Night Light

Episode 17: Practicing Paranoia

"Amity, dear, don't touch the greasy dog thing – we don't want his diseases now, do we?"

Amity looked towards her and frowned, whining a bit. Ed and Em looked sympathetically before taking Amity's hands and leading her away. They had gotten used to their mother acting this way by now.

"For the record," Eda hissed. "My King is an OVERLORD. And he shall be treated as such, you hear me?" Eda got close to Odalia's face, a low growl coming from deep inside her chest.

Odalia rolled her eyes and pushed Eda way.

"Leave me be, Edalyn. I'm only here because my dear Alador has BEGGED me to bring the children here. Such a dreadful, dirty, place. Never again will I come here, especially knowing that lowlives like you hang around."

"Why I oughta-"

Owlbert chirped, tilting his head. Eda puffed and crossed her arms once more.

...

Luz watched King at the bottom of the slide, making small noises.

"He's no fun," snotty kid announced. "Tag, you're it!" he pushed Luz, who fell on the slide and slid down, hitting the ground harshly. As soon as Luz collided with the ground, she started to whine. King gasped dramatically, tail fluffing out a bit. Eda jumped from her spot on the bench and rushed to Luz's aid, kneeling in front of her. Luz's cries became louder at the attention of Eda, holding her scraped knee. King growled, turning to snotty kid.

"I will SNAP your neck, child! Hear me?? Listen to me!"

"Thanks for playing with me, that was fun!" Snotty boy said gruffly, giggling and running off the slayground.

"Oh-ho-ho, you asked for it!" King tried to leap into action, but Eda already had him by the tail.

"We're leaving." Eda said sternly, picking a now quiet Luz up. She placed Luz on her hip before dragging a whining King along.

"I wanna stayyyyy!" King complained. Eda rolled her eyes.

"Don't care. Luz is hurt. We're leaving."

"No, she's fine now! Look! She only had a scraped knee for crying out loud!"

But Eda didn't listen, she had already made up her mind.

-

"Edalyn, is this really necessary?" Lilith asked, face palming.

"Yes, of course it is!"

Lilith grimaced at the sight of baby Luz in a wannabe hazmat suit. The puffy leather like material shielded Luz from anything that might hurt her.

"And why, just why, are we doing this again?" Lilith asked in concern.

"She got hurt today, Lily! I just – don't want it to happen again."

"She's a child, Edalyn. She's meant to get hurt every once in a while. In fact-"

"No, don't 'in fact' me, Lily. This is for her own good."

Lilith shook her head, sighing, knowing she won't convince Eda otherwise.

Meanwhile, Luz was trying to figure out how she would walk in such a puffy suit. She stood up, but fell over. She stood up again, but fell over again. It was impossible!

It was obviously agitating the toddler, who began to whine at her failed attempts. King laid perched upon the arm of the couch, sighing at Eda's attempt of 'protecting Luz'.

"Eda, we can't have any fun like this." King groaned as Luz began to full on cry now.

"Hey, don't cry kid! You can't get hurt now!" Eda soothed, kneeling to the ground to an upset Luz.

Luz continued to cry, rubbing her watery eyes.

"Edalyn, have you thought that maybe she doesn't want to be confined to a tight and puffy suit that restricts her every movement?"

"I don't want her to get hurt again, Lily! I swear, my heart stopped when I seen her fall. I can't bare to see her hurt."

"Edalyn," Lily kneeled down with Eda, both of them blocking out Luz's cries. "She is a toddler. She is bound to get hurt every now and then. She got hurt today, and she'll get hurt a lot more. There's nothing we can do about it. It's part of life. Pfft, I mean, remember how much we got hurt when we were kids?"

Eda laughed slightly at the memory. "I think you mean you. You were such a clumsy kid, Lily."

"Oh, please. Don't act like you never found yourself knocking at trouble's door, sister," Lily laughed, placing a comforting hand on Eda's shoulder. "My point is, we always bounced back from it. She can, too. Your job is to protect her, not shield her."

Eda nodded slowly. "Okay, Lily. You're right... I'll take the suit off. Thanks."

Eda pulled her sister into a tight hug as Luz's cries died down. But still, they continued to hold each other just a while longer.