GOLDRIC

Chapter 7

The raid on Hexside, to no one's surprise, didn't have much of an effect on the day-to-day life of the students. Everyone blindly followed the Emperor in fear of some kind of damning to eternal punishment, or worse: confrontation.
Hunter's leg healed nicely, courtesy of Viney and his own practice in the Healing track. What remained was a large star-shaped scar in the center of his thigh. His forehead also had a great deal of road rash, but that was beginning to fade as well.

Luz found Hunter in the living room of the Owl House, playing games on his scroll. He had gotten a rather haphazard haircut from Eda and Luz that morning, but he didn't seem to mind the look. It had been about 3 days since the scouts came to school, but Hunter wasn't showing many signs of fear or anxiety like he was before.
It was almost like he had shut down. Luz wanted to help in any way she could, and perhaps he just needed to have fun for a change.
Luz perched on the coffee table and grinned from ear-to-ear at her pseudo-brother.

"Oh, hi, Luz," Hunter said, hardly looking up from his game, but letting a small smile form on his cheeks. Her silly antics were definitely bold and others may have found them annoying, but Hunter thought it was sweet, admirable, even.
He'd never admit that, though.

"Let's go to the lake today. I really want to go swimming!" Luz beamed. "It's so beautiful outside! Not to mention hot."

Hunter nodded, looking out the window of the Owl House. He was a little nervous to go out in public, but he deserved to finally get outside. And the mid-spring air was unusually hot, so Luz's idea was perfect.
After a moment of thinking, he spoke up. "We should. Let's invite our friends."
"Already did!" Luz exclaimed as his scroll buzzed on cue.

GROUP MESSAGE
LUZ: come to the beach @ 2 with me and Hunter! Or else!

AMITY: sounds fun. <3

EMIRA: me and Viney are in!

JERBO: okay!!!

WILLOW: yes!

GUS: I'll b there :)

Hunter kept anticipating a response from the final member of the group, but nothing.
Maybe he's coming with Jerbo or Emira, Hunter thought to himself as he dug around a chest of random items to look for swimming shorts, though he wasn't fond of the idea of Edric preferring Jerbo's company.

--

Even without Ed, the lake was fun. Hunter was a great swimmer, and a bit of a show-off on the rocks, and had no trouble impressing everyone with his dives and backflips into the deeper water off to the right of the beach.

Willow was also a pretty skilled swimmer, gracefully diving off of the rocks and challenging Hunter often to make the smallest splash. He was not successful.
Gus and Jerbo, on the other hand, wanted to create the most chaos possible and jumped together, making huge splashes that sprayed Emira and Viney on the shore, who were trying to enjoy the sun, hands intertwined.

Luz attempted a flip, but ended up smacking her stomach on the water and pretended to die. Amity wasn't a fan of the theatrics, but played along lovingly.

Hunter almost forgot about his secret hope that Edric would show up during a game of water volleyball on the sandbar (a game Luz introduced from the human realm), when he glanced at the shore and saw the green-haired boy talking to his twin and setting down his backpack.

His ears perked up.
"I'm going to go get my sunglasses, it's pretty bright." Hunter said, starting his tread back to the beach.
"Is it the sun or Edric that's too bright for you?" Luz mocked, sticking out her tongue and clasping her hands together romantically next to her cheek.
"Luz!" Hunter scolded, dunking her under the water. She surfaced and spat a stream of water onto his back as he swam away.