Chapter Text
Camila Noceda was waiting for her husband to pick her up from work, but he was stuck in traffic due to an accident. The heavy rain was pelting against the vet’s umbrella, and the cold air was nipping at her skin.
Suddenly, the newlywed’s ears twitched at the soft cries of a baby over the heavy pitter-patter. Camila walked towards the side of her work building and the cries became louder, but not close enough for her to investigate safely. It was dark and the crying was originating from the woods surrounding Gravesfield.
“Camila!” Her heart almost leaped out of her chest at the voice cutting through the silence of the rainy night.
“Manny!” The vet slapped her hand over her chest and stook domes deep, steadying breaths. “Dios Mio! You startled me!
“Sorry!” Her husband sheepishly smiled as she rubbed the back of his neck. “But what are you doing over here? I thought you were waiting in front of the clinic?”
“I heard-“ Camila was cut off when the soft cries hidden by the rain had now turned into full-blown sobs. Manny quickly ran past his wife into the forest behind her. Blinking for a few moments afterward, Camila shook her head at her husband before chasing after him.
The woods were pitch black and she tried to keep herself upright as the rain-covered leaves on the ground tried to slow her down. She could barely make out where her husband was due to the fog forming around them.
“Manny!”
“Over here!” Camila let out a frustrated huff and quickly made her way to her husband. Manny was kneeling on the ground as he cradled a bundle of blankets over top of an empty basket. The vet stopped in her tracks as her heart dropped to her stomach.
“Is…?”
“Look at his ears,” Manny whispered in awe. Camila raised an eyebrow in response and peered over his shoulder. The baby had light skin with puffs of almost white hair. His eyes were a reddish magenta color that she has never seen on another human before. It was impossible to have, but she was most surprised at what her husband pointed out. The baby’s ears were pointed at the top. They looked like the elf ears from her husband’s favorite fantasy series.
“How…?”
“Camila… How could someone…?”
“None of that matters, Manny! We need to get him out of the rain before he catches a cold!” The man she married nodded and quickly picked up the basket on the ground. He handed her the infant and she looked into the child’s eyes. A smile started to form on her face as her heart started to fill with strong emotion. “Don’t worry, mijo. You’re safe.”
Hunter sat outside of the principal’s office as his mom talked to both Luz and Principal Hal about her book report. If he was being honest, the pointy-eared teen thought that his sister’s book report was pretty good when she ran it by him.
“Ah!” Looking up from his phone, Hunter watched as one of his sister’s classmates ran down the hallway with a snake attached to her head. Hunter shrugged his shoulders before returning to his phone.
“Hello, mijo,” Camila sighed as she walked out of Principal Hal’s office with her hand on Luz’s shoulders.
“Hola, Mami,” he replied but his attention turned towards his baby sister. She was staring at her feet and was suspiciously quiet. It was opposite from her usual self, and it caused the older child of Camila Noceda to look up at his mother.
“I’ll explain in the car.” He nodded and followed them out of the school building.
…
“I just don’t understand!” Luz whined as she threw herself on top of her brother’s bed. His room had two bookshelves that were filled to the brim with books. Some her science and history-related, while some were fiction books that Luz didn’t bother to ask him about. He had some shelves above his desk, that sat in the corner of the room, that was covered with Hunter’s trophies. From his sports awards to his nerd ones. “I don’t need to go to Summer Camp!”
The magenta-eyed teen raised an eyebrow as he edited her newest Azura fanfic chapter for grammar and typos. “I would suggest that you make a presentation on why you don’t have to go camping, but last time I suggested that… I mean, we still can’t find all of those lizards.”
Luz pointed at him before sticking her tongue at him. “Hunter! I’m being serious!”
“Look-“ He sighed and placed his pen down on his desk. “Mama only wants the best for you.”
“That’s what adults say when you don’t want to do something they want to do.” Luz pouted and buried her face into his pillow. Hunter went quiet before she felt the bed dip beside her. She went to turn her head to question what he was doing, but the question was stuck in her throat when her brother plopped on top of her.
“Stop being so dramatic!” The blond chuckled as he laid across her back.
“Get off of me! You weigh like a thousand pounds!” Luz tried to lift him off of her, but he was too big. Hunter took a few classes that muscled him out, like boxing, karate, fencing, and parkour. Taking that made Hunter well-liked in their school, but no one wanted to truly be his friend because everyone avoided her.
“You need some muscle on your noddle arms!”
“Tu cara es un fideo (Your face is a noddle)!”
“Buen regreso (Nice comeback),” he chuckled. Hearing his laugh caused the younger of the two to gain a grin on her face. The previous tension in her shoulders slowly dissipated. Hunter was always able to make her smile after a long day.
“Hunter! Luz! Harade la cena (Dinner time)!” Groaning, the pointy-eared teen rolled off of his younger sister. He made sure to push her face back into the mattress as he got up. Luz flailed her limbs around until he removed his hand from her head.
“Mami! Hunter tried to kill me!”
“Hunter! Stop trying to kill your sister!”
“Never!”
“Oi! Wash your hand's mister!”
…
“Summer camp is only going to be for three months. You’ll be so busy balancing checkbooks and learning to appreciate public radio-“
“Mama, that sounds lame.” Camila glared at her son as he held his hands up in a placating gesture.
“Anyways…” The single mother of two was dragged out. “The time will fly by!”
“But I don’t like any of that stuff!” Why could her mama see things from her point of view? She didn’t want to be normal and boring.
“Mija, your fantasy world is holding you back. Do you have any friends? Real ones, not imagined or drawn or reptilian or your brother?” Camila asked her daughter. “Summer camp is a chance to make some friends, but you have to try.”
“Laz,” Hunter sighed and placed his hands on her shoulders. “Everything is going to go well. Mami isn’t saying you give up everything. Just… kinda real it back a little. Besides, your Luz Noceda and you can do anything you set your mind to. You’ll have fun…and if not then I’ll stage a jailbreak.”
“Hunter!” The blond smiled wide with the gap in his teeth showing. “But Luz, can you do that?”
The young teen nodded and gently placed her Azura book in the trash. It was right then Camila’s phone buzzed as her work timer went off. Giving her daughter one last smile, she placed a kiss on both of her children’s foreheads before running off.
“Where is it…?” Luz exclaimed once her mom was out of sight. “Hunter! Did you take it?”
“Luz, you threw the book away in a trashcan that is closer to you than it is to me but no.” Hunter pinched the bridge of his twice-pierced nose and made his way over to the trash. He looked down at the pointy-eared teen gagged at the sight of the rotting food and other gross things. “Ugh, that thing smells awful! Why are you going threw it with your bare hands? Gross.”
“You’re gross!”
“Hoot!”
The pair of siblings’ heads snapped up and an owl was holding a bag of junk with the Azura book sitting at the top. The animal stared at the two with its comically large eyes before hovering about the ground. The owl was struggling to lift the bag, but it surprisingly hopped away fairly quickly.
“Tiny trash thief!” The fourteen-year-old yelled and chased after the bird.
“Luz!” Hunter called out and chased after her. For her being so scrawny, his sister sure was quick. He dodged the stray branches protruding from the trees, the pale teen followed his younger sister into an old, abandoned house that looked like it’ll fall over with just one good gust of wind.
“-hopping away, you…huh?” Hunter reached out and grasped Luz’s shoulder once she stopped in her tracks.
“You just can’t follow-“
“Hunter! Where are we…?” He raised his eyebrow that had a piercing through it and looked around.
“And I thought you have a bunch of junk.” Luz rolled her eyes and hit him in the stomach. Hunter flinched and slightly curled into himself. He glared at the dark-haired teen and rubbed his stomach. “Ow!”
“Finally! You’re back!” Both gasped and ducked down from view. Luz looked around before removing herself from her hiding spot, and she made her way towards the curtains. Once again, he questioned his sister’s sense of self-preservation. He hissed at her to stay where she’s at, but she didn’t listen. Of course, his heart stopped when Luz threw herself out of the room.
Hunter looked around and the pointed eared teen grabbed a broom and broke the end of it. He ran outside to defend his sister but was stopped in his track when Luz came running past him as she clenched the Azura book to her chest. She ran towards the creepy door with a giant eye smack dab in the middle of it. Before Hunter could fully process what happened, the door slammed shut and a woman’s voice cut through the air.
“You’re not going anywhere.” The woman was tall and pale. She had a golden fang protruding from her mouth, and it matched her golden eyes. Her hair was…large. It came down around the middle of her thighs and it looked like it hasn’t been brushed in ages.
Hunter pushed Luz behind him and held up the broken broom handle in an attempt to keep the strange woman away from them. “Stay back!”
“I’m so sorry! I just wanted my book!” Luz cried as she peered over her brother’s shoulder. “Please don’t tell us!”
“Kill you? Why would I kill potential customers?”
“What?” Hunter squawked, but his voice didn’t crack, no matter what Luz states. The strange woman started showing the two her ‘wares’ like a single green croc, a stick of deodorant, and a tiny DVD player.
The two of them let out a soft chuckle before reaching over to insert batteries into the device. She gently pressed the ‘on’ button and it started playing one of those obnoxious 80’s exercise videos that their Abuela loves to watch. A bunch of… people? Started to crowd the tent while yelling out bids for it.
Hunter lowered his makeshift weapon and felt his eye starting to twitch.
“I’m Luz and he’s Hunter. Luz and Hunter Noceda.”
“Well, Luz, that was pretty clever. For a human. No wonder your witch hangs out with you,” the golden eyes woman stated as she pocketed the money.
“That’s kind of a weird thing for another human to say.” The lady raised an eyebrow and smirked.
“Oh, dear child,” she laughed as she ripped her scarf off of her head, revealing pointed ears that matched Hunter’s. “I’m not like you, but I am like him.”
His eyes widened as wide as they could go, and his hands shot to his ears. Blood rushed to his head as his heart pounded against his chest. The blond had always known he was adopted but to be from a place with witches? Witches only appeared in Luz’s book!
’But she has pointed ears and odd-colored eyes like me…’ Hunter’s mind unhelpfully supplied.
The newly appointed ‘witch’ teen’s ears twitched as he heard a heavy fist contacting with crunching metal. A random voice cried out in alarm before the crowd scattered to the winds.
“Woah! Witch criminal!” Luz whispered in amazement. Hunter shook his head and placed his weapon down. He crossed his arms as the large man tried to intimidate Eda. It wasn’t until the man grabbed his sister that he reacted.
The blond teen kicked up the broom handle and it the man over the head with all of his might. However, the wood snapped in half. The broken-off half clattered to the ground.
The man dropped Luz and turned his whole body towards his assailant. His eyes narrowed and squared his shoulders. “You’re also under arrest for fraternizing with a criminal and assaulting a coven guard.”
“Alright, alright, you win. Just let me get my stuff.” Eda reached down below the table and slammed her staff against the man. Once the man was stunned on the ground, she slammed her staff to the ground and waved her hand in a circle. All of the things at her stall were wrapped into the witch’s scarf neatly. She shoved her hand into her hair and pulled out a key that matched the magic door. She pressed the middle of it before yelling at the two to follow her.