Chereads / Mechanical Witch (The Owl House AU) / Chapter 7 - Lost in Language

Chapter 7 - Lost in Language

In the Owl House King sat on the couch happily listening as Luz read to him. "'Azura," Hecate began. "Our paths have crossed only in battle. But today I stand before you seeking an ally'," Luz read out as she sighed. "Luz, you're getting all swoony again," King pointed out.

"I can't help it. Azura is able to befriend everyone. Evens her biggest rival, I wish I had that kind of power," Luz said hugging her book. "Rivals are meant to be annihilated, not befriended. Now keep reading. I've been sucked into your awful fandom," he said wagging his tail.

"Congrats, you managed to get King into your book. Too bad Cosmic Frontier is a better book," said Cruz offhandedly as he was reading a book with the title "basic magic and its composition". Luz turned to him with a glare at the disrespect. "You say that but The Good Witch Azura has a much better story than your si-fi book," Luz said pointing her book towards her brother. "That's your opinion, but at least I can get some inspiration from those books for my gadgets," he said closing the book. "I'll ignore that and get back to my book for King, "suddenly, the door swung open," after Luz had read that part, Hooty swung the door open gaining all of their attention.

"The book is alive! Burn it!" King said in fear. "No book burnings in this house," Cruz said as he and Luz walked towards the door to see what had arrived. They looked down and saw a basket covered with a brown blanket before taking it to the kitchen.

"Eda, you've got a package. It looks like a gift basket," said Luz setting the basket on the table. "Probably an offering. Ah. Being the most powerful witch in the Boiling Isles has its perks," Eda concluded before King pulled down the blanket to reveal a small sleeping baby bat. "Mm. Fresh meat," King said rubbing his paws together. "You are not going to eat a baby," Cruz said looking at him with annoyance. "No, not eating that," Luz said shielding herself with her hands.

"Witches eating babies is so 1693. What is this?" Eda said scoffing at the idea of eating the baby. "There's a note, take care of my child till morning. Yi Yi," King read the note attached to the basket. "Nope. Babies are awful. Not happening," Eda said pointing two thumbs down in protest. "You will be handsomely rewarded. X-O-X-O-X-O-X. Bat Queen," King finished reading the note gaining Eda's attention instantly as he pulled out a few coins from the basket.

"Bat Queen? Reward?" Eda said leaning forwards toward the snails that King had pulled out. "Who's the Bat Queen?" Luz asked coming back into the room. "She's the wealthiest demon on the Boiling Isles. Get in with her and you're set for life. So we keep this thing alive for a couple hours and we get paid. Pfft. Easy," Eda explained as she grabbed the snails from King.

"Our greatest adventure yet! Learning about love and life through a child's eyes," Luz said clasping her hands together. "You never had to babysit our little cousins before. So you don't know how tough this is actually going to be," said Cruz. "Not you two. You have to return the books I checked out from the library," Eda said summoning multiple books and dropping them into both of their hands.

"I don't want them getting a cut of the loot," Eda said to King as she leaned in as the two walked towards the door. "Good thinking," King whispered towards her before Cruz looked back at them and shook his head. "Now let's take a look at this little darling," Eda said uncovering the baby completely. As soon as she removed the blanket the baby woke up and began to screech at such a high pitch that the house began to shake and knocking King backwards.

"On second thought, maybe we could use your help!" Eda called out in a plea for them to stay as she covered her ears. "Well, we better get to the library! Gotta go! Bye!" called our Luz as she walked out the door. "Have fun with your lesson and your loot!" yelled out Cruz as he slammed the door. "We've got this, right?" Eda asked as the baby jumped out of the basket and onto her face knocking her backwards.

In Bonesborough, the siblings were walking towards the library passing by Tiny Nose as she carried a book much larger than her own body. They came to a stop as they spotted the library, resembling a large medieval castle with stain glass. "Whoa!" said Luz in amazement. "Whoa is right, it's huge," Cruz said agreeing with her as they stepped inside.

As the two walked in the books they were carrying began to float towards the front desk in a green glow. The book began to float through a red spell circle in the air with the words late coming from above them. "Late. Late. Coffee, grass, and bloodstains? These are Eda's aren't they?" asked the librarian holding up the book and examining it. "Huh. That was a crazy night," Luz said giving a nervous chuckle. "You don't want to know," said Cruz scratching the back of his head.

The librarian simply sighed before summoning a scroll with a very large list on it. "I'll put them on her tab. By the way, we're closing early for the wailing star meteor shower," he said gesturing towards a poster with a blue crying shooting star on it. "Ooh, what's that?" Luz inquired. "You're in a library. Read a book," he said pointing out all of the books around him. Cruz frowned at the librarian and his lackluster attitude, but Luz simply chose to ignore it. "I am in a library. I will read a book," she said with excitement running off with Cruz following close behind.

The two walked up to the Demon Decimal System with the words "do not feed" on a sign above them before Luz took out a piece of candy and placed it on one of their mouths. The decimal system swallowed it before they all regurgitated lots of papers on the two.

On the second floor of the library Luz saw multiple books floating in the air moving in a stream like fashion. "Wow," said Luz as she grabbed one of the books before being carried off by it screaming. "Hermano! Help!" she called out as Cruz jumped into the air grabbing another book being carried off by it. "This was a terrible idea!" he called out as the two were shushed by people trying to read.

In the reference section of the library multiple witches are using crystal balls as computers to look up different types of videos. One witch was watching a "how to fly" video. While another watched a video of a cat playing a piano, while a third smacked the side of his crystal ball trying to load the video to play with no success.

"This place is amazing!" Luz said cupping her cheek in her palm. "You're right, this place has so many more books than I thought. These books can help out so much," Cruz said admiring all of the books that were surrounding the two.

"What do you think you're doing?" asked someone eerily familiar. "Ah! I've been caught. Pretend to be a book," said Luz trying to take the shape of a book. "I don't think that's going to work, hermana. And besides, it came from over there," Cruz said pointing towards the kids section.

As the two peered towards the kids section they saw Amity surrounded by children as she read from a book. "We're your friends and we wanna help," said the Tin Boy with a yelp. Otabin smiled and paced the floor. "I've never had real friends before," she continued to read.

"Amity reading to kids?" Luz questioned as she snuck into the kids section ducking behind a book shelf. "Then we'll be your first," the Chicken Witch clucked. Otabin couldn't believe his luck. So, Bookmaker Otabin surrounded by friends, bound a book of friendship and that's the end," Amity finished reading as she closed the book and the children began to cheer.

"Amity seems so…nice and smiley," Luz said before gasping at realization. "Maybe I can befriend her like Azura befriended her rival,"

"I'm not sure that's something that's going to be easy. She doesn't seem the type to forget all the times we messed with her studies," Cruz said before Luz pulled him down to hide as Amity and the children passed by.

A small red demon child with a large fanged jaw came up to Amity hugging her leg. "Goodbye, Miss Amity. Thank you," he said in an extremely deep voice. "Thank you, Braxus. See you next time," Amity said, patting him on the head. "Yay!" he exclaimed, running off to join the rest of his group.

As the group left Amity glanced to her left seeing Luz and Cruz sitting on the floor before doing a double take. "Ugh! You two," she said with a frown on her face. "Amity," Luz began as she stood dropping a book on the floor. "Reading to kids. Wow. Looks like this sour lemon drop has a hidden sweet center," Luz said leaning on the book shelf.

"It's for extra credit. Don't get your leggings in a bunch," Amity dismissed as she picked up the book from the floor and began to walk away. "Hey, I could help with the kids. We could take turns reading. And do voices. I do the best monster voice," Luis said in a robotic voice. "Pretty sure that's not a monster hermana," Cruz said with a smile.

"Humans! Do you see me going to the Owl Shack and bugging you while you...fry up owls? Okay, I don't really know what you two do there, but every time either of you come near me, I get in trouble. Just leave me alone," Amity said slamming the book in her hand onto the table. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry," said Luz backing up before she began to walk away. Cruz turned towards Amity and saw her try to reach out towards Luz before taking her hand back and looking remorseful.

"Ugh! So much for befriending rivals," Luz said in frustration. "Hey I'm sure you can be friends, it's just going to take some time with some people," Cruz encouraged. "You gonna let her get to you like that?" asked a boy. The two turned to see a boy and girl both with green hair wearing identical illusion track uniforms from Hexside.

"Who are you?" Luz asked as the two approached them. "Well wishers on a mission," said the boy.

"A noble quest," said the girl

"Watch this. Hey mittens," called out the boy as Amity's face turned red from embarrassment. "Mom says stop forgetting your lunch. And stop being a jerk to your friends," he said holding up a pink lunch bag that looked like a rabbit.

"They're not my friends," Amity strongly denied earning a hurt look from Luz and a frown from Cruz. "Yeah, makes sense. They seem too cool for you," said the girl. "We are?" asked Luz as the girl put her hands on her shoulders. "You can leave now. All of you," Amity said pointing in the opposite direction as she stormed off. The girl chuckled as the boy winked at Luz causing her to blush with a nervous chuckle.

"So you're the humans we've heard so much about," said the boy as the four were walking past multiple rows of books. "I'm Emira. And this is Edric," said Emira introducing herself and her brother. "We're Amity's older siblings. We heard how you two embarrassed her at school and at the convention last week. No wonder she hates you," said Emira.

"I know. But we didn't mean any of it. I thought we were as cool as cucumbers. But we're as sour as pickles," Luz said trying to defend herself. "You've gotta work on your analogies sis," said Cruz shaking his head in amusement. "Don't waste your time with mittens. Me and Ed, we're way more fun. Follow us," said Emira as she grabbed Luz's hand and began to lead Luz and Cruz away.

Cruz pulled his hand away before taking a step back from the two gaining a confused look from them. "You can show Luz around if you want but I've got some stuff I have to look up while we're here at the library. Have fun and try not to get into too much trouble Luz," Cruz said turning towards Luz. "Alright hermano, but are you sure you don't want to come?" she asked. "I'm good, just get me later when you're done," he said walking away towards the reference section to look up where certain books were. "Well he's out, but we can still show you around," Emira said as she lead Luz away with Edric.

The three walked towards a sign that says fiction and non-fiction when Edric erases the word "non" from it as a librarian a small group walk towards it. "And here we go towards our nonfiction section," he began before gasping as he saw the sign. "Fiction, fiction? Is our world but fiction? Then what in my life is real anymore?" he questioned before falling down crying.

In another part of the library the librarian from the front desk was putting books on a shelf while reading, not paying attention as Emira used her magic to place the book back on the top of his pile in an endless cycle. Edric uses his magic to switch his position with the librarian giving the tour from earlier. "Huh? No! Not again!" he exclaimed before collapsing and sobbing as the other librarian fell from a ladder.

At the Demon Decimal System, Edric held up a dusty book before blowing on it. The Decimal System breathed in the dust before sneezing and throwing all of the papers over the three. The three laughed as Luz began to spin before a very stern and angry Amity called out to them. "Hey!" she was accompanied by the librarian from the front desk both standing with their arm crossed.

"Wait. Where's Gary?" the librarian asked as the same librarian from earlier, Gary, came running up to them. "Coming. Nooo!" he exclaimed before collapsing on the floor crying.

At the entrance of the library, the librarian began to push the three out of the building. "You've made reading far too fun. Now stay out," he said slamming the door shut.

"Amity's even madder at me now. I didn't think that was possible," said Luz putting a hand on her head. "No. When mittens gets mad, she looks like this," Edric inhaled sharply before grunting as his face began to turn red before exhaling. "Whoa. I almost passed out," he said straightening himself up.

"You're pretty fun human," Emira began as she and Edric nodded to each other. "So, hey, we're coming back tonight. There's a certain book we forgot to... check out," said Emira as Edric jumped into the conversation. "And bonus, rumor has it the Wailing Star's supposed to unlock some rare magical event. You in, friend?" he asked as he and Emira put a hand underneath their chins. "Sure," Luz said shrugging.

"Great. Meet back here at midnight. See you, Luz," Edric said as he and Emira left. "Bye. This is great. First I befriend the siblings then I befriend the Amity," said Luz happily squealing as she jumped in place. "Not usually how those things work out hermana," said Cruz startling her. "Did you hear all that?" she asked.

"I did, and I want to come too. What they said about the magical event sounds like it could be fun. That and I saw what you three were doing and nobody really got hurt so it's fine with me," he explained. "Then we'd better head home and get ready to meet them up later," Luz said as she ran off towards the Owl House with Cruz following after her. Unknown to either of them Amity was standing close by and had heard everything they had said and planned. She inhaled sharply before grunting as her face became red. "Phew! Almost passed out," she said releasing her breath with her face turning back to normal.

"I just had the best day. Cool teens like me. Call me a library book 'cause they were checking me out," Luz said as she and Cruz entered the Owl House and noticed Eda sitting on the couch with King as she was cradling the baby bat. "Aw, Eda. You look so motherly," Luz said placing her hands over her chest. "Never would've pegged you for the motherly type," Cruz said smiling at her.

"Say that again and I'll steal both of your tongues," Eda said with a warning tone. "Aww. How can you that around this cute little baby?" Luz asked as she walked up to the baby before she poked it multiple times. The baby woke up before barfing up a smaller version of itself before the smaller one did the same. The three chirp before they began to flap their wings and fly upward. Luz and Cruz recoiled back before one of the babies began to breath fire. The four duck for cover as the flames hit the couch.

"Parenting sure looks rewarding. E-enjoy your life lessons," Luz said as she grabbed her bag and she ran out the door. "Looks super rewarding hope you enjoy it, bye," Cruz said as he put on his bag as well before slamming the door shut as the babies began to make a mess and running after Luz. "Uh, for, for the money?" King questioned wondering if it was still worth it. "For the money," Eda answered also beginning to question if it was worth it as she ducked out of the way of green liquid hitting the wall behind her.

Multiple hours later at the dead of night, Luz and Cruz were standing outside of the library as Luz was pacing next to a pillar while Cruz had a book open while standing next to the same pillar. "Gotta be cool. Cool? No. Cool," Luz said as she kept switching from one pose to another. "Don't really think it works that way Luz," Cruz said as he closed his book. "Well then how would you do this?" she asked leaning on the pillar. "No idea, but it's kinda of funny to see," he said with a chuckle.

"He's right you know," said Edric startling Luz as she fell onto the ground. When Luz stood back up she saw Emira and Edric standing there. "Keep going. This is fun to watch," Emira said leaning against the opposite pillar. "You ready to bring this whole, uh, whatever you're doing, inside?" Edric asked pointing to the entrance. Luz nodded eagerly before turning back to Cruz.

"Oh yeah, my brother wanted to come along too. I hope that's alright?" she asked the two. "Yeah, hope it's alright. Sounded like fun and it's better than staying home all night," Cruz said standing next to Luz putting his book back into his bag. "It's not a problem at all, the more the better," Emira said as she and Edric began to walk to the door with the Noceda twins.

"It says no trespassing but I'm allergic to the rules," Edric said as he pulled out a scroll handing it to Emira.

"And dairy," Emira added in as she grabbed the scroll containing writing and pictures of keys on it. "Wow, okay. Just expose me," Edric said frowning at his sister as she placed the scroll on the door before the paper crumbled away and the keyhole grew much larger. "Wow!" said Luz in amazement. "Come on," Edric said as the four walked into the library before the lock return back to normal size.

Inside of the library it was completely dark besides the moonlight as the four stood in the lobby. "Standing in a dimly lit lobby. You guys know how to party," Luz said looking around. "There. The wailing star!" Edric pointed towards the window where a bright star passed by crying. "Huh, it's actually crying. I really should've expected it to be literal," said Cruz as the books around them began to glow green. Edric and Emira began to look up and around expecting something from the window. "Hmm. Nothing happened," said Edric with disappointment.

"Wait," Luz said as she walked up to a shelf pulling out a glowing green book with the tittle "Extinct Birds of the Boiling Isles" on the front. "The books are all glowy," she said opening the book and pointing it upward. From the pages of the books a large hoard of birds came out flying all over the library.

"Wow!" said both Luz and Cruz in amazement.

"Wow. The Wailing Star magicked the books to life," said Edric with a chuckle. Luz closed the book causing all of the birds to disappear. The four looked at each other with a grin as they headed towards the magazine section. Edric opened a magazine titled "Regal Couture" dressing himself and Emira in fancy clothing as a peacock flew out of it. Luz opened a magazine titled "Witch Wares Weekly gaining a blue jacket with spikes brown pants and a headband along with a large sword attached to her back. The sword was too heavy as it pulled on her back causing her to fall over with a yelp.

Cruz ran over to her picking her up before closing the magazine returning Luz to normal. The four went to another section where Luz opened up a book, when nothing happened Luz looked at the Blight twins in disappointment. "Nothing happened," she said as a large word bubble appeared above her surprising all of them. "Wow!" said the Blight twins taking a step back as Luz closing the book with the sound affect appearing as she does.

In another corner of the library Luz is holding a book called "Snowballs: A History" as she looks around the corner she sees Edric passing by holding the same book. "Ha!" she calls out opening the book and pelting him with snowballs knocking him over. On the floor, Edric opens his copy of the book launching snowballs towards Luz who runs for cover. From behind her Emira appears opening her own copy of the book knocking over Luz. From above she heard someone clear their throat, looking up she saw Cruz standing on the book shelf as he opened his book pelting her with snowballs before running to another part of the library.

Edric was chasing after his sister as Luz came out from hiding at the kids section of the library. She noticed the glowing green Otabin book before picking it up and opening the book. From the page Otabin, a small pink rabbit holding a needle and green yarn ball, appeared looking at her with curiosity. Luz looked at him with a fond smile as she began to read from the pages.

From behind Luz, Cruz walked into the kids section covered in snow from being pelted by the twins and their book to see Luz reading the Otabin book. "The pages he'd mend. But all the while he longed for a friend," she read as Otabin looked up towards her with a smile. "Friend?" he asked sweetly.

"You guys, check this out," called our Edric as he and Emira walked in holding another book. "Look what we discovered," Emira said opening up a book called "Quacks Eats Snacks" makings baby duck appear quacking along happily. "Aw. Cute little quackster," Luz said cooing at it as Edric took out a pencil and began to draw human legs on the duck. Suddenly the the baby duck had grown the same legs that was drawn in the book before panicking at the sight.

"Now he's extra cute," said Emira as she and Edric began to laugh before closing ten book causing the duck to disappear.

"Your turn Luz," said Emira

"I don't know," Luz said backing away slowly

"Come on. Don't stop the fun," said Edric handing her a pencil. "Can't you see that she's uncomfortable. Leave her out of this," said Cruz getting in front of Luz surprising the Blight twins. "Then how about I do it," said Edric drawing angry eyebrows and claws on Otabin. As a clawed hand began to appear from the book, Luz quickly closed it preventing it from emerging. "I don't want to see it," Luz says closing her eyes while pulling the book closer to herself.

"Whatever. We didn't come here to just doodle. Come on," said Emira pulling Luz along with her making Luz drop the book onto the floor. Cruz scoffed before following them now getting a better idea of their typical fun. Unknown to any of them, the book that Luz had dropped, opened to the same page Edric had drawn on causing a pink clawed hand to emerge.

Edric and Emira had lead the Noceda twins towards a book shelf labeled romance section. "Okay, not the place I expected next," said Cruz skeptically. "Oh, wow. Boiling Isles romance. That's totally lame. I mean, unless you guys are into it?" Luz said looking away from them.

"I think I'm into this one," Edric said pulling a book titled "The Lone Witch & Secret Room". From behind the book the sound of a machine clicking could be heard as the shelf moved back before moving to the side revealing a hidden room. "Wow! That's a good book," said Luz in amazement.

"Your clubhouse is like my ultimate secret hideaway," said Luz as she and Cruz stepped inside looking around. "Seriously, the privacy is amazing and look at all of these book," Cruz said with a smile.

"We don't hang out in a library. 'Uh teacher, I'm in love with a dictionary'" said Edric in a mocking fashion. "I'm studying the dork arts," Emira said imitating her brother. "This is Amity's secret hideaway," she said as Edric gave two thumbs up. Luz and Cruz stared at two at given this revelation with Cruz gaining an irritated look.

"Mittens has gotten too... full of herself. She keeps tattling on us when we cut class," said Edric as he put a hand on Luz's shoulder. "She needs to learn not to mess with people like that. So, we're going to find her diary," Emira began to say. "And then post the pages all around school for everyone to see," Edric finished as he and Emira laughed while Cruz stared at the twins with a look with a mixture of shock and bewilderment.

"What? Isn't that taking things a bit too far?" Luz asked with worry. "No. See, we're her family. It's tough love. She needs to learn to lighten up," Emira said as she and Edric began to search for the diary. "Hmm. Well, I-I don't see any diaries in here. Nope, nothin'. Let's just leave. Wait, are those..." Luz began to say as she saw copies of her favorite book series on the shelf. "Good Witch Azura books one through four! You get these on the Boiling Isles? So majestic," said Luz as she grabbed a book.

"I've never seen this one before," said Cruz in a whispered voice as the book that Luz grabbed had a drawn cover of a witch with green hair wearing Azura's clothes and her staff. Cruz's eyes widened realizing instantly what this book really was, before he could grab it from Luz and explain she had opened it to a page in the middle of the book.

From the center of the book an image of a much smaller Amity appeared and began to speak. "I saw those humans again," the diary said with remorse. "The diary," Luz said in shock. "I may have overreacted. I don't want to come off as cruel. I just can't show weakness," the diary said. "No!" Luz exclaimed, as she was about to slam the book shut Cruz grabbed it from her hand and took it.

"What are you doing?" Luz asked in bewilderment. Cruz simply put a finger up to his mouth telling her to stay quiet. He reached towards the shelf as he grabbed another of the Azura books and placed both the book and the diary into the inside pocket of his hood surprising Luz.

"What're you hiding there, Cruz?" asked Edric as he appeared behind the twins. "Alright you caught me," said Cruz putting up his hands in defeat as he pulled out the Good Witch Azura book from his hoodie. "I grabbed one of Amity's Good Witch Azura books. Luz wanted me to read it, but all of her copies have little doodles in them and I thought that I would borrow this one instead. I'll put it back," he said sheepishly as he placed the book back on the shelf.

"Well we could use your help in looking for the diary. It would go a lot faster if you guys helped out," Emira said standing next to Edric. "Yeah I'm not helping you out with something so dumb," said Cruz sharply surprising the Blight twins.

"You two are honestly just getting on my nerves with this stupid prank of yours. You think it's funny to take Amity's private thoughts and put them all of over just because she gets you two in trouble. You two obviously have each other's back like Luz and I do. But what about Amity, who's looking out for her? When she has people that she has to be careful around both at school and at home. That's just cruel, and if you can't see that, then you two are just plain idiots," he said as he pumped an arm back getting his gauntlet out.

The Blight twins looked at him thinking about what he'd said. "But you've seen how she treats people, how she treats you two. She needs this, it's for her own good," Emira said trying to justify their actions. Cruz let out a sigh of exasperation and looked at the two with a piercing glare sending a chill down both of their spines. "I'm giving you a warning right now, leave and forget the diary. Or else I'm going to make you two regret it," he said as he charged his gauntlet raising a fist toward the two.

"We thought you might've been cool, but your just as much of a joy kill as mittens. We're gonna go goblin tipping, wanna come Luz?" asked Edric. "I'm actually gonna stick with my brother with this, you guys are cool but this really isn't my kind of fun anymore," Luz said looking away from the twins. "Well, we'll see you around if you change your mind," said Emira as she and Edric walked out of the secret room to go goblin tipping leaving the Noceda twins alone.

"Honestly just a pair of idiots," said Cruz with a scoff. "Hey Cruz, I'm glad you came. I'm not sure what would've happened if you didn't say all of that," Luz said. "Yeah no problem hermana. I'm just glad that I was here to make sure they couldn't actually go through with their stupid plan," Cruz said as he picked up a book that had fallen. "I'm glad you came too," called out Amity from the entrence surprising the two.

"Amity!" Luz said in surprise.

"How long have you been here?" Cruz asked.

"Long enough to hear what you said to Ed and Em," she said walking towards the Azura books before she began to search them. When she didn't find her diary her eyes widened in fear as she looked back towards the entrance. "Oh no, no, no, no, no! They took it! They actually took it!" she said in a panic. "Actually, they didn't take anything," Cruz said as he held up her diary for her. "As soon as we found it, I grabbed it and put it, and one of your Azura books, in my hoodie to hide it. Sorry, we listened to one of the pages before we could close it," Cruz apologized handing her the diary.

"Are you sure it was only one page?" Amity asked hugging the diary. "We swear it was only one. And they never even suspected we had it, Cruz has a great poker face," Luz said placing her hand on Cruz's shoulder. "That's what playing a lot of poker with mom's friends gets you," he said proudly.

"I've been trying to figure out what the deal with you two is. Are you posers? Nerds? Or a pair of bullies? But I was wrong, you two are actually decent people. I've given you nothing but reasons to hate me but you still stood up for me and helped me out. Thank you, you two," Amity said looking at the siblings with a sincere smile.

"Yeah well no problem. Honestly their fun was really starting to annoy me," said Cruz scratching his head not used to people praise him for things besides chemistry and technology. "He's right, and I'm sorry I went along with it for a while too. We should probably get out of here before it gets too late," Luz said as she walked out of the hideout.

"You're right we should head on home before we get into some trouble," Cruz said as they started to head towards the door. Suddenly from behind them, the three could hear loud footsteps approaching them. "I jinxed it. I can't believe I jinxed it," Cruz said facepalming as they all turned towards the footsteps.

A monstrous Otabin appeared as he entered the aisle snarling. His heart could be heard beating loudly as the book was entangled on his chest, with the changed page opened for all to see. "Otabin?" Amity asked in confusion as she recognized the bunny. "With claws and fangs and breaking bones, I found a friend to make my own," Otabin said as he grabbed Amity in his paw.

"Luz! Cruz!" Amity called out as she was dragged away by Otabin.

"Amity!" Luz cried out as she tried and failed to grab onto Amity.

As Luz was about to run off to rescue Amity, Cruz grabbed onto her arm stopping her dead in her tracks. "Hold on, we need a plan here. Running in head first is going to get us either hurt or killed," Cruz said. "What should we do then. You've got your gauntlets but that's it," Luz wondered. "I think I've got an idea. But you'll need to distract Otabin until I'm done. You can use the books to your advantage for this," Cruz said as he held up Amity's diary.

"There's bound to be blank pages on here. Try to see what you can do while I get ready," he said as he handed her the diary and ran off to start his plan. Luz looked at the cover before an ideas formed in her head.

Otabin took Amity to the kids section before slamming her onto a giant book. She looked up from the book to see Otabin holding a large needle with a thread attached to a giant green yarn ball. He stabbed the needle through the book before beginning to sew her arm into the book and pulling the string, turning her arm into a flat drawing.

"Why are you doing this? I've been reading you since I was a kid. I know you're not like this. Someone changed you," Amity said pleading as she saw the hand drawn eyebrows and claws on the Otabin book.

"But friends are what I've always sought. And now a friend my claws have caught," Otabin said before a rumbling sound could be heard behind them. A purple fog rolls in as a figure in a white dress and white hat drops in landing with the fog blinding Otabin for a moment.

"Azura?" asked Amity in shock recognizing the figure. "Close," said Luz looking up to her as she pulled on the dress. "Is it drawn okay? I kind of interpreted the design," she asked holding Amity's diary.

"Luz!" Amity called out in exasperation.

"Oh, right. The good witch, Luzura, grabs her trusty staff," Luz wrote into the diary as she summoned a white staff from the book. "All right, beloved work of children's fiction. Let go of her," Luz called out as she ran towards Otabin spinning and twirling the staff. Otabin simply caught the staff unimpressed before throwing it behind him. He grabs the diary from Luz's hand before gently closing it causing Luz's costume to disappear.

"Not an Azura fan, are you?" Luz asked chuckling nervously before Otabin grabbed her and slammed her on the page next to Amity. Otabin begins to sew Luz's arm onto the page turning it into a flat drawing as well. "Making friends, taking friends, never be without my friends," Otabin said rhyming.

"You fiend. You can't rhyme friends with friends," Luz complained.

"Great work, Luzura. And where's your brother?" Amity said in annoyance.

"Hey! I was trying to save you. And besides Cruz said he had a plan, I just needed to distract him," Luz said defending herself.

"Well, it doesn't matter. We're gonna be stuck together forever," Amity said in defeat. Luz looked towards her sewn arm feeling it numb before moving it. When she moved her arm the page moved along with it causing her face to brighten up. "No we're not. Follow my lead. One," Luz began to count as she slammed her feet against the book.

"What are you doing?" Amity questioned

"Two. Three," Luz called out as she slammed on the book causing it to fall over hitting Otabin on the head. After he'd recovered, Otabin saw that the book had disappeared. "Come back!" Otabin called out chasing after the girls.

Luz and Amity are running through the library before ducking behind a small shelf. "Now what?" asks Amity in a panic. "I don't know. I didn't even think that would work. I was all like "roaaar"!" Luz said as the adrenaline had started to wear off. Amity started at Luz before chuckling causing Luz to smile.

"Aww, that's nice. You two are getting along," Cruz called out from in front of the two. When Luz and Amity looked towards him they noticed that he was holding a large silver canister attached to a small oxygen tank with a trigger on it. "What the heck is that thing?" asked Luz in bewilderment. "It's an air cannon. I didn't have any time to build this thing, but I didn't have to. I had a sketch of one I was working on, so I just changed the design a bit and brought it out of my notebook. Thank you wailing star," Cruz said holding the air cannon up.

"Luz said that you had a plan. What is it?" Amity asked. "Yeah I've got one. But first let's get you two out of there," Cruz said as he managed to free Amity and Luz from the book breaking the threads. "I'll use the air cannon to hit Otabin in the face knocking him down. The book is still attached to his chest so we'll have to remove it from there. I'll toss you the book and one of you is going to have to erase what Edric drew on it. Luckily it's in pencil so it shouldn't be a problem," Cruz explained.

"One problem, we don't have any kind of eraser with us," Luz pointed out before Cruz tossed her a pink eraser from his bag. "Think I don't carry any erasers with me. I have to erase and revise my designs all the time. It's called progress hermana," Cruz said as loud footsteps could be heard. "No time to argue for a new plan. Let's get this bunny," said Cruz as he saw Otabin turn the corner. "Friends," Otabin growled seeing them.

"Want a friend? I've got a present for you as a friend," Cruz said running towards Otabin pulling on a nozzle sending oxygen to the cannon. Otabin tried to grab onto Cruz as he jumped onto his hand before pointing the cannon at his face and pulling the trigger. A large pressurized air pulse came out knocking Otabin back and onto a shelf as multiple books fell on him. "Time to make some revisions to this book," Cruz said as he grabbed onto the Otabin book and pulled it out from his chest.

"One of you catch!" Cruz called out turning and throwing the book towards Amity and Luz. Amity caught the book before it managed to land on the floor or close. She managed to find the page with the changed Otabin, but before she was able to erase the changes her and Luz noticed Otabin stand up as he loomed over Cruz. "Cruz! Behind you!" called out Amity as she saw that Otabin had reeled his clawed hand back.

Cruz turned his head and looked over his shoulder before his eyes widened and Otabin's claw managed to come down across his back leaving a horizontal slash. "Maldita sea! (Damn it!)"Cruz cried out in pain as he pumped his arms back, getting his gauntlets out and turning back to Otabin with a glare. "Sit down you stupid conejo dibujado! (Drawn rabbit!)" he called out punching Otabin in the face, knocking him out. Luz and Amity took the opportunity that Otabin was down to erase the changes before any more damages could be done.

Otabin returned to his original small and friendly size looking around towards the three with regret and confusion. "I'm so sorry. I don't know what came over me," he said in his usual soft voice. "Hey it's okay. We're still friends," Amity said smiling at him. "Yeah it wasn't your fault someone changed you like that," Cruz said, being held up by Luz. The three nodded to each other before Amity closed the book, making Otabin disappear.

"Well, my back is in pain. And I think this hoodie is beyond gone with this giant slash mark," Cruz said in regret. "Do you have anything for your injury? We'll have to disinfect it before anything else," Luz said as she sat Cruz on a chair. "I'm pretty sure I packed medical gauze and some rubbing alcohol in there," Cruz said holding grabbing his bag from the ground. Luz looked into the bag before she pulled out the items that Cruz had asked for.

"Why did you bring those? Seems strange that you'd be prepared for this," Amity questioned. "Trust me. It's always a better idea to have a first aid kit in case of an emergency in your bag. You never know when you'll need them. Better to be over prepared than underprepared," Cruz said as he took off his hoodie turning to face the back of the chair. "This is going to hurt a lot. Your whole back is covered in blood and a slash mark. It's going to definitely leave a scar," Luz said holding the bottle. "Yeah but no way around it," Cruz said as he braced himself for the stinging sensation of the alcohol. As Luz poured the liquid from outside of the library Cruz could be heard yelling before cursing out in Spanish.

In the morning the three came out of the library with Cruz leaning on Luz's shoulder for support and his now destroyed hoodie wrapped around his waist. "What an adventure. Thanks for helping clean up," Luz said with a small smile.

"This never happened," Amity said walking away. "Wait. I know we only read one page, but to try and make up for it and everything else we've done, would you want to borrow this? I noticed you had up to four," Luz said, holding out her copy of Good Witch Azura five. "Thank you," Amity said, grabbing onto the book as she began to walk away. She stopped before turning back to the Noceda siblings. "I realize that you two aren't actually trying to mess with me at all. But I haven't exactly been the friendliest witch. I'll think on that," Amity said but before she could walk away Cruz called out to her.

"Before you go, you might want to take one of these," he held up a little bottle filled with a dark blue liquid. "What is it?" she asked holding the bottle. "Next time you see your siblings go into a room, throw that bottle inside of it and close the door. That'll teach them to be messing with someone's diary or leaving giant monsters around," he said with a devious smirk. "So it's some kind of potion to mess with them? What's it do?" she asked. "It's a stink bomb potion," Cruz said plainly causing both girls eyes to widen.

"Why do you have that?" asked Luz

"I was going to use it in case of an emergency. But I just decided to be petty with it instead," he said looking away. Both girls looked at him for a moment before laughing at Cruz acting like a child.

Back at the Owl House Luz and Cruz enter expecting Eda and King to be awake. "Hey, guys. We're….home," Luz said noticing Eda and King sleeping on the couch with the babies laying on Eda's lap. Luz and Cruz smile at them before the door swings open. "Ding-dong!" Hooty calls out loudly.

"Hooty," Luz hissed at him.

"Búho idiota (stupid owl). You're being too loud," Cruz scolded as a giant woman's head with bat wings entered the Owl House smiling at the twins.

"Whoa. You must be mama," Luz reeled taking a step back.

"Yi Yi. Mama is I. And I is the Bat Queen," the Bat Queen said introducing herself before whistling. The babies woke up before flying towards the Bat Queen and landing into her hair. "Aah! Snuggle dumplings," the Bat Queen said before barfing our a large chest landing on the ground. As it opened up it revealed a giant amount of gold coins before a small skull whistle landed on the money. "For troubles. Eda is owed one," she said before pushing herself out of the Owl House and flying away.

"Aww, sweet babies," Eda said reaching for the babies before realizing they were gone. "Babies? Where are the babies?" she asked in a panic as she and King woke up fully. Luz made a gesture of flying motion with her hands to try and explain. "Yeah the Bat Queen showed up and picked up her kids," Cruz explained further.

"Oh. And I just taught Junior how to pick locks too," Eda said with regret. "You should definitely teach us how to do that too," Cruz said thinking about the ways it could come in handy. "Your night looks very successful. Look at all that money you made. And look at this cool whistle that scary woman gave you. I'd wash it before you use it," Luz said holding up the skull whistle covered in saliva.

"Yeah. We did it all for the money," Eda said with sadness evident in her voice.

"I miss my babies," King cried out jumping into Eda's arms. "I actually got you something from the library," Luz said hold up a book titled "Coping with Empty Nest Syndrome". Eda looked at the book before chuckling. "Thanks, kid. So how was your night?" she asked.

"Good. Then bad. Then maybe good?" Luz said remembering all of the events form the library. "Kind of good. Then bad. Then really bad. Then maybe good too?" Cruz said as he held up his hoodie. Eda noticed the blood on the hoodie gaining a concerned look on her face.

"Are you going to be okay? I've got some stuff that could help you out," she said standing up. "Nah it's okay, I've got some stuff in my room to take care of it. That and Luz already disinfected my would. It's definitely going to leave a scar though," Cruz said pointing to his back before the door swung open. "Hey, you wanna hear about my night?" Hooty asked earnings a groan from the residents of the Owl House.

"Ugh. No!" Luz exclaimed

"No!" Eda said in annoyance

"That's not a thing anyone ever wants," King called out.

"Not a chance," Cruz added in covering his ears.