Chapter Text
Sleeping had never been Hunter's strong suit. For as long as he could remember, there had either been something keeping him up or something waking him up every few hours. That night had been a slight exception. While he didn't know what time it was when they finally managed to all lay down, he did know that he had fallen asleep almost instantly. And he had somehow stayed that way until just after dawn.
When he did wake up, it was slowly. For a few minutes, he was confused. Why was his bed so hard? Why was it so cold? He was rarely ever actually cold. The cold was what kept him still. Why bother getting up when he was already deeply regretting leaving behind his cloak.
When he did finally sit up, Hunter immediately berated himself for falling asleep in the first place. They didn't know what they were dealing with here. Sure, he had checked the entire shack repeatedly but something could have still snuck up on them. Nobody else was in any state for a fight, (Hunter was decidedly ignoring the fact the he also wasn't ready for a fight), if anything had happened to them it would have been his fault.
He couldn't let anything happen to them.
Hunter decided that, seeing as he was up now, he should probably do something. What exactly he should do was less certain. He didn't know anything about the Human Realm. At least, nothing that would really be helpful. He could just scout around, keep an eye out for any threats. He knew that he was capable of that at least.
He hauled himself from the floor, groaning at the reminder that, oh yeah, they had fought someone yesterday. And crashed an airship. And then slept on the ground. So now, ouch. Everything hurt. He was just thankful that none of their injuries were life threatening. (Yet.)
Hunter made his way, slowly to the door and pushed it open. Nothing lept out to attack him so he decided it was probably safe to step outside. Walking onto the porch, Hunter decided that they were probably more at risk of having the whole house collapse onto their heads than they were of running into any evil beings that wanted them dead. If this was a human house then he was starting to question human intelligence. It looked like one strong breeze would send it crashing down.
Aside from the disaster that was their only available shelter, there didn't seem to be any major dangers that he could see. He called softly for Flapjack, hoping that the bird would be able to help scout the area.
Flapjack poked his feathery red head through a hole where a window once was. Hunter smiled at his bird. He was glad that Flapjack was here, safe as any of them and not hurt or dead from their fight with Belos.
Hunter quickly explained what he wanted Flap to do and the bird took off to look for threats or any kind of civilization. If they could find a town that would be great. They needed a safer place to stay. And also stuff like food, bandages, and maybe even weapons would be nice. Maybe they would even be able to find a human who could help them out. If all humans were even slightly like Luz they would probably be able to find someone. (If all humans were even slightly like Philip they were dead. They wouldn't make it four seconds in a town.)
Hunter wanted to be optimistic. Unfortunately, optimism had only ever brought him far too close to death for his liking.
He heard the door creak open behind him, soft footsteps making their way across the horrifying treacherous porch. Willow sat down on the front steps next to him, leaning her head onto his shoulder. Willow yawned, rubbing her eyes. She still looked half asleep and Hunter wondered why she was even out here if she was so tired. He wasn't going to ask though. that might make her leave and he really didn't mind the company.
"How'd you sleep?" Hunter asked, trying to find a conversation topic that didn't have to do with the current situation. he was pretty sure that he had failed when Willow just sighed and leaned on him more.
"Terrible. Sleeping on the floor is the worst. How about you? Did you actually sleep at all?"
Hunter hummed in response, trying to think of a way to answer that that wouldn't end with her fussing over his, admittedly horrible, sleeping abilities. "I slept fine. Just woke up a little while ago."
He had, in fact, woken up just after sunrise. It was now around eleven if time worked the same in the Human Realm.
He wasn't going to mention that.
Instead, he just let her believe that he had gotten a normal amount of sleep. Instead, he let her believe that he was fine, that everything was fine. So, totally fine.
After a while, Hunter noticed a streak of red in the sky. Flapjack appeared, landing on Hunter's head and instantly trying to make a nest from his hair. Hunter sighed and took the bird down, setting him onto the stairs as well.
"Well?" Hunter questioned Flap, "did you find anything?"
Flapjack bobbed his head, explaining that he hadn't seen anything particularly dangerous but that they were near a town called Gravesfield.
Hunter nodded. "Okay, good job." He lifted Flap back onto his head, pleased with that report.
"What'd he find?" Willow asked.
"A town. Said that it didn't look dangerous. Maybe we should check it out. Get some supplies. Figure out if anyone knows anything that can help us."
Willow nodded her agreement. "I can go and see who else is awake so that we can come up with a game plan. I think we should leave some people here to keep an eye on the portal. If it opens someone needs to be here to go through it. Even if it isn't all of us."
Hunter agreed. It would be best if they watched the portal for any change. He couldn't believe that he hadn't thought of that last night. What if it had opened and no one had noticed? He tried to reassure himself by thinking about how if the portal did randomly open on its own, odds are that it wasn't a one time thing.
Willow went in to talk with the other two about the plan. She returned with a smile that looked a little too forced. "Okay! So, Gus is still asleep and Amity wants to stay here and watch the portal so I guess it's going to be us who gets to head into town." She jumped off the stairs and turned around to face him. "You ready to go now?"
Hunter nodded and stood up, trying to hide his grimace of pain. It didn't hurt as bad when he was sitting still. But he couldn't just sit. He had to go and try to help them however he could. And right now, that meant walking into town.
He smiled at Willow. "Well, let's get going then."