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To say Camila Noceda had an eventful day would be an understatement.
She had awoken this morning in her own bed, in her own house, and in her own world, and was ending it in none of those places. Instead, she was going to sleep on a beat up old sleeping mat with an equally disheveled blanket, in a room that looked more like a storage closet than a bedroom, inside of a house owned by a loco crone of a witch. All of this on an entirely separate plane of existence than she was used to living in.
"It's not much, I know," said the aforementioned crone of a witch, Eda, as she showed the place off. "But on the bright side, the room will really open up once I finish selling all this junk. The downside of course being that I'll be out of a job when I do, but what can you do?"
"We'll get it fixed up and livable in no time, Mom." Luz chimed in from the door. There wasn't even enough space to allow all three of them to comfortably stay in the room at the same time. "At least you get something to sleep on. When I first got here I just had my sleeping bag. Eda didn't get me a mattress until my stay seemed a bit more permanent. And she tried to get me to use a nest before she caved on the bed."
Luz grimaced at the memory, while Camila just looked confused. "A nest?"
"I'm called the Owl Lady for a reason, Cam." Eda joked, flashing her teeth as she did so, "And don't knock it until you've tried it. I find them extremely comfortable."
"You only wanted me to get one because sticks and twigs are free." Luz reminded her.
"And you know what they say, the best things in life are free." Eda nodded sagely, before adding with a sly wink, "unless they can be pick-pocketed, looted, stolen, and aren't otherwise nailed down, of course."
If this was any other day, Camila might have rethought a bit more about what kind of mentors she was allowing in her daughter's life, but after the day she had, comments like these almost seemed normal.
Eda let out a loud yawn, "anywho, I think it's about time we all hit the hay. It's been a long day for all of us, and some of us need our eleven hours of beauty sleep."
"Wait, where's Lilith? Shouldn't she have been back by now?" Luz asked, stifling her own yawn.
Camila stiffened at the name. If there was one witch she didn't want to meet on her first day in this strange world, it was the one who nearly killed her Mija .
"She'll be fine, she's a grown witch and can take care of herself. She just wanted to give you some space while you chatted with your Mom." Eda waved away Luz's worry, then let out a chortle. "Boy, is she gonna be surprised when she finds out who her new housemate is going to be in the morning!"
She ruffled Luz's hair as she left the room, "Sleep tight! Don't let the bed blood beasts bite!"
Luz shivered in disgust, "Really, Mama, don't let them bite." she too turned to leave, "I'm right next door if you need me, and the bathroom is down the hall."
"Thank you, Luz, but I'm sure I'll be just fine. Good night, and I'll see you in the morning." she placed a kiss on her daughters forehead and waved her off to bed, then climbing under the blankets and settling into her sleeping mat, only to end up staring at the ceiling, no longer feeling all that tired.
"... I'm sure they were just joking about bed blood beasts..."
Luz awoke to the sound of screaming. Which wasn't all that unusual on the Boiling Isles, but what did make her heart race was that it was her mother who was the one screaming.
Heart racing and fearing the worst, she raced out of her room, nearly slamming into the wall outside her room as she tried to make the turn from her door frame and into the hallway. Just as she was tearing open her mother's door, she could see Eda running down the hall to join her, hair even wilder than normal and filled with twigs from her nest, with a look of barely restrained panic on her face.
As Luz struggled with a light spell to illuminate the room and expose the threat, a voice could be heard over her mother's continuous screams of horror.
"I'm soooo happy we got a new roomie, hoot hoot! I bet we'll be the best of friends! You know, Lilith and I used to be two peas on a pod, and she'd come over and play all the time with her pals, but she got real sour after she moved in, so she had better move aside because I've got myself a new bestie!"
Luz breathed a sigh of relief at the sound, which was a first, while Eda facepalmed. To put to rest any other doubts they may have had, the light rune Luz managed to activate filled the room, and showed that it was just Hooty. The bird tube had slithered in from the window on the far side of the wall, and now had Camila, who was still wrapped in her blankets, coiled up around his ever extending neck, keeping her from fleeing him. As he spoke, she screamed, eyes wide and unblinking in terror as they were locked onto the house demon who had her in his clutches.
So, all in all, it was a pretty standard response to meeting Hooty.
With a groan, a disgruntled Eda stomped out of the room, returning a moment later with a spray bottle in hand. Luz hung back, letting her mentor take care of things.
"Hooty and the new lady, against the world! Wow, you sure have a great pair of lungs, you've been yelling for a looooong time! Is this a new game? I love games! Ooh, Let me pla-" he was cut off as Eda sprayed him with water from the bottle, and he began to hiss as if it was acid instead of plain old tap water, "Rude! Can't a guy chat up his new gal-pal in peace?"
Eda stomped her foot in challenge of the demon. "Hooty, put the poor woman down, you're existence is traumatizing her." She growled out.
"Maybe it's you're existence that's traumatizing her!" Hooty huffed, but complied as not to be sprayed in the face with a jet of water again. Unraveling his coiled body, Camila slumped down to the ground, finally silent, but her eyes and mouth still agape in terror.
Luz wrapped her Mom in a hug, careful not to squeeze her too tight after being in Hooty's grasp. "I am so sorry, Mom, we totally forgot to introduce you to Hooty. He's the House Demon that guards the Owl House, and he's..." She grimaced as she tried to come up with a good term to describe Hooty with that wouldn't offend the bird tube, who watched her with bright innocent eyes. "Unique. He's very unique."
"And he's also bored. I'm sorry too, Cam, I should have made sure the window was locked up tight when I was setting your room up. Hooty's been having a really hard time ever since the Emperor's Coven stopped swinging by very few days to try and arrest me. He used to fend them off, and it gave him something to do that didn't bother us, and most importantly, it kept him entertained. I should have expected him to break in to say hello."
"I miss our tea parties, but I'm sure those kind boys will be back to play again someday, Hoot! No one can resist my homemade crumpets!" Hooty began to hack and gag, before coughing up some pastry shaped rocks onto the wooden floor, and nudging them eagerly over to Camila's feet with his beak while looking at her eagerly.
Camila glanced down at the stones in disgust before her eyes fixed right back onto Hooty, "Can anyone explain exactly what this t-thing is to me? A House Demon? W-what even is that?" She asked with a shaky voice.
"It means that Hooty is part of the house. It is called the Owl House, Cam. Did you think I just kept an Owlery in the attic, or something? Do you know how much of a mess normal owls make? This place would need to be covered in newspapers, and I don't even want to imagine the smell?" Eda rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, "Not that Hooty here is much better. He's just a mess waiting to happen."
"Hey, rude! Hoot!"
"I thought it was called the Owl House because of all the owl themed eccentricities you have! Not because this loco house was some sort of owl monster!" Camila shot back.
"I swear, the owl accessories are all just a coincidence, but it's nice to know you think I'm eccentric." Eda plumed, though her smile quickly fell, "Wait, that was a complement, right?"
"No." The Latina mother glared.
Shrugging, Eda continued her earlier explanation, "Anyway, we're basically living inside of Hooty right now. Even I don't know where Hooty ends and the house itself begins." She paused, scratched at her chin and amended, "Well, that's not entirely true. I've had to knock out a couple walls, and put in some extensions over the years, so I know where the house begins, but that brings up some existential questions about how much of Hooty needs to be replaced before he stops being Hooty and becomes a newer, but just as annoying, pest in our lives, and it's far too late for us to get into that kind of discussion right now."
"I'll never truly be whole again, Hoot!"
"Shut it." Eda elbowed Hooty and then sternly pointed towards the window like a disappointed mother sending her child to their room. "Get out of here, you've done enough for one night."
"Oh, fiiiine!" Hooty hooted, slowly craning his head to look back over to Camila. "We'll just have to play that yelling game again tomorrow! See you in the morning! HOOT!"
With that, Hooty retracted back out the window he had come in from, presumably to rest back in his door, or perhaps to annoy some woodland creatures that had made the poor life decision to stumble close to the Owl House.
"Now that that's over with..." Eda clamored over the boxes and other junk in between her and the window, slamming it shut and closing the latch so it couldn't be opened again. "See, that wasn't so bad, right?"
"Uhhh," Luz glanced over to her mother, who was still shaking and traumatized in her arms, and grimaced. "Yeah, sure, Eda. You okay, Mama?"
The nurse nodded, but on the inside she was feeling just a bit of regret for ever having stepped through that dimensional door. Witches? She could handle. Demons? She could get used to those, especially if they were all as fluffy as King. Hooty? She hoped to never have to look or speak to such a monster ever again. Swallowing down a wave of nausea, she spoke, "I'll be fine, Luz. J-just give me a moment."
A moment passed. Then another. No one said a word as they waited for the elder Noceda to speak again. After a few awkward seconds of silence, Camila dropped her gaze so that neither Luz or Eda could look her in the eye as she flushed with embarrassment. "Actually, Mija , would it be alright if I sleep with you in your room tonight? I don't want to be alone knowing that thing might be looking through the windows."
Luz gently patted her mother on the back, "Sure thing, Mom."