Quit You (HunterXReader[The Owl House])

Chapter XVII - For The Future

I wasn't sure what I expected when I came back to the Demon Realm, but something I definitely wasn't was a sense of... normality.

That feeling like when you come home for the first time in days and just stand there and everything feels... right, familiar. The hotter climate, the red leaves and grass, the distant chatter of demons, all things I didn't know I missed till I had it back.

Luz was the last to come through. She took a while longer than the rest of us, but we didn't have time to worry about that.

We had come out in an old, abandoned house. The portal faded, replaced by a busted overgrown gate. No one and nothing was in sight. We were alone, but that did nothing to calm our nerves.

"Any sign of him?" Luz asked. She didn't have to say his name.

"Oh come on." Hunter rolled his eyes. "It's not like a swamp ghost will inexplicably appear if you say his name. I think. Anyway if Belos was here he's long gone now."

"Hunter?" I asked softly. No one heard me.

"Well he better stay out of our way." Camilla said, tightening her grip on her bat. "This mama's hungry for vengeance!"

"Now that is a fight I'd watch." Gus said.

We headed out, wandering through the forest, trying to get a sense of where we were. We kept looking over our shoulders, checking everywhere for Belos or anyone that could tell us what could've happened in the months we'd been away. But as we checked we saw all the things that made the Demon Realm the Demon Realm, and soon everyone was lost in the joy of being home.

Willow started talking to the red grass. Gus illusioned a couple of grass demons to hug her. I laughed as I watched.

"We don't have time for red grass or illusions!" Hunter snapped. "Belos had a headstart so we should keep moving till we find him."

He stalked away. Gus dropped the illusions and looked down, ashamed. I let out a shaky breath, dropping my spear back to my side. Something was definitely wrong with Hunter. Willow put one hand on each of our shoulders.

"Don't worry. I bet we'll all feel better once we punch Belos right through the face." She said, punching her palm. "And yes, I mean through the face!"

Gus laughed weakly. "Thanks Willow. You're always looking out for us, aren't you?"

"Well someone has to." She shrugged.

"You're a good friend." I told her, squeezing her shoulder back.

Willow smiled. "And it looks like my job here is done."

She cast a spell. Vines and roots shot from the earth beneath her feet, carrying her ahead. Camilla laughed.

"Oh wow! You kids were really holding back in the Human Realm huh?" She said.

"Maybe a little," Amity shrugged. She noticed a patch of abomination goop on the floor. She took control of it, laughing as she contorted the goo into fists. "Hello you gorgeous slime!"

I smiled. I couldn't wait to be doing magic again so casually. I looked ahead again and stopped dead, staring at the scene before me. We had reached a clearing in the woods, overlooking most of the Boiling Isles. Or what was the Boiling Isles. Everything was different. A blue mist had settled over everything, glittering like the night sky in a kid's book. Floating in the sky was an impossible castle, also looking like it had been pulled from a kid's book. Everything seemed like it had been taken out of a kid's book. The only thing that hadn't changed was the Titan skeleton the Isles were built around.