Chapter Text
The night he found out the truth- when he found out what he is, that his only family has been lying to him his whole life- he ran out of the owl house in a dead sprint, tore up dirt in chunks under his boots, desperate to get as far away from any evidence of what he saw as possible.
Running in the dark in a blind panic is not a sustainable practice, however, no matter how much you have trained for it. And half hidden between two large trees, he had seen the very group he had attempted to arrest hiding behind a copse of trees. He hadn't even considered chase after them, he couldn't bring them to Belos now. If he went back he was dead. Worse than dead.
What he did do was startle, badly, at the sight of the three figures. Every shadow had been Belos and the sight of three cloaked figures made him shriek, thin and high like a child, before turning on his heel and trying to run deeper into the woods. He says trying because the moment he took another step his foot plunged into a scarie-dog hole and he smashed face-first into the pine nettles below. He heard the crunch-snap of his ankle and tasted copper, he heard, distantly, one of the cloaked people hiss through their teeth and felt distantly offended at their pity. He rolls over, ignoring the stab of agony as he dislodges his ankle from the hole, he tries to stand, bracing himself on a tree as hot blood runs down his face. His knees wobble. His whole body wobbles. He's as weak as a newborn. Was he ever a newborn? What did he look like as a baby, if he ever was one?
The thought makes him heave out another panicked breath, and before he can move away, disappear into the woods forever, something thick and slimy wraps around his good ankle. He cries out in fear as he is pulled off his feet, landing hard on his back. The back of his head hits the same root he had tripped on and he swears the Titan put that root there to fuck with him specifically. He is tugged into the copse of trees and then the cloaked figures are staring down at him as he struggles to free himself.
"Leave me alone !" He sobs, thrashing with all the strength he has left. "Just let me go-" Where? Home? That place is long gone, if it ever existed at all. Does he just plan to live out in the woods forever? His wilderness survival skills are incredible, Belos wouldn't have let them be anything less than that, but being actively hunted with a shattered nose and a broken ankle. He wouldn't last a week.
"Let me go..." He finishes weakly. "You're hurting me."
He has never sounded more like a child to his own ears.
The abomination goo loosens around his ankle, but he's too tired to do any more struggling.
A tune is plucked out, something that sounds like it could have been a lullaby, if lullabies were something people- something things like him got.
Everything goes black.
The next time he is aware of his surroundings, he isn't dead, or being tortured, or back at the palace, which are all pretty good things. There is a bad thing, though. He isn't where he fell asleep, he hasn't opened his eyes yet but he knows he isn't because he smells no pine, no soil. The air smells like recently put out candles and dust and magic.
He cracks open an eye to see where he is, just peeking through his eyelashes.
He's in the owl house. He's laying on the living room couch, there is steam wafting from the kitchen, and the human- and Luz is sitting on the floor, head resting on the coffee table, asleep.
He opens his eyes fully, his ears twitch as he listens for where the others are in the house. He can hear humming in the kitchen, it certainly smells like someone's in the kitchen, and the only ones able to reach the stove are the Owl Lady and the human, who is currently asleep. He doesn't know where the rat-dog thing is, but it's not like they pose much of a threat to the Golden Guard. The title, even in his own mind, makes his stomach turn.
He gets up slowly, pushing the thick blanket that had been thrown on top of him off of the couch. He pulls himself off the couch, but the moment he puts any weight on his bad ankle, he collapses with a cry. There is a sound in the kitchen, like someone dropped something, and Hunter hisses through his teeth.
"No, no, no ," He whispers, using his arms to drag himself across the floor, towards the door. He doesn't know what his plan is, but he can't stay here. The human stirs behind him, he can hear it. He can hear the Owl Lady's shoes on the floor, coming up behind him, but he keeps shuffling forward, tears pricking at his eyes. When did he get so desperate ? They must be looking at him with so much disgusting pity .
"Hunter..." Luz says, sounding sad. "You don't have to run."
Hunter doesn't stop, he just shakes his head, not trusting his voice not to crack when he speaks. He has enough reasons to be embarrassed tonight.
"Alright kid," The Owl Lady sighs, and then a blanket is thrown over him, the same one from the couch. "Don't make me use sleeping nettles, you need to lie down. You can do whatever you want when you're not dying under my roof."
"Then let me get out from under your roof," Hunter growls, glaring at her. The Owl Lady rolls her eyes.
"Sorry, I have a strict rule against letting kids run into the woods to get killed." She says dryly. "He is a kid right?" She asks Luz in a stage whisper. The human nods.
"No!" Hunter defends. "I'm- I'm nineteen!"
"Even if that was true," The Owl Lady says, tapping her ladle against her hip. "Which, I don't think it is, fifteen if I had to guess. Nineteen is still a kid to someone my age, so try again."
There is a long pause.
"I'm sixteen," Hunter grumbles.
"There you go!" The Owl Lady says with a snort. "Some honesty. It's a start. Now get back on the couch, I'm making dinner."
Hunter grabs the edge of the coffee table to haul himself back up to the couch without having to stand, but doesn't get the opportunity before Luz picks him up in a bridal carry and nearly falls backward, overbalancing.
"Wow!" She gasps. "You are a lot lighter than you look!"
"Thanks," Hunter says dryly. "Can you put me down now?"
He's dropped onto the couch. He hisses in pain when the back of his head hits the arm of the couch, and he reaches to cover the injury.
"Oh shoot, did you hit your head out there?" Luz asks, eyes suddenly wide and concerned, losing all of the playfulness of earlier.
"No!" Hunter snaps, though he doesn't even know why he's lying. Luz sits down on the coffee table with a sad look in her eyes.
"Do you want to have dinner with us?" Luz asks after a long silence. Hunter purses his lips, everything in him wants to rebel, to push back against any hands that may reach out to him. Part of him- a shamefully big part, wants to go crawling back to Belos.
His stomach rumbles, and he gives the tiniest of nods.
Luz smiles again.
"Uh- I can't eat some things," Hunter says, flushing red. He hates telling people this, it was so easy back at the castle, where all his meals were the same every day and he could eat in the solitude of his room.
"Oh?" Luz asks, cocking her head. "Like what?"
"Like- Like most things!" Hunter snaps, throwing up his hands in agitation. "Anything with demonic ingredients- you know, fairy pies, most milks- whatever."
"Oh! Like me!" Luz says brightly. Hunter pauses in his embarrassment.
"Huh?"
"Yeah, humans can't eat most of the stuff on the boiling isles. I eat a lot of griffin eggs."
"Me... too." Hunter says, surprised. He had never met anyone else with a diet as restrictive as his. They are quiet for several seconds.
"Do you think... are you, like... biologically human?" She asks in a whisper.
"No, that's stupid," Hunter says immediately, crossing his arms and turning his gaze away. He stops halfway through his anger, and thinks.
If he is a copy of the human in those memories, and he shares all DNA with him, besides a few external tweaks such as his ears and eyes, does that mean his insides are all human? It would explain his lack of magic, no bile sac, just like a human.
He shakes the thoughts away.
"It's stupid." He tries again lamely. Luz hums, considering something.
"I'll be right back," She says before rushing up the stairs. On all fours. Weird. He hears thumping, crashing, and things being thrown around. Hunter almost considers going back to sleep by the time she comes thundering down the stairs with a small yellow bag in hand.
"Got it!" She bellows. She throws the bag at him, and it lands in his lap. He stares down at it dumbly.
"What is this?" He asks, suspicious of what could be an attempt to poison him, or even to make good on that sleeping nettles threat the Owl Lady had made.
"They're chips! It's a human snack!" She says. "I had them with me when I came here, I was going to save them for a special occasion, but I think this is more important."
"Why are you giving them to me?" Hunter asks, bewildered.
"Well, if you're, you know, biologically human-"
"I'm not."
"I said if. If you are biologically human, maybe you'll like human food more than demon realm food!"
"That's dumb," Hunter says, but he's already opening the bag. He sniffs it. It smells... very good. He takes one out of the bag and holds it in front of him, up to the light, examining it for any evidence of tampering.
He finds none, so he takes a bite, hesitating to put the whole one in his mouth.
He feels like his entire brain lights up.
Luz smiles at whatever his expression holds.
"Are they good?" She asks, teasing, but Hunter doesn't bother answering, already shoving more chips into his mouth. He can't even bring himself to be embarrassed by how fast he's eating, not when he's eating something he actually enjoys for what might be the first time ever.
He finishes the bag in less than a minute, and wastes no time pouring the crumbs and salt at the bottom of the bag into his mouth.
"Do you have any more human food?" Hunter asks, a touch frantically.
"Eugh, you actually like that crap?" The Owl Lady says from the kitchen doorway, making Hunter startle. He hides the bag behind his hand. "I've tried all kinds of human foods, and let me tell you, whatever humans see in them, they aren't for witches." The wild witch shudders and walks back to the kitchen. Hunter stares after her, brows furrowed, salt on his lips.
Luz doesn't push the subject, she must see that he's not ready to talk about it, but when she brings dinner, two plates of scrambled griffin eggs, she shows him a sort of sauce she made that she eats with it.
It's delicious.
Not as good as the 'chips' but he'll have to take what he can get.
After dinner Luz tucks herself in on the other couch, the green one, blows out all the candles and turns off all the lamps. Hunter lays on his back and pretends to sleep, waiting for Luz's breath to even out into a natural sleep.
When she does fall asleep, he sits up, catching his reflection in the glass of the Owl Lady's framed wanted poster.
He frowns and touches his ears. They twitch away from his hand.
He doesn't look human. He holds a hand to his chest. He doesn't feel human, or at least he doesn't think he does. What does being a human feel like? Would he know the feeling?
He lays back down and places his hand over his heart, the muscle the size of his fist, and feels the beat beneath his palm.
It's slower than the other witches he's met.