Chapter Text
The Golden Guard hadn’t regretted what he had done, right up until now. As he approached Belos’ chamber, he feared what would happen. He shouldn’t have let that human take the palisman; his uncle needed them! But it was too late, so the Golden Guard opened the door. Belos was screeching in pain until he turned to the Golden Guard. The Golden Guard started running to help but froze when he saw Belos’ glare. Belos shouted at the Golden Guard, demanding to know why he hadn’t brought him the palisman. The Golden Guard stammered “I was coming back but this demon… it.”
Belos interrupted, “YOU FAILED!” For a brief moment, Belos started to turn into his monstrous form. The Golden Guard rushes to help but the enraged Belos strikes at him. Shouting in pain, Belos commands, “LEAVE YOU’VE DONE ENOUGH!” The Golden Guard stiffened, then he walked out of the room, turning towards his own.
The Golden Guard is surprised when a bird is resting on his windowsill then he realizes it's the cardinal palisman. He immediately grabs it, snatching a hold, the palisman chirps in pain, but the Golden Guard doesn’t loosen his grip. “You, I can give you to Belos, then he’ll… he’ll” The Golden Guard mumbles the last part. The palisman chirps again, Hunter loosening this time. “Sorry, I just need to prove to Uncle that I can… Hunter groans “it’s pointless, I failed again, I shouldn’t have given that human the palisman.” The bird chirps again, but the Golden Guard doesn’t understand it.
Weeks passed and Hunter was told to just stay in his room as Belos got worse and worse. The Golden Guard watches as Belos tries to activate the portal but the key he made fizzles away. Belos noticed him tough, and he calls out “You’re not supposed to be here, Hunter.” Hunter rapidly apologized “I wasn’t trying to hide I just-” Belos cuts him off “It doesn’t matter. The portal isn’t working, without the key the human has, I can't open it.” Hunter speaks up “Why does it need the original key? Couldn’t we make a replacement?” Belos, annoyed by Hunter, stated, “I-” the emphasis hurts Hunter “-will be sending Kikimora to retrieve the titan blood needed for that.” Belos continued “Now go back to your room, we cannot risk having you get hurt, the Titan has big plans for you.” With that, Hunter is brought back to his room, the palisman waiting on his windowsill again.
The Golden Guard lays down on his bed, he must get that titan blood. Listening to the coven scouts nearby, he finds out how Kikimora will get titan blood. He walks up to the palisman “I’m going to go to eclipse lake and get that Titan blood, then uncle will realize that I can help!” The palisman chirps, “I still don’t know what that means!”.
Meanwhile, Amity is making sure everything is in tip-top shape at the Owl House when suddenly Luz starts shouting. Rushing to check on her she finds Luz jotting notes at a projection from the echo mouse. Then Luz tries to jump through Amity, Eda, Willow, and Gus but they eventually get her back into her sleeping bag. They decide Amity, Eda and King will all go to eclipse lake instead.
The Golden Guard hid behind a tree watching as kikimora threatened to throw Steve into a pit. Then he heard the palisman chirp behind him. Startled, Hunter turns around, almost smacking it. “Sorry I’m just on edge.” the palisman chirps back “I don’t speak palisman!'' The noise draws Kikimora’s attention, and she destroys the tree Hunter was just hiding behind. Hunter ran off talking to the palisman as he did, “New plan! I’ll find my own way in!” Not watching where he was going, Hunter tumbled down a hill.
When he looked up he saw the Owl Lady, her weird pet, and a Blight? ‘She looks like the youngest one but why would she be-’ the Owl Lady spoke up “Why are you here, Golden Guard?” the Blight talked next, “That’s the Golden Guard? Wait, you’re here for the titan blood, aren’t you?” Eda groaned “You didn’t have to tell him that it’s here, you know?” the two go back and forth arguing, meanwhile the little pet thing poked Hunter “This bird palisman was with you too.” The palisman chirps and flies onto Hunter’s shoulder “Are you two gonna let me go?” the Blight and Owl Lady finally stop arguing, the Owl Lady looks at him “Well we don't have time to ransom you or anything… Sooo, for now, you’ll just be coming with us!”
They use some of the Blight’s abomination goo to tie the Golden Guard up and start making their way through the caves. The palisman tries landing on his shoulder, but he tosses it off. Hunter watches in confusion as the Owl Lady smashes through a wall asking something about turning into a harpy. Then in horror, he watches as the Owl Lady’s pet fires a laser in the tunnel. He manages to duck out of the way shouting at them for being so stupid. “Jeez, kid, it’s fine no one even got hurt.” the Owl Lady continues, “Well, let's keep going!”
Suddenly kikimora entered the cavern they were in; asking in a panic if the Golden Guard was there. The Owl Lady looks confused at the Golden Guard, “Did Belos not send you?” Hunter stammered, “Well- he sent Kikimora, but I needed to-” the Owl Lady interrupted him “You know what doesn’t matter, we just need to get past her.” As the Owl Lady and the Blight debate, their plan Hunter started thinking. ‘I can’t go back to Belos, even with the titan blood he would.’ He was snapped out of it by the Blight. “I’m just gonna throw a fireball, and we’ll run past them.” They follow the plan and make it past them, Kikimora hot on their trail.
As they run, Hunter falls smack on his face, the Blight turns around and uses the abomination goo restraining him to pull him up. The palisman is tugging at his hair, trying to pull him up. Eventually, Kikimora falls far enough behind that they can stop running. The Golden Guard realizes he’s not tied up anymore and considers running for it. He’s interrupted by the Owl Lady poking at something, looking closer he realizes with horror that it’s fool's blood. Hunter tries to shout but it’s too late, the Owl Lady cracks the fool’s blood, and the tunnel starts collapsing. After the rocks stop falling, he sees only the Blight, she looks at him, then into a chasm opened by the collapse. “They fell down there! I need to get them!” she starts, but they hear the coven scouts from behind them. The Golden Guard sees his opportunity and takes it, knocking over the Blight and scrambling towards Eclipse Lake.
Amity got up as quickly as she could, but kikimora and the coven scouts were already there. “Well, well, well.” Kikimora taunted Amity, “We found our firestarter.” Amity could only watch as Kiki leaves one of the coven scouts to guard her, then starts after the Golden Guard. ‘That prick, she was going to help him and then he just had to go and-’. Her thoughts are interrupted by the coven scout, “You know what, screw this.” Then Amity freezes with terror as the scout picks her up and drops her down the chasm.
Hunter is worried about the blight, but he needs that titan blood. He was very close when he heard what sounded like crashing behind him, he kept going, finally seeing the opening to the lake. Hunter looks at the lake in terror. “It’s empty.” He started panicking, ‘Belos he’ll kill me if he finds out about this.’ Hunter went to the middle of the lake, empty as it is. ‘I might as well already be dead!’ he plops down into the dirt face first. He can hear his Uncle's voice already ‘Not only did you disobey me directly, but you still failed!’ Hunter nearly started to cry, the palisman chirping around him. ‘YOU ARE WORTHLESS!’ Suddenly he hears someone behind him, fearing it’s Kikimora he spins around. But all he sees is the Blight and the Owl Lady’s rat thing.
“It’s okay, I won’t fight, I’m dead anyway.” the Blight approaches him, “What do you mean?” He explains “Well Belos needs titan blood to open a portal into the human realm, but he sent Kiki on this mission, so not only did I just disobey him, but I failed anyway. The only way to get titan blood now is that old key from the door.” The Blight winced, mumbling something about blood and a key, but Hunter doesn’t notice. “He’ll kill me when he finds out.” Feeling the dread overwhelm him he plopped back into the dirt, beginning to cover himself with it. Then the palisman tugged at his hair, he hadn’t even realized it was still here. “Go away, bird thing!” Hunter starts “Find someone less of a failure.”
The Blight kneeled next to Hunter “You don’t have to go back to Belos, I’m sure Eda will be alright with it if you-”
Hunter cut her off “Why? I just make things worse for you.”
The Blight kept talking anyway. “No, you won’t. I promise.” She keeps going “Trust me, there are people out there who won’t make you feel worthless.” She smiles “You just have to let yourself meet them.” She reaches out a hand to Hunter. He looks up, noticing a glimmer, he spots a key hanging around her neck. Not just any key though, the key.
He thought about grabbing it so that he could bring it to Uncle. The golden guard started to lift himself up, ready to jump for the key. But Hunter stops, did he want to go back? The Blight noticed him looking at the key, getting ready to stop him from taking it. “I won’t,” Hunter said, grabbing her hand instead. “I don’t want to go back to him.” The Blight smiles “Thank you, now we just need to tell Eda.”
Just a moment later, the Owl Lady herself flew in. “Woo! I am pumped up! Do I need to fight anyone else?” The Blight quickly responded, “No! No, it’s okay he isn’t going back to Belos.” The Owl Lady looked at Hunter in confusion “You sure? Both of you.” The Blight snaps back “Eda, not the time!” The Owl Lady continued “Just saying, he hasn’t exactly been helpful.” The Blight glared at her. “But…” The Owl Lady continued “This is probably what Luz would do. Feel free to come back to the Owl House with us!”
Luz had been panicking for the past half hour. Amity hadn’t responded to any of her messages yet, and her mind started racing. ‘What if they already ran into fool’s blood?’ She keeps going, ‘Or what if the Emperor's coven was there? Or worse!’ Then she heard the door open, and she ran into the main room, watching as Eda in Harpy mode tried to fit through the door, she was being pushed in by Amity, King, and The Golden Guard? She wasn’t sure what to do until she heard Amity speak.
“Luz! Are you feeling better?” Luz jumped and hug-tackled her. “I’m so glad my awesome girlfriend is okay!” King spoke up behind her but she was too distracted watching as the Golden Guard, Hunter, walks in and semi-hid in the corner. The palisman landed on his shoulder. Hunter decided to let it stay there.
“What is he doing here?” she asked, and she started to pull Amity away from Hunter.
Amity quickly responded, “It’s okay, he isn’t with Belos anymore.”
Luz looked skeptically at Hunter and then at Amity. “You sure? I just, he tried to…”
Amity hugged Luz “I promise it’s okay.”
Then Luz remembered why they had even left, and turned back to the others, “How did it go? Did you find any titan blood?”
Amity looked sadly at Luz “I’m sorry Luz there wasn’t any there. I promise I’ll find a way to make it up to you though!” Luz was concerned because Amity looked scared, “I’ll find a way to fix this! Please give me another chance.”
Luz cupped Amity’s face and locked eyes with her. Then with care in her voice spoke, “It’s fine Amity; you don’t need to prove anything, you don’t need to fix anything. I love you, no matter what.” Then Luz kissed Amity on the cheek.
Amity stuttered, “But your message, you said…”
“Which message?” Luz asks, concern in her voice. Amity pulled out the Tamagotchi and scrolled to the message. Luz turned it to the side and said “It says ‘U R RAD’?”
Amity examined the Tamagotchi, realizing it was sideways. “Wait, I was supposed to turn it?”
Luz winced, “I never told you, did I?”
Amity laughed a little, feeling a wave of relief wash over her, “No.”
Luz teared up when she realized what Amity thought she said, “Amity I’m so sorry!”
Amity quickly reassured her, “it’s fine. I promise.”
Luz started crying more “No it isn’t! I can’t imagine how much I scared you! And then I couldn’t even tell you about the fool’s blood, or warn you about anything!”
Amity leaned in, and gave Luz a firm hug “It’s alright, I should have told you I didn’t understand.”
Eda, Willow Gus, and Hunter watched awkwardly as Luz and Amity reassured each other. Once they were done; Eda cleared her throat, “Well Goldie here is gonna be on the couch. Luz I’m gonna look into clearing somewhere out so you can have a real room.” Eda continued, “If that works out, Goldie you’ll move into that closet, eventually.”
Luz spoke up, “Can I talk to Goldie-, I mean Hunter.” Everyone else filed out of the room, Amity giving Luz one last hug before she went. But as soon as everyone left Luz turned to Hunter.
“Why did you leave Belos?” Luz asked, her voice was kind but firm.
Hunter started formulating a response “I, I couldn't get any Titan blood, and Kikimora would tell him I was there-”
Luz cut him off “From the beginning, I got time.”
Hunter sighed and decided to start after the palisman incident “okay…”
Kikimora was bursting with excitement, not only did she have a reason for her failure, but the pesky Golden Guard was finally out of her way. She composed herself and entered Belos’ chamber. “The titan blood was taken, my liege.”
Belos scowled, “Who did you let take it Kikimora.”
“We were betrayed, my liege, by the Golden Guard himself.” Kikimora explained.
Belos paused for a moment “leave.”
Kikimora, deciding not to push her luck with the failure, exited swiftly. Behind her, she could hear Belos speaking with someone. She shouldn’t know who, but she does.