Chapter Text
King is stirred awake by the gentle sounds of morning.
Birds calling. The breeze through the trees. It’s comforting, and he wants to stay cozied up under his covers a while longer, but, strangely, he’s getting a pressing feeling that’s urging him to get up, so….
He opens his eyes.
“Hi, King!”
“BWAAAAAH!”
Instinctively, King slams a fist directly into the face of the intruder.
“OW!”
Said intruder, as it turns out, is a 15-foot wooden tube with the face of an owl at one end and the other snaking its way out the window behind King. The tube shakes its head, reeling from the impact.
“I was just wishing you a good morning! Geez!”
No, not a tube― Hooty . And he’s not an intruder―he lives here.
And here is….
“Oh!”
King bolts upright from his sleeping bag, spread out on the floor of a closet.
Here is the Owl House. He’s in a place called the Boiling Isles, and he’s here because he ditched summer camp in order to have an adventure instead.
The Owl House belongs to a woman―a witch ―named Eda, and Eda lives here with―
“Luz!”
Scrambling out from under the blanket, King leaps to his feet and throws the closet door open, hurrying down the hallway behind it. A high-pitched and sarcastic “Have a good morning!” from Hooty follows him as he goes.
Down the stairs, into the living room he only stepped foot in for the first time yesterday. King glides to a halt, swivels his head from one direction to the other.
“Luz? Luz, where did you go?!”
“Over here!”
Over here: the kitchen. King scurries over and there, at the stove, is Luz the demon, standing on a stack of books on a chair to reach the pot she’s currently stirring. Her amber eyes sparkle at the sight of King.
“Good morning, cutie pie! Did you sleep okay?”
Standing in the doorway, eyes locked on Luz, the reality of it all finally hits him all at once.
“You’re real,” he says.
“Uh-huh!” Luz chirrups. Smiling.
“And none of what happened yesterday was a dream?”
“Nope!”
“....Oh. Oh, well, okay then.”
And with that, King steps into the kitchen proper.
“What are you doing?” He peers up at the steaming pot on the stove.
“Making breakfast.” Luz scoops up a spoonful of the pot’s contents and presents it to King: it almost looks like oatmeal, if oatmeal were orange with bits of unidentifiable viscera sprinkled through it. King makes a face.
“I think I’ll pass….”
"Ugh, what’s with all the racket?”
Into the kitchen saunters Eda the Owl Lady, pajama-clad, hair a fright. She yawns as she makes her way across the room towards the refrigerator in the back.
“Morning, Eda!” Luz pulls down three bowls from the cupboard above the stove. “Me an’ King were just about to start breakfast.”
“Who?” Eda’s drowsily rummaging through the crowded fridge.
“King? The human?” Luz gestures towards King, who offers up a small wave despite that Eda can’t see it.
Eda turns back around towards the pair, juice carton in hand. She squints at King. “You’re still here?”
King squints back. “Where else would I be?”
Shrugging, Eda takes a sip straight from the carton before answering, “Figured you mightta wussed out and snuck out on me in the middle of the night.” Moving over to peer into Luz’s pot herself, she adds, “But, since you’re sticking around….”
Another drink from the carton. Eda stands over King with all the stoic authority of a drill sergeant.
“Hurry up and have breakfast. We’ve got work to do.”
―
Half an hour later Eda’s dumping a large sack filled with an assortment of bottles and beakers on the floor before King in the living room. He looks up at her questioningly.
“I run several businesses here and there,” Eda explains, “but most days I sell only the finest homemade elixirs and potions.” She reaches down to pull a bottle from the sack, showing off it and its bubbly red contents. “Today, you will be joining Luz and I on our delivery route.”
“I’m what now?” King looks back down at the sack on the floor, lightly kicks its contents. “You sure that’s, I don’t know, safe?” He lowers his voice. “There’s not exactly a lot of humans around here, is there?”
“Pshaw,” Eda scoffs. “Relax, kid, no one else even knows you’re here.” She scoops up the sack, holding it out to King with a cheeky smile. “You have my word that no one’s gonna come chasing after you today.” She winks.
How much Eda’s word is actually worth is a value King is still having a hard time finding. He hesitates.
“If I help you with this, you’ll teach me a spell in return, right?”
The smile plastered on Eda’s face dims by the slightest bit. “Sure, kid. Deal’s a deal, right?”
Deals….
The trick to deals, King has learned in his nine long years of being a businessman’s son, is to always have a way out. Even if it’s through the most legally questionable of loopholes. Even if it hurts more in the long run.
And what has King done here?
He’s massively screwed himself right the heck over is what he’s done.
….almost.
“....Right.”
King takes the bag.
―
The forest outside Eda’s home is dense and dim, red-leafed trees packed tightly together overlooking the path that somehow still manages to cut its way through the forest floor. Beyond the typical rustle and bustle of nature the only sound in the air is Luz chattering away a mile a minute, bursting with conversation.
“....where we’re going, Bonesborough, that’s still within the Right Arm region, but sometimes Eda and I travel to the Knee for supplies and it’s so pretty up there! There’s lots of snow and you can see so much of the ocean….”
“So the entire island is just….one big body?”
“Yup!” Luz nods excitedly. “This whole place used to be a living Titan, and now its remains are the source of all magic on the Isles!”
King shakes his head, disbelieving. “No wonder this place is so messed up.”
Another thought occurs to him then. He jogs to catch up with Eda, a few feet ahead of him and Luz on the path. The bottles in the sack over his shoulder clink together.
“Sooooo speaking of magic….”
Eda grunts. “What about it?”
“So, how are you gonna teach me? Is there, like, a magic spellbook I gotta read or some typa special runes I have to learn?” He considers. “Do I need a wand?”
“Ugh, that’s all a bunch of magic school stuff.” She rolls her eyes. “There’ll be none of that junk while I’m your teacher.”
“Wait, magic school?”
“Oh, there’s a bunch of magic schools around here!” Jogging up to King and Eda, Luz intercepts the conversation. “They’ve got everything!” Miming her descriptions as she goes, she continues, “Cute uniforms, life-threatening quests, sinister secrets, ancient scrolls―”
“Yeah, and they also force you to do magic the ‘proper’ way,” Eda interrupts, grimacing at the word proper.
Luz frowns. “Well yeah, there’s that too, I guess,” she mutters under her breath.
Her reaction doesn’t go unnoticed by King.
Oh, there’s tension with this one.
Curious, but cautious, he asks, “What’s wrong with the ‘proper’ way?”
“There is no proper way!” Eda suddenly shouts, throwing her arms up in the air. “Magic is supposed to be wild and unpredictable! That’s what makes it beautiful!”
King lets himself fall a step behind Eda. “But….you can still teach it, right?”
At that all Eda does for a second is glare wordlessly at King, her eyes sharp. Then: “Fine―alright, here, lesson number one.”
Stopping mid-stride, Eda drops down to the ground and picks up a random stone from the path. She shoves it, not very gently, into King’s palm.
“Lesson number one,” Eda repeats, “a good witch is resourceful. You have to know how to work with what you have.”
King glances down at the rock in his hand. It’s barely bigger than a pebble. A little bit fuzzy, too, though he’s not really in the mood to question that right now. He blinks up at Eda.
“You’re serious.” It’s not a question.
Eda pats his head condescendingly. “Use your rock wisely, my pupil.”
And the trio sets off down the path again.
―
“Well, furballs, this is where we part ways.”
They’ve come to a fork in the path, and Eda turns around to regard Luz and King with a solemn gaze.
“I have to go run negotiations with a client so I need you two to go on ahead to Bonesborough.” Nodding to Luz, she adds, “Watch the human. You know what to do.”
With a spin on her heel Eda begins marching down the road to the left, calling out one final, “Try not to get him eaten!” as she bobs on towards the distance.
Left alone in the woods, King and Luz watch as Eda’s figure grows smaller and smaller, not even bothering to protest.
Finally, Luz says, “She’s probably just going to get into a fist fight with the client again,” and turns towards the easternmost path.
King lingers, gaze focused on the speck that is Eda on the horizon. He frowns.
Turns to follow Luz.
They walk in silence for a spell, in stark contrast to their earlier camaraderie. It’s almost…. eerie in its abruptness.
They’ve probably noticed I’m gone by now
Yeah no, no, we’re not thinking about that right now
Wanting to break the silence, King hazards a question.
“So, Eda, huh?” Luz doesn’t answer right away. “She’s a fresh egg, isn’t she?”
Luz’s eyes narrow in confusion. “Egg?” But a second later she shakes her head to push away her questions and responds, “Eda’s not so bad. She’s just….”
“A jerk?”
“Blunt.” Luz sighs. “Her methods are a bit…. untraditional, but. But she knows what she’s talking about.”
Luz nods at that. It’s hard to tell if she’s trying to reassure King or herself.
“You’ll see. Eda’s one of the strongest witches on the Boiling Isles. She’ll have you up to snuff in no time.”
If there’s anyone who should sound like they have complete faith in Eda, it should be her own roommate, shouldn’t it?
Deal’s a deal, right?
....Right.
“You have no idea how she’s gonna pull it off, do you?” King asks.
Luz just sighs again. “Well, if there’s one thing I’ve learned about Eda, it’s that she is full of surprises.”
Shush-shush-sshhh. The wind ruffling the trees fills the silence in between topics.
“....You know….” Luz cups her hands together under her chin. “I…. I know a thing or two about magic myself.” She looks up at King with that sparkle in her eyes again. Hopeful. “If you―you know, if you were interested….”
King meets her gaze with careful intrigue. “You’re a witch, too?”
Not careful enough. The light in Luz’s eyes winks out.
“W-well, no, but―”
“Owgh, come on!”
Luz and King both startle; look at the other like they’re the one who just spoke.
“Did you hear that?” asks King.
The voice comes again. “Come on, come on, you can do this!”
“It’s probably someone in the woods.” Luz takes a step forward. “That’s…. weird ….no one ever comes out this far….”
Well, whoever it is out there, they sure seem to be having a rough go of it.
King gulps. “We….we should probably hurry up and go before Eda comes back, right?”
But he already knows the answer.
Luz is already stepping off the path.
“Wait here if you want,” she calls out. “I’m just going to check it out.”
Oh, bother. “Of course you are,” groans King. Ugh, it’s just like yesterday.
He hangs back for only a moment.
“....H-hey, don’t just leave me here!”
The bottles of potions clink and crash together as he drops their bag on the ground, running after Luz into the forest.