章 8: Chapter 8: No Bathroom Breaks
Flint could be seen recording with his phone behind Eda's 'Human Collectibles' stand in the market, recording as King jumped on the table in front of him, attempting (read: failing) to grab the flag hanging above him. Flint simply smiled as he recorded. Why did King have to be so damn cute when doing things like this?
"Weh!" King cried out, as he fell off the table and to the ground. "Stupid flag!"
Luz then walked over, carrying a ladder and a wooden sign under her arm as she approached.
"It's been a little slow around here, but I've got just the thing to attract customers," Luz said, setting up the ladder behind Flint and climbing it, putting a new sign above the current one that was adorned with light glyphs.
"And who doesn't like their name in lights?" Luz asked. Flint watched as she taps one of the glyphs, which seemed to connect to the others, which began to activate the others in tandem to illuminate it. Now the stand had a sign saying 'EDA the OWL LADY'S HUMAN COLLECTIBLES' overall, with a winking face of Eda by her name, made purely of light.
Flint scratched his chin as he looked at the sign. "Interesting. I wonder if we could connect different glyphs together too." Flint pondered.
Luz turned back to King and Flint as she climbed down. "Is it too subtle?"
"Does subtle mean ugly?"
The three turn to see Boscha and two other students standing at the stand. It had been the triclops, Boscha, who had mocked them.
Flint raised a brow at her. "Does that third eye cut into your intelligence to use?"
Luz chuckled nervously as she stepped between the two. "Hi, Boscha! Hexsidians! See anything you like?" Luz tried to change the subject.
Boscha looked disgusted. "Ew! No. I'm just here to take an ironic Penstagram next to your weird flashing trash sign." Boscha proceeded to summon her scroll and take several pictures.
"As an expert, I guess you would know what trash looks like, wouldn't you?" Flint remarked.
Boscha took a few seconds to register the insult before looking at him furiously. "Wanna repeat that you round-eared freak?"
Luz still stood nervous as she attempted to de-escalate the situation. "Hey now, let's not start a fight or anything."
"Fight! Fight! Fight!" King chanted, pumping his arms in the air.
"Not helping, King!" Luz said with panic, leaning down to him. "You don't understand how to handle teens like her."
"No, I'll show you what to do," King said, pulling Luz down by her hood as he jumped onto the table. "You will tremble before me!" King demanded dramatically.
The three stared at him before Boscha suddenly gave a small coo.
"Oh, he's so cute!" Boscha gushed, swiping him from the table and hugging him. She summoned her scroll again, taking a pic with a filter.
"You know what, that much we can agree on," Flint admitted through his shock at the bully's unexpected change of attitude.
King struggled in her grip, pushing against her face to try and escape.
"How much? I have to own him." Boscha asked.
King finally manages to free himself, landing back on the table and giving a sassy finger wave to her. "You couldn't afford me, sister!"
That only caused the three teens to all coo again, much to the small demon's chagrin.
"That's the incorrect reaction!" King cried out. How dare they disrespect him!
Flint heard sniffing come from behind him and sighed as he saw Eda poking out from the tent behind them. "I smell an easy mark." The older woman said as she jumped out and before the group, causing them to backpedal at the sudden arrival. "Hey, kid! Can I offer you the latest fashions from...the human realm?" Eda went saleswoman mode, using magic to dress herself with a golden puff of smoke to reveal her wearing…
…okay, even I, the narrator, don't wanna begin trying to explain…that.
"Yeah, no." Boscha scoffed smugly as they walked away, laughing at the woman.
Eda glared at the three as she returned her attire to normal with another spell. "Well, I hate her."
"Join the club," Flint muttered.
"Yeah, teens can be sour, but Flint and I are little sweeties. Look what I made you!" Luz said, now holding King in her arms as she gestured to the sign she made.
Eda's eyes widened with panic. "Luz!" Eda exclaimed, quickly moving to remove the glowing sign.
"Did I spell something wrong? Or did I spell something right?" Luz said smugly.
"First, that pun was awful. Second, more like you forgot one detail: Eda is a wanted criminal." Flint reminded.
Eda nodded as she successfully removed the sign, wiping away the light orbs from the sign. "Fireboy is right. Remember? I'm on the run. And as amazing as I am, I'd rather not have every guard in town would be at my doorstep with something as obvious as this giving me away." Eda stated.
"Well, I don't see anyone right now. Maybe you're just being paranoid. You're a powerful witch. Why hide when you can 'poof' all your problems away with magic?" Luz questioned.
King scoffed, pacing along the table. "What does Luz know about problems, anyway? All she has is dumb teen drama! She doesn't understand how hard some of us have it." King stated.
"Why do I feel a great amount of foreboding suddenly?" Flint muttered.
"You're pampered all day like a dang baby. How hard is that life?" Eda asked King, the three not paying attention to Flint at the moment.
"Well, I don't know if you realized, but I'm not a baby!" King screamed, raising his arms in exasperation.
Luz looked at him smugly. "Then why are you screaming like one?"
"My life is a living nightmare!" King shook his arms angrily.
"Well, there's only one thing to do when friends can't see eye-to-eye," Eda said, rubbing her hands mischievously.
"Hug each other till we pass out?" Luz asked, pulling King in for a hug.
"Fight to the death!" King declared.
"Talk things out rationally and not do something incredibly stupid?" Flint offered.
Eda looked at Flint and burst into laughter. "Hell no! It's a body swap!"
"Aaaaand that's my cue to leave," Flint stated bluntly, walking away before he could get roped into a Freaky Friday situation.
Flint sighed as he walked away from the stand. As if he was gonna get caught up in a body-swapping situation. After all, that'd be extremely uncomfortable. Like, seriously, what if you needed to go to the bathroom while in another person's body?
Flint shuddered at the thought. If he was caught in that, he would've had to become whatever the hell kind of demon King was, or have to operate in a girl's body.
Titan-forbid he or Luz ends up in each other's body. That could only go a few ways, and no matter what it would be awkward as hell for whoever ended up in the other's body when they switched back. As much as he trusted Luz to not do anything…weird, they were still teenagers after all. And both of them definitely had specific knowledge given Luz wasn't the only one who would go reading his mother's books.
'Come to think of it, I think the book Mom was reading was a body-swapping hen-' Flint's thoughts were interrupted when he bumped into someone. "Oops, sorry. I wasn't looking where I was going." Flint apologized to the person.
The person wore an ivory-colored hooded cloak with a golden triangle clasp, like members of the Emperor's Coven. Under the cloak was golden chest armor with a dark yellow long-sleeved tunic with a golden-yellow long-sleeved shirt under it, alongside a dark brown belt, black leggings, and finally dark brown gloves and boots. They wore a golden pauldron on their left shoulder. The figure held a rather technological-looking staff.
The person turned around, revealing a pointed two-faceted mask with a thin eye-slot across it.
"You dare strike the Golden Guard?!" The now-named Golden Guard declared, audibly male with a grating voice.
Flint held his hands up defensively. "Chill dude! I said I was sorry! I just zoned out a bit, it was an accident!" Flint defended.
The Golden Guard got into a defensive stance. "Wait, aren't you that boy from the Covention duel? The one that was with the Owl Lady?"
Ahhhhhhh…crap baskets.
Flint groaned. "Oh, you've gotta be kidding me."
The Golden Guard spun his staff before pointing it at Flint, the red gem at the tip glowing with power. "Come quietly."
Flint glared, getting himself into a fighting position. "How about I break that precious mask of yours and kick you in your glided gonads?" Flint threatened.
The Golden Guard laughed arrogantly behind his mask. "Ha! I'd like to see you…what's that?"
Before either of them could react, a beam of yellow light came from behind Flint, hitting The Golden Guard in his mask before reflecting back into Flint, the light causing The Golden Guard to drop his staff in the process.
"Ah!" Both of them exclaimed falling to the ground in surprise.
Back with the other Owl House residents, Luz (in Eda's body) looked at Eda and King (in King and Luz's bodies respectively).
"Hey, did you guys see any of that light bounce off the mirror on the table?" Eda/Luz asked.
King/Eda waved her off. "It's probably nothing."
Flint groaned, as he began to wake up blinking away his fuzzy vision and he recovered from the blow.
'What was that?' Flint thought, rubbing his head. He was confused when he did so, realizing that there were things between his head and hand. He pulled his hands in front of him to see he was now wearing a pair of dark brown gloves.
'That's weird. I don't remember putting any gloves on.' Flint thought. He also felt weirdly…lighter? He looked down at himself, noticing he was wearing boots that matched his gloves and a set of golden armor beneath an ivory-colored cloak. Beside him was the Golden Guard's staff.
'Huh. Why am I dressed in clothes like that Golden Twerp?' Flint wondered.
A groan suddenly caught his attention as he looked to the source, only to freeze at the sight before him. It was…himself?
True enough, rubbing his head was someone who looked exactly like him. He opened his eyes blearily as he sat up.
"What happened?" The guy said in his voice!
Flint pointed at him. "Why do you sound like-" Flint stopped midsentence, realizing that this wasn't his voice!"What the hell happened to my voice?!" Flint exclaimed.
Flint's yelling seemed to get the doppelganger's attention as he looked at Flint, jolting in surprise and crawling backward a bit, moving his hands around the ground as though he was looking for something.
"What the-! Why do you look like me?!" The doppelganger demanded, still using his voice.
"Why do you look like me?!" Flint counter-asked.
"I asked you first!"
"Well, I asked you second!"
The doppelganger looked at him in exasperation. "That's not how that works!"
Flint growled. "Damn it. Trixx, if this is your doing, now is not the time to be messing with me!"
The doppelganger threw his hands up in exasperation. "Who the heck is Trixx?! I order you, as the Golden Guard, to tell me why you look and sound like me!"
Flint registered the doppelganger's words, the pieces finally clicking into place. "Wait. Goldilocks?"
The guy got angry. "It's Golden Guard. Of course, I am! Why wouldn't…I…be…" He trailed off, looking down as he realized he wasn't wearing his uniform, but an admittedly comfy jacket, and that these weren't his hands.
'Ahhhhh…crap baskets.' Flint thought, facepalming with a metal TWANG. He should've just stayed home with Trixx and Hooty.
At the Owl House, Hooty could be seen giggling maniacally as he played in the mud. The Zorua from their adventure at the library watched on in disbelief and disgust at the bizarre creature's antics.
Hooty turned to the Zorua with a big smile. "Come on Trixx! The mud feels great! It tastes good too!" Hooty punctuated his statement by opening his mouth and consuming a chunk of the mud he'd been rolling around in.
The now-named Trixx the Zorua simply turned around and went inside. "I should've gone with them," Trixx said with a sigh.
Back to Flint and the Golden Guard, the two finally got to their feet.
"Chill dude, I know what's going on," Flint said.
Golden Guard looked at him with a raised brow. "Oh yeah?"
"Eda was planning on casting a body-swapping spell. I left since I didn't want to be involved with it, but somehow a stray beam or something must've hit us." Flint explained.
"You don't expect me to believe that, do you?" Golden Guard questioned.
"Whether you believe it or not, we've swapped bodies. And since I don't know how to undo it, we're gonna have to find the others if we wanna change back." Flint stated.
"Wait. If we've switched bodies…" Golden Guard trailed off, making a spell circle with his hand and shooting a stream of fire from it. "I have magic!"
Flint blinked in confusion under his mask. "Hold on…don't you have magic of your own?" Flint asked.
Flint watched as Golden Guard sputtered. "O-Of course I do!" He quickly denied. Unfortunately in doing so, the fire he was shooting had frayed from its original path and began to waver sporadically.
"Ah! Nononono! Stop, stop!" Golden Guard attempted to stop the fire.
He managed to cut off the spell, but the fire was doing its damage. The flames licked onto one of the stands at the market and quickly began to spread.
"FIRE!" Someone screamed, as everyone began to run around in a panic.
"Wait! I can put it out!" Golden Guard quickly said, making another scarlet spell circle as he went to make some water, but this action caused Flint's eyes to widen.
"Wait! That'll just-" BOOM "…cast a fireball." Flint sighed, his warning coming too late as Golden Guard accidentally made things worse.
Golden Guard panicked more after realizing he made things worse. "What the- I was trying to summon water, not fire!" Golden Guard exclaimed.
"You have to focus on what specifically you want it to do. You can't just make a circle in the air and expect it to know what you want! You have to tell it what you want it to do when you make the circle." Flint told him.
Golden Guard went and made another circle. "Shoot water!" Golden Guard ordered, but the spell only shot out another fireball.
"Not like that, dumbass!" Flint screamed.
"Bite me, human!" Golden Guard yelled back.
"No thanks, I'm no cannibal." Flint denied.
Golden Guard gave him a so-so gesture. "I mean, if you're human then technically eating a witch wouldn't really count, given we're not the same species." Golden Guard pointed out.
"But I'm mentally a human. Even if I'm in someone else's body, it'd pretty much be cannibalism if I ate a human." Flint countered.
Golden Guard raised a hand up, about to protest, only to stop as he mulled it over. "Okay, yeah, that adds up." Golden Guard admitted before scowling at Flint. "How come all I've done is create fire while in your body?!" Golden Guard demanded.
"I can use ice at least, but fire just comes more naturally to me. Here, how about I just use your staff here to put out the fire." Flint suggested holding up the Golden Guard's staff and pointing it towards some of the fire.
Golden Guard looked nervous. "Just be careful, that staff is very-" FOOM CRASH "…sensitive," Golden Guard attempted to warn, only to wince as he watched Flint get propelled backward and into a wall back-first with a red glow around him.
Flint groaned from the hole in the wall, rubbing his head as he recovered.
"Hey! Stop fooling around in my body!" Golden Guard cried out in anger.
Flint got up and seemingly glared in Golden Guard's direction (with the mask on, you couldn't really tell). "Well excuse me, but it's not like I've ever used tech like this before." Flint defended, crossing his arms.
Golden Guard shot arms up in exasperation and waved them around. "You think this is easy for me either?!" In his flailing, Golden Guard accidentally made another spell circle with each hand, and a fireball shot from each one in different directions behind him. "I've never used magic like this before!"
Flint scoffed. "Big whoop! I wasn't even here for like, a full day before I managed to cast a spell! And I didn't even know I had magic in the first place!" Flint argued, swiping the staff across his body and accidentally sending a wave of telekinetic energy that sent the debris to his right flying…as well as one of the stands nearby.
The two took a second to look around and gauge their surroundings, seeing all the chaos around them as the area was in flames.
"…Oops." They both cringed at seeing the destruction.
"Okay. Let's both just calm down and talk for a moment." Flint suggested, slowly moving the staff to put it on his back to prevent it from causing more accidental chaos in his hands.
As Flint did that, Golden Guard held his hands out ahead of him, not moving them so he wouldn't shoot another fireball. "Right. Let's just find the Owl Lady, and get our bodies back," Golden Guard agreed.
Flint nodded. "Alright, her stand is-"
"AHA!"
Suddenly, they were surrounded by a bunch of Coven Guards with spells ready to be cast at them.
One of the guards' eyes widened as he looked at Flint. "Oh! Golden Guard, sir! I see, you must've been pursuing this heinous criminal." He said, not knowing he was talking to Flint in Golden Guard's body.
Not expecting this development, Flint did his best to roll into it. "Um, yeah! That's definitely what I was doing! Can't let this accomplice of the Owl Lady keep going with his dastardly acts!" Flint said quickly, internally sweating.
"What?!" Golden Guard yelled in confusion.
Suddenly a guard behind the Golden Guard slapped a pair of cuffs around his outstretched hands. "Quiet you!" The guard said.
"Alright, let's get this guy processed." Another guard said as they began to shove Golden Guard.
"Hey! Watch it!" Golden Guard exclaimed.
Flint suddenly yanked on the chain connecting the cuffs. "Quiet scum," Flint said before turning to the other guards. "You guys lead the way in case any of his friends try something, I'll keep an eye on him," Flint ordered.
The guards all saluted before turning forward and making an arc formation ahead of them as they escorted their prisoner.
When the guards were far enough ahead of them, Flint slowed down so he was walking beside Golden Guard.
"Dude! What are you doing?!" Golden Guard whisper-yelled.
Flint leaned over to him. "Think about it. If you and I switching bodies caused a bunch of chaos and got their attention, then maybe one of my housemates did too. If we go with them…" Flint trailed off.
Golden Guard's eyes widened. "Then the Owl Lady might be there and can undo the spell!" Golden Guard whispered, realizing what Flint's plan was.
Flint nodded. "Exactly. So just play along, and we'll be back in our proper bodies in no time Goldilocks." Flint informed him. If there was anything he knew about the people he lived with, it was that chaos was not a possibility, it was an inevitability.
Golden Guard growled. "Golden Guard." He corrected angrily.
"I don't care." Flint countered.
As they walked, Flint sighed. 'Thank goodness Trixx didn't come here with us. Though I do wonder what Trixx is up to,' Flint pondered.
Trixx watched from the open window's ledge as Hooty continued to roll around in the mud with disgust. The vixen hadn't known Hooty for long, yet everything he'd done so far was already making her seriously question if Hooty even had a brain. The guy was just so…why?
'And here I thought being a fictional creature brought to life by comet magic made less sense than…this thing,' Trixx thought.
The only reason she was even watching him right now was because she was as bored as can be. Eda and the others had already taken a bunch of the human stuff with them for the stand (okay seriously, even Trixx knew the real purposes of more of those items than Eda did), so there wasn't really much else to do other than sleep, watch Hooty, or sunbathe.
Hooty then turned to her and came up close, dripping in mud. "Hey Trixx! You should try out the mud!" Hooty said excitedly.
Trixx shook her head. "No thanks. I don't wanna get mud in my furRRRRRR!" Trixx suddenly panicked, as Hooty unexpectedly grabbed her with his beak and she dug her claws into the windowsill.
"No! Don't you dare!" Trixx yelled as she lost her grip.
It was official. She definitely should have gone with the others.
Things weren't going so well for Luz at the moment. She ended up getting captured by a bunch of Coven Guards after not being able to stop casting random spells while in Eda's body. Turns out, her glowing sign idea really was a bad idea. It drew too much attention, leading the authorities right to her. Why did she have to have such a problem with listening to Flint? Maybe it had something to do with the 'boundless optimism' Flint always said she had.
So now she was stuck here in an interrogation room, her arms bound, awaiting a punishment that shouldn't even be hers. They even took Owlbert!
A guard currently stood across from her with his arms crossed.
"Look, guys, you got the wrong Eda," Luz attempted to convince them.
The guard heard footsteps approaching from behind him, turning his head and quickly moving out of the way to reveal Lilith.
"Hello, Edalyn," Lilith said in an unamused tone.
"Oh, thank goodness! A familiar face. You're Eda's sister, right? Is it Libby? No. Limby..." Luz trailed off, having apparently not paid enough attention to remember Lilith's name.
Lilith showed no outward reaction to her 'sister' getting her name wrong. "Your show of affection is touching. Do you know why you're here?"
"Well, as I was telling the guard, this is just a classic Freaky Friday mix-up." Luz began to say.
Lilith opened a scroll that was probably longer than the table Luz sat in front of. "Sister, the charges against you are long and many. Operating a stand without a permit, owning a hocus without a pocus..." Lilith continued to list off Eda's many, many crimes, only some having genuine merit.
"Yeah, I think that list goes on for a while." Luz acknowledged as the scroll managed to unfurl even more.
"These charges are serious. There's no more running away, Edalyn." Lilith said firmly.
Seeing as she wasn't gonna get out of this soon, Luz decided to play the part to the best of her ability. "I know. I can't just 'poof' my problems away." Luz said.
This seemed to make Lilith light up, as she went over and held Eda/Luz's shoulders. "But we can. You getting caught was clearly a cry for help. Join the Emperor's Coven, like we dreamed about when we were girls." Lilith half-begged.
This information surprised Luz greatly. "Eda wanted to be in the Emperor's Coven?" Luz thought out loud, completely shocked.
"Don't be afraid, sister. Soon, you won't be a danger to those around you." Lilith said, talking to her in a babying tone before she turned to one of the guards in the room. "Bring out the branding glove," Lilith ordered, creating a spell circle that formed glowing blue restraints that held Eda/Luz down in the chair.
"The what now?" Luz asked, beginning to panic.
The guard puts on a glove similar to the one back at the Covention, an Emperor's Coven sigil on the palm. The sigil glows red. He tosses the table aside and cracks his knuckles as he approaches.
Before Luz could try to protest, the door to the room suddenly opens and Luz watches as two individuals step in. One wore golden armor and the other-
"Flint?!" Luz cried out in shock.
Lilith turned and saw Flint, smiling. "Ah, I see the human you helped cheat in the duel has been captured as-" Lilith notices who is escorting him and sneers. "Ugh. Hello, Golden Guard." Lilith says in disgust.
"Sorry Lilith, didn't realize the interrogation room was occupied already." The now-named Golden Guard shoved Flint forward as he fell to the ground, groaning before sitting up.
"Did you have to be so rough?" Flint asked.
Golden Guard suddenly threw his hand forward, pointing at Flint accusingly. "Quiet you filthy wild witch!" Golen Guard turned to Lilith. "Now then, before you continue with the branding, I'd first like to ask the Owl Lady a few questions myself, or should I get The Emperor involved?" Golden Guard challenged.
Lilith growled before letting out a scoff and crossing her arms. "Fine. Ask your questions."
As this had been happening, Luz leaned over to Flint. "Flint! How could you let yourself get captured?!" Luz whisper-yelled.
Flint scoffed. "It was a part of our plan, and just for the record, I'm not Flint," Flint emphasized.
This confused Luz. "What are you talking about? Of course you're Flint!" Luz whisper-yelled.
Someone clearing their throat loudly got their attention, causing Luz to look over to the source and find the Golden Guard standing in front of her.
"Answer my questions, Eda. Where are your other companions? Where is the King of Demons and Starlight?" Golden Guard demanded.
"I don't know where King and-" Luz paused for a moment as his second question registered fully.
'Wait. Why was he referring to me as Starlight? The only person who calls me that is-" Luz's thoughts ground to a halt for a moment. 'If Flint was saying he wasn't Flint, and this guy is calling me Starlight…'
Luz looked at the Golden Guard, his face masked but there was something else about the way he talked that sounded familiar. She realized what was going on and smiled nervously.
"Hey, Flintlock." Luz greeted nervously.
Lilith looked on in confusion. "'Flintlock'? Golden Guard, what is she talking about?"
In response, Golden Guard groaned, facepalming as best as he could with a metal TWANG. "Of course you got hers."
Luz just laughed nervously as 'Flint' next to her watched with a raised brow.
"I'm sorry, is there something I'm missing here?" Lilith questioned, now heavily confused.
'Flint' seemed to have lost his patience. "Oh for Titan's sake-Clawthorne! That's not the Owl Lady!" he said.
Lilith glared at 'Flint.' "You be silent human."
"You should listen to him." 'Golden Guard' said suddenly, drawing Lilith's confusion. "Because your sister decided it would be a fantastic idea to cast a body-swapping spell and play musical chairs with our bodies. I'm not the Golden Guard, I'm Flint. I, Flint, elected to not participate when Goldilocks here-"
"GOLDEN GUARD!"
"Still don't care." Golden Guard/Flint responded without a beat before turning back to Lilith. "-tried to capture me. A stray bolt flew at him and bounced off his mask and into me, swapping us." Golden Guard/Flintexplained.
"Ohhhhhhh, so that's where the stray beam went," Luz said, as everything finally clicked into place for her.
Lilith looked between Golden Guard/Flint and the two. "A body-swapping spell? Wait! If you were caught in it, then that means…" Lilith looked at 'Flint.'
"I'm the real Golden Guard. I went along with acting like him so we could find the Owl Lady, so she could change us back." Flint/Golden Guard revealed.
Lillith blinks in disbelief. "But wait, then who's here in her body?!" Lillith asked frantically as she turned to Luz.
"Luz, aka my fellow human, apparently. Now if you'd be so kind, I'd like for everyone to be back in their original bodies. Can we please call a truce so that we can get everyone back where they belong?" Golden Guard/Flint asked.
"As much as I like being able to use magic, I'd really like to have my body back." Luz pled.
Lilith sighed. "Alright fine. I assume she used her palisman to cast it? This kind of spell is a little more than her natural magic can provide." Lilith asked, getting a nod from Luz. "Alright, I'll go retrieve Owlbert then, but I'm not removing her cuffs," Lilith stated before exiting the room to do just that.
Luz, Flint, Golden Guard, Lilith, a weird 4-mouthed dog, and a few guards could now be seen walking together in search of King and Eda. Flint/Golden Guard having been released from his cuffs and being careful not to accidentally cast another spell, and Golden Guard/Flint using Golden Guard's staff like a walking stick. They talked as they went through the streets.
"Wait, so you actually can do magic?" Lilith asked, looking at Golden Guard/Flint.
"Yep. Still don't know why. Our running theory is that I'm actually from here." Golden Guard/Flint answered.
"So Eda really didn't cheat to help you in the duel?" Lilith said in shock.
"I mean, she tried to offer, but I refused. Of course, that only makes things worse for you. After all…" Golden Guard/Flint sent an unseen glare from under his mask at Lilith. "You cheated and Amity still lost."
Luz and Flint/Golden Guard turned to him in confusion. "Cheated?"
Lilith began to sweat nervously. "I-I don't know what you're talking about." Lilith defended.
"Don't play dumb with me Lilith. You slapped a Power Glyph on Amity without her knowing. I knew something was wrong the moment she was startled by the size of her abominations." Golden Guard/Flintchastised.
Lilith growled. "Well excuse me for knowing how my sister is and trying to even the playing field!"
"And like I said, I still won even with that. I wasn't even that good with magic at the time. The fire-breathing wasn't exactly something I knew I could do." Golden Guard/Flint stated. "Oh, and if it wasn't obvious, Amity hates you now."
Lilith grumbled a bit before looking away at their surroundings. "Let's just find my sister and your pet already." Lilith managed to say.
"Alright, knowing them, they somehow got themselves in some deep shit-"
"Language!" Flint/Golden Guard chastised.
"English!" Golden Guard/Flint responded before continuing. "-so we should look for any kind of big commotion going on. I'm pretty sure all four of us are magnets for chaos after all."
Luz and Lilith both nodded in acceptance of that. It hadn't been the first time Luz had been told that, and Lilith had been the one to say that to her sister a fair number of times as well.
THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP
"Luz! Flint!"
The group turned in the direction of the voice to see King/Eda and Luz/King in the window of a place called the 'Kitty Café', banging on the window as if they were trapped.
"Luz! Why are you two with those Coven Stooges!? Never mind! Just bring my damn body over here." King/Eda demanded.
Everyone stared for a moment before Golden Guard/Flint reached into Flint/Golden Guard's pocket and pulled out his phone, snapping a quick picture of the two.
"Damn it, Flint! Stopping taking blackmail photos of me!" King/Eda said angrily. Flint would've wondered how she figured out it was him, but given how little people on the Isles knew about operating modern human technology, he supposed it was obvious.
"I mean technically, it's more like blackmail on King, given you're in his body right now." Golden Guard/Flintcorrected.
"…DELETE IT!" Luz/King demanded frantically.
"No."
Lilith looked over Golden Guard/Flint's shoulder. "Photos as in…plural?" Lilith asked curiously.
"Don't you dare!" King/Eda demanded.
They couldn't see it, but Golden Guard/Flint had the biggest mischievous grin on his face as he scrolled back to a picture of her holding Bat Queen's babies, fast asleep. He'd taken the photo immediately when they got back home from the library. He presented the picture to Lilith.
"Oh, Eda!" Lilith cooed.
"YOU ARE DEAD FLINT! AND THEY'LL NEVER FIND YOUR BODY!" King/Eda screamed in rage.
"Can that happen after I'm out of it, please?" Flint/Golden Guard pled, admittedly a bit scared of what the woman would do.
Lilith looked up at the store's sign and groaned. "Not again with these two," Lilith said, pinching the bridge of her nose for a moment. "Roselle! Dottie! How many times have I had to tell you to stop kidnapping people?!" Lilith yelled.
Two old women came out to greet them.
"It's not kidnapping if they entered our store." One of them said.
"It is when you refuse to let them leave. Seriously! How many times do I have to send you two to Warden Wrath?!" Lilith asked in an exasperated tone.
Everyone else watched as Lilith continued arguing with the two, watching it like a tennis match.
"Wow. And people call me a criminal? At least I'm not a kidnapper." King/Eda stated.
Eda/Luz, Golden Guard/Flint, and Luz/King just turned to her with raised brows (she could feel Golden Guard/Flint's from behind the mask).
"Don't look at me like that! That was blackmail, completely different. You guys were free to go home after that." King/Eda defended.
"Okay, seriously. Is there like, something in the water?" Golden Guard/Flint questioned, completely baffled at this point with the people of this world.
King/Eda and Luz/King opened the door to the shop and went up beside Eda/Luz, Flint/Golden Guard, and Golden Guard/Flint. In the sky nearby, they notice Boscha and a few other teens fly in on…flying boots.
You know what? Why not?
"Dang! I forgot about them." Luz/King said.
"All right. Did everybody learn a valuable lesson about experiencing each other's hardships?" King/Eda asked as Eda/Luz handed her the Owlbert staff.
"Yep!" Eda/Luz and Luz/King said quickly.
"I didn't even wanna do this in the first place." Golden Guard/Flint stated in an unamused tone.
"I never even met this guy until today." Flint/Golden Guard added.
"Whatever, let's end this nightmare. Body swap!" King/Eda declared as she spun her staff, a yellow light emanating from it as it showered the five in light and kicked up a cloud of dust.
As the dust cleared, everyone stood in their proper bodies, but now wearing the additional items they had on prior to being put back. Luz's hands were thankfully small enough that she slipped right out of her cuffs and removed her oven mitts, King had a shirt too large for his body on, Eda's bee costume burst to free her, and Flint was still holding Golden Guard's staff.
"My body! My glorious little body!" King said with joy.
Flint scratched his head as he looked at the staff in his hand. "Hang on a minute. How is it that they still had things on from before being swapped back?" Golden Guard asked confused.
Eda waves him off. "Oh, that's just how the spell works. It takes how you look before the swap and sets it as the default for when you swap back. If anything new is put on or being held when swapped back, it transfers over."
Flint looks at Golden Guard's staff in his hand. "Then why do I still have his staff?"
Golden Guard spoke up. "Maybe because I dropped it before the spell hit you?"
Eda nodded. "Yup, that'd do it."
Lillith nodded in agreement. "Yes. The spell was adapted this way because the earliest records of when it was first used caused many people to be transferred back with...unfitting attire." Lillith stated with a blush.
"Well with that sorted out, if you'll be so kind as to give me back my staff so we can arrest you all please." Golden Guard asked with his hand outstretched expectantly to Flint.
Flint looked between both the Golden Guard and the staff repeatedly before eventually donning a devious smile. Flint then began backing away, gripping the staff tight.
Golden Guard seemed to realize what he was planning. "Oh no..." Golden Guard stated with slumping shoulders.
Lillith shrugged. "Well, now I have a legitimate reason to arrest you as well." The woman would take what she could get. She then turned to Eda.
"Sister. Time and again I've offered you my help, yet you foolishly continue with this criminal agenda. I'm tired of trying, Edalyn. Your days of running are over!" Lilith said, her patience having been worn thin.
"I think we should probably leave now," Luz suggested.
Eda just smiled confidently. "Don't worry, I got this. Body swap!" Eda declares, spinning her staff again. Flint, Luz, and King quickly got close to her and ducked, while Golden Guard quickly dove for cover, just before Eda spun to hit everyone nearby with the spell.
"Eda, you rotten sister! Switch me back! Ah!" The dog barked. Enough was able to be interpreted for Flint to realize it was Lilith in there.
Soon enough, all the others around them began to fight, demanding each other give them back their bodies and overall causing a ton of mayhem.
The four just watched as this went down, admittedly a bit mortified by how effective that was, with Luz pulling King into her arms as they backed away a bit.
"Are they gonna be okay?" King asked, a bit concerned.
Eda seemed to give it some thought for a moment before shrugging. "Eh?"
"Eda, I just wanna say that things can be more complicated than you think. But with you guys, it all feels a little less mixed up." Luz said.
"Aw, that's sweet, kid. Now, let's never speak of this again." Eda responded, having Owlbert unfurl his wings on the staff.
"Hang on a sec," Flint said, seemingly looking for something in the chaos before smiling. "Gotcha! Here, hold this for me." Flint requested, handing Eda the Golden Guard's staff before jumping into the chaos.
Flint ran up to one of the guards' bodies, punching them in the gut before ripping their branding glove off and dashing back to the others, taking both the glove and Golden Guard's staff in his hand and hopping onto a flight-ready Owlbert.
"Punch it!" Flint said quickly, and the four were off.
The four now stood before the Owl House, with Hooty now even dirtier than he was earlier, though he now sported claw marks on his face and a bit down his body. Beside him, was a mud-drenched Trixx who glared at the house demon with murderous intent.
Flint sighed. "King, get the soap and sponges. Luz, get the gloves and boots. Let's get this over with."
"Hey! How come I have to help?!" King questioned.
"Because according to the deal you guys made, all of you lost, so all of you should help. I'm going to clean Trixx while you address Hooty." Flint stated.
"What about Eda?" Luz questioned.
Flint turned to Eda, holding up the branding glove and Golden Guard's staff in each hand. "If not for that spell, I may not have gotten ahold of these. Put them with my things in our room please." Flint requested.
Eda scoffed. "I'm not your servant kid." Eda denied.
"Do it and you're free to not clean Hooty today," Flint said with a level gaze.
Flint had barely finished his sentence before Eda swiped both items from his hands.
"You want these anywhere specific?" Eda asked.
"Just set them by my sleeping bag," Flint informed before turning back to Luz and King. "Well? Let's get it started before it gets dark. Chop chop!" Flint demanded, causing Luz and King to scramble back into the house for supplies.
Eda raised a brow as she turned to Flint. "Why did you want a branding glove?" Eda questioned.
"Check my sketchbook and you'll find out," Flint told her before turning to Trixx. "Now then, let's get all that mud off you, you poor thing." He said, heading over to help the vixen.
Outtake:
Flint watched as Golden Guard sputtered. "N-No!" He quickly denied. Unfortunately in doing so, the fire he was shooting had frayed from its original path and began to go sporadically.
"Ah! Nononono! Stop, stop!" Golden Guard attempted to stop the fire.
He managed to cut off the spell, but the fire was doing its damage. The flames licked onto someone's cart nearby and quickly began to spread along the veggies that were on it.
The witch hauling them around was an older man as he looked at his flaming cart in horror, falling to his knees in dismay. "No! My cabbages!"
Elsewhere at the same time
Amity suddenly went rigid before looking around in confusion.
"Why did I just get the strangest case of Déjà vu?"
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