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Lan didn't care about Caelus at first. Why would they have?
Yes, they had heard of a boy who was the vessel of a Stellaron, but Lan never cared to go see the boy for themselves.
Why would they go see some anomaly in the world when they had more important things to do? Like hunting down The Abundance to stop them from creating more abominations like the marastruck?
Lan had duties to attend to. They couldn't just take the time to observe some anomaly despite their curiosity.
Even though the boy was the vessel to a Stellaron, a destructive power that belonged to Nanook (who also needed to be eradicated in Lan's humble opinion), Lan was in favor of leaving the boy be.
Clearly, the boy could handle the power of the Stellaron with the help of others and Nanook didn't spare the boy a second glance. Why would Lan eradicate the boy if he wasn't doing any damage?
So, they ignored Caelus in favor of their obligations as The Hunt. As long as Caelus didn't get involved with The Abundance, he would be fine and Lan wouldn't have to eradicate him.
Lan wouldn't have to worry about it. Caelus wasn't causing them any problems after all.
So, they shouldn't have to care about Caelus or spare him a second glance.
Lan was fine with that.
Really, they were.
(Oh... If only The Hunt knew... If only they knew how much Caelus would affect them in the future...)
...
When the Ambrosial Arbor grew back into a full tree even though Lan clearly remembered firing an arrow through the tree to kill it, suffice it to say, Lan was less than pleased.
No, scratch that, Lan was pissed.
They had shot down the tree to prevent further tragedy on the Xianzhou ships and yet the meddling followers of Destruction had a Stellaron on the Xianzhou Luofu that revived the Ambrosial Arbor. So, obviously, Lan was not pleased about it.
Not to mention the fact that one of those damned Lord Ravagers had used a body of a Xianzhou native to get close to the Ambrosial Arbor in the first place! Lan was going to have a migraine...
... And then they were going to kill Nanook. The Destruction was clearly too lenient with their followers and let them run amok. And many wondered why Lan wanted to eradicate Nanook alongside Yaoshi.
Mortals just didn't understand the reason of The Hunt.
While Lan wanted to take action themselves (they wanted to show that Lord Ravager why Yaoshi ran from them-), they realized that the Arbiter-General of the Luofu was going to take care of it. Alongside a reincarnated Vidyadhara high elder and members of the Astral Express (they counted the reincarnated Vidyadhara amongst them as well), it seemed.
Lan decided that while they wouldn't intervene for now, they would remain as a spectator in case they needed to take down the Lord Ravager themself. Lan would gladly take down the Lord Ravager if the team of six couldn't do it.
This also meant that Lan saw the way each person fought. And they had to admit that they were doing wonders for taking down the nuisance.
What surprised Lan was how Caelus in particular used the powers of Preservation rather than the powers of Destruction that they were expecting. So, Lan watched as Caelus used a lance that he wielded with the powers of Preservation with a small deal of interest.
(It was not a small deal of interest.)
Lan didn't know of any mortals that drew power from two paths (not that many caught his attention from the start), but the fact that this anomaly of a boy could was nothing short of intriguing.
Maybe there was more to Caelus than they had originally thought? Or maybe Caelus was just unique?
Despite Lan's new interest in how the boy worked, their rage snapped back with full force when that damned Lord Ravager tried to turn the Arbiter-General into a being of destruction. Luckily, they didn't have to act on their rage, but they definitely wanted to at first.
At least the Lord Ravager was gone now. That was an extreme relief. Hopefully, the damned follower of Destruction wouldn't ever come back.
With that threat now taken care of, Lan was free to get back to their obligations...
... Maybe they would watch Caelus a little more closely now that they knew that he could draw power from more than one path.
Just to make sure he didn't catch the attention of The Abundance.
Yes. Just that.
(Lan was also lying to themself.)
...
Some heliobi, Lan decided, were a downright nuisance.
Watching Caelus closely meant that Lan saw what he got up to. From dealing with the drama with one of the Astral Express crew members and one of the Interastral Peace Corporation Stonehearts, Lan was definitely intrigued by everything Caelus went through.
Was Caelus secretly a magnet for drama? That was something Lan wondered.
But now that they were watching Caelus hunt down heliobi without proper equipment, Lan had to resist the urge to facepalm. The boy was definitely intriguing, but Lan definitely wanted to scold him for this. What kind of idiot goes hunting for something they've never hunted before without proper equipment?
Maybe the ones who were dealing with the heliobi in the first place should've given Caelus a warning or just not let him do this...
...Because Caelus managed to get possessed by one of those damn things! Clearly, that heliobus was attracted to the power inside of him and intended to leech off of him.
It made Lan want to go down and eradicate it-
-But the ones who were in charge of hunting the heliobi down and Arbiter-General of the Luofu dealt with it, so Lan was appeased for the time being. They still weren't happy though.
After all, who knows what could have happened if just one thing went wrong?!
That thought made Lan pause.
Lan was... unaware of how strongly they felt for Caelus, but this exaggerated concern... It wasn't normal for Lan.
Lan was The Hunt, the one who was going to eradicate The Abundance and their abominations. For them to care about someone like Caelus... It was definitely a new emotion that they felt.
(Though it was definitely more than simply "caring" about Caelus.)
Though Lan was unused to the new emotions that had blossomed in their being, it wasn't unpleasant to care about Caelus. In fact, the emotions felt... warmer than they expected.
(Tangling into their being, growing like weeds and making them crave it-)
But Lan knew that Caelus wasn't theirs even though they liked these warm feelings. That soured the thoughts of The Hunt. After all, they saw how some people looked at Caelus. Caelus, who gave his time to help others while remaining unaware of the thoughts that plagued those who gave him more than a second glance and saw how brightly he shone.
People who fancied Caelus were a huge concern. After all, Caelus didn't know anything about the customs of different worlds and might accept something from someone who didn't see him as just a friendly member of the Astral Express but rather as someone to claim-
-And that was a huge problem to Lan. Something that they had to solve.
Lan could already feel an idea brewing in their mind now. An idea on how to stake their claim.
Because what were they if not an expert in hunting down their preferred prey?
...
Caelus didn't know how he got in this situation.
The "situation" in question involved him running like his life depended on it (because unbeknownst to him, it did) in a dream.
Caelus had been having a peaceful dream, sitting in a meadow and simply staring up at the blue sky in his dreams. Only for the day in his dreams to turn to night as an indicator to him that something was wrong. That someone else was there with him.
So now Caelus was running through the forest in their dreams with the feeling that their was someone chasing him down like he was nothing more than prey to be hunted.
(If only he knew who his hunter was and what they truly wanted from him...)
Caelus nearly tripped over several things in an attempt to escape the one who was hunting him down, but it was only a dream. Nothing in this dream could hurt him.
Caelus stayed away from any clearings that popped up in this dream. Clearings, he knew, were a huge no-no if he was trying to escape someone. That would only provide the one who was hunting him with his location and Caelus didn't fancy the idea of being a sitting duck or going anywhere that would make him easier to spot.
So he just continued to run and hoped that whoever was chasing after him would get tired soon.
(Poor thing didn't know that his hunter wasn't one to simply abandon chasing after their prey...)
Even though this was a dream, Caelus knew something was off when his stamina started to drain. He couldn't run forever in this dream even though he needed to-!
The draining stamina was an issue and the worst thing was that Caelus was fairly certain that the one who was chasing after him was still going. Seriously, how were they still going?! Caelus was trying everything to keep his hunter off of his tail!
Too caught up in his predicament, Caelus nearly fell off a cliff in this dream. But once he noticed it, he immediately stopped due to some sort of understanding of what would happen if he fell off the cliff in the real world. But he wasn't in the real world...
Caelus was about ready to rush off the cliff when a powerful presence made him freeze. Despite every warning bell going off in his head, Caelus turned around...
...and came face-to-face with The Hunt themself.
Caelus cried out in shock, nearly falling back. He had seen the Aeon via the Stimulated Universe, but never once did Caelus expect to see them in his dreams. Caelus wasn't even sure how to move or how to act.
The shock turned into cold dread when The Hunt aimed an arrow at him. Aiming for his heart-
-And Caelus was trying to back away now. Were they doing this because he was the vessel of a Stellaron?
Caelus didn't expect the Aeon to speak though.
"You can't run from me. My aim will always strike true. And what I want is your heart."
Caelus wanted to ask what that meant, but then The Hunt fired the arrow. It was a shot right through his heart and it hurt-
-Caelus woke up feeling the pain from the arrow.
Caelus groaned as he clutched at his shirt. That dream... How was he feeling pain from it? He thought you couldn't feel pain from dreams...
He got out of bed and went to look at the mirror. Maybe he had slept on that area wrong or there was something in the bedding?
(Neither.)
Caelus took off his shirt and made sure the skin over where his heart was could be seen. Once he got a good look in the mirror, while still a little bit drowsy, Caelus woke up immediately.
"What the...?"
Caelus looked at his reflection to parse if he was actually seeing what he was seeing before the words of The Hunt rang in his mind.
"You can't run from me. My aim will always strike true. And what I want is your heart."
Caelus swallowed. Those words... Caelus was in deep trouble...
...And Caelus knew this because what he had seen was the mark of The Hunt, glowing indigo, right over his heart.