Chapter Text
Another lovely afternoon on the Boiling Isles, and King Montenegro has somehow found himself knee-deep in a muddy self-dug trench in the woods.
He grunts as he hoists up another shovelful of loamy earth, arms shaking as he tosses it off to the growing mound outside the pit. Clattering the shovel back to the bottom, he groans (whines), “Are we almost done?!”
Eda the Owl Lady and Luz the demon are a few paces away from King, working steadily on their own hole. Luz has to wiggle up the shaft of her shovel and jump down on top of the blade to drive it into the ground on account of the thing being a good few feet taller than her, but she’s doing surprisingly well for herself. Eda spoons out the mud in the more traditional manner.
Not looking up from the patch of ground she’s tilling, Eda shouts back, “Cool your jets, kid, we still got a dozen more to go to meet our quota.”
King stabs his shovel into the dirt irately. “Feels like an awful lot of work for a couple of lousy mushrooms,” he mutters.
“Hey!” Eda’s head finally shoots up in mock annoyance. “Snaggleback truffles are not just some ‘lousy mushrooms!’” She plants both palms on either side of her pit, hoists herself out, cracks her back with a POP! that echoes throughout the trees once she’s back on level ground. Her arms and clothes are a patchwork of dirt and leaves. “They’re the most coveted underground delicacy on the Bonesborough black market,” she continues, “and we’re fortunate enough to live so close to a patch of ‘em.”
She’s right about the proximity; King can still make out the front facade of the Owl House through the trees not a few minutes’ walk down the road.
“They’re also very illegal.” Luz chimes in chirpily as she too climbs out of the hole, mud clumping in her fur. She shakes to free it, in a manner not too dissimilar to a dog shaking off water.
“I don’t even want to know why that is,” King grouches. He swipes at his brow, inadvertently smearing dirt. Takes a moment to lean tiredly on his shovel and gaze up at the quickly darkening sky. Thoughtful.
He’s been on the Boiling Isles for a full week now, and so far he’s done a buttload of chores for Eda and exactly zero spells. He huffs.
Luz is prattling on about snaggleback truffles in the background―something about visions and meeting the great old ones―but King is hardly paying attention to her. He’s watching a cluster of dark clouds slowly gather in the sky overhead.
“Huh, looks like it’s gonna rain,” he remarks offhand.
It surprises him when Eda and Luz both immediately jump in alarm.
“Rain?!” Luz echoes, wide-eyed.
“Aw shoot!” Eda shouts, and sets about hurriedly collecting the sack filled with the fruits of their labor, the longed-for truffles, nearly spilling them all in her haste. Thunder growls suddenly from above.
King watches the scramble curiously. “What’s with her?” The question is directed at Luz.
Luz glances at the cloud-dark sky with worry. “We should get inside,” is all the reply she provides.
“It’s just rain.” King clumsily clambers out of the hole he’s spent the last hour digging. “Don’t see why you’re getting so worked up about it.”
He almost doesn’t notice the stinging pain that comes when the first few drops start to hit him. He looks up, blinks back the scald of unexpectedly hot water. “Huh?” What he does notice, now that he’s looking for it, are the sizzles and little pops of smoke that start up everywhere the rain lands. Leaves on trees are quickly shriveling up as if in retreat.
“Boiling rain! Everyone get inside!” And with no type of warning whatsoever, Eda swoops up both King and Luz at once―Luz in one arm, King dangling precariously from the other. She makes a mad dash down the road toward the Owl House, running to beat the steaming rain before it can pick up and get worse.
No sooner has Eda crossed the threshold into the house than she’s dropping―practically throwing ―her housemates onto the tiled floor. Panting. Warm rainwater dripping from her silvered hair.
“That was close!” Hands on her knees. “But the important thing is, no one got hurt!” Smiling a big toothy smile.
King and Luz groan from their little pile on the floor. Luz pinned beneath King with a noise akin to a squeaky toy.
“Yep,” King wheezes out. “Not hurt….”
Some moments later, King and Luz are sitting in the house’s doorway, shielded soundly from the boiling rain by the worn awning overhead, a box of bandaids between them. Luz deftly places one of said bandaids over a tiny burn on King’s arm; really, it’s more a slight graze than anything serious. Still, Luz says as she places the adhesive, “Don’t worry, buddy, I gotchu.” She reaches into the box, pulls out another bandaid, and slaps it squarely onto her unscathed snout. She holds her arms out as if to say, Ta-da! “See? Buddies!”
Inexplicably, something about this strikes King as mildly hilarious. Nursing his wounded arm, he utters under his breath absently, before he can think to stop himself, “Heh….booboo buddies….”
Immediately Luz perks up. “What did you just say?!”
“Huh, what?”
“Did you just call us ‘booboo buddies?!’” If Luz could physically smile she’d be grinning from horn to horn. Her honey eyes sparkle fit to give the entire Milky Way a run for its money.
With sudden abject horror, King realizes what he’s said and instantly makes to backpedal. “What?! No I didn’t!” Furiously flushed. “I didn’t say anything!”
“You did! You did say we were booboo buddies!” Luz’s attempt to clamber onto King’s lap is undeterred by his frantic shoving.
“No I did not!”
“Aww, I love you, too, booboo buddy!” The little fuzzbucket of a demon has managed to invade King’s lap and now bats her tiny clawed hands at his cheeks, smooshing them with playful affection. “My favourite booboo buddy in the whole wide world!”
Attempts to resist are futile. King pouts. “I am not your booboo buddy!”
“Hey, you two quiet down over there!”
Eda’s standing a ways away from the house in the rain, a thin sheet of orange magic above her head serving as her protection. Staff in hand. “I can’t focus on the shielding spell with your jabbering!”
Luz calls back, “Sorry!’
From above Luz and King’s heads Hooty pipes up, “Hoot, hurry it up! The rain is getting closer to my precious stucco!”
“Yeah, yeah, I got it.” With one last little huff Eda hoists her staff in the air, moves it above her in circles to summon an arc of orange light that quickly expands to envelope the grounds of the house. The light settles, solidifies; molds itself into a thin orange shield that mirrors Eda’s own, only on a much larger scale. Muffling the sound of the rain outside its reach.
Evidently satisfied with her work, Eda stalks up to the front door. King and Luz awkwardly shuffle off to the side to let her through.
“Until the rain stops, no one is allowed outside,” she calls back over her shoulder, making a steady beeline for the sofa. She flops down over it with a grunt, buries her face in a cushion and goes quiet.
King and Luz watch her go for a minute, before a lightbulb decides to go off in King’s head at the sight of Eda laying there, defenseless. He leans down to whisper to Luz.
“This is perfect! If we’re stuck in the house, Eda won’t have an excuse to not teach me a spell!”
Luz is eyeing Eda with a faint look of concern. “Hmm, maybe you should let her rest up a bit first….”
“Forget that!” King rises to his feet, pats off wayward bits of fur. “I’ve been digging stupid holes for her all day, she owes me!”
Eda doesn’t see King’s approach, but she does feel it when he starts persistently tapping the top of her head to wake her up. Blearily she lifts her head enough to glimpse him leaning over her with an innocent little smile on his face.
“Can you show me a spell now?” he asks. Straight to the point.
Eda groans in response. “Not tonight, kiddo.” She rolls herself over, hugging her knees tight to her chest. “That force field really took it outta me.”
“Aw, come on!” King shakes Eda’s shoulder. “You promised! You promised me one spell if I did your dumb chores for you!”
Eda grunts, “I’m sleepy.”
“We had a deal!” King has graduated from shaking Eda to tugging at her arm, trying to forcibly part her from the couch. “What happened to our deal, huh?! You want me to go get Willow, huh?!”
Another grunt. “Please, in this weather? You’d both be crazy to―”
“Ahem.”
The interjection by Luz catches Eda’s attention, and she peeks over her shoulder to see Luz glaring pointedly at her, arms crossed and foot tapping to get across a stern, Remember?
Eda has no choice after that than to give in. Ugh. She allows herself one exaggerated sigh of contempt. “Okay, okay, fine.”
“Ha ha, yes!”
Eda shakes off King’s grasp, sits herself upright. Sighs again.
The next minute sees Eda standing in the center of the living room, with both King and Luz sitting in rapt attention on the sofa in front of her. King drums on his knees in anticipation.
Eda clears her throat. “Now, normally, us witches use our staffs to channel our power―”
“Gimme!” King holds his hands out expectantly, grinning.
Eda glowers at the interruption, but nevertheless she presses on, “But―” She holds up her hands.
“Before one is earned, every witch needs to know how to cast spells on their own.” She tucks one arm behind her back professorially, keeping the other aloft in demonstration. “Tonight, I will show you how to create light.”
With her free hand Eda draws a small circle in mid-air, and from that circle bubbles forth a small sphere of bright white light, bobbing gently in empty space before Eda. Despite himself, King can’t help a fascinated, “Ooh!” Luz echoes the sentiment, even though she’s doubtless witnessed this phenomenon countless times already.
Eda continues: “Now, everything depends on the spell circle.” She raises her arm higher to better mime a larger circle. “The bigger the circle….” The pop of light bursts above Eda, brighter this time. “....the more powerful the spell.”
“That’s it?” King tilts his head in curious incredulity. “You just wave your arms in circles and magic happens?”
“Pffsh, of course not!” A smug smirk plays at the corners of Eda’s mouth. “Everything comes from something. Magic doesn’t just happen out of thin air.”
“Ooh, ooh, can I tell him?” Luz waves her arm in the air to get Eda’s attention, hopeful. “Please? It’s my favourite part!”
Eda shrugs. “Go ahead.”
“Yes!” Excitedly Luz hops off the couch and runs to rifle through one of the many ancient chests in the corners. King and Eda watch her, one stoic and the other intrigued.
“What is she….?”
“Give her a minute.”
A happy “Aha!” from Luz and she’s running back to stand next to Eda, a rolled up scroll in hand. Clearing her throat, she exposits, “Magic, actually, comes from the heart!” She taps her chest.
King has to stifle a giggle. “Seriously?”
Eda and Luz exchange matching looks of amusement. “No, really.” Luz continues merrily, and unrolls her scroll. “It comes from a sac of magic bile attached to a witch’s heart!” All smiles.
On the scroll is an illustration of what looks like a human heart, if human hearts had bulging masses of goopy grey somethings attached to them. King is both disgusted and amazed. “Whoa. Can I keep that?”
“No.” Eda snatches the scroll away and tucks it securely into her hair. Gives it a pat.
The massive dump of information needs a minute to process. King taps his chin in thought. “So….wait―” Looks back up at Eda questioningly. “How am I supposed to do magic if I don’t have a magic bile sac?”
Something about the question suddenly causes Luz to start bouncing excitedly on her heels. To Eda she starts pleading, “Please? Please please can I show him??”
Eda’s biting her lip now, a worried glint in her eyes. “I….I don’t know, Luz―”
“Show me what?” King glances between the two, puzzled.
Luz begins before Eda can stop her, “I know how you can do magic without a bile sac!”
“You do?”
“A very unreliable way.” Eda cuts in, stepping in between King and Luz authoritatively. Back turned to King, she mutters to Luz, “Luz, we went over this. I don’t think it’s a good idea to―”
“Why not?!” Luz retorts. “If there’s another way I think he deserves to know about it―”
“He’s my student, I think I get to decide what’s best for―”
The two bickering housemates are suddenly and very brusquely shoved apart by one very impatient little human child. “Why are you two always arguing??”
Eda gapes. “I―”
Luz fumbles. “She―”
“Whatever. Look―” Now it’s King’s turn to play the authority. He plants his hands on his hips. “I’m the one learning, and I say I wanna see what Luz is talking about.”
“Ha!” Luz points up at Eda in a gesture that screams, Gotcha! “You see?!”
Now Eda gapes at both of her accusers, not one-hundred percent sure how she ended up in this position. She stares back and forth between them. “I―”
A sudden searing headache interrupts Eda’s train of thought. She slaps a palm to her temple.
“Just―just give me a minute―”
Hurriedly Eda stumbles into the kitchen, fumbles her way to one of the cupboards and flings it open. From the doorway, King and Luz watch her, cautious.
From inside the cupboard Eda produces a small round bottle of amber liquid. From his vantage point King can see another identical bottle still tucked in the cupboard.
In a series of quick clumsy motions Eda pops off the cork of the bottle, tips it back, and downs the entire thing in one long, hard drink. She steadies herself against the kitchen counter when she’s done, takes a deep breath to settle the sudden shake in her legs.
The occurrence isn’t anything new. King has seen Eda sneaking drinks of similar bottles here and there, usually after coming back from a long and tiring day of slinging illegal wares. He’d just figured that coming home to indulge in mystery revitalizing liquids was just something all adults did across dimensions.
Still, Luz ventures, in a voice gone small and shaky, “E-Eda? You okay?”
“Ugh, I need to lie down,” is all Eda responds. She places a hand to the small of her back, grimacing. Slowly she makes her way out of the kitchen and towards the hall that leads to the stairs.
She pauses at the doorway for a moment. Seems to consider something.
“Luz….take over.” She says it without turning around.
Luz freezes for just a second. “You….you mean….” Eyes widening in realization.
“Oh, thank you thank you thank you!!” She lunges towards Eda as she says it, latching herself securely onto Eda’s leg and giving it the biggest hug. Eda barely puts effort into shaking her off.
“Yeah, yeah, go crazy.” Directing her gaze towards King now, Eda adds, “Don’t blow up my house.”
No promises, King thinks. He doesn’t say it out loud, though.
Having freed herself from Luz, Eda finally finishes her trek down the hall. The sound of her footsteps ascending the stairs is quickly followed by the sound of her bedroom door slamming securely shut.
King and Luz are alone.
“Um….” King scratches at the back of his neck, not really sure where to go after all of that. He turns to Luz. “So what do we do?”
Luz is vibrating so much with excitement she’s practically hovering off the floor. She grabs at King’s arm.
“Come on! There’s so much I wanna show you!”
“Okay, just slow down a sec― whoah!”
Luz goes tearing down the hall herself, yanking King behind her.