Hunter took pride in a few of his mundane skills. He was a pretty decent cook when he could take the time to actually cook for himself, though following a recipe in a book is simple enough to do. He tried his best to keep his schedule open enough to at least do an hour or two of practice on his guitar every day, or sneak into one of the private halls of the Emperor's castle to make use of the piano. If his life was different, he wondered if he would have been put in a bard track, though admittedly he didn't feel like he was a good singer.

He knew in the long run of everything, his little hobbies and skills didn't matter much. He needed to focus his time on other skills that The Golden Guard had to have in his position. Fighting prowess, quick recovery, general battle know-how of course was a small part of it, but his position came with a lot of paperwork as well. Though Kikimora was responsible for a majority of document work, and higher-ranking officials as well would do most of the recruitment work and promotions, Hunter still had a fair share of his own. He at least knew how to do his work fast and efficiently, given how long he -has- actually been doing this work. He was only fourteen when Belos started having him learn the documents after all.

His Uncle claimed it was because Lilith needed more time to focus on her mission of capturing The Owl Lady, but that was only an excuse. Belos was grooming him from the beginning to take over the leadership role for a long time, knowing that eventually Lilith would become a liability rather than an asset. Hunter knew his place and his future, and tried to stay civil with the former-leader despite knowing one day he would take over her role, but that didn't keep Lilith from seeing Hunter as some brat-teen just being given a golden pass on everything.

Honestly, Hunter had formed resentment and anger toward Lilith. Because of how much she failed capturing The Owl Lady, and the more time she had to spend in her useless attempts, Hunter was forced into the leadership role earlier than even Belos had thought. He had barely even turned sixteen, and now he didn't even have the time to enjoy being as such. He noticed that after he met Willow, his resentment toward Lilith was growing even more, heck his resentment was growing as a whole toward the Coven!

Even now, as Hunter leaned back in his chair at his desk, he couldn't help but feel the twing of anger, hate, and bitterness rising in his chest. He wanted to spend time with Willow, maybe even hang out with her friend group. Luz seemed like a cool person, and if it wasn't for her he wouldn't have gotten Lil' Rascal. Heck, in a weird way Luz made it possible for Hunter to even let Willow into his life. He would have just left the grove and never returned after seeing it disturbed before the whole palisman-napping event.

The teen looked out of his window, the sun was almost about to dip below the horizon. He wondered if Willow was at the grove right now tending to the plants, how her day had been, if she took his advice on Gus to heart. Thinking about the girl makes him feel a lot happier, even for a few moments. He wasn't naive about why that was, though. He knew he had developed a horrible and deep crush for Willow...One he was going to keep close to his chest.

She was too wonderful and free spirited to be dragged down by him. He had a lot on his plate, after all, and she knew as much. He had no idea why he even was trusting her as much as he did, despite the feelings he had toward her. Hunter knew trying to hide himself being The Golden Guard was a fools game, she had already seen him wielding the staff, after all. He guessed he mostly wanted to give her the option of just breaking things off with their friendship before they got too involved.

And by titan he was overjoyed when she stayed. She asked him a few questions, at first, obviously trying to get a read on how he actually was as a person. And Willow made it no secret that Luz was her friend and was willing to throw him across the whole of the Boiling Isles if she even suspected he was up to something shifty. He admired that about her… she was as gentle as flowers, but could turn deadly as thorns in the blink of an eye if that meant protecting the people she loved. Apparently, as well, Luz had told Willow -a lot- about her run-ins with Hunter.

" So, what was with the Selkidomus?" Willow asked outright, caughting Hunter extremely off guard.

"...pardon?" Hunter turned from his current attempt to stack rocks to look to Willow. His heart was suddenly rapid, Luz told her about that? Was Willow about to think he was a monster?

" Well, I just want to get your side of the story. Luz told me you had her and Eda kill a Selkidomus." Willow crossed her arms over her chest as she waited for Hunter to reply. The boy swallowed hard before clearing his throat.

"Y-yeah...well...I-If it makes you less mad at me, I know already that they didn't kill it." Hunter scratched his cheek, feeling the burn returning. He couldn't keep eye contact with Willow, he didn't want to see her anger. " I-I uh...kinda tricked them, to be honest?"

He could see Willow moving out of the corner of his eye, coming toward him, was she about to hit him? He swallowed and prepared for impact, but was surprised when he felt her gently lift his chin to force him to look at her, brows quirked up as she waited for him to explain further. Titan, he was feeling light-headed all of a sudden, was his face on fire?

" S-So, well...uh….hear me out?" Hunter stampered out, unable to pull away from her hand for some reason. " I don't understand -why- Belos wanted the Selkidomus dead, and honestly I didn't want to kill it. But, orders are orders and Belos can be rather...unforgiving when you fail him one too many times…" He saw Willow glancing to the scar on his cheek, wincing a bit as she seemed to put two and two together. She drew her hand back at this point, but still waited for him to continue. Hunter winced himself, before clearing his throat.

"After The Owl Lady showed up, stole the snails, and Luz went after her, I figured this might be a good opportunity. At that point I had the little fuzzy guy in a cage, cuz to be fair he shouldn't have been in my office!" Hunter gave a small half-smile at Willow, hoping she would understand and not just thorn-vault him back to the castle. " So I just went, told them to kill the Selkidomus, and waited. I knew after The Owl Lady's ' You're provoking it' talk the two of them would figure something out where the creature wouldn't have to die." Hunter noticed how tense his shoulders were, rolling them to relax as he scratched his neck, waiting for Willow to respond.

"Luz said you were going to dunk them into the boiling sea, and kill King if they didn't comply." Willow's arms were crossed back over her chest, she was still staring holes into him,

"Well...the two of them did not call my bluff." Hunter shrugged lightly. " I was just giving a show of force…"

Willow stared at him for what he felt was the longest time. She was obviously trying to tell if she could trust his side of the story or not. Titan, Hunter hoped she took it. He knew deep down he was just trying to paint himself better for her. The truth was that, though he was indeed not going to dunk the little skull guy into the ocean to drown him, he wouldn't have hesitated to throw Eda and Luz in. He also didn't care if they decided to kill the Selkidomus or not, he just wanted a show to get an idea on if The Owl Lady and her apprentice -where- still threats that needed to be dealt with.

" You know, you should talk to Luz about this." Willow said, lowering her hands to her hips. Hunter flicked his ears at her, did he hear that right? " If Luz knew that you didn't want to actually hurt the creature, and that you know that they didn't actually kill it, maybe you and her can be friends?"

"I-I don't know about that, Willow." Hunter found himself taking a step back from her, looking away to the edge of the grove. " She kind of...already knows too much. She'd just end up getting hurt or something worse."

"Well...what's the difference between her and me, then?"

That question caught Hunter off guard. He looked back over to her, already feeling the burning of his cheeks coming back. Really, what was the difference? That question was a lot heavier than he ever would have thought. Maybe it was because Luz was human, and Willow a powerful witch that knew how to handle The Boiling Isles? No...it was something else, not just that.

"Y-you know...I don't really know." Hunter rubbed his neck, but his brain was starting to scream in his head, ' You know!'. Hunter turned away from Willow, going back to balancing rocks as a way to hide how red his face was getting. He knew why he was trusting her a lot more than Luz.

"Well…" He felt Willow at his side, seeing out of the corner of his eye her drawing a circle in the air to start manipulating vines around the bottom of the new tower to help better balance it as he worked. " I am happy you trust me as much, then."

He glanced over to her, seeing she had her own light blush and a smile on her lips. Oh no...oooh no yup, he REALLY knew the reason why he was trusting her. He cleared his throat, forcing himself to look back to the tower as he tried to focus in on stacking the rocks, but was unable to ignore the feeling in his chest.

As Hunter stood, taking the sprawling documents on his desk, stacked them, and turned to put them away he was stopped by the familiar chime of this scroll going off. He turned to look at his scroll on his desk, seeing 'Willow!' written on the screen. He almost dropped the stack of documents as he turned, fumbling as he set the papers down to pick up his scroll and look over what Willow sent him.

A photo of the grove was on the screen, looking serene as ever, with a particular statue in the center. 'Rocky' as Willow lovingly named the tower that 'looked like him', and on the top of it looked to be a couple of birds, one with green and white plumage, and the other with golden-tan. He wasn't sure what species they were, but with how their feathers in the picture looked he could surmise they were one of the few species that could handle boiling-rains. He smiled, scrolling down to read the message Willow sent along with the picture.

'Rocky has a family now!'

Hunter smiled a bit wider, a strange feeling of...something had wielded in his chest. He breathed in deeply, and let out a small content sigh before typing out his response.

' He looks even happier than he did before.'

Hunter sat his scroll down, picking up the papers again and putting them away for real this time. After, he turned and flopped onto his bed, hearing Lil'Rascal chirp lightly as he poked out from behind the pillows. Hunter smiled, reaching over to give his palisman a few loving scratches as he looked back up to the ceiling in thought.

'Yeah...' He felt a light burning on his face again, ' Rocky is happier than he was before.'