Chapter Ten
"Come on, Cat! Lift your knees!"
Skara and Amelia winced in sympathy as Boscha's voice cut across the grudgby field offering "encouragement". As captain of the Banshees, she took it upon herself to give each of her teammates-slash-subordinates personalized training at least once every two weeks. This mostly consisted of her giving a non-negotiable set of exercises to do alongside her as she loudly criticized their performance. It was exhausting and often humiliating, but it did lead to physical improvement, and no one could say Boscha wouldn't suffer through the exercises with them.
Today was Cat's day, and both girls were jumping between pillars high in the air to work on airtime and balance. Cat was known amongst their circle for having trouble in her leaps to avoid traps, and Boscha had apparently decided to try and stomp that weakness out.
Skara and Amelia were doing sets of comparatively easy pull-ups and watching with large amounts of empathy and small amounts of amusement as Cat struggled to navigate a set of platforms a few feet over a pit of spikes. "C'mon, Cat. You got this," Amelia gasped quietly, unable to speak louder through her heavy breathing and hoping she got the message.
"Makes you wonder," Skara gasped between ever more pull-upson her staff capped by her nightingale palisman Ella, "how a different captain would handle personal training." The idea that this hypothetical new captain was Willow went unspoken.
The fateful grudgby match had left a strong impression on the entire team, in one way or another. Boscha had been terrified of having her star spot on the team swiped by the girl she had tormented for years, and the brush with such a possibility had made her double down on training for the season. The others had been impressed by her natural talent for the sport and by her and Luz's sportsmanship. It made them all wish she would take up their offer to join the Banshees, which was occasionally repeated by Amelia in their shared classes.
The thought of the greenhouse made Amelia think back to another incident not so long ago and she chuckled as she finished the last of her set and dropped to the ground. The more standard pull-up bar she'd been using retracted into the edge of the field and she looked up a little at Skara finishing her set on her staff, excited for when her own batch of students would have Palisman Adoption Day.
"What's funny?" Skara asked as she dropped and Ella settled back in her hand before retracting the staff and perching on her shoulder.
"You know the new guy that punched Boscha in the face?" Amelia asked.
"Uh, yeah. Hunter, right?" Skara replied. "He's kinda cute."
"Well, Willow seems to think so," Amelia said with a shrug. "I might have hinted that Boscha's got an eye on him and, well …" Amelia shuddered a bit at the memory of Willow's silent fury. "Willow clearly didn't like that idea."
Skara laughed. "Wow. Does she even realize it?"
"I dunno," Amelia shrugged, then grinned. "But I doubt they'll be single by the end of the month. They may not even last the week." She laughed, and Skara did too.
"Hey! Get back to practice, you two!" Boscha shouted as she and Cat were doing upside down sit-ups. Both girls stood at attention before dropping forward to begin push-ups.
Willow's heart fluttered as she approached Hexside the next morning, making a beeline on Clover toward the entrance. She hopped off the staff, allowing Clover to retract and resume her usual shape. The bee settled on Willow's shoulder and enjoyed the ride into the building.
Upon arriving at Luz's locker, she found her friends sans Hunter already gathered, Shimmer lounging on Gus's shoulder and Amity … Amity had a white cat curling around her leg! Willow gasped with joy and walked faster. "I take it you received your palisman?" she asked to announce her presence.
"Willow!" Luz shouted, hugging the girl.
"Morning, Willow," Amity said with a smile. "And I didn't receive Ghost so much as create her."
Willow was confused for a moment — weren't palistrom trees getting even more rare? — before she remembered exactly who she was talking to and one of their conversations at the lake last weekend before the Scarbury attack. Given the wealth and standing of the Blight family, Willow had no trouble believing that they had at least one palistrom tree reserved and protected. Possibly more than one.
"Well, hello there, Ghost," Willow said, kneeling down to address the palisman. "I'm Willow," she said, touching her hand to her chest before gesturing at her own palisman, "and this is Clover." Ghost tilted her head at the sight of Clover, kneading the tiles with her claws, before her eyes glowed with pale gold light that was echoed by Clover. They stayed like that for a few moments before the glows faded and Clover nodded to Ghost, who mirrored the gesture.
"She did that with Shimmer, too," Gus noted. "I guess palismen are pretty tight-knit."
Willow smiled at the idea of the group's palismen accepting a new member among them, then noticed a flash of red that settled to reveal Lil Rascal twittering at Ghost. Their eyes glowed again and Ghost nodded, her tail flicking, and Lil Rascal nodded back before flying back the way he'd come. Willow had only a second to realize the implications of that before someone said quietly and directly into her ear, "Good morning, Gorgeous."
Willow eeped and spun to find Hunter smiling like a cat who got the canary, as Luz had once said.
"Jumpy, Willow?" he asked cockily.
"I wonder why that could be?" Willow countered, regaining most of her composure and propping a hand on her hip. Hunter's grin widened just a little before he greeted the rest of the group.
"So, who wants to meet up and explore town after school?" Luz asked. "I realized last night that we're a plucky group of go-getter teens and we don't have a restaurant to act as our main get-together spot."
"I've got to work after school," Amity replied.
"I've got an HAS meeting," Gus said.
"Taking care of the greenhouse," Willow added.
Everyone looked at Hunter, who started sweating under their expectant stares. "Uh, I've gotta catch up on some work from my uncle," he said ruefully. Paperwork was never gone, even after a days-long mission.
"Really?" Luz said with a smirk, crossing her arms. "What kind of work?"
"Boring paperwork," Hunter deadpanned. "I'd rather-" He blinked as he fought the urge to look at Willow, his cheeks pinking just a bit. "-uh, y'know, I need to get it done soon or else it'll just keep piling up."
Luz pouted. "Well, maybe later in the week?"
"It sounds like it'd be fun," Gus said. "If we can make it happen, I'm in."
Everyone else agreed with that sentiment as the bell screamed. Willow and Hunter bid goodbye to their friends as they turned and made their way toward the greenhouse. Along the way, they kept glancing at each other with pink cheeks, the fingers of Hunter's left hand twitching toward Willow's, and her right hand doing the same toward his left. They'd been messaging on their scrolls that morning and agreed to try and keep their new relationship quiet for as long as possible — to stave off Luz's inevitable joyful gloating. Which meant limiting their physical affection during the day.
As long as they kept a lid on their emotions, nothing would get out or spread across the school. Right?
Not exactly.
Several students picked up on the faint tension and red cheeks between Willow, the best plant magic user in the school, and the new prodigy, Hunter. Most assumed they simply had mutual, unrequited feelings — pretty much the norm in any school — but even so ... gossip has a way of moving quickly. By the time their first class got out, a large portion of the student body would hear that Willow Park and Hunter Strong had something going on.
On a more immediate basis, Amelia picked up on it almost instantly, her lips parting in a smile. "So? How was your weekend?" she asked before Mrs. Kissiae started assigning partners.
"My dads and I went camping and … some weird stuff happened," Willow said, her mood dampening just a bit at remembering her encounter with the Emperor's Coven and the Golden Guard. But a quick glance at Hunter being assigned as Bram's partner brought it right back up.
"Weird like you and Hunter getting together?" Amelia whispered.
Willow gasped and whirled to face her, her cheeks white as a ghost instead of red. "W-What? You- I- What?"
"You and Hunter," Amelia repeated quietly. "You two had something happen, didn't you?"
Willow considered lying, or at least fibbing … for about half of a second. She was a terrible liar and she knew it would only incriminate her. "Yeah. After the weird stuff on the camping trip, he talked to me. Made me feel better." She smiled. "One thing led to another … we kind of confessed, and …" She giggled. "We don't know what this is. And neither of us have been in anything like it, but … We're trying it out."
Both girls looked up as Mrs. Kissiae assigned them as partners and received their assignment for the day. "I'm happy for you," Amelia said as she and Willow got ready to pick fruits from the greenhouse's gored vines. She decided to keep silent about the fact that she and Skara had discussed the idea that very morning. "I think you two look really good together," she decided to say.
"Thanks," Willow said before they focused on their work.
Hunter hadn't been lying when he said he had a mountain of paperwork to handle back at the Bonesborough Precinct. As he trudged through the streets of the small city, he wasn't looking forward to it. But it did give him time to reflect on the day as he walked.
Hunter wasn't a fool. He knew he and Willow had caused something of a stir despite their attempts to be discreet. It wasn't just that neither of them were too experienced in hiding affection, it was that teenagers had a griffon's eye for stuff like that, especially when it wasn't any of their business. And his years in the Emperor's Coven, and as a favored member no less, had taught him the hard way to sense the general mood of a surrounding crowd.
Though said crowds were usually a lot more vicious.
And yet, at the same time, today had been one of the best in his life. With the knowledge that his feelings were reciprocated, Hunter found himself drawn even more strongly to Willow. It was all he could do to focus on his schoolwork when every fiber of his being wanted to glance her way to catch a glimpse of her, to draw closer and feel her skin on his. It didn't help that she was in her element in the greenhouse, confident in herself and almost glowing with joy.
As Hunter mulled over his feelings, he finally made it to his one detour on the way to the precinct: the Bonesborough Public Library. As intoxicating as this new situation could be, it was completely unfamiliar ground. And Hunter, by his very nature, did not like that fact. And so he would apply one of his greatest non-magical gifts. That of research.
Hunter made his way into the building and eventually to the reference desk. He glanced around as casually as he could before inputting his search: books on how to date. There were several entries in the self-help section, and Hunter's stomach twisted. He'd always considered that place the refuge of weak-willed idiots. Guess he needed to reevaluate that opinion.
Hunter searched the shelves until he found the small collection of dating books. He skipped over several that were related to marriage rather than dating, tugging at his collar at the idea, and averted his gaze from a number of books detailing, well … carnal advice. That made him feel like his face would catch on fire. Nope!
Finally, he found about a half dozen books on dating. A few looked a little outdated, but a few more looked like they might be worth a read. He picked two and tucked them under his arm to get to the check-out clerk and make his getaway. He ducked between two bookshelves and was glancing behind him, feeling paranoid, when he crashed into someone else. He stumbled back with a grunt, but the other person fell bodily to the floor in a burst of scattered books.
"Watch where you're going!" snapped a chillingly familiar voice. Hunter's head snapped down to find one Amity Blight on the ground, blinking owlishly up at him. "Hunter?" she asked.
"Hey Amity," he said with a forced smile. He offered a hand and that she hesitantly took before they both started collecting scattered books. "What're you doing here?" he asked.
"I work today," she said simply, pointing to her employee badge.
"Huh," he said, genuinely surprised. "You never mentioned where you worked." He smirked a bit. "I really shouldn't be surprised. You're as big a nerd as I've ever met."
"I'll take that as a compliment," she said cooly, snatching proffered books away from him. "Now if you don't mind, I have to-" She blinked at the feel of some extras and shuffled her books to find Hunter's choices. Her eyebrows arched in shock. "The Fool's Guide to the Opposite Sex?" she read, then looked at the other, "Witch Way to Go: Dating a Witch?" She looked up at him. "What is this?"
"Give those back," Hunter snapped, swiping them away and attempting to slip away.
A dozen pieces of a puzzle Amity had no idea she had been assembling clicked together in her mind and she dropped her books again to lash out and grab Hunter's wrist. "It's Willow, isn't it?" she said, a statement rather than a question.
Hunter bit back a curse and sighed. "Yeah," he admitted. Rather than release him, Amity's grip tightened.
"And what are your intentions?" she asked icily.
"Why do you care, Blight?" he hissed, embarrassment hidden behind hostility. "You abandoned her. A little late to be looking out for her, huh?"
Amity recoiled, jerking her hand away from his grip and stepping back. But rather than glacial ice in her eyes, Hunter saw a sheen of tears. Amity scooped her books back up and turned without a word, her shoulders slumped in defeat.
Guilt crashed down on Hunter like a boulder. He considered just walking away, but even he knew he couldn't let something like this fester. Not only might it damage his relationship with Willow if it got back to her, but Amity had honestly become … if not a friend, then something of a good acquaintance in the last few weeks.
Hunter palmed his books and peeked out from between the shelves to find Amity at a table and sorting through her haul some distance away. He swallowed and approached, trying to look as contrite as he felt. "Uh, Amity?"
She was completely silent, apparently intent on ignoring him.
"Look. I, uh … I'm sorry, okay?"
No response.
"Amity?" he prodded. "I shouldn't have said that. It wasn't right."
Silence.
"Will you say something?" Hunter asked. Ever more silence. "Say something!" he snapped.
"What is there to say?" Amity finally replied. There was the cold tone he'd expected, though she didn't look at him. "You're right, I did abandon Willow." She set a book down with more force than necessary. "And that's why I asked. I owe Willow more than I can ever repay for how I treated her all those years." She finally looked at him. "So forgive me for being concerned when someone she just met shows interest like this." Her eyes narrowed. "It can come off as a little suspicious."
Hunter winced and looked away. It didn't escape him that she wasn't far off the mark. He'd had ulterior motives for joining Hexside and getting close to Willow, even if the feelings that had sprung up were very real.
"I can understand that," he admitted. He gripped his books and frowned. "But why would I be looking at these if I wasn't genuine?"
Amity looked like she was ready to argue, but something seemed to occur to her and her gaze softened considerably. "If there's one person I trust in this world, it's Luz," she said out of the blue. "As naive as she can be, she trusts you." Amity pursed her lips and growled before sighing. "So I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt."
Hunter almost smiled in gratitude, but Amity stood from her chair and looked him straight in the eye. "But trust me when I tell you this, Hunter Strong," she said with deceptive calm. "If you break Willow's heart, I will grind you to paste and add you to my next Abomination."
As far as threats went … that was a pretty good one. Hunter smiled and nodded. "Forget what I said before," he commented. "I'm glad Willow has someone with some ice in her looking out for her. I appreciate it." He turned and started toward the check out, but paused. "I, uh, mean that," he said more hesitantly, but also honestly.
With nothing left to say, Hunter turned away and, for the final time, made his way toward the check-out desk. He felt Amity's appraising gaze on him the whole while until the moment he exited the building. He thought over the encounter and nodded to himself. That could have gone a lot worse.
As he made his way back toward the Boneborough outpost, he scratched at the side of his face as an itch seemed to grow between his shoulder blades. He covertly glanced around, feeling like he was being watched. He could spot nothing on the street, but that didn't mean something … or someone … wasn't there. He decided to take a secret entrance used by the coven's covert operatives. Better safe than sorry.
It was a good thing he had, as a rat-themed Abomination lost track of him and hissed in vexation. It hopped from the rooftops and plummeted straight into the soil near a tree, merging neatly into the ground.
Had one been watching, they would have noticed that the entity's clay had a very large portion of soil. It made its way back to its master, emerging from the ground like water and darting up into Jerbo's outstretched hand. "So, what did you find out?" he asked gently, but firmly.
Mrs. Kissiae huffed as she locked up the greenhouse for the day until the morning. She smiled as she watched Willow Park leave the campus. That girl was the most promising student she'd had in a long time, and not at all for lack of promising students. There was just something inside her that connected to plant magic on a fundamental level. True, it hampered her grasp on other magics a bit, particularly Abomination magic, but one could easily see that she knew where her strengths lie.
Before leaving, Mrs. Kissiae visited the teachers' workroom and checked her inbox. Most of it was basic forms that she'd have to get back to Principal Bump, but one was a letter on rich stationary, closed with wax and bearing the emblem on her own wrist: the mark of the Plant Coven.
Mrs. Kissiae gasped with delight and sliced the seal to open the letter. Her eyes scanned back and forth as she took it in.
Dear Mrs. Kissiae of Hexside School, we are pleased to inform you that your request has been accepted. On the date of-
Mrs. Kissiae squealed with joy and tucked the letter into her pocket to finish at home, where she could celebrate in private. She ran out of the school and summoned her staff capped with her spider palisman, Charlotte. The next few days would be so exciting!
Willow hummed to herself as she made her way back home, Clover perched and riding on her shoulder. As she neared her dads' apartment, she felt her palisman sit up, taught as a bowstring. Clover looked around in something like fear as the moderate pedestrian traffic milled about them before she hesitantly settled back down.
"Clover? Is everything okay?" Willow asked.
'I'm not sure,' Clover buzzed quietly. 'But I think we are safe for now.'
Willow nodded and continued on their way. The apartment was only a few blocks away now.
So reassured, both witchling and palisman missed one of the pedestrians that had unobtrusively kept their focus on them through the corner of their eye as they passed. Then again, they could be forgiven for not noticing him. He was, after all, a spy by trade.
The spy turned and checked some produce at a streetside stand to let some distance grow between him and his target before continuing onward. Round spectacles flashed as he glanced around, appearing as casual as could be. No one gave him a second glance.
And as he trailed his target and watched and learned, he thought, 'Exactly how I prefer it.'
And that makes a round number ten!
*I like to think that Boscha does care for her friends in her own twisted way. Her sadistic training is her way of making them better. And as cruel and vindictive as she is, I also think it's within her character to never push the hard work onto others when she can do it herself.
*We never got a story on Ghost's origin, and I hope we can rectify that in canon. But until then, I can only think that the Blights would never let their daughter adopt a palisman, used. I also like the symmetry of both Luz and Amity crafting their own palismen as they craft new lives together.
*Writing the scene between Hunter and Amity was really tough. Getting the balance between cold distance and the empathy they have both learned took a lot of re-writing. I can only hope I did them both justice.
Hope y'all liked it! Leave a review; they make me so happy! And may your inspiration never waver.