Luz POV:
I heard the sound of yelling and shouting a little ways from where I was standing at Eda's stand, I was helping her out today to repay her for getting me a scroll. She had insisted that I didn't have to but I had said, "Aww c'mon! Let me do this for you, pleeeaassseee." I had dragged out and Eda had eventually given in
Now I was making my way to see what all the commotion was about, once I got there I saw that Amity was in a fighting stance along with a ginger-haired witch, who looked way bigger than Amity. I noticed Boscha was there with a shocked expression. I'd be shocked too if I saw Amity getting into an fight.
"Oh wait, she is getting into a fight."
I felt a prickle of panic in my gut, but also a tinge of surprise. I knew Amity, she was kind, caring and protective of her friends. She'd never get into a physical fight unless she had to, I'd be able to get by if I knew what Amity was about to fight this guy about, unfortunately I had no idea.
"If this guy did something to Boscha that made Amity upset, I'd understand why she would want to fight him. He'd have to do something really REALLY bad though to make Amity this mad." I rambled in my head, walking over to Amity, "Amity wouldn't be the type of witch to get into a fist fight over something small, right? I mean, it HAS been three years and they've HAD to have changed. How much did they change though? How much did I miss? There's no way Amity would hurt people purposely, she wouldn't go back to that right?" This only leads me to wonder how me leaving affected everyone.
My internal rambling was cut off when I felt a heavy and forceful blow land onto my face, instantly sending me backwards and landing face first into the dirt. I skidded for a moment, sending dust into the air. I laid there for a moment, feeling the burning sensation of the blow and the fresh cuts on my face.
Then the pain suddenly went away and I felt everything drift away, before I knew it I was out cold.
It didn't even feel like a second went by when I woke up, wincing at the pain in my face. I looked around and saw that I was in the back tent of Eda's stand sitting with my back against a wall. All the human items towered around me as I looked around, wondering how I got here and what had happened.
I heard footsteps start to approach me and I tensed up, feeling nervous about who it could be. I breathed out in relief when I saw that it was Amity. Then my eyes shot open, "Amity!" I looked up at the green haired witch. Who gave a small wave, "Hi Luz, how're you feeling?"
I felt the pain in my face from earlier start to creep back up and I groaned, "Like I got punched in the face. Which I don't recommend." My little comment made the witch in front of me giggle. I smiled and Amity sat down across from me with her legs crossed over one another. I noticed her slightly bloody knuckles and scratched up face and raised a brow.
"How about you?"
"Me? Oh- I'm fine. Nothing bad happened to me, you should be asking the other guy." Amity laughed a little, shaking her head. My curiosity spiked and I asked, "Yea what was all that about? You don't seem like the type of person to start a fight like that without a reason."
"Oh trust me, I had a very good reason." She responded, a look in her eyes I've seen before but never was able to pinpoint what. "Oh? That very good reason is?" I requested. I saw Amity freeze and her face go red, I felt panic rise in my chest.
Her face only ever got that red when she was mad, was she mad that I was trying to pry in her personal life? Amity shook her head and muttered, "It's nothing."
"Shit. I made Amity mad at me, I tried prying into something probably personal and now she's mad. Way to go Luz!" I mentally slapped myself.
"Oh, ok then. So what are you doing in the marketplace?" I tilted my head out of curiosity, I saw her face go even redder and my panic heightened.
"DAMMIT LUZ! AGAIN!? CAN YOU JUST STOP BEING NOSY FOR ONCE AND MIND YOUR BUSINESS!!?"
I rubbed the back of my neck and chuckled nervously, "N-never mind." I stuttered out, "I can see you don't wanna talk about it." I saw the confusion in her face as she asked, "Huh? What do you mean?" She tilted her head.
This took me by surprise but I responded to her question, "Oh! Your face, it keeps getting red and that only usually happens whenever you're mad. I thought you were mad at me for trying to dig into something personal.." I felt myself being washed over with relief, which was soon replaced with embarrassment.
"IDIOT!"
I scolded myself.
"YOU JUST HAD TO ASSUME DIDN'T YOU?!"
I saw her eyes widened and she quickly shook her head, "What no! No no, I'm not mad at you!" She waved her hands up defensively in the air, "Really I'm not it's just...embarrassing." She muttered out.
My confusion only heightened but then a thought popped up in my mind, "Oh! Are you here to buy me something? Eda had told me that she didn't tell you guys it was my birthday yesterday when I made that post. I figured one of you will be 'absolutely riddled with guilt', as Eda said, and go to the marketplace today to get me a late birthday gift."
I saw Amity freeze, it stayed like that for a little while until she nodded. "Uh yea, that's why I was here..heh." She chuckled nervously, I smiled brightly, "Aww Amity! You didn't have to. The surprise party was a good enough gift for me."
A small smile appeared on her face and she nodded, rubbing the back of her neck, "I guess you're right, though it was more of a gift from all of us. In fact, it was Willows idea to want to throw the surprise party and we all pitched in to help." She explained, making me nod happily.
"Well then I guess I better tell everyone else not to buy me a gift, don't want them wasting money on me!" I said, Amity gave me a confused look. "Oh yea, you don't call your currency money. Y'all call it...." I trailed off, trying to remember the name of the Boiling Isles's version of money.
"Snails?" She asked, my eyes went bright as I found out the answer, "Yea that's it! Snails. Heh it's funny, we have our own version of snails in the Human Realm." I gave Amity a bright smile, "I'd have to take you to the Human Realm someday."
I saw Amity's face go a little red again and that made me wonder if I shouldn't have said that, but that thought was thrown out when I saw her nodding her head. "I'd like that." Amity smiled. My heart skipped a beat, I love seeing that smile.
However something popped up in my head, it was nagging me for a little while but I had pushed it down. Now I was just as curious as ever and I opened my mouth to ask the question but before I could ever get a word out, Boscha entered the tent.
"Hey Am, Ed and Em texted me saying you need to head back home, something happened and they need you for it." The three-eyed witch explained, making Amity groan. "What did they do now?" She asked and Boscha just shrugged, "Dunno, they didn't say."
Amity muttered a few words under her breath that I didn't catch but assumed were insults towards her siblings, "I guess I better go see what they've done, someone has to make sure they don't accidentally hurt themselves." Amity sighed while picking herself up off the ground.
The green haired witch looked at me and waved, "See ya later Luz, you too Boscha." She farewelled before leaving the tent, Boscha was about to follow before I stopped her.
"Hey Boscha?" I asked, wondering if Boscha could give me an answer to my question. She looked at me and raised an eyebrow, "Yea?"
"So umm, before I got punched in the face," I began, "I saw Amity and that other guy get into the fighting stance, the weird thing is...Amity looked like she was a Mortal Kombat character," I stopped to laughed a little only for it to die down after seeing the clear confusion on Boscha's face, "Uh never mind that, the point is she looked like she's done that before and I just wanted to ask, has Amity gotten into other fights while I was away?" My question immediately made Boscha's eyes widen.
Her eyes darted around the room, it looked like she was trying to find something to say. I started thinking, "What happened when I went away?" I asked myself.
Boscha finally spoke up after being speechless, "Oh well..I can't say anything directly to you, cause then Amity would have my head but....all I'm gonna say is that Amity is gonna pass by the marketplace later on tonight by 7:45. If you wanna know why she was able to do that so fluently, follow her and see for yourself. I'm gonna give you tip, it won't make sense now but it will once you follow her." I nodded and Boscha bent down beside me to whisper in my ear.
"There's a secret opening on the roof, use a staff or levitation spell to get up there and sneak in. Go to where all the noise is at and don't get caught by Amity, if she sees you there then she'll know that I told you about it. Ok?" I nodded once again, and she stood up.
Boscha turned to leave the tent but not without a goodbye wave, "See you later Luz, if I'm at the place then I'll go wait by the opening." I waved back and nodded, "Ok! Bye Boscha!"
Once Boscha left, I was alone with my thoughts.
"What could Boscha mean, where was Amity going so late? How come she hasn't told me about this place and why is it a secret? And a secret opening? Díos mío, none of it makes sense but Boscha said it will once I follow Amity." I grabbed my scroll out of my pocket and grunted when I saw a crack on the right side of the screen.
"Oh c'mon, I just got this yesterday..oh well." I sighed.
I checked the time and saw that it was 5:29. "Hm, only 2 hours. Eda will probably keep her stand up for another hour and then start to pack up. I'd have to make an excuse to stay behind while Eda went back to the Owl House." I say there thinking for a few moments, then an idea clicked.
"Eda was just telling me about the scroll repair stand, I'll tell her that I have to get my scroll fixed cause the screen broke after the incident in the marketplace. Repairs usually take a while so it would give me enough time to follow Amity and meet up with Boscha at the secret place she was telling me about." I felt a little tinge of guilt rise up in my chest but I quickly swallowed it down.
"I feel bad for lying to Eda but this is important. I have to know what Amity is keeping a secret, she could be getting into fights and getting hurt. I can't just stand by and do nothing while Amity is possibly getting seriously hurt. Besides, only half of it is a lie. I'm not going to go repair my scroll but it did break. Who knows, if I still have time left before I have to head back to the Owl House, maybe I will go get my scroll fixed."
"But until then. All I have to focus on is Amity and the secret place. In order to get my questions answered and suspicions cleared, I have to follow Amity."