Chapter 8

Adora and Eda worked together to slowly peel open the middle of the three owl pellets in her trashed room. Within was a glistening, sticky, shuddering Glimmer Park. She stepped out of the owl pellet, breathed slowly in, touched the tips of her fingers together in a gesture of calming focus, focused, and then vanished in a glittering spray of sparkles. She appeared a few feet to her left, but arrived without her Hexside uniform. This gave Adora a remarkable view of her cushy, curvaceous body – her tits might have been the same size as Adora’s, but since Glimmer was a foot or so shorter and stocky to boot, she looked quite a bit more endowed. She also appeared without a thin skein of slime and bits of owl pellet, which hung in the rough, Rubenesque form of Glimmer before splattering to the floor.

Thus naked and clean, she brushed her hands through her hair and said. “I am going to be in the shower!”

Then she stalked from the room.

Adora and Eda kept gaping after her for a few seconds, both of their jaws hanging open.

“ ... uh...” Adora said.

“So, is she dating anyone?” Eda asked.

“Yes,” a muffled voice came from the tallest owel pellet.

“Eda!” Adora exclaimed. “She’s- I ... we’re ... both ... all going to school!”

“Yeah, senior year!” Eda said. “I was totally hooking up with older witches and demons in my senior year.” She chuckled. “Ah, good times.”

“Eda!” Adora spluttered.

“Can you please get me out of this?” The muffled voice came again and the two women worked with a will to yank it open. Bow Porter stepped from the container, groaning and rubbhing his hands along his face. “Ugh.”

“I’m so sorry about this, Bow,” Adora said.

“Why are you apologizing, you didn’t eat him,” Eda said. At Bow’s look, she blinked at him, then jerked her thumb over her shoulder. “The condoms are above the sink in the bathroom.”

“Eda!” Adora exclaimed.

“What!?” Eda asked. “My job is to be the responsible one here.”

“Thanks,” Bow said, wincing as he wiped some slime from his eyes. “But I brought my own, actually.” He patted his belt, where his various trick arrows were normally stored. “Right next to my quiver, never leave home with out them. Heh, Glimmer gets frisky after a fight.” He waggled his eyebrows dramatically.

“Bow!” Adora’s entire face was nearly as red as her jacket.

“It’s not like you don’t have any in the human realm,” Bow said, cheerfully. Then he paused. “Wait, don’t you!? Adora, you have to-”

“Wehavecondomspleaseshutup!” Adora wheezed, putting her hands over her face.

“Fhew,” Bow said. “I was worried I’d have to explain h-”

Adora bodily grabbed his arm, dragged him to the door leading to the shower, flung the door open – and caught a hazy, enticing form of Glimmer through the closed screen of the shower, then flung Bow inside. He stumbled, flailed, yelped – and then she slammed the door shut, her back pressed against it as she panted heavily.

“Nice,” Eda said, while Adora realized what she had done, was caught in a paroxysm of indecision. She reached for the air, dropped her arms, then sagged against the shower and skimmed down it, sitting on her butt. She felt as if she had never before been quite so tired in her life – everything that had happened having crashed into her at the same time. Eda, walking over with the freed King in her arms, smiled down at her.

“Wanna talk about it?” she asked, while King whined and wriggled.

“Ugh! Ugh! So slimey!”

Adora sighed. “Can I have something to drink first?” she asked.

“Well. You’re not twenty one, but ... counter point, screw the rules!” Eda said. “Lets get some apple blood!”

Adora thumped into the chair across from Eda, who had reverted to her human ... er ... witch form before opening the pellets. That was the first thing on Adora’s mind. “What was that?” she asked.

“Okay, kid,” Eda said. “The whole thing with me and my curse is kind of a long story. I was cursed when I was about your age – maybe a little older.” She said, waggling her hand a bit to indicate how she wasn’t sure. “I’m not sure by who or why – but it messed up my powers, and it made me have to leave polite society. I was able to control it with the elixer – but, uh, heh, we were out.” She frowned a little bit, looking distant.

Adora looked down at the cup that Eda had set before her. The warm red blood inside did smell faintly of apples. She gulped, then sipped it. It tasted of apples, but it had a stinging brightness that made her sit right up and squeak.

“Yeah, appleblood will do that to ya,” Eda said, then sighed. “So. Uh. How was your superheroing?”

“I fought my best friend to a standstill while trying to make her see reason and she instead tried to kill me repeatedly,” Adora said, resting her head on her arm as she slouched before the table. “Also, I, uh ... uh ... m-met ... Amity ... Blight. And, uh ... uh ... oh, in my Titan-Ra form, I am immune to painstorms. T-That’s neat! Also, I can go into your brain!?”

“Firstly, firstly, lets talk about the important thing,” Eda said, her ears perking up. “You met Amity, huh?” She waggled her fingers. “Now, did this meeting take place on first, second, or third base?”

“What?” Adora asked, sitting up.

“First base, you go up to the knuckle!” Eda said, waggling her finger. “Second base, you’re using each-other bits as alchemical reagents. Third base? Well, that’s a bit much for someone your age, even if you’re eighteen.” She nodded, sagely.

“What!?” Adora spluttered. “No! We just ... made out. A little. A lottle.” She looked aside, then bit her lip. “Is it messed up that I’m ... I ... I feel like I’m ... betraying Catra?” She blushed, hard. “Not, like, cheating on her. But, like, how can I justify doing anything with a girl when, when, when I have to help Catra. She’s working as the Golden Guard for the Belosian Empire, I have to help her out and get her to-”

“Adora, honey,” Eda said, reaching across the table. She squeezed her hand. “Your best friend is working for the bad guys. It sucks.” She nodded. “But you can’t just fix her. You have to hope she’ll fix herself – and be there for her, when she turns things around. Until then, you do what you can.” She smiled, wryly. “And you definitely can’t give up on other girls, even if you can’t stop thinking about how cute she is in her uniform.”

“She’s not cute in her uniform!” Adora said, hurriedly. “She’s cute out of it! I mean, not cute! I ... I don’t have a crush on Catra.”

“Mmhmmmmm!” Eda said, nodding and taking a long, deep drink from her appleblood.

Adora knocked back her own gulp. She blushed as she felt the hot burn in her belly.

“Okay!” she said. “Admittedly. The cat thing? It’s ... ya know, it’s working for me. I love catgirls. And cats. I like how their ears go, kinda, bloop bloop.” She lifted her fingers, miming the twitches of a cat’s ears. “Like, heh, that’s why I think I’m so into witch ears, you’re like cats. You have ... kitty twitchy ears.” She blinked, then looked down at her glass. She still had, like, at least seventy, eighty percent of the appleblood still in it. “I ... am ... you...” She pointed a finger accusingly at Eda. “You are drunking me get!”

“Sure am!” Eda said, cheerfully. “In appleus veritas!”

“That’z not even Latin!” Adora said, her head flopping onto the table as she laid down next to her cup, sprawling. “Kitties are cute.” She giggled, softly. “You know, heh, uh, on Earth, when girls kiss, they also ... they pet kitties. Pussies. Pussies is another word for-”

“Mmm, yes, that’s true here too,” Eda said, chuckling.

“You! Have to tell me truth things now!” Adora said, pointing again at her mentor slash weird hot adoptive grandmother slash roommate slash landlord.

“Okay!” Eda said.

“Howz ... that...” Adora closed her eyes, then flailed an arm.

“Gonna need a few more words,” Eda said, gently reaching over and stealing Adora’s glass. She started to drink from it.

“How do you do the sexy harpy thing!” Adora exploded, springing up and cupping her chin with her palms, looking at Eda like a lovesick puppy. “And are you ... do you give... wing hugs?” she whispered, her eyes shining. “I’d love a wing hug.”

Eda opened her mouth, then closed it. “That’s the weirdest thing,” she said, hesitantly. “My whole life, the owl beast and I have been at war. But then, today, when I changed, it was like everything was different. It was like since the last time I changed, the owl beast has completely flipped around. It wasn’t trying to take me over. It was just trying to be a part of me. And once I let it, once you stopped from running away, it was like I’ve done this a thousand times before.” She looked down at her hand, frowning.

“Wowwww,” Adora whispered. Then she beamed. “I’m gonna kiss the owl beast on its head cause it’s a good girl.”

Eda grinned. “Now, it’s my turn for a truth question: Does Amity know you’re Titan-Ra?”

“Nah,” Adora said.

“So, she’s into Titan-Ra, but has no time for Adora Gray?” Eda asked.

“Nah!” Adora said, shaking her head. She was still beaming. “She’s suuuuuper into Titan-Ra and, uh, she...” Her smile faltered, then collapsed. “She doesn’t like me cause I’m dumb.”

“You’re not dumb, Adora,” Eda said, gently. Then she perked up. “Wait, so, she’s into your secret ID, but not into your real ID?”

“Mmhmm!” Adora nodded.

“You know what this means, right?” Eda asked.

“Mhnnno?” Adora asked.

“Shenanigans!”

Adora blinked at her. “Shen ... Shenann ... nishe ... sh-”

“So, what you do, is you arrange to be where Amity needs to be rescued, then you swoop her off her feet, and you kiss her. Heck, do more than kiss her, get to first base.” Eda said, nodding.

Adora blinked at her slowly. Then she smiled. “That sounds nice...” She said, cheerfully. “I get to be a hero and I get to have fun nice things too. That’s nice.” She half closed her eyes. “Mom said I don’t deserve nice things unless I do nice things for people, so ... mm ... m’gonna do nice things.” She sighed, softly. “Mmm does Amity taste like green skittles or purple?” She closed her eyes and started to snore quietly.

Eda shook her head slowly. “Every single thing I hear about that woman makes me want to go and beat the crud out of her.”

King hopped up onto the kitchen table. “Eda, you got your teenage adoptive daughter drunk. After flirting at her!”

Eda waggled her finger. “Ah, ah, ah, King. It’s only creepy if you’re a man. Or a demon. When women do it, it’s sexy.”

“That’s not even close to true!” King said, throwing his arms wide.

“Besides, I wasn’t going to molest her or anything, she’s drunk!” Eda said, her voice offended. “What kind of a criminal do you take me for.”

“Uh-huh.” King’s eyelids were perfect horizontal lines, right at the midpoint of his eyes.

Eda scowled.

Hooty slithered up into view. “Eda always respects consent, hoot hoot!” he said.

“Okay, that just makes me sound like I should be on a list,” Eda muttered.

“You are!” King shouted, angrily.

“A bad list.”

In Adora’s dream, she was floating behind herself and watching herself walk to school. Adora, in the dream, was not wearing her nice red jacket. Instead, she was wearing something severe and black and cold, like something her Mom would try and get her to wear. The funniest thing, though, was that Adora in the dream was ... almost crying. She trembled as she walked, her eyes half closed, and she whispered under her breath.

“It’s okay. It’s okay. It’s okay. It’s better than the cell, it’s better than the cell, it’s better ... th- ... then ... then...”

She started to tremble, then she put her hand over her own face. Adora watched as her control collapsed and she started to cry. Not just cry, but sob. The weird thing – well, the awful thing – was that the crying was... wrong. Adora had cried before. She had even seen herself in the mirror. She didn’t make that kind of face as she cried. The dream Adora staggered against a dumpster, her shoulders shaking as she sobbed and whimpered and sniffled.

“Oh honey!”

The voice was soft and warm and gentle and made the other Adora yelp and jerk upright, stumbling back and away – nearly into the street. She timed it badly: A car was trundling by at about twenty five miles per an hour, and was just about to crack right into the dream Adora’s arm – but the owner of the voice sprang forward, grabbed her and yanked her back. Adora and the figure stumbled, fell onto the grass of the house across the street. The house that Catra had lived in.

Adora, her face red and puffy, gasped and sniffed – blinking ... while Adora, the real Adora, looked over to see who had yanked her dream self out of the way of the car. She was a matronly woman – pretty, middle aged, and dressed in nurse’s scrubs. Her skin was dusky brown, and her hair was raven dark. She looked at Adora with a gentle smile, her hand going to her shoulder. “Sorry for startling you,” she said. “I just ... I saw you crying and I was, uh, wondering if everything was all right?”

She had a lovely accent. Adora wondered where it was from.

“I-It’s okay,” the other Adora said. The dream said. She stood up, brushing grass from her pants. “I-I have to ... to go. To get to school.”

“Do you want to talk about it?” the woman asked, still sitting.

“I...” the dream Adora stammered. “I...” She tugged at her sleeve – yanking it down.

But not before Adora, the real Adora, and the woman sitting on the grass saw the bruise.

“I’m okay, I have to go!”

She hurried off.

And Adora saw that the woman in the nurse’s scrub had a fire in her eyes as she stood, her jaw tightening as she reached down, adjusting her nametag. Adora leaned in – even as she felt the horrible claws of wakefulness pulling at her.

C. Noceda.

She jerked upright, panting slightly.

“ ... what a ... weird dream,” she said, then blinked, noticing that King was still perched atop her head, having shifted with her movement so smoothly that he was still snoring atop her like a cuddly little crown. She reached up, took King off her head, then smiled at him.

“Such a cutie,” she whispered.

She set King down, checked the time – and saw that it was early enough that she was pretty sure she could use the bathroom. She noticed that her head was hurting a bit, but ... not as much as she might have feared, considering the vague blurr of last night. She walked towards the bathroom – then opened the door and found herself looking in at Glimmer. Glimmer was wearing her nightgown and had it pushed all the way up and above her cushy rump. Bow, meanwhile, was in the bathroom as well. Of course, he was not simply brushing his teeth or even flossing. No.

He was kneeling on the tiles and burying his tongue deep inside of Glimmer’s sex. The soft, slick noise of him licking up and down and up and down her pussy was quite loud in the nearly silent bathroom, as Glimmer was biting down onto the back of her knuckles to keep from moaning aloud, even as her hips jounced in time with Bow’s eager ministrations. Her wings – small as they were – fluttered against her back as Adora stood there, froze and gaping at the pair of them.

“Sorry!” Adora exclaimed.

Glimmer jerked her hand from her mouth and gasped. “Adora!” She moaned – her voice shocked and tinged with pleasure as she quivered. Bow jerked back at just the right moment too, to show quite clearly what happened when Glimmer came and came hard. Specifically, her juices splashed against his face, leaving his dark brown skin glistening and sprinkled with shimmering, glowing pink sparkles. Adora caught only a glimpse of this as she backpedaled so fast her feet were a blur.

This was when she hit King with her ankle.

“Weh!” The sleepy demon cried out as Adora felt both her feet leave the ground. She had half a second to think: Ah, well, at least I am falling on the carpet before her spine hit the edge of the stairs. She skidded down, crunched the top of her head onto the wooden stair, curled backwards, tried to get her arms before her, and then started to slinky down the stairs with a series of cartilaginous cracks, crunches, and snaps. Then, she sprawled on the ground – while Bow, Glimmer, King, and a hurriedly dressed Eda ran to the head of the stairs, gaping down at her in horror.

“Well, at least she’s okay,” Glimmer said, tugging her nightgown down.

“She’s human! They’re fragile!” Bow said.

“Oh shoot she’s human!” Glimmer said, horrified, as she grabbed all of them and teleported down to the bottom of the stairs. Adora groaned ... rolled onto her belly, put her arms under her, and stood up, rubbing her spine gently.

“Ow,” she said.

All of them gaped at her.

Adora blinked at them. “What?” She asked, then looked up the stairs. She blinked again, then started to pat her body down gently, brushing her hands along her flanks, rubbing her arms, patting her cheeks. Every single part of her, save for the part that had smacked directly into the stairs – the small of her back, the top of her head, the base of her spine, and her elbow – was fine. And those parts were just bruised.

“Huh,” Adora said.

“ ... Adora...” Eda said. “Didn’t you say you used to break bones all the time in the human realm? Because you had, uh, a vitamin deficiency?”

“Y-Yeah,” Adora said. “M-Maybe it’s Titan-Ra?” She sounded nervous.

“I think I know who to take her too,” Glimmer said, nodding. “Cause you should be so dead as a human.”

Adora flushed. “Who?” she asked.

“A healer. The best healer I know,” Glimmer said, putting her hands on her hips.