Darius left Hunters room and ran to get a sewing box from his own room. By the time the Abomination leader left, Hunter carefully dropped onto his bed and sighed.

Flapjack perched on his chest and chirped at him. "Yeah...I know.", Hunter mumbled and looked aside, Flapjack chirped again and Hunter looked over at him a bit surprised. "No...I can't," he then said and Flapjack chirped at him, accepting his statement.

The boy's eyes wandered to the ceiling of his room at least until Darius came back in and he sat up again himself. The Abomination leader smiled softly before settling down on the bed next to Hunter and readying the sewing kit he had brought with him. Then he took Hunters cape and showed him how to sew, after a few stitches he handed everything to Hunter, who briefly recalled how Darius had done it before trying it himself.

Hunter needed a little guidance from Darius but then he made it without any problems and Darius looked satisfied with the boy's work. A few minutes later the cape was sewn and Darius put the sewing box away.

"So, now you should rest.", he said to Hunter when he was done. The blonde nodded, even though he knew he didn't have time for it and wouldn't do it either. "You know where to find me. See you then." Darius said goodbye before he left the room. Hunter waited a little longer before he put on his cape and then also left the room and headed for the throne room of Belos.

His fingers were already tingling because he wasn't there for the mission meeting and he knew it would be an issue. Besides, he didn't know what the Illusion and Potion leaders had said to excuse his absence... Arriving at the door of the throne room he hesitated before he knocked and shortly thereafter heard his uncle's voice allowing him to enter.

The boy carefully opened the door and entered the great hall, kneeling a few meters in front of the throne of Belos and waiting for permission to speak. "There you are," his uncle began, rising from his throne. "I was told by your mission partners that you were injured and that's why you didn't show up here."

With footsteps resounding across the room, he stepped towards Hunter. A shiver ran down Hunter's back. "Was your wound so bad that you're too weak to come here?" His voice was calm, but Hunter knew him well enough to see the restrained anger in it. "...No Emperor Belos.", Hunter said with bowed head. "Then why weren't you here?"

Hunter had to be careful about his choice of words. "I wanted, but they both wanted me to patch up the wound first." Hunter looked up at him and knew immediately that those words had been the wrong ones. "Do they both have more to say to you than I do?"

Belos was standing right in front of Hunter, he wasn't wearing a mask, which is why Hunter could see his exact facial expression and the light blue eyes that seemed to flash almost menacingly from time to time. "No...", he choked out, didn't know what else to say, because his uncle was right. The illusion and potion leader had nothing to say to him... he had listened to them instead of coming here like he knew it was right. He had kept his uncle waiting... even though he knew he wasn't supposed to.

"Then why did you listen to them?" Hunter didn't have an answer...at least not one that would please his uncle. His head rattled with what he could answer, but under the additional pressure he was building up he couldn't think of anything good.

Suddenly a vine hissed just past his face, Hunter winced and felt a small pain on his left cheek...but it couldn't be more than a scratch. "Next time think better about who you should listen to. And now go.", Hunter just nodded, suppressed the urge to touch his cheek and walked towards the exit. Just before he closed the door, he heard his uncle say, "You shouldn't rely too much on your new friends." When the door was closed, Hunter's heart began to beat faster. What did Belos mean by that???

More in thought than usual, he walked along the corridors of the castle, passing Kikimora, who threw some words at him, but he didn't listen to her at all and just kept walking, which made her look confused at him.

As Hunter woke more from his thoughts, he found himself near the Coven Heads' private rooms and realized he was on his way to Darius. Darius had told him to come over... but after the words of his uncle he was no longer sure of this. He stopped and calmly stared straight ahead. At least he seemed calm on the outside, on the inside everything was spinning....

"Are you okay?", the sudden voice woke Hunter out of his rigid state and to his surprise he saw Raine. The last few times the Bard leader had avoided him or ignored him, but that they were standing next to him and speaking to him surprised him a bit.

Raine looked around for a moment, as if they were checking if someone was coming. Hunter just looked at them rather confused. When Raine met his eyes, they smiled friendly, which only confused Hunter even more, but he managed to bring himself to nod. "Are you sure? You're hurt too...", Raine replied and Hunter hesitated. "Yes...I'm on my way to Darius..." Raine nodded understandingly, even if they didn't question why Hunter was standing there so silently in the middle of the corridor, apparently the Bard leader could figure out why. "Then go to him. I have to go too...", Raine looked worriedly at Hunter before they left with a last short smile.

Just in time because as they walked on, Terra suddenly came out of her room. She also smiled briefly at Hunter before she hurriedly joined Raine and handed them something with liquid, from what Hunter could observe, Raine was suddenly like the last few days.

Confused again, hunter watched them go until they were gone and he could now force himself to keep walking. When he stood in front of Darius' door, he hesitated again before he slowly raised his hand and knocked. It didn't take long for Darius to open the door and look at him with a smile, at least until he noticed the bloody scratch on Hunter's cheek.

The smile disappeared before he pulled Hunter into the room and closed the door. "You didn't rest but went to Belos, didn't you?" Darius sighed while turning away to look for a band-aid.
"Yes...but I wasn't at the mission meeting." "Yes because you were hurt." "But not so bad that I couldn't have shown up!", Hunter said and Darius gave him a questioning look over his shoulder. "Did Belos tell you that?" Hunter avoided eye contact for a moment. "Yes.. but he's right. I know that everyone have to report back after every mission on time." "The others did, just without you." "Yes...without me."

The Abomination leader sighed and handed Hunter a band-aid, which Hunter accepted and applied to the scratch. "You know, I know Belos is your uncle and therefore important to you, but you should also be important to you for a change... This wannabe Emperor should first learn how to deal with children before he hires them as soldiers." Hunter didn't know how to react to that, so he rather gave Darius a look that didn't agree with his opinion. "I'm going.", he said and before Darius could say anything, Hunter had already disappeared.

Shortly after he left there was another knock and Raine came in with a serious expression on their face. Darius turned to his buddy. "Listen we have a problem."