No one even glanced in his direction when he joined the others for the meeting, and somehow, that felt worse than them noticing he was late. They just…pretended like he wasn't there. Like they always did.

Hunter was supposed to lead this meeting, Belos trusted him to take charge of it, and here he was, slinking to the back of the room when the meeting was carried on as it was before he got there. He opened his mouth several times to say something, to step up like the leader he was supposed to be, but he found that no words could come out. Simply put, after his little meltdown in the library a few minutes ago, he no longer had the energy to speak. He just sat there, not even paying attention to the things that were discussed, to the things that were spoken. He just sat, staring aimlessly at the others. His head felt too clouded, too panicked to even comprehend what anyone was saying, but it didn't matter, because guess what? No one even cared that he was there. It was doubtful they'd ask for his opinion on anything.

His uncle…Belos would be so displeased if he could see him now. Not only was he late to the coven head meeting, but he wasn't even leading it like he was supposed to-he wasn't even really participating in it. What an incredible, utter failure he was.

The meeting ended, and Hunter's stomach still felt like an empty pit. His feelings didn't matter though, he had to square his shoulders and continue on with the Golden Guard facade for the rest of the day. The bright side of all this was that the scouts still seemed to respect him, at least. Probably only because the majority of the scouts didn't know he was 16, or if they did, they didn't care. The scouts just did what they were told by the higher ups, whether said 'higher up' was a literal child or not. It was easier that way for them, everyone here feared Belos' wrath.

But…Yeah, if the majority of the scouts didn't know his true age, that would probably be for the best. He'd been too careless lately, both with taking his mask off in public and with Flapjack. He admittedly hadn't been thinking his decisions through as much lately, and he could probably credit that to the whole escaped palismen fiasco. Ever since he met that human, things had taken quite a wild turn for him. He couldn't say it was all bad though-he had made some friends, hadn't he?

Friends who he wished he could see right now, instead of being stuck here.

With that thought, Hunter reached for his scroll as he walked through one of the many long hallways of the Emperor's castle. His hand stopped though, before dropping back to his side. What was that again, about not thinking his decisions through? He couldn't use his scroll right now, not until he was either off-duty or alone. Honestly, he doubted the coven scouts would care much if they saw him using his scroll (he'd caught a few of them doing that before while on their shift), but it wasn't simple scouts he was worried about.

Again with the paranoia of being caught by the other coven heads. Honestly, it was really annoying how he could never bring himself to fully trust any of them (Raine was probably the only one he'd come close to trusting before, but with how they'd been acting lately…he wasn't sure what to think anymore), but that was just his life, always a bit paranoid about one thing or another.

Well…Didn't paranoia imply that one was being irrationally anxious or oversuspicious? If he'd seen countless proof that he couldn't trust the others (i.e. them constantly stabbing each other in the back and Kikimora trying to kill him on multiple occasions), did that really count as him being paranoid, or was he correct in assuming that they could get him into trouble at any given time? Whatever the case, he had to be careful around them-them meaning the coven heads, Kikimora, and the scouts. He didn't know who to trust, so it was better to not trust anyone, at the moment.

Anyone, except for perhaps, the Emerald Entrails. He couldn't say he 100% trusted them, but he definitely wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt. They had, afterall, given him a completely unwarranted second chance after he basically kidnapped them and tried to uproot their lives.

But maybe they were just using him, slowly getting him to trust them so he wouldn't see it coming when they-

No, no. He quickly shook those thoughts away. The Entrails…They weren't like all of the people Hunter had grown up around. They didn't have hidden, malicious purposes. They weren't using him for their own gain. They were good people, Willow, Gus, Skara, Viney…all of them.

…Right?

To be honest, even if they were just using him for whatever reason, he wasn't even sure he'd care too much. Was being used really all that bad? If it meant you could be useful to someone…If it meant you mattered in some way…would it really, truly be a bad thing?

Hunter was only useful to Belos because he was the Golden Guard, afterall. Belos needed him, and as long as he was needed, as long as he knew he had a purpose…even the constant threat of being replaced loomed over his head couldn't shake his resolve.

So yeah, if his flyer derby teammates were only his friends because they needed something from him, that was perfectly fine with him! He'd take what little he could get.

He was just glad to at least feel wanted.

Tryouts for the Emperor's Coven were being held tomorrow evening, so Hunter spent the rest of the day making all of the needed preparations for that. This would be his first time leading the tryouts as the head of the coven, and he really, really didn't want to mess anything up. His uncle had been incredibly busy with preparations for the Day of Unity lately, and if anything went even remotely wrong and ended up distracting from those preparations, Belos wouldn't be pleased. Hunter wasn't expecting this to be a difficult task or anything, but there would be a room full of teenagers that he had to deal with tomorrow, and his previous experiences with others his age had been…interesting. The first real experience he'd had with another teen was with Luz the human, and that ended with them being…Well, what they were exactly, he wasn't sure. Enemies? Acquaintances? Luz had been annoying him to no end lately on Penstagram, but he wasn't quite sure he could think of a word to describe their relationship.

Then there was that Blight girl, Amity Blight, who he didn't exactly end things well with the last (and first) time they met. Yeah, he was pretty sure she could be counted as an enemy of his, though that fault was entirely his own. If she hated him, it was only because he kinda deserved it. Hunter noticed that her name was on the list of students trying out for the Emperor's Coven, much to his-well, let's call it an interest. A part of him felt a bit nervous at the prospect of seeing her again, after ending their last encounter so poorly and all. But maybe-just maybe-if she passed tryouts (which he had no doubt she could, after seeing her fight) they could become friends? There had been that one point back at the lake, where she seemed to have some sort of sympathy for him…If she was willing to give him another chance and ended up joining the coven, then maybe things wouldn't be so lonely here anymore.

As things stood though, Amity Blight held obvious disdain for him and didn't seem to trust him. He would know, she kind of yelled at him through text (or angry texted him) using both Willow and the Owl lady's scrolls on two separate occasions.

Ahem, but anyway…

His third experience with other teens had been with his newfound friend group, and since that seemed to be going well, maybe he really didn't have to worry about tomorrow. Yeah.

Yeah!

He had this whole thing in the bag! It wasn't like he'd actually have to have a conversation with anyone trying out or anything, he'd just have to give a short little speech about the greatness of the coven, before testing each witch on their abilities. Simple.

Preparations for tomorrow were actually pretty simple, he just had to go through the long list of names of those who wanted to try out, make sure the trials were all prepared and ready to be carried out, and set up the test site. The tryouts were going to be held at Bonesborough's Convention Center, and Hunter, as the Golden Guard, had already sent a few scouts over to prepare the area. Though Hunter hadn't led the tryouts before (and never officially took part in them himself), he knew that a large crowd usually gathered.

Currently, Hunter had left the castle and was walking down the streets of Bonesborough, mask on and artificial staff in hand, to reach the testing site and make sure everything was in order. He was nearly there (he saw a gaggle of scouts who were walking towards the convention center), when he saw an awfully familiar looking figure standing in front of a stall only a few feet away from him. Hunter slowly came to a stop and stared at them, his eyes widening beneath his mask.

"Willow?"

Willow Park, hair in pigtails and still in her Hexside uniform, turned towards the voice calling her name and immediately smiled upon seeing who it was. "Caleb!"

"You do know my name's not actually Caleb, right?" A slight smirk made its way onto his lips. "What are you doing here?" It was really nice to see her right now, especially after his not-so-great afternoon. Seeing her again was like a breath of fresh air, and his shoulders suddenly dropped a weight he hadn't even realized they'd been carrying.

"Of course I know, silly! I'm here with Gus; he wanted to grab something at the Snack Shack before we headed home." She pointed to a stand over, where Gus was, carefully inspecting the wide array of snacks and drinks the little shop had to offer.

"Home?" He glanced over at Gus, who was also still in his Hexside uniform. They must have just gotten out of school. It was…what, a little after 3:00 pm right now? "No practice today?"

Willow shook her head, her pigtails bouncing as she did so. "Not today. We like to have a day off once in a while, you know?" She practically beamed at him. "So? What are you doing here in all that getup?"

Hunter blushed a little, and suddenly felt a little awkward talking to Willow like this, wearing his uniform and all. Maybe it was a little ridiculous, but he kind of…wanted to keep the Golden Guard stuff separate from the Hunter stuff, especially because there wasn't exactly much 'Hunter stuff'. "I-um…I'm getting ready for the Emperor's Coven tryouts being held tomorrow. Everything should be ready by now, I just have to…Make sure everything's good to go and all that."

Willow wrinkled her nose at the mention of the coven tryouts, probably due to the whole kidnapping thing. Hunter still felt horrible about that, and he imagined that the Emperor's Coven tryouts, which were quite an exciting thing to most people, no longer held her admiration. She quickly straightened her expression out though, for his sake. "You're busy right now then?"

If Hunter didn't know any better, he would have thought she sounded almost disappointed.

He rubbed the back of his neck, the hood of his cloak accidentally falling down in the process. He left it though, it was a warm day and there wasn't any real reason to keep it up as long as he had his mask on. "Yeah…I should probably get going." He didn't move though, not really wanting to leave just yet. He just wanted to keep talking to her, even if just for another minute or two. This was the first time he'd seen her face-to-face (ignoring the mask) since their fateful meeting about a week ago.

Willow frowned. "Are you sure you can't stay just another minute? Gus and I can get you a snack or something real quick." She took a quick glance at him from head to toe. "When was the last time you ate, anyway?"

Hunter ignored that last question. He wasn't even sure, to be honest, though he knew for a fact that he hadn't gotten the chance to eat anything today so far. He skipped breakfast to get an earlier start to his day, and then he skipped lunch to message the group chat. Now that the mention of food was brought up, his stomach rumbled, but he put any feelings of hunger aside. "I can't." He frowned under the mask. He wished he could stay here to have a quick snack with Willow and Gus, but…"I shouldn't even really be talking to you right now, but, ah…maybe later?"

His tone was hopeful.

Willow seemed to deflate a little at that, and Hunter immediately wished he phrased that a little differently. He waved his hands in a slight panic. "I-I mean-I want to, but I'm just really busy right now and don't have the time." When would he ever have the time, though? He had a whole freaking year till his next day off, and if he ever happened to encounter Willow or any of the other Entrails on the streets again, who's to say he wouldn't be "really busy" then too?

"Hunter…" Willow started sadly, but then a playful smile came to her face. Without any warning, she grabbed his arm and yanked him in the direction of the snack stand Gus was at. She was strong, and even with Hunter's intense training, he couldn't resist being pulled along.

"He-hey!" he exclaimed, pulling his arm away from her grasp, now standing by Gus, who looked surprised to see Hunter.

"Hunter? Didn't expect to see you here," he commented, raising an eyebrow.

"He's just taking a quick little break before getting back to his preparations for coven tryouts tomorrow," Willow said with a wink.

"Wha-?! No, I specifically said that I didn't have time for-"

"What do you want then?" Gus said, nodding to the many different choices of snacks in front of them. "It's on me."

"I-what?" Hunter was confused now. He'd literally JUST said he didn't have the time for this, wasn't Willow listening?

"Come on, you can stop whatever you're doing for five minutes, can't you? Just have a little something to eat and then we'll let you get back to your oh-so-important duties!" Willow's eyes gleamed, her words lightly teasing him.

"I-" Hunter sputtered, still trying to wrap his head around all of this.

"C'mon man, we're friends, aren't we?" Gus smiled at him. Hunter gave a short nod. "Friends do stuff like this together all the time!"

"Well…I guess it wouldn't hurt to take a quick break," Hunter hesitantly mumbled.

"What was that?" Gus questioned, clearly poking fun at him.

"I said fine!" Hunter all but yelled, earning the three of them some curious looks. He cleared his throat, the tips of his ears burning red. "Er…" That was embarrassing, he didn't mean to react like that. He just, you know, generally didn't know how to act around his newfound friends. Besides those few hours he spent with them the other day, his only other interactions with them had been over text.

"Good!" the captain said proudly. "Now, what do you want?"

Hunter ended up choosing a bag of some kind of chips he didn't recognize, and a small carton of apple blood. Willow and Gus chose similar items, Gus paid, and then the three of them went to go sit down on a bench for a few minutes while they enjoyed their snacks. As hungry as he was, Hunter wasn't even paying attention to the snacks. Preparations for the coven tryouts were momentarily forgotten. All he could think about was how happy he felt right now to be here, sitting on this bench, talking to two of his new friends.