Chapter Text
CHAPTER 1 – The Harpy Queen
Azura returned to her castle after a long day of disappointment. She sighed, undoing her bubble braid and letting her lustrous green hair fall to the floor.
“Another hard day, kid?”
The witch’s demeanor immediately brightened, a grin appearing on her face. She turned to see her favorite person: Elowyn Crowhurst, more commonly known as ‘The Harpy Queen’. She was a stunning woman, standing over seven feet tall and adorned with silver and rust-colored feathers. She was practically a goddess, an accurately designed angel, especially with her large black eyes that looked like sparkling pits planted on her face.
“Yeah,” Azura replied, “The Gildersnake got away again.”
“Eh, you’ll get him someday,” Elowyn said with a smile.
Azura couldn’t understand how anyone could ever hate the beautiful witch that stood before her. She was told to be wary of her harpy form, but she knew there was nothing to truly worry about. Elowyn only hurt others in self defense.
Or if she was provoked. |
“Man, writing is hard,” Luz groans, pushing her laptop away.
“Then go to bed…” Vee’s voice comes from the bottom bunk, tired and cranky. “It’s almost eleven, you have school in the morning.”
“Ugh, don’t remind me.”
“And aren’t you supposed to be working on an essay? I’m sure a fanfic can wait.”
“I’m not writing a fanfic.” She rolls her eyes, re-opening her computer and staring at the screen. She was definitely writing a fanfic.
“What’s the point in lying to me?”
Luz knows that Vee knows she’s a total weirdo already, but she doesn’t have the balls to tell her exactly what she’s spending her time writing.
“Your readers can wait, just like I’m waiting for you to tell me what you’re actually writing about.”
“It’s none of your business, that’s what,” She mumbles, scrolling up. Not that there’s much to look at besides the title. Fifteen minutes and all she’s managed is this. What’s the point in being miserable if your misery can’t be poetic? What kind of pathetic loser can’t even manifest their pathetic-loserness into art?
More so, Luz can’t help but be a perfectionist. Despite being an original character, her depiction of Elowyn Crowhurst, The Harpy Queen, feels off. Why is it so hard to write her in particular? She’s basically just Eda, though with a slightly more fantastical backstory—The Great Witch Azura is a piece of media a tad more whimsical than the world real witches experience.
But as long as Elowyn was left unprovoked, all would remain at peace. While others only saw what meets the eye (out of both ignorance and stupidity), Azura was able to look deep into the harpy’s mind, and it was beautiful. A bit of patience and maturity was all that was needed, really.
Azura was special for that, as Elowyn told her, and it was true. Something about Elowyn just… always seemed to be right. There was no need to doubt her guidance. There was no reason to say no to |
Luz doesn’t like where her mind goes as she types that. She quickly deletes.
There was no need to doubt her guidance, for she always worked things out in the end.
That’s better.
“I’m gonna get some water,” Luz lies, getting up as if her water bottle isn’t right there pushed up against the wall. No, in reality she just needs some… air. Vee doesn’t seem to care, and it only takes one glance to see that she’s asleep. Luz looks over to the alarm clock. She just sat there writing for thirty minutes. Thirty minutes, and all she managed was two paragraphs?! Fuck.
She makes her way down the hall, tiptoeing past Camila’s room. She’s gotten good at this routine. Her, Gus and Hunter have been stuck in the human realm for nearly a month at this point, and disgusting guilty feelings and ugly memories aren’t soothed by just anything.
THUMP
The sound of someone slipping comes from the kitchen, making Luz whip her head over. Through the door frame, she sees Hunter looking back at her like a deer caught in headlights, stooped down with his hands hovering over a Cheerios box which has spilled all over the floor.
“Uh, hey.”
“I—I wasn’t—uh, Gus said he was hungry.”
“Okay?”
“I’m not—I…Sorry for taking your food.”
“It’s… It’s fine..?”
He snaps out of it, picking the box back up and picking up the spilled cereal and shoving it into his pockets. He looks guilty and embarrassed, a light flush in his cheeks that’s visible even in the darkness.
“Man, you’ve really been hungry, huh?” Luz jokes, leaning down to help him clean it up. “I mean, you’ve been eating like the food is gonna run away.”
That’s a phrase Camila always used with Luz. She’s always been a hungry kid, stuffing her face and trying to cook the craziest meals. And well, the phrase definitely applies to Hunter. Just that night, Camila made sancocho and he had three bowls, and it honestly looked like he wanted to get a fourth serving. But then Vee made a comment about grocery money so he put his bowl away.
Hunter falters, avoiding eye contact. “I just said it was for Gus.”
“I thought Gus hated Cheerios.”
“I—I don’t know, he just—he just asked for them, okay?” He grumbles, standing up and closing the box, likely to avoid more cheerios needing to be shoved into his pockets.
“Uh… okay.”
He awkwardly stands there for a moment before clearing his throat. “So uh.. What brought you down here?”
“Isn’t Gus waiting on his cereal?”
“What do y—” He pauses, realizing he’s giving himself away. His cheeks flush even redder. “Oh yeah, haha, of course. I uh, I can’t leave him waiting!” He dashes over to the basement door without a word.
Damn, Hunter is weird. Is that how people see me?
He’s cute, though. She can acknowledge that. Not in a weird way, but in a… “aww look at that stupid puppy” sort of way. He’s such a dork nowadays. A weirdo and a dork. She wishes she could feel that dorky, but lately she’s just been stressed. Fuck, she needs a hit…
Oh yeah, that’s why she came down here in the first place.
Luz makes her way back over to the door leading to the garage, silently slipping inside. It’s small as hell and the car is never in here, so instead it's just filled to the brim with things Camila doesn’t want to throw away—Including a shit load of old vapes she keeps stashed in one single drawer. Despite being a doctor (vet, but still), that woman goes through those things like they’re candy. Luz has known about the drawer for a few years, but she only started looking once she got back, and there’s been four more added since then.
She rummages through and grabs one, taking a hit. She coughs, but it’s fine, she doesn’t cough as much as she used to with these.
She knows it's stupid. She shouldn’t be getting into this, as both of her parents did.
But fuck, the buzz is so good.
She brings it back up to her lips, taking another drag. The flavor isn’t so bad either, she supposes. It’s not good, it tastes like pure chemicals, but it’s not horrible.
Her head’s fuzzy. She pockets it and goes back upstairs. Vee’s still asleep, and luckily the bunk bed doesn’t make any noise when she gets back up. She takes another hit, hoping Vee doesn’t smell it. She doesn’t really care if she does though.
Luz runs a hand over her face. It’s warm. It usually does. It slowly goes downward, running over her belly. She pauses.
“Y’know, you’ve got a really good body, kid. You’re skinny and got those nice model hips. That dress just fits you so well…”
Eda is self aware of her “hebephilia”. She literally broke down and admitted it… but Luz wonders if Eda thought through every comment she made about her. Was that meant to be sexual, or was that genuine? Was it good to look like that or was that just… something she liked?
Fuck, her thoughts are making no sense. Why is she thinking about this? Why does this bother her right now?
She looks over. It’s well past midnight now. Fuck, she needs to sleep. But why sleep when you can just open your laptop again and write?
“I hope so,” Azura sighed. “I’m starting to wonder if it’s even possible.”
“Anything’s possible if it’s you, kid. You’re just special in that way.”