Chapter Text
Chapter 1 (Prologue) :
The weather outside was simply terrible. The rain outside was pounding against the ground with no hints of stopping anytime soon. Thunder boomed outside, only muffled by the sound of the rain pouring on the car Camilla Noceda was sitting in.
She finally pulled out into her driveway and exited the car. She quickly ran inside and pulled off her coat, hanging it on her coat rack. Despite being outside for a couple moments, her hair still got drenched.
Going to the living room, Camilla saw her husband sitting on the couch waiting for her.
"Good night, querida." Benjamin greeted a little smuggly, waving at her. "You're awfully late."
"I had a late shift." She huffed, exhausted. It was currently 11 PM. "Not to mention the weather outside... Dios mio, I'm amazed the electricity hasn't cut out yet."
"Ha, don't jinx it." He chuckled. "I was waiting for you to get back."
He got up and walked towards her. But when he took three steps forwards, a rock suddenly flew right through the window, shattering it. The rock landed and rolled right to their feets. Both of them stared in shock for a moment.
"Who..." Benjamin growled in anger, before calming himself down. He quickly picked up a red baseball bat from another room, while Camilla picked up a flashlight from a drawer. He quickly put on a sweater that he found lying around and turned towards his wife.
Benjamin opened his mouth to tell her to give him the flashlight, but she cut him off before he could. "I'll come with you."
He paused for a moment, before he relented. "Fine. But stay close behind me."
They opened the backdoor and spotted some barely visible footprints in the mud. There was a second trail right next to the footprints, thin but long, as if the perpetrator stuck a stick into the ground and dragged it through the mud to leave a mark.
Both of them silently nodded at each other before rushing out, following the trail quickly so that they don't lose it to the rain. After about a minute of running, they finally came to what seemed to be the end of the trail. However, Benjamin managed to make out of what seemed to be the sound a door slamming shut a little further into the forest.
Jogging a little bit further ahead, he realized that the trail and the sound he heard all lead to the abandoned shack in the woods. Benjamin could make out muddied footprints on the stairs under the canopy. Whoever threw that rock at their window was seemingly inside that shack.
Carefully approaching the shack, Benjamin gripped his bat tighter. Camilla was close behind him with a worried expression on her face.
Slamming the front door open, they found... no one inside. There were only three muddied footprints on the dry floorboards before they just vanished. As if the person just disappeared into thin air. Benjamin looked around confused. The floor was littered with old newspapers, random pieces of wood and some torn furniture. He and his wife only recently moved into the neighborhood, they didn't know about the seemingly abandoned shack.
Walking a little further into the room with Camilla, she pointed the flashlight in different directions to scan further into the shack. The beam fell upon a small basket on the ground, which suddenly made a small sound. Both of them got slightly startled by it and slowly approached the basket. Glancing inside, Camilla could not help but gasp.
Inside was an infant, no older than a year, sleeping peacefully through the multiple layers of blankets. The infant also had pointed ears and tufts of pale blonde hair.
Benjamin noticed what looked like a letter peeking out of a corner of the basket. He picked it up and opened while Camilla was tending to the infant. "Dios mio... who'd leave an infant here?" He heard her whisper, traces of anger in her voice.
He took the flashlight from Camilla and used it to read the letter. The handwriting was clearly rushed and uneven, as if the writer wrote on an uneven surface. It took a minute to decipher the cursive handwriting.
'Dear whoever reads this,
This is Hunter, please take good care of him. Don't tell anyone you found him here.
Best of luck.'
Benjamin then squinted his eyes, noticing incredibly small writing at the bottom of the letter. They were harder to decipher due to the small text.
'Deepest apologies for breaking your window. I had to get your attention somehow. Also my mentee wanted me to write a formal letter but this feels more natural.'
Benjamin let out a small, involuntary chuckle when he finished reading. He tucked the letter into one of his pockets and turned to his wife, who was currently cradling the strange infant with a concerned expression.
"We should bring him back with us. His skin is very cold, he might get a cold."
"Should we take him in as well?"
Camilla glanced back down to the sleeping infant, a small smile developing on her face. "We were already preparing to have a child, so one more wouldn't hurt."
"So, thinking about your dark and mysterious past?" A new voice suddenly spoke behind Hunter Noceda.
He was standing in front of the statue of Phillip and Caleb Wittebane, the founders of Gravesfield and renowned scholars and witch hunters of their time. When the 15-year-old turned around, he saw his younger sister, Luz Noceda, standing before him with two ice cream cones in her hands and an amused look on her face. Despite being siblings, Hunter looked nothing like his sister, which was fine with him.
"Maybe." Hunter shrugged, taking one of the cones from her.
"It seems that something about these statues is drawing you in. Maybe like a... familial bond." Luz said, making her voice incredibly overexaggerated and mysterious, as if she was narrating a murder mystery.
"Don't be ridiculous, we already went over this headcanon of yours. Phillip and Caleb both died childless and there are no records of either of them getting married."
"Hmm.... But if I remember correctly, they did vanish one day out of nowhere." Luz continued, not dropping her voice.
"And then never seen again." Hunter added bluntly.
"But what if they went into some other realm full of witches, and then Caleb decided to get married. And then tragedy suddenly struck, forcing someone to bring his last ancestor here?" Luz rambled on.
Hunter rolled his eyes despite the smile growing on his face.
"But for real though, you look like a carbon-copy of Caleb. Other than your ears and probably eyes." Luz continued, her mysterious tone dropping only slightly.
"Well... I don't look exactly like him. He had blue eyes and lighter hair than me. Besides, this stone statue was built in 1648. Some parts throughout the decades would have been damaged or altered when restoring it, and-"
"Blah blah blah, I'm a nerd, something something history." Luz interrupted, mockingly mimicking his voice. Hunter felt the tip of his ears reddening in anger, which just made Luz laugh. "C'mon, you're in denial. You should accept your fate and destiny as a inter-dimensional witch!"
"And you should accept your fate and destiny as a random, not so special 14-year-old girl from Gravesfield, Connecticut." Hunter said bluntly.
"All heroes start out with seemingly no special straits, like the Good Witch Azura, she started out-" Luz started to ramble excitedly.
"I'm sorry, who's the nerd here again?"
"You, obviously. You're the one the teachers call a 'prodigy'."
"And you're the one currently obsessing and fawning over a kids book."
"Heeey, I'm not obsessed-" Luz whined.
"You've been saying that for the past year. C'mon, you're in denial." He finished his sentence by mimicking her voice. This time, Luz's face twisted in mild irritation.
"Well I'll have you know that the Azura series is a genuine masterclass of-" Luz started loudly, but was cut off when Hunter grabbed her arm and turned her away, dragging her with him as he walked in a random direction.
"Hey, what're you-?"
"Jacob." Hunter said bluntly.
"Oh." Luz grimaced. Glancing behind her she saw the museum curator walking around and taking notes. They had a run-in with him a year ago, when they tried to enter the Gravesfield Historical Society to write a history assignment for school. Jacob immediately confronted Hunter, accusing him of being some alien from Mars and kept pointing at his eyes and ears. Luz told him to leave them alone, and when he insulted Luz and their family, Hunter punched him straight in the face and they both quickly left, making a silent vow to never interact with him again.
"This day is too good for him to ruin." Hunter said.
"Tell me about it. I'm betting my half melted ice cream that HE'S the one setting up those traps outside our house."
"Those small things? Is he actually expecting to catch me in one of those, or is our house some sort of prime hunting location?" Hunter chuckled.
Both of them were now walking home with ice cream on hand and their conversation shifted back to school.
"So for a book report, I was thinking about making a griffin!" Luz talked excitedly.
"A griffin?"
"Yeah! It would have the head of a pigeon, and the body of a lion with talons." Luz rambled.
".....Anything else?"
"Uhh, no. I think that's it. Do you think I should add something?" Luz asked curiously.
"....Spider breath." Hunter mumbled after a moment of deliberation.
Luz simply stared at him. He was about to say nevermind, but then his sister laughed. "Spider breath! Hunter, you genius! It's perfect and anatomically correct. How'd you know?!"
"Uhmm... just, had a hunch." Hunter said awkwardly.
"I'm adding that to my pile of evidence against you. Admit it, you're an inter-dimensional witch!"
"Uhh... fine. Whatever. It's not like anything is going to happen anyway." Hunter rolled his eyes.