“I’ll explain later.” Gabriel said before something heavy fell behind them, “Stay here.”
Gabriel gently set Hazel down before he turned to the other werewolf angrily, “You’ve crossed the line, Ambrose.”
‘That mutt’s Ambrose!?’ Ace thought eyes widening, “Kick his butt Gab!”
The boy only smiled before a grey blur tackled him to the ground.
“Gab!” Hazel exclaimed in worry standing up as she tried to help her friend but was stopped by Phoenix who blocked her path, “Phoenix get out of my way!”
“I’m afraid I cannot do that Master,” Phoenix stated.
“Did Phoenix just talk!?” Rachel exclaimed momentarily forgetting about the two Wolfen brothers biting each other’s limbs and the occasional punch or kick to the stomach.
It was when Gabriel gave Ambrose a harsh punch in the jaw that a gunshot was heard just a few feet away from them.
“They’re over here!” Kimberly exclaimed as she emerged from the shadows, her bayonet directly aimed at Ambrose’s head.
“Kimberly, what are you doing in here?” Rachel asked warily as Luna dropped Hazel’s dagger into the purple-eyed girl’s hand.
“I came to make sure you guys were alright.” Kimberly explained glancing at the girl before she directed her weapon to Gabriel, “I suggest you stay where you are werewolf.”
“Kimberly what are you doing!?” Hazel exclaimed suddenly worried about Gabriel’s safety, “Point that thing at the grey one not at him!”
“Little Robin, what has this mutt been telling you!?” Kimberly asked as she glared at Gabriel, “A monster’s a monster and that’s it.”
“It’s Gabriel!” Rachel exclaimed trying to reason with the older girl.
“That makes it worse.” Eliza said from behind Gabriel, her scythe pointing directly at his neck, “You got a lot of nerve infiltrating a Monster Hunter base, half-blood.”
“What is wrong with you people?” Gabriel asked glaring at the two older girls, “Not ALL monsters hurt people.”
“Shut your mouth.” Kimberly said before she caught Ambrose trying to sneak off and shot a bullet near his head making him stop, “Don’t think I forgot about you.”
∞
‘We need to get out of here.’ Ace thought as his eyes darted back and forth to Gabriel and his superiors while his mind raced to come up with an escape plan, ‘Before someone gets seriously hurt.’
“Ace.” Charles whispered trying to get the boy’s attention, “Golden Hawk Forest.”
Ace glanced at his two female superiors before he whispered, “Excuse me?”
“You need to teleport us to Golden Hawk Forest,” Charles explained.
“I need to draw a ritual circle for that.” Ace replied, “And I don’t know if you’ve noticed but I can’t draw one with Gabriel only a trigger pull or swing away from death.”
“Then we’ll need a distraction.” Charles stated, “Got anything?”
Ace thought for a moment before he felt something soft brush his leg. Looking down he was met with Phoenix’s golden eyes of fire. Ace smiled at this as an idea came to his mind. Looking around to make sure no one was watching he knelt down, dropping to a low whisper he murmured something in the fox’s ear before the two nodded to each other. As soon as Ace stood standing again Phoenix ran to the tree where Josh and Luna perched unnoticed.
“Josh, Luna.” Phoenix called making the two birds look at him before flying to a branch nearer to the ground, “Ace has a plan to get everyone out of here.”
Luna’s eyes widened at this before she asked, “What do we have to do?”
“All Josh has to do is signal Gabriel to run while Ace, Charles, Hazel, Luna, Rachel, and I create a distraction.” Phoenix explained, “after we tell Gabriel and the girls of course.”
“Alright, we can handle that much.” Luna thought aloud, “Where are they running to?”
Phoenix only turned his back to the birds before he pointed his snout to the moon.
“Alright then.” Luna said before she flew to Hazel’s shoulder and dropped to a low whisper, “Ms. Abernathy, Phoenix, and Mr. Oliviero have a plan for you all to escape.”
Hazel’s eyes widened before she whispered, “Go on.”
∞
‘Is everything ready?’ Gabriel thought glancing at his raven who remained perched on the tree.
“Yes, Master.” Josh said after he saw the glint of the Starsparks in the girls’ hands, “We are only waiting on Mr. Oliviero’s signal.”
Then as if listening in on their telepathic conversation he started muttering, “Comme le vent qui souffle les cendres du volcan. Tourne la vue de mon ennemi pour laisser des entailles nuisibles.”
A second later a thick cloud of smoke fell over them.
“What in the-” Kimberly’s voice began before Hazel and Rachel threw their Starsparks on the ground creating an almost deafening sound.
Not a moment later Josh let out a loud croak signaling for the group to run and so they did.
“Where are we going!?” Rachel exclaimed as they all made it out of the cloud of smoke, all of them – thankfully – unharmed.
“Just follow me!” Ace exclaimed before they all heard a gunshot.
“Gab!” Hazel exclaimed in both worry and shock as she watched her friend fall roughly to the ground, “Are you okay!?”
Hazel quickly knelt down beside him worry edged all over her face. Her eyes quickly scanned him for any visible injuries and to her horror a gunshot wound was located near his abdomen. Hazel’s eyes widened at the sight of the wound before Phoenix ran to her side.
“This half-blood really can’t take care of himself.” Phoenix said as he shifted into his spirit form, “We need to get him to the others.”
Hazel watched wide-eyed as the more physically human-looking Phoenix picked Gabriel up and slung the brunette over his shoulder with ease.
“Let’s go, least we need is somebody else getting injured,” Phoenix said before running off, making sure Gabriel didn’t randomly just fall off him.
“He’s been shot, you shouldn’t carry him like that!” Hazel exclaimed worriedly as she ran to catch up with them, “Phoenix!”
“There isn’t enough time to be careful with him Mistress,” Phoenix explained as they caught up to the others to find that Ace had already started drawing the ritual circle.
“I know.” Hazel said before sighing, “I’m just worried about him.”
“Hazel!” Charles called before he saw Phoenix with Gabriel over his shoulder, “What happened?”
At this sentence, Charles had managed to capture both the twins’ and the birds’ attention. They all stared at Phoenix’s human form for a moment before Rachel caught sight of Gabriel on his shoulder.
“Gabriel!” Rachel exclaimed making everyone else look at the unconscious boy as his blood began to soak Phoenix’s kimono sleeve, “What happened?”
“Long story but right now we need to get him to a Healer.” Hazel said anxiety rushing through her as she turned to Ace, “How much longer?”
“I’m working as fast as I can Hazel.” Ace said as he began to draw faster, “I’m almost done. Rachel, I need you to go through my grimoire, and see if there’s anything that’ll stop Gabriel’s bleeding.”
As he said this Phoenix had set Gabriel down sitting up beside a tree as Hazel examined his wound. The girl wasted no time in pulling his shirt over his head and quickly making sure his wound wasn’t infected – Gabriel’s wolf-like features were long gone by now.
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“Just a few bits of dirt but so far we only need to worry about the bleeding.” Hazel said before she got out a bottle of water, antiseptic, and a gauze pad, “This’ll hurt.”
And with that, she gently poured water on the wound making Gabriel stir in his sleep as she picked off the larger pieces of dirt before disinfecting it and quickly placing the gauze pad a few seconds later. Hazel sighed in relief as Gabriel had finally stopped stirring but that relief was quickly short-lived when she heard two pairs of feet running towards them.
“Ace you might want to hurry up over there!” Phoenix exclaimed putting Gabriel over his shoulder again.
“Everyone get inside the circle!” Ace exclaimed before everyone rushed to his side.
“I think you should start spell casting Ace.” Rachel suggested as she caught sight of Kimberly’s Bayonet, “And fast.”
“Hazel!” Eliza exclaimed as both she and Kimberly were in their clear line of view, “What are you doing?”
“Getting some answers, that’s what I’m doing.” Hazel replied before Ace’s eyes and the ritual circle glowed brilliant blue as he began saying the incantation, “Everything’s so much bigger Eli, we have questions that we need answers to.”
“And you’ll get them, but right now we need to get Mom and Dad.” Eliza said before her eyes landed on Gabriel, “They’ll know what to do with that monster.”
All Hazel could do was glare at her sister at the last part, “What is wrong with you Eliza?”
* “Hazel, what are you talking about?”
* “Calling Gabriel, a monster, that’s what.”
* “Hazel just look at him! He pretended to be your friend!”
* “Correction, he IS my friend.”
Eliza looked at her sister with wide eyes as she opened her mouth to say something but a familiar blinding white light stopped her before she had the chance. Once the blinding light appeared Hazel quickly shielded herself on instinct and closed her eyes shut.
∞
Rachel groaned to herself as the shock from her brother’s spell slowly calmed down. Turning to look at her friends she saw that Charles had his head in his hands with Ace supporting him, Hazel still shielding herself with her eyes closed shut but Gabriel, Phoenix, and the birds seemed to be completely unfazed.
“You can open your eyes now Hazel.” Rachel said before Hazel slowly opened her eyes and lowered her arms.
“Ow.” Hazel winced as she rubbed her temples.
“Mistress are you alright?” Luna asked worriedly.
“I-I’ll be fine Luna, just a headache.” Hazel said before she looked at Gabriel who was still on Phoenix’s shoulder, “How is he?”
“Still breathing.” Phoenix replied, “Still think we should get him to a Healer though…”
Hazel nodded before she turned to Charles, “Can you walk?”
“I think so, yes.” Charles said as he stood up straighter, “This way, we better hurry.”
The twins, Hazel, and Phoenix nodded before Josh perched on Ace’s shoulder and Luna on Hazel’s. As the group started walking, they took it as an opportunity to inspect their surroundings.
“Where did you even bring us to Ace?” Rachel asked looking at the starry night sky.
* “Golden Hawk Forest.”
* “Why?”
* “Mr. Charles told me to.”
* “But isn’t this place off-limits?”
* “You need to keep up with the news Sis.”
* “What’s that supposed to mean?”
* “This place is off-limits to POACHERS and ANIMAL HUNTERS not hunters of our caliber.”
* “Oh, why did they name this place Golden Hawk Forest?”
* “Are you serious?”
* “…People seem to like asking me that question today…”
“You keep asking obvious questions Rach,” Hazel said joining in on their conversation.
“So, are you going to tell me?” Rachel asked not getting offended by Hazel’s statement.
“Local legend.” Ace and Hazel replied.
“We’re here,” Charles said as they stopped in front of a twenty feet tall Balsa Tree.
“So, what now?” Phoenix asked as they all looked at Charles curiously.
“I knock,” Charles said simply as he gently knocked on the solid tree bark before a glowing outline of a door appeared.
“Cool.” Ace said in awe as Charles opened the door and ushered them all inside.
They all descended a long flight of stairs before a black man with short dirty blonde hair and muted blue eyes, wearing a black colored shirt and leather gloves along with sand-colored pants and boots ran up to them.
“Charles, you’re back.” The man said before he saw Gabriel unconscious on Phoenix’s shoulder, “What happened?”
“Nice to see you too Cameron.” Charles said before nodding, “Pasi’s been shot, Abernathy’s done her best to treat his wounds but he still needs to see a Healer just to be sure. I assume Amelia’s been informed of his species.”
“Yup.” Cameron, “You need to tell Chancellor West about their arrival, though.”
Charles sighed again before nodding, “I know.”
He then turned to Hazel and the others, “I have a few things I need to take care of, Cameron will show you to the infirmary so Gabriel can get treated before showing you to the rooms you all will be staying in while you’re here.”
Hazel could only nod and stay silent as Charles started to walk away but not before saying, “Thank you for everything.”
The older man turned to her and smiled, “It was the least I could do, Ms. Abernathy.”
Hazel only smiled at Charles’ retreating back before Cameron spoke up, “The infirmary’s this way, come with me.”
The group only stayed quiet as they followed Cameron along corridors of stone bricks, torches, and the occasional tapestry. As they walked Hazel and the twins kept themselves preoccupied with their thoughts on the endless possibilities of the future caused by their decision.
“Don’t think so much about it.” Cameron spoke up as if hearing their thoughts, “I’m sure you three did what you thought was best at the time.”
Hazel only folded her arms and looked at the ground while the twins gave the older man hopeful smiles which he returned. The group only stayed like that for a few moments before they stopped in front of a wooden door with a snake carved at the front with vines surrounding the edges.
Cameron knocked gently before a gentle voice replied, “Come in.”
“Amelia, we need your help,” Cameron said opening the door.
“Goodness what happened to him?” The voice asked.
Hazel looked up and was met with a woman with long cyan-colored hair and yellow eyes, she wore a long white hooded robe with an elegant red snake design on the hem and white boots. The older woman quickly ran to Gabriel who Phoenix had placed on a medical bed before she inspected the bandaging.
She smiled before she turned to the group, “He’ll be alright, whoever did his bandaging knew what needed to be done. All I need to do is take the bullet out of his wound, change his bandages, and let him get some rest.”
Hazel and the twins let out sighs of relief as Phoenix changed back into his fox form before Ace let out a tired yawn.
“Sorry.” Ace apologized as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes, “It’s been a long night.”
“The three of you should get some rest.” Amelia said kindly, “You’ve done all you can for your friend, now all the three of you have to do is trust me.” She then turned to Cameron, “Get them to the extra rooms, I’ll call them when they can visit their friend.”
Cameron nodded slightly before he turned to the younger Monster Hunters, “Come on you three, let’s leave Ms. Amelia to her work.”
Hazel gave a reluctant glance at Gabriel before Rachel took her hand in hers, “Come on Hazel, we could all use some sleep, and just like Ms. Amelia said; she’ll call us when we can visit Gabriel.”
The purple-eyed girl only sighed before she nodded, “Alright then.”
“I’ll take care of your friend dear,” Amelia said smiling kindly.
Hazel only gave a weak smile in return before she and the others followed Cameron out of the infirmary. As the twins conversed with Cameron, Hazel returned to staring at the floor with her arms crossed. They stayed like that for a few more moments before they stopped in front of yet another wooden door but instead of a snake, this one had a bat carved at the upper center.
“The four of you will be staying here for,” The man stopped himself before he smiled at the younger hunters and shrugged, “however long you’re planning to stay. If you decide to transfer here though we’ll just move you to bigger rooms.”
“Bigger rooms?” Ace asked before Cameron opened the door.
‘This isn’t big enough!?’ Hazel thought as she raised her head to check out the room.
It was a simple room with blue wallpaper that had to be about twenty square feet. One half of the room had two large desks in front of four wooden swivel chairs with red cushioning and the other half had two large modern white bunk beds that were connected with drawer-like stairs that led to both top bunks with the lower bunks having three drawers each, with each mattress having a brown striped bedspread along with two pale green pillows, while a small wooden chandelier illuminating the room in soft yellow light.
“It’s beautiful.” Rachel commented as she lay down on the nearest lower bunk, “How do we put out the candles?”
“Just use the fire spell to light them and just use a simple wind spell to extinguish them.” Cameron explained before bowing slightly, “I’ll leave you all to get some rest.”
“Thank you, sir.” Ace thanked before Cameron left the room as soon as Hazel went to the top bunk opposite to Rachel’s lower bunk.
∞
Furrowing her brows, Rachel shifted to laying down by her stomach as she propped her upper body up with her arms before she and her older brother exchanged glances before she nodded to the purple-eyed girl. The boy’s eyes widened before he shook his head and pointed to his younger sister. The twins kept going back and forth as Hazel, Phoenix, and the birds slowly fell asleep.
“Fine, I’ll do it.” Rachel snapped before she turned to look at Hazel’s now sleeping figure, “Hazel?”
When Hazel didn’t respond the two looked at each other again before the two heard the girl’s light snores.
“Maybe you should talk to her tomorrow.” Ace suggested.
“That’s what I thought.” Rachel admitted before ace made his way to the bunk above her, “Night Ace.”
“Night Rachel.” Ace said laying down before his eyes landed on the chandelier’s candles, “Brisa.”
And just like that, the flames were extinguished.