Everything Changes So Quickly... [DISCONTINUED]

Chapter 12: Philip [Part: 1] (Hunter's POV)

(Watch it. I DARE you)

(Also, just a warning, I don't know the complete history between Philip and his brother, but most people are theorizing Caleb is Philip's brother's name, so I'm not going to change that. Anything that Philip will give away about his brother will be suuuuper vague since I really don't know all the facts. Ok bye now!)

"I found it! I found Philip's time!" Luz exclaimed.

Lilith walked over to Luz.

"Ooh, incredible! This will be a truly unprecedented exploration! N-Now, before we dive in, we must remember if the tide comes in we could be trapped, paradoxes will be a danger, and don't get me started on the bloody fly effect, uh..." Lilith cleared her throat, "But a bad-girl historian like myself is all about taking risks. So... let's boogie down to History Town!"

Lilith swayed her hips slightly while doing finger guns.

Hunter stared in horror at the cringyness of what she was doing. He was seriously reconsidering trying to bury himself alive again.

"She really is cool aunt Lilith..." Luz mumbled.

"Can we please just go in already?" Hunter asked.

"Oh, yes! Let's go then!" Lilith replied awkwardly.

Luz grabbed the helmet off the skeleton she saw earlier and Lilith wrapped some blue cloth around her head and a hat. Hunter looked at Lilith in confusion.

"Okay, I get why the human is wearing the helmet, you know, to cover her ears, but why are you wearing a disguise?" Hunter asked Lilith.

"The butterfly effect is a fragile thing, if someone recognizes my face as similar to my ancestor's... It can cause some problems..." Lilith replied.

"But your face isn't even being cover-" Hunter began.

"Look, if you don't want to wear a disguise, then don't, let's just get going," Lilith interrupted.

The three went through the time pool one by one.

"Now, Luz. We are technically in the Savage Ages, way before Belos banished wild magic. These denizens may be dangerous!" Lilith warned.

And with that, the three set off to the town. As they walked through, they accidentally bumped into a type of demon. Luz immediately took up a defensive stance, expecting to be attacked. Hunter didn't do anything, seeing how the Demon's body language didn't seem at all irritated.

The demon turned around and tipped its hat, "Good tidings, kind witches."

Hunter was a bit surprised by how incredibly nice the demon was acting and it seemed that Lilith and Luz were too. Hunter looked around the area which seemed rather peaceful with people playing instruments and children making small abominations. 

"This doesn't look dangerous, this looks awesome! Why did Belos want to banish wild magic again?" Luz asked.

"It's the titan's will," Hunter recited from memory at the exact same time Lilith replied by saying, "Well, the Titan supposedly doesn't like it."

The two looked at eachother for a moment before Lilith spotted someone weaving something and went to obsess over it. After Lilith was done with that, the three went around searching for anyone who knew a human named Philip Wittebane. Unfortunately, they couldn't find anyone who knew him.

"Don't worry, Luz, we'll find him soon!" Hunter encouraged, he didn't like seeing Luz so down.

"Dance, human, dance!" They heard from around a corner.

Hunter's looked toward the two and they were equally surprised. The three peered around the corner to see a human with a long brown beard getting bullied by two demons who were throwing his diary around.

"Give that back!" Philip exclaimed, trying to reach for the diary.

Hunter looked at Luz and shook his head, trying to tell her not to step in. Luz gave him a look that said, "Why not?" Hunter shot her an exasperated look as she had already forgotten about the butterfly effect and whatnot. Luz mouthed an, "Ooh," of realization to him.

Philip shook his head, "I can't believe this, after the bonds of fellowship we forged-"

"Bonds? Ha! You still owe us," The red-fanged demon pushed Philip to the ground.

"When I accomplish my mission, I promise you, you'll have your snails," Philip promised.

The green-fanged demon opened up his book, "Listen to this, 'With my new and bravest companion, Blue Fang, I set forth. His strength should make fast work of any task.' "

The green demon passed the book to the red-fanged demon to read.

"His pretty little words should make pretty good kindling," The red-fanged demon formed a small spell circle, creating fire, and began to burn the book from one of the corners.

Philip gasped. Luz pushed through Hunter and Lilith without warning and pulled out an ice glyph. An ice spike from Luz's glyph suddenly popped out of the ground, knocking the diary out of the red-fanged demon's hands.

"That doesn't belong to you," Luz growled.

Hunter face-palmed. Why did she always have to act like the hero? The red-fanged demon was about to attack Luz. Seeing that, Hunter was about to join the battle, but before the red-fanged demon attacked, the green-fanged demon stopped him and before Hunter attacked, Lilith stopped him.

"Demons like this aren't prone to picking up useless battles," Lilith explained quietly.

"Don't waste your time on the kid, we should keep looking," The green fanged demon instructed.

"Ask your friend there what happened to our brother, Blue Fang, and his Palisman," The red-fanged demon told Luz before the two walked away.

Philip began to pick up papers that had fallen from his journal and Luz helped him. He suddenly winced and hugged his leg in pain. Meanwhile, Luz looked at one of the papers and questioned it to herself but Philip snatched the paper out of her hands.

"I'm gonna catch up to Luz now," Hunter whispered to Lilith.

"Then I'll go with you," Lilith whispered back.

Flapjack had flown away somewhere random already. Hunter wondered if Flapjack had anything against Philip. 

"You're Philip Wittebane, aren't you? The human?" Luz asked as Hunter and Lilith approached them.

"Here to gawk? I may not have a bile sac, but I do have-" Philip stopped abruptly after catching sight of Hunter, "Wait, what?! Why- How are you... No, you're not him, he's long gone. Besides, you're too young anyway and you have a whole lot of scars, not to mention the pointy ears." 

Hunter looked at him with confusion and then a little shame. He hated when people commented on his scars. Maybe it would have been better to wear a disguise.

"Well, I will take my leave now," Philip muttered almost solemnly.

"Wait! I've heard of your exploits, and I know what it's like to be far from home. Can we talk?" Luz asked.

Philip stared at Luz for a moment before narrowing his eyes, "No."

And with that, he began to limp away.

"Wait! I can give you snails! I can make you crutches! Um, uh... I can help you find the Collector!" Luz exclaimed desperately.

Philip stopped dead in his tracks and glanced behind himself to look at them.

(Yes, this is part one. You may be asking, "Why, author? Why is there a part two only for this chapter?" Well, that's because this chapter was talking waaaaaay too long to finish and I wanted to cut it here for dramatic effect, leaving around 700 words that are still in Hunter's POV that I didn't put here. Recently, my chapters have been around 1000-2000 words, that's why I couldn't finish it in time. I usually try to finish all my chapters in 2-3 days, but I was kinda going slow and just procrastinated here and there, leading up to this. Welp, see ya next chapter!!!)

- HelpMePlzImBeggin (June 20th, 2022)