Chapter Text
While witches and humans look a lot alike on the outside, a witch’s anatomy is fundamentally different from a human’s in a great many ways. This is something that I learned on my first day on the Isles, specifically at dinner.
-Citation from ‘A Human’s guide to the Boiling Isles’ by Luz Noceda - Alternative Magics Professor at Hexside
The door of the Owl house flew open in a full swing, smashing Hooty face first into the wall with a pained “Hoot!” as Luz stormed out, her arms wrapped tightly around her stomach. Her face looked pale as she hunched over, her eyes glued on the ground as if looking around would make her lose her balance, and it would, considering how much the world was swirling for her right now.
“You okay kid?” A voice came from inside the house as Eda slowly walked out, entirely unconcerned as her guest had just ran away from the dinner table. “You know, if you didn’t like my cooking you could have just said so.” She joked with a small chuckle to herself as she walked up behind the girl.
“N-no.” Luz managed to mutter out before she started to retch, the dry heaves racking her small body as it was fighting to empty out whatever it was that Luz had eaten. Eda walked up behind her and put a hand on her back, rubbing slow circles with her hand in an attempt to make the girl feel a little more at ease. With her other hand she grabbed as much of Luz’s hair as she could to keep it out of her face.
It came natural to her really, she had to hold Lilith's head above the toilet bowl often enough when they were kids. Her sister just couldn’t handle her appleblood.
“Aaaaah!” Hooty screamed in excitement, his neck elongating until his face was right beside Luz’s. “You’re puking something up! I do that all the time!” He screamed in that infernal voice of his, head tilting more and more to the side with every word. “Whatcha pukin' Luz? Is it something nice? Is it a gift? Is it for meeeee???!!!”
At the sound of his voice Luz turned her head to look at him. A mistake as it turned out because the sight of Hooty up close, mixed with his breath that smelled of dead rats and bugs, was the last straw that broke the camel's back.
Luz’s body racked hard as the contents of her stomach left her body the same way they had entered. Eda had to wrap an arm around the girl’s stomach to make sure she actually stayed on her feet as her knees gave out underneath her.
Still, watching Hooty’s face go from giddy excitement to abject horror made the whole thing worth it in Eda’s opinion. “That-” Hooty muttered out as he slowly retreated back into the door. “That was NOT a gift!”
Eda gently petted the girl’s back, wanting to make sure she was okay. “You okay kiddo?” Now if only she could remember the girl’s actual name.
“This is drinking milk all over again.” Luz muttered, more to herself than to answer Eda’s question. She squeezed her eyes shut as she slowly started to regain her composure and managed to stand on her own two feet.
Eda still kept a close eye on her new apprentice, making sure the girl didn’t accidentally slip in the puddle of dinner. “Welp, I guess that’s the last time you’re having gargoyle steaks.” Eda said with a frown as she chastised. “You should have told me you were allergic, kid.”
“I couldn’t have known that.” Luz defended herself as she stood upright again and took a deep breath before looking up at her new mentor. “I’m a human, remember?”
“Right.” Eda said, drawing out the i as she headed back into the house, Luz only a few steps behind her. “Guess we’ll have to figure out what foods you actually can eat, huh?”
“Great.” Luz cried entirely too enthusiastically as she bounced back into the kitchen and started going through Eda’s cabinets. “I can’t wait to try all the foods the Isles have to offer!”
Eda just sighed.
This girl was gonna raid her pantry like a bunch of dwarves.