just did magic!" Polly and King both looked at each other before looking at the Salamander. "She just did magic!"

"I JUST DID MAGIC!" Luz all but screamed as she jumped up from her spot in pure jubilation.

"Dude! That is amazing!" Anne pulled her friend in by the shoulders and shook her with just as much joy. "You did magic! You're a witch! Like a real witch!"

"I'm a witch…! I'm a witch! I'M A WITCH!" Luz screamed again.

As Luz celebrated, the transformed and enlarged Salamander looked upon her as a smile formed on his own face and even gave a single nod.

"Show me what you did! I wanna be a witch too!" Sprig hopped over to Luz's face, the girl smiling with excitement as she set her phone screen down again and put another piece of paper over it. She grabbed Sprig's hand with the pen and helped him to trace the same symbol as before, which Sprig tapped with his own hand.

Just like before… the symbol glowed before the paper folded in on itself, creating a sphere of light in Sprig's own hands, which he looked at with shaky eyes, his own pupils widening as the light reflected in his own digits.

"Oh my frog… Hop Pop… Polly... Are you seeing this...?" Sprig turned to his grandfather and sister as they were speechless himself. Sprig had just done magic… magic from the Demon Realm…

"Whoa…" Polly muttered.

Even Hop Pop stared wordlessly at the sphere of light that his grandson just created. All these years, and telling his grandson to be careful of the unknown, being cautious around stuff like magic… and yet… his grandson had created something magical… but it wasn't dangerous at all. It was… beautiful. He couldn't help but smile as he looked to the light that shined brightly on his grandson.

"Well, don't leave me hanging! Let me try!" Anne was getting excited herself. Just like before, Luz got another piece of paper and helped Anne trace the circle from the paused imagine on her phone. "How the hell am I not seeing this?"

"I don't know… but it's amazing…!" Luz stuttered, still not over her own joy.

Once she finished drawing the pattern, Anne tapped it. The pattern began to glow, but instead of yellow like it was for Luz and Sprig, the spell pattern turned blue.

Everyone watched in surprise as the paper folded in on itself and generated a small ball of blue light that hovered just above Anne's hands.

"It's… blue…?" King asked in confusion.

"Why is it blue…?" Polly wondered herself.

"I don't know… we drew it the same thing…" Luz was just as confused, but Anne was too amazed to even question it. She just did magic like her two friends. And as she stared into the tiny ball of blue light… she felt something ignite in her own heart. She had created something... something small but also something incredible. She then gave a small and pleasant smile, a sense of pride and happiness filling her being.

Suddenly, a familiar and unholy screech echoed throughout the house, startling everyone as the Salamander stiffened himself up, ready for a fight.

"I hate to be that frog right now, but we're not gonna stop a giant rampaging beast with a couple of tiny light balls." Polly pointed out.

"What if we made a whole bunch of small light balls?" Sprig suggested. "We'd just need to draw a couple hundred more of those magic symbols…"

"Or we make a single big one." Anne offered. "Eda did say that the larger the spell circle, the stronger the spell, right?"

Luz's eyes widened as she remembered that herself. Eda did say that. The girl then grinned confidently. "I know what we gotta do now. Everyone, listen closely…"

---

The Owl Beast roamed about in the living room, sniffing through all the destruction that she had caused. She pounced onto a chest and sniffed an open book on the pedestal, until she heard a familiar clicking noise. Turning towards the doorway, she spotted Sprig causally leaning against the doorway, rapidly clicking the novelty pen to turn the diamond light at the top on and off.

"Oooh… You like this?" Sprig teased, holding the shinning pen outward for her to see, the Owl Beast stared at the shinning pen in a mesmerizing state as it reflected in her black eyes. "So pretty and shiny… You want it…? Then come and get it!" Sprig hopped in one direction, leading to the Owl Beast to leap where he was and rushing off in pursuit.

Despite Eda's transformed state being enormous in size, it was surprisingly fast. Fortunately, Sprig was plenty quick himself, hopping and leaping from one spot to the other and keeping pace with the Owl Beast. And as he passed by a certain point, Hop Pop and Anne, who were hiding behind a vase and a desk respectively, pulled on a long rope, causing it to tighten up and catch the Owl Beast by her legs, leading to her monstrous form to slip and slide before crashing onto the wall on the side.

The Salamander, still in his Komodo dragon form, was also clinging to the ceiling just above the Owl Beast with his claws, with Polly and King at his underbelly and holding a curtain before he dropped down to pounce on Eda.

"Go! Now!" Hop Pop ordered as he and Anne were quick to grab the entangled Owl Beast with the rope they had. King, Sprig, and Polly all helped as they tied the rope around the curtain while the Salamander kept the struggling Owl Beast down. Hop Pop finished tying the rope to firmly secure it as they all piled on top of the trapped beast to keep her down. "Now, Luz!"

Directly in front of the subdued Owl Beast, Luz was on a ladder and used a red crayon to draw an enormous version of the glyph she just learned on the wall.

"I'm sorry Eda! But this is for your own good!" She stated as she slammed her hand on the glyph, causing a bright glow of light to shine throughout the house. Anne and the others made sure the transformed Eda saw it, keeping her pinned and forcing her eyes open as she screeched in pain.

---

Eda opened her eyes, finding herself laying in her nest… with an elongated straw in her mouth… all leading to a half-drunk elixir bottle that had the same orange-yellow colored potion inside. She took the straw out of her mouth in confusion and felt around the left half of her face… her left eye still black with feathers growing out of her skin.

"Aahh!" She screamed before hastily drinking the remainder of her elixir through the straw, the oval gem on her sternum turning from black to its regular gold color as she turned fully back to normal, much to her relief. "W-wha… what happened…? Ugh, I have the worst headache…!" She felt her throbbing head. "And my mouth… tastes like roadkill…" Her cheeks bulged before she threw up outside of her nest.

She had hacked up a giant owl pellet, which opened up to reveal the now shell-less Snaggleback.

"I'm… just gonna… lie here… for a minute…" He said in exhaustion.

As she picked herself up, a glass of water was handed to her, courtesy of Hop Pop. "Here you go."

"Oh thanks…" She gulped all the water in less than a second before realizing who was standing next to her. "Wait... Hop Pop...? What are you doing here?"

"We had to carry you back up here after you turned back to normal." King said as he and Polly entered the scene, with the Salamander right behind them, in its normal size.

"Back to…" Eda gasped as she realized the implication. "Wait… you guys saw me…?"

"As a giant rampaging bird monster trying to eat us? Yeah." Polly said before wincing. "But that was my fault for… taking your elixir. Guess it's lucky you had plenty extra in your closet… Heh, heh." She chuckled nervously.

"Polly… You stole my elixir…?!" Eda was more than a little angry at her. "Oh, if you were my kid and not Hop Pop's here…!"

"Don't worry, I got a long list of chores on the farm with her name on it." Hop Pop said, giving a slight stink-eye to his granddaughter, who shrunk under his gaze. "But before we get into that… take a look." He pointed to a corner in the room, drawing Eda's attention to something that she would never expect to see in a million years.

Luz, Anne, and Sprig all sat together with various papers all around them, and several glowing balls of light floating above them and all over the room. Most were a natural yellow-gold color, while a select few were blue. But all three of them looked with excitement and interest as Luz drew another glyph and tapped it, causing it to fold in on itself like all the others and turn into yet another ball of light that hovered up and joined the others.

Eda saw it and was beyond shocked. Luz… just did magic! And based on what she was seeing, Anne and Sprig were too! They were performing light magic! These three kids who didn't have any internal bile sacks like she did, were doing magic… by drawing on paper! She had never seen anything like this before and had absolutely no idea what to say…

"Wow… how… how are they doing that…?" She asked, looking up at all the light balls that floated above her.

"Luz said she saw a pattern in the spell circle that you showed her." Hop Pop showed Eda a piece of paper that had the glyph drawn on it, which she took to get a closer look. "You ever seen anything like it?"

"No… I've never seen this before…" Eda confessed. "All I did was draw a circle in the air… no patterns or symbols or anything…"

"Hmm." Hop Pop looked away for a moment, a hand to his chin as he thought for a moment. That was rather odd... He believed Luz's word that she saw something, even though he and the others didn't. And yet, Eda had no knowledge of this pattern herself. That was most strange.

Sprig glanced back slightly and saw that Eda was awake. "Guys, Eda's up!" He told the girls, causing them to quickly stand and make their way closer to her.

"Eda, are you okay?" Luz asked with urgency.

"Yeah… I'm okay." She said. "What about all of you… Did I… hurt you…?" She asked nervously.

"Physically? No. But we are most definitely traumatized now." Sprig said bluntly with a casual smile.

"So… you're what… like a… Wereowl…?" Anne asked. "Is that why you're called the Owl Lady?"

"Yeah…" Eda looked away slightly. "I haven't been completely honest with all of you…" The two humans, little demon, and Plantar family all paid attention as Eda began. "When I was around your kids' age, I was cursed. I don't know exactly how it happened, who did it, or why… all I know is that if I don't take my elixir…"

"You go all beast mode. Got it." Anne said in understanding.

"And I… don't have any control over it." Eda admitted with shame. "No one likes having a curse but if you take the right steps it's… manageable. I'm… I'm just glad that none of you were hurt."

"We mostly have Hop Pop to thank for that." King said, referring to the old frog. "This guy almost came close to killing you!"

"Seriously?" Eda questioned in genuine surprise. While her memories of any incidents were blurry, she knew her Owl Beast form had caused some serious damage with only the strongest of witches and demons having a hard time just to contain her. But this one single frog held his own against her and even almost killed her? One would think she'd be frightened by that… but she was actually impressed.

"I had no idea it was you though!" Hop Pop quickly said. "If I had, I would have…"

"Thanks…" Eda said, surprising Hop Pop and everyone else. "I've… done things when I lose control…. The Owl Beast… it's no joke, trust me. It's plenty dangerous. I'm glad you didn't kill me… but I'm also glad that there's someone I can trust who… can take me down if I… lose control again. So, thanks… Hop Pop…" She said with a genuine smile, putting a hand on his shoulder.

Though surprised, Hop Pop smiled as he took Eda's hand in both of hers. "We're all okay, and it wasn't just me. Sure, I might have helped wrangled you, but it was a group effort. Especially from a certain demon expert…"

"Yeah, we had a good teacher." Luz added as she and Hop Pop both looked towards King.

"Oh you." King said bashfully, waving his hands off.

"Heh. And look at you guys." Eda looked to Luz, Anne, and Sprig with proud smiles. "Humans and frogs doing magic. Good on you, kids."

"Awe, thanks Eda." Sprig smiled.

"Hey uh… speaking of…" Anne got the witch's attention as she pulled out a drawn glyph of her own. "Every time I draw one of these things…" She tapped it, causing it to fold in and transform into a ball of blue light. "It turns blue. Luz and Sprig do normal lights, but all mine end up blue."

"Seriously, even the glyphs I draw for her all turn blue." Luz added. "And we draw it the same way. No changes."

"You got any idea why that might be?" Sprig asked.

Eda thought for a minute before something came to mind. "Luz, pull up the picture of the music box again."

"Sure…" She brought out her phone and pulled up the photo of the music box when the gems were still colored and handed it to Eda.

"You guys see this?" The Owl Lady pointed to the picture for everyone to see, specifically the colored gemstones embedded into it. "I've said before how these gems might be that thing's power source… and one of them is blue. We've also guessed that whatever kind of magic that powers the box is directly affecting Anne and keeping her from using the portal to go back the Human Realm. My guess, the power from that blue stone is directly affecting you, and that's why you got all your blue spells."

"Huh… I guess… that makes sense…" Anne looked to her hands with uncertainty. She already knew that she wasn't able to go through Eda's portal door because of something connecting to the box. Did that mean she was also cursed… and there was some unknown power inside of her...?

"Hey." Eda put both of her hands on Anne's and pulled her in to look her in the eyes with an expression of understanding. "Whatever's going on with you, we'll figure this out. I'll make sure that you find a way to get back home safe and sound, I promise."

Anne smiled at the witch. "Thanks Eda… I appreciate that."

"Anytime kid." Eda nodded.

As everyone else smiled at this scene, Luz included, she also thought of something else. Looking back at her phone, at the picture of the music box and its colored stones, as well as pulling out her BFF photo, she began to think….

'Anne wasn't the only one who got zapped away by the music box. If she got connected to the blue stone because of that… what if the same thing happened to Marcy and Sasha? There are two other stones… two other girls… maybe they're connected to the other stones too!'

"Hey! Hey!" All of them were startled by the sound of Hooty's voice echoing throughout the whole house. "Is anyone there?! Hello!? Hoot! I'm on the floor! It's cooooold!"

"That voice…! That horrific voice…!" King groaned in irritation.

"Ugh, I wish that beast thing ate him alive…!" Polly complained.

"We'll take care of em, you just rest up." Hop Pop told Eda. "The Salamander will stick with ya in case you need anything. That okay with you?" He asked the Salamander, who wagged his tail with a smile as he scurried up into Eda's nest and right next to her.

"Come on you goopy fella, we'll set you free now." Luz told the Snaggleback as she gently picked him up and everyone proceeded to leave.

"Ow… Ow… Ow… I think my tail was digested…" The Snaggleback muttered as everyone left.

Eda gave a sigh of relief as she laid back on her nest. She saw the Salamander come up to her side and curl next to her, causing her to smile before she closed some eyes to fall asleep.

---

When she opened her eyes again, Eda found herself in a dark void, standing in front of a familiar doorway that seemingly had nothing behind it.

"No… not this memory again…!" She dreaded.

The door opened, with a bright white light shining behind it. She scarcely made out an obscure figure covered in shadows with what seemed like round circular eyes.

"You…! You're the one who cursed me aren't you?!" Eda demanded as the light behind the figure glowed brighter. "Who are you?! Who are you?!"

The light shined so bright that it completely engulfed her.

---

Eda woke up with a gasp. She looked around her room briefly before sighing. The Salamander came up onto her lap and looked to her with concern. Eda gave a smile as she patted the multi-colored Palisman.

---

The boiling rain had cleared up as Hop Pop, Anne, Sprig, and Luz helped to put Hooty and the door back on its frame.

"And that should do it." Hop Pop finished screwing in the hinges as Luz also put a few bandages on the claw marks on the door's face.

"Welcome to the boo-boo-buddy-club, Hooty." Luz congratulated.

"Finally! I get to be a part of something!" Hooty celebrated.

"Please don't make us regret it." Anne dreaded.

"Pretty sure we will." Sprig said.

"…And then she had teeth in her stomach! Teeth in her stomach!" The Snaggleback described for King and Polly as they all sat on the sofa while King wrote in the notepad that he and Polly shared.

"Awesome! Wish I could have teeth in my stomach!" Polly grinned.

"Oh yeah! This will make a great addition to our demon book!" King said as he showed off the drawing of Eda's Owl Beast form.

"Hey, we should totally start our own illegal underground beast fighting thing!" Polly suggested. "We'd pit demons from the Boiling Isles against predators from Amphibia and see who comes out on top in a bloody and grueling battle to the death!"

"Oh yeah, totally!" King agreed. "Eda would be on board with that just from the money alone!"

"That book of yours is full of so many interesting things." The Snaggleback said with an intrigued smile as he pulled out said book and turned to the page that had his own species' info on it. "Like this! I'm one of the strongest demons on the Boiling Isles, huh?"

King and Polly's eyelids lowered at that. "Yeah… no." The polliwog said bluntly.

"I'm gonna have to edit that out now." The little demon added.

"Oh…" The Snaggleback looked down in disappointment.

Done.

Yep, much like Luz and King in canon, Anne and the Plantars have had their officially first encounter with the Owl Beast. And Hop Pop was actually able to hold his own against it!

We don't get a lot of moments where Hop Pop shows off what he can do, but we'll see plenty more here. There is plenty more to that old frog than meets the eye, who's probably got loads of experience dealing with Amphibia's wild predators.
Even the Salamander managed to hold its own against the Owl Beast. Pretty impressive, huh?

But probably more importantly of all… Luz and the others have learned how to use magic! She, Sprig, and Anne managed to use a light glyph for the first time! And yes, Anne's light glyph ended up blue because of her connection to the blue stone in the Calamity Box. What this will mean in the future regarding her own Calamity powers, I'll leave you to guess and figure out, but there are plenty more surprises in store.

Anne may not have been all that much interested in learning magic at first… but now that she's actually doing it… that could change. And Sprig is diving right in as usual, so he's definitely going to be learning how to use magic right alongside Luz.

Other than that, not much changed from canon, other than Polly being the one to steal the elixir this time instead of King, mostly because Hop Pop talked the others out of it.

The next chapter is going to be another Owl House-based one, where the group goes to a certain convention and things get plenty crazy, and we meet not only a few familiar faces, but also a certain someone from Eda's past, and I can't wait for you all to read it.

Until then, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter.

Stay safe and Happy Holidays!