The Owl House One Shots

𝑁𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝐹𝑜𝑟𝑔𝑒𝑡 𝑌𝑜𝑢

After Hunter starts learning how to carve a palisman, Dell Clawthorne thinks it's time Hunter made himself a new one.
Hunter, however, is still consumed with guilt over Flapjack's death.

----

Dell Clawthorne had told Hunter he had talent and that he would do well. Hunter was motivated to work even harder. He put all his strength and love into each palisman to do his job as well as possible.

The palisman in his hand, a large majestic bird, had been very difficult to carve. Hunter had been working on it for the last three days, hoping that his work was good.

His eyes searched for Dell Clawthorne so he could ask him if he had done a good job. Even though he had been working for him for four months now, he still felt very insecure.

The working atmosphere here was so different from what it had been in the Emperor's Coven. There, it had been success or failure. Either he had done something right or not. There had been nothing in between. And that had been Hunter's reality for many years. But it wasn't like that anymore.

He couldn't fail here. At least not the way he was used to. Dell kept telling him he would do a good job and that he saw Hunter put a lot of work into each Palisman.

Whenever he made a mistake, Dell calmly showed him how to fix it or avoid it next time. He never got mad at Hunter or hurt him.

For the first few weeks, Hunter had been pretty confused by this. He didn't know exactly what to do with such behavior. After all, if he did something wrong, didn't he have to be punished? That's the way it always have been?

When he asked Eda about it, because she knew Dell better than he did, she gave him a strange look and told him in a soft voice: "My father would never hurt you, Hunter. No matter what you did wrong."

Apparently she had then spoken to Dell himself, because he came to Hunter the next day and explained why it was okay to make mistakes. Why it was okay to ask for help.

If he was being honest, Hunter just LOVED working here. Dell was super nice and Willow had said that the way Hunter talked about him, you'd think he was his grandfather. Hunter had never had a grandfather, but he always smiled when he thought of her words. From time to time Eda would come over in the evening and tell stories of her time in Hexside. Every now and then Gwen would come over and talk about how proud she was of Lilith and Edalyn. Once she even made a comment about how Hunter had practically become part of the family. And if he had tears in his eyes afterwards and hugged them both, that was his business.

But the best part was that every day after work Darius would pick him up.
The first few times, Hunter had felt a little bad, because he knew that Darius' work was somewhere else and he had to walk a real detour to pick Hunter up from work. But Darius had assured him that he liked nothing better than that. And no matter how many times Hunter protested, Darius would just say, "You're my son and I love you, so I don't care what kind of detour I have to make."

And that really wasn't something Hunter could argue with, because whenever Darius told him he was his son or that he loved him, Hunter felt better than he ever had in his life.

So things were going great.

"Wow, he really turned out amazingly well, "Dell remarked, peering over Hunter's shoulder and knocking him out of his thoughts. Dell stroked the wood of the Palisman and nodded with satisfaction, "You really are getting better, Hunter. I'm proud of you."

Hunter felt his cheek turn red. He still had a hard time dealing with compliments like that. "Thank you."

"However, that's why we should talk about something now. "Dell said, settling down next to Hunter on the wooden bench.