Of Now and Then

by LittleSunset264

Everyone is different in many ways, regardless of who it is. Some are ashamed while others embrace it.

11. If They Call You, Embrace Them

Another day of being alone, another day of surviving.

It had always been like that from when Hunter was born, running around trying to survive in this world with no one sticking by his side. He had a few, but they never stuck around too long, all for one reason.

The earliest memory he had, there was no one by his side. He didn't know anything about his parents, like if they were there with him, or if they abandoned him, or whatever the case may be, but all he knew was that they were never there. All he remembered at the earliest point of his life was that he was lying on the ground looking up to the sky, almost like Hunter just popped out of nowhere one day and there he was, alive, breathing. He knew nothing more or less than that; nobody seemed to know either. If there was nothing, then he didn't hold onto it. It wasn't that he didn't care, he did because he wanted to know why he was left alone the way he was at that age, but there wasn't any reason to linger on it longer than he needed to.

Hunter was always running, he was always hiding when he stopped for a certain amount of time, and for the most part there wasn't any stop to it. He basically traveled everywhere that one person could. He could admit that he wasn't the sharpest tool and the shed, and he wouldn't deny it, but at the very least he had the basic idea of what he should and shouldn't do. If night was upon him, he would immediately find a place to take shelter for the night. If he heard anything or anyone coming close to his position, he'd hide immediately, albeit sometimes it was from fear.

At the age of three and a half, he was wandering around like any normal day. There was no need to get food as he already had what was practically his lunch earlier due to the fruit growing on the trees. If he needed anything else he'd know, but for the time being he was exploring, see where he hadn't been to yet. One of his ears perked and twitched, hearing something somewhere behind him. It wasn't close enough where the source was right behind him, but he was able to hear it a couple dozen feet away. Immediately, Hunter hid in the bushes and grabbed the biggest branch he could find without making too much noise. He peeked through the bushes, seeing what was outside of his hiding spot.

A person entered his line of sight, standing right in the spot where Hunter was. He appeared to be a tall, brown goat with his horns facing behind him and they spiraled until the ends were close to his head. He had a bow in his hands and there were arrows on his back, ready to be grabbed. The bow itself caught Hunter's attention; it was made out of wood and the string attached looked of silver. The wood had several marks on its surface, some as if it had been hit with something sharp, and others were naturally part of the bow as if it was made to look that way. He looked at it in awe, so much so he leaned forward too much and fell right out of the bush. Hunter landed at the goat's hooves, who looked down at him. The young cheetah got up as fast as he could and held out the stick he found. His body trembled and his heart raced, but he was more than ready to fight if he had to.

The goat towering over him laughed, almost having a sweet loving laugh like a mother would have, as he bent down to his level. He looked at Hunter right in his eyes.

"I don't think you'll be able to do much harm there, kid." He told him as he smiled. He took the branch from Hunter's hands. "Shouldn't ya be with your parents?"

"I… I don't have anyone." Hunter said, lowering his defenses as his ears fell.

The goat frowned. "What's your name?"

"...Hunter."

"Then, Hunter," he held his hand out, "would you like to stay with me? At least, for a little while."

Hunter only gazed between his hand and his eyes. There wasn't a single thing he knew about this man, not even his name, there was no way he was going to trust him right away. At the same time, however, the chance of sitting down and relaxing for a while sounded too good. Then again, that could've been the plan the whole time. All of a sudden, the goat laughed.

"Oh, I haven't introduced myself have I?" He scratched behind his head. Hunter slowly nodded in response. "Sorry, I probably should've done that after I asked for yours. Name's Wisław."

"Vee...Shwal?"

Wisław laughed. "Ve-yee-shwalf." He repeated slowly.

"Ve… Yee… Shwalf." Hunter managed to repeat.

"Good job! Now let's say it normally. Wisław."

"Wisław."

He smiled. "You're a quick learner. I like that." Wisław picked Hunter up. "Maybe I should teach you Polish someday."

Hunter nodded as he smiled widely. Wisław held the cheetah like he was holding a baby, which Hunter didn't mind. His tail swung back and forth as he got comfortable.

"Wówczas chodźmy."

With that, he started walking back from the direction he came from. Hunter only looked ahead every now and then, mostly keeping his head on the goat's chest. After a moment, he closed his eyes from feeling relaxed. A few seconds afterwards, he opened his eyes and saw the scenery around them. There were plenty of people in front of them, all within a little village they were about to enter. Hunter's eyes wandered everywhere from the people to the housings. With every person, he tried to memorize them as much as possible. With every house and building, he merely glanced at them, but he had a good idea of what they looked like.

Once what felt like only a few minutes passed by, they ended up on the other side of the village, residing in one of the biggest houses Hunter saw. He stared in wonder as they went inside. On the inside, there were doors to the right and left, two on both sides. All the way in the back, a table was there along with two people, another man and a child that seemed a little older than Hunter. Wisław put Hunter down onto the floor, causing the latter to look up at him. Wisław rested his bow and arrows close to the door they just walked through.

"Jestem w domu!" Wisław announced, catching the other goats' attention.

The younger goat smiled with glee. "Papa!"

She got out of the chair and ran over to Wisław, jumping into his arms and he caught her. He swung her around and held her up in the air. Hunter made sure he wasn't in his way when he twirled and swung the girl.

"Welcome home, dear." The other goat said as he walked up to Wisław and hugged him. After a moment he noticed Hunter, bending down to his height. "Why hello there, little one. What might your name be?"

"I'm- I'm Hunter, sir."

"It's nice to meet you Hunter, I'm Jake," he said introducing himself, "and there's no need to be formal."

"I'm Sawa," Sara introduced herself next.

"I apologize I didn't find much, but I found the kid so I brought him with me." Wisław explained. "I thought since he doesn't have any legal guardians, he could stay with us. If that's okay with you two, anyways."

"That's fine with me. Little Sara here has been telling me how much she wanted a brother, so this is perfect." Jake affirmed.

Sara reached out for Hunter, which let Wisław know and put her down onto the ground. She walked up to Hunter and started feeling all around his face. At first his body stiffened, not expecting physical touch from her so soon. As she felt his face, he was able to get a good look at her. The first thing he noticed was her eyes. Her right one was a light blue, but there wasn't an iris to accompany it, while her left eye was brown and it had an iris unlike the other eye. As far as he could remember, he never saw anyone with eyes like that before. There weren't any scars on her face that he could see either.

She unintentionally pulled the sides of his face and the front of his teeth became bare. He started to feel uncomfortable but he was too frozen to say anything. After a few seconds she then moved her hands up to the top of his head. Sara felt his ears and she explored them using her hands. Hunter noticed how parallel her movements were. Whatever her left hand did, her right hand did the same thing on the other side despite being slightly off. When she was done, she removed her hands from his head.

"Sowwy, I can't see in this eye," Sara pointed to her light blue eye, "I have to feel to compwetely see."

That made a lot more sense, at least he thought it did anyways. After knowing that he became much more comfortable with her doing that, even if not entirely. She grabbed one of his hands and dragged him to her room. He heard one of the adults say 'I guess she's okay with this too' but he couldn't hear the responses if there were any. Sara opened the door to her room and Hunter looked around.

He saw how her room was big enough for two people to share. Taking a step forward, it was all wood for the bedroom floor. It felt sturdy to the point where it would take something real heavy or real strong to break through it. The only part of the floor he wouldn't feel the wood on was near the bed; a beige and red floral rug laid just inches away from the bed. Hunter walked up to the walls, running his hand on the light blue paint. He turned his head to see what else was in the room, which didn't end up being much. There was only the bed, a couple of wooden chests, a desk, and something that was wrapped up. It was mostly a whole lot of space.

The chests had caught his attention. Hunter walked up to them and both of them had a label in the front. He couldn't read them so he opened them up to see what was inside. One of them was full of toys, all different kinds. He closed it before going to the next one. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't open the second chest. It took him a few pushes for him to realize there was a lock on there and he stopped trying. Sara walked up to him and noticed what he tried to open.

"Oh, you'll need Papa to open that." She told him. "He's the onwy one with the key. Said it's a lil' dangewous for it to wemain unlocked."

Hunter looked at her. "What's in it?"

"Wood," Sara answered, "lots of wood. Some bowstwing, stuff to make cool things with, like the bow that Papa has."

"Whoa! Is he teaching you how to make them?"

She nodded. "He wants me to be able to pwotect myself."

"You think he'll teach me?" Hunter asked.

Sara shrugged. "I dunno, he just started teaching me last year. You could ask him though."

He had a huge smile on his face. He ran out of the room and went to Wisław and Jake as fast as he could. Hunter tugged Wisław's arm. Wisław looked down at Hunter and bent on one knee.

"Hey, Hunt! What's up?"

"Can you teach me how to make bows and arrows?"

His eyes widened and his ears shot up. He looked over to Jake, who thought about it for a moment before he nodded. Wisław relaxed himself and looked back at Hunter, who waited for an answer.

"Of course, however I won't teach you how to use them until you're a little older." He told Hunter. "I don't want you to injure yourself."

Even if he couldn't use them yet, Hunter was excited. He wanted to be as cool as he seemed to be, even if it was starting at the beginning by making the bows themselves. Hunter wanted to start right away.

"I'll go get your temporary bed set up. If you're gonna be living here, you gotta have a place to sleep."

Wisław went to Sara's room. Jake picked Hunter up from off the ground.

"Do you want something to eat?" Jake asked. "I'm sure it's been a bit since you ate anything."

Hunter nodded. "I haven't eaten anything since this morning…"

Jake looked out the window. "I guess I'll start dinner early. You wanna sit out here while I cook?"

"Yeah!"

Jake sat Hunter down on one of the chairs. He stayed there and the two talked for a while. They got to know about each other and they cracked some jokes along the way. Once dinner was done, Wisław and Sara joined them. Hunter ate like he had never eaten anything before and man, it was the best thing he's ever eaten. They were all happy that he was happy there.

He could tell he was gonna love it here.

The days after, Wisław started teaching him how to make bows and arrows in the early parts of the day and taught him some Polish within the night. Hunter was getting a hang of how to make bows and arrows in little to no time at all, however it took him longer to get a hold of learning another language. After a few weeks of trying, Wisław made both Hunter and himself take a break so he could figure out how to make the learning a little easier for him.

Once he saw how much trouble they were having, Jake joined in to help them both. Jake helped Wisław try different ways of teaching Hunter and he taught Hunter how to read, write, and helped him take notes. Sara sometimes ran along and drew something at the corner of the pages Hunter wrote on. Whenever she did he made little pictures back when Wisław and Jake weren't looking. They ended up noticing every time and Jake picked her up onto his shoulders before taking her out of the room so Hunter could focus. Ever since Jake came in to help, Hunter had been getting a hang of learning Polish much better.

Aside from that, Hunter went around the village every day and got to meet everyone. He got to know them whenever he passed by and he helped them out however he could. Hunter even played with Sara whenever they were up to it. If one of them was upset, the other would do what they could to cheer them up. If one of them was mad, the other would try to calm them down before doing what they can about it, if at all. If nothing worked then they would just sit together in silence. They always had each other's backs no matter what happened.

A year later, Hunter started his archery training. Similarly to making bows and arrows, he got it down almost right away. However, his hands were too shaky to aim properly to hit the middle of the targets Jake set up for Hunter and Wisław no matter what he did. He always managed to get close to it, though, even if it wasn't right next to the bullseye. Everyone in the family was proud of him regardless and tried to do what they could to help him do better.

Today was one of those training days. He took a deep breath as he took aim. His arm moved in shakiness. Hunter kept taking deep breaths, just as Jake told him to do. He had to calm his body down enough to shoot the target right in the bullseye. Taking deep breaths helped some, but it wasn't enough for him. He heard Sara walk up behind him, but he didn't take his focus and attention off the target. Hunter couldn't let himself get distracted. The light brown goat sat down on a rock and watched him.

He knew she was excited to see him finally hit the bullseye. This time could be that time, and if it was as much as he was doubting it, Sara would be there to witness it. With one last exhale, his body was at its most calm. The shaking didn't disappear entirely, but it was enough that the arrow could hit the red circle.

Sara noticed how long it was taking for him to take the shot. "Hey, Hunt, are you okay?"

"Mam się dobrze, Sara." He responded.

"That's good. I didn't know if you were okay since you're taking a-" Her head raised up. "Hold on, you're getting really good at speaking in Polish!"

"Thanks."

After a few seconds, he took the shot. The arrow pierced through the air and it hit the target; he lowered the bow to see where it landed. Sara got up and she bounced, giggling in joy. Hunter walked over to the target to see the exact point it hit. Sara wasted no time getting to the target as well. He saw that it was a little into the red circle, but it wasn't in the middle. The arrow was closer to the bottom right area of the circle. He smiled.

It wasn't a bullseye, but it was a lot of progress. Hunter looked to his side, but Sara wasn't next to him anymore. He looked behind him and he saw Sara running inside to get Wisław and Jake. It wasn't something he could blame her for, he was happy with the area he hit. When she came back out, she was dragging Jake's arm.

"Come on, come on! He was so close!" She exclaimed.

Jake nervously chuckled. "Slow down, sweetheart! My arm isn't what it used to be!"

Wisław could only laugh at the comment. His laughter ceased when his eyes landed on the target. He ran up to it then bent down. When he saw how close Hunter was, a huge smile crawled onto his face. He pulled Hunter into a hug and he ruffled his hair.

"Look at you, kid! You're gettin' there!" He told him. "More practice and you'll be like your pops!"

"He already is!" Jake responded.

Jake and Sara joined in on the hug. After a while hugging, they all decided to go inside for the rest of the evening as the sun was setting. They all ate dinner and some dessert once that was made. Wisław and Jake baked something for Hunter as their way of celebrating and he ate it up so fast that Jake had to tell him to slow down. Afterwards, they all spent time together until Sara fell asleep. When that happened, they decided it was time for everyone else to go to sleep.

Wisław carried Sara while Jake and Hunter walked to the kids' room. Hunter climbed into the hammock while Wisław tried to set Sara down onto her bed. No matter what he did, she wouldn't let go of him. Jake tried not to laugh, albeit he snorted. When he couldn't put her down, he got up as he quietly sighed.

"Guess she's staying with us tonight."

"Seems like it," Jake replied before he turned to Hunter. "You sure you don't want an actual bed?"

"Yeah, I'm sure. It's really comfortable."

"Alright, let us know if you ever change your mind."

Wisław left the room while Jake placed the blanket over Hunter. He gave him a kiss on the forehead.

"Goodnight, Hunter. We're proud of you."

Hunter smiled. "I love you, Dad."

"I love you too, little one."

He went to the door. He looked back at Hunter as he went through and closed it, giving him a warm smile. Hunter placed his arm under the pillow and held onto the blanket as he closed his eyes. He was gonna make them prouder tomorrow, and the day after that, and all the days to come after this one. It didn't take him too long before he dozed off to sleep.

---

"Hunter, wake up."

Hunter slowly opened his eyes to see Wisław in front of him. His eyes were bloodshot, his breathing was audible, and his eyebrows were slanted down. Hunter quickly made himself sit up, he knew that kind of look meant there was something wrong. He kept himself alert and wide awake.

"What's wrong, Papa? Are we getting robbed?"

"No, that would be much, much better than this." He looked towards the door. "We have to go, right now."

Hunter got out of the hammock and they ran out.

"What's going on?"

"We're under attack." Wisław answered. "We're trying to do what we can to get everyone to safety."

"Where's Dad and Sara?"

"Jake's doing what he can to help, Sara's just outside of the village. Don't worry, they're safe."

When they ran out of the house, Hunter saw everything that was going on. Houses were on fire and people were being attacked as they ran away. Not a single moment did Hunter stop to see every little detail, it was too dangerous to stay in one spot. As they made their way to the others, they got as many people as they came across. When they got to Jake, Hunter took a moment to catch his breath. Jake hugged Wisław while the people they took with them joined the other survivors. Jake pulled away from the hug and bent down to Hunter's level.

"Are you okay? Did they hurt you? I swear if they hurt you I'm going to-"

"I'm- I'm okay, Dad." He replied in between breaths. "I'm not hurt at all."

Jake sighed in relief. "Good."

"How many did you help out, Jake?"

He looked to Wisław. "I believe Sara and I lead out half."

He looked at everyone and mentally counted each person to make sure everyone was there. In the meantime, Hunter looked behind him. Everything was burning to the ground; wooden building structures became ashes, everything made of stone became pebbles, and footsteps of outsiders invaded the dirt. Screams could be heard from where he stood, each of which were bloodcurdling. The innocents' cries crawled into his bones and it went down his spine like nothing else. All he could do was step back as the leader yelled out to the other invaders to kill everyone they saw.

They ran along the streets until one stopped and made eye contact with Hunter. He was trembling and his heart raced, frozen in that spot. He couldn't see their face beneath the hoods over their head, but regardless he was terrified. They called out to the others.

"Everybody, run!" Jake yelled.

Everyone did as he said and they ran as fast as they could. Wisław grabbed Hunter and they ran with the others. They went as fast as they could to get near the front so they could lead them away. Despite getting in front, people were getting shot with fire one by one. Whenever a person got hit in the back with a fireball, they screamed and fell to the ground. He couldn't see what happened, but nobody looked back, they kept running for their lives. Someone said something, but he didn't pay much attention as he saw people in front of him drop one by one, from all the way in the back up to the middle of the crowd. The invaders were getting closer and closer.

People only stopped running once something heavy fell down. It made Hunter look in front of everyone, seeing a huge tree down on the ground. The part that broke off from the trunk was black like coal, and so was the top of the trunk itself. Wisław and Jake climbed over while carrying Hunter and Sara respectively. Everyone did what they could to get over as well and those who did cross over continued running. Some stayed to help the others, but it was futile as they got hit. They cried out for the last time while the helpers tried to turn around to run away to no avail.

"Don't look, Hunter," Wisław said as he turned Hunter around.

He couldn't get a look at what happened, but he knew it wasn't good. The crowd of people was getting smaller and smaller until Hunter, Sara, Wisław, Jake, and several others were left. They ran as fast as they could until there was a good amount of distance between them. When they temporarily stopped, they ended up at a river with stepping stones. The adults put the children down onto the ground.

"If something ever happens to us, Hunter, I want you to have this."

Wisław took off his teal arm brace and put it onto Hunter's left arm. His eyes went wide and his ears shot up.

"What? No, no no no I can't have this. Nothing's going to happen, it can't!"

"It might and if it does, you'll have that to remember us by."

He tightened the brace so it would fit properly on Hunter, as big as it was. Hunter looked over to Sara and Jake, with the latter giving the former something as well, presumably for the same reason as Wisław giving his brace to Hunter. He couldn't believe any of this was happening whatsoever, yet there he was, running away to survive yet again. Wisław placed his hands onto Hunter's shoulders. It made him look at him.

"I want you to know that I love you, and I always will."

"There they are!"

All the adults looked in the direction the voice came from.

"Now run, Hunter, run like you've never ran in your life. Don't look back. We'll hold them off while you escape. Now go!"

"But-"

"Go!"

As if his body had a mind of its own, Hunter turned around and he ran off. He heard screams, he heard cries, he heard everything, but he kept looking forward. Tears ran down his face as his feet carried him to safety. He couldn't bring himself to look back to see if he was being followed. Up ahead, he saw an opening for a cave hidden behind moss. Hunter ran in there and hid behind a rock. He tried to catch his breath while staying as quiet as possible. His heart pounded against his chest and he was trembling. He closed his eyes shut while curling his tail towards his upper body. His ears stayed perked to carefully hear in case the attackers came towards his direction.

After a minute or two, he heard many footsteps, all at once. Hunter could hear his own heartbeat, and he prayed that nobody else heard it too. Thankfully, nobody walked towards the cave entrance. It didn't make him feel better though, he was still petrified that someone could find him somehow. Every second felt like a minute, and every minute felt like an eternity. He didn't even want to take a peek outside.

Suddenly, he heard drizzling outside the cave. It looked like he was stuck in there even after they left unless he wanted to get wet, which was one of the last things he wanted. He then heard them walk farther and farther away, leaving the area they stopped at. Hunter released a breath he didn't realize he was holding in. He lied down and listened as the drizzle became a heavy rain. He let himself cry to let everything out; he wished there was something he could've done to prevent all of this. There wasn't a single reason he could think of as to why this had to happen to him and the ones he loved.

Hunter cried until he fell asleep. Once he woke up in the morning, he stretched before standing up. When he looked at his surroundings, the harsh reality hit him with how everything that had happened before really did happen. He walked to the entrance, he saw that the rain had stopped sometime before he woke up. He stepped out and ran to the river. Hunter had to make sure that somebody, anybody, was alright. When he got there, he was met with the sight of burnt corpses, not a single survivor there. Despite the severe burnage, he had a vague idea of who was who.

He walked over to Jake's corpse, that of which was closest to the river itself. He touched one of his horns and it broke apart from the middle to the base and tip of the horn. Hunter gulped as he retracted his hand. He took a step back. He didn't want to make him, or what was left of him, fall apart even further. Looking around for Wisław, he saw him in the back. Hunter ran over to his body. There was something else there that Hunter didn't notice before. A body was held up in his arms. Color drained from his face. He couldn't believe it, even Sara died in the attack.

Hunter fell to his knees and put his hands over his mouth. He wanted to scream at the top of his lungs and he wanted to cry. He crawled to Wisław's feet and curled up into a ball. His tail curled inwards as he started crying again.

He wished it was some horrible nightmare he couldn't wake up from.

---

It'd been a few months since he started traveling again.

There wasn't anything else Hunter could do really but keep moving. He kept making arrows whenever he ran out and, if it broke at any time, a new bow. He only had to remake his bow once, but it was a good refresher. The only trouble now was that he had to fix up his leg, or at least fix it well enough for the time being. His leg had gotten cut up as he was running and now the side of his leg was bleeding. He limped until he got to a good tree to rest.

Hunter touched the wound and he hissed in response. He brought his fingers into his view, and he was still bleeding. Sighing, he took out what he gathered and he did what he could to heal it up. He didn't know what he was doing, nobody taught him how to take care of something like this, but he had to do something with his leg. He crushed up the plants he grabbed. When he was done, he wiped off however much blood he could off his leg and foot. There was a lot of blood just in his leg, it was annoying him getting it wiped and clean enough for him to put the crushed up plants onto the wound. Every time he touched his leg, he hissed in pain.

Despite his shakiness, he smacked the plants onto his wound and smeared it around. He hissed again and his ears fell back.

"Ja pierdolę!" He swore.

He kept rubbing it in despite how much it burned. The pain made him slow down, but he wasn't stopping. Hunter kept saying the same word over and over again, except unlike the first time, he stayed quiet. He moved his trembling hand away from the wound. That area of his leg was red and so was his palm. Shit, he must've grabbed the wrong plants, it wasn't supposed to turn red like that. It began to hurt more than before he put it on the wound and it was beginning to feel itchy as well.

He tried to get up, but the moment he got on his feet, his leg gave out immediately and he landed on his ass. He couldn't stay there while it got worse, he had to get something to fix that then actually take care of the wound. If he had to crawl to do it, then he would crawl. Before he could start crawling, someone walked to him and picked him up. The person was a tall panther with golden eyes, those of which burned like fire.

"Kid, I don't think that's how you treat a cut like that." The panther said. "Let me take care of that for you."

The panther treated both the wound itself and the redness on his hand and leg. It took several minutes and a lot of squirming despite trying to stay still for that to happen. Bandages even got wrapped around his leg when Hunter was originally going to use leaves instead, as he didn't have any bandages himself.

"Thanks," he looked away.

"It's nothin', but what are you doin' running around thinkin' you can treat it yerself?" The panther's eyebrow raised. "Shouldn't ya be with yer folks?"

Hearing that made him look at his arm brace and his ears dropped. He immediately looked away as he brought his legs up to his arms. It was close to tearing his fresh wound wide open, and he didn't want to talk about it. It was too soon, he could choke up talking about it. He wanted to be left alone. The traveler's eyes widened after a while of Hunter not giving a response.

"...Oh. Oh, ah'm so sorry 'bout that. Ah didn't mean to-"

"It's fine."

"Anyways, ah'm Woodland." Woodland extended thons hand towards Hunter. "What's yer name?"

He grabbed thons hand and shook it. "Hunter."

"Nice to meet ya, Hunter." Woodland looked at the sky. "Damn, it's gettin' dark. How 'bout ya stick with me for the night? In the mornin', ya can leave if ya want to."

Hunter nodded. He could learn a few things from Woodland, especially how to properly treat wounds so it wouldn't end up like how it did that day. Woodland made some food and gave some to Hunter, who started eating as soon as he was given the bowl. He hadn't eaten something that good in months. He wasn't starving, but he missed the taste of anything that wasn't fruits and berries. Glancing up at Woodland, he wasn't too sure if he wanted to stay with thon a long while. Maybe he'd stick around until he learned everything he'll need from Woodland, he didn't know yet.

He just didn't want it to feel like he'd forgotten about Wisław, Jake, and Sara already by moving onto someone else who he could see as family. Hunter slightly shook his head. No, he couldn't think like that already. He barely knew anything about Woodland, let alone think that thon would be like a new family to him. The two would be friends at best. He just had to stay positive and everything would be alright. He paid his attention back to his food and ate the rest of what was there.

When thon finished up thons food, Woodland set up a sleeping bag for Hunter nearby a tent thon set up for thonself. Hunter laid down the bowl and immediately went for the sleeping bag. Woodland looked back at him before thon went into thons tent completely.

"Good idea, kid, better ta sleep it off. The body does more work to repair itself that way than it does when yer awake." Woodland said. "Ah'll be in here if ya need me."

Hunter nodded in response. Thon went inside the tent, leaving him to the sound of crackling fire. He snuggled into the sleeping bag, making himself feel comfortable. It was better than lying on the cold, hard ground at least. He started to relax to the sounds close to him. Hunter closed his eyes once his eyelids started to become heavy. Within what felt like minutes, he fell asleep into the night.

When Hunter woke up in the morning, the first thing that he processed was the smell of food being cooked. He opened one of his eyes to see Woodland already up. Thon was stirring a spoon in the pot with thons legs crossed. Hunter was debating on whether or not he should stay up and get some of what thon was making. He moved his eye as much as he could upwards to see the sky above. Just looking at the color he could tell that it was a little later than he would usually wake up, but it didn't bother him. Hunter might as well get up anyway though.

He sat up and stretched his body out as well as he could. It was only then did Woodland notice he was awake as thon looked up from the food. Thon gave him a warm smile. Thon waited until Hunter finished stretching before thon said anything.

"Heya kid," Woodland started, "how did ya sleep?"

"Alright I guess," he replied.

It wasn't exactly a lie, while it was the most comfortable he'd been in a while, it wasn't like it would guarantee the best sleep imaginable. Hunter walked over to the panther and sat down close to thon. He grabbed his quiver and checked how many arrows he had left. There weren't that many, only three left in there. It looked like he was gonna have to make more. He looked up at Woodland.

"Woodland?"

"What's up, Hunter?" Thon responded before bringing the spoon up to thons lips.

"Do you happen to have any wood I could use?"

Woodland took a moment to taste the food. "Ah don't have that much. Why, need somethin' for that quiver of yours?"

Hunter nodded. "I need to make more arrows."

Thon chuckled. "Kid, you, making arrows? Aren't ya like, five or somethin'?"

"Four, actually," he corrected, "but I know how to make them. Gotta be able to survive after all."

"...Know what, how bout ah take care of ya myself?"

Hunter looked at thon and blinked a few times. "What?"

"Yeah, ah mean, no kid should have ta be alone out there like that." Woodland stated before giving Hunter his bowl. "The least ah can do is accompany ya. Ah know ya had people before me and ya wanna be left alone for a while, but sometimes the best ya can do is look forward and do 'em proud."

Hunter looked down at his food. Maybe thon was right, he'd been grieving for however long now and, as much as he didn't want to admit it, he was starting to feel lonely without somebody to hang out with. Hunter nodded before he started eating his food. Woodland soon joined him and feasted upon the meal thon made.

When they were done, they put out the fire and picked everything up. They started walking across the forest. All Hunter did was follow thon, he didn't know where they were heading, if they were going anywhere specific at all. Thon grabbed his hand and firmly held it. It caught Hunter by surprise, but he didn't do anything against it despite wanting to. Woodland pushed and brushed aside any bushes thon could. At first, Hunter thought maybe Woodland had a house that thon lived in and this was the path to it. It would've been a good idea though, considering how it would be hidden from everyone and everything so thon wouldn't be bothered at any point.

However when they got through, the only thing that met Hunter's gaze was a portal. Up until now, he hadn't run into any of them, so it made him curious what was on the other side. As the two walked through the portal, he closed his eyes shut. It was only after a minute that he took a peek through one of his eyes. What laid before him made him open both his eyes wide open and his eyes lit up like fireworks up into the sky. He looked behind him and back in front of him. Just like that, he went from being within a world of greenery to a world of reds, oranges, and yellows. It was as if they went through time and went from early summer to the middle of fall, except that wasn't the case.

He took his hand out of Woodland's hand and ran around, exploring every inch of what he could see. Woodland chuckled as thon watched him run through a new world for him.

"Don't run off too far, Hunter," thon yelled out, "ah won't be able to know where ya are if ya do!"

"I won't!"

Hunter stayed in Woodland's general line of sight. He touched the trees, and they were similar to the ones back in the other world. The only difference was the type of trees they were, that was about it. It was still exciting to him all the same though. Woodland simply watched in amusement as thon kept walking.

"Never been through one of them portals before, huh?"

"Nope!" He dived into the leaf pile. "This is so cool! I wish I knew about this sooner!"

Woodland couldn't help but laugh. Thon had to admit that he was adorable with his excitement and curiosity.

"Where are we going anyways?" Hunter asked.

"Just gonna get some food, supplies, and whatever else ah may need. Ya can even get some of that wood ya asked about earlier, too, or even pre-made arrows." Thon replied.

Hearing that he could get what he needed, he immediately went to Woodland and grabbed thons hand. Hunter started running, basically dragging thon along.

"Whoa, slow down, kid! They ain't growin' legs and runnin' away!"

It didn't cause him to slow down, in fact it wasn't like he heard what thon said whatsoever. It felt so different running across autumn leaves as he dragged someone with him. All the leaves his feet stepped on became broken and cracked. The wind blew against and past him without a care in the entire world. It almost felt like everything Hunter carried onto his shoulders lifted and disappeared into thin air, even if it was temporary.

He only stopped running once they ended up where they needed to be. He didn't let go of Woodland's hand this time and they walked through. Hunter looked at everything and everyone; he saw new faces and he saw things he never knew existed before now. They went from person to person to get the stuff that they needed. Once they grabbed the necessities, Woodland tried to find someone who might be selling stuff that Hunter needed and possibly wanted. They went in only planning on getting the things they needed, but they ended up coming out with stuff that they needed and stuff they didn't know they wanted until they saw it. They even got some snacks to eat later whenever they got in the mood for it.

The days passed by as they traveled all throughout the land, discovering new things and having fun doing so. On the way, Woodland taught Hunter what thon could about first aid so whenever Hunter needed to, he could fix himself right up without much trouble. Thon even taught him how to cook a few things as well. Woodland didn't think he'd need it right away, but it was a good thing to know in case he ever wanted to help out on some nights.

As the days turned into weeks, and weeks turned into months, Hunter was finding it harder and harder to make up reasons to himself for him to leave. Woodland started becoming like a family member to him, he couldn't leave just like that now. He wished Wisław, Jake, and Sara were alive so they could meet thon and enjoy hanging out with Woodland like he did. He laid his face onto his hand. Woodland sat down next to him on the bed.

"Hey kid, ya doin' alright?" Thon asked.

Hunter shrugged. "I guess."

"Ya wanna talk about it? If not, ah'll leave ya be."

"Yeah I don't wanna talk about it right now." He didn't look at thons when he said that.

"Alright. If ya do need me, ah'll be around." Thon got up and went to the door.

"Okay, unc." It took Hunter a few seconds to realize what he just called thon. "Wait, I didn't mean to call you uncle!"

Woodland had thons hand up to thons mouth. Thon was trying thons hardest not to cry.

"No, no, it's fine Hunter. If that's what ya need me ta be, then ah'll be just that for ya."

Thon walked out the room. Hunter only stared at the door and blinked a few times. He was about to get up and follow thon, but he only stopped himself when he heard thon crying.

"He just called me an uncle!" Woodland happily cried out.

Hunter wasn't too sure whether to be glad that Woodland was happy or to be concerned.

In the meantime, he decided to sharpen the tips of his arrows.

---

Hunter did what he could to help treat the wound.

Woodland hissed in pain. They were out gathering whatever food they could and thon was leaning too far forward when thon fell down. Before either of them knew it, Woodland ended up getting a huge piece of wood pierced into thons side and thon started bleeding. He took the branch out without a problem and took out whatever splinters stuck onto thons body. Hunter cleaned up the blood and applied whatever Woodland told him to put onto the wound. He was trying to stay as calm as possible, he couldn't freak out now.

Thon hissed again. "Yer doin' great, Hunter. Keep it up." Thon groaned.

Hunter took a deep breath and focused as hard as he could. When he was done applying it evenly, he grabbed the bandages and wrapped it around Woodland's body. Thon helped out by moving thons body when it was needed. The wrapping wasn't too hard on thons body, but it wasn't too loose either, it was perfect like Woodland had taught him. Hunter ripped it before rubbing the last part of the bandage onto the previous layer to make sure it stuck there.

"Thanks for helpin' out, kid- Whoa!"

Hunter struggled to help Woodland up off the ground. He grunted and his legs trembled. Thon used a tree close to them to help thonself up.

"Hunter, what're ya doin'?" Woodland questioned. "Ah can't lean onto ya like that, ah'm too heavy!"

"But if I don't help," he panted, "then how are you gonna get back to camp, Uncle Woodland?"

"By takin' it one step at a time, and slowly." Thon told him. "Please, don't strain yerself. If ya keep this up, yer gonna hurt yerself and- and ah don't want that."

Hunter gave up once he heard that. He tried to get his breath back. Thon tried walking ahead, leaning onto the trees along the way. Hunter followed thon at the same pace. The area around them started to have a yellow tint to them and the shadows became longer by the minute. He turned his head as he put his hand above his eyes. The sun was close to halfway down into the green horizon. He grabbed Woodland's hand so he didn't get lost or lose sight of thon. Hunter took his time to enjoy the scenery as they walked back.

Within little time, they ended up back at the campsite and Woodland sat down. Thon took out some pre-made food and handed it to Hunter. Woodland grabbed thons own food, pre-made like what thon gave to him.

"Sorry kid," Woodland started, "ah don't feel good 'nough to cook."

"It's okay, you're hurt pretty badly. You gotta rest."

Thon chuckled. "Becomin' yer dear old uncle now, huh?"

"We gotta look out for each other. I have to take the role of the uncle sometimes when you can't," he smiled.

"Yeah, ya got a point."

They ate up their food, albeit Woodland ate slightly slower than Hunter. The young cheetah threw some branches into the fire, making sure it lit up brightly. Woodland made thons way to the tent with Hunter following soon after. They made themselves comfortable after they lied down. Woodland laid down on thons back while Hunter laid on his side. Thon turned thons head towards him.

"Ah hope ya didn't take what I said earlier too personally. Ah appreciate you tryna help."

"I didn't take it personally at all." Hunter replied.

"Good, 'cause yer a good kid." Thon smiled as thon turned thons head. "Ah'm proud of ya. Yer becomin' a good medic, especially at yer age."

Hunter couldn't help but smile. "Well, I had a good teacher."

"Ah think ah just had a good student." Woodland joked. "So how did ya learn to handle that bow of yers so well? Ah don't think ah asked that yet."

"I… Had someone, his name was Wisław, help me out. I wasn't really that good until Pops came along."

"Ah wish ah could've meet the guy, would've given him praise. Yer amazing with that shit." Thon said. "Ah could never do well with archery."

"Do you want me to help you out?" Hunter offered.

"...Ya know what, fuck it." Woodland turned thons head back towards him. "Ah'd love that. Sometime tomorrow?"

He nodded. "Yeah."

"Then we might wanna get some rest. If we keep this up, we'll be too tired ta do anythin'."

"You're right." He laughed.

"G'night, Hunter."

"Night."

Hunter yawned before he moved his body, readjusting himself to get comfortable again. He closed his eyes and fell asleep almost immediately.

When he woke up in the morning, he stretched before he sat up. His smile went from ear to ear as he looked over to Woodland. He opened his mouth to say something, but he noticed something was wrong. Thon was usually up way before him, and when thon did sleep in, it was usually because thon stayed up all night. That wasn't the case, he knew that the both of them went to sleep at the same time. He walked over to Woodland. His eyes widened when he noticed that thon wasn't breathing. He dropped down onto his knees and put two of his fingers onto thons neck.

There wasn't a pulse. He removed his fingers and placed his head onto thons chest for a moment. There wasn't a heartbeat there either. Hunter began breathing heavier and he started to sweat. No, this couldn't be happening. He threw the sheets off thons body and took a look at the wound. It seemed to be intact, and he knew for sure that he didn't do anything wrong. Thon would've told him if he did somehow fucked it up. Maybe it was that internal bleeding thing that Woodland sometimes talked about. If that was the case then oh no, he should've done better, he should've done more for thon.

It was his fault that thon died.

Hunter smacked himself in the face, no he couldn't blame himself. Woodland said that nobody would know about any internal bleeding right away. A few tears fell down his face as he stood up. There was nothing he could do now besides dig a grave for thon. He grabbed Woodland's leg and dragged thon outside the tent. If he thought thon was heavy before, thon's way heavier now. The most he could pull Woodland out was a few feet away from camp. Hunter dug as much as he could with his bare hands. When he thought he dug far enough, he put Woodland in there.

Hunter took one last look at Woodland before he buried thons corpse. He closed his eyes during the process. When he opened them back up, all the dirt was placed back in the hole. He gulped and tried to hold the tears back.

"Goodbye, Woodland." Hunter whispered. "I'll miss you."

He cleaned his hands up, grabbed what he could, and started walking. It was gonna be different yet again, and he hated it.

This was one wound that couldn't be treated.

---

Hunter walked around.

He figured he would travel around by himself for a while. He made some friends along the way, those he would visit whenever he could. Some went with him and left at their destinations while some stayed where they were until the next time they met. There were a few people who wondered why he was going by himself at his age, but it didn't really bother him. They offered to help him out but he declined, saying that he could handle himself. Thankfully it was a good enough reason for them to leave him be on the subject, even if it wasn't the entire truth. He really didn't want to explain his situation, even with all the time that passed.

Hunter explored the speedways along the way. He couldn't help but check them out once he heard about them. They were all exciting and amazing in their own ways, but there was only one that took his breath away, Ocean Speedway. He was too young to participate, but it didn't mean he couldn't watch in the meantime whenever he visited. He leaned forward with his eyes wide open, not paying attention to anything else. Hunter could only watch as the participants sped by.

Before he realized it, he went over the fence. Luckily, someone grabbed him and pulled him up before he could fall down into the water. Whoever grabbed him sat him down onto his feet. For the few seconds he went over, his heart pounded and he was terrified. Hunter looked up at the woman behind him.

"Don't get carried away now," she said, "you ain't a bird even if you wanted to be one."

He nervously laughed. "Uh, well th- Thanks."

She looked up in front of them. "You really wanna join, huh?"

"Of course," Hunter replied. "But I can't because of how young I am."

"And sometimes it's hard to be patient." He nodded as a response. "Unfortunately, I can't really join either. This'll just weigh me down."

She tapped her prosthetic leg which caused him to look at it. It wasn't something he noticed before and his ears fell. Hunter felt bad for her. There was nothing either of them could do about it now though.

"I guess losing my leg was a sign that I can't be doing this kinda thing anymore." She chuckled.

"What happened?"

She looked at him with wider eyes. It clearly took her by surprise, but she ended up laughing.

"No one bothered to ask me that before. Glad you did!"

They went to sit down for Hunter to listen. Her leg started acting up and she hit the side of it for it to function properly again. She cleared her throat.

"A few years ago, I was out here catching a thief. He was stealing from my town so I had to get what he stole back and return it to everyone. Anyways, I was chasing him down like a predator hunting prey. He wasn't the fastest so it took almost no time at all to catch up to him. When he realized I was close, he drew his sword. I saw this beforehand so I dropped down and slid across the ground as he swung the blade and cut some rope!

At the time I didn't know what that was for, but I kept running regardless. I managed to get close enough and I tackled him to the ground! I took the bag containing everything he stole from him and kept him pinned down. He kept looking around like I wasn't the person he was afraid of. He hit me in my side with the handle of that sword of his, unfortunately getting me in a really bad spot. He ended up getting out of my grasp, damn bastard.

Before I could get up, I saw something falling towards me and I didn't have enough time to get away, so I threw one of my spare daggers and it hit him right in the leg!"

Hunter put one of his hands up to his mouth as he whispered 'oh shit'. A large smile couldn't help but spread across his face, showing his clear excitement and investment of the story. She smiled as well as she continued.

"A tree fell right onto my leg and I couldn't get it out as easily as I thought it would. Thankfully, the thief wasn't able to get away too quickly so I was able to take a bit of time. No matter what I did, I couldn't get it off, and it would take a while for anyone to come for me and by that time he might not be there anymore so I had to do the only thing I could. I took my ax, turned as much as I could, and I swung down onto my leg. It was painful, but it had to be done. After a few swings I was able to cut it right off.

I was able to get the thief and crawl back to town, but I wasn't able to be back until sunset. I was surprised I didn't die from blood loss. I still am honestly. He was locked away, a doctor tended what I had left of my leg, and I had a new one built for me. Apparently it really was my best option, there wasn't any way I could get my leg out of there in one piece."

"So you needed it to be cut off regardless…" Hunter stared at her leg.

She shrugged. "It sucks, but I'm more than happy to do it again if it meant it was to help others and bring some justice."

"Were you scared?"

"Scared? Ha!" She leaned onto her legs. "Are you kidding me? I was terrified shitless! I didn't wanna lose one of my legs and possibly never walk again! I wanna be able to keep battling, and being in a wheelchair isn't the way I wanna go. Of course, I wouldn't doubt that it could work, but personally I'd go crazy."

"But yet, you…"

She nodded. "I had to pull myself through it. Even if something seems scary, sometimes you just gotta brave through it. It's not always easy, but we have to be strong."

He gave her a half-hearted smile as his ears fell down. He wished he could be as cool and brave as she was. She looked at what was going on in the sky and immediately got up.

"Hell yeah, fuck 'em up dude!" She pumped her fist in the air.

Hunter chuckled at that, trying to not go into laughter. The two stayed until it was over. Everyone started walking away and she was one of the last people leaving. She looked back as she gestured 'goodbye' to Hunter.

"See you later, kid. Stay safe and if you ever want to find me, ask for Xandria!"

Hunter nodded and waved goodbye.

---

Xandria and Hunter had met again a few times after that.

One of the times, Hunter walked into a place to get some food and drinks. Everyone there looked intimidating to him, and they were all staring at him, so he puffed his chest up and tried to look tough. It seemed to work at first since everyone looked away and went back to their own businesses. He smiled before he noticed a huge shadow in front of him. It made him look up to see Xandria standing right behind him and he smiled as he relaxed his body. He didn't have to be nervous anymore with her around.

They sat down at a table and they caught up with each other. She told him more stories of her life while he sat there and listened. His tail wagged faster than it usually did. In the middle of it, the waiter went up to them.

"What would you two like today?"

"Blackberry pancakes with banana toppings and a glass of apple cider." She looked at Hunter. "What do you want, Hunter?"

"Uh, I guess I'll have blueberry pancakes with some juice."

"I'm afraid we don't have juice."

Xandria grabbed the waiter's shirt and pulled him closer. "How about you double check and if you still don't have any, make some!" She demanded with a lowly growl.

He gulped. "Y-yes ma'am. I will- I will go do that."

The waiter walked away as fast as he could. Xandria huffed as she watched him walk out of the room. She looked back at Hunter with a smile.

"So where were we at? Oh, right!"

The two continued where they left off. When their food got there, they ate their breakfast as they talked. Xandria laughed so hard at one point that she nearly choked on her food. He worried about it the whole time they ate, despite her telling him that she'd be alright. After that, they spent the whole day having fun together. At the end of the day she had to go, but he knew he'd see her again sometime soon as they waved goodbye.

Another time was when Hunter was reaching for his quiver but he couldn't grab it. His arms were too short to reach it. Before he knew it, he saw a much longer arm reaching up there and grabbing it for him. He smiled wide as he looked down at her face, knowing immediately who the person was. Hunter jumped down immediately and hugged her.

"Thank you, Xandria!"

She hugged back. "It was nothing. What were you doing up there anyways?"

"Trying to get this back." He swung the quiver back onto his body. "As for how it got stuck, heh, that's… A long story."

"I'm willing to listen if you're willing to tell." Xandria told him before looking at the arrows in the quiver. "Say, do you have archery skills or is that for show?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah I- I know how to shoot these."

"Is that so? I didn't think a young kid like yourself would know. What, were you born in a military for young children?"

They laughed; jokes like that were always sort of inside jokes between them, even if they wouldn't call it that. They were always the only ones to get it, as weird as the jokes were. He knew people had stuff like that, but up until Xandria, he never really had any inside jokes with anyone before. It was pretty cool, Hunter would admit. Xandria's laughter died down.

"Hey, you wanna train sometime?"

That made Hunter stop laughing immediately. "You mean, like," he gestured back and forth between his bow and arrows and Xandria's ax, "train with our weapons kinda training?"

"Exactly what I was thinking."

"But what if one of us gets hurt?"

"We can stop for the time being. We can take this slow if you want."

Hunter thought about it for a moment and nodded.

After that, they started training whenever they met up again. The only time they couldn't train like they agreed to was one day when they were tracking down a couple of bandits. Hunter was following her closely behind as she examined the footsteps below and ahead of them. He didn't know much about tracking people, it was something no one had taught him yet. He knew she would've taught him, but now wasn't the time. If they took their time, the bandits would escape and they would roam free to do whatever they wanted, something that neither of them wanted.

Xandria touched the inside of the footprints embedded into the ground. She then brought her fingers up and closer to her face. The warrior stood up and ran forwards. Hunter followed her almost immediately and he stayed close to Xandria. When the bandits were in their sights, they ran and hid behind a tree. The bandits looked behind them, but they didn't see Xandria and Hunter. They shrugged and kept walking. Xandria took a peak before quietly getting closer. He took a peak as well and saw the weapons both had. He was about to walk closer but Xandria put her hand in front of him.

"Change of plans, Hunter," she whispered. "Give me your bows and arrows."

He was hesitant but he did as he was told anyways. Hunter's heart sank as he stood back.

"Don't move until I tell you to. They have guns; I don't want you to get hurt."

He nodded. It made him feel too scared to go out there but at the same time, he didn't want anything bad happening to her either. Xandria walked out of the bushes and aimed an arrow at one of them.

"Hey, fuckers!" She called out, causing them to turn around. "Drop the weapons and drop the goods, you two!"

"Or else what?"

"You'll get a few dozen arrows in your bodies and you'll be saying hello to Mr. Chopper right here." She slightly turned her body momentarily to show her ax.

"Oooh, we're so scared!" One of them mocked before both laughed.

She shot an arrow to the bandit's leg, causing both of them to scream like she got them both.

"I sure hope so. Empty threats aren't my thing, really."

They looked at each other before putting the weapons and bags down. They laid their hands behind their heads. Xandria smiled as she grabbed the bags and confiscated the guns. She took a few steps back while having her aim on them.

"Alright, you two get your asses over here. You're gonna give that family back their stuff and I'll make sure you're locked up." Xandria said. "Got that?"

"Yes, ma'am!"

They immediately speed walked behind Xandria. She kept her eyes on them as they moved. She looked over to Hunter and nodded, letting him know it was safe to come out now. They all started walking back.

"And that's how you take care of a couple of outlaws like them, Hunter."

One of the bandits looked behind him. "Wait, there was a kid around? Damn, had I known that I would only threaten to shoot."

The other one looked at him with an eyebrow raised. He looked back at him and saw the look on his face.

"...What? Saying you wouldn't?"

"Yeah? Fuck if there's a kid around, we ain't gonna be soft because of a little kid!"

"Sometimes I wonder why I even teamed up with ya."

Xandria rolled her eyes. "Oh will you lovebirds shut the fuck up? Just because I'm talking to my friend here doesn't mean it's chatty time for you two."

She laid the arrow tip up against one of the men's back. He gulped and the action shut them both up. She pulled the arrow away after a moment and she smiled.

"Good, peace and quiet. That's just how I like my criminals."

They got back, they returned the stolen goods to the family they came across, and Xandria got them locked up. It was already dark by the time everything was done, so there wasn't much else they could do for the night. Xandria and Hunter ate their dinner, feeling happy about how the day ended. Afterwards the two went to bed. For the most part it was peaceful. It only ended when Hunter woke up from nearly falling out of bed. He looked at Xandria, who was awake and alert as she stood by the door. Hunter sat up and he went to get out of bed. He didn't get his foot onto the floor before Xandria looked at him and put her finger up to her lips.

Whatever was happening, it didn't seem to be good if she was doing that with a serious look on her face. He quietly got out of bed and tip-toed behind Xandria. She had her head up against the door, trying to listen. He pressed his ear up against the wall and tried to listen as well. He could hear faint footsteps from ahead of where he and Xandria were standing. They were getting closer to the guest room the two were staying in. They sounded a lot like the bandit's footsteps, but it shouldn't have been possible. Xandria got them locked up for theft. They must've escaped sometime after they left. He silently gulped with that realization.

Xandria quickly yet quietly went to the window. She motioned Hunter to come closer to her. He silently walked over there as she kept her eyes on the door. She bent down onto one knee.

"Look, if it's those bandits, I'm gonna have to get you out of here before anything can happen." She whispered.

He shook his head. "I'm not going anywhere."

"Hunter, I mean it. Out of everything in this world, you're the most important thing to me and I won't let you get hurt. No matter what."

"As you told me, I can't keep running away because I'm scared. I'm fighting too. I don't want you to fight alone."

"That's not-" She groaned. "Hunter, as much as I love your momentary courage, this is different."

"How?" He questioned.

Her chest rose as her eyebrows furrowed. Before she could respond, the door flew open and the two immediately looked in that direction. She stood up and shielded Hunter. The bandits were standing right there and they aimed their guns at Xandria.

"You know, I thought you'd be a little harder to find." One of them said.

The other one with bandages around his leg looked at the other bandit. "Wait, I thought we knew she was staying here for the night?"

He rolled his eyes before he elbowed the slightly shorter bandit. He gasped for air and almost went down, but Hunter could tell he was doing what he could to stay up.

"Now, we want something from you, Xandria." He started. "We want that ax of yours. Give it to us, and we'll make sure nobody gets hurt."

Xandria drew out her ax. "Let me guess, if I don't give it up, you'll attack?"

"Exactly."

"Hmm, let's see," she put her hand up to her chin. She snorted before she laid her hand back onto the ax. "Uh, no. You are like ants to me; you don't scare me. How about you get your asses back to that cell I got you guys in, and we all live happily ever after like some kid's story?"

"Nah, I don't think we're gonna do that this time."

He cocked the gun. Xandria immediately ran up to him and knocked the gun out of his hands with the end of the ax. She slammed the ax into the gun and destroyed it. Hunter grabbed his bow and arrows; he aimed at the bandit. He shot one of the arrows. It grazed his shoulder, cutting the fabric. He looked for a brief moment. When he looked back at Xandria, she hit him with the side of the ax. He flew over the bed, hitting the end before he ended up on the floor. The other bandit aimed his gun at her. He was trembling. He couldn't aim straight.

Xandria took one of her hands off the ax. She walked up to him. She looked at him dead in the eyes. He gulped with widened eyes. She punched him in the face. He went down without much resistance. Hunter silently fist pumped in joy. He suddenly remembered about the other bandit in the room. He looked at him and saw that he was going over the bed. He reached over to grab the gun that was still intact. It made Hunter's eyes widen. Grabbing another arrow, Hunter aimed at him. He shot it and it missed his body by a few hairs. Xandria turned around when she heard the arrow hitting the wall. She saw he was preparing to shoot and she swung her ax.

Just as the ax's blade hit the bandit in his wrist, a shot went off. Hunter dropped his bow as he saw the blood splatter onto the wall. Blood tainted Xandria's face alongside the bandit's face. It made his heart sink to the bottom of his stomach. The bandit screamed out in pain as he dropped the gun, putting his hand immediately to his bleeding wrist.

"Fuck!" He cried out.

Xandria panted. "That should teach you… To not mess with people like me. I… I won't hesitate cutting your whole arm off."

Hunter ran to Xandria. "Xandria! Where did he shoot you?"

"Ha, me? Getting shot? I don't think that's…" She looked down to see the bullet wound. "...Oh, I guess I did get shot."

Xandria saw the other bandit that she punched in the face try to escape through the window. He growled at his partner in crime.

"Where the fuck do you think you're going?!"

"Sorry Shawn, but I'm not fucking with this anymore. I'm going clean!"

He went through the window. He shouted 'not sorry!' as he ran away from the building. Shawn growled.

"Fucking coward! Get back here!"

"Maybe that's what he is, but at least he was smart enough to quit crime." She remarked.

"Oh shut up!"

"What happened in- Oh my stars!" The woman covered her mouth when she saw Xandria. She looked towards someone out of Hunter's sight. "Henry, quick, call the sheriff's office and the doctor!"

She helped Xandria out of the room and downstairs, even if Xandria was fighting against it at first. Hunter grabbed the gun, threw it across the room, and walked over to Shawn's legs.

"Ha, what are you gonna do? Bite me?" He taunted.

"Nope."

Hunter grabbed an arrow from his quiver and stabbed it through his leg. Shawn hissed loudly from the pain. Hunter went to the doorway and looked at Shawn before he left.

"That was for hurting Xandria like that. Have fun limping!"

After that, Hunter ran as fast as he could to Xandria. The woman finally helped her sit down in one of the dining room chairs. Hunter got close to Xandria and got a better look at the wound; his ears fell down. The bullet wound was a little off from the shoulder, though that wasn't great news as it was closer to the heart. Hunter looked at the woman that they helped earlier.

"When is the doctor getting here?"

"Uh, he's getting here right away, but I think he's getting here in twenty minutes?"

"Kurde," Hunter quietly swore. "Give me whatever medical supplies you have and some tweezers, this has to be treated right away!"

She opened her mouth to argue against him, but nothing came out. Instead she immediately ran to get what he needed. Xandria could only weakly laugh. Hunter looked at her.

"Hunter, what do you think you're doing? You're not a doctor."

"But I know how to treat wounds, and I should be able to treat this enough for you to last until the doctor arrives."

She laughed more. "Damn, first you know how to survive on your own, then you know how to shoot arrows, and now you're a medical expert? Where do you learn these things, dude?"

"...Someone I used to travel with taught me how to treat wounds. It's because of thon, really." He looked away, forcing laughter out of himself. "I didn't really know how to treat my own."

Her eyes closed but she made herself shoot them wide open. She smacked herself with her right hand.

"Look, Hunter, if I die-"

"Please don't say that. You have to be okay."

"-then I want to let you know right now that I'm proud of you. You staying was stupid as fuck, I'm not gonna sugarcoat it or praise you for not getting out of there when I told you to, but I'm proud about how brave you were right there." She said, "honestly, I wanted to surprise you with this, but I was gonna officially adopt you and call you my son. I never wanted any kids of my own, just didn't suit me you know, but after meeting you? I feel like I already have a son that I love so much."

Hunter felt the heat rushing up to his face as his lips quivered. "Xandria…"

"Promise me that you'll always be brave, Hunter."

"I- I promise."

She smiled. Xandria took off her short, red scarf and tore off some of the fabric. She handed it to him.

"I want you to have this. I know it's not the whole thing, but I want you to have a part of me with you, wherever you go. I would give you the whole scarf, but I don't think you'd rock it as well as I do." She weakly forced out a laugh before she coughed.

Hunter frowned at how weak she was getting. He took it and held onto it. He took the rest of her scarf and put it on the wound to keep the blood from coming out even more than it already did. The woman came back after what felt like hours and Hunter got to work after thanking her. He tried to take the bullet out with the tweezers first and after a couple of minutes, he succeeded and took it out of her body. He put it down before he did what he could to treat the wound. Hunter wrapped the bandages around her body. It was nerve wracking for him, especially since it was his first time dealing with a bullet wound, but he pushed through it to help Xandria.

It wasn't long before the doctor came. He took her over to his clinic and Hunter followed along after thanking the family again for letting him and Xandria stay. He stayed beside Xandria as much as he could while the doctor did his thing. Hunter could tell she was trying so hard to stay awake for him. He clenched his fists and he tried not to cry in front of her.

She laid her hand onto his and smiled at him. Xandria nodded, letting him know he could do that if he really needed to, and it broke him. He started sobbing and held her hand up to his face; he so badly wanted her to be okay. He wanted her to live. There was no way he could let it happen for a third time. Seconds became minutes, and minutes became hours. Hunter stayed awake for as long as he was able to just to see her survive. Eventually he had to be escorted out of the room so the doctor could focus, and to make sure he wasn't present during the whole thing, and he stayed.

His eyes hurt from forcing them to stay open. His body ached for a well deserved rest. Every part of his body screamed and yelled at him, but he didn't listen, he couldn't. Not when Xandria's life was on the line. The hours he spent waiting felt like he was waiting there for months. He was starting to feel impatient, but he made himself stay patient for her. Hunter made himself stay outside of the room, wrapped in a blanket as he laid down on some chairs, for her. He couldn't do anything else but stay there, even as his throat became dry and his stomach growled.

The doctor finally came out of the room and Hunter sat up. He nearly jumped out of the chair and ran up to him.

"Is she okay? Please tell me she's alright!"

His head then faced downwards. That was never a good sign.

"I'm sorry, kid, but… She's gone. I tried doing everything, but it was too late. The damage that bullet did was too much for her heart to handle, not to mention the bloodloss she endured as well."

"I… I understand. Thanks for trying anyway."

Hunter dragged his feet across the floor and walked to the exit. He opened the door before seeing a bag and a canteen to his side. He blinked and a tear fell down his face, not even realizing until now that his eyes were watery. Hunter looked up at the doctor.

"I'm sure you're starving and thirsty waiting there for a few hours," he said. "Be careful out there."

Hunter nodded as he took the bag and canteen from the doctor. He walked out the door with everything in hand.

He took his time doing stuff that day.

---

Hunter sighed before he took a bite into the apple.

He actively avoided others for a while now. It might've been a year or two, he didn't know, he wasn't really keeping count. Besides for a day or two, he didn't let himself be too close to anyone, if anything he just wanted to be left alone. The loneliness killed him after a while, but he convinced himself that it would be worth it if nobody ended up getting hurt. It was the last thing he wanted for anyone. Hunter was the bringer of death after all, only taking effect when someone got extremely close to him.

His ears perked up when he heard laughter from a distance. He looked up and saw some fauns surrounding a red one. He laid his apple down and quietly got closer to understand what was going on.

"That's not too surprising, only a mother could love her freak of a child!" One of them said before she continued to laugh.

"You would be cute…" One of the other fauns flicked the red faun on the nose. "...If you didn't have a duck's foot for a neck."

The red faun hung her head and her ears fell down. Her face was red from being picked on, and all just for looking different too. Hunter went to grab one of his arrows from his quiver, but as he reached for one, he realized he forgot to bring his bow and arrows with him. It was only gonna be used as a warning shot rather than actually hurting them. They were of no physical harm to him nor her, so there was no reason he should hurt them. No matter, he might be able to get rid of them without his arrows. Hunter ran up behind them and stood his ground.

"Hey! Leave her alone you meanies!" He yelled out.

Everyone looked at him and the blue fauns stopped laughing, albeit one wasn't laughing in the first place. She stood there helpless compared to the other blue fauns. Hunter clenched his fists; he was almost prepared for anything. He didn't think about it all the way through, as the idea of him having to possibly fight all of the mean fauns hit him only after he stopped them. He knew he could handle one person, but he never had to fight more than one. Needless to say, he was scared shitless now realizing it.

The only thing that made him feel confident in what he was doing was the smile on the red faun's face.

"What if we don't, cheetah boy? What are you gonna do then?" She taunted him.

He really didn't think this far besides trying to scare them off. "Then I'll- I'll fight you!" Hunter raised his fists in the air, ready for a fist fight despite the fear forming in his body. He had to keep up the brave façade, it was something the girl he was helping needed right now. "Pick on someone your own size!"

The blue faun scoffed at him. "That's real cute. We don't have time for your little sad game." She walked away from everyone.

He wanted to retort that, tell her that she wasn't worth his fighting energy anyways, but he decided to let it go for the time being.

"Maybe come to us when you decide to not hang out with a Hermie freak like that." One of the other blue fauns added before she pushed the red faun into a body of water.

After that, everyone left with the only faun not picking on the red one being the last to leave. She hung her head, like she was upset she wasn't able to do anything. He wasn't too sure how she got mixed into that crowd, but he could only hope for the time being that she'd get out of it soon. For now, he looked at the girl who spat water out of her mouth and he ran over to her. She pulled herself out of the water.

"Are you okay?" He asked her.

She nodded. "I'm fine thanks to you, uhh…"

"Hunter." He introduced himself. "Name's Hunter.

"Thanks, Hunter! I'm Elora!" She replied.

"You know, I'm upset I didn't get three." A woman said as she bent down and handed Elora some ice cream. "He seems like a keeper if you ask me."

If he had to be honest, he wasn't expecting anyone else to be there. He didn't see the mother when he heard the commotion, so he could only guess she was further away getting the ice cream she had in her hands.

"Hey it's nothing! I can't let someone like her get hurt by those meanies." Hunter scratched the back of his head. Compared to everything else he did, it wasn't really a modest answer.

"Well, I thank you for helping my daughter out." She gave a heartwarming smile at him. "I had to see if you were going to be like those girls or a friend, because otherwise you would have been in a messy situation with them."

Yeah, that explained why she didn't come out at first. He wasn't too sure what she would be capable of yet, so he didn't want to fuck with an older person from out of nowhere. Elora chuckled at what her mom told her. Right after that, she sneezed into her elbow and then she sniffed. Her mother took a towel out of her bag and wrapped it around Elora. Hunter and Elora stood up on their feet.

"How about you two go sit somewhere comfortable? I'm going to have a talk with their parents for using such words."

The two nodded before the woman walked off. Elora sneezed yet again. Hunter grabbed her free hand and they walked over to a spot they could sit down at while being isolated and away from other people. Elora licked her ice cream and took a few bites out of it, bigger than what he would've taken. After a few bites, she'd cover her mouth and it seemed like she was having a brain freeze. It kept going for a few more times until her face became scrunched up from how much of the ice cream she was eating. Hunter couldn't help but laugh, she looked too silly like that.

"You look so funny like that!"

She chuckled. "Not as funny as you'll look!"

Her hand went to the top of Hunter's head and ruffled the only area on his body that was a short haired spot. The towel fell off her shoulder as he tried to get her hand away in a playful manner; when he noticed it fell off, he finally got her hand off his head and grabbed it. He fixed it and placed it onto her shoulder again.

"Your mom's really nice," he commented.

"Is your mom nice?" She tilted her head.

He bit his tongue; it only brought back horrible memories for him. He had to swallow his guilt and act like there was nothing wrong.

"I don't know. I think she was. My parents were gone a few years ago, so I don't remember them much."

In a way, that wasn't a lie. Yeah, he had people who he'd say were his parents, but if it were his biological ones, he didn't know them at all. Hunter wondered if they had died as well soon after he was born. Maybe they knew he was a curse and he had to be left alone to spare them. He didn't know. Aside from those two possibilities, he couldn't think why they wouldn't be around for him.

"I'm… Sorry about that." Her ears fell as she patted his shoulder. "I don't know my other parent if that helps."

In a weird way, it kinda did help as he chuckled. "I guess we don't have many people then."

Before he knew it, he was pulled into a hug. He jumped and he wanted to get out of it for a moment, but after a moment, he returned it. It would be rude to not hug her back. He even patted her back.

"We could be lonely together." Elora muttered to him.

Hunter smiled; he wouldn't have to be as alone as before, but he wouldn't have to be too close to her either.

"I'd like that."

---

Hunter laid the ice pack onto his eye.

Elora sat next to his side, worried about his injuries. It felt like he was getting an ice burn after having it there for a while. He took it off his eye and lifted his head up some.

"Are you okay, Hunter?" She reached to touch his face.

He nodded. "Yeah, thankfully it's not the worst I've had."

"What would be worse?" Elora asked as she took a look at his eye.

"This."

Elora moved as Hunter brought his leg up. It was faint at that point, but it was still visible for someone to see if they paid attention. The scar was a little shorter than the wound it came from, but aside from no blood, it was basically as it was the time he had it. The time before he knew how to properly treat his wounds. Elora placed two of her fingers on his leg, running them down along the scar. The look in her eyes was like if one had just seen something that they couldn't look away from, no matter how hard they tried.

She finally looked at his face again after a minute. "That must've hurt really badly."

"It did, but hey, I managed to get by alright." He smiled.

Elora sighed. "Still can't believe they pushed you into that tree like that back there."

"I don't mind taking a million of those pushes if it meant they'd stop going after you." Hunter said.

She hugged him and, being used to it by now, he hugged her back. Unlike their other hugs, it only lasted a few seconds as Elora pushed him away.

"Cold, that's too cold!"

He started laughing. Hunter completely forgot he was still holding the ice pack in his hand. His laughter caused her to join him. His laugh died short when he saw Kulap run up to them and she had to catch her breath. She crossed her arms.

"I had to look everywhere for you two. Can you at least warn me next time?"

"Sorry mom," Elora apologized.

"Sorry, Miss Kulap." He said almost at the same time as Elora.

Kulap looked like she was about to say something, but whatever she had in mind was pushed to the back of her mind as she looked at Hunter's face. She bent down on one knee and examined his face. She felt way too close to him, if he had to be honest.

"What happened to your eye, Hunter?" She questioned.

"Just those girls pushing me into a tree." He answered frankly. "I'm fine though."

"You're clearly not. You need-"

"'-an ice pack over it," he said the same thing she did. "I know, I already had this over it for twenty minutes."

He held up what he had in his hand. Her ears shot up, clearly not expecting him to be way ahead of her. Hunter gave it to her so she'd feel how warm it felt compared to when he first put it on his eye.

"I… didn't think you'd know what to do for a bruised eye."

He shrugged. "Kinda helped that I was taught a few things here and there."

She smiled, though he could tell that she was forcing it. Kulap turned to Elora.

"Go on home, Elora. We'll catch up to you in a little bit." She told her.

Elora nodded before she got up and ran ahead of them. Kulap looked back at Hunter. She grabbed his hands.

"You can stay at our place for as long as you want."

He blinked twice. "What?"

"You can stay at our place." She repeated. "It doesn't matter if it's for a few days, or a month even, you're more than welcome to stay with us."

"You don't have to-"

"But I want to offer you a place to stay." She interrupted.

He looked away. "...But why me?" He almost whispered. "I'm just gonna be trouble…"

Kulap's ears fell hearing that. Before he knew it, she hugged him. He sat there, frozen, uncertain of what to make of it. He reluctantly hugged her back.

"You'll never cause any trouble here. Not now, not ever."

I would, more than you would know, he thought to himself.

At this point, knowing she wouldn't give up, he let it be for now. He wasn't planning on staying for too long though, just for a few days. She broke the hug before she grabbed his hand. They soon caught up with Elora and she held onto Kulap. Hunter had let go of her hand at that point; he stared at the two, seeing how happy they were. He felt terrible that he even thought about staying for one night. A couple was two days too many.

All it took was just one day.

That day could turn into weeks, then months, then years. Weeks were enough to ruin both their lives, and he didn't want that for them. He didn't want that for Elora. She was younger than him by at most a couple years, yet she had more to live for than he did.

It wasn't long until they reached the house. Elora and Kulap walked inside while Hunter looked at the outside. It was a cabin, looking almost as cozy as the first house he lived in. His breathing became heavier as his mind became flooded with memories, ones he won't ever have again, not with how everything went with him. All those people died because of him, and now if he wasn't careful the same thing could-

"Hunter!"

Her voice broke him out of his thoughts. His ears perked and he looked at Kulap.

"Are you coming in?" She asked.

He nervously chuckled. "Yeah. Sorry, I was thinking about something."

Hunter quickly walked inside. The interior was nothing like the outside.

The walls were painted, though he couldn't tell how recent it was if it was recent at all. One of the corners was occupied with a bed and an end table. A small bookshelf rested beside the end table. He could only guess that was meant to be a room and they were making the best they could out of the house. He then saw a couple doors, one closer to him and one all the way on the other side of the room. In the middle of the room all the way to his left, there was an open pathway, as if to separate the rooms. It was smaller than other houses he'd been into, but it was definitely better than a tent.

He then looked over to Kulap, who sheepishly smiled.

"I know it's not much, but I hope you're comfortable here." She said. "I'm afraid I don't have an extra bed though if you ever wish to stay the night."

Hunter almost snickered. "That's fine, I can always sleep on the floor."

While it was the truth, he didn't plan on staying there for longer than a few hours so it wasn't something he worried about. Kulap whispered something to herself, though it was so quiet he couldn't hear what she said. Judging by how her lips moved, however, he could only guess it was something about him having a terrible home life. A home life, he currently didn't have. A terrible life itself, that he absolutely did.

Not that he would say anything about it to her. He couldn't burden her with any of it.

Elora looked back and forth between Kulap and Hunter.

"...Well, if he's okay with it, he can sleep next to me. I don't mind sharing the bed." Elora told them.

Kulap smiled. "You're such a sweetheart, Elora." She turned back to Hunter. "And if you're unable to sleep, you can always come to my room. I don't mind either."

She pointed to the door closest to them with her thumb. He only nodded, though he didn't plan on that any time soon. Kulap then walked over to the open pathway before looking back.

"I do hope you'll stay for dinner, because I'll be cooking enough for you to have a meal too."

"Yeah, I can stay." Hunter replied.

After that, he just had to make sure he didn't stay for too much longer.

---

Despite trying his best to keep his distance, Hunter went back over and over again.

He stayed over for a night quite a few times. Not only that, but he started visiting them every day for the past year. Hunter told himself he wouldn't let it happen again, yet there he was, spending all of his time with Kulap and Elora. In his mind, he was yelling at himself for getting comfortable and close again. Yet, his heart yelled back twice as loud, saying that it was okay and he couldn't go back now.

It was almost like his curse of bringing death wherever he went was broken.

Of course, he kept calling Kulap 'Miss Kulap' instead of 'mom', but he just didn't feel comfortable saying it yet. Hunter felt confident that maybe things were different this time and he shouldn't worry about it too much. Nothing bad had happened to Kulap nor Elora, and nothing would any time soon. There was no reason for it.

He got to know more about them and they got to know more about him. Like he always did he didn't say anything about his past families, but just that he learned some stuff from other people he came across. It wouldn't hurt if they didn't know, right? There wasn't any reason to bring up how they were family to him at first, so he didn't. Hunter even helped Kulap out with dinner at times, either because some things required two people or he had to take over when she got hurt.

It always seemed to surprise her how he was able to take care of things for how young he was, even going as far to say it was like he was a teenager becoming an adult. He didn't know if he would go that far, but when one had to survive on their own ever since they were born, it was needed to learn how to do certain things. Now he was helping her out with the dishes. For most of it, they talked and enjoyed themselves. They even had a few laughs.

"If you don't mind me asking," she started, "but did you ever have anyone else before you met us? I know you've talked about other people you've met, and you said you don't have family, but you talk about them like they're family."

Hunter looked away and frowned. His tail stopped swaying and it aimed downwards.

"...I don't wanna talk about it." That was all he said.

"That's fine if you don't." Kulap responded. "I was just curious. You can always call me 'mom', by the way. You've come by so often you might as well live here."

He looked at her, seeing that soft, warming smile on her face. It was always there whenever he needed something sweet and positive in his life. He shook his head.

"I couldn't." He rejected almost immediately.

"Of course you can, it's no problem to me-"

"It is to me!" He snapped.

She almost dropped a plate. Her eyes widened, taken aback so much. He noticed how much he surprised her and looked away again. He sighed.

"...I'm sorry." He had to quietly choke back the tears that were coming. "I just don't want to lose you like I did everyone else. Because of me, they're gone, and I'm scared if I call you 'mom' or see either of you as family, you'll be dead too."

Nothing was said within seconds after he said that. She turned off the water, put the place she held down, and hugged him, causing him to flinch.

"Hunter, it's okay." She started. "Whatever happened, it was never your fault, that I can promise you. Not only that, but I'm not going anywhere. Nowhere away from Elora and certainly not away from you."

He didn't know how much he could believe those words. The tears that were being held back leaked through like a tank that was breaking, and he allowed himself to cry. It was what he wanted, but it felt too much like a dream for it to be real. Maybe it was what he needed right now.

Something being that good being real, something that was honest and would never be torn away from him for once.

Hunter turned himself around and tightly hugged her. Maybe it was time for him to become completely comfortable and allow himself to call her 'mom'. It was something that she wanted too, after all, for him to be her son. The child she never had but wanted as well. If it was possible, Hunter would never let her go.

Everything was becoming so much brighter for him.

---

Hunter laid back, kicking his feet up to the table.

He couldn't let his birthday cake sit around the way it did. It was only three days, but he felt like a king. Well, as much of a king as a newly-turned ten year old could feel. Kulap would never allow him to have his feet on the table, but considering she and Elora were out, he figured it wouldn't hurt to do that for a bit. All he knew was that they went to Idol Springs a few hours ago, nothing about what they were doing.

They asked if he wanted to come along and he declined. He just wanted a lazy day and chill out, the past few days were quite eventful. Whatever they were doing, he supposed that was their way of winding down. Besides, he could have the house to himself. He promised he would keep the house clean and he made sure to do that before he grabbed some cake. When he finished up, he cleaned the plate and fork.

Hunter walked outside and looked up to the sky. The sun was a quarter over its highest peak, which made him realize it had been longer than he thought it was. He only came out for fresh air and to look at the clouds, but now he wasn't too sure if he should be relaxing. Maybe he was overthinking and worrying too much about this, but he should check up on them.

He started running over to Idol Springs. Whatever was in his way, he went around, over, or under it. If anyone said hi, Hunter apologized and said he couldn't talk right now. He went through the portal from Autumn Plains to Summer Forest. He had to look everywhere for the portal to Idol Springs, however it didn't take him long. Hunter heard some barely audible sobs, which only made his heart sink. If Elora was sobbing, it couldn't be a good thing. He only hoped it wasn't her.

As fast as he could, he found her. Kulap wasn't there with her. It made him think the worst, but he only hoped that anything he thought of wasn't the case. She didn't look at him when he came closer to her. He laid one of his knees down to the ground.

"Elora, what's wrong?" He asked, feeling his heart in his throat. "Why are you crying?"

She looked at him, her face was red and her eyes were puffy. Tears stained and ran down her face. Snot was coming through her nostrils, which she harshly sniffed back up.

"She's gone, Hunter. Mom's gone!"

She then hugged him. His ears fell backwards. No, no it couldn't be happening. He'd been around them for nearly three years, and now it happened. She was dead all because he couldn't keep himself away from them. Hunter was starting to truly believe her that maybe it wasn't his fault, that maybe it was just a coincidence he was around when the others died.

Yet, despite all that, there Hunter was knowing that she was dead. Elora didn't even have to say that word for him to know what she really meant. He really was the bringer of death after all, and this was proof of it. She was the only person who would've been the one to break the mold, yet it was only him and Elora now.

He broke into tears. He couldn't hold it inside anymore. The young cheetah held onto her as firm as he could. Hunter went from feeling like a king having the whole world to a little kid who wanted his mother back. They stood there for several minutes, all until they couldn't cry anymore. When they were collected enough, Hunter helped Elora go back home.

She held onto him the whole way back to Autumn Plains. Neither said a word to the other, and there wasn't any need to. The silence was all that they needed for their emotions to say what they needed to. He occasionally looked ahead of them, but he kept most of his attention on Elora.

However, his ears perked up when he heard the other fauns walk up to them. He clenched his fist. Hunter swore that this was not the best fucking time for them to bully him or Elora. He only hoped that they were walking in their direction and wasn't actually going to them.

"Oh look," Spinner started, "two freaks alone! Where's your mama? Got sick and tired of you two?"

Hunter growled. "Przysięgam-"

"Don't you ever get sick and tired of being a jerk?" Elora shot.

Hunter stared at her. Elora let go of him and turned around. Her glare was like a knife, piercing through anyone she laid her eyes on. As if there wasn't a sun, a shadow formed upon the upper half of her face. It was like her despair and depression turned into pure infuriation. Chills ran down his spine like it was a marathon to survive. He never saw anyone he stuck with switch emotions that quickly. He wasn't too sure if he liked it or if he should be scared.

Lila, Spinner, and Sheila held onto each other. It was like Elora's glare shot through their souls and found out what was on the inside. Krista was the only one to stare at her in surprise, not having expected Elora to give such a serious look. Elora walked forward and the girls started trembling. She only stopped when she got close to Spinner.

"I'm not in the mood to be messed with right now. If you ever speak of her or her name again, I promise you that you'll be running to your own parents."

Spinner could only laugh nervously. Lila held onto Spinner and Sheila tighter. Sheila looked between Elora and the other girls.

"Uh, maybe this isn't a great time, I think I heard dad calling me!" Sheila forced out before running off.

The other girls aside from Krista followed suit. Krista hugged Elora, which caused her to snap out of that spine-chilling look of hers.

"I don't know what happened, but… I hope you feel better, Elora." Krista said before she ran off.

Hunter walked up to Elora. Before he could say anything to her, she hugged him again. He hugged her back, trying to soothe her. He continued bringing her home soon afterwards. It didn't take long after coming back for her to cry herself to sleep. Hunter laid her in her bed and put the blanket over her.

He quietly ran back out. His feet carried him to the Professor's lab. It wasn't something he should do, and it was a horrible idea, but he needed to see it for himself.

Hunter needed to know what caused her death.

Water splashed against his feet as he ran over the puddles. He ran as fast as he possibly could. It all felt like a blur, like he wasn't actually there. When Hunter got to the Professor's lab, he leaned on the wall to catch his breath. The Professor opened the door to see Hunter standing right outside.

"Hunter?" He adjusted his glasses. "What are you doing here?"

"Mom," he huffed, "where is she?"

His eyes widened before he cleared his throat.

"She's… no longer around."

Hunter furrowed his eyebrows as he panted.

"I know she's dead." He stated. "I'll ask one more time; where is she?"

"You don't want to see her." He quietly said as he looked away.

"No, I don't. But I need to know what happened to her."

Hunter could tell the Professor was hesitating.

"...She was crushed."

"Are you just saying something I wanna hear, or is it the truth?"

"I'm being honest, Hunter. I don't have a reason to lie to you."

He absolutely didn't, but Hunter still had to see for himself. For all he knew, he could be downplaying it so Hunter would leave it be. If that was the case, he wasn't leaving, not until he got what he needed. He knew how everyone else died and he wasn't allowing Kulap to be the only one whose death he knew nothing about.

Hunter tried to walk inside, but the Professor blocked him.

"Hunter, you shouldn't go in." He warned.

"I have to. Let me in."

"I'm afraid I can't-"

"Now, Avogadro."

The Professor stared at him as his lips pressed together. He breathed in as much as he could, almost like he was going to do something. He ended up sighing in defeat and opened the door for him. His gaze, however, stuck onto Hunter. Avogadro knew there wasn't a way he could get him away, and Hunter knew he knew that. His persistence had won.

"...Go ahead." He said. "I have to warn you though, it's not pretty."

Hunter walked in. "Since when has death ever been pretty?"

He didn't respond, he only followed Hunter and showed him where Kulap's corpse lied. He revealed it to him, even moving the glass for him to look as close as he wanted to. Hunter stared at her lifeless body. She was crushed alright, however there were no imprints on the front of her corpse. Hunter gently lifted her up. The moment he touched her, the Professor lightly gasped. In the back, he saw indentations of a boulder on her skin.

So that was how she got crushed.

Hunter laid her back down. He rested himself on his arms, laying his hands down. He could figure the rest out from there.

"...Did Elora see her like this?"

"Yes." He didn't hesitate to answer despite his voice being full of guilt. "I tried to make sure she didn't see, but-"

"It was too late, wasn't it?" Hunter interrupted.

Avogadro nodded after a few seconds.

"Were you there the whole time?"

"No. I only got there when Elora got me."

"So you don't know how it completely happened either."

He shook his head. He went to put the glass back up.

"You may want to move-" Avogadro looked at Hunter's face. "...Hunter?"

"She would've been fine if I didn't come into their lives." He quietly started. "But of course, I had to jinx it. I had to jinx everything."

"Hunter, none of this was your fault-"

"Shut up!" He snapped. "You don't know anything!"

Tears ran down his face. Avogadro tried to reach for him, but Hunter didn't allow it. He called out for him, but Hunter didn't look back.

The bringer of death didn't deserve anything good.

---

Elora laid in Kulap's bed, not moving an inch.

Hunter had been counting the days that she'd been there. He tried to get her to eat, to drink something, but she didn't do anything. In all honesty, he couldn't blame her. He didn't want to do anything but lay by his parents' side until he couldn't anymore, but after the first night he had to force himself away. Unfortunately, it wasn't something Elora could do. She didn't have to do that because of a need to survive and run away, not like he did.

He let her grieve as much as she needed to, but she needed to eat and drink too. Hunter only wished he knew how he could get her to do just that. He peeked into the room again, not seeing a difference in her movement. He sighed before he closed the door. The bow he had for years alongside the arrows he made resided against the pathway's wall. He simply stared at it for a few seconds.

Hunter picked both up. Maybe it was best to take everything he had and leave now. If he did, she wouldn't be subjected to the curse more than she already was. Then again, maybe there was a way he wouldn't be able to hurt anybody else. He laid down the bow and the quiver, leaving all the arrows in it besides one. Before anything else, he looked behind him to make sure Elora wasn't coming out, though it was unlikely.

Then he walked to the door, ready to walk through. He paused and his hand turned into a loose fist. Hunter looked back at the door to Kulap's room. It was a perfect opportunity to leave, but it felt wrong to leave without giving her something at least. It didn't have to be a 'goodbye' or him explaining what he was about to do, but something he could do or say for the last time.

He turned around and went inside the room. As he expected, she didn't move at the sound. He walked closer to her. Hunter leaned in and kissed her on the head.

"I love you," he whispered.

There wasn't a response back. It slightly hurt, but there wasn't much he could get right now even if he hoped for that. He left the room and then left the house. Hunter took a deep breath as he walked away from the house he came from. He couldn't look back and stare, it would only delay what he needed to do.

Hunter went to where he thought nobody would be able to find him, or at least not be able to find him so easily. It was perfect that the leaves were falling off the trees. Some would be able to hide him from everything else while the others could hide his blood. All things considered, it was the best plan he came up with on the spot. The only thing he hoped for was that nobody followed him and tried to stop him.

He couldn't have anyone sabotage his plan.

His walking was about to turn into running, but he felt someone grab ahold of him. That someone held onto him like there wasn't a tomorrow. She sobbed and she sobbed, feeling her wet tears upon his fur. Hunter didn't have the willpower to get her off.

"Please, don't go." Elora's voice cracked and she sniffed. "I don't know where you're heading, but please don't leave me, I need you. I'll do anything, just don't go."

His fists shook. He gulped as tears formed. All he could do was stare at the ground. Everything within him was now uncertain of going through with his plan. Suddenly, he dropped the arrow, turned around, and hugged her back.

"I won't."

That was all he could muster out. He held her close and tight.

Maybe he could stay a little longer for her.

---

Elora wipes the tears from her eyes.

"Wow, you've… You've been through a lot." She comments. "I'm sorry you lost all of those people."

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner," Hunter responds. "I thought you'd think it was ridiculous of me worrying so much like this."

"Of course not. You've seen people die younger than me, there's no way I could say how you feel is dumb or irrational. Not only that, but you were going to commit suicide?!" She crosses her arms. "I don't know why you thought that would be helping anyone, but it wouldn't fix a thing. It probably would've killed me knowing the only family I knew and had left died!"

"Well, I'm still here." He sheepishly smiles.

Elora groans. "That's not the point, you dork. How many times did you even try that?"

"...Only once." He looks away as his ears fall forward.

"And how many times have you thought about it?"

He laughs. "It's not like I'm gonna attempt doing it again-" She stares at him. "-okay, one-thousand, three-hundred and twenty-seven times. Four-hundred and seventy-two times before we met, eight-hundred and fifty-five afterwards. I know, it's a lot."

Her ears shoot up and her eyes widen.

"...You keep track?" She asks.

"Yeah. I even keep track of how many times we visit Mom, separately and together."

Elora grabs his hands and holds them.

"Hunter, none of that was your fault." She starts, looking him in his eyes. "You couldn't control how a whole village's worth of people would die, or know that Woodland was internally bleeding, or even control how much pain someone would take until they die. It's just a horrible string of bad luck. Even if you weren't around, Mom would've still died. There was nothing you or I could do there."

"...Maybe you're right."

"I am. No matter what, I'm here for you. Me going out there to fight isn't going to change a single thing about that."

Hunter laughs. "I hope not, I don't wanna go ahead and bury someone else."

She nervously chuckles, uncertain whether to laugh with him. She stops when Hunter pulls her in for a hug. His eyes close as he embraces her.

"I'm sorry I haven't been the best brother."

She hugs back. "I'm sorry I assumed you hate me. However, I'm conducting a suicide watch to make sure you don't attempt again."

Hunter pulls back and looks at her. "What?! Elora, I haven't even tried after that one time!"

"I know, but I want to be safe than sorry here." He pouts. "Don't worry, it'll only be for a week."

"Alright, fine." He crosses his arms and looks away.

Elora gets up. She takes the blanket off herself before she stretches. She walks over to the pathway and looks back at Hunter.

"So how do pancakes sound?"

"Świetny! Trzy!" He holds up three digits.

She shakes her head. "If you weren't holding up your fingers, I wouldn't have known how much you wanted."

He realizes what he said and shakes his head, almost knocking himself on the head. Elora laughs sweetly.

"Sorry, I wasn't trying to."

She smiles. "At least that explains the gibberish that you say sometimes."

He crosses his arms. "Gibberish, wow, you got no respect for Polish. It's hard to learn, you know!"

"Yeah, yeah, you can yell at me about it later." Elora jokes.

He smiles. Maybe there's not too much to worry about after all. Maybe things are turning out for the better for him, and it's for real this time. The future might not be all that bright just yet, but it'll be something that they're proud to look forward to.

Hunter wishes he can say the same for the present with how hard Spyro opens the door.

---

A/N: My god this is the longest chapter I've ever written, all just backstory shit. I thought it would end up being 10K words max, but no it's like double that amount. I'm never doing this again XD

All Polish to English translations:

"Wówczas chodźmy." is "Let's go."

"Jestem w domu!" is "I'm home!"

"Mam się dobrze, Sara." is "I'm fine, Sara."

"Ja pierdolę!" is "Fuck!"

"Przysięgam-" is "I swear-"

"Świetny! Trzy!" is "Great! Three!"

If any of it is incorrect, I apologize. I'm still learning and since I don't know much, I have to look some of this up.