Chapter Text
“Hunter!” Luz exclaimed, Hunter snapped out of his daze and whirled away from the dreaded statue to face the brunette.
He saw Luz running towards him, a worried expression on her face. “Are you alright…?” She said, very obviously worried about his… outburst, tantrum, pathetic show of weakness, the voice that sounded suspiciously like his uncle nagged him in the back of his head.
I mean… It's totally normal to have a panic attack and run away because a deer came up on an animal documentary show they were watching.
It had been the official month anniversary of the Day of Unity, of course, most everyone had gone back to their families, and Camila offered to take Hunter in, naturally, Hunter accepted.
“I’m fine. Luz.” he grumbled, huffing and turning back to the Wittebane statue.
“Yeah… but…” Luz gestured all around her then at the statue, as if she expected her to understand what she meant.
“But what?” Hunter snapped, a little more aggressively than he meant to.
Her gaze softened, “Hunter, you can talk to me…” she said, walking closer to him and letting her hand hover slightly over his shoulder. He sighed.
“I- it’s just, I look too much like Belos" He trailed off angrily, glaring whilst gesturing towards Phillip’s statue. “Especially now that my hair’s longer. We have the same skin. Nose, Heck! Even our face shapes are similar. it’s just too much.”
Luz’s gaze flitted up towards the statue. “Oh.. yeah.. I noticed.” She trailed away, fidgeting slightly with her hands.
“Hm, How about you dye your hair?” Luz suggested, brightening up.
“What?”
“You know, make your hair a different color!” Luz said, flapping her hands with a slight excitement.
“I know what hair dye is. I wasn’t that sheltered” Hunter scoffed and rolled his eyes, whilst crossing his arms. “But why would I? Dye my hair, I mean.”
“Sure you aren’t.” She deadpanned. “Anyways! Some people do it for flair, sometimes people –like Amity– do it to separate themselves from others, Usually parents.” Luz said, rambling.
“Huh.” Hunter touched the hair strand hovering over his forehead gingerly, “Fine. But not all of it.”
Luz brightened up, “Okay! We can run to a shop quickly and get the dye! I'm sure Amity can help you since I have no idea how to dye hair, and it’ll look gre…”
Hunter tuned her out. It’s not that he didn’t love his sister, it’s just that.. Luz.. Was, well... Luz.
Suddenly a loud crash distracted Hunter from his thoughts. It came from the forest.
“I- What the hell was that?” Hunter shout-whispered, not wanting to attract the attention of various strangers.
“I… I don’t know?” Luz replied, momentarily stopping her rambling, confusion clearly showing on her face. “Cmon!” She yelled, grabbing his arm and tugging him towards the woods. “Let's go check what it is! People could be hurt!”
They started to run into the forest, Luz quickly growing out of breath, because Hunter, due to years of training, was many times quicker than her.
Another bang echoed. They were too slow, they needed to get quicker.
Hunter grabbed flapjack, who was transforming into staff form, and mounted him, picking Luz up and placing her on the staff with only a minor yelp from the brunette.
Hunter raced towards the sound, finding a blonde girl and black haired guy fighting what looked to be a giant… Serpent? Honestly, Hunter had no clue.
Hunter stood up on the staff, with Luz sitting behind him, the girl and boy got distracted by their sheer confusion at the fact that two strangers came literally flying in that they left room for the serpent to attack.
“Watch out!” Luz yelled, diving off of the staff and pushing the two away from a serpent attack.
“Are you guys alright!?” Hunter said, eyeing Luz as she stumbled to her feet and dusted off her clothes.
“I- Uh-” The boy with Black hair and Aquamarine eyes stammered “Y-” he was cut off by the sound of vines erupting from behind Hunter, he swiveled around to see that the serpent attempted to hit him, but there Luz was holding down a plant glyph blocking the hit temporarily before the vines dissipated.
“I gotchu hermano.” She grinned, holding glyphs up to her face.
“What the snickerdoodle” The Black haired guy stated. The blonde haired girl just rolled her eyes.
“What’s a snickerdoodle?” Hunter asked midway through an attack, slightly glancing towards Luz.
“I thought you said you weren’t that sheltered!” Luz giggled, summoning fire and blasting the serpent.
“I’m not!” Hunter’s face turned into a tomato, as he pouted "It was a legitimate question!”
“Awww, you look like Amity when she gets flustered!”
He watched as the black haired boy yelled, and water came, swiping the serpent to the floor.
Hunter pointed his staff towards the serpent's head, shooting a bolt of magic in between its eyes, Causing it to… Dissolve?
“Well. Not the weirdest thing I've seen.” Hunter deadpanned.
“For real my broski” Luz crossed her arms and nodded ‘elegantly’.
Hunter rolled his eyes and turned to the black and blonde haired people. “Are you guys okay?”
“Yeah, we’re fine… We should probably introduce ourselves-” The black one started, but was cut off by the blonde.
“Hi! I’m Annabeth, not Anna, not Beth, Annabeth.” She stuck out her hand for them to shake. “And this is Percy, my idiot boyfriend.”
Percy pouted, then threw a fish that made its way to his head into the river.
Hunter paused for second, contemplating whether it could be a trap or not
“So are you gonna shake their hand and stop being socially awkward or-” Luz started, but paused when Hunter death stared at her, face flushing “Yeesh, Hermano. Y'know what- I’m gonna start calling you Hermatomato-”
“Just- Just shut up Luz.” Hunter groaned. Hunter took her hand, and shook it.
“Hi, I’m Hunter, and the Annoying one is Luz, My idiot sister.” He deadpanned, the blonde snorted while Luz let out a ‘hey!’ in the background.
Luz theatrically acted as if her heart was wounded, “Betrayed by my own Brother! The anguish, the sorrow-” Hunter closed his hand over her mouth, then immediately took it back.
“Were you licking my hand!?” Hunter yelled
“Payback for latissa.” Luz retorted while doing her smirking otter face.
“I literally hate you so much” He groaned.
“You know you love me.” Luz said, still smirking.
“Whatever.” Hunter replied, wiping his hand on his pants. “Sorry about her, she hasn’t had her rabies shot this month.”
“HEY!” Luz yelled, pouncing on hunters back, Hunter easily carried her.
Annabeth had an amused look on her face, while Percy looked confused.
“Yeah, I can tell that you guys are siblings.” Percy stated.
“How did you guys see the monster?” Annabeth asked, curiosity shining in her gray eyes.
“Uhm, we just kinda saw it with our eyes. Speaking of eyes- your eye colors are really cool! Kinda reminds me of a storm! Like my Mamis eyes when I don’t pick up after myself! But gray- Isn’t that cool? I find it cool-” Luz exclaimed, jumping off Hunter's back earning an ‘ouch’ from Hunter and leaning in towards Annabeth, “Right, Hunter?”
“Luz. Personal space.” Hunter glared at Luz.
Luz sighed, taking a few steps back, before she noticed Hunter's side, “Dude! You’re bleeding!”
“Huh? Oh, I’m fine, just a basic surface wound.” He covered his side “No need to worry.”
“Curse you and your desensitization to pain.” Luz deadpanned, sticking her tongue out.
“If that’s a basic surface wound, then I want to see what a real wound would look like for you.” Percy added, walking up to him and pulling out a bag of.. Squares? From his pocket. He pulled out a square and handed it to Hunter, “Here, have this.”
Hunter eyed it suspiciously, “What is it?” He asked.
“It's a healing food,” Annabeth explained. “Try it.”
“Huh” Hunter popped it into his mouth and chewed for a second before swallowing it. Watching in awe as his injury disappeared. “Tastes like a sandwich”
Percy snorted “The best meal you’ve ever had was a sandwich?”
“Hey! It was a good sandwich!” Hunter defended, slightly confused. Side eying luz as she burst out into laughter. Annabeth explained that it should taste like your favorite meal.
“Waitwaitwaitwait-'' Luz took a breath, “Are you talking about the sandwich Gus gave you when you were hiding in hexside?” She doubled over in laughter.
Hunter flushed, his face turning completely red and his ears perking down.
“Awww, it’s okay Hermatomato” Luz mocked sympathy.
“I’m going to leave you in the woods with the rest of the animals.” Hunter deadpanned.
“Well- Uh- You’re adopted!” Luz retored triumphantly.
“At least I was actually wanted. Pretty sure I’d be doing Camila a favor by leaving you here. Anyways. We should probably get back home. Camila’s probably worried after what happened…” He trailed off.
“Wait! You can’t go!” Percy yelled, causing Hunter to flinch slightly.
Annabeth looked at Hunter, concerned, Obviously noticing the flinch “You guys need to follow us, by seeing that monster, you’ve secured your fate as Half-Blood children.” She said, as if it was basic knowledge.
Hunter and Luz paused. “Luz? Is this one of those things that I was heavily sheltered on?”
“Nope. I’m just as confused as you, Hermatomato.” Hunter groaned at the nickname.
“A half blood is… well.. It’s complicated. We should get going before another monster finds us.” Annabeth said, obviously in a rush, “There’s a place, well, where we’ll be safe.”
Hunter snorted. “Sure. And where is this magical place?” He retorted sarcastically.
“It’s on half blood hill. Please, just trust us. Once we explain, you can make the decision on whether to stay or leave.”
“Waitwaitwaitwait- Is this like Magic!?” Luz said excitedly, flapping her hands.
Annabeth snored in an amused tone, “I guess you could say that.”
“Cool!!! So, are you like, Aquaman or something??” Luz said, turning towards Percy, Annabeth burst out in laughter.
Percy pouted at Annabeth, then flipped his hair. “No, I am the mighty Aquaperc-”
“Anyways,” Annabeth interrupted, “We need to go. Every second we waste is a second a monster could sneak up on us.”
Hunter felt a tapping on his shoulder, Hunter sighed and turned his head towards luz making a 'please' gesture whilst doing puppy dog eyes. “Absolutely not.”
“Cmon, Hunter!! Pleaseeeeee” she made her face more intense.
Hunter took a few steps back and swiveled them away from Percy and Annabeth.
“Luz, we barely know these people! Didn’t you learn from last time?” Hunter glared at her, “Not all people are good.”
Luz groaned, “You don’t think I know that? Besides, I’ve befriended so many bad guys before! Lilith, You, Steve, even Amity became my girlfriend! Not to mention you becoming my brother!”
Hunter sighed, “and what about Kikimora? Adrian? Terra?” Hunter's breath slightly caught “Belos?”
“I’m going whether you come with me or not!” Luz decided.
Hunter started to fidget slightly, “Okay fine, I trust you. If you’re completely and utterly sure we can trust them, then I'll come.”
“I’m sure.”
Hunter sighed and went back towards Percy and Annabeth. “Okay, we’ll come, but if you pull any, and I mean any, funny business I will not hesitate to fight you.” He turned deadly serious at the end.
“Okay! Great! And don’t worry, you can trust us.” Annabeth chirped, oblivious to Hunter’s seriousness, “Cmon, the roads not too far. We should be able to get to camp.”
Annabeth and Percy started their trek into the woods, Luz and Hunter slowly following.