Enter Bonesborough
“It’s Eda and King!” She yelled, pointing upwards at the rapidly escaping warp star as the others burst out of the house. “They’re on that shooting star.”
“How are we going to catch up to them?” Luz’s mom asked, clearly still not used to the whole magic thing.
She gave Flapjack a look. “Think you can do me a favor?”
Without even responding, Flapjack shifted into staff form, floating into her hands. “Don’t worry, mom. Eda gave me flying lessons.” Luz then proceeded to jump onto the staff feet first like it was a skateboard.
“Flying lessons?” Her mom asked incredulously.
It didn’t take long for the others to get their staves out, with Amity insisting no one ride with Luz as she didn’t trust that Eda gave her the safest lessons. So that’s how they ended up with Luz riding on Flapjack while her mom stayed with Amity and Ghost.
Following the star's path, Luz saw that it was taking them into the center of Bonesborough. That was a good sign… right? It allowed them to knock out two birds with one stone, check for signs of life and answers, and track down King and Eda.
Luz touched down first, still following the trajectory of the star. Flapjack snapped out of staff mode and shot Luz a look. “Flap, think you can case the perimeter for anything of note?” Flapjack tweeted accordingly and shot up into the sky.
Luz heard her mom yelp again as if on cue after she noticed the others landing. Turning to face her, Luz saw her mom apologetically greeting the light post demon. A small smile crossed her face before she rolled her eyes and turned back to Flapjack, who fluttered down.
“How’s it look?” She asked.
Flapjack said something that was effective “Looks clear to me. No sign of anyone.”
She nodded to the bird and relayed the information, starting to walk off further into Bonesborough.
“So, hold on a moment.” Gus started, jogging up to pace with Luz. “Can you understand what Flapjack is saying?”
Good question. It never really occurred to Luz until that point that she’d just been talking with Flapjack. She’s been holding full conversations with him, asking him for favors. Hell, she actually told him to shut up earlier. When she thought about it, she couldn’t remember the specifics of the conversation, always getting maybe every third word or the general idea.
“I think I get the gist of what he’s trying to say.” Luz answered truthfully, “It’s not like I’m getting every single word, more like the basic outline of what he wants to impart.”
Gus hummed inquisitively. “Neat.”
“That isn’t what I’d call it.” Luz’s heart panged again as she thought. She could understand Flapjack, something that most people can’t do. In fact, the only person she knew that actually understood what Flapjack was saying in the past was Hunter.
She shut her eyes as she tried to block the building of static in her head, not willing to look around and find where the Dread Hunter was hiding, glaring at her with its empty static eyes and unhinged jaw. Luz had taken so much from Hunter, his purpose, life, home, appearance, and relationship with Flapjack. What kind of sister was she? He hasn’t even been dead for 24 hours.
As the static in her ears grew louder and louder, Luz knew she needed to face reality. She needed to suffer recompense for the sins she committed.
Opening her eyes, the Dread Hunter stood not more than a few inches away from her, his jaw hanging open and puffing hot air onto her face. She eyed it back, exhausted. It raised a hand and traced a line down her cheekbone, the joints in the arm and hand cracking as it did the action, mocking a tender moment. It chuckled, performing the closest thing it could to a grin.
“What’s so funny?” She asked.
“You better duck.” It answered.
Before she could ponder what that meant, Luz snapped back to reality just in time to see a wave of sparkles about to wash over her.
_
Philip groaned. The staff was now at 7 out of 15 bars filled. It felt like an eternity. Did he really use to stick this out in order to use his staves? Philip admitted defeat as the bar still failed to jump up to the eighth. He laid down on the closest comfortable surface. If it was going to take forever, he would have a nap in the meantime.
_
Much to Luz’s thankfulness, Amity noticed Luz spaced out and managed to drag her out of the tidal wave of strange star sparkles. Gripping her body tightly into the nearest alley. She watched nervously as the wave of sparkles passed violently by, coating the landscape in a sort of reality paint that Luz could only assume applied some kind of perception filter.
Suddenly the buildings weren’t messed up, the ground wasn’t dirty, the sky was blue and filled with rainbows and happy clouds. That was certainly an interesting development. Then things took a turn for the even stranger, as in puffs of blue smoke several humanoid figures appeared in the streets.
Craning her neck to get a closer look, Luz felt her stomach churn. The figures, while not all familiar on a first name basis, all were citizens of the Boiling Isles. However, there was something very wrong with them. Their skin looked shiny, as though made out of plastic. Their eyes were glossy and empty, a terror trapped frame perfect in a dead and unfocused expression. Their mouths were blocky and disconnected from their bodies. Every single person on the street had been reconfigured from a witch into some kind of toy, like an action figure or a marionette.
She kept looking at the eyes, noticing how each one held a terrified undertone to their neutral expression. It was enough to make her wonder if they were conscious, trapped within the horror of being the toys to the Collector.
Luz continued to scan the crowd. This was the direction that Eda and King were headed, odds are if they were puppetified by the Collector they’d likely be here. Another moment’s once over confirmed that neither the cranky old witch or silly little Titan were around, leaving Luz to finally let out a sigh of relief.
Then Willow spotted her dad. Of course, as any child would do in such a situation, Willow ran after her dad just in time for all the puppets to click on, their eyes glowing orange. Quickly the puppets started screaming and running around in a panicked frenzy.
Oh well, at least there didn’t seem to be any danger. Could be better but isn’t awful.
Then a feral scream rung out from across the promenade, followed by a wall caving in. As the dust settled, Luz tunnel visioned at the sight of what caused it. A large, hand stitched version of the Owl Beast.
Of course… This is much worse.