章 25: Chapter 25: RATs with Wings
Flint sat in the middle of his room with the remains of Philip's journal in front of him, random portions of the pages restored. His efforts at restoring the journal had been relatively unsuccessful. The restored pages were actually all entries that Disney had already played back. He'd found that knowing the information on them already acted as an anchor for him, allowing him to use his magic to restore the pages. He had yet to figure out how to restore completely new entries, but it was better than nothing at least.
Flint scoffed as he looked at Disney, who had hidden away in his terrarium. "Stupid Disney and making us have to rely on a damn rat," Flint grumbled.
Flint was also, understandably, more than a little pissed at Hooty at the moment. The bird-tube had ended up swallowing Disney at one point and traumatized him. However, Flint's anger at that moment probably hadn't done them any favors either.
Luz could be seen pulling up the blanket to a bed, looking under it with something held in her other hand.
"Come on, little buddy. You got portal info that we need." Luz said carefully. She pulls out a carrot with an eye on it and held it out. "You want a carrot? Does baby like carrots?"
Disney the Echo Mouse was cowering on the other side, shaking as it let out some scared chattering. After Luz offers the carrot, the mouse hesitantly approaches.
Luz backs up as Disney comes out of hiding, placing the carrot in her lap as the mouse follows. The mouse runs onto her lap to eat the offering.
"Here we go. It's okay. See, you're safe here." Luz said soothingly.
The mouse was safe…for all of three seconds as Hooty swoops in out of nowhere and eats it in one fell gulp, causing Luz to look on in a combination of horror and fury.
"Fear not, maiden! Hooty, the guardian owl of Ga'Hoot, has protected you once more!" Hooty declared. "GA'HOOOOOOOOT!"
Luz stared at Hooty for a moment as her eye twitched. She took a deep breath before exhaling, attempting to temper herself. Luz took a deep breath and yelled.
"FLIIIIIIIIINNNTTT!" Luz called.
CRASH
The windowed wall to their room now sported a Flint-shaped hole (including a spot for his tail) as Flint now stood behind Luz.
"What happened?" Flint said, his voice laced with concern.
Luz pointed at Hooty, still holding her rage (barely). "Hooty just swallowed Disney."
Cue One-Winged Angel
As Flint's head turned slowly to face Hooty, his body creaking loudly as if it were a door in a horror movie, his pupils glowing dangerously as he glared at the infernal house demon.
Hooty, for once, actually seemed to look genuinely terrified as the part-human stared him down, feeling the overwhelming feeling of violence that the boy was radiating.
"You shall pay for your insolence," Flint growled out, surging forward and forcing Hooty's mouth open and going inside to retrieve the mouse.
"AGH! HOT! HOOOOOT!" Hooty screeched, as Flint clawed through the house demon's body, his hands lit with flames as he searched for the mouse.
'Pretty sure Hooty still has some internal burns, but I couldn't care less, Flint thought as he remembered that moment. The guy had eaten their best shot at getting home for Titan's sake! Heaven forbid Flint to be just a little bit absolutely livid.
Flint noticed his still-inactive palisman sitting nearby, which seemed to spark something in his mind. Flint put the journal back in his hammerspace and stretched before getting up to go talk to Eda.
Flint made his way to the door of Eda's room and knocked.
"It's open," Eda responded from the other side.
Flint opened the door and was greeted by the sight of Eda looking over a checklist at her corner table.
"What do you want Fireboy?" Eda asked, not looking away from her checklist.
"You know how I got my palisman after visiting Bat Queen?" Flint asked.
Eda wrote something else down on her checklist. "Yeah, what about it?"
"Your sister was there too…and your father," Flint stated, watching Eda visibly tense at the mention of her father.
"Oh…really now?" Eda asked nervously.
"Eda, look at me," Flint ordered. He waited until Eda turned her head to look him in the eyes, allowing Flint to see the pained expression she wore clear as day. "Dell doesn't blame you. Hell, he blames himself for not thinking about how the beast might react."
Eda's pale skin, miraculously, managed to make itself look even paler as she looked at him in shock. "What!? No! That wasn't his fault!" Eda denied adamantly.
"Just like it isn't your fault that the Owl Beast attacked him," Flint stated firmly. "So stop blaming yourself for something you didn't do. Yes, the Owl Beast may have hurt him using your body, but that is not the same as youattacking him."
Eda pursed her lips, trying to think of any flaws in Flint's logic, but she couldn't find any. "Okay…I get it." Eda said quietly.
"You get what?" Flint asked expectantly.
"I understand," Eda said a bit louder.
"You understand what?" Flint amended.
Eda gained a frustrated look before realization flashed in her eyes. She then sent Flint a flat glare. "You want me to say it, don't you?" She cursed internally when the boy had the gall to nod. "Fine. It's not my fault that Dad got hurt. There, you happy?"
Flint smiled. "Yes, though I'll be happier once you talk to him and apologize for avoiding him all these years," Flint said, not even bothering to be subtle with his hinting. "Besides, doesn't it just feel better to say it out loud?"
Eda shot a half-hearted glare at Flint before sighing. "Yeah…it does." Eda then shot him a skeptical look. "You planned this whole interaction out, didn't you?" 'Son of a- STOP SMIRKING YOU LITTLE SHIT!' Eda screamed internally at seeing the boy's immediate reaction.
"I hate you," Eda said with half-lidded eyes.
"Love ya too, Mama Eda," Flint said dismissingly.
Eda rolled her eyes as she looked back at the checklist beside her. Flint had begun to mess with her by calling her that lately. "Yeah, yeah." Eda locked onto a picture taken back during Grom with all four of them in the picture, pulling it down and looking at it with a soft smile. "I guess I'm no longer the same Owl Lady I used to be. But…maybe that's not a bad thing," Eda admitted.
The two hear Luz and King outside chanting something as they walk up to the window, Eda putting the picture down on the table before heading over. They look down to the lawn to see Luz and King doing pull-ups on Eda's staff, hovering in the air.
"And three, and four, and five, and six, and seven, and eight, and nine, and ten!" Luz chants, counting as she finishes a pull-up.
"And weh, and weh, and weh, and weh, and weh, and weh, and weh, and weh!" King chanted in sync with Luz, stopping momentarily as he hung upside-down.
Luz stops and looks at King. "Alright, King. What's the first thing you're going to do when you meet your dad?"
"And ten thousand! Well, once we're done training, I'm gonna move out of that closet, that's for sure. Then, I'm going to ugly cry. Hard!" King responded, with Eda looking on with an uncertain look.
"Have you told Eda about your decision to le-"
"Shh!" King quickly shushes Luz. Almost immediately, they hear a noise and look up at Eda's window, which is now closed.
Flint looks on at Eda as she crouches beneath the window frame, a panicked expression on her face.
"I…I'm not ready yet. I'm not sure how she'll react." Flint and Eda could hear King say worriedly.
Eda looks over at Flint and sees his worried expression. "Eda…is everything okay?" Flint asked.
Eda began to sweat nervously before letting out a sigh. "I guess all of you are leaving, huh? Even King." Eda remarked as she walked over and picked up the picture, opening the nearby trunk.
Flint frowned. "Hey, we're just trying to find a way back. We aren't just gonna leave forever. You do know that…right?" Flint asked.
Eda actually seemed surprised by Flint's words as she turned back to him. "But-But what about the Human Realm?"
"Of course, we want to get back. We're not just gonna abandon our moms or T-" Flint cut himself off. "But we both enjoy the life we've made here. Willow, Gus, King, you, Amity- Hell, even Hooty!" Flint listed.
Flint walked up to Eda and crouched to eye-level with her before gesturing to his tail. "And don't tell me you forgot about all the weird stuff happening to me! Or how much I want to destroy that bastard Belos!" Flint declared.
Eda looked at him wordlessly before shaking her head. "Right. I didn't even think about all that." Eda then let out a groan. "Ugh. I blame the curse. All this thing has done is screw with me. I didn't used to be so attracted to shiny stuff you know." Eda remarked.
Flint blinked at that before his lips parted into an 'O' shape. "Ohhhhhhh. I think I get it now. Your curse must be causing an Empty Nest situation." Flint theorized before smirking. "Aw, you do care about us," Flint said cheekily.
Eda rolled her eyes. "Don't get full of yourself."
"I didn't hear a 'no',~" Flint said in a sing-song tone.
Eda ignored him and looked back at the open trunk, before locking eyes on a particular item. The item was a bell cittern with a rainbow and bolt carved into it. Without a word, she stuffs the Grom photo into her hair and picks the cittern up as she gets to her feet.
"Heh. Well, you sure do bring back memories." Eda said with a fond smile.
Flint got to his feet as well, looking at the instrument curiously. "Oh, I didn't know you could play."
Eda snorts. "There are many things you don't know about me," Eda said slyly. "Maybe this is what I need, a nice distraction."
Eda starts playing a song, piquing Flint's curiosity. As Eda is focused on playing, Flint watches in astonishment as a wave of bard magic permeates through the air, coming from Eda. The bardic aura causes various items around the room to begin floating.
"What the- How are you doing that?!" Flint asked in shock.
Eda dons a look of confusion as she turns to Flint, but stops as she realizes what's happening around her.
"Has my magic returned?" Eda said with a gasp.
As she says that, Eda's gem begins to glow ominously. Flint felt the hairs along his body go on end as he felt another wave of magic grow. This one was different though, it felt…corrupt. Flint notices a boot hovering in the air suddenly turning dark, covered in that same corrupted magic.
Eda stops playing, and suddenly everything falls back to the ground, and the corrupted magic coating the boot disappears too.
Eda scoffs. "I guess not."
Flint's brow furrowed as he felt something nearby, akin to the wave of magic he'd felt a moment ago. He turns toward Eda's nest and notices something wrong with one of the plants.
"Um…Eda?" Flint asked cautiously.
Eda was about to put the cittern down, only to turn to Flint, confused and worried from his tone.
"What's wrong?" Eda asked.
Flint walked over to the nest and carefully reached for the potted plant. Parts of the plant and pot were withering away, the corrupted magic lingering on it. Flint hesitated to touch it, before instead electing to cast a telekinesis spell that held it in the air between them, for the sake of safety.
Eda looked on at the plant in mild horror before looking down at her gem and the cittern. "What…what did I doto it?"
"I don't know, but this magic. It feels…wrong. Whatever you did to it, it seems to have caused it to magically decay. The magic I'm sensing from it is corrupted," Flint stated.
"Damn. You have some really strong magic if you can sense it," Eda stated.
Flint looked at Eda, making her blink in surprise at the horrified look on his face. "You don't understand. I feel like I'm gonna hurl because of just how wrong this tainted magic feels." Flint revealed.
Flint keeled over as he breathed heavily, causing the plant to drop to the ground. He then quickly vacated the room, fighting the urge to vomit as he scrambled for the bathroom. The whole time, Eda couldn't help but watch in worry for the boy and was unsettled by the look in his eyes. If that was how he reacted to experiencing it, then she was suddenly very glad she couldn't sense what he could.
"-We were able to get Disney back safely, but he needs to recover," Luz stated.
"Huh. I was wondering why Hooty was avoiding Flint." Eda said with a hum from the couch.
The quartet was currently in the living room, with Luz and King having returned from some flying training using the Owl Staff. Flint was busy tinkering with some of the tech he'd set aside a while back, taking apart various items in case they could be useful in getting home, as well as finally getting a better look at the Golden Guard's staff he'd swiped when they first met.
Luz had mentioned running into the Golden Guard the night after Palisman Adoption Day. Flint was understandably mad that the Aurum Asshole was willing to steal the palismen for his boss, but was pleasantly surprised when Luz mentioned Goldilocks let her go. Although…he couldn't figure out why Luz got nervous when mentioning him.
King jumped up onto the coffee table with a pamphlet in his paws, handing it to Eda. "In the meantime, this weekend is the Gland Prix!"
Luz began to explain. "Hexside, Glandus, and St. Epiderm students race to win glory, honor, and-"
King pulled down the pamphlet to look at Eda excitedly. "Fame! Winners also get an interview with the Boiling Isles News! Do you realize what this means?"
"We're going to enter the competition and get King on camera to send a message to his dad!" Luz declared as both raised their arms up in a 'ta-da!' type of way.
Flint paused what he was doing for a moment and looked at King with a frown, his face unreadable before shaking his head. Flint stared off to the side and tilted his head with a confused look now present.
Eda however, was caught off guard. "Oh, that's...great," Eda said, putting on a forced smile.
King tapped his index claws in front of him nervously though. "But, uh...there's something I'd like to talk to you about first. You see, I think it's time for me to le-"
Eda's eyes widen in panic. "Leave...the talkin' for later. If you want to win, there's no time for talk. You gotta go practice. Now." Eda interrupted, trying to recover from her outburst.
She could already feel his gaze on her though.
"Wanna head back out while your tummy's empty?" Luz asked King.
"Okay!" King agreed happily.
"Let's go!" Luz said, laughing joyfully as the two ran out of the house, closing the door behind them.
Eda's smile soon changes into a frown and she sighs with displeasure. "Don't look at me like that," Eda stated with a grumble.
"Look at you like what?" Flint asked with faux innocence.
Eda didn't dignify him by looking at him, simply getting up and preparing to head out. "I can feel it. Come on, I already know you won't leave it be. I need a change of scenery and some apple blood though." Eda remarked.
The two can now be seen at a place called Grimgrub's Pub. Each was sitting on a barstool, with Flint sitting to Eda's right with his palisman poking out of his hood, and the woman herself with a juice box of apple blood on the counter, her head slumped depressingly on the counter.
"I mean, I get that you and Luz want to still come around, but I just…don't wanna hear him say it, you know? I was finally getting used to having others in the house, then whoosh! Rug's ripped out from underneath me." Eda said depressingly.
Flint sighed. "I get it. But you can't just avoid him, you have to face it eventually." Flint said.
The bartender nearby shrugged as he cleaned the counter nearby. "I get it too. It's like every time you come in here, I think, 'Maybe she'll pay her tab this time'." The bartender said, sending a not-so-subtle hint at Eda.
As Eda glared at the man and downs the box of apple blood out of spite, Flint sighed. "How much?" Flint asked, causing the bartender to cast a spell that summoned a paper into Flint's hands. "Huh. It's actually less than I thought it'd be." Flint said after reading it, mildly surprised.
The bartender waved his finger, causing the paper to extend, rolling along the ground for a solid ten seconds before stopping.
"Aaaaaaaaand there it is," Flint said, a flat stare and not at all surprised.
The two Owl House residents' attention was caught when a commotion was happening on the other side of the pub. It was two coven guards apprehending a woman, who was stated to be a wild witch, who was escorted out of the pub. The scene angers Eda who crushes the empty box of apple blood on the counter as she got up from her seat. She cracked her neck and knuckles, which put her Grafters on display.
"Put it on my tab, Kevin," Eda said as she walked to the door.
The now-named Kevin was about to groan when a sack of snails was dropped on the counter in front of him with a note.
'For Eda's tab. Including future visits.' The note said.
Kevin turned toward Flint, only to see he had dispersed into a burst of scarlet fire that flowed through the air toward the entrance. He shrugged, accepting the money.
"Oi! Let her go!" Eda ordered the guards.
The shorter of the guards waved her off. "Back off, Owl Lady."
The second guard who had a larger build laughed condescendingly. "Yeah, no coven wants a powerless witch."
Eda lets out a snort. "'Powerless', huh?" Eda asked, throwing her left arm up with her open palm toward him, causing vines to sprout forth and pull him closer to her. With him in range, she uppercut him with her ice-gauntlet-covered right hand, an explosion of force coming from the contact and sending the guard flying into the distance. The remnants of a fire glyph faded from her knuckles as the ice on her hand exploded off her arm, causing Eda to shake off the pain a bit.
The smaller of the guards raised his hand, about to cast a spell until he felt a tapping on his shoulder. He turned, only to get slugged, knocking him out and to the ground as Flint stood behind him, with the whole commotion attracting the attention of everyone nearby.
"Damn kid, I'm starting to like those 'anime' if these kinds of tricks you've taught me keep working," Eda remarked, rubbing her arm.
"Hey, I just told you the science of it. At least this is more controlled than what Zuko's scar twin did. Nice move with turning it into an explosive punch," Flint praised.
The larger guard managed to get back onto his feet, letting out a whistle that summoned more guards. Flint and Eda got into fighting stances as they prepared to fend them off, until they heard…music?
Everyone turned in the direction of the music, notably being caused by four mysterious individuals wearing bat masks standing around the recently rebuilt Belos statue (Flint made note of how quickly the damn thing had been replaced…and to destroy it himself once the group wasn't near it) with one standing on the pedestal above their companions. The music causes the gravity in the environment to lower, surrounding it in a similar aura to what Eda had done earlier. The aura of bard magic disappears as the music comes to a halt. The violinst on the statue's pedestal, seemingly the leader, gestures to the area.
"Look at the Emperor's lackeys! Trying to, uh...Do I really have to say this?" The leader turned to one of the other members, a tambourine player.
"We all agreed on the script." The tambourine player chastised, her voice sounding uncomfortably like a certain blue-flamed psycho to Flint.
[I didn't know that Katya's VA was also Azula's until writing this chapter. I knew she sounded familiar!]
"Trying to...mute the music of our hearts?" The leader said with a groan, their voice clear with embarrassment. Flint looked to Eda with a raised brow before noticing her looking at the leader with a calculative look, as they continued their speech. "And weaken magic, by forcing witches into covens against their will."
"Blasphemy!" One of the new guards yelled.
"Blasphem-you!" The leader countered.
"See, you're a natural!" The recorder player paused to praise the leader before continuing to play with her instrument with the others.
"That's right, Bonesborough. They take your magic. They restrict your knowledge. They say to do it in the name of unity, but what they really want is control. You know what we say to that, folks? Shove off!" The leader declared, playing a note that forced some of the guards' bodies to move on their own from the music, before marching off and into some trash cans.
Tinella Nosa ran up to them. "Who are you hewoes?"
The violinist responded. "We are the Bards Against the Throne, AKA..."
"Surrounded!" A guard said, putting on earmuffs as guards surrounded the group, causing the group's confidence to falter a bit.
"Surrounded, eh?" Everyone turns to see Flint wearing a confident smile, and Eda having disappeared from beside him. "Funny…because who said being surrounded means you win?"
A few of the guards visibly tense at his presence. "Shit! It's the Scarlet Phoenix!"
"Ooh. Love the ring to that." Flint remarked with a satisfied smile.
"Psst!"
The four bards turn away from Flint and see Eda peeking out from within a manhole.
The bassoonist creates a smokescreen, bathing the area and obscuring everyone's view. When the smoke clears the group, including Flint and Eda, are gone…
And the once-statue had been turned into a pile of molten stone.
One of the guard's groans of frustration was only furthered by hearing the tell-tale sounds of cackling in the distance.
The sewer pipe leads outside the city as Eda reaches the grate, unscrewing one of the bars to give enough space to walk through. Clearly, this wasn't the first time she had done so.
Eda exited the sewer first and helped each of the bards down as the leader stayed back a bit. "End of the line, folks. Pro-tip: Always have an exit strategy if you're going against the law." Eda advised.
"Thank you. How can we ever repay you two?" the tambourine player asked.
"Well…you could let me join your little team." Eda requested, causing the three to gasp.
Eda held her hand up, causing a ball of fire to appear above it with a fire glyph. "My magic may be gone, but I've still got some tricks up these sleeves. Perks of being an agent of chaos." Eda said with a smile…before frowning in thought. "Speaking of…where the hell is he?" Eda asked, looking around confused.
Flint then descended from above with his fire wings out, cackling as he landed to Eda's right.
"You totally destroyed the statue, didn't you?" Eda asked with a raised brow.
"Bitch, you think I wouldn't?" Flint said with a toothy smirk.
Eda noticed Flint's palisman glowing dimly from his hood, only for the glow to disappear as his wings did. Eda filed that away for later and smiled. "Nah, I knew you wouldn't be able to help yourself," Eda responded.
"Oh Titan, not another one…" Eda heard the leader of the group grumble from their spot as she and Flint turned to them. The leader cleared their throat and exited the sewer with their back turned to the two. "Sorry, we're not accepting new members."
Eda shot a flat look at the leader. "Is that any way to treat an old friend, Raine Whispers?" Eda asked, flicking the violinist's mask off.
The now-revealed Raine is a middle-aged witch with medium brown skin and mint-green hair with white streaks near the bottom, darker mint-green eyebrows, and green eyes. The witch wore a large gray earring on their right ear. Otherwise, the outfit the witch wore was similar to the other present bards: a long, black tunic with a maroon collar, gold trim, three gold buttons, a brown belt, crimson pants, and black knee-high boots.
Raine is initially shocked before looking at Eda with an angry glare. The two glared at each other for a while as Flint looked between them back and forth like a tennis match, one thought in his mind.
'I'm sensing some serious UST right now.' Flint thought.
"So, the Head Witch of the Bard Coven likes pretending to be a rebel. Too bad they're not very good at it." Eda taunted.
Raine glared at her intensely…before throwing their hands forward and letting out a whine. "Eda! You're embarrassing me in front of my crew." Raine said bashfully, a blush creeping on their face as they looked away.
"Huh?/¿Qué pasa?" The bards and Flint said respectively.
Raine sighs before walking to Eda's left and gesturing to her. "Hey, it's all right, everyone. The Owl Lady is an old friend." Raine then glanced at Flint. "And I suppose you are too, given what you did at the petrification ceremony."
The remaining members lifted their masks.
Flint gasped. "Oh my gosh! I remember you! From the Conformitorium!" Flint said, pointing at the tambourine player, revealing to be the same food-fic writer from that day. "…I never did get your name." Flint thought with a frown.
The woman chuckled. "It's Katya. It's nice to see you too kid. Also, what's with the look?" The now-revealed Katya asked, pointing to his tail.
"We're still trying to figure that one out actually," Flint muttered.
"So, you gonna join our group?" The bassoonist asked. Flint couldn't help but think the guy's voice sounded oddly like Hunter's. [Zeno Robinson voices both.]
The recorder player glanced to the side with a contemplative look. "The kid did hold off the Emperor," she considered.
"Believe it or not, Eda's actually the one that inspired me to make the group," Raine revealed.
Eda looked at Raine in shock. "Say what?"
"It was a while ago, but I still remember it so clearly. You told me 'You can't run from your fears forever, which is why you've gotta get the jump on them. Give 'em a whack right in the face.'" Raine chuckled fondly at the memory. "I thought you were just joking around." Raine's laughter stopped as their expression hardened. "I only learned what it meant when I started teaching for the Bard Coven. The Emperor prioritized recruitment through force. And anyone who refused to fall in line disappeared." Raine revealed.
Raine's fist clenched. "Well, I wasn't going to stand for that! So I took matters into my own hands. I carefully moved up the ranks, and I found people who wanted to change things, like me. And that's when we formed the Bards Against the Throne, AKA..." Raine trailed off.
"The BATs!" Katya and the other two finished, before hissing.
"A ridiculous sounding name to make your enemies underestimate you…I respect it." Flint hummed in approval.
"…But the name's supposed to be serious." Raine pouted.
They notice coven guards searching and the BATs begin climbing the embankment.
Raine extends their hand to Eda. "Hey. We could use the help. What do you say?" Raine offered.
Eda blushed a bit before looking back to Flint, who insistently nodded with a wide smile on his face. Clearly, the boy was eager to inflict some chaos and mayhem to Belos' plans. Eda smiles before turning back to Raine and taking their hand.
After going back to the Owl House to retrieve some of Eda's maps, Luz and King training for the Gland Prix, and Eda feeling Flint's glare burning holes into the back of her head for reasons Eda couldn't understand; the duo of Eda and Flint could be seen in the BATs' base.
Flint sat at the meeting table with his chin on the table, his emotions a mixture of frustration with Eda, and lamenting that he still hadn't figured out how to awaken his palisman. The palisman sat unmoving on the table beside his head, as he glanced between it and the others.
As Flint did this, Eda proceeded to roll out a map and lay it at the meeting table. "Well, there you have it. Homemade maps of every nook and cranny in the city. Trust me, I've been working on these babies for years." Eda said with pride.
Raine nodded in approval before they leaned over the table, a map of The Hand behind them. "Okay. Here's the situation. Emperor Belos wants every wild witch in a coven before the Day of Unity."
"He's trying to steal as much magic as possible. We don't know why." The bassoonist, Derwin, stated from the side.
Flint frowned as he cupped his chin in thought. "This Day of Unity must either require a lot of magic, or he simply just wants to take away people's power." Flint couldn't help but still hate those sigils.
Raine gave an acknowledging nod. "We're still trying to figure that out ourselves, but our focus for now is to help those that have been captured. They intend to raid these four locations next." Raine informed, pointing to four locations marked with an X within a circle.
"At the same time? What do we do?" Katya wondered in worry.
"Don't worry, kids. Mama's got a plan." Eda stated with a smile.
"You're not our mom!" Amber adamantly denied it.
Eda turned to Flint. "You up to put the fear of the Titan into the guys on Spirit Lane?" Eda asked.
Eda's response from the boy was a mad cackle, which caused the BATs to back away in fear. Well…all but one.
"I think you and I will get along just fine," Amber said with a devilish smile.
Raine could only groan as they rubbed their face. "This is getting out of hand…"
Under the cover of night, three coven scouts and one guard could be seen escorting a wild witch.
"Alright. Take this criminal and put them with the others." The guard ordered one of the scouts. The tall scout with animal-like ears pointing up from their head saluted and walked the wild witch off with their hands bound behind their back.
As the scout left with the wild witch, one of the other scouts was walking past a dark alleyway. As they turned with their back to the alley, a hand suddenly shot from the darkness, reaching under their mask and over their mouth. The scout screamed, but was muffled as they were pulled into the alley. The sound of a punch could be heard before they flopped to the ground, their head poking out the alley and the scout groaning. After a moment, the scout was dragged completely into the alley, hidden from sight and evidently barely conscious.
The coven guard turned toward the alley just in time to see part of them be dragged into the alley, putting him and the other scout present on their guards. The coven guard turned to the other scout. "Investigate."
The scout nodded, their arm up and ready to cast a spell. They walked into the alley carefully, not letting their guard down as they walked further in. A crackling sound was heard and they turned to the source, only to see a palisman sitting in front of a regular-colored flame.
The scout tilted their head as they lowered their guard, reaching down and picking up the palisman. Its design appeared to be that of a wood-burned bird colored in both bright and dark scarlets across its body.
"Huh. Well, aren't you a snazzy little thing? Cool design." The scout praised.
The scout suddenly heard muffled shouting and brought their guard up, holding their finger out for a spell on their right as they held the palisman in their left. They looked to the source and saw their companion bound high on the wall at the end of the apparently one-way alley, their muffles panicked.
The scout was too shocked to notice the figure behind them.
"Wha-"
CRACK
Play Mephiles' Whisper
The coven guard was now even more on edge, both of his remaining scouts having disappeared into the alley and not returned. The worst part was the eerie tune he could hear emanating from all around him, leaving him unable to determine the source. As he searched, his nearly unnoticeable shadow began to warp. And that's when he heard it.
The cackling.
The guard's searching became more erratic, as the witch was beginning to freak out. The cackling grew louder, as did the guard's panic.
"WHERE ARE YOU?!" The guard demanded.
Suddenly, the laughter stopped, which only served to freak him out more. Behind him, a dark scarlet flame lit in the space his shadow occupied, as the flames expanded horizontally with a figure rising from the flames as if it were an elevator. The figure's teeth seemed to glow in the darkness, revealing a pointed sadistic smile as they leaned over the guard's shoulder.
"Here."
A few minutes later
The tall scout guiding the wild witch yawned. She hadn't been ready to perform a late-night raid tonight. Sure, at least her biology allowed her natural night-vision (very handy), but she owed her buddy Steve for covering her shift the one time so he cashed in that favor.
She didn't mind all that much. Steve was one of the main members in the coven she actually liked to be around. She just hadn't gotten a very good night's sleep recently. Working for the Emperor's Coven was not all it was cracked up to be. And honestly? She kinda missed just hanging with her old coven. This year was pretty rough already.
'Maybe I'll ask Steve if he wants to go out sometime this week.' The scout thought.
The sound of something landing behind her caused the scout and wild witch to pause in their tracks. Both turned around to see the three they had left in a pile on the ground, groaning in pain. The tall scout looked further up the road and-
The scout raised her arms in surrender. "Dude, I surrender, just please stop smiling at me like that!" The scout requested.
Thanks to her night vision, she could see the infamous Scarlet Phoenix blink in surprise. "Huh…not gonna lie, I was expecting at least some kind of spiel telling me to surrender," Scarlet Phoenix said in surprise.
"…You came back from the dead just to beat up the Emperor. I don't stand a Titan-damned chance." The scout countered.
Scarlet Phoenix shrugged at that. "Fair enough."
As she released the wild witch from their bindings, the scout could only think one thing.
'I should have stayed in the Tiny Cat Coven.'
The group tiredly walks back to base, with Katya piggybacking Derwin (who had fallen asleep), Amber still energetic, and Flint in a neutral state.
They stepped into the BATs' base as Amber walked in with her hands raised. "We did it! Eda, Flint, you're amazing!"
"And we actually helped people this time," Katya added.
Flint smiled. "If you think that was helpful, just wait until I finish my Sigil Remover."
Raine lies down on a pillow on the floor and lets out a sigh of relief. "I would very much like to see that. If what Eda said about you making those 'Grafters' is true, finding a method to remove the sigils that doesn't involve lopping the arm off would make all the difference."
Flint snorted. "Yeah, I'd rather not have to make people pull a Skywalker. You'd think that all I'd have to do is reverse the current, but there's something about those sigils that's making it not work. Either that of it needs to draw on a source of great power to work." Flint's expression became very serious. "The sigils don't seem to justseal magic, is the problem," Flint remarked.
Raine frowned as they looked at the sigil on their wrist. "That is…deeply concerning."
Flint shrugged as he turned back to the door. "Well, I'm gonna head back to the house…I'm probably gonna have to let Luz mess with my tail for not letting her know where I'd be." Flint lamented.
Eda snorted. "You could always say 'no' you know."
Flint turned back to her with the most intense stare Eda had ever seen from him. "With how much it makes her happy? Never." Flint said seriously…then immediately replaced the expression with an ear-to-ear smile. "See you at home! Byyeeeeee!" And with that, he wisped away and out the entrance.
"Tell Luz I said hi!" Katya called out as he left.
Raine could only lay there and chuckle at the teen's antics. "You certainly have a tendency of finding strange ones, Eda," Raine remarked.
"Well, let's just say that dealing with Fireboy and his Starlight has been a wild ride," Eda said fondly.
Raine raised a brow. "Is that supposed to be his name for the human girl I've heard you've been mentoring?"
"You got it Rainestorm. Her name apparently means 'Light' in one of their human languages." Eda said.
Raine couldn't help but smile. "'Rainestorm'. Heh. That brings back memories. I'll say though, it was quite the surprise for me to learn you took on students." Raine frowned. "Especially after I saw what happened during the petrification ceremony."
Eda's smile drooped as she sat down. "I knew the Emperor was awful, but…killing a kid? And calling it 'The Titan's will'? That's messed up."
"Yes. It is. But their fight left an impact on the Isles. Ever since that day, I heard the whispers of doubt in the castle. And the Emperor…he hates Flint. I could understand it if he was simply mad at him for the fight, or for making people question him, but…this is different. I don't know why, but he personally hates him." Raine stated.
Eda frowned in thought. That was…very odd.
Eda waved it off. "Enough about him, look at you! It's incredible how much stronger you've gotten since I last saw you. Though given your stage fright, I'm a bit confused about how you managed to snag Head Bard." Eda said curiously.
"I'm just that good. Say, do you still know any Bard spells?" Raine asked.
Eda clicked her teeth together. "I do, but…let's just say the curse messes with it more than we thought," Eda said vaguely.
Raine frowned in confusion. "What's that supposed to mean? Actually, why don't you just show me?" Raine asked, summoning a cittern that appeared in front of Eda. Eda catches the cittern and looks at Raine, shocked. "Unless of course, the Owl Lady's stage fright is too much for her to play for an old friend." Raine taunted.
Eda's face flushed embarrassedly but soon became serious. "Just remember, you asked for this," Eda warned. Eda starts playing the same tune from earlier, allowing bardic magic to permeate across the room. The floating items then began to decay before the conscious BATs' eyes. Eda stopped playing before any further damage could be done, causing the ruined maps to fall to the ground and Raine's earring to stop corroding just in the nick of time.
"See what I mean? Your rhapsody becomes my requiem. I should just stick with the Grafters. Call me if you need me." Eda said, handing the cittern back to a stunned Raine before heading out the exit.
Amber seemed to recover quickly from the display. Energetically bidding the woman farewell with a "Bye, Mama Eda!"
The next day, the Owl House residents could be seen at the starting line of the Gland Prix where the competing students are getting ready. The crowd chatters. Principal Bump talks with the fellow principals of Glandus High and St. Epiderm High in the background. Eda walks into the vicinity, looking for Luz and King. Luz, in her grudgby uniform, runs up and hugs her.
"Eda! I'm so glad you made it!" Luz said excitedly.
Flint walked up from nearby. "It's about time you got here," Flint stated. The boy then looked down to a wary King, before gesturing forward, seeming to try and hype the little guy up for something.
King looked up at Eda nervously. "Hey, uh, there's something I'd really like to tell you before the race starts." King requested.
Eda crouched and put an arm on King's shoulder. "Well, if it's so important, we can talk about it after the race…when you win, okay?" 'Okay, seriously, why is Fireboy glaring at me?'
"Uh, yeah, yeah. Okay." King relents, a bit bummed.
Nearby, Gus and his dad Perry (no, he isn't a platypus), stood before a giant crystal ball.
"Welcome, everyone, to the Gland Prix!" Perry announced as a banner with the name of said event appeared on the crystal ball behind him, courtesy of Gus. "Contestants will fly down the right arm to the Cubital Valley. They use speed, cunning, and magic, to race to the checkpoint and back to the finish line! Winners get their names etched on the Cup of Ephemeral Glory!" Perry continued, as the crystal ball continued to display the various parts of the race, as the man lifted a trophy made of living flesh.
"All victory is fleeting." The trophy said with a groan.
"And, an on-camera interview, seen by everyone watching across the Isles!" Perry said.
Luz and King get on the staff, ready to race as Eda and Flint sit in the stands.
"Show these guys they've got everything to -Luz!" Flint cheered loudly, not caring for everyone around him groaning at the pun.
"On your marks, get set-" Perry starts, until the Cup screams, signaling the start of the race as the event got underway.
"Go, baby, go!" An audience member cheered, before turning to Eda and giving her a nudge. "Which one is yours? The human and dog? This is so exhilarating!"
Eda recovered from the jostle before the sound of a crow-phone going off in her hair catches her attention. She pulls it out and answers, already knowing whose on the other side. "Raine?"
"We got a tip about another raid. I know you're busy, but-"
"No, it's fine. I'm on my way." Eda said before hanging up. She goes to get up, only to wince at just the force of the glare being shot at her from her right. "Look, this is important business." Eda tried to make excuses.
Flint's pupils glowed scarlet with his anger. After a moment, he scoffed. "Tch. Fine. But I'm staying here. Like you should've been." Flint shot venomously as he turned back to watch the race, the air around his simmering with his anger.
Eda reached back to him, trying to say something but hesitated, deciding against it as she couldn't trust herself to come up with a defense. Eda instead left without a word, and feeling awful.
"It's a shame he couldn't come to help," Katya said as the quintet moved through the forest, all wearing their masks.
Eda pursed her lips. "More like wouldn't. And now he's mad at me. That look in his eyes scares me sometimes. Is that how everyone else felt when I felt the urge to destroy something back in the day?" Eda said.
"Eda, you have your own brand of PTSD named after you," Derwin said in exasperation.
"And I wanna reach that level of infamy too! Nyahahaha!" Amber cackled.
"Huh…I don't think any amount of apologizing will make it up to Bump." Eda said with a stunned tone.
"It really won't," Raine affirmed.
The group arrived at a broken bridge, with the trio of Amber, Katya, and Derwin jumping over to the other side.
"This should be the spot," Raine stated as they looked around. Before they could even pull out their violin, Eda stopped them.
"Hang on, my scam senses are tingling," Eda stated seriously.
Surely enough, abomination goop suddenly rises from the ground on the other side of the bridge, right under the trios' feet. Katya, Derwin, and Amber cry out in alarm as the goop restrains them, also removing their masks. As this happened, Eda and Raine quickly ran to cover behind a large stone from the area below the bridge.
Suddenly, more abomination goop materializes further on the trios' end of the bridge, the goop rising as it solidifies into the shape of a witch. Specifically, into the shape of Head Witch Darius of the Abomination Coven. A notable detail about him is his wavy hair that looks to be purely made of abomination sludge.
"Ah~. That feels better." Darius said with relief.
Beside him, something can be seen burrowing through the ground. Then a small figure pops up out of the ground, revealing it to be Eberwolf, the Beast Keeping Coven's Head Witch. He did a backflip before turning around on all fours to look on at the duo's captives.
Darius looked at the group closer and clicked his tongue. "Looks like we missed a few," Darius noted.
Raine gasped as they recognized the two. "It's Head Witches Eberwolf and Darius."
"So it was a trap all along," Eda remarked.
"And we fell for it," Raine said with a downcast expression.
Darius lifted his cloak up away from the ground in visible disgust. "Ugh. This place is disgusting. Figure out which one's the turncloak so we can leave." Darius said with annoyance.
Eberwolf goes around and sniffs each of the captured BATs before shaking his head. "Uh uh," Eberwolf grunted in his extremely limited vocabulary.
Darius brought a hand to his face and pinched his forehead. "Just my luck," Darius grumbled before lowering the hand and snapping his fingers, causing the abomination-trapped BATs to be pulled into the ground and vanish.
Darius smiled. "Man. I can never get over how useful that teleporting trick is. Saves me so much time sending fools to the Conformatorium."
Eberwolf let out a series of chatters. "Willing to use abomination. Can't stand dirt."
That made Darius scowl. "At least abomination sludge can still be useful. Getting dirt on me serves no other purpose than running my clothes." Darius countered.
"Try gunk in fur. Then see how feel." Eberwolf barked back.
Darius rolled his eyes before looking around. "I was scheduled for some me time today, so hand yourself over before things get nasty." Darius threatened loudly. He immediately growled, evidently impatient. "I know they can hear me. I know you can hear me!" Darius yelled out again before turning to his companion. "Eber, help me out here."
Eberwolf draws a spell circle on his forehead. When it vanishes, his eyes glow like spotlights, allowing him to see a set of footprints leading into the forest.
Darius reaches the ground and turns back to Eberwolf. "I'm not going in there," Darius said, before immediately dodging a clump of dirt Eberwolf chucked at him. "Agh! What do you think you're doing?"
Eberwolf snickers as he climbs all over the taller witch before running off in the direction of the footprints lead.
Darius growled. "You'll regret that, mutt." Darius threatened before following, much to his posh chagrin.
As the two disappear out of earshot, Eda and Raine gasp from a nearby tree branch. An invisibility glyph glowed on Eda's hand as she was no longer wearing her boots, and currently had Raine holding her in a bridal carry.
Eda sighed with relief. "I am so glad those two drilled that combo into my head," Eda remarked, making a mental note to thank Luz later for discovering such a useful glyph combo.
The two drop down into the mud, causing Eda to cringe in disgust as she stands only in stockings.
"Oh Titan, I can feel it soaking in," Eda shivered.
Raine turned to Eda. "Eda, Belos' plans are a lot more dangerous than I let on. He's preparing some big spell for the Day of Unity, but he can't do it without every head witch. If we can take out Darius and Eberwolf..."
"It throws a wrench in those plans. With all the distrust going around now, trying to get even one new Head Witch that is loyal to him would be a problem. But two? Alright then. What's your plan?" Eda said.
Raine summons the cittern from before into her hands.
"Your curse messes with magic, making the afflicted area decay. If we use this in our favor, we could take both of them out at once." Raine said.
Eda frowned. "But…what about you though?" Eda asked worriedly.
Raine pursed their lips. "If it means stopping Belos…then I don't think I have a choice," Raine said remorsefully.
The two stood in silence for a moment before Eda looked at Raine. "Well then…let's make this performance your magnum opus." Eda declared as they followed their pursuers.
Darius and Eberwolf eventually come to the source of the footprints, revealing to be Eda's boots magically walking on their own to lead them away.
"Well, looks like our traitor is a clever little songbird," Darius remarked, admittedly a tinge impressed.
The boots halted as they turned around, before kicking mud all over Darius. Eberwolf looks back at the man with trepidation, knowing from the look on his face and experience that Darius would not take this lightly.
Darius used his magic to shred the boots with goop, his body waving like abomination goop as his rage grew. "All right, NO MORE PLAYING AROUND!" Darius yelled in sheer anger. The man closed his eyes before opening them, the eyes changing in color completely with his sclera turning black as his body morphed. In mere moments, Darius' entire body was that of an abomination, as he summoned a blade made of the goop with a sadistic smile on his goopy face.
Eberwolf grows claws and talons then summons a rat-worm mount. They return to close to where Eda and Raine are hiding behind a tree.
Eda turns around, notices how close she is to Raine and pulls back, blushing. Raine summons their instruments again, having dispelled them originally so they wouldn't go off on accident and give away their position. From there, Raine begins to play their violin. The opening of a song they knew well, given it they were the one to write it. Raine's Rhapsody.
Soon after, Eda joins in playing her part, causing a pulse to emit through the area, and the surroundings to decay starting from her feet.
Darius hears the music, after checking the spot the two had been hiding behind back at the bridge. He looked in the direction of the music and smiled. "There you are." Darius said, until he saw the wave of decay coming his way.
The decay wrapped around his transformed body, making him scream in agony as he felt it withering him away slowly. At the same time, Eberwolf and his steed are also caught in it.
"It's working. Keep playing." Eda urged.
Raine looks down as they feel a stinging pain crawling up their legs, watching as the decay latches onto both them and Eda. "It's affecting you too. We should stop, what about your students?" Raine asked worriedly.
Eda had tears in her eyes. "All that matters is stopping the Emperor. If this means I can protect them, then I'll do what I have to." Eda looked downcast. "The only thing I regret…is that I didn't say goodbye to them myself," Eda said sadly, shaking her head to try and clear the tears.
Eda then donned a sad smile. "I told them when I lost the rest of my magic that I wished I could've seen them become great witches…but I don't need to. They already are."
Raine's face softened as their eyes watered a bit before becoming resolute. "Then if it's any consolation…I'm glad I got to spend my last moments with you." Raine said sadly.
Eda heard the cries of pain coming from Eberwolf and Darius nearby, only furthering her resolve. As she felt the wave of decay crawling up her body, her skin inflamed with pain as she forced herself to continue playing, her mind drifted to everyone in her life. 'Mom, Dad, Lily, Hooty, King, Flint and Luz…I'm sorry.' Eda apologized internally as she accepted her fate.
"Eda…"
'I can hear him even now.' Eda thought sadly.
"Eda!"
'I can hear it so clearly.' Eda thought.
"I'M GONNA KILL YOU MYSELF YOU FUCKING DUMBASS!"
'…wait a minute…'
Both Eda and Raine turned to the source of the voice, seeing scarlet light glowing through treeline until the form of a rapidly approaching Flint could be seen. In no time, he was right in front of her, swiping the instrument from her hand and breaking it over his leg.
"F-Flint! I-" Eda sputtered.
Only to receive a heated slap to the face.
And then the kid wrapped his arms around her in a tight hug.
"Stop trying to throw your life away!" Flint yelled at her, as the decay around them faded.
Eda clenched her fists. "I have to! I have to make sure you're safe! I already watched one of you die once, and it was all because I was stupid with my portal! Just let me do this!"
"NO! I won't let you do it! We'll find another way to stop Belos!" Flint screamed, his body shaking as he looked up into Eda's eyes with tears rolling down his face.
Eda's tears swelled. "Please! You have a family to get home to! Don't let me drag you down!" Eda yelled.
"We already lost Manny! I won't let her lose you too!" Flint screamed at the top of his lungs.
This caused Eda to freeze. She didn't know who this 'Manny' was, but he was clearly very important to them.
"Well well well. What do we have here?"
The three froze as they turned to the voice, that being Abomi-Darius with Eberwolf at his side.
"A traitorous songbird, a cursed owl, and a scarlet phoenix." Darius pointed out.
Eberwolf chattered a bit.
"You're right, it sounds like the start of a bad joke." Darius agreed before turning back to them. "I knew you were crazy, but recruiting a child? How lowly of you." Darius said in disappointment.
Eda turned back to Flint. "Flint, get out of here! We'll hold them off!"
Flint's face contorted in anger. "No! I'm staying here!"
Eda growled in frustration. "This isn't up for debate!"
"You're right, it isn't. That's why I'm staying!" Flint said firmly.
Eda pulled at her hair. "Why won't you just let me do this?! Why do you care so much about someone like me?!"
"Because you're the first adult outside our parents to give us a chance!" Flint yelled, stunning all present for a moment.
"What?!" Eda and Raine exclaimed in shock.
"No one ever took us seriously back on Earth. We were the outcasts, the weirdos. Neither of us had any friends that weren't online or each other. But here? In the Demon Realm? Sure we're still unusual, but we finally found somewhere we could be ourselves. And above all else, you still took us in." Flint started.
Eda noticed Flint's hood begin to glow.
"You could've sent us back to Earth and been done with it. But you didn't. When we asked to stay, you let us. You've done so much for us, more than you could ever truly know." Flint continued, his hood glowing brighter as everyone could feel the temperature around them increasing as flames licked around him.
Darius scoffed. "You probably just like how powerful you've become."
Flint's pupils glowed scarlet as he shot a determined look at Darius and Eberwolf, the intensity of his glare causing both to flinch.
"I don't care about power! The only power I desire is the power to protect the people I care about! To let them know that as long as I live, whenever they need me, that I will be there!" Flint declared, his voice pulsating with a power that froze everyone present. With this declaration, his palisman, the source of the growing scarlet glow, shined even brighter as it rose from the confines of his hood. The flames licking across Flint's body were pulled toward it like a vortex as the light grew in strength until it shined like a star. With a surge of power, everyone but Flint was forced away.
The light grew, rising like a beacon into the sky. The orb of light and fire then exploded in power, expanding into the shape of Flint's phoenix construct.
The phoenix bellowed as it flapped its wings, the air around it rippling from the heat radiating from it. The fiery bird dove down, just over everyone's heads, and knocked them off their feet. It then flew toward Flint who held his right hand out expectingly. The blurred shape of a staff could be seen within the construct as it landed in the boy's hand, which flew back from the force of the staff entering his hand. The fire surrounding the staff coiled around him, obscuring him from view and leaving only the glow of his eyes to glow brighter through the flames.
The fire surrounding him then began to disperse. The staff in his hand was adorned in wood-burned designs of flames coiling up it, in such a way that with heat mirage radiating from it, caused the design to appear alive and burning. The palisman at the end of it had flames sprouting from the top of its head, wings, and tail feathers (which extended a few inches down the staff). The flames only sprouted from the lighter portions of its body as its wings were raised in twin arcs, making the palisman look proud from its perch.
However, two distinct changes to Flint's body were most attention-grabbing. He glared at the coven heads in his newly transformed state. "So, you two feeling lucky?" Flint asked with an intimidating undertone.
King and Luz stood at the finish line. They'd had a pretty good lead for most of the race but unfortunately only managed to get in fifth place thanks to some…rather ill-timed nausea on King's part. So now, they were standing at the finish line, covered in leaves and branches (and what Luz was desperately hoping was just mud), watching as one of Glandus' students was congratulated on the podium.
"So…where do you think they went?" Luz wondered, breaking the awkward silence as the two scanned the stands for Flint and Eda.
King looked down ashamed. "I'm sorry again Luz. I really tried to hold it in."
Luz smiled, patting his head. "It's okay little dude. You managed to hold out better at least." Luz said, trying to look on the bright side of the…mess up.
Her attempts didn't seem to change things for him though. "But now Eda and Flint aren't here," King said.
"Come on. We both saw that beam. Something important must have happened and they needed to deal with it." Luz pointed out. Nearly everyone in the race had stopped to see it when it happened, before continuing.
King still looked bummed out though, as he sat on the ground with his legs crisscrossed.
"Luz! King!"
Both of them blinked at their names being called out, as they saw Eda and Flint flying over to them from just above the treelines, with Flint carrying Eda as he did his fire wings construct-wait…those didn't look like a construct.
The two descended as Flint let Eda go before they each landed on the ground, but Luz was far more focused on Flint. Instead of his usual fire-construct wings, he had actual wings reaching about two feet past his arms when fully outstretched and seemed to be sprouting from his back. The wings looked to be a mixture of bat and bird, looking webbed like a bat's but having feathers sprouting from it halfway down. There was yellow-gold fur along the more bat-like parts, but the feathers were, go figure, scarlet in color.
Luz looked in surprise at Flint as she noticed that the sclera of his eyes had darkened from white to gray, and atop his head were two ivory-colored horns poking an inch past his hair, an inch past the border of his hairline.
"Whoa! What happened to you?" Luz asked.
"Awakening his palisman seemed to have advanced his beast traits. Apparently, that includes messing with his eyes and giving him horns." Eda stated. "Speaking of which, I forgot to ask, are you okay?" Eda asked Flint with concern.
Flint laughed confidently. "Haha! Absolutely not! I have the most painful headache I've ever had!" Flint said with a cheeriness that contrasted his words.
"Wait-back up! Your palisman awoke?! Where is it?!" Luz asked excitedly, she wanted to meet the little critter.
"We'll explain more at home. What I wanna know is how did you manage to fall so far behind?" Eda asked.
"We were winning for a while, but…" Luz trailed off.
"I threw up," King said bluntly.
"Aaaaand then we crashed." Luz finished.
King sighed as he pulled out a letter from his fanny pack. "It's okay. I'll just throw my message into the garbage where it belongs." King said gloomily.
Eda frowned as she summons her Penstagram scroll out from her hair. "No, this isn't over." Eda declared as she started recording, with King center-stage.
"Eda, who's even gonna watch this?" King asked nervously as he held his letter.
"No one watches crystal balls anymore. It's all about streaming." Eda said.
Flint raised his finger and went to say something-
"Don't even think about it." Luz cut him off, unamused.
Flint no longer had something to say.
"All right. Hi, Dad. If you're out there watching this, I uh, want to introduce myself. I like cheesy foods and conquering kingdoms. Though I haven't conquered any of my own yet. But maybe you have, and we can compare notes. I'd love to meet you. We could do parent-kid stuff, toss a ball, burn some cookies, catch me going on weird websites or something. Also, I found a symbol in the tower I hatched in." King stated, showing his collar which was adorned with the same symbol from the hatchery.
"Maybe you can teach me to read it. I live with my favorite human, my cool big bro, and a cranky old witch." King said.
"Hey!" Luz watched as Eda cried out indignantly, and Flint looked like he was about to have a heart attack.
"But cranky or not, she's the one who raised me, which is why I am-" King pulls out a stack of papers. "-legally changing my name to King Clawthorne!" King revealed, pointing over at Eda as he laughed triumphantly. "Surprise, Eda! Now we're connected for life, and there's nothing you can do about it!"
"Is that what you wanted to tell me this whole time?" Eda said with a shaky voice, sniffing a bit as she grabbed the papers. Eda turned to Flint. "Why didn't you just tell me that was it?!"
"And ruin his big surprise? I'd rather d-" Flint paused. "Wait…hold on, I did that already," Flint said thoughtfully. "It was his big surprise. I didn't wanna ruin that for him."
Luz pulled out a pen, holding it out to her. "And, if you sign here, it'll be official." Luz stated, but then blinked as she saw Eda starting to cry. "Eda, are you okay? "
Needless to say, the Boiling Isles got to hear how much of a softie the Owl Lady could be.
Eventually, everyone went back to the house, where Hooty was waiting for them.
"Hey Flint, you look different…did you get a haircut?" Hooty asked.
Flint's wings twitched a bit as if to say, 'Are you for real?'
"Hooty, get the painkillers," Eda ordered.
"On it!" Hooty said cheerily. The house demon then proceeded to hack a few times before regurgitating a medicine bottle. "Here you go!"
Everyone stared at the bottle for what felt like an eternity.
"I'm not touching that," Flint pointed at it in pure disgust.
"And none of us would blame you," Eda stated. "I'll go check my room real quick," Eda informed before running off to do so.
After a few minutes, everyone was in the living room and Eda had given Flint some painkillers. And a few minutes after that, Luz immediately started asking a boatload of questions.
"What happened to your eyes? Are you hurt? Why do you have horns? Where's your palisman at? Are you hurt? Can I touch your horns? I wanna touch your horns. Is your vision weird now? Are you hurt?" Luz asked frantically.
"No idea. Just the headache. No idea. You already asked that. He's the wings. Don't, they hurt like shit. My vision is fine. And again, you already asked that."
"You got all that?!" King and Eda exclaimed in shock.
"Wait, what do you mean by your palisman being your wings?" Luz remembered.
In a flash, the wings were coated in flames before compressing into the shape of his palisman staff. The staff appeared to be perpetually emitting fire from the areas seen earlier.
"Thanks to a little something special I did, we can merge and he becomes a pair of wings for me like you saw," Flint explained. "Now, without further ado, allow me to introduce you to my new flame-feathered friend…Gray." Flint said
The staff vanished as the now-named palisman came to life, his irises were a gray color akin to his namesake. He flapped his wings, landing in Flint's hands. He raised his beak with pride and a caw, presenting himself to everyone.
[There's a pic on the Wattpad version if you want to see it.]
"He's a phoenix. Oh, and don't worry about the flames, he can turn them off at will. He just likes showing off." Flint said as Gray did so, dispersing his flames.
Luz squealed as she plucked the bird from his hands and rubbed her face against him. "Come here, you adorable little guy!" Luz cooed.
The fiery palisman squawked in anger at the girl's statement, turning his head away with a huff.
"He doesn't like being called 'cute' or anything like that. He's cool with a lot, but he draws the line there." Flint explained.
Eda snorted, putting her index and middle fingers on Gray's head and ruffling it. "Aw, but even I admit you're a bit cu- HEY!"
Eda was cut off midsentence when Gray bit her middle finger and ripped it off thanks to the curse. He took flight and landed on one of the shelves nearby, shooting Eda a dirty glare.
"You little- give that back!" Eda demanded.
Gray proceeded to make mocking noises mimicking her demand while still holding onto the severed finger.
Eda growled before turning to Flint. "Oi! Why didn't Birdbrain attack Luz?! She was the one calling him adorable!"
Flint shot her a flat look. "Because he knows better than to hurt her or Amity. You though..." Flint trailed off with a devious grin.
Eda growled. "Great, another little shit," Eda grumbled under her breath. "Well make him give it back! I have a certain gesture I'd like to share with him, but he took the most important part!"
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