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Little Firefly - Chapter 5

(When the time pool closes before she reaches it and Luz finds herself hopelessly stuck in ancient times, an incident forces her to work together with her enemy to ensure their survival. In the midst of it, Luz learns there may be more than meets the eye to the frigid Puritan, and discovers the real secret to saving The Boiling Isles may just lie in reuniting an estranged family…) ��

Chapter 5 - Ultimatum

Chapter Index

It had to be the first time in a while, longer than Philip could recall, that he woke up feeling moderately rested and content. He didn’t awaken with tears coating his face, or shivering from the lack of warmth provided by body heat. The ever present gnawing of grief was always there…but it felt cushioned as he opened his eyes and looked down.

As the rain had tapered off they’d all crawled just to the outside of the tree for more space, but yet through the night, at some point, both children had cozied up to either side of him. Luz’s warm cheek was pressed against his stomach, and Eclipse was splayed out on top of her.

He smiled, and was thankful no one was awake to see it.

Philip gazed down at the sleeping children’s face. Eclipse was already starting to wriggle and rub at his eyes. Luz was strangely taking more time to rouse. “Wakey wakey Luzura,” he told the girl with a gentle nudge. A far cry to the cruel kick he’d always given her before. The toe of his boot barely pressed against her midsection, and to his secret endearment and great amusement, she giggled and covered her belly.

“I said wakey wakey Luzura.” When his foot pressed to her stomach, it gave it a bit of a jiggle this time. Luz squealed and gave a subconscious snort through her dozing, but appeared to fall right back into her slumber when the giggles tapered off.

Philip sighed. “I tried being nice.” He looked at his spider. “Arakate, you know what to do.”

The little arachnid seemed to give a battle cry as she eagerly skittered over to the teenager and slipped into her sleeve. Philip turned around to pack their things just as, predictably, shrieks and laughter rose up from behind him and he smirked darkly.

Luz was on her feet in an instant, dancing around as her lumpy shirt could be seen wiggling about from the merry spider crawling all over her.

“This is what happens to those that aren’t up at the crack of dawn,” Philip shrugged as he wrung out his jacket and snuggled it up over him again. “Well actually they’re eaten usually, but…this is what Caleb would have her do to me if I was foolish enough not to get up when told.” Apparently he didn’t realize what sensitive information he was divulging.

“Oh…?” At least not until Luz’s far too inquisitive and smirking tone could be heard. “Oh you don’t say…?"

Philip flushed pink, but luckily, he found a way to divert the conversation. “…You look like hell.”

She stopped smirking and now looked a tad annoyed. “Gee thanks?” She scoffed. “Can’t say you look like your Sunday's best at the crack of dawn either!”

“No, I mean you really look terrible. Did you sleep that badly?” he blinked. In the morning sun now, he could see the bags under the child’s eyes had practically packed themselves and gone to bed. She appeared disheveled, and her darker complexion was even a bit lighter. There was a strange look in her eyes, almost glazed, and it didn’t appear to be from morning grogginess.

“Well I feel okay, just a bit tired. Hey, do we have any of those snapping berries left?” She changed the subject fairly quickly and avoided his stern eyes boring into her.

They…had had a difficult night, after all. Maybe she was just a bit under the weather.

Philip shrugged and ruffled through the small satchel of snapping berries. The pouch immediately growled and he rolled his eyes. “The audacity, honestly. A fruit that growls at you, never imagined I’d experience the likes.” Only in this hell…

“Hey at least they aren’t snapples!” Luz laughed as she fished out a berry. The raspberry shaped eyeholes seemed to narrow, and its pulpy jaws snapped angrily as it was retrieved.

“Evelyn taunted me once when I was being ‘rude’ and said if I didn’t behave, the tree would turn me into a fruit. I thought it rubbish. This hell had to draw a line somewhere, right? So I picked up a snapple and it bit me. Only after I noticed my fingers became the consistency of pulp did I believe her.”

Luz burst into laughter, pulling a chunk of the purple pulp off the snapping berry and chewing at the sweet seeds. “That’s why I like snapping berries better. They bite you with their gummy fruit mouths but you can’t feel it…and you don’t turn into anything.”

Eclipse sat on a stump and looked at the berries, seeming a little downtrodden that he couldn’t eat any of them. Philip took notice.

“What did you like to eat, when you had a physical form?” he hummed to the star baby.

“Oh!” They grinned. “Well we didn’t really have to eat, but I liked doing it because it helped me feel like a mortal! And it looked fun and tasty! I liked star candies! Which basically is just when I took a big bite out of a star.”

Both looked at the blissfully smiling entity for a good moment, and returned to their respective breakfast. In the middle of licking the remnants of berry juice from his fingers, Philip’s caught sight of the complexion Luz’s pale face was taking.

Somehow, she was turning a sickly jade, and he didn’t back up in time. He heard the grotesque sound before he felt the stomach contents splash his shoe. He shuddered, but didn’t have much time to mull on that, because he had to rush to steady Luz before her head slammed into a rock.

He caught the girl and supported the small of her back, giving her an incredulous look. Luz had the audacity to look sheepish.

“Sorry about that. Heh, I guess I’m more nauseous than I thought… …Your boots were gross anyway.”

Philip rolled his eyes. “Don’t make me second guess dropping you on the rock,” he drawled. He pulled the girl back to sit down. She was still wobbling and he kept his hand hovered near, just in case. “Now what is going on with you?”

“Nothin,” Luz huffed, rubbing at her eyes. Philip fixed her with the kind of look she hadn’t seen since last her father scolded her. It was the same warning tone as well.

“Luz.”

It had the same immediate compliance from her. “Okay okay! I don’t really feel the best…my tummy is kind of sore. It’ll feel okay later.”

He wasn’t convinced, but the sun had already kissed the horizon and they needed to get a move on. They couldn’t exactly stay in that hollow for the rest of time. They needed to find a new base of operations, some new…temporary dwelling.

Or you could go home. Philip jumped when he heard his spider give a chitter, and he hissed at the persistent arachnid. “Oh, make yourself useful and turn into a staff!”

As expected, the staff-hating palisman made a series of disgruntled noises, before she materialized back into wood. He was certain the wood was glaring. Honestly…all these vile creatures and he had to get the one that didn’t even know how to be a palisman.

Philip decided to fly low. He wasn’t sure how well he could trust Luz to stay on Arakate, and if she fell off, he certainly didn’t trust his own piloting skills. His brother had always tried to encourage him to work with Arakate and try to fly with her. He really wished, just for once, he went against his bigotry so he’d have the practice…

“Hey can I call you Papa?” Eclipse was suddenly in front of him, grinning their large and hopeful cheshire grin. The question was so unorthodox that he could only blink for a moment.

“No.”

“Please?”

“No.”

“Please?”

“Why do you even want to?” The man finally tossed his hands out in exasperation, and partially to try and wave off the shadow child looming over his head. …He wondered if he might also wave away the warmth that seeped within, to the question.

These brats and their…emotional curses…

“Well you kind of look after us,” Eclipse shrugged. “Oh, and it annoys you so I want to.”

Ah, well there went the warmth. Philip felt the embarrassed and endeared pink drain from his cheeks and ears as his face fell deadpan in record speed. “Seriously? Why aren’t you bothering Luz, like you always are? Luz loves playing with you.”

“Luz isn’t much fun today!” the baby complained, as his gaze drifted back to the teenager that had her face pressed against Philip’s back. That was concerning enough on its own…but it was honestly the uncomfortable heat that was radiating through the fabric that was the most concerning.

It was very chilly outside now, the post boiling rainstorm having cooled in the grass and left its damp in the air. She…had no reason to have a body temperature like that.

“Luz?” He jostled her lightly with an elbow. “Luz? Are you…napping?” he asked awkwardly.

Eclipse floated back next to the teenager’s side, but in typical child naivety, he didn’t seem to grasp the situation. “Yeah what’s with the nap, Luzzy? You promised me you’d teach me to fly a staff, and here you’re all…” He trailed off at Philip’s withering glare.

Philip redirected his attention to Luz and his face softened an increment. Seeing the darkening bags under her eyes as she weakly looked up, it softened more. “Luz.”

“Just…more tired than I thought.” Luz’s lips turned up in what she hoped was a convincing smile. Her lips looked pale…

Philip merely nodded, deciding to humor the very…blatant lie. She looked like she needed a moment, and perhaps he could take the time to examine her.

“Right. Well, we’re going to do a supply run then,” he informed the kids as his feet finally hit the damp auburn grass. Hopefully the heinous creatures of the town had some sort of medication suitable for human children… “Everybody off the staff. Arakate does not like to be a staff, ever. She’s partially why I could never learn real magic even if I wanted to,” he drawled. “She absolutely hates being on top of the stick and would…rather ride my head or shoulder.”

“Ohhh she’s your Pikachu!” Luz giggled, delighted with her joke. Philip might have misconstrued it for fever delirium if he didn’t…know her decently well by now.

He shook his head incredulously and decided it was just best not to ask further. Maybe the kid’s brain shouldn’t be stressed anymore than it had to be.

You’re right, I do hate that thing, he heard his spider echo in his mind, concern strong in each bulbous eye. But it doesn’t look like she should be walking anywhere right now. So just for this one time, I’ll make a sacrifice.

He nodded in satisfaction and gratitude to the arachnid and propped himself up against the staff. The moment his legs slung over the wood to hop off however, he seemed to…grossly overestimate Luz’s center of balance, and how strong her body was at the moment. Without him to lean against, the poor child toppled into the grass like a sack of bad potatoes.

“Luz!” Philip yelped in surprise as he found himself beside her on the ground in a span of two seconds. Luz groaned and her eyes drifted skyward to gaze up into the pink clouds. Everything spun, the painted tinge of the sky and his horror stricken face and wide blue eyes as they came into view. “Child, did you forget how to walk??”

“Walking is for lame-os…” the teenager mumbled as she pulled away from his hands.

Philip shook his head in disbelief as he turned to Arakate. “What do you make of this?”

Arakate hopped down and skittered to the young girl’s side, darting back and forth as she performed a small examination and chittered in concern. The child was pale as could be with the exception of her clammy, and reddened cheeks. Sweat clung to her brows and her clothing was even starting to stick to her from it.

I don’t know but…she doesn’t look that good, Philip, his spider said gravely. She’s getting awfully feverish. Her long spindly legs tapped at the girl’s skin, and her gaze trailed down to where Luz was flexing her leg in apparent discomfort, face contorted.

Eclipse gasped when he saw the state of the girl’s leg. It was patterned from the thigh to the knee in what looked like fuzzy splotches of blue and purple. It looked like the spores of a spoiled loaf. “Ew! She’s all fuzzy like bread gets right before you throw it out!” they cried in alarm. “Oh no, we have to throw Luz out!! She’s….she’s EXPIRING!”

“Eclipse calm down,” Philip instructed the frantic child. “We do not have to throw Luz out. She will be fine, we just need to get some care for her.” He refused to think of the fact that, in a sense, Eclipse was right. If they didn’t figure out what was wrong with this girl she would…no. No, that wasn’t happening.

“Night night,” Luz mumbled in a sweet little croon as she turned onto her side and tucked her knees and her hands beneath her cheek. It was, to say the least, a horrifying thing to hear after what Eclipse had just said.

“No, not night night!” Philip exclaimed as he hauled the whining teenager up by her shirt collar. Her noodle legs unfortunately couldn’t sustain her body weight and she buckled once more into the grass. “Come on now, child…you just need a bit of assistance.” He dipped down himself, and with a bit of adjusting, he soon had the girl pulled up onto his back.

Luz flopped forward like dead weight against his back, and despite the uncomfortable heat sweating through his jacket, Philip felt a strange unnerving chill. Something was very wrong.

The teenager was heavy. He’d built up a bit of muscle mass through living on his own and hunting, but she was still difficult to carry. “Put your arms around me. You like hugs, remember? Hold onto me all you want.”

Luz mumbled in barely coherent acknowledgement, but after a moment her sweaty arms flopped around his neck and hung there like limp strings that she could barely even support.

Philip cursed. He cursed whoever was out there that made these hellish ailments in this hellish place. “How did she start to fade so fast?” he demanded Arakate anxiously. “She was fine last night! Chatty, annoying—very annoying. All of the usual! Did she become sick because of the rain? The fluctuating of body temperature with damp clothes? No…that doesn’t quite add up to these symptoms.”

She has a terrible rash, the spider pointed out, skittering down the girl’s back to once more get a look at it.

“Right, rash, rash…argh! So many damned things cause a rash! Well, small pox doesn’t make one fuzzy and blue, so I suppose that’s one we can scratch out. The common mold definitely doesn’t cause such symptoms…”

“Is it dragon pox?” the baby collector wondered as he lingered by his friend’s side and tried to see if this weird rash looked familiar. It didn’t.

Philip shook his head. “Dragon pox causes an affliction of scales. Not…scale like rash, literal scales. And your eyes turn hideously yellow. If this is dragon pox, it’s certainly a new strain I’ve never come across. And I almost died from it soon after getting here, during the great plague. We need an expert’s opinion.”

We need Varuka, Arakate told the young man pointedly, and Philip felt a small surge of panic. He waved a hand dismissively and ignored the annoyed eyes.

“Oh, no need to go that far. There’s a healer in the town that we were in earlier. Remember that little tent? We’ll get the girl there. A potion, or a spell, and she’ll be in pristine condition.”

There weren’t many resources in that tent, Arakate frowned at him. And you still have quite a black and white view of how magic works. It’s not necessarily…that simple, especially if she has a rare sickness. You know that Varuka-

“Eclipse!” Philip cut off loudly. “We're going to walk back to the town we were in. It isn’t far, and it’s safer than flying for her right now.” He hiked Luz up against his shoulder blade, and tried to ignore the pang of concern as her face flopped against him. Her eyes only fluttered now and again.

“The…healer will be able to help her, right?” the baby collector hesitated. “‘Healer’ is in the name, after all.” He nodded his affirmation. “Yeah, of course they can. Th-that lady will know just what to do!”

Philip said nothing, but away from the godling’s imploring gaze, he bit his lip and just hiked on through the trails…

“Where’s the markets?” Philip felt his stomach drop as they approached the near barren square. At least, it was certainly more barren than it had been the day before…

People aren’t out here everyday, Arakate’s trill rang through his head. There were mainly a couple tents with carts of produce, and an unfortunate jeweler that was still vainly searching for some customers. Don’t forget, they have to restock. Tend to their fields, pick the herbs they sell for potions…

“Well how am I supposed to find that stupid witch then?” Philip snapped.

There is still Varuka, Arakate reminded, and this time her tone carried a bit of an annoyed edge. The cottage isn’t that far. We could easily make it by evening on foot. Shorter if we can somehow manage flight.

Philip bit his lip and felt sweat forming on his brow from the anxiety of the situation…and the fact that he knew options were dwindling if they couldn't find that healer. Luz needed medical care and she needed it now. Still, he shook his head adamantly. From this apparent connection he had with the blasted arachnid, he could feel her growing ire. “We’re here now. N-not only that, but flight would still be quite dangerous with the girl. She cannot even support her own weight and gripping your staff would be a near impossible thing trying to hold her.”

Eclipse was unmindful to the angry spider, his silhouette stretching up as far as he could manage to get a good view of the surrounding place. “Well….there’s a tent up ahead that’s set up next to where the old lady was!”

Philip looked over to where the shadow’s finger was pointing. Sure enough, he could see the glint of silver, and steel from setup armory. There was also an older vendor that vaguely resembled a reptile, and he did not look enthused to even be there. This should be fun…

Philip sucked some air into his cheek and sucked up his pride as he marched forward. He despised asking for help, least of all someone that was literally carrying weapons. His footsteps fell heavy and sunk into the wet ground, but the vendor didn’t even glance up.

“Excuse me, Sir-“

“Go away.” The voice was gruff and begged not to test it, but Philip still did.

“I said excuse me, Sir,” Philip repeated with an air of feigned politeness. “I was wondering-“

“I don’t sell to your kind,” the vendor growled once more. “Leave. Now.”

Philip felt a flare of indignation, but he smothered it. “I’m not interested in your wares, Sir. I was wondering if you knew where the healer is, the one that was set up in the tent next to you.”

“I told you to fuck off,” the reptilian blacksmith grunted. The gleam in his eyes suggested he was definitely thinking of ramming him through with one of those swords. “I ain’t telling your kind anything. Especially you.” He pointed a harsh and accusing finger towards Philip, and he saw hatred in his eyes. Other than in passing, Philip had never really interacted with this man…but something in his stomach curdled. He tried to fight it off.

“I won’t bother you further Sir,” Philip grit his teeth, tearing his gaze away from the hateful one that bore into his blackened heart. “…After this. Please, I need to know where the healer is.”

“Our friend is really sick!” Eclipse cried, springing up from his rock. Philip pulled back the obol protectively, even knowing that Eclipse was merely a shadow right now and this witch could do nothing to him.

It was difficult hiking the slipping Luz up on his back and handling Eclipse’s stone, but somehow he managed. “She is sick and she needs help.”

“The less of you the better,” the vendor grunted as he polished off his wares, spitting along the metal hilt and shining it with a cotton cloth. Both travelers gasped and Arakate hissed.

It took everything in Philip to keep from slamming his boot against the base of the table and send the metals tumbling. “You savage! You barbarian!” he shouted. “She’s a little human girl, how can you-“

“AND MY SON WASN’T MUCH OLDER THAN HER!” the witch roared. Philip fell into an immediate stunned silence, and he jerked back as if he’d been slapped. Eclipse’s silhouette darted behind his leg.

The reptilian sneered, and suddenly Philip could trace the features back to something with a more haunting…familiarity. “You think I don’t recognize you, but I do. My son was a curious one…but one day he met the wrong person. A man that took advantage of that curiosity…and naivety. I have no evidence, but I know. “

Philip felt his legs shaking, he could feel Eclipse’s confused gaze and Arakate’s…strangely resolute one. It took a moment before he could speak again. “…Luz is not resp-“

Before he knew it, before either of them could react, he felt a blinding pain in his stomach and was sent crashing backwards into the ground. Luz let off a weak, squeaky moan as she smacked against the ground. It took a moment for Philip to realize that he’d been slammed in the stomach by the hilt of a sword…and that the other side of it was now pointed inches away from his face.

The witch ground his sharp yellow fangs. “…Talk to me again and it’ll be the sharp end next time.”

Philip held his breath until the weapon was pulled away from him, and even after it was he remained in the wet grass for another few good moments, processing. It was only when he heard a small bleary sob from the bundle on the ground that he finally looked over.

Almost in a daze, the man mechanically scooped the teenager’s damp form into his arms and started to stagger away from the tent, and away from the almost empty market.

“…Phi-lip?” Eclipse asked slowly. “What was…that crazy dude talking about?“

Philip didn’t answer as he continued to limp his way back to the trail, and it was visible easily by the way he just aimlessly wandered in a half circle, that he had no idea where he was going. He didn’t know what he was doing.

Philip sunk down against the trunk of a tree, and he just sat there…with Luz in his lap. Luz’s breath came in shallow inhales, and each breath sounded clogged and thick and wheezy. Her fever made her uncomfortable just to touch.

The worst thing about this wasn’t the shadow's curious eyes that looked at him, but instead the multiple eyes that bore into him from Arakate. Her gaze wasn’t like Eclipse’s. It wasn’t confused and agitated with curiosity. Her expression…was grim. It was sad, and it was disappointed and…knowing.

“Philip I don’t understand…” Eclipse said in a quiet and meek voice.

Why did it matter? Why did he care? He didn’t care. No, he…he was just shaken at nearly being gored through.

“Help, a human? There ain’t enough snails for me to ever do that.” His ire had bloomed at the reaction from the crowd. A few had jeered, a couple had sneered, and most in fact, had just nervously returned to their business.

Blast it. Bloody charisma was a magic in its own, and one he never seemed to have a handle on, unlike Caleb. Caleb had been here long enough to have most of them eating out of his hand, but he had no such luck.

He’d been about to lick his wounds and prepare to try again another day, when a small wide eyed reptilian demon had approached. He looked to be about seventeen. His curious and excited gaze made the man resist a smirk. It would be easy to get his hooks into this one…

“I’m interested, Sir! My pops doesn’t like humans…but I think your kind is quite fascinating and exotic!”

If only the boy had caught the malevolent glint to his eyes, as Philip had feigned a diplomatic bow, and sweet words. “Not to worry, dear boy. Treat me with respect…..” He smirked. “And I shall return in kind.”

He’d been so eager for adventure that he’d trusted the scorpion…

Philip shut his eyes quietly. The weakly shifting form in his lap took his gaze and he quietly ripped off a part of his vest, dipping it into their canteen of water and applying it to her forehead. He wasn’t sure what difference lukewarm water would make. She flinched momentarily, but her muscles seemed to relax slightly…

His eyes were shut for a moment, contemplating. He heard what sounded like softer footfall through the muck, but thought nothing of it until a voice spoke up. It was older and soft, and right now it honestly coated his ears in honey.

“Boy, what are you doing out here in the wet grass? You’re the little group from earlier, aren’t you? Oh dear me…is your child alright?!”

Philip almost cried with relief. There she was, standing with her brows wrinkled in concern, and already bent down to his level to check on Luz. “I-it’s you! We were searching for you…”

“You’re lucky,” the healer sighed as she touched the girl’s cheeks with a calloused hand. Quickly she withdrew in alarm. “I had to pick some herbs for a potion order nearby. My cabin isn’t far from here. Come along, and I’ll see what I can do for the young one.”

Philip felt a chill as he tried pointedly to ignore the very quiet mumble of ‘if there’s anything I can do for her…”

“Sleeping Shade Indigo Cap Mushrooms?” Philip repeated incredulously, trying to make sure he got that mouthful right. They had Luz laid down on a cot in the elderly witch’s cabin. It was even smaller than Varuka’s cottage, condensed into mainly one room that split into an older kitchen, and what Philip supposed was the woman’s make do hospital.

“They’re an incredibly rare and lethal relative of the sleeping shade family,” the witch informed him as she helped the tired human to dump another bucket of ice into the pail of cold water they had perched beside the child’s bed.

“I’ve yet to find a relative of the sleeping shade family that isn’t poisonous,” Philip said tersely as he dunked the cloth into the water to let it soak and absorb the icy water.

“Well they all are, but unfortunately the fungal relatives of the sleeping shade are the most…potent.”

“Of course,” he muttered. “With my luck…”

“Although the gray sleeping shade herbs have their oils extracted for lethal dosages of poison, minimal drops can be used for a deep sleeping potion. Sleeping shade herbs are only dangerous if ingested, but the funguses are far worse. The slightest brushing against one of these dastardly things can set off a chain reaction of rashes that can kill a grown man in less than three day’s time. A child in...much less."

Philip went as cold as the bucket next to the teenager’s bed. “B-but how is this even possible?!” he spluttered furiously. “Luz has not ingested a sleeping shade herb. She eats puzzles….and I might have had to stop her from licking a frog—but she did NOT eat a sleeping shade herb! Or touch one of those mushrooms!”

“I don’t know if that’s true, Philip,” Eclipse pointed out.

“What are you talking about?!” Philip snapped. Suddenly, he remembered.

“Ugh those smell like gasoline!”

“How curious, I don’t believe I’ve seen those mushrooms before!”

He staggered, and was appreciative for the kitchen basin that was thankfully just a few paces away, which he found himself gripping onto as his complexion rivaled Luz’s. “It…it was me,” he mumbled faintly. “It was me.”

“Oh right, you pushed her into those mushrooms!” Eclipse cried. Philip shrunk into himself as the old healer turned slowly towards him, simply aghast looking.

“I didn’t know!” he snapped desperately. “And I didn’t push her into them! I pushed her, playfully! W-we were in a tree hollow!”

The witch gravely shook her head at him. “Oh-oh…that’s where they frequent the most.”

“THANK YOU for the tip, Orla!” Philip snarled venomously. He sat in one of the bedside chairs and wrung his hands out in distress. The progressing fuzz and what almost looked like spilled ink splotches had only seemed to spread up her skin, far beneath the rim of her shorts and creeping towards her feet. “So…what do we do now?” he asked helplessly.

Orla leaned over to check on the cauldron she had hissing and bubbling on the wooden countertop. The concoction smelled simply foul, but if Philip knew anything about medicine, it was that the worse it smelled and tasted, the better it was for you...Normal medicine anyway.

“So this will heal her. This will heal her then, it’s some magic drivel.” He nodded and watched to see if Orla nodded along as well. A tightening formed in his chest when she seemed to pause in her step, and then just…continued to the bed. “This will heal her,” he repeated loudly. “…Why aren’t you agreeing, you blasted hag?”

“Child, this might help with the fever,” Orla sighed as she spooned out a mucus green colored stuff into a small pestle and crushed it up a bit more. “But…that’s it. I…can do nothing for the fungal infection.”

“You’re a witch!” he cried furiously, shaking his head in disbelief. “A damned witch! If there’s anything good that’s supposed to come of you, at all, for this situation, it’s that you have magic! What good is your kind if you can’t even do that one cursed function?”

Orla pursed her lips in impatience, but chose to chalk his ignorance to his parental stress. “You have quite the narrow vision of our kind…but I knew that already,” she sighed. She bottled him up some potion and dropped a few other herbs into a homemade drawstring pouch. “I have a tent set up to tend to more minor illnesses and injury. Cuts, bruises….and I’m mainly a potion maker.”

She sighed as she looked back at Luz. Luz’s clammy hands were heartbreakingly reaching out for a blanket to drape over herself, but Orla had pulled them away with the spike of her fever. “What she needs is a disease specialist, someone that has studied various types of diseases and infections and has turned every mushroom and herb over in the realm just to find out its medicinal properties.”

Don’t say it…

“What she needs is Varuka,” Orla finished. Philip grit his teeth. “Varuka is the most powerful healer in this realm. She’s been studying for nine hundred years! Everything I learned I learned from that woman.”

Philip grit his teeth in desperation. He suddenly spun angrily to Eclipse. He was frustrated, he was terrified, and he handled it in the only way he knew how to—find someone else to target.

“And why aren’t YOU doing anything?!” he snapped. Eclipse looked taken aback.

“Me?!” they spluttered.

“You’re the collector! You’re supposed to be this all powerful being, supposedly one of the most powerful beings in the realm! What was the good in recovering you when you aren’t even strong?!”

“I am!” Eclipse snapped. His silhouette had grown five times the size, towering now over the smaller man that stood there defiantly. “But I’m also trapped! I’m in another dimension that can only project from a rock! I can….” He sighed and his shadow deflated. “I can pass on the knowledge that I know, and give instructions, but…I can’t do much from where I’m at!”

His options had been utterly exhausted, and Philip quietly deflated to sit on one of the stools. Eclipse paid no attention to him as he just floated quietly back to Luz.

Orla watched as Philip hung his head in his hands, barely perching his forehead up against both palms. “I knew I recognized you.” He froze until she continued, “When you were all at my tent earlier. I could tell I recognized you. One of Varuka’s boys. Quite easily distinguishable. I don’t think there’s many other humans but you and your brother.”

He’d turned away from her on the chair, and his pained gaze just took in every one of Luz’s ghastly features. This disease had already taken so much. Her tanned complexion, and the soft healthy pudge to her face seemed to have sunk in. Her skin was either whitened or blue… It certainly didn’t appear her sleep was peaceful either.

“…I don’t know what’s keeping you from going home to them,” Orla continued quietly. “But…this child needs more care than I can give.” She chose to pick her words carefully as she looked over at the silhouette of Eclipse.

Philip took in a deep steady breath. “Watch over her for a moment Orla. I…need to step outside.”

Numb, Philip made his way quietly to the door, and once outside, he slid down the side of the house. From here, he could see the cliffs of The Boiling Isles, overlooking a view of the sea. He could see the titan’s skull in the distance. He heard tiny legs skittering behind him.

“…This is all my fault.”

Arakate looked up at him. Philip…you didn’t know, his spider began hesitantly. You didn’t know there were mushrooms there and had no idea they were this poisonous.

Philip shoved himself up from the siding and shook his head angrily. “No! All of this, Arakate!” he cried. “Everything that has happened to this stupid girl since she got here is because of me! I am why she’s in this blasted place in the first place!” He paced angrily. “I’m the reason she’s even in this time! She came through that stupid pool to find me! I-I don’t know, for some information on getting home!”

He snapped a branch off of a tree, just needing something to throw. The dry twigs snapped as they hit the bark off another tree. “Every bad thing since she has come into this time that has happened to her is because of me! And do you want to know the best part of this?” he laughed brokenly, with bitter sarcasm. “It. Should Not. Matter to me!” He stabbed himself in the chest with his finger.

“I should be happy! All I have done since getting stuck with her is gripe about the fact that I’m stuck with her! That I can’t get rid of her…and now…now I am going to be rid of her. And I am not happy, and I cannot figure out why.”

He knew the truth. He knew he knew the truth of why he wasn’t happy. He knew the truth for why the thought of this annoying little beam of sunshine snuffing out like an extinguished candle, threatened to twist him into two. …But he wasn’t sure if he was ready to admit that one to himself yet.

“I should be happy.”

…..But you aren’t, Arakate finished quietly. Philip…it is abundantly clear to me that you care about this girl. He crossed his arms and he looked away, but he refuted nothing. That you care about…both of these children. You’ve spent today doting over Luz. I watched you spend two hours teaching them how to write in caligraphy, using up countless pages in your precious journal to let the girl practice.

Philip unconsciously gripped his satchel, where he could feel the bulk of the journal. This book…for so many years now, it had felt so empty even when filled with words. Deliveries of lies, the telling of the ghost of memories for a life that no longer existed. Now, at least ten of those pages were filled with messy scribbled attempts of letters of the alphabet, and even a page of her stupid little doodles…where she’d made fun of his beard.

You care about this girl…so I think you finally need to ask yourself something. How much do you care about this girl?

Philip looked up. Even through the broken shutters of Orla’s window, he could see Luz’s prone form. He could see the way her face was drawn up in pain, see the way her chest spasmed now and then.

….Do you care enough to face your greatest fear?

The tree beside Varuka’s cottage was always one of his favorite places to be. That one single tree to him, was like the rolling waves to Evelyn that she sailed across. It was his calming place.

It was one of those trees that, back in the human world, you might see a swing roped up to. Or, in a more grim set of lenses, a tree that you might see used to hold the swinging bodies of the accused. It was a deep red, and large enough that it towered the height of the cottage.

Everybody had things they liked to do in this tree. Evelyn worked on star maps, and would sit with Aasha and him many nights as they’d look at all the constellations. It was something Caleb used to do with Philip as well. Varuka had a garden that either she or Kiki tended to, and sometimes she’d sit and read. …Aasha of course just climbed it, fearless of the snapples that hung above, and even of that fire bee hive they had at one time. Thankfully, cotton bees had moved in instead. It always was adorable watching her play with the harmless little flying cotton balls.

The tree was full of carvings as well. There was a heart that Caleb and Evelyn had carved together, with a small engraving in their respective handwriting. An ‘E’ with so many fancy and eccentric curls, his simple ‘C’…and below it, a tiny, tiny little messy scrawl with an ‘A.’

Nana and Great Nana say it’s getting late!

Caleb nearly yelped as his daughter’s tiny body suddenly flopped onto one of the lower hanging branches he was on. He didn’t help her. He’d learned the hard way that trying to help her climb it would only produce an angered screech.

“Rah! Getting late! Supper time! Late supper!” her palisman screeched as the parrot’s large talons hung onto the girl’s shoulder.

Caleb sighed, but he gave a smile as he scooped his baby into his arms. Aasha squeaked and giggled with delight, her tiny nose rubbing against her father’s. Her straw colored hair was shoulder length like her mother’s, with two long braided bangs that cupped her face and were tied into beads at the ends. She had his fiancé’s beautiful green eyes, that he smiled into each time he looked at them…and she had a nose much too similar to his baby brother’s, and it made his heart ache just to look at it sometimes.

“Sorry sweet thing, I was just reminiscing…” As the five year old tilted her head to him questionably, he chuckled. “I’m thinking back fondly on things. And…thinking back to some sad things.”

Caleb cupped his hand softly over one of the tree carvings. It was an older, decrepit ‘P’, that his brother had begrudgingly forced into the wood just to please him. It was shafted off to the side, refusing to be in the heart Caleb had drawn with Evelyn.

“You’re lucky I’m carving the stupid thing at all,” Philip had angrily spat as he’d thrown down the tools and stormed back into the cottage. The P had faded with time, buffeted by their last storm. How fitting… Caleb choked down his tears.

Is it Uncle Philip again? Aasha signed sadly. Mimic jumped on her back. “Uncle Philip! Pippins! Uncle Pippins!”

Caleb laughed as he wiped his eyes. “I really don’t know how he’ll feel about Uncle Pippins, but yes.” It would be hard enough just getting the kid to accept Aasha. …Not so much a kid now, he supposed. It had been years, and although Philip had always made himself scarce, he’d heard rumors of a human man that was out there….dwelling in caves like a cryptid. Titan, did he hope those rumors were true.

You’re out here a lot, his daughter signed, and Caleb nodded.

“I know…but it helps me think.” He sighed. “It’s a good resting place.” The father smirked as he poked his daughter in the tummy, and she squeaked. “When a little monkey isn’t interrupting me.”

He shrieked, and slipped slightly as a slender wrist gripped a hold of his ankle. Twisting over his arm to look down, he made playful beady eyes at his beloved.

“Or a bird of prey…” Evelyn gave a few more tugs, and laughed as Caleb pouted and held onto the branch. “Hey, Nana says dinner is ready and she’s getting impatient. If she gets the wooden spoon out, I am not saving your ass…” A trail off as Caleb scowled and held Aasha’s ears. “…ortment of sweets,” Evelyn finished with an eye roll . “What are you even doing out here, starlight?”

“Just…thinking,” Caleb mumbled as Evelyn took up the last of the space on the massive branch.

“About the little twig?” she asked softly, and her expression fell as somber as his did once he nodded. Turmoil always filled her gaze. She felt the ache of regret with her grief. She always envisioned it - he flash of her anger, the magic she’d whipped at him…and frightened away a boy that had needed more understanding than they gave.

“I get it…yeah, that’s pretty normal,” Evelyn cleared her throat as she tried not to look at the faded, angrily scrawled ‘P’ on the trunk. “Miss when he’d sit up here and sulk in the tree,” she laughed sadly. “You know…refusing to come into the cottage, and refusing dinner. He always assumed it was poisoned.”

“It really is about to be poisoned if you miscreants don’t get your sorry rumps into the house,” a gravelly and angry voice spoke from the ground, nearly startling all of them off the branch. “Your Mother and I have bent our backs over this stew all day and it’s already getting cold.”

Varuka was a small stout demoness with maroon skin and two world weary heterochromatic eyes of orange and yellow. Her hair, actually moss colored hands, were drawn up tightly into two fists on either side of her head. It was slightly different than the one ponytail shaped hand of her daughter’s, and both of their hair was tucked up into a bonnet. The difference was in their faces; whereas Kiki had a younger and shapely face, her mother carried the wrinkles of the world, and the tribulations that had come with it.

“It’s congealed,” Varuka continued, in that same deadpan tone of voice. “Like the way your blood is going to be when it dries in a few days on my walls.” You could never tell when this woman was joking because of her delivery, and they never wanted to take the chance.

“Oy, we’re coming!” Evelyn huffed as she started sliding off the branch. She reached up to pluck Aasha, but the child started to screech, and wisely, she let her hands drop to her sides. “Come on Caleb.”

Evelyn held out a hand to her beloved, but Caleb didn’t take it. He was staring ahead, towards the direction of the grassy slope and winding trees. “Come on…” She smirked after a moment, and didn’t seem to catch the way his eyes had widened, and the way his limbs trembled. “What? Expecting to see something special? A shooting star?"

It took a moment for his moving mouth to get anything out that was audible. “Better…”

“Caleb?” Evelyn gaped as the man just dropped from the branch. He didn’t even climb down it, and honestly, he didn’t do anything less than catapult himself into the grass, surely bruising something. “Caleb, what the hell?!”

His feet hadn’t even gained footing, and he wasn’t even running so much as he was rapidly bear crawling down the hill on all fours, like a mad man. The speed of which he moved down such a slope caused him to tumble multiple times, but he didn’t care.

“Caleb!” the girls shouted after him. They were wiser and took the actual dirt path to give themselves more traction on the ground. They held their dresses up as they ran along the path. From this distance, they could begin to see what had caught Caleb’s eye. There was an approaching silouhette. They could see Caleb as well, just a few feet away from the silouhette and both stood still as a granite statue.

The girls reached the bottom, and the silver moon finally illuminated him.

Evelyn’s knees gave in and she fell to them in a crumpled flounce of fabric. Varuka’s own eyes had shot open and both hands were cupping her mouth, leaving no secret for once to what she was feeling. Aasha blinked in confusion, looking at everyone and wondering why they were reacting in such a manner.

Somehow, it was the two men that stood almost calmly…processing. Wide eyes took in each other’s features for the first time in half a decade.

The oldest stood taller now with his ponytail long abandoned. His jawline was more pronounced and it seemed he’d never replaced his coat. Somehow the one thing that never changed…were the same hazel eyes that stared at him with…so much unadulterated affection, that spilled out now in the form of steady tears.

And there the younger brother stood, carrying a wheezing bundle. He was still wrapped in his coat, the only life line he had of his brother. His scraped and dirty hands clutched a limp child so protectively, tucked nearly under his untrimmed beard. His own blue eyes lacked the spark of life Caleb had seen before. They looked empty enough that surely if he called into them, he would only hear an echo.

“…Philip…” he finally whispered.

“…Caleb.” Philip swallowed. He lost his voice. He wanted to run the moment he saw everyone's eyes gazing at him, with expressions that elected emotions much too complicated to be hatred.

He felt frozen into the grass, prepared to bolt into the other direction. It was the rattling from Luz’s chest that ignited a determined fire he had never felt, and finally gave him the strength to speak. “...I need your help.”

(DUN DUN DUN! Finally I return, and on a cliffhanger! Just imagine if I abandoned it after this lmao. No, I have no plans to abandon it, but chapters may be more sparse because of rl problems.

This chapter was going to include an illustration but I haven't felt like drawing so finally I just decided to post it. Next chapter may be a while, as it is very thicc with juicy plot.

So excited to finally include the rest of the gang! We have reached the first climax and turning point for this fic, and things are really gonna be picking up now~ Stay tuned!)

Chapter 6 - If I Stay- Luz experiences confusing revelations

Chapter 7- Brothers Can Be A Pain - Philip dreads the consequences of his actions

Chapter 8 - A God Fearing Minister - Repressed trauma of the boys is revealed

#toh fanfic #the owl house #philip wittebane #caleb wittebane #luz noceda #evelyn clawthorne #the collector #the owl house fanfic #IT IS UP AT LAST

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