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Luz felt the sand finding its way into her shoes, the smell of the burning hot sea invading her nose. She never thought she would visit this place before, especially under these, frankly, bizarre circumstances, even for her new standards. Knowing all she knew now, she almost couldn’t believe she let herself come back here. Yet, such a terrifying thought hid in serene scenery.
“Is this the place?” Hunter’s words brought her senses back. It was weird to see him without his golden guard uniform, he actually looked like a kid now. Not some… underling or, well, guard. She wondered at times if this was the same golden guard she met who kidnapped and threatened King so that she and Eda would do his dirty work.
“Yeah, this is it.” Luz kicked some sand around. “Doesn’t look like much, but if you go to that pool-” she pointed at a spot on the ground “ -you’ll find a stonesleeper.” She tapped her foot on the sand. “We’ll have to find the right pool, they weren’t in any order I could find.”
“Luz are you ok?” Hunter was suddenly by her side and she found herself right on the shore. She backed up, her foot almost tripping over a branch that Lilith had left there in their previous adventure. “You don’t have to come with me. I’m fine going alone,” Hunter claimed.
“I’ll be fine! If you get into trouble you’ll need backup, and we don’t know if…” Luz’s eyes met his and her words fell, dissolving into the silent breeze. Neither of them needed her to complete the sentence, both scared that even uttering his name could lead him to them.
“I can always get the owl lad- Eda to come with me, or Lilith.”
“No, Eda and King are busy getting the thing we need for our plan and Lilith is trying to learn all she can about the collector. They’re doing stuff. Plus it’s not about me, this is your thing. I wanna support you” She playfully punched Hunter’s shoulder, to which he responded with a raised eyebrow.
“If you’re sure.” Luz nodded. She made her way towards a pool, plunging her head in before taking it right back out.
“Not this one…”
They both started their search. They needed a time slightly before the one Luz and Lilith went into, but it was impossible to know if there even was a pool so close to that time. And who knows, maybe the time they were looking for was actually 200 years before instead. Both of them checked, rechecked, and rechecked again the same holes for something they might not even recognize, not paying notice that their friend had already checked that one, and marked it, or they didn’t care to notice. They must have spent at least an hour checking every single inch, every single grain. But, when they looked up they realized their constant reaffirmation that, yes, that section of sand really did lead to yesterday morning had caused them only to search a portion of the shore.
“We’re… terrible at this,” Hunter admitted to the sand. Luz looked at all the twigs, some of which were barely a centimeter apart.
“We’re overthinking this.” Luz stood up, making her way to a twig that she had marked by adding a slash mark using a knife that Lilith brought last time. Both of them had been avoiding this spot, worrying that if they got too close they would end up remeeting Phillip and accidentally teach him the secrets of the universe, or get dragged into a pit with a lava monster, or whatever. “Maybe they are chronological. Or close enough to being so.” She kneeled down afoot to the left, or at least her left, of the stick and tapped on the sand, causing a ripple to appear. She readied to put her head through but stopped when she felt a hand on her shoulder.
“We’ll do it together,” Hunter said. They took a moment to enjoy this, it was rare that the two could ever just have a nice moment together. They were always running from loyal coven heads, or planning some impossible mission, or sticking their head in the sand. And they were still doing that now, but Luz felt like that small second of solidarity, both indescribable dread and yet hopeful wonder filling the spaces between time, was the break they needed. Both leaned their heads forward, diving into the sand.
The beach was clear of anyone, the only life they could see was beyond the waters, a small town that Luz had visited the last time. They looked around, just to make extra sure that they hadn’t missed anything when suddenly they heard whistling. Both turned their heads quickly to find what seemed to be an older Hunter with longer hair, round ears, and a face that lacked his scarring. He also held a bouquet of some flower, which Luz had known by now were not safe to hold when she tried to gift them to Amity. Luckily for Luz and Hunter, the latter’s look-alike was too busy staring at the flowers to notice two children emerging from the sand. Hunter let out a small squeak before pulling his head out of the sand. Luz saw the man’s face contort into confusion, and he was just about to look up when Luz was violently yanked from the other side.
They were back in their time, Hunter’s face flushed and Luz almost flung back into another pool. She quickly recovered herself, but Hunter wasn’t so lucky. His face was red and his heartbeat in his chest faster than it ever had before.
“Are you okay?” Luz scooted herself forward but made sure to let Hunter have room to breathe.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Totally! Why wouldn’t I be? I-” Hunter leaned back, his eyes darting from side to side when suddenly his whole right arm fell into a pool behind him. He quickly recovered it, somehow even more flushed than he was before. He put his head into his hands, taking a moment to breathe shaky, uneven breaths. “This was stupid,” he finally whispered to himself. “I mean, what was I going to say? Hey, your brother stabbed you in your back, killed you, and then made several clones of you, using your bones, of which I am the 17th or 18th, maybe the 20th something.” Hunter was standing now, his hands motioning wildly. “I mean is there even a reason to do this? The others are all doing important work and here I am sticking my head into the sand like I’ll suddenly feel like a whole different person, like I’m suddenly…”
Hunter stopped and looked ahead of him, unable to form his next words no matter how hard he tried. “We… we should go,” he finally managed to spit out.
“No.”
“No?” He looked at Luz, who looked slightly childish sitting on the ground, he had almost forgotten she was one too. “We could be out there creating new glyph combos or learning more about the day of unity, but instead we’re here pursuing some wild daydream of a 16-year-old.” He looked away from Luz towards a random stick they had planted into the ground.
“This is important too.” Luz stood up. “If I let you do that to yourself I’d be a hypocrite. For crying out loud, Amity and I were out hunting for an author who doesn’t even exist in the world!” She flung her hands up dramatically. “Plus, there's always a chance that he knows something.” She noticed that Hunter’s eyes moved from the random stick to where they had stuck their heads a minute or two ago. “Don’t deny yourself this, you’re worthy of peace of mind.” He looked up towards her now and she met him with a sympathetic smile. “I… I know if there were one of these on earth I would have done the same to meet my dad one more time. I know it’s probably something you’re not supposed to do, I know too many sci-fi movies- you don’t know what those are, but trust me- to know that time is a tricky thing to mess with. Messing with it myself I…” There was that silence again that pierced through Luz’s mind. “... but hey, maybe this already happened, just like how with what I did didn’t change the present because it’s already done.”
“What would we even tell him?” Hunter’s voice regained some of its volume. “I can’t tell him I’m his clone, or from the future, right? But how else would I explain that we have the exact same face? Or the fact that I’m with another human.”
They both stood there, desperately searching their minds for anything of value. “I mean… why can’t we tell him that we’re from the future?”
“What? Because I can’t let him know what happens. His brother betraying him, me being a clone-“
“Well we don’t have to tell him that, but maybe you’re… his son! From the future.”
“His… son.” Hunter did not look amused in the slightest. “He’ll think we were crazy.”
“Think about it, he doesn’t know half of what’s going on in the Boiling Isles, maybe he wouldn’t be too surprised about a time-traveling teen?” Luz stretched out the last word, her pitch becoming higher. “Maybe not the perfect plan, but you want this, don’t you?”
Hunter took a moment. Why did he want this? What benefit was there to doing this? He recalled Luz’s previous statements. Didn’t he deserve some joy? “Yes… but what about you? You’re still human.”
Luz thought for a second before pulling her hood up. “This work?” Hunter stared at her, unable to discern if she was being serious. “It’s either this or I steal another dead guy’s helmet, either way, my ears are hidden.”
Hunter sighed, fidgeting with his thumbs as both of them sat down. “This feels stupid.”
Luz frowned before putting her hand forward, touching the sand in between her and Hunter. “I know what it’s like to miss someone you barely even knew… well I guess in this case you never knew him, but that’s not the point. If it gives you any sense of happiness, if it can relieve your stress even for a moment, isn’t that worth something?”
“And if he wants nothing to do with me?”
Luz huffed, taking her hand back. “No, no, no-no, no. We are not doing this. You’re not going to what-if me.” She knew this all too well, the constant ‘what if… what if… what if’ nagging at the back of her mind, and she wouldn’t allow herself to watch Hunter do the same. “Hunter, I know you’re scared, but I’ll be here with you. If he does, for some unimaginable reason, reject you, I’ll sock him just like Lillith did to Phillip, because you’re a great person. Sure, you have your quirks, but over these past weeks, I’ve seen you try to improve, over and over again. If he hates you, he doesn’t deserve an intact nose.” Luz smiled at him.
“I- okay. So I’m his… son, from the future. And you’re…?”
Luz puffed her chest out. “Luzura, your friend and mentor, teaching you all I can about these wild, unforgivable lands.” She dramatically posed.
Hunter paused. “Okay… maybe don’t bring that up. And don’t do that.”
Luz laughed, allowing Hunter to chuckle and finally release the tension that was building in him.
“Ready?” she moved closer to the pool.
“Ready.” Hunter hesitated before joining her. “Before we go in…”
“Yeah?”
“Thanks… uh, Luzura.”
Luz’s smile widened as she playfully slapped Hunter on the back. “No problem, dear apprentice!” She used her ‘deep’ voice for that one. They both took this moment again, the nice harmonization of themselves to each other. Both prepared to plunge their heads in, and into the sand they went.
The beach was just as quiet and peaceful as it was before, the only difference was that the man they saw earlier was sitting on a rock, looking at the horizon, in awe as if he had never seen anything better.
Hunter stood there, fidgeting once again with his hands, for a second he was unsure if he could even move. A million little things converged and split and screamed in his head. Suddenly, only half-consciously, he whispered, “Luz this is stupid, let’s leave.”
Unfortunately, Hunter was not a quiet whisperer. The man’s head perked up and he turned around. Hunter now had his hands over his face, which was looking away.
“Oh, sorry! I did not realize there were others on this shore, do you want me to leave?” The man said while he stood up. Hunter was startled, hearing his voice slightly deeper and in a different accent was certainly… odd.
“No, good sir!” Luz announced suddenly, she was clearly putting on a voice. “We are here to… er, employ discussion with you.”
“Oh! Sorry, do I know you? I’ve met so many people here it’s a little dizzying.”
“No, not yet, but you will!” She held her hand up in a flourish towards Hunter, who did not move an inch. His breathing became heavy, and his heart sunk. Luz whispered to him “You can do this!” That’s right… he has faced monsters and betrayal, battles and inescapable danger, he could do… this. Whatever ‘this’ was.
Hunter slowly moved his hands to reveal his face, and revealed his original self’s face to his own.
The moment was silent, the only sound was their breathing being carried by the wind. Hunter looked flushed and the man’s mouth was agape.
“I’m… I'm Hunter, your son… from the future.” Hunter mumbled. Luckily, Hunter was not a quiet whisperer.
“I’m a little confused. I thought this was some joke at first but… you don’t look like you’re… joking.”
“I’m not,” Hunter whispered. “It’s a little confusing but we came through these time pools and, um, I came back in time to see y-“
Before he even knew it, suddenly Hunter was surrounded by the arms of this man. Hunter couldn’t bring himself to hug him back.
“If you have made me a fool, then congrats on you. But the way you spoke, it felt real.”
Hunter was choking up for some reason he couldn’t explain to himself. The man noticed this and pulled himself back a little. Hunter looked away. “I’m sorry…”
“No, no. I shouldn’t have done that. Are you ok?”
“No, yeah, yeah I’m fine.” Hunter’s voice cracked more than he anticipated. “It’s just…”
“Something happens, doesn’t it?” Hunter can’t look up, he didn’t think he could bear to see his fa- his original version’s face. That was, until he saw a hand rise near his cheek, waiting a moment. Hunter didn’t resist as it touched his face. It was the softest touch Hunter had ever felt. He was feeling a lot of those touches recently, but this one, which was by a complete stranger, was his favorite, although he didn’t admit it to himself. “I’m sorry if I wasn’t there for you.”
Hunter's head perked up to look at the man’s face at last. “It wasn’t- I would never blame you.” The words tumbled out of his mouth faster than he could catch them. “You couldn’t help it. In a way, if you hadn’t I wouldn’t have…” Hunter stopped himself before he said too much, but it was enough for the man to make his own inference which would only be half wrong and half right, in a way.
“Well, then, if… whatever happened to me allowed you to stay safe, I’m happy I did it.” These words shocked Hunter to his very soul. How could one who had never met him before, this kid who claimed to be his son from the future, be so nice to him?
Sure, in recent times he had gotten plenty of new experiences, feeling the kindness of others ten or twenty times better than before, but this was so much more than that. This man was Hunter’s, in an unfortunately accurate way, flesh and blood. His family was no longer a tyrannical uncle, it was his friends and this man who he couldn’t even register as being before him.
The tears came faster than Hunter could have ever expected. Suddenly, against his will and better judgment, his arms now wrapped around the man, who did return the gesture. And, once again out of some control not of his own (or that he at least believed was not his own), he said in a muffled voice, “I miss you… dad.” Where did that come from? How did Hunter miss a man he never met? How could he miss the man that he was?
One of the hands that were hugging Hunter moved up to his hair and started to run through it. That was also something new for Hunter in the last few weeks, and once again, this was his favorite.
“I know, I know. But you’re here with me now. I’m no parent yet in my time, but I hope whatever time I have with you I can be the best I can be.” Hunter’s arms squeezed tighter around the man. “That is if you don’t squeeze me to death.” The man laughed softly. Hunter pulled back from the hug, flustered.
“Sorry, I-”
“No, no, I was only teasing. Tight hugs are always better, in my opinion.” The man smiled at Hunter, who, miraculously, was able to give a small, awkward smile back.
Hunter was wiping away his tears when the man suddenly said, “And, uh, who might you be?”
Hunter forgot Luz was there, perhaps she forgot she was there herself because she jumped when the man spoke to her. “Oh, I’m Luzura, a friend of Hunter’s! Teaching him what I know.” She did an awkward little bow, almost falling face-first into the sand. “It’s nice to meet you, uh, Mr. Hunter’s dad.”
The man chuckled a little before reaching out a hand. When Luz shook it, he said, “Call me Caleb.”
Oh man if Hunter could see his own face. Caleb? Like the fake name Flapjack gave him? That Caleb? He had to talk to that bird later.
“So you… teach my son?”
Once Hunter got over that shock, he said confidently, “Yes, actually. She’s a pretty good teacher, she taught me a lot just today, in fact.”
“I’m glad my son has someone like you, Luzura. Now, we must catch up, I have a million things to ask you.”
They all moved to the rocks where Caleb had been previously sitting alone.
“Oh, uh, by the way, no idea who you’re giving those flowers to but I do not recommend it. Just touching one of those petals can make you sick… it is not a pretty sight.” Luz pointed out as they sat, the flowers had been left there by the rocks.
“Oh!” Caleb looked down at the flowers and gently kicked them into the boiling sea where they promptly, well, boiled. “Thank you. I am still very clearly new to this whole realm.”
“We’re those for someone?”
“Yes, actually. A woman who has helped me and my brother dearly on our journey. We were to meet today.”
Hunter suddenly realized the possibility of someone other than Caleb seeing them today. If this ever got to Phillip it would be dangerous, to say the least. “Oh, do you need us to-”
“No!” Caleb responded before Hunter had finished standing up. “She is notoriously late and I am notoriously early at everything. I wanted to see the sight of the landscape here and gave myself a little tour. But this isn’t about me, please tell me about you.”
What a question… did Hunter even know himself? He thought he did at one point but now it would be impossible for him to say a single thing about himself without double guessing its validity.
“What do you want to know specifically?” Hunter eventually spit out, hoping this would help him think of something.
“Anything. Your day-to-day, your hobbies, your goals, and aspirations, how to live, and who you know.” Caleb could have gone on with his list forever and Hunter still wouldn’t be able to find a question he could answer with confidence.
“I… I have to be honest, I’m not sure who I am. I thought I knew but I was… so wrong. Now I have a task ahead of me that I don’t know if I can do.” His voice trailed off softly.
“I can tell you some things about Hunter,” Luz said suddenly. “I can tell you he’s an amazing flier and a pretty good fighter, too.” She stood up suddenly, standing as if she was giving some performance or speech. “He’s never given up on what’s important. I’ve seen him go further than anyone else. He’s better than he thinks he is. He’s a pretty good friend and almost like a brother to me.”
Caleb smiled, putting his hand on Hunter’s shoulder. “Sounds like a wonderful kid to me.”
Hunter didn’t know how to react, he sat there utterly dumbfounded once again.
“What’s with that face? Dude, you rock. Haha, rock… cause you’re… sitting on a… nevermind that wasn’t funny.” Caleb didn’t seem to agree, though, because after Luz awkwardly sat down he started laughing and Hunter couldn’t help but join him, and so did Luz.
Once everything died down a bit, Hunter softly said, “I wish we could stay here, forever.” Caleb pulled Hunter closer to him, once again making Hunter red. It was weird being treated like a son after so many years of being just a guard. He felt almost embarrassed knowing that Luz was seeing this, but when he looked at her face it wasn’t teasing as he expected, it was bittersweet. Hunter then pulled her closer, which she would never have expected in a million years.
“You softy.” She smirked, now definitely teasing. He rolled his eyes and they all sat there, watching the clouds move over the horizon and into the distance, forming and shaping and changing. Never staying the same and yet never fully falling apart.
Suddenly, from the treeline they could hear a feminine voice shouting, “Caleb? Are you there?” Hunter and Luz suddenly sat up.
“We have to go,” Hunter said suddenly as both of them stood.
“Do you have to? Can’t you meet her?” Caleb said, grabbing Hunter’s hand.
“I…I want to, but…” Tears started to form in Hunter’s eyes again. “I was never even meant to come back here. I don’t want to change too much by having her involved. Dad, you need to keep living your life and I need to go home and do my task and-”
Once again that hug, that wonderful hug, wrapped around Hunter like the softest blanket imaginable.
“I see, I don’t want to make this harder for you,” Caleb said. “But I want you to know that I love you, and I will always be with you no matter what happens.”
Those ironic words could have stabbed Hunter in the heart. Of course, Caleb would always technically be there with him, but he wanted nothing more than to take him into the future with him at that very moment, but he knew that could be catastrophic.
“I love you too, dad.”
They both pulled away at the same moment and looked at each other, both sharing the same smile. “Take care of him, Luzura.” Luz did a little salute to that command, but she was obviously also tearing up.
“I will, I promise.”
“And Hunter, also make sure to take care of yourself. I’ve only known you for a little, but I know you’ll do amazing and make me proud.”
“Thank you,” Hunter whispered.
“Caleb!” the woman’s voice was nearer. Luz and Hunter quickly made their way toward the pool.
“Oh, and dad, if you don’t mind keeping this whole meeting a secret.”
“Of course.” Caleb said gently before looking back and yelling, “I’m here!”
The two shared one last look at one another, their faces sharing a clear and distinct understanding that transcended the time that was shared between them. They both knew that no matter how different their times were and no matter how long it would have been since they last saw one another, they would always be with the other; Caleb comforting Hunter during his struggles, and Hunter motivating Caleb beyond the next mishap or misfortune.
“Until we meet again, son.”
Hunter hesitated, not able to stand the fact that this would be their first and last meeting. “Until then, dad.”
Caleb turned around just as Hunter and Luz saw a hand appearing from the trees, who luckily didn’t seem to notice the two yet. “Oh, there you are!” Before she could finish the sentence, the two were back in their own time.