Luz startled at the voice, turning to look. Camila called out,

"We're in the kitchen, sweetheart."

From the hallway, a face appeared, peeking into the room. The girl let out a surprised sound.

"Oh! You're already here. U-um ... h-hello, Luz ..."

Luz got up from the table and approached the timid girl. She wasn't what Luz had expected– her face was unfamiliar, although somehow it also seemed familiar at the same time. She had Luz's button nose and skin color, but a rounder face and longer hair pulled into a ponytail, with a shy smile and a wary look in her hazel-green eyes.

"... Vee?"

The girl nodded. Luz beamed at her.

"Hey! Love what you did with yourself, girl, looking great! It's so exciting to finally meet you in person."

Vee nodded, glancing over to Camila, as if seeking some emotional reassurance. At Camila's kind smile, she spoke again.

"Y-yeah, umm, I ... I decided a while back to choose a different form, so I didn't look exactly like you. But I kept some things kind of similar, because I, um ... I s-sort of felt like you were kind of almost like my sister, in some ways?"

Vee seemed very nervous about Luz's response to that, but Luz's eyes widened and she answered with glee,

"R-really?! That's so sweet, oh my gosh, I have a sister now!!"

She launched at Vee and hugged her, laughing happily. The girl was a little overwhelmed at Luz's zeal but answered,

"I-I'm glad you don't mind."

Luz grinned at her.

"Are you kidding? This is great! We can have sister bonding activities or whatever! What do sisters do, hmm, let's see, paint each other's nails, gossip about cute girls and guys, go commit petty larceny together ...?"

Camila gave them a concerned look.

"Oh, uh, hm, I might have picked that one up from Eda, nevermind."

Camila cleared her throat and politely butted in,

"Actually, one of the things I've talked about with Vee recently was about her future. We talked about the possibility of adoption ... if you were okay with it Luz, of course. And if that's still something Vee wants in the future."

Luz answered enthusiastically,

"Yes!! That would be amazing!"

Camila laughed, patting Luz's shoulder fondly.

"It was just one of many possibilities we discussed, so let's not rush into things for now. But I'm sure Vee is happy for such a warm welcome."

Vee nodded, smiling politely. Camila turned to glance at the clock and said,

"Goodness, it's later then I thought. Everyone is probably ready for dinner. Vee, would you mind helping me set the table? You can go and fetch Hunter, Luz."

"Aye aye," Luz said, saluting, then shuffling out of the kitchen. She found Hunter completely conked out on the couch, using one of the little couch pillows for his head. In the background, the TV was left on and had a soft-spoken, puffy-haired man painting a scenic picture with a lot of trees.

Luz couldn't help but smile at the young witch, who always seemed to be so adorable while sleeping. Her hand automatically went to touch his sleep-tousled hair before she could stop herself, but when he stirred and mumbled, she yelped and pulled away quickly.

He blinked at her blearily, leaning up into a sitting position. Luz said quickly,

"Um, hi! Sorry to wake you up, I just came to tell you that dinner's ready."

He ran a hand through his hair and answered groggily,

"It's ok, thanks."

Something seemed to click in his brain and he looked at her. Voice still groggy, he said,

"Wait, were you ... touching my hair–"

"–WHAT, NOooo, haha, that's silly, anyway c'mon don't want the soup to get cold!"

She fled the room and bounced back to the kitchen, cringing at herself. God, she was getting worse. She needed to be less transparent.

"Oh, could you grab the napkins, Luz?"

Luz jerked out of her thoughts and moved to help Vee with setting the table.

Before long, they had all sat down for a lovely dinner, which felt delightfully domestic and cozy. Luz asked Vee to tell her all about summer camp, so Vee regaled them with her tales. A great deal of it sounded to Luz about as boring and torturous as she had expected, but Vee also talked a lot about fooling about with her fellow cabin-mates and the silly things they got up to, so it was nice to know she had found some genuine fun. The friends she described sounded like pretty cool people.

When the conversation had reached a lull, Vee shyly asked a question.

"S-so, um, Luz, now that you're back, does that mean you're going to be living here again?"

Luz smiled at her and then looked down nervously, swirling her soup around.

"Wellllll ... it's a little complicated. At the moment I'm actually hoping to return to the Demon Realm for a bit. There's, uh, sort of a big thing going on with Emperor Belos right now. Like a ... scheme to imprison or petrify all wild witches and then reshape multiple realms with the power of the Titan?"

Vee stared at her, her expression one of shock. She said,

"Oh."

Luz carried on,

"So, yeah, I want to return so we can put a stop to it. I need to make sure all my friends are safe."

The room fell into awkward silence for a bit. Vee seemed to be deep in thought. When she spoke again, her voice was soft but carried a quiet sort of intensity.

"You're really going back to face against him?"

Luz nodded. She answered her calmly,

"Yeah."

Vee gazed off into nowhere in particular, lost in thought. She seemed to be internally wrestling with something. Eventually, she looked back to Luz and said,

"To be honest, I still don't feel like I understand that much about you, Luz. Even after spending so much time in your shoes. But if you're serious about going back to stop him ... after all that he's done ..."

She was shaking a little, but she kept going;

"That ... that would mean a lot. You must be a very good person."

She glanced away timidly.

"I'm ... sorry if I misjudged you."

Luz smiled at her gently.

"Hey ... it's ok. I know you have some mixed feelings about me. I don't blame you at all, I think anyone in your position would. I don't think I could even begin to understand what it's been like for you."

Vee gazed down at the table, expression somber. Luz continued,

"But as different as our lives have been, well. I still hope that one day we can come to understand each other a little better, you know? I'd like that. I'd love to get to know you better."

Vee looked back up at her.

"I-I think I'd like that too."

They smiled at each other, and Luz felt her heart warm. Her mother seemed very happy, and she spoke up.

"Well, now that we've heard Vee tell us about summer camp, maybe Luz could tell us a little more about what she did this summer? Would you be interested in that, Vee?"

Vee smiled at Camila and nodded. Camila said warmly,

"Good, I'd be interested in it too."

Luz grinned and glanced over to Hunter, who had been very quiet for most of the evening.

"You wanna hear about all my shenanigans too?"

He gave her a crooked smile, murmuring,

"I know you'd tell us anyway regardless."

Luz laughed brightly.

"True! Ok, let's see, where should I start . . ."

She ended up fetching her phone so she could show everyone the pictures and video she took in the Demon Realm.

"... and this little cutie-wootie is named King," Luz said, playing them a video of King dancing in a cheerleader uniform.

"Eda found him wandering lost in an ancient secret castle and took him home with her, and now he's her adopted son!"

"He seems very sweet. Is ... is the skull a little costume or ..."

"Nah, that's just how he looks."

"Oh."

Luz flicked through her camera roll.

"Oh, and here's Amity. When I first met her, I was pretending to be Willow's Abomination project but Amity noticed something was fishy and then she tried to have me dissected! Haha, we laugh about that now."

Camila looked a tad concerned.

"Um, dissected?"

Luz waved her hand casually,

"It's fiiiine, we're like besties now and I'm pretty sure she was only half-serious about the dissection thing. Probably."

She rolled over to the next picture.

"And this is Willow! I talked a little about her last night, remember? She's the student I'm working with to combine plant and healing magic. See all this, she's using plant magic to make everything grow super fast!"

Hunter leaned in a little to see.

"Hmm. An entire greenhouse all at once? Impressive."

Luz beamed,

"I know, right? She was already so good at it before she had even moved to the plant track, and now she's pretty much unstoppable!"

As Luz flipped to the next photo, she said,

"This is Gus at a club meeting! There's this club at school he runs called the Human Appreciation Society, because humans are basically cryptids in the Demon Realm and so they're kinda fascinated with them. His latest project for the club is to start celebrating human holidays so I've been telling him all about Halloween so we can plan something. I think it's gonna turn out really fun!"

Vee seemed curious.

"Halloween? I-I don't think I've heard of that before."

Luz gave her an excited look.

"Ooh, I'll have to tell you about it later, it's a human holiday that's coming up next month. With your talents, in fact, it'll be perfect– you'll definitely have the best Halloween costume."

Vee looked intrigued by this and agreed,

"Okay!"

Luz scrolled to the next shot, which was her friends gathered in the Owl House.

"And this was our first Moonlight Conjuring! That's basically like a slumber party but with some moon magic thrown in. We sorta animated the house by accident later that night and almost got killed by bounty hunters, but it was still a pretty amazing party overall."

"Wait, killed by bounty hunters?"

"Ummm moving right along, hey look, we're at the carnival here, isn't that cool? The Scarreis-Wheel definitely lived up to the hype, I had nightmares for three solid weeks afterwards!"

Hunter eyed the photo critically.

"I doubt any of those rides were up to code, you're lucky all you ended up with were nightmares."

Luz shot him a look, muttering urgently,

"Dude I'm trying not to freak mom out here, c'mon."

"Actually that part doesn't really surprise me, we've been to some pretty sketchy carnivals here too," Camila interjected. Luz smiled nervously and flipped through her pictures again.

"This is when we played Grudgby against the school bully! Her team technically won but we scored the moral victory, which is like, way cooler."

Camila looked relieved.

"Oh, you all look so cute. It's nice to know you had some normal, safe activities too."

"Yeah, exactly! Totally safe."

Luz flipped the picture and frowned as it showed Amity in a leg cast.

"UHH, ignore that, that was just umm, a minor break–"

She changed photos again.

"This was when– oh wait, uh, nevermind, probably shouldn't mention that–"

She flicked through pictures rapidly, muttering,

"No, no, no ... man, this is harder then I thought."

She paused on a photo of her on a pirate ship and beamed.

"Heeey, how about this? Pirates are fun! And I look so cute in my pirate outfit!"

They all looked at her picture. Amazed, Camila asked,

"You were on a pirate ship?"

Luz nodded.

"Yeah, sailing the boiling seas for adventure and treasure! Aw, here we all are singing a sea shanty, isn't that wholesome?"

She flipped through and frowned at the blurry, skewed shots of a gold-masked figure within a column of water, glowing with red magic. Flipping quickly, she passed through shots of a furious Selkidomus inflated, throwing its spines every which-way.

"Hold on, what was all that?"

Luz smiled nervously.

"Er, well, this is, uhh, when I first met Hunter! He sort of, um ..." Luz coughed,

"Threatened to throw us all into the boiling sea and made us fight a Selkidomus, but y'know, people trying to get me killed is kinda how I first meet a lot of my friends!"

Glancing over, she saw that Hunter looked very unwell, almost as if sickened to be reminded of that day. His eyes were fixed away from her. Damn it, this was supposed to be a fun little jaunt through her photo album, and Luz was blowing it.

In a strained, quiet voice, Hunter muttered,

"I'm ... I never ... Luz, I'm sorry I . . ."

Luz told him firmly,

"Hey, I was serious, that really is how I've met like half my friends. Eda made me help her infiltrate the Conformatorium in exchange for going back home, the Bat Queen tried to tear my face off, Amity had the principal go after me with a knife, Lilith used me like a meat shield . . ."

Camila didn't look happy with this list at all. Luz pinched the bridge of her nose and said,

"Urgh, my point is, we all do stuff that maybe later on we decide wasn't so great, and that's fine– what matters is that we learn and grow and whatever. And anyway, it turned out great in the end, we realized the Selkie had a little baby and she was just protecting her young. We told them to leave the Boiling Isles so they could be safe and we got some gold barf as a thank-you!"

He looked up at her warily. In a confused tone, he said,

"I thought ... you killed it?"

She smiled and admitted,

"Yeeeah, we just sorta pretended we did. You never actually saw the fight directly though, remember?"

He blinked at her.

"Oh."

After an awkward silence, Luz started desperately flicking through her photos again.

"Look, I swear I have some pictures in here that don't make it seem like every single day I was on the brink of some horrible death–"

"Luz," Camila said.

"Just give me a minute, I know I'll find something–"

"Luz. It's ok."

Luz looked up at her mom. Camila sighed and told her with a fond smile,

"I'm not going to pretend I'm okay with how dangerous it's been for you, because I'm not. I'm going to worry no matter what. But I also see how deeply you love all of this."

She glanced between her, Vee and Hunter, adding,

"And I see that you've made some truly wonderful friends."

Hunter glanced away, embarrassed, and Vee blushed. Luz got misty-eyed.

"Aaawwh. Thank you, mom!"

Despite her mom's reassurance, she was still scrolling through her phone, trying to find pictures to share. Suddenly, she grinned.

"Hey, you guys wanna see an adorable picture of Hunter?"

A look of raw panic flashed in his eyes.

"LUZ–"

Fortunately for Hunter, Luz was only making an empty bluff and did not share that particular photo. She did continue to share other photos, though, and spent a little more time telling everyone stories about the Boiling Isles. When they'd finished with dinner, they all spent some time watching TV, a nature documentary in particular. Luz enjoyed getting the chance to talk to Vee a little more and just relax and unwind.

The evening seemed to fly by quickly. Soon she was already saying goodbye to Vee for the night and everyone was getting ready for bed. By the time she'd showered and brushed her teeth, the hour had grown quite late and the business of the day was finally catching up to her, making her feel comfortably worn-out.

Hunter was already in her room, reclined across the bottom bunk and reading a book, Rascal perched on his shoulder. Luz leaned in to read the cover and realized it was one of her school textbooks. Wow. What a giant nerd. She grinned.

He belatedly noticed her standing there, startling a little.

"Oh, hey."

"Hey. Enjoying highschool World History?"

He pondered the text a moment and answered seriously,

"The author seems to focus excessively on politics and war to the exclusion of almost all social and cultural history, so it's a little dry and uninformative."

Luz blinked at him.

"Huh ... now I don't feel so bad about finding it boring."

"Oh, yeah, it's not just you."

He set the book aside, and for a few moments, there was an awkward silence. Petting his palisman, Hunter broke the quiet and asked,

"So ... you seem to be getting along better with your mom?"

Luz nodded, answering cheerfully,

"Yeah! We finally had a big talk and worked things out. I think she's even gonna be ok with me returning to the Demon Realm. She just needs a little time to adjust to the idea."

Luz sat down on her chair, adding,

"She still was pretty bummed out she had to work today and miss spending time with me, so that's why we planned out tomorrow so we could have a little more quality time together. I think after that, she'll probably be more open to the idea of having to say goodbye again."

Hunter was still petting Rascal, not looking at her. After a pause, he asked quietly,

"So we may be able to leave as soon as tomorrow night?"

Luz studied him, trying to gauge his mood. She answered awkwardly,

"Um, well, I guess so, yeah."

He nodded.

"All right. I'll draw out the route I'm planning to take so you know exactly what we're doing. I'll include backup routes as well."

"Oh. Okay, that sounds good."

The room fell quiet. Hunter seemed tense and solemn, listlessly fluffing Rascal's crest, still not looking up. Cautiously, Luz asked,

"Hey, are you ok? You've seemed kinda down since we left the mall."

He looked caught out at her mention of the mall. Turning away, he remained silent for a while. Eventually, he muttered an answer, his voice coarse.

"Yeah. I'm fine. You just ..."

He sighed. Softly, he confessed,

"You just made me forget for a while. About what I have to return to."

Luz felt her heart ache. Once again, she tried to persuade him, speaking gently;

"Hunter, you don't have to return to the way things were–"

He interrupted quietly,

"–Luz. Please. I don't want to talk about it."

She sighed, frustrated, but unable to argue with any heat when he looked so miserable. What did Belos do to him to destroy his hope so thoroughly? She was going to kick that guy's ass.

She knew she was starting to reach Hunter. If only she had a little more time. Maybe then she could convince him. Maybe ... ugh.

Luz's eye fell upon the Azura book left on her desk, the light glyph sticking out as a bookmark. She picked up the book. Maybe at least she could chase away the miserable look from Hunter's face for just a little while? At least that would be something.

She got up and approached him, sitting on the foot of the bottom bunk; he looked at her warily. She said,

"Well, here's the thing– all that stuff isn't happening right this moment. That's happening tomorrow or maybe even later. We still have tonight."

He seemed mildly confused. She lifted up the book to show him and gave him a little smile.

"So, uh, you wanna screw around a little more until then?"

He stared for a few moments, processing what she said.

Then, a dry laugh escaped him, almost as if it was involuntary. He shook his head.

"We're teetering on the brink of chaos and you really wanna spend the night reading your silly novel?"

Luz might have felt offended if it weren't for the fact that he was clearly fighting to keep a smile off his face. She leaned in, giving him her most appeasing look.

"It'll be fun, the next part's really good, I promise."

He hesitated for several moments before releasing a sigh.

"... fine. But no acting out the scenes or yelling this time. I doubt you want to wake your mom up."

Luz felt a bit of disappointment, but she had to admit that made sense.

"Ok, ok. You still can read Malin's lines though."

Luz gave Hunter the book and she decided she'd look up a digital copy on her phone, just to make it easier to read. While she did essentially know the story from memory, it was late and she was pretty exhausted and didn't feel like the extra work. After dimming the lights except for the little lamp she used as a book light, she returned to sit on the foot of the bottom bunk, while Hunter was propped against the headboard on the opposite side of the mattress. Eagerly, she began to read where they'd left off. The story had Azura and Malin traveling together and learning they needed to find three sacred gemstones that would power up Azura's Ethereal staff and make it possible for her to defeat the cruel King Wrathmore. The story was engaging and nicely paced at this point, so it was easy to get into. Luz noticed the tension melted away from Hunter quickly, as he clearly enjoyed reading with her. As time passed, both of them grew drowsier, but neither one felt like quitting, so they continued to read.

"You know, when I agreed to come along for this excursion, I didn't realize that we'd be spending quite so much time hanging around bogs."

Looking at her softly-glowing cell phone, Luz read,

"Are you complaining? Nobody's making you come along, you know– I'm perfectly capable of doing this on my own."

Hunter had sunk down a fair bit in bed at this point, still propped against the wall with a pillow but draped out very casually. He read his lines in a murmur that was growing progressively more gravelly in his drowsy state.

"Mmm, no, I'm still happy to join you. I couldn't bear the thought of some bog beast devouring such a fair and lovely witch like you."

Luz scoffed, returning,

"Hah, as if that would happen! I'm far more familiar with the Brimstone Bogs than you are."

"You claim that, Lady Azura, and yet you've lost your footing four times by now. I rather think you'd have ended up eating mud if I hadn't caught you that last time."

Luz faked a glare at him.

"The only reason I keep tripping is because I have to keep looking after you! You have been traipsing about like a fool, even though I warned you about the giant bog toads that live here."

"Yes, yes, bog toads– you worry an awful lot over such trifling things."

"They are not trifles! One lick from their tongue can leave you paralyzed for an hour. I've half a mind to let them lick you if they find you."

Hunter chuckled.

"You wouldn't, my Lady; you are far too fond of me."

"'Fond'? Malin, I barely even tolerate you."

Hunter raised a brow and smiled at her from behind his book, murmuring lazily,

"There's no need to be coy; I see the way your breath quickens in my presence."

Luz quickly glanced away, clearing her throat. She read her line,

"It quickens because I am barely restraining the urge to pummel you."

His smile grew to a smirk and he continued to murmur,

"As you say, Lady Luz. Shall we continue walking?"

Luz skimmed her next line and said,

"Yes, we need to– uhh, wait, did ..." She laughed nervously and said,

"I think you meant 'Lady Azura?'"

She could see him mentally replaying what he'd said, looking surprised.

"R-right, sorry. Azura."

Luz squashed down her silly little grin and read,

"We need to hurry before we lose daylight."

Next was some narration that Luz read, describing how the pair of travelers came across an old, decrepit well half-submerged in the bog. The well was actually a secret entrance to one of Hecate's dungeons, which was the location of the first sacred gemstone they needed. Although Malin wasn't thrilled with how rickety the old well was, they both climbed the rope down, down, deep into the earth. When they both reached the bottom, they found themselves in a dark, dingy room with stone floors and walls. The air was cool and bog water leaked through cracks in the stone bricks. Azura used her staff to cast a light into the gloom.

Hunter blinked sleepily at the book in his hands and read his next lines.

"So we've gone from exploring bogs to climbing into wells so that we might wander aimlessly in the black. You certainly like to keep things interesting, my Lady."

Luz answered wryly,

"I can't help but feel as though you're complaining again, Malin."

He placed a hand to his chest and replied in a sweet voice,

"Not at all. Every moment spent in your presence is a pleasure."

Luz couldn't help smiling, feeling tickled that he was still putting some effort into acting. She read her next lines with the appropriate amount of sass.

"Well, if you want to keep enjoying the pleasure of my presence, I suggest sticking close. There are bloodwidow webs spun all over the walls and ceiling here, and you do not want to mess with those. One wrong step and you'll end up a bite-sized snack."

Hunter nodded.

"Yes, of course, as you say."

"Now, it's very dark down here and it'll probably be very easy to get lost, so I'm going to leave a trail of magic lights behind me as we travel. That way we can keep track of where we've been. We'll also need to map things out as we move along. It's likely that this place is intentionally confusing. We ... Malin."

"Hmm?"

"You're not even listening to me."

Hunter protested,

"Of course I am!"

Luz gave him a skeptical look.

"Ok, then what did I tell you just now?"

Hunter glanced down at his book and murmured,

"Mmmnn, don't get lost, stay close to you, make sure you don't get too confused ..."

Luz objected,

"That's not what I said!"

Hunter gave her an apologetic smile.

"Forgive me, my Lady. I must confess I was momentarily distracted by your radiant beauty."

"Malin—"

Hunter gazed at her from over the top of his book, interrupting in a mischievous voice;

"You have stunning eyes, you know. They're the loveliest shade of auburn I've ever seen."

Luz opened her mouth to reply but as she processed the words, her brain suddenly halted. She felt her face warm and she stammered,

"Uuhm, w-well, Azura's eyes are blue, actually . . ."

He stared at her a moment and then looked back down at his book. He quickly sputtered,

"OH UH, right, blue! I meant blue! Of course."

Luz giggled as he attempted to regain his composure. She said,

"It's an easy mistake."

He nodded, clearing his throat and agreeing seriously,

"Yeah, easy mistake."

Luz looked back down at her phone, smiling and reading her lines.

"If you don't stop fooling around, Malin, I really am going to leave you to get eaten by something. Here, take this and draw a map while we explore. I'll take the lead."

Seemingly recovered from his slip-up, Hunter read from his book,

"I couldn't possibly allow you to take the lead in such a dreadful place."

"Who has the Ethereal staff here, Malin?"

"You seem to forget I am armed with my own weapon."

Luz gestured at him, as if she could see his weapon.

"That sword? It's not going to do much against a bloodwidow's hide."

He replied smoothly,

"You underestimate my combat prowess, Lady Luz."

She struggled to keep from giggling and corrected,

"Azura."

He waved a dismissive hand and answered almost casually,

"Yeah, Azura, of course."

Luz bit her lower lip, grinning and saying,

"Ok I think you're doing it on purpose now."

He replied with a convincing deadpan,

"I don't know what you're talking about."

Still smiling, Luz read her next line off her phone,

"Look, I need you to quit arguing with me and just cooperate!"

Luz looked at him expectantly, waiting, but he said nothing more. Finally, he asked in an amused tone,

"Why are you looking at me? It's still your turn."

She glanced down at her phone and said,

"Oh! Sorry, you're right. Ahem. The sound of Azura's shout echoed in the dim, cavernous space, and soon after, there came a terrible rustling sound, like something huge was dragging along the ground in the darkness. Azura ducked down low and gestured for her companion to do the same; the pair huddled behind a pile of rubble. They watched in horror as a creature immerged from the black– a hairy spider with glowing red eyes and enormous fangs. It seemed it had not yet spotted them, but it was investigating the room curiously. Azura leaned toward her companion and whispered to him."

Luz was about to read her next line, but then she giggled and said,

"Wait, hold on."

She scooched forward on the mattress, pushing through a pile of plushies in the way and getting closer to Hunter, who was still propped against the headboard with a pillow. She leaned in close so she could whisper directly into his ear;

"Don't. Move. A muscle. They're attracted to sound and vibration. It might give up and move on, if we're lucky."

As she leaned back again, she saw that Hunter looked very flustered, and his pointy witch ears gave an involuntary little twitch. Unable to meet her eyes, he instead struggled to get back on track with his lines, looking down at the book as if he'd lost his place.

"I, uhhh, umm ..."

Luz grinned as she watched him. He muttered,

"H-hold on, I ..."

Still scanning, it took him a good length of time to find his place again. He looked relieved when he finally did and he read in an unsteady voice;

"I-I say we strike the beast now, while we still have the element of surprise. I can surely sink my blade right between its eyes."

Luz put her hands on her hips, giving him a stern look.

"Don't be a fool, Hunter, that thing will swallow you like an insect."

He corrected her quietly,

"Malin."

She hummed,

"Malin, right."

She checked her phone and realized there was more narration to read. Leaning back against one of her plushies, she eagerly launched into the narration:

"Unfortunately, Azura's companion was not easily convinced once he'd made up his mind. With a battle-cry, he leapt out from behind the rubble and charged the gigantic arachnid, plunging his sword directly at its face. The spider reacted instantly, firing a jet of webbing from its mouth, which struck Malin head-on and shot him backwards, the glob of webbing sticking against the wall.

Realizing that time was of the essence, Azura powered up her staff and then charged, letting loose a volley of magic attacks. The magic struck the beast's legs and it briefly recoiled before trying to retaliate by capturing Azura in another blob of webbing. Azura rolled out of the way just in the nick of time, and then fired more magic at the beast as she lay prone on the ground. Enraged, the spider reared up on its legs, preparing to strike again. Thinking fast, Azura swung her staff, sending a huge gust of wind that shot the spider's silk back at itself, swirling around and binding it up tight. Once Azura ensured the spider was safely bound, she breathed a sigh of relief and turned to check on Malin Gael."

Smiling, she looked to Hunter as she continued;

"Azura saw that Malin was still tangled up in a spiderweb that had attached itself very high to one of the dungeon's walls. He was currently hanging upside-down, struggling with the dense, sticky silk but unable to wriggle free."

Hunter made an unhappy mumbling sound about his character's fate. With a gleeful look in her eye, Luz excitedly told him,

"You should go get up on the top bunk like I did before!"

Looking somewhat amused but reluctant, he said,

"I don't know if that's entirely necessary . . ."

"It would be so perfect, though!"

He seemed to be struggling to muster a proper argument against her raw enthusiasm.

"Yeah, but I ..."

Without any sign of shame, she begged him,

"Pleeease?"

She watched as he groaned, burying his face in his hands. Giggling, she asked,

"Is that a yes? Does that mean yes?"

"... all right, all right, you weirdo."

Luz made a cheer of joy but clamped a hand over her mouth in the middle of it, not wanting to wake her mother. She watched as Hunter crawled across the mattress and went to climb the ladder. After some shuffling around in the dark, he hung off the side of the top bunk, his face and torso suddenly appearing above her, upside-down.

"Are you satisfied?" he asked dryly as he dangled there. Luz grinned like an absolute idiot.

"Yes, yes I am."

Hunter's eyes grew wider and he suddenly groaned,

"Oh crap how did you even do this, all the blood is rushing to my head, owww."

"I get a lot of practice. Here, you can read your lines," Luz said, holding the book up for Hunter to see.

"I can't read upside down."

"Oh, right! Sorry!"

She turned the book upside-down and held it up again, pointing to a spot.

"Right there!"

His face was growing red from the blood rush but he read his lines anyway.

"... my fair Azura, could you perhaps do me a small favor and cut me down from this pesky web?"

Luz lowered the book down so she could focus on her reply. She smiled blithely and batted her lashes at him, asking innocently,

"Oh, dear, are you sure you want me to let you down? I thought my wise, experienced teacher might want to demonstrate to me how it's done..."

She leaned closer and held the book up for him again. He made a garbled groan as he struggled to read.

"Uhhgh ... I feel like my brain is leaking out of my ears ... umm ... that's all right, we can skip the lessons for the time being ... just let me down, Luz."

"That's not quite what he says."

He waved his hands, saying impatiently,

"Yeah, ok, but you get the gist of it!"

Luz giggled and relented,

"Okaaaay, I guess I'll come to your rescue . . ."

She leaned even closer, pressing one of her fingers to her lips and giving it a little smooch, then reached out and booped Hunter's nose with that finger, grinning.

"Because you asked so nicely."

Hunter's ears twitched again and he emitted a tiny, surprised noise. Then, suddenly, his eyes widened and he began to slide down off the mattress at an alarming rate, yelping. Luz lurched forward and tried to push him back up by the shoulders and he flailed, twisting around to grab hold of the blankets and mattress desperately. In a wild and extremely awkward effort, he managed to drag himself back again before he slid off the bunk.

Luz stared at him as he panted, tangled up in the blankets. She tried very, very hard to keep from laughing, holding a hand to her mouth.

A muffled 'snirk' escaped her.

"Luz," he said in a low, warning tone. Her face contorted into a grin and she melted into helpless laughter, collapsing back down on the bottom bunk.

Hunter released a sigh. Luz gasped,

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, but ohmygodthatwasamazing."

The bunk above her creaked as he untangled himself from the blankets and climbed back down the ladder. Luz tried to stop laughing, she really tried, but the moment was so firmly framed in her mind– the shocked, adorable little sound he made followed by the sheer panic as he fell. Breathlessly, she asked,

"Is that what I looked like before, how did you not laugh at me?!"

As she battled to regain some composure, she heard a quiet little 'click' noise. Looking up, she saw it was Hunter standing there, aiming his witches' scroll at her. Realizing he'd taken a picture, she giggled and asked,

"What's that for, I thought you wanted an embarrassing picture of me?"

He sat back down on the bottom bunk with her.

"I realized that was a lost cause, so I'm settling for you just being a dork."

Luz snorted,

"As if you weren't too."

He leaned back against the pillow again and murmured,

"You can hardly blame me when I'd lost all higher brain functions hanging there like that."

This set off a fresh round of laughter from Luz, and he rolled his eyes, sighing. He said,

"You're insufferable."

But he was looking down at his scroll, smiling softly. Luz leaned forward a little, saying,

"Alright, I wanna see my picture."

He leaned away at the same time, saying,

"Nope, it's mine."

"Aw, c'mon–"

With a quick flurry of the wrist, he made the scroll vanish.

"That's cheating!"

He crossed his arms and smiled smugly at her. Luz heaved a sigh and flopped back against the plushies that were crowded against the wall.

"Fiiiine, whatever."

Still lying there, she reached for her phone and checked the screen.

"Y'wanna keep reading then?"

He yawned, stretching against the pillow and letting his arms flop back down.

"It's like the middle of the night, we should probably sleep at some point."

Luz made a soft moan of protest and murmured,

"Noooo, it's such a good scene though . . ."

With a crooked smile, Hunter replied,

"I am basically half asleep at this point, and I think you are too."

"No I'm not," she mumbled, looking through her phone.

"I'm gonna keep reading, you can just listen . . ."

Hunter dug under one of the covers, saying,

"Ok, you do that, but I'm sleeping."

"Mmmmnnghhh ... oh, here we are. Azura cut Malin free with her magic wand, and then scolded him, telling him that he needs to be more careful around the bloodwidows."

Hunter closed his eyes and mumbled groggily,

"Malin goes to the tied-up spider and gets on its back so he can ride it like a pony through the dungeon ..."

Luz giggled.

"That's not in the story."

Luz continued trying to read the chapter, but Hunter had been correct– she was incredibly sleepy, and they both were drifting further and further towards unconsciousness.