Talking to the Moon || The Owl House

Chapter 1: The Taste of Iron

There was no place quite like the Night Market, or at least that's what Luz believed. It only took begging Eda for months on end to let her finally go, and even longer to convince the old woman to let her wander around on her own, but it was well worth it.

The Isles was already a magical place by design, but the Night Market? Everything just felt so...alive. From the stalls cluttering the streets with all their wonderful oddities, to the shadows flickering across the walls of boarded up shops, there was life. Life in every hushed deal, in every booming argument, breath in stolen daggers trading hands and laughter bubbling to the surface of simmering potions.

Whenever Luz's worn boots met the cobblestone streets, Eda could hardly keep track of her. There was just so much to see and do in the brief hours the market opened before it inevitably disappeared by sunrise, assuming they weren't shut down by the coven or a riot before then.

Luz was practically vibrating with excitement as she walked through the forest with Eda and King. The market was only a few minutes away, its lights faintly glowing up ahead.

"You are one weird kid, you know that?" Eda poked fun at her protégé.

"I'm not a kid anymore," Luz insisted, though never taking her eyes off of her destination. "I'm sixteen." Humming softly, she added, "Sixteen, life is sweet, when you're growing up so fast..."

"If that's another obscure human reference-"

"You gotta make the good times last!" Luz and King sang in unison. The two high-fived, laughing at Eda's tired expression, before King signaled for Luz to pick him up. The Not-Kid happily obliged, leaning down to help the demon onto her shoulders.

"You're getting heavier," Luz grunted overdramatically, making a show of almost collapsing from the weight. Still, jokes aside, while King didn't look much bigger, he had definitely grown more dense in the last couple of years (physically for sure, with mentally up for debate).

King poked the side of Luz's head with one of his claws. "Maybe you're just getting weaker."

"Are you kidding me?" Eda started with a mischievous tone, "Luz works out all the time."

"Yeah!" Luz grinned smugly. "No more nerd arms."

"She goes out for runs, lifts weights-"

"Exactly, see King-"

"All so that she can impress her pink-haired little sweetheart," Eda slapped Luz roughly on the back with a hearty laugh. "Aint that right stringbean?"

Luz groaned, walking up ahead in a miserable attempt to hide the redness in her face. "Must you wound my pride so viciously?"

The three continued their squabbling as they drew closer to town. They were only picking up a few essentials tonight, though knowing Luz and King, at least one of them was bound to get distracted. Or scammed. It was usually a scam. More than once actually Eda had to drag them away from getting either eaten, robbed, or killed. Sometimes all three, not necessarily in that order.

Times like those, she worried that the two forgot just how dangerous the market could be. Danger lurked around every corner and you had to be ready for anything, lest you wanted to get stabbed in the back and left for dead. In anything, there was an especially odd air about the market that night though when the group finally reached town, they couldn't quite place what it was.

Blinded, perhaps, by her own excitement, Luz pushed her own doubts aside. The market was always weird. This wasn't new. Suspicious glares and sideways glances came her way left and right, yet she didn't mind them as she skipped along the middle of the aisles.