I sit on the bench in the dog park, practically sweating from nervousness.
"What if her gets hurt? What if the other dogs are mean to him?" I desprately ask Eda, "My parental instincts are freaking out man."
"He's fine," Eda assures, "Look at him."
I look over at King who is currently trying to climb up a small slide.
"It does look like he's having fun. Who knows what his little puppy brain is thinking of?"
As I watch him I see him finally get to the top of the slide. He sits, very proud of himself and yips, making two dogs who were watching him roll over and yip back. Then a small dog comes up from behind him and nudges him forward and down the slide making him tumble down. King scampers over and whines in front of us, looking very pitiful.
"Awe, are you upset that puppy shoved you?" Eda asks King jokingly.
King looks up at Eda's staff that Owlbert was currently purched on and yips.
"Buddy, I'm not having Owlbert steal a puppy. He has better things to do, like this."
Eda scoops up Owlbert and gives him some scritches on his head making him start warbling.
"Awe he's such a sweetie. How did you get him?"
"There was a forest fire from a camping accident and when I went around the area looking for abandoned and intact supplies, I found his egg unhatched and abandoned. So, I took him in and raised him. I could ask the same about your little bluejay buddy."
"Who, my Palisman?" I ask, summoning my staff and unscrewing them, "I didn't get her. I carved her from the branch of a Palistrom tree. Nyx and I are bonded for life."
She hops onto my shoulder and nuzzles my cheek.
"Yeah. Suffice it to say, I'd annihilate anyone who'd try and take her from me."
King starts to growl softly, obviously not pleased with the lack of attention he's getting. The puppy from earlier walks over and shoves them over again before running away, barking happily.
"Oh, man. Here we go. King's sqeak of rage." Eda giddily says.
King pulls himself up and starts yipping at such a high pitch it's like a squeal. He runs off and begins chasing the puppy.
"Hey, what's that?" Eda asks, pointing to Nyx's foot as she scratches her face.
"Oh! That's her interlock. She only fits on my staff. Every palisman has one. It'd actually make it easy for my to find a palisman here that somehow got here, even if they looked like a human realm animal. Though, it's unlikely that there'd be a palisman here." I explain.
I help Nyx scratch a hard to reach spot and she happily chirps. When I glance back over at Eda, she's completely passed out on the bench.
"Eda? Eda! Wake up!"
Her eyes spring open and she looks very disturbed.
"Are you okay?" I ask, helping her up.
"What? Oh, no." Eda shudders, "The curse. We have to get home. Now."
Eda grabs her staff and begins to walk away as Owlbert moves from her shoulder to her hair.
"King! Time to go buddy!" I call, grabbing King's leash.
He happily runs over and I clip the leash onto the collar. I let King into the back seat then hop in the passenger seat. The second I click in my seatbelt, Eda drives us home, hardly staying below the speed limit.
When we get back, Eda trudges into the house and tiredly unlocks the door. She walks in and flops onto the couch face down.
"Want me to get your elixer?" I ask, closing the door and letting King off my leash.
"Don't worry," Eda groans, voice muffled, "I'll get it myself in a bit."
"Do you want me to stay here and take care of you? I can put King in a cute little doctors outfit!"
Both of us look over at him and his head perks up, confused at hearing his name.
"No one wants to see that."
"I do." I say quietly, picturing the cuteness.
"Look kid, I've had this curse longer than you've been alive."
"So how did you get it?"
"Eh, I don't know." She shrugs.
"You don't know?" I gasp, shocked, "You are literally cursed, therefore proving the idea if there being a way of a way to cross between realms without a portal, and you don't know?"
"Somebody gave it to me. So, I researched magic and figured out how to get and make potions. I don't know who gave it to me and I don't care. Anyway, don't you have plans with Tweedledumb and Twerpledee?"
"Yeah! Willow, Gus, and I are going to see a Grudgeby game. It honestly sounds like a sport that would be from my world, but it's apparently an amalgomation of a bunch of Human sports. Westside is playing against out rival Landus High."
"Since when are you into human's sports?" Eda laughs.
"Since I found out Westside Pride! To think that Landus, whoever they are with that stupid name, would dare face us. But if you need me to stay..."
"Gross. Sympathy. Go have fun watching Grudgeby." Eda groans, rolling over.
"Hooray! Hooray for sport! Hugs and kisses King," I say, giving King a bunch of kisses on his head, "Mwah!"
~~~~~~
I land in an alley near the school and hide my staff. I slide on my concealment bracelet and walk out, excited and trying to think of fun chants.
"Westside's gonna wreck your side, no. Not that." I whisper, "Westside is the best side on...the...west side...no that's worse. Oh! Fiends!"
I rush up to Willow and Gus and we all cheer.
"Happy game day, fellow, uh...Westsidians? Westsiders? Westolios?"
"Actually, most people call us winners." Willow confidently says.
"Grugeby games are the best." Gus adds, "The players run around the field, passing the ball, strategizing on the fly. And the auidence waves flags! Look, I practiced."
Gus pulls out two small flags and hums as he waves them around. I look around at everyone's outfits then down at my hoodie.
"Is it weird that I'm not wearing Westside colors?" I ask.
"Um, it's weirder that you're wearing Landus colors." Willow points out, nodding towards a banner advertising the game, Westside player in gold and blue and Landus player in white and purple.
"Get ready to be creamed, Landus nerd!" Some random guy basically yells at me, giving me a noogie before walking off.
"Hey! I'm a Westside nerd!" I retort before turning back to Gus and Willow, "Gotta change out of this shirt. Anywhere I could get one?"
"Oh! There's a lost and found box in the cafeteria." Mentions.
"Ah! The lost and found. Where mouthguards go to retire."
I head inside and found the box. After a bit of digging, I find a hat.
"Perfect." I whisper, putting it on.
I'm about to get up when I notice more merch.
I swing the doors open and wave around some pom poms I found.
"Go.....Hexside!" I jump up and do a split, hearing a crack when I land, "Well. I never did that before. Uh, where's everyone else?"
I look across the parking lot and see the bus driving away, people cheering out the window as they do.
"No, no, no, no, no!" I panic, getting up and running out into the parking lot then turning back to Gus and Willow, "Why didn't you guys get on the bus?"
"We weren't going to leave you behind." Willow reasons.
"I was." Gus grumbles, making Willow elbow him.
"Can we walk to Landus?" I ask, feeling guilty.
"We'll never make it in time. Landus is..." Gus twirls his flags then points them towards the horizon, "On the other side of town."
"Typical Landus." I scoff.
"My parents are working, otherwise I'd call them and ask if they could give us a ride." Willow says.
"A ride...because we don't need to take public transport. I have an idea!"
"Really?" Gus asks.
"Yeah!"
I summon my staff and smirk at them.
A/N: As you can see, I follow the "Luz's Palisman will be a blue jay" group. Honestly, I think all of the ideas are equally likely it's just easiest to turn Owlbert into another simple bird when there are shots of Eda's staff being used in magical ways. Any shots where it's just a normal staff being used by Eda I turn it into a regular staff. Honestly I actually am not using that many shots that have Eda's staff.
Anyways, here's another screenshot redraw! I've always thought Gus looked adorable in the giant sweater so I made sure to get a shot where he wore it. Ignore how bad the banner looks. I just made the colors of the demons actually possible for a human and made the cyclops have two eyes. Then I blurred it because it looked bad lol.
This episode was so much fun to change and I can't wait to see how you guys like it as it goes.