Welcome back, everyone! With how unanimously positive the response to the first snippet was, I decided to keep going! It's time for our plucky young human to venture into this new world, but with a few changes to consider...
To many children, the start of summer vacation was a glorious day. Twelve whole weeks to unwind, hang out with friends, go on adventurous trips, and generally bask in having hours to freely waste away.
For one girl in Gravesfield, Connecticut, however, today was the start of her punishment. Only just about five feet tall, the girl's bright brown eyes pouted at the sidewalk outside of her humble two-story house. Her hands rested in her jorts pockets, over a pair of black leggings and a short-sleeved purple and white hoodie covering her. Her only comfort was the book held under one arm, her beloved copy of the first installment of The Good Witch Azura. On her back was a pack of supplies, including a sleeping bag, which she wished she could hoist back to her room.
She turned to see her mother exit the house behind her, already dressed in the blue scrubs of a veterinarian. She shared her daughter's brown hair and rich brown skin, though her hair was just starting to dim with age.
"Oh, mi preciosa," she said, coming to her daughter's side, "Now Luz, I don't want you thinking of this as some kind of punishment…"
"Too late…" the girl sighed in her head.
"…But with all the helpful things you'll learn like managing money and listening to public radio, the time will fly by!"
"But Mom, I don't want to go to this camp! I wanna make AMVs and cosplay at the convention! I said I was sorry about the book report, and none of the snakes were venomous!"
Her mother, Camila, just let out a long sigh. "Luz, that's not the only reason you're here. Your creativity has been getting you in trouble all year. Tell me, wouldn't you like to make real friends? Not imaginary or with scales?"
Luz clutched the book to her chest before letting out a long breath. She walked over to the full trash can and set her favorite novel inside. She knew full well the alternative to Reality Check Summer Camp was a chat with the police.
In hindsight, maybe bringing a giant bundle of fireworks to school for that same report was stupid... But the third-act closer would have been amazing!
Before she could protest, Camila's phone buzzed. Her shift was starting soon, so she kissed her daughter goodbye and wished her first day at camp went well. As soon as her mother's car was out of sight, Luz went to retrieve her Azura book only to find it gone!
"WHA?! I was just being symbolic!" she shouted to the sky as she dug furiously through the trash…
"CAW!"
…Only to look up and see a scruffy white raven grinning at her, a burlap sack of junk in its beak, including her book!
"Hey! That's mine!"
The bird began hopping away, loudly dragging the sack behind it away from the street and behind Luz's house. The girl gave chase, begging the raven to slow down or drop her book. Soon she went well into the forest and before a small, abandoned shack where the raven hopped up the steps and disappeared inside.
Luz stood for a moment and considered her options. She'd risk missing the bus at this rate, and her mother would be a whole new level of mad if she thought Luz was trying to ditch summer camp. But that book…
"Get back here!" she shouted, running through the front door. She completely missed the ominous clap of thunder that rang out just as she entered through the door.
As the little raven cawed in happiness, Luz kept running, demanding the adorable little scamp stop already before noticing where she was. This was… Some kind of storage tent? It was the only explanation with the walls being brightly colored striped fabric and boxes of random junk stacked throughout.
"Whoa, and I thought I had clutter…" Luz said, picking up a random effigy made from a bunch of trash including a baby doll's head strung through a coat hanger.
"Ah, there you are, Morrigan!" a mature female voice said from outside. Curious, Luz dropped the effigy (never noticing its stubby, mismatched arms threateningly reaching out towards her) and peeked through the flaps of this tent. She could barely make out the other stalls of this market before noticing the little raven. The bird was now clearly smiling through its beak as it hopped up onto a wooden table next to a woman whose back was to Luz. As soon as the raven hopped into a nearby pole, the little bird turned to inanimate wood.
"Whaaaa?!"
"Now then, let's see…" the woman continued as if this was normal. From the sack of goodies her presumed pet dragged over came a smartphone, perfectly intact.
"Scrap," she dismissed before pulling out a ring with the single largest diamond Luz had ever seen, easily as big as her hand.
"Pawn shop," she rattled off as she held a gleaming golden goblet. This seemed to finally get the woman's full attention.
"Ooooh! Another potential artifact! I don't think Eda will mind this going to my personal collection…" she said with glee before then grabbing Luz's novel.
"Eugh, I can't stand these books. Oh well, waste not, want not." She then held the book over a candle.
"No!" Luz rushed out, grabbed the book, and apologized before running back to the door only for it to fold into itself. She watched the now-briefcase door fly into the woman's hand, now looking irately at Luz. This was also the teen's first chance to see who exactly nabbed her Azura book.
Standing around six feet tall, this woman had the some of the palest skin she had ever seen. Almost pure white with her ears ending in points, drawing to a pair of small reading glasses that sat in front of piercing seafoam green eyes. Despite clearly being a woman with modest curves, her outfit was a navy-blue dress shirt and skirt that made her look like a professor. The only outlier was her hair, a deep auburn that hung down her back in a massive floof.
"I don't think so," she said simply but Luz thought to run under the flaps of the tent and out the back. Unfortunately for her, it only led to a cliff where the girl's breath was stolen. Beneath her was a city, one with building twisting on themselves and arcing up in impossible shapes. The streets were packed dirt, but loaded with everything from humanoids with extra limbs and eyes, blobs of slime with only teeth, and giant eggs being used for public transportation.
"What… The…"
"Quite the view, hm?" Luz gasped as the woman placed a hand on her shoulder before dragging her back in front of her stand.
Luz could only stutter and cry, clutching the book to her chest and just begging this woman to get her punishment over with.
"Punishment? Why would I punish the only reference I've ever had?!"
She opened her eyes to see the woman eagerly standing in front of her tent but behind a table loaded with random appliances, clothes and tchotchkes clearly taken from Luz's world. Above the woman's head was the sign "Clawthorne's Collectibles" written in perfect cursive over a collapsible cardboard label.
"I've struggled to find any consistent guide on human articles for years now, Morrigan can only get so close to people without them getting suspicious after all, but that can come later. For now, can you tell me about this?" The woman rattled off, holding the first object in her grasp; a single green croc.
"Um, that's a shoe."
"Really? But why the excessive holes, and the color! Oh well, more questions for later. Then what about these?"
"Those are batteries, not candy like that sign says."
"Ugh, I tried telling Edalyn humans can't digest metal…"
From there, Luz warmed up to this strange vendor as she appraised every item at her table. The sheer joy she seemed to get from these simple answers rubbed off on her, especially when she brought out an old portable TV and Luz showed that those batteries could actually power the device.
And clearly, judging by the crowd of odd-looking people swarming the booth, fighting for the chance to buy the now working television, this was a major surprise. As the woman started grabbing coins hand over fist, she looked over to Luz with real appreciation.
"Well, I can safely say I'll need more of these tele-visual boxes in the future. Thank you, Miss…"
"I'm Luz. Luz Noceda! And, um, you still haven't told me your name…"
"Oh, there's a good reason for that. You see, I'm-"
"Busted!" A gloved fist smashed through the TV, scaring the crowd off. Luz looked up at the burly man in grey and white, a tubular mask covering his face.
"Lilith Clawthorne, you are under arrest!"
"Oh, hello Geron," Lilith said without a care, "I'm sorry, but we don't carry anything to help unlodge the stick that still seems to be up your rectum."
"Grr, that's it! You're going down this time! And you!" The guard yanked Luz up by her collar, pointing in her face, "You're going away for fraternizing with this criminal!"
"Wait, WHAT?! That's not fair!"
"Oh, is that so?" Lilith said, her arms crossed, "And just how do you plan to apprehend me, when there's a giant vine about to crush you?"
"Ha! Nice try! Like I'd fall for that old tri-!" Was as far as Geron got before said giant vine, surrounded by a green glow, erupted from the ground and slammed the guard over the head. Luz plopped onto the ground, gasping as Lilith commanded the entire stand to levitate in the air before gathering into a tablecloth and slinging it over her back like a giant bindle. With a press of a key beneath her collar, the same briefcase-door that brough Luz here flew close behind her.
"Come with me, he'll wake up soon!" Lilith said, giving the teen little choice but to follow. As the two bolted between the various rows of shops, the girl was trying not to let the questions swarming her mind distract her.
She did manage to ask, "What is this place?! Who and what are you?! And how can you do magic?!"
"This is the Boiling Isles, a parallel realm to yours, I am a witch and magic is simply a part of my biology. Now hang on!" Lilith's staff, the one the market goods were strung to and topped by the raven from earlier, suddenly took the sky as the wings up front opened and Luz shouted as she was suddenly aloft. She looked back to see a dozen guards in the same outfit staring at their getaway.
"Okay, you're a witch, cool, why the heck were those guys trying to arrest you?!" Luz asked before realizing just how high up she was. Her hands wrapped around Lilith's stomach, who didn't seem to mind as she guided their flight.
"Well, for the better part of the last thirty years, I've been part of an organized resistance against the emperor and that tends to attract attention."
Hearing that, Luz opened her eyes and was mesmerized by the sight. A massive plain stretched out beneath them, covered by grass and trees with bright scarlet foliage. Towering above them were white spires that curled inward like a gargantuan set of ribs.
"Wow…"
Lilith then slightly adjusted their course, turning between two of the massive bones now that she was sure nobody was pursuing them to their real destination. Now Luz was silent, eyes drinking in the surreal sight before her. She desperately wanted to take out her cellphone and capture every inch of this landscape on camera, but she also remembered she was hundreds of feet in the air. Hanging onto Lilith was definitely still the priority.
Although, she was seriously tempted to photograph the griffon demonstrating its spider breath. She was right all along! If only her art teacher could see this!
The real shock came, however, when they noticed another witch on a staff flying right towards them… And about twenty others all chasing her.
"HIYA, SIS! HAD A GOOD DAY AT THE MARKET?" the other voice shouted, somehow still audible despite being miles away.
"Edalyn, Titan damn it…" Lilith sighed, "Luz, whatever you do, do not let go."
"Okay! Was that you sistWAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Luz screamed for dear life as Lilith commanded her staff to fly hundreds of feet higher, the harsh winds ripping at her hair and ears. Then she soared off so fast the ground became a scarlet blur until they were right above the chase in progress. It was then that Luz could see this sister Lilith mentioned.
Standing on a brown staff with the top shaped like an owl was a much scruffier, wilder copy of Lilith with bright orange hair like a lion's man and a red gown ripped along the sleeves and along the hem of the skirt. Not only was this madwoman using her staff like a surfboard, even with high-heeled boots on, she was cackling like the witches Luz had seen on TV even as about two dozen witches in black capes and white masks like plague doctors chased after her.
"That's your sister?!" Luz gasped.
"Indeed… Edalyn Clawthorne, the most reckless hellion the Titan ever spawned… And my baby sister."
"Get back here, Crimson Owl! You think you can just break into an Emperor's Coven outpost and get away with it?!"
"Um, duh! Why haven't you bozos realized I'm way above you?" Edalyn said with absolute confidence between twirling both her index fingers. Golden lines of magic formed two small circles that Edalyn quickly moved behind her and formed a gigantic ball of purple slime that lashed out into a mass of tentacles. The attack forced many of the pursuers off their staffs and fall into the trees, only seven of the twenty-four managing to dodge.
"Holy crap…"
"Oh, shit, look!" one of the still-flying scouts said, "The Navy Raven! Quick, someone call for backup!"
"I think not," Lilith said, forming a magic circle of her own, hers a neon blue, before a fireball shot out and edged the rest of the chasers to either scatter or be fried. With that, Lilith pulled alongside her younger sibling.
"Edalyn, what did I say about keeping a low profile?!"
"What, I actually did this time! I knocked out a guard on his lunch break, stole his costume, snatched what we needed, and only got caught because I tried snatching the outpost grudgby betting pool."
"Ugh, well, at least you succeeded. As for me, well…" Lilith's eyes traced back to Luz, who was now staring at Eda in a mix of wonder and trepidation.
"Who's the tagalong?"
"I'll explain at home. For now, just try to keep subtle for a change."
As the witches flew along, chatting like they weren't just fighting a huge horde of magical law enforcement, Luz was still in a daze. She was in another world. She had met real, live witches (both of which seemed pretty cool, in their own way). And she definitely missed the bus for Camp Reality Check.
Before she could ask any questions, the sisters began their descent into a large clearing. Luz gingerly hopped off of Lilith's staff and looked up at their destination. It was an impressively sized home, three stories tall covered in white stucco with blue wood framing the rounded roof. Behind it was a stone turret right off of a medieval castle, orange moss clinging to some of the foundation. Most striking was that the house was perched right next to a steep cliff and the massive, stained-glass window that resembled an owl's eye.
"Whoa… This is your home?"
"You bet, human!" Eda said, stretching her neck, "This is the Owl House, our little hideaway from the emperor's thugs. Come on, let's sit down and I'll give you the rub."
The three headed to the front door where an owl's head sat in the middle of the entryway, only for it to blink as they approached.
"Hoot, hoot, password please!" it squawked in a reedy voice only for Eda to stick her finger in the talking door…thing's mouth.
"Hooty, please, I just escaped with a bag of money and the intel we need and Lily picked up a human at the market. Can you just let us in?"
"Ooooh, a human?! Is it for dinner?!"
Luz flinched behind Lilith only for the other sister to sigh. "No, Hooty, she's a guest for now."
"Okay, fine… But you owe me some ice scream! I spent all day on that password!" The door swung open, letting the ladies inside. From inside Eda's massive orange hair came a bulging bag of coins she just tossed aside. Before it could touch the ground, a wooden chest flew over to contain the money before heading off. A fireplace lit on command, igniting a cauldron as several brooms and dusters began sweeping about.
Luz then looked up as a series of lights wove up the walls to form a massive, one-eyed owl with its wings spread and lightning erupting from its gaze illuminated the room. "Whoa…"
"Pardon the mess, Edalyn has a tendency of throwing junk about…"
"And Lily here is bit of a prissy fussbucket, but enough about that! Let's meet you!" Eda made another spell circle, causing an entire teacart to roll over with three portions of steaming hot tea ready to go.
"Wow, um, thank you…" Luz gingerly took her cup before sitting on the floor, opposite of an aged orange couch where Eda and Lilith were sat side by side. The former was just casually observing her while the latter had a quill and paper out to take notes.
"Um, well, I'm Luz Noceda… And I'm a human?"
"Well, gee, kinda figured that out…" Eda played with the tips of her pointed ears to prove a point, "So, how'd you get here?"
"Um, I was chasing a little white bird and then I stepped through some kind of… portal door thing?"
"Huh, so you ran into the Demon Realm just to follow a bird? That's pretty gutsy, squirt."
"Well, she was also trying to recover her book that Morrigan took," Lilith admitted, "I… might have been a little hasty trying to dispose of it."
Eda's head snapped towards her sister, aghast. "Wait, wait, hold up. You, the biggest nerd in existence, tried to throw away a book?! Excuse me while I get the shapeshifting potion antidote…"
Lilith just sighed. "It was Azura, and I am sorry about that, Luz. I didn't realize how much value it held to you."
"It's okay, but enough about me! You two with the insane magic and beating up all those magic popos! Who the heck are you two?!"
"Oh, us? Just the two most wanted rebels in all the Boiling Isles!" Eda bragged, happily showing off the poster glued to the wall. On it was a stylized picture of Eda, maniacally laughing from a side-view like an Egyptian hieroglyph. Underneath it was "WANTED" printed in giant letters followed by "'Crimson Owl' Eda Clawthorne – 1,000,000,000,000 Snails."
Lilith, though silent, preened at the poster right next to it. Hers was a mirror of her sister, only with her stoically glaring at anyone looking. It also read "WANTED" followed by "'Navy Raven Lilith Clawthorne – 1,000,000,000,000 Snails."
"For fifty years now, our home, the Boiling Isles, has been ruled by the enigmatic Emperor Belos," Lilith said, her voice echoing, "He claims to be chosen by the Titan, the creator and ruler of our land…"
"…But at an early age, my sister and I were awoken to how corrupt and selfish this Belos was," Eda continued, her voice also magnified, "And from that day forward, we swore to never follow his word!"
"While the witches under his thumb are restricted, we are examples of the power that comes from wild magic!"
"We gather those shunned and rejected by society, growing our numbers so that one day we can take back our home and way of life!"
"We are the Clawthorne Sisters, the most powerful witches in all the land!"
"And together we are the heads of the largest rebellion against the Emperor…!"
The sisters joined hands, raising the separated fists to show a glowing tattoo with a three-point leaf inside of a circle that rapidly shifted between brown, red, orange, yellow, green, royal blue, light blue, purple and pink.
Luz, already starry-eyed from this whole experience, fell back on the floor shouting, "AAAAH, that is awesome! You two are just like Azura! Fighting injustice and bad guys and OHMYGOSHSOCOOOOOOOOOL! But wait, if this is a coven, where's everybody else?"
Before anyone could answer, a thud shook the room and caused dust to fall from the rafters. Eda just sighed, remembering they forgot to keep quiet when they got home.
"Who dares disturb my rest?!" a deep voice bellowed as a massive shadow that quickly shrunk.
"What did I tell you about my naptime?!" a much higher voice trying to sound threatening came, now revealing a foot-tall canine-like creature with black fur, walking on two legs yet having claws on its hands, and its face covered by a large skull with two horns sticking out the back. The only identifiable detail were two bright yellow eyes with pink irises. He was also carrying a floofy throw pillow and a stuffed teddy bear in his arms.
Luz, of course, thought it was the most adorable thing she'd ever seen.
"Dios mio! I'm sorry about your nap, widdle guy! I'mma snuggle you now!"
"No, stop, the King of Demons demands you stop! Someone, HEEEEEEELP!"
Lilith chuckled at all this before using levitation to pull Luz away, the girl frantically reaching for more huggies even now. "This is King Clawthorne, our other 'charge' as it were. Well, Luz, it's been very nice to meet you but now I think it's time we-"
"-Bring you along on a mission for the Wild Coven!" Eda interrupted, much to Lilith's surprise. Before the bespectacled witch could protest, Eda whispered something in her ear that made her pause and reconsider. Luz, once she was back on the ground, stared in shock.
"Wait, really?! You two need my help?!"
"Yep! There's something we need and only a human can get it."
"Edalyn, please, we can figure out another solution that doesn't involve…"
"Lilith, please…" Eda said, her voice much more somber, "It involves Raine."
The other Clawthorne stopped in her tracks. "You know where they are?"
"Wait, hold up, who's Raine?" Luz asked.
"Raine is a member of this coven, Luz, and my partner. They're the love of my life, and currently they're being held hostage. Please, we'll send you back home as soon as we're done but-"
"I'm in!"
Shocked by her determination, Eda just grinned and had her ride on her staff while King snuggled up in her mane. Though Lilith was more cautious, she still flew alongside her younger sibling on a mission. As for Luz, her mind was racing. She was hoping this chance meeting was the start of a much bigger adventure!
Spoilers: she's right. So, how's that for an alternate world? But with all these changes comes many questions. Who's in charge of the Emperor's Coven if Lilith is here? Why is the Owl House bigger than usual? And when is Lumity going to be a thing? Because Lumity is the universal concept and it will never die.
Thank you all so much for reading! Feel free to leave a review along with any questions or comments.