Chapter 46

"...So now I can eat more demon food," Luz finished, "but I'm still lactose intolerant, which we figured out the hard way."

Amity placed a comforting hand on her girlfriend's shoulder. Then a thought occurred to her. "Wait, if you can eat demon food now then... I could bake you a fairy pie!"

She smiled at Luz, who smiled back at her... But there was clearly something forced about it and Amity could feel some... Apprehension.

"Sounds great," Luz said as she was trying and failing to keep said apprehension out of her voice.

"Luz, you know, um, that I can..."

"I know," Luz replied while blowing. "Look, um... I know that way back when I said I'd try anything you made me and I know they're you're favorite but..." Luz suffered from a whole-body shudder. "I can eat eyeballs, I can eat spiders and fruitblood and... Honestly a lot of stuff I never thought I'd try a few months ago, but... I draw the line at fairies. I know they're not really, I know they're just animals and bloodthirsty pests in the wild but they look like little people and I can't bring myself to eat something person shaped... Especially when they're still alive."

"Okay," Amity acknowledged.

"I'm sorry," Luz apologized regretfully.

"It's fine."

"And, I want to stress this," Luz continued, "this is a me thing, not a you thing. I know this sort of thing is normal here and I'm not looking down on you for—"

"Why would I ever think that?" Amity asked, now a little offended.

"Because that's a thing back in the human realm," Luz replied, "there are people who have certain... Food preferences and they make a big deal out of thinking they're better than other people because of what they don't eat. Not, not everyone's like that, but I just... Wanted to make sure..."

"Luz," Amity said, "something like that wouldn't even have occurred to me if you hadn't..."

"I'm sorry," Luz said again.

"It's fine," Amty replied, "and it's fine that you don't want to try fairy pie. I'm sure I have plenty of recipes that you'll like better,"

"...Maybe you could teach me how to cook?" Luz asked with slight hesitation.

"Huh?"

"Has estado aprendiendo español para mí y lo has hecho muy bien. Quiero aprender algo importante para ti, mi amor," Luz replied.

Amity smiled. "Está bien, si eso es lo que quieres, entonces me encantaría enseñarte, mi amada."

"You know," a voice interrupted from behind them, "if you keep acting like this you're gonna give everyone sugar sickness."

Turning around, Luz and Amity saw first that Boscha was behind them and second that they'd attracted some attention from the other students gathered for club sign-up day.

Amity felt her face heat up but, not as much as she was used to. Luz, for her part, gave a nervous laugh. "And we were doing so good with not forgetting about other people when we uh, get romantic."

"Well, I should go," Boscha replied, "Skara jumped ship and now we don't have enough players to meet reserve regulations. If we don't get some new blood to replace her we're going to have to bench the Grudgby team and Titan take me if I let that happen."

"Actually," Amity began, "we were looking for you before we got distracted."

"Oh?"

"Yeah um... I've been thinking," Amity. "I... Told Luz why I quit the grudgby team, and she's convinced me that I can't just keep blaming myself for one mistake."

"That wasn't a mistake," Boscha countered. "Who cares if we got hurt, we won."

"Yeah, well... The point is, I was wondering if I could rejoin the team?" Amity finished. While she'd gotten a lot of use out of her potions classes, the 'spend more time with Boscha' part of the plan had been something of a failure. "Like, just as a regular player. You're a better captain than I was."

"Oh, okay," Boscha replied. "You're in."

"Um, no," Amity said quickly, "I want to do this by the book. A proper tryout, to make sure I've still got it."

"Always a stickler for the rules, eh Queen?" Boscha said with a laugh. "Okay, if that's what you want our sign-up booth is just over there," Boscha said while pointing up the walkway. She then turned to Luz and awkwardly asked. "Um, do you want to try out, too?"

"No," Luz replied, "I um, well..."

"She has an objection to the use of the rusty smidge," Amity explained.

This prompted the three-eyed witch to blink. "Why?"

"We will be here all day if I have to explain," Luz answered. "Also um... Me, on a team with her..."

"Running around in cute uniforms..." Amity continued.

"Sweating?" Luz finished.

"Yeah," Amity concluded with a slightly warmer face. "Not a good idea if we actually want to win."

"Fair enough," Boscha acknowledged. "Well, right this way."

"I'll catch up with you later, Hermosa," Luz said. "Gwen and Del are still in town and they want to do a grandparents' day with me and King." Luz then planted a quick kiss on Amity's cheek and then sped off.

"What was that about?" Boscha asked as she led Amity to the sign-up booth.

"Luz's Mom back in the human realm was concerned about how legal Eda's guardianship over Luz was, so Eda adopted her," Amity explained. From what Luz had said, she was a little nervous talking about it with Camila after the fact because she'd impulsively signed the forms 'Noceda-Clawthorne' but Camila was fine with it. She'd even offered to look up the paperwork so they could change Luz's name in the human realm if that's what Luz wanted.

"Oh, good for her," Boscha observed. At the booth, she looked down at the sign-up sheet. "Hmm. Not that many takers."

"Well," Amity said as she signed her name, "you've got me."

TLOA

Hunter looked off in the distance, in the direction of Hexside. Willow, or the Captain as he'd taken to calling her, was trying to establish a flyer derby team. They'd talked about it a couple of times, he'd met the students who were interested in joining the team (under the name Caleb, just in case, which Flapjack had suggested and had gotten some side-eye from Luz) and even helped them in a few practice games though as he wasn't enrolled at Hexside he wouldn't be able to join the team himself officially.

The Owl Lady had offered to enroll him, but he wouldn't be able to officially start until the next semester and regardless, the Emperor had spies everywhere. Even with a fake name, it was too risky.

...Well, the Owl Lady's parents had noted that he bore a passing resemblance to a young Del. The idea of dying his hair and passing him off as a distant cousin had been floated but this wasn't a children's cartoon, such disguises wouldn't fool anyone.

So he stood and wondered how things were going. Did the team end up going with the name he suggested?

Suddenly, he heard a twig snap. It was coming from the path into town... It couldn't be Luz, she and her friends usually flew here on their staves and when they didn't they tended to run down the path. Besides, she was in town with the elder Clawthornes and King.

Summoning Flapjack to his hand and drawing upon his training Hunter snuck through the woods to try and observe the intruders. From the treeline, he could make out three robed figures, one child-sized, one average, and one tall and broad-shouldered.

The child-sized one appeared to be crawling on all fours, and the largest one gave a slightly effeminate whine as they realized they'd stepped in mud and tried to scrape it off the bottom of their boot.

Something clicked in Hunter's mind as the small one responded with a growl: Those were Darius and Eberwolf. He wasn't sure who the third witch was, but...

...There's no way the Emperor knew he was here, they'd been too careful but... His uncle knew that The Owl Lady still had the portal and... If Luz was right about his Uncle being a liar, then he might have been lying about the Titan ordering him to pardon the Owl Lady and the rioters and now he's trying to recapture her or maybe take revenge on Luz... He didn't, he didn't want to think that his uncle might be the bad guy but he had to admit that the human made some good points. Since coven scouts had consistently failed in this regard, his uncle must have decided to go for the big guns.

So, with Flapjack's help and his light dash spell, Hunter charged and tackled the largest witch off the path.

The Owl Lady insisting that he get more than four three of sleep a night, however, had made him go soft. He was rusty, and quickly ended up glued to a tree with abomination slime.

"You just can't stop getting into fights with teenagers, can you Darius?" quipped the third witch. That voice? That was the new Bard head, right?

Darius gave a long-suffering sigh. "What are you doing here, Brat?"

"I could very well ask the same of you!" Hunter demanded in his most authoritative voice, desperate to maintain control of the situation despite the circumstances. This was so much easier when he had a mask.

The small one, probably Eberwolf, growled something and Darius replied "The Golden Brat disappeared from the castle suddenly and without warning, shortly after Kikimora snipes a mission from him, only to turn up weeks later in the woods outside the Owl Lady's house? There's no way this is a coincidence."

"And I'm supposed to believe that three coven heads are just going for a casual meetup with the most infamous Wild Witch on the Isles?" Hunter asked back.

"Look, seriously what are—"

Darius was interrupted by several witches on their staves flying overhead, only to turn around, float right above the path, look down at the scene in question, land, and start threatening the three coven heads with said staves.

The Captain, of course, was at the front of the pack with Gus right behind her, with Viney and Skara behind them.

"What are you doing to him?" Willow demanded.

"Hey, he attacked me," Darius defended. Eberwolf just laughed.

"Likely story," Willow insisted.

"Caleb wouldn't do that!" Viney declared.

"Who in the Isles is Caleb?" Darius shouted.

"Um, me, I'm Caleb," Hunter answered awkwardly.

Darius started rubbing his temples through his hood. "Titan take me this is going to be a long day."

"Careful, now," the suspected Bard head... Whispers? Said. "Last time you had a misunderstanding like this it only took two schoolchildren to beat you."

"You are never going to let me live that down, are you!?" Darius snapped.

"Not a chance."

"Okay, just what is going on?" Called out a voice from up the path as The Owl Lady came marching down and... "Ugh!" she grunted. "Blondie, the bedsheet brigade are on our side. Mudboy cut down Blondie, he's one of us now."

"I did not consent to that name," Darius whined petulantly as she snapped his fingers and the slime-binding Hunter retreated making him fall to the ground.

Gus helped him up, "you okay, buddy?"

"Yeah," Hunter replied. "How'd it go at school?"

"Great!" The Captain answered as the other teens turned and formed a circle around Hunter. "Professor Hermunculus tried to be a jerk about things because he's mad that I switched from abominations to plants but we proved ourselves so as soon as we find a permanent fifth member the Emerald Entrails are good to go."

"Or at least someone to fill in till next semester, right Caleb?" Skara added

"We'll uh, we'll see," Hunter replied.

"So, let me get this straight," Darius said from his new position next to the Owl Lady who had seemingly filled him in on a few details while Hunter was talking with his friends. "Caleb has been learning about how the world works, making his own choices, and has friends his own age now?"

"Yes sir," Hunter replied.

"Well it's about time," Darius said with... Was that pride? "Tell me, do you have a way to keep in touch with these young witches?"

"No sir," Hunter replied.

"Well, you do now," Darius said as he approached only to once again have a bunch of staves pointed in his general direction. "Seriously?" With a roll of his eyes, he summed a scroll and floated it over to Hunter.

"...Do you just carry an extra scroll around?" The Owl Lady asked incredulously.

"It always helps to be prepared," Darius replied defensively.

"For this!? ...although that reminds me, I should probably get one of those for Luz... Anyway!" she said as she turned to the teens. "The Bedhsheet Brigaid and I are working on a top-secret project. I will neither confirm nor deny what it is or who it is under those robes. You assorted gremlins can hang out here as long as you stay outside for the next little while, and if you tell anyone about this meeting I will do whatever it is the imperial propoganda department says wild witches do to naughty children."

"...Eat our skin?" Viney asked.

"That's why everyone thinks that!" the wild witch declared with a shout of triumphant realization.

"Did I miss something?" came yet another voice from above them. Looking up, Luz was floating above them, sitting on her staff with King asleep in her arms.

"Not as much as you'd think," Eda answered. "How'd it go with my parents?"

"Great!" Luz replied. "King got all tuckered out, but Gwen taught me some beast keeper spells."

"So you're on speaking terms with your parents again?" Whispers asked.

"Yeah, I'll fill you in later," the wild witch replied. "And how'd that thing you were doing with Boots go?"

"I don't know," Luz said. "She hasn't messaged me yet." A buzzing went off and Luz pulled a device from her pocket, "spoke too soon." She spent the next few minutes alternatively typing or looking at the device before looking down at the Owl Lady with a grim expression. "Can Amity stay over tonight?"

"Yeah," The Owl Lady replied immediately and without hesitation.

"Thank you."

TLOA

Amity was breathing heavily, she was tired, and she was still trying to figure out when and how she'd scraped her knee, but... She was happy. Part of her had missed this.

Boscha had been somewhat disappointed by the low turnout in terms of sign-ups but there had still been enough takers who could live up to Boscha's strict standards that she was spoiled for choice when it came to filling Skara's spot.

"Not that it matters," Boscha insisted, "Your tryout was just a formality and you know it."

After the tryouts, Bocha had insisted that Amity join her at her clubhouse, which had been rebuilt after the 'body swap' incident Luz had mentioned on the Knee, to just hang out as they barely spent any time together anymore. Part of Amity had missed that, too.

"I wanted to do it by the book," Amity replied. "I haven't played in a while, there could be someone better than me."

"Not likely," Boscha said with a scoff. "You've always been the best at everything and if you weren't you wouldn't rest until you were."

Amity sighed. "That wasn't me. Not the real me. That was... My mother expected me to be the best and I just wanted her validation so... But now I know I don't need to be the best at everything, I just need to be the best me."

"Huh," Boscha replied. "You've changed but... You seem happier now."

"Much happier," Amity confirmed.

"...Now that you're spending all your time with the people you want to be friends with instead of the people you were forced to be friends with?" Boscha asked.

Amity winced. "I'm sorry, I never should have said that."

"No, it's true," Boscha said. "I... The day we first properly met, at your birthday party... I saw how sad you were and that felt wrong. Nobody should be sad on their birthday, so I decided then and there that I was going to be your best friend ever but... When you ran away," Boscha continued, "and I read the diary page about just how... Little it took to make you fall for, for Luz I realized that you must have... That I must not have been a very good friend and I thought back on our relationship and realized that... I was mostly just dragging you into what I wanted to do."

"Look, I mean, not everything. We have grudgby in common."

"Yeah," Boscha acknowledged. "Anyway, I swore a promise to the Titan that if you turned up again if you were okay, I'd try to be a better friend and..."

"Boscha, you've been a great friend," Amity replied.

"Am I?" Boscha asked. "I gave up on demanding respect from people because you don't like doing it. I encouraged you to ask out the human even though she's not good enough for you—which is totally fine, by the way, you love who you love," she suddenly backtracked, "I've done my best to be supportive of you and... But this is the first time we've hung out in months."

"Boscha, I'm sorry," Amity said. "I should have made time for you."

"But you didn't," Boscha replied. "And I get it. I must be a crummy friend if you'd rather hang out with Willow after what she did."

"What, the fake abomination incident?" Amity. "I mean, I understand why she did it and I didn't exactly help by going out of my way to belittle her. And, well, I'm the one who lost her head over a stupid badge." Amity felt a twinge of regret for how she'd treated her first and best friend for all those years.

Boscha looked at Amity wide-eyed before blinking. "No, uh, do you not even remember?"

"No," Amity replied confused at Boscha's bewilderment. "I can't think of anything else."

"Your birthday party, when we were little," Boscha continued. "You were so happy to see her, just ran up and gave her a bear hug, then a few minutes later you take her to, you're room I think? And then a few minutes after that she leaves and you're miserable for your entire birthday party. I don't know what she did to you but..."

"Boscha, no," Amity was quick to correct as a few things clicked into place. Amity... Amity had reasons to treat Willow badly, but they weren't good ones. But not she recalled Boscha encouraging it, even going out of her way to pick on Willow when Amity didn't and... "Willow didn't do anything wrong. My mother didn't like that I was friends with her. I wasn't supposed to invite her and when I did my mother gave me an ultimatum: Break things off with her or she'd do it for me."

Boscha just looked at her incredulously for a moment before bursting into hysterical laughter... But the emotions she was radiating weren't good ones.

"See," she said as she finally calmed enough to speak, "that just proves my point. I never even asked what happened."

"Boscha, I..."

"And worst of all... You're happy, right? You're happy with Willow and what's his name, you're happy with Luz and her weirdo found-family... You're happy, for what I think is the first time since I've known you," Boscha observed, "so why can't I be happy for you?"

"Boscha? Are you alright?" Amity asked, suddenly very concerned for her friend.

"...I don't think this is gonna work out," Boscha said after a moment. "You on the team or... You and me in general."

"Boscha, that's... We can still make this friendship work," Amity insisted.

"What friendship?" Boscha asked. "You admitted to my face that you never really saw me as a friend and I don't blame you... so why are we trying to force it?"

"But, no I want to—"

"This isn't about want, this is about need," Boscha insisted. "You need to stop focusing on me and spend your time with the people you want to spend time with. And I... Need to get over you, and I can't do that if we keep holding onto a friendship that we both know never existed."

"Get over..." And then everything clicked. The feelings Boscha let off whenever Luz came up and... Now that she thought about it, they were oddly similar to how Amity felt when Luz admitted that Em and Ed had hit on her at the library way back when. "Boscha, you...?"

"Yeah. Don't worry, I won't get weird about it," Boscha replied. "You made your choice and I was never even in the running. Just... I should have done this weeks ago, but... I'm sorry. Sorry for putting you through that tryout for nothing and... I'm glad we had this talk though," she continued. "I never would have worked up the nerve if we hadn't, so thanks for that."

Amity found herself losing her words.

"I'm heading home now," Boscha said as she summoned her staff, topped with a crab-shaped Palisman. "Do you still remember how to lock up?"

"Uh, yes," was all Amity could make herself say.

"Alright then... Bye."

Boscha left, Amity locked up, and then she pulled out her texter and messaged Luz.

"HEY"

"HOW DID IT GO?"

"BAD"

"WANNA TALK?"

"NO"

"RU OK?"

"IDK. CAN I CRASH 2 NITE?"

"YEAH."

"THANKS. I THINK I NEED CUDDLES."