"Please?"
"No."
"Pretty please?"
"Adding another word isn't going to change my mind."
"Make me one!"
"No."
"Yes."
"No."
"Yes."
"No."
"Yes."
"No."
"No."
"Good. We're in agreement."
"Oh come on! You were supposed to get mixed up!"
"That trick isn't gonna work on me."
"Dangit!"
Some of you may be wondering: what's going on? Well, King is currently failing trying to convince Flint to make him a Glyph Grafter in his size as he prepares breakfast for everyone. However, Flint takes pride in being the most mature non-palisman inhabitant of the house. So yeah, that's not working out so well for King.
"Why not?!" King demanded.
"You're way too immature and can't be trusted with the ability to make fire on a whim," Flint said without a beat.
"Would you let Trixx have one?" King questioned.
"..."
"Seriously?!"
"Hey, she helped us by getting all those branding gloves for materials. If anything it would at least be a reward for her help." Flint defended. "That, and she's more mature than you."
"Oh yeah? What makes her more mature than me?" King asked accusingly.
Flint gave King a deadpan look. "King. You wanted to abuse Eda's half-beast state just to take over a playground. Which, had I not stopped you, would've undoubtedly gotten you captured given your track record with having things under your command."
"Name one!" King said.
"I'll give you two. The trash slug and the toy army." Flint said bluntly.
"I said one!" King cried out indignantly. "…how did you know about the trash slug?" King said in a quieter tone.
"I don't care, and Eda told me about it. You're not getting one of these gloves until you can prove you're responsible. Plus, I'd still need to make one in your size anyway." Flint stated.
King grumbled in annoyance at not getting what he wanted.
Later Flint could be seen eating the last of his breakfast at the table and now in his school uniform. Eda was over at the stove, stirring a pot of…something. King was meanwhile watching Luz (also in her uniform) grumpily from the floor as she talked with Willow and Gus on a crystal ball.
"So they said I couldn't remove my thumb, but check this out!" Luz proceeds to use an optical illusion to 'remove' her thumb. "Whoop!"
Gus was immediately panicked by this, recoiling back from the screen. "You sliced it off! You sliced off your own thumb!" Gus said in horror.
"Gus, it's not that bad," Flint said with a drawn-out sigh.
"How is that not bad!? She ripped off her thumb! WHERE'S THE BLOOD!?" Gus exclaimed on the other side.
Willow chuckles from her side. "You make doing homework actually fun."
Luz gave a smug smile. "And they say humans can't do magic."
"Well, normal ones at least. Not gonna lie, kinda starting to question if I even am one, at least fully that is," Flint remarked.
"Hey!" King exclaimed, getting their attention as he climbed onto the table. "Nyeh! You've been talking to them all morning. Don't forget our Luz and King comedy hour!" King reminded the girl.
"I thought it was the Flint pets King while he takes a nap on his lap hour?" Flint wondered confused.
"You won't make me one of your gloves, so no more of that!" King declared in a huff.
"Better than your guys' comedy hour," Flint said flatly.
"Please, let it be the Flint and King hour…anything but the comedy hour..." Eda said in horror from her spot at the stove.
"This week I've been working with props!" King said, putting a cardboard tube on his nose. "Oh dear, I've gotten a tube stuck on my nose! Will I ever eat again?" King feigned before slamming a piece of bread on his face. "Looks like I'm toast!"
Luz and King laugh as Eda and Flint groan.
"Every day," Flint said blankly.
"It just goes on like this for an hour!" Eda said with annoyance.
"Heyo, dough boy, quit loafing around!" Luz said with a grin.
"Why don't you bake me?" King said as both of them erupted into a fit of giggles.
Suddenly the crystal ball buzzes with an alarm as it flashes red, showing the time below Willow and Gus' windows on the ball.
"School time! See you guys in class!" Luz said excitedly.
"Bye!" "But what about the thumb?!"
The call ends as Flint sighs.
"I'm gonna have to make a list of things to go over with that boy. I cannot keep dealing with that." Flint said tiredly.
Luz ends the call and King sighs disappointedly.
"Hey, don't worry. We'll finish our comedy hour when I get home." Luz reassured him, kissing King's skull before heading for the door.
King giggled a bit. "Hee hee, oh, you!"
Flint looked at him for a moment, causing the bony demon to look back at him. King huffed as he crossed his arms, turning away from him and pouting.
Flint shook his head with a resigned sigh, picking up his backpack before following Luz to the door.
"Try not to miss us while we're gone!" Luz said in a sing-songy voice before she and Flint left, closing the door behind them.
King scrambles over to the door. "You...you really think they're coming back this time?" King asked, a bit paranoid.
Eda rolled her eyes at King's antics. "Of course, they'll be back; they always come back. It's cute you miss them, though. Even if you're being all pouty with Flint."
"That's how school works."
Eda blinked in surprise as she looked upward to the source of the voice, revealing Trixx poking out of her hair.
"How long have you been in my hair?" Eda questioned the vixen, genuinely confused.
"Long enough to know you *yawn* really need to clean this thing out," Trixx responded with a yawn.
Luz and Flint suddenly come through the door.
Eda blinked in surprise. "Hey, you're-"
"You're back!" King cut the woman off, scrambling up Luz and perching on her head. "I didn't miss you at all."
Flint didn't believe King for a moment.
"Apparently there's an infestation of pixies at Hexside, so school's been canceled," Luz explained.
"That sounds like a crumby situation," King said, causing him and Luz to laugh.
"That was probably one of the yeast funny ones you guys have said so far," Flint remarked.
Luz and King stared at him, unimpressed and unamused.
"…was it really that bad?" Flint asked.
Hooty then coiled behind them and went up over to Eda. "Hey! Guess what's been in my mouth that I'm about to throw up!" Hooty let out several long gags for a bit as everyone looked on in various forms of disgust. Eventually (and disgustingly) Hooty's efforts conclude as he finally throws up letters and a box.
"The mail!" The house demon said cheerily.
"Why…just…why?" Flint exasperated. Why did Hooty have to be so…Hooty?
Eda bends down and picks up some of the letters. "Junk, junk, death hex," Eda said nonchalantly, tossing the death hex into a trashcan next to her, causing the trashcan to fold in on itself and disappear.
Eda noted the panicked scurrying sounds and her hair becoming lighter suddenly.
Luz and Flint stared in fear at the spot the trashcan had been, with Flint now comforting a trembling Trixx in his arms.
Eda noticed one letter in particular and showed it to them. "Oh, a carnival's in town today!" Eda said with some excitement.
Luz pulled King from atop her head and brought him down, holding him in her arms. "A carnival? You know, we've been so busy with school lately, what do you say we take this comedy hour on tour?"
"Yeah!" King said excitedly, throwing his arms up.
"Let's all five of us go!" Luz suggested excitedly, wrapping her arms around both Eda and Flint.
"An adventure with friends! I'll go pack my stuff!" Hooty said excitedly, leaving the room.
"Carnivals bring crowds and crowds bring suckers. This could be the perfect chance to try out my new get-witch-quick scheme." Eda smiled, taking her staff out of the pot and knocking some goop off Owlbert. "I'm in! To the carnival!"
"To the carnival!" Luz, King, and Trixx chanted in agreement. The four looked to Flint.
Flint shrugged. "Guess we're going to a carnival," Flint stated, the others cheering as they quickly left the building. Good thing too, otherwise they would've had to deal with Hooty again.
The group could now be seen entering the Bonesborough Carnival, with Flint and Luz back in their regular attire and Trixx perched on Flint's head.
"Well, here we are, kids. Look at all that fresh meat." Eda said.
"And smell all the fresh meat!" Luz said, taking a big whiff as a fly goes up her nose. She coughs, the fly coming out of her mouth. "Fun!"
Owlbert comes awake with a hoot, beginning to twist off the staff before Eda stops him.
"No games for you, Owlbert, we've got scams to run," Eda said, eliciting a sad hoot from the palisman.
"Friends!" The group heard a voice only two of them recognized. Landing in front of them was a small, pig-like demon with glasses and dressed like a ringmaster. "Welcome!"
Eda and King jump into defensive poses as Flint, Luz, and Trixx all just look at the pig confused.
"I see you got my postcard." The pig continued.
"Tibbles? You sent this?" Eda questioned, looking closer at the flier which indicated that yes, it was from him.
Flint looked at Tibbles with a raised brow before turning to Eda. "This is the 'Tibbles' guy you told us about?"
"Don't be fooled. He is a being of evil incarnate." Eda said lowly.
Luz switched between looking at Eda and Tibbles a few times. "Right…" Luz said, not really believing it.
"Oh, you must be the two humans I've heard so much about! Rumor has it one of you stole from the Golden Guard, not a small feat." Tibbles praised.
Flint didn't buy his happy demeanor.
"Alright, why did you really invite us here? This is about us destroying your stand, isn't it?" Eda questioned.
"Ooh, and destroying his life! That was the best part!" King chimed in excitedly.
Tibbles waved them off. "No, no, no. I should thank you. After my stand was destroyed, I reevaluated my life and found my true calling! I'm now ringmaster of... Tibbles's Tent of Tiny Terrors!" Tibbles said, snapping a whip as he presented a terrarium containing tiny versions of typically large creatures. This included three unicorns (one with a mohawk and looking buff), a manticore, and a griffin. [Error fix: The mohawk unicorn is just there all of a sudden when they get back to full size, not appearing at all up until that point. Like, what? Decided to fix that by making it there from the start.]
Luz leaned over at it. "Aww. It's like a regular circus but adorably small!" Luz cooed, even as the griffin hissed at her. Luz proceeded to press her face to the glass. "You're my friends now."
Eda sent away her staff as she crossed her arms. "I don't buy it. What kind of con are you running?"
"No cons here, Owl Lady, only pros. In fact, why don't we toast our newfound friendship with this totally innocent bottle of water." Tibbles stated, pulling out something that was most certainly not what he just claimed to be.
Flint pinched the bridge of his nose, taking a deep breath before letting out a drawled sigh, with Trixx mirroring the action with one of her paws.
"One. Can I have one day without dealing with this kind of idiocy?" Flint groaned.
Eda took the offered bottle of not-water (as if she would believe that, the liquid was glowing!). She looked at him with the most deadpan look they'd ever seen her don. "I have eyes you know. Not to mention you're not the only scammer around here." Eda tossed the bottle over her shoulder, landing on someone's head and knocking them to the ground.
"I know a scam with I see it. Now speaking of scams..." Eda kicked another person out of their stand before she began to cast a spell. "Step right up to...Eda's Human Horror House!" Eda said, the stand transforming with imitations of Luz and Flint peeking from behind the sign. "Humans shed their skin and I've got proof," Eda said, pulling out a pair of fishnet stockings.
"…That's not true…is it?" Tibbles questioned, looking on at the sight in baffled confusion.
"No. It's not," Flint responded with a tired look. He glanced up to Trixx who nodded. She hopped off his head and to the ground before heading over to Eda's stand. Someone needed to keep the woman out of trouble…
Though Trixx was probably just gonna hop back into her hair and take a nap.
"You should really put a lock on your closet," King stated.
"You know what, Eda can pick through my socks all she wants. Because today is all about having a great time with my partners in crime." Luz said with a smile, pulling King and Flint in.
"That's me! I love cri-" King paused, fully registering Luz's statement and turning to Flint. King let out a huff, crossing his arms and turning away from him.
Flint growled. "Fine then. Be that way." Flint said angrily before walking off on his own, ignoring Luz as she called out to him.
Luz watched as Flint left them, turning to King. "What is going on with you two today?" Luz furrowed her brow, frustrated and wondering what's got the two so peeved.
King huffed. "He won't make me one of your gloves, and even said he'd make one for Trixx before me!"
Luz sighed. "He's just looking out for you."
"Funny way of showing it," King grumbled.
Flint grumbled as he stomped through the carnival grounds. Stupid King and his pettiness! Stupid pixies causing school to be canceled! Stupid brainwashed society! Stupid. Stupid! Stupid-
FWOOSH
Flint blinked as he looked at his flame-coated fist, a fire glyph active on the back. His eyes widened as he quickly waved his hand and willed the ice glyph to activate on the back of the hand, canceling out the flame. Flint sighed.
'And stupid wonky powers. Calm thoughts Flint. Calm thoughts.' Flint internalized. Ever since his magic got supercharged, he's been having some trouble controlling it, and it didn't help that using the glyphs came so naturally that he would have moments like this, causing him to activate a glyph unconsciously. The way they were flaring up like this reminded him of seeing Willow get overly upset a few times.
Flint groaned as he looked at his hand. "I get that King's young, but that's no excuse! The only reason I even made these things in the first place was just so Luz would have an easier time. Sure, I made some for myself, but why wouldn't I?" He even got Eda to teach him how to fire-proof his shoes so he could carve out the bottoms a bit and install some Graft Pads in the bottom!
Flint's thoughts were interrupted when someone bumped into him.
"Oops, sorry. I wasn't looking where I was going." The person apologized.
Flint turned to see a boy with a fair complexion, and looking roughly 16 years old. His face included a slightly hooked nose, dark magenta eyes, thick black eyebrows, a scar on his right cheek, and bags under his eyes; all of this was topped with ash-blond hair that was shaved below the top, with a long, jagged forelock. Like all witches, he had pointed ears, with his left having a notch in it. The boy's body seemed a bit on the scrawnier side, though not to the extent Flint had once been. He wore a pale rose-colored undershirt covered by a collared light brown shirt bearing a cross-stitch in the center, as well as a brown belt bag. He also had on a dark brown belt, black leggings, and finally dark brown gloves and boots.
Flint chuckled. "No no, it's fine." Flint then blinked, squinting at the older boy. "I'm sorry, but have we met before? You seem familiar." Flint asked.
The boy shook his head. "Can't say why. Unless you know anybody by the name 'Hunter'," The now-named boy introduced himself with an outstretched hand.
Flint took the outstretched hand and shook it. "Can't say I recognize the name. You look more like a 'Caleb' to me though. I'm Flint. Something about you just feels…familiar. Must involve those weird visions." Flint thought the last part out loud.
Hunter tilted his head a bit as their hands separated. "Visions?" Hunter asked curiously.
Flint waved him off. "Just some weird stuff. Knew a ton about how the Isles looked without ever being here from some dreams over the years."
Hunter seemed to notice Flint's ears and gasped. "Wait, are you human?" Hunter exclaimed.
Flint chuckled at the boy's surprise. "Yep. Though for some reason I have a bile sac. It's weird." Flint responded, demonstrating by creating a spell circle and summoning a ball of ice. He was…a tad hesitant about freely creating fireballs without a glyph until he got his magic back under control.
"A human doing magic? Can't say I was expecting to see that." Hunter remarked.
"So, you here for the carnival too? Hexside's dealing with a pixie problem so school was cancelled. My…landlord was invited here and I tagged along," Flint asked.
Hunter shrugged. "It's my day off today and I thought I'd go around town. Carnival sounded interesting so I decided to check it out. A bit mediocre though, if I'm being honest." Hunter said, the two beginning to walk as they continued talking.
"That does tend to be how carnivals are. Mediocre, rigged games, and overpriced food. Carnivals in a nutshell." Flint remarked, eliciting a chuckle from them both.
"True. You definitely seem like an interesting guy, Flint." Hunter said.
"So, what kind of work does a guy like you do anyway? You don't look that much older than me. Do you go to Glandus or something?" Flint asked as they approached the skeeball machines.
"Just some stuff for my uncle. Nothing big really. And I'm homeschooled," Hunter answered as he picked up a skeeball and rolled it, his aim a bit off and hitting the back of the machine off to the side.
Flint hummed in acknowledgment, "School isn't always meant for everyone I suppose. As long as you learn what you need I don't see a problem with homeschooling…though the religious zealots and control freaks give it a bad rep. My friend and I were never fans of school back on Earth, but we're enjoying our time at Hexside so far." Flint said, throwing his own ball in on the machine next to Hunter, hitting the teeth as they closed just before it could go in.
"'Earth'? Is that a place in the Human Realm?" Hunter asked, with the next ball he threw hitting the machine in the eye with a grunt.
"It's the planet that humans live on, at least as far as we know," Flint remarked, glaring at the machine in front of him as it taunted him.
"Is it true that rain doesn't boil in the Human Realm?" Hunter asked curiously.
"Nope. And neither does the ocean. Believe me, that first rainstorm we had since being here caught us off-guard." Flint chuckled. He threw the ball only for the machine to catch it in his teeth. "Oh come on!" Flint exclaimed angrily.
As if to insult him, Flint suddenly had to duck out of the way as the machine spat the ball at his face. Flint turned back to the machine and gave it an 'I've got my eyes on you' gesture as it laughed.
Hunter chuckled at the golden-haired boy's antics. "Come on. Let's see what else is around. I'd like to know a bit more about this 'Earth' you come from," Hunter suggested, gesturing for them to leave the cursed machines.
Distracted from the detestable demon contraptions (literally), Flint followed. "Sure. Maybe you can tell me a bit more about the Isles too," Flint said as they walked off…
But not before Flint poked back into the area and pointed threateningly at the machine that wronged him. "Your hours are numbered, smart-ass," Flint warned, backing away without looking.
The machine was right to shiver in fear as its brethren laughed at his impending doom.
Flint and Hunter seemed to hit it off well, even if their encounter wasn't what either had expected. Their encounter led to them just talking about various different things for a long time, shifting between things Hunter knew about the Isles, and Flint's experiences back on Earth. Who would've expected such an accident would have such a lasting effect?
Of course, as a certain wise tortoise once said, 'There are no accidents.'
Hunter held a thing of rotten candy in his left hand as the two sat on a bench, the boy laughing as Flint told him about the events that led to Luz and Flint going to the Isles.
"Wait, are you serious?" Hunter managed to say through a laugh.
Flint chuckled a bit as he took a clump of the rotten candy into his right hand. "Dead serious. I mean, the play and the griffin model I totally get. The snakes were the tipping point, but like, really? Of all the reasons for her to get in trouble like that, doing that trick with her eyelids was one they counted? Puh-lease." Flint brought his left hand up to his face to then run through his hair. "Those girls were just a bunch of sissies." Flint huffed with amusement.
Hunter pulled a clump of the rotten candy and plopped it into his mouth. "Your friend Luz sure sounds like quite the character," Hunter said, lightly shaking his head.
Flint leaned forward as he looked down at the rotten candy clump still in his hand. "Yeah…she really is," Flint said, his voice soft and a tone of fondness present. He stared at the hand, but his mind was elsewhere. "We've always been there for each other no matter what. People have asked me many times why I even bother with her. For all the chaos she's prone to, most would leave in a heartbeat if they knew how she could be," Flint said, thinking back to all those times when he'd be roped into whatever crazy idea Luz had or got in trouble just because he didn't even try to stop her.
"But I'm not like most people. Sure, we have some moments of disagreement, but…I wouldn't change it for the world. And there isn't a damn thing anyone's gonna do that'll stop me from making her happy," Flint stated, his voice gentle and genuine. Seeing his Starlight with a smile on her face was one of the only things that truly mattered to him.
Hunter smiled. "Yeah, I guess I can relate. I'd do anything to make my uncle proud." Hunter said.
Suddenly a yellow glow grabbed Hunter's attention. Looking down at the source, he saw the light emanating from a strange symbol that flickered slowly in a pulsing motion from the back of Flint's right hand. Hunter was confused, especially since he was certain that symbol hadn't been there before.
"Hey, what's that on the back of your hand?" Hunter questioned.
This seemed to snap Flint out of his trance, as he finally noticed the light glyph symbol pulsing on and off. "Oh, sorry. My magic's been a bit weird since getting it back after dealing with that basilisk on my first day at Hexside. It gave me a boost and now it sometimes causes my gloves to react depending on how I'm feeling." Flint explained.
"What's up with that symbol though? I've never seen anything like it." Hunter asked.
"It came to me when Luz and I first met. We found out that it can cast magic when we came here. Not sure why it didn't work back on Earth though," Flint explained.
Hunter's eyes widened. "Wait, that symbol can cast magic?! And how are your gloves reacting to your magic?" Hunter asked in surprise.
Flint chucked the clump of rotten candy into his mouth, giving it a few chews before gulping it down. "The gloves are actually something I made myself. I saw the sigil branding gloves back at the covention and got the idea. I managed to get my hands on one and with some help from my landlord, we were able to reverse-engineer them into these. I call them 'Glyph Grafters', and I made them for Luz so she could use one at any moment."
Flint demonstrated by letting the glyph solidify, creating a ball of light above his hand as the glyph faded.
Hunter looked on in shock. "Whoa! That's amazing! I've never seen magic being cast like that. And you can just do this on command?" Hunter asked.
Flint smiled as he let all of the glyphs cycle on the back of his hand. "Yep. No spell circle needed. Had to bind Luz's to her using some hair from her hairbrush-" Hunter made a disgusted face at that. "-oh don't give me that look! I just needed it so it would actually respond to her mental commands! I ain't some creep!" Flint defended himself.
Hunter gave a placating gesture. "Okay, okay! I get it! But man, that's pretty cool that you managed to do that."
Flint blushed a bit at the praise. "Thanks. Say, why don't we check out that House of Mirrors over there? See how weird our reflections end up." Flint suggested.
Hunter nodded and he took the last clump of rotten candy and threw away the trash in the bin near them. "Sure, that sounds like we can get a good laugh."
The two made their way over and found themselves walking into the 'house'. They went around to the various mirrors, with some of them simply warping their bodies, while others changed their appearance entirely.
Flint inspected the mirror before him. In it, his appearance was warped into that of a Lucario from Pokémon, though it wore a royal blue Gi with portions of light blue metal lining the folds like armor. He stood before the mirror for a bit longer and let out a hum. "This feels like a reference to something I shouldn't know about..." Flint remarked thoughtfully before disregarding the mirror to head to the next one.
There were many mirrors that caused a multitude of effects to their appearances. One made them look like skeletons, another like they were stripped from an anime, robots (even if Hunter seemed to short-circuit when Flint tried to explain what those were to him), and like the cosmos in the shape of a human. One even made them look like wooden puppets.
Although...Hunter, for the life of him, couldn't figure out why Flint sprinted out of the range of that particular mirror.
Now Hunter stood in front of a mirror that seemed relatively normal. There weren't many differences aside from his face looking slightly different, and his counterpart was older and wearing old-timey clothes. He was a bit confused about the dagger floating above his counterpart though.
"Man, some of these reflections are really weird," Hunter remarked.
"You said it." Flint agreed, standing in front of a mirror that seemed to be genderbending him, the reflection looking tomboyish. He struck a few poses in the mirror to accentuate his female reflection in certain angles. "Is it weird that I think my other self is kinda hot?"
"A bit, yes," Hunter admitted.
Flint looked at his counterpart for a bit longer before shrugging, taking his phone out, and snapping a picture of his reflection.
"Well, it's been fun hanging out with you Hunter. You seem like a cool guy," Flint said with a smile.
Hunter smiled back. "Same. It was fun learning about Earth. Maybe I can see it for myself someday," Hunter remarked.
"Well, when magic is involved, I'm pretty sure the only thing that's ever impossible is, ironically…impossibility," Flint said, causing them both to laugh.
"Flint!"
Flint suddenly moved his head around in confusion, looking for the source of the twin voices. It sounded like Gus and Willow, but he didn't see them anywhere. The only thing he saw around them was a fly.
"Did you hear that too?" Flint asked Hunter, who he noticed was also glancing at their surroundings.
"People calling out your name? Yeah…I did," Hunter said cautiously.
"Flint! Over here!" Willow's voice called out. It sounded like it was moving rapidly.
Suddenly the fly started buzzing closer to him getting in his face, causing him to swat it away. Well, it's time to show the flies of the Demon Realm whose boss! He was very good at killing flies, after all.
His hands moved quickly, about to end the cursed creature's existence-
Only to freeze as he realized that Gus and Willow were riding the fly.
Flint blinked. He blinked again. He blinked five more times before turning to Hunter.
"Do you see them too?" Flint asked. His response came in an absentminded nod that didn't turn away from the bizarre sight.
"Okay, good to know I'm not just seeing things…again," Flint remarked in relief for a moment. The next moment, after taking a deep breath, he screamed. "WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU GUYS?! Also, hey, I didn't know you guys were around."
Flint held his hands up to let the two dismount their steed. Gus answered first. "It's nice to see you too Flint. We heard about the carnival being in town and decided to check it out. We ended up finding Luz and we've had a really fun time-"
The boy was suddenly elbowed by Willow as she got down to business. "King had something with him. It seems to be some kind of shrinking potion with a spray bottle, but I don't think he knows it's a shrinking potion. It got on us and now we're here," Willow explained.
Gus groaned. "We haven't been able to get Luz's attention so we were gonna lead her here. But this is better! Also takes less time. See, we were gonna use rotten candy to-"
"Anyway, Luz is trying to help King get something from a ticket vendor. He was acting weird as we hung out though," Willow cut Gus off from getting off-track.
Hunter decided to speak up. "Well, let's get you two back to normal then,"
"You're coming with?" Flint asked with a raised brow.
Hunter shrugged. "I'm curious to meet this 'Luz' you're friends with. Also, I'm way too curious about all this now and don't really have anything else going on today,"
"Okay, sure. Oh! These are Gus and Willow by the way. Gus, Willow, meet Hunter," Flint introduced the three to each other.
"Nice to meet you!" Gus said with a smile.
"I'd shake your hand but…you know," Willow said, gesturing to herself and Gus.
Hunter chuckled. "No problem. Let's get you two back to normal then,"
The group headed toward the exit to find Luz and King, their bodies in the mirrors around flickering between appearances.
No one noticed Flint's reflection in the last mirror Hunter used…moving independently and watching them leave.
At a nearby prize stand, Luz and King can be seen waiting for the vendor to finish counting their tickets. King wanted to get a set of friendship bracelets and was eager to share them with Luz. During their time, Luz had also voiced her own annoyance with King's behavior toward Flint. King was still mad at the boy, but he was starting to feel bad after remembering the look on Flint's face before he went off. It made him feel…small.
"One million. Yep, I just counted to one million. The bracelets are yours." The vendor said, handing them to the two. The man was clearly not being paid enough to endure counting up to a million. They really needed to find a better counting system. Side note though, why the hell were a pair of friendship bracelets worth a million tickets?!
King jumped in place excitedly as he and Luz were each handed half of the interlocking bracelets. "Yes. Yes! Now we will share a bond as mighty as these trinkets!"
Luz just laughed as they walked away from the vendor. King was always so cute when he got excited.
With their task out of the way, Luz decided to bring something back up.
"Now that we have our bracelets, will you help me find Flint and apologize to him?" Luz asked.
King sighed. "Yeah. Okay," King accepted, a bit ashamed.
"Oh hey, there he is! But who's that guy?" Luz pointed out before tilting her head in confusion at the sight of the unknown boy. She also noticed that Flint had his hands cupped in front of him.
Luz and Flint locked eyes and he gestured for them to follow him. Luz and King looked at each other briefly before proceeding, finding themselves in the House of Mirrors.
King looked in the mirror next to him briefly and saw a floating yellow triangle with one eye, wearing a bowtie and top hat.
The two turned back to Flint and the stranger and came closer to them.
"Flint! Who's this?" Luz asked.
"I'm Hunter, but that's not important right now," Hunter stated.
Flint turned to King. "Hey King, what happened to Willow and Gus?" Flint asked in a dangerous tone.
King immediately began to sweat. "Um, I don't know," King responded in fear.
"Really now? Because I think they might say otherwise." Flint stated, opening his hands to reveal-
"What the what!?" Luz exclaimed in shock, seeing that Willow and Gus were shrunk down and standing in Flint's hand.
King yelps when he sees the two.
"You splashed us with something to make us small," Willow said, shooting a glare at King.
"And now I can't go on the big boy rides! You monster." Gus added.
"Y-you weren't supposed to shrink. You, you were supposed to disappear." King's eyes widened as he realized his mistake too late. "Ooh, no. Wait."
"What?!" Everyone exclaimed in a mix of emotions. Most were out of shock, Luz's was tinted with anger, and Flint straight up growled it out.
"No, no, no. Luz, I can explain. I wanted to win the bracelets and there was this psychic, see?" King began to explain, pulling out a very familiar bottle.
"Damn it, King!" Flint exclaimed as he let Willow and Gus down to the ground as he stomped over.
"Give me the spray bottle, King," Luz said, not happy with him and also approaching.
"No, wait I-I-I gotta explain." King tried to explain, holding the bottle away from them.
"I already know enough mister," Flint said as he reached down and grabbed the neck of the bottle and began to pull it from King.
"I was just trying to-"
CRACK
Everyone's eyes widened as Flint pulled on the bottle, the force he put on it being too much for it to handle as the neck broke open, causing Flint to stumble back and the potion within to splash on the other four.
"Uh oh." All of them said, realizing what was about to occur.
The four shrank to the same size as Gus and Willow as the two walked up to them with displeased looks.
"Hi." They said bluntly.
Hunter facepalmed. "Great. Just great."
"Wait, I can fix it. Obvioso showed me how. Behold." King said, tapping the left side of his face twice…only for nothing to happen.
King's eyes widened as he did the action again, switching between the sides of his face several times to no avail. "Why isn't this working?"
Flint noticed something in the distance and scowled. "Because you're an idiot," Flint growled out.
"I quite agree with your friend, Bone Boy."
The next thing they knew, Tibbles had scooped them up in one hand and was taking them to his 'Tent of Tiny Terrors'. King continued to desperately tap his cheeks to no result.
"Um, Luz, I think King is broken," Gus remarked.
"Tapping my cheeks is supposed to turn us normal. The psychic told me."
Tibbles cackled. "Oh, did he? But, what if he...lied to you from the start!" Tibbles cast a spell to summon a puff of smoke, as it cleared he was now wearing mustache and patting out a different-looking hat. "Hold on," Tibbles said, before putting the hat on. "Lied to you from the start! It's different."
"You fiend. When Obvioso finds out you stole his mustache…" Flint could hear King's thoughts click into place. "Oh…"
All three males facepalmed.
"'Obvioso'? Really?" Hunter asked in disbelief.
Tibbles cackled. "The potion was designed by me. Guess whose cheeks control it?" The pig-like demon taunted.
…
…
…
"You uh…you might wanna rephrase that sentence there bud," Flint said awkwardly.
Tibbles blinked in confusion. "Huh? What do you-" Tibbles donned a look of realization. "Ohhhh…I hear it now," Tibbles cringed.
"Why are you doing this?" Luz asked.
Tibble got rid of the mustache before explaining. "When Bone Boy and Eda destroyed my stand, they destroyed generations of Grimm Hammer history. Now it's time to pay." Tibbles declared.
"What about us?! We didn't do anything!" Willow asked.
"Perhaps. The humans though will serve as great payback. You three are just a bonus," Tibbles remarked with a sinister smile.
Hunter groaned. "I hate carnivals."
Everyone else couldn't help but agree with the boy's statement.
Tibbles brought them inside and proceeded to place them in the tiny terrors' cage.
Tibbles pulled out a microphone and turned to a crowd gathered in the dark.
"Welcome to the greatest show on the Boiling Isles!" Tibbles announced, getting cheers of excitement from the crowd. "Will these witches and demon survive feeding time? Let's find out!"
Tibbles rings a bell, causing all five of the tiny terrors to growl at the group as they exit their tent. Although one unicorn still looks friendly.
"Aw. At least he's still my friend." Luz cooed.
That same unicorn then let out a demonic screech.
"That's how friends react," Luz said in fear.
The tiny terrors growl as they slowly advance.
"You ruined my livelihood. So now, you'll feed my livelihood." Tibbles said darkly as he cast another spell, turning a spotlight on. Curtains open to his side to show the inside of the cage magnified for the crowd's viewing pleasure. The six are slowly backed into a corner by the manticore and the smaller two unicorns.
"Place your bets and enjoy the show!" Tibbles declared.
"Well, if I have to go, at least I'm with my best friends. And King." Gus said.
The unicorns whinny and pounce at them. Flint slugs one of them across the face while the others quickly run, with Luz swiping King off the ground before Flint chases after. The unicorns growl and run after the two groups (Luz/King/Hunter and Gus/Willow/Flint).
Luz and Flint turn to each other and nod. Luz turns to Hunter. "Hold this." She says, tossing King into Hunter's arms as he catches him. Luz throws closed fists toward Flint, plant glyphs bursting to life on the backs of her hands and launching rope-like vines toward Flint. The palms of Flint's glow with fire glyphs as he catches the ends of each vine, causing the vines to be lined with flames. The vines sever themselves from Luz as Flint turns back to the incoming unicorns, cracking each fire-lined vine like a whip to both of his sides.
Flint smiled wickedly. "Sorry everyone, but we aren't on the menu." Flint declared as he twisted his body, swinging each whip in succession and lashing each unicorn in the side, causing them to cry out in pain as they were knocked to the side.
One of the downed unicorns shook its head and snarled, preparing to charge again, only to be pelted with a ball of ice that broke upon impacting its face.
The unicorn turned to the source to find Luz with her arms held up to either side, ice glyphs glowing in her palms as more balls of ice were summoned. Hunter and Willow had taken to either side of her, each reaching over and taking the newly formed ammunition and chucking them in the unicorn's direction.
The crowd watching was annoyed at not seeing what they paid for, but they soon became excited at watching as the four continued to fend off the tiny terrors.
While those four continued their defense, Gus turned to King from behind Luz and crossed his arms, shooting the demon a glare. "This is all your fault!"
"I know!" King screamed in frustration before looking down solemnly. "I know…" King said softer, catching the boy by surprise. King looked over toward Tibbles, pulling out the friendship bracelets and looking at them with a newfound determination. "But I think I know how to fix it."
King gestured for Gus to lean closer, the boy complying as King explained his plan to him.
At the same time, the mohawk unicorn was watching carefully in the background as his fellow terrors attacked to no avail. The griffin tried to attack the boy from behind, but the back of his hand glowed and suddenly the beast was blinded by a flash of light. Mohawk unicorn noted this and noticed how the garments on Flint and Luz's hands seemed to be the origin of these powers.
The mohawk unicorn turned to the manticore that was lurking toward the boy and let out a whinny. Seeming to understand, the manticore nodded as it prepared its attack.
Flint discarded the whips, having burned up too much and turning to ash. He was currently distracted by the unicorns as he used an ice glyph to create a bo staff, spinning it around and whacking one of them as it charged again.
"Is this the best you've got?!" Flint said arrogantly.
You dumbass!
Luz froze in horror at hearing that. "Flint!"
Flint's eyes widened as he realized his mistake. This moment of distraction was just what the manticore needed, as it charged forward, roaring as it whipped its scorpion tail and slashed up the boy's right hand, slicing through the glove and a few layers of skin.
Flint screamed out in pain from the attack, dropping his bo staff to nurse the injury, he pulled off the remains of the glove but dropped it as the terrors attempted to take advantage of this, the mohawk unicorn letting out a whinny as the others seemed to follow its commands.
Flint jumped back to the others as he hissed from the searing pain. The gash had gone through a few layers and went up along the space between his middle and ring knuckles. Flint used the other glove to cool it with a focused ice glyph to numb the pain.
"Flint! Are you okay?!" Luz cried out worriedly.
Flint hissed from a surge of pain. "Did you really just ask that?! This freaking hurts! We can't keep doing this forever!" Flint said.
"Then it's a good thing we have a plan," Gus said, with King standing at his side.
Flint growled at seeing the demon, but King looked at him desperately. "I know I messed up! But please, let me make it right!"
Flint looked at him angrily before scoffing. "Fine. What's your plan?"
"We need you to make an ice platform. Get King up to the edge and he'll do the rest," Gus explained, pointing to the top of their cage.
Flint grunted as he removed his left hand for a moment and traced an ice glyph in his spell circle. When the spell was complete, a solid staircase made of ice formed beside them. After casting the spell, Flint quickly made a giant blade of grass that wrapped around his right hand. He let it tighten to put pressure on the wound before putting his left hand back over it with the ice glyph again to continue numbing it.
King scrambled up the stairs, intent on making things right. He reached the rim of the cage and amped himself up. "Alright. I only have one shot. Nyah!" King said, spinning the bracelets before throwing them toward Tibbles.
The bracelets land on Tibbles's cheek, causing the demon annoyance. "Darn flies," Tibbles said in annoyance, tapping his cheek a few times to- Tibbles eyes widened as he realized what he had done. "Oh, no," Tibbles said depressingly.
All six of the captives began to glow as they returned to normal size, causing the terrarium in the process. Everyone drops to the ground and they sit up. They all share a look before sighing in relief.
Then the tiny terrors became not-so tiny as they too grew, leaving them stunned and recollecting themselves.
"You shrunk the animals too?" Luz questioned in disbelief.
"Luz, why would he even have the shrinking potion to begin with?" Flint deadpanned as he continued to hold his injured hand.
"The boy's right. It's the Tent of Tiny Terrors. Did you really think they came in that size?" Tibbles questioned with a raised brow.
They all begin to hear the crowd booing.
"Finish the job! Get them kids." One of them said.
"Feast!" A Hexside student yelled, throwing a crab apple at the mohawk unicorn, who caught it in his mouth and ate it. The unicorn's eyes widen in satisfaction at the treat, causing all the animals to turn to the crowd, licking their lips in anticipation after seeing their leader so pleased.
The audience all manages to turn to the one who threw the crab apple, who was sweating bullets under their accusatory glares.
"Uh oh." The student squeaked out, realizing their mistake.
The mohawk unicorn whinnies and raises a hoof towards the crowd, the rest of the animals heeding his orders as they all charge at the crowd, causing the witches to scream and run.
"They...foiled my plans! You will pay for this!" Tibbles yelled angrily, pulling out another bottle and gaining a psychotic smile. "This time I'm gonna personally squash you!"
The bottle was swiftly swiped out of his hand by Eda, who was in a…huh. She must've been blackmailed or something while they were gone. Anyway, she had a box with more crab apples in it hanging from her.
"Oh, no, Tibbles. That's not how entertainment works." Eda said, discarding the bottle. "The bad guy always gets his just desserts." Eda declared, dumping the crab apples on him.
"Oh, no! Not desserts!" Tibbles cried out, some of the crab apples sticking to him because of the syrup.
"Hey, girls. This one's on the house." Eda said to the animals.
This got their attention as they all look at Tibbles like their next meal…which is probably accurate because they did want revenge. Plus he was covered in crab apples, so he was already seasoned.
Tibbles screams as the animals charge at him, running out of the tent and the demon runs for his life.
"You know, I would feel bad for him, but he did try to kill us when we didn't even do anything to provoke him," Willow said, watching as Tibbles fled.
"Agreed," Gus stated.
Eda noticed Flint's hand and became alarmed. "Crap kid! Let me get that for you," Eda said, crouching down and unwrapping it before casting a healing spell. Slowly, the flesh mended itself, even if it did sting in the process.
As she did this, King went up to the group. He looked remorseful. "I'm sorry for getting us in this mess. It's just-" King looked to Flint and Luz. "I know you'll eventually go home and now you're spending more time at school. I just... wanna be around you…" King trailed off before turning to Flint specifically. "I'm sorry about earlier. You don't have to make any of those gloves for me. I don't think I deserve it," King said.
Flint chuckled from his spot on the ground. "I wouldn't quite say that," Flint said, causing King to look at him confused. Flint gave a soft smile. "You may not be ready for them yet, but you're closer than you were earlier," Flint said with a smile.
King ran up to Flint, hugging his side with a smile
Luz smiles, snapping a quick picture with her phone before kneeling next to them. "Here," Luz said, handing him four cracked pieces of the bracelets. "It was all that was left."
King takes them. "It's...it's okay. Because now there's a piece for all of you." King said, holding two out to Willow and Gus. "If you'll accept it, that is?"
Willow and Gus smiled as they each accepted a piece.
"Thank you, King." Willow thanked him.
"Yeah. I've always wanted to own a jagged piece of cheap metal." Gus said, his statement earning him a light jab from Willow's elbow.
King goes back to Luz and Flint and gives each of them the remaining pieces.
"But what about you?" Luz asked.
"It's…okay," King said sadly.
Flint smiled softly, handing him back the piece. "You keep it," Flint said, pulling him in for a side hug. King couldn't help be feel…at peace in the boy's grip. His presence was soothing to the young demon.
"I'm sorry again. Demons do crazy things when they've been missing somebody." King apologized.
"We've been missing you too," Luz said, kissing his skull. "Flint especially."
"Why got gotta expose me like that Luz?" Flint whined.
"Because without Maddie here, someone has to," Luz said with a snicker as she pulled King up into her arms.
As Luz and King were distracted, Eda let out a gagging sound. "Ugh, get a room you two."
Flint blushed. "S-shut up! It's not like that!"
Eda smirked. "Not like what?"
Flint was notably silent at that, looking around the room for anything to-oh.
Flint noticed that Hunter was nowhere to be seen. This made him frown. He wish his new friend would've at least said 'goodbye' or something before he left. How long ago had he even left anyway?
"*Yawn* What did I miss?"
Flint and Eda blinked, looking at the woman's hair to see Trixx poking out the top again.
"You slept through all that?" Eda asked in disbelief.
"I'm a heavy sleeper. Also, why is your hair sticky now?" Trixx responded.
"Hey, we're gonna go to the bumper carcasses, you guys coming?" Luz asked.
"Ooh! I'll come!" Trixx said excitedly, taking on her Luz-a-like appearance and heading over to them.
"Nah. I think I got everything I wanted," Eda said with a smile, looking at the pile of snails.
Flint shook his head fondly as he got up, his hand now healed. "I'll help you count the snails."
"Sure thing," Eda said, as they began to count the loot Tibbles left behind while the others left.
As they counted though, Flint couldn't help but feel like he was forgetting something.
Hunter could be seen walking along the streets of Bonesborough before turning into an alley.
Hunter smiled wickedly as he opened a compartment in the ground, revealing the Golden Guard's armor, cloak, and mask. "Thank you, Flint. I had a good day. Thanks for telling me so much about you. You might have caught me off-guard last time we met-"
Hunter pulled the mask up and put it on. He then reached into one of his pockets, revealing Flint's discarded Glyph Grafter from earlier.
"But you took something from me. It's only fair that I take something in return." The Golden Guard said sinisterly. The Golden Guard was going to have to use anything he could to get the upper hand against Flint.
Outtake:
Everyone's eyes widened as Flint pulled on the bottle, the force he put on it being too much for it to handle as the neck broke open, causing Flint to stumble back and the potion within to splash on the other four.
"Uh oh." All of them said, realizing what was about to occur.
The four shrank to the same size as Gus and Willow as the two walked up to them with displeased looks.
"Hi." They said bluntly.
Hunter sighed. "If I had a nickel for all times I've bumped into you people and gotten dragged into whatever situation was going on, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice right?"
CUT!
Realizing his mistake, Hunter facepalmed. "Shit!"
Everyone else groaned.
Hunter chuckled sheepishly. "Sorry! I couldn't help myself. It just kept popping up in my head."
"I can't blame you, but come on! We were almost through the scene!" Luz complained.
Flint went over in the distance and grabbed two statues that were being used as Willow and Gus, putting them back in his hand. "Come on, let's get reset. But hey, at least it's better than when we were fumbling during the body swap episode."
Hunter laughed. "True. Eda trying to impersonate Luz was probably the funniest though."
Eda sat in a chair in the background and let out a groan. "Trying to sound like an overly optimistic teenage girl is exhausting. Why must you have such weird ringo?"
"Lingo." Willow corrected the woman.
Eda waved her off "Whatever it's called!"
Hunter sighed. "I'm just happy I get to be involved early. My intro in the canon just had no build-up."
"To be fair, Disney did pull the plug on the show preemptively midway through that season. We probably would've had more development of you joining the Hex Squad if that hadn't happened." Gus pointed out.
"That and an actual third season," Flint added. "Although I think a beach episode wouldn't've made much sense. I mean, the water is boiling after all. You can't exactly swim in something like that unless you've got some protection spell or something." Flint brought a hand up to his chin with a contemplative look. "Wait, would that lake mentioned in the Willow memory episode be at a normal temperature?"