Chapter Text
“When I first came to the Boiling Isles, I’ve always thought I already knew what was lying ahead of me…..
Learn magic, make some friends, and become a Witch…..
But then my life decided to turn upside down…..
Literally.”
“Hey kiddo!”
Luz had barely woken up to the sound of Eda calling to her. She began to yawn and stretch out her arms, only for her to almost lose balance.
“WOOAAAAHHHH!!!” Luz yelped.
She quickly grabbed onto her mentor, now remembering they were both flying on Owlbert.
“Woah, careful there!” Eda yelled as she held Luz close, not wanting Luz to fall to her death as she nearly did 3 years ago when fighting Lilith when she was still a part of The Emperor’s Coven.
Eda then started slowing down a little, noticing she was going way too fast than she normally goes, unless Luz or anyone close to her is in danger.
“You alright Luz?” She asked.
“Yeah, sorry. I know you’ve told me never to fall asleep while we’re airborne.” Luz replied while still a little shaky after nearly falling.
“I’ve never seen you this tired. How long were making out with Baby Blight last night.”
Luz immediately blushed red causing Eda to laugh.
“That’s not funny! And I wasn’t out long. We were at the library for our Azura Bookclub Meeting, hanged out for a little while, and after that we headed home.” Luz explained while turning a little red at the mention of Amity.
“So then why are you tired?”
Luz stayed quiet, not wanting to mention that she stayed up reading some Angsty Azura Fanfic she had downloaded onto her phone.
Eda sighed, knowing Luz’s silence meant she continued reading that stupid “Flowery Language” nonsense all night.
They continued flying for a little while until they finally reached Hexside. Luz quickly hopped off Owlbert, thanked Eda for the ride and started to run, wanting to talk to her friends before class starts. However before she could take a step on the stairs leading into the school, she felt a hand grab her hair. She then turned around to face Eda, missing her left hand.
“Hold up, kid! Let give you something real quick to help keep you awake.”
Eda then reached into her hair and pulled out a potion.
“Here. It’ll taste nasty, but this should keep you awake until school finishes.” She says as she hands the potion to Luz.
“Thanks Eda.” Luz says as she examines the potion.
“Oh, I almost forgot to mention. I’ll be out tonight collecting more bounties. Hopefully some of the ones I’ll be after pays good this time. Anyways, Lilith will be in charge when you get home.” Eda explained.
Ever since Luz destroyed the portal to The Human Realm, they’ve been running short of human stuff to sell. They’ve resorted to being Bounty Hunters, but it didn’t pay as much as they would’ve hoped for.
Before Luz could say anything, the school bell screamed. Class has begun.
“Shit! Be careful Eda. I love you. Give King and Lilith a huge Bear Hug for me!” Luz said as she rushed inside to finally meet up with her friends.
Meanwhile, Eda just stood there confused.
“What’s a Bear?”
Luz rushed immediately to her abominations class, hoping she can make it before the lecture starts. The class was on the 3rd floor of the school, meaning she had to run up a bunch of stairs sadly since the Boiling Isles didn’t have elevators. It took awhile, much to Luz’s dismay, to finally reach the 3rd floor. She felt exhausted running, due to how many stairs there were, but she shook it off and continued running to the class.
Shortly after the stairs, She finally reached the classroom door and fell on her knees, trying to catch her breath. Eventually, she took a quick peek through the small glass window on the door to what the class was doing. Luckily, they’re currently watching a video about the origins of Abominations through a crystal ball projector.
“Good, they’re distracted.” Luz thinks out loud.
“All I have to do is sneak in quietly to my desk, Sly Cooper style, and act as if I’ve been in class the whole time. Purrfect plan me!” Luz exclaims quietly as she high fives herself for the just thought up plan and cat pun.
She then opens the door to the class slowly, trying not to alert her classmates, and enters the room.
She then started crawling to her seat as the presentation went on, distracting the whole class from knowing her sudden presence.
As she continued crawling and almost reached her seat, the video suddenly paused.
That meant only one thing.
“Ah farts.” Luz groaned.
“Ms. Noceda. Mind telling me why you’re crawling on the floor?” Mrs. Grimshaw asked, looking at Luz both annoyed and confused.
“I Uh… found a snail?” She said, sounding more like a question as she was uncertain if that would be a decent excuse.
The students then started snickering and giggling while Mrs. Grimshaw looked like she wasn’t buying it.
“That wasn’t a good excuse, was it?” Luz asked nervously.
Mrs. Grimshaw slowly shook her head as a response.
Luz sighed and immediately got up from the floor.
“You’re late again.” Mrs. Grimshaw stated.
“Yeah, I know. I’m sorry, I might’ve stayed up late and overslept.” Luz explained.
“Any reason why you thought it was a good idea to stay up late?” Mrs. Grimshaw asked.
Before Luz could come up with another possible bad excuse, a familiar green haired witchling cut her off before she could speak.
“She was at the library studying with me, Mrs. Grimshaw.” Amity said.
“Oh, well that’s nice. Thank you Ms. Blight for helping Ms. Noceda.” Mrs. Grimshaw said to which Amity nodded her head to.
“However, as much as it does please me that you do care about your studies, do try to be on time Ms. Noceda. Now then, would you mind taking your seat so we may continue the presentation?”
“Yes ma’am.” Luz replied as she walked to her seat and sat next to Amity.
As the video resumed playing, Luz pulled out her notebooks from her bag and immediately realized she missed a lot of notes.
She then turned to Amity.
“Hey, do you mind if I borrow your notebook? I need to copy down some notes.” Luz asked quietly, trying not disrupt the video.
“Sure.” Amity replied as she hands her notebook to Luz.
“Thanks. Oh, and thanks for helping me back there.”
“No problem.” Amity said smiling.
“So, what were you really doing last night?” She asked Luz.
“Oh you know, just reading some Azura fanfics.” Luz replied while copying notes.
Amity rolled her eyes.
“Of course. What’d you read this time?”
“Just some more angst. I was reading one where Azura was so overwhelmed with how many enemies she was making, she felt like she needed to push away her feelings for Hecate in order to protect her, which only made things worse.” Luz explained while writing notes.
Amity sighed.
“I don’t understand how you can enjoy those stories. It’s stupid and completely goes against what character Azura is. Azura would never do something like that. She always finds a way!” She quietly shouted.
“Well, I always remind myself that it’s just a fan-made story. It’s not canon after all. But I do like some of the stories fans create. It shows how creative they can be.” Luz explained.
“Can they be as creative as you?” Amity asked without realizing what came out of her mouth.
She immediately covered her mouth, as her face turned tomato red. Although her complements go over Luz’s head, she still worries that one of these days, Luz might actually process what she says.
“Yeah actually. Some fans actually put a lot of effort into their work, and their stories come out great and get a lot of great reception from other fans.” Luz continued explaining.
Amity let out a sigh of relief.
“Oh thank Titan for your oblivious mind, Luz.” Amity said in her thoughts.
“Actually, I should you show some fanfics at the next Azura Bookclub Meeting.” Luz added.
Amity thought about it. Although she loves the things Luz has to show her from the human realm, she really doesn’t wanna read something filled with angst, especially if it’s involving Azura. But then again, like Luz said, it isn’t canon. So it shouldn’t hurt to read one angsty Azura story.
“Yeah, that would be nice.” She said with a soft smile.
Luz looked at Amity with stars in her eyes and silently squealed, causing Amity’s heart to melt.
“Damn it Luz, why do you have to be so cute???” She said in her thoughts.
They then concluded their conversation, not wanting to get in trouble again with Mrs. Grimshaw, and continued their work.
Afterwards, the bell screamed and students started heading to their next classes. Luz rushed to her next class, Beast Keeping, as she was excited for today’s assignment.
They would be working with baby griffins today!
She finally reached the class and immediately sat next to her fellow classmate, Viney.
“Hey Viney!” Luz exclaimed with a glint of stars in her eyes.
“Hey Luz. You’re very energetic today than you usually are.” Viney replied noticing her human friend’s eagerness.
“Why wouldn’t I be? We’re working with baby griffins today! Oh my gosh! Are they cute? They’ve gotta be since they’re babies. Do they have control of their spider breath? Probably not. They might be like the baby venomous snakes back at home.” Luz kept on rambling and asking too many questions for Viney to follow.
Probably due to some of the side effects from the potion Eda gave her.
“Woah Luz, slow down! Why don’t we just figure that out once we get started, okay?” Viney suggested.
Luz looked at Viney and realized she’s been talking too much.
“Right. Sorry.” Luz apologized.
“It’s cool. I know you’re just excited. Can’t blame you.” Viney reassured her.
Just as the class got settled, the beast keeping teacher, Curt Connors, enters the class and collapses on his chair, catching his breath.
This scared the class, mostly Luz.
“Mr. Connors! Are you okay?!” Luz asked worryingly.
“Yes yes, I’m fine. Just give me a sec to catch my breath.” He assured.
It took him 2 minutes to rest and finally start the class.
“Sorry about that little scare, class. My staff is being repaired, so I had to run all the way from Oscorp to here.” He explained.
Oscorp was one of the biggest businesses in the Boiling Isles. They’ve created some of the best equipment and designs for homeland security, and personal care the isles had never seen before by only experimenting with all types of magic from the 9 covens. They also were well known for designing state of the art weapons and defensive systems for the Emperor’s Coven.
“Anyways, I’m sure most of you are excited to see the baby griffins, correct?” He asked.
The class began to whisper excitingly to one another.
“Well, I hate to break the bad news.”
The class went silent upon hearing this.
“Unfortunately, we won’t be working with the baby griffins as planned.”
The classroom was immediately filled with groans from upset students.
“I know. I know I’m upset myself too, but the beast keeping coven weren’t able to prepare them since the mother griffins were being protective.”
“Awww.” Luz cooed in her thoughts.
“I’m sorry class, but the infant griffins will have to wait another week or so.” Mr. Connors explained.
The whole class groaned once more in disappointment at the bad news.
“However…”
The class then perked up as Mr. Connors began his sentence.
“And yes, this is the reason I’m ran from Oscorp to here. I may have been able to convince the Beast Keeping department at Oscorp to give you a personal tour.” Mr. Connors revealed.
“YES!!!” The class exclaimed excitingly as they heard the news.
It was rare for Oscorp to give tours of their departments to the public, especially to young witches. So the fact that they agreed to give a tour to a bunch of Beast Keeping students from Hexside was big news.
“Alright, settle down class. Now I know many of you are excited, but there will be some rules before we head out.” Mr. Connors explained.
The class then went silent and eyes were all on the teacher.
“Now then, once we’re at Oscorp, you will do as instructed, pay attention to the tour guide, stay together at all times, and Don’t Touch Anything unless you’re given permission. Understood?” He asked sternly.
“Yes sir.” The class responded.
“Alright then. Now, I already informed Principal Bump of our trip, and he’s already sent a letter to your other classes to inform them of your absence.”
Most of the students were relieved as they most likely had tests or a class they hated.
However, one student was confused about the whole ordeal, Luz Noceda. Although she’s happy that they’re going on a field trip for the day, she knew nothing about Oscorp. She wanted to ask, but due to some bad memories in the human realm, she went against it. Whatever this “Oscorp” is, she’ll see it when they get there and learn more about it.
“So, with all that said, I’ll assume you all are ready?” Mr. Connors asked.
The classroom cheered.
“Alright, then let us be on our way.”