The sun slowly rose up from the horizon enveloping it's light all throughout the Boiling Isles as morning came. The beams of light reached inside of the crystal caves. Hunter groaned as he felt the cool morning breeze brush against his skin and he slowly opened his eyes. He had a good rest, better than he had in years. He yawned and moved to sit up, stretching his arms. As he did, Hunter felt a strange weight draped across his stomach, feeling that it was an arm. He looked down and smiled, seeing Azara lying next to him, who was still sleeping. Her long hair was undone and now spread out. Their cloaks were draped over them covering the two lovers up. Hunter turned his head to see that their clothes were tossed to the side, lying against the rock wall along with his boots.

Hunter moved again, to retrieve them, but Azara's arm clinged to him tighter, pulling him back. He heard her stir in her sleep, telling him that she was starting to wake up as well. Hunter laughed and turned back on his side, shaking Azara on her shoulder, with his hand to wake her up. Azara groaned as she closed her eyes tighter, pulling Hunter's cloak over her.

"Time to get up," Hunter told her in a sing songy voice.

"No, not right now," Azara replied, her eyes still closed. "I want to stay like this for a little longer."

Hunter chuckled, pulling Azara's arm off of him. "As much as I like that, we can't," he told her. "The others are probably starting to wake as well and see that we're gone." Azara whined, feeling Hunter leave her to go gather their clothes, putting his on. She opened her eyes and sat up wearing Hunter's cloak over her shoulders, to see Hunter now fully clothed and tying his boots. Hunter noticed her staring at him as he finished.

"See something that you like?" Hunter teased, smirking at her. Azara's eyes widen, blushing a little.

"Yes, as a matter of fact I do," she teased back, playing with her hair then started tying and braiding it back up into a ponytail. Now it was time for Hunter to blush as Azara saw his cheeks turned red and the tips of his ears as well. Suddenly, Azara was smacked in the face with her clothes as Hunter tossed them at her. Azara narrowed her eyes as she took them, seeing Hunter with a smug grin as his face.

"Okay, you win, you brat," Azara pouted, putting her clothes back on. Hunter stared right back her. Okay, two can play this game...

"Spoiled brat," Hunter replied.

"Spoiled royal brat," Azara teased right back as she finished putting on her jeans. Hunter rolled his eyes. He looked around at the cave once more.

"How did you come by this place?" He asked her. Azara smiled.

"Well, before you came, I had a feeling that my singing was annoying everyone," she explained. "So, I found this place. It has great echo and vibrations."

"Figures," Hunter hummed.

"So, you find my singing, annoying?" Azara questioned. Hunter shook his head as he stared right back at her.

"No." he told her. Azara felt her heart flutter happily at his words. "Come on," Hunter held his hand out to her and Azara took it, as he helped her up. "Let's go."

As the two walked outside, Lil' rascal saw them and chirped, then flew off from the branch of the tree and land right on top of Hunter's head.

So, did you two have fun in there? What did you do? Orion chirped. Hunter's eyes widen.

"Uh, we just talked! Yeah, that's it!" he stammered, nervously. Azara smirked, seeing him embarrassed.

"We did more than just that," she replied. Hunter's eyes widen even more. Azara wrapped her arms around his pulling Hunter closer to her. "We confessed our love to each other and sang our hearts out to the heavens!" Then she stood on the tips of her toes and kissed Hunter on his cheek.

It didn't sounded like singing to me... Orion questioned. Hunter's face was now completely red as a tomato. He quickly took Azara's hand, dragging her behind him as they walked, ignoring the red cardinal's prodding questions.

Hunter and Azara headed back, holding hands as they walked down the forest path. Neither said a word, enjoying each other's company as they walked wanting to cherish the moment forever. As they continued, Azara noticed that there was something strange. The forest was silent, dead silent. There wasn't a creature or beast in sight to be heard. Hunter noticed, as well. The two stopped in their tracks to listen. A stick cracked close by, right near them. Hunter and Azara heard loud thundering footsteps as they advanced closer. Then a loud blast went off that sounded like a cannon, startling them. A giant ball of purple goo was now hurling straight at them.

"Watch out!" Hunter lunged at Azara tackling her down. The tree next to them, exploded in half. As Azara and Hunter started to get up, they froze hearing an familiar voice.

"Well, well, well! What do we have here? If it isn't the golden guard! I would say Happy Birthday, but it's not going to be happy for you," Kikimora sneered glaring at Hunter then she shifted her gaze over to Azara. "The Emperor will be quite pleased to see you both...alive." she spatted out, bitterly. However, Kikimora wasn't alone. Darius and Eberwulf, who was riding on him, both stepped out of the bushes.

"Great, now I've got mud on my shoes," Darius growled, bitterly. He stopped when he saw Hunter and Azara as well. He smirked. "But, maybe it wasn't a total loss after all." he said before shaking Eberwulf off of him, who was still clinged to his back, his nails digging into the witch's cloak. "Will you get off!?"

Hunter and Azara both backed away from the group, slowly, as they began to inch closer to them. This was not good. They were completely outnumbered. Lil' rascal quickly transformed into a staff and Hunter quickly grabbed it. Kikimora fired a spell straight at the two. Hunter quickly deflected it, bouncing the spell back. The two clashed against each other, firing spells. Hunter managed to knock Kikimora off of the abomaton. Azara made vines grow from the ground wrapping the machine around it's arms and legs, entangling it. Eberwulf transformed and made a lunge at Azara. Azara made a spell circle in the air and created a rock cage, encasing the beast coven head inside of it.

Eberwulf started pounding and punching inside of their rock cage to break out of it. With one coven head down, there was one more to go...Azara turned to the abomination coven head to see Darius had transformed into his abomination form.

"I see that you have gotten a little stronger," he smirked. Azara frowned. "There's a lot more that I can do that you don't know about."

"Oh really? And what's that?" he asked. Azara moved her hands created two purple rings in the air. Azara had found out about this strange particular spell, secretly reading it at the library where Amity worked at. However, it was in the forbidden section. It was a dark spell the ability to control one's body against their will. Azara was cautious and scared of it and decided to never use it, unless it was in a life or death situation. Azara threw her hands down and suddenly, Darius stopped in his tracks as if the ground beneath him clamped his feet down. He couldn't move an inch.

"What is this?!" he demanded as he struggled to break out of Azara's spell. Hunter knocked Kikimora back as he fired back at her to see what was happening as well. He stared in shock as well in disbelief. He couldn't believe how powerful she was, scary but powerful. Azara bit her lip feeling Hunter's gaze behind her but still focused ahead at Darius. She made his abomination goo wrap around him until it fully encased the witch like a cocoon. Azara turned back towards Hunter and ran over to him, taking his hand.

"We need to go now," she urged him.

"H-How did you do that?" Hunter questioned, still in disbelief. Azara stared at him, silently, not answering. He probably thinks of her as a monster now.

"Let's just get out of here before they get back on their feet again," Hunter said, hopping onto Lil' rascal. Then Eberwulf had managed to brake through his rock cage. Kikimora had started to get back up again, hopping back onto the abomaton as it freed itself from Azara's vines. The purple goo around Darius was starting to crack and give away. This was never going to end not unless...Azara closed her eyes then she opened them and turned back to Hunter.

"Hunter, go and get the others," Azara told him. "I'll hold them off for as long as I can!"

"What? NO!" Hunter's eyes widened, shaking his head. "I'm not leaving you!"

"It's not going to do us any good if we both get caught!" Azara insisted. "I'll stall them for some time for you to get away! Now, go!" she smacked Lil' rascal's side, making the staff take off with Hunter, flying away.

"Azara!" Hunter cried out. He tried to make Lil' rascal turn around but the staff wouldn't listen to him. "Orion, turn back now! We have to go back!"

I can't do that Hunter...Orion told him. Azara did this for your safety.

"But, what about her?!" Hunter shouted. "I can't leave her!"

Suddenly, a loud explosion went off. Hunter's eyes widened as he felt his heart stopped. He wanted so desperately to go back and get Azara. But, he continued to fly as he and Lil' rascal headed back to the owl house. He was going to get her back no matter what and he was going to get help.

Azara groaned as she looked up at the two coven heads and Kikimora standing in front of her. Just as Hunter had taken off, Kikimora launched a spell at Azara, while she was off guard, and Darius had managed to break free from his shell casing, attacking as well. Kikimora's spell knocked Azara off of her feet and Darius made his abomination goo trap Azara, smacking her into a tree, pinning her. Her vision was starting to fade in and out. All she wanted to do was sleep and talk with her palisman a little more. She was tired and exhausted.

"How could you let him get away?!" Kikimora shrieked, angrily.

"I'm sorry, it's kinda hard while you're entrapped in your own magic," Darius said, sarcastically. "At least we've captured her."

"You mean, "I" did," Kikimora corrected him. "It was "my" plan after all." She turned back to Azara to see her starting to lose consciousness. "No matter, Emperor Belos will be pleased to see her. And there's no doubt, I'm sure the golden guard will be coming for her. Once we capture him, then we can start the Day of Unity as planned." she sneered, gleefully. "I can't wait to see what punishment he has in store for them! Will it be petrification in stone? Vaporized and tossed into the boiling sea? Ooh! There's so many to chose from!" Kikimora's voice began to fade out.

Azara's vision went dark as she blacked out.