Chapter Text
"Stop adorably hopping away, you...Huh?" Luz looked around the tent she ended up in in confusion.
"Whoa. I thought I had a lot of weird stuff." She picked up a weird looking doll on a hanger, "But this‐‐ this is impressive.
"Finally, you're back." Luz suddenly heard a female voice and she gasped before quickly ducking to not get caught. When she realized it was from outside of the tent she peaked out.
"Now let's see what we've got here." At the same time the owl that took Luz's book hopped on to her staff and the woman twisted it making it turn into wood like the rest of the staff. She can't stop herself from gasping again.
The woman sifts through the objects, most of them seemed to be useless to her, but it didn't matter to Luz until she pulled out her book. Luz watched as she held it over a candle and
She let out a deeply offended gasp before running over and grabbing the book. "Excuse me, sorry, it's mine, thank you."She quickly ran back towards the door she came from just for it to close and fold up, making her turn back to the woman.
The woman clicked a button on the key in her hand, "You're not going anywhere." As she spoke she lowered the pair of funny glasses she was wearing with a glare on her face.
Luz quickly stuffed her book into her small side bag before she ducked under the tent and ran while looking behind her until she reached the end of a cliff. She let out a noise of surprise as she quickly took in the entire scene in front of her. There were monsters and creatures that she definitely wasn't familiar with.
"Oh, no, no, no, no! What's going on?" She let out a scream when she noticed something approaching her but nervously smiled when she noticed it was a fairy. "Oh, hello, little fairy. Are you going to tell me this is all a fantastical dream?"
"Give me your skin!!!" The fairy opened it's mouth showing all of it's large teeth and Luz screamed before slapping the fairy down.
"Where am I? Did I die? Am I in the bad place?" She was definitely preoccupied with her thoughts so much that she didn't even notice when the woman from before suddenly placed her hand on her shoulder and snorted.
"You wish."
Luz quickly sat down on the stool and curled her legs close to her. "I'm so sorry! I just wanted my book! If you're gonna eat my skin, just make it quick! Just do it now!" She pushed her arm out with closed eyes as she waited for what she was expecting to be a painful process.
"Eat you? Why would I eat... a potential customer?" After hearing that Luz slowly opened her eyes and saw that Eda was smiling.
She held up a green croc slipper. "Can I offer you a human foot filled with holes?"
Next came a var of soap. "A bar of green human candy?"
Then she held up a dead television. "Oh, oh! How about this black shadow box that reflects only sadness?"
Luz laughed, "That's not all it can do. Here, let me see it." She then took the t.v and two batteries from what Eda had labeled as 'HUMAN CANDY (???)'. She easily put them in and turned it on and it started playing to a guy dancing and working out with music playing.
"Voilà!"
It quickly caught a bunch of the surrounding monster's attention and they came over to crowd Eda, all of them offering her cash for the box.
"What did you say your name was?" Eda asked with a smirk.
"I'm Luz. Luz Noceda."
"Well, Luz, that was pretty clever... for a human." She spoke while collecting the cash from everyone.
"That's kind of a weird thing for another human to say."
"Oh, dear child," She suddenly snatched off the head scarf she was wearing and presented her pointy ears. "I'm not like you."
She then climbed onto her table above everyone who was still trying to give her their money. "I'm Eda the Owl Lady, the most powerful witch on the Boiling Isles!"
"A witch?" Luz asked though mostly to herself since no one heard.
"I am a respected, feared,"
A guard came out of the crowd and suddenly slammed onto the tv everyone wanted, "Busted!"
"Run! It's a guard!" Everyone around them started screaming and running away suddenly.
"Eda the Owl Lady, you are wanted for misuse of magic and demonic misdemeanors." He held up a wanted poster with both her and a smaller creature near the bottom.
"Whoa! Witch criminal!" Luz stared on in shock while watching from behind a table.
"You are hereby ordered to come with me to the conformatorium." He said and quickly grabbed her arm but she quickly took it back out of his hold.
"Would you guys quit following me around? I haven't done squat."
"And you're coming too..." He quickly picked up Luz who screamed in surprise and then stared at him. "...for fraternizing with a criminal."
"W‐What? That's not cool!"
"Oh, all right, all right, you win. Just let me get my stuff." She reached down and quickly grabbed her staff before slamming it in the guard's face making him fall back and drop Luz.
Eda quickly gathered all her things together before remembering the door. "Whoops. Can't forget this." She pulled the key back out and clicked a button which made the door float over with the rest of her stuff. "Follow me, human." She said before suddenly running away.
"This is crazy. If I die here, my mom's gonna kill me!" Luz said while also running as she was told.
"Ha! I won't let 'em hurt you. A human like you is much more valuable to me alive than dead."
"Wait. What's that supposed to..." Before she could even finish speaking, Eda quickly jumped up and grabbed her arm pulling her suddenly onto her staff.
"Whoo‐hoo!"
The guard who was chasing them stopped at the same spot that Eda had flown off at. "You won't get away with this, Owl Lady! Yeah, all right. You did. You got away with it. She got away with it, everybody! Typical." He said before walking away.
"You can open your eyes now, human." Eda spoke while looking down at Luz who had her body scrunched up and her eyes tightly knit together and with a few tears in her eyes.
Luz made a few noises before she actually looked down and noticed they were flying. "Ah!" She slipped down and quickly clung upside down to the staff. "Flying staffs, crazy monsters, you're a witch!" As she spoke Eda easily picked her up and sat her upright on the staff.
"What is this place?"
"This is the Boiling Isles.Every myth you humans have is caused by a little of our world leaking into yours." As she spoke a flying Griffin flew by them and screeched before spitting out a bunch of spiders.
"A griffin! I knew it!"
"Yep. Griffins, vampires, giraffes..."
"Giraffes?"
"Oh, yeah. We banished those guys." She got off the staff as she continued, but her hand also happened to detach from her wrist, "Bunch of freaks."
As soon as Luz noticed it she scream and practically jumped off of the staff. Eda walked back over and grabbed it before connecting it back. "Oops. That happens sometimes."
"Well, I've had enough adventure for today. This is clearly not the PG fantasy world I always dreamed about, so can you help me get back home?" Luz asked trying to be as polite as she could be right before Eda slammed her staff right in front of her.
"Only if you help me first." Eda then chuckled, "Ah, now, come along, human."
"Woah!"
As they approached a strange looking hous, Luz couldn't help but ask, "Aren't you worried about those guards finding us?"
"Nope. My house has a state‐of‐the‐art defense system."
Right after she said that the owl on hthe door of the house started to talk. "Hoot‐hoot! Password, please! Aah!" Eda didn't even bother to answer him, instead she just poked him in the eyes.
"We got no time for this, Hooty. Let us in."
"All right, all right! Geez! You never want to have any fun! Ow! Hoot!" After he complained he then opened his mouth to the size of the door to let them in.
Eda and Luz walked into Hooty's mouth while leaving their bag outside. "Welcome to..." She snapped her fingers just as a bunch of candles lit up the room letting Luz admire everything. "the Owl House, where I hide away from the pressures of modern life. Also the cops. Mm, also ex‐boyfriends." She chuckled at her own little joke while Luz still seemed to be awe.
"This place is beautiful! Do you live here all alone?"
"Actually I have some roommates." Before Eda can say anything else there was some stomping coming down the hall.
"Who dares intrude on the King of demons!" A deep voice was vibrating through the entire house until a small figure emerged from the hallway door. Luz's eyes immediately widened at him and she quickly scooped him up in her arms.
"¡Ay, que lindo! Eda, he's so cute! Who's a widdle guy? Who's a widdle guy? Is it you? Is it you?" King squealed and started squirming to get out of her arms.
" No! I don't know who your little guy is! Eda, who is this monster?"
"Oh, this is Luz, the human. She's here to help us with our little... situation."
"Oh, yay!"
Luz finally let him go and looked back at Eda more worried. "Um, I don't exactly-" She was cut off by a groan that came from the corner of the room. Luz's head snapped in that direction, just in time to see a huge pile of clothes rise from the ground.
"Is that some kind of clothes monster!"
"What the heck, I'm a monster now?" The clothes slowly fell down to reveal a teenage girl that looked around her age. She seemed to be about her height as she approached, and she had brown hair with red ends and was let down to right above her shoulders. She was wearing a pretty plain red shirt and some ripped up black pants. They look like they had been resown at certain places and some other spots just had patches over them. The girl had a scowl on her face and despite Luz's desire to introduce herself, the glare she was getting kinda made her shrink back a bit.
"Oh look, she's actually awake. Miss, I can't work this morning, I feel like I came down with a last minute fever." Eda placed her hands on her hips and stared down the younger girl who avoided eye contact.
"You can't even pretend you didn't know I was lying, you just didn't feel like arguing with me this morning." She said and then looked back at Luz like she wasn't just glaring at her a few seconds ago.
"So uh, who's she?" Eda patted Luz on the back and ended up pushing her right into Amity who quickly side stepped her, letting Luz fall to the ground.
"Oops." Both Eda and Amity mumbled while Luz groaned and King ran next to her and started to laugh.
Luz stood up and faced the girl again and offered her hand. "Hi, I'm Luz, the human."
"A human?" She asked slowly and looked back at Eda behind her and Eda started pointing at King's head.
"Ohhhh, well... I'm Amity." She took her hand and lightly shook it before pulling away and going back towards the pile of clothes.
"No you don't." Eda sent Owlbert who quickly caught Amity's shirt in his beak and started to pull her back.
"Wha! Hey! Owlbert, let me go!" She sighed before turning around and facing the three.
"You already told me that you were lying, you really think I'm just gonna leave you here to sleep again?" She asked and Amity looked a bit sheepish before she just accepted her fate.
"So, uh, what am I supposed to be helping you out with?" Luz asked a bit nervously and Eda took a step back.
"Just... let me explain." She started and made a circle with her hands and visuals showed while she continued, "King was once a mighty king of demons, until his crown of power was stolen, and he became... this."
"You mean this little bundle of joy?" Luz asked while suddenly hugging King again.
"The crown is being held by the evil Warden Wrath and locked away behind a magical force field that only a human can break through‐‐ a human like you. If you help us retrieve his crown, we'll send you back to your realm. So whaddya say? Plus, who could say no to this cute face?" She took King this time and squeezed him in her hands and he squirmed.
"No, please don't encourage her!" He yelled and Eda dropped him, this time Amity snickered.
"I mean, we're kinda your only way home."
"So I don't really have a choice, do I?" There was a very obvious nervous look on her face that Eda just chose to ignore.
"Nope. Now, we've got no time to lose." She scooped Luz up in her arms and quickly grabbed Amity by the back of her shirt as she was trying to get back to the pile of clothes.
"Hey!" She yelled before she sighed and let herself be dragged out.
"Soon, Mr. Ducky, we shall drink the fear of those who mocked us." King yelled before chasing them.
"Where are we going?" Luz asked and Eda didn't bother to look down at her or set her down before answering,
"Somewhere super fun." "Somewhere you don't want to be." Both Eda and Amity spoke at the same time, and Eda did take the time to glare at the girl before shaking her head.
"Ignore her." She said and Amity couldn't help but chuckle as they left on their way to the conformatorium but she still made sure to quickly grab her jacket that was on a hook right by the door.