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Part 1 of 𝕐𝕠𝕦 𝕞𝕖𝕒𝕟 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕘𝕚𝕣𝕝 𝕀 𝕣𝕒𝕚𝕤𝕖𝕕 𝕒𝕤 𝕚𝕗 𝕞𝕪 𝕠𝕨𝕟?
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2023-04-10
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2023-04-21
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ᴛʜᴇ ɪɴᴠᴀᴅᴇʀ

Summary:

When Luz Noceda, a 12-year-old girl who has just lost her mother, finds a portal to another dimension, she sees an opportunity to escape her crazy aunt.

When Eda Clawnthorne found a human child, who instead of running away from her like everyone else, begged to stay and be her apprentice, she accepted.

She already had a gremlin, she could handle another kid, right?

Notes:

Luz's appearance

A doodle of Eda's appearance

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Chapter 1: Meeting Luz Noceda

Summary:

Meet Luz Noceda, an autistic (although she doesn't know it yet) girl who is looking for an escape from her Aunt's house.

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Luz Noceda was an interesting young girl.

 

Luz was going to be eleven in 2 months. She was definitely a lot smarter than most kids her age, despite being considerably more childish. Luz was obsessed with The Good Witch Azura and knew everything about Biology. She love music (despite being terrible at singing), read her entire school library and painted the best DIYs gifts.

 

She never knew her father, but that didn't matter, she had her mother. Her sweet mother who made the best tomato soups in the world. Her mother who bought her favorite books and patiently listened to her talk about them. Her mother who held she when the world felt too suffocating. She could always count on her mother.

 

Until she couldn't anymore.

 

Of all Luz's traits, be oblivious was one of her most striking. It took her a while to realize that her mother was sick, being only 7 didn't exactly help with her attention.

 

Her mother got sick, but assured her everything was fine. Her mother wasn't lying, she just didn't know how serious her condition was. Camila had actually been ill for many years, but she never took her symptoms seriously until it was too late. Until she had to stay in the hospital and Luz had to go live with her aunt.

 

Luz was 9 when she last saw her mother. Camila explained it as best she could, It was a disease where the body confused healthy parts with diseased parts. She slowly told her that her heart had a problem, and she probably wouldn't make it.

 

The two spent the day together, playing board games, watching YouTube videos and talking. Camila died a week later, just before visiting time. The funeral was already arranged, it took place the next day.

 

Luz didn't like living with her aunt. Cecília was rigid and closed-minded. She made her niece go to church every Sunday and grounded her if she was caught interacting with something witchcraft, Luz didn't even have a cellphone. The woman never took Luz seriously, always scolding her for taking her toys for the places, always interrupting her monologues about things of interest to her, always calling her a wrong-headed

 

Luz didn't want to run away, not at first. It's just that the Good Witch Azura's first book was the only one her aunt couldn't throw away, and now it was being stolen by an owl...

Notes:

Yes, I'm projecting. No, I'm not fine.

My mother is alive and well, but most of it is stuff from my childhood.

I decided to do Luz when I was 11 years old because that's the age when everything started to go wrong for me. Fuck the idea that high school is the hardest, sixth grade is brutal. In high school we are tired and more mature, with no time for bullying.

The idea was to catch Luz at a point in her life when she was already corrupted by the world, but had not yet lost her innocence (Which, for me, happened around September 2018)

By the way, Camila's illness was Lupus.

Chapter 2: Why do you want to learn magic so badly?

Summary:

King comes up with a bad idea (which ends up going terribly wrong) in an attempt to get Luz's attention.
Little does he know that she's got a new hyperfocus and won't give up on the idea of being a Witch so easily.

Notes:

A retelling of the episode 'The Intruder'

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

"Oh my God, I killed Eda" Luz put her hands on her face, scared "I'm going to have to shave my head and make a teardrop tattoo"
"Bap!" King slapped Eda in the face "Yep. She She's out. Bap!" He slapped it again, chuckling "Just making sure."
"I'll get help" Luz ran for the door, only to be stopped by King.
"Boiling rains, remember?"
"No, let her try. It'll be fun." Hooty chuckled before the door was slammed.

Luz couldn't stop the scream of indignation that came out of her mouth. And to think that she had rushed Eda to do the force field. I will definitely take revenge on him later. But now she had to focus on something more important.

“But what if Eda is dead?”
“Brilliant thing… Big nest… cute hatchling…” her question was answered by Eda's babblings.
“Remember three days ago when the Warden cut off her head? This woman can survive anything. She's probably tired of staying up all night chasing shrews and voles.”
"Well, we can't just leave her on the floor."

King looks tiredly at Eda before helping Luz carry her to her room.

"She weighs what? 300 kilos (661,387 pounds)?" King muttered trying to tuck her into the nest.
"No, I think it's 50 kilos (110,231 pounds)."
"50 kilos? Girl, how many kilos do you have?"
"Last I saw, I was 28 (61,7294 pounds)"
"You know that no healthy adult weighs less than 55 (121,254 pounds), right?"
"Oh. Sorry, I'm not good with measurements." she finished tucking Eda's feet into the pile of blankets "But in my defense, she doesn't look like a healthy adult. Sure, she's beautiful and looks like a elf, but she's also a little too pale and thin"
"She's a redhead and sells junk. What did you expect?"
"Wait a minute, is she a redhead?"
"She was"
"Hmm"
“Bap!” King hit Eda in the face again.

Luz grabbed his paw, leading him towards the door. The two started down the stairs, Luz dangling her feet on the stairs and playing with her luck (and ignoring that this is how she fell down the stairs last year).

"How long have you lived with her?"
"About 7 solar cycles"
"Solar cycles?"
"It's, you know, the time between one Screamday and another?"
"Scream day?"
"You know, the day you were born?"

Luz stared at him for 30 seconds, her brain gears not working properly. Finally, she added 2+2 (In this case looks more like 6275x348(2183700) to me).

"Oh, you mean Birthday"
"Is that what you humans call it?"
"I think so. Am I to assume the Solar Cycle is a year then?"
"I don't know what a year is"

They sat on the sofa, the rain outside bringing soothing sounds. How ironic. Such destructive rain sounds so much calmer than my house.

"If you've lived with Eda for so long, can you tell me where she lost that finger?"
"Betting"
"Betting?"
"She was addicted. One day she came home with a finger missing, because she bet it and lost. That's how she also lost her prey and lost a leg once"
"She lost her leg?"
"Yes, but she recovered afterwards"

Luz took the parchment from Eda’s Scrolphone that she had left on the sofa. The last time I had a cell phone was Mami's. After that one was stolen, her aunt never even lent her one again. She replayed the video of Eda making a magic circle over and over again. Luz tries in vain to draw the magic circle in the air.

"Arr, that's all she does. Why do you have to be so mysterious, Owl Lady?"
“Hey, you know what's really mysterious? Let me tell you about the creepiest demon." King held up the picture he was drawing "Smoochy-pie the Sweetie Baby! He's... Well, he's a lot more menacing than his name implies."
"Not now, King. I want to figure out this spell. But if I don't have a magic bile sac, what's the use? I'll be twirling my fingers without magic forever."
"Why do you want to learn magic so badly anyway?"

Luz thought for a few moments. She's always love magic, ever since she could remember people trying to get into fantasy worlds. she threw herself out of the closet to try to fly, she ate sea shells to try to become a mermaid, she thought that every stick she found was a magic wand.

She lived her whole life not being anyone important. She stood out so much at school but wasn't well known, her popularity comes from other kid’s warnings about 'don't hang out with the weirdo'. Cecilia threw all non-school and non-Christian books away, literally burning her Harry Potter books. She couldn't understand how God would create the world's magic just to forbid it, how he would give them knowledge if her aunt said the theory of evolution was Satanist.

Her mother always encouraged her passion for magic, in fact it was she who introduced her to Harry Potter, The Good Witch Azura, Naruto, etc. Camila wasn't enthusiastic about these things, but she tried to find ways to entertain her daughter without using too much screens, since the girl didn't have siblings (although both of them wanted to). It was the world of magic that helped her cope with her mother's death, distracted by the idea that her loved ones lived in a fantasy world after death. She found the idea that her mother had traveled to the world of The Good Witch Azura far more comforting than the idea of Heaven and Hell her aunt was trying to drum into her head.

“I am nobody at home. But becoming a witch is my chance to be somebody. Do you know what it's like to have no one take you seriously?" She gathered her knees to her chest, hugging herself “This place is all I ever wanted, all I have left.”
“Yes, but look! I'm learning to make a shadow” King pointed to the drawing, ignoring Luz's speech.
“Arr, how old are you, 8?”
"Yes"
“Wait, are you 8 years old? I could have sworn you were 30.”
“Do you humans shrink after you grow up? What made you think I was 30?”
“I don't know, you act like a mini tyrant, say you were once a king and live with Eda saying you’re her roommate. I thought you were a dwarf” King looked very offended by this, throwing the crayon at Luz.
“Dwarf is you!”

Luz turned away from the crayon and turned her attention to Eda's scroll, trying to find something. If she paid close attention, she could almost see a small pattern within the circle…

“If I help you learn this spell, can we finish our lesson?” King asked, pulling her out of her thoughts.
"Ah yes yes. You can teach me about demons all week if you help me learn this spell.”
“Well, she said witches used to do magic differently, so there must be a way, right? And I have a theory. Every day I notice Eda taking a sip of a special elixir, so she always gets a boost of energy, see? I think that's where she gets her powers. And I know where to get some.”
"Serious?"
“Yes-” Luz pulled King into a hug.
"Thank you very much. You are a prince."
"King. I am a king.”
"Right."

 

 

“I don't think I should take this” Luz shook the bottle of potion with a guilty look on her face “What if it's medicine? The last time I took medicine that wasn't mine I slept for three hours straight.”
“Why would she take medicine without being sick? I'm telling you, she always takes the potion and is much more energetic and powerful” King countered, crossing his arms.
“But what if it hurt me?”

King was about to controvert when a loud thunder rumbled in the sky. Luz let out a high-pitched scream and relaxed her fingers, releasing the potion all over herself. A second scream ripped from her throat as the vial's glass shattered against the floor. 

“Oh shit”

Notes:

Most of Luz's personality in this fic is a mix between her original personality and mine. His way of dealing with situations, the concept of falling down stairs (since I've fallen down several), the concept of being terrible at measuring (I swore that fat adults weighed 50 kilos until I reached 13 and met a colleague who was 60), which will be used more times in the story. This girl will have no sense of time or space 😅.

Yes, Eda was addicted to gambling, something that will appear later on.

Luz's idea of thinking King was 30 years old came from me, who thought Mc Divertida, a blogger from my country known for her dwarfism, has 30 years old. The funny thing is my sister thought she was 8 but she's 13.

Chapter 3: The Hatchlings

Summary:

Owl Beast wakes up, only to find she has a new guest.

Notes:

I hope you understood the cuckoo reference.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

For the first time in three lunar cycles (months), 𝘖𝘸𝘭 𝘉𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘵 woke up.

 

The pain of the transformation burned through her bones, her sensitive eyes trying to adjust to the light in the room. That she woke up only means one thing: 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐜𝐡 fell asleep.

 

The body was definitely tired, which meant that the 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐜𝐡 was too weak to maintain dominance of the body. The lack of the cloying taste of that elixir proves to her that the 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐜𝐡 was too tired to drink it.

 

She didn't like the 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐜𝐡, always pushing her into the clutches of her own mind. That's the reason for, whenever she got the chance, she shoved it back in. If 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐜𝐡 wanted to despise her, she would be despised. It had been more than thirty winters now, and 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐜𝐡 still hadn't realized that if she stopped fighting, 𝘖𝘸𝘭 𝘉𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘵 would stop too.

 

A scream from downstairs drew her attention.

 

She started slowly down the stairs (Why get a nest where you have to go down and up the rocks every day? Is that the price to pay for a big safe burrow?), following the scent of the hatchling and the new scent that filled the nest.

 

She couldn't quite understand what was going on in 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐜𝐡'𝐬 life, but she knew her hatchling well. She couldn't see through the 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐜𝐡'𝐬 eyes unless her eyeballs turned black, but she could hear. It was like shallow erratic whispers, like the voices of that demon (A.K.A the radio) that the 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐜𝐡 had in the nest, and she didn't know the language, but it was still good to be a little in the loop. How she loved hearing the hatchling's bark, even though she couldn't understand what he was saying.

 

It didn't matter that the hatchling hadn't hatched from her own egg, or that they are an entirely different species, he is her cub. He was a young adult if she was going to count the 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐜𝐡'𝐬 age, but he was still a baby of his own specie.

 

She crawled through the burrow, pricked ears and focused eyes. She didn't like to emerge during the day, the strangely bright nest always bothered her eyes. Even now, in the dark storm, the house was so awake. Memories of her playing with her playmates during the storms flooded her mind, filling her with nostalgia and longing of a time many, many winters ago (How many exactly? I remember falling asleep after being hunted, and waking up in the 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐜𝐡'𝐬 body), when the land she lived had a great cavernous snout, a time when her mother told her to hunt during cold water storms. A hazy time in her mind, memories of her slowly blending with the 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐜𝐡'𝐬 memories. 

 

“Οη Σηιτ” She walked closer to the sound, assuming a predatory stance

 

It wasn't a language she knew how to speak, though she acknowledged it to be the same as the 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐜𝐡'𝐬 language. If she tried hard, she could understand the 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐜𝐡, but no other being who could not speak her language. Once, more than twenty-five winters ago, a witch (one of the many the 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐜𝐡 mother set out to annoy them) came close to getting her language right, only to get a big bite in the shoulder after saying something offensive.

 

“Ηοoτυ! Τηις ις μυ τερριτορυ(Hooty! This is my territory!)!" The demon from the burrow’s entrance screamed.

 

A large heavy body slammed into the irritating owl, scratching and knocking him unconscious. Good. Every holy time she woke up the worm tried to kick her out of her own nest, saying it was his territory. He reminded her of the Cuckoo demons.

 

"Ωηατ (What)?"

 

She walked towards the sound, preparing to protect the hatchlig from a possible attacker. Her eyes narrowed and she growled as she entered the room. Twin screams came from both the hatchling and the new creature, startled by their predatory presence.

 

Trying to comfort the hatchling, she gave him a toothy smile, just like the 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐜𝐡 usually does when she wants to reassure him. But for some reason, he looked more scared, burying his face in the creature's leg, which rose with him in its arms. The creature got up, walking backwards until it touched the wall. Or at least, that seemed like the plan, as it was interrupted by her stepping on the shard of glass and falling backwards.

 

The creature has a thin body, with dark and pinked skin and a chubby face. Dark wavy feathers trailed down his head, forming a messy mane. That must have been half her size, posing no threat to him, but it was larger than the ʜᴀᴛᴄʜʟɪɴɢ, at risk of overpowering him. The brown eyes looked a little like…

 

𝘖𝘸𝘭 𝘉𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘵 reared back a little, ears (how weird to have ears) pressed against her skull.

 

Damn, is that a witch’s cub? My 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐜𝐡'𝐬 cub? I didn't even know she was incubating an egg, or did she get she of the same way she got the other?

 

Well, it looks like she don't have one hatchling anymore, she has two. Maybe an older sibling will help ᴘᴜᴘᴘʏ (the youngest hatchling) be happier. She would have to admit, she felt lonely having only a witch who hate her for company. That's the reason for, when she smelled a baby in that high cave, she was insistent on coaxing the 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐜𝐡 into it (And I was right, who leaves a newborn baby alone in a cave? Especially with that strange predator that broke his horn ).

 

The new hatchling is not a baby, but not quite a teenager. A sweet and nostalgic scent came from her, the scent poisoned by the scent of fear, pain and blood. A familiar yellow liquid was smeared on the floor.

 

This is the first time that she see ᴘᴜᴘᴘʏ in person. Her 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐜𝐡 was careful to hide her, and she didn't insist so much on going out to her hatchling, not wanting to worry him. But now, he was scared, ʜᴀᴛᴄʜʟɪɴɢ is injured and the storm rumbling outside.

 

She tried to get closer to the two, but they both backed away in fear. Oh right. They don't know me. Damn, at times like this the 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐜𝐡 would be better. She sat up, trying to look smaller and less intimidating. A glint of recognition flashed in the ʜᴀᴛᴄʜʟɪɴɢ eyes.

 

”Εδα?” (Eda?)

 

That wasn't her name (Actually, she didn't exactly have a name. Her playmates called her Silver, her mother called her Older Hatchling, and her 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐜𝐡 called her BirdBrain. Her name, as well as the name of her mother and her grandmother's, was 𝘖𝘸𝘭 𝘉𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘵), but she recognized it as the 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐜𝐡'𝐬 name. She let out a low squeak, trying to calm them down.

 

"τηατ τηινγ ις Εδα?" (that thing Is Eda?) ᴘᴜᴘᴘʏ asked.

"Ι τηινκ ςο" (I think so) ʜᴀᴛᴄʜʟɪɴɢ replied
“Ι’vε λιvεδ ωιτη ηερfορ αλμοςτ τεν υεαρς, ηοω Ι δον’τ κνσω τηατ?” (I've lived with her for almost ten years, how I don’t know that?)
“Τηε ποτιον! Ι κνεω ιτς ωας μεδιχινε!” (The Potion! I knew its was medicine!)

 

𝘖𝘸𝘭 𝘉𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘵 was confused by the content of the conversation, but at least the owlets seemed calmer. The biggest problem came from the ʜᴀᴛᴄʜʟɪɴɢ's wound. With the wound being on the underside of her paw, she wouldn't be able to walk properly for suns (days). If something attacked them, ʜᴀᴛᴄʜʟɪɴɢ would not be able to flee.

 

The best thing in this situation would be to take both owlets to the nest. She came closer, slowly reaching down to grab ᴘᴜᴘᴘʏ by the collar, the pup waving his paws in the air in protest. She lowered her head, encouraging ʜᴀᴛᴄʜʟɪɴɢ to climb onto her neck. It took a while, but she finally understood what she was supposed to do, climbing hesitantly.

 

With one owlet in her beak and another on her back, she climbed the rocks that took her to the top of the burrow. She lay down gently in the nest, ᴘᴜᴘᴘʏ immediately trying to escape. Well, looks like I'm going to have to use the tricks I used on my younger siblings. She began to lick his feathers, ruffling them to get the dirt out, before licking them to straighten. It always worked with Fuffy, his younger brother (I wonder how he's doing? I haven't seen him since he got together with his mate. Does he have his own hatchlings yet?).

 

"Κινγ (King)" ʜᴀᴛᴄʜʟɪɴɢ screamed as she fell off her back onto the soft furs that the 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐜𝐡 used to decorate the nest

"Ωηερε εξαχτλυ διδ υοφ fινδ τηε ποτιον (Where exactly did you find the potion?)?" "Ιν τηε χλοςετ (In the closet)"

"Γο γετ α νεω σνε, μαυβε τηεν ςηε ιλλ γο βαχκ το νορμαλ(Go get a new one, maybe then she ill go back to normal)"

 

Before she could process what her owlets were saying, ᴘᴜᴘᴘʏ got up and ran out of the nest. A sad moan came out of the 𝘖𝘸𝘭 𝘉𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘵's throat upon seeing him go. She got up, ready to get him, when ʜᴀᴛᴄʜʟɪɴɢ stopped her.

 

"Ιτ'ς οκαυ Εδα, ηε juςτ ωεντ το γετ υοuρ μεδιχινε (It’s okay Eda, he just went to get your medicine)"

 

She, as usual, couldn't understand what ʜᴀᴛᴄʜʟɪɴɢ was saying, but the calming effect of the owlet's speech made her lie down again. New or not, ʜᴀᴛᴄʜʟɪɴɢ is part of the family and deserved to be trusted. But she would fly away if she heard or smelled a new thing near ᴘᴜᴘᴘʏ.

 

Speaking of the pup, he re-entered the borrow, scaling the high walls of the nest she had built for the cub. She remembers when, more than fifteen winters ago, 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐜𝐡 began to incubate an egg (what a pity it didn't hatch) with her mate. She had very little control over her body at the time, but the stress and anxiety who 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐜𝐡 was feeling allowed her to escape. She wandered for three long suns (days) through the forest before finally finding a griffin nest. It was easy to steal it after that, the mother being inexperienced and clearly unaware of not leaving the nest for more than an hour.

 

“Ι γιvε ιτ το ηερ(I give it to her)” ʜᴀᴛᴄʜʟɪɴɢ took the vial from her brother's hands.

 

A familiar taste hit her tongue as the vial was gently placed against her beak. A drowsiness began to overtake her as the last drop of the cloying liquid was absorbed into her system. She ended up giving in and lying down, not resisting the call of her own mind. ʜᴀᴛᴄʜʟɪɴɢ and ᴘᴜᴘᴘʏ leaned against her, the soft skin of the owlets warming her.

 

Well, it looks like, after so many winters, I got a family.

Notes:

I love this scene and couldn't leave it out.

Also, the smaller and less intimidating position was this

Writing things from Beast Owl's point of view is so much fun. The best thing about writing a fic with Worldbuilding is being able to throw my headcanons into the plot.

It's just wonderful to describe a house from an animal's point of view, and it was great to write some of the Owl Beast's background. And also the way she calls things. Home=burrow, bed=nest, hair/fur=feather, etc. Also the fact that she doesn't use names, she barely understands the concept of it.

King's age is around 20 years old chronologically. His mental age is around 7 years old and his physical age is similar to that of a baby.

It was a lot of work to write a dialogue in a language different from mine (I speak Portuguese), typing each Greek letter separately to imply that it's not a completely different language, the Beast Owl's brain was simply not programmed to understand. I wonder if this isn't how our animals understand us.

For those who don't know, owls are terrible nest builders. Usually they build strong burrows with messy nests or steal other nests. The idea came from the comments of another fic (https://ao3-rd-18.onrender.com/works/33776995/chapters/84361369#workskin)

Anyway, give me your opinions and doubts in the comments

Chapter 4: Waking up

Summary:

Eda finally wakes up, confused

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Eda woke up because of the pain. Her bones and joints, especially her shoulders and knees, ached terribly from being stretched into her owl form. Her fingers burned from the acidic magical bile that pooled there during her transformations, her eyes still sensitive to the light. She could taste the bitter and sickening taste of her Elixir in the back of her throat.

 

Damn, I really should have taken it before bed.

 

She knows that she passed out from sleep after the protection spell, and she remembers waking up some time later to drink the elixir, only to find it nowhere to be found. With her mind hazy from sleep and the Owl's influence, she simply relieved it and went back to sleep, forgetting the consequences. Well, I clearly made the wrong decision. The clothing was also different. She was pretty sure she wore her pink and lavender pajamas when she passed out, but now she wore the old white nightgown that was gathering dust in her wardrobe.

 

“Eda!” 

 

It was at that moment that she realized that she wasn't holding her blankets and pillows, but the childrens. Luz was sitting cross-legged next to her, half leaning on her bony shoulders, while King simply lay on top of her stomach, completely relaxed. Luz looked kind of scared but unharmed.

 

When Eda thought she could relax, she looked at the student's strangely extended leg, seeing blood splatters on her foot. She quickly took the girl's leg in her arms, looking for the wound. It didn't take long for her to find the shards of glass on the girl's heel.

 

"What the Hades(Hell) happened?! I hurt you? Damn, I'll get the first aid kit"

 

She then walked towards the closet, where her first aid kits have been organized. There was red for emergencies, with everything to save a life as quickly as possible (immediate healing potions and glyphs, needle and thread, bandages, etc.), blue for less emergency healing potions (headache, stomach tranquilizer, muscle relaxant, etc ), there was the yellow one for useful tools (tweezers, gauzes, disinfectants, etc) and there was the white one, which contained the testers.

 

She took the red and yellow. Usually she would take the blue one too, but she was afraid Luz's little human body wouldn't react well. It had been years since she had learned not to trust her post-transformation magic (When transformed, the magical bile produced by her body is toxic and weak. Her bile sac, trying to get rid of the bad bile, immediately sends it to her fingers waiting to be free. As the Owl Beast doesn't know how to cast spells, the bile accumulates in the fingers and can only be removed without pain or magical explosions through the sangria (Name given when the patient's magical bile needs to be removed from the body. The process consists of making small needle holes in the magical veins of the finger for the 'bleeding' of bile, or direct aspiration done with a syringe) treatment, something she would do later), and therefore could not use healing magic on her.

 

“Extend your leg, please” Eda said gently as she opened the yellow Kit “I'll need to pick up the shards of glass from your leg with the tweezers. Have you ever done something like this before?”

 

She liked to always explain in detail what was going on with the childrens, with the rule of not lie to them. She remembers the time when King wore diapers (a time that, thanks to the Titan, only lasted a year and a half), always explaining to him what was going on while changing him, in addition to warning her beforehand that she would have to remove his diaper. She found this strategy important for teaching consent and including childrens in situations, encouraging independence. She hated not knowing things related to herself as a child, like being told she was going to the healer(doctor) only when she was in the office, for example.

 

“When I was 8, I accidentally put my hand on a cactus. My Mami then had to remove the thorns with tweezers.”
“What is a cactus?” Eda began picking up the shards, trying to distract the child from the pain.
“It is a human plant that has thorns and usually grows in deserts. It accumulates water inside it, and sometimes it bears flowers or fruits. The thorns are not so bad when the plant is big, but the small ones pierce easier and are more difficult to deal with”
“Um, we have something similar, Prickly Aloe, or prikloe. It is a round plant with thick thorns and medicinal capabilities. How did you get access to that cactus?”
“My Mami created them at home as decoration.”
“She left a plant with thorns within reach of a child?” Eda raised her eyebrow as she tried to locate the smaller shards.
“I didn't used to mess with this. It's just that I was playing ball and it hit the cactus. When I went to pick up the ball, it was so full of thorns that it stuck to my hand. I spent the next half hour on Mami's lap as she tried to pull out all the thorns. As they were small, they were difficult to see.”
“Ouch” Eda grimaced in sympathy “I once got my hand into a Burfish and spent like 20 minutes with my dad trying to get the scales off my hand” Luz laughed as Eda removed the last pieces of her leg. Eda loved the child's laugh.

“Now Luz, get ready because I'm going to need to disinfect the wound. It might hurt.” She soaked a gauze pad with much-needed disinfectant.

 

The girl let out a sharp painful breath when the gauze made contact with her leg. Her next breaths came through wails of pain, her hands swinging hard and seeming two seconds away from ripping the gauze off her.

 

“That's it, it's over” She held up the bloody gauze as a peace sign "Shhh, calm down. Not bad enough to need stitches, but some bandages.”

 

The girl sniffed a little and nodded with tears in her eyes, her hands opening and closing in hopes of calming down. Eda took the bandages from the red kit and gently wrapped them around her wound.

 

“And finish” she patted Luz’s ankle “That should be enough until tomorrow when I can heal the wound with magic.”
“Thank you” Luz replied unwillingly, tired.
“Look, I know you want answers. I want it too, but let’s wait until tomorrow, how about that?”
"I think it's might be"

 

Eda smiled with her eyes and caressed the girl's cheek before getting up. She noticed that Luz remained seated.

 

"Need help to getting up?"
"No, I just give it a little time"

 

Eda nodded and turned to adjust the nest. She had never let King sleep in his nest, as it made the Owl Beast weird (actually, it was the Owl Beast's motherly instincts wanting to come out upon seeing her Hatchling in her nest), but this time it didn't seem to hurt.

 

"Eda?" the small voice of Luz took her out of her plans
"What is it, Kiddo?"
"Can I sleep in the nest today?" Eda chuckled.
"That's what I was planning. I wouldn't make you go up to the attic being hurt and scared."

 

Luz smiled with relief, happy to be able to sleep next to Eda. The beldam (old witch) began rearranging the nest's blankets and pillows, strategically placing them on top of the objects in hopes of making them less dangerous. The only problem is that it would be uncomfortable to share a pillow, pad and blanket for three people (even if two of them were tiny children). Luz seemed to notice the problem.

 

"Want me to go get my blankets and pillows?"
"No need, Luz. You're hurt"
"I've done harder things when I was more hurt" This worried Eda
"What kind of things?"
"The time I went out with a 104 degree fever to take ice cream and started hallucinating, the time I had to walk across the city park in the rain after losing my slipper and hurt my foot, the time I fell down the stairs, dislocated my shoulder and took the bus home" Luz gave a little laugh "That day was Hilarious" Eda didn't seem to agree
"Why did your mother let you go through these things?" Luz shrugged
"It wasn't her fault, I'm the one who attracts trouble. On the day of the ice cream she was inside the house while I was sleeping, I went without her knowing. The day of the park was a walk with my cousins that went very wrong, and the day of the stairs was another walk with my cousins" Eda scoffed lightly
"Your cousins seem more inconsequential than mine"
"They're not, I'm the unlucky one. They try to take care of me on the trips, but I'm too inconsequential to not make something memorable happen" she started counting on her fingers "I insist on continuing with the picnic even when it's raining and there's no shelter, I play on the stairs and I fall rolling down ten steps, I climb a tree and fall on my butt on a rock about to cut myself, I'm going to take satisfaction with the guy who just robbed me, I'm mistaken with a beggar..."
"Girl, you got more stories at 11 than I did at 15"
"I like a good adventure" Luz laughed getting up.

 

Eda watched the child leave the nest and limp across the room, heading towards the attic she used as a bedroom. She shook her head, trying to deal with the information she just received.

 

I've always found humans kind of dull and overprotective compared to witches, but Luz seems to have been through more than most witches her age. Are humans really that way or was she just neglected?

 

The shattering of the disinfectant bottle brought her out of her thoughts, along with a painful buzz in her swollen fingers. Damn, I forgot to made the sangria.

 

She got up with difficulty and walked to the closet. There was a fifth first aid kit in there, a black kit. She opened it, finding everything she needed after a transformation.

 

She first of all took out her glasses, prescribed over 10 years ago (and which she refused to wear unless she had only half vision, as is happening now), then swallowed a Pain Potion. An anesthetic herb was rubbed on her fingers while she prepared the needle.

 

She made a little hole right on the tip of both index fingers (the magic's central point), where she had already memorized that it was the magic vein. The blackened, frothy bile it came out of was far from the ideal golden one. The substance was slowly dropped into a small bucket that would later go to medical disposal.

 

Her bile monitor (the Stone of her chest) glowed dimly, warning her of bile loss in case she didn't already know. It used to beep when something was wrong, but the doctor changed it to silent when she broke the third device for the annoying sound. It had a validity of 5 years, validity that would end in a few months.

 

The monitor glowed a little brighter, warning her that she was losing too much bile and should stop.

 

"What are you doing?" Luz asked behind her
"Just a little something to make me feel better"

 

She placed two small healing glyphs in the holes to ensure her healthy bile didn't escape and turned to the student. Luz had two new blankets in her arms, in addition to that soft pillow she clung to. The girl snuggled under Eda's arm, hugging a cushion as if it were a stuffed animal.

 

Eda ran her slender fingers through the girl's hair, slowly undoing the knots. The calm of the moment reminded her of lying like this with her mother, the same melody spilling from her lips before she knew it.

 

"I'm dreaming with the Titan, it's been five days

He'd say: Do it, Daughter, take my nightmare aways

Distort the tone, turn down the sound, p lay my life like a dream

Count only 30 minutes, relax and try to not scream"

 

King climbed onto her chest, snuggling like a baby in mother's lap.

 

"Titan is sad, he is crying, h er tears flood my yard 

Oh, good father of mine, don't cry we know you life is hard

How beautiful is your garden, w here do you collect everything you lost

From those stars up in the sky, t he constellations who you cross

Bird demons turned black, v ultures rule these lands

Dead meat, dead animal, e verything dies in this age"

 

Luz's face fell against Eda's ribs, the girl finally giving in to a much-deserved sleep

 

"The moon bleeds and the sun too, b loody red is the color of the sea

Don't worry, that's part of it, o ne day you too will bleed

When the sun goes down everything will burn a nd there's nothing left to tell b ecause you need to learn

Your seraphim fell into the pit of this abyss

Morning star welcomes the forgotten"

 

A tired yawn interrupted the last line of the song.

 

"The world will end, and sweep away, people will fly

But we'll stay, we'll hum, the flame will burn

The trumpet will sound, Titan will guide us"

 

Notes:

Another interesting chapter to write

I like doing world-building, as it's a very different culture.

Eda's idea of always detailing situations with children is based on my idea of how to raise a child.

I also like to make the curse look like a real illness, with Eda having a bile monitor (which I made inspired by pacemakers and other heart tracking devices), undergoing treatments in addition to her potion, etc.

All the things that Luz told me about happened to me, although they were usually altered. It wasn't my mother who took the thorns off the cactus, but my father. The ice cream situation didn't happen to me, it happened to my sister. The walks with cousins were actually with my sibilings. The time I fell down the stairs, I didn't dislocate my shoulder, but I hurt it and it hurt for three months. I also didn't have to take the bus back (despite having a history of accidents and incidents involving buses), but on the day of the park I had to take the subway back because Uber doesn't accept wet passengers and I was soaked to the bone.

Another difference is that most of the things I mentioned happened during my adolescence, not my childhood. I have my share of shocking events in childhood (mainly because I am Brazilian. There is a saying that says that you are not Brazilian if you don't have at least one childhood story where you almost died. I must have 5, in one of the times I literally needed to be resuscitated), and I'll add from time to time in Luz's story

I also have the headcanon that bilesack that Eda showed Luz was a drawing of her own Bilesack. The organ has been sick for 30 years, so it's a little different from most. I will later release specific works in the series to develop and explain wizarding biology (and the way the curse affects Eda)

The song Eda sings is a real song by my favorite singer. He's Brazilian, so I had to adapt the lyrics a lot. The original letter is like this:

This is the original song, for you to have an idea of the rhythm: https://youtu.be/Rj1YNQ6csTM

Chapter 5: Nobody likes having a curse

Notes:

This chapter has been revised to correct some errors.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

"Well, I think you deserve an explanation" Eda said as she sat on the sofa after breakfast "For starters, which one of you changed my clothes?"
"It was me" Luz raised her hand "When your body returned to normal the clothes had been torn. I had to dress you in the nightgown"
"I thank Titan I was sleeping and I missed the freak show" King declared, taking a slap on the back of the head from Luz
"I'm sorry you had to do this, child. Some of my clothes are made to withstand the transformation, but this time I didn't see it coming."
"That's fine, I sometimes helped Mami get dressed too"
"Oh, Mami is your sister?"
"No, my mom"
"Do you call your mother by name?" Eda asked in a small act of hypocrisy
"No, Mami is a human way of saying 'Mother'"
"Ah" Eda said, a little surprised "Well anyway we need to talk about the owl in the room"
“Yeah, that was weird” King spoke from his spot on Luz's lap.
“Well, it wouldn't have happened if you hadn't taken my elixir!” Eda cross her arms.
"I'm sorry"
“Well, you better be. I got a long list of disgusting tasks with your name on it.” She sighed “But it's not entirely your fault. I haven't been completely honest with you, childrens. When I was younger, I was cursed.”
“Cursed?” Luz hugged King a little tighter.
"Yes, cursed. I don't know how it happened, I was 15 socles (years) old and one day I turned into the owl beast. The guilty was never identified, I only know that someone cursed me."
"And there was never an investigation into who it might have been?"
"Yes, but nothing came of it. All I know is that if I don't take my elixir..."
"Do you transform into the owl beast?"
"Yes"
"Is she you, or are you two different beings?"
"Different beings. She usually stays locked away in her cage in the back of my mind, but it appears if I don't take my elixir or lose the control of my emotions"
"Wow, you're just like Naruto"
"Who?"
"I'll have you watch later. You and Beast Owl look like Naruto and Kurama."
"Well, that's why people call me the Owl Lady."
"Hmm" Luz looked down thoughtfully.

 

Eda got up from the sofa and sat next to Luz on the floor, despite her knees protesting.

 

"Look kid, No one likes having a curse, but if you take the right steps, you can live well"
"You looked in pain…"
"Luz, I've been dealing with this for over 30 years, I know how to deal with pain"
"Mami said you should never get used to pain."
"It's not ideal, but I really got used to it. So nobody steals my elixir, King, I'm talking to you" Eda pointed a bony finger at the youngest "I'll be fine. You're lucky the owl beast didn't attack you this time"
"Actually, she was nice." Luz spoke in defense of the animal "She looked like a mother cat with her litter of kittens"
"Was she's nice? Is that why Hooty is covered in bandages?" Eda pointed her thumb at the door.

 

Indeed, there was Hooty, covered in Luz's band-aids. He woke up in the middle of the night screaming that he had been attacked, forcing Eda to get up and tend to her injuries.

 

"In Owl Beast's defense, it was Hooty who yelled at her first. I think she was trying to protect us."
"Interesting…" Eda muttered.

 

The Owl, protecting the children? She remembered Madelyn's time, when the owl had been strangely protective with the egg. Eda's eyes closed as the painful memory of a healer considering her a stillborn flooded her mind. That was the first and last time she considered becoming a mother.

 

"I think she sees us as puppies. It's like a dog I had once, who adopted a stray kitten. Cross-species adoption is something interesting to study" Luz clapped her hands once to highlight what she had just said.

 

Eda chuckled at that. Apparently, BirdBrain hadn't abandoned the idea of having cubs.

 

"Hey, I have a question" Luz raised her hand as if she were in a classroom
"Sends"
"How many kilos do you have?"
"50"
"I said!" The human shook King.
“Well, I don't think I'll want the context of this” Eda stood up, her back squeaking “Any more questions?”
“One last question actually”
"What?
“What is the Titan? You sang about him last night.” Eda grinned.
“Well, looks like we’re having a little titangraphy class today.”

Notes:

I always thought Eda was very similar to a Jinchuuriki, and I couldn't leave it out of the fanfic 😅

Yes, Eda went through the wizarding equivalent of a miscarriage. No, eggs are not the witche's way of having a child, it's just considered the safest option. Later, Luz will undergo a witch sex education class and the methods will be dictated, until then, any questions can be answered in the comments.

Notes:

Don't be afraid to comment. I LOVE receiving comments. Doubts, ideas, headcanons, observations... Feel free