Sneaking Into Hexide

Chapter 1

He stared down at the scroll in his hand while he sat crossed legged on his bed back at the castle. After a short ride on the ship with Darius, him helping Hunter create his very first Penstagram account, he ran back to his room to try his new device out. It's not that Hunter hasn't used a scroll before, not more than five minutes— but he knew the basics of it. And it's not his fault! He was always so busy with commissions from the coven, leading scouts, completing tasks given to him by his uncle, that he never had time for such childish things.

Never had time to be a teenager.

He also thought he never had time for friends, but the events from about an hour ago proved him totally wrong. Having friends felt great! It filled the hole in his stomach he didn't even know he had until he met them, and won the derby match. But he didn't think the captain of the team, Willow, and the others even still wanted to be his friends after he handed them over to the Emperor's coven. He just thought he was doing what they would've wanted, but now he realized that he was making the decision for him. Acting like he knew what they would want to do with their lives and forced them into it.

And apparently that was wrong.

But it's not like Hunter ever had a choice in what he was doing. He was just given tasks, and was always expected to do them. And if he failed...

Hunter subconsciously touched the scar on his cheek.

But he had to understand that not every other kid in the Boiling Isles was in the same position as him. And not forcing other people to do things against their will also kinda made sense.

But...people needed to understand his position!

He flopped onto his bed, ran a hand through his hair and sighed. This was a lot to think about.

'I need a distraction!' Hunter suddenly thought to himself. He turned his attention back to the scroll and turned it on. This was Darius's scroll but he had lent it to him, saying something about how "Kids your age already have these" and how he was "Meaning to buy a new one for himself anyway." He went back to his Pentasgram account and looked at what it looked like right now. His new account was '@GOLDEN_GUY,' in all capital letters to signal authority. After discussing a couple potential usernames he suggested and why he wanted his name to be this, Darius just laughed at him and said he should go with it.

He still didn't choose a profile picture yet, and he wasn't following anybody. But he had only one follower, which was still Darius. He offered to follow him out of pure pity.

"What should my profile picture be?" Hunter asked his palismen, who was sitting on his desk pecking at some papers. Flapjack— which was apparently his name— shrugged its wings at him and chirped.

"Whatever I want? Hmm." Hunter put a hand up to his chin as he sat up, thinking of what could possibly establish authority to himself, but also showing him properly. At first, he thought of a picture with him and his palismen, but the paranoia of Belos ever finding his account made him chicken out of it. After a few minutes of thinking, his mind drew a blank and he let out an exasperated sigh. He then just searched up a plain gold colored icon and set it as that.

He felt somewhat satisfied with that. All of a sudden he felt the scroll buzz violently and threw it up in surprise. He scrambled to try and catch it as he tried to see what the notification was from.

plant_magic: Hunter? Is this you?

Hunter almost dropped the phone again when he saw that. His brain wracked all possibilities as to how this stranger knew who he was only minutes after he made the account! He hesitated before typing pretty slowly compared to the average person back.

GOLDEN_GUY: Perhaps. Who's asking?

Hunter clicked on the account and saw it was just a bunch of pictures of different types of plants. All kinds from cacti, to daisies and everything in between. But there were a few photos of the person themselves.

And he recognized her immediately. In one of the photos it was Willow posing by the school with the Human, Luz, and Gus. So the account belonged to Willow. He realized this just as soon as she texted back.

plant_magic: It's me! Willow! I saw you on my recommended and I guessed it was you

GOLDEN_GUY: Oh. That makes sense.

In a quick moment messages was sent back,

plant_magic: You type really slow lol

plant_magic: Still counting down the days, 52 more weeks until Caleb's day off <3

Ignoring whatever "lol" meant, these messages from Willow only made Hunter even more confused, shouldn't she be furious at him? He lied to her and kidnapped all her friends. Or should she not be that mad considering Hunter did save them last minute? All these thoughts made his brain hurt, he had never felt more conflicted before. Hunter realized he had left her on seen for too long and snapped back to typing,

GOLDEN_GUY: Captain, may I ask you something?

plant_magic: yeah?

He paused, did he really want to ask? But he had to know.

GOLDEN_GUY: Aren't you mad at me?

There was actually a brief pause, before the typing icons appeared on the scroll once again,

plant_magic: Oh I haven't forgotten, we are going to have a long talk about that next time I see you.

plant_magic: But you did save us, I guess I can give you some credit

Hunter felt hope blossom into his chest, one of the first real friends he made wasn't completely upset at him! That was definitely a start. Luz and Amity were different stories, but with Willow he finally was able to make the right decision.

GOLDEN_GUY: Thank you Captain, I am very grateful, truly.

plant_magic: It's no problem! And You talk so formal lol

GOLDEN_GUY: What does "lol" mean? Is it some secret form of language? Or is it code? An acronym?

plant_magic: You really need to get up to date! It means LAUGH OUT LOUD, you say it when something is funny

Oh, that kind of made sense.

.

After the debrief meeting that was just scheduled for Hunter and a few scouts to attend for a few hours, he came back only for him to flop on his bed and check to see if he had any texts from Willow while he was gone. After being apart of the Emerald Entrails, Hunter realized how much fun and fulfilling it was to have friends! Hunter did feel that same feeling with Luz, back in Latisa. But unfortunately, they had to part their ways. He would be lying if he said he still didn't feel some resentment towards the Human, but knowing she was the first person EVER to show him real kindness, he still held an amount of respect. But having other people to talk to, laugh with, felt amazing!

Hunter spent his whole life being the only one his age in the castle and the Emperor's Coven, he always had to talk formally, and was only able to let his guard down with Emperor Belos, but still not fully or else he would get painfully hurt if he let anything slip. But feeling the thrill of flying with Flapjack and with the Emerald Entrails, made him desperately want to feel that again.

So Hunter decided to make the extremely risky decision, he picked up his scroll and texted Willow,

GOLDEN_GUARD: Maybe we don't have to wait 52 more weeks, maybe I can try to sneak in Hexide on my own.