Chapter Text
The Golden Guard never enjoyed his missions. No witch would enjoy what he had to do. That never stopped him from completing them to perfection, however. He was thankful for the easy mission today: Collect the palismen from Hexside, deliver them to Belos. His palismen missions were always on the more difficult side, he was glad he could take front in times like this. Whistling peacefully to himself, he congratulated himself on an almost successful mission. Almost.
He heard a shout, and felt a pressure on his back. Glancing, he noticed a…leaf? Plastered to his cloak. Then he was off. A fire spell? Why was it on his back? A glyph? He righted himself in the air, and flew back to his ship. Noticing the Human trying to work it, he stifled a laugh, finding amusement in the fact she didn't even know how to land, she was even talking to herself at this point. Well, not that he never did that himself, it was just a bit different for him, though.
"Now, how do I land this thing?" He heard her wonder aloud. He took the opportunity,
"Oh you just… pull that lever there," although the human couldn't see, The Golden Guard was smirking under his mask. Oh how he was loving this.
× × ×
Of course his good luck ran out. His ship was going down, and it was ruining his mission. He desperately struggled with the controls, trying to get the ship to level itself, maybe he could have a smooth landing? But the ground was coming too fast, and his ship was falling too fast, and-
× × ×
Hunter woke to a slap. It… definitely wasn't something he was used to, but it did its job in waking him up. He looked over to his assailant. A… human? He'd heard distantly of a human in the Boiling Isles, but he didn't think it was real.
"HUMAN?!" What…why are you here? Where are we?" He looked around, when had he left the castle?
The human looked at him for a minute, "Uh, dude. Do you seriously not remember the past like… 10 minutes? You threatened to kill me!" She was flailing her hands around at this point, and Hunter was growing more and more confused by the second,
"Titan, of course I did, you are annoying. Now, get away from me, or I'll- I'll follow through with that threat!" He tried to sound intimidating, but if he was being honest, intimidation had never been his strong suit. The human obviously agreed with him,
"My name is Luz, not human, thanks very much. And nope! Your lovely friend Kikimora is over there, and by the looks of her lovely… pet," she cringed, "She has it out for you, Mr Golden Guard,"
Hunter himself cringed at that. He always hated when people called him that, he preferred to be just Hunter, and he couldn't deal with being called by his… Title the entire time he was stuck with this human.
He glanced away from the human, towards Kikimora, and sure enough, the human - Luz, she was called Luz - was right. Kikimora's pet was currently in the middle of feasting on his mask. Well, that might be a problem. He looked back at Luz, "Hunter. My- my name is Hunter, not Golden Guard," Luz looked surprised, then smiled,
"Okay! Well, Hunter. Looks like Kikimora has it out for you, so…maybe you could ditch the cloak, and let's get away, yeah?" She looked at him expectantly, holding out a hand. He pushed it away, standing up on his own. He wasn't that useless, Titan. As they walked off, he spared a glance back, and as he watched the…dragon…thing tear his cloak apart, he was thankful Luz had offered her help.
× × ×
Luz and Hunter made their way to the city, Hunter in the lead. Luz followed, trying to analyse her past interaction with him. How had he forgotten what was going on in 10 minutes? Had he hit his head when he got knocked out? Luz wondered about taking him to a healer,
"Hey, Go- Hunter. Are you.. okay? We can go to a healer if you want, y'know. Short term memory loss isn't exactly…good after being unconscious," she said. She doubted he would accept, but she needed to offer anyway. The walk was kind of awkward without conversation.
Hunter glanced back, glaring, "Yeah well, maybe memory loss is just..normal for me! Just another flaw, isn't it. Haven't got enough, apparently!" He laughed, turning back around and storming off. Luz was… more concerned now,
"Dude, how is memory loss normal? You should definitely go to a healer,"
Hunter simply walked faster, and Luz realised he was going towards coven scouts, and sighed. Of course he's going to go straight to the scouts. Why did she think differently?
"Hey, wait!" She tried to get his attention but to no avail. He waltzed right up to the guards, demanding to be brought inside, and Luz couldn't help but giggle when they didn't believe him. Until.. he turned to her,
"Staff," he commanded, gesturing at the weapon she was still holding. Deciding quickly, she hid it behind her back, hoping she wouldn't regret that choice later. She didn't really have time to think about that however, because she regretted it immediately.
× × ×
Hunter was furious. How dare these scouts refuse to recognise his authority? Sure, he wasn't exactly The Golden Guard right now, but he still had the sigil, and half his armour on. And then the human- Luz, he reminded himself, just had to go and hide his staff from him. The one thing that gave him any sort of power.
Chasing her through Latissa was not enjoyable in the slightest, especially when she found out he was powerless. He hated people knowing that. It made him weak, vulnerable. He stepped back. He was going to show this stupid human how powerful he is without his staff. Clambering up to the top of the roof, he exhaled in relief. And immediately tensed back up again. He could feel the warmth of artificial magic coming from his staff, and soon noticed Luz was holding it, aimed at him,
"Back up! Or- or else!"
Hunter froze. She was going to hurt him. Kill him, even. He felt himself standing up. He didn't really know what he was doing, if he was being honest. His body stalked towards the human, his voice seemingly speaking of its own accord,
"Or else what? You gonna blast me to bits?" He laughed, "Nah, you're too nice for that. Fly away? Uh uh, you know you can't do that either. 'Cause then you'll be leaving behind all your precious palismen. You don't tend to think things through, do you, Human?" Luz faltered, and he was about to grab his staff back, but if course Kikimora thought this was the perfect time to fly directly over their heads (he has no clue how she didn't spot them) and land with the palismen. He ran to the ledge of the building with Luz, "huh, so she was after my catch," he thought aloud. He saw Luz move next to him, pointing his staff at him again. Hadn't she learned her lesson literally 30 seconds ago?
× × ×
Hunter aimed his staff at the human. At least this time he had it, oh how the tables turn, something inside him said. He shrugged it off, Stupid thoughts. Shut up. He wasn't going to actually hurt Luz, he just needed those palismen, and he was about to apologise for it, sincerely, when of course Kikimora decided to butt in, shooting magic that barely missed his eye.
He suddenly felt something tug on his arm, but… not physically. All of a sudden he wasn't in Latissa, but he hadn't exactly left, either. He caught a glimpse of… himself? Although this version was completely in Golden Guard getup, cloak and mask included, the figure glanced back, before reaching for a door. It looked frighteningly similar to his bedroom door in the castle, "Let me handle this, Hunter. You're safe now," leaving Hunter confused and lost, as he stared at the place where the door had been placed.
What the fuck?