Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

Eda groaned as she slowly woke up in an unfamiliar bed, not having the slightest clue where she was. Only that she was comfortable and holding on to something warm.

A short groan from beside her had her realize that was someone warm, not something. Which considering the bender she vaguely remembered being on was actually an improvement from her last blackout.

Now all she had to do was sneak out before whoever it was woke up an- Eda's egg of thought ended as an arm snaked itself around her, latched on and a set of lips started kissing her neck. Well….maybe she could stick around a while longer.

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Hours later Eda asked herself what she was doing as she sat at the woman's table with a cup of what she said was coffee. Or at least whatever passed as coffee for humans. How you make coffee without kafebeast bowels she'll never know. Titan, she's not sure she wants to know what kind of weird thing humans make coffee from. At least it didn't taste horri-

"So," the woman whose name Eda was trying and failing to remember said.

"Last night was fun and this morning was great." The woman said though Eda could hear the but coming from a phalange away. This would be where the human kicked her out. Which was kind of a shame. She was pretty cute, and this morning really was pretty great.

"But um…" the woman hesitated before continuing. "This is going to sound really bad but…what's your name again? I was a bit- no, really drunk last night and I vaguely recall Mary or Lyn? Sorry?"

All Eda could do was laugh and feel a bit relieved.

"Don't worry about it, hun, I can't even remember that much. So don't feel guilty. These kinds of nights happen." Eda couldn't help but reach over and place her hand over the other women's. She remembered the first time something like this happened to her. Even she had had trouble getting over the embarrassment of waking up in someone's bed and not knowing their name.

"And the name your trying to remember is Marilyn." Eda told her.

She could practically see the weight coming off the women's shoulders as she sighed in relief.

"Virgen de la Altagracia! Ohhhh that's good. I mean, it's not good that I forgot your name and you forgot mine but I'm glad it wasn't just me." The woman rattled off to Eda's amusement. She was definitely looking to be the type that's fun to tease.

"My name is Camilla. It's nice to meet you, Marilyn. Again."

Eda felt a large smile come over her face. She was starting to like this human-Camilla. She was starting to like Camilla.

"Nice to meet you too Cammy~" The blush she got for the little nickname let Eda know she wasn't the only one enjoying their current company. "I gotta say it's been a while since I've hooked up with someone that didn't try to throw me out after they woke up." Eda said a bit ruefully. The last person that did that was Rai-No one important. She didn't need them.

"¿Por qué alguien te echaría?!? ¡Tu 'tas hermosa y pareces agradable!" Camilla blurted out.

Eda could only really stare at Camilla in confusion. That didn't sound like Human…Oh, Titan, was it TRUE that bit about humans having a million different languages?!?!

Camilla seeing Eda's confusion blushed again and repeated her words but in English after a small cough. "What I said was why would anyone kick you out? You're gorgeous…." Now it was Eda's turn to blush. It wasn't often she got such genuine compliments.

"Well, you know how it is. Some people just want a single night of fun and get all up in arms if last night's fun is still around in the morning." Eda tried to be nonchalant when she said that, she really did, but the self-imposed reminder of all her failed attempts at relationships must have shown on her face. This time it was Camilla placing her hand over Eda's.

"I certainly won't be kicking you out even if your ears are a bit odd and I have some interesting bite marks on some fun places."

That caused Eda to suddenly remember where she was and placed her hands over her ears as she realized she wasn't wearing her bandanna. Which meant Camilla could see the features she normally hid. Eda was about to do something rash before Camilla continued speaking.

"And such beautiful gold eyes. I've never seen such pretty eyes before. They definitely suit such a striking woman though." Once again it was Eda's turn to blush.

"But those kinds of things are personal. So how about you just tell me about yourself?" Camilla finished.

Eda was still for a moment thinking over something furiously before making a decision. "Y'know, if we're going to be getting to know each other better then you should call me Eda, not Marilyn. Marilyn is just the name I use at bars or to stay out of trouble." Eda said with a smile.

Camilla smiled back. "Well, Eda I'm glad to meet you. Again. For the third time."

Eda laughed.

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After several hours of talking it was finally time for Eda to leave. She did have some potions brewing back home that she kinda needed to work on unless she wanted to lose out on the snails those potions were going to get her.

Standing at Camilla's door Eda said " Well I suppose this is goodbye. I've…really enjoyed today. It was fun."

Camilla smiled back at her though she looked a bit nervous. "It was. But um… I was wondering if you might want to get together again?"

Eda rocked back a bit. She had certainly thought about meeting up with Cammy again but she hadn't thought that Cammy would be interested especially after they had talked about Eda's previous relationships.

"I mean… I'd be happy to but are you sure? My track record isn't the best with relationships. I'm still -what did you call it again? oh right- rebounding from my last long-term relationship."

"And I'll be going back to school to finish my degree after summer ends so I'll have a lot less time for a relationship. I think this will be good for both of us. Something fun that we'll both have to remember later and, maybe, when things line back up we could even pick things back up? What do you think?"

Eda had an instinctual shudder at the thought of school then she thought about it for a moment before smiling.

"I think you got yourself a girlfriend, Cammy."

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Three days later, they were drinking at a club. Eda was sitting there enjoying her odd human drink while trying to hide her boredom at the human club. Though from what she could see Cammy didn't seem all that impressed with the establishment, either. With that in mind Eda suddenly had an idea. A wonderful, terrible idea.

"You seem to be enjoying this place as much as I am."

Camilla coughed as she choked on her drink for a moment before responding.

"Si. I was under the impression this place would be more interesting than it actually is. Most of my classmates raved about this place but it's…bland? Boring? Something like that. It doesn't live up to the expectations."

Eda smiled knowing that her girlfriend's dissatisfaction meant she would probably be more open to her plan for a bit of…chaos.

"Well then. What do you say we blow this joint and go do something a bit more…fun."

Camilla looked like she was thinking it over for a moment before smiling. "What did you have in mind?"

Eda let a devious smile take over her face. "Oh, just something a little crazy~"

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Camilla looked at Eda with some small amount of frustration as she saw where her girlfriend had brought her after a short stop along the way.

"Eda, why are we here of all places? I know I told you I don't like these people. They're horrible to the animals under their care. Also, why did we stop by a Dollar General and not buy anything after going inside?"

Eda smirked as she held her hands on her hips and looked at the target for tonight's fun.

"Oh, Cammy, Cammy, Cammy. We're here because you don't like 'em. As for why we stopped by that store….”

Eda reached into her hair and pulled out several cans of paint that she had grabbed while they sped through the human store. She just loved that humans also had one of her favorite tools for mischief and while it was a bit disappointing that she wasn’t going to be able to enchant it she could make sure Cammy could enjoy unleashing some frustration by causing some chaotic, liberating mischief.

“We might not have bought anything, toots; but we certainly didn’t leave with nothing!” Eda said while giving one of the cans a shake.

“EDA!!!” Camilla cried out before wincing as she remembered where they were. “DID you steal those?!?!” Camilla hissed out.

“I like to call it an anonymous donation to a good cause, babe. After all, if we bought them then there would be a trail for the Cov-*cough* Poe-lice to follow. This way the store owners get to help a good cause and no one will be able to track it back to us. NOW!!” Eda ripped the top off one of the cans as she cried out and then handed it over to Cammy who was looking torn between being nervous and intrigued as the can was passed to her. “What do you wanna write first?” Eda asked with a diabolical grin.

Camilla kept her torn look for a long moment. Long enough for Eda to wonder if she had pushed her new fling too far. Wonder if she had messed up again before being broken from the spiral she was descending into as Cammy seemed to come to a decision and with a determined face began spraying the side of the building. Eda looked on eagerly as she watched Cammy take her first steps into freedom. She was also happy that Isles Common and Human Common seemed to be the same. Even if she did find that rather odd especially considering how different the Old tongue was to Common in both spoken words and writing.

Eda lost her train of thought, however, as she saw Cammy had finished writing on the wall and stepped back so Eda could get a good look. Eda took a moment to read it. Then she read it again. Then she reacted.

“BWAHAHAH-snort-AHAHAHAHA!!!” Eda fell over from the force of her laughter. “P-po-Poo Poo HEADS!!! BWA-snort-HAHAHAHAHA!! That’s so dumb!”

Camilla blushed with embarrassment at Eda’s reaction to what she wrote. “Come on Eda! It’s not that funny! I…I just didn’t know what to write!”

“Heheh-snort-heh. Cammy! Baby!” Eda leaned over and wrapped an arm around Cammy and pressed a quick kiss against her cheek getting a nice blush from her. “You can write anything you want! For example, you said you don’t like these guys cause they say one thing and do another right? Well, that sounds like a liar to me! Write that! Call them out for everything you don’t like about them! Every disagreement however small! However petty!” Now Eda took Cammy and looked straight into her eyes. “Just let go and let the world know what you think without reservation or hangups.” Eda rested her head against Camilla’s after finishing. “ Do you think you can do that for me, babe? For yourself?”

Camilla leaned against Eda for a moment with her eyes closed. Just enjoying her presence before speaking again. “Si. Yo puedo.”

Eda might not have understood what Cammy was saying but she definitely understood the tone. So untangling herself from Cammy she stepped aside, eager to see what Cammy would do this time. She wasn’t disappointed.

“Liars”

“Hypocrites”

“Two faced bitches”

“Murderers”

“Cheap fuckers”

“Penny Pinchers”

“Animal Killers”

“Comemierdas”

“Cabrónes”

Eda beheld what she had unleashed on the world. And. It. Was. Glorious. While she didn’t understand the last few things that had been written, she loved the passion and energy Cammy gave off as she sprayed the side of the building. That kind of passion was just so beautiful…

Camilla took a moment to step back and look at her work. Which was Eda’s signal to go up to her and give a bit of praise. This was the human's first time being a rebel after all, and past experience had shown Eda people like Cammy needed a bit of support or affection after the adrenaline of just acting wore off in order to not start second-guessing themselves. So, before Cammy knew what was going on, Eda hugged her from behind and rested her chin on Cammy’s shoulder.

“It's beautiful, babe. How do you feel now that you expressed yourself a bit? Do ya feel lighter? Happier? A bit more free?”

Camilla hesitated for a moment before responding. “I feel… bad. Not like I regret what I did bad but…”

Eda could feel the proud smile come across her face. “Oh, I know what you mean girl. You mean the sexy kind of bad. You're the top witch! You're the best and everyone else better get out of your way!” Now Eda gestured to herself and said “Like me”

Camila laughed softly before a curious expression crossed her face. “You mean top bitch right?”

“Eh?” Eda startled for a moment.

Camilla laughed a bit more. “I think the alcohol got you a bit. You said top witch instead of top bitch.” Eda looked confused for a moment but suppressed a flash of worry as she realized she almost outed herself.

“Yeah, that’s what I meant Cammy. Leader of the pack and all that. Though I gotta ask. Why did you use bitches as an insult? It’s just a female dog?” Camilla looked at her oddly for a moment before a sly smile took hold.

“How a woman like you got through her entire life without knowing that calling someone a bitch is an insult I’ll never know. But don’t worry, I know you didn’t mean it as one. It can be used like that too. Now. I think it’s your turn right?”

Eda spent a moment trying to understand why bitch was an insult before shrugging it off as a weird human thing and moving on. “Right you are Cammy. It is my turn. Time to watch the master at work.”

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Eda sulked a bit as she walked away from the building arm in arm with Cammy who was laughing at her. “Oh, come on, Eda! It wasn’t that juvenile. It definitely didn’t look like something a teenager would spray paint.” Cammy couldn’t help but laugh a bit after saying that. After all it actually kind of had been. “The Hoot’s were nice though. Unique even. Can’t say I’ve ever seen someone tag that before. Heheh”

Eda grumbled as her girlfriend made fun of her. It wasn’t her fault she hadn’t graffitied anything since Faust kicked her out of school!

…Okay maybe it was. But it would have been so much better if she could have enchanted the paint like she did back on the Isles. Then it would have changed and been insulting to everyone that worked there forever! Though she did manage to sneak a spell circle behind Cammy’s back. That paint wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

Eda looked back at their work and was satisfied. Those PETA people were going to have a wonderful surprise when they came into work in the morning. One that would only go away if they literally tore down the building. Even if she did still wonder about the name. It almost sounded like one of Raine's weird acronyms. Oh well.

With that out of her mind, Eda focused back on her girlfriend, not even noticing that for the first time since they broke up, she had thought of her ex without feeling any pain.

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A few days later Eda met up with Cammy again for a “movie” that Cammy had invited her to watch at her apartment. Eda however had a slightly different idea of what they could do while they were snuggled against each other in a dark room and a racy crystal play was showing on the human “TV”…

“Eda…”

“Hmmm?” She asked with fake innocence.

“I invited you to see a movie.” Camila replied with the cutest pout.

“Yeah?” Eda replied. “We’re doing that, aren't we?”

“Well, excuse me f-for thinking you…Santa Madre de Dios…” Eda liked that foreign language that Camila spoke, it was kinda weird but also oddly sexy, “are not paying attention with your lips buried in my neck-”

“Oh, c'mon, it's their fault for getting me all heated up.” She laughed against the other woman's neck as she gestured at the movie. “They’re really going at it ya know?”

Was it necessary to have a montage of the main couple kissing so passionately in the movie? No. Did Edalyn appreciate the chance it gave her? Titan, yes!

“It's almost over…”

“Oh, so you want me to stop?” She asked after another gentle kiss, her hand resting on one of her girlfriend's thighs, squeezing it teasingly. “I have no problem with that…Cammie-buns.”

The nickname was completely cheesy, but with Eda’s nails scratching up and down her upper thigh, Camila had more pressing issues to focus on. For example, not moaning like a teenage girl.

There was no reply, so Eda assumed she was free to continue her assault. Humans had fangs, but compared to Witches, they were about as intimidating as baby fangs, something Eda assumed was just another side effect of not evolving from a giant corpse.

But it wasn't like Camila particularly worried about it. She’d shown she enjoyed them that first night and morning and every time since.

“Ah~!” For Camila, Eda’s fangs weren’t intimidating. On the contrary, she found Eda’s fangs to be one of the sexiest things about her.

A fact that she made the mistake of letting Eda know.

In no time, Camila was laying on her back against the couch, and Eda was proudly observing the bite marks along her girl's neck.

“Fuck, you are so sexy, Cammy.” She meant every word. Their bodies, personalities, and tastes couldn't be more different, but that was what she found so hot about being with her.

Where she was tall, slim, and wild; Camila was short, soft, and caring. Eda took a great deal of pride in her face, but the best parts of Cammy were on her rear and front, both parts equally exquisite.

“Charmer.” Cammy laughed off at her remark. “But are you sure you've had enough of just kissing?”

“Not a chance, girlfriend.” Eda replied with a husky voice, leaning down just enough for their lips to be a breath away from each other. “But, why don't you say how much you want it too, huh? There's nothing hotter than consent, right?”

It took no time for her to feel two arms wrapping around her neck, bringing her even closer.

“I want you.” Camila moaned, licking her lips. “Your lips on mine, your tongue in my mouth, your hands exploring every single inch of my exposed skin, all while you devour me with those downright beautiful golden eyes…Eda.”

She had no idea how her name was the thing that Camila had to use to seal the deal for her, but it did, and she launched forward claiming her prize, both of them smiling with tender passion as they enjoyed each other throughout the night.

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The last month has been one of the best Eda had had in a long time.

A new girlfriend that wouldn’t try to cash in on her bounty, spending enough time in the Human Realm that she didn’t have to worry about coven guards or bounty hunters, she was stocked up on her elixir and she hadn’t had a flareup at all in the last month.

This might actually be one of the best months she's had in her whole adult life. Or, at the very least it felt like it.

A month of no stress and as close to just pure happiness as she could get. Hell, she didn’t even need to work much because she was spending so much time with humans and using some of their money she made using some abomination goo and paper. It was great!

…But there was just one thing missing. Something she wanted to share with Cammy. But Titan if it wasn’t nearly impossible! Human’s had apple juice, apple cider and something called sparkling apple cider. BUT. NO. APPLE BLOOD!!! How did they even function as a society?!?

“Eda are you alright? You’ve been pouring over the shelves for ten minutes and you look like you're getting agitated.” Cammy said as she looked over at the section of the liquor store Eda was in.

“How can this place have this much alcohol, Cammy, but not have my favorite?! Look at this place! There's more types of alcohol here then I knew existed but somehow they don’t have the best kind! Not a drop of Apple Blood!” Eda exclaimed, less than pleased.

“Apple Blood? Hell’s Apple Blood? I know damn near every type of wine, liqueur, hooch, booze and I’ve never heard of Apple Blood, lady. Hell it sounds like a mixed drink.” Eda heard from the man behind the register.

“Mixed drink! MIXED DRIN-...I know what I must do.” Camilla watched as Eda went from outrage to serenity and then to frantic action. She watched amused as Eda grabbed every type of apple flavored alcohol in the store along with some bitters and various fruit juices before slamming them on the counter and paying for them all. “If I gotta mix drinks to get mix drinks to introduce my girl to Apple Blood, or at least as close as I can get, then so be it! To your place Cammy! Quickly!” With that Eda ran out the door.

Camilla just giggled and shook her head with a smile before realizing what Eda just said and quickly looked over at the store’s owner who now had a much more disgruntled look on his face. “You two are lesb- you know what. Your paying customers. You’ve paid. I’d planned on asking you to come back and tell me how whatever she’s making tastes but I don’t want people thinking I support what you have going on by being to friendly. You can buy what you want from me without issue but don’t hang around while you do. Now get out of my store.”

Camilla flinched for a moment before just nodding and quickly leaving.

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Eda rushed throwing drinks together after yet another failure at recreating some approximation of Apple Blood. She managed to narrow down the liqueur to the apple vodka along with bitters but she still had several fruit juices to try. This time she tried the blueberry juice thinking-hoping it would work.

Looking down at her creation it definitely didn’t have the right color, being blue and all, but she’d be satisfied so long as it tasted right. Taking a sip, she gagged and poured the rest out before crossing her arms frustrated at her continued failures. Taking a moment she glanced over at Camilla who was alternating between reading a book and watching Eda’s struggles amused.

“Maybe it’s time for a break, Nena. I can see how frustrated you’re getting. Also that’s a lot of alcohol you’ve had. Which probably hasn’t been helping.”

Eda just gave a grunt as she rinsed out the mixer again before pausing for a moment. “Nayna…that’s babe, right? Or am I mixing it up with another one?” Eda asked before pouring in more apple vodka and pursuing the fruit juices again before settling on cranberry. She’s not sure what a cranberry is but might as well try it.

“Nena, Eda. Ne-Na. But yes. Nena means babe, Bella.” Camilla said with a smile as tested out yet another nickname for Eda.

“Ugghhhh Cammyyyyy, come on just settle on one, would ya? I have no idea what that one even means!” Eda whined before adding the bitters to the vodka and then took a moment to pout at Cammy. “At least tell me the translation for dummies, ok? It’ll bother me if you don’t.”

Camilla laughed before responding. “It means gorgeous. Just like you.” Camilla said with a wink getting a blush from her girlfriend.

“Oh, aren't you just a smooth talker Cammy-buns. Though such an eloquent gal will definitely settle on a nickname for me instead of changing it every five minutes. Unless it’s on purpose of course…”

Eda trailed off with a laugh before preparing to take a sip of her newest concoction. “You're making me feel like I settled on a name to qui-HMMMMM!!”

Eda cut herself off as what was meant to be a quick sip and toss, turned out to be much better than she was expecting.

“Hey! I think I’m getting pretty close! It’s just missing something….gimme a second imma rummage through your pantry.”

Eda began to rummage through Cammy’s pantry looking for something specific. She knew what taste she was looking for. She had added it to some of that cocoa stuff before she just needed to find i-There it was! Brown Sugar! Moving quickly Eda grabbed the package and brought it over to her mixer and added some to the drink before shaking it up.

“Moment of truth time. I think I really got it this time.” Eda raised the drink to her lips and took a sip and then a large gulp before slamming the contents completely. “Hah! I got it! Apple Vodka, Bitters, Cranberry juice, and Brown sugar! I mean it’s not quite right but this is as good a substitute as any!” Eda quickly mixed up another before putting it in a cup for Cammy and handing it over to her. “Try it, try it, try it!” Eda said rapidly.

Camilla put aside her book and took the cup before giving it a taste. In no time, her eyes were widening and found herself taking more and more of the nectar inside her mouth. “HMMMM! Eda, this is great!”

Eda did a small jig as she successfully converted her girlfriend to the wonders of Apple Blood. Camilla watched on as Eda’s eyes shined with joy at her success before something clicked in her mind. “I’m happy for you, Luz. You tried hard and you succeeded. It tastes a lot better than I thought it would!”

Eda beamed in pride before realizing what Cammy said.

“Another nickname, Cammy-buns? What’s this one mean?” She asked, unable to bring herself to be angry with Camila's inability to just stick with one pet name. It was almost endearing, in its own way.

Camilla nodded with a smile across her lips, taking another sip of the drink.

“The final one, I think. It means light. Your eyes are so beautiful when you're happy. They light up so enthrallingly. So, Luz, because you’ve definitely lit up my life by being part of it. I know, I know, cheesy, but that's me, alright?”

In the end, all Eda could do was blush before moving over to sit with Cammy as they leaned against each other and enjoyed the kind of domestic moment that would have normally made Eda run for the hills.

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POV: Camilla

Gravesfield's one and only brewhouse was the scenery of your and Eda's latest date. Eda was talking about the steak she was having versus one she made from a deer she had hunted a few years ago before moving on to another subject as you just listened while enjoying your food and the sound of your Luz’s voice. Slowly, however, you started thinking back on how your relationship with her had developed.

It was almost shocking how quickly your relationship had evolved over the last month and a half. At first, it was completely passionate and you rarely spent a moment of your time together, not in some form of passionate embrace or another repeat of the morning after Eda stayed the night and you talked and had breakfast together.

Then…things started to change after you went to that club and wound up leaving to instead graffiti the PETA building.

You started having dates that were more than just shallow excuses to sleep together in new and exciting places. You started to just…enjoy each other's company. While the passion was still very much there, romance had also begun to make its way into things and before you knew it, you both had passed some kind of threshold. As corny as it sounded even in your own head, you and Eda had stopped just fucking started making love instead.

That’s not to say you didn’t still have wild nights. Eda had talked you into some fairly scandalous things. From having sex in public places while hoping you wouldn’t be caught, to defacing property of people you didn’t like and even breaking and entering to set all the animals in the PETA shelter that were still alive free. Your Luz just brought out the wild side of you and you liked that. You liked that a lot. And yet….it was the softer moments that really made you happy. The two of you enjoying her mixed drink just leaning against each other which led to the first time you had shared a bed without going beyond that. Just sleeping whilst clinging to each other contently.

Your thoughts were interrupted however as someone came up to your table leaned on the middle of it and blocked your view of Eda.

“Marliyln! How are you, babe?! You never gave me a call after our night together.” Ugh. On one hand, knowing Eda, you had figured you would run into one of her ex’s at some point, but not quite like this. Hopefully, you could make him go away.

“Excuse me. We were eating here.” You said slightly annoyed.

The man just gave you a dirty look before turning back to Eda, who was looking at him like he was some kind of odd animal. “Do I know you?” Eda said, sounding genuinely perplexed but also slightly annoyed. “I’m kinda eating dinner here and I wasn’t looking for any interruptions.”

You couldn’t help but laugh at the look on his face, which seemed to earn a snort from Eda as well as a few chuckles from surrounding tables at how shocked he looked.

He took the laugh from you fairly poorly however and quickly turned back to you. “What are you laughing at, rag head?! Why don’t you go back to the desert and stop hogging Marilyn’s time! I bet you did something to make her forget me!” The man shouted at you and grabbed your arm in an overly tight grip that wiped away any amusement you were feeling and replaced it with some amount of pain.

All other noise in the restaurant stopped as everyone turned towards your table after the cabrón's outburst. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were still very much in everyone's minds. You had brothers that served in both and one that never came back home. But idiotas like him only saw the color of your skin. Thankfully for all that he was an idiot there was at least one thing that he would recognize. After all, what American didn’t recognize Spanish?

“Yo soy Latino-Americana, maldito mamaguuevo hijo de las remilputas! Si me vuelves a siquiera a habla' te saco las malditas bolas con un tenedor oxidado, me oíste, caraculo?!"

You enjoyed the laughs from people around her, the far stronger laughs from the few people in the room that seemed to know enough Spanish to know what she and the poleaxed look on the bastard's face for the moment it was there before it twisted into something darker as he started squeezing your arm even harder making you gasp a bit in pain.

“Oh, so you're a damn wetback. Go back to your side of the border, you donkey fuc-” He stopped suddenly as you noticed Eda had her hand on his shoulder with a blank look on her face.

He turned back to her just in time for Eda’s fist to hit his nose and knock him to the floor.

The man started screaming as blood gushed from his likely broken nose while other people in the brewhouse were either cheering or making their children look away. The waitstaff also seemed to be making their way over now. “Ya know I think I do remember you now. First time I came to this town, right after the worst breakup of my life. I was looking for any kind of distraction and you were literally the first person I ran into. Turned into the shortest damn thirty seconds of my life before you flopped on your back as if you had anything to be proud of. Ugh.”

You found yourself laughing again as Eda tore the man’s ego to shreds to both your and the rest of the brewhouse's amusement. Though as you looked at Eda, you wondered for a moment what was going on with her ears.

She normally kept them covered by her hair especially when you were in town but more often lately when in your apartment, she let her guard down and occasionally she put her hair behind her ears in an unconscious movement. You guessed she didn’t want anyone making remarks on her oddly shaped ears, but you’d noticed that sometimes her ears moved in combination with her reactions to things. Somewhat like a cat. With how the parts of her hair hiding her ears were currently bulging you couldn’t help but think that if you could see her ears they would be pressed against the sides of her head in anger.

The wait staff had finally arrived to drag the man out, but Eda waved them off saying that she would do it. This only started because of her good looks, after all, she said. This earned another small wave of laughs before people finally began to turn back to their food and Eda began to drag the man out of the building.

“Ah, miss.” A man in a black shirt said to you. “I’m the manager of this shift and I just wanted to apologize for this disruption to your meal. As such we’ll be compensating you for the whole meal including some dessert if you’d like.”

“Oh gracias, but no. I think we’ll just leave for now. I hope the rest of your night is more peaceful.” You say as you get up and leave to follow your Luz. She was going to enjoy herself once you got her back to your apartment. You’d never had a date defend you like this before. Apparently, it really got you going.

You got outside and looked around for Eda before hearing an odd noise in the alley between the brewhouse and the building next door. As you got closer you were able to just make out Eda talking. “-nm lucky we're not where I’m from or I’d do something a lot more permanent to you, understand? If you ever so much as say a word to me or Cammy after tonight I’ll be forced to forget this isn’t back home and they’ll never find your body, understand? I’ve sent people to the Titan for a lot less than hurting someone I care for. I promise you if she has a mark on her tomorrow, I will hunt you down. Tell me you understand. Now!”

“I understand, I understand! Just please don’t kill me or curse me or something!”

“Good. Now you're going to apologize to Cammy and then you're going to run, got it?”

*crack*

“Agghhh!! Yes, yes I got it!”

You watched as Eda dragged the man out of the alley, seemingly not surprised to see you right outside the alley. Though for a moment before you blinked you could have sworn her eyes were all black like a demon from that Supernatural show that started recently. The man was also cradling his arm in a way that made you think it was broken now. Then Eda grabbed the back of his head and made him look at you. “Now I think this lowlife had something he wanted to say to you Cammy. Well?” Eda looked at the man with a threatening look on her face.

“I’b I’b sowwy.” The man whimpered out. “I’b newer mwess with wu again. I pwomise!”

Eda nodded and then threw him forward. “Good enough. Now get out of here.”

You watched as the man ran away bawling in pain and fear, until he disappeared from sight, then, you turned back to Eda and looked at her for a moment. A moment that dragged on long enough that Eda seemed to fidget and start to look worried before you walked up to her and stood very closely in front of her.

As she opened her mouth to speak you grabbed the back of her head and started kissing her while your other arm reached around to grab her ass. Eda started in surprise for a moment before melting into your arms. Which as you distractedly thought was the opposite of how things normally went. After what felt like hours you reluctantly separated from her and gave her your best seductive look. “When we get back to my place I’m going to rock your world Mi Amor. Mi Luz. No one’s ever defended me like that and I’m going to reward you for it.”

Eda had a drunk look for a moment before just nodding. “Whatever you say, Cammy-buns. Whatever you say. Ah! Back there in the alley what I was saying to that guy-”

You interrupted Eda here. “It’s fine Eda. Threatening lowlifes like him is how to get them to back off. Breaking his arm to make sure he believed you might have been a bit much but he probably actually believed you would kill him after that. Good thing he’s the dumb sort or even then he probably wouldn’t have believed you.”

Eda gave you an odd look before a look of dawning realization came over her and she let out a slightly awkward-sounding laugh as you said that. Likely hoping you wouldn’t notice she had broken his arm. “Yeah. Just a threat to put some fear in him. Was definitely just a bluff.” Eda said while looking off to the side. You shrugged it off before snuggling back into her side and starting the walk back to your apartment enjoying as she relaxed and snuggled back into you.

Though for a moment before you turned your gaze back forward, you could have sworn she had an oddly complicated look on her face.

And in the back of your mind, you started wondering about some the…odd features your girlfriend had. Ones that subconsciously you didn't quite register as human…

-------------------------------------------------------------🦉----------------------------------------------------------

Foxwoods Mashantucket, CT

Eda both was and wasn’t looking forward to this. On one hand, a place where she was basically expected to be scammed out of her money was a place she could in turn scam out of their money all while looking awesome. On the other hand this was probably the last big outing she had with Cammy before she went back to school and their time together ended. Eda chose not to focus on that part though, cause tonight was for fun, drinking and gambling!

“Ya know, Cammy-buns? Of all the places I thought you might bring me, I gotta say this place seems great! They’ll try to scam me out of my money while I try to scam them out of their money in return! This is gonna be amazing no matter who scams who!”

Eda could see Cammy just smiling at her fondly while giving her an amused shake of her head. “Oh, Mi Luz, most people don’t think about casinos that way. They just focus on the money they can win instead of the money they can lose. Most people find it easier that way.”

Eda snorted after hearing that. “Well, that’s just dumb. Being blind to danger is just helping whatever or whoever's trying to kill you. Ya gotta stare danger in the face so you can either avoid it or go after it head-on. Any other way of living is just asking for a quick end.”

Eda watched Cammy shake her head, still smiling but a bit more somberly. “That’s just how people are, Mi Luz. Preferring a comfortable lie to a harsh truth, especially if you’ve lived with it for a long time. If you believe the lie, then you can ignore things that might otherwise hurt you, because the lie is that it’s good for you. Avoiding the pain of loss because you're told that it’s not really gone, it's just away for a while. Telling yourself that something will last forever so you can ignore that eventually it will end. Those kinds of sweet lies are what people tell themselves to get through life. And when it’s a lie that you’ve spent most of your life living and even thought was true? You don’t want anyone telling you it’s not the truth.” Camilla shrugged here. “It’s not really a good thing I’d say but it’s an understandable one.” Cammy’s voice grew softer as she spoke before trailing off at the end.

Eda looked at Cammy aghast. That kind of way of living wasn’t something she could do. Ever. But at the same time…it did make an odd bit of sense if you replaced a lie you tell yourself with one you’ve been fed your whole life and applied to the coven system back in the Isles. No Witch or demon wanted to think there was anything wrong with the coven system because it meant having to face that they had been living a lie. Meant admitting they’d been teaching their children lies.

Then a thought occurred to Eda. That whole thing sounded a bit odd. Kinda like Cammy was…

“Were you just quoting that space thing you like so much? Cosmic Adventure or something like that?”

Cammy blustered for a moment as she tried to deny it but the embarrassed look on her face was all proof Eda needed to be certain, causing her to give off a quick laugh.

Eda then shook her head to banish the disquieting conversation to the back of her mind and changed the subject. “Heh, let's get moving on to a subject that doesn’t sound so depressing. Are we going into this place or what Cammy-buns? It’s time to have some fun! Time to take this place for all it’s worth!”

Camilla shook her head before beaming at Eda. “Let's!”

-------------------------------------------------------------🦉----------------------------------------------------------

Eda was having a blast!

Cammy and her had been going around drifting from table to table focused more on having fun then anything else. Eda had even found a game that she had been sure was the human version of Hexes hold 'em but dear titan it hadn’t even been close. She had lost a decent amount of money at that before she gave up and accepted it was nothing like her favorite card game back home.

Now, however, they had moved on to what was probably going to be their last game for the night before eating and going for drinks. Some odd game of chance the humans called roulette or as liked to call it after seeing it “try to guess where the ball lands while the guy who rolls it manipulates the whole thing to keep people from winning”. All in all her kind of rigged game. At least if she were the one rigging it.

So far, Eda thought she was winning pretty decently, at least as far as human money was concerned. $30,000 at least seemed like a lot and had Cammy clinging to her in both anxiety and excitement. Eda was actually feeling the excitement herself which was when she made a mistake and bet nearly all of her winnings on black. She didn’t notice the guy who spun the wheel and the ball touched an odd part of the frame until it was too late and the ball stopped on the red one. Everyone at the table groaned and Eda could feel Cammy’s disappointment at the loss.

Cammy seemed to perk back up fairly quickly though and she turned her head away from the board and towards Eda. “We should probably stop now, Mi Luz. Four grand is still more than we started with tonight combined.”

Eda shook her head. “Nah Cammy-buns I think I got one more roll left in me.” Eda then took what was left of her money, $4320, and addressed the guy working the table. “Alrighty, wise guy. I bet everything I got left on black two.” Eda’s words caused mixed reactions from the rest of the table. Most of the table seemed to think she was insane but one man seemed like he was going to go along with her even as the woman he was with seemed to be trying to convince him otherwise.

As she put all her money on the spot the man joined her with his smaller amount before looking at her. “I don’t know why, but for some reason, I think this will work. Or I hope so, because if it doesn’t my wife will literally kill me.” The man said to her with what Eda guessed was some regional accent. Maybe he was from the human equivalent of the Toes or something considering how different he sounded to most of the folk here.

Eda focused back on the guy rolling the ball and watched as he set it off this time, but when she noticed him moving it to manipulate the table again, she cast a quick spell circle under the table setting it to land how she wanted, no matter what the guy did. She held back her smile as she observed the Oh So Smug look on the guy's face and waited to see his reaction when she won.

She wasn’t disappointed. The look of shock on the guy's face when it landed on Black Two filled Eda with a special kind of joy, though she was quickly distracted as Cammy shrieked and grabbed onto her jumping up and down before pulling her into a kiss Eda was more than happy to return. After they pulled apart she saw all the disgruntled looks on people's faces at the money she had won and obviously at what Cammy had just done. Heh. Though the guy who bet with her was getting some attention from his wife who seemed just as excited as Cammy.

“Well I’d like to say it was a pleasure ball guy but I think it’s time for me to cash out and go have dinner. Byyyyeeee~!” With that, Eda grabbed her chips and Cammy and walked away from the table.

Shortly after however the man who bet with her caught up to them. “I knew betting with you was a good idea! We got 45 thousand dollars! This will let us pay off the loan for our restaurant!”

Eda let herself smile. She might not know either of these humans but someone getting out of debt was always a good thing. "Well, maybe I’ll get to visit someday. Where is it?”

The man's face lit up as he responded. “Our restaurant is in Los Angeles over on the west coast. Oh! I just realized I didn’t introduce myself. My name is Veera Boonchuy and this is my wife Boonsri. Our restaurant is called Thai Go. Your meals are on us if you ever come visit!” Veera looked like he was going to say something else but his wife grabbed him and interrupted.

“Come on, Veera, we're going to our room. You’ve definitely earned a reward, dear.” At that Veera’s face lit up and the couple quickly went over and cashed out before returning to their room.

Laughing at the sight Eda and Cammy went over and cashed out as well. The woman behind the counter looked unhappy at the amount of money she was giving. “Here is your $151,200 hundred dollars Ma’am. Are you interested in upgrading your room tonight? One of our penthouse suits is currently available.” Eda scoffed at the blatant attempt at getting some of the money back. “Nah, I think we’re good. Matter of fact…” Eda turned towards Cammy.

“Babe, what do you say we just leave and hit up a bar or two that won’t price gouge us to get their money back?” Cammy laughed before responding.

“That sounds wonderful Eda. The drive isn’t even that long so we should have plenty of time to spend out on the town.” Saying that Cammy linked arms, with Eda taking the bag with their winnings on her other shoulder and walking out, completely ignoring the casino’s workers who tried to get them to stay and spend some of their winnings in the casino.

-------------------------------------------------------------🦉----------------------------------------------------------
“Chug! Chug! Chug! Chug!” The constant chanting surrounded Eda and Cammy as they slammed their beers-well if you could call the colored water she was served beer. It barely had any alcohol at all and it tasted horrible! And not in a good way! As the bar erupted into cheers as Cammy and her mugs smacked back down onto the bar Eda took out some money and threw it at the barkeep. “Eh, keep the change. Let’s go Cammy on to the next bar. Starting to get a bit bored of this one.”

Cammy shrugged seemingly unbothered by Eda’s decision for them to leave and after leaving the bar turned to her. “It’s was weak beer, isn’t it?”

Eda felt relieved to hear Cammy say that. “So it wasn’t just me? Titan, I was thinking that's just what beer was like for huu-here. What beer is like here.” Eda said as she covered up her little slip-up. No need to complicate things by opening the different species. “Don’t suppose you know a good place with something stronger?”

Cammy smiled mischievously. “Oh, I might know a few places. We can even save the best for last. You might remember it. It was the place we met, even if we don’t remember much of it, and with how tonight seems to be heading, we won’t remember much of this time either. Why, we’ll probably end up just like last time as well…”

It took a moment for Cammy’s meaning to work it’s way through her head but she started grinning like that coven lieutenant Wrath when she saw him once with his wife. Wide and toothy. “Oh, Cammy. You always know just what to say to get me going.”

Cammy put her finger on Eda’s collarbone and let it slowly slide down between her breasts. “Oh, Mi Luz, ask anyone in this country and they’ll all say the same thing. Getting you going is what Latina’s like me specialize in. Makes all the other women jealous.” Cammy said with a wink before taking her hand away and walking off a pronounced shaking of her hips that made Eda’s mouth go dry on top of the rampant blush Cammy had caused. Eda started at Cammy's rear transfixed before jolting back to awareness after Cammy called her name in a teasing tone looking back at her with a satisfied smile. “Are you just going to watch me walk away or are you going to join me Mi Luz? I would be so lonely if you just stayed back there and I had to find someone else to drink with~”

That got Eda to run forwards to chase after Cammy though a thought crossed her mind as she did. “This woman is going to be the death of me but damn what a great way to go.”

Mate!
-------------------------------------------------------------🦉----------------------------------------------------------

Eda slammed back her drink as Cammy kissed the side of her neck. Once she was finished, she slid it down the bar to join with the rest of their emptied shot glasses and then reached out to grab the last of those they had already ordered and prepared to slam that one as well before a fun idea crossed her mind.

With a smirk and ignoring Cammy's complaints about stealing the last drink, Eda slammed the drink but kept some of the contents in her mouth before leaning over to Cammy who quickly realized what she was doing. “Eda no, Eda wait, wait, wait, wai-” Eda cut her off as she slammed their mouths together sharing the last of the liqueur with her. Cammy resisted for a moment before Eda could feel her shrug and open her mouth to take the drink. Which quickly just turned into a deep kiss that quickly had both of their hands searching for more before Eda managed to get the presence of mind to break the kiss and get them out of the bar and into a nearby alley, right before they were lost in a haze of alcohol and arousal.

Mate!! Ours!

-------------------------------------------------------------🦉----------------------------------------------------------

At some point, they had gotten to one of the most raucous bars Eda had been to in her life. Which had led to some delightful ideas that Cammy had proven just as eager to do.

That was how Eda found herself taking a shot from Cammy’s belly button before lying back on the couch nearby so Cammy could take her own turn. Eda could barely believe humans could be so wild after how squeamish they were about so many things, but any race that spawned her Cammy-buns couldn’t be at least a bit wild.

Eda watched Cammy grab the bottle of alcohol and walk over to Eda before a devious smile crossed her face and she stepped over to Eda’s chest before turning around and sitting on Eda’s upper chest blocking Eda’s view of anything but her rear. Eda alternated between snorts and giggles at what her girlfriend had done.

Mate! Owlets!!

“Yeah…” Eda thought. “Any witchlet Ived with Cammy would be so beautiful….” Eda startled out of her haze as she felt the alcohol fill her belly button and Cammy leaned in to drink it pressing her rear into Eda’s face. Thoroughly distracting Eda from her previous thoughts though the idea found itself lodged in her mind…

Ours!!

-------------------------------------------------------------🦉----------------------------------------------------------
Owlets!!

Eda could barely walk as she swayed, holding on to Cammy for support as they left the same bar they had met at. They hadn’t stayed long, just enough to get even more drinks in, but they were now stumbling back to Cammy’s apartment while singing some human song. Eda could barely think with her mind soaked in alcohol just aware enough as thoughts that weren’t quite hers mixed in leading to her blurting out a question. Mate!!

“Wha…do ya think our kidz would look 'ike Cammy-buns? Cause I..”Eda stumbled for as Cammy tripped moments before picking them both backup. “Cuz– I think they’d ge the prettiest lil' witchlets to ever exist!” Eda held Cammy tight as they started to walk forward again.

Cammy giggled drunkenly, not even noticing Eda’s odd words as she imagined what children that were half her and half Eda would look like. “Dhey..hey?…They! They 'ould! If they had my face and your preeety~ eyez dhey would be the most beautiful children in the world!”

“In two worlds!” Eda chimed back not even realizing what she was saying. “In any world!” Cammy responded. Her mind drifting towards Cosmic Frontier with herself as the brave human adventurer and Eda as the pretty alien she meets and falls in love with while looking for a way home. Their only sorrow is that their separate species prevented them from having children. “Ah..ah wish I could have your kids, Mi Luz. But it’s impossible. We’re both women.”

Owlets! Mate!! Owlets!!!

Eda felt her heart jerk and for a moment her drunken haze lifted as she processed what Cammy said and felt the evolving affection she had for her evolve even further before her mind became muddled again.

Owlets! Mate!! Owlets!!!

The two found their way back to Cammy’s house before stumbling in and falling onto each other as they moved to Cammy’s bedroom. Leaving a trail of clothes behind.

Owlets! Owlets! Owlets! Owlets!

Lost in the moment, thoroughly intoxicated and feeling a longing she had never felt before Eda never even noticed as her finger formed a spell circle.

-------------------------------------------------------------🦉----------------------------------------------------------

As a sleeping Eda and Cammy clung to each other an odd feeling of fulfillment filled them both, invading their dreams with images of a happy family.

Owlets! Yes!!

-------------------------------------------------------------🦉----------------------------------------------------------
Eda knew that she was just delaying the inevitable at this point. She’d even say she was being a bit clingy if Cammy wasn’t acting just as reluctant to let her go, but…it was time. Camilla went back to school next week and though she had managed to get most of what she needed this last week she still needed to get herself back into the right frame of mind to focus on school. This weekend would be that time for her and it was already friday evening. The problem was that Eda didn’t want to leave and Cammy didn’t want her to either. But if there was one lesson that being an adult taught it was that sometimes you had to do things that you didn’t want to do.

Cammy had her whole future set on what she was going to school for. It was something she wanted to do with her life and Eda refused to get in the way of that no matter how tempted she was to grab Cammy and run away with her to the isles, burning the door behind her. But Eda cared for Cammy too much to take her dreams away from her and Cammy had too much self-respect to throw those dreams away for a relationship that only lasted for two months. It was one of the things Eda loved about her-

“Oh” Eda thought. “Well fuck. What was that human saying again? If you love something let it go? Titan, I thought that was dumb when I read it out of that book. Even burned it cause I figured it wouldn’t sell. Doesn’t seem so dumb now.” Eda reeled for a moment as she came to terms with how her feelings for Cammy had evolved before she shook her head and braced herself. It was time to stop dragging this out.

“So. It’s uh getting kinda late.” Eda cringed on the inside. That was the best she could do after convincing herself to stop dragging things out?!?

“Yeah, I guess it is…” Cammy replied with a sad tone. Eda felt herself wilt a bit at her girlfriend's tone. Titan, she hated that she was making her sad but dammit they had both agreed on how this would go! Cammy had to go back to school and Eda had to figure out what to do with herself on her own again. Unless you counted Hooty or Owlbert but one was her beloved Palisman and the other was….Hooty. Damn, House Demon still freaked her out even after she linked her soul to the damn thing. Though….he actually got creepier after bonding with her, and she didn't know if she liked what that might say about her. Eda shook her head to get herself back on track.

“Come on Cammy-buns. It’s that time. You gotta focus on school without me distracting you and, honestly, there are a few projects I can think of that I should probably work on back home. After how the last two months have gone, I think we can both safely say that I’d definitely distract you from your schoolwork.” Eda was somewhat proud of herself for actually talking about school without any distaste.
 
She hadn’t managed that in years. She hadn’t been able to manage it a few moments ago when she just thought about Cammy-buns going back to school! Ugh. She was becoming more mature. She would have to blast some coven scouts with paint spells to balance things out.

Cammy gave off a soft laugh. “You're right. You would definitely distract me from my classes. Dios, when we’re together it’s like you become my entire world Mi Luz. You make me feel so wild and free. It’s something I love about you.” Cammy froze for a moment as she realized what she said. Eda felt her heart soar before she forced it back down. After a moment Cammy relaxed a bit though the sadness she had been projecting before seemed a bit stronger. Cammy changed the subject in a bid to draw things out a little bit longer. “You know your money back from the casino is till on my bedroom floor.”

Eda had honestly forgotten about that money. It was human realm money, so she didn’t much care about it. She’d even forged someone else’s signature when she claimed it. Though now that she remembered it….she had an idea to wrap things up on a good note.

Who could have guessed that the signature she used would be so useful? “Well, here’s the thing about that money, Cammy-buns. That money. I’d have to pay taxes on it, wouldn’t I?

“Taxes? Uh, Si. You would. It’s the law I’m afraid. I think it’s twenty-four percent?” Cammy replied slightly confused.

Eda felt aghast for a moment. Twenty-four percent?!? That was robbery! Oh, well, not like she would be paying it. Eda focused back on her plan. “Wow. That’s a lot of taxes Cammy-buns and well…..I’m not much one for paying taxes ya know?” At this Eda stood up while Camilla looked confused about where Eda was going with this. “So why don’t you keep the money? Consider it a parting gift!”

Eda leaned over and gave Camilla one last kiss on the lips that lingered for several moments before she separated from her and started throwing her boots on.

Cammy took a moment to recollect herself after the kiss but when she did she was ruled by shock. “Eda!! I can’t take your money! It’s just so much! Also, you were the one who signed for it! I can’t claim it!”

Eda laughed loudly as she pulled her other boot on. “Oh, Cammy-buns as far as anyone is concerned YOU won that money. After all, I forged your signature when I claimed it.”

“Eda!” Camilla shouted in shock. “You can’t just give me this money, this could change your life! …And since when can you forge my signature?!?”

“Oh like, a month after we started dating? Did pretty well on my first try, I’d say. I mean you say that I can’t give it to you but I’m pretty sure that will cover those student loan things you talked about and maybe a bit more. So you’ll be debt free and have some money to treat yourself! Pretty life-changing I’d say!” Eda called back as she rushed over to the door of Cammy’s apartment while giggling at Cammy’s reaction.

“Eda! I can’t let you just give me this money! Also, what did you use my signature for? I know it wasn’t just the money!” Camilla was now getting caught up in Eda’s energy and was starting to laugh despite herself.

“Oh, you know when you gave me your card to sign for pizza while you stayed in bed? Used it for that.” Eda had the door open now and looked back at Cammy who was starting to make her way after her.
“A-ny-way! the money’s yours. Have fun at school, I know you’ll do great, I have your home phone number and I’ll be back in a year when you’ve paid the taxes on the money and can’t say it isn’t yours anymore! Love you babe!! Byyyeeeeee!!!’

With that, Eda darted out of Cammy’s apartment over to the stairs where she rode the rail down.

As she approached the bottom she spoke out again. “Alrighty buddy, time to fly.” As she said that a small shape wiggled out of her hair.

“Hoot” Owlbert intoned excitedly. As Eda reached the bottom she got her feet under her and jumped off the rail with her arm outstretched. Owlbert quickly shifted and Eda grabbed her staff out of the air and mounted it in the air before zooming off unseen.

“Alrighty! Boiling Isles you’ve had a bit of a break these last few months but now Mama is back in business! The Potion Coven is going to scream for mercy after I’m done invading their markets. The witches of Bonesborough will be scammed like never before as I sell them human cast offs! The Emperor's Coven will be humiliated! I'll give Lily a bile attack from sheer rage! Hahahahahahaha!!”

Eda flew off into the sunset towards where the portal door’s anchor waited. She might have broken up with someone she loved again but this time there were no hurt feelings. Nothing to fret and go over, again and again, to find out what she did wrong or could have done better. This was the best possible end to two perfect months. Eda couldn’t wait for next year.

🦉Three Human Months Later…🦉

“Step right up, step right up! See this mysterious human puzzle that is mysteriously enchanted to cause frustration and rage in all but the wisest of those who attempt it! The first try is free but it’ll be ten snails a try afterwards and five hundred snails to buy outright to deny it to anyone else!” Eda called out as she presented a segmented cube covered in colored squares to the crowd of demons and witches passing by her stall in the market drawing a decent amount of attention. The first to actually approach her though was just the type she was hoping to get. A snob~

“Enchanted? Really? Everyone knows humans don’t have magic. There's no way it’s enchanted. It’s impossible.” The demon declared arrogantly. Giving Eda a sort of haughty snort of derision. It was all Eda could do not to show her fangs as he fell right into her trap.

‘Well then, sir why don’t you give it a try? After all…the first try is free.” Eda said as she handed the cube to him. The demon took it seemingly disgustedly to be touching what he considered little more than human garbage. A minute later he was fuming as he utterly failed to solve the puzzle. “Welp. time’s up I’m afraid. sir. I’ll be needing that back now.” As she spoke she snatched the puzzle out of the demon's hands as he fumed.

“Give it back! I almost had it damn you!” Eda only laughed. “Well sir if you wanted to try again it’s only ten snails after all. A paltry sum for such a rich looking demon I’m sure….” The demon scoffed. “Ten snails is a pittance! Now give it back! I’ll definitely solve it before the time expires again!”

Ten minutes and one hundred snails later the demon failed once again and gave out a violent cry of rage. “HOW. DO. I. KEEP. FAILING!!” The demon screamed out before suddenly freezing. “I…I don’t think I’ve ever been this frustrated and angry before. By the Titan it really is enchanted!! How much did you say it would be to buy it so no one else can have it?”

Eda smirked at the demon. “A thousand snails and the cube and its secrets are all yours.” Eda lied. “Sold!” Quickly pulling out the money he slammed it on Eda’s table and darted off with the cube not noticing the laughter coming from the crowd that had formed around him as they watched him get scammed. “Once I discover the secrets of human magic from this cube I’ll be rich beyond even my wildest dreams!! So long sucker!!”

Eda shook her head in amusement at how easy it was to scam that demon out of his snails. Human magic. Hah! It was just a rubix cube Cammy had shown her. Damn thing had frustrated her before Cammy had shown her the secret of solving it. Seeing that her crowd was beginning to break up in disappointment after the demon left with the cube she called out again while reaching under her table.

“Now I understand you might be feeling a bit disappointed, my fellow witches and dear demons, but fear not!” At that Eda slammed a box on top of her table and opened it up revealing the bounty within. Rubix cubes. With the reveal Eda’s crowd had its energy back though a few seemed just excited and not looking to buy. After all, five hundred snails was a lot of money. Thankfully Eda had an answer for that.

“Did you really think I’d sell the only one to some rich snob? Come get your human puzzle cubes! Two hundred snails a pop! Call it the common citizens discount!” With that the crowd started to surge forward with people clamoring and shoving against each other to be the first to buy one.”

All Eda could think was that she loved it when a scam came together as spells started to fly as her customers got ever more rowdy in their attempt to be the first to buy a cube. If Eda was lucky then one of them might die and she could see if their corpse was worth anything after looting their body! If not then so long as it wasn’t a witch's corpse then she might just have tonight's dinner! Win-Win!
Food?

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Closing up her stall after a long and successful rhythm of selling human leftovers and things she had stolen from department stores and those walmart places Eda now turned to the potions that needed delivering. She managed to really break into the common remedy market in Bonesborough and take it for herself. Her potions on average were better than the average potion made by coven witch scrubs. While it didn’t stop most witches or demons from doing their bulk buying from Coven sponsored brewers most of Bonesborough knew that if they wanted a good potion then they needed to come to Eda.

Eda wasn’t quite sure why demons and witches that had been brewing potions since before her mother was born hadn’t realized at some point that using spells to prepare all their ingredients and handle their potions was affecting the end result but nope. They kept contaminating the magic of their potions making them weaker while Eda did it by hand and made the same potions but better. And that was before she started experimenting to make them better by either altering recipes or using older ones she found in books that either dated to the beginning of Belos’s reign or predated it. That however was a whole can of worms Eda had no desire to think over.

In the end all that mattered was that Eda was raking in snails, the contacts her potion sales were making were opening up doors to request for even more valuable potion commissions, letting Eda slowly creep into the highest potion markets on the Isles instead of just the ones here in Bonesborough. That and also the requests that definitely came from criminals but who cared about that so long as they payed?

Oh and before she forgot…Eda took out the last of the rubix cubes and carefully switched the stickers on two of the squares. "Heh. Oh this will drive prissy Lily insane~" Eda put the sabotaged cube in a box before putting it aside to mail to her sister after her potion deliveries. A wonderful way to end the rhythm.

All in all everything was going Eda’s way. There was only one thing missing. Eda sighed as she took her potion sack and started making her way to her clients homes. She wondered how Cammy’s classes were going and if she missed Eda as much as Eda missed her.

Mate?

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Camilla sat in the doctor’s office thinking while waiting for the doctor to return with her results. So many things had changed these last few months. From meeting Eda, to dating her, to falling in love with her, to separating from her so she could focus on finishing school and then returning to school with a passion to do the best she could to make her and Eda breaking things off worth it.

…Though that wasn’t the only legacy of her time with Eda.

The money. The one hundred and fifty one thousand two hundred dollars. The money that Eda had won and had said was hers when she left. The money she still didn’t know what to do with. Sure she could pay off all her student loans with what was left after taxes and have enough left over for the downpayment on a house, but how could she? Camilla could accept that she had fallen in love with Eda. The woman had made her feel alive in ways she never had before. Gotten her to experience and do things that she would never have otherwise been willing to do.

Things she might have also….expanded on a bit after Eda left. The damn PETA shelter had it coming, though! She’d managed to free all the healthy animals and get the few sick ones, that hadn’t been put down yet, to better shelters that would actually care for them instead of just murder them.

And then Camilla might possibly have started a fire.

Not that anyone could prove it. But, still, despite all the changes that she had gone through since meeting Eda, Camilla couldn’t imagine just taking all that money! Though once tax season came along Camilla wouldn’t have much choice. No one wanted to get on the bad side of the IRS. There were easier ways to go to jail. Which when Camilla thought about it was probably Eda’s plan. Sometimes Camilla really wished she could be as carefree as Eda.

Past all of that, however, was the fact that Camilla had been feeling a bit sick for the last two months. Things had started simply enough. Camilla woke up feeling nauseous and needing to throw up one day two months ago. When it stuck around Camilla figured she just had a stomach bug. Nothing serious, but certainly annoying and it would pass in a few days helped along by some medication.

Then it didn’t go away in just a few days. Instead new symptoms started to show up instead.

Camilla started having mood swings and it felt like her bladder had shrunk as she started having to pee more often. This had made her think maybe she had some other kind of infection, so Camilla tried antivirals hoping it would do something. The only thing that changed was that soon her breasts started to get sore. At that point Camilla had given up and decided to go to the hospital to be seen hoping they would be able figure out what was wrong with her.

Though what it was that she was sick with was beyond her. Camilla couldn’t think of anything that made sense or lined up properly with her symptoms. So now here Camilla was waiting for the doctor to return after they took some blood, urine samples and waited to see if they could find out what was wrong with her. She’d been waiting for what felt like forever but when she checked her watch it seemed like it had just been a few minutes.

Camilla was startled out of her thoughts when there was a knock at the door to the office before opening to show her mildly irritated doctor walking in. “Well, Ms. Noceda, your results are in and they’re about what I expected.”

Camilla waited for him to continue but the man seemed to be waiting for her to respond. “Then…what’s wrong with me, then? What disease do I have? I need this to end so I can focus on school” Camilla said earnestly. She just wanted to get this over with already.

The doctor huffed at her, though her earnestness had seemed to dull some of his irritation. “You're in your fourth year of veterinary school are you not? Can you really not think of what it is that might be causing these symptoms?”

Camilla looked at the man confused. She honestly had no idea what he was talking about. Whenever she tried thinking over her symptoms her mind always shied away from any answers no matter how hard she wracked her brain.

The man sighed at the confusion on Camilla’s face before speaking again. “Congratulations Ms. Noceda. You're pregnant.”

As soon as the words left the doctor’s mouth Camilla felt like the entire world had frozen as she tried to process what he said.

“But…that’s impossible. I haven’t even had a boyfriend in years! The last person I dated was a woman! I can’t possibly be pregnant!”

Cammy cried out in a storm of denial followed by even more spluttering reasons why she couldn’t be pregnant.

The doctor just sighed again at her reaction before speaking once again though this time in a tone that reminded Camilla of her teachers. “Ms. Noceda. Please tell me what the symptoms of pregnancy are.”

Camilla jerked out of her panicked babbling at his tone and responded as if she had been called on in class. “Standard symptoms for pregnancy are nausea, morning sickness, mood swings, missed periods, in-increased urination a-and sore breasts. Oh.” Camilla trailed off as thoughts she had been suppressing for the last month or two finally came raging out as it clicked what exactly was going on with her. As she realized it had been months since her last period and she hadn’t even realized because she was so focused on her other symptoms. “B-but I don’t understand. I didn’t have sex with any men. I-I would remember if I did wouldn’t I?”

The doctor, seeing how devastated Camilla was, shed the last of his irritation and started projecting sympathy as he realized Camilla had likely been wilfully blind to what was going on to her.

If what she said was accurate, then that said nothing good about how her pregnancy had occurred. “Ms. Noceda-Camilla. Are there any periods from roughly-say- three months ago that you don’t remember very clearly? Based on your bloodwork that's around when you would have gotten pregnant.”

Camilla shrunk in on herself as she knew that there was an entire night that was mostly a blur. “Umm..around that time my girlfriend and I went out drinking after winning a large amount of money at a casino. We….went a bit wild. I honestly don’t even remember most of the night after we started bar hopping or how we got home after. I…Dios I have no idea what we did that night. We were so drunk that we might have gotten separated at some point and then…or if we passed out at some point…” Camilla felt the horror running through her system as she imagined what could have happened to her. What could have happened to Eda! There was also the small part of her that realized that with how drunk they were they might have just pulled some guy that caught their interest somewhere private and uh….enjoyed him. She could never bring herself to say that outloud though.

The doctor nodded gently before speaking. “I think we can probably guess when it happened then, Camilla. The question now is what do you want to do? Abortion is legal in Connecticut until viability after all so that is an option. There’s also the option of giving up the child after you’ve given birth.” The man said in a gentle tone, doing his best to be kind.

At the mention of abortion Camilla froze. One part of her thought about the idea as it would make the…issue..go away. But the majority of her railed against it. Her bisexuality might not be something the church looked on all that favorably but she was still Catholic born and raised. The very idea of abortion was anathema to everything she had been taught and believed. To kill a life that was innocent…she wouldn’t condemn someone else that chose to but she didn’t think she’d be able to forgive herself if she did it.

“I…couldn’t have an abortion. It would go against my faith. As for giving it up….I honestly dodn’t know. I have time to decide though, don't I? Six whole months….” Camilla said, giving voice to some of her thoughts.

Camilla spent the next hour talking with the doctor and going over her options and scheduling the appointments she would need to have to ensure her and… the babies health. Dios, Camilla missed Eda right now. Camilla hoped Eda wasn’t going through what she was going through right now. “Oh Eda, where are you when I need you?”

🦉Seven and a half human months later….🦉

Eda had never been a woman that believed all that much in regrets. She was the type of witch to stick to their spells and follow through no matter what.

Never in her life had she regretted an action she had taken.

She’d felt guilty about some choices she’d made in life. Felt ashamed at choices that once she was out of the heat of the moment she found no longer made as much sense as they did when her bile was running hot. But Eda had never regretted those choices. If she hadn’t made them then she wouldn’t be herself. Now though… Eda was betraying her very nature with how she was now feeling.

Eda was filled with regret. How had she been supposed to know this would happen? Eda cringed at her own thoughts. If she had only thought things over more she might have indeed been able to see this coming but then she would have never been in this situation in the first place! ….Probably. Then she wouldn’t have to be faced with this kind of tragedy.

She had made an incredibly large mistake and now it was coming back to bite her in the ass like a Slitherbeast with a painthorn stuck in its paw. She had no one to blame but herself for the loss it had caused her and the emotional pain she was now in as she cradled her precious cargo and looked at it with pain, wondering how she could have let this happen….

WHY DID SHE HAVE TO BLOW OFF THE BORING FUTURE SIGHT PARTS OF ORACLE MAGIC AND FOCUS ON THE COOL NECROMANCY PARTS?!?!?!

“Oh. Actually, that’s probably why I did that.” Eda said to herself once her the actual wording of how she thought that occurred to her and as she glared down at her teacup.

Necromancy was cool. Summoning ghosts, raising corpses, creating necromantic Abominations to terrify all her foes and then beat them into submission. Necromancy had been great! Titan, by the time she was kicked out of school it wasn’t just school rules that had been made due to her experiments; actual laws had been written to prevent other witches from following her examples. Too bad about her Necrocollosi though. Watching them siege the ol’ Belo’s castle had been hilarious. Lily had sworn her to secrecy over her part in them though. Thought it would destroy her chances in the Emperor’s Coven. Oh well though, maybe one day she could break out her old necromancy notes and give it another whirl.

Shaking her head Eda broke her mind from the tangent she had gone on and back to the matter at hand. Necromancy was fun. Future telling though? That? That was boring.

Peering into crystal balls to watch crystal plays or look up information was one thing. Peering into crystal balls to scry the future was another entirely. It was boring! That, and Eda might possibly have not been all that good at it aside from the parts involved in preventing others from scrying your personal future or present location. So was it really all that weird she had just kind of ignored it when she was a kid?

Well, if it was or wasn’t, it still left Eda with her current issue. What little she remembered about reading tea leaves was normally used with her apple blood to look at the bottom of her cup to use the last bits of it to scry if there was any immediate danger. It didn’t work all that well and the best use she ever got out of it was when it warned her that her mother was about to show up.

This time however she hadn’t been quite sure what she was seeing so she’d decided to make some tea and do things the proper way. So she’d made a cup of tea, drank it, and then took a look at the leaves. And what did she get? That somewhere, something important was going on. No clue where. No idea if whatever was going on was just a knucklebone away or a phalange or a clavicle or even a femur! Nothing! So now, here Eda was, wondering what in the Titans name was so important.

“Bah!” Eda made a spell circle and sent her cup back over to the sink. Getting up so she could finally start her day Eda decided that if it was so important then it would probably become pretty obvious soon enough. Speaking of soon though….Eda glanced at her calendar.

Just a few more months, a few rhythms, and it would be time to see Cammy again. Eda tried to remember what month the human realm was on right now before shrugging. “Eh, it doesn’t really matter. Can’t think of any reason they wouldn’t have a ten-month cycle as well. Just hope Cammy’s day is going better than mine right now.”

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Camilla’s doctor said that her child was developing slightly more slowly than normal from what he could observe but Camilla was certain he wasn’t mentioning something. His face had seemed troubled when he was looking over her child in the ultrasounds. He had denied it when Camilla tried to ask but she knew he was hiding something. To say that had vastly increased her stress would be an understatement.

That had hardly been the only thing making things less pleasant for Camilla even if parts of it were good. She was a homeowner now. The last of the money Eda had left her after paying off her student loans had been used as the downpayment for a house that her parents had helped her with. So now she had a house in a neighborhood on the edge of town right where the town met the forest. Hell, she had even gotten it relatively cheap considering there had been some animal attacks in the area. If all went well then she would be able to pay off the house within a decade. Sooner, if she managed to get a good position for her residency.

For all the benefits of acquiring a house so cheaply, it still hadn’t been one she would have normally looked at, but at one point in her pregnancy Camilla had been having issues with feeling very faint and several of the routine examinations she went through seemed to indicate she was missing something in her diet that was causing her lethargy. For over a month it kept getting worse and Camilla’s doctor was telling her she might have to seriously consider that keeping the baby might kill her.

Camilla hadn’t been able to decide when she was talking to her doctor. She hadn’t been able to decide when she returned to her apartment and despaired over her empty answering machine, devoid of any trace of Eda.

So, Camilla went on a walk.

Camilla wandered the town aimlessly and eventually found herself in Old Gravesfield near the forest, feeling herself growing weaker, her thoughts slowly turning darker and beginning to truly consider whether or not to keep her child; praying for any kind of sign one occurred. Camilla had passed by the house she now owned and started suddenly feeling better.

Camilla had felt like all the energy she had lost over the last few months was suddenly returned. An empty feeling in Camilla’s core that she could never even begin to describe suddenly felt filled. Then Camilla felt it. Movement. The first movement Camilla ever felt from her child. Something that had worried her immensely after she hadn’t felt anything for so long after she should have for the first time. At her next appointment her doctor was amazed at her recovery and despite not knowing what caused it, encouraged Camilla to go over her day and recreate events to figure out what she had been missing, even as they failed to figure out what it was from talking it over.

So Camilla took walks. She walked through that neighborhood several times a week, sometimes it would work and the empty feeling in her core would abate and be replaced with a full warmth. Other times nothing would happen. Eventually Camilla decided that whatever that was helping her and her child was local, and that whatever it was only occasionally happened.

Camilla, noticing the house nearest to where she would get the feeling was for sale, contacted her parents to let them know she was buying a house and with some contacts her family had she was able to practically get the house for a steal. Camilla had been happy. So happy…

Until she learned that in moving she wouldn’t be able to keep her home phone number. The only way Eda had to get ahold of her was when she returned to Gravesfield.

So, in gaining a new home Camilla had effectively ended her chance of reuniting with Eda when the year had finally passed. She had cried after realizing that, but in the end stood by her decision. Whatever was going on with her baby was made better by being here. And so, here she would be.

At the very least though, Camilla actually knew the person that was moving into her old apartment and she had been able to convince them to give Eda her new address and number if-when! W-when she called….

But not everything was tinged with sorrow. Camilla had actually managed to complete her degree ahead of time! Camilla’s teachers had been very understanding and had been willing to work with her so she could finish early, all in order for her to have her child without needing to worry about school.

And now here she was, Camilla was ten and a half months later, a month after graduating, still pregnant somehow and wondering what she was going to do. She would have to start her residency eventually and the veterinary office that had accepted her had promised to hold a slot for her for five months so she could give birth and spend time with her child before starting her residencies long hours. Thankfully her mother would be moving in with her for a while or Camilla had no idea what she would do.

“None of that mattered though if she remained pregnant forever” Camilla thought bitterly. Nine months had seemed daunting on its own now past that by more than a whole month it was all Camilla could do to not just break down, thinking of it all.

As Camilla verged on going into a mental downward spiral the feeling of warmth came again once more feeding into the empty feeling that by this point Camilla had determined was likely her child. A child Camilla still didn’t know what she was going to name or if she would keep despite everything she had done to keep them alive and healthy.

Suddenly however, the feeling of warmth draining into something ended while the warmth itself remained. In contrast to every other time this had occurred, the feeling of warmth feeding her child ended but the warmth didn’t. Before Camilla could start to wonder what this meant, she started to feel a trail of liquid rolling down her leg. Camilla didn’t bother wondering if it was time, or if this was actually her water breaking or not. Considering the odd thing that had just occurred? Camilla knew it was time. Her child was ready and whether or not Camilla herself was…It was time.

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Camilla laid in her hospital bed doing her best to keep to the breathing that the nurse had instructed her in and bracing herself against the pain of giving birth. Her doctor had said that giving her an epidural wasn’t wise due to the oddness of her pregnancy, forcing Camilla to bear the pain unaided. Her contractions had been going on for several hours but now we're coming to a quick end as the hospital staff fretted about it going too quickly. Frankly, Camilla was just happy she had only had to go through this for six hours instead of a half a day to a day or even longer.

Camilla’s mother was at her side holding her hand for her and whispering words of encouragement and prayers in her ear. Outside her father and her brother were waiting for the birthing to end.

Camilla didn’t really care about any of that at the moment, however. She was far more focused on pain and trying desperately to maintain her breathing so she didn’t start hyperventilating. Suddenly a larger surge of pain hit her and she heard the nurse say something she couldn’t hear. Then her mother spoke up telling her what the woman said. “¡Está coronando, Camilla! ¡El bebé ya viene!”

Camilla grasped on her mothers words like the lifeline they were. Her baby was crowning and with it her labor was finally nearing its end. The next period was a blur for Camilla as the world seemed to drift in and out of focus. The world snapped back into focus for Camilla felt her mother grip her hand tightly and speak directly into her ear. "¡Puja, Camila! ¡Un ultimo pujo!"

Camilla pushed. Camilla pushed as hard as she could and with a wet slippery feeling her child entered the world.

“Waaaaaaagh!!”

Camilla could hear her child crying out into the world and despite everything it was the most beautiful sound she had ever heard. “My baby! Give me my baby!” Camilla cried out after she saw the doctor cut the umbilical cord.

The doctor seemed to not hear her at first as he looked at the child seemingly troubled before tentatively handing it over. “Congratulations Ms. Noceda. It’s a….healthy baby girl.”

Camilla didn’t process everything the doctor said at first. “A…girl? I have a daughter? I have a little girl!” Camilla couldn’t stop herself from crying. Despite all of her doubts and all of her fears she was ecstatic to actually hold her daughter. After a moment however she noticed how the doctor had said it. “W-wait is there something wrong? Y-you hesitated when you said she was healthy!”

The doctor had a confused look on his face and seemed to be thinking on what to say before he spoke. “I would say just look at your daughter ma’am. She has some….unusual features.”

Camilla looked down at her daughter with worry. For a moment she doesn’t see anything wrong. Her daughter has her skin tone and hair color. She seemed to have her nose and her ea-pointed.

Her daughter's ears were pointed and had no lobe.

Eda could only really think of one person with ears like that. But it didn’t mean anything, it was imposs-

As Camilla tried to comprehend what this could mean her breath caught as her daughter opened her eyes showing a beautiful golden color that had haunted her dreams. A color she had only seen one person have in her entire life. Camilla didn’t know how this had happened but there was one thing she was certain of. Somehow, someway Camilla knew this was Eda’s child.

Eda and her child. She had Eda’s eyes and ears including the odd parts around her eyes that Camilla had once thought was eyeliner before seeing that it was still there after Eda had taken a shower.

Suppressed thoughts about Eda’s odd features and how they all came together so naturally came back to Camilla. Thoughts about how there was something not quite human about Eda that she had put aside and not thought much on. It all came back as she realized with a sense of hysteric humor that her old dream of having a half human child had seemingly come true.

“Ms. Noceda? Are you alright? Ms. Noceda?” Having the doctor call out to her to get her attention brought Camilla out of her thoughts and as she looked at the man she instantly knew what to say.

“Mija seems perfect to me, Doctor. She’s beautiful.” Camilla turned her gaze back to her daughter, her heart swelling with a mother's love for her child. A child of herself and someone she loved. A miracle child she had never thought possible but had wanted from the moment she first thought of it.

“Well then, Ms. Noceda as I suppose I can guess that you’ll indeed be keeping your daughter. I suppose all that's left to ask is what her name will be.” The doctor said not even bothering to ask about the father which had already been put as unknown.

Camilla thought about it for a moment but only one name came to mind. Only a single way to describe what her daughter meant to her. “Luz. Mija’s name is Luz. My little light.”

As the rest of the night passed she introduced her daughter to her family and her family to her daughter. Camilla soon breastfed Luz for the first time and marveled at her daughter as she ate, having never felt as happy as she did now. Though she knew that raising her daughter would likely be hard considering her odd features and it might make it hard for her to fit in, Camilla knew that she loved her daughter and would do anything for her.

Today truly had proven to be a wonderful day as far as Camilla was concerned.

🦉Six human years later….🦉

Eda felt the normal feeling of loss she did every time she ventured into the human realm. Mainly because there was no Cammy waiting for her.

After the year had passed Eda had returned to the human realm as promised and the first thing she did was find one of those standing crows and give Cammy’s number a call. Only the person that picked up wasn’t Cammy. Apparently, the number she called was still linked to Cammy's apartment but the person that picked up said the last person to live there had been a man, and that had been in the apartment for only a few months before leaving.

Eda didn’t actually trust the stranger over the crow and so she went to Cammy’s apartment, only to find herself looking face to face at the person at the other side of the phone. After that Eda had hunted through several of the places that they had spent time together at, but couldn’t find any trace of her. And eventually, Eda had to accept that something had happened and Cammy was gone.

Eda couldn’t deny that it had hurt to realize she might never see Cammy again before it started to turn to anger. Why hadn’t Cammy been there?!? They had agreed on a year! Eda had worked up a squall's worth of steam before she, for the first time in her life, laid eyes on a human calendar. A twelve month calendar. A twelve month calendar that somehow still had less days then the Isles four hundred and two day cycle.

Eda had lowered herself to the ground after that realization. She had treated the human year and the Isles cycle as two words for the same span of time. Now she knew better, but it didn’t matter as she was forty rhythms past a human years end. She was late and now she had no idea where Cammy was or even where to find her.

And it was her fault.

After that Eda spiraled for a while. She fell into some bad relationships, picked fights she probably shouldn’t have picked and stole old tomes that were extremely illegal to own. By the time she had dug herself out of the hole of self pity she had fallen into, she had begun to gain her reputation as one of the strongest witches in the Boiling Isles.

She gained respect, fear and admiration from the average witch as they bore witness to her power. She’d even gained the moniker of “The Owl Lady” after she had called herself that while completely wasted and bashing around coven scouts before succumbing to a transformation and savaging an entire coven house. The name wound up sticking and she decided to own it. Owls had been something she liked long before the Owl Beast cursed her life and while carving Owlbert had helped her reclaim part of the symbolism, making it her name helped her reclaim it in full.

Her businesses also flourished as people wanted the sort of potions that a witch only as powerful as her could make while on the other side various witches and demons decided that some of her more outlandish tales about human items must be true because someone as great as her said so.

Suckers.

In the end everything was coming up to Eda. Except the fact that she was horribly lonely. The only real companionship she had was Owlbert and Hooty. But, as much as Owlbert was her adorable palisman and was therefore perfect company, Hooty was…..Hooty. He was connected to her soul so she didn’t really count him. She could even feel him in the human realm for Titan’s sake. But he kept away the coven guards so it was probably still worth it.

They were company, friends, but…at the same time, they were extensions of herself. A hand was technically a part of you, and you would miss it if it was gone, but it wasn't the same as having someone to talk to.

In the end, all Eda really had these days was her identity as a powerful wild witch. She spoke the old tongue when she could, she wrote in the runic script and made use of runic magic in spite of the Empire's attempts to make all of that go away and be replaced with the common tongue, the common alphabet and “proper coven magic”.

It messed with people a lot, actually, and that was the fun part about it. If there was one thing her time in the wilds had taught Eda it was how to listen to the Isles. And Eda knew how the old tongue came to be.

She knew how the runic alphabet was developed and where it came from. She could guess how runic scripts were first discovered and witches and demons learned that by combining runes you could create magical scripts. Common, not so much though. So she rejected it, if only symbolically. Had to speak common to do anything in the Isles after all. Aside from the rare few witches old enough and powerful enough to flaunt Belos’s laws like she did. Witches that predated the empire and had never taken a coven sigil and cut their own life in half by doing so.

Eda shook her head when she realized the path her thoughts were taking her. She always got so damn introspective when she came to this realm. It was time to go hunting for human treasures now though, not think about the socio-cultural shifting that the prick in golden had forced down everyone's throats.

Or at least that was the plan until Eda heard a noise and a bit off in the distance and decided to go investigate it after finally closing the portal behind her, slightly embarrassed that she had left it open like that and for so long.

As Eda came upon the noise, passing some bushes and trees, she groaned in her head. Just some witchling that must have stumbled across the portal and came through. Eda knew she needed to get the kid home before some human found them and something regrettable happened.

“Alright witchlett, let’s get you home. Ya know, you really shouldn’t wander through portals hanging in the air. You never know if we might have missed a Fae back in the Pixie Wars after all.” Eda began to reach for the witchlett when the girl turned around frightened and let Eda get a good look at her.

“Oh nicely done, Owl Lady. You managed to scare the kiii-”

Eda’s thoughts ground to a halt as she looked at the witchlett and saw a very familiar pair of eyes looking back at her. Eyes she saw every morning in the mirror, not just in color but in shape. The witchletts poofy hair reminded her strongly of her or even her sister, Eda realized as she stood frozen while her mind tried to comprehend what she was seeing. The witchlett, however, wasn’t willing to wait for Eda’s brain to start working again.

Swiftly turning around and running away the witchlett started calling out as she ran.

“MMMAAAAMMMIIIII!!!” The girl cried out as she ran.

Eda found herself chasing after the girl when she started running on pure instinct. Not long after, she started hearing an oddly familiar voice off in the distance, though it took her a moment to properly place it. It wasn’t until she actually heard what was being said though that she knew whose voice she was hearing.

“Luuuuz! Luuuuz! Where are you. Mija? You know you're not supposed to wander too far from the house! Luz Noceda, came here right this minute!”

It took a moment for Eda to process what she heard and by the time she did, the witchlett had escaped the forest and ran into an incredibly familiar woman’s waiting arms.

“Mija, you know you're not supposed to wander in the forest.” The woman paused for a moment as she noticed her child's state. “Luz, what’s wrong? Did something scare you?” The child nodded after a moment before pointing at the woods. “Is someone there, Mija?” The woman turned to the forest before speaking out. “Is someone out there?!”

After a moment Eda stepped out from the trees and the woman froze upon seeing her. Eda wasn’t much better but after a long moment was able to finally croak some words out.

“Heya Cammy-buns, been awhile. Looks like we got some things to talk about, huh?”