"Are you okay, kid? You've been awfully quiet ever since we left." Asked Eda raising a brow at the depressed looking Skara.
"It's really bumming me out." Added King.
Skara didn't reply and kept moving on silently, causing Eda and King to wince.
"Even Boots is acting paranoid." Added Eda gesturing towards Amity who was trying to get to eclipse lake in a hurry.
"Yeah, but this place is crawling with tools." Added King worriedly.
"Well we can't afford to mess this up. Luz is counting on me and i have to get back to my nearly dead brother!" Said Amity in frustration.
"Relax, kid, the worst that can happen is him coming out with one arm." Said Eda nonchalantly.
"That's still bad!" Exclaimed Skara dejectedly.
"Yeah!" Added Amity.
"Can't Alador make a prosthetic or something? I thought you Blights-"
Before Eda could finish the sentence, a scream was heard as a supposed coven scout falling towards them.
"*gasp* a coven scout!" Exclaimed Amity as she prepared to fight.
"Uh, yes, I am but a humble scout and I surrender." Said the scout in a familiar voice.
"Well, that was easy!" Said King happily.
"Not so fast, King. Don't you recognize that annoying voice?" Said Eda glaring at the scout.
Skara felt as if she had heard that voice before and it wasn't until Amity caught him after he began running that she recognized him.
It was the golden guard.
And the first thing she did when she learned that, was kick him in the shins like she promised herself.
xxXxx
"Yeesh, he doesn't look so good." Said Gus wincing as he stared at Odwin's unconscious body.
"Yeah..." Added Willow.
"DON'T WORRY, ODDY. I'LL SAVE YOU!" Exclaimed Hooty with excessive crying as he held up a surgical saw about to chop off Odwin's arm.
"Hooty, no!" Said Willow in a panic upon seeing the saw. She immediately headed towards the bird tube and stopped him.
Gus urgently joined Willow in stopping Hooty and the two soon managed to pacify him, but not calm him down.
"Hooty, we're not cutting off his arm." Said Willow sternly as Hooty cried on the floor of the living room
"Yet." Added Gus with a smile.
"Only if things get worse." Said Willow firmly, crossing her arms.
"HOW COULD THIS GET ANY WORSE?!" Bawled Hooty in tears.
Gus put a hand on his chin and thought about the question.
"He could turn into a mindless monster that wants to end our lives" Said Gus cheerfully with a shrug.
Hooty, as if Gus didn't say a thing, kept on weeping and covering the floor in his tears.
"Gus, you're not helping." Said Willow as she shook her head to Gus in disapproval.
Not a moment after, a crash was heard and the house shook.
"Uh, what was that?" Asked Gus in concern.
"It sounds like it came from Odwin's room." Realized Willow.
Gus and Willow turned to each other with expressions filled with horror before running at full speed to Odwin's room...where Odwin was quickly being enveloped in darkness until he transformed into a dark figure.
The dark figure slowly turned to Gus and Willow who backed away slowly.
"Hello there." Said Willow nervously before the figure's arms grew larger and grew claws.
The claw slammed down at Gus who managed to dodge before Willow stepped up.
She quickly tried restraining Odwin with her vines, but to no avail as they all rotted with a wave of the figure's hand.
"We should run." Said Gus staring at the now non existent plants.
"Yup!" Exclaimed Willow as she pulled Gus away and ran.
The dark figure paused for a moment, clutching their wrist in pain, before chasing after Willow and Gus with a mad shriek.
xxXxx
"What was that?!" Asked Gus in fear as he and Willow quickly ran out of the owl house.
"I don't know, but we need to get it away from Luz." Said Willow worriedly.
As if on que, the dark figure smashed through a window and landed right in front of Gus and Willow.
"And us!" Added Gus in shock.
As The dark figure approached Gus and Willow, someone else noticed the fight.
"*gasp* Oddy!" It was Hooty who wrapped around Odwin as soon as he saw 'him'. "You're okay!"
"Hooty, no!" Exclaimed Gus in worry, trying to stop Hooty from getting hurt.
The dark figure paused for a moment in confusion before telekinetically throwing Hooty back into the owl house.
But before they could do anything else, the coven sigil on their wrist began glowing and they clutched it in pain.
Gus and Willow noticed this as the figure's gaze snapped onto them and tried to slash at them in fear that using too much power would hasten the sigil's effects.
The two dodged and ran into the woods as the figure lagged behind because of the coven brand. This gave Gus and Willow some breathing room as they hid behind a tree.
"Gus, i think he's in pain." Said Willow feeling conflicted.
"I can see that, but why is he trying to kill us?" Asked Gus in confusion.
"The coven brand is doing something. We need to cut his arm off." Said Willow with a determined expression.
"How?" Asked Gus in confusion. "We don't have anything to cut it with and we can't just rip it off."
Willow paused for a moment before it hit her. "Luz's ice glyph! We can make a saw out of one! You remember how to draw it?"
Gus smiled and nodded determinedly before heading out to face the dark figure.
xxXxx
The dark figure felt danger and pain, unable to reach both its minds as they were currently sleeping.
Without a mind, it was like a wild animal. All it felt was the need to survive.
And to survive, it needed to get rid of the symbol on its wrist. But to do that, it would have to destroy the ones who put it on, right?
But who could've put it there? The only ones that it could be are the two beings it saw when it woke up. So, It only needed to get rid of them and the pain would disappear.
But first, it had to find them...and find them it did. It saw the plant wielding one, Willow, alone.
In its wild state, it thought of this as a chance. It didn't think about any possibility of traps or trickery and so it charged.
Willow attacked the figure with a few vines, but it cut them up with its claw.
She began running while attacking. Some of her attacks were powerful enough to force the figure to use its powers.
The more it used its powers, the slower it got from its sigil's effects. But it kept on chasing until Willow finally stopped.
Seeing this, the dark figure pounced...only for Willow to poof into nothingness. In its surprise, it couldn't react to the following attack.
Vines coiled around its body and restrained him. The other one, Gus, soon appeared with a stack of paper in hand.
He slammed a piece of paper under the branded arm of the figure that Willow was holding out to be cut.
The dark figure saw the ice rising from the paper and used its powers to make a small blast all around it.
The blast destroyed enough of the vines and ice to free the figure, but at a cost. The brand was about to fully take over. It HAD to finish this NOW.
It raised its arm about to slash the two witches, but before it could...a miracle happened.
"HOOTY!" Exclaimed Hooty as he wrapped himself all around the dark figure.
Willow and Gus saw this as a chance and immediately pulled the branded arm with a large vine and cut it off with a saw of ice.
xxXxx
Skara was feeling dejected. The golden guard stole the key from Amity while she was stuck with Eda fighting the emperor's coven scouts.
She failed at protecting Amity. She broke her promise to make nothing happens to her.
So her mood was at an all time low.
But the moment she entered the owl house, her mood brightened again.
Odwin was okay on the couch with Gus and Willow.
The first thing she did was jump at him and give him a tight hug.
"Did you miss me?" Asked Odwin blushing with an awkward smile.
"I thought you were gonna die and that's the first thing you say!" Exclaimed Skara tightening her hug.
"Okay, I'm sorry." Replied Odwin with a smile hugging Skara back with one arm, something she quickly noticed.
"Your arm!" Exclaimed Skara dejectedly.
"Odwin?" said Amity as she entered the living room leaving Eda stuck in the doorway in her harpy form.
"Hi." Said Odwin waving before a few thuds were heard coming from upstairs. "I think there's someone you should greet first."
A few moments later, Luz sped into the room and saw Amity.
Odwin gave her the nod of approval as Luz hugged her and called her an awesome girlfriend.
This, however, caused Skara's shoulders to drop dejectedly.
"Hey, what's going on?" Asked Odwin in concern.
"I couldn't protect Amity and the key's also gone and it's all because of me. I said i was gonna protect her, but i failed."
Odwin frowned. "I think Luz cares about her friends and girlfriend more than some portal key." He said with a smile. "Plus, i don't want my...girlfriend to look all sad."
Skara was about to reply, but paused upon realizing what Odwin said. "You mean, you want it to be official?"
Odwin nodded "Skara, would you like to go out with me?"
"....YES!"
xxXxx
Firstly, I'm sorry to those who wanted the eclipse lake cave part of the story, but there wasn't much i could change about those scenes without breaking everything and i didn't want to do something like that at the moment.
Second, it's now two for two. I have chopped the arms of two OCs of seperate fics. I am the chopper of arms.
Third, explanation for Skara saying boyfriend in the last chapter. She just said of her own accord. As for the reason...you can think of that on your own.
Tell me how i did. Leave a review.
Toodles.