Chapter Text
Today, Sunday, had not been a great day for King Clawthorne. Weekends usually weren't, to be fair. During the week, he was helping his mom out at work while she worked to educate him (public school hadn't exactly worked out). During weekends, though, she'd often take him to the park or playground to hang out with other kids his age, which was… hit or miss. Half of the kids couldn't really handle him talking about dangerous animals or horrifying insects, and the other half had parents who hated him for 'corrupting' their children.
The rumors about his supposed vampirism really didn't help, either. So what if he had pale skin, sharp teeth, dark hair, and purple eyes? His mom was even paler, and her eyes were gold! Weird eye colors just ran in the family. Admittedly, his choice of red and black clothing probably didn't help, either. Although it was really funny to see some of the particularly dumb adults, like Mr. Hopkins from the museum, being intimidated by a nine-year-old boy. King liked to think he was plenty intimidating, but that was just sad, especially for someone who was supposedly fighting against the supernatural.
Today it had been much the same. The worst of the parents hadn't been there today, but there had still been plenty of them chewing out his mother because of his 'troubling behavior', even though all he'd actually been doing was pretending to conquer the playground like it was a kingdom. He hadn't even been talking about deadly creatures! His mom had… He wasn't sure if it was helping or not, but she'd gone off on the other parents for not supporting kids expressing themselves and their interests.
She'd complained about the other parents the entire walk back home. Edalyn Clawthorne, King's mother, was known as a bit of an eccentric. She was a brilliant scientist and made a decent bit of money off of some patents from when she was young, but mostly she just repurposed junk that the local junkyard offloaded on her and made a pretty penny off of weird trinkets that she had a knack for finding. Usually, she set up shop out of her garage (she did not own a car).
"I'm going to the shack," King said, as soon as they were near the house.
"Alright, kiddo," Eda said, ruffling King's hair. "Hey, if you spot any possums, try and catch them, okay?"
"Why do you want a possum?"
"Nah, I don't want it. They're just infesting the place, gotta try and get 'em outta there."
King shrugged and walked out into the woods.
The 'shack' was an old house in the woods that had been owned by their family for generations. Eda had been trying to fix it up for a long time to get it livable, but with just how long it had been abandoned it was pretty difficult.
The shack wasn't far from Eda and King's home, only a couple minutes of walking. It was practically in their backyard. Once he reached it, he pushed open the door and stepped inside.
As usual, it was full of broken pieces of ancient furniture, newspapers that kids left in here, and peeling wallpaper. Eda had managed to get rid of most of the exposed nails and actually dangerous parts of the house over the years, but there was only so much a single mother homeschooling her son and running a small business could do.
Still, it was a place King liked to go to get away from… Everything. People were hard. Old junk and random wildlife were easy. It was cooler inside the house than outside, though as it was getting into summer it was still a bit warmer than he would've liked it to be without airflow, so he decided to head down to the basement.
The basement was actually one of the most restored rooms in the house, and it was where Eda kept most of the tools she and King used for fixing things up. All of the furniture that was salvageable – which consisted of a single chair and a wardrobe - was stored down here.
Speaking of the wardrobe, he could hear the sound of scratching coming from inside as the wardrobe shook. King took off his backpack and opened it as wide as he could before slowly walking towards the wardrobe. Once he was close enough, he yanked the wardrobe open.
A creature fell out with a "Weh!". King didn't see it in much detail beyond that it had brown fur before he brought his backpack down on top of it and zipped the struggling creature inside. Muffled sounds could be heard from within as he ran back home with his catch.
Once King was home, he dumped the creature out on his bed, holding an umbrella for self-defense in case it attacked.
It was immediately obvious that, whatever this thing was, it wasn't a possum. Actually, it wasn't any sort of animal King had seen before. It was… weird. Some parts its appearance were pretty normal – it had brown fur, and claws, and a tail with a light patch at the end. It was somewhere between two and two and a half feet tall. But it also had big bat wings attached to its back, and its head was a horned skull. Probably the weirdest thing of all, though, was that it was wearing a white-and-purple hoodie.
"What the heck was that about?" The creature asked, sounding shockingly like a teenage girl as it shook its head.
"You talk?!" King shouted.
"Weh!" She opened her eyes and looked at him. Like everything else about this creature's appearance, her eyes were weird – bright yellow sclerae, but ordinary brown irises. "Ay que lindo… Oh, uh, I mean… Woof? Bark? Meow?"
King stayed where he was, on guard as he glared at her.
"… Yeah, I figured that wouldn't work." The creature slumped.
"What are you? How do you have wings and arms?" King poked at the wings. "That's not how vertebrates work, you've gotta pick one!"
"I'm a demon, and – I don't know!" She threw her arms up. "I was born with them? How am I supposed to answer that?"
"… Demon?" King asked. This little fluffy thing was a demon? She looked more like a plush toy than whatever he imagined a demon was supposed to look like, but… "Are you evil? Sent from Mars to harvest human teeth for a time machine? If you hurt me, my mom's gonna mess you up!"
She would, too. Edalyn Clawthorne was not a woman to cross. She'd decked Mr. Hopkins after he tried to tell King, failing to recognize that he was the 'vampire' because he had his hoodie, that crazy theory he had.
"… Que?" She asked, sounding completely bewildered. "I mean, I'm a demon, yeah, but none of that's right! I'm not evil, and I don't even know what 'Mars' is!"
… Yeah, that tracked. But King hadn't exactly thought Hopkins was right about demons existing either.
"Basically, demons are magical creatures spawned from the muck of a decomposing god," Though she said it entirely nonchalantly, in King's opinion, having that be your parent sounded cool as hell. "In other words, I'm from another world!" She jumped in the air, spread her wings, and… winced and fell face-first back down on the bed.
"Are you okay?" King moved closer. Now that there was better lighting, he could see that her left wing had a nasty-looking cut. It didn't look deep, and it probably wouldn't scar, but it was long, and he could see flecks of blue… something stuck in the fur around it. He could also see that there was mud caked into the fur on her legs.
"Yeah, I just… busted up my wing a bit," the creature said. "I'm Luz, by the way! Luz Noceda!" She held out a hand. "What's your name?"
"… King Clawthorne," King debated for a moment, thinking of all the stories he'd heard about demons and deals, but he thought back to that idiot, decided that stuff was probably wrong too, and ended up shaking her hand. Nothing crazy happened, it was just a handshake. "How did you get here?"
Luz laughed and rubbed the back of her head. "So… you're not going to believe me, but I was kind of… Well, I went on a flight to clear my head, and I scraped my wing on a branch. It hurt a lot, and then I fell into a puddle that, just my luck, was actually a portal to your world."
"Yeah, that's pretty unbelievable," King said bluntly.
"I know!" Luz threw her arms up. "But now I've been stuck in your world since yesterday, and a few hours ago I got stuck in that wardrobe! Then you stuff me in a bag the moment I get out, and, bloop, now I'm here. In…" Luz looked around King's room, taking in the army of darkness, the random junk he'd found interesting, and the large amounts of books about dangerous animals. "… Some sort of… Okay, I don't know what I'm looking at here."
"This is my room," King explained, gesturing to all of his valuable belongings. "I'm sorry about stuffing you in a bag, I thought you were a wild animal."
"Hm… I think I can forgive you." Luz said. Suddenly, King was dealing with a tiny beast crawling up to his head. "Oh, you're so cute! You've got the fiercest little eyes! Who's a widdle guy? Who's a widdle guy?"
"Ack!" King shouted. "Get off me, you-"
"Alright, what's going on here?"
King turned to see his mother standing in the door as Luz continued to cling to his head and hug him.
"Hi!" Luz waved.
"… That's not a possum." Eda said. "Might need to lay off the hard cider."
"What's cider?" Luz asked. Then she gasped, jumping down to the floor to stand in front of Eda, eyes going wide. "Wait, are you King's mom? Oh my Titan I love your hair it's so big and poofy!"
"Well, I do pride myself on it," Eda fluffed up her mane of wild orange hair, and King rolled his eyes. "Not everyone can pull off the wild old lady in the woods look like me. Thank you, alcohol-induced dog monster hallucination."
She bent down to pet Luz. The little demon seemed to enjoy it, but it took Eda a moment to realize what was wrong with that.
"… Oh. You're real," Eda said. "… King. Why is there a talking dog in the house?"
"I'm a demon!" Luz corrected. "My name's Luz!"
"Well today just got weird," Eda sighed. "Why don't we clean up our… guest, get her some food, and you two can tell me how the heck this happened."
"So… You crashed into a branch and fell through a portal."
"Yup," Luz said between bites of a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich, as she sat in King's old high chair from when he was a baby.
Originally, King was going to share the cheesy snack foods he was currently eating, but Luz had mentioned being lactose-intolerant. Also, apparently demons could be lactose-intolerant – who knew? It, admittedly, had not actually stopped Luz from wanting the cheesy snacks, but Eda had put her foot down about not dealing with a demon with indigestion.
"And why did you crash into a branch?" Eda asked, pointedly.
Wait, that was actually a really good point, King thought.
"Um… by accident?" Luz tried. She looked nervous for a moment, and then sighed. "Okay, you got me. I was sort of… mad. I caused a lot of problems at school, and my mom was sending me away to a camp."
"The decaying god?" King asked.
"The what now?" Eda turned to look.
"Demons come from a decaying god."
"… Metal," Eda said. King winced a bit.
"Uh… The Titan isn't literally my parent," Luz pointed out. "I guess I wasn't clear, all demons are descended from creatures that arose from the muck. And I'm adopted anyway, my mom's a witch."
"Ooh, does she brew potions? Taunt authority?" Eda asked, excited.
"Cast powerful curses on her enemies and make them tremble in fear?" King guessed.
"… She takes care of hurt and sick animals."
"… Oh. Witch veterinarian. That's kind of lame," Eda said.
"I think it's cool," King said.
"You would. So, anyway, about this camp…"
Luz groaned. "It's some Emperor's Coven-sponsored thing about 'fitting in'. Look, okay, it's not my fault they didn't want to hear about cone snails."
"Cone snails are cool," King agreed.
"Thank you! But, apparently, using an actual harpoon is 'dangerous'!" Luz made air quotes with her claws. "I didn't even put poison on it!"
King leaned over to whisper to his mother. "Can we keep her?"
"So, anyway, there I was, waiting for the airship to pick me up," Luz said. "I knew it wasn't going to be there for a while, so I went flying to try and cheer up. I guess I wasn't being careful and… Now I'm here. This place is so much better than a stupid camp." Luz said. She finished off her sandwich.
"What about your mom?" King asked.
"Camp lasts six weeks," Luz said. "I'm sure I'll find another portal before it ends."
"Can't you just go back the way you came?" Eda asked.
"Oh, show us!" King said, jumping out of his chair. "I want to see your crazy demon world!"
"Well…" Luz said.
It was getting dark as Luz led the two humans through the forest.
"Ugh, anyone bring a light?" Eda asked.
Luz turned back to look at her. "Do you have paper and something to draw with? I know a neat trick."
Eda took a little notepad and pen out of her pocket, handing them to Luz. King recognized it as the one she used to keep track of sales.
Light gleamed in Luz's eyes as she took them. "Watch this." She ripped out a piece of paper, drawing a circle with an odd pattern inside it. She poked it with her claw, and the paper crumpled into a ball of light, held suspended over Luz's hand.
King stared in awe.
"You wanna try?" Luz asked.
King nodded.
Luz grinned – at least that's what King thought she was doing – and drew the same symbol before handing the paper to King.
Silently, King tapped it, and watched in wonder as the light spell emerged.
"That… that was magic," Eda said, dumbfounded. "How did… How did a drawing do that?"
"I dunno." Luz shrugged. "I don't have powers like witches do, so I had to improvise. I found these glyphs – that's what I call them – all on my own. I tap one and, well… Magic."
"It's amazing," King said.
"Now, come on," Luz said, handing the notepad back to Eda and getting down on all fours. "It's this way!" She began running through the forest, King and Eda hot on her tail, light orbs following their casters along as they went through the now-illuminated forest.
Luz came to a stop before long, in front of a slightly-muddy indentation in the ground. "This is where I came through," she panted. "It was a puddle before, but…"
"It rained yesterday," Eda recalled. "But now it's all dried up."
"Yep," Luz said. "And, trust me, I tried jumping in it anyway. Didn't work, just got my legs muddy. So I went looking around the forest and found that old shack!"
She paused for a moment before slapping her forehead with a clack. "Shoot, I forgot! My bag's still in there!" She spread her wings, jumped, and then winced and fell back down. King bent down and picked her up.
"Wanna ride?"
Luz's eyes went wide, and she scrambled to cling to King's back. King almost lost his balance at the weight, but managed to catch himself.
"Onwards, noble steed!" Luz yelled, and King ran forward, the two laughing all the way.
"Going into an old, broken-down house after dark," Eda said. "… My kind of way to spend an evening."
The old shack wasn't far, and Luz and King still had their light orbs to guide the way. Down in the basement, Luz picked up a little yellow messenger bag from the chair that King hadn't noticed when he was in here earlier, and slipped it over her right shoulder.
"Why were you in the wardrobe, anyway?" King asked.
"Uh…" Luz didn't answer. "Hey, what's that?" She pointed at something on the floor.
"That's a shovel," Eda said.
"Okay, cool. Anyway let's go back to your house now." Luz began running, but tripped, a book tumbling out of her bag.
King picked it up. "… The Good Witch Azura?" He'd heard of the series vaguely before, but never actually read any of the books. He turned it over to skim the back cover, and quickly noticed something.
"… Did you think the wardrobe might be a portal?" King asked.
"It was worth a shot," Luz grumbled. "I don't know how human wardrobes work, and I didn't think I was gonna get stuck inside! Can I have my book back?"
"You know, I've never actually read The Good Witch Azura," King said, as he handed the book back to Luz.
Luz's eyes lit up. "It's only the best series ever! It's got magic, and quests, and adventures, and wizards, and sports, and – everything! I've got all four books!"
"Aren't there five?" King asked, vaguely recalling seeing that at the library last week.
"There's a fifth book?" Luz jumped up to grab onto King's chest and got in his face. "You get them here? Oh my Titan, I need a copy before I go home, and you need to read them!"
"Now, hold on," Eda said. "I'm all for, well, the chaotic route, but how are you planning to get home without a portal? Do you even have somewhere to stay?"
"I'll figure that out," Luz said, as she dropped back to the ground.
"She could stay with us," King suggested.
"What?" Eda turned to her son.
"Weh?"
"She doesn't really have anywhere to go, and it's not like she can just go walking out in the street. She can stay in my room, and she won't be a problem at all, and we can help her get home!"
Eda considered it for a moment. "Ah, what the heck. Curse my bleeding heart. Alright, bonehead, you're staying with us for now! Come along." Eda began walking up the stairs, leaving King and a dumbfounded Luz in the basement.
"Bonehead?" Luz finally asked. "Well, it does kinda describe me, but it's just rude."
She looked up to King. "And… thanks, for everything."
"I did shove you into a backpack," King pointed out.
Luz rolled her eyes. "Come on, you little goober. I'm fine."
It didn't take long for Luz to settle in. Eda pulled an old dog bed out of the garage – King had no idea why they had that, they'd never owned a dog – and dumped it in King's room.
Luz set her bag down next to it, and spun around in it, kneading it with her claws before curling up.
"Is the bed okay?" King asked, as he climbed into his own. "Sorry we don't have a real bed for you."
"It's fine," Luz said. "I'd get lost if I tried to sleep in your bed. Seriously, it's huge." She gestured to it.
"Everything's huge compared to you," King pointed out.
"I know!" Luz exclaimed. "It's so annoying!" She laughed.
"So…" King said after a moment. "What do you think?"
"I think I'm gonna like it here," Luz said. "Now…" She pulled The Good Witch Azura from her bag and set it down in front of her. "Are you ready to journey to a world of magic unlike any other? Well, a bit like my world, but toned down for ages six to eleven."
"I'm ages six to eleven!"
Luz smiled as she began to read, King hanging on to her every word as she recounted the tale of the good witch Azura, warrior of peace.