Four symbols flickered slowly in an inky darkness, each with its own distinct features and colors. One glowed yellow before fading into red, then blue, then green, and finally looping back to the first symbol.
Flint's eyes opened as he gauged the world around him. The first thing he heard was a soft snoring as he saw King lying at Luz's feet on his sleeping bag. He looked around and saw he was still in the storage room Eda had told him they could sleep in. The events of yesterday began to flow through his newly unclouded mind. He just felt so energized. It was like he was operating through a fog until now, and with his mind cleared, he couldn't help but think.
A lot.
Like, way more and faster than ever before.
'Holy crap that was all real! This is insane! That battle was awesome! Luz looks so cute when she sleeps! What time is-'
Flint's mind ground to a halt when he registered one of those various thoughts as his face went nuclear with a blush.
'WHERE DID THAT COME FROM!?' Flint screamed internally. His gaze turned to Luz's sleeping form. She looked so at peace and relaxed and cu-
Flint shook his head, electing just to grab his sketching supplies and leave the room. He went over to the bathroom, the door had a women's restroom sign on it with another at the corner to say 'Ladies and King' on it. Flint rolled his eyes, knowing that Eda most likely stole the sign and opened the door after making sure no one was in it, causing two owls to fly out.
He went in and did his morning routine before heading to sit in the living room. He went and lay on the couch, crossing one leg over the other as he used it to support the sketchbook. He stared at the drawing of the environment he dreamed of prior before flipping the page back to the King outline from last night.
"Hi Flint! Looks like someone's up early." An annoying voice stated, eliciting a groan from the boy.
Next to him was…Hooty. Hooty has a wooden light beige owl face with a darker orange upper side, brown eyes, and an orange beak. He has a long brown 'neck' that he can stretch and move around like a worm, all connected to the front door of the house.
And in the extremely short time Flint had known him, he already didn't like the creature that actively disproved the notion that the ability to speak meant a being was smart.
'Liam Neeson was right.' Flint rationalized. "Good morning…Hooty." Flint forced himself to address the demon.
Hooty rambled on about…something. Honestly, Flint just started tuning the guy out.
"Whatcha doin' buddy?" Hooty asked, his voice alone torturous to any with the displease of hearing it.
Okay, tuning out the house demon was officially out of the question.
"Finishing a sketch I started last night of King. I only got a basic outline of him, so I thought I'd put some detail into it." Flint answered as he continued to draw.
Hooty, thankfully, seemed to get distracted by something and let the boy be as he zoned out into his drawing. He never thought of himself as a good artist, at least not at first, but practice makes perfect after all. After all the dreams over the years, the ones that would leave him looking healthy that is, it forced his hand to learn how to draw in order to depict the bizarre sights accurately. Then there was the other weird part about it all, like how they all started after-
"AAAAAAHHHH!"
Flint jolted as he heard the sudden scream looking around frantically as he tried to figure out what had happened.
"Jeez! Hoot! Ow!" Flint could hear Hooty whining from outside, drawing in Flint's.
"Is something wrong Hooty?" Flint asked.
Flint watched as Hooty's face suddenly phased through the door where it was perched- 'Holy crap that was creepy!' -with a grumpy expression.
"Your friend hit me when I was just trying to wish her a good morning!" Hooty complained.
Flint thought for a moment. "Hooty, where and how exactly did you greet her?"
"I surprised her in the bathroom," Hooty stated as if there was nothing wrong.
…SMACK
Flint facepalmed at the house demon's idiocy. At least he knew Luz was awake now.
After a bit, Luz arrived in the living room. "Ah, Flint! There you are." Luz greeted.
Flint glanced over the couch and went back to his drawing. Then his eyes widened as he did a double-take, looking at Luz again to confirm she was wearing stereotypical witch attire.
"How do I look?" Luz asked with a smile.
"…Are you sure you want to be wearing that stuff?" Flint asked with a raised brow.
Luz looked appalled at that. "What?! Come on Flint! It's witch attire!"
Flint stared at her flatly. "Okay first, I'm pretty sure that's stereotyping. Second, you shouldn't be snooping around the closet of someone you met not even a full day ago. And third…" Flint raised a finger on his hand as he counted before looking at her with a somewhat disturbed look. "Are you sure you should be wearing that not knowing what it might have been used for, or when the last time it was washed was, if ever at all?"
Luz blinked a few times at that before bringing her nose up to the robe and giving a sniff. She immediately recoiled in disgust as she dry-heaved, quickly removing the garment to rid herself of its place upon her body.
"Okay, not my smartest move…I'm keeping the hat on though. But come on Flint! Isn't this exciting? The chance to learn real magic!" Luz gushed.
"I won't deny it'd be cool, but we don't even know the first thing about how to use it. And don't forget about what the deal was. She specifically said that we had to work for her first before any of that." Flint explained himself, pointing his writing utensil at Luz.
Luz sighs. "Right…say, whatcha drawing?" Luz suddenly switched gears, coming up to him and peeking over the couch to see what her friend was up to.
Flint went back to his drawing. "Drawing King. I got the outline of him curled up last night and got a tracing of him." Flint said, showing her his progress.
"¡Ay, que lindo!" Luz gushed at the drawing. She definitely wanted to have a copy of it when he was finished.
The two eventually hear a toilet flush and Luz squeals, bolting to the bottom of the stairs. After a bit, Eda arrives at the top looking drowsy.
Eda yawns before looking down at Luz in confusion. "Hmm?"
Luz clears her throat. "Good morning, Eda the Owl Lady. I am ready for my first day of Witch Apprenticeship."
Eda shakes her hair, with spiders spilling out as she picks another one out of her ear. "Who are you, again?"
Luz is stunned with a horrified expression on her face. "Huh?"
Luz can be seen following Eda into the kitchen as Flint follows behind as he continues drawing.
"Remember me? Luz?" Flint reflexively moves his head to the side as a coffee cup hits her in the back of the head, eliciting a grunt. "We freed the oppressed and defeated the evil warden together? Yesterday?" Luz asked desperately.
Eda opens the fridge stuffed to the brim with things neither of the teens were sure could even be classified as food. "Kid, lay off the details. I haven't even had my cup of apple blood yet."
"You mean apple juice?" Luz questioned.
"No."
Eda sits on the kitchen table and drinks from her mug. King is sitting in a high chair and stabbing a fork into a yellow blob with eyes sitting on a plate. Flint simply pulls out a chair, still not looking away as he continues to draw.
"Teach me some spells. When do I get a magic staff? Was I supposed to bring my own runes?" Luz gasps. "Do you have a dangerous magical quest for me?"
King turned to Flint. "Is she always like this?"
Flint sighed with a fond smile. "Whenever she's excited, yes."
Eda was getting a bit overwhelmed and tried to calm her down. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down, kid. Being a witch doesn't happen overnight. Also, you're wearing the dirtiest traffic cone I've ever seen."
Luz pulls her hat off and blows on it, revealing that it was, in fact, a traffic cone with a severe layer of dust on it. King laughs and Flint snorts, having closed his sketchbook to watch the interaction go down.
Eda rubbed her chin. "But a magic staff, huh? You really want one?"
Luz's eyes dilated with excitement. "More than anything."
Eda wiped some apple blood from her lip and held her hand out. "Magic staff, come to me!" She said dramatically.
For a second, nothing happens. Then several things crash distantly. Everyone slowly turns to the sounds, until Eda's staff appears and smacks her in the face, clattering to the ground.
Eda grunts as she goes and picks the staff up, spinning it before tapping it on the ground. "It's early." Eda excuses her slip-up. "Now, witches are awarded their staffs from school. With me as your teacher, you'll be taking a different approach." Eda pulls out a bag of burlap of potions from her…
Flint blinked. 'How the heck was she storing all that in her hair?'
Eda drops the bag onto the floor. "You'll have to work for it."
Eda leads Luz and Flint through the living room. "I run a few businesses. On weekends, I offer rare human treasures that Owlbert drags over from your side of the realm."
Eda grabs a toy sword and hits a button near the pommel. "I shall smite my enemies! Ages six to eleven."
Eda tosses the sword over the two's heads. "But most days I sell only the finest homemade elixirs and potions."
Luz pulls a bottle from the bag and reads the label. "'Snake oil.'"
"No one wants an un-oiled snake. Follow me." Eda beckons them.
The three walk onto a balcony looking onto a moderately-sized town nearby.
Eda continued her explanation. "Today you'll deliver packages and sell potions to that town over there, Bonesborough. You'll have to be careful. I have rivals everywhere who'd love to take my business down and you along with it. You wanted a dangerous magical quest? Sister, you've got one."
Luz turns to salute Eda with the sack over her shoulder. "I won't let you down, Miss Eda."
The sack falls out of Luz's grip only to be caught by Flint's outstretched hand before anything can fall out.
Eda turns to Flint with a smile. "Nice save kid…kid?" Eda asked with a hint of concern all of a sudden.
Luz turned to look at Flint, noticing his zoned-out expression as he stared at Bonesborough in the distance, almost in a trance. Luz began to get worried, having not seen her friend act like this much in the past. "Flint? Is something wrong?"
Flint shook a bit, snapping out of his stupor, bringing his free hand to his head as he set the bag of potions down on the floor. "I…I don't know."
Eda is seen pushing Luz through the living room, the teen now holding the potion bag, with Flint standing behind Eda.
"Remember, never befriend a man in sandals, and always measure twice, cut once," Eda says to her.
"Wait! What about Flint?" Luz asked.
"Your friend here is clearly not in the right mindset at the moment. While you deliver the potions, I need to talk with him one-on-one." Eda explained. "Anyway, good luck!" Edsa slams the door closed and dusts her hands off, then looks at King. "I hate to interrupt your power nap, but you have to go with her."
King gets angered by this. "What? But I just found the perfect spot. Why do I have to go?"
"You and I know she's either going to get lost or eaten, probably both," Eda explained.
Luz squishes her face against the window from outside, startling the two. "No, I won't."
Eda and King turn to Flint expectantly.
"Yes. She will." Flint said, blunt as can be.
Luz glares at Flint. "Traitor."
Eda snaps her fingers, closing the blinds with a spell. "And because you work for me, too, unless you want to start paying rent."
King throws a short tantrum before stomping out the door.
Eda poked out the door. "Be back by nightfall or risk mortal peril." She says, slamming the door again.
Eda puts her hands on her hips as she turns to look at Flint. "Now you and I can talk privately."
Flint blinked with a deadpan stare. "I'm just saying it now, I ain't into cougars."
Eda fumed at that. "Oi! First off, ew. Second, I need to be sure you're okay to be heading out there on your own. I may be a con artist, but a professional's gotta have standards."
Eda cleared her throat as she crossed her arms. "Now then, while I appreciate you saving my supply from Luz's butterfingers, I could tell you weren't fully conscious while doing it. Something tells me it had something to do with seeing Bonesborough. Why?"
Flint sighed. "Over the years, I've essentially been like a filter for Luz. She can be a bit…sporadic and reckless, so I have experience with things like that, preventing her from dropping stuff and whatnot. As for my staring session…" Flint frowned, bringing his left hand up to cover the left side of his face. "It's just…it involves the reason I wanted to stay here in the first place."
Flint pulled out his sketchbook from…somewhere, and handed it to Eda. Eda opened the book and began flipping through the pages as he spoke. "For years, I've had these…dreams. After each one, my health was better and I was more energized, at least for most of the day." Eda landed on a page depicting a grand castle, before flipping to a page that showed a town strikingly similar to Bonesborough, as in, an almost perfectreplica. "But that alone raises so many questions because of how it doesn't make sense." Eda finally ended up on the page with his drawing of King. "Oh, that's one I started before I went to bed last night. I couldn't help but start one after seeing King curled up like that." Flint said, noticing the page.
Eda smiled as she looked back at him. "Be sure to tell me when you finish it. I wanna make a copy."
Flint snorted. "Thanks. But now do you see?"
Eda nodded, flipping back towards the beginning of the book. "I do. These drawings look far too similar to a bunch of places around the Boiling Isles to be a coincidence. Maybe if it was just one or two it could be, but not this many." Eda got to the first page and her brow furrowed. "Though I've never seen anything with this symbol before," Eda said, flipping the book around to the first page and showing him.
There was a symbol centered in the middle of the paper. A line stretches from the bottom of a circle to about two-thirds up. A perfectly horizontal line connects two sides of the circle, one-third up from the bottom of the circle. The ends of the horizontal line are connected to the top of the vertical line. Two slanted bars cut through the vertical line just above the horizontal line. In the space between the top of the vertical line and the top of the circle, a circle that doesn't reach the top and two tangents from the circle to the top finish the glyph.
Flint sighed as he gestured for the book, with Eda handing it over as he closed it. "That one was…different. Actually, that's the only one I managed to see without dreaming."
Eda scratched her head. "What? Does that mean you've never seen it when you were asleep?"
Flint shook his head. "No, I have, but the first time I saw it wasn't through a dream. Funny enough, I actually saw it last night along with the other three. They kept flickering in and out in a pattern."
"What made you see it in the first place?" Eda asked.
"It was…the first time I met Luz," Flint revealed, making Eda blink in surprise.
"Say what?" Eda asked, her curiosity piqued.
"Luz had moved to Gravesfield with her parents years ago. When she was introduced to my class as a new student, I was in the middle of drawing something on the paper I had in front of me. I looked up to see my new classmate, it wasn't anything all that special if I'm being honest. But when I looked back at the paper, I found that I had somehow drawn it. That drawing is the only one that I've ever given a name: 'A Light to cast away the Dark.'" Flint explained.
Eda rubbed her chin. "That's odd. Is there anything else you can tell me about it? Do you remember when these dreams started?"
"Actually, they started that night after meeting Luz," Flint revealed.
Eda frowned as she mulled over the information. "All these things…it almost sounds like you two were destined to meet and come here."
Flint sighed. "That's what I'm thinking too. Ever since I got here, I haven't needed to use my glasses and haven't been actively preventing myself from passing out. It's honestly just a surprise I've managed to live so long given how much I rely on caffeine and energy drinks, to an unhealthy amount that is. It's almost like arriving here woke something inside of me, something suppressed for all my life."
Hearing those words seemed to click something into place for Eda as she pulled a rolled-up piece of paper from her hair. "Say kid, you ever had any heart problems or something? Or go to the doctor and they use one of those 'X-rays-'" Eda said with air quotes. "-and find there was some kind of growth attached to your heart?"
"The doctors could never explain it, but apparently it was too dangerous for them to consider removing it…how did you know?" Flint looked at her confused.
Eda unscrolled the paper to reveal a diagram with a heart on it, connected to a mass that was likely double the overall volume if not more. "The source of a witch's magic isn't from a staff, but from a special bile sac attached to our hearts. Staffs run on their own source, but witches can draw on the energy within these bile sacs to perform spells." Eda explained.
Flint put one hand into the other. "Like what you were doing after the Warden with those circles." Flint realized.
Eda nodded. "Exactly. I believe that thing attached to your heart is one of them. If you use too much magic from it, you get tired to the point where you're actively fighting to stay awake." Eda stuffed the paper back into her hair. "My best guess is that you've always been part witch and your magic was being suppressed. Stepping through that door, you passed out, but maybe that was because your body needed to adjust to the sudden change of having your bile sac unblocked."
Flint took that all in. It was…a lot. But there were still so many things that didn't make any sense. For now, though, he'd focus on questions he should be able to get answers for. "So I might be able to do magic, but Luz can't?"
Eda sighed. "That's what I think at least. Look, when I said that humans can't do magic, there was a reason I said it. Because they can't physically do it without an external source like a staff. Their bodies don't have the one thing needed the most."
Flint responded with a sigh. "Luz sure won't be happy about that, but at least she can get a staff, right?"
Eda smiled, reaching over and ruffling his head. "You're a good friend to her, I'll give you that. Maybe while Luz is busy, I can try to see if I can teach you how to do some magic. See if that theory is correct."
"Wait, didn't you say you'd only teach after we did stuff for you?" Flint asked confused.
Eda snorted. "Technically, I told Luz that I'd teach her after all that, not you," Eda said with a coy smile.
Flint gave a shrug of acknowledgment at that. "Fair enough…but something tells me there's more to it than that." Flint leaned over with a smirk. "You just want me to learn it faster so I can do more for you, don't you?"
Eda laughed at that. "You're more perceptive than her. You're right. There are things you can do if you truly have magic of your own, and that just means more things I can have you get done for me sooner if I help you get the basics. Let me get properly dressed and we can get started." Eda says, turning to the stairs and heading up to her room.
Flint looks back down at his hand, opening and closing it repeatedly a few times before looking back at the symbol again with a frown. 'What does it all mean?'
Eda and Flint can be seen in the backyard now with a target some ways away.
"Alright Flint, first we need to test if you can use magic. I'm gonna teach you how to make a spell circle."
Eda held her hand out and began drawing a small circle in the air. "In order to cast a spell, you have to focus on what exactly you want that spell to do. From there, you pour your energy into it and-" A small stream of cold water shot into Flint's face, making him cough from the sudden water spout. "Bam! Magic! The bigger the circle, the bigger the effect too, but it'll drain you're reserves quicker too. If you really do have a bile sac, you'll draw on the energy from it."
Flint tries a few times, drawing a circle in the air in Eda's direction only for no glowing lines to come out like Eda. He fails repeatedly as he becomes frustrated. He shouts in anger. "Agh! Why can't I do it?!"
"Hey hey hey! Take it easy kid. It takes practice. Even the little kids struggle at first when being surrounded by it all their lives, but you've only been here for about a day. What were you trying to do?" Eda placated him with a gesture to calm down.
"I was trying to shoot water at you," Flint responded bluntly.
Eda gave a fanged grin. "Nice, I respect it. But yeah, it'll take time and practice to get it right if you can do it. I know it took me a while to get used to my cur-se magic!" Eda quickly corrected herself. "Yeah, curse magic! Gotta know how to use and defend against it in my line of work." Eda leaned into his ear while glancing side-to-side for emphasis. "Can't let my enemies get the jump on me, ya know?"
Flint looked at her skeptically but decided to let it be, for now. Flint turned toward the target and tried for the same water spell again, pointing his index finger in the target's direction and trying to focus. He breathed slowly with deep breaths. He tried excessively for about 5 minutes straight but lowered his hand, still not getting anything and looking toward the ground with a frown.
Eda sighed looking at his downcast look, resting a hand on his shoulder and causing him to turn to her. "Like I said, it was just a theory. You could still have magic but it could work in a different way, you might not be able to bring it out on command, or whatever that thing on your heart is might not even be a bile sac at all. Tell you what, sometime soon, why don't we try and get a healer to look at you and see for ourselves? I'm not the best with spells like that and it'll give you time to try it for yourself until then. Does that sound okay?"
Flint sighed with a nod of acceptance. "Okay. I know I shouldn't get my hopes up, Luz usually has enough of that to go around. It's just-it's so frustrating to not know why, you know? Why am I like this? How did this even happen? Why me?" Flint let out his frustrations. There were always just too many questions and he could never find answers.
Eda…frowned at that, looking down at her hands deep in thought at Flint's questions.
"I do know."
Flint looked back at Eda in surprise, noticing her upset expression.
"I know the feeling more than you think…" Eda said softly, mostly to herself.
In the humans' bedroom, Luz can be seen sheathing the toy sword from earlier. Around her are various potions, food, a quest scroll, and of course her Azura book as Flint watches her with a bored expression. Luz had explained to him what happened while she was gone, and her meeting with Adegast.
"So, you two, what kind of Chosen One should I be?" Luz asked
King kneads Luz's sleeping bag before yawning and lying down. "Huh? What?"
Luz picks up her book. "Should I be full of optimism and goodness, like the Good Witch Azura? Or should I be like a bad girl Chosen One with black nail polish and a mysteriously withdrawn attitude?" She begins to use the book as a mouth. "'I act like I don't care, but I secretly do.'"
Eda pokes her head in with a severed arm in her hand. "Oh, you guys talking about bad girls? Wait, what's going on?"
"Eda, tell Luz how dumb wizards are," King says.
Eda begins gesturing with the severed arm and almost hitting King several times. "Ugh! Wizards are the worst. Never trust a man in casual drapery. Why?" Eda asks, lacing her fingers with the severed arm's.
King can barely contain his laughter. "Your wizard client told Luz... *snicker* she was a- *snicker* was a Chosen One!" King says as he can no longer contain his laughter.
Eda snorts. "Wait, wait, Luz?" Eda snickers until she erupts into her own laughing fit so hard she falls back and onto the floor.
"He even gave her a map!" King manages to get out through his laughter.
Eda and King continue to laugh as Luz hides behind her book, an embarrassed blush on her face. The sight makes Flint frown.
"You know, you two don't have to lay it on so thick," Flint said grumpily.
Eda abruptly ended her laughing as she put a straight face on, getting up from the floor. "Let me see this map." Luz hands her the map. Eda inspects it for a few seconds before looking at Luz with a raised brow. "You didn't think this was real, did you?"
"What?" Luz asked confused.
Eda slaps the 'map.' "This map is bunk. There's no lake with a Celestial Staff on the Boiling Isles. I would have stolen it ages ago." Eda sees Luz's down face and hands her the map back. "Ah, don't worry. A couple more months here and you won't look like such a mark." Eda says with a softer tone, ruffling her hair a bit.
Luz's face became visibly upset as she pushed away the hand. "Can I have some time alone?"
Eda shrugs and leaves the room. King hops off of Luz's sleeping bag and follows Eda. The door closes, casting the room in shadow. Flint gets up and stands on her left, putting his right arm across her back and on her right shoulder, pulling her in for a side hug.
"Don't let their teasing get to you, okay? I agree it sounds a bit too good to be true, and usually it is. But hey, sometimes there's a bit of truth in lies. We won't know if we don't try though, right?" Flint said to reassure her.
Luz sighed, removing Flint's hand from her shoulder. "Maybe they were right," Luz said sadly, leaning against the wall before sliding down it to the floor.
Flint sighed. He wished he knew what to say to her, but he had nothing. Everything Eda tried teaching him earlier would only serve to bum her out even more. Seeing his friend looking so hopeless…it hurt. He looked down at the map, some light from the window shining on it.
"Huh?" Flint said with confusion, gaining Luz's attention as she saw it too.
The sunlight is illuminating one corner of the map, revealing the word 'one' in shining blue lettering. Luz holds the entire map up to the light revealing a message.
"'The path will only appear to the worthy.'" Luz gasps. "That's why Eda couldn't see it. But am... I really worthy?"
Flint looked at the map with a frown. "So what? Are we both worthy? Is this like a Mjolnir-type situation?"
The wind outside howls and opens the window. The map flies out of her grasp, landing next to her book. The current flips the pages to show Azura standing loved and triumphant on a small hill, the people around her applauding as she raises her staff proudly.
Luz smiled, turning to Flint. "What was it you said again?"
Flint shook his head fondly. "Alright. I'm game."
In the living room, King can be seen getting comfy on the couch.
"Finally! All that mean‐spirited laughter made me sleepy."
Eda suddenly loomed over him. "Crony, wake up. You said that wizard was one of my clients?"
King opened one eye to look at her. "Yes. Now go away." He said, before closing it again.
Eda cupped her chin as she plopped onto the couch, with enough force to send King flying into the air momentarily. "I don't know him that well. And I don't trust this itch he's scratching in the girl."
King couldn't care less, being interrupted from his beauty sleep for far too long all day. "Less talky, more nappy."
Eda sighs, eventually going to the humans' room, and pushing the door open slowly.
"Hey, Luz?" The room is empty, the howling wind pushing open the window. "Aw, nuts," Eda said, running up to the window. "Hooty, where'd she go?"
Hooty stretched around the side of the building. "Hoot, hoot. If you want the answer that you seek, solve my riddle within a week-"
Unamused, Eda punches the wall hard enough to shake the whole house and leave cracks in the wall.
"Ow! Okay, okay. She went into the forest towards Bonesborough with her friend. Sheesh!" Hooty relented, compressing himself again as he retreated.
Eda groaned in exasperation. "Hopefully those two don't get into too much trouble…I just jinxed it, didn't I?"
"Probably!" Hooty's faint voice could be heard, causing Eda to glare downward and punch the house again. "Ow!"
Luz and Flint are standing beside a sign proclaiming the city limits of Bonesborough.
Luz takes a deep breath as she looks out toward the forest. "My first mythical quest."
Flint pokes her in the side, eliciting a small yelp from her. "Our first mythical; quest…if it even is one." Flint corrected her, furrowing his brow as he stared into the distance again with a frown.
Luz chuckles. "Right." Luz notices his expression and gets a bit worried. "Hey, is everything alright?"
Flint sighs. "I don't know. I just keep getting this…feeling." Flint rubs his chest a bit. "My chest has been feeling a bit tight too, so that sure isn't helping."
Luz looked at him with concern. "Hey, maybe we should go back and lie you down. We can do this some other day when you're feeling better." Luz stated. It touched Flint a bit that Luz would be willing to wait for him to feel better first.
Flint shook it off, rolling his shoulder to loosen himself up. "No. We're already here anyway, it'd just be a waste of time to come all the way back again." Flint waved her concern off.
Luz nodded hesitantly. "Just let me know if it becomes too much, okay?" Luz asked.
Flint smiled. "Of course."
The two hop off the hill and slide down it, stepping over a fallen log. A thick fog rolls in as she keeps walking.
Luz began to hype herself up. "Okay. Got my partner, got my scroll, got my youthful optimism, got my trusty weapon." Luz pulled out the sword and hit a button on it.
"By the power of Skullgar, I am out of battery..." The sword's speaker stated, the glow on it diminishing, proving the statement true as the voice warped at the end.
Flint snickered as they continued onward, weaving through the woods as a fog rolled in. Luz used the sword to cut a rope in their path with the sword.
Flint blinked as he saw what was ahead of them. "Well. That certainly isn't something you see every day." Flint stated.
Luz looked forward and gasped, finding a village full of cats wearing clothes and walking on two legs. "Wow!" Luz said in excitement.
The two walk through the village, with Luz beaming as she looks around. She approaches a fountain in the middle of a square, from which a witch with a sword strapped to his waist emerges, flipping wet hair out of his face.
"I see. So you're the Chosen One appears with a companion." The witch scoffs. "The Celestial Staff should've picked me, Nevareth Bladestrife, Teen Prince of Angstmore."
Flint narrows his eyes in thought. Something about this felt wrong. The hairs on the back of his neck stood straight. He turned to Luz to bring up his concern, only to find her staring at Nevareth's biceps. He could swear he saw her drooling a bit too.
"Yes. We definitely made the right choice." Luz stated.
Flint directed his gaze at Nevareth, a fiery glare burning focused on him with such intensity it would kill if looks could.
After a while, Luz and Flint can be seen walking with Nevareth and a flying onion with bat wings. Luz was paying rapt attention to Nevareth, but shadows cast over Flint's eyes.
"Nevareth, your vengeful backstory is so compelling. And I'm lovin' your animal sidekick." Luz said in admiration.
Flint stopped paying attention for a while, his mind blaring as this instinctual feeling of danger only grew as they traveled. Also the tightness in his chest.
'I need to find a chance to get Luz out of here. But when? How? I can't just do magic…or can I?' Flint pondered. The tightness in his chest wasn't painful, it felt alive and humming with energy, waiting for him to finally let go and use it.
Flint eventually refocuses as they walk onto a bridge. Luz yelped as a small…something jumped in front of them.
Nevareth meanwhile just looked at the thing in disgust, vocalizing with a short "Ew."
The creature does a short dance as it begins to speak. "Hum-di-diddle, to pass the bridge, you must first solve my riddle."
Luz smiled, pointing at the creature. "Hit me, little furry man."
"Your quest shall stop if you fail this game. So tell me, my dear, what is my name?" The creature asked.
As Luz began to bend down, noticing what looked to be a nametag on his shirt, Flint grabbed her by the arm and began pulling her away and back the way they came. "Flint! What are you doing?!"
Flint's eyes were wild and panicked. "This isn't a quest Luz! It's a trap!"
Luz manages to free herself from his grip by biting his hand, making him wince as he let her go. She looked at him angrily. "Flint! You know how much this means to me! This is my chance for destiny! Are you just jealous of Nevareth? Don't think I haven't seen you glaring at him!"
Flint growls, rubbing the area Luz bit him and turning back to her. "Nevareth doesn't matter! That Adegast guy, he's been pulling your strings like a damn puppet!"
Luz's face further scrunched in anger. "And why is that?! What makes you think that?!"
Flint looked at her firmly. "You said he had a potion business, right?"
"What does that have to do with anything?!" Luz yelled in frustration.
"Why would someone with a potion business make an order from a competitor?" Flint countered.
Luz's eyes widened in shock. It couldn't be, could it? Luz shook her head. "Maybe he just needed examples to compare his own stuff to, or reverse-engineer it!" Luz denied it, clinging to the idea and her fantasy. They couldn't have gone through all this just for a trap.
"Reverse engineering requires you to be able to take something apart to figure out how it works, how can you even physically take apart a potion?!"
Luz shook, tears welling in her eyes. 'Please! Please don't let it be true!' Luz thought desperately, clinging on to the slimmest chance that this all wasn't for naught. Sadly, the universe seemed to be against her, as their surroundings began to wither, as she heard a growl coming from her right.
"I should have gotten rid of your friend when I had the chance." A new voice could be heard.
A stereotypical wizard with dark skin appeared out of a fog that rolled behind him, but his visage twisted unnaturally until a much larger octopus-like demon revealed itself to be controlling the 'wizard' like a puppet.
"Damn. The puppet analogy was apparently more accurate than I'd thought," Flint blinked, surprised at just how correct his assessment was.
The other figures include Nevareth and his flying onion companion, as well as Chris and many more.
"You should have listened to your friend when you had the chance. You are no Chosen One, just bait." Adegast laughed evilly.
Flint quickly moved to put himself between Luz and Adegast, glaring at the demon as tears welled in Luz's eyes.
"Why? Why are you doing this?!" Luz cried out desperately.
Adegast scoffed. "Your mentor has been stealing customers from my potions business for years. She must be destroyed."
"Of for crying out- Is everybody in this crazy world gunning for Eda for some reason or another?!" Flint asked in exasperation.
All the puppets nod their heads in agreement.
"And you two lured her right into my trap, all because you wanted to think you were special." Adegast taunted, directing the last statement at Luz and causing her to waver.
"You two look like you could use some help." A familiar voice was heard nearby.
Luz looked in the direction of the town from earlier with a panicked look in her eyes. "Eda no! It's a trap!" Luz tried to warn.
Eda and King got off Eda's staff. "Let the kids go!" Eda demanded.
Flint's eyes moved chaotically as he tried to analyze the surroundings, feeling his heart rate increase as he began to panic. He couldn't see a way to get out, not unless-
Flint's mind ground to a halt as an idea came to mind. Closing his eyes, he steadied his breathing. In and out. He began to focus on the tight feeling in his chest. 'Focus on what you want it to do…'
Flint moved his hands in front of him at a 45-degree angle, the indexes of each hand pointing outward.
'Pour your energy into it…'
At the tips of each finger, a spark of scarlet light flickered into existence. Luz and Eda saw this, causing their eyes to widen.
Flint brought each arm up, each one creating an arc that intersected at the top, forming a scarlet circle about two feet in diameter in front of him.
'And…!'
With the spell circle complete, a concentrated stream of flame erupted from the circle, blasting forward and into Adegast's side, much to his shock and pain.
"AAAAGGHH! I THOUGHT THEY WERE BOTH HUMAN!?" Adegast cried out.
Flint breathed heavily as he fell to one knee, attempting to recollect himself. Eda's moment of surprise switched to a smile as she followed the boy's lead, creating her own fire spell just like his that proceeded to scorch a few of Adegast's tentacles that were sneaking up behind her and King.
Luz meanwhile stood still in awe at what her friend did…and a hint of sadness. 'He doesn't even need me.' Luz thought depressingly. It was true after all. If it wasn't for him or anyone else, she'd have gotten herself killed. Luz's attention was grabbed when she saw 'Nevareth' approaching the recovering Flint quietly. 'No! He's gonna die, and it's all my-'
Something seemed to click into place in Luz's mind, causing her to scowl. 'Snap out of it Luz! Your friend needs you! He saved you, so it's time to return the favor!' Luz pepped herself up, reaching for the toy sword on her back (which mind you was surprisingly quite useful) and ran forward.
Flint was regaining his breath when he saw a shadow looming over him from behind. His eyes widened. 'Crap! I forgot about Nevareth!' Flint turned, trying to prepare himself for a defense-
SHINK!
"Ah, my flawless pecs!" Nevareth cried out, a sword piercing his chest before he poofed into a cloud of smoke, revealing Luz's confident smile. She held the sword in her left as she offered her right to him.
"Need a hand?" Luz asked.
Flint snorted, taking the gesture in stride as Luz helped him to his feet. "That was terrible and you know it," Flint said with a smile.
Flint threw his right hand forward, creating a much smaller spell circle that shot a fireball at Adegast, blasting him in the face and scorching him.
"AAHH! Curse you, Eda! Curse you humans!" Adegast cried out in pain.
Luz held the sword over her shoulder and behind, throwing it forward. It spun in the air and struck Adegast right in the forehead, causing him to scream in even more pain. The scream changes pitch as Adegast shrinks to less than an eighth of his previous size, still charred from all the fire spells he had endured. The group looks on in slight surprise as they head over to him, Adegast quivering in pure fear.
"I think he was compensating for something," Flint remarked, eliciting a snort from Eda as she picked Adegast up and held him upside down by his tentacles.
"Nice one, and nice job in performing your first spell little man. I think it's safe to say this is the last time I take an outside referral." Eda states, bringing Adegast above her head…
And dropping him into her mouth, chewing a bit before swallowing, with Luz and Flint looking on in surprise.
"Well, that just happened," Flint said with wide eyes.
Eda hummed in enjoyment. "Mmm. Cooked just the way I like it. Oh, did you want some of that?" Eda asked them.
Luz sighed. "No. I'm just confused." Luz glanced at Flint. "For multiple reasons." She added.
"Thinking of calling it quits, huh?" Eda asked.
"Everything is just…not what I was expecting," Luz said downcast.
Eda rubbed her chin. "Hmm. Maybe not here. But come with me. I got something to show you."
The four of them are seen flying through the sky on Eda's staff as the sun is setting, with Luz and Flint wearing blindfolds. Flint is sitting between Luz and King.
"Why do I have to wear this again?" Flint asked.
"Punishment for not telling me you could do magic," Luz answered.
"We weren't even sure if I could in the first place, it was just a theory! And that was my first time doing it!" Flint countered.
"But you still got to have a magic lesson before I did." Luz enforced.
"…I said I was sorry," Flint grumbled.
"Enough bickering you two, you can look now," Eda told them.
The two take the blindfolds off to be met with a grand sight. "Whoa!" Both of them said in awe.
The sight is revealed to be the whole of the Boiling Isles: the decomposing body of a titanic being, just like in Flint's dreams. It's lying with its arms splayed in the sea, its skull illuminated by the setting sun.
"The bones of the Isles, the corpse of the Titan. Up close, the Isles can be slimy-"
"And very stinky." King interrupts.
"And gross. But if you look at it from a different perspective..." Eda trailed off, looking upward.
King and Luz follow her in looking to the sky above the Titan's skull, where stars are beginning to appear. As they watch, a shooting star crosses the sky, there for only a moment.
"It's beautiful," Luz said in awe.
"Yeah." King agreed, crawling into Flint's lap and leaning back against him.
Luz looked at King as he shifted himself, seeing Flint still staring at the Titan's skull. The light shone on his face, illuminating it in an orange glow. Luz's smile turned into a frown as she looked at Eda. "Eda, how did you know that wizard was lying?"
Eda sighed. "Look, kid, everyone wants to believe they're 'chosen.' But if we all waited around for a prophecy to make us special," Eda chuckled. "we'd die waiting. And that's why you need to choose yourself."
"Does that mean you'll give me a magic staff of my own?" Luz asked in a hopeful manner.
"Not yet. But... someday."
Luz leans against Eda as they watch the sun continue to set.
Flint still stayed staring, almost in a trance. His gaze focused on the eyes of the Titan's skull. He stared deeply into those hollow sockets, and for whatever reason…
Flint knew they were staring back at him.