Someone stood in front of the cave.
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"Are we there yet??" (Y/n) begged for what seemed like the fortieth time.
"As a matter of fact, we are! So you can shut up now."
The pair landed and stood behind a tree.
"Alright, now what's the plan?" The Silver Scout asked.
"We'll jump her as soon as she comes out."
(Y/n) nodded. They wait a minute before being startled by the sound of a stick crunching behind them.
"Um, excuse me, what are you doing in front of my house?" A voice asked.
The pair turned around to see The Owl Lady standing behind them with her arms crossed.
"Owl Lady, you are under arrest!" Hunter exclaimed, jumping at her with his staff.
The Owl Lady brought out her own staff and battled Hunter.
"AH! Excuse you. Don't you know it's rude to pounce on somebody, first thing in the morning without introducing yourself?" The Owl Lady said sarcastically as she twirled her staff, shooting a large beam of energy at Hunter.
(Y/n) gasped and pulled Pip out on his staff. She jumped in front of Hunter, deflecting the energy beam with her staff.
"I don't want to hurt you, Owl Lady!" (Y/n) yelled, genuinely.
"Oh how sweet of you." She gave a slight smile, "You on the other hand, aren't being very nice!" The Owl Lady shot another beam at him, causing (Y/n) to jump in front of him and deflect it with Pip again.
Hunter was fighting a losing battle. The Owl Lady was far stronger than he was. And since (Y/n) wouldn't go on the offensive, Hunter was partially on his own.
"Who are you dweebs, anyway!"
"We're the hands of the Emperor! The Golden Guard and The Silver Scout!" Hunter declared grandly as he swung his staff.
"Oh boo! You twerps are from The Emperor's Coven? Lame!"
"What's so wrong with being in The Emperor's Coven?" (Y/n) paused and genuinely asked.
The Owl Lady drew a yellow circle with her finger, suspending Hunter in the air, rendering him useless.
Was she just fighting with him for entertainment? If she could just stick him in the air, why didn't she just do that to the both of us in the first place?
"Listen kid, you sound like you're smart, but I wish you were smart enough to see past that whole one witch, one coven thing. Y'shoulda just joined my coven, where you get to do every kind of magic there is! Not that Belos' coven!"
"You have a coven?"
"Hey! I'm still up here!" Hunter interrupted.
The Owl Lady stared with an unamused face and drew a yellow circle, trapping him in a sound proof, transparent yellow ball.
Hunter pounded on the glass-like walls surrounding him, only to still be trapped.
"I do, in fact have a coven, young Silver Scout." The Owl Lady winked as she pulled out a shirt from her hair.
The shirt had an image of The Owl Lady riding her staff, standing up with the words 'Bad Girl Coven.'
"Uh huh..." (Y/n) nodded, slightly confused, but decently intrigued. The Owl Lady tucked the shirt back into her hair.
"Welp, I gotta go do some house chores. I hope to see you and your annoying little golden twin gone by the time I come back out. Got it?"
(Y/n) nodded and her partner was released from the yellow bubble. He fell into a bush.
The Owl Lady retreated into her house. "You two better be on your way back to that poopy castle! Byee~"
"She was nice. I wonder why Belos wants her captured so bad." She gasped, "What if he has a secret crush on her!"
"No, that was Warden Wrath. He was the one who wanted her captured because he had a crush on her- that doesn't matter. Anyways-"
"Well then, why does he want her captured?"
"She's a wild witch. Wild witches defile the Titan's blessing and gifts to us."
"Interesting. I'd like to hear more once we get back home, but for now, how are we supposed to get her?"
"Right, I guess we need a better plan than jumping her." Hunter sighed, dusting himself off.
"Okay, whaddya got?" (Y/n) asked.
"Well. A little bit ago, Warden Wrath was able to lure The Owl Lady into the conformatorium by setting a trap and taking her dog's crown. So my plan is, we take the dog."
"We take the dog and have The Owl Lady come to us!"
"Exactly. Now we wait."
"Say, if Warden Wrath got her into the conformatorium, why isn't she still in there?"
"The Warden had her in his grasp, but then he was pathetically defeated by a powerless human and three other prisoners. Without magic, mind you!"
"Oh. Oh wow."
About half an hour later the pair was startled by the sound of a door being kicked open.
"Come now, Luz!" They heard a prominent voice say as the front door of the house swung open. The Owl Lady.
Behind her stepped a girl. She looked younger than the silver and golden pair. The girl had short, dark hair and wore a purple and white top. She had on a hat that looked warm and covered her ears.
"She has a kid?" The pair mumbled at the same time.
The Owl Lady and her kid walked into the forest, going in the direction of Bonesborough. Perfect.
Now was their shot to break in and take the dog.
The imperial pair approached the house. The door was made of wood and had an owl face on it. How on brand.
"Hello!" The owl face exclaimed. Its voice was shrill and ear rattling.
"What the-!" (Y/n) stumbled back, bumping into the Golden Guard. He grabbed her and stood her back up, holding her by the shoulders.
"Eda's not home right now, but I'd be happy to take any messages for herrr."
"We're not here to see the Owl Lady. We're here on the behalf of the Emperor." The Golden Guard stated. "We'd like to see the Owl Lady's dog. There's a new law that's been put into place that says all dogs must be checked for flesh eating flees. The Emperor cares about the dogs of the Isles."
(Y/n) looked to her partner, "really." She muttered.
"What-? I had to come up with it on the spot.." He muttered back.
"Hmm. King isn't a dog, nor does he need to be checked for flees, but you can always check me for fleeeees. Hoot!" The owl face came out of the door, it was a worm? Or a ..tube thing??
The Silver Scout flinched backwards, into the Golden Guard who held onto her. His grip was tense; he was also disturbed by the weird owl thing.
"I'm 20% mucus, but don't let that stop you! Come on! Check me for flees!"
"Okay.. new angle—we take the Owl Lady's kid." The Golden Guard whispered.
(Y/n) nodded, quickly grabbing Hunter's hand and running away from the Owl Lady's disturbing owl tube.
"C'mon, we can talk for hours and hours and hours- hey where're you going?" He twisted and turned in unnatural ways.
(Y/n) swiftly climbed on to the staff behind the Golden Guard and wrapped her arms around his waist. They left the house promptly, not wanting to be near that thing... it was very disturbing and unsettling.
They found the Owl Lady and her kid getting ready to leave Bonesborough. The pair got onto the Owl Lady's staff and they began to fly.
The two hands of The Emperor followed them at a distance. They seemed to be heading to the knee.
Once at the knee, The Golden Guard landed behind the Owl Lady. The Owl Lady took two coats out of her bushy hair and handed one to the kid.
"The knee!" The Owl Lady said.
The girl threw her arms in the air yelling, "Yessss!" Her voice echoed.
(Y/n) and Hunter followed them to a small clearing.
"Here's where we'll set up shop." The Owl Lady said.
"I'll definitely learn my second spell here!" The girl cheered, twirling around.
She was promptly shot at by a pink fireball which she barely dodged thanks to the Owl Lady tackling her out of the way.
"Sorry! Whoever's over there!" A familiar voice shouted.
It was Amity. She was with two other witches. They both had green hair, must be her siblings.
"Amity?" (Y/n) quietly asked herself.
Amity wandered away from the group. (Y/n) attempted to follow but was stopped by her partner grabbing her shoulder.
"Where're you going? The Owl Lady's kid is right there, we can just grab her."
"Are you stupid or something?" (Y/n) asked, making Hunter clench his fists and frown behind his mask. "There are three other people there. We'd be harshly outnumbered. Not to mention, one of those three people is the most powerful witch on the Boiling Isles??"
Hunter grumbled before letting go of her shoulder. (Y/n) jogged over to Amity who was practicing spells with a training wand.
Wow, she's still using a training wand? With how powerful she was during our duel, I figured she stopped using her training wand years ago!
"Amity!" (Y/n) called out.
She jumped up, startled. "Wha- who- who are you?" She demanded, holding up her wand in defense.
The Silver Scout brought her hand up and took her mask off, revealing her identity.
"(Y/n)?!" Amity exclaimed, taken aback.
It seemed as though something in her mind clicked as she reaffirmed her statement, this time with bitterness in her tone, "(Y/n)." She sneered.
"Hey, what're you doing here?" (Y/n) asked with a friendly smile.
"Training so that I can get into the Emperor's coven." She said sourly. "But wait.. you look different from a regular coven scout. What are you?"
"I'm the si-" (Y/n) was cut off my a red beam surrounding her and lifting her from the ground. "Oh- I guess that's my queue to leave. Byee~!" She waved at the confused girl.
The beam snatched her from the conversation with Amity and brought her to her partner who held his glowing red staff. He glared at her through his mask.
"What do you think you're doing?! Are you crazy?!" He exclaimed, grabbing (Y/n)'s hand and forcing her to put her mask back on.
"What?!" She yelled back, matching his tone.
He abruptly dropped her and his staff stopped glowing.
"Okay. I'm seriously starting to think you liked being turned to stone! Don't you remember?! Don't take off your mask!" He yelled frantically. Luckily they were far from everybody.
"Oh yes~ turn me to stone- Shut the fuck up! I'm not that weird. Besides, it's fine, I knew her before I joined the coven. She already knows what I look like."
Hunter grumbled before dragging her away.
"Where are we going now? Is the human isolated?" She asked as he pulled her arm away.
"No. We're aborting the mission for now. It doesn't seem like the human is going to leave those guys' sides anytime soon. Let's take a break for an hour and see if she's isolated."
"Ah, finally thinking things through~" (Y/n) teased. Hunter blushed bashfully under his mask before grunting in annoyance.
"Working with you is going to be unbearable."
"Hm, okay Mr. You're my only friend."
"Just because you're my friend doesn't mean I tolerate you."
"No, that's literally what friend means."
"Okay, well, I don't have a lot of those."
"That's sad, man."
"Yeah? Well-" He was cut off mid sentence,
"Ah, I thought I heard a familiar annoying voice!" A voice exclaimed. "What're you doing here, Coven Dweebs?" It was The Owl Lady.
"Uh... Vacationing?" (Y/n) lied with a shrug.
"Uh huh. Well, hey! Silvy Scoot, wanna see something funny?"
"Uh-"
"Sleep spell!" The Owl Lady exclaimed in a singsong voice as she drew a large yellow circle, casting the spell upon The Golden Guard.
Hunter fell to his knees and collapsed to lay in the snow.
"Goldie!" (Y/n) exclaimed, running over to her partner.
The Owl Lady ran away laughing, leaving the pair alone.
(Y/n) took off her partner's mask and attached it to her belt. She did the same with her mask.
The poor boy was battling for his life to stay awake.
"Damn, that is one good sleep spell." He mumbled, his eyelids fluttering.
"So does this mean you can't fly us home?"
He shook his head.
"Hm. Uh. Oh! I can-" (Y/n) drew a large orange circle, Ruth flew out of it. "Hey, you mind if I carry you?"
"If you can pick me up-"
"Aaand, scoop!"
Hunter's face grew red. He'd never felt so vulnerable. If (Y/n) wanted to, she could kill him right now and he'd be powerless to stop her. But nevertheless, he felt safe with her.
"Oh, wow. Snow." He could barely speak. He hated how she could just turn his brain off. How she could just make him drop his guard so easily.
She carried him onto the peryton and laid his head in her lap.
"I- um." Hunter stuttered as he sat up, awkwardly.
"Just take a nap. I'll get us home safely, okay?" She said, laying his head back into her lap.
He sighed and closed his eyes, putting his full trust into his partner.