Calamitous Intervention

Echoes of the Past

Anne stood with a defiant pose in the middle of the living room of the Owl House, figuring out how she could improve her knowledge and use of ice glyphs. While she had fought well against that Cynder psycho a couple of days ago, she felt there was still a lot of room for improvement. Practice makes perfect, as they say.

She knew it probably wasn't the best idea to practice indoors, but she tried to minimize any potential damage by drawing the glyphs smaller. If anything bad happened, she could just bribe Hooty with some bugs so he (hopefully) wouldn't tell Eda.

Anne prepared herself by drawing an ice glyph onto the surface of a tennis ball. She wondered if perhaps this could be more efficient than drawing them on slips of paper all the time. She held the ball above her tennis racket as she got into a battle stance, ready to toss it up.

Her determination and focus were so strong that she failed to notice King heading up to her.

"Still practicing with that new glyph?" King asked.

She was shocked and lost her grip, causing the ball to fall to the ground. The impact was enough to activate the glyph and shoot an ice pillar toward King, but it missed him by mere inches, making him stumble backward, surprised.

"Uhh, of course I am," Anne replied after a bit of weariness. "I want to be prepared in case something like that basilisk attacks me again."

"Well, I need your help with something, Anne," King began. "I think Francois is trying to start a rebellion!" He pointed at a huge pile of inanimate plushies with Francois in the middle and a sharp knife falling over behind it.

Anne snorted in amusement while resisting the urge to roll her eyes. "Oh, no, not again," she said in a halfhearted tone. "Whatever shall we do, King? Your kingdom is in danger."

"Right, you are!" King replied with a fist raised in the air. "And you're the only one I trust with keeping my rule!"

Her playful tone and demeanor quickly faded away as Anne started to get a bit tired of his constant self-praise and boastful claims.

"That's pretty cute, but why do you always talk about being the king of demons and a big, scary ruler?" She looked at King's small body as she kept speaking to make her point clear. "Because, to be honest... you don't really look like someone who's actually ruled a kingdom."

"Blasphemy!" King's voice rang out as he grabbed a plush from the large pile and threw it in Anne's direction, only for it to bounce off of her harmlessly and squeak. "Looks can be deceiving, and I can tell you, I've been both a king and a fearsome, brutal enemy. Claiming otherwise is an insult to my kind's legacy."

"Yeah, if that's the case, can you prove you're any kind of special king?" Anne replied as she turned her back and began practicing her ice glyphs again.

"Of course I can. I know what I used to be," King replied. "I still remember it like it was yesterday." He paced back and forth, recalling the events. "I remember armies bowing before me, being served the greatest of feasts, and falling from a massive height as that evil hex shrank me. One day, I'll return to my rightful place... and all shall fear me!" he declared.

"King, none of my history classes have ever said anything about a King of Demons. And from what I know, there hasn't been a formal ruler of the Isles before Emperor Belos," Anne replied. On one hand, she wanted to disprove his points, but on the other, the whole subject was still a sore spot between them, and she couldn't bear to make King cry again.

Before she could say anything, however, King spoke up first. "Stunned speechless, are you?" He hopped up onto a stool in an attempt to get even with her, staring right up into her eyes. They had a brief staring contest until Anne couldn't resist the urge to boop King's nose, which made him sigh.