This was turning out to be a horrible day, and it wasn't even 9:00am yet.

When Hunter woke up that morning at 6:00 as per usual, he realized with great frustration that he had a pounding headache. He only rarely got headaches, but it was always an annoying inconvenience. Not only that, but his muscles ached and he felt abnormal chills run down his spine. He chalked it up to just not getting enough sleep, but as two and a half hours passed by, he only felt worse than he did when he woke up. His stupid headache wouldn't go away, and he even dressed in his full uniform, cloak and all, he still felt cold. It was worse than just feeling cold though, because he kept shivering, and he couldn't get it to stop. He had to clench his fists to hide the tremble as he gave his scouts orders this morning. Just standing up right now felt strenuous, to be honest.

Oh no.

Oh no, no, no.

Was he sick?

He couldn't be sick, no way. It was hard enough trying to get a sick day when the Day of Unity wasn't in the imminent future. Belos needed everyone to work their hardest right now, especially his trusted Golden Guard and the other coven heads. Even on a slow day, he had to get someone to cover his shift in order to take a sick day, and unfortunately, his only option was often Kikimora, who seemed all-too eager to refuse to cover for him. On a day like this, a busy day where Belos was likely to give him a list of tasks to complete or even a mission, there was no way he could afford to take a sick day.

So he didn't. It sucked, like a lot, but he just had to push through the day anyway. He didn't seem to be in any danger of collapsing, at least. He might have felt crappy, but he doubted this little sickness was anything worth getting worked up about. It was an inconvenience, that's all.

Hunter thought this would be the hardest part of his day, but he severely underestimated just how much worse things could get. He should have known better, in hindsight, because it really wasn't all that uncommon for things to go sideways for him. That was just how things were for him.

An hour later, around 10:00 in the morning, he had the displeasure of passing Kikimora in the hallway. They ran into each other all the time, of course, but she seemed to be in a particularly bad mood today. She was coming from the direction of the throne room, so it was safe to assume that she had just had a meeting with the Emperor. She was practically seething with anger as she walked down the hallway, muttering something about "incompitent scouts" and "wild witches". If he remembered correctly, then Belos had recently tasked her with capturing and branding the few left in the Boiling Isles who dared to oppose the coven system. The Owl Lady wasn't a main target this time, but rather a few others who would prove easier to bend to the Emperor's will. Something must have gone wrong though, for Kikimora to be this worked up. Or maybe she was muttering curses under her breath for a different reason, who's to say?

Hunter was just going to walk past her and ignore her, honestly, because he didn't have the energy to put up with their usual mutual hatred of each other today. She could be a lot to handle even on his better days. Naturally though, as soon as Kikimora caught sight of him, there was a derogatory, "Golden Guard," as she came to a stop a few feet in front of him.

"Kiki," he replied in a sneering voice. It annoyed her to no end when he called her by the nickname. Perhaps it was fine when others said it, but he purposely said it in as taunting of a way as possible. But hey, she started it.

Now, maybe their little interaction would have ended there, but Hunter wasn't exactly in the best state right now. He looked much more disheveled than usual. His hood was down, because now on top of getting the chills, he also had heat flashes every now and then. Right now it felt too overbearing to wear his hood, so his slightly messy hair and red ears could be seen. He was still wearing his mask though, thank goodness, because he did not want Kikimora to see how flushed his face was right now. Or anyone, for that matter.

Unfortunately, Kikimora noticed how off he seemed this morning.

"You don't look so well," Kikimora said with mock concern. Hunter could almost imagine the cruel grin she was wearing underneath the high-collared veil covering half of her face. A very obviously fake gasp escaped her lips. "You're not ill, are you?"

Hunter's eye twitched beneath his mask. Really? She had to do this now? Of course Kiki would be all-too-glad to point out the disarray he was in this morning. It probably would have physically hurt her to simply leave him be. "I'm perfectly fine, thanks for asking," he countered sarcastically, rolling his eyes. He started to move to walk around her, but then she took a step to the side so she was directly in front of him again. Seriously? His frame trembled slightly, and he straightened his posture and squared his shoulders in attempt to hide how poorly he was right now. He felt beads of sweat collect on his forehead. Yeah, what he said was definitely a lie, he was far from perfectly fine, but that didn't change the fact that he had work to do today. Important work that he couldn't put off for his own sake.

The small demon shook her head and tsked, her hands clasped behind her back. "It would be a shame for you to collapse in the middle of your duties. Perhaps you should lie down?" Oh yeah, she was definitely smirking at him beneath her collar. She knew very well that he was far too busy to take the day off, and that made her taunting all the more annoying. She just loved baiting people, didn't she?

Hunter grit his teeth. "Out of my way," he muttered as he pushed past her. As he walked down the long hallway away from her, he could hear her cackle.

Oh Titan, he hated her.


Belos summoned him to give a new mission soon after. It was a fairly simple mission, but it would potentially require quite a bit of exertion, which he wasn't excited about, but what could he do? His uncle needed him, and even while sick, he would do everything he could to make him proud. Belos still seemed to be…disappointed with Hunter for the whole Eclipse Lake incident, not to mention his failure before that, so he felt like he was on thin ice right now. Sick or not, he couldn't mess this up.

There was a small breakout at the conformatorium a couple of hours ago, and while the escaped criminals were hardly that dangerous or threatening, the guards in charge of their recapture had failed. Belos was very displeased with those guards and gave Hunter the task of recapturing them instead. He also warned him to make it quick or the Titan would not be pleased.

Ever since Wardan Wrath had been demoted, the conformitorium had been having security issues. His replacement was not as well-trained as they should have been, to put it simply.

So here Hunter was, still feeling under the weather and very much not wanting to be here. He had two targets to capture, and they were currently about 20 feet from him, attempting to run away. It was foolish of them, neither target was very powerful (Hunter wasn't sure what they did to earn a cell in the conformitorium, but they were lesser criminals, that he knew) so this most likely wouldn't take long. Because he wasn't at his best though, having to chase after the two escaped criminals was proving to be a pain. He didn't want to admit it, but he was having a hard time trying to catch his breath right now, and he was much slower than usual. He was glad no one else was around right now, because this was just embarrassing. Two pathetic escapees were out running him-him, the freaking Golden Guard. Belos would be so disappointed in him if he could see him now. He was pathetic!

Eventually, Hunter did manage to catch them and drag them back to the conformatorium (and promptly spent the next five minutes yelling at the new warden and guards there to actually do their job next time), but now he was completely exhausted. On any other day, this small mission would have been very easy, but now…Now his legs felt like jelly, his head spun, he was trembling again, and it took too much effort to speak. He wanted nothing more than to go back to his room and sleep forever, but he knew that he couldn't. He had to report back to Belos, and it was still only afternoon. He had a long day ahead of him.


THEOWLLADY: Are you busy?

THEOWLLADY: I need to ask you some questions!

THEOWLLADY: You can tell me if Belos is evil ;) ;)

THEOWLLADY: Hunter?

Hunter groaned. It was just one annoyance after another today, wasn't it? Honestly, this was what-the fifth time Luz had texted him asking for answers? When was she going to get it through her thick skull that he wasn't going to tell her anything?!

RULERZREACHF4N: me., .!,!

Hunter took off his mask, boots, cloak, and armor and then flopped down on his bed facefirst. He pulled his pillow over his head and tried his best to resist the urge to scream into the pillow. This had been the longest day ever. But it was over now, thankfully.

He felt much worse now than he did this morning though. He barely even got the chance to sit down today, Titan, he was exhausted.

Flapjack landed right by his shoulder and chirped at him. Hunter turned over and moved the pillow so he was holding it to his stomach, and he glanced at his palisman before looking up at the ceiling. His eyes felt so heavy right now, he just wanted to shut them and sleep. He honestly just wanted to forget this day ever happened. He was pretty sure that even some of the scouts noticed him lagging today, which was pretty mortifying. He was the Golden Guard, he was supposed to be invincible, untouchable, immovable, but today he just felt like a dumb kid playing dress up. He was a joke today, seriously.

He didn't even want to think about how tomorrow would go if he was still sick with whatever this was.

Despite feeling more tired than he could ever remember being in his life, his thoughts were too consuming to sleep right now, so with a sigh, he pulled out his scroll. It had only been a couple days since Darius gave him the scroll, so he was still trying to figure it out. He'd already been enjoying it though. It was…surprisingly nice to be able to connect with his new friends through it. He couldn't see them in person for the time being, so this was a nice alternative.

Hunter was honestly pretty surprised that they still wanted to text him after the other night. He thought that they would still be upset (and rightfully so), but instead they seemed more excited than anything to include him in their new team group chat. He looked over the messages that he missed from today. It was late and he was tired, but he took every chance he got to text them since he didn't exactly have a lot of freetime.

The messages he missed were mostly school related stuff that didn't concern Hunter, obviously, since he didn't go to Hexside. There were also a few texts asking each other about their day, and they even asked Hunter how his Golden Guard duties went today. Huh, he'd never had anyone ask him about work before.

Emerald Entrails Group Chat

HUMANGUS: when do u get off work Caleb?

That text was sent an hour ago, by the looks of it. The chat had been pretty quiet since. Hunter smirked a little. For some reason, they still called him Caleb. More than they called him by his actual name, anyway. Maybe they just forgot, or maybe it was their way of separating him from the Golden Guard stuff. Either way, he found it amusing (but also a little confusing).

RULERZREACHF4N: ,im ofF

He wasn't expecting a reply right now since it was getting late, but the others all jumped into the chat again right after he sent that.

Puddles_time: how was it? ?

Hello_Willow: Did you have a good day? :)

Hunter stared at those two messages for a minute. Did they want him to answer honestly? Because it had not been a great day.

RULERZREACHF4N: no,,.it waSs

Puddles_time: Aw, really? Sry, that sucks :(

BardQueen15: Anything bad happen or was it just really boring?

RULERZREACHF4N is typing…

RULERZREACHF4N: .Iwas ,, kikiMra was anNOY ing l, .,

BardQueen15: kikiMra?

HUMANGUS: I think he means Kikimora?

Hello_Willow: ooh we she was our tour guide on that field trip to the castle forever ago, right?

Hello_Willow: Wait is she also the one Amity said was at Eclipse lake with you guys?

RULERZREACHF4N: YEs

HUMANGUS: Didn't she like…also try to kill you once?

RULERZREACHF4N: .,,.yeah

BardQueen15: …

BardQueen15: She WHAT?!

Puddles_time: Oooh boy, I need to hear this story!

Puddles_time: another time tho

Hello_Willow: sorry Kikimora was bothering you again :(

Hello_Willow: Are you doing okay?

RULERZREACHF4N: i don.

RULERZREACHF4N: .I,,would bE ,.but I.

RULERZREACHF4N: .i.,thnk I mIght be s,.

RULERZREACHF4N: .sicK

Puddles_time: You're sick? And you still had to work today? ?

RULERZREACHF4N: yes

HUMANGUS: sorry dude, that sucks ?

Hello_Willow: I hope you feel better soon!

BardQueen15: Yah! Get better soon!

Puddles_time: Make sure you get enough sleep! You're gonna need plenty of it to get better

BardQueen15: no offense but you have MAJOR eyebags…U could use more sleep

RULERZREACHF4N:

RULERZREACHF4N: .I shoulD., goto sleep now thE.n

HUMANGUS: Good night then!

Puddles_time: Night! Feel better!

BardQueen15: Gnight!

Hello_Willow: Good night Caleb! :)

RULERZREACHF4N: .

Hunter found himself smiling as he closed his scroll. He wasn't expecting that. He didn't expect them to…care, but they all seemed to, even if just a little bit. They were concerned about how his day went. They told him to get better soon when he said he was sick. They even wished him a good night.

It was weird, having friends now.

But on days like this, on long, exhausting, kinda bad days like this, it was nice to be able to have someone to talk about it with, even if it was just by sending a few quick texts. It made it seem…better, almost, to know that he still had friends after a bad day. Friends.

It was weird, it was different, and he still didn't know how to send a text message without all sorts of typos, but it was nice. It was nice having friends now.