The cardinal cottage

Episode 6

"Hunter!!!"

Hunter almost dropped his book in surprise. He groaned when he heard footsteps drumming down the stairs, knowing exactly what's about to happen next.

About one second later his brother and apprentice came bursting into the living room and bolted over to the blonde teenager. He barely had time to turn in their direction before they were already in his face, making him yelp and fall backwards off the couch.

Hunter just lay there pouting, very annoyed at their pestering. They called him over and over again and it drove him insane. Can't he have one stress free day?

"Hunter!"Nova once again got in his face."Luz showed me these super cool human magic card tricks on her human device and now I wanna try them!"

Hunter sighed as he stood up and then dusted himself off."And what does that have to do with me?"

"I need cards for it, but we didn't find any in your human collectables, then we thought we could try and use the isles variation, so we gotta go to the market and get some. Now."He said all that in one breath. He looked up hopefully at his annoyed older brother.

Hunter crossed his arms and huffed.

"Can't you bother me about that later? I've got more important business to attend to."

Nova glanced over at the book that fell with Hunter off the couch and raised an eyebrow."Important business? More like getting caught up in your new book again. It's the same everytime. You get a new compelling story or a book about anything really, you are not resting until you finish it. Last time Daria and I had to put sleeping nettles in your tea to get you to sleep."

Hunter blushed, embarrassed he got caught.

"W-well, at least the information I gain can be useful."

"So can card tricks. Now stop stalling and let's go."

Hunter groaned."Well, it can wait anyway. I just wanna have a nice relaxing afternoon, where I don't have to fight a huge monster slug or keep either of you from dieing. Just one day -ugh, I want to stay out of -ugh, your wacky adventures-ugh!"Hunter started to scratch his arms mid-speech."What in the titans name is itching so bad?"

"Uh Hunter." Luz, who just watched the brothers argue back and forth, finally spoke up."It's happening again."

"What?"

"The curse. It's returning!"

Only then did Hunter notice the few little red feathers sprouting from his arms. He felt a bit of panic wash over him, but pushed it down quickly and tried to calm himself.

He rushed up to his room to get an elixir followed by the other residents of the cottage, Daria included. But when he opened the chest he stocked them in, it was empty besides a few empty bottles.

"Oh, boy. This is terrible. I'm out of elixir."

"Last time this happened, you turned into this thing."Luz pulled out her phone and showed him the picture of the beast he had turned into.

Hunter frowned and sighed."Yeah, we need to go to the market."

"Market!"

"Does that mean you'll buy me the cards?" Nova asked excitedly.

"If you don't cause any trouble, maybe."

Nova broke out into a joyful grin." Yes! I promise I'll behave. Off we go."

The kid ran out of the bedroom, followed by Luz, cheering. The witch and abomination looked after them happily leaving. Hunter chuckled with a soft smile on his face.