Hunter stared at Amity in disbelief. She saw them? How did she see them? Was it when Hunter decided to walk Willow to the grove himself from school? Did she follow them? Did her AND Luz follow them? Who else knew? Hunter raced through his head for anything that could deter her from thinking that it was him who she saw Willow with, but between saying `What are you talking about?" and 'That business is between Willow and I alone' he ended up with..

" What are you talking business about between Willow and I alone?" Hunter felt his brain malfunctioning, and from what it looked like Amity was just as baffled with what came out of his mouth as he was. "...end me please." Hunter said before turning and smashing his head against the rock he was leaning on. He could practically feel the heat of his face melting the stone, he wished he could disappear.

"...Wanna try to run me by that again?" Amity asked. Hunter felt the restraints around him loosen a bit, maybe as a sign of trust? He wasn't wasn't about to read into it. He looked over to Amity, trying to give her a glare but he knew he just looked like a fool.

" I don't see how Willow and I are your business." There was no point in denying his relations now, that was for sure.

"Because I don't trust you, and she is my friend. I let her down in the past by allowing people to hurt her, and I swear I am not about to let some emperor's lap-dog use her for whatever reasons." Amity was stern, his restraints flexing once more to make a point. Hunter grunted at the tightness, snarling a bit.

" Do you think she can't take care of herself? If she wanted to, she could have flung me into the boiling sea already." Hunter pointed out, making the Blight hesitate before looking away from him in thought. Hunter sighed, fixing the girl a gentler look than he had been giving, " I...appreciate it though." He looked away from Amity as she addressed him again, her look slightly confused. " Listen….Willow means… a lot to me." He pushed dirt around with his foot, unsure why he was willing to let Amity, the girl who Willow was still apprehensive about, in on his emotions. " I know Willow can take care of herself, she is...wonderful and...powerful and.."

"Wow, is this what they mean by me pulling a tomato face?" Amity smirked to herself, the jab causing Hunter to stop talking and frown deeply at her. " Sorry, go on, go on!" She motioned to the boy, who sighed before he stood up straight.

"My point is...I am glad Willow has good friends to make sure she doesn't get hurt...Even more so after the incident with the girl who broke her glasses." Hunter cleared his throat before turning to look down at the group of Emperor's coven, Kikimora looked to be slowly stopping her ranting. "Just...know that the last thing I want with Willow is to ever hurt her, ok?" Hunter looked back to Amity.

"Hmm…" Amity looked him over, then to the palisman who now rested on the boy's shoulder. The bird gave a quiet chirp, before snuggling into the fabrics that made the cloak of Hunter's scout uniform. Amity thought to herself for a few moments, before the restraints around Hunter suddenly dropped and the abomination goo flew back into the bottle on her belt.

"Hu? Wait...why are you trusting me all of a sudden?" Hunter looked over his free arms, but not one to hesitate, started to stretch his aching muscles as he looked over Amity curiously.

"I am not trusting you...I'm trusting Willow." Amity looked back over to Hunter. " So, you better not do anything." He felt her stare hit him like a hundred daggers, but as he looked the Blight over he couldn't help but nod in agreement, before reaching up to pet his palisman.

"What is taking them so long?" Hunter asked, looking in the direction of where The Owl Lady and her dog-thing ran off to.

"I don't know, but at this rate they might leave before we -can- get a distraction." Amity sighed, before drawing a spell circle to summon a small ball of fire. " Get ready to run, they will catch up." Hunter couldn't help but like where this was heading.

After the talk with Hooty, Willow did feel a lot better. She, Gus, and said demon were not listening to human tracks as they tried to figure out what would best soothe Luz. Willow was hesitant to put the headphone on at first, but conceded. Luz hadn't made any noise so far or called for them, so what was the harm of a short break? She thought of asking Eda to let her borrow the CD's the set up, Hunter would probably love to listen to these. Maybe after they talk she could finally bring him here, though...as long as they kept it quiet that he was The Golden Guard.

She wondered if it was ok for her to count it a blessing that he did wear a mask all the time when he wasn't around her, it definitely meant it was easier for them to not be bothered on the occasions they left the grove to actually browse around town. They were rare and far between, only really happening when Willow was able to play her cards right and convince him to join her in getting something to eat or drink. Sometimes after they would window shop, strolling around as they talked about odds and ends.

Hunter had mentioned once that, though he does patrol rounds through Boneshorough on occasions, he rarely spent time in the streets proper, even more so in the day. They sat on a bench and people watched for a while after that, idly snacking on the food they had bought, until the hour grew to a point Willow needed to go home. It was the first time he walked her home, though he was too nervous to bring her to the doorstep in fear of a confrontation with her parents.

She felt a little guilty for letting her mind wander to Hunter again as Hooty and Gus mixed together different human CDs. But, the other two seemed very content to be on their own while she allowed her mind to wander. She really hoped soon that they could meet Hunter, he would have some valuable insight on this human music.

"STOP!" Hunter cried. " That's fool's blood, don't touch it." He ran forward, putting his hand out to stop the little skull dude. Eda and King had been more on edge since Amity let him free of his bindings, Eda pulling Amity aside to quickly ask her if it was a wise idea. But, for the most part Hunter had The Blight's trust, and was not about to let it go to waste.

"What? So you can keep it all for yourself?" Eda snorted, obviously not believing him, raising her staff into the air.

"Eda, we should listen to him!" Amity cut in, stopping Eda short from striking a bubble. " He knows a lot more about this place than we do, after all." Eda eyed the Blight over, then looked back at Hunter, obviously still in distrust.

"Alright, how do we know that this is 'fool's blood' like you say it is, Blondie?" She turned to face him fully as King scampered back up on her shoulder.

" If our blood is liquid, then why would Titan's blood be different?" Hunter answered, short, simple, and to the point. Eda looked the teen over, trying her best to see if he was bluffing or not. In the end, she didn't trust him.

" We don't know how the titan's body works! Hard pass!" Eda cracked open a boil, snorting as it shook before that smirk swiftly went away. Hunter wasn't sure what was going to come next, but he turned, diving to grab Amity by the wrist and pull her away from the appearing crack in the ground that rumbled, and devoured the Owl Lady and the skull demon into a deep and dark chasm.

"NO!" Amity cried, her palisman glowing as she prepared to dive after them. Hunter let her wrist go, reaching over to Lil' Rascal for him to turn into a staff before freezing.

"Yoohoo~ Golden Guard!" the voice of Kikimora rang out. Hunter turned on his heel, staring at the shadows that were coming before looking to Amity who had also froze.

"Go, hide and save your friends." Hunter reached back, pulling on the scout's hood and mask Lil' Rascal had thankfully grabbed for him earlier. He looked around, before turning and jumping across the chasm in the ground, rolling his land, before looking back to Amity, " I'll hold them off in the next chamber. Go!" he turned, outstretching his hand to find Lil' Rascal's staff. 'What am I doing?' Hunter thought. He should just run to the lake, take the blood, and get out of there! Were these three really any of his business? Well...they were now, he supposed. He jumped into a Minecart, riding it out of sight.

Amity watched after Hunter, half wondering if he really just abandoned her or if he was actually going to help them. She didn't have time to think, though. She needed to get to Eda and King before-

"Would you look at this, captain?" Amity had no time to react before she felt a fist knock her off her feet.

_AN_

Sorry about the weirdness of suddenly switching to Willow's POV in the middle, then right back to Hunter. The chapter was running to short for my taste and I didn't want to have to write out the scene of Hunter, Eda, King, and Amity running down the tunnel. I hope you guys enjoy it either way, though! The next chapter has something in it I am pretty proud of!