tap-tap-tap-taptaptaptapta-
"Izuku," Luz's tone had a hidden warning, "is something on your mind?"
"Huh?" Izuku looked up. He and Luz were about shin deep in books, papers, and notecards. The chalkboard had been scrubbed clean of Izuku's frantic panic of invading the Castle, replaced with an image of the four glyphs in each corner, and of course, 'Team Night-Light' in the middle. He looked back at Luz, seeing her waiting for an answer with a gentle smile on her face. "Uhhh...do you want me to change the board again?"
Luz waved her hand. "No, the board's fine. You just have that look on your face."
"Look?" Izuku echoed.
"Yeah, your Serious Face," she poked his cheek. "You only use it when you're hyperfocusing." Then put a hand on his shoulder.
Izuku looked at the notebook he was writing in. Notes and notes of glyphs, how slight changes such additional circles or shapes affected the spell. When he had accidentally scratched the fire and light glyphs on the shield during Grom, the two spells seemed to be competing before exploding. Activating them together without overlap had resulted in a similar explosion, but with a bit more control, as much as the word can be applied to such a thing. They knew they can chain multiple of the same glyphs together-
"Which is why we're experimenting-" Luz's voice interrupted his thoughts, seemingly knowing what he was about to say while flipping the chalk board, "-with glyph com-!"
"Weh!"/"AH-!"
King had suddenly jumped into Luz's arms, scrambling around her shoulders like a confused cat before hopping into Izuku's lap.
"Luz! Izuku! Help!" King then wiggled his way over Izuku's shoulders and head, all five of his limbs flailing around. "Francois is coming for my head!"
"Wha-?" Izuku wrangled King into his grip, getting a face full of tail while looking at the plush rabbit doll in question and a jagged dagger. "Oh." Then had a bolt of realization. "Oh!" He held King in his arms, getting up. "Don't worry, King, I'll help get Francois back in line. Probably just have to negotiate better pay. Again."
Playing with King, while a distraction, was a welcomed one over the past few days and held no less importance than figuring out the magic of the Isles. Izuku would even dare say it was a higher priority, if only because he needed some company closer in age, especially those who can reach the top shelf where Eda hid the better snacks. When King asked for help with his army of plush toys, it was an unspoken agreement to play along, sometimes taking turns or roping each other into the latest rendition of 'King of Demons' story if the little tyrant had someone specific in mind.
"Which we can do later," Luz puffed out her cheeks and picked up King from Izuku's grasp, setting him on his feet on the floor. "We're kinda busy right now, King."
King groaned, stomping his foot and crossing his arms. "You guys have been obsessed with glyphs lately. Meanwhile, I'm still cursed-cursed!-to live in this tiny, adorable body!"
"Which just makes you the cutest future tyrant," Luz used her baby-voice. "We'll play after we get some glyph combos working, okay?"
"We have a pretty good outline, Luz," Izuku flipped a few pages in the notebook. "Sure, we won't know if these will even work, but it'd be easier to experiment with everyone together instead of having to repeat ourselves or activate a combo we can't undo." He traced one of the shapes on the page. "I think we can take a break for a bit. Maybe even build a castle for you." Izuku looked at the pillow fort taking up most of the living room.
"Ha!" King waved it off. "This is nothing compared to my-!" And then gasped. "I'll be right back!"
"Wait, King!" Luz tried to grab him, but he was a squirmy little guy. "Izuku," she had that tone again, "what is up with you?"
"What do you mean?" Izuku arranged his notes. "Eda makes sure we go to bed on time, Lilith knows the most about the Castle out of all of us, and we have plenty of time before the Day of Unity. We can spend an hour or two playing with King."
"Y-yeah," Luz sighed in agreement. "But you've been acting-" she paused. "I-I mean, loving the newfound confidence! Really! It's like the first time you infodumped on voice chat, it's real great seeing you come out your shell. But you might wanna, uh, reign it back in?" She said while gesturing a rolling gesture with her hands. "I'm enough reckless impulsiveness for the both of us! Hehe." She chuckled a little, but something was off.
Izuku blinked. Luz? Impulsive and reckless? "If by reckless and impulsive you mean brave, then yeah." He hung his head, feeling a bit of guilt. Was Luz trying to tell him he was overstepping? Glyph lessons were her idea, and he had been more than happy to help with different teaching and learning styles, taking into account Eda's dislike of structured lessons while Lilith thrived in it. He had even asked Amity for any older potions books she can get at the public library-oh! He had to return those soon, or else she would be in trouble. And if Amity was trouble, Luz would be mad at him!
clack!
They were interrupted when King had both Owlbert and Michaelis in their staff forms. "Alright guys! Let's get going!"
Getting their witch's wool protections, they set off towards the Boiling Sea, King leading the way, nestled in Izuku's arms while they rode on Michaelis while Luz rode on Owlbert.
"I can't wait to show you guys all my cool stuff!" King excitedly kicked his feet. "There's the throne made of teeth, the horrifying monstrosity room, the chamber where I devour the hearts of my enemies, and all the cool murals depicting my terrifying rule!"
Izuku patted King's head. "I'm sure it's all great." He looked to Luz. "Mind letting Luz have a souvenir?"
"Of course!" King leaned Michaelis so they flew closer to Luz. "Anything for my favorite minions."
Luz still had a strained look in her face. "So, uh, King? Where are we going?"
"To my castle!" King sounded like he was stating the obvious. "Before I was cursed, I was a mighty ruler of all demonkind! I held grands feasts and led fearless armies!"
...
...
Nothing better than a nice, long, hot shower to relax. Eda had her favorite, and technically only, bathrobe, what was left of her hair in a matching towel, and well-worn slippers, all providing comfort while she trudged out of the bathroom and back into reality.
"Alright kids, clear out the nerd nest, momma needs to kick her feet u-" Eda paused when she noticed a distinct lack of weird human noises. No sound effects from Luz, no Izuku rambling about something or other, or King going on about power. "Huh."
Something pricked in her mind. Some sort of sense telling her something was wrong, but she did not know what it was exactly she had to worry about.
Her first stop was the kitchen. "Hey Lily, have you seen the kids?"
"Hmm," Lilith was reading some book. "These human ingredients are strange, but I didgraduate at the top of my class. I'm sure I can find suitable substitutes here."
"Don't worry, Lulu!" Hooty had a chef's hat on. "Your good pal Hooty will best your best sous chef!"
"Thank you Hootsifer," Lilith gave a grateful pat to the head, only to pull back a trail of mucus.
Eda leaned on the doorframe. "Glad to see the two people I can't stand are getting along swimmingly."
"Oh, Edalyn," Lilith clapped. "Just in time! I found this grimoire of human feasts and was hoping I could recreate them for Izuku and Luz. Their glyph lessons have been equally charming and insightful, I wanted to do something nice for them."
"Right," Eda snorted. "Still haven't answered my question. Where are those little troublemakers?"
"Oh! They went outside for a bit!" Hooty wiggled his body.
"Without adult supervision?" Eda felt something in her chest. How far did they go? In what direction? Why did they go outside in the first place?
Lilith made a noise. "Do my eyes deceive me? Edalyn Clawthorne, career criminal and rule breaker, fussing over some children?"
Eda scoffed back and narrowed her eyes but ultimately rolled them. "We both know they get it from you, Miss Curser." And sauntered on back to the couch.
Maybe bit of a low blow, but it had been years now. Maybe a little joke about it could ease the weirdness. Otherwise, having her sister around was...nice? At least it was nice how comfortable she felt not having to look over her shoulder, running circles around each other, fighting like ratworms and cats. The stockpile of elixir now needed to be split between both Clawthornes, Lilith and the kids got along well enough, so maybe nice was the right word. Some part of Eda was petty enough to enjoy seeing the curse running its course, but others? Even the fearsome Owl Lady would not want to give this suffering to her worst enemy. They did promise they would be together, and they were, just not in the way they had planned. No Emperor's Coven, barely any magic, and with a house full of brats who kept them on their toes. Deciding to take her mind off things and stop worrying so damn much, Eda simply moved some pile of books from the couch, setting them on the coffee ta-
"What the?" She saw a note. From King. About going to his castle. "Ah sh-!" She tripped on another book. "Lily!"
...
...
The sun was beginning to set, casting the Boiling Sea in a shimmering array of yellows and oranges blending together. Normally, one might be stuck inside during this time, but when up in the air like this, the wind actually gentle, barely a caress, above the water and under a sky slowly sprinkling with stars, it was easy to see why this time was referred to as golden hour. There was a warmth, the Boiling Sea was named as such for a reason and being above it had the same effect of being in a sauna. He wondered if it cooled down during the winter. Was there a winter in the Demon Realm? A perpetual summer? Weather on the Boiling Isles was so different. The Knee, the Ribs around the Castle, and the Digits were cold, but...
"This place is amazing," Izuku took in another breath, but it came out as a sigh. "I'm sorry it took me this long to realize that. I should have been more open to the idea, to at least spend time with you, but I-" he saw she was deep in thought, staring ahead but not really. "Luz?"
Luz shook herself out of her head, looking at him. "Y-yeah?"
"I-"/"Weh!"
King suddenly stood up, almost falling off, but Luz and Izuku were quick to pick him up before he fell into the boiling water. "We're here!"
As if on cue, the fog dissipated, revealing a small island. High mountains formed an almost perfect semi-circular wall, surrounding a tall tower of what appeared to be stone, almost perfect if not for some damage at its top. It was hard to see the base of the tower, the fog still heavy near the ground, but he could see lush greenery. Upon landing, they were met with a thick and lush plant life more akin to a jungle than the forests of the Boiling Isles.
"Whoa..." Izuku muttered, letting Michaelis perch on his shoulder. "What is this place?"
King trotted ahead, presenting the island as wide as his arms can go. "Home sweet home! At least until Eda scooped me up and carried me to her house. We need to walk the rest of the way, but I promise it's worth it!"
"Actually, King," Luz was still on Owlbert, hovering slightly above the ground. "Maybe we should head back and come explore another time."
"What!?" King barked in disbelief. "But we just got here!"
Izuku tried not to be bothered by Michaelis pecking at his hair. "We'll just take a quick look around first. Besides, we left a note." He walked further into the jungle, hearing King's little footsteps scampering across the dirt and low brush.
"Wait, guys!" Luz called after them before the scuff of shoes on dirt followed, ending with Luz trotting up next to Izuku. "Someone has to keep you guys from getting too reckless." And she nudged his shoulder.
Now it was Izuku's turn to chuckle a bit nervously.
'She's definitely mad at me.'
Following King through the thick brush, it was clear why they could not fly to the tower itself. In theory, it could be done, but the canopy was too dense to safely navigate from sky to ground, especially in the dark. One dramatic reveal of the entrance had also shown the key-shaped entrance was blocked off with stone. Too small for Izuku and Luz, but perfectly sized for King to squeeze through the cracks like a cat. This gave the two a moment to inspect the wall, the material glimmering like gold and etched in looping circles.
"Wow! Is this an ancient language? It doesn't look like Elder Runic," Izuku traced the circle from its center outward. "I should have brought my notebook, but maybe if I trace this, we could reference some older languages and-"
"Izuku, we should go." Luz suddenly grabbed his shoulder.
"Huh?" He looked at her, seeing her uncomfortable. "Why?"
Luz sputtered. "W-why!? Izuku, we've been gone for hours!" She gestured up to the sky. "Eda's probably worried and the stress is going to activate her curse and Lilith isn't going to know what to do about it!"
Izuku looked up and gasped. "Hours!? Ah-" he held her hand and gave it a squeeze. "I-it's fine! If we've been gone this long, and Eda hasn't come, then she trusts we can take care of ourselves, right? We'll be fine, I'll make sure of it! Once we're inside, we'll just take a quick peek, and start heading back." He held up his hand, showing the friendship bracelets. "Team Night-Light?"
Luz took in a deep breath, her cheeks puffing, nostrils flaring, her face even getting a bit red when she let out what sounded like a sigh through her nose. "Team Night-Light."
thunk!
The rubble blocking the tower's entrance suddenly gave way, and King popped up once more. "And don't forget your favorite tyrant!"
"Uhhh-yep!" Luz struck a pose, giving a thumbs up. "We're loyal to your adorable ruthlessness!"
Heading further inside, Izuku felt something was off about Luz and her odd unenthusiastic demeanor about this adventure. He was worried about the curse as well, but they left a note! The fly over to King's castle had taken longer than expected, but besides that, there was no need to worry. They had glyphs, they had Owlbert and Michaelis, and Izuku was going to make sure they got back in one piece.
The inner part of the tower was of course dark.
"Ah," King let out a wistful sigh, "the chamber where I devoured the fearful hearts of my enemies. Fear tastes cold by the way."
"I wouldn't expect otherwise," Izuku reached into his pocket.
"Okay, we had a quick peek, let's go." Luz stayed by the entrance.
Izuku got out a light glyph, activating it. "Just a second."
As light filled the chamber, they could see more stone and overgrowth. Where nature had not yet reclaimed revealed the walls to be painted and carved in great detail, showing figures and stars, some having curved heads, others resembling King with horned skulls, wielding spears against threats. More of the strange gold-like material lined the walls and pillars, gleaming in the low light of the glyph and whatever natural light had been able to find its way in from the now unblocked entrance.
"Whoa!"
thud
"Eep-!" Izuku stepped back, seeing he had walked into something made of stone. He saw it was a stack of stones, like a snowman, with the top stone curved. He looked at the stacked stones, then to the wall carvings, and once again to the stacked stones. "So cool! I wonder what these are supposed to represent?"
"We can figure that out with Eda or Lilith," Luz put a hand on his shoulder. "Let's go. We can come back later when we make a map."
"Oh-hooo, no." King shook his head. "You can't make a map of this place. Eda's tried. But whenever I look for it, it's always here."
"What!?" Luz's eyes gleamed a bit with excitement but then she shook her head. "No, bad Luz! Be the responsible one." Her eyes widened. "Oh my god, I'm the responsible one today."
Izuku could feel the gears turning in his heads while listening idly to Luz. "A place not charted on any maps, meaning-" dots were connecting, "-Belos might not know about it!" He turned and picked up the little demon. "King! Do you know what this means?"
"Uh," King blinked. "I'm the rightful king of the Isles?"
"Close enough!" Izuku let him down gently. "Maybe there's some more glyphs! Or-or-or books on magic that predates the Coven system!"
"Y-yeah!" Luz pulled Izuku away towards the entrance. "Which is why we should probably head back and get Eda or Lilith so they can help figure out all this cool history stuff too. Heck, why not call that Darius guy? If he's on our side, he'll want a crack at this too! So let's go!" And started to walk, but Izuku held his ground.
"If being the mystery." Izuku jerked his hand out of her grip. "I'm not sure how many of the Coven Heads are loyal to Belos and which ones are willing to turn against him. Darius could be willing to work with us but could be just as willing to turn us in to keep his position. We'll look around, get some etchings-"
"Uh, guys?"
"No." Luz grabbed his hand again. "I know you've been feeling awful about the portal thing, believe me, I get it, but that doesn't mean you can start being a reckless blockhead."
"I'm not reckless!" Izuku jerked his hand back again, hearing some insect buzz in the darkness.
"Guys!"
"If anything, I've been making sure we don't get ourselves killed," Izuku continued, seeing Luz gasp and sputter.
"What's that supposed to mean!?"
"Luz, be honest, were you going to storm the Castle yourself if I didn't help you?"
Luz's face turned red. "At least I didn't date Boscha!"
"Watch out!" King's little clawed hands grabbed on and pulled with all his little might, just in time to dodge getting slashed at by some stone and flesh monster. "You guys can kill each other later, I'll help! But right now run!"
Picking up King and quickly putting him in Luz's arms, Izuku met the monster's clawed hand with an ice glyph, weighing it down before pushing it back with a kick to its center. The monster rotated itself midair, landing on all fours, head creaking and clicking as a bulging mass of flesh from somewhere in its body, slithered into its arm and become an axe, breaking the ice.
"So cool!"/"Not the time, Izuku!"
graaak!
Michaelis cawed, grabbing Izuku by the scarf and pulling him with a surprising amount of strength as the axe came down.
"Take this!" Luz threw a fire glyph, which the monster dodged by jumping onto the ceiling, its head turning like an owl to look at them. "Oh no."
Izuku used a trio of plant glyphs to create a thorny hedge, blocking the monster from pursuing as they ran. It was only when they found themselves in another chamber did they realize they should have gone the other way.
"Uh, King!" Luz looked around desperately. "What was up there?" She pointed to a hole in the ceiling, blocked off much like the entrance was. "An armory? Magic shields? Some ancient guardian that only listens to you?"
"Uhhh-ahhh-!" King held his head. "I don't remember! This curse is messing with my head!" The clicking of the monster echoed louder as it began to chase. "Wait! A roar! There was a loud roar when I was up there!"
Izuku activated a fire glyph in his hand, tossing it like a baseball player towards the blocked hole in the ceiling, the explosion knocking the rocks loose to make them fall.
boom!
Another explosion? Turning back to the hall, Izuku saw as a light came closer, the source being a headlamp Hooty was wearing as he stretched himself into the chamber.
"Found them!" Hooty happily announced while the sound of heeled boots ran in, punctuated every so often by another explosion.
"And now for the big finale," Eda held up a paper, slapping it on her palm and throwing it at the monster. What hit was actually a palm-sized ice cube. "Huh. Well da-" before it exploded into a larger spiked ice ball. "Yes!" And the ice ball expanded, first doubling, then tripling. "Ah shoot."
"Up there!" At Lilith's voice, Michaelis returned to staff form, and the six of them went up to the newly unlocked chamber.
Broken platforms in seemingly random places allowed some light here and there, the strange golden symbol curved its way up alongside wild foliage which had long reclaimed the tower. And at the top, they were greeted with cobwebs.
"A dead end!?" Hooty would have sounded shocked if he did not also have frustration in his screech. It was now Izuku saw he was in a small birdhouse-like carrier. "We're doomed!"
"Keep it together, Hooty." Eda landed and immediately flicked their foreheads. "What were you kids thinking coming to this place? And all by yourselves? What if that thing killed you?"
"Hey! This is my castle! I have a right to be here!" King rubbed the sore spot on his forehead before crossing his arms. "Obviously the horrific monstrosity is guarding against intruders."
"If that's the case then why is trying to attack you?" Lilith sounded skeptical and looked as much too.
"Uh," King's tail flicked. "We-he-he-ell, obviously it doesn't recognize its master when I'm cursed in this tiny form. That, uh, sounds right, right guys?" He looked up to Izuku and Luz, eyes pleading, tail tucked in his arms now like a teddy bear. "You believe me, don't you?"
"I-uh-we-well, of course!" Luz stammered her response. "R-right, Izuku? You studied plenty of history books here! Surely one of them mentions a king of demons?"
Lilith snorted out a laugh. "Sorry, but no." She held herself high while correcting. "Demons haven't been united under a single ruling power until Belos became emperor." Her smile faded, however, looking at the ruins. "But that only begs the question of what this place is."
"Aha!" King pointed triumphantly. "I'm right!"
"But," Izuku copied her mannerisms, holding his chin up and gesturing with one hand behind his back, "he could have just rewrote history when he became emperor." His eyes went to the walls, seeing the strange gold-like material again. "Whatever this place is, Belos either doesn't know or doesn't want anyone to know it exists. The only question left is why?"
A quiet filled the pause, only broken by the cracking ice down in the lower chamber.
"Hey look! A door!" Hooty chirped, batting his head against one of the walls.
Luz went up to it, helping Hooty, but it might as well have been a wall as it did not budge. A combined effort with Eda, Lilith, and Izuku similarly did not work.
Izuku saw King had been staying back, looking down the hole they had flown up through. He looked smaller than before, Izuku being reminded of the incident with Piniet. King, whether or not he was truly an all-powerful demonic sovereign, was still a child. Something about this place was scaring him.
"King," Izuku held out his hand. "teamwork makes the dream work."
King looked back down the hole, shyly walking up to the door. At his touch, the door flashed blue, rippling like water and opening with a musty cloud of dust.
Inside, they found yet another room long forgotten to time. The air was stale, seemingly unused to moving, full of dust and a fading floral scent. The source of the scent was undoubtedly the plants in various stages of growth, decay, or both, most being bushes along the wall with strange white flowers. A single skylight provided light, showing more carvings of stars and crescent-headed figures on the wall. Within the beam of light, a branch of flowers hovered directly above...
"A nest?" Luz picked up a fragment of something on the golden pedestal.
"With eggshells!" Hooty nudged a piece. "In my expert hoot-pinion, whatever came out of this hatched eight years ago. Hey! That's the same age as King!"
King's eyes were wide, looking around, holding his hands together, tapping his claws, tail curled around him. "I-" he looked at the nest and the light. "I know this is my castle. I was a mighty king-!" He looked at Eda. "Tell them, Eda! I was powerful and-" he ran up to her, clutching the hem, of her dress, "and feared!"
Eda looked at them, then to King, her face full of guilt and remorse, glancing back to the hole behind them and sighing. She sat down, pulling King into her lap.
"Eight years ago, I came to this island looking for a bit of protection. It was a rainy night, the Emperor's Coven was on my tail, and this place just showed up out of the fog. So, I landed." She looked around while she spoke. "I found those little statues, and...you." But her gaze landed on King. "I didn't know what you were, but I did know Big Bad Bonehead down there was out for blood, so I scooped you up and we blew this fried orb stand." She reached into her hair, taking out a broken horn, the jagged edge matched the edge on King's. "I brought you home, got you a collar because I honestly thought you were some sort of dog. But then you spoke. And you looked so happy the more I talked, so I just let you believe you were once a fearsome overlord." She handed the broken horn over to King.
He had only touched it for a second, but it was long enough for him to gasp and slap it away while scrambling backwards, tripping on a plant and landing on the edge of the pedestal.
"King!" Izuku and Luz both reached for him. Luz was quicker, helping him up.
"Hey, it's going to be okay. S-so what if you weren't actually the king of demons? You're still family!"
Izuku tried to extend his hand out, but King slapped it away too.
"Because it's my whole life!" King's desperate shout almost echoed in the chamber, more so when it cracked. "And you two don't even care! It's all glyphs, and Belos, and who's dating who with you!" He pointed accusingly at Izuku and Luz, eyes welling with tears and his breathing too rapid. "But this is my life! I'm somebody important!"
crack!
A slight chill entered the air, seeing the ice was breaching the hole.
"You're gonna be dead if we don't find a way out of here." Eda went up to the skylight. "Can we fit through there?"
"Don't worry, guys!" Hooty wiggled and aimed himself over the hole. "Porta-Hooty is on duty!" And regurgitated a few potion bottles, all of which exploded, sending a plume of thick smoke back up and into Hooty's face, making the house demon cough. "Ack! Ugh!"
"Hootsifer!" Lilith had been wearing the birdhouse like a backpack, giving his head comforting pats. "Edalyn, this is your fault!"
"What!?" Eda shouted. "My superglyph just needs a bit of work. And I distinctly remember being in the shower when these little hooligans snuck out, so it's not on me."
"We left a note!" Izuku shouted.
"Superglyph?" Luz asked.
"It's what Edalyn calls her haphazard mess of writing glyphs on top of each other instead of studying your lesson materials." Lilith had some paper and was writing something.
Izuku had gotten a chance to pick up King, holding him close when he heard Eda loud and clear. "You did what!?" Of all the reckless things-! "Eda! We had a whole lesson prepared on how to combine glyphs!"
"And?"
"And I was going to say that I noticed a pattern in old potion recipes, especially those written by Harmes. They were written in some coded cipher with symbols for ingredients and processes, which, when arranged in a certain order, spell out the recipe-"
"Which were an inspiration for combining different glyphs. The glyphs and their positions command the existing magic present on the Isles to create a desired effect." Lilith held up the paper she was writing on. "But it takes even the greatest potions makers years to decode any of Harmes' writings. How did you even know they were recipes to begin with?"
Izuku blushed a bit. "Oh, uh, the symbols just reminded me of this old show Luz and I watched. It's about two brothers and-" he heard a sniffling, seeing King had been crying into his shirt. "We can talk about it later. King," he looked at the little bundle of fur in his arms. "I think you are important."
King sniffled again, looking up and wiping his eyes. "You're just saying that."
"It's true," Luz added, getting the tears on the other side of his face. "You're important to us.And this place is important to you." She gestured. "You might not have been the King of Demons, but that doesn't make you any less spec-" she paused, looking at one of the wall carvings, "-ial." She titled her head. "Huh. Hey, don't the figures in these carvings look a lot like the thing trying to kill us?"
"Ha!" Hooty laughed. "I've seen better graffiti. Heck, I have better graffiti on me!"
King wiggled, Izuku taking it as a sign he wanted to be down. "What about it?"
Luz looked at the ice in the hole then back to King. "I think we just found our way out."
Lilith's glyph combination was placed on the ice. Light, ice, fire, and ice again in a clockwise formation. The spiked creeping ice was enveloped in light, collapsing in on itself in the new form of snow, though it was still piled quite high and probably densely packed, though nothing a fire glyph from Eda could not fix. With the path out now free, the six were now able to fly down and back into the lower chamber of the tower.
click-clickclick-click
Down here, the monster pulled itself out of the snow, one of its limbs bladed and raised to strike upon seeing them. Izuku did not like the idea of King going out of reach, he was a child and there were at least three adults. Still, deep down, he knew King needed this. Or was Izuku thinking of himself again?
"Uh-stop!" King held up his clawed hand, standing with his feet wide and his tail up, trying to look as big as possible.
The monster froze mid-swing, a silent relief washing over the group. It lowered its limb, now a mass of tendrils, and crouched onto one knee, lowering its head. King stared for a moment, clutching the broken horn tighter.
"Told ya." Luz patted King's head. "You're important."
"Huh," Eda smirked. "Guess we have a new babysitter."
"Oh absolutely not!" Lilith protested.
...
...
Back at the Owl House, after some hours of transport which had been preceded by at least ten minutes of who rode with who on a palisman or Eda's motorized bathtub, Izuku and Luz were glueing the fragment of King's horn back in place.
"There." King held up the newly carved symbol on his collar. "Hey, you guys have dads, right? What's it like?"
Izuku had been holding the glue bottle and dropped it. "Uh..." He picked it up, trying not to seem too surprised. "Wh-what makes you ask that?"
"Remember when I said there was a huge roar up in the nest? It meant 'son'. I don't know how I know that, but what if that was my dad? And all those murals on the walls were of him? Like he was protecting me? And this symbol-" King held up his collar, showing the symbol. "What if it's my name? If he's out there, I want to tell him I'm okay."
Izuku and Luz looked at each other but Izuku was first to look away. He knew what he said back there on the island, and it made his chest heat up with guilt. They did not even get a chance to talk about it on the way back since Izuku fell asleep on the ride over in the motorboat bathtub. How can he just apologize after what he said?
"I'm sure he'd love to hear from you, King." Luz had answered for them, putting King's collar on him. "Dads are cool like that." And finished with a kiss.
"Hey yeah! I can't wait to meet him and tell him all about you guys!" King sounded happy. "And don't forget Jean-Luc's kiss!" He pointed over to the inanimate guardian in the corner.
"Welp!" Luz stood up quickly, almost tripping over her own feet to the door. "I'm gonna take a nice long shower. Flying over boiling water sure works up a sweat!" She was already halfway down the hall before she had even finished her sentence.
"What about you, Izuku?" King looked up at him. "What's your dad like?"
Izuku tried to grit his teeth to keep a squeak from escaping.