Two Sides of the Same Coin: An Owl and a Wolf

Chapter 5: Recovering

Eda landed her staff at the castle entrance, King on her shoulder. "It didn't look like this when I left." He said, observing the crumbling castle. Eda walked forward, kicking the front door open she ran inside and past the door that led into the library room. Glass crunched under her shoes and she spotted broken potion bottles and the bag that she let Luz carry them in.

"This doesn't look good." King noted, Eda looked around the room, walking further in, King leaping off her shoulder to explore as well. "Luz! You here!?" Eda called out, but the only reply was her own echo. She noticed blood droplets on the floor, "hey King, come over here." She called, the demon hurried over and winced at the sight of blood.

"Do you think you could track Luz?" Eda asked, looking to the furry demon. King nodded, "I can smell her scent..." he trailed off, following the scent trail.

The two made their way through the forest near the castle, eventually coming across an old rundown, abandoned town. In the middle of the town was a fountain that had stopped working long ago, but more importantly was what lay in front of it.

"Luz!" Both King and Eda yelled, running over to the girl. She was back to normal now, no fur or tail to be seen, but she was unconscious. Many cuts littered her body, bruises already forming, blood trickled down her arms and head. Her clothes were a bit ripped from her transformation, and fight she had with Adegast. Eda picked up the human in her arms, King climbing up to her shoulder and the three made their way to the Owl House.

Once at the Owl House, Eda and King treated the girl's wounds the best they could, using bandages and healing glyphs, since Eda didn't really know any good healing spells.

When Luz woke up it was dark out, King was asleep on her chest and she was laying on the couch. She groaned in pain, everything hurt, she had a massive headache, and her stomach felt sick. She sighed, keeping still so that the pain wouldn't spike, and to also not wake up King.

Her brows furrowed, how did she get so badly hurt? She remembered Adegast and what he truly looked like, then there were just fuzzy feelings of anger and pain. The curse must have taken over, she thought, hopefully Eda and King didn't see her in her cursed form.

She sighed softly, what was she going to do if they had seen her? She had to think up of a lie, just in case. She couldn't believe she forgot to take her elixir, well it had been a few days since the last time she took one. "Hey, you okay?" Luz snapped out of her thoughts and looked at King who gave her a worried look. "I... I don't know.." she replied, looking away from the demon "what happened?" She decided to ask, if they had seen her cursed form surely questions would be asked.

"Well, when me and Eda arrived at the castle it looked completely different, all broken and stuff. It was completely deserted inside, you and that wizard were no where in sight. Luckily I followed your scent and we found you in some abandoned town, unconscious so we took you back here. I don't know where that wizard guy went though, I was sure he would jump out at us but we got you without issue." King explained with a shrug, leaping onto the table.

Luz sat up a bit, pain coursed through her and she inhaled sharply, exhaling with a groan. "Uh.. I'm gonna get a late night snack, you... want anything?" King asked, watching her, the king of demons would never admit he was worried.

She shook her head, the thought of food made her stomach feel queasy again, a wave of nausea hit her, she got up ignoring the pain of her body and rushed upstairs to the bathroom. King stared after her for a moment before going to the kitchen to get himself a snack.

Luz shut the door behind her, bile rose up in her throat and she expelled the contents in her stomach into the toilet.

One thing was for sure, Luz knew they didn't have to deal with Adegast again.