Chapter Two
Huntress Wizard was walking so fast Finn was having trouble keeping up. She knew the forest paths better than he did; either that, or she had that class ability that let her keep her movement speed in forested terrain.
"Huntress Wizard, wait up! Please!" said Finn.
She kept walking. Now and then Finn would stumble over roots, or be hit in the face by branches that Huntress Wizard avoid effortlessly. Finn would sometimes have to jog just to keep her in view.
He breathed a sigh of relief when they broke from the trees into the clearing in front of Huntress Wizard's house. Huntress Wizard did not slow down. If anything, she picked up the pace and practically ran through the front entrance. Finn followed her all the way back to her bedroom, where she threw herself face down on the bed of moss. A muffled scream issued from the moss for several seconds.
"Uh, Huntress Wizard? Baby? Are you okay?" said Finn.
Huntress Wizard flipped herself over in one abrupt movement. Her eyes were red and shining.
"Who does he think he is?" she spat, "Putting you down like that? Prancing around in those stupid boots? Acting like everything's fine and I'm the crazy one for not loving him! Gah! He makes me so mad!"
Without a word, Finn laid down beside her. He reached out with his meat hand, and she took it, gripping it hard. She turned on her side and curled up beside him. They lay like that for a long while, saying nothing.
"Oh, gob-slangit," said Huntress Wizard, finally, "We never got you a bow. Butts. I'm really sorry, Finn."
"Hey, don't worry about that stuff, H-Dubs. You didn't do anything," said Finn.
"It was my idea to go to that stupid archery tournament in the first place," said Huntress Wizard.
She pushed herself up to a sitting position, and Finn joined her.
"I should have known better. I knew there would be people I-" she hesitated, "-people I used to know there. I knew he would be there."
"Then why did you want to go there in the first place? We could've gotten a bow somewhere else."
"I know, I know," said Huntress Wizard, "It's just, I'm hard meat, right? Why should I be afraid of those people? You'd probs just walk in like it was no big deal. You hang out with your old crushes all the time, go to parties, have tons of friends. You make it look so easy."
"But...Huntress Wizard, you're not me. It's okay to need space!"
"I had to, Finn. My fear is just another form of softness, and I wanted to kill it in its crib."
Finn was silent for a moment.
"Well...it's not as easy for me as you think," said Finn, "Do you want to tell me about him? Pablo, I mean. What did he do? How did he hurt you?"
"It's a long story."
"I'd be down to sit here and listen all day, if it would help you."
"Maybe that would help. Thank you, Finn."
She smiled at him, then cleared her throat.
"It all started six years ago, when...Glob, only six years? So much has changed. I was just fourteen. My mom was still alive. Back then, my name was Heather."
Finally, the day had come. Heather and her mother arrived at the Hunter's Association Bi-Annual Archery Tournament, held at the edge of the forest where they so often hunted.
A storm of emotions churned through Heather's mind as they entered the fairgrounds. Excitement mingled with apprehension. Dread mingled with anticipation. Above it all, a layer of amazement. She had never seen so many people all in one place. Her mother, Tabitha, shunned civilized places, and so they only ventured into the nearby town of Greenville when absolutely necessary.
Even Greenville on market day did not have so many different species. Heather saw goblins, skeletons, and stranger beings for which she had no name. This close to Greenville, however, she and her mother could still blend into the crowd. Just another couple of dark haired, green-skinned mutants among hundreds of others.
They pushed their way through the crowd towards the registration table near the back, by the stands. Heather stared at everything all the while, clutching her bow. Her mother reached down and tousled her hair, smiling.
"Honey, you look like you're about to bolt," she said, "Just relax. You'll do fine."
Tabitha was a green-skinned woman in her mid-forties. She was lean and hard-bodied, with a weathered face and long, black hair which she kept bound with a fillet of leather. She wore the dull, hide and canvas clothes of a huntress, and carried a bow with her everywhere.
"I know, mama, it's just," she gestured all around them.
Tabitha nodded.
"I haven't done a great job of preparing you for this part. Girl your age should be spending some time around other kids. Meeting cute boys, or something."
"Mom..." said Heather, blushing.
Tabitha smiled and shrugged.
"What? You're at that age. And I'm serious. You need to meet some kids your own age. Just because I live like a hermit doesn't mean you should. At least you need to know what you're missing."
Heather had spent time around other kids her age, though. She had attended a field school until she was eight, learning her letters and numbers. The other kids spread nasty rumors about her mother being a witch, and threw rocks at her after class. Since then, she had been happy to spend all her time in the woods, hunting alongside her mother.
They reached the registration desk, and Heather was entered into the junior competition. She was given a wristband with a number on it and she and her mother were ushered into a tent behind the stands where the contestants and their families waited for the event to start.
The tent was ringed with chairs, and there was a table with refreshments. Parents of various species stood here and their giving their children last-minute coaching. Most of the children were a lot younger than her. Most of them were boys. Once again, Heather felt somewhat out of place.
"Well?" said Tabitha.
"Well, what?" said Heather.
"We've got time before they start. Go talk to some of the other kids."
Heather looked down and spoke quietly.
"Mom, I don't wanna…"
"I know you don't, and that's why you should. Be brave! Look over there, I think that's Thunder Joe's boy. You remember Thunder Joe, right? Why don't you go over and say hi?"
She indicated a young man with blue-green skin and a mop of golden curls seated off to the side. He wore a fine leather vest tooled in a leaf pattern over a bottle-green shirt, and a suede cap with an exaggerated triangular bill. A shortbow lay across his lap. He was engaged in conversation with a boxy red-and-black robot seated beside him, though not with much enthusiasm.
Before Heather could mutter another excuse, Tabitha practically shoved her across the room. There was nothing she could do, now. She walked slowly across the tent, only to stop several feet away. The robot was speaking excitedly, in a thickly accented artificial voice.
"-a simple differential equation! With my mastery of vector calculus, my victory is assured!"
"Oh, sure," replied the young man, "I'd be even more worried if I hadn't seen how you practice."
The screen on the front of the robot's body displayed an indignant face.
"That was grinding! It doesn't count! I needed to calibrate my servos! I was refining my subroutines! I-"
By now the young man had noticed Heather and was looking her way. He smiled broadly, and seemed to lose interest in his robotic companion.
"Oh hey, what's up? Boss day for an archery tournament, eh?" he said.
"Um…"
Heather stood there fidgeting, totally unsure of what to do. The young man seemed more than willing to take the lead. He stood and doffed his cap.
"I'm Pablo; at your service, m'lady," he said.
"Pablo! You are not listening to my plan to destroy you!" said the robot.
"Um, hi, my name's Heather."
She considered extending her hand to shake, but didn't. She just stood there, clutching her bow.
"A pleasure to make your acquaintance, Heather! Would you like to come with me to get a glass of punch?" he said, gesturing towards the refreshments table.
The robot narrowed their digitally-rendered eyes.
"You should go. My sensors detect a great thirst."
Pablo laughed and began walking towards the refreshments table. Without thinking, Heather followed him. He spoke again once they were out of hearing of the robot.
"Thank Glob you showed up," said Pablo, "WASD, my robot pal, is a mega snore machine. There's nobody else cool, here."
"You think I'm cool?" said Heather.
Pablo ladled them each a glass of punch and grinned.
"Oh, sorry, was that a little too gallant? You carry that bow like you know how to use it. Clearly, you and I are a cut above the rest."
He gestured with a small inclination of his head towards a fat brown goblin, desperately struggling to string a bow.
"Do you live around here? I feel like we should have met, by now," said Pablo.
"I live in the forest with my mom. I think she's friends with your dad, though," said Heather.
"Ah, yes, the renowned spear-hunter, Thunder Joe. That's my old man, alright. But today is going to be all about me! First place is mine!"
Pablo pumped his shortbow in the air and took a sip of punch.
Heather looked at her own cup, dubiously. The punch was that artificial red stuff that they only had in the towns. She took a sip to be polite; it was too sweet for her liking.
"So how long have you been shooting? Are you any good?"
"I've been hunting with my mom since I was five. So, yeah, I'm good."
"Aha! A professional! I love a challenge."
Before Heather could reply, a fanfare of bugles sounded from outside.
"What was that about?"
"I think they're about to start calling us to compete!"
Sure enough, the booming voice of an announcer began calling out names, and one by one the competitors files out from the tent. Pablo's name was called in short order. Before he left he grasped one of Heather's hands in his own and leaned in close.
"Good luck! May the best hunter win!"
With that, he jogged out the open flap of the tent and onto the competition grounds. Heather found herself blushing.
At least this tournament wouldn't be boring.
A few minutes later, Heather's own name was called, and she stepped out onto the competition grounds. The other competitors were already lined up in front of a target, and Heather took her place.
The announcer, a giant owl perched on the branch of a looming pine tree, boomed out the rules from his perch above. The contest was divided into 15 "ends," or rounds, where the archers would have two minutes to shoot three arrows at the bullseye, 30 meters downrange. After each end, the archers would walk down to retrieve their arrows and update their scores.
Heather looked behind her to try and find her mother in the stands, but there was no time. And so it began. As Pablo had predicted, most of the competitors in the junior category were amateurs, who fell hopelessly behind within the first few ends.
Shooting at a stationary target was too easy. Heather grouped her shots in the center ring almost every end, and as she looked up at the scoreboard she was pleased to find that she and Pablo were tied for first.
The final end came, and sure enough, she and Pablo were in a dead heat. The crowd had become deathly silent. The judges ordered another end as a tiebreaker, only for Pablo and Heather to come up in a tie again. Flummoxed, the judges took a brief recess to deliberate.
When they returned, they announced that by Hunter's Association rules, a failed tie-breaker should result in the contestants sharing their place. This announcement was met with boos and hisses from the crowd.
"Yo! Hey, mister giant owl!" Pablo shouted.
"Here, here! What's this interruption as I'm reading the judges decision?" said the announcer.
"Shooting at targets is too easy! I say we need another tie-breaker, and something more interesting!"
Murmurs of approval began to issue from the crowd.
"Very well! The judges will hear your suggestion!"
Pablo signaled for a moment to discuss, and he turned to Heather. Though exhausted, a feverish light burned behind his eyes. The contest had clearly exhilarated him. Heather nearly laughed when he looked at her, as she felt the same way. He leaned in close and whispered in her ear.
"You did not disappoint me," he said.
"You're pretty good, too," she said.
Pablo pointed away from the fairgrounds, off towards the grasslands that stretched pass the horizon.
"I know how to break our tie. Look over there. Do you see that?"
Heather looked in the direction he indicated and squinted. She could just barely discern a thin dark line on the horizon. It resolved itself into a shape; a serpent, clad in mottled brown and tan scales. The size was hard to judge, but it must have been at least six feet long. It moved slowly, utterly indifferent to the contest happening so far away.
She was surprised Pablo was even able to see it. Then she realized what he was suggesting.
"You don't mean that snake, do you? You want to shoot that?" she said.
"Why not? I hate snakes." he said.
"Pablo, that's got to be 200 meters, at least! No archer in the world could make that shot!"
"You could."
She stared up at him, then looked away, blushing.
"Okay. Let's do it," she said.
Pablo told the announcer his plan, and the judges decided to allow it. Heather and Pablo stood side by side at the edge of the fairgrounds, bows drawn.
This is stupid, thought Heather, Neither of us are going to make it. We're just going to tie anyway.
But she forced that thought out of her head. Archery required a clear head. She took a breath, held it, and fired.
Both of their arrows arced up into the air, then down towards their target. Heather held her breath as the final moment crawled by. It looked almost as if her arrow was going to hit!
But no. At the last moment, a breeze picked up and shifted their arrows just slightly. Heather's arrow fell and was lost amid the grass. Pablo's arrow, however, pierced the serpent in its central mass, killing it instantly.
The crowd was silent for a brief moment before exploding into cheers.
Author's Notes
A brief word on the timeline, here. Huntress Wizard is 20 years old in this headcanon because her first appearance is S3E8, "Wizard Battle." This takes place after S2E25, "Mortal Recoil" where Finn's age is stated to be 13. Since Finn is 17 in the finale, Huntress Wizard has to have been a wizard for at least four years, and probably more, if she's going to be confident enough to be competing in the Wizard Battle. I set her origin story six years before the finale, for a little wiggle room. Finn would have been 11-12 when this story occurred, putting it before the series debut.
However, I was reluctant to set this too far back, since this is a Finntress ship, after all. Finn is 17. How old can Huntress Wizard be before their relationship becomes questionable? I don't think that a 17-year-old dating a 20-year-old completely outrages common decency. For those of you who object, note this: I don't know the age of consent in Ooo, but Finn has done battle with no less than four cosmic horrors in the course of his young life (i.e., Hunson Abadeer, the Lich, Orgalorg, and Golb). He's mature enough for romance, in my opinion.
