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The fact that Hunter had been left to just roam the castle again, not that he was strictly speaking even supposed to be doing that, had nothing to do with any decision he may make in the near future. The castle was his home! He could stay here! Easily!
Flapjack eyed him suspiciously.
"I'm not going crazy," gruffly, he informed them.
The palisman flew over from their perch on the end of his bed and settled on his shoulder. Now there was another common occurrence...
"If Uncle needs me here, then I'm doing my job! And he said-"
With what Hunter would almost stake his job on as a smirk, Flapjack shut him up with another tug to his hair. Hunter let out a strangled grunt and tried to shoo the bird away, but as per usual, he was very much at his palisman's whim.
He sighed and held out a finger, so he could speak to Flapjack face to face.
"What do you suggest I do then, huh, buddy? I can't bother the Emperor anymore..." he idly stroked the back of his palisman's head as he spoke. They leaned into the touch.
Happily, though still rather fiendishly in Hunter's professional opinion, Flapjack chirped at him.
"What? You know I can't do that! Abandoning post without good reason... That's-"
He felt a sharp tug on his cloak.
"It's not about who would cover for me... What reason would I even have to leave?" tiredly, he argued.
Instead of responding in their weird little palisman language, Flapjack opted to wrestle with his belongings to prove their point. Honestly, he wasn't even surprised anymore when they dragged over his scroll.
Not that he wasn't grateful for Darius for gifting him it, but he wasn't exactly sure what the bird was planning for him to use it for now. His scroll was for when he couldn't sleep at night and there was a whole different world out there for him to explore on it instead. Or for Penstagram.
Speaking of... Hunter inwardly groaned. Even if the scroll did little to solve his current dilemma, he had a whole other problem to solve with it. He just needed to make sure the human hadn't been spamming him anymore, that's all... Ever since someone, he hadn't quite figured out who, had leaked his contact information to her, the girl had been stealing the Owl Lady's Penstagram account to bother him.
Flapjack ignored this tragedy and stared pointedly at the group chat with his former teammates. He wasn't sure why they'd added him to that. They needed a replacement. They were looking for a replacement!
Warily, he glared at the bird. They ruffled their feathers but never broke eye contact with him either.
"You want me... to do something with them?" Hunter tried.
Flapjack danced encouragingly just in front of him.
"You were there! They replaced me. I lost my second chance, bird,"
Dramatically, he flopped backwards and groaned. Social life was harder than he'd expected. With his uncle, it was simple. As long as he succeeded at his missions, he was useful! The Emperor was pleased! The Titan was pleased! The Entrails were pleased too when he succeeded in winning the match for them, but it was different. It wasn't that he passed that day, that test; they celebrated him!
"Besides, I already told them I could only come on my day off," he shut down any attempt his palisman could make to change the situation before they even got the chance.
Unfortunately, Flapjack didn't take defeat very well. They managed to use one of their little bird talons to open the group chat. Captain was sending a picture.
She was at the training grounds at Hexside, in uniform. Were the Entrails at practice now? Willow's next message semi-confirmed it. She informed the team that the pitch was clear and that they should head on down.
From their low vantage point, Flapjack glanced up at Hunter hopefully. He could tell they wanted to be there too. As much as they always seemed to want to solve his problems for him, even.
"Alright, fine. You win this time, bird. But it'll just be a quick visit, okay? To... apologise for last time," he explained firmly.
The team had been far from a fan of joining the Coven, it would seem. Even if he couldn't personally understand why, he respected their opinions. Their attitudes to the situation proved just how much he didn't know about their life, so he should be mindful of how they were perhaps not as enlightened as he.
His palisman was at his side in an instant as Hunter went to fetch his Flyer Derby uniform from where he'd stashed it right at the back of a drawer after his first game.
Captain said she believed in second chances. Even if this was his third, maybe they'd give him another shot.
Okay, so he might have needed to think this out a little more thoroughly before leaving. There the Emerald Entrails were, on the field, but Hunter had no idea how to approach. Flapjack ruffled their feathers on his shoulder. Nevermind, this was why the bird was here.
The palisman tugged at the nearest strand of his hair they could reach and just in general caused a right fuss. So, yes, the message was loud and clear. He needed to get over himself and just go announce his presence.
Rather unfortunately, his little scuffle with Flapjack left it quite hard to manoeuvre, and Hunter ended up tripping on some twig or something. Rather embarrassing, really. And then it was clearly decided that he must have forgotten how downright terrifying his captain had seemed at first, because his suspicious behaviour warranted Willow attempting to reenact it. Great...
He was unceremoniously grabbed by a vine at the team captain's command and dragged out of the foliage and onto the pitch.
It didn't take more than a quick once over for her to realise her mistake, though.
"Caleb?" more than a little surprised, at least to Hunter's ears, she affirmed, and dropped him like a ragdoll. He groaned and stood up.
"Hunter..." he mumbled, staring at the floor, almost wishing it would swallow him whole again.
"Er, what was that?" the younger witch, Gus, glared at him and asked.
Instead of having to sort that out, Hunter decided he'd rather just skip the little details and get back on track. So what if they got his name wrong if it meant he had a chance of getting back on the team!?
"Nothing," hastily, he amended, "I was just... I had some free time! So I thought I'd swing by! Is that...okay?"
"Of course! We're just surprised, is all! You didn't say anything beforehand, and you... You said you only got one day off, so it's more unexpected than anything!" Willow responded, cheerily.
He knew the reason he hadn't informed them of his impending arrival, of course. But he wasn't just going to admit to his team that didn't want to text on their group chat that he was going to visit because he was breaking orders again and maybe a little bit also because he was worried they didn't actually want him on the team...
"It was... a last-minute decision," he settled on. Cryptic, but not technically untrue.
Gus glanced at Willow. The other two Entrails proceeded to follow suit. Hunter wasn't really the best at reading other witches, or so he'd recently found out, but Flapjack didn't seem too worried when he took a chance to assess their opinion. That was probably a good sign, then.
"Well, we're glad you came anyway," Viney, the first to speak up again, shrugged, "It's better being able to practice with the whole team,"
"Oh, really? How do you usually go about practising with only one team?" intrigued, Hunter questioned.
He could think of a multitude of ways, of course. Did they do races? Fly dangerous courses? He'd learnt to fly on various missions and training exercises usually involving some wild witch or beast chasing him, but that might be a little extreme... Training over a pit of spikes or the likes seemed like a much more reasonable guess in that regard. That way, you could keep the adrenaline pumping and not be in true mortal peril!
"We've just done two versus two mini-games the last couple of times," Skara, the one with the poofy hair, remarked.
Hunter stepped backwards.
"Then you can't practise if I'm here?"
Most of the team gave him funny looks for that, but Willow just frowned. Was his observation wrong? It wouldn't be a fair game if they did three versus two, but maybe that was part of the thrill? To test the skills of the two on their own to see if they had what it took. Yes, that must be it!
"No, no, we can. The norm wouldn't be teams of five if that made it impossible to practise with," Willow announced confidently. Another sidelong glance with Skara followed.
"Yeah, we can just mix and match with uneven teams, have someone referee, demonstrate team strats... Oh! And play training exercises too!" the bard witch listed off.
If Hunter recalled correctly, Willow had introduced Skara as the strategist, so it made sense then that she knew what kind of training they had to do. Did she plan the sessions? Or was that still down to the Team Captain? Furthermore, what exactly were these training exercises that she spoke of?
"Like, uh, what?" he prompted.
Willow smirked.
Within a second she was on her staff and reaching out towards him. What exactly...?
"Tag!"
The rest of the team sprung into action and were on their staffs too, following her lead. But not literally, though. It didn't seem to be some kind of formation. In fact, they were flying kind of randomly. Well, presumably he was supposed to be flying too, so there was a start.
Tentatively he lifted into the air on Flapjack's staff and waited to see what happened. The Entrails kept zipping around the court, almost as if they were in a game. But they weren't pursuing each other... Strange.
"Caleb, man, you have to actually chase us!" Gus laughed.
"Oh, do you not wanna be it? Tag me if you want! I promise I'm great at this..." Viney's expression turned dark, "Kind of have to be to keep up with Puddles sometimes..."
Hold on, hold on... 'It'? Was he supposed to be some kind of enemy? Was he supposed to be like the beasts that had chased him in his training? And Gus had said that Hunter was supposed to chase them.
He must have had one heck of a contemplative look on his face, for Willow swooped back down and hovered just by him.
"Are you okay, Ca-" she stopped and corrected herself, "Hunter? Do you not like the game? You can just tag Viney like she said, or we could play something else if it's that big a deal,"
He forced himself to approach her so she could actually hear him properly. Ugh, why did it feel like he was about to admit some dirty secret!? Willow was nice! She'd understand!
"No, it's just... I don't actually know how to play," he admitted, at little more than a whisper.
"Titan, really?"
Hunter nodded meekly.
"That's alright then. You can learn," Willow grinned, "All it is is just a chase exercise. To practise evading the opposing team when they're coming for your flag. The aim of the game is to not be 'It', but if you are it, your aim is to try and tag someone else,"
"Oh, so I'm supposed to be trying to tag the rest of you now?"
"Yeah! You're getting it, buddy! Look, I'll show you - just tag me,"
She extended a gloved hand out towards him. It wasn't raised above his head, ready to strike like when Uncle did this, or like how Darius had on the night of their first game. It was just there for him to take. Or, in this case, tag, but his point still stood. It was a chance for him to learn being freely offered, no strings attached.
Hunter complied and slapped the palm of his hand against Willow's through the fabric of both of their gloves. It wasn't at full strength; he didn't actually want to hurt her, but it felt good. Silly, but good.
With a smirk, his Team Captain swivelled and shot right off towards the rest of her players. They startled to life like Steve would after Lilith caught him slacking on patrol.
"Woah, Willow, you teaming on us?" accused Gus, accompanied by a playful gasp.
"I don't know, Gus. Do you want to find out?" she laughed and veered her path toward the younger witch.
"Hah! You can try all you want, but you still have to catch me first!" he jeered.
Hunter watched with some incredulity as Gus proceeded to race straight towards Willow, obviously hoping to startle her and escape a daring hero, but their Captain was no joke. Maybe it was easy to forget amongst all the rest of their talents, but Willow was easily the most experienced here. And she was no joke at magic to boot.
She caught Gus easily, having used a vine to snag the end of his staff and propel herself close. And then she lunged forward, fingers grazing on Gus's shoulder as she uttered those words again.
"Tag!" Willow grinned in victory.
Not one to be deterred by this setback in the game, Gus changed to the secondary objective for when one was 'it' and immediately found a target. He flew off again at break-neck speed toward Skara, who let out a small screech, a happy one if Hunter was reading the situation correctly, though, and made sure to not be sitting around in the same spot she had just a second ago.
Spotting Willow retreating back to a corner of the field out of the corner of his eye, Hunter let himself drift towards her.
"So, why didn't Gus just aim straight for you again? No offence, but you would have been the easiest target for him considering how close you already had to be to tag him,"
His captain looked at him curiously, "That's against the rules, Hunter. All the little kids just call it 'No tag-backs', but it's really just a rule there to keep the game from getting boring,"
That made sense.
"Right, it probably would get dull if the same two people just engaged in petty squabbling in the middle of the field," Hunter chuckled.
Willow nodded but said nothing. Before he could think of something else to say to continue the conversation, he was brutally reminded that they were, at current, playing this 'Tag' game.
Skara appeared, almost out of nowhere, but he was well aware that logically she must have flown, behind him and he felt a small prod on his back. Hunter inwardly groaned as he knew what was coming.
"Tag!" she cheered.
Okay, well, it was illegal for him to try and get her back now, and making a move on Captain felt a little unfair too, so that just left Gus and Viney. Viney who was at present, not moving, only watching, on the other side of the field. Hunter grinned.
Just channelling a little bit of Flapjack's magic and, yep, he materialised right behind an unsuspecting healer.
"Tag," he smirked and gave a little smug wave.
"Oh, come on, that has got to be cheating!" she complained, exasperated, and looked over to Willow.
The plant witch gave an airy shake of her head. Hunter caught her eye and she smirked back at him, obviously pleased. Viney tutted, but offered no more bickering.
She hadn't been lying when she said she was good at this game. Viney was a bit of a beast at it...
"Tag!" This time back on Gus. Not even the speed demon himself could escape a woman who practised with a feral flea magnet, then.
The title of 'It' was returned to Willow for the first time since she'd willingly received it from Hunter, next. And then Skara. And then him. And back to Gus. And so on.
Somewhere along the way, Hunter realised that, huh, yeah, this was fun! He felt part of something just playing around on the sports field passing some strange title and duty to chase his teammates around. Not at all what he'd envisioned when he'd first heard that the Entrails had only planned practice for four.
But then he remembered his little conversation with Flapjack back at the Castle.
Oh, Titan, he had come here for more than just this, hadn't he?
Abruptly, Hunter stopped flying and aimed for the ground. By some stroke of luck, his team followed him.
"What gives, man? Tired?" panting a little himself, Gus teased.
"No, I just- Thanks. I'm glad I came today," toothily, probably showing off that gap in the front of his jaw, he smiled.
"No problem! We're glad to have you here!" Viney winked.
Willow put a hand on her hip and raised an eyebrow at him coyly, "This isn't the part where you try and capture us again, is it?"
"No! No!" quick to reassure, Hunter confirmed.
Gently, the Team Captain clapped him on the shoulder.
"I actually wanted to apologise for that. It was rude of me to try and force it on you like that... You should still all have your right to free choice and, hey, the Coven entry training isn't for everyone," quietly, he admitted, perhaps purposefully leaving the part about what would have happened to their palismen out. What Emperor Belos did with them was... not for them to know.
There was a moment of silence around the team for a moment. Hunter hoped he hadn't just majorly screwed up again, but it was a little late for that now, no? What was said had been said.
"Didn't you already apologise over scroll?" a tad dubiously, Gus pointed out.
Had he? Probably. Hunter's first few messages on that thing were a bit of mystery even to him though, if he were to look back on them. It was a bit of a miracle Gus had managed to understand that, then.
"Yeah! And we already forgave you back then!" Skara added.
Oh. Well then.
"I wanted to do it properly," Hunter confessed, "To be honest, I wasn't entirely sure why you guys even added me to the group chat. I thought you were looking for my replacement?"
Willow startled and fixed a grip back on his shoulder.
"It's like I said back then, Hunter. We thought it'd be fifty-two weeks until you got a chance to play again! It wasn't like we actually wanted to replace you!"
"So... I'm still on the team?" he clarified, yes, hopefully, sue him.
There was some messy chorus that followed, but he gathered the general gist of it was all agreement. Oh, gosh, what was this fuzzy feeling inside of him!? It was warm! Was this the sickness about his sky skills!?
After all had quietened down, Willow gave him a serious look. "You'll have a place on the Entrails as long as you want it, Hunter. That's a promise," she smiled, so full of warmth and sun, just like an actual plant, then.
Not really having anything else to add, Hunter simply nodded, allowing them to return to practise.
That night, back at the castle, it finally clicked with him what it was that he'd been feeling earlier. Not to be too cliche, but that had been companionship, hadn't it? If he was really leaning into the cheesy, as if he was in some of the less gory scenes in Ruler's Reach, he'd call it friendship. Or the power of friendship. Whatever.
Flapjack shuffled over curiously and looked at him. He laughed at their antics. Just this once.
"Yeah, buddy, I'm one of them, aren't I?"
That look Hunter swore was smug returned to his palisman's face. They nestled happily in his lap as he ran his hand down his face. Were they really going to make him say it?
"Do I have to?" he whined.
They glared with their good eye. Ouch, yep, okay...
"Fine, bird, have it your way," he sighed, "You were right... The time outside was good for me..."
Preening Flapjack settled back down. You know what? Hunter had an urge to do the same. Contently, he flopped backwards onto the expanse of his bed behind him and smiled.