Loved -- Golden Guard

Chapter 2

TW: Symptoms of PTSD, misgendering, animal death, minor gore, fainting

Hunter woke with a start, as usual, from a nightmare about the previous day. He took deep breaths and tried his best to calm his rapidly beating heart.

He had a new assignment today. It would probably involve gathering more palismen for Emperor Belos. He'd been needing more than usual recently.

He quickly got dressed, having to use a sports bra rather than a binder per usual both due to his wound and due to the fact his binder is torn.

He put on his cape and mask, and remembered at the last second to put his hood up before he walked out the door.

He made his way to Emperor Belos' throne room as instructed and knocked three times sharply before entering.

Once Belos called for him, he opened the door and made the five steps into the room before bowing.

"Stand, niece." The Golden Guard stood and waited silently. "As you know, there's been an issue with rogue selkidomus, so I'd like you to go and kill a pod of them."

The Golden Guard paused, confusion and slight terror bubbling up.

"Usually you'd set a bounty for a mission like this, not to mention its practically a suicide mission to go alone-" he chuckles nervously.

"I know." Belos glares down at Hunter, expression clear despite the mask. "Are you saying you're too weak to kill a pod of selkidomus by yourself?"

"I- of course not!" He sputters. "I was just saying it was a bit out of the ordinary! Give me the directions and I'll be right on it!"

Hunter's back hurt from riding above the ocean on his staff for so long. He'd been out at sea for three hours looking for this pod of selkidamus.

He groaned and slowed to a stop, looking for a nearby island to land on and stretch when he spotted them at last.

"Finally!" he muttered to himself.

He flew closer and planned carefully how to go about this. The babies were in the center of the pod per usual, and the largest was leading the group.

If he took down the sickly ones at the back first, he'd probably be able to scare the babies away and easily take them down. From there he'd have to kill the leader, sending the others into disarray and if all went according to plan, he'd pick off the remaining ones one by one until he'd finally be able to return home and give his report to Emperor Belos.

Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned. The sick ones were easy, as were the babies, however the two females and apparent mothers were absolutely pissed.

"Just DIE!" He shouted, dodging yet another wave of spike attacks. He could feel the bandage on his side beginning to bleed through but was forced to ignore it as the leader sent out an ear piercing shriek that made Hunter go blind with a sharp pain in his ears.

He cried out and covered his ears, desperately hoping he wouldn't feel blood. He couldn't afford to be hard of hearing or deaf, Belos wouldn't tolerate such a weakness.

He uncovered his ears as soon as he had a clear enough head to notice the new round of spikes heading straight for him and teleported behind one of the females, striking her at point blank in her slowly deflating neck and killing her.

He teleported away before the leader or the only remaining male of three could hit him.

He reappeared far above them and clutched at his side, laying on his staff with barely enough energy to put pressure on his wound. He pulled his hand away and found blood on his glove.

He muttered curses and tore a piece of cloth from his cape (which was new, unfortunately) and carefully folded it and put it beneath the gauze he had applied yesterday.

He was exhausted, from hours of flying, from teleporting, and from fighting and killing selkidomus. And he still wasn't ready to return home.

His main target was the leader. He had to kill the leader and then the rest were as good as dead. Just one more kill.

He gripped his staff and teleported behind the leader, trusting his quick thinking to come up with a plan.

"Hey ugly!!" he shouted. "Over here! Come and get me!"

The large beast turned and puffed up its neck, and quickly shot out spikes. He expertly dodged the attack, spare one spine skimming his right leg. He grunted in response but luckily the adrenaline kept the pain at bay for the time being.

Hunter teleported above the selkidamus and struck it on its now exposed neck, doing a great deal of damage. It cried out and dove underneath the water, and Hunter only barely dodged an attack by the female's tail.

He fought the other two while waiting for the leader to resurface, quickly managing to kill them both.

He flew high and layed exhausted on his staff, hoping the leader would finally resurface so he could kill it, and then finally return home.

He was almost asleep when a creature called out, almost... crying. He watched the last remaining beast swim up to it's dead pod mates and watched as it mourned.

He felt... guilt. It wasn't the first time and wouldn't be the last, but it always hurt the same. He watched as it nuzzled them, crying out almost as if trying to wake them.

But an assignment was an assignment. He was on his way home shortly after, pushing back against the tears stinging in his eyes.

After a good 20 minutes of flying, and resisting both sleep and crying, he finally arrived back at the castle.

He limped towards the healing ward and ignored the weird stares he got from soldiers and their higher ups as he passed.

Before he could even make it halfway there, he began to feel lightheaded.

"Son of a bitch..." he muttered, leaning against the wall, feeling the familiar feeling of sickness settle in his stomach.

If he could just make it a little further, Lilith's study was just ahead, being guarded by two soldiers. If he made it there he could at least know he'd be taken to the medical ward immediately and not after bleeding out for 5-10 minutes when the patrols found him.

He kept his balance against the wall and did his best to hurry. Finally he rounded the corner to the hall Liliths study was on.

He could tell the exact moment the guards saw him. They were no longer standing still and stiff, as their heads turned towards him and the one closest to him took a step forward.

"G- Golden Guard, are you alright??" And then he collapsed.