The story that never ends... (A Five Kingdoms fanfic)

Gossip

 About two days after the incident with Hunter the police let out a bounty hunt on Cole, they described him as dangerous and mentaly disturbed. The camp stayed on edge, most of them had been questioned, they managed to keep camp a secret for now and Dalton's illusions kept people away. Cole was taking everything the hardest, he kept trying to turn himself in and had to be physically stopped, he had mentally breaks that ended in panic attacks. In all Cole was losing his mind in guilt and he was now confined to his tent until Amber gave the all clear, Amber herself focused on Cole and producing as many healing items as she could. Angel made a surplus of weapons, and when she couldn't make more she made a shed to house them all, then she sharpened, cleaned, and practiced.

Dalton and Jenna trained relentlessly, while they weren't at school they were sparring, and Blake worked on his aim and the power in his blasts. They were training for a war they didn't even know would happen, but this just felt right, preparing for a fight for their lives. Maybe it was trauma. Jenna had heard from the spirits that after about a week after the incident that some men in suits were helping the police and were walking around town looking, she also heard that Hunter had been wandering around the park. Dalton was becoming antsy, he was always moving, always working, always fighting, always something. To say the least, when he heard that Hunter had been wandering around he wanted to confront him, to at least talk to him, or maybe he just wanted to do something, anything, interesting.

He left camp for a walk around the park sometime around midnight, not far from camp he saw Hunter by a street light looking around. So he walked up, "What are you doing here?" Hunter whirled around to see Dalton, he was one of Cole's best friends. "Well.. I am uh.. Looking for my brother." Dalton raised an eyebrow and turned his head to the side, "And why do you want to find him?" Hunter scuffed the ground with his boot, "I want him to explain something to me." Dalton nodded slowly, "You want to remember?" Hunter's head snapped up, "I- well yes, they are.. They're coming back slowly and I-.. how did you know?" Dalton began to walk away and waved for Hunter to follow, and so he did.

They stopped a bit away from the street lamps, they could still see well, they just wouldn't be noticed by anyone else. "Alright then! I will show you where Cole is, if you fight me." Hunter backed up a step, "What?" Dalton clapped his hands together once, "Yep, anything is on the table, dirty tricks, weapons, shaping, anything." Hunter shook his head "Weapons?! What's shaping? I-"

"Do you want to see your brother?"

"I mean yes but-"

Dalton put one foot back and narrowed his eyes leveling a dagger that seemed to appear out of nowhere. "Then fight." Hunter was worried about the knife but Dalton was a good deal smaller than he was so he could probably win. He raised his hands and asked "So how does this work? Like a first hit or..?" "We go until someone gives up or dies." and with that Dalton jumped towards Hunter and swung the dagger. If Hunter hadn't backed up his throat would be shredded, he was pushed from behind but he swore Dalton was in front of him.

He rolled over just in time to see Dalton stab where he had been a moment before, swinging out he struck Dalton across the face. Or he would have but Dalton faded away like smoke in rain showing the only thing Hunters fist connected with was the ground. A foot on his back dragged him from his confusion and a blade on his throat caused panic, Dalton had gotten him. "Give up?" "YES, just let me go!" The knife disappeared and Hunter took a deep breath, that whole fight did nothing, he only got an overwhelming fear of Dalton.

"Let's go." Hunter's head snapped up, "What?" Dalton gestured to follow him and his glowing eyes just told Hunter not to fight him on this, he would only lose, again. They walked to a wall of thorns and Dalton walked though, Hunter followed out of both curiosity, desperation, and fear, "Welcome to camp." Hunter shook his head "I thought I wasn't allowed to see Cole unless I won, and I... lost... badly." Dalton frowned, "No I said you couldn't see Cole if you didn't fight me, and we fought so we just need to wait for the sun." Hunter frowned, none of this made sense.

Hunter sat on a blanket and scanned the clearing, it was big, like really big. There was a shed by a pavilion, the pavilion was filled with sand and vines covered the white carved poles. There were tents, a yellow one, a black tent, a green one, a red one, a small white tent, a purplish tent, and a gray tent. Blankets rested around the campfire pit, red, yellow, green, purplish, and gray blankets in a circle, there were worn paths spiraling around the camp. Random picnic tables and chairs dotted around, over top were strings of strange lights, how did they even get electricity here? The gray tent shifted and Hunter realized that the sun was rising, Jenna climbed out and made eye contact with him but she couldn't say anything before Dalton called her over.

Jenna left the camp and Dalton went to the green tent and zipped it closed, not long after a girl stretched after exiting the yellow tent. She sat on one of the tables and opened a journal and began to read, when the sun was steady in the air the girl went to the yellow tent. A boy exited the red tent and glared at Hunter for a second before going right to the white tent, Jenna entered the camp and spoke with him quietly and rushed over to the yellow tent. Two identical girls were outside the tent, the one with the journal nodded to whatever Jenna said, the other one ran over to Hunter.

"Are you ok?" She seemed nice, "Uh.. yeah? I bruised my fist fighting Dalton." The girl grabbed the injured hand and nodded, she dragged him off to the black tent. In the tent she instructed him to eat some leaves and watched him carefully, the bruises healed like magic. "He isn't doing well." Hunter looked up "What?" The girl looked down, "Cole, his guilt for jumping you is overwhelming him. We like to think that on earth our shaping works just fine with no consequences, but that just isn't the case. For me and Angel our hands hurt the more we work, Blake loses control and aches all over. Dalton gets headaches and Jenna can't keep her eyes open, but Cole is slowly losing his sanity and the guilt is making it worse."

Hunter could hardly believe it, "The others don't know, nor should they. So keep your mouth shut ok?" Hunter nodded slowly, "Anyway where are my manners, the name's Amber, I'm the camp medic." Hunter nodded numbly, everything was happening way too fast, he didn't even notice that he was walking until he was sitting in front of a shell shocked Cole. Amber was sitting outside, most likely monitoring the situation, Hunter rushed to hug his brother and could tell he was shaking. "I'm sorry that I've been like this since I forgot." Apparently trauma can drastically change your personality, who knew? Cole hugged him back with tears in his eyes, "No I'm sorry I forced your memories back."

Hunter shook his head, "Not exactly, I can only remember pieces and more keeps coming the more I think about it." Cole pursed his lips "I can-" Hunter jump in " No I'm fine, I know it hurts you more than it helps me, besides I don't need it," Cole tried to convince him but he was set, Amber gave the all clear for Cole to leave his tent and they joined the group for breakfast. They were caught up on everything and Hunter was instructed to bring a tent and anything else he wanted. They spoke about the police and Hunter explained how he tried to stop the cops from hunting Cole but no dice. Eventually they moved on to normal conversion like today's plan and how they need to make a food run soon.

Jenna spoke about some possible new campers and Dalton told Blake about a new book he bought, Blake informed the group that he was going to be training today and anyone was welcome to join. Angel took him up on the option, they even managed to get Cole to join so long as Amber watched, the food run was scheduled for tomorrow and the group was going to be Jenna and Angel. Surprisingly this group is a lot nicer than Hunter thought they would be.

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Across town at the police station men in suits exited a black car with tinted windows, once they entered the precinct they walked to a closed off room. The sheriff walked over and shook hands with one of them, "Welcome Sir." She turned off the TV to footage into the park from a street lamp. Two figures were there, they then began to fight, the interesting thing is one of them seemed to teleport around the other, eventually they stopped and walked off camera. "We have been unable to find out who the individuals are or where they went." A man in a suit looked closely at the freeze frame, he smiled.

"If you don't mind, I would like to look at your Cole Randolph case."

I hope you enjoyed :)