Once Upon a Dream (Golden Guard x Gender-Neutral Reader)

The Boy, The Bug, and The Beast

Hunter crashed into the snow and rolled for a couple feet, instinctually clutching the palisman to his chest. When he finally stopped, he just laid there for a moment, taking in what had happened.

Soltare had just pushed him out of the way of a raging monster.

Specter Soltare, the Specter Soltare of the Bonesborough Phantoms, had pushed him, the Golden Guard, out of the way of a raging monster!

And they probably took the hit themselves. The thought was like taking a blow to a vital organ. His chest ached with something he couldn't quite characterize.

Their eyes came to mind again. The way Soltare managed to look him in the eyes right before they sent him away... That content terror that they conveyed... The ache worsened.

He tried to rationalize it. Tried to explain why they'd do such a thing. Maybe the slitherbeast was too close for them to both make it away without getting clipped? And they decided that it was better for one of them to be discovered than both? Yes! That's it!

... Yet that still didn't answer why they chose to save him instead of themselves.

Soltare was a wanted criminal. How could they be so sure that these people wouldn't report them? Unless people truly did appreciate the Phantoms, they couldn't. So why? There was only one viable answer. An answer he wasn't willing to accept. There had to be another reason, any other reason! None of it made sense though in comparison.

A whirring noise shook him from his thoughts. Something buzzed into his chest. Hunter looked down. As soon as he did, he threw himself away from the tiny creature.

The palisman plopped into the snow, leaving a winged hole in the white surface. Hunter was already several feet away on the ground. He was propped on his arms and staring at where the creature had landed. His chest was thumping rapidly against his armor, though it somehow managed to speed up even more as two frilly antennae poked into view. Another small noise hummed through the air.

Hunter blinked. That thing didn't sound too good... Was it hurt? He tried to imagine Soltare's reaction if they came back and found their palisman hurt. They'd never talk to him again!

That is, if they ever come back at all.

Hunter's gloved hand came up to clutch his chest. No. They'd come back. They'd come back, or Hunter would go to them. The boy scanned over the area, searching for something red and gold standing out against the snow. It took him nearly a full thirty seconds to realize he'd been sitting next to it the entire time.

The staff was partially hidden under the bush Hunter had been backing into. It had probably gotten shoved over there in he and Soltare's scuffle. He took the familiar weapon back up in his hands, feeling the artificial magic crackling beneath the surface. While his eyes were down there, they caught hold of something else. Soltare's flower crown. He envisaged the way they donned it. The silhouette of their eyes was just barely visible, but hid nothing. He watched the light return to their eyes in real time. He hadn't realized just how strange it was to see them without it before. To think, just moments before they'd been terrified for what seemed to be their life. They were truly more like Hunter than he'd ever admit outloud.

Hunter found the crown back in his hand, where it had started. He'd practiced making them from the moment he got back from patrol with Steve and Severine. It was strange. Though he had no real reason to believe it, Hunter felt that he might just meet Soltare again that day. He believed it with no explanation or hesitation, just like everything else going on in his life currently. And then it happened.  And to think, if it weren't for that No Name at Moonbucks, this wouldn't have happened!