Chapter Text
The common trait of superheroes wearing their underwear outside of their pants was a horrible concept. Luz couldn't take anyone seriously like that, no matter how deadly their eyebeam lasers were. Her hero costume had real appeal, and underwear was not a visible counterpart to her look.
In a white cloak and witch hat with purple accents, she grasped her magic staff and pointed it towards a giant green serpent. The creature hissed and blinked its slitted, reptilian red eyes.
“You will never defeat me, Luzura! I will feast on your pitiful corpse once I destroy you!” it cried, baring its pointed snake fangs. Luz crouched down and furrowed her dark eyebrows as the gem embedded in her staff began to spark and crackle.
“The only thing you'll be feasting on is the dirt. Now, eat this, suckah!” she replied. A beam of electical blue energy bursts from the gem and lands a fatal blow to the serpent's chest, rendering it helpless and defeated.
“Nooo! My only weakness--Dying!”
The creature thrashed and screeched, but it sounded... Off. Like an alarm blaring in the distance. It got progressively louder, until the world started to crumble and shake. Luz attempted to flee the underground cave, but she lost her balance on a collapsing platforming beneath her feet, and fell into the shimmering water below.
Rocking a now very messy bed-head hairstyle, Luz jolts awake from her sleep and sits up on her bed. She blinks once, twice, then reaches over to her left to slam the side of her fist down on the alarm clock. It silences immediately, but the birds outside don't. She wasn't exactly a Disney Princess, so the sound of chirping this early in the morning was not pleasant. Still tired, Luz crawls out of bed and steps into her purple slippers. She stretches her body until her back pops, and she huffs in satisfaction.
It should be known that for about a month now, Luz has been doing her schoolwork online. She was deemed “a handful” due to her active imagination and “head full of fantasies.” Ever since her father had passed away and left her a Good Witch Azura book, she'd fallen in love with the idea of magical realities apart from this world. Why was it that everyone else was so damn boring? It wasn't her fault that she had some child left in her childhood, and it definitely wasn't her fault that Gravesfield was still in 1940 while she was in the 2000's.
Luz tunes the birds out with her thoughts and shuffles out of her room. She hears some noise in the kitchen, assuming it was her mother starting breakfast. She descends down the stairs while scratching her head, opting on brushing it after stretching her legs a bit, as they were still partially asleep.
“Camila, why are you making so much noise in here?” Luz yawns, placing her hand on the wall as she peers into the dark kitchen. Her eyes widen when she notices a hairy creature hunched over in front of the opened refrigerator. It whips its head around and stares at her with large, brown eyes, as if it were a deer caught in headlights. Before she can react, the beast shuts the door and leaps through the opened window above the sink.
“Mija? Is that you in the kitchen?” Camila yawns as she makes her way down the stairs. She rubs one of her eyes with her glasses held in her free hand, and she puts them on once she fully awakens. Luz doesn't say anything for a moment, before she walks to the sink and shuts the window. The hair on her arms is standing on end when she turns around with furrowed eyebrows.
“I think the house is infested again.”
Two flashlight beams dance around the entrance of the woods as Luz and Camila follow the large paw prints trailing in the dirt. A licensed hunting shotgun is strapped against Luz's back for safety measures, but she doubts they'll need to use it for anything other than an empty threat. They've never injured or killed anything with it, especially considering that Camila nursed animals back to health as opposed to being the cause of their deaths. Luz, however, was not opposed to the idea of putting this creature down if it attacked them.
“Is it a bear? These prints are way too big to have been made by a scavenging rodent,” Luz asked, observing how the paw prints began to space out like the thing was bipedal all of a sudden. She knew that bears could walk on their hind legs, but they usually didn't enter houses and steal canned drinks.
“I highly doubt it... The shape of the prints indicates the creature is canine, but I dogs don't walk on their hind legs like this,” the woman replied, raising one of her eyebrows. She grew concerned as streaks of red mixed with the paw prints, as if the creature had started bleeding from an opened wound. She prepared her vet first aid kit and quickly followed the trail deeper into the woods.
There, huddled against the trunk of a tree, was a boy with wild brown hair and brown eyes. His clothes were modern, but tattered, and forest debris matted his mane. The most shocking thing about him were his non-human features, such as his tail, fur, and wolfish ears. Camila was flabbergasted, yes, but her attention was more on the large gash on his shoulder that was staining his fur crimson. She reached into her kit and retrieved the proper cleaning materials, as well as gauze and bandaging.
“What are you doing, it could be dangerous!” Luz hissed quietly, pulling the gun over her head. She followed her mother as she opted to tend to the boy and maybe ask him some questions. She had no idea if he understood human language or was capable of responding back in clear words, but it was worth a shot.
“He is hurt, and most likely needs medical attention,” Camila replied, crouching down to his level to reach the wound. The creature hissed, but didn't attack the woman as she cleaned away the blood. “Besides, he isn't in any condition to attack us... And I would like to know why he's been hovering around my house for so long.”
Luz held the gun in position as Camila worked. Although they weren't on the best of terms, she wouldn't forgive herself if her mother got hurt or killed. So she kept her guard up, observing every movement and breath that the boy made.
She was close to lowering her levels of caution until Cam started to apply the disinfectant. Due to the highly stinging pain, the creature lunged at the vet and nearly bit her shoulder, but Luz, adamant about not actually harming anything with the firearm, shoved herself onto him. As they tumbled to the floor, his teeth sank into her wrist, leaving a nasty mark.
“Luz, no!” Camila cried, dropping everything and pulling her daughter off of the shaken boy. He didn't give them a second chance to do anything before he scrambled into the distance, not leaving any clear tracks for them to follow this time. “Mija, I appreciate you wanting to keep me safe, but--”
“Get off of me!” Luz snapped, pulling away from Camila with venom in her eyes. “Now he's just going to come back! Also, did you notice that he bit me?”
Annoyed and not interested in hearing an answer, she stormed away, presumably to the entrance of the forest. Why couldn't Camila just let her do things on her own? She wasn't a baby in need of being lectured about every move that she made. If it were her dad, he probably would've said thank you.
But her dad wasn't here.
He had passed away after health complications got the best of him. It could've been anyone else, but fate chose him.
Camila sighed and gathered her medical items back into the kit. She hoped what she was able to do was good enough for the boy... He looked frightened and starved. But, with Luz still sensitive about the loss of Manny and the weakened ties between her daughter and herself, it was probably best that whoever that was stayed as far from their home as possible. At least until things cooled down.
Pip scurried as far as he could into the trees and shrubbery until he couldn't smell humans anymore. He felt great amounts of discomfort in his shoulder, but it felt a lot better than when it had been bleeding from his fall. He shook his head and noticeably perked up after his wolf features disappeared, making him look mostly normal with the exception of his hair. He still tasted blood in his mouth, and grew anxious once he realized he had bitten someone.
“Oh, sweet Titan,” the werewolf whimpered, glancing back in the direction in which he had come from. “Please, let her be okay.”