A Different Life

by ADHDplusCartonnsmakesCHAOS

Summary:

“Sire, there is a… situation”

Belos rolled his eyes “don't dance around it Kikimora, I am a very busy man.”

She shrunk under his glare, before straightening up and looking Belos in the eye

“Sire, the golden guard and lilith have found a… human child”

 

Luz is found and taken in by Belos at a young age and gets raised alongside Hunter. She grows up believing she was given to Belos by the Titan to lead the witches she is surrounded by. However, soon after her 14th birthday she starts to meet new people and make new friends, who tell her the way she lives is wrong. But they must be wrong. Belos would never hurt her for no reason!

...right?

Chapter 1: The Beginning

Belos was just about to summon the Collector for another talk, maybe to discuss the whereabouts of more pallismen, when suddenly there was a knock on the door. Turning around, he saw the small face of his assistant, Kikimora. She was a relatively new recruit to the emperor's coven, and had only been serving Belos for a year and a half, not quite broken in by all the manipulation he had been putting everyone through.

“Speak”

She squeaked, nervous under the glare of the emperor, before pulling herself together and straightening up

“Sire, there is a… situation”

Belos rolled his eyes “don't dance around it Kikimora, I am a very busy man.”

She shrunk under his glare, before straightening up and looking Belos in the eye

“Sire, the golden guard and lilith have found a… human child”

---------------

Luz burst into the library just as it hit 7:30, waving her arms at Lilith so her mentor could see she was on time. Waking up and seeing she only had 10 minutes to get ready had put her in a panic, as the consequence of being late was often a ban on eating, and Luz couldn’t help but be a foodie! Stumbling to the table, hands clutched around her hood to keep her ears hidden, Luz gave a goofy, apologetic grin to Lilith. She just looked tired.

“Hey Lilith…”

“Luz” oh dear, she looked ready to pass out “you know if this was Kikimora or another coven head, you would be counted as late.”

“Yeah, sorry about that. I’m not late though, so I can have breakfast, right?” suddenly feeling a bit shy, she added “..please?”

“Of course Luz. you’re a growing girl, and I quite dislike the way other coven heads are so strict on you.” she frowned “unless that is the right way to go… no, I think I'm right here.” Luz nodded, reaching out and taking the sandwiches offered by Lilith. PB&J, one of the few foods her weaker human stomach could handle. Of course, uncle always said that it was the others, the witches that ate unnaturally, and her reactions to stronger foods was her body’s attempt at keeping her pure, but the way the coven heads looked at her when she couldn’t eat what was offered, or when she had to leave a meeting early due to stomach ache always made her feel lesser than them, not better. Even Darius, who was less strict, and Eberwolf, who was almost friendly- seemed to be a bit put off by her delicacy. A loud ‘SMACK’ of books hitting the table jolted her out of her thoughts as she flinched back, eyes meeting Liliths arched brow “come on now Luz, don't get so distracted now. I’m already tired enough from Edalyns foolishness from last night”

Luz blinked, suddenly guilty. “sorry, just zoned out for a bit there.”

She knew how much Lilith's sister annoyed her, spouting rubbish like ‘Belos is evil’ and ‘wild magic is good’ as if it didn’t go against the Titans' own word. Apparently, the Owl Lady and her partner had tried to break into the Conformatoruim to steal some items. They had failed, but they had started a rebellion in the process, and Lilith had to deal with all the paperwork it had left.

First the Basilisks, then the Conformatorium. That was two prison breakouts in one month, and even Hunter was starting to get a little antsy. However, Luz wasn't too worried. The scouts would find the basilisks before they hurt anyone easily, and all the escaped prisoners would be caught eventually. And then everything would go back to normal.

 

She was confident that nothing was going to change. Why would it?

Notes:

This is the start of a new fic! It won't have a regular update schedule, cause I have both school and ADHD, but I'll try. Hope you like it!

Chapter 2: A Fun Day Out

“Luz, calm down. You're going to knock something over and then we'll both be in trouble.”
Luz was practically bouncing off the walls, clinging on to Hunter's arm. Today, her, Hunter, Lilith and a handful of other scouts were going to a Coven Convention, a place filled with other witches! Not only that, but Hunter was coming as well, to keep her from getting into too much trouble, and to protect her from others! She never got to hang out with him, as he was always working, and the few times he wasn’t he was sleeping.but now they were both leaving the castle together!

“ Luz, c’mon, we’re going to be late. Unless you don’t want to meet Lilith's student?”

Luz snapped out of her excited mumbling, giving Hunter a grin, “nah, i think you would die before you had to talk to kids your own age without me!”

She let go of Hunter, laughing at his offended grumbling, before turning the corner and crashing into one of the coven scouts

“Woah! Luz, you gotta watch yourself, Cat Child! You good?”

Luz looked up at Steve, before bursting out laughing

“Steve! Oh man, are you coming? Oh wow, we’ll definitely be safe with you, Hunter and Lilith there! Dang, with all this security, the wild witches would have to be idiots to attack us!”

He shook his head “I dunno man, the wild witches can be pretty crazy. Besides, since Lilith is gonna be looking after you, I need to be looking for this flower of life or something. There’s this map, I'm not sure how I'm gonna find it, but it's cool.”

Luz looked up at Steve, suddenly feeling very guilty. “Wait, you're working overtime because of me? I don’t have to go to the convention if that's the case…”. He blinked, stepping forward and waving his hands, but before he could say anything Hunter cut in

“Wait, do you mean the Bloom of Eternal Youth? I’ve heard rumours of it, but almost no book I've read has any information on it! I’ve been wanting to take on a mission about it for a while, to see if it's just a rumour, or perhaps an old legend that was never written down, or maybe even a secret only uncovered recently! Oh, but if you’re taking it, maybe I could see it when it's brought back? That's if it's even real of course, I can’t imagine someone having access to a map to the flower and not taking it, or even selling it sooner, but maybe they wanted to gift it to the emperor? That would make sense, he is-”

Lilith smacked her staff on the ground, scowl clear on her face. “Shut it you. No one cares” Hunter looked at her, irritation clear even with his mask on, before moving away, grumbling. Luz checked to make sure he wasn’t too upset before turning back to Steve.

“well we should be fine anyway. Hasn't the Owl Lady and her partner been busy breaking into the Conformatorium? Besides, I’m fairly doubtful they're going to go into a convention filled with the things they hate the most.”

Lilith shook her head “my sister can be ridiculous sometimes. We have no idea what she’ll get up to, and knowing my luck she’ll probably be causing mischief at the convention just to spite me. If I didn’t think it was important for you to meet other witches your age, I probably would have tried to convince Belos to let you stay! Then again, he is the Emperor, so I doubt I would have been able to do much.” Luz cringed a little at the wording of ‘other witches’, but she supposed she couldn’t be labelled as human with Steve beside them. She rocked her arms back and forth as Lilith slipped her mask on and wrapped her cloak around her shoulders, before she turned back to Luz and straightened out hers. Luz flinched back a little, before scolding herself internally- she had never been hit after all, only watching Hunter face any consequences to her actions- and went back to rocking. Steve seemed to stare at her a little, (probably judging her for dancing around so much, Belos had never been a fan of her fidgeting) before looking back to Lilith.

“That us ready? Do we have snacks packed for the Cat Kid? If so we could probably go, the other scouts are pretty cool, they’ll have their own stuff.”

Hunter looked at him weirdly “Why would we pack snacks for Luz? She’s had breakfast, and if she’s good she’ll get lunch later, so I don’t think snacks are all that necessary…”

Steve paused to look at Hunter and Luz, staring- she hated how the masks stopped her from being able to see what the scouts were thinking- before nodding. “alright, that's fine. I’d say we’re ready to go then, we don’t want to keep Amy waiting anymore!”

“Amity” Lilith corrected “her name is Amity Blight. She is aspiring to be the future Abomination coven leader, and her parents own Blight industries. I’d say she is certainly an acceptable girl to introduce Luz too, a good role model as well.”

Luz could feel her cheeks warm up under her mask- this girl seemed so incredible, and Lilith clearly thought more of her than she did Luz. Oh gosh, she really would have to make a good first impression then, especially if she was a Blight child! Oh Titan, the Blights were super upper class and fancy- I mean, so was she, being the niece of the Emperor and all- but she was representing Belos here! “Hey Lilith, what does Amity like?”

Hunter snorted behind her “worried about making a bad impression?”

Luz spun around and hit him, turning back to Lilith as he yelped “I mean, she obviously likes abomination magic, but I don’t do abomination magic, and she probably likes making abomitons, but I don’t know how to make abomitons, and she's probably obsessed with money, but I don't really care about money and-”

“Luz '' Lilith interrupted “I don't know. She's my student, therefore we focus on studies. I can tell you she’s smart, but nothing else. This will be a good way to learn diplomacy, and improvising. You need to work on your social skills anyway, the Golden Guard is hardly doing you any favours there.”

There was a small huff from Hunter, and a small mumble of “I don’t see you doing anything other than work, old lady” But Luz could practically hear the offended squawking she would hear later. She giggled, and found she felt considerably better. Her and Amity were the same age after all, so this might be a wonderful chance to make friends! Positive thinking was always the way to go after all, and nothing the coven heads said or did could change that! Luz left the castle feeling considerably lighter, squealing in excitement as she, Hunter, Lilith and Steve met up with the other scouts and went on their way.

It was going to be a good day.

Notes:

This is amazing! surely nothing could go wrong here, I mean, why would there be wild witches at a coven convention?

Chapter 3

Summary:

the convention goes terribly!

“Yeah, this is turning out to be a pretty terrible day.”

Luz elbowed Hunter in the stomach, ignoring the way he doubled over and looked back to Amity, trying not to cry. How had it gone so terribly!? She tried to think back on what she had said- She looked just like her mother (she did), she was probably super fancy to be a Blight (she probably was), her Abominations were so small and cute- nothing like Darius’s ones! And then, when Luz started telling Amity about her secured place in the emperor's coven as the Emperor's niece, Amity turned around and snapped at her! “Does she hate cute things?”

“Probably” Hunter shrugged “I mean, all of the coven heads hate cute things, and I think Eberwolf eats them. She probably likes power more”

Luz groaned, putting her head in her hands, when she felt a tap on her shoulder. She yelped, pulling out her artificial wand (small and easily concealable) to find Steve staring at her “oh hey Steve! You finished that mission quick, you ok?- Wow, you look…”

Steve’s mask was bent out of shape, his cape was gone, and he looked absolutely haggard. “Yeah I'm fine. The flower I was looking for doesn’t actually exist though, so that answers your questions from earlier GG” Hunter looked a bit taken aback at Steve remembering his questions about the bloom, since they were just ramblings, but Steve carried on. “I think we probably should have checked out the source a little more, but Steve survived and brought gifts!”. he pulled out two notebooks- A purple one with what looked to be cat palismen painted all over it, and a yellow one with golden details. “The guy who told us about the flower and the map turned out to be a scammer, and I got pretty messed up trying to get away from him. Then, I went to a friend who helped me wrap up my injuries, and she had these! She's pretty chill, so she let me have them for free, and I figured you two would like them.”

Luz was barely listening anymore, gently brushing her hand over the cats draped over the book, slipping in and out the pages. Each one looked alive, unique, all different colours and shapes. She glanced over to Hunter, skimming through the book, red birds flickering through the pages. Grinning, she leapt at Steve, hugging him as hard as she could “Oh Steve, thankyouthankyouthankyou! I love it!”

He laughed “I thought you might. Now, what's the problem with Amelia?”

Luz groaned “It's Amity. And I don't know! I'm terrible with this stuff! I tried to keep myself from rambling or being annoying, and I brought up all my main talking points, like abominations, money, power… and when those failed, I tried to talk about her abomination- it's so much smaller and cuter than anything Darius has made! But she hates me!”

Hunter cut in “I think it was the abomination. It's likely that, while you were talking about money and power, you rambled too much. Telling her that her abomination was ‘cute’ rather than powerful was probably the breaking point.”

Luz was ready to pull her hair out when Steve cleared his throat “all good points, but have you considered the Blight kid might like kid stuff?” Luz and Hunter blinked at him “I mean, she's the same age as you, maybe she’ll like the same things? Power and money are more adult things, so she’s probably not all that into them. She might like the Azura books, or your cool griffin facts!”

Luz stared at him with wide eyes. She hadn’t thought about that, everyone had just told her those things were babyish, so why would Amity Blight share those interests!? And how did Steve even remember about her love of Azura, it had been weeks since she had last talked about the books! She looked back to Amity, and saw that her and Lilith were wrapping up their lessons- probably so Amity could carry on looking through the convention. Looking back at Steve, he gave two thumbs up and nodded, before pushing Luz towards Amity. Stumbling, she shuffled up to her, staring at the ground as she did.

As Luz started picking at the gloves- that's why she had to wear them, her nails looked awful with her picking- she heard a stern “What.”

Amity was glaring daggers at her, looking so much like one of the coven heads Luz was seriously doubting Steve’s words. “Have you come to coo over my adorable attempts at abomination magic-”

“Do you like Azura!?” Luz yelled, before immediately flinching back and covering her mouth. Dammit, that was so loud, and now people were staring! Oh Titan, if she didn’t hate herself before, she definitely did now! And Steve was wrong, there was no way Amity liked Azura! With the look she was giving her, she probably thought she was such a baby! “Titan, I’m so sorry, that was so loud!”. Her voice was wobbling, and Luz was trying not to cry- the mask would hide most of it, but if she started she wouldn’t be able to stop, and her ugly snivelling wasn't what she needed right now. Distantly, she could feel Hunter’s hand grabbing hers, and Steve’s voice clashing with Amity’s, probably apologising.

Suddenly, she was sitting down, and Hunter was rubbing circles into her back. She could feel the warm gold of his mask being shoved into her hand as he mumbled to her about all the forms of world magic he could think of, and she latched on. This was a normal pattern for the two of them, with Luz massaging his hands and telling him about all her favourite books whenever he got like this. That and her aching lungs meant she was probably having a panic attack. Slowly, she came back to reality to see Hunter's worried face next to hers. “You ok now?”

She nodded, feeling absolutely drained. “Ok, then I'm going to get Steve and Lilith. I think we should probably go back now, we did everything we needed to anyway.” Luz just nodded again, too tired to do anything else. She watched as Hunter took his mask back, before he ruffled her hair and marched off. A part of her mind nagged her about being alone, as she was never allowed outside without at least one supervisor, but her exhaustion silenced it quickly. She just wanted to go back to the castle and sleep, but it was likely that she would just have to study magic or diplomacy to make up for this disaster of a day. Titan, why did she have to be so awful at this? So awful at talking, so awful at following rules, so awful at-

“Uh, hi?”
Luz snapped her head up and looked over to see a small demon covered in various clothing samples and coven handouts. His head was covered in bone, with two horns poking out. He was covered in bluish-black fur, and something about him tickled the back of her mind, but with how drained she was she just couldn’t remember.

“You ok?”

Notes:

if there are any mistakes in the chapter, feel free to tell me! also i need to figure out how to put Luz's appearance somewhere, because I'm now realising you guys have no idea what she looks like in this

Chapter 4

Summary:

Luz meets our favorite little bone boy!

“Wow, you are terrible at talking to people!” The demon- King- was pretty rude, Luz thought. Then again, he was 9, but she was never like this when she was nine! She was always quiet, and kept her thoughts to herself. King acted like he’d never been hit a day in his life, which made her wonder if he was either extremely confident, or maybe homeless. “If you want my advice, I'd say she probably doesn’t care about you yelling. It was more likely you bragging about your spot in the emperor's castle and telling her she was weak that really made her angry.”

Luz blinked “but I wasn’t bragging, I was telling her that I was excited to be there if she ever became the abomination head! And when did I say she was weak? The closest thing I said that implied she was anything but powerful was when I compared her abominations to Darius’s…” yeah that sounded bad. And had she ever gotten around to telling Amity about her becoming a coven head, or had Amity snapped at her before she could? “Oh.”

King nodded “yeah.”

“Wow I probably sounded like a huge jerk.”

“Yeah you probably did.”

And it was so obvious that a nine year old knew as soon as she told him. Titan, he was right, she was terrible at this. Actually, why was a nine year old sitting here giving her social advice? Shouldn't he be with his parents? Or was her homeless theory correct? Something tickled the back of her mind again, but she brushed it off and looked at him again. “Hey, wait, why are you here?”

“Heh?”

“I mean, not that I don’t appreciate your input here, but don't you have parents? Or someone here with you at least? Cause if you don’t then we should probably head over to the lost kids area…”

“HEH!?”

She flinched back as she looked at King's offended face. “I’m a KING! I could destroy cities, I can look after myself for an afternoon! And for your information, I’m not alone! I just couldn’t be bothered following Eda around all day!” he pushed his claws filled with coven samples into her face, ignoring the way she jerked back “The only reason we’re here anyway is cause Vee wanted some of the cool stuff in here, but she couldn’t come in so i’m getting the stuff for her!” he sat back down, grumbling. There were a lot of things to process, but Luz’s brain had only latched onto one thing.

“I’m sorry, did you say…Eda? As in Edalyn the Owl Lady?”

“Yup, that’s exactly what he said.”

Luz’s head snapped up, and her jaw dropped as the Owl Lady herself walked over and grabbed King by the scruff of his neck. “And while I’d rather he didn’t, our cover was already blown by Lily.” looking away from her, the Owl Lady gave King a nasty glare before continuing in a hushed voice “But he knows that he isn’t supposed to be going around telling random people about Vee”

Luz got the feeling that the Owl Lady wasn’t talking to her anymore, with the way King was shrinking in her arms. She had no idea who Vee was, but knowing that she was with the Owl Lady could mean so much. Was she a criminal? Had she been kidnapped? Was King going to be punished for telling her about Vee?

Oh Titan, was she about to be eaten!?

She didn’t say anything, too shocked by being face-to-face with the Owl Lady. She just sat and stared as the Owl Lady moved King under her arm before turning to Luz. “Anyway, nice meeting you but I have to go now. And ignore what the kid said about Vee, that's his, uh, imaginary friend.” She turned around, (ignoring King's indignant shouts) and sped away from Luz before she could snap out of her terrified state.

Suddenly, just as Luz managed to shake herself out of her trance, she heard a shout behind her.

“Cat-Child! You OK?”

She turned around to see Steve jogging over to her, waving. He stopped in front of her before placing a hand on her shoulder. Hunter came up after him, looking panicked. She could see Lilith in the distance ordering a bunch of coven scouts around, pointing at an Owl Lady poster.

…what was it that the Owl Lady had said about Lilith discovering her?

“Luz! Are you ok? Are you feeling better? Did anyone come up to you after I left? Titan, why did I leave!? Uncle is going to be so mad!”

Luz froze at the mention of Belos. Would he be mad? What was she thinking, he was going to be furious! Hunter had left her alone, and now he was absolutely going to be punished. And what about the Owl Lady? If Belos found out that The Owl Lady had not only approached her, but had approached her to take away her partner that Luz had been talking to, Hunter’s punishment would be awful! He might even die-

Die? Why would he die? Where did that thought come from? She shook her head. Whatever would happen, Belos couldn’t find out about her conversation with King. Hunter was already going to receive harsh punishment, she shouldn't add on to it. But Vee? What if the Owl Lady had kiddnapped her? No, Luz decided. She wasn’t going to hurt Hunter over the possibility that this Vee person might be in danger.

“...No. Nobody approached me. I’m feeling way better now though. A little hungry, but that's it.” she blinked “I’m not going to get lunch am I?”

Hunter cringed, having calmed down a little at Luz’s assurances “probably not. But '' he lowered his voice as they started walking so any scouts passing by wouldn’t hear them. “I did hide some food from yesterday behind the sidetable. You can have that tonight.”

Steve stumbled behind them, and when Luz looked behind her, he was staring at her with wide eyes. Hunter stuttered beside her, trying to find an excuse to what Steve clearly just heard, when he shook his head.

“It’s ok, I won’t tell anyone. This can be our little secret, alright?”

They were quiet as Hunter and Luz tried to figure out what Steve was saying, if he was lying. (Luz really hated those scout masks) but nothing about the scout implied he was being untruthful.

“You sure Steve? I can pay you if you want, you just can’t tell Belos.”

The scout shook his head “Nah, don’t worry about it. I didn’t hear anything but the hustle and bustle of the convention, alright?”

Hunter relaxed beside her, and Luz found herself doing the same. Blackmail was not fun, and what Hunter had offered was risky, but if Steve had told someone about the food stash then she would be starved for days, and Hunter would receive punishment as well.

Luz stepped forward and wrapped Steve into a firm hug. “Thank you. You’ve been awesome today.”

The moment was slightly ruined by the awkward coughing behind them.

Luz let the scout go, and glanced over his shoulder to see Amity standing, her red face contrasting her hair in an almost comical way, gripping her uniform so tightly Luz worried that it would tear “hey, uh, Loos?”

Luz looked down, remembering the conversation from earlier and King's advice. (should she even follow it? What if it was a trick, he’s a criminal-) “It’s Luz.”

“Oh. Sorry Luz. I just wanted to ask about what you said earlier? About Azura?” this was it. This was when she stuck up her nose, told Luz about how babyish those books were, how she wouldn’t expect the niece of the Emperor to like something as childish as that- “I wanted to say that, uh, yeah. Yeah I like Azura I mean. Hecate is my favourite character. I know she’s a little snobbish but I like her backstory and stuff. What about you?”

Luz Stared at her with wide eyes. Amity Blight? Liking Azura? But she was so cool! And powerful! And nothing like stupid old Luz. but, then again, they were the same age. And even though Hunter was her brother, that didn’t mean she liked the same things as him, so why would that apply to Amity and her parents? Could Amity… really be a friend?

“I like Azura. I-I know she’s the main character and all, but I love her goals, and how complicated her character is! Like, she’s fighting against her father for the good of the world and stuff after she runs away from him, but you can tell how much she still loves him anyway!”

Amity nodded “of course! And when she meets Hecate at a royal ball-”

Luz gasped “and they run away together! Oh, it's all so romantic, y’know?”

“I would love to live a life like that!”

“Me too!”

Both the girls were quiet for a second, imagining how it would be, when Hunter interrupted

“Well, that's brilliant, but we have to go. If you ask Lilith, you two might be allowed to carry on this conversation later?”

Luz nodded, sad to leave Amity but she knew the consequences of being late back to the castle, especially with the Owl Lady around. Before she left however, she turned to Amity and looked her in the eyes

“I can’t wait for you to become the abomination coven head. We’ll have all the time in the world to talk about Azura then!”

Notes:

remember, any mistakes that you can see please tell me so I can fix them!

Chapter 5

Summary:

our two favorite siblings talk to each other during the aftermath of the coven convention

“Have you ever considered picking up sewing?”
Hunter looked at Luz with a deadpan expression, holding up a needle for Luz to see. She cringed at the blood dripping off it, before shaking her head and turning back to her stale bread. “No, not that kind. I mean sewing clothes, or maybe taxidermy. You already have experience with stitching stuff, and your med kit is filled with supplies, so wouldn’t it be easy for you?”

Hunter sighed, before continuing working on his arm. “No, I don’t know if Belos would be okay with me wasting my things like that. Also, I don’t have time for it anyway, being the Golden Guard and all. I-ah!”

Luz startled at the gasp of pain, glancing at Hunter to see him clutching his arm, a broken needle embedded inside. Luz immediately crawled across the bed to him, grabbing his arm, before he flinched away, whimpering.

“C’mon Hunter, I can’t do anything if you don’t let me help. Just stay still, and I'll get the needle out easy peasy!”

She took his arm again, slowly easing both pieces of the needle out. When she finished, she grabbed another needle, and rethread it. Hunter was crying now, so Luz just put away her food and focused on the task at hand. It took a few minutes, but eventually Hunter had calmed down, looking dully at Luz’s hands as she worked. After a while, he spoke up

“Sorry about that. I shouldn’t have gotten so upset over a broken needle. I'll do better next time.”

“Wha- no! No, it's fine. Broken needles look like they hurt a ton, it makes sense that you cried. I’m not surprised you keep breaking needles anyway, your skin is so… hard? It feels more like I’m stitching up a palisman honestly.”

They both laughed at that, before returning to the same silence as before. Luz thought back to the day- it had been fun, but stitching up Hunter's wounds put a damper on the whole thing. She stopped, however, when she remembered her talk with King, and the appearance of…

“Hey Hunter?”

“Yeah?”

“I met the Owl Lady.”

Hunter’s head snapped up as he stared at Luz, mouth agape. They both sat, looking at each other before-

“YOU WHAT!?”

She nodded, fidgeting in silence as Hunter rushed to organise his thoughts, horror clear on his face…

“You- why didn’t you say!? Did she do anything to you, like hit you or curse you? Oh Titan, are you in danger right now- are we in danger right now? Does Belos know?”

“No! I’m fine, and I didn't say anything ‘cause I didn’t want Belos finding out! She didn’t do anything to me, she was just picking up her demon thing since I was talking to him-”

“You were what!?”

“And she said something about this person called Vee, and she seemed super secretive about them, and King- that's the demon by the way- he said something about her not being able to enter the coven convention, which seems super sketchy-”

“Everything the Owl Lady does is sketchy!”

“So now I'm wondering if the Owl Lady kidnapped someone, kinda like in book 5 of Azura when Villainous Lucy kidnaps Azura and her sister! Which means we obviously have to-”

“Report it to Belos!”

“Save her ourselves- what?”

Hunter sighed and rubbed his face, something he always did when Luz got too carried away with her Azura fantasies. She usually felt a little guilty, but now- “What do you mean ‘report it to Belos’, we need to save her!”

“No Luz, we need to report it to Belos. One:'' Luz rolled her eyes “We're supposed to tell him everything- it's our duty as his niece and nephew. Two: Saving ‘Vee’ would include sneaking out, which would result in me receiving possibly the worst punishment of my life, and you being starved for days on end! And three:” He looked Luz in the eyes “the Owl Lady is dangerous. If you and I went in ourselves and tried to save her we could be cursed or killed. You could be cursed or killed. You’re a human Luz. Who knows what that criminal would do to you!”

She looked away, lip wobbling. She hated it when anyone brought up her humanity- the ways she was different to everyone else. Logically she knew Hunter was right- they should tell Belos, sneaking out would be disastrous for Hunter, and the Owl Lady was well known for her fascination with humans, if anyone was to find out it would be her, but still. “I just don’t want to get you into trouble. Belos would be so mad if he found out about me meeting the Owl Lady, and us not telling him and-and-”

She broke into messy tears, all the exhaustion and stress of the day bursting out. Hunter’s arms were around her in a second, whispering comforting words. They sat like that for a while, before Luz eventually became too tired to cry anymore. The two stayed in silence, listening to the wind outside and the creaking at the door before Hunter spoke:

“We can’t just run off and try to rescue some random person we don’t know, but… maybe you could tell me how Azura and her sister managed to escape from Villainous Lucy? That could give us some ideas, right?”

And so the two spent the rest of their waking ours doing that: Luz ranting on about Azura while Hunter listened, both completely oblivious to Steve the coven scout outside their door, pale as he realised the two children that had lived in the same castle as he did for years, who were barely older than his beloved brother, had been so obviously abused for years. Abused by the same emperor he had sworn his loyalty to- abused by the emperor he couldn’t continue to serve. As Luz and Hunter eventually settled down for the night, Steve realised something important. Even if it meant betraying the emperor- even if the two kids he cared about almost as much as he cared about Matt hated him-

He had to get them away from the Emperor's Coven. By all means necessary.

Notes:

I'm running out of pre-planned plot, so I'm going to have to figure out a ton of stuff.

Chapter 6

“I can’t believe you!”

 

Vee looked up from her sweeping to see Eda carrying King to the couch by the scruff, King looking thoroughly scolded. She felt a little bad, making them both go all the way to the coven convention even though they were both wanted criminals, but she really wanted to see the stuff they sold there- sue her! She would have gone herself if she could, since Willow and Gus already said they were going to be there, and she was sure they would have covered for her but-

 

(Hooked masks, blank eyes, white uniforms holding needles, knifes, fire, PAIN-)

 

-She didn’t really like being around people. Particularly coven scouts.

 

“Wow Vee, you really…”

 

She snapped out of her thoughts and looked at Eda’s reaction to the house. As soon as the duo had left for the day, Vee had gone straight to making herself useful- and since she didn’t really know how to cook or do laundry, she was left with sweeping and putting things away. They were less likely to kick her out if she could give them something after all, and they had been so wonderful by giving her somewhere to stay even though they knew she was wanted by the emperor, that she had to give something back! “Do you like it? Is it ok? If I messed anything up you can tell me and I’ll fix it, I promise-”

 

“Woah there kid, how about you calm down before you choke on those words. And don’t worry it looks great. I don’t think this place has looked so good since I brought King home!”

 

Vee giggled as King let out a small ‘heh!?’ beside Eda. The two settled into their usual banter, and Vee walked off to put her broom away. 

 

It had been about a week and a half since Vee escaped the emperor's castle with all the other basilisks, and it was going pretty well! Sure, they didn’t know she was a basilisk yet, and she had no idea where the others were, and everytime she woke up she thought she was back there…

 

But! She had a roof over her head, warm meals, and Eda and King were pretty cool too! Returning to the main room, she flopped down onto the couch, before choking when King lept on top of her. 

 

“HEY! I got you stuff! Praise me!”

And thrust a handful of random trinkets into her hands. Now, Vee was sure that any ordinary witch would have been ungrateful for the random assortments of freebies that had been presented to her. Weirded out, maybe. But to Vee, who had never really had anything but a cell and some rusty chains to call her own? This was a goldmine.

 

“These are for me!? And there's so many! A bracelet, and a t-shirt- is this a hat!? And what's this?”

 

Eda looked at the scene with a smile. Vee couldn’t possibly know this, but Eda was… fond of her. And concerned. Of course she was concerned. A small, scared teen ending up at her stall, not knowing who the Owl Lady was and terrified of coven scouts. Eda was heavily considering just leaving her- no need to take in another kid, having King as a roomie was difficult enough- but her reaction to a coven scout- and the way she immediately assumed he was after her- well, who was Eda to not help out another enemy of the emperor? Inviting her to her house for a few days, feeding her… but…

 

The hoarding habit she had already picked up… now, Eda really shouldn’t have agreed on going to the Coven Convention for Vee, not only was she the Owl Lady, but she really shouldn’t be encouraging this kid to keeping a bunch of random crap in her house. Alas, King had already taught Vee how to pull off puppy eyes, and honestly, it was like she was shapeshifting those eyes into something bigger, but Titan she just couldn’t say no. And it's not like she could kick her out right!? Vee already had her room filled to the brim with trash, kicking her out now would be inconvenient!

 

Feeling eyes on her, Vee looked up to see Eda staring at her, before blinking and looking away.

 

Weird.

 

“Anyway, did anything happen at the convention? Did you guys see Willow and Gus- they said they’d be there, but I’m not sure which stalls they would have hung around at…”

 

King shook his head “Nah, we didn’t. We did see Eda’s sister Lilith though! She made us leave early, which sucked. ”

 

Eda rolled her eyes “C’mon King, I'm not the only one at blame here. Don’t think I’ve forgotten what you were saying to that kid. The entire reason we went to that convention was so that people wouldn't find out about Vee, and what do you do!? You go blabbing about her to the first person we see! If you ask me, that’s much more serious than me bumping into my sister.”

King opened his mouth to refute, but before he could say anything-

“You what!?”

 

The two looked at each other, before turning to Vee, who was…

 

(Hooded faces, blank eyes, grabbing her, hitting her, stabbing her, it hurt it hurt it HURT-)

 

“You told someone about me!? Who was it? Are they here- please tell me they're not here, I can’t go back! Please! ”

 

(Black, heavy chains, dark cells, screams, they were coming back, coming for her, coming to take her blood, her magic-)

 

“If I go back I’ll die! they’ll drain me, take everything from me- I won’t even be Vee anymore, I-I’ll just be a n-number, a-”

 

Suddenly Vee was cut off from her sobbing by a soft, fluffy blanket and the smell of… apple blood? She looked up ( when did she sit down?)  to see Eda holding a cup by her face, King sitting next to her clutching onto a corner of the soft material. His hands were shaking, and Vee’s face went red as she realised she had just had a breakdown right in front of her housemates.

 

“Hey” Vee’s face snapped back to Eda, her hands out like she was comforting a wild animal “don’t worry, it wasn’t a scout. Even if it was, the Titan himself wouldn’t be able to take you from me, ok?”

 

King nodded beside her “Yeah, there’s no way Luz was a scout! She was super awkward, and also young enough to go to hexside. I’m fairly sure none of the scouts are that young. Besides, she was dumb- didn’t even know calling someone’s abomination small and weak was an insult!”

 

Vee gave a strange half hiccup, half laugh and rubbed away her tears with the blanket. Luz- she didn’t recognize the name, which meant whoever she was likely wasn’t a scout. That was good. Even if this person was a scout, she probably wouldn’t recognise Vee’s name anyway- considering she wasn’t even meant to have one.

 

The three then stood up, Eda pushing Vee back onto the couch while King ran into the kitchen to get the two of them some snacks.

 

“Speaking of Willow and Gus” Vee ignored Eda’s frown as she sped past the whole ‘mental breakdown in the living room’ thing “There’s a Moonlight Conjuring happening soon, and the others were hoping to come over..?” Was she asking for too much? She was totally asking for too much.

 

But to her surprise, Eda actually nodded! “Of course! I like your friends, they have spunk- even if they’re twerps. I’ll actually be away the night of the conjuring, since I’ve heard rumour of a new stall being opened up at the Midnight Market. As long as you don’t let them into my room, or possess anything too big of course.”

 

Vee nodded seriously, taking in the rules, but inside she was ecstatic! She didn’t know much about witch customs, but Conjurings sounded thrilling, and it would feel amazing to relax in her Basilisk form- walking around on two legs was so much more tiring then slithering. She knew she should tell her housemates about her true nature eventually, but it was stressful enough having Willow and Gus in on the secret. She would tell them eventually.

 

eventually…

Chapter 7

 

Vee was… nervous about the Conjuring.

 

The day had already gone wrong, when she woke up and found that she had shifted into her basilisk form in the middle of the night- with King sleeping right beside her! Thankfully he was a heavy sleeper, and only grumbled a little when she rushed to the bathroom to change.

 

Her witch form was… simple, but it meant she blended in with the crowd well, and that was all that mattered. Her hair was a dark reddish colour, brushed smoothly behind her ear and just barely reached her chin. Her ears were pointed (like any witch), and her eyes were bright yellow. Her outfit wasn’t anything amazing either, just a simple, loose-fitted blue dress, white loafers and a beaded necklace to fidget with. 

 

She wondered if one day, she could take on a form that was… bigger. More flair, more excitement, with all her favourite colours. But for now this would have to do. It wasn’t ugly, not at all, but it just wasn’t her .

 

Then, Hooty had come in when she was waiting for Eda to finish making breakfast and scared her, which would have caused a panic attack if it weren’t for King’s quick thinking and a teddy. Hooty had apologised, but Vee was already jittery enough and hadn’t managed anything more than a couple slices of bread. And to top it all off, Eda had been giving her worried looks all day! 

 

She was nervous, yes, but she couldn't wait for Willow and Gus to come over so she could relax and stop having eyes on her wherever she went.

 

______________

 

“So, what are the rules again?”

 

“Don’t do anything you would do!” Vee and the dorks said in unison. Eda laughed, before bringing out Owlbert and hopping on.

 

“Remember, if I come back and the house is a total wreck, you lot are cleaning it up, okay?”

The three nodded. It was probably fine, Vee had been left alone plenty of times, and Willow looked responsible enough. She wasn’t sure Gus had even gotten his adult fangs yet, but the older two would probably be able to stop him from doing anything too chaotic. Probably.

 

To be perfectly honest, she was kind of hoping Vee would do something dumb and rebellious. The kid was 14, this was the perfect age for her to be testing her boundaries, figuring herself out, but instead she was cleaning during her free time. Hopefully her friends would be able to get her to let loose a little. They had bonded so quickly after all, becoming best friends after only one day of knowing each other- something crazy must have happened when Vee had snuck into hexside- so who knows.

 

Hmm… hexside… Vee did need some friends…

 

Anyway, the fact of the matter was that something bad had happened to Vee. something bad that the emperor's coven was apparently directly responsible for. What the hell did she mean by ‘draining her’? What the hell had Eda gotten herself into!? She didn’t want this, she wanted to open up her home to a kid and fellow criminal, not discover a government conspiracy!

 

Looking down at King, she saw that he was frowning a little as well- probably thinking the exact same things as her. Well, with a little less childcare and a little more confusion probably. “Hey King, what's going on?”

 

He blinked and looked up at her, surprised by the sudden start to the conversation before frowning again. “Just… thinking. About Vee.” Eda nodded- just as she thought.

 

“What do you think about this whole situation?”

 

“It’s just… weird. Why does she keep freaking out? Does it have something to do with why she keeps tons of trash in her room? Or why she hates going outside?”

 

Eda whistled “Perceptive kid.” King had always been smart like that- knowing exactly when her curse was acting out, or with his weirdly detailed roleplaying. “I don’t know why she freaks out, but we should keep an eye on it bud.”

 

He hummed, looking away. Urgh, how were you meant to explain PTSD to an eight year-old? Even a smart one! You couldn’t exactly turn ‘try not to trigger Vee’ into a game, could you?

 

Could you?

 

“Hey, how about this- you spend a lot of time with Vee, right?” he nodded “good, so lets play a game. Every time we see Vee get a little weird- and this can be anything, like her getting quiet, or running away or even if she goes kinda blank and calm- we write it down.”

 

She had his full attention now, as he rolled the idea around in his head “how do we win?”

 

“Well, the less she freaks out, the more we win! Cool right? It’ll help you get to know your Boo-Boo Buddy better as well, which is an additional bonus.”

 

He brightened up at that last part- as much as he tried to hide it, King was an absolute sap, loving nothing more than being close to others. She wondered if it had something to do with how she found him… but now wasn’t the time for that. It wasn’t causing any severe issues, and Vee definitely took priority for now.

 

“Yes! I am the master of games!”

 

Eda looked fondly at King before refocusing on her flying. The night market, perfect for criminals to get small supplies and cheap, hard apple blood- although with two kids in the house instead of one she might have to start drinking the soft stuff. It was also going to be the place where she got more elixir- couldn’t be a raging beast with Vee around, even if King was there to give her context. Speaking of King, it was ok to bring children to the Night Market right? 

 

Eh, it was fine. It wasn’t like he would get kidnapped from under her nose right?

Chapter 8

Oh Titan they had animated the house. THEY HAD ANIMATED THE HOUSE.

Willow wasn't doing too great. First was the worrying discovery that Vee’s… housemates? didn't know Vee was a basilisk. She wasn’t sure how she and Gus had learnt this before them, especially considering Vee had apparently been living in the Owl House for a week before the incident at hexside. 

Then there was the fact that Vee’s housemates were the Owl Lady and a horrifying Demon- she almost wet herself when she saw him. He seemed childish, but he was a friend of the Owl Lady, and that was enough for Willow to know he was dangerous. Oh, also King. But he was sweet, nothing like ‘Hooty’. She wasn’t sure how Vee met them, or how she’d kept the basilisk thing a secret, or how the fact that she was living with the most dangerous criminals on the Boiling Isles had never come up in conversation but whatever. Willow was flexible, she could move past this.

What she wasn’t so sure she could move past was the current problem. They had animated the house of the most violent witch on the Boiling Isles. Not only that, but underneath the large pile of clothes her and Gus were piling up was the very un-witchlike form of Vee. The only thing you could see was a small, green hand poking through the Owl Lady’s underwear which Willow was holding in an attempt to calm down the panicking girl. Not that it was working.

“We animated the house!”

“I know, We’re sorry!”

“I’m in my basilisk form!”

“Its ok, you’re going to be ok”

“We’re in public! We’re gonna-”

Vee trailed off into squeaky gasps, tears, and what was most definitely the panic attack she’d been fighting off. 

Without even saying anything, Gus immediately stopped piling clothes onto Vee’s shaking frame and started pulling them off, freeing up room for her lungs and revealing her other hand, which Gus immediately grabbed. Realising what he was doing, Willow started up the breathing techniques she’d taught Gus. It was slow, and it wasn’t doing much to bring Vee back into her witch form, but it was working.

Eventually, Vee’s eyes were too dry to cry anymore, and her breath had evened out. She looked back up to Gus and Willow, and Willow had to hold back a small whimper at the utter fear that was still in her friend's eyes. While the three of them were close, and Vee’s basilisk secret had come out a while ago, Willow’s shapeshifting friend still refused to open up about her life. She and Gus had theories, and despite Gus’s relentless optimism, none of them were very nice. But now wasn’t the time for theories- now was the time to comfort her friend.

“Listen. Do you remember how we met?”

Vee choked back another sob, before nodding.

“Yeah. and you transformed there too, with no piles of pants covering you up, and no giant house to distract onlookers.”

Vee paused, and Willow sagged a little in relief. She was getting through to her.

“And how many people noticed?”

“N-nobody”

It was quiet, barely a whisper, but it was something. It was something.

“That's right, nobody. And nobodies going to notice tonight either- thats a promise from your best friend.”

“Both of them!” Gus cut in, poking his head around Willow with a toothy grin.

Vee looked between the two of them, glossy eyes shining in a way that would mean more tears for anyone else, but for Vee just meant that she was feeling normal again. After a few seconds of this patient silence, she smiled. A small one, but all her most natural ones were.

“Does this mean your feeling better?”

She nodded

“Good,” Gus stood up a little straighter “Because we’re kinda being tailed by a ton of… bounty hunters I think? So we should probably figure out how to deal with that.”

The three of them were dead silent for all of 5 seconds, before Vee let out an ear piercing shriek

________________

He was going to burn Luz’s books.

All of them.

Hunter pulled his cloak over his ears a little more, borderline hissing at anyone who looked at him the wrong way. He’d convinced himself that his hands were shaking out of anger of what Luz had convinced him to do- I mean, sneaking out to go to the Night Market- why, she may as well have asked him to spit on Uncle's shoes! Secretly however, he knew he couldn’t ever be that angry at Luz. no, he was shaking because, well, he might as well have been spitting on Uncle’s shoes! Sneaking out- it didn’t matter that Luz had looked at him with those ridiculous puppy eyes, If he got caught… he shuddered. Even worse if someone found out Luz had pushed him to this. He scoffed a little under his breath. Luz wouldn’t be asking him to do this if she was at the other side of Belos’s punishments- she’d be begging him not to go, not packing him a first aid kit and telling him not to get caught.

He, of course, immediately felt awful for this line of thought. He didn’t really want Luz to get hurt, he just didn't want to get hurt himself for her mistakes. Sure, it probably taught her a lot about leadership and stuff, but… 
He had to stop thinking about this. All it did was stop things from making sense.

Anyway, the point of the matter was that Luz sucked, and now Hunter was in a sweaty, loud crowd with a scratchy hood and no mask. He was probably going to have to try to have everything ready with at least half an hour to spare, he realised with an awful curdling feeling, so he could run to the privacy of the woods to let out some of the stress tonight would surely bring. 

Luz so owed him.

Before he could stew on this any longer, however, Hunter spied a rather familiar figure- or rather, the figure of a familiar description.

The Owl Lady. The Owl Lady was here. Hunter wasn’t sure why he was so surprised, this was a sketchy drug-type market, everyone here was a criminal of some kind. Why not the most notoriously vile witch on the Isles? She probably came here all the time! Her and her… furry.. Baby… uh?

Oh, that was probably ‘King’. So an evil furry baby.

Immediately Hunter forgot about his original mission of finding books on Wild Magic- Luz would forgive him if he came back with an exciting enough story, and she tended to forget about these things a lot anyway- and instead focused all his energy on stalking the Owl Lady.

Concerningly, she had small feathers peppered all around her wrists, and from the small glimpses Hunter could see, all the way up her neck as well. The child didn’t seem too worried about it, but something weird twisted in his stomach as Hunter thought about this furry… demon? Living with the Owl Lady. what happened when her curse got out of control. How easily she could overpower him if he disobeyed her…

The horrible feelings were back again, but Hunter just ignored them. He was worried about the child's wellbeing, nothing else. Luz would say the same thing- she had said the same thing! 

He knew what he had to do.

Slipping away- not far enough that he could no longer see the fugitive, but closer to the stalls scattered around the place- Hunter swiped a strange looking purple demon plushie- was this what kids were into nowadays? The giant eye on it’s head creeped him out- and slipped back into eyesight, toy strategically dangled so if the child looked up-

“Toy! Eda, Eda!”

Those hushed whisperings had been exactly what he wanted. He risked a glance at the criminals and, to his luck, the Owl Lady was completely ignoring King, instead bartering with.. A tiny stuffed toy?

Oh. That was a salesperson. 

Anyway, Luz had described ‘King’ as impatient and a little grouchy, she was right. Because once he realised the Owl Lady wasn’t listening to him…

Hunter quickly turned around and walked away, carefully listening to the scampering feet and quiet ‘heh!’s of the demon child after him.

________________

“I would like the little Bone Boy- wait where did he go?”

Eda blinked, frowning at Tibbles “What do you mean you want the ‘Bone Boy’? Also he’s right he- King?”

She spun around, whisking her cloak up to see if he was hiding underneath it. “King!?”

Turning back and pushing Tibbles to the side, she stuck her head in the stall (and snuck a few potions in the process) before straightening up, looking a very confused Tibbles in the eye, before growling.

“KING!”

---

This kid was going to be the death of her. He was. 

She forced her way through the crowd, feathers sprouting through her hairline and neck, creating a feathery-boa type look. She’d be checking herself out for this probably-super-sexy look if she wasn’t looking for the damn kid.

When had she lost him!? He’d been mocking her for her sudden hyperfixation on Hexes Hold ‘Em, then tugging on her cloak for something and now he was gone. Fucking kid,  probably found some plushie or demonic texts and just had to run off to check it out. Why had she even brought him!? He was 8, why would she bring an 8 year old to the Night Market!? Damn her and her impulses. Damn all the stressful shit she’s been through recently, damn the kid she just tripped over holding King, damn the-

Her head whipped round, and her glare met two round, pink eyes, King, and the freaky looking purple doll he was holding.

Eda and the kid stood there silently, the crowd, clearly feeling the tension, moving around them rather than through them. A stalemate, with Eda contemplating if she was really going to fight a child who probably didn’t even know King wasn’t a dog, and the kid looking like he was gonna piss himself. A stalemate, with two people, one with greyed hair and one with wide eyes. A stalemate, broken by King, looking up from his games to see Eda and smiling. “Hi Eda! Look at how pained this toy looks! I’ve named him Tinky Winky!”

The kid, upon being broken from whatever trance he was in, turned around and booked it away from Eda faster than she could have ever expected. At least it confirmed he wasn’t confused, and had absolutely meant to kidnap King- but could he be a bit slower? Eda ran after him, but despite her constant running from the scouts her achy joints groaned in protest. Urgh, she was getting old.

Distracted by the reminders of her age and chasing after the brat that had her brat, Eda didn’t notice the intensity of the feathers sprouting up- well, everywhere- nor did she notice the sudden protective anger for King she’d never had. She didn’t even notice the sudden clarity the world around her took on when her eyes darkened to let in more light- in fact, this was likely the smoothest transformation into the Owl Beast she’d ever had. Not that she knew this of course. Eda was still grouching about joints and ageing in her dreams. No, the only person around to acknowledge the transformation was the Owl Beast. And with some thief running off with its baby? Not exactly high up on its list of concerns. 

The Night Market was now filled with screams and chaos, but the Owl Beast didn’t care. With one last pounce, it knocked the thief down, yanking its baby away from him by the scruff. The baby was screeching about something, but the Owl Beast couldn’t entertain him right now. Right now, the priority was the thief that had dragged away it’s angry baby.

Moving the baby to its back, the Owl Beast opened its mouth and shrieked, a noise that it knew would freeze anyone it was aimed at. The thief, however, still wriggled and yelled- if the Beast wasn’t so angry (and hungry) it would have been impressed. But it wasn’t. It just opened its mouth, twisting and turning to find the best way to swallow the thief whole- 

Before it was interrupted by a crash and- Eda blinked, the whole world feeling a bit fuzzy.

Was that her fucking house?

Notes:

SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG!

i've been going through SO MUCH in life rn, and I kinda forgot this fic existed lol. but I'm here! and posting fanfiction in the middle of class lmao.

hope you enjoyed!

Chapter 9

Hunter was going to go home, make some tea, maybe meditate (?) a bit, and then Strangle Luz.

 

The demon child was gone, the Owl Lady- Owl Beast?- had taken it from him without breaking a sweat, and tried to eat him. Thankfully, a giant house with legs, which was apparently the Owl Lady’s house with legs, had come at just the right time, distracting the Owl Beast from eating him just long enough for him to kick it away, and run off.

 

And Luz wondered why he found the Azura books dull.

 

He pulled his hood back over his head, and sped through the screaming crowd as fast as he could, cursing out his idiot sister for what felt like the millionth time for pushing him to do this. And why had he tried to grab the kid!? What was he even going to do with it? Bring it back to the castle so Luz could coo over it like a pet while he got the fear of the Titan thrown into him by the Emperor? Take it to an orphanage so the Owl Beast could find it and take it back? What was the end goal? He was such an idiot!

 

Eventually, he managed to push and shove his way out of the crowd, and immediately made a beeline towards the woods nearby.

 

And broke down.

 

He wasn’t exactly proud of it, (actually his skin crawled with shame every time) but on particularly stressful missions, namely ones with big crowds, Hunter was prone to the occasional meltdown. He had a system of course, something like this couldn’t be allowed to run its course whenever, especially around Uncle. After a stressful mission, he would be sure to start his journey back to the castle early. Then, he would find a quiet space with no onlookers to land, and lastly-

 

Hunter sat, curled up with his head between his knees, surrounded by large chunks of grass he’d ripped from the ground, and bushes he’s stamped out beyond recognition. Yes, the meltdowns were… difficult, but it was better for him to have them here then in the castle. The scar on his cheek ached .  

 

After a few minutes he forced himself up. The Owl Beast had taken valuable time from him, and getting caught would mean agony. Stumbling, he whipped out his staff, hopped on, and began his trip back to the castle.

 

________________

What the hell was going on!?

 

She had King back. That was good. 

 

The Owl Beast had come out and tried to eat a kid. That was not good.

 

Her house was running about on chicken legs . That was fucking weird.

 

Eda stood, legs glued to the floor as she watched her house walk through the market, stepping on everything in its way (including Tibbles stall, which she wasn’t complaining about) as the Three Terrors on top of it screamed their heads off. How on the Titans Dick had they managed to-

 

Wait.

 

(“There’s a Moonlight Conjuring happening soon, and the others were hoping to come over?”)

 

No fucking way.

 

NO FUCKING WAY.

“Did they… animate our house for their conjuring?”

 

“I… I think they did. You didn’t happen to leave any power boosters lying around, did you King?”

 

“No. You didn’t let me bring any home.”

 

“Oh... Oh I can’t teach that girl shit. We might have to put her in…”

 

Eda couldn't believe what she was saying. The worst place on the Isles, a place worse than the Titans Butt, where happiness and individuality went to die-

 

“Can I go to Hexside too?”

 

“No.”

 

Still in shock from the whole… situation , Eda looked back to the house before doing a double take.

 

Great. Now she was hallucinating, because for a second there she thought she saw a fluffy green tail poking out her laundry. Which one of King’s toys was that? They’d better hide it before he saw it, he’d be furious. Why was Vee hiding in a giant pile of laundry anyway? Eda supposed the girl probably didn’t want to be seen, especially in as eye-catching a situation as this. She hissed- actually, she definitely didn’t want to be seen. Hopefully Willow and Goops knew how to deal with a panic attack, because there was now way Vee was feeling ok under there.

 

The Three Terrors suddenly started screaming, and when Eda saw what they were yelling about she couldn’t help the burst of feathers that forced their way around her face.

 

Bounty Hunters.

 

Whipping out her staff, Eda flew towards the Hunters faster than you could say… Oh she couldn’t think of anything right now, but you get the idea. Bounty Hunters were a bunch of assholes who, despite the fact that most people assumed they were absolutely on the side against the Emperor, were utter suck ups who thought they were so cool for hunting monsters for sketchy coven scouts, and didn’t give two shits if the monster in question was a witch 95% of the time!

 

… ok so maybe she’d been locked up by them once or twice. What, she wasn’t allowed to hold a bit of a grudge? 

 

And like hell was she gonna let these dickriders do the same to Vee.

 

_________________

 

“Holy Titan- is that Eda!?”

 

Vee poked her head up through the laundry to see where Gus was pointing- if Eda was too close she was dead. A goner. Doomed.

 

But to her surprise, Gus was pointing to- Holy Titan, was that Eda?!

 

Where the Bounty Hunters had previously been chasing them was what seemed to be a giant light show with Eda in the centre. The amount of pure magic emanating through the air in her wake- Vee had to hold herself back from having the feast of her life.

 

“Holy Titan, isn’t that Eda!?”

 

“Bit slow on the uptake there Willow”

 

“Shush. Ok. Eda’s here now, so that’s one problem already dealt with, which is awesome! Now we just have to deal with the.. Uh, the whole Basisik thing and controlling the house. Only two things!”

 

Vee squeezed her eyes shut and whimpered. It wasn’t helping- she knew she wasn’t helping! Everything was just.. So much right now. She wasn’t used to doing things like this. She wasn’t used to fixing things. If it wasn’t for Gus and Willow she probably would have just hidden in the house when it started moving and stayed under the bed, letting it do whatever it wanted.

 

Luckily, she wasn’t on her own. She half listened to her friends whispering beside her, only making out the words ‘illusion’ ‘friendship’ and ‘moon’ before a warm hand she recognised as Willow slowly shook her shoulder.

 

“Hey, Vee? If you’re ok with it, me and Gus were thinking about whipping up an illusion to hide you in? It wouldn't be much, just your witch form. Gus is a bit of a master when it comes to illusion, so you wouldn’t have to worry about him messing up, promise!”

 

Vee opened one eye to Willow's comforting smile, and Gus’s thumbs pointed upwards as he grinned. Could she really trust them?

 

Slowly, she slipped a webbed hand out and grabbed on to Willow. She had everything to lose whether she trusted them or not. Believing in them would just make everything a bit easier.

 

Suddenly, her green skin turned pink, and a familiar blue sleeve was draped around it. But it wasn’t. Vee couldn't feel it, nor could she feel the familiar ache of standing on two legs. Her eyes widened and she whipped her head around to meet Gus, who was sitting, smiling at her with a nervous grin, not looking at all inconvenienced by the sheer amount of magic emanating from him- She slapped a hand over her mouth to stop herself from drooling. She was going to have to keep him away from the other Basisilks if she could find them- forget absorbing his magic, they would eat him alive!

 

“Uh… Vee? Is the illusion ok?”

 

“Yes! Yes, it's- you are powerful - I- argh!” She moved her hands up to hide her face. After years of only eating the weakest of demons, she was a little unprepared for this. “It's awesome. Thanks.”

 

The other two giggled a bit, clearly having no idea why Vee was freaking out- was Willow this strong too? But Vee just let them. There were bigger things on her mind at the moment.

 

“Ok, ok cool. Now how the fuck do we stop Hooty from running about? He’s too attention grabbing”

 

“Ok, first of all, tone it down with the language, Gus is 12, secondly I… kinda have no idea.”

 

“What language?”

 

“The F- you know what, nevermind. How are we going to stop Hooty?”

 

She frowned. Assuming they had animated the house, Hooty probably wasn't entirely sentient at the moment. He hadn’t exactly heard them when they were screaming at him to stop, and even the sight of Eda hadn’t done anything to him. Meaning that there was probably something they had to do to stop him. Or control him…

 

Vee closed her eyes, relaxed a little in a hissed breath, and focused. Blocking out Willows concerned chattering, Gus’s alarmed yelling. Eda fighting, the bounty hunters, Hooty’s footsteps, everything.

 

The only thing left in Vee’s mind was the humming of magic. When Vee had been in the prison, there had been nothing. The Basilisks were scared silent, the guards never spoke to them, and the dripping of water droplets hitting the floor two cells down could only do so much to keep her mind occupied. So what she and the other Basilisk did instead was listen. Hear the things that nobody else could, not even the scouts with their probes and needles.

 

The sound of magic.

 

____________

Just as Gus thought Vee had somehow started to have another panic attack, her eyes sprung open and she grabbed his hand, along with Willows.

 

“Wh- Vee!?”

 

But she didn’t respond. Instead she hissed, and glared at the two hands that were still empty. On instinct, Gus reached out and grabbed Willow, which Vee responded to with a nod. Then, she whipped her head to Hooty, and with an almost painful sounding mix of a growl and a hiss, she roared.

 

“STOP”

 

Hooty froze. And although he would never admit it, so did Gus. Willow stiffened a bit too. When a Basilisk screamed to stop with a voice like that, you stopped.

 

Vee let out another growly hiss. “Take us home Hooty.”

 

Stumbling a little, Hooty turned, and walked back the way he had come. If a little faster than before. Vee's voice really was terrifying.

 

The three of them stood in silence for a few seconds, before Vee let go of them and collapsed back onto the pile of laundry. Gus blinked, and after a moment to let Willow check if Vee was hurt he decided to gently ask Vee about what she’d done.

 

“What was that!?”

 

She blinked, staring at him. “What?”

 

“The magic stuff- how did you know how to deal with Hooty!? You’ve never done conjuring before, right? How did..”

 

She stared at them, eyes wide and confused. “I’m a Basilisk..?”

 

“OK?”

 

“He was covered in this… deep, croaky magic, and so were we! I just figured that if we held hands and connected it all, something would happen- and it did, so…”

 

Her voice wavered a bit at the end, and she lifted her hand to grab her necklace to fidget, before remembering it was an illusion and moving to her ears. A move that Gus was starting to recognise to mean his friend was nervous- and he couldn’t have that!

 

“I don't mean in, like, a scary way- that was so cool! I mean your voice was a little terrifying, absolutely horrifying, but the stopping Hooty was super cool, and it stopped us from running off that cliff we were approaching-”

 

“What.”

 

“And the whole hearing magic thing, I mean how does that even work!? Is it your big ears, ooh I bet it's your ears! That would probably be why humans don’t know anything about magic, their ears are so small! Could you imagine a human knowing magic? Could you imagine a human in the boiling isles!? I think I would die honestly. Can you hear my magic? Is it shimmery? I bet it’s-”

“..Gus?”

 

Gus blinked, turned, and saw Vee and Willow staring at him. Laughing a bit in embarrassment (why did he always ramble like that) and shook himself back to the present. “Anyway, I think the hearing stuff is cool, and very helpful in subverting our demise.”

 

The two looked at each other for a second, before Vee shook her head and grinned. “I have no idea what half the words you just said mean- you say things like ‘subverting our demise’ then don’t tell us about a giant cliff or bounty hunters- but it's… nice, that you don’t think the hearing stuff is weird. I didn’t even realise it was that… odd. It's just a thing, ya’know? Also yes. Your magic is shimmery. Willow’s is… stretchy.”

 

Gus nodded, despite having no idea what stretchy meant- maybe it sounded like ropes on a boat? That was probably it, Willow did specialise in vines- and lifted his hands to shake out his excitement a little. Man, Basilisks were almost as cool as humans!

 

He just hoped she thought he was just as cool as her!

Notes:

ok so if your wondering what tf vee sounded like when she was yelling at hooty, you just gotta like. gurgle a little, or close up your throat, then hiss starting from the back of the throat- not the back of the tougne, the back of the throat. then open your mouth up wide and kinda just. go for it. i used to really like doing that when was a kid for some reason.

i am an autistic hunter truther. for ages i didn't want to strictly say Hunter was autistic, cause with some headcanons I like evidence, and all the autism things Hunter did were also PTSD things. then Thanks To Them came out. that boy is autistic. and with all the stress of being the Golden Gaurd, there's no way he didn't have meltdowns, so new headcanon- Hunter would go into the woods after stressful missions and let out all his pent up stuff out where nobody could see him.

Gus and Willow are naturally very powerful. Amity, Luz and Hunter are strong too, but Gus and Willow have the most RAW MAGIC out of all of them. beleive it or not, Basilisks like raw magic over technique lol.

Gus is also autistic. I won't be making a big thing of it tho, cause i've noticed with a lot of autistic characters, fic wrters tend to reduce the characters to just their autism (cough, Rise!Donnie, cough) and i don't want to do that. i'll just try to stick with the things Gus does in canon, which isn't much admitdly.)

Chapter 10

So apparently Vee was crazy powerful.

 

A weird thing to think about, considering King had never seen her use magic before, but whatever. He was crazy powerful too- he was just too small right now to show it.

 

Her friends were also crazy powerful.

 

Which- sure. Whatever. Like recognises like, or something. Him, Eda, Willow, Gus- maybe Vee was just really good at finding powerful people? Intuition or something. Like she could smell the magic on them. He’d heard Basilisks were good at that type of thing, same with Painbowroks. Maybe Vee was a Painbowrok- that would be so cool! And dangerous!

 

Actually, based on the fact that nobody in the house had died, and the fact that she didn't have a hundred colourful eyes, she probably wasn't a Painbowrok. Basilisks could shapeshift, so that was plausible, but they usually hung around the Titans skull and shoulders, not the ribs. Also he was fairly sure they were all dead. Was Vee a ghost maybe?

 

Nah.

 

But that wasn’t the important thing here. The important thing was that King and Eda were flying towards the (now settled and not glowing) Owl House. King had decided to spend this ride in Eda’s feathery hair, and she hadn’t denied him the opportunity for once! As King took in the feeling of wind and feathers against his skull, his thoughts looped back to Vee.

 

As his brain had been doing a lot lately.

 

King wasn’t stupid. No matter how many times Eda reprimanded him for almost running into boiling rain, or feeding the more ..aggressive demons that hang around the house, he knew he wasn't stupid.

 

Which was why he totally knew something was up with Vee. Her hoarding problem was worse than Edas, she never went outside, she spent all her time doing stuff for King rather than herself, she got spacey when the tap leaked, and she freaked out, like, all the time.

 

Eda had noticed it too. He had been thinking about it, and that game she’d made up was definitely a way to try to figure out what… upset her? Something like that. Things that had really freaked her out before, and kept freaking her out. He got the sentiment- being alone freaked him out, which was why he needed his army. A pair of eyes to watch his back at all times. Except not exactly the same, since King had never had anything bad happen to him when he was alone, but still. A book called it anxiety. Anxiety was a cool word. He should call one of his warriors Anxiety.

 

Ack- he was getting off track again! Urgh, curse his brilliant brain for holding too much information. Something bad had happened to Vee, either that or Vee thought something bad was gonna happen, and King needed to find out what. Was it something to do with her being strong? Maybe she was a master of magic in all covens? That would explain the stressy stuff with Coven Scouts. But she never used it… also there was something with the Coven Convention. He couldn’t quite remember, but he was fairly sure something she’d said when she was freaking out about Luz disproved his theory.

 

Maybe she was a ghost.

 

Eda began her descent, and King scrambled forward on her head, ignoring her cursing. He wanted to see Vee’s face, because if he was right (and he always- usually- sometimes was) she would be-

 

“I’M SORRY!”

Yup. freaking out.

 

They landed, and King leapt off Eda’s head to check on Vee, who was shaking while Gus and Willow tried to comfort her. She was making that ugly noise, the one you make when you're trying to cry and breath, and her face was all snotty and- urgh. Vee was lucky King was so amazing and awesome, and all those other words. He scampered towards her, trying to repress as much of his threatening aura as possible, and- urgh- hugged Vee’s leg.

 

He was amazing.

 

Vee, as expected, stopped crying to stare at him in shock. 

 

“You’re fine. That whole thing with the house was cool or whatever. If you ask me, it’s Eda’s fault for having Hooty as a house- actually it’s just Eda’s fault in general. You know, she let me get kidnapped today-”

 

“Okay, that's enough from you today bud.” Eda interrupted, pushing King out the way. Vee giggles at that, the traitor “what matters is that you’re ok. I saw those bounty hunters, they didn’t get you did they? Also, King was right” (of course he was) “that was pretty cool”

 

Vee opened her mouth to answer, but Gus interrupted “that was pretty cool? That was pretty cool!?” You absolutely DESTROYED those bounty hunters!” everyone winced at the volume Gus was fanboying at, but Eda barked out a laugh.

 

“Yeah, I was pretty cool, wasn't I kid? How about we finish this talk inside while we clean this mess up…”

“YES-”

“..Goops”

 

Everyone laughed at Gus’s complete 180° reaction, before finally making their way back into the house as Gus ranted to Eda about the importance of names.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“... Wait, what was that thing about King being kidnapped?”

 

 

“... nothing…”

Notes:

So! It's been a while.... sorry about that lol. I've been crazy busy with school, I do a drama course now (and if you know what drama teachers are like then you KNOW how busy it is 😭)
Also I've been distracted with other things. Did you know that you can just. Walk about with a fractured spine and not realise it?? And it'll just sit there, fractured until something dislodges it??? THAT was a fun trip to Germany, my poor dad is just having medical emergency after medical emergency oswhshdnk

But anyway, King chapter! I feel like people don't explore King enough in fics, yk?

Notes:

start of a new fic! There is no update schedule, I'll just update it as I get inspiration. hope you enjoy! quick reminder if you didn't read the tags that Luz is an unreliable narrator, which means at some points (like her saying her dislike of being starved is wrong) are just her copying things Belos has told her. check the tags regularly cause I'll update them as I go