Three days have passed, Luz had recovered from her common mold. There was an occasional mushroom growing on the top of her head, but thankfully it had stopped and now she was fully recovered. Luz, Eda, King, Azara, John, and Hooty were outside of the house and Luz was finishing setting up the last ingredients as she placed it on the homemade portal door.
"So according to Phillip's instructions, the hardest part to making the portal, was finding someone who knew how to build it," Luz told them. "But, a lot of the ingredients are pretty easy to find. Your crazy apocalypse supplies finally came in handy, Eda."
"Don't forget this," King handed Luz, Amity's glove that still had the Titan's blood still stained on it. She took it from him, looking at it.
"Titan's blood," Luz said. "I can't believe something this powerful was in the old key this whole time." She tore a finger piece off from the glove and taped it to the door. "It's okay. If Belos is still trying to get to the human realm he'll have to beat me to it!"
"Are you sure that this isn't going to blow our faces up?" Eda asked as she hopped onto a bicycle, that was acting as a generator to power up the door.
"Nope!" Luz replied, smiling.
"Well, here goes something!" Eda started pedaling the bike and the door began to glow as it started to activate. Suddenly, it began to shift transforming into a portal and the door, swung itself open.
"It worked," Luz replied, shocked that it had actually worked.
"Did it?" King asked, with an uncertain look on his face. "That looks real different from the old door."
From what everyone had seen, the door appeared to be wonky, twisted and mangled in shape and had multiple eyes on it. Inside there was a grey and black light as it clashed and swirled together.
"Yeah, but this my one chance to see my mom," Luz said, as she tied a rope around her waist. "If it looks like it's closing, pull." She handed the other end of the rope to Eda.
"Luz, as impressive as this is, I don't want you getting hurt," Eda replied, frowning, concerned.
"Once, I make sure that my mom is okay, I'll be right back." Luz assured her.
"You be careful, Luz!" Azara told her. "And you better come back together in one piece!" She frowned, worried, wanting to come with Luz, to see her mom, but Luz didn't want to risk her getting hurt. She volunteered to be the first test subject.
Luz smiled and laughed. "I'll try."
"Just be careful, the human realm is filled with some real weirdos," Eda joked, smiling.
"Don't forget to mention me!" King shouted. Luz nodded and turned back to the door.
"Okay," She ran towards it and jumped right into the portal.
Luz was met with darkness and she felt like she was floating in water. A small whisper of a disoriented cackle met Luz's ears. She opened her eyes and gasped, coughing, trying to get some of the liquid out of her lungs. She heard a disembodied voice whispered in her ear.
Cheater...
Luz widened and she looked around, nervously. Great! Now she's hearing voices, now! Luz looked around but saw that there was no one there. All she saw was floating yellow and black cubes all around her and she stood up, seeing her reflection in the dark water. She could have sworn that she heard an disembodied voice, whispering to her. She shook her head, as chills ran down her spine.
"Did I do something wrong?" Luz whispered to herself. She looked around the strange foreign place, noticing that she wasn't even nowhere close to the human realm. "Eda, King, Hooty, Azara! Can anyone hear me?!"
Yessss....
A large glowing yellow cube rose out from the water, floating in front of luz. She grabbed it with her hands and looked into it. She saw Eda, King, Hooty and Azara not too far away as they were still standing in front of the portal, holding the rope. Luz yelled out as a gust of wind knocked her sideways.
"I think I'm in an reflection of the house," she murmured, realizing that she was looking out from the glass of the window of the owl house.
"Do you think she's safe?" King asked.
"She made it this far, we just have to trust her," Eda replied. She looked towards Azara.
"So, how are you holding up?" Eda asked. Azara looked at her confused.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"Are still okay with the golden guard incident?" She asked, concern. "You've been quiet for the past few days. You haven't been acting like your usual self, singing and all!"
"I'm okay, really," Azara tried to reassure her.
"Do you consider crying for the past three nights, okay?" King teased.
"Come on, tell us. You're lying!" Hooty added.
"I said that I'm fine!" Azara snapped. Eda, King, and Hooty's eyes widen in shock, and they quickly closed their mouths.
"I just don't want to talk about right now," Azara sighed. "Can we just drop this, please?"
"Kid, there's no point in torturing yourself," Eda frowned. "Believe me, I've been through that before. I know how you feel. But, you can't do things on your own. There are people here who can-" Eda's eyes widened. Everyone turned their heads to see the portal door in front of them, beginning to shift, and twist violently, and now starting to shrink.
"Eda?" Azara asked, worried.
"Pull!" Eda shouted. King, her, Hooty and Azara pulled hard on the rope and Luz came out of the portal door, landing on the ground in front of them.
"I'm sorry I had to pull you out. The portal was closing," Eda told her. Everyone looked towards the door to see it shrinking until it disappeared, leaving only a pile of cinder blocks behind.
"Did you talk to your mom? Did you mention me?!" King asked, excitedly, jumping onto Luz's shoulder. Luz smiled. Azara frowned, noticing it. She couldn't place her finger on it, but there was something strange about her smile. It looked like she was troubled by something. She seemed more quiet and withdrawn, not her usual energetic happy self.
"Yeah...mama-mom, can't wait to meet you guys," Luz told them, as she hugged everyone. Azara turned her head back to where the door was.
What did Luz see in there that caused her to act this way? What happened?
Eda smiled. "Well, just rest up now, okay?" she replied, wrapping her arm around Luz's shoulder. "And don't you worry, kiddo. With everything we've learned, we'll have a real working portal in no time!" She finished and winked.
"I'm gonna eat human snacks!" King exclaimed, eagerly.
"I can't wait to share parenting tips!" Hooty added, as he joined in.
"Who dubbed you a parent?" Eda asked, smirking. All three of them laughed as they began talking to themselves, excited about they were going to do in the human realm. Azara turned her head to see Luz walking away, heading inside of the owl house, and followed after her.
Azara walked in, to see Luz standing in the living room, quietly, looking around. She frowned and approached her. "Luz, are you okay?" Azara asked, concerned, placing her hand on Luz's shoulder. Luz, jumped, startled, now noticing her and turned around, smiling.
"Yeah, I'm just tired," she told her, walking away head back to her room. "I'm gonna go lie down for a bit."
"Wait, before you go, please tell me what did you see in there?" Azara asked, grabbing her hand, stopping her. "What happened?" Luz froze, where she was, and turned her head back to her.
"Uh, well, there was some strange floating cubes in there." She told her, pulling her hand away. "While I in there, I could have sworn that I heard a voice, guiding me. It sounded like a whisper, disembodied, I couldn't really make it out though." Azara's eyes widen in surprise. Luz heard a voice in there? The same that Azara heard a voice in the mines of Eclipse Lake. Something wasn't right about this...
"But, it might have been my imagination," She told her her. Azara saw tears that were starting to form in Luz's eyes. "I did see my mom! That's a good thing!" she smiled, wiping them away. There was something off by the tone of her voice.
Azara stared at her with an unsure look. "Then why do you not sound happy about it." Luz's eyes widened before she turned around, walking off.
"I'm going to bed," Luz told her. "I really don't want to talk about it."
"Luz!" Azara tried to call out to Luz to stop her, but she ignored her and left the room. Azara stood where she was, wondering what had just happened. Something happened in there and Luz wasn't telling her. But, what could she do? She couldn't just force it out of her.
Azara sighed and walked over to a shelf that was filled with books, scanning through it. If Luz didn't want to tell her, then she won't press on it any further. She was going to give her time to recover. Azara picked a book off from the shelf as one caught her interest. She walked over to the couch, sitting down, and opened it, starting to read from it.
Eda walked in along with King, as the two saw Azara sitting on the couch reading the book.
"Where's Luz?" Eda asked.
"She's in her room," Azara told her. "She told me that she wanted to rest." Eda frowned, in concern. Was she still not recovered from being sick? She shook the thought from her head when she heard Azara ask her something.
"What was that?" Eda asked.
"Eda, what's this?" Azara asked again, holding up the book. It had some ingredients on the page. Eda walked over and took the book from her, looking at it.
"Oh, it's just an spying spell potion that we use to spy on the emperor's coven," she told Azara. Azara's eyes widened, curious.
"Can I make this?" she asked. Eda looked at her in surprise before she smirked.
"Kid, are you still thinking about the nerd?" she teased.
"I just want to see how he's doing," Azara blushed, as she played with her hands, suddenly interested in them at the moment. Eda smiled, placing the book down on the table.
"Okay, I'll help you make this. I'll go grab the cauldron and the ingredients," she told her as she walked away. A few minutes later, Eda came back, along with King and they set the ingredients and the cauldron down on the table in front of her. The two helped Azara make the potion until it was finished as she stirred the liquid. The potion made a glowing blue glow and started, bubbling.
"What do I do?" Azara asked.
"Just think of the place that you want to see and the person and the potion will do the rest," Eda explained to her. Azara nodded. "But, be careful. Spying leads to crying!" She joked, leaving the room, along with King. Azara smiled, as she watched the two leave before turning her head back to the cauldron, looking inside.
Azara focused her thoughts on the emperor's castle, then Hunter's face came into her mind. The potion began to warp and started to swirl around when an imaged appeared. Azara eyes widened as she saw Hunter sitting on his bed, along with Lil rascal who was sitting beside him. He was holding the key as it dangled in front of him.
He hasn't given the key to Belos, yet! Azara frowned, wondering why. Suddenly, the potion swirled again, revealing another image. All Azara could see was a dark room until her eyes began to focus more adjusting to the darkness. Her eyes widened as she saw the portal door in front of her, fixed. Then the scene moved as it focused on a opened book that was resting on a desk.
Azara read the page seeing that it was an ingredient to make something.
A grimwalker...
"What is that?" Azara whispered to herself, silently as she continued to read the page that listed the ingredients: Galderstones, Palistrom wood, Stonesleeper lungs, Selkidomus scales, and a bone of ortet.
She looked over to the next page to see the ingredients, listing what each other did. Galderstones, for heart and power, Palistrom wood for keratin, Stonesleeper lungs, for the lungs, scales for body structure...
Then her eyes saw a picture of a baby, then a child stage, that was checked off, and last adult. The arrows pointed to a picture of a head with fuchsia colored red eyes. Azara's eyes widen in shock, mixed with disbelief and horror. She jumped back, knocking over the potion and it's contents and it splashed onto the floor.
They looked like Hunter's eyes! The exact same shape, color and everything! Even his nose!
Azara leaned back on the couch, overwhelmed by the startling information. That last ingredient with the stages...bone of ortet?
"Eda, what's a bone of ortet?" she called out, growing more and more disturbed out by the image.
"It's a plant that a clone is originated from!" Eda called out. "Why?"
Clone? Hunter is a clone? Azara felt like she was going to throw up as she covered her mouth with her hand. A feeling of dread and horror, rushed through her stomach, in realization. Hunter was the last ingredient to make this grimwalker.
Belos had been lying to him, his entire life. He was in danger!
Azara quickly stood up and grabbed her red cloak. "I-I got to go!" she replied back, yelling out to her. "I need some air!" She ran over to the door, opening it, and Hooty hooted in surprise. John was sitting next to him, talking to Hooty, when Azara opened the door, as he stared up at her surprised as well.
"Azara?" John asked, startled. "Is something wrong?"
"Where are you going? Hoot! Hoot!" He asked. Azara ran out, not answering them, completely overwhelmed by the information.
"Sheesh! Hoot! Hoot!" Hooty whined. "Rude. Nobody ever wants to talk to me!"
"I know!" John complained. "She never listens to me!"