Chương 4: Timeskip and a reality check

6 years later, Chris POV...

"Chris, how much longer are you gonna sit there?" I heard a childish voice whine behind me as I worked on what looked to be homework for a kid a few years older than me.

"Give me a second Luz, I need to finish this math worksheet and then we can go play near the creek," I said trying to appease what could be considered my only friend beyond my teammates.

...So you're probably curious about what happened in the six years I've been here(?)

Well, I'll tell you now since you're so interested... nothing. NOTHING HAPPENED!

I mean seriously beyond me growing up with the main character of The Owl House and joining a baseball team when I turned 2 or 3 to start strengthening my body which I thought might be nice since I was pretty scrawny in my last life- what was I saying again?...!

Oh right, besides that stuff which I guess is pretty normal for a child the only other thing that wasn't normal was my intelligence. Not to say I was gifted in any way but a teen in a kid's body does seem pretty intelligent which got the notice of a few teachers and got me taking a test to determine whether or not I could skip a grade or two but um, I guess it does sound pretty hectic now that I look back on it, huh?

Well, that's not what matters, compared to magic battles and rebellion against a witch hunter posing as an emperor, I think it was pretty uneventful! Seriously, it was just me, my mom, my school work which still was boring since it was still school, and my friends who weren't that interesting themselves!

Could I say that my sense of reality is a biiit skewed, well YEAH I CAN since I met existence ITSELF and was told it chose me as its successor! Now I might be a bit egotistical after finally soaking that in for a bit but still, this is boring! The most interesting I've seen Luz do is place a bunch of worms in a sandpit and I wasn't even there for it!

So I feel like I can say that it's pretty boring if not a bit busy with someone who is practically a little sister pestering me every day, my practice with my baseball team, and my grade-skipping shenanigans.

'Well, whatever, I still refuse to admit that these past 6 years have been unordinary in any way!' I thought stubbornly before I felt someone poking me. "-s come on let's go!"

I heard Luz's voice say as I turned to see her poking me in my side.

"Luz, can you stop that?" I asked still feeling a pool of annoyance start to simmer as she continued poking me. "Not until you say you're coming to the creek!" Luz stubbornly protested as I sighed in frustration.

"Fine, I just got done with my homework anyway, so we can go now," I said as she seemed to celebrate in a way that only she could celebrate. "Hooray, off we go to fight the evil pine tree who keeps hitting me with pinecones!" Luz said as she ran out of my room and down the hall of my house.

"*sigh*, she is so exhaustiiing," I complained to myself as I placed my hands on my desk and lifted myself from my chair. "*snort*" "wha-?!" I said not expecting anyone to be here and turned around surprised only to see my mom standing in the doorway of my room wearing a plain white top and blue jeans.

"S-Sorry Chris, I just wasn't expecting you to grumble like you were some kind of little adult," I heard my mom say preemptively before I went to respond. "Um, yeah well don't sneak up on me like that please?" I responded half-heartedly feeling stupid for getting caught off guard like that.

"Sure sweetie," Mom said as she patted me on the head and started to ruffle my hair. "Mom please stop, you're messing up my hair!" I whined not liking that I was being treated like a child, even though I was one.

"Okay fine but you need to get going or Luz is going to leave you in the dust!" She said enthusiastically as she pointed behind her toward the door. "Yeah I know," I groaned and rolled my eyes before I felt another hand on my head again.

"Okay, okay I'm going!" I said before I felt my mom lift her hand off my head. "This is just when Dad used to give me noogies!" I said turning only to see the grin on my mom's face flicker before coming back like nothing ever happened.

"Yep, and I'll give you one as well if you don't get going now!" She said playfully as I started running out of the room but not before grabbing my aluminum bat. "See ya later Mom!" I smiled back at her as I ran through the door to my room and waved goodbye.

"See you later Chris, make sure to get back before dark!" I heard my mom say before I ran down the hall and turned to the front door.

A few minutes later...

I was just reaching the creek when I spotted the pine tree in the distance, the one I usually practiced swinging at while I was here with chipped bark and all. "*huff* almost there *huff*," I said to myself before I slowed down from a run into a walk as I pushed some branches of smaller green plants out of the way to enter the sort of circular clearing Luz and I played in.

"Chris, you're finally here slowpoke!" I saw Luz run up to me as she grabbed my face and lowered my head a bit to meet hers.

"What took you so long?" Luz asked me as I shrugged.

"Just my mom saying bye," I answered nonchalantly before pushing away Luz's arms. "So what are we doing today?" I asked in turn as Luz's pout turned into a smile as she started hopping up and down.

"Oh, oh, I collected these pinecones that I thought I could throw like in that baseball stuff you do or pretend like they're magic spells that I could cast like Azura in my book a-and then we could have you be the brave knight who attacks our arch nemesis the evil pineus!" Luz explained as I looked over at the pine tree I lost a few bats to hitting.

'Oh yeah, Luz came up with that name for it when she got her first Good Witch Azura book didn't she?' I thought to myself remembering how Luz brought it along one day as we walked to the creek and talked about how great it was.

"Oh, uh sure should I do my knight impression?" I asked snapping back to focus as I turned back to Luz.

"Well yeah! A great witch needs her squire to help her take down her arch-nemesis!" Luz exclaimed as she threw her hands in the air with a smile on her face... only to drop whatever pinecones she collected in her overalls.

"Oh no, my spells!" Luz said scrambling to pick up her pinecones as I chuckled.

"Ahem, fear not Lady Luz, I Chris, will fight Pineus alongside you with great effort!" I said making my voice sound as deep and refined as I could.

"Then my noble squire, I shall promote you to a great knight when this fight is over and we vanquish Pineus the evil!" Luz responded in kind with her own over-the-top voice after she finished picking up her pinecones.

"Then onward, we shall go to smite our greatest foe!" I said as I charged toward the pine tree that I forgot to mention had an evil face drawn on it. "Yes, we shall- but um what does foe mean again?" I paused and looked back and sighed.

"It's just another word for an enemy or bad guy, I guess?" I reminded her as she let out an "Ohhhh," and nodded. "Then we shall vanquish our foe!" Luz said confidently despite probably not having a great grasp on words like vanquish quite yet.

"We shall!" I let Luz run past me and throw pinecones at the tree before following after and with an exaggerated yell I swung my bat at the tree as I heard a clang resonate off my bat.

As we kept going through the day, we fell into a pattern of hitting the pine tree and stopping either when Luz ran out of pinecones to throw or when I tired out from swinging but eventually, we stopped when Luz got bored and we moved on to play fighting which I had to be more careful about so I used a stick instead of my bat.

Eventually, the sky turned a beautiful orange glow and we stopped for the day as we caught our breath sitting on some logs that were just lying around. "*huff* that *huff* was fun," I commented as I looked over at Luz. "Y-*huff*yeah, it was," Luz responded as she turned to me with a smile.

"Well, we should probably get back before it gets dark don't want either of our moms getting worried," I said before standing up with Luz following after. "Yeah, we don't want to get lost or get in trouble," Luz said as I nodded in response.

"*rustle**rustle*," I turned toward the creek hearing something on the other side of the large indent that the creek was as I looked down from the elevated ground that our side had which didn't make it any easier with all the thick brush that obscured the other side of the creek's land.

"Chris, what are you doing?" I heard Luz say as she leaned weirdly to the side as she looked at me curious to know why I walked over to the edge of the tiny cliff that made up the edge of the clearing.

Not noticing any more sounds I turned back and responded. "Just some rustling on the other side of the creek, I was just being paranoid," I explained as Luz looked at me weirdly.

"Para-what?" Luz asked as I remembered she was just in first grade and still hadn't learned that much vocabulary despite how much she got from her reading in The Good Witch Azura.

"Oh uh, it just means I'm being a scaredy cat," I said scratching my head awkwardly as Luz's eyes widened with understanding.

"Oh, so you thought that something scary was hiding in the bushes over there!" Luz said with an annoying childish smirk only someone her age could have.

"So do you think it's one of the evil Pineus' minions taking revenge for their master?" Luz said shifting back into her voice for her witch role in our game of make-believe.

"Uh Luz, I don't think we should be playing, this could be a wild animal," I responded feeling a sense of dread as I kept looking at the continually darkening greenery on the other side.

'What if it's...' I thought as images of grown men grabbing children appeared in my head. "Luz, let's go, my mom and yours are going to be worried soon," I said with a little more urgency before I heard a whine from Luz as she turned around and looked at me with puppy dog eyes.

"Come on Chris, can't play just a liiittle more?" Luz pleaded cutely as I ignored her look feeling my sense of urgency rising with the barely audible sound of rustling coming back.

Then before Luz could turn back to look at where the sound came from, I grabbed her hand and pulled her behind me as I swiftly headed toward the path back in what could be called a speed walk.

"H-hey, why are you walking so fast?" I heard Luz ask from behind me in a tone that sounded like she was caught off guard by my sudden action.

"Just want to get home as quick as possible," I said trying to not let my worry show and hoped that this wouldn't tip off whatever potential threat could be back there that we were aware of what it might be.

I gripped my bat tighter in my hand noticing the sharper deformed edges that I inadvertently made today while hitting that tree which I knew my mom would be annoyed about when I got back.

I felt Luz struggle a bit more in my grip as I tried to walk a bit faster noticing the sound of brush being moved starting to sound closer and closer before feeling my heart beat faster for some inexplicable reason and with that my eyes started darting around in the general area of the noise as we got closer to the edge of the woods.

Hoping that it was just me imagining things, that the sounds weren't getting closer, I looked back to Luz who now seemed to be fighting my grip less, and if that wasn't enough then the expression of slowly rising unease hit the nail in the coffin.

Just as I was about to turn back and speed up into a full run I felt something chilling rise up my spine as I noticed the look of unease on Luz's face turn into fear before I quickly turned to see something large and undefinable, maybe not quite as undefinable as Ego but still in every respect it could be seen as bigger than the Ego I remember.

"A-a wolf?" I heard Luz say which momentarily cut through my fear as I took that moment to glance back at her only to see her look on with a gaze as unsure as it was fearful.

"Yeah, a wild animal like I warned you about," I looked back at it trying to project the same amount of confidence as I tried to put into my voice to make it seem less terrifying than it was. "Wh-what do we do?" Luz asked as I began to raise my bat and tense my shoulders.

"Just try to run after I distract it, I-I mean what kind of knight would I be if I let my lady get hurt?" I said my voice faltering partially as I kept my eyes on its shifting form that started to resemble a wolf the longer I stared at it.

'So I guess this thing works on perception too, like that old man...' I thought as I felt my fear lessen ever so slightly.

"But we aren't playing, you're not an actual knight," I heard the concern laced in Luz's voice as she talked which made my lips thin ever so slightly before my lips widened into a grin as I tried to sound carefree like I would be fine if she left.

"Come on, I've got to at least be like your big brother, right?" I said jokingly with mock hurt as the creature stepped closer to us. "M-maybe but wh-what does that have to do with this?" Luz said with confusion mixing into the already prevalent fear.

"Older siblings need to protect their younger ones, so when you run just know I will protect you, got it?" I said with an even brighter smile that might have sparkled if it was some kind of cartoon.

"O-okay, but promise me you'll be fine? I don't want my brother to be hurt because of me," I chuckled as I nodded and watched the creature now clearly resembling a wolf approach faster than before as if it knew what we were going to do.

"Will do little sister, now run on my signal," I said with joyful sarcasm as I stepped closer to the wolf holding my bat in a swinging position before... 'Wait for it, wait for it-' the wolf charged as soon as I got within a few meters of it.

"-now!" I shouted as I swung from the left causing the wolf to start ducking to the right, opening up the left, less obstructed side of the natural dirt path for Luz to run.

I watched as Luz ran past with a sigh of relief. 'You wanted excitement right me? Well here's your supernatural encounter,' I thought to myself, looking up at the large wolf-like shape in front of me as it tried moving back out of my range and most likely chasing after Luz.

Unfortunately for it, "My right swing is better than my left," I muttered cockily as I ran forward and bashed it in its bulky left side. 'You dare?!' I heard a voice I didn't recognize call out ...only, it wasn't sound that made those words but rather what felt like some kind mental echo that you probably compare to what a person sounded like in a tunnel.

"What-?" I didn't have time to get out a proper response as any of the attention that was placed on Luz was now focused solely on me before a huge body came hurtling towards me launching me back what felt like several meters and as my leg hit something solid making a prominent enough noise to hear as much as I felt it.

"*snap*," I screamed, I don't know for however long I was in the air, it could've been minutes, it could've been seconds but what I knew for a fact was "IT HURTS, IT FUCKING HURTS!" I screamed shrilly trying to cope with my new broken leg. It so painful that I didn't even notice myself subconsciously trying to choke back a sob as I tried to calm down but almost instantly found my head smacking the ground, dazing me before I felt something warm flow onto my face.

Whether the possible concussion was to blame or something else I seemed to have achieved my goal of calming down as I groaned.

'Why did I think I could fight this thing again?' I thought dazedly as I tried to stop the ringing in my ears then I thought about how quickly my body crumbled when hit a single time by the wolf and felt both my terror and frustration rise even over the buzzing which provided some momentary clarity as I bitterly thought about my actions so far.

"Am I really this stupid? Do I have a hero complex or something? Why did I think it was a good idea stay behind?! It was obvious the pitch blank wolf creature was going to kill me if I did, so why didn't I run away with Luz?!" I growled, feeling tears come to my eyes as my mind started to haze over again before I started looking around, remembering what kind of situation I was in and despite the possible concussion I had, predicted what was probably going to happen next as I steeled myself and through a few muffled screams of pain I started dragging myself with a goal in mind.

'I need to get my bat!' I thought urgently as I dragged myself forward, looking for my only weapon like a cornered animal would look for a place to escape.

'Where is it, where is it, where is it?!' I screamed frantically in my head knowing instinctually that the more time that I wasted the closer to my location it would get and before I could think anything else I spotted it oddly balancing on the edge of the clearing.

"There!" I couldn't help but scream out despite knowing the danger that speaking would bring as I crawled towards the ledge just above the creek.

I frantically gripped the bat that I just realized had a small amount of blood dripping off one of the sharper, spike-like edges and was dripping the viscous substance into the creek which weirdly glow when it hit the water.

As I stared down at the creek, seeing the glow coming from the water, I noticed what I could only describe as a white oval formed below in the water, "what the-?" I exclaimed my batting arm dangling just off the small cliff while staring confused at what I could only describe as a disc of light just before I heard the brush move behind me and I watched with apprehension as the wolf-

'-no...,' THE CREATURE stepped out of the brush and stood at its full terrifyingly gut-wrenching height.

It seemed to be two, no, three times its previous height standing at more than 10 meters in height. It looked like a giant if not a titan.

I steeled my nerves again, trying to fight past my terror before clenching my jaw as I yelled, "W-WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WANT?!" This seemed to get a chuckle out of it as it seemed to think. 'What do I want?' It spoke, 'What I want is your death to sustain my flesh just like any other being in this world,' it stated as confusion appeared in my expression before it shifted back into one of anger and fear.

"So are you some kind of magical beast that fell into the human world or something?" I hesitantly asked pushing through the fog in my brain despite knowing it was probably stupid to talk to the creature that just indirectly said it's going to eat me, but I clung to whatever advantage I could get whether that was making it let its guard down or buying a few more seconds of life.

'*chuckle*, that's an amusing way of putting it,' it said seemingly amused by my attempt to talk to it. 'You will not be able to understand what I am child.' It said with what seemed to be a predatory smirk seeming to let its guard down a bit as it continued to monologue.

'-But you may see me as such a being if you must though this will not help you avoid your death and it will not stop me from killing you slowly and painfully for that attack earlier,' it explained in a sickeningly condescending way before I glanced at my bat once more and whatever that mysterious light circle disk of light was in the water.

Then as I watched the creature creep towards me, I tightened my grip on my bat in anticipation of its approach and as it lunged... I swung my bat(!), cutting a few more lines of blood on its face soaking the ethereal looking fur that thinly coated it before its large legs landed on my lower body.

I tried ignoring the screaming pain in my lower half as its huge body fully landed on me and with its landing I finally understood how crushing it's weight was that seemed to make sure that the symmetry of my legs were maintained as I heard a snap from my other leg.

Then to top off this horrible experience, a few drops of its blood touched my skin and started to burn but even worse was how it spread causing even more pain, but ironically the creature's weight was what might have helped as the cliff couldn't hold it up, so we fell and I was sent plummeting into the creek and straight into the bright white circle which brought only one hazy thought to my head, 'Why does this feel so familiar?...'