[For the love of writing please ignore the spelling errors, I wrote this late at night and haven't checked it over.]
It had been weeks, if not months since Edric and Hunter first met.
[Eclipse Lake just took place.]
Hunter climbed back in through the window. He had gone out for the past few hours to hang out with Edric. He put his mask and cloak back on and was going to go check on Emperor Belos, when one of the guards saw him passing.
"Golden Guard, Emperor Belos has been waiting for you. He wants to see you." The guard said before walking off.
Hunters heart dropped into his stomach. He must have went into his room or called him, only to see he wasn't there. He nodded and as he walked he mumbled every bad word he could think off. He didn't even know any real bad words, only the crummy internet-mom ones.
He knocked on the door to the throne room.
"Proceed." Emperor Belos said.
Hunter did as he was told and entered the throne room and bowed before the Emperor.
"Hunter. Where were you?"
"O-Oh, I was...I was out...uhm...Looking for palismen!"
"Yes well. You know you're supposed to tell me when you leave. It's a rule you've known all your life. Why wouldn't you follow it today?" He asked.
"I-I uhm...I forgot..?" He said.
"Would it have something to do with these letters you've been exchanging with one of the Blight children?" Emperor Belos questioned as he tossed the letters onto the ground in front of Hunter. He must have found them in his room while he was gone. He had kept every single letter that Edric had sent him.
"What? You read those!? Way to invade my privacy." He said, forgetting who he was talking to.
"Hunter you don't have the time for friendship, for poems, for whatever odd teenager activity you and the Blight have been engaging in." Emperor Belos said. It sounded like he was just looking for an excuse to make Hunters life insufferable.
"You know I don't like you leaving for so long because I want you to be safe." He said.
"Yes but I'm willing to trade a little bit of my safety for-" Hunter was cut off in the middle of his sentence.
"For what? Hunter? You know there's a reason why I only let you leave on missions." Emperor Belos said.
"I know it has something to do with wild magic but..." Hunters voice trailed off.
"Clearly this 'Edric' isn't a good influence."
"Since when do you care..." Hunter mumbled, not loud enough for Emperor Belos to hear.
"I'll cut to the point. I forbid you from sending any further letters, and for now you can't leave the castle unless on specific missions and a scout is with you. A lock will also be placed on your window since for some bizarre reason you found it suitable to go in and out through it." Emperor Belos explained.
"Wh-" Hunter was cut off once again,
"And, Kikimora will be replacing you as Coven head." He added.
"What- you can't just do that! You're not my dad!" He yelled, referring to the window locks, and not being allowed to leave.
"But I am the one who took you in, took care of you, fed you, and everything, am I not?" Emperor Belos responded.
Hunter struggled to form a sentence and instead just audibly threw words together to try and protest, but eventually just left with an "Ugh!" And stormed off.
"Ugh...teenagers..." Emperor Belos said to Kikimora, who was awkwardly standing in the corner.
"Heh, am I right?" She said.
-
"Oh Mittens, I've met the perfect guy." Edric said as stared off into space.
"Yuh-Huh, good for you." Amity said as she texted away on her scroll. They were both sitting at the kitchen table. It was around early evening.
"He's really kind and honest, charming and charismatic, he has a good heart..." he began to describe his potential love interest. Amity nodded her head like she was listening and began to take a sip of her soda.
"His name is Hunter."
Amity spit out her soda and started coughing.
"We've know each other for a while, I think I'm going to ask him on a date next time I see him." Edric said, completely lost in thought.
Amity stopped coughing slowly and asked.
"Does this 'Hunter' just happen to have a tooth gap? Or am I thinking of someone else..." she said, hoping for a no.
"Yes actually! It's kind of adorable." Edric answered.
Amity took a deep breath and held it.
"I met him at the library a while ago with Emira." He said.
Amity was having a panic, she hated Hunters guts. And since when did Hunter even care about people? He'd probably just break her brothers heart!
"How long have you to known each other?
This won't end up like uh...last time...right?" Amity asked. She both just wanted to know how long ago they had met, and if her brother was just repeating a mistake he made before.
What happened last time was that he started dating a person who he hadn't known for to long, but he really liked them, but he found out after about 3 weeks of dating they were cheating on him with their Ex the entire time. He was crying for a long time after that.
"I've known him for maybe 3 months? He doesn't have a scroll so we send each other letters and meet up at the library. It's so romantic." Edric said and blushed.
"So that's why you've been going to the library so often?" Amity said as she began typing.
She aggressively texted Luz something along the lines of,
'S.O.S- THIS IS SO AWKWARD, MY BROTHER IS IN LOVE WITH GOLDEN BOY-" she texted in a panic, forgetting everything she ever knew about grammar.
"He doesn't go to Hexside so I think he lives a little further out by the Emperors Castle." He said. This also had to do with the return address for the letters being the Emperors Coven. But he figured he was only using the post system there to get the letters there and back faster.
"Mh-hm. Nice- cool- that's great." She said quickly as she continued texting Luz.
'He just was finished saying how 'honest' he is but he doesn't seem to know he's the golden guard.' She texted, every few seconds looking up at Edric.
'This is genuinely sad to watch.' She texted.
'That's kind of cute tbh.' Luz texted.
'I'm gonna tell him!" Amity texted.
"Maybe Hunter wants to tell him himself?." Luz texted, being surprisingly sensible.
Suddenly, there was a tap on the window.
There was a red bird palisman with a little paper in its mouth.
Edric gasped.
"That's Hunters palisman!" He said and walked towards the window and opened it.
The palisman flew in and dropped the paper on the table.
"Rascal?" Amity said. Rascal chirped, as if greeting Amity.
Edric took the paper but before opening it looked to Rascal, "Did Hunter want you to give this to me?" Edric asked.
Rascal chirped and nodded. It was a Sunday so no mail.
"Oh, he's such a romantic." Edric said and opened the letter.
"What- what did he say?" Amity asked.
Edric read over the letter. "Not sure yet," he said as he continued reading it. His smile faded as he continued reading.
"W-what..." he said.
He read over it again and made sure that it was Hunters sloppy hand writing and it wasn't some fake and to make sure he was reading it right.
"Rascal, was this really written by Hunter?" He asked. Rascal chirped sadly.
"Why?! What did he say? Was it something bad?!" Amity asked, going into sibling protection mode.
"No! It's just- this is kind of a shocker here- now the whole Emperors Coven return address thing makes sense- holy ravioli." He said, his voice was breaking slightly.
"I'm...I'm gonna, I'm gonna go upstairs for a little..." he said. He slowly made his way up to his room and collapse onto his bed.
Amity was going to call after him, but let him leave. She looked to the paper and picked it up. The letter read,
Dear Edric,
I'm sorry. I'm afraid this will be the last time you'll be hearing from me. It's not your fault, and I'm sorry.
I haven't been honest with you.
I am the Golden Guard. I didn't want to tell you because I wasn't allowed to be out of the castle unless on professional missions. But, I truly just didn't want you to see me any differently than you would see anybody else.
You were and still are the greatest thing to ever happen to me, and I didn't want to mess that up.
I realize now that I've been putting you in danger. The day of unity is approaching.
My 'uncle' or as you know him, Emperor Belos, insists that this world is to dangerous with wild magic, he insists that friendship only makes you weaker. So, I won't be allowed to leave the castle until...I'm not quite sure but it will be after the day of unity. And he says I'm forbidden from speaking to you again.
I'm locked in my room and the window I used to leave through has been locked from the outside. I don't know how much time I have left, and I'm sorry. I'm sorry for everything. Please forget about me.
I'm having Rascal take this letter to you.
Goodbye, and thank you, Edric.
With love, Hunter.
"The day of unity..." Amity said.
Amity opened her scroll again. While she was making sure her brother wasn't falling in love with a selfish jerk, Luz had sent a few messages.
'Is everything going good?'
'Hello? Cotten Candy?'
'Hello?' Luz had texted.
'Luz, the day of unity is nearer than we thought.'
-
Edric collapsed onto his bed face first. He was having trouble processing what the heck he just read.
He groaned loudly. He was concerned for his love interest. But everything made a lot more sense.
His problems with his uncle, that poem about gold, the return address, all that.
"WHY HUNTER!" He yelled and curled into a ball. "WHY MUST ALL THE GUYS I LIKE HAVE TO LEAVE ME?!" He wailed.
"OF COURSE I HAVE TO FALL IN LOVE WITH THE GOLDEN GUARD. wHo JUST CONVENIENTLY HAS A PSYCHOPATHIC UNCLE!" He yelled.
"Hey bro..." Emira said as she opened the door to their shared bedroom. He and Emira shared a room while Amity got her own. The two didn't mind, but it made things painfully awkward at times like this.
"What's wrong?" Emira said and sat at the end of the bed, concerned for her brother.
"I-fell-in-love-with-Hunter-who-is-the-golden-guard-and-he's-locked-in-his-room-because-apparently-the-world-is-to-dangerous-and-we-can't-ever-see-each-other-again!" Edric explained, but his worlds all blurred into one long confusing world. But Emira and her siblings intuition simply knew what he had said.
"Well, do you love him?" Emira asked.
Edric sniffled.
"Yes?" He answered.
"And when you love something do you simply hand it over to someone who will destroy it?" Emira asked.
"Well...no..." Edric answered.
"So are you going to let your Juliet fall into the hands of Tibet?" [Romeo and Juliet reference.]
Emira asked.
"Well...no!" He said, his voice rising.
"So what are you going to do about it?" Emira asked.
"I'm going to save him!" He called out.
"RASCAL!" Edric yelled out and rushed down the stairs. The red bird palisman still hadn't left yet. Edric in the moment grabbed the letter Hunter had sent to him and scribbled something on the back and handed it back to the bird palisman.
"Take this back to Hunter!" He said.
The bird palisman chirped.
Edric had literally written 'IM COMING TO SAVE YOU!" in all capitals.
The palisman flew off with the letter.
'Edric is going to, and I quote, 'save his Juliet.'' Amity texted to Luz.
'Omg!! Like Romeo and Juliet?' Luz texted back.
'I think. Sheesh, he's like way to far into the metaphor. He's trying to get me to help him 'save Hunter from the evil grasp of King Belos.''Amity texted.
'Is he wrong though?' Luz texted.
'I guess not, but I know there is nothing I can do to stop him. Emira is gonna go with him, they're probably just going to get caught and my parents will end up having to bail them out.' Amity texted.
'Don't be a negative Nancy! They'll probably be fine.' Luz texted.
'Shouldn't I try to stop them?' She asked.
'Trying to stop him is like trying to stop true love, Ami." Luz texted.
_________________________________________
Rose_Vinex, ready for battle!
Sorry for throwing shade at people named Nancy with the line "don't be a negative Nancy."
it's only chapter three and drama is already happening.
I regret nothing.
I clearly don't know what I'm doing, but I'm trying.
The Romeo and Juliet metaphor is foreshadowing.
But I don't think I got it right because, I've only seen the 'modern' version of Romeo and Juliet because I don't have the time or energy to read the original....so what I do know is that Tibet and Juliet were like in an arranged marriage? I think? But Juliet fell in love with Romeo so at the wedding Tibet tried to kill Romeo? Yeah, pretty sure I'm not thinking of the right Romeo and Juliet.
I don't know.
But...
Hope you enjoyed!
Bye readers!