Two Sides of the Same Coin: An Owl and a Wolf

Chapter 9: Never Underestimate Dreams

For the following week, Luz was pretty busy. Between delivering Potions with King, Eda teaching her about Potions (even though she already knew the basics and how to make a few potions herself.) And King teaching her about demons. Not to mention her and King reading The Good Witch Azura together (they had found the second and fourth book, unfortunately they didn't have the third yet.) And finally finding a blue bug for Hooty. Luz almost forgot about getting the portal key, at least until she laid awake for hours on end at night thinking of different ideas.

It was Friday afternoon and Luz and King had just gotten back from delivering Potions. Luz collapsed on the couch as King ran upstairs to 'prepare his army.' Luz laid facedown for a bit on the couch, her mind drifted back to her mission and she internally groaned. She probably should update Kikimora sometime soon.

She turned over so that she was now laying on her back, staring up at the owl creature carving on the ceiling. Maybe she should try stealing the key in the middle of the night, although she wasn't sure how heavy a sleeper Eda was, perhaps she could ask Hooty or King or maybe not, she didn't want to seem suspicious.

She yawned, the week and lack of sleep was catching up to her. She closed her eyes, maybe she could take a nap, Eda was probably too busy with that card game to notice the time anyway.

Not too long later she blinked open her eyes and sat up in confusion. Muted grey walls surrounded her on three different sides, the forth wall had iron bars separating her from the large circular room. Footsteps echoed throughout the room and grew louder as the person came closer.

She looked down at her hands, subconsciously and blinked in confusion. Her hands were smaller than she remembered and the claw-like nails were gone. She touched the left side of her face and gasped, instead of rough scared skin, it was smooth, like the claw marks were never there to begin with.

A shadow fell across her cell and she looked up at the figure that stood there. He wore a golden mask with two long upward-facing horns. His eyes were hollow through the mask, creating the appearance of having empty eye sockets. He wore a large white and brown cape with gold trim.

Luz quickly scooted back away from him, her back hitting the back wall. "Not this memory." She whimpered. "Hello human. Do you know who I am?" The man asked, Luz's body wouldn't listen to her anymore as it followed through with the memory.

She shook her head and the man chuckled. But Luz didn't feel any warmth from it, it was cold and sinister and she shivered, curling in on herself more.

"I am Emperor Belos, the ruler of the Boiling Isles and I'm getting tired of you not answering our questions. You have been dodging it long enough. This is the last time we will ask and if you don't answer there will be dire consequences." Emperor Belos said. "Now human, how did you get here to this realm?"

Luz shook her head "I-I've already told everything I remember. One minute I was playing and the next there's snow." The Emperor grunted, obviously disappointed with her answer. "I gave you so many chances human, a year's worth of them." He shook his head. "You leave me no choice."

"Obviously the punishments we've been giving you aren't enough, so instead you will work for me as part of the Emperor's Coven. And before you even think about running away as soon as you get the chance, think about it. You a, what? 8 year old human girl versus a world you know nothing about?" Emperor Belos, explained.

"And to make sure you stay in line and obey the orders given to you..." Belos pulled out a rolled up scroll and held it up for Luz to see. "This is a curse and I am the only one who can heal it. It really is sad I have to resort to this, but you've given me no other choice."

Luz stood up shaking her head. "No! You can't! Please! I don't remember how I got here. Please..." Luz's voice broke as tears gathered in her eyes. The Emperor ignored her, breaking the seal on the scroll and holding it up towards her.

All Luz could see was red and she fell to her hands and knees as the curse took effect. It was like a raging fire burning throughout her body, she could feel her body changing. She wanted the pain to stop, she pulled at her hair with her right hand and with her left she clutched her face as she sobbed into her hand. "Make it stop..."

A sharp pain in her back made her jerk her head up and yell, she accidentally left deep scratch mark's over her left eye with her newly formed claws in the process. Blood dripped down onto the stone floor, staining it as her world went black.

Luz gasped as she quickly sat up from the couch, breathing heavily she looked down at her hands. She yelped and scrambled off of the couch, accidentally falling to the floor in the process. Fur spouted up her arm as she stood back up and rushed up the stairs, clutching her arm close to her chest and trying to hide it.

She opened the door to her room and, ignoring the carnage of stuffed animals scattered around, she collapsed onto her knees and dragged her bag over to her. Brown fur spouted across her shoulders as she dug out one of her elixirs and chugged it down.

Luz watched the fur on her arms disappear for a moment, a tingling sensation being what was left where the fur had been. She sighed in relief and collapsed onto her back on her sleeping bag. That was a close one, she stared at the empty glass bottle in her hand. She only had 7 more left before she was out, she had to figure out where to get more.

She sighed, putting the glass bottle back in her bag. Unsure of what to do, Luz sat up, using her elbows to support her. She didn't want to go back to sleep, fearing that some other memory would play. The scampering of paws alerted her of King's arrival as he entered the room, holding his stuffed rabbit. He stopped in the doorway when he saw her "oh, you're in here now." He entered the room, setting up Francois on one side of the room and grabbing a few other stuffed animals and setting them in a line behind the rabbit.

"What were you doing?" Luz asked, watching him. "I had to get my general to get these troops in line." King replied, he turned to Luz "would you like to help me overtake the throne in my honor?" Luz hummed before blowing a raspberry "sorry, I don't think I have the energy to overthrow an evil ruler right now." She replied, sighing and collapsing onto her back again, her arms spread out to the sides.

She heard King walk over to her and felt him climb ontop of her, sitting on her stomach. She looked down at him, amused "can we read the Good Witch Azura then?" He asked, Luz shrugged "sure, go get it."

He got off of her and he hopped up onto the table, grabbing the book and jumping back down onto the floor with a thump. Luz sat up fully this time, and sat crisscrossed as King took his spot on her lap, handing her the book. "Alright, let's see..." Luz flipped through the pages of the second book until she found the correct page. Clearing her throat she began to read, "Azura wasn't sure if she trusted their new companion..."

It was a few hours later before they stopped reading, both of them agreeing that it was time to pester Eda about dinner. King scampered off to go bug the Owl Lady, while Luz closed the book, marking the page and setting it back down onto the table. She stretched for a moment before heading downstairs to the kitchen.

It wasn't too long later when King entered the kitchen, Eda with Owlbert on her shoulder right behind him. "Alright, alright, I'll make you gremlins some dinner." Eda was saying, King climbed up onto his seat as Luz chuckled "playing that card game with Owlbert again?" She teased.

Eda scoffed "of course not!" King rolled his eyes "she definitely was." Eda grabbed some things from the fridge before replying "it's a great game, I'll show you guys how to play tomorrow." King groaned "please don't."

Luz snickered, Eda ignored them as she started on dinner. Luz put her head in her hand, drifting to her thoughts. She really liked it at the Owl House, something about it was just so warm and friendly, which was a nice change from cold and depressing. However she knew she couldn't stay forever, once she got the portal key and the door to Belos he would heal her and send her back home. So why did her gut twist at the thought?

Soon dinner was ready and Luz forced herself to eat, not feeling hungry anymore. She was mostly silent and when asked if something was wrong she waved it off as just being tired. Once they were done eating, Luz headed off to bed. She changed into her pajamas and laid down in her sleeping bag, she'll update Kikimora tomorrow, she just didn't have the energy to deal with the annoying demon.

King entered the room sometime later, curling up next to her. She scratched his back for a bit before going to sleep.