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“It’s perfect!” Eda shouted, dropping her bag and running towards the entrance. A huge grin was on her face and her hands were raised in the air in excitement.
“It’s… a cave,” Raine said, zero excitement in their voice, and feeling completely defeated.
It’d been three days of searching at this point, but to be fair, the pair wasn’t being very methodical. Raine was pretty sure they’d passed the same rock three times yesterday but Eda insisted the moss was growing on the other side the second time around.
“It’s our new home!” Eda replied, voice echoing from within the rock formation.
“No,” Raine responded, already turning around to leave.
“You can’t just say no to every idea I have, Rainestorm,” Eda said in exasperation. “First the place we could have built a treehouse-”
“I do not trust your construction magic.”
“And now the cave? You’re so picky.” Eda was pouting now, full-blown, actually pouting. Normally Raine would feel bad, but at this point, they just rolled their eyes.
“Eda, I love you,” the words still made their heart stutter to say, and they could see Eda’s eyes shine a bit at them, “but you’re being ridiculous and have zero standards about where we’re gonna live. I will not sleep in a tree, and I will not sleep in a cave. The cabin was bad enough.”
Eda sighed, but knew they were right. She needed to be realistic.
“I’m starting to wonder if we should just start fixing up the cabin,” Raine admitted. “Maybe the human world wasn’t so bad.”
“You’re just saying that because we’ve been completely out of society for three days!” Eda said enthusiastically. “You love the Boiling Isles! In fact, you’re the one who kept whining that we needed to come back!”
“Yeah, well, I don’t love wandering the realm all day just to go back to a hole-filled hovel!” Raine shouted in defeat. Eda patted their shoulders in sympathy.
“There, there, little bard, but it will all be worth it once we find our dream home!” She insisted. Somehow, Raine thought her expectations were too high. Raine had really just wanted somewhere that would be safe from the boiling rains, and told Eda as much. She seemed to take that too literally.
“I don’t think our dream home will just be ready-made and abandoned,” Raine said with a sigh, glad that Eda hadn’t put up much of a fight about leaving her ‘perfect cave’. “That’d be too convenient - life doesn’t work that way.”
“It does if you’re me!” Eda said, ever enthusiastic. “Good things like to just fall into my hands. I like to think it’s because of my shining personality, but eh, maybe the Titan just sees me for the all-mighty witch that I am.”
Raine resisted the urge to facepalm. “The Titan sees you for the dingus you are, and takes pity on you, to mean,” they corrected with a smirk. Eda’s response was to shove their shoulder, their overfilled backpack practically knocking them off balance. As they scrambled to right themself, they laughed. “You realize if I fall, it’ll be your food that gets squished too, right?”
“Worth it,” Eda shrugged with a smirk.
Raine shook their head and looked around for a moment before beginning to walk in a random direction, Eda following just a step behind them. They’ve been taking turns picking a new direction every time they stop - again, not methodical, but they figured they’d reach civilization too soon if they walked in a straight line. They were just hoping one of their instincts would lead them correctly.
“Hey, let’s check out that hill!” Eda called after a while, running off on her own. Raine opened their mouth to remind her that it was their turn to lead, but seeing their determined girlfriend already a good distance away, decided to shut it and just follow her.
It took a bit to get to the top, but it was worth it. Not only was there a great view, but there was a house? And it looked pretty abandoned, if the opened door and loose bricks were anything to go by. But, where had Eda gone?
“Get in here, Rainestorm!” came her call from inside the house.
Oh Titan, what had Eda gotten them into now?
Never one to turn down her challenges, Raine bit their lip and slowly pushed open the door wider, taking a step in. It was dark aside from Eda’s witchlight, which illuminated the room, empty aside from some crumpled papers, leaves, and dirt. They headed back outside to get a better look at the place. Who builds a house in the middle of nowhere and just abandons it?
“This is perfect!” Eda said, ecstatic. “It doesn’t look like anyone’s been here in ages . Seems totally up for grabs to me!”
“Uh, Eda?” Raine called back. “You might want to take a look at this…”
“What? Does some prissy do-gooder have a sign claiming it as their third house? Because I swear, I-”.
“No, no,” Raine replied, stunned. “This is weirder than that.”
At that, Eda raised an eyebrow and walked out of the house. Surprisingly enough, it looked like Raine was just staring in mystery at… the door? “What’s got you in such a tizzy?”
“ The door is breathing,” they whispered, stunned, pointing at a circular face in the door that, sure enough, was… snoring? Since when did doors sleep? And Raine was right, since when did they breathe ?
“That’s… weird,” Eda replied, hands on her hips as she leaned forward towards the door. “I mean, we knew our home would have some problems. This is a weird one, but, eh, could be worse than a breathing door.” With that, she wrapped her knuckles against the wooden base of the door and let out a long ‘hello’.
“HOOT! Are you my new parents?”
Okay, now this was freaky. Raine jumped about a foot in the air, while Eda leaned back so far she almost fell. A breathing, talking door. This is fine. Totally manageable.
“Uhh, no,” Eda replied, eyeing the door in confusion. The small, owl-like circle in the door was now staring right back at her with its beady little eyes. “I don’t remember adopting anyone. Also, what the hell are you?”
“Well, I’m the house demon! I protect this house from any harm, like bugs! Ooh, there’s one! Omnomnomnom.”
Sure enough, the weird thing… stretched? out of its frame and gobbled up a bug that had been near Eda’s feet. She jumped away from it, not wanting it to touch her. She’d heard of house demons before, sure, but no one had warned her they were so… weird? And tubelike.
“Uh-huh, well, have fun with that,” Raine said, inching backwards. Eda could tell they were about to run.
“Don’t you dare, Whispers!” Eda shouted in a whisper, not wanting to get the attention of the demon but wanting to ensure Raine heard her. She wasn’t sure if she succeeded on the first front - the thing was still so focused on the bug that she probably could have just yelled - but it did get Raine to stop.
“Clearly this house is occupied,” Raine said, looking anywhere but at the demon. “So we’ll just be on our way-”.
“No you can’t! HOOT HOOT!” Suddenly the tube demon whipped its body out and wrapped itself around Raine and Eda. Then, it started crying, tears streaming down its face. “It’s so lonely out here! No one has come to see me in years!”
Eda shot a look at Raine as if to say ‘look what you did’ before she turned to the tube being holding her. “There there?” she questioned, freeing one of her hands enough to pat a part of its body. Huh, it was actually pretty soft.
The weird demon just kept crying for a few more minutes, Eda and Raine looking at each other, questioning what in the hell they were supposed to do now. Just as Eda was opening her mouth to ask a question, the tube flopped to the side releasing them, but still crying.
“I’m so sorry!” it shouted through the tears, voice already getting on Raine’s nerves with their sensitive ears. “It’s just been so long! SO LONG! Hoooot!”
“Yeah, well… it’s gonna be longer next time if you don’t shut up soon,” Eda threatened, holding up a fist. Not that her threat made much sense to Raine. But they weren’t about to interrupt her. The tube hiccuped a few times before stopping and moving to be face to face with Eda.
“So if you’re not my new mom, who are you?” it questioned.
“Eda, don’t-” Raine started, only to be interrupted by the tube.
“Aha! So your name’s Eda!” it cried in triumph.
“Way to go, Whispers,” Eda muttered, causing Raine to blush and rub the back of their head. She turned back to the house demon. “Yeah, I’m Eda. And you are?”
“Well, HOOT, I don’t really have a name! Not since my last master passed!” All signs of crying were already gone from its face.
“Master, ey?” Eda asked, a devious smirk growing on her face. “And what does one have to do to become master of a demon like you?”
“A SACRED BLOOD RITUAL, HOOT!” it cried out, fire in its eyes. Eda and Raine both backed up a bit at that. Okay, they were used to weird, but this was just a bit much.
“Sounds… interesting…” Eda said, still curious despite an ounce of hesitation seeping into her voice.
“You just have to prick your finger and let me taste your blood!” It seemed very excited at the prospect. Did it… want a master?
“DONE! Man, that’s so easy,” Eda said, already going to bite her thumb to obtain said blood.
“Can you just wait a minute?!” Raine called, slapping Eda’s hand away from her mouth. “It could be tricking you!”
“Does this thing LOOK like it could pull one over on me?”
Raine looked at the tube demon’s face. Then Eda. Then back again. And once more.
“I mean, no, but….”
“Then I’m doing it!” And with that, Eda bit down hard on her thumb and winced as a bead of blood grew on the tip. She held it out to the tube demon and it made some… rather uncomfortable noises as it licked at Eda’s thumb. She winced, not at the pain, but at her own growing discomfort.
“Okay I think that’s good,” she said, pulling her thumb back.
“But now I have a taste…” it said, eyes widening. “A taste for witches' blood!”
“EDA!” Raine shouted, having tried to warn her about something like this.
“Ah, I’m just kidding!” it said, flailing about a bit. “But I like you guys so I do accept Ms Eda as my new master, hoot hoot!”
“Sweet!” Eda cried out, pumping her fist in the air. “This house is ours, baby!”
“I’m… really not sure this is how real estate works,” Raine said, adjusting their glasses on their face as they looked around to see if someone was hiding in the bushes, pranking them.
“I’m gonna call you… Hooty!” Eda said, and snapped her fingers as she came up with the name on the spot.
Hooty squealed with glee at finally having a name after all these years, and began to cry once more. Eda and Raine stared at the newly named demon for a moment before deciding it would be best to just step over it and into the house for now.
“I still think this entire thing has been one lucid nightmare,” Raine said, looking around the house. “I’m going to wake up and we’ll be back at your ‘perfect cave’.”
“Nah, we’re not creative enough to imagine Hooty,” Eda said, shuffling a pile of leaves and paper into a vaguely chair-shaped lump and plopping down. “Ahh, home sweet home.”
“I think I need to lie down,” Raine said, though they didn’t dare lie down on the floor. It’d probably be cleaner to go outside to lay down in the dirt, but that would mean seeing Hooty again, and that’d just bring about its own mess of new problems.
“We’re gonna need to clean and furnish,” Eda said, looking around the room from her ‘chair’. “No sleeping until this place is in tip-top form, let’s GO!”
And go they went. By sundown that night, they’d managed to clean most of the dirt and loose paper and leaves from the first floor, as well as moving a few things from their hideout in the human world, such as their blanket nest. They’d move it upstairs when they cleaned up there, but that was a future problem for future them.
“Where did you get a couch?” Raine asked as they came back with another bag full of food from the human world. They were still too young to safely explore the night market, so they figured it’d be best to steal some food from the human world until the heat over their disappearances died down.
“It’s technically not stolen, I paid for it,” Eda insisted, leaning back on the green sofa. “It’s not my fault the guy was too stupid to check his snails for illusions. So I paid with rocks.”
Raine put their head in their hands and took a deep breath before deciding it wasn’t worth saying anything. They really didn’t want to complain about having a piece of actual furniture in the place, after all.
“If you were going to commit snail fraud,” Raine began, thinking more deeply about their needs, “I wish it had been for a fridge. We can’t keep living off of chips and meatless sandwiches.”
“We could just steal the meat fresh,” Eda suggested. “No need to store it if we just eat it right away.”
Raine sighed and plopped down next to Eda, tossing their legs into her lap. “Pretty sure that’d get old fast. Even you don’t want to steal from the same places every day.”
“True,” Eda accepted. “Fine, fine, a fridge next.”
“Maybe legally this time?”
“Eh, we’ll see. Probably not.”
It surprisingly didn’t take long to get the place furnished. Between their construction magic and Eda’s talent at fooling shop owners, they managed to get a crystal ball set up on a decently sized table by the couch, kitchen appliances, and lots of human doodads to decorate the place.
“Not too shabby,” Eda said, looking around once she’d adjusted her latest human find - a severed human hand that apparently humans would display jewelry on but she thought looked cool all on its own.
“Not bad at all,” Raine agreed from the couch. “But you do realize we still haven’t touched the upstairs.”
“That’s still future us’s problem,” Eda insisted, laying down on top of Raine and causing them to let out an ‘oof’.
“I’d like to not have our nest be in the room next to where we eat for much longer,” they said, shoving her over to the other side of the couch and sitting up. They looked pointedly over at the nest that took up the corner of the living area. Eda had added some leaves and sticks to it by now to ‘give it more shape’. Raine was pretty sure it was just to please her inner bird.
“But upstairs is so gross,” Eda protested.
“Which is why we need to clean it.”
“You’re no fun,” Eda pouted.
“Yes, the witch who plays distraction for you to walk out with an entire illusioned table is just no fun whatsoever,” Raine joked, hitting her shoulder with their own.
“Just a spoil-sport,” Eda insisted, leaning her head on their shoulder. “I think we’ve earned a nice nap, what do you say?”
“Deal.”
The two did - eventually - make their way upstairs to clean it out. They really only needed the bedroom at the moment, so the spare rooms were turned into closets for more of the prized possessions (read: human junk) Eda was slowly collecting.
A few months passed before Eda decided there were just a few things still missing that she couldn’t just buy - she’d have to go to her parents' home to steal it back.
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Raine asked as they stood outside, Eda preparing to get on her staff.
“It’ll be easy-peasy, Rainestorm,” Eda insisted, tossing them her usual devious grin. “In and out no problem, no one will even know I was there.
“Just be careful,” they pressed, walking over to give her a soft kiss on the lips which she smiled into.
“No promises,” Eda joked as they took a few steps and she took off into the air.
Honestly, she was a bit closer to her old house than she was comfortable with, but it’s not as if the house could grow legs and walk further away. Besides, being so close to Bonesborough had its uses. This also meant that the ride to her parents’ house was pretty short, all things considered.
She took the familiar route up to her old room’s window and peaked inside. Empty - perfect. With a quick spell circle, she had the window popping open and allowing her entry. She hopped off of Owlbert and let him return to his normal owl self.
“Help me out here, buddy,” she said, pulling an empty white sack from her pocket. “Anything you think I’d miss or that looks like it’ll sell well, toss it into this sack. Got it?” He gave a hoot of confirmation and hopped over to her closet.
She took a few moments to admire her room. She’d spent 16 years in this room, and it showed. The walls were filled with grudgby posters and pictures of her and her friends - mostly of her and Lilith or her and Raine. She frowned at a particular one of her and Lilith standing on the grudgby field, arms around each other and grinning over what was most likely an epic victory. They’d never be like that again, would they, what with Lilith being so scared of her new… form.
“Mom? I thought you and dad were-”.
Eda swung around towards the floor and her eyes widened. Speak of the devil. Not even a full step into the room stood her sister, decked out in her Emperor’s Coven garb, complete with a silver bird’s mask on the top of her head.
“Lilith!” Eda exclaimed. “Hey, Lily, old pal, old friend, dearest Lily, you see, I-”.
“Edalyn,” Lilith interupted with a nod, looking at the floor. “I will… stay out of your way while you collect your things. Mother and father are gone until the evening so you should be undisturbed.”
“That’s… that’s it?” Eda asked as Lilith went to close the door. “Look, I get you’re scared of me now or whatever, but I thought you’d maybe have missed me while I was gone.”
“Goodbye, Edalyn,” Lilith said with her eyes squeezed shut, closing the door behind her.
Eda didn’t move for a few moments, not until Owlbert’s soft hoot snapped her back into reality. Her sister really didn’t care about her anymore, did she? She wasn’t just scared, she was disgusted, repulsed.
Well, fine. Eda didn’t need her anyways.
She turned to Owlbert, only to see his sack was nearly full now. She looked around the room once more and decided to take a few of the more special pictures with her. She even took one of her and Lilith. She could see Owlbert had already collected her photo album, too, as it was sticking out of the sack, so she figured this would be enough for now. She didn’t want it to be too obvious she’d just stolen from her own room, but Lily would probably tell her parents she’d been by anyway.
Getting ready to take off, Eda had a brilliant idea. Instead of jumping onto Owlbert’s staff, she scaled down the side of the house and jumped onto the ground below. Nearby was a small shed, the place where her father… used to work on his palisman carving, when he wasn’t out in nature. If she was right, he might have just enough of what she needs….
Picking the lock to the shed easily, she looked around the area. Dell never allowed the girls in without supervision, so honestly Eda hadn’t been in here that much since she’d carved Owlbert. The shed was mostly for his tools and half-finished pieces, anyways, Dell preferring to carve in the woods where the wood could really speak to him. Eda hadn’t understood it until she’d carved Owlbert herself. There was just a special kind of magic that went into carving your best friend, one that couldn’t be put into words.
Eda was about to give up her search when she saw a small log sticking out under Dell’s worktable. “Found ya,” she said, snagging it and pulling it out. Sure enough it was a decently sized piece of Palistrom wood - perfect for a young bard who’d never had a chance to carve a palisman of their own, in fact. She used an expansion spell on the sack to make sure everything was tucked away safely before adding the palistrom wood. While she knew palistrom wood was expensive nowadays, she figured her dad wouldn’t mind, seeing as he’d always loved Raine, and well, he couldn’t carve for himself anymore. She winced at the thought and shoved the sack over her shoulder.
“Okay, Owlbert,” she said. “Let’s go home.”
“I can’t believe it,” Raine said, eyes wide as they stared at the object in their hands. “How did you get this?”
“Eh, my old man won’t miss it,” Eda said with a wink, pushing it closer into Raine’s arms. “You’ve got a serious mission ahead of you now, Rainestorm.”
“What do you mean?” Raine asked, shifting their hold on the palistrom wood to have a more secure grip on it.
“Well, you’ve got to bond with it,” Eda explained, thinking back to when she carved Owlbert. “Really think about who you are as a witch, and who you want to be. Let it call to you. And then, you just… carve.” She held up a carving knife and handed that over as well, causing Raine to fumble with it but thankfully not drop it.
Raine didn’t respond, instead staring down at the hunk of wood with wide, astonished eyes. They knew about making a palisman of course, everyone did, but lately not many witches had a chance to really have their own. And now, because of Eda, they’d get to be one of the lucky ones.
“Thank you,” they finally said, looking right at her and making sure to fully convey the meaning of their words. Thank you for this, thank you for being you, thank you for everything you do. Just, thank you.
“Aww, anything for a cutie like you,” Eda teased, pinching their cheek. Raine laughed, and would have slapped her hand away had they not been so focused on the wood in their arms.
“Let me just put this in our room,” Raine said, wanting to ensure the wood was kept close.
As they walked away, Eda focused on what they’d just said. ‘ Our room ’. They’d been sharing a room for a while now really, but it hadn’t really hit Eda yet, until it was said so clearly and matter of factly.
‘ Our room’ .
Damn. She was building a life with someone. She’d never really thought ahead to the future, but she never really imagined having that with someone. She’d always thought it’d be her and Lily against the world, taking everyone by storm.
Now she had a new storm to conquer the world with.
She’d miss Lily - of course she would. She was her sister, her flesh and blood. But she’d clearly made her choice, and Eda had to respect it. And so, she’d make her own. She wouldn’t go through it alone because she didn’t have to. Despite everything, Raine wanted to be by her side - there was no part of her that doubted that now. They’d had plenty of chances to ditch her ass by now, but instead they stayed.
Part of her wanted to be safe and push them away, though. Part of her feared that she’d just end up alone in the long run. Once upon a time, she’d never thought Lily would leave her, either, yet here we are.
But she’s opened up to Raine in ways she’d never opened up to anyone, and still they stayed. They could still look her in the eye and smile and laugh and kiss her and treat her like a normal witch. She wasn’t a monster to them.
Or maybe they just both were.
And maybe that was okay.
“Everything okay?” Raine asked as they came down the stairs. “You look like you’re deep in thought, which usually means something bad is about to happen.”
Eda mentally shook her head to bring herself back to the present. “Oh haha, what a funny bard,” she deadpanned, giving them a gentle shove when they neared her. They ignored her and wrapped their arms around her waist, pulling her close.
“What do you say I give you a proper thank you?” Raine teased, kissing her jaw.
“Can’t say I’d complain,” she smirked, grabbing her partner’s hand as the two made their way back up the stairs, enjoying the life they’r carved out for themselves. Together.