Chapter Text
Hunter was running. The wind was rushing past his ears, the castle and its training grounds getting further and further behind him as he escaped. As much as he loved training, he found it was rather boring these days, especially when he couldn’t snap back at the other coven scouts when they teased him. A slight smirk appeared on his face, quickly leaving when he felt a sharp pain on his cheek. The cut given to him by his Uncle still hurt, even a week after it had happened. His Uncle was against him visiting the healing coven, so he had used what had been given to him by his Uncle; a cleaning salve, a cotton pad, and some bandages.
It had hurt like hell when he first received it, but Hunter knew it was no one’s fault but his own. He had been speaking out of turn, which irritated his Uncle and caused his Uncle’s curse to lash out, cutting him on the cheek. The cut was deep, and he was pretty sure he could see a small part of his jaw when it was freshly given to him. There had been a lot of blood, so much so that Hunter didn’t even clean it at first, just slapped on a bandage as fast as he could. His Uncle hadn’t been too pleased the next day when Hunter wouldn’t answer him, but quickly realized why his dear nephew wasn’t answering—because of course he did, his Uncle was clever like, that’s why the titan had chosen him, after all.
Dodging a tree, Hunter kept running through the forest, his cloak and mask had long since been abandoned at the forest’s edge, as he found they only slowed him down since they were still slightly large on him. He wasn’t sure how long he’d been running, he just knew he wanted to get as deep into the forest as possible, maybe find a clearing or a nice tree with a hole in it for him to hide and take a nap in. A large branch would also suffice, but he found that the cost for large enough napping branches was usually a high climb up, so he preferred what he called ’hidey holes’ if he could find any.
It seemed luck was on his side, when he spotted a tree up ahead with a large hole in its basin. It was opened in a way where the tree had seemingly grown around something—perhaps a large rock—but whatever it was had since been moved, leaving a gaping hole at the bottom of the tree that was cushioned with the soft red grass that matched the red of the tree leaves. He slowed down as he approached the tree, placing a hand on the trunk as he inspected the hole. It was when he looked closely that he noticed the shimmering film that was covering the hole.
He knew it was probably a dumb idea, but Hunter decided to stick his hand through anyways, to see what would happen. Much to his surprise—and panick—his hand disappeared when he stuck it into the hole. Hunter immediately ripped his hand out, coddling it with his other as he stared at what he now deduced was a portal.
But a portal to where?
He—once again—knew this was a bad idea. But his morbid curiosity and need to know won over his common sense, and the next thing he knew, Hunter had crouched down and crawled through the portal. When he crawled through, he found himself once again in a forest, behind him was a tree exactly like the one he had just crawled through—except something was wrong with it.
The leaves.
He realized.
The leaves are green.
That shouldn’t be possible, there weren’t any trees with green leaves on the boiling isles. Panic rose in his throat, worsening when he looked at the grass below him only to notice it was also green. He immediately knew where he was. Hunter had somehow found himself a portal to none other than the Human Realm. Turning around, Hunter immediately attempted to crawl back through the tree, only to find out that the portal was a one way only express.
“No… no no no.” Hunter felt his breathing quicken.
He knew his next idea wasn’t going to work, but it was all he could do. He crawled out of the hole, and quickly crawled back in. He knew it was just wishful thinking at this point, but he closed his eyes and tried once again crawling out, and crawling back in. Closing his eyes probably hadn’t been the best idea, considering the fact that all that he yielded from it was a face full of bark when he rammed against the inside of the tree.
Rubbing his forehead, Hunter shifted to sit more comfortably in the hole, leaning back against the trunk interior. His hands had started shaking severely, and his breath came and went in short bursts. His vision started to blur, his head spinning with the lack of oxygen and excess of panic that flowed through his body.
He was stuck.
He couldn’t get back.
His Uncle wouldn’t know where he was.
And the worst part of it all.
He had done this to himself.
Idiot. If only you hadn’t left. If only you hadn’t run away from training. If only you had been more disciplined.
The idea of discipline reminded him of his Uncle’s reprimanding, and next thing Hunter knew he had ripped his gloves off, and sunk his nails into his palms. At this point he wasn’t sure if the pain was for self discipline or a grounding method, but it was welcome either way. His nails were blunt, and no matter how hard he pressed, no blood spilled. His head was hurting immensely as he continued heaving breaths in, unable to calm his breathing. His attempts to not reopen his cut were quickly thrown away, and he greedily started gulping air from his mouth. Not long after he felt a pain in his jaw, a sure confirmation that he had at least partially reopened his wound and it was most likely bleeding again.
He was so caught up in his spiral that he hadn’t even noticed the little girl who appeared next to him. She looked at him curiously, probably attempted to say something to Hunter, but he couldn’t hear from the ringing that had started in his ears. From the corner of his vision he saw the shadow that was the girl running away, not paying any mind to her in the midst of his spiral. The next thing he knew there was slight darkness as something covered the hole’s entrance, and a hand on his shoulder causing him to flinch.
Hunter snapped his head towards whoever touched him, instincts wanting to fight even though he knew he was in no position to do so. Instead, he stared blankly at the person in front of him, eyes darting as he tried to make sense of what was happening. She felt him start to tap his shoulder.
One tap, two taps, three taps, four taps, hold.
She repeated the movement again before Hunter realized what she was doing. She was giving him a breathing rhythm. Focusing on her taps, she followed the pattern.
Four taps to breathe in, and then hold. Four taps to breathe out, and hold. And repeat.
Hunter wasn’t sure how many times they repeated this, but eventually his breathing slowed, his vision unblurred, and the ringing in his ears subsided. His head was still pounding and he was definitely still shaking, but he could at least make sense of things around him.
Crouching in front of him was a dark skinned woman, dark brown, curly hair stopping just above her shoulders. On her face was a look of worry and concern like none Hunter had ever seen. Next to her stood a little girl who looked a lot like the lady next to her, meaning they were most likely mother and daughter. The girl seemed to be a year or two younger than Hunter, placing her at around 6 years old. He had no idea why these two strangers were helping him, from he was taught life worked in a beat of get beaten sort of way, but he guessed humans must be different then.
“Are you okay, niño?” The woman said, her voice laced with concern in a way that Hunter couldn’t decipher if it was fake or not. “Where are your parents?”
Hunter’s eyes widened at the mention of his parents. All he knew about them was that they were dead, killed by wild witches. At least, that’s what his Uncle had told him. The same Uncle who had them so graciously taken him in and given him a purpose in life. The same Uncle he had now left behind because of his stupid curiosity. Hunter didn’t care much for his parents, he had no memory of them, and his Uncle was more than enough for him, he didn’t deserve his Uncle’s kindness, which was why he wanted so hard to prove that he was worthy of being his Uncle’s golden guard—now that was impossible.
“Alright, well, if you don’t want to talk, how about you at least come out of your hole, hm?” The woman asked, moving her hand from Hunter’s shoulder to instead extend it out to him in offering.
Unsure of what to do, Hunter slipped his gloves back on before then taking the woman’s hand. She seemed trustworthy enough, she had helped him calm down after all, when she instead could have easily attacked him. He allowed her to help pull him out of the hole.
“Alright, how about some introductions?” Hunter glanced at the woman as she smiled warmly at him. “I’m Camila, and this is my daughter Lu-”
“I’m Luz! Luz Noceda.” The girl said, hopping in front of her mother and extending a hand out toward Hunter, who took her hand.
“I-” Hunter winced, a pain shooting up his cheek when he opened his mouth. He withdrew his hand from Luz’s, quickly pressing against his injury in an attempt to stop the blood after he had forced it.
“Ay! Are you okay, niño? Are you hurt?” Camila’s voice had gone back to that concerned tone.
Unable to reply, Hunter nodded his head gingerly.
“Is it okay if I take a look? I may be able to help you.” Camila crouched down again, placing her just slightly below Hunter height wise.
Hunter nodded again, removing his hands and turning his injured cheek towards Camila.
“Ay dios mios, that’s a lot of blood, at least it’s bandaged.” Camila placed a gentle hand on his cheek, shifting his head slightly to look at the injury better—Hunter does not miss the way Camila’s touch feels so much different than his Uncle’s.
“I have supplies for this back at home,” Camila mentioned. “Based on your reaction you don’t know where your parents are correct?”
Hunter shook his head.
“Hm, I left my phone at home.” Camila muttered to herself, turning back towards Hunter with a sort of apprehensive expression. “Well I am at a bit of a loss on other options, so would you be okay heading to my home with me? It’s just past the border of the forest, and we can look at that injury of yours and try to call your parents. Is that okay?”
Hunter was surprised when she asked him for his input, usually people made plans and you just went along with them, especially adults. He didn’t really have any other choice, though, so Hunter nodded his head in agreement.
“Yay, new friend!” Luz reached forward and grabbed Hunter’s hand, and before he knew he was being pulled away by the tiny six year old.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hunter was now sitting on Camila’s couch. He wasn’t sure how everything could have changed so suddenly. Just this morning he was back at the castle, training with the other scouts. Now, he was in a whole nother realm, in a random lady’s living room, waiting for her to come look at his injury while her daughter ran off to do who knows what. His cut still burned against his cheek, no doubt still bleeding. If Camila took too much longer he might out bleed his bandage’s capacity. He was starting to get rather bored of waiting, when Luz suddenly reappeared, holding a slab of some white, shiny material, markers, and a piece of cloth. She handed them to him.
“I noticed how you couldn’t talk, so I got you something to write with!” Luz pointed at each item, listing out their name and purpose. “This is a whiteboard, you can write stuff on it using these markers and then you can erase it using this!”
Luz smiled up at Hunter. He was amazed at how someone could be so carefree and happy. With her wide eyes and happy smile and uneven pigtails, Luz looked like the textbook definition of a happy-go-lucky kid. Hunter couldn’t help but feel really annoyed now that he noticed how uneven her pigtail braids were.
“Now that we can talk, how ’bout you tell me ur name?” Luz looked at a Hunter expectantly.
Hunter nodded, grabbing the whiteboard and a marker to write his name on the board. His strokes were careful and deliberate, just like his Uncle had taught him. He flipped the board towards Luz once he was done.
“So your name’s Hunter? Hunter what? What’s your last name? Also your handwriting is really good.” Luz looked back at him after reading the board.
Hunter smiled at the compliment, before then adding writing below his name on the board.
“Oh, you don’t have one? Huh that’s weird. Oh well, I’ll still be your friend!” Luz giggled, plopping herself down on the ground in front of Hunter, her back leaning against the coffee table. “What do you wanna do?”
Hunter thought for a moment, before wiping the board and writing something new on it.
“Can you do my hair? Yeah, why not! My mamá used to do it for me, but ever since my dad went away, she hasn’t had time to do it so I’ve been doing it myself!” Luz shifted, turning around to have her back facing Hunter.
Hunter was quite surprised at the information given so easily from Luz, it seemed like she could care less about who knew what. Then again, she was very young and not formally trained like Hunter had been. Shifting to the floor, Hunter placed himself behind Luz, leaning back on the couch behind him. He took out her current pigtails, sliding the hair ties onto his wrist. Carefully, he brushed one side of the hair down, collecting in his hands before trying it into a ponytail and then carefully braiding it and finishing it off with another hair tie. He did it again on the other side, making sure there were no bumps in the hair and that they were even. He was halfway through braiding the second side when he suddenly heard a click coming from the stairwell area. He snapped his head over towards the noise, only to find Camila, who was holding a small rectangular shaped item.
“Oh! Sorry for scaring you, niño. This was just too cute, I had to take a picture. Go ahead and finish up, once you’re done I’ll treat your injury.” Camila smiled fondly at him.
With permission granted, Hunter turned back to Luz’s hair, finishing up the braid—he also made sure to keep a mental note on what the human realm cameras were like. Once he was done with the braid, Hunter tapped Luz on the shoulder to signal he was done. She immediately turned around and wrapped her arms around him while squealing thank you. She then ran off upstairs.
Hunter was confused as to why Luz had wrapped him in her arms as a thanks, but imagined it was a weird human realm tradition. He didn’t have much time to dwell on it, anyways, as Camila had made his way over to him. She sat down on the couch, patting the spot next to her to let Hunter know he was supposed to sit there. He scooched back up onto the couch, turning his head slightly so that Camila could see his cut better.
“Alright, let’s see what we’re dealing with.” She placed a hand on his chin to hold his head while her other hand was used to peel off Hunter’s bandage. He heard her gasp.
“Ay niño, that is bad. How did this happen?” Camila hissed, “Did you not get stitches done? If it were earlier in the healing process I would be happy to do them for you but I can’t do much now, this will definitely scar over.”
Hunter wasn’t surprised at that, he very well knew it would scar over, all of his reprimandings did. But that was the point, if the reminder was temporary, then it wouldn’t serve as great of a learning purpose. The scars work as a permanent reminder to his past failings and to not repeat them. He assumed this wasn’t common practice in the human realm, considering Luz seemed to be free of any physical reprimanding reminders.
Camila worked on his injury, explaining what she was doing each step of the process. Hunter was surprised at this, the few times he had actually needed to see the healing coven, none of them ever said anything about what they were doing, they just did it with a disgusted look on their face. Camila was different, she worked carefully and even apologized whenever something hurt though she had no need to. She had placed a numbing salve on his cut, it had burned at first, but it then quickly subsided into a dull throb before fully numbing out. Hunter had never used something like this before, his Uncle had always said that the pain was part of the learning process. Camila quickly finished up the bandages on his cheek, making sure they were nice and secure.
“Alrighty, that should do it, er- Hunter, right? I believe that’s what my daughter called you.” She smiled wearily at him.
Hunter nodded his head. Making sure not to potentially force his cut, as even though it was numbed he could still very much re-injure it.
“Now, the next step is to get you to your parents, niño. Do you know their phone number, or at least name?” Camila asked.
Hunter shook his head, grabbing the whiteboard to explain to a slightly confused Camila. He decided it was easier to just tell the truth than to make something up, maybe these people could help him get home. So, in the simplest way he could, he wrote about the boiling isles, his Uncle, and himself, and of course how he got stuck in the human realm. At the end he added a note saying he could give her proof if she didn’t believe him. That was the good thing about someone like him—or more specifically, something.
Hunter was a grimwalker, he knew that. His Uncle had told him as soon as he unlocked his transformation. He knew that grimwalkers were essentially clones, but he found that didn’t bother him, instead he simply wanted to prove that he was the superior version. Grimwalkers were able to transform parts of their bodies, growing golden wings and sharp talons and teeth. The transformation also gave them tougher skin, which was possible thanks to one of the main ingredients for grimwalkers being palistrom wood, so when he transforms his skin essentially reverts partly back to being wood.
He turned the whiteboard around, waiting while Camila read it. He couldn’t really read her facial expression, but it was more than likely that she didn’t believe him, probably thought it was some fantasy he made up or something.
“Hunter, niño, that’s a nice story, but I really do need to help you find your parents.” Camila smiled at him wearily.
Hunter wasn’t even bothered by the comment, he simply shot his hand up, took off his glove, and grew out his claws, watching as Camila’s face changed from nervous to full on shock.
“Oh, dios mío, that was really all true, wow.” Camila took a pause, “Uhm, so how do you plan on getting back, exactly?”
Hunter grabbed the whiteboard, erasing what he had written before, and writing something new out.
“You can’t.” Camila read. “Okay, that is very blunt, but, what do you mean you can’t exactly?”
Hunter once again erased the board before writing a quick explanation, turning the board around for Camila to read it.
“So let me get this straight,” Camila rested her cheek in her hand, “You were running away from training, and found a portal in the hole of a tree, decided to walk inside, and then found yourself here and the portal turned out to be a one way only situation?”
Hunter nodded his head.
“Well, I normally wouldn’t do this, but with your whole, er, situation,” Camila pointed out, “How about you stay with me and Luz until we can find a way to get you home? I know that is kind of a jump considering we just met, but you’re a kid with no way home, and I don’t really want to know what would happen if someone else found out about what you are. Plus Luz likes you and she is very good at reading people, even if she doesn’t seem like it. I understand if you don’t want to, and we could always try to find a different arrangement for you, but—and I don’t mean this in a bad way—but I really don’t see another option for you, especially in terms of safety.”
Hunter thought about it for a moment. Camila was right, he really didn’t have any other options, he was just lucky enough that Camila was kind enough to not want to trap him or anything—he wasn’t even truly safe from being trapped by the people on the isles. He really was at a lack of what else to do. He grabbed his whiteboard and wrote on it, turning it around to show Camila.
“You’re sure about staying? I would be more than happy to have you, of course, but I want to make sure you will be comfortable.”
Hunter nodded, he was sure of this. In the short time he had known Camila she had shown nothing but kindness, more than he had ever seen in his life on the isles. If he had to stay with anyone while he found a way home, he would choose her.
Camila smiled fondly at him. “Alright then. Since you’re staying here for a bit, I’ll tell Luz to show you around, while I figure out your sleeping area, okay? Do you mind sleeping in the basement? I will find you a mattress and if needed we can eventually get you a proper bed, though I hope you can get home before that is needed.”
Hunter smiled back. He was surprised at how much thought Camila was putting into him staying here. It was nice to be cared about like this, nobody other than his Uncle had ever cared to make sure he was okay, but not even his Uncle had helped him with injuries or asked if he was comfortable. He knew he shouldn’t be saying things against his Uncle, he had made him after all and given him a place to stay and a purpose. But Camila was so nice to him, even though they had just met.
“I’m going to go grab Luz and tell to show you around, and while you two do that I’ll go find a mattress and organize your sleeping area in the basement. I’ll also find you bathroom items and some spare clothes so that you can change. Tomorrow we can go out and buy you some things that actually fit you.”
Hunter couldn’t believe it, Camila was offering to waste her own snails—or whatever human currency was—on him? He could easily go with his current outfit, he didn’t need her to waste anything on him. He quickly got his whiteboard and scribbled a counter on it, showing it to Camila before she left.
“Hunter, I promise you I do not mind buying you things. You’re a child in need that I am offering help to, it is my responsibility that you have what you need, so do not worry about it.”
Hunter nodded in agreement, he could tell Camila wasn’t backing down on her offer. He watched as Camila went upstairs to go get Luz. A minute later there was a loud thumping as Luz dashed down the stairs towards Hunter, stopping just short of ramming into the couch, jumping onto it right next to Hunter.
“Hi Huntey!” She wrapped her arms around Hunter, “I’m so excited you’re staying! You don’t mind me calling you Huntey right-?”
Hunter shook his head, he couldn’t care less what she called him.
Luz let go of Hunter, getting off the couch and holding out her hand to him. “So we doing this tour or what?”
Hunter hesitated a moment, his hands had always been a sort of uncomfortable subject for him. He had held Camila’s earlier, though, and Luz seemed just as nice, so what’s the harm? Plus he had his gloves on.
Hunter took Luz’s hand, and was almost immediately pulled off of the couch. She dragged him to the center of the living room, raising one arm up.
“This is the living room.” She giggled, before dragging them to the room right next door. “And this is the kitchen!”
The tour went like that the entire time. Luz would drag Hunter to a room and then make a big deal of labeling it. She was surprisingly thorough with the tour, showing even things like the laundry room and the extra closet next to the door to the backyard. The last place she showed was the basement. When they went down the stairs, they found Camila there, already having gotten a mattress ready with a pillow and some blankets for Hunter. She turned around and noticed them heading down the steps.
“Perfect timing, hijos, I just finished up Hunter’s sleeping area, so if you want to get used to it go ahead, Hunter.” She smiled up at him, finishing smoothing the blanket on top of the bed.
Hunter nodded, finishing heading down the steps with Luz. Luz plopped down on the bed, eagerly patting the spot next to her. Hunter carefully sat down, a little unsure of using someone else’s items without need. The mattress was soft beneath him, and the blanket was fuzzy, though he couldn’t properly feel it due to his gloves. He looked up to see Luz grinning at him, her smile so bright it was nearly blinding. Behind her stood Camila, a warm smile on her face as she watched the two together. Hunter knew he shouldn’t get too used to this, that his main priority should be trying to get back to his Uncle. His ideas were betrayed by a small voice in the back of his head.
I like it here.