Chapter Text
Hooty twisted and turned in his sleep, laying face down in the mud in front of the door of the Owl House. He was having a most interesting dream- one drawn from his past. His elongated tube body squirmed through mud thick and thin, groaning in his deep slumber.
The skies were red- a stark scarlet with black clouds, and the blue trees were torn down by something massive as a bunch of wild witches jumped back, letting the giant thing approach as its rider audibly snarled from above the beast, wrapped in shadow.
“You wild witches can either leave now or face the wrath of the owl beast.” The voice declared. “I’m certain all of you know what it’s more than capable of.”
The beast let out a low shriek, followed by a demonic, echoey “HOOT!” as it suddenly unhinged it’s jaw- just as violently red as the sky. Some wild witches leapt and ran away from the scene, while some stayed back and cast circles to hit the beast with no avail as its body twisted around the fire, ice, and energy blasts cast by the wild witches.
Some who had stayed to fight now realized how hopeless it all was and began to run, while some stayed determined to fight. However, it wouldn’t take long as the demon beast caught the wild witches and engulfed them whole. As thunder struck in the distance, the visages became clear who these two demons really were.
The ”owl beast” was merely Hooty, with a much larger body and slinking around with his worm-like body at the aftermath of the fight- while the rider was none other than a young Kikimora, lifting up one of her appendages wrapped around her second eye to pick up scattered objects from the wild witches they had fought. Her red skin appeared stark against the sky despite being the same color as it- she just had that kind of presence.
Hooty awoke from his sleep, in cold, frozen sweat, before suddenly peering to the left of him to a small bug that was crawling towards the door. “Bug!” he shrieked, sticking out his tongue to eat it, turning his head restlessly in the mud as he slammed his head against his own door body.
In the morning, Amity approached the house to meet up with her girlfriend, as they were meaning to write down the Echo Mouse transcriptions in a more legible format, as well as Luz’s own experiences in the dimension between the Boiling Isles and Earth. This was to help collect Luz’s research- and as Amity was hoping- help them construct a more stable portal so they could go together to her dimension.
Amity seemed almost puzzled when the door was ajar slightly, although she realized not too soon after it was because Hooty was receding into the house, needing to enter from the front. She stepped inside, making her way through undisturbed- thankfully. She had… less than nice experiences with the house demon herself, even if it helped her get together with Luz.
“Here you go Luz!” Hooty said as he borfed up the typewriter onto the kitchen table. Luz jumped back in surprise as it plopped onto the table, covered in owl spit. Luz sheepishly cleaned it off as she caught a glimpse of Amity- frantically making sure it was suitable for them to use.
“Hiiii Amity!” Luz expressed, backing her hands against the table as she turned to face her. She patted the glass cage of the Echo Mouse, Amity nodding along. “Ready to get to transcribing?”
“Uh, yeah, sure! That’s what I’m here for!” Amity replied, sitting down next to her. Luz handed her some notes she had scribbled down in a haste during her time having the common mold, picking them up as she went to go feed the Echo Mouse them.
“Woah, what are you doing?” asked Luz.
“Asking it to recall some information. It helps the Echo Mouse to project previous information if it eats a note about said information.” Amity explained.
“Oh wow, you’re so smart, Amity…” Luz remarked, Amity blushing in response. Luz was really good at making her feel valued and respected. Amity pushed her head to Luz’s shoulder while rubbing the top of the Echo Mouse’s head, coaxing it into eating the paper.
Eda stepped into the kitchen holding up a big cauldron and plopping it next to the two. “Hey, I need you two to do this somewhere else- I’m going to be a bit busy uh… prepping the Owl House.” Eda disclosed, looking at the window in the back of the room with some fevered anxiety.
“What?” asked Luz, somewhat shocked. “I thought they didn’t care for us now that you weren’t capable of casting magic, and besides, even before then, Hooty was enough. What gives?”
“Mm… I’ve gotten good word that they’re sending over some of their best right now because we managed to open a portal- and as good as Hooty is, well, I can’t just hope that relying on him will solve everything,” Eda remarked. “Might be a group effort, although maybe I’m just hyping it up too much.”
“I suppose we can do this somewhere else, although can you trust us two alone in a room?” asked Luz in a joking tone. Amity, however, was quick to interject.
“We’ll be good, we promise!” Amity said, almost in a panicked tone. “Just… logging entries off a dead man’s journal!”
“Well, have fun with that. I know that me and Raine would probably have our own ‘fun’ with that too…” Eda said, doing some finger guns with Luz. “No, but seriously, I need my space, get!”
“Wait, who’s Raine?” asked Luz.
“I’ll tell you when you’re older,” Eda laughed, although grimaced immediately afterwards. “Now, get!”
Luz grabbed the typewriter and Amity’s hand while Amity held the Echo Mouse and Luz’s noters in her free hand, following her girlfriend to another room while Eda set down a bunch of materials on the table. She peeked out the window again, not really seeing anything yet- either they weren’t here yet or they had gotten better at sneaking, maybe she needed her goggles for this... or she could let the subsisting anxiety help her make up some defensive traps around the Owl House. She chose the latter for now.
Kikimora stood on the shoulder of an Abomaton- hissing under her cloak as she felt it slowly trudge under her. This wasn’t an ordinary Abomaton, being one reinforced around the head with a glass container and pumped in with an green fluid that act as a magical energy, allowing it to create spell circles that could act to enlarge or power spells cast by other witches in the group.
However, the denseness and the mechanism on it’s front prevented it from transforming, so even as they were approaching the Owl House, it still took forever to get there. She had sent out her hand dragon to scout the area from above earlier, looking out from traps. She watched as it landed on the other shoulder of the special Abomaton, it’s weight and size barely impacting it’s speed. The hand dragon spoke in a language only decipherable by Kikimora on the basis it was her creation, informing her.
“It’s all clear then… aside from that infamous house demon Lilith whined about on her last raid mission before she was cast out of the coven for treason against the emperor.” Kikimora reported back to the rest of the Coven Scouts. Warden Wrath stomped over to her, kicking multiple rocks in his path.
“So… really easy in and out mission, it seems?” Warden Wrath asked, holding out his hands and morphing them into scythes.
“Easy there, Wrath,” Kikimora stated. “As much as I don’t respect Lilith, there was probably something to the house demon she whined about- it took out a pretty capable raid group before and while we’re far better, anything that can roll through the Emperor should not be taken so lightly. We need strategy, planning-“ Kikimora explained before realizing that Warden Wrath was just charging off regardless. “Yeah, no idea what I was expecting.” she grumbled, charging forward ahead by kicking the Abomaton in the glassy head with her bird-like foot.
Warden Wrath jumped through the bushes and trees around the Owl House, snarling from under his mask, looking to throw himself into the violence of it all. Hooty was rolling in the mud, laughing obnoxiously, with nary anything else in his way. Warden Wrath charged ahead towards the front door, only to be struck hard, like a ball to a baseball bat, by the house demon Hooty, sending him flying.
“Batter’s up!” Hooty shouted, looking around for more “players” to his game of Owl House baseball- or known on the Boiling Isles, beastball. He clucked as he bucked his head back and forth, waiting for Coven Scouts to charge through- and as they did, he slammed his head and wrapped around the various rushing forces, tightly squeezing and pounding away at whoever he could see in the midst of the battle.
Warden Wrath slammed into the ground, his mask falling off as Kikimora stared at him intensely, glaring at him from above. “That’s why you have a plan for a hunt- I mean, raid,” she condescendingly remarked. “Did the Golden Guard set you up for this?” she asked.
“No… and you really need to get off that guy, he’s like… 14.” Warden Wrath said, huffing from his fire breathing mouth.
“He’s 16!” Kikimora corrected, her hair bunching up wildly. “It’s not my fault he’s out to get me.”
“Ma’am, he’s a literal child…” a Coven Scout said, with his distinct voice that the Coven as a whole recognized as Steve.
“Shut up, Steve.” hissed Kikimora, atop the continuously moving Abomaton.
“I miss Lilith.” Steve stated, his head looking down.
“I said shut up!” Kikimora yapped as the Abomaton finally cleared the bushes. She turned her attention to the Owl House, ducking as Hooty shot his head past her. She suddenly felt alarmed as she recognized that brown feathered tube from anywhere.
“Watch out!” Steve said, way too delayed to be helpful. However, it hardly mattered to Kikmora at the moment.
“Hooty…?”
Hooty turned his head back to look at Kikimora, who clung to the Abomaton’s glass head. Kikimora was right- this was Hooty for sure. As Eda and Luz looked at the window to see the battle play out at different parts of the Owl House, they were struck with a simultaneous thought.
“HUH!?”
Luz ran downstairs as Amity followed her with the typewriter, the Echo Mouse perched on top of it as she moved to the kitchen. Luz was utterly fascinated, while Eda was incredibly confused that there was anything more to Hooty that she wasn’t aware of before.
“What’s going on with Hooty?” asked Luz.
“Beats me kid, it’s like he recognizes Kikimora, but how?” asked Eda, holding her head in her hands as she leaned forward against the window.
“I’m just as lost- if more so than you two.” Amity said, adding nothing helpful to the conversation.
“Are we getting Hooty backstory?” asked Luz. “Oooohh, what if he’s a god in disguise? That would explain why he’s so powerful!”
“That’s… no.” Eda said, shaking her head something strong. “Boots, you mind getting me some apple blood? I apparently need to divulge more background information to my apprentice.” Amity nodded and went to go get Eda some apple blood.
“You say it like you’re annoyed that you have to do that, but my interest is at a peak.” Luz said.
“Look, a long time ago, there used to be wild demons. They kind of used magic freely like wild witches, but they mainly used to hunt wild witches and we would hunt them back. And you know, if you weakened one enough, you could bind them to an object.” Eda said, waving her hand in the air.
“Ain’t that…” Luz said.
“Whatever you’re going to say, the culture and time was completely different, so it was a little more acceptable to do that, than like, now, I guess.” Eda replied.
“So…” began Luz. “Is there a bunch of former demons lurking around as objects now?” asked Luz.
“Sweet summer child, you’ve been using one this entire time.” Eda said, perching her chin on the back of her hand as Amity gave her some apple blood.
“Whuh- the typewriter!?” Luz said, looking at the typewriter that Amity set down moments ago, as the Echo Mouse circled around it multiple times before laying down. Now that she was examining it closely, the moving eyes, the teeth, the mint green color of the device… those were really evocative of a demon. Not to mention she’s heard it talk a couple times before too…
“Uh huh.” Eda said as she sipped down some apple blood. “Pretty freaked up, huh?”
“That’s not right, Eda! That’s basically slavery!” Luz finally said what she was going to say, looking angry. Eda rolled her eyes.
“I didn’t do it, a wild witch before me transformed this guy into a typewriter and I… bought it, sure, that’s the word. Some of these demons were basically transformed this way at birth- they’re happy like this and reversing it would pretty put them into a vegetative state.” Eda said, burrowing her brow.
“Is Hooty one of these demons that was transformed at birth? To become your captive defensive system?” Luz said, really offended at what she was hearing.
“No, nothing like that… if you would let me finish as opposed to getting mad at a bunch of people who aren’t me, I could actually tell you the story.” Eda replied. Luz tried to calm down, but after being hyped up on wild witches from Eda for so long, anything that they did that kind of felt iffy to her now was going to shatter her worldview. Eda realized her mistake now, but still had to press forward with her story.
“Sorry…” Luz said grumpily as Amity rubbed her shoulders. “Just really rubs me the wrong way when someone like King could have been turned into a typewriter by a wild witch at birth and we have no real way to fix it…”
“Look, we could argue about this all day, and I agree, it’s a little messed up, but what you have to understand is that a lot of these transformed demons come from an entirely different culture too, back when demons were encouraged to be wild, to go on hunts… wild witches and wild demons were kind of at war with each other and the war didn’t necessarily end when Belos took control.” Eda said, sipping more apple blood.
“Uh huh…” Luz said, following along as she eyed the typewriter.
“Anyway… Hooty was one of those wild demons so I converted him to the house demon for the Owl House, that’s why this place is even… called the Owl House. Call it coincidence or fate…” Eda said, swinging the cup of apple blood in a circle before returning it to her lips to sip on.
“Wait, so you did convert Hooty into the house demon?” Luz chided.
“Mmm… well, in a strictly true fashion, yes…” Eda replied. “Woah, hang on a minute, something’s happening outside…” She made her way to the window as Luz and Amity followed her.
“What are you doing here, Hooty?” asked Kikimora. “Of course, you’d be the dreaded house demon Lilith talked up so much… but you’re working for the owl lady? Why?”
“Kiki…” began Hooty, twisting his body to shake off some Coven Scouts that were far too eager to try and get to the house without a plan. “Look, the Boiling Isles has changed a lot over the years…”
“Right, but you were unstoppable! How did such a nobody witch like Eda become your captor?” asked Kikimora, genuinely put back by Hooty’s state.
“Oh, I’m still unstoppable… look, it’s complicated, perhaps it might help if I explained it in what Luz likes to call a flashback…” Hooty answered in his normal, avoiding the question way.
“Nonsense! Perhaps you just need to remember who you are! You’re a wild demon! You like to hunt wild witches! Yet you house and care for one? And her apprentice too! How could you let them contain you in such a state?” she asked, hissing from her mouth, her blood boiling. “Perhaps you are the one in need of a reminder of their past!”
“Kiki!” shouted Hooty. “I am freer than I was a wild demon! I have friends, I have a family, I have Lulu, I have bugs to eat, I can leave at any time…”
“Nonsense, they’ve truly brainwashed you… you were famous for your concussions, but this is engrained rather deep in you…” Kikimora stated, standing on her tippy toes as she grabbed a Memory Tweezer from her cloak. “Men, hold off, I need to remind an old friend of how things really used to be.” She snatched a memory from her ear, letting it develop quickly as Hooty just watched in anxious anticipation.
“Kikimora… I really don’t think I need this…” Hooty retorted.
“You do, my friend.” Kikimora growled with a low tone, casting a spell circle over the picture, locking the two in a memory of her’s.
Kikimora tied up a couple voles to a skewer as she watched Hooty set up the tent for the wild demons camp for tonight. They had lost a couple more tonight- it was just them two, and they weren’t sure if there were any further camps.
They were tired anyway. Hooty did the bulk of the fighting- this new generation of demons under Belos’ rule was not cutting it. They were all weaker, as if some kind of magic pull was stunting their potential hard. It didn’t impact previous demons, at least not yet, but something Belos was doing was having a large impact on demon populations. Less and less wild demons were out there, and it was being met by applause by witches everywhere.
Kikimora looked up to Hooty. “Just you and me, huh?” asked Kikimora.
“YUP!” screeched Hooty, swallowing up an ant hill, burying his head into the sand. Kikimora just shook her head- he had taken a couple head on collisions rather hard with every given battle and was acting a bit stranger every week as a result.
“I suppose you don’t have any extra bodies to feast on?” asked Kikimora, looking at the voles hungrily, although knowing it wouldn’t fill her up. She rotated the skewer, watching them hang on top of the skewer.
“Sorry, digested them pretty through at this point, Kiki!” Hooty said, literally worming over to her. He looked at the fire, entranced by it. “You ever wonder if this whole war between wild witches and us wild demons was kind of pointless? I mean, it’s sunsetting for sure at this point, and what were we really mad about? Turning some of us into appliances?”
“They did more than that, Hooty. I suppose you’ve never experienced what it is like to be a house demon, but the people are so demanding and you have to stretch yourself to such extremes to meet their needs… free to abuse, to belittle…” Kikmora said, looking over to him. “I hated every minute of being a house demon, I was thankfully spared of that life thanks to your efforts.”
“Don’t even sweat it… but I think it would be nice to be helpful, and not just… a killing machine…” darkly noted Hooty. “I dunno, maybe you feel differently and I’m not saying you’re wroooong for thinking so… I just don’t like hunting that much.”
Such a statement shocked Kikimora a little bit. “But you’re so good at it!”
“Yeah, but it’s not particularly interesting to just roll and bash through everything knowing nobody can really hurt me…” Hooty replied. “I mean, I’ve been beat up so many times, but none of it’s really impacted me…”
Kikimora watched as his head twisted and turned, watching as he suddenly plopped to the ground to roll around in the dirt, laughing maniacally. She patted his “belly” and looked up to the sky, which was a midnight blue with so many stars sparkling bright in the air. “Oh… old friend, I’ll be by your side no matter what… as long as you’re on mine…”
Hooty chortled. “Alright, Kiki.”
Hooty snapped out of the memory, along with Kikimora, who looked at him with pleading eyes. “Please, Hooty. Surely you know this isn’t how things are meant to be!”
Hooty looked back to the Owl House, staring at Eda, Luz, and Amity watching intently at the events unfolding outside of the Owl House. Kikimora interlocked her fingers together, staring up at Hooty who just looked confused.
“The Owl House is my family, Kiki…” he said looking mournfully at them and then looking back at her. “I was lifted by the sound of a spirit in need, and like I said before… I truly am happy with them.”
He said it with so much clarity- hardly clipping his voice high or anything- peeking a true personality that had been through so much that it had otherwise been reverted to a child-like state even before he became fused with a door, that Kikimora had no reason to doubt his conviction.
“We’re a dying breed…” protested Kikimora. “I was hoping the one other person I knew like myself would be able to see that.”
“How can you even say that when you’re working for Emperor Belos directly?” asked Hooty. “Are you blinded to your own dogma that much?” he continued, in such a different, clear voice. “Emperor Belos has literally branded you, sought to pit us together, even if unintentionally… our goals are not the same. You act like you want to preserve what’s left of the good old days, but the only thing you brought from it was the blind violence I sought to leave behind.”
“What is HAPPENING?” Luz shouted from inside.
“Quiet, human.” growled Eda.
Amity stared nonchalantly at the scene above. “Jeez, this is a lot…”
“You! You have the gall to say I’ve lost my way?” Kikimora said, clearly hurt. “I’m on the hunt on a whole new level for witches. I take in wild witches and this new breed of coven-tied witches. You have no idea what you’re talking about, Hooty. You protect that powerless witch and her human all you want, but even you must know that it’s against the nature of wild demons to protect the enemy.”
“There’s no place for wild demons or witches in this world anymore. If I’m going to continue on existing, to continue to be… I’d rather be defending the vestiges of what’s left, no matter how small. We all deserve to be free, all of us,” Hooty said, his voice slowly returning to normal as he defiantly stood against Kikimora. “Anyway, excuse me… bug!” he said as a confused Kikimora suddenly realized a beetle had gotten on top of her head and was suddenly engulfed by Hooty, swallowing her and her Abomaton whole before spitting them out far away, the glass casing around the head of Abomaton splitting open and leaking green fluid against a tree as Kikimora hissed.
“Retreat, tactically.” she grumbled as Steve came to her side.
Eda stood up from the window, breathing out a sigh of relief as she saw the Coven Scouts retreat in the distance, looking to Luz and Amity before the door suddenly swung open to reveal a blank eyed Hooty.
“…you okay?” asked Luz.
“Mm… I’m never a fan of seeing friends go…” Hooty said, almost in an absent minded tone. “But BOY did she go!” he said, suddenly energy pulsing back into his head, swinging around before shutting the door, leaving Luz and Amity dumbfounded.
“Maybe I can finally tell you the actual story of how Hooty got bounded to the house now, hm?” asked Eda, pulling out a pair of Memory Tweezers and twisting one of her disconnected hands back on, revealing that she had sent one of her hands to go outside while Hooty and Kikimora were in the middle of their big talk. “Nicked these off the demon while she was busy talking about how great Belos was.”
“You really need to stop stealing stuff…” Luz stated. “But… I am curious.”
“What, are you a cop?” asked Eda, grumbling at how straightlaced her student was acting to a little theft from someone they didn’t even like. She yanked a photo right out of her head, waiting for it to develop a little. “Anyway, here’s the night I met Hooty. Um… hm, this might be hard to do without a spell circle, huh?”
“I can help,” Amity said, holding out her arms. “Not to brag or anything, but I’m pretty good at spells.”
“She’s good at everything, really…” Luz said, in absolute amazement of her girlfriend, which just got Amity all flustered and made her face as red as a tomato.
“Um, anyway…” Amity said, focusing on the photo and then casting a spell circle over it.
Eda hopped out of the portal frame, using the key to click and fold it back up into a suitcase. She had just been on a crazy trip to Last Ve Gus, a strange place with so many lights, so many strange devices to gamble with “scents” and “doll hairs”. She had just stolen a strange steel demon called a “car” from a man that she probably accidentally married and then drove it off a cliff. What a great Friday Night!
She tumbled out onto the grass and walked toward… home. She didn’t really have one- she’d go from place to place seeking shelter although she was quickly running out of options. Raine had not too recently broken up with her- they would no longer be an option for safe shelter. Not because Raine didn’t care- she just couldn’t stand to look at them again. She clutched the suitcase tightly, humming along as she made her way through the plain.
Suddenly, though, she would find herself ambushed and hard- she was knocked so off her feet that an hand clutched around the suitcase fell off. The large beast, cloaked in shadow, hissed, and slithered as it came closer to Eda, and she cast a spell of light magic to blind the creature and to see what it was. To her frustration, even seeing the creature in bright light didn’t help much- it was a worm, with an owl’s head?
The owl worm creature approached closer, with Eda putting up her only good had out as if to suggest she didn’t want to fight. It looked at her curiously before moving it’s attention to the hand with the suitcase, which wriggled around on the grass, trying to carry something far heavier than itself while at the same time move with a clenched fist tight. Eda’s eyes widened in horror and she cast another spell, this one a big black legion of owl beasts not unlike her own owl beast inside, which grabbed onto the demon and pecked away at it.
“OOOH! OOHHH HOOH! THAT HURTS!!!” cried the demon in a shrill voice, causing Eda to put her hand to her ears- frustrated that her other hand was MIA in this case. She did a decisive roll to grab her hand, snapping it back on as she hissed at the owl demon, whacking it with her suitcase.
“What kind of a demon just comes out here and starts attacking witches…” growled Eda as she walked off, unsummoning her magic owls as she watched the beast slowly shrug itself and twist towards Eda. “Oh, don’t you come towards me…”
“You’re a wild witch, aren’t you?” asked the beast, coming closer to her, circling around her with it’s massive body. “Seems strange that you wouldn’t know what a wild demon is…”
“Wild demon…” Eda said, grunting as she looked up at the beast. “I know what a wild demon is, but they hunt in packs. Where is your… pack?”
The beast looked saddened. “Gone. Even the one who rode me mysteriously vanished in the night, never to be seen again. She was my closest friend.”
“Huh, well, I’m not much of a wild witch either, I can’t even pretend to do so when I came from the new coven system. I’ve been fascinated and wanted to mimic them… but I can only do so much when real wild witches are being petrified left and right.” Eda explained.
“If you’re not much of a wild witch and I’m not much of a wild demon… maybe we really aren’t that different from each other.” the beast replied. “Truth is, under Belos’ rule, there’s no place for us- but maybe together…”
“Wait… what are you asking of me? Are you asking me to bind you to something?” asked Eda, unusually proficient.
“I’ve always secretly kind of hoped to be a house demon… a friend once told me of her time being one and it never sounded that bad…” the beast replied. “I’d rather be the last wild demon protecting the last wild witch than to go out on a bad note- alone, petrified or turned into something else against my will. If I chose to be a house demon, I could do a lot more than be a sword for Belos and his minions to use.”
“What’s your name?” asked Eda.
“Hooty.” the beast finally revealed.
The two traveled in tandem to an abandoned home and Hooty whispered instructions into Eda’s ear- allowing her to cast the binding spell to bind him to it. She watched as Hooty’s face morphed into the door, the rest of him lost somewhere inside of it- and watched in awe as he spoke his first words as a house demon.
“Hoot! Hoot-hoot!” Hooty said, looking at her with a smile. “Welcome.”
“I thought… after I had lost all my power and I was truly living off nothing wild at all about me, that he’d leave- but he didn’t. I don’t know if it’s because he considers us genuine friends or not, or if he sees you as the legacy of wild magic on the Boiling Isles…” Eda said, looking to Luz and giving a very obvious nod of the head to her. “…but he didn’t leave. He stayed.”
“So… Hooty chose to become a house demon, after all…” Luz said, burrowing her brow. “I mean, I guess he doesn’t really do anything he doesn’t want to do…”
“That’s correct. Look… wild witches weren’t perfect. I’m sorry I gave you the wrong impression by accident, I realize that now I didn’t talk much about their flaws. Truth is, I’m not much of a wild witch myself, it was you that discovered glyph magic and their way of harnessing magic on the Boiling Isles itself. I merely learned if from you,” Eda replied, sheepishly. “I have a lot of respect for that culture on the face of it, but there are some traditions I’d probably have stay behind too.”
“I’m just kind of upset that a lot of demons might be trapped as living items, forced to do whatever the witches tell them to… I suppose it’d only be right to give the ones we have as much agency as the rest of us, right?” Luz said, looking to the typewriter.
“Girl, I really don’t mind being used- the way my brain is wired, I get endorphins every time you type a key. It’s a simple existence but compared to some of the trash slug egg gunk I see every week, I’m fine!” the Typewriter stated.
“Well, that settles that, you can use it guilt-free,” Eda said, waving her arm. “Once Belos is removed from the Boiling Isles and stopped completely, I think this can be our next big social change, huh?” Eda nudged Luz in the rib. Luz laughed and then looked very uneasy, thinking yeah… about that… in her head, remembering the promise she made to her mother not too long ago. She wasn’t sure how to even approach that.
She looked at Hooty outside- although he seemed fine earlier, he was now stumped onto the ground, his tube-like body extended against the dirt. He probably missed his friend- and had probably realized that even if she was too far gone, he still missed her.
Hunter walked down the castle walls, anxiously interlocking his fingers back and forth as he paced up and down the hallway. Ever since he had given Belos the broken key he had fought so hard to win, Belos had spoken nary a word to him beyond “stay inside”. He sounded absolutely furious that Hunter had gone to Eclipse Lake at all- against his orders. He was just trying to prove he was useful after being shown up the human girl again and again.
He smashed a fist into the wall. Kikimora watched from behind a wall, her face reflected against the clean marble, her figure distorted by the light of the stained-glass windows of Belos and the Titan, looking insanely shadowed from the light behind her. Hunter looked back to see Kikimora, shocked and surprised to see her.
“Oh, I heard your raid on the Owl House didn’t go so good.” Hunter said, looking at her concerningly. “Weird, you seemed to have every tool at your disposal for that… how did they win against you and the raid party?”
Kikimora huffed, not sensing anything genuine in his voice. “You set me up for this so you’d keep your job as right-hand man, huh? That you took up after Lilith, my superior, betrayed the whole coven?”
“What? Huh?” asked Hunter. “I didn’t set anything up. How could I? I’ve been stuck here!”
“I don’t know how you did it, but you must have done something to set my men off early to attack and the whole thing fell apart after that…” Kikimora hissed from under her cloak.
“Right, okay. Sure, I totally did that, somehow. Me, the kid with no magic. A little birdie must have told one of your guys to charge on right ahead, because they’re not just idiots. That’s the explanation.” Hunter replied, annoyed that Kikimora somehow thought it was him.
“Well guess what, the whole thing… it just amuses me. I’m not upset. You wish I was upset, because that’s what you strive for, that’s what you want out of me. But I’m not mad! Oh, I missed my big chance to move up to paving the palace.”
“Wha-“ Hunter said, not expecting some unhinged rant from the small demon, backing away as she pointed up to him.
“You have no idea, not even a speck of a clue of what’s going on. You’re a tiny little boy scout in a teeny tiny little room who gets his kicks from screwing up my plans, my machinations. But you’re in a terrarium, a petri dish, and you look down on me?” interrupted Kikimora, moving closer to him.
“Kikimora, wha-“ Hunter said again, but interrupted again by the small demon. He began to walk away, confused as hell as Kikimora continued to go off on a rant.
“You know why I don’t take the job? The favor of Belos? Because it’s TOO SMALL! I tower over you in worlds you can’t even imagine, boy! I don’t care ONE BIT about it, it’s a speck of NOTHING to me!” she shouted as Hunter walked away, beginning to run as she raised her hands and unhinged one of the appendages over her eyes. “I’m beyond whatever you see as powerful! I hunt wild witches and unruly protesters to the status quo because it’s in my blood! I crave the suffering of witchkind! You could never fathom a wild world view because you don’t live in one! I am greater than the TITAN WHO MAKES UP THE BOILING ISLES ITSELF! You know why?”
Hunter did not talk to her. He knew there was sincerely no point in doing so.
“HE DIED WHILE I LIVE! SOME GREAT CREATOR HE IS!”
She huffed as she watched Hunter move quickly through the hall, separated from her now. She wiped her lip of spittle, calming down as she looked up to the stained-glass window of Belos in front of a blue pool of Titan’s Blood, cackling to herself before going quiet.
She was still feeling torn up about losing Hooty again- although the first time she hadn’t even known, having been captured by Lilith herself for practicing as a wild demon. She glared silently ahead, before going back to talk with Belos about her latest failure.