LC Presents: Brimstones and Broomsticks Chapter 9: 8: Who's AfraidBig Bad Wolf?, a X-overs + Owl House Crossover fanfic

In memories of those who we lost:

Ken Page, and Liam Payne, both would be missed.

So as a reminder, our OC contests are still up. We're looking for MLP-expies, Descendant OCs, and HR counterparts of the Boiling Isles characters. Submit your OCs to either in your reviews, PMs, or DMs.

So this is pretty much an OC-centric fic. However, existent canon characters, seen or mentioned, still belong to their creators.

Chapter 8: Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?

Once upon a time in the Human Realm…

Walking towards her grandmother's home was a little girl in a red hood. In her arms was a picnic basket.

"Hello, grandma, I'm here!" the little girl announced as she knocked on the door. However, she realized that the door had been left ajar and it swung open into the cottage. "Grandma?"

"Come in," said a voice coming from inside the cottage. "And please, close the door behind you. The wind blew it open."

The little girl walked through the open door and looked around, spotting her bedridden grandmother across the room in the small cottage. She closed the door behind her and walked over to the bed, where her grandmother was partially covered by the bedsheets. "Grandmother, I'm here."

"Is that really you, Little Red?" the 'grandmother' asked.

"Yes, it's me," she replied, holding up the basket. "I brought you some food to help you feel better… though, why is your voice different?"

"Oh, just a sore throat," the 'grandmother' responded as Little Red got a better look.

"Grandma, since when did you have such big eyes?" she asked.

"To see you clearly, of course," 'she' responded.

"And… why are your ears so big?"

"To hear your voice clearly."

"And… your teeth?"

The 'grandmother' moved the bedsheets aside to show Little Red 'her' fangs. "Sharp enough to eat you with!" the 'grandmother' shouted as she rose from the bed, revealing them to be a large wolf wearing granny clothes.

Little Red's eyes widened as she backed away. "You're… that Big Bad Wolf!"

"That I am!" he declared while licking his chomps and holding up a pair of glasses. "And you'll make a fine meal, just like your granny!"

The girl's eyes widened in horror as she realized that her grandmother had been eaten by the cruel wolf. She turned around and attempted to run to the door, but the Big Bad Wolf grabbed her by her hood, pulling her back.

"No! Please! Let me go! HELP!" she cried as she frantically kicked around, the Big Bad Wolf lifting the young girl off the ground as he opened his jaws. "NOOOOOOOO!"

And thus was the end of Little Red Riding Hood.

"Delicious," he declared afterward before giving out a yawn. The Big Bad Wolf felt tired after two meals, so he decided to take a nap on the bed.

But as he slept off his meal, the door to the cottage was quietly opened. Entering the cottage was a Huntsman, who had been tracking this beast. He spotted his quarry asleep on the bed, but he also spotted the discarded glasses, the picnic basket with its contents spilled out on the floor, and the now torn red hood. The Huntsman quickly realized he was too late to save the inhabitants of the house… but he was not too late to avenge them.

"Accursed beast," the Huntsman said in disgust as he walked over to the bed and raised his knife, his knife-wielding arm bearing a dragon birthmark. He brought the knife down on the wolf, the Big Bad's eyes shooting open just in time to see his belly being opened up…

And as the Big Bad Wolf died, a lone human man opened his eyes and woke up from his slumber, sitting up in a forest clearing.

"Fuck, this again?" he asked as he rubbed his temple and got a good look at himself. He found that he was in a new human body, completely nude.

But he quickly changed forms, fur growing across his body and his face warping as he transformed into a werewolf. But not just any werewolf… the Big Bad Wolf.

And so Big Bad Wolf was reborn in a new body, the cycle continuing.

Throughout the centuries, the Big Bad Wolf terrorized countless people, inspiring many tales…

But of course, many of those tales ended with the monster being slain. In one case, his reign of terror against one village ended when hunters from several villages decided to work together, hunting the Big Bad Wolf down and surrounding him.

"Contain him!"

"Kill the beast!"

"Don't let him get away!"

The Big Bad Wolf howled as he went down fighting, killing twenty of the hunters until one hunter managed to wrap a noose around the Big Bad Wolf's neck, restricting his breathing. While the Big Bad Wolf struggled to breathe, other hunters rushed in with weapons. The Big Bad Wolf was stabbed and gutted before finally being finished off with his head being separated from the rest of his body…

And soon he was in a new human body once again, checking himself in the mirror of a house.

"Got a beard this time," he said to himself while rubbing said beard. "I look good."

He then turned around to pick up some clothes he had set aside for himself, ignoring the dead body of the farmer he killed when he had broken into the house.

The man was walking down a road that led to a village when he heard the nearby cry from a boy.

"Wolf! Wolf!" the boy shouted, which alarmed the man as he looked around and saw the villagers running toward him. It was too late for him to hide himself, but much to his surprise, the villagers ran right past him and headed for a field with sheep. Curious, he followed the villagers and saw a boy shouting wolf.

"Wolf! Wolf!" the boy cried out.

"Not again!" one of the villagers complained.

"You need to stop crying wolf!" another scolded the boy.

"But it was only a joke," the boy said with a grin and a shrug while the Big Bad Wolf watched the boy being scolded, grinning to himself.

The boy was soon back to shepherding his sheep while looking quite bored. He was thinking of what else he could do to make his job more exciting when he noticed that the sheep were uneasy.

"What is your problem?" he asked the sheep until he saw something coming out of the nearby woods. It was a large wolf… standing on two legs. "W-What…"

"I hear you like crying wolf," the Big Bad Wolf said as he casually walked over to the boy. "Go on, cry for help."

The boy looked around in fear and panic before he turned around and cried out. "Wolf! Wolf! There's a wolf with the herd!" he cried out, but no help from the village came. "Hey! Can't anyone hear me?! There really is a wolf!"

The boy soon realized that no one was coming this time, the horror dawning on him as he turned back around to be met face to face with the Big Bad Wolf.

"You got only yourself to blame," he said as he grabbed the boy and opened his jaws to eat the boy, who screamed.

"AAAAAIIIIIEEEEE!"

After eating the boy and the herd of sheep, the villagers managed to catch on to what happened when they found the Big Bad Wolf, who was in his human form, with the remains.

"Kill the werewolf!" a man shouted as the villagers charged at the Big Bad Wolf, who woke up and saw an angry mob coming at him with torches and pitchforks…

Caught in his human form, the Big Bad Wolf was soon tied down with his arms spread out, laying on his chest with his back up in the air. The executioner then started carving the skin off from his back to his side as they started performing the Blood Eagle, his ribs and lungs being pulled out and stretched, making the Big Bad's form resemble a spread eagle.

Once the Big Bad Wolf was killed, his body was hung up on two poles and left to rot in the forest….

In another life, the Big Bad Wolf had to run away from another mob. He found himself at the edge of a cliff as the mob caught up to him.

"We got you now, beast!" a soldier shouted. "Fire!"

The soldiers held their guns and shot at the Big Bad Wolf, who was pelted by the shots before his whole body was sent falling off of the cliff, toward the river below…

In another life, the Big Bad lived in a German village, but was eventually caught while in his human form and was put on trial, where he was sentenced by the judge.

"Peter Stumpp, for zhe crimes of cannibalism, witchcraft, devil-dealing and many murderz you did for twenty-five years in Bedburg, you are hereby sentenced to a unique death method we've come up with!" the judge declared. "Put him on zhe wheel!"

The Big Bad Wolf, known then as Peter Stumpp, was tied to a wheel, the soldiers using red hot pincers on the skin of his body. "Yaah! Is that the best you can do, you bleeding shit stains?!" he shouted before the pincers were pulled to tear his flesh off, making him scream in agony. "YAAAAAAHHH!"

As he screamed, his executioner brought out an ax and swung it to chop Peter Stumpp's head off. After that, they burned his body…

In another life in France, he was known as the Beast of Gévaudan. The Wolf was eating another one of his victims when he was found by more soldiers.

"Found you, Le Loup de Chazes!" one soldier declared as he held up his gun, the Wolf noticing him and beginning to charge at him. But the man blasted the wolf across the head, killing him in the process.

"Right in the temple," one soldier said in amazement. "You killed the beast, François Antoine."

"I'm just glad that this beast is finally dead," he declared while lowering his gun and looking down at the dead wolf.

The Big Bad Wolf woke up in a new location. One that he didn't recognize. He got up as he felt his new body. He felt strange, but he wasn't sure why until he felt his ears… and realized they were pointy.

"The hell?" he asked himself as he saw a river and he walked over to it. He looked in the river at his reflection… and saw that he had become a witch. This witch form was that of a gray skinned witch man with fangs sticking out from his lower jaw. "Different… much different," he said as he looked around at his surroundings. "This sure isn't France anymore…"

He was indeed not reborn in the Human Realm… but rather, the Demon Realm.

News about a werewolf soon spread through the Titan that the Big Bad Wolf had been reborn on. Not used to life in the Demon Realm, it wasn't long before he was cornered by a group of past demon hunters, who entrapped the werewolf with iron chains.

"We got you now, beast!" declared the nomad. "Kill him!"

With their crossbows, the demon hunters filled the Big Bad Wolf with flaming arrows that pierced through his body, making him burn from the inside out…

The Big Bad Wolf was now on the Boiling Isles, where he spent his first few years there killing and slaying folks. He also took some time for pleasure on the side… which ended up being his downfall.

"What the hell?!" the husband shouted as he caught his wife with another man, the Big Bad Wolf, who was on top of her. "Get off of my wife!"

"Oh come on…" the Wolf said in deadpan before he was hit in the face by a spell.

It was easily his most embarrassing death.

But the wolf was reborn each time he died. Each time he became the antagonist to someone's story. Each time it always ended in the same way. And this time was no different…

He was facing off against a masked witch man along with his followers. The witch man held up a scepter that blasted spells towards the Big Bad Wolf, who dodged the first few spells, but then he got hit by some that stung him. He snarled as he pounced towards Belos, who swung his staff to shoot a specific spell that blasted the Big Bad Wolf back.

As the Big Bad Wolf was sent back, he heard Belos monologuing. "Your reign of terror is over, beast! You and your kind have terrorized these poor people for the last time," he declared before shooting a large blast of lightning at the Big Bad Wolf, electrocuting him to death.

"AAAAHHHH!"

In the Big Bad Wolf's next life, he was known as Lupe. This life came to an end in the Emperor's Castle, where he fought against the Brookes, Nina, and Donna.

"AAAAH!" an eyepatch-wearing Lupe cried in pain while Slasher and Skara kept biting him in the shoulders and the legs. "Get off of me, you inferior whelps!" he shouted before feeling a slash to his ankles, making him fall down on the floor. Slasher grabbed Lupe's legs to restrain them while Skara and Calypso grabbed his legs. "Let me go!" he shouted. He tried to struggle, but he was much weaker by now.

Calypso prepared to deliver the final blow, but Donna stepped in. "I have this," she said as she held her keyblade while walking toward Lupe, who continued to struggle against the Brookes. Lupe noticed her. "Hey… you hungry?" she asked, before aiming her keyblade at his chomps… and shoving it into his throat.

Lupe gagged as he felt the keyblade shoved into his mouth. It was then he felt an icy feeling in his throat and he realized what Donna was doing as her keyblade glowed white.

"No… NO!" Lupe muffled as he shook his head.

"Have a snack," Donna said coldly before blasting her ice spell through Lupe's mouth. "This is for my parents."

Slasher got off of Lupe as he saw ice spikes bursting through Lupe's head. Calypso and Skara got off as ice spikes shot through Lupe, sticking out of his throat and stomach. After they let him go, his body slumped over lifelessly, his eye white.

"Is… is he…?" Skara asked as Nina changed back and came over to see Lupe's remains.

"Dead," Slasher confirmed with a sigh of relief. "Thank Titan it's over."

Or so they thought…

In the present day, in the Inwell Isles, Lupe was wearing his cloak. He was at a bar, holding a drink as he looked at his reflection in the glass. He had been thinking about his past, his history… and how many times he had died.

He reached up and touched his eye. In his past life, Skara had managed to claw out one of his eyes. Fortunately, his new body gave him both eyes back.

He sighed and drank from his glass. His thoughts of his death were put to rest…

Meanwhile, over at the apartment complex Emily called home, Emily was leaving her apartment for work.

"Another day, another-" She stopped herself when she saw someone waiting for her in the hallway outside of her apartment. Her eyes widened in surprise when she recognized them. "Jackie?"

"Morning, Emily," Jackie said, greeting Emily with a wave. "I was about to knock."

"Oh… um, what brings you here?" Emily asked, sticking her hands in her pockets as she looked at Jackie. Her attempts to hide her nervousness around Jackie only made her look more awkward.

"Well, if you could believe me or not… well, that's a trick phrase in my case," Jackie clarified before she answered. "I came here because, well, I want to hang out with ya."

This surprised, and confused, Emily even more. She blinked, taking a moment to process what she just heard. "Wait, seriously?"

"Yup," Jackie responded. "I decided to give ya a chance to prove yourself to me. A chance for you to show me whatever you showed Lindsay."

Emily took a moment to answer, wanting to make sure that she heard Jackie correctly. "Um, okay. Sure, we can hang out, but… are you sure?" Emily asked, sounding unsure herself. "You don't have to if you have something better to do."

"Oh, there's nothing I'd rather do today," Jackie told Emily. "Whether I like it or not, Andrea and Lindsay are friends with you. I accept that. And that means there is a chance that we will be in the same vicinity as each other every now and then. So because of that possibility, I figured that I should get to know you better." She paused before she added something else. "And after you went and saved Kay from trouble the other day, I think you deserve that much."

Emily blinked in surprise. She then remembered something. "I really appreciate that, Jackie. And honestly, I would love to hang out with you. But I do have some stuff that I need to do today before I'm free… unless you want to tag along?"

"I don't mind," Jackie said. "Unless you do. I don't want to be one to get in the way of what you need to do."

"Oh no, I don't mind either," Emily quickly answered. "I have some delivery run to make, so if you think you can keep up-"

"Oh, I can keep up," Jackie interrupted, surprising Emily. "I know how to fly a staff."

The green-skinned girl was taken aback for a moment, but she smirked. "Alright," she said as she summoned her staff. "Let's see it."

Jackie smirked back, summoning her own staff. "You're on, Tricks."

At the Inwell Beach, Zee was currently performing her duties as a lifeguard. Which included pulling away two kids from the ocean.

"Alright, now you guys are far away from the ocean," she told them. "Don't you two know that you'd end up boiled alive if you go in the water?"

"Then why don't you put up a fence around the beach?" one kid asked.

"Because the logistics of that would be impractical, not to mention it would ruin the aesthetic. But we do have signs," she said as she pointed to one sign by the shore.

'Enjoy the beach, stay away from the boiling waters or you die.'

"Now go out to build sand castles or play Sand-Fighting or something," Zee told them as the two kids walked away to play in the sand. Zee just sighed. "Kids."

"Zee! We're here!"

Zee turned around, a huge smile on her face. "Hey! You made it!"

"Yep, we're here to enjoy the beach!" Rebecca declared. She was wearing a black tube top and a small red jacket, showing off her slim figure along with red bikini shorts.

"I see that you're taking your lifeguard duties seriously at least," Whitney commented while holding up a white umbrella that protected herself from the sun. She wore a white two-piece frilly bikini, showing off her elegant figure.

"Wow, you girls look great in your bikinis," Zee commented as she turned to Darci. "Especially you, Darci."

"Um… thanks," Darcilia responded while wearing a black one-strap tattered top with a black loincloth connected to two strings around her hips, with black bottoms underneath.

"So what is there to do around here at the beach?" Rebecca asked while Zee smiled.

"Well, since you asked, let me show you!" Zee declared while pointing up to the sky. "As the lifeguard, it is my duty to show my friends around Inwell Beach!"

"This outta be interesting," Darcilia said while looking at Whitney, who just shrugged at the antics coming from Zee.

Just as she said, Zee began to show her friends around the beach, making sure that they watch their step.

"Here at Inwell Beach, the number one rule to follow is don't go into the sea, cause unlike back in the Boiling Isles where some spots are boiling hot and some aren't, the water around the Inwell Isles is dangerously hot! So try to avoid the shore."

"Noted on that," Whitney said while Rebecca panicked as she stepped away from some of the water coming in.

"Most witches just come here to enjoy the views or get a tan, but there are other things to do here as well," Zee explained. "Like playing tideball."

She pointed to some of the beach goers, who were playing a game of a volleyball-like sport where they were punting a screaming ball with their magic.

"Or sand-fighting," Zee said as she pointed to the same kids from before, who were using sand-like abominations to fight each other. "But I must warn you to be careful with not just the sea, but also the quicksand."

"Quicksand?" Whitney asked her.

"Yeah, this place has some quicksand problems. Me and the other lifeguards do our best to put up signs warning the beach goers. Most eventually get filled up, but sometimes new patches of quicksand just appear. Don't worry, they happen rarely," Zee assured them.

"YAAAH!" cried out a beach goer as they fell into the quicksand.

"Aw, not again," Zee said. "I'll be back," she told her friends as she rushed over to help the beach goer before they drowned in the sand.

Whitney and Darci looked slightly concerned about this, but Rebecca just smiled.

"This seems like a fun beach," she said as both Darcilia and Whitney turned to her.

Meanwhile, the door to Friz's Pits opened as Emily brought Jackie inside. They found Emily's boss, Mr. Friz, sitting behind the front counter, reading a magazine with a beautiful witch woman on the cover.

"Excuse me, Mr. Friz," Emily spoke up, drawing the guinea pig demon's attention. He looked up from his magazine and spotted Jackie.

"Let me guess, another friend of yours?" Mr. Friz asked her.

"Kinda," Emily said while turning to Jackie. "Jackie is more of…"

"…an acquaintance," Jackie decided to settle on. "You see, we have mutual friends and-"

"I don't really care," Mr. Friz told Jackie. "Why are you in my shop?"

"She's coming along with me while I make my deliveries," Emily explained. "She's promised not to slow me down or get in the way."

"Oh, well, that's fine," Mr. Friz said, waving it off. "As long as she doesn't get asked to be paid as well," he said as he handed Emily a list, along with a sack. "Here's the list of addresses and the packages you need to deliver."

"Thank you, sir," Emily responded as she took both the list and the bag. Jackie looked over her shoulder and saw that despite how long the list was, the bag looked like it barely had anything in it, which confused her.

"Um, mind tellin' me how that bag is supposed to work?" Jackie asked as she pointed at the bag in question. "Cause it looks almost empty to me."

"Oh, let me show you," Emily said as she reached into the bag and pulled out a long tube. She then reached back into the bag and pulled out a large box, all the while the bag remained the same size. She pulled out a few more items before returning them to the bag. "See?"

Jackie's eyes widened in surprise. "My apple guarders… I've never seen something like this before!"

"It's a bottomless bag, or nearly bottomless. If there is a limit, I don't know what it is. But you can fit a lot in here, making it a lot easier to deliver," Emily explained. "These bags are pretty hard to come by because of how expensive they can be."

"Which is why if you lose it, you're going to working for me for the rest of your life to pay it off," Mr. Friz added as he returned to his reading.

"Yes, Mr. Friz," Emily said as she led Jackie outside.

"I will admit, that bag does sound efficient," Jackie said as she watched Emily carrying the bag. "I wonder what the specific mechanics are… like how do you find the right package when you reach into it."

"That's why I have the list," Emily explained as she held up the list of addresses, which came with information about the orders. "The bag knows your intentions and gives you what you need." She then summoned Pretty and formed him into a staff. "Ready to fly?"

Jackie summoned her Palisman, Lasso, and formed him into a staff. "Ready."

And so the two set off from Friz's, flying over to the first address on Emily's list. As they flew side-by-side, Jackie looked over to Emily's Palisman.

"You know, I don't think I've ever seen you with a Palisman before," Jackie noted. "How did you acquire the little fella, and what's its name?"

"Oh, Pretty?" Emily asked. "Yeah, I didn't have him when we first met. I inherited him. He… he used to belong to my sister."

"Yer sister?" Jackie asked her.

"Yeah… Sonya Mera," Emily explained, looking down.

"Wait, that Sonya Mera?" Jackie asked in shock. "The Sonya Mera who was working for the Tarot Guild, was turning witchlings into chimeras, and was killed about a week before the Day of Unity? She was yer sister?!"

Emily winced slightly. "Adopted sister, but yeah," she said.

"So… how did you inherit him?" Jackie asked, trying to move the conversation along.

"It happened right after she died," Emily explained. "I found him. Well, he found me. We both wanted something to be done after Sonya died. We both wanted her to be avenged. So we decided to take down the Tarot Guild once and for all, Pretty helping me by giving me the locations of various Tarot Guild safehouses that Sonya had brought him to."

"So Pretty knew about all the awful stuff that Sonya was doing then?" Jackie asked while glancing at Emily's staff.

"Yeah, but that's Palisman loyalty for you," Emily admitted. "It takes a lot for a Palisman to abandon its owner." She paused for a moment before continuing. "But that doesn't mean that Pretty didn't know Sonya… was not a good witch. He knew. And I knew it too…"

Jackie considered this and nodded. "From what I heard, she was a terrible witch," she acknowledged. "But that didn't mean that she wasn't a good owner… or a good sister. You have my condolences, Emily."

"Thank you, Jackie," Emily replied, sounding relieved to hear validation for her grief. "I still miss her…" She nodded to Pretty. "We both do." She was quiet for a moment before she continued speaking. "So, um, what can you tell me about your Palisman?"

"Oh, well, Lasso here is also inherited," Jackie said. "Lasso belonged to my grandmother when she was in her younger years, she wanted a Palisman even if they were already going out of style back then. Luckily, her own mama took Granny down to acquire one from a Palisman carver."

"Were they a Clawthorne?" Emily asked.

Jackie nodded. "Yep, don't remember which one though," Jackie admitted. "Fine Palisman craftsmen, those Clawthornes."

Emily looked down, feeling a bit awkward at the mention of the Clawthornes.

"Anyway, Granny passed down Lasso to my daddy, and he passed it down to my brother, who passed it down to me," Jackie continued while looking at Lasso. "And one day I plan to pass Lasso down either, either to one of my own witchlings or to my baby sister if she ever decides she wants to have a Palisman."

"Your baby sister," Emily repeated. "Blossom, right? She just learned how to crawl. Or at least, she just learned how to crawl while I was staying with Lindsay and her family."

Jackie smiled. "Yeah, that's right," she confirmed.

"And, um, how is Blossom doing?" Emily asked, hoping it was okay to ask.

"Oh, she's doing fine," Jackie said. "She's absolutely adorable."

"That's great," Emily said. "So, um, what kind of treats does Lasso like?"

"Oh, Lasso can't get enough of apple skins," Jackie said. "How about Pretty? What does he like?"

"Oh, Pretty loves to eat booberries, they're his favorite," Emily replied with a smile as the two girls continued to talk, one Palisman owner to the other.

And so, Emily made her deliveries while Jackie shadowed her.

"Here you go, Mr. Avery," Emily said as she pulled out a package and handed it to a beaver demon in a yellow button shirt and green trousers.

"Thanks, Emily," the beaver demon said as he received the package and signed it off for Emily. "You are a life-saver. I needed a new coffee machine after the last one broke earlier. I can't do my morning reports without getting a cup of brew first."

"Avery," Jackie said. "Where have I heard that name before?"

"Probably on the radio," Emily explained. "Mr. Avery is a very prominent personality on the radio, especially in the morning. A lot of witches here listen to him."

"Please, Emily, call me Chuck," the beaver demon said with a smile. "I take it your friend is not from around here?"

"Yep, I'm from the Boiling Isles, sir," Jackie confirmed with a nod.

"Thought so," the beaver demon said. "We've been getting a lot more witches from the Boiling Isles here lately."

"That's probably because of the Day of Unity," Jackie explained. "Have you covered that in your reports, Mr. Avery?"

"Eh, Inwell Islanders don't really like it when I talk about Boiling Isles affairs," Chuck Avery admitted. "It doesn't really interest them."

This surprised Jackie. "But… isn't it relevant?" She pointed to Emily. "Emily was at the Head of the Titan when the Day of Unity went down, she could give you a first-hand account."

Emily looked a bit embarrassed by this. "I don't think the Inwell Isles would want to hear from me…"

Chuck Avery, however, seemed to be considering it. "No, wait, your friend might be onto something," he told Emily. "Is what she said true? Were you at the Head of the Titan? Wasn't there a huge battle there?"

"Um, yeah," Emily said, looking down. "There was a battle and I was there."

"And you haven't given any interviews?" Chuck Avery asked.

Emily shook her head. "No, not really."

Chuck Avery looked thoughtful. "I am gonna think on this," he told Emily. "But we are not done talking about this. Got it?"

Emily looked surprised, but she nodded. "Got it," she said.

"Thank you for the new tools, Emily," Ms. Grams said as she and Rupert, a cat demon with red fur, received the gardening tools. "I have no idea what happened to my old ones."

"Yep, no idea at all," Rupert said while looking away, his suspicious activity not noticed by Ms. Grams at all.

"No problem, Ms. Grams," Emily said with a nod. "Oh, Jackie, I think you would like to meet Ms. Grams. She grows produce."

"Hello, Ms. Grams," Jackie said politely as she stepped forward. "Back in the Boiling Isles, I'm in the apple farming business."

"Apple farming?" Ms. Grams asked. "That's nice. Me and Rupert don't grow apples, but we do grow other kinds of fruit in our prize garden. Perhaps I can show you sometime."

"I think I would like that," Jackie said with a nod.

"Oh, and before you leave," Ms. Grams told Emily before she went back inside, coming out with a boxed lunch. "For you, dear."

"Oh, I can't possibly take this," Emily said, surprised by the gesture. "I appreciate the gesture, Ms. Grams, but you really don't have to."

"Nonsense," Ms. Grams told Emily as she made her take the boxed lunch. "This is fruit fresh from my garden, for you and your friend when you both get hungry. You've been so nice to me and my Rupert, you more than deserve this."

"Um, thank you, ma'am. You're too generous," Emily responded with a nod.

"How's your family doing, Mrs. Clampett?" Emily asked a goat woman.

"Oh, they're doing fine," Mrs. Clampett responded while receiving her package and signing off on it. "Since my sons are on their fall break, they're been rowdy around the house. I don't know who I want out more. Them or my husband."

"Well, good luck with that, ma'am," Emily replied and the two shared a laugh.

"Thank you, and how about you, Emily? How is your day going?" Mrs. Clampett asked her.

"Oh, I just have a few more deliveries to make, but so far it's been going good," Emily said while Jackie stood nearby, leaning against the wall while watching Emily conversing with her customer. She was honestly surprised by how comfortable a lot of the Inwell Islanders looked while they were talking to Emily.

"And who is that?" Mrs. Clampett asked Emily while pointing to Jackie. "A friend of yours? A girlfriend, perhaps?"

Emily laughed. "Nothing like that, Mrs. Clampett," she told the goat woman. "She's just a friend of a friend who wanted to shadow me today."

"Lucky her," Mrs. Clampett said, laughing as well.

The final delivery was made to Professor Walter's labs.

"Yes, yes this is it!" Walter shouted as he held up a spiral blade, along with some other parts. "Tell Friz he did a good job in finding the parts I need to make an engine! I don't know how he does it!"

"It's no problem, sir," Emily responded, while Jackie looked around in the lab in awe.

"By the way, who's your friend?" Walter asked Emily, indicating the very out-of-place Jackie.

"Oh, this is Jackie," Emily explained to him. "Jackie, meet Professor Walter, a genius inventor. Some of his ideas are just… incredible."

"But until I find out how to make them work, they'll just be ideas," Walter added. "But thanks to you and Friz, I'm a bit closer to making those ideas reality."

"Well, I must say, these thingamajigs around here could rival the stuff that Blight Industries makes," Jackie commented while looking around.

"Yes, although unlike Blight Industries, I care about more than just profit," Walter said with a hint of disdain in his voice.

After she finished up with her deliveries, Emily and Jackie decided to find a place to sit down and eat the fruits Ms. Grams gave them. They sat down in the Inwell Park to enjoy their snacks.

"Mmm, these are good," Emily said after eating the berries from the banana-like fruit.

"I'll say. I do like how she grew her apples," Jackie commented while eating the apple slices. "It was pretty nice of Ms. Grams to give you these fruits, Emily."

"Yeah, that's Ms. Grams for you," Emily said while eating her fruit. "She is a very nice old witch. One of my regulars too."

"That so?" Jackie asked. "I saw how comfortable your customers were while talking to you, Emily. They seem to really like you."

"Well, providing good customer service is part of my job," Emily said with a shrug. "It is not just about getting the packages to where they're supposed to."

"I can agree with that," Jackie said with a nod. "My family also believes in good customer service when we're running our apple stand at the farmer's market. You gotta treat your customers right."

"And I do like the witches here," Emily admitted. "Of course, it helps that here almost nobody knows what I was like back on the Boiling Isles. I was basically given a fresh start here."

"So how did you get a job as a delivery witch in the first place?" Jackie asked her.

"Well, to be honest, I got the job thanks to a recommendation from Friz's cousin, Tibbles," Emily confessed.

"Who's Tibbles?" Jackie asked.

"He's… well, technically, he is my brother," Emily admitted, confusing Jackie.

"Um, pardon me?" Jackie asked.

Emily sighed. "Okay, so do you remember the Scal-Mart bust a while back?"

Jackie nodded. "Oh yeah. That was big news. The entire place was a front for the Tarot Guild."

"Right, and Eda killed the Boss of the Tarot Guild," Emily said. "Or maybe she didn't, I don't think it really matters anymore. Well, the Boss was Tibbles' dad and the Boss… he raised me. Despite this, me and Tibbles were never close. He actually was trying to distance himself from his dad, do his own thing. Our relationship was… complicated." She looked down with a thought. "I was his dad's favorite, his 'golden child'. Yet despite his dad favoring me, Tibbles was willing to help me get set up here on Inwell Isles." She paused. "I'm not really sure what we are right now, to be honest."

Jackie quietly listened, waiting for Emily to finish talking. "So what about your, um, 'dad'? What's he like? Are you… okay with talking about him?"

Emily paused, realizing that she hadn't really talked about her adoptive father since his death. She hadn't even thought of him that much lately… especially since she wasn't quite sure how to feel about him.

"It's… complicated," Emily admitted as she gave a distant look. "He wasn't ever really 'dad' to me. He was 'the Boss'. Not too long ago, there was nothing more I wanted than his approval. And I was… grateful to him. For everything that he did for me, for taking me in and giving me a new life, but… I have no delusions about what he was really like," she said, her voice turning bitter. "He was a cruel witch, even to me. He knew how to act kind and warm, but whenever he was pissed, he didn't hesitate to express how he felt and even I wasn't safe from his wrath. I… I did learn a lot from my guardian… for better or worse."

Jackie looked horrified from hearing this, her imagination quickly filling in what Emily wasn't telling her. "Dear Titan, that… that's awful," she said, expressing sympathy for Emily.

"It was. But eventually… I got used to it. It became normal to me," Emily admitted, looking uneasy. "But now that I've spent time away from the Tarot Guild, now that I've met witches like Cross and Zee and the Shysteams, I've had time to reflect on how I was treated. I've realized how messed up it was and I've realized… that I did deserve better."

"I think I am starting to see how you turned out so messed up," Jackie said. "Um, no offense."

"No, you're right, I know I was a mess, and I know I probably still am," Emily admitted. "I… did love Grimmhammer once. But right now I… honestly hate that he's dead, because that means that I'll never be able to get closure," she admitted as she petted Pretty, who sat on her lap while eating some of the booberries. "I don't even know if he actually cared for me or not…" She sighed. "Honestly, looking back, I do wonder if I took Tibbles for granted…"

"How so?" Jackie asked.

"It's just… I wonder if the reason he helped me out is because he realized that we were both victims of his abusive father," she said as she sighed, thinking it over. "We never talked about him. Honestly, this is the first time I've really talked about Grimmhammer since he died. I did talk a little about him with Lindsay. I told her a lot of the stuff that I told you. And I never talked to Cross or Zee about Grimmhammer." She looked over at Jackie. "I… didn't mean to dump all of this on you."

"Eh, I'm used to it with most of my friends," Jackie admitted with a shrug. "I'm a good listener when it comes to their problems. Guess I took that habit from Lindsay, who listened to my own problems back at the farm. But it does help, ain't it?"

"Yeah, it does," Emily admitted while looking at Pretty.

"I can't imagine growing up in the Tarot Guild," Jackie told Emily. "It must have been pretty horrific."

Emily nodded. "There are things that I've seen that I can't even tell you about, they're just that bad," she told Jackie. "The bright spot was Sonya, my sister. She was the only witch in the Tarot Guild who was always kind to me. The only witch who never hurt me. She and I were both orphans that were brought into the Tarot Guild, so we watched out for each other. And I want to believe, despite all of the terrible things she's done… that she loved me." She sighed again and looked up at the sky. "I must sound desperate."

"No, not all," Jackie said. "Honestly, I don't think you shouldn't let anyone take away your good memories of Sonya. You should hold onto them."

"Thanks," Emily said, appreciating the encouragement. "Honestly, I really don't have much luck in the family department, like with my biological da-"

Emily had to stop herself, realizing that while she was comfortable talking about Grimmhammer and Sonya, she really did not feel like talking about… him.

"Um, forget the last part," Emily said.

"Okay, if you say so," Jackie replied, though she still looked concerned for Emily. "Could you… tell me more about your sister?"

Emily looked over at Jackie. "Are you sure?"

Jackie nodded. "I want to hear how you knew her, not how everyone else knew her," she told Emily. "It doesn't change the things she did, but I do think it is important that despite the things she did… she also had witches who cared about her and were affected by their deaths."

Emily smiled. "Thank you," she said before she began to tell Jackie more about Sonya.

Back at the beach, Team WZRD were currently enjoying a game of tideball. Since Zee was now off duty, she was able to have some fun with her friends.

"Head's up!" Darcilia shouted as she threw the ball up and shot a spell up to push it over the net.

"YAAAH!" the ball screamed as Rebecca hit the ball to the other side. Both she and her sister Whitney were on one side of the net, while Zee and Darci were on the other.

"I got this!" Zee shouted as she jumped up, changing into her dragon form and slamming the ball over the net and into the ground, causing an explosion of sand as Whitney cried out and jumped clear. "Whoo-hoo! Now that's a hit!"

"Oh, come on! Is that even considered fair play?" Whitney questioned as Zee flew down.

"Hey, there's no rules in tideball that you can't use dragon forms," Zee said. "So points for us."

"You know, I've noticed that you have been using your dragon form a lot more, Zee," Rebecca pointed out as she picked up the ball from its crater.

"Yeah," Whitney agreed. "You only really used your dragon form when you were with us and never in public."

"Well, I guess I just don't see a reason to hide that part of myself anymore," Zee admitted. "The main reason I hid it in the first place is because of Belos and his Emperor's Coven and, well, there is no Emperor's Coven anymore. Plus, after everything that happened during the week of the Day of Unity it became common knowledge that the Drakescales were dragons, so why even bother hiding it at that point?" She shrugged. "Besides, there are perks. Everyone knows me as the dragon life saver around here. I'm pretty much a local celebrity now."

"Hi, dragon girl!" waved a passing by local.

"What's up!" Zee waved back.

"I don't know, Zee, don't you think you're putting yourself more at risk by using your dragon form like this?" Darcilia asked her. "I mean, it's good that you get to stretch out your wings and all, but using it out in public like this…"

"Relax, if there's any witch that has a problem with me because of my dragon form, I can take them on," Zee said with a confident tone. "Besides, I like being in my dragon form and not having to hide this part of me anymore. It feels… good."

And so they continued playing their game, Whitney using her ice blast to hit the ball over the net while Darcilia hit it with her fist, wincing when her hand touched the much colder ball. Rebecca hit the ball up next and Zee once again used her dragon form to hit the ball, this time with her tail. Rebecca jumped up to use her spell to hit the ball, but it hit the net.

"Geez, Reb, looks like you're a bit out of the game," Zee commented.

"My aim was off!" Rebecca retorted.

They continued their game for a while, Zee and Darci earning some points while the Carmine sisters got some points as well.

"And it looks like we're tied up," Whitney said as she held up the now deflated ball. "And I think our ball is dead…"

"I could get us a new one," Zee suggested.

"I think it is best to leave things tied," Darcilia suggested. "If we kept playing, would either of you accept defeat?" she asked, addressing Zee and Whitney, who looked at each other.

"Probably not," Zee and Whitney both said.

"So what do we do now then?" Whitney asked, just as Rebecca got an idea.

"Say guys," Rebecca spoke up. "How about we go on a monster hunt? You know, just like we used to, back on the Boiling Isles."

The other members of Team WZRD considered the idea.

"Honestly, that's not a bad idea, Reb," Zee told her.

"Yeah," Darcilia agreed. "It's been a while since we went monster hunting. Although we're probably a bit rusty."

"Which is exactly why we should do it," Rebecca told them. "To make sure that we are still in sync as a team!"

"I don't know, Rebecca," Whitney said, sounding a bit reluctant. "I mean, first of all, we're supposed to be on vacation. Second of all, we're on a completely different Titan with creatures we've never seen before. We will have no idea what we are doing and we will be completely out of our depth."

"But that's what makes it so exciting!" Rebecca shouted with a grin. "New island, new locations to explore, new Beasts to fight and catch! For glory! For adventure!"

The rest of Team WZRD turned to each other after Rebecca's declaration. Zee was the first to answer.

"Honestly, an adventure does sound like fun," she pointed out.

"It would be nice to get some bounties," Darcilia said, nodding in agreement. "I could use the snails."

Whitney gave it some thought as well, looking between her friends before letting out a sigh. "Well, I guess it wouldn't hurt. And I have been interested in looking around the Isles more."

Rebecca gave a giddy grin. "Yes! Team WZRD in action once again!" she shouted while wrapping her arms around her friends in a group hug.

"Please, no hugging," Darcilia said while feeling Rebecca's grip. However, despite her protestations, the werecat couldn't help but smile.

"But, um, we will change into our other outfits first, right?" Whitney brought up. "Because I really don't want to be fighting monsters in my bikini."

Realizing this, Rebecca let go of her friends and gave an embarrassed laugh. "Oh yeah," she said. "Let's get changed."

Meanwhile, Emily and Jackie entered the forest where Zara's wagon was. They spotted Zara, who was outside her wagon while wearing overalls, a blue shirt, and brown gloves and boots. She was holding up an ax, bringing it down as Emily and Jackie came over to her.

"Zara?" Emily spoke up, earning her attention.

"Ah, Emily, hey," Zara replied after she finished chopping the log in two. She lifted up the ax and lifted it onto her shoulder. "And who's this?"

"Oh, this is Jackie Courtland, one of Lindsay and Andrea's friends that I've mentioned," Emily introduced. "Jackie, this is Zara Ziggs, she's an illusionist like me, and she used to work as an assistant at the circus, though now she is trying a solo act. I've been helping her practice."

"Howdy," Jackie greeted.

"Howdy to you too, Jackie," Zara said. "Although, I am… surprised to see you two together. Didn't you say that Lindsay and Andrea's friends hated your guts and you thought it was best to keep your distance?"

"Um… yeah," Emily said while awkwardly glancing at Jackie. "You see, that was the plan, but-"

"I decided to give Emily a chance," Jackie said.

"Oh, so you two are… hanging out?" Zara asked, looking between the two.

"Yeah, although I told her that I have to do some stuff first," Emily explained. "I finished my deliveries and I came here to see if you were up for some more illusions practice today. Jackie could watch us practice."

"Oh, um, that sounds great, but I think I'm gonna give it a pass today," Zara replied as she brought out another log. "I am pretty busy today. I have… plans."

"Oh, well, I guess another day then," Emily said.

"Yeah, another day," Zara said with a nod as she chopped the log in two with her ax. As she did this, Jackie noted her form.

"I gotta say, you have good form," Jackie noted, surprising Zara.

"Oh, um, thanks," Zara replied with a wave. "I learned a few things from a pretty good woodman…"

"You know, it's kinda funny," Jackie told Emily as they walked away from Emily's wagon together. "Zara kinda looks like you when we first met, when you were in your 'Mildred Tracks' disguise."

"Yeah, Zee told me that too," Emily admitted before changing the subject. "So my schedule for the rest of the day is open. Would you like to choose what we do next, Jackie?"

"Well, there is one thing I have been wanting to do," Jackie admitted. "You think yer up to help me out?"

"Shoot," Emily replied.

The two girls went over to an area full of houses that were damaged. It looked like something large had crashed through a few of the houses.

"What happened here?" Emily asked while looking around. "Was there an attack?"

"You could say that," said a construction worker who came over to them. "It happened last night. A large animal came through the area."

"What kind of animal did this?" Jackie asked.

"Nobody got a good look at it," the construction worker admitted. "But there have been other attacks like this recently. Some of the Earth-users have come here to help fix the damage, but we could still use some volunteers."

"We'd be happy to help," Jackie replied as she turned to Emily. "Ain't that right?"

Emily gave a nod. "Yeah, we are."

And so, Jackie and Emily were given different tasks by the construction worker, who sent them to areas where they could help. Even if she wasn't a constructionist, Emily proved to be very useful with tools and she could use her illusions to create models.

For example, when Emily saw that a part of a pipe was missing for one house, she used her illusions to figure out what kind of pipe was needed. After she created the illusion, Jackie measured it with tape, confirming the size.

Sometime later, the two were helping to reinstall a window in another house. The window was part of a wall that had been completely destroyed, so a new wall had to have been built. As they installed the window, Emily saw the trail of destruction through the house. It seemed like whatever had hit the house had broken through one side and came out the other.

"What did this?" she asked.

"A bird," a nearby construction worker said with a shrug.

Emily looked at the construction worker in disbelief. "A bird did this?" she asked. "Just what kind of birds do you have here?"

"I can't see a griffin doing this," Jackie responded as she helped Emily install the glass. "At least not intentionally. I just hope nobody got hurt."

"Yeah, me too," Emily said as she looked around.

Next, they were up on the rooftop, placing down shingles together. Emily used her sleeve to wipe away her own sweat and Jackie offered her a bottle of water, surprising Emily.

"Drink up," Jackie told her. "Don't want to get heat stroke from hard workin', ya hear?"

Emily smiled. "Thank you," she replied as she took the drink.

After they finished fixing the house, the two girls took a break before they went to the next house to fix. Emily decided to start up a conversation.

"Okay, since I've told you a lot about me, what can you tell me about you, Jackie?" Emily asked.

"Well, you already know about my family's apple blood business," Jackie replied. "The Courtlands are well known apple butchers back in the Boiling Isles, for generations since the Deadwardian Era. When the coven system was implemented, Granny Courtland and her sisters joined the Plant Coven. But farmwork requires more than just plant magic, so some members of my family joined the Construction Coven. So the Courtlands are a mix of plant witches and constructionists."

"How extensive is your family?" Emily asked.

"Very extensive. If I listed all of its members, we would be here all day. We're a big family that has lived in Satorius Acres for generations, but we have also spread out to different parts of the Boiling Isles. I don't know if Lindsay told you this or not, but Andrea is actually my distant cousin," Jackie explained. "Of course, all of my extended family members have their own businesses. The main apple blood business is currently run by me, my brother, and my parents. The Cortland Family's apple blood is the best on the Isles. We even do deliveries outside of the Titan by demand. You can probably find my family's apple blood here too."

"Sounds like your family has made it big," Emily noted.

"Well, we never have to worry about snails," Jackie admitted. "We do well for ourselves, but we still appreciate the simple, humble life. We save most of the snails we make, so we have a reserve in case of an emergency. We mostly only spend snails on necessities and we don't really want to try to break into the 'upper class' of society. We just want to make good, affordable apple blood and share it with other witches."

Emily nodded. "I can respect that," she told Jackie.

Jackie smiled. "Thanks to growing up on the farm, I've learned to be quite the hard worker. I was never good with plant magic like my granny does, but I learned to compromise when I was a witchling and realized that I could knock apples out of the trees by kicking them. It's been a method of mine that I've been honing for years, and it works! I mean, I think most of my magical energy went straight to my legs, don't you think?"

"Um, yeah," Emily admitted, glancing down and noting Jackie's muscular legs before shifting her eyes away, hiding her flustered reaction to that and Jackie's muscle toned body. "So um, what about your family? Like your brother."

"Oh, Billy-Bob? Yeah, he's the main apple butcher of the family," Jackie admitted. "He learned the trade from our daddy, Mac, who's in the Construction Coven. My mama, Pearl, is in the Bard Coven since, well, she's one hell of a singer. Her singing helps the apple trees to grow. My mama came from a rival family."

This surprised Emily. "Really?"

"Yup, back then she was just Pearl Jammin. The Jammin family were bickering rivals to us Cortlands, until her and my daddy fell in love and had Billy-Bob, me, and mah baby sister Blossom. It's quite the love story, and I think their love brought an end to the feud, though that's because the Jammins migrated to a different part of the Titan to grow their pearl fields for their ghoul-aid."

"Huh, so the ghoul-aid business is run by the Jammins?" Emily asked.

"Yeah, some like 'em, some don't," Jackie admitted.

"Did you ever get to know about your extended family?" Emily asked her.

"Yeah, we're on good terms with them," Jackie said. "I even got to know Grandpa Periwinkle, despite how stubborn he is. So yeah, our family's quite big, not even including Andrea's folks."

Emily was honestly just amazed from hearing all of this about Jackie, especially since she couldn't imagine having a family that big. "Your family sounds amazing, Jackie, really. Do you think you are going to be running the farm someday or do you have something else in mind?"

"Well, running the farm would be the most practical option, but to tell you the truth… I've always aspired to be a bard like my mom," Jackie admitted. "I do have a passion for singin', but I figured if I were to join a coven someday, I'd have to do the practical thing and join Construction. But that's no longer mandatory, isn't it?"

"Yeah," Emily said with a nod. "How have you been adjusting to a world without mandatory covens?"

"I am pretty happy about it." Jackie replied. "Now I can actually mix construction with bard. Who knows what I can possibly do-" She then remembered something when she spotted Emily's sigil on her wrist. "Oh, um… I probably shouldn't talk about mixing magic in front of you…"

"Oh, um, it's fine, really," Emily told her while glancing at her sigil. "Honestly, sometimes I forget that I even have a sigil, since it doesn't affect me like it affects other witches like Zee. To tell you the truth, I was never good at doing more than illusions anyway."

"Really?" Jackie asked in surprise. "So you being this prodigy from Glandus… you really just were faking it the entire time with your illusions?"

Emily nodded. "I've always struggled with the most basic spells, but illusions just came to me naturally. I did learn some basic Construction spells, but even then I needed Stella to help cover for me in class. I do like doing physical work with my hands, but it isn't like you need Construction magic to do that or build things."

"Well, that is true," Jackie agreed before she thought of something else. "Wait, if you said you were never good at anything besides your illusions, then what is the deal with your… other magic." Emily gave her a look, so Jackie explained. "I heard about how you can not only make flames without drawing a spell circle, but also you can teleport without the need of that shiny knob of yours."

"I… honestly, I don't even know what the deal with my powers are," Emily said while looking down at her own hands. "All I can tell you is that I unlocked them right after I learned that Sonya had been killed. While I've gotten used to them, I still don't know where they're from. But I don't feel like these powers are coming from my bile sac. It is hard to describe, but it almost feels like… having a sigil helped me unlock these new powers."

"Hmm, could you have gotten those powers from your parents?" Jackie suggested.

"I don't think so, my mom was a pretty normal witch so I don't know why she would have had weird powers," Emily responded.

"Maybe it came from your grandfolks then," Jackie suggested. "Like, I heard that Cross's daddy didn't have a dragon form because it skipped his generation. So maybe it is a similar case here."

"Well, the problem with that is that I have no idea who my grandparents are," Emily admitted. "I could ask my parents about my grandparents or my powers, but I can't."

"That's… something else I've been wondering about," Jackie admitted. "Your parents were petrified, right? Weren't they unpetrifying everyone with some human device?"

"I heard about that," Emily said with a nod. "But their bodies vanished. Graye kept them in his office, but when they checked it after the Day of Unity, my parents were… gone. I think Graye probably moved them somewhere, but since nobody knows where Graye went after the Day of Unity or if he's even still alive, I have no leads about where my parents are."

This surprised Jackie, both the revelation of what happened to Emily's petrified parents and how almost… nonchalant Emily sounded about it. "Dear Titan… Emily, are you really okay with that?"

Emily sighed. "I'm not," she admitted. "But I don't want to focus on something that I have no control over."

Jackie was still concerned, but she decided to accept Emily's terms. "Yeah, that's fair," she replied. "Do you… remember anything about your parents? How old were you when they were petrified?"

"I was eight," Emily confessed. "I remember very little about them… and I don't even know if I can trust my own memories of them. My image of my parents has been corrupted and warped for so many years, all because I believed that they left me for dead when they really didn't. So I don't know if that has affected how I remember them or not."

"So you don't remember anything about growing up with them?" Jackie asked her.

"I didn't say that," Emily said. "I grew up in the slums of Latissa. We weren't a wealthy family by any stretch of the imagination. Everyone had to pitch in, which includes me. I was expected to pull my own weight and help with the housework. Though… that's the unfortunate case, since that's what a lot of my memories of my parents consist of: them putting me into work and not having time to spend with me because they had their own jobs in order to make enough snails to survive."

This made Jackie feel bad for Emily. She knew she couldn't really imagine what it was like for Emily, but it did sound bad.

"Honestly, I probably never really knew who my parents really were," Emily admitted. "All of my memories are unreliable because of my own biases and the fact that I was a child. And even if they were un-petrified… I don't know what I should say to them. I mean, so much time has passed since they last saw me, so much has happened. They've now been absent for most of my life. Would they even recognize me? Where would I even start?" She sighed. "Sometimes… a part of me wishes that I never learned that my parents were petrified because they were caught stealing medicine for me."

This surprised Jackie. "What do you mean?"

"I mean… it was easier when I believed that they were monsters who abandoned me and left me to die. But now I know that they loved me, and that makes the fact that they were taken from me stings me even more… it honestly doesn't make me feel better, it only makes me feel worse."

And as Emily looked down, Jackie reached over to her and placed a reassuring hand on Emily's shoulder, causing Emily to look up at her.

"You still want to see them again, don't you?" Jackie asked Emily.

"Of course I do," Emily quickly said before looking down again. "I just… don't know what I would do if I ever saw them."

"Well… you can always start with hello," Jackie suggested. "You might seem like a stranger to them and they might seem like strangers to you, but I saw how you were with those customers you were talking to earlier. They were strangers too, weren't they? It is true that if you ever see your parents again, they won't know you and you think that you don't really know them. But you want to know what is the best way to fix that?"

"How?" Emily asked Jackie.

The farmer girl just smiled. "The same way any strangers fix that problem. By talking to each other."

Unknown to the two, they were being watched by Zara, who was in her wagon using her crystal ball. She frowned as she spied on them.

"'It doesn't make me feel better, it only makes me feel worse- wah, wah, wah!'" Zara mocked in disgust. "Please, can she get any more overdramatic? It's bad enough that she ignores my own advice, but now the farm girl who was supposed to hate her decides to hang out with her! I saw you go to that party, Jack!" she shouted as she pointed accusingly to the image of Jackie in the crystal ball.

Getting herself worked up, Zara backed away and took a deep breath. "Now, now, so what? There's still time to make… my next play…" she said as she sported a sinister smile. "Heh-heh-heh-heh-heh…"

Meanwhile, Team WZRD were now in their usual attire in front of the job boards.

"Alright, let's see what jobs are available for us," Rebecca said as she and her friends looked at the job board.

"Oh look, a help wanted poster about hunting the Selkidomus… from the Emperor's Coven," Zee said, scowling as she pulled the poster off of the job board and threw it in the trash. "Irrelevant."

"It looks like a lot of these are pretty old, actually," Darcilia noted. "I wonder if any of these are still relevant…"

"Hey, check this out," Whitney said as she pointed to one poster. "This one looks pretty new. According to this job post, they are looking for any Creature Capturers to help deal with a local animal problem. Apparently, there's been a string of recent animal attacks."

"Animal attacks?" Darcilia asked.

"Says here that during the night, a wild animal has been attacking homes. This keeps happening, so they're calling in any Creature Capturers available to help deal with it," Zee said, reading it allowed. "It left their homes damaged, resulting in some Earthers needing to do repairs. And some folks had to be sent to the healing center because of the attacks."

"That does sound concerning," Whitney said. "A wild animal like that can't be loose around."

"Wait, do they actually say what the animal is?" Darcilia asked.

"According to this, no witness was able to get a good look at it," Zee read.

"Well, that's helpful," Darcilia said while rolling her eyes. "How are we supposed to find this thing if we don't even know what it looks like?"

"We could start at the site of the attack, look for any traces that could lead us toward the beast," Zee suggested.

"That sounds like a plan! Now let the hunt begin!" Rebecca declared while holding her scythe up and sporting a maniacal grin. She looked eager. A bit… too eager.

"Sometimes you worry me, Reb," Darci said with a worried look.

And so, the girls went to investigate the site with the damaged homes, the same site that Emily and Jackie had been at earlier. After investigating the area, they managed to find a trail into the woods.

"Yeah, I think we are going the right way," Whitney said, pointing to the nearby trees that were knocked down, with slash marks across them. "Something big and aggressive definitely came through here."

Rebecca went to look at the marks on the trees, tapping on them with her scythe as she gave them an investigative look. "Zee, I'm gonna need your input on this."

Zee walked over next to Rebecca, looking at the claw marks. "These marks look deep and relatively new. They were probably made less than a day ago. And yeah, it has to be a large animal, though the size of the trees knocked down was already a dead giveaway." She paused.

"What is it?" Whitney asked, noticing the pause.

"I just… these claw marks look kinda familiar," Zee admitted. "But I don't know where I might have seen them before."

"Hey, I think I found its path," Darcilia said as she pointed to the trails of paw prints further into the woods. "Would you say these are the right size for those claw marks?"

Zee walked over to check the paw prints. "Yeah, these look about the right size," she said while feeling the tracks. "But we might need some help." She let out a whistle and summoned some beasts through her spell circle. They were two pairs of purple furred dog creatures with four muzzles each. Darcilia immediately backed away while Zee instructed them to sniff the claw marks and the paw prints. Once they did, they were able to pick up a scent.

"Aw, they look so cute," Rebecca said.

"Four-Nosed Retrievers," Whitney noted. "Where did you get these guys?"

"Back in Merlin, Kevin told me that these breeds are very good trackers," Zee told them as they followed the four-nosed dogs, Darcilia keeping her distance.

"I'm… behind you guys." Darcilia responded while being wary around the dogs.

"So what do you guys think this animal is?" Rebecca asked the rest of Team WZRD as they followed the dogs through the woods.

"Well, it would have to be a native to Inwell Isles, right?" Whitney pointed out. "So it could be something we've never seen back in the Isles."

"Yeah," Zee agreed. "Like, maybe it's a manticore, or a direwolf."

"Could be a feral griffin," Darcilia suggested while trying to keep her distance from the demon dogs.

"Or maybe it could be a giant badger demon with large claws, four arms, multiple eyes…" Rebecca said as she described the creature in question. "Ooh, what if it shoots bees from its mouth?"

"That's… very unlikely," Zee told her. "I've never heard of a beast like that."

"Well it could be a new species then!" Rebecca insisted. "And we could be the first to discover it! Ooh, do you think I could name it after myself?"

Whitney sighed. "Sometimes I wonder how we're related…"

"Arf-Arf!"

The four turned to see the Four-Nosed Retrievers that barked, getting their attention. Zee rushed over with the rest of the group behind her, seeing more tracks.

"We got a lead," Rebecca said, seeing the animal tracks.

"These ones are clearer than the tracks from before," Darcilia said.

"Yeah," Zee replied, though she looked concerned. "Though I don't think I recognize these tracks…"

"How close do you think this beast is?" Whitney asked.

"I don't know," Zee said, shaking her head. "But I think we are on the right track."

Hearing that, the four girls didn't know whether they should be relieved… or anxious.

Meanwhile, at Inwell Park, Tracy was jogging down the pathway.

'Focus on your breathing,' she thought to herself as she worked her talons. Jogging was routine for her, especially when she wanted to avoid other witches or some problem she didn't want to deal with at the moment.

As she continued to jog, Tracy was suddenly hit with a flash of light, temporarily blinding her. "What the-?!" she shouted as she stopped jogging. Before her vision had the chance to recover, she was then hit by a blast of magic, making her fly back and hit a tree. She groaned and as her vision recovered, she looked up and saw a dark figure standing before her, causing her eyes to widen. "You!"

"Yes, me!" declared Zara, who was using an illusion to pose as Emily while wearing a black gown. "I, Emily Tricks, am here to cause some mayhem!"

Tracy got up, glaring at her. "I knew it! I knew you were still bad!" she declared as she ran towards 'Emily', only to run through her. "Huh?" Tracy asked in confusion as 'Emily' laughed and vanished.

"Missed me! Heh-heh-heh-heh-heh!" 'Emily' declared as Tracy spotted her flying over her head, riding a broomstick as she threw fireballs down at the falcon girl.

Tracy dodged the fireballs, running and dashing left and right before she flew up towards 'Emily' on her staff. She drew a spell circle to shoot a lightning attack towards her adversary, but Emily vanished again, causing the lightning to hit a tree.

"Grr, I hate it when you do that!" Tracy shouted before she got kicked in the back by 'Emily', who appeared behind her. Tracy fell to the ground, crashing into a tree again.

"Ouch, watch where you land, Crasher!" 'Emily' mocked as Tracy got up.

"Wait, how did you know about my grade-school nickname that kids would use to mock me?!" Tracy asked. "Are you… stalking me?!"

"Please," 'Emily' said while rolling her eyes. "Crasher is a pretty easy obvious twist on 'Dasher', I'm not exactly reinventing the wheel here when it comes to mocking nicknames!" She then threw more flames toward Tracy, who was forced to dodge them.

Tracy drew her fingers into her beak, making a powerful whistle. That whistle sent large sound waves to target 'Emily', who vanished again. Tracy saw this and this made her annoyed. "Quit doing that!"

"Doing what?" 'Emily' asked as she patted her hand onto Tracy before she then flashed bright light in her eyes.

"Gah!" Tracy shouted as she covered her eyes before 'Emily' kicked her down into the dirt. Tracy spit out some grass while growling.

"For someone who's an acclaimed sportswitch, you sure are sloppy," 'Emily' taunted as Tracy got up to punch her, only for her fist to go through another illusion.

"Fight me like a real witch!" Tracy shouted as 'Emily' appeared again. "Coward! I was right about you!"

"Yes, maybe you are right about me, Speedemon," 'Emily' told her with a sinister grin. "After all, I've been taking advantage of your friends, using them up like the poor saps they are. Like that hippy chick, Lindsay, and that party clown fucker Pinkie."

This pissed Tracy off even more. "You bitch!" she shouted as she rushed to punch 'Emily', only for the illusion to vanish, further annoying her. "Where did you go!?"

"Right here."

Tracy turned around, only to see… herself. Or more accurately, it was an illusion clone of herself smirking back at Tracy. "Hi, I'm Tracy, I like sports and get pissed at my friends because they're too stupid to realize that I was right about Emily."

"Stop using my image!" Tracy shouted as she punched the illusion as more Tracy duplicates surrounded her. "Stop it!"

"Why do I even bother with my friends? The only witch I need is me!" a Tracy clone taunted, earning a kick from the real Tracy.

"Especially since they think I'm the dumb one of the group!" another fake Tracy taunted as it disappeared from another swipe from Tracy.

"Why are you doing this?!" Tracy shouted before all the Tracy clones disappeared, revealing 'Emily' in front of her.

"Because I can," the green-skinned witch taunted Tracy. "Because it's easy. Because you're easy. And because it's fun!"

She laughed and conjured more illusions, this time with Lindsay, Andrea, Tabrella, and Jackie. "Face it, bird-brain. Your friends will eventually decide to leave you behind for me. Lindsay and Andrea have already sided with me, and so will Jackie and Tabrella. Plus I've already got Donna and Cross in my pockets," she said while illusions of Donna and Cross appeared next to 'Emily', "And I want you to know that I'm doing this to you. That I'm replacing you. And there is nothing you can do about it. You can go ahead and tell them, but they won't believe you. Soon, there will be no place for hot heads like you! Heh-heh-heh-heh-heh-heh!"

"You," Tracy said as she tightened her fists while glaring at Emily. "You won't get away with this!"

"Heh, I've already had," 'Emily' declared before disappearing through a puff of smoke as Tracy lunged at her, causing her to crash into another tree.

After 'Emily' disappeared, Tracy found her beak stuck in the tree. After a moment, she managed to pull herself free from the bark, only to look around and see that 'Emily' was gone.

"That green mother…" Tracy said with a snarl. "I'm going to find you and kick your ass, Tricks!" she declared as she pulled up her staff and flew up to the sky in search of her attacker…

Meanwhile, Emily and Jackie were heading out together after they finished fixing up the homes.

"Gotta say, you really pulled your weight back there, Em," Jackie complimented.

"Thanks, I'm just glad to have been useful," Emily responded. "There is nothing more satisfying than a good day's work."

"I know that all too well," Jackie said with a smile before she thought of something, her smile fading. "But Emily… we do need to talk about something."

Emily looked over at Jackie. "What is it?"

"We need to talk about Duke," Jackie said, which caused Emily to stop in her tracks.

"Oh," Emily said, looking down. "Yeah, I guess we do need to."

"Now, don't get me wrong," Jackie said. "Duke was a bastard. I doubt I would have been able to stop myself from giving him a good beating if I ever saw him. But I never would have killed him."

Emily continued looking down. "For what it is worth, I regret killing him."

"And why do you regret killing him?" Jackie asked. "Is it just because it got Tabrella and her family into trouble?"

Emily looked up. "Well, yeah, that is the main reason," she admitted.

Jackie sighed. "I want you to remember when I let you talk about Sonya," she told Emily. "You knew she was an awful witch, but you still cared about her. She was still your sister. And I told you that you shouldn't let anyone take away your good memories of her, right?"

"Right," Emily said, getting an idea where Jackie was going with this.

"Duke may have been a deadbeat jerk, but he didn't deserve death and none of us wanted him dead," Jackie explained. "Not just because we would have gotten in trouble for it, but because Duke was still a witch and he had other witches who cared about him, just like Sonya had witches who cared about her. Duke had a family who now has to deal with his death. Have you thought about apologizing to them?"

"No…" Emily realized.

"And what about Katie?" Jackie asked Emily. "There was a chance, however small, that Duke might have changed his mind about being a part of her life. I mean, you changed, didn't you? And if he hadn't gotten a change of heart, what if Katie still wanted to meet her dad at some point? Who is going to tell her why he was killed?"

"I… didn't think about that," Emily admitted while avoiding looking at Jackie.

"One of the reasons I decided to hang out with you today is because I wanted to figure out why you did it," Jackie confessed. "Because I wanted to reconcile the seemingly alright girl that Lindsay befriended with the girl who committed premeditated murder. So… why did you do it? Do you even know?"

"I… think I was projecting my abandonment issues onto him," Emily told Jackie. "At the time, I still believed that my parents had abandoned me. So when I heard about Duke abandoning Tabrella and Katie, it… set off something inside me. And that's who I did it for. For me."

Jackie nodded. "Well… thank you for being honest with me," she told Emily. "Truth be told, after we learned you were the one who killed Duke, I regretted meeting you in the first place."

Emily winced. "Yeah… that's fair."

"And I haven't forgiven you either, just so we are clear," Jackie told Emily. "But… I'm not the one who needs to forgive you. Tabrella was the one you hurt, so she is the one that needs to forgive you."

"Is that even possible?" Emily asked Jackie.

"It might not be," Jackie told Emily. "But even if she doesn't forgive you, you still owe her. I'd say you owe all of us. And you owe Katie. And Duke's family. You have a lot to make up for."

"I know," Emily admitted, looking ashamed. "Honestly, I was thinking that I might just try to avoid you, Tabrella, and Tracy."

"Since you're friends with Lindsay and Andrea, I don't really think that's possible," Jackie told Emily. "Especially since Tabrella doesn't want Andrea and Lindsay to stop being friends with you. So the least you can do is try to make things up to Tabrella, got it?"

Emily nodded, though she looked surprised. "And you're okay with Andrea and Lindsay being friends with me as well? Even though, in your own words, I committed premeditated murder?"

"You still did and that will never be okay," Jackie said with a stern tone. "But… today I wanted to get a better idea of what Lindsay sees in you and I think I saw that. And I saw other things too. Duke wasn't the first witch you've killed, was he?"

Emily hesitated, remembering when Lupe instructed her to kill a witch as part of his 'training'. Her fists tightened. "No, it wasn't."

Jackie nodded. "I thought so," she said. "From what you told me about your upbringing, it sounded awful. And I doubt I got the full picture either, not that I need to. Not that it excuses your actions, not at all."

"For what it's worth," Emily said. "I've been trying to stop myself from killing."

"Well, that's good," Jackie said. "That's something-"

Before Jackie could finish what she was saying, Emily was suddenly tackled by Tracy, who slammed into Emily at full speed, knocking them both away from Jackie.

"Found you!" Tracy declared while pinning Emily to the wall.

"Tracy?!" Emily shouted in surprise as Tracy threw a punch at Emily, who moved her head aside and broke her way out of Tracy's grip by chopping her in the throat, forcing Tracy to let go of Emily and clutch her throat while Emily disappeared through a cloud of smoke as Tracy lunged at her again, instead missing and hitting the wall.

"Yowch! Fuck!" Tracy shouted before seeing Emily appear behind her. "Oh no, you don't!" she declared as she sent another punch to Emily, who blocked it in defense.

"Tracy, what-!" Emily shouted as she kept blocking and dodging her punches. "What are you doing?!" she asked in confusion.

"Oh you know what's up! Don't act innocent now, because I'm so on to you right now, Tricks!" Tracy shouted.

Emily fell back, seeing and feeling the anger radiating from Tracy. She drew a spell circle to duplicate herself into three copies as each stepped back. Tracy went to punch the middle one, which disappeared. This only infuriated the falcon biped more.

"I am so fucking tired of illusions!" Tracy shouted as she went to another Emily duplicate and punched that one. She turned around to see the last Emily and she dove toward her, only for her to vanish. "Quit making clones and fight me!"

"I don't want to fight you, Tracy!" an invisible Emily told her. "And I don't know why you're attacking me-"

"Oh you know damn well why!" Tracy shouted as she drew spell circles towards, shooting lightning attacks at Emily's voice. The green-skinned witch dodged the lightning, becoming visible again while bringing out her staff to draw a spell circle, conjuring flashes of light to blindside Tracy. The falcon biped covered her eyes to protect herself from the flash, but when she uncovered her eyes, she saw that Emily had gone invisible again.

"Cut that out and fight me!" Tracy demanded as she saw a fog start to spread around her. "I knew you were bad! I knew even before you attacked me that you haven't changed a damn bit!"

"What are you talking about?" Emily questioned while invisible.

"That this whole 'change' thing was nothing but an elaborate ruse to get us to lower our guard around you. You want to make everyone think you're one of the good guys now, but you're not!" Tracy accused while preparing to draw spells. "And honestly, you were never even good at pretending."

"That's enough!"

Suddenly, a lasso was wrapped around Tracy, which bound her and her wings together. "Gah! What the-?!" Tracy cried out as she fell down. As the fog cleared, she looked up and saw that the one who tied her up was Jackie, who walked over to her. "Jackie?!"

"Stop this instant, right now!" Jackie scolded her as Emily reappeared and cleared the fog. "What in the Titan's Knee got you all uppity about?! Why did you attack Emily?!"

"Because she just attacked me first!" Tracy shouted as she pointed to Emily, who looked just as confused as Jackie.

"What are you talking about?" Emily asked her.

"When I was jogging, you showed up out of nowhere and started attacking me!" Tracy claimed. "You showed me your true colors!"

"Tracy, Emily couldn't have attacked ya," Jackie told her friend. "I have been with her the entire day since this morning. She has never left my sight."

"Oh come on, Jackie! She's obviously tricking you!" Tracy claimed. "I mean, how do you know that you haven't been hanging out with an illusion copy the entire time?! You were her alibi!"

"Tracy, I never attacked you," Emily insisted.

"And I believe her," Jackie said, shocking Tracy.

"What the… are you seriously siding with her?!" Tracy asked in shock.

"I'm not taking sides, I'm just trying to figure out what happened here," Jackie explained. "How do you know it was Emily that attacked you?"

"Um, how many wicked green-skinned witches who spam illusions do you know?" Tracy asked sarcastically.

"And why would she even attack you?" Jackie asked Tracy. "Honestly, Tracy, I know how brass you are, but this hate on Emily is getting so tiresome and old right now."

"But Jackie-"

"No buts!" Jackie scolded her, which startled both Tracy and Emily. "From what I can tell, Emily did nothing to you. I didn't see her attacking you, but I did see you attacking her. I know that we've all had problems with Emily, but this is not how we should settle things!" she told Tracy while giving her a stern look.

"I… I was…" Tracy was at a loss at words. She turned to Emily, who looked at her in confusion. "I…" Tracy then looked down and flew away from the spot, leaving Emily and Jackie alone.

Emily looked over at Jackie. "Are you… alright, Jackie?" she asked.

"I should ask the same thing, but yeah," Jackie replied. "I'm just… frustrated with her, and confused. Like why would she think you attacked her?"

"I don't know," Emily said, looking confused as well. "Although, it isn't impossible that she was attacked by someone who wanted her to think it was me."

"I do imagine you have no shortage of enemies who would have motivation to do that," Jackie said with a sigh. "And if that is the case, then they might have wanted Tracy to attack you."

"What should we do then?" Emily asked, looking concerned.

"Wait until Tracy has calmed down so we can figure out what actually happened to her and get to the bottom of this," Jackie said with a sigh.

"And you really do believe that it wasn't me that attacked her?" Emily asked.

"I don't believe you're lying," Jackie confirmed. "Although if you have been…" She gave Emily a look. "I'll deal with it."

At that, Emily could only gulp.

Meanwhile, in Zara's wagon, Zara was currently celebrating with music playing.

"Ye-heah!" Zara declared as she started playing a guitar, or an illusion of a guitar that just made noises. She was pretty much doing an illusion guitar solo on her own, stepping on the table from her chair. "Woo! That bird-brain doesn't suspect a thing, especially since there's no way she'd connect to me… well, we haven't met! Heheheheheheheh!"

While she was celebrating, she was also thinking of her next move. "I could have so much fun messing with her and her friends, using Emily as the reason to drive them apart! Yes, there is a lot that I can do with this…"

As Zara celebrated her victory, she heard a scratching sound on her door. She stopped as she dispersed her illusion. "Hmm? I'm not expecting company today… nor have I ever," she said as she walked over to the door. She heard more scratching sounds. "Okay, I'm coming!"

She opened the door and saw no one outside her wagon. This left Zara confused.

"Pranksters," she muttered before she shut the door, not noticing the scratch marks that were on the front of it. "Now to celebrate my victory on blaming Emily for-"

CRASH!

Zara screamed, her eyes widening when her wagon's window was broken through, a furry fist shattering through the glass. This startled the young woman. "What the fuck!?"

"Found you," Lupe said as he ripped away a part of the wagon's wall, revealing him in his werewolf form. He growled at Zara, showing his teeth. "You little bitch!"

"WHAT THE FUCK?!" Zara screamed in shock, seeing Lupe breaking into her wagon. "Who the fuck are you?!"

"Call me the Big Bad Wolf," Lupe claimed as he stepped towards her, slowly. "And you're the Great and Terrible Zara. Or, at least you claim to be…"

Zara stepped back, concerned about what Lupe was implying. "I-I don't know what you mean," she said, trying to protect her cover.

"I don't know who you really are," Lupe admitted. "I just know that you're lying about who you really are. And that you're nothing but trouble."

Zara narrowed her eyes at Lupe. "You're right," she said. "You don't know who I really am…"

A fireball suddenly appeared in her hand and she threw it at Lupe, who dodged the fireball and lunged at Zara as she rushed for the door. Before she could make it, he grabbed her by the leg, causing her to hit the floor of the wagon. "GAH!"

"Where do you think you're going?!" Lupe shouted as he dug his claws into her leg while dragging her across the floor, causing her to wince in pain. She turned to glare at Lupe.

"Let. Me. Go!" Zara shouted as she threw another fireball at Lupe.

It wasn't long before Zara's wagon was up in flames. Zara managed to break free of Lupe, limping out of her wagon while coughing from the smoke. She limped over to her ax, which was nearby the firewood she had cut, and she picked it up. She looked back at her wagon and saw no sign of Lupe. However, she knew for a fact that he wasn't dead. So she ran into the forest, her mind racing as she tried to think of a plan. Right now the only plan she could settle on was to run and survive. But when she looked back to see if she was being followed, Lupe suddenly showed up in front of her.

"Shit!" Zara cried out as she stopped while Lupe gave a chuckle.

"Oh, I do love it when they run," Lupe told her while getting on all fours, crawling towards her as he snarled.

"Shit, shit, shit," Zara said as she backed away before turning around and attempting to sprint in the other direction. Lupe grinned, he loved to see his prey on the run, so he decided to give her a head start.

Zara kept running, or at least she tried to keep running, all the while clutching her ax. "Help! Someone! A crazy wolf is trying to eat me!" she cried out, not sure if she should risk fully breaking her cover or not. When she turned her head to look back, she saw that he was not behind her. However, she knew he wasn't gone and she didn't want to take any chances.

Zara used her illusions to create duplicate illusions of herself that split off from her in hopes that they would confuse Lupe, who would chase them and not her. Eventually, Zara stopped to catch her breath and try to figure out just where she was going. She also knew that Lupe was a serious problem, one that she couldn't go to Emily or one of her friends for, since she didn't want to risk exposing herself to them as well… right?

Before she could continue running, her head was suddenly picked up by a hand from above. "YAH!" Zara screamed as she was thrown across the forest, causing her to land and roll around the ground. When she looked up, she saw Lupe jumping down from the tree above her, landing right in front of her.

"I can see right through to you," Lupe commented as he stalked towards her. "You're not really from around here, are you? In fact, I've been keeping an eye on you for quite a while…"

Zara got up, trying to play it cool. "Are… are you some kind of loony fan or something?"

"Not really," he said before Zara drew an illusion, projecting a large monster from the ground. The illusion of the monster roared at him, but Lupe didn't budge, nor was he impressed. Instead, he walked through it, while going after Zara. "I just know that you're up to no good."

Zara created more illusion duplicates while turning herself invisible, but Lupe ignored them. Instead, he turned around, caught an ax with one hand, and kicked the real Zara into a tree, causing the duplicates to vanish as Zara became visible again.

"You can't fool me," Lupe said while pointing to his nose. "I have your scent."

And as he stalked toward Zara, the young adult wanted nothing more than to just get out of there. Overtaken by panic, she decided to risk further exposing herself. She closed her eyes and vanished in a puff of smoke, which Lupe ran through.

Lupe stopped himself and saw the spot where Zara had been just moments before. Realizing that Zara had teleported, he stood back up with an amused look. "Now this just got more interesting," he said.

Meanwhile, Team WZRD were still on their hunt, attempting to pick up the trail of their target… when they heard the sound of footsteps.

"You guys hear that?" Zee asked.

"Get ready, it could be our animal," Darci said as she prepared her crossbow.

"No, I don't think so," Zee said as she listened to the footsteps. "It sounds… smaller."

As she said this, a figure staggered into view. When the figure and Zee locked eyes, they both recognized each other.

It was Zara. And while she initially seemed surprised and a bit confused, her face then became flooded with relief.

"Zee!" Zara cried out as she rushed over to Team WZRD. She looked scared and desperate, tears flooding from her eyes. "Thank goodness you're here!" she cried as she went to embrace Zee.

"Zara?!" Zee asked, shocked to see her like this. "What… what are you doing here?"

"I… I need help!" Zara exclaimed as she looked around at Team WZRD. "I was on the run… I need your help before he kills me!"

The group looked concerned by this and Whitney walked up to Zara. "Okay, just calm down, take deep breaths, and let's sit down," she advised as she and Zee helped bring Zara over to sit on a log.

"Here," Rebecca said as she handed Zara a canister of water.

"T-Thank you," Zara replied as she grabbed the canister and took a drink from it. She was still shaking with fear, but Zee kept a reassuring hand on her.

"Hey, look at me," Zee told her as Zara looked up at the dragon girl. "You're safe with us. Now, once you calm down, you can explain to us what happened. We got your back, Zara."

"Yeah, so you don't need to worry," Rebecca said while Zara looked at the rest of the team. They all looked concerned for her. All looked determined to protect her.

"I… I thank you," Zara replied as she started to calm down. She managed to stop shaking, but still felt the fear from being chased by Lupe. And she hated this feeling. She hated feeling powerless. But something about Lupe… had just terrified her. "I… I think I'm good."

"Can you tell us what happened and who's chasing you?" Darci asked her.

"Y-Yeah," she replied as she started to explain. "I was… in my wagon, and then this… large beast broke in, tried to kill me. He said he was the… Big Bad Wolf. I barely managed to escape, but he's still coming after me. I think… I'm being chased by a werewolf."

"A werewolf? "Whitney asked in surprise.

"I thought that the Brookes are the only werewolf family around," Zee said. "Well, two werewolves, a vampire mom, a werecat, and… whatever Scabrina is."

"You think this wolf is the same wild animal that attacked the homes?" Darcilia asked.

"I don't think a werewolf is big enough," Zee said, shaking her head. "But we need to forget about this wild animal."

"Wait, what?" Whitney asked in surprise.

"Zee is right," Rebecca said as she stepped up on a stump, taking charge. "Right now, our new priority is to protect Zara! And we don't have much time before that werewolf catches up to her! Zee, Darci, you two will guard Zara! Me and sis will run interference, set up a first line of defense! Darci, you can also provide a line of cover fire. Whatever happens, Zara's safety is our priority!"

"Guys," Darcilia said, her ears picking up footsteps. "I hear something coming."

"Get ready," Zee said as she got into a fighting position while Zara was hiding behind her, Whitney pulling out her sword while Rebecca held her scythe. Darcilia held her crossbow, all four girls ready to fight.

What followed was a moment of silence as the rustling stopped. As all sound stopped. The girls kept their eyes peeled, looking around for any sign of the wolf. Suddenly, Darcilia's eyes widened as she pointed her crossbow to the side, shooting a bolt just as Lupe came out of the bushes. He was forced to dive out of the way as the bolt soared past his head, forcing him to come to an awkward stop.

"Found you!" he snarled, glaring at Zara.

"Hey!" Zee shouted as she transformed into her dragon form. "Nobody hurts our friend!"

"Oh, and it looks like you got some bodyguards," Lupe said in annoyance as he stood up. "Move aside, you're not my target!"

"Oh my Titan, he is a werewolf," Whitney said in shock.

"That's right," Lupe said. "And I have no quarrel with you. My quarrel-" He pointed at Zara, whose trembling was only partially an act. "-is with her."

"If you want to get her," Rebecca said as she and Whitney stood in front of everyone else. "You are going to have to get through us."

"So be it," Lupe grunted before he charged at them.

Zee grabbed Zara and flew up with her while Whitney shot ice spells towards Lupe. He dodged the ice spells, remembering how well that ended for him last time. He tried to keep his attention on Zara, but then he got hit by several bolts. "Gah!" he shouted as he turned to see Darcilia, who was behind everyone else, providing cover fire. He also saw several other Darcilias, illusion duplicates who also fired bolts at him. "Great," he muttered as he attempted to dodge the bolts while figuring out which were real and which aren't.

Meanwhile, Zee flew up to place Zara up a tree. "Wait here," she told her before she flew down to the battle.

"Zee, wait!" Zara cried out, but Zee was already gone.

While trying to doge both ice spells and crossbow bolts, Lupe saw Rebecca appear next to him and swing her scythe at him. He tried to block it, but only got cut by the scythe. "AAH! Dammit!" he shouted before turning to glare at Rebecca in annoyance, spotting her red hood. "I'm so sick of red hoods!" he growled as he took a swipe at Rebecca, only for her to disappear into a cloud of rose petals. "Huh?" he asked before getting slashed in the back by her scythe.

"Got 'em!" Rebecca declared as Zee flew in.

Zee blew her flames at Lupe, who covered his face as his fur became singed. While Zee flew around, he saw an opening and grabbed her tail, swinging her against the tree, causing her to cry out in pain as her back hit against the trunk.

"You're not the first dragon I've face-AAAH!" Lupe shouted while feeling the ice spikes hit him on his cut back, making him move aside.

He turned and saw Whitney, standing her ground with a dignified pose as she used her rapier to draw a spell circle to summon more ice spikes to launch towards Lupe. He dodged each of them as he rushed towards her. When he was close enough, Whitney swung her rapier at Lupe, but he dodged the swing and grabbed her by the throat, raising her up as he choked her.

"Unhand me…" Whitney demanded as she attempted to kick him.

"You remind me of someone I hate, so I'm gonna make this slow," he told her before feeling a stab to the side. "YAAAH!" he shouted before he also felt a scythe stab through his arm, making him let go of Whitney. He looked down and saw that it was Darcilia who had embedded a knife in his side. "You little…!"

"Reb, take your sister out of here!" Darcilia shouted as Rebecca pulled Whitney away from Lupe.

"Are you okay?" Rebecca asked her.

"I'm… good," Whitney responded while coughing and rubbing her throat.

Lupe swung his claws at Darcilia, who flipped back and created illusion duplicates of herself. The werewolf howled as he swiped at one Darcilia and stomped on another. He then felt several bolts hitting his back, but as he turned to face the real Darcilia, Zee came back, tackling him from the side and shoving him into some trees. He crashed onto the ground as Zee hovered above him, drawing a spell circle and summoning magic chains that appeared around him.

These chains were a Beast-Keeping spell meant to entrap wild beasts. They wrapped around Lupe, pulling him to the ground. It looked like Zee had Lupe contained, but then the werewolf roared as he managed to break free of the chains, surprising the Drakescale girl. She was even more surprised when Lupe grabbed her tail, pulled her to the ground, and pounced on her.

"Zee!" Darcilia and Zara shouted in shock, seeing Zee down.

"You think-" Lupe shouted while pummeling Zee. "You're the first-" He slammed his fist to her face. "-dragon I tackled with?!"

"Leave her alone!" Darci shouted. While she may have run out of crossbow bolts, she transformed her crossbow by folding it in, two blades popping from each side, turning it into a sword. She slashed across Lupe's back, causing him to howl in pain. Darci tried to slash at him again, but he grabbed her weapon, glaring at Darci before he punched her across the face, sending her to the ground. The secret werecat girl spat blood from the punch before she was then kicked across the stomach.

Zee got up, now sporting a black eye as she saw Lupe beating Darcilia. "Darci…" she said weakly.

Darci was pinned to the tree and Lupe was able to get a good look at her. And a good sniff. "Hmm… you smell different. Almost… familiar. Like a-"

"YAAAH!" Rebecca screamed as she charged in, stabbing her scythe into Lupe's shoulder.

"BAAAAAAH!" he screamed as he howled in pain, letting go of Darcilia and dropping her to the ground. He turned to see Rebecca, who had pulled her scythe out of him. His shoulder was now bleeding. "You've really started to annoy me."

"Hmm," Rebecca said as she gave him a smirk, twirling her scythe around. "I've been told that is one of my special talents."

"You show no fear, just like another Red Hood Huntress I know…" he said as he glared at Rebecca. "Who are you, welp? An apprentice of Calypso?!"

"More of a fan, but you can call me… Rebecca Knightcore," Rebecca declared as she aimed her scythe at him as it became charged with red magical energy.

"Knightcore…" Lupe's eyes widened, recognizing that name. "You're that witch woman's brat?!"

Rebecca just smirked as she jumped up in the air and shot red beams towards Lupe. He got hit by one, but dodged another as he saw her bring her scythe to him. He extended his claws and blocked the scythe with them. He clashed as Rebecca drew spell circles, shooting thorny vines to pierce through his body.

"Fucking bitch!" he snarled before he grabbed Rebecca's leg and threw her across the ground. Lupe tried to pounce on her, but then the rose pedals materialized around her and they seemingly teleported Rebecca away. She reappeared behind him and she used her scythe to aim more spells at his already wounded back. He turned around and lunged at her, but she dodged her fist, which instead broke a tree behind her in half.

Rebecca then charged her scythe with a red light. She swung it around and it created red slashes that headed towards Lupe. The werewolf got hit by the slashes, which created an explosive effect that pushed him back. The slashes also hit the ground around him, setting off more mini-explosions which sent Lupe back to crash into a large boulder. The werewolf had more than enough as Rebecca appeared next to him in another cloud of red petals.

"YAAAAAHHH!" Rebecca shouted as she swung her scythe at him, until he managed to catch it before it could cut him. Rebecca looked surprised, but Lupe grinned as he punched her away, making her let go of her scythe and roll to the ground.

"I'll admit, you're quite skilled. Your mama would have been proud to see you last this long against me," Lupe said as he stepped forward, still holding onto her scythe as he raised it above his head. "I wonder what she would think if I brought your head to her…" he said as he prepared to bring the scythe down, only for his hand holding the scythe to suddenly freeze. "What?!"

"Leave… my sister… alone," Whitney told him, having recovered. She held her rapier sword up, shooting another ice spell at his hand, making him let go of the scythe. Lupe turned to glare at her before he was suddenly hit in the back by Zee. She dug her own claws into his back, causing him to scream in agony.

"GAAH!" Lupe shouted as he was suddenly hit in his legs by bolts fired at him by Darcilia, who had managed to reload her crossbow. She held her crossbow up, firing as many bolts as she could into Lupe. Zee, while still on Lupe's back, blew scalding steam at the back of his head, causing him to scream in pain as he attempted to grab Zee, who pulled her claws back and tried to fly away. But Lupe managed to grab her leg and hold onto it. "I am going to rip your wings off your back and-"

Before he could finish, he was suddenly hit by a fireball, knocking him back and making him let go of Zee.

"Leave her alone!" someone shouted.

Lupe turned around to see that the one who threw the fire ball wasn't a member of Team WZRD… but instead it was newly arrived Emily. His eyes widened and he suddenly stopped attacking. This gave Emily the opportunity to throw another fireball at Lupe, blasting him away.

"GAAH!" he cried out as he hit the floor. The other witches joined in, pelting Lupe with attacks until he had enough, passing out on the forest floor. The witches stopped their attacks, wanting to make sure that he really was down. After a few moments, they saw Lupe start to transform, changing back into his witch form.

"Fuck, he's finally down," Zee said while breathing heavily. She changed back to her witch form and looked around. "Is everyone alright?"

"Well, I probably won't be singing anytime soon," Whitney said, her voice sounding sore as she rubbed her throat.

Rebecca had picked up her scythe and was cradling it like a baby. "It's okay," she told her scythe. "I know you didn't mean to try to hurt me."

Emily just stared at Rebecca before glancing at Whitney. "Yeah, no, that is normal for her," the Carmine sister reassured Emily.

"Alright," Emily said before turning to Zee and seeing her black eye. "Fuck, Zee! Are you okay?"

"Me, I'm fine!" Zee said with a wave. "I just didn't expect him to hit me so hard, that's it."

"What are you even doing here?" Darcilia asked Emily.

"Oh, I texted her after I made sure that Zara was safe," Zee explained while everyone looked up at Zara, who was still up in a tree.

"Um… can someone get me down?" Zara asked, looking incredibly embarrassed, especially with Emily there.

"Wait, first we should probably make sure that this guy is really down," Zee suggested as they turned to the seemingly unconscious Lupe. They began to approach him and as they did, Emily got a better look at the pale-skinned witch man… and realized that she recognized him.

"Lupe…?" Emily gasped, her eyes widening.

"Shit," Lupe snarled as his eyes shot open. He leapt up, starting to transform back into his werewolf form.

"He was playing dead!" Darcilia shouted as all of the witches prepared their spells… only for Lupe to throw dirt in their faces, blinding them for just a moment before he shoved past them… and fled into the forest, running away from the fight as several spells were shot after him.

"Hey, come back here!" Rebecca shouted as she tried to give chase, but Lupe was already gone.

And as for Emily, she just stood there, staring in shock at the ground where Lupe had been lying only moments before. She couldn't believe that it was him. That he was alive. When she thought back to the circus, when she faced Serpentina… and she wondered if that was him before?

Later, at Inwell Isles' General Health Coven, Team WZRD and Zara were checked in for their injuries. Emily was also there to check in on Team WZRD.

"Are you guys alright?" Emily asked as she saw some of them getting treated in their room, the four girls lying on their cots.

"We're just sore," Rebecca said while a nurse used her healing magic on her bandaged abdomen. "That werewolf sure did a number on us."

"I'll say," Whitney said while getting her neck healed to prevent further bruising.

"How's Zara doing?" Zee asked, covered in bandages as her leg got healed by another nurse. Darcilia just laid on her own cot while holding an ice back on her abdomen.

"I was going to check on her next," Emily admitted.

In another room, Zara was seated, covered in a blanket while drinking hot cocoa. She heard footsteps and she looked up to see Emily walking over to her.

"Hey," Emily spaid. "Are you okay right now, Zara?"

"Um… y-yeah, I am," Zara replied before looking down, feeling awkward over the whole thing.

"He didn't hurt you much, did he?" Emily asked her.

"He scratched up my leg, but nothing that some healing patches can't fix," Zara said as she quickly took a sip, gulping down her cocoa. "Um, thanks for helping to save me back there."

"Don't mention it," Emily said. "I'm just grateful to the Titan that Lupe didn't kill you."

"So… you knew this guy?" Zara asked Emily, a bit of worry in her voice.

Emily nodded. "He and I have… history," she admitted. "Do you have any idea why he went after you?"

"Um… I-I don't know," Zara claimed before she quickly came up with an excuse. "I mean, he probably went after me cause I lived alone in a wagon. You know, a lonely gal like myself living alone in the woods would make easy prey. I don't want to imagine what he would have done to me if I hadn't found Zee and her friends."

"Well, I'm glad that you're safe, Zara," Emily assured her, patting her shoulder. "I… I don't know what I'd do if something bad happened to you. I… I don't know if-"

Zara was surprised by this reaction, but she quickly shrugged off Emily's hand.

"Hey, enough of that," Zara told her. "Look, all that matters is that I'm fine, and you don't need to worry about me, okay?"

Emily gave a nod. "Is it okay if I leave to go back to Zee and her friends?" she asked Zara.

"Yeah, that's fine," Zara said while looking down at her reflection in her hot cocoa.

Emily nodded a second time before she left, leaving Zara alone with only her thoughts as she wondered how she could salvage this whole thing…

Back in Team WZRD's room, Emily walked over to Zee in her cot.

"So how is she?" Zee asked her.

"Zara's doing fine, I just… can't believe she was almost killed," Emily admitted as she pulled up a chair to sit in. "I hoped that she could maybe tell me why she thinks Lupe attacked her, but the best theory she could give me is that it is because she lived alone in the woods."

Zee looked at her curiously. "Lupe? So you know that guy? What's his deal?"

Emily sighed. "Lupe was… a member of the Tarot Guild, an associate with Sonya," she said, causing Zee's eyes to widen in shock.

"What?! But I thought the Tarot Guild was wiped out," Zee pointed out.

"They are, but Lupe's a free agent," Emily said while looking down. "Honestly, I didn't even know he was a werewolf until recently. He… he used to 'train' me in order to toughen me up when I was attending Glandus. Sonya was the one who suggested that I should be trained under him." She rubbed her own arm, which was shaking as she remembered the training. "I… I used to hide the bruises and injuries I got from him, since all that 'training' was just an excuse for him to abuse me. I was nothing but a chew toy to him…"

"Titan's crack," Zee said. "I'm… I'm so sorry, Mily. It… must've been hard to see him again."

"I think I might have seen him earlier, at the circus, but it was hard… especially since he's supposed to be dead," Emily said, surprising Zee. "Donna told me that she killed him in the Emperor's Castle during the week of the Day of Unity."

"She did?" Zee asked in surprise.

"Yeah, she killed him with an ice spell," Emily said while looking down. "And that's the confusing part. How did he survive that? How is he alive? It… it doesn't make any sense."

"You're right, it doesn't," Zee agreed. "But however he came back, he is way too dangerous to be let loose around the Isles."

"We need to warn everyone about him," Emily told Zee. "And I do mean everyone. We can't let anyone else fall victim to him. And we especially need to inform Donna about him. She has the right to know about Lupe being back. He was the one who bit off her hand and killed her birth parents. And there is a good chance he will go after her for 'killing' him."

This shocked Zee even more. "Shit," she said as she leaned back in her cot. "Is that why he is here on the Inwell Isles? Is he here stalking Donna?"

"I… don't know," Emily admitted while looking down. If her suspicions about him being at the circus was true, that meant he was on the Inwell Isles before Donna arrived. Which meant that he wasn't stalking Donna… he was stalking her.

"I just don't know that I can't let Lupe hurt Donna," Emily said, her voice determined. "Or Zara. Or anyone else. He has to be stopped."

Zee nodded, sitting up in her bed. "So how do we start?"

Long ago, before even the tale of Little Red Riding Hood…

A werewolf was walking through the woods while carrying a bag over his shoulder. Up ahead, he spotted a cabin. Quickly, the werewolf changed into his human form, which had dark hair, brown eyes, and a mustache. He found some clothes in a bush and he quickly put on the white button shirt and brown trousers. He then walked over to his cabin and went to open the door.

"I'm home," he announced, drawing the attention of his wife and son, who were in the cabin.

"Welcome back, George," said his wife, who had red hair, hazel eyes, and wore a white bonnet and yellow dress with an apron. "How was hunting, dear?" she asked him as the two shared a kiss.

"Well, I got us some veal today, Maria," he said as he revealed the bag, which contained the body of the deer.

"That's good, dear," Maria replied before she frowned. "Although… I have heard some things in town that have bothered me."

"Is that so? What's the trouble?" he asked her while setting the veal down.

"It's just… I hear some rumors going around about some animal attacks, especially around livestock," Maria said as she turned to her husband. "Are you sure that you weren't seen while you were hunting?"

"Don't worry, Maria, I've always been careful," he assured her. "Besides, I never go after livestock, so we're safe."

"Father!"

The man turned to see his red-haired son with brown eyes. He was wearing a blue coat, gray trousers, and gray shoes. He hugged his father, who swept him off his feet and lifted him in his arms.

"Now that you're home, can we play together?" the boy asked his father.

"I don't see why not, Lawrence," George replied as let his son crawl up to his back. He then got on all fours and started crawling around the floor. "Neigh! Neigh!"

"Geddy-up, horsey!" Lawrence declared while riding on his father's back, Maria just smiling at the two having fun.

But then George suddenly stopped, his ears having picked up something. This earned confusion from his son. "Father, why did you stop?"

"I… I think I heard something," he responded as he set his son off from his back and got up as he stared out the window at the woods…

Back in the present, Lupe threw open the door of the house he was staying in, Lupe having changed back into his witch form. He cursed to himself as he came in, clutching wounds. As he entered the house, he passed by some pictures on the wall, pictures of witches that were not him. These pictures were obviously of the previous inhabitants of the house… but it was best not to ask what happened to them.

"Fucking dragon and those bitches," Lupe cursed as he went over to a cabinet. He pulled out a healing kit and went through the supplies. "Can't believe that I got myself exposed!" he ranted to himself while bringing out some salve to rub the stab round in his shoulder. He hissed, feeling the sting of the salve. "If only I had killed that Zara bitch when I had the chance…"

"Dad?" a young voice asked.

Lupe expressed annoyance as he remembered that he wasn't alone. He turned and saw a young, pale skin witch boy enter the room. The boy looked a bit bigger for his age. He had black hair and blue eyes and was wearing a black shirt and raggedy gray trousers.

"What do you want?!" Lupe demanded from the boy.

"I… I heard you come home," he replied while looking at his father's injuries. "What… what happened to you?"

"None of your business," he told his son.

However, his son didn't quite get the message. "But-"

SMACK!

The boy was struck by Lupe, who was frustrated and annoyed by the boy who now fell on the floor. He winced as he held his face while he teared up.

"I told you it was none of your business!" Lupe shouted at him while he continued to treat his own wounds. "Now get out of my sight and leave me alone… Peter."

The young boy, Peter, got up with a sniff. Lupe saw this and scoffed at the weakness. "And enough of that crying! Don't be a weakling, got it?!"

"Y-Yes, dad," Peter said while wiping away his tears. He walked away from his father, not wanting to get hit again.

As he watched the boy slip away, Lupe huffed in disgust while he resumed treating his wounds. "Worthless runt…"

Peter, or Pete as we already know him, was not out of earshot when he heard this, but he could only bow his head out of fear as he returned to his room.

Fun fact: bananas used be considered a berry before genetically altercations.

For those who are surprised by the ending, we can downright confirm that yes, this is the same Pete from Luz Clawthorne 2024, and that he is Pete's son. His name is based off of the real-life alleged werewolf Peter Stumpp as well as Peter from Peter and the Wolf. We did include a few hints of his lineage in Luz Clawthorne 2024, like him being stronger-looking for his age and having a huge appetite, both which he got from his biological form.

Here in Brimstones and Broomstricks, Pete is both bigger and more intelligent than he should be for his age, which is because of his parentage. A two year old wolf is much closer to being fully grown than a two year old human or witch and because of how of how much he takes from his wolf side, he develops much faster. This is partially why he has anti-social tendencies in Luz Clawthorne 2024, because his wolf heritage makes him feel more alienated. Plus, he is a lot more wolf-like, especially compared to Skara, who is influenced more by her father's witch side and was definitely a late bloomer, not turning until she was 15, while Pete started developing more wolf-like traits much earlier. This will be explored more, but Pete isn't really comfortable with himself. He is less of a witch with wolf-like traits and is more of a wolf with witch-like traits.

This chapter is a Halloween adjacent, as we decided to go more into the backstory of Lupe, which we have been discussing for a while. Originally, we actually didn't plan on giving Lupe a backstory. We didn't think he needed one, he was just blood-thirsty and sadistic. He didn't need a reason to be what he was and we thought about leaving his past a mystery. But when we brought him back for B&B, we decided that we needed to give him some backstory.

I'd like to give credit to ultimate-drax for the Blood Eagle torture to give one of the deaths for Lupe. When we have to figure out creative ways for Lupe to die, I remember the Blood Eagle from drax who long ago may have shown me the video of this method vikings have used long ago, also it was done from The Vikings tv series.

Yeah, as many recall from the Q and As about Jackie's mom being from a rival family, we've given Pearl's last name as 'Jammin', which as you all can guess our love of music references, sounds like Pearl Jam.

The dogs that Zee has, Four-Nosed Retrievers, are the same kind of dogs like the one from "Once Upon A Swap" episode of TOH. Like the one the Emperor's Coven used as some kind of a guard dog or tracker.

That's it for notes. Halloween draws near so stay tuned for the releases of Book 3 and the upcoming Luz Clawthorne 2024 chapter.

Review section:

Matteso585: 1) At least Inwell Prep doesn't have a survival to the fittest decree, and no one is abused in the school, so it's more on close to Crystal Prep in Equestria Girls. So it's too soon to assume the principal's evil. For that matter, the weapons are just there for display since the school is also a museum, which combine those two together, is admittedly concerning. 2) Now you know her plans.

Crash X Fusion: Now that would be an interesting AU, which is pretty much what we're exploring with Tabrella.

Shuffollower: Well, if you have seen RWBY, this is just scratching the surface of Darci's past relationship with Hayden, which has become a touchy subject when asked about relationships. As for the Shallows, well Tabrella was honestly a spoiled witch as bad as the Shallows. As for Tracy, well she has been doing her own exercizing routines the entire time, so that's the reason why she's been absent. And it's not the masquarade ball chapter, which will come at a later time.

Spantidem7: 1) What did those guys do to provoke Whitney's wrath?

They cheated her father. The chapter made that very clear.

2) Seriously, why is Cross the only one who gets threatened when he wants to hang out with his girls? Neither Eda nor Willow threatened Amity, same for Alador or the twins, and no one threatened Emily when she took an interest in Lindsay, even though she was literally a criminal and an abuser of her previous girlfriend. Why weren't they threatened, but Cross was? No offense, but it seems like a complete double standard to me.

It's called a running gag, just like Cross being teased by his sister and his cousin. Plus, it was in-character for the characters to threaten him. It would have been out-of-character for Eda to threaten Amity or even for Willow to threaten Amity.

3) Does Mel have any control over ghosts? Because in mythology she is a goddess associated with nightmares, ghosts, madness, the Moon, and witchcraft.

She can boss ghosts around, sure.

4) Will there ever be a lemon scene with Lindsay? I ask because ultimate-drax made me curious. I'm blaming you right now.

No. She is a 'wait to have sex after marriage' kind of girl.

5) How old is Andrea?

Eighteen.

6) Will the Lindsay/Dusty rivalry ever be explored further? That would be genuinely hilarious.

Potentially in LOWTH.

And yeah, neat Pokemon teams for each of the characters.