Rocky

[Cut to Evelyn, outside. She’s cornered and not doing well. Red Fang has Kikimora by the scruff of her uniform]

Red Fang: You—are—going to pay.

[Evelyn flinches]

Disembodied voice]: No. You’re the one who’s going to pay.

[Cut to assembled, angry prisoners]

Centaur: We’re tired of being treated like monsters.

[The prisoners pile on Red Fang, taking him down. Evelyn watches in shock]

Evelyn: What the…?

[Phillip scoots by, nonchalant]

Phillip: So are we leaving, or…

E: What did you say?!

P: Oh, you know. Little of this, little of that, all the right things to get them to realize they deserve better. C’mon, I don’t trust them not to get a horrible guilt complex and march right back into their cells.

[Evelyn, Phillip, and Kiki fly away]

E: You know, Phillip, I’m proud of you.

P: [immediately] Your approval means nothing to me. [Curious] But, uh… how come?

E: You came back for me. You let those people out, even though you don’t trust witches, even though everyone told you they were dangerous, because you knew it was the right thing to do.

K: And because he knew it would save our sorry butts

E: Still. Look.

[Pan out to show wide shot of Evelyn, Phillip, and Kiki floating over the Isles]

P: Whoa.

E: Does it look so dangerous from up here?

[Back to Phillip, who looks like he’s trying to be unimpressed]

P: If I fall off it will be

E: [disembodied] You know what I mean.

P: What’s your point? Why are you showing me this?

E: Phillip, I didn’t want to lie. I know what you think of me, and I know what you think of witches, but believe me, I wanted to show Caleb the Isles. And I thought that maybe someday, together, we’d introduce you. I know it can be weird, or gross, or dangerous compared to home, but… I just want you to know it can be beautiful, too. It’s not what you’re used to, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing good here. Just…

[Back to wide shot]

E:[disembodied]… give us a chance

[Cut to Caleb, who looks at his phone. Phillip hasn’t responded to the message he sent. He sighs, and pushes the door open. The apartment is empty and dark]

Caleb: [disembodied] …Phillip?

[End Part 6]

[Evelyn puts an arm out in front of Phillip]

Evelyn: Go. I’m right behind you.

[Red Fang sneers]

Red Fang: Ha! You and I both know you can’t beat me, Cardinal Be—

[A net falls on him from above]

RF: Wha—

[Kikimora, up in a vent, kicks her legs]

K: Hi! I’m resubmitting my application to join the Empress’ Guard. Consider this my audition. If I can beat you so easily, and he can break her out, then clearly you need new perspec—

[A blast of fire shoots up in front of her from the net, interrupting her. Phillip yoinks her from the vent]

P: Time to go!

[Evelyn, Phillip, and Kikimora make it outside, but are stopped by the Ward wall. Evelyn turns to face Red Fang. She tries to fight, but spells bounce off of him]

RF: Nowhere to go but back in the cage

[Phillip gets a lightbulb moment and runs back inside]

P: Okay, everyone! I’m opening these doors!

Centaur: You can’t do that! We’re—

P: [disembodied] What, dangerous? I don’t believe you. You’ve got some curse? So what! Your face is in the wrong spot?! I don’t think that’s dangerous. Dangerous is what you do.

[Back to Phillip, who’s at the lever now, standing in front of the “freedom is a state of mind” mural. His head/body blocks off the “is a state of mind” part so that it just says “freedom” while the wings spread out behind him]

P: Everyone in this realm could be dangerous. All of you could hurt someone, all of you have the means to do it. And they probably will. Hell, the Cursebreaker’s hurting you by locking you away! So why should you all be locked up in particular? No one out there is any better than you! Everyone is terrible!

[Phillip pulls the lever, and the doors open. Prisoners look around]

[Open on Evelyn locked in manacles.]

Phillip: [disembodied] Found her!

[Phillip looks around]

P: Kiki? Where’d you… ah, she’ll turn up.

[Evelyn yanks against her chains, visibly angry]

E: I am going to kill you! I thought we had an understanding!

[Phillip holds his hands up defensively]

P: I made a mistake—I’m sorry, Evelyn.

[Cut to just angry Evelyn]

E: I trusted you and—wait, did you just apologize? To me?

[Phillip holds onto the jail bars]

P: Yes. I messed up. You were going to help me, and I turned on you because I thought I could get a better deal. And I’m sorry. I’m here to help you, so please don’t kill me.”

E: No promises. I’m still mad at you.

P: Fair.

[Phillip pulls the lever, and Evelyn’s chains fall off. She rubs her wrists]

E: Let’s get out of here

P: You’re not going to blast a hole in my chest or something?

E: Maybe once we’re home. But we have to make it there first.

[A shadow falls over them]

[Inside of a cell. Phillip, holding Kikimora, lets out a sigh of relief]

Phillip: That was close.

Kikimora: Put me outside the cell; I’ll get the lever.

Disembodied Voice: You’re not supposed to be here.

[A centaur, with his face in the right place, emerges]

Phillip: [disembodied] Yeah, we aren’t. No offense, but why are you here? You don’t exactly look like a hardened criminal.

Centaur: Look at me! Isn’t it obvious? My face is all wrong! They’re still looking for a cure to the curse!

[Cut to Phillip, confused]

P: Uh-huh.

K: [voice from outside the cell] Everyone in the Ward is cursed, Phillip. They’re here because the curse could be a danger to themselves and others.

P: That can’t be right. Evelyn isn’t cursed—I mean, I might not know a lot about this world, but she seems pretty normal. She’s not dangerous, just a liar. She shouldn’t be here.

K: [disembodied] Got it!

[The door opens, and Phillip turns to the centaur]

P: You’re not dangerous, either. Come on, let’s leave!

C: [dejected] You can never tell when a curse will turn. It’s safer for us to be here. Just… go. Find your non-cursed friend. If it’s all a mistake, she should be free. The rest of us are here for a reason.

[Cut to just Phillip, distressed at the centaur’s words]

C: [disembodied] Even if we did run, there’s nowhere for us to go. Even our families abandoned once we became too much for them to take care of.

[Phillip looks like he might argue, but shakes his head, turns, and leaves instead]

[Phillip flies through a window. Kiki climbs in, her hand off of her eye, which is glowing]

Phillip: When I said to get me in, I didn’t think it would be by throwing me. You didn’t tell me your bangs could do that!

Kikimora: You said we needed to get in. We got in. What’s the big deal?

Red Fang: [disembodied voice floating through the hallway] Yes, the Clawthorne—we got her.

[Phillip and Kiki hide outside the door. Red Fang talks on a crystal ball where a shadowy figure communicates]

???: Has she given you any difficultly? Her… condition… is especially dangerous.

RF: No, no trouble. Magic restrainer works perfectly. What do you want me to do with her?

???: I’ll collect her shortly.

RF: Personally? There’s no need to trouble yourself, I’ll deliver her—

???: I. Will. Collect her. Prepare her for transportation.

RF: Yes ma’am

[cut to Phillip, who looks panicked]

P: [quietly] we have to get her now

[Cut back to RF]

RF: Who said that?

[Cut back to the hallway: it’s empty]

[Phillip paces furiously in front of Kikimora]

Phillip: You told me you would get in! You told me you’d be able to help me if I helped you catch Evelyn—I trusted you! I should have known better; I guess everyone in this realm is a liar and a cheat.

Kikimora: I thought it would be enough!

P: You thought. Well, that’s just great for me, isn’t it? Some friend you are, telling me you could help when you weren’t even close

[Cut to Kikimora, dejected and defensive]

K: Would you have helped me if I hadn’t? Look, I needed this. I’m not… No one ever takes me seriously.

[Cut to Phillip, who’s starting to look more sympathetic]

K: [disembodied] My family doesn’t believe in me. My teachers definitely don’t. Even my friends at school think I’m hilariously below their league.

[Back to dejected Kikimora]

K: I thought that if I could turn in the Cardinal Criminal, everyone would finally see that I’m really worth it. That I’m capable of big things, worthy of keeping around. But even when I caught the most infamous criminal on the isles, the Guard still doesn’t think someone like me can do anything good.

P: [disembodied] That’s stupid.

[Kikimora looks up at him]

K: What?

[Cut to Phillip, who’s annoyed and enraged]

P: They had a bounty out for her because they couldn’t catch her themselves! If you’re the one who caught her, then that means you’re better at doing their job than them! They’re worse than you! They’d be lucky to have you!

[Kikimora looks touched and embarrassed]

K: I wish they thought so.

P: [disembodied] Well… maybe we can kill two birds with one stone. Get back my best chance at the key AND show the Guard how much better than them you are.

K: Ohhhhhh, you have some kind of scheme, don’t you?

[Cut to Phillip, who is absolutely scheming]

P: Well… wouldn’t it be really embarrassing for them if they lost the Cardinal Criminal almost immediately after catching her? Especially if the demon they just turned down was the one to help her escape?

“Don’t think of it as homework. Think of it aaaaaas extended study. Also, the woods are awesome. It’s just us, the trees, and the hundreds of forest creatures that want to kill us. Puts life into perspective.” Hunter hummed happily. He’d always enjoyed wildlife missions, especially when they required several days to complete. He realized now it was because they’d gotten him out of the keep and away from the pressure of being the golden guard, but at the time, he’d just enjoyed the fresh air and the time to watch the creatures of the Isles in their natural habitats.

He had to crawl now to get through the trees, and he didn’t realize that Gus had stopped until his friend’s voice called nervously from behind him.

“Hunter? Don’t panic, but I think you just crawled into a natural circle.”

Hunter froze. Everyone knew that spells were cast with spell circles. And everyone knew now that those circles had come from the glyphs shared by the titan themself. He also knew that if you found a circle formed by nature, to leave it be. The circle was a powerful shape, and while the titan might be dead, naturally-occurring circles usually held a pocket of unpredictable and powerful magic.

Too late, Hunter realized that the tunnel had narrowed and shrunk until it was no longer a haphazard oval, but a perfect circle. And he’d wandered right into it.

“Is anything happening yet?” he called back.

“No. I don’t see sparking or glimmering. And your ears haven’t turned into plants or anything yet. Do you think it’ll be better to crawl the rest of the way through, or come back out?”

Hunter slowly crawled backwards, doing his best not to disturb any part of the circle or bend a single twig out of place. Nothing happened. No explosions. No dramatic transformations. The ground didn’t swallow him whole. He let out a relieved sigh.

“I guess if the glyphs don’t work anymore, neither do natural circles,” he said, forcing cheerfulness into his voice, “Still—let’s give it space.”

Gus cast a worried glance at the natural circle. “That was… lucky.”

“Yeah.” Hunter shuddered, trying to shake off the feeling that the forest had sunk into his bones and he’d never leave. “Lucky.”

Xxx

Hunter woke the next morning with a splitting headache. His skull felt like it stretched out of his skin, and his feet felt too sensitive, somehow itchy and smooth at the same time. He crawled out of his sleeping bag with a groan. Sleeping over with Gus had taken its toll, it seemed. He could hear Gus and Perry downstairs, stomping around, and he wondered how they’d woken up before him.

Hunter stumbled to the bathroom, rubbing his eyes. Maybe that natural circle had cast a sleep spell on him. He glanced in the mirror, and slammed a hand over his mouth before he could scream, his heart pounding. His own reflection seemed to leer at him mockingly, and he gripped the bathroom sink, blinking hard. But the vision didn’t go away. Antlers sprouted from the sides of his head, just like…

Hunter gagged, checking his hands quickly. They trembled, but they remained puckered pink scarring and pale white skin. No sign of any magical mud. Hunter reached up, his hand hesitating just over the antler.

This isn’t real. This can’t be real, it can’t, it can’t, it can’t—

Finally, he steeled himself to touch the antler. It was cool, but solid, not drippy or slimy. A light, velvety fuzz covered its surface. Hunter grabbed the horn and tugged with a wince. It seemed firmly attached to his head.

As the panic the antlers had brought faded, Hunter noticed that his ears were far too big—they looked like rabbit ears, long radio dishes that funneled the sounds of the house directly to him. And his eyes—Hunter squinted. His pupils shrank to slits in his head.

Hunter sat on the toilet, stripping off his socks.

“Oh, great.”

His smaller toes had fused together—now he only had three toes, and examining the bottoms of his feet showed him pads covering the toes, with another on his heel. Hunter put his feet on the ground and could feel the vibrations of footsteps downstairs. Gus’ patter was getting closer, both his ears and his feet told him.

“Cool,” he whispered, then realized what those sounds meant, and slammed the bathroom door shut just as Gus reached the top of the stairs.

“Uh—Hunter? You okay in there?”

“I’m fine!” Hunter called back, “Just, uh—bad morning breath.”

“Ooookaaaayyyy…” Gus said slowly, suspicion lacing his voice, “Well, once you get your… morning breath sorted, breakfast is just about ready.”

Hunter’s feet told him that Gus had headed back downstairs, and he let out a sigh of relief that quickly turned to guilt churning his stomach. He shouldn’t lie to Gus. He knew that. There was no reason to lie. Gus had been there at the natural circle. He’d know exactly what was going on without Hunter needing to explain himself. But still, Hunter shied away from opening the door and revealing his transformation. He’d only worry Gus—it wasn’t like his friend could do anything about it, and showing him would stress him out. No. He needed someone who was an expert in animals, someone who’d have experience with wilder spells like this.

Hunter draped a towel over his new antlers and ears, and pulled his socks back on. Immediately, the world seemed to… numb a little. Sounds dulled, and the vibrations echoing through the house faded to a slight tickle on the bottoms of his feet. His shoes cancelled the feeling almost completely.

Something came up, had to go, he texted Gus quickly, and he was out the window before his friend could read the message. He slipped down the street, ducking through back roads to keep odd looks at bay. Even so, a few workers avoiding the traffic cast the towel over his head quizzical glances. Hunter knocked on Viney’s window. To his relief, his friend appeared, rather than the grandmother she lived with.

“Hunter? Why are you at the window? And why are you wearing a towel?”

Hunter wordlessly tugged the cloth off of his head. Viney stared at him for a few moments. He could practically see the wheels turning in her head. Finally, she said, “Natural circle?”

Hunter nodded. He’d known she would understand. “A circular tunnel through the trees. I backed out of it, and nothing happened, so I thought it was over. But now…” he gestured to the horns. “Do you know anything about it?”

Viney crossed her arms. “I have a thought, but you’re not gonna like it. You shouldn’t have backed out. You’ve got half a spell on you, and removing half a spell is twice as hard as removing a whole spell. We’ve got to go back, and you’ve got to go the rest of the way through that tunnel.”

“This is half a spell? What’s the whole one going to look like?!”

“Probably a full transformation.” Viney waved her hand. “Don’t worry, I’ll go with you. You won’t lose your mind out there.”

“That’s a possibility?”

“I said don’t worry about it.”

The moment Hunter slipped into the trees, he felt a hush settle over him. This was where he belonged. Without thinking, he slipped his boots and socks off, wiggling his fused toes into the soil. The patter of tiny paws in the trees made his ears twitch, and somehow, he knew just where he needed to step to avoid getting his antlers tangled in trees.

Viney stepped on a twig, and the sound made Hunter’s whole body tense. Before he could think, he was flying through the trees, leaping expertly over tree trunks and rocks. The forest passed by in a blur, and he could sense forest creatures moving out of his way. But something was chasing him—something full of magic, something that smelled like the wild the way a dog that rolled around in wolf scat smelled of the wild. He ducked through the trees, doubling back around and hunkering in a hollow made by the roots of a tree. He watched the magic thing tromp past, looking both ways.

“Hunter?” it called, “Hey—where’d you go?”

Hunter blinked. Wait. That was Viney. He shook himself, trying to dislodge the animal, hunted feeling that had taken control of him.

“Here,” he called, crawling out of his hollow. If his ears were still regular flesh, they’d be bright red. “I…”

Viney clicked her tongue. She held his boots tucked under one arm, but the thought of putting them back on felt like cutting off his own feet. “Let’s just… get you to that circle, huh?”

It wasn’t hard. The circle called to Hunter like an unfinished melody, pulling him through the trees. He almost forgot Viney was behind him as he drifted towards it, pushing through the tree tunnel until he reached the place where it narrowed.

“Okay. Careful… careful… Let me find the other end.”

Hunter barely heard her. He crawled through the tunnel, and the tree branches seemed to twine through his hair, around his antlers, and around his very bones. It didn’t feel entirely unlike being possessed, but this way felt… comforting. It smelled like fresh dirt and leaves, and Hunter thought vaguely that if he died here, he wouldn’t mind.

He could see the end of the tunnel. He’d forgotten why he was crawling through it, but he couldn’t back up now—there wasn’t space. But the end promised sunshine and calm, quiet streams. He pushed through, his fuzzy paws quiet on the ground. Yes. He just had to reach the end.

Xxx

Viney crouched at the end of the tunnel. Something had to be wrong. The end of this tunnel was too small for Hunter to get through—it was maybe the size of a medium dog. But she could hear something snuffling inside, so she sat back on her heels and quietly waited. A spell circle made her blend into the forest, not camouflaged so much as casting a sense of belonging on her, as if she were as native to the forest as the trees themselves. Around her, animals started to rustle through the trees, finally comfortable with her.

A small, twitchy nose angled out, quickly followed by the rest of its body. Viney caught her breath. A jackalope. She’d been wondering what Hunter could possibly be turning into, with such big ears and antlers, but that explained it. On all fours, he looked like he’d stand about halfway up her calf, with his antlers bringing him to her knee.

“Hey,” she said softly, “Hunter, are you still in there?”

The jackalope’s ears pricked up, and he eyed her, ready to bolt. Viney remembered how he had bolted earlier, and cast a quick spell of calm, then a spell of understanding. It wouldn’t let her speak words to him, but the link would allow emotions and intent to pass between them. Almost immediately, Viney caught a wave of worry and fear. The world was so big—she was so big—and he was so small.

“It’s okay,” she shushed, “I’m not gonna hurt you.” She lowered herself even closer to the ground, holding her arms out. “C’mere.”

Xxx

She radiated safety and calm out of every pore of her body. He knew, deep in his instincts, that he could not trust this thing. She was big, and had waited patiently outside of his den for him to emerge. She was a hunter, a bird of prey. But it was hard not to trust her. She wanted to help him, he could tell. As much as the forest was engraved on his bones, so was that fact.

He could feel something else—she knew him. But not like this. She knew him when he was big, like her. And he could… almost remember it. Or, at least, he remembered feeling scared and alone. Then… not so scared? She’d helped, he remembered that. There’d been a whole warren of others like her, others who saved him.

She murmured something soft in her strange speech, and he couldn’t help creeping closer. She’d helped him before. He didn’t know what exactly it was he needed help with now, but maybe she could help him again.

Xxx

Viney waited patiently for Hunter to crawl ever-so-slowly into her arms. The moment he did, she scooped him up, hopping to her feet. “Okay. Let’s get you back home.”

He started kicking when they reached the forest’s edge, and Viney was forced to hold him at arm’s length before he could kick her in the ribs. Out of the dim forest, she could take a better look at him. His nose twitched back in the direction of the forest, but aside from the kicking and twitching, he looked healthy, at least. White-gold fur covered his whole body, except in patches where it grew a light brown instead. Viney traced the line of brown fur on one side of his face, and covering his left foreleg. Places where she knew he was scarred. There was another patch on his right shoulder, a tuft on his ear, and…

Viney frowned, gently patting a blotch of brown on his back.

Hunter stopped kicking. He froze. Over their link, Viney felt a wave of fear and revulsion. She lifted her hand from the patch of fur immediately, shifting Hunter in her grasp so that he was wrapped snuggly in her arms.

“It’s okay,” she whispered, “It happened a long time ago. No one’s going to hurt you while I’m around.”

She carried him back home, earning her a few gasps from fellow beastkeepers on the street who knew just how rare a jackalope was. She should have brought that towel with her to cover him back up. But despite the curiosity, no one stopped them.

She let him go in her room, closing the door firmly. He explored his new surroundings cautiously, but Viney could feel curiosity rolling off of him in waves. Good. He still trusted her enough not to be scared.

Viney cleared a spot on her floor, and drew a circle of her own in chalk. Hunter started to sniff at it, and she brushed him away. “Not yet. I’m trying to create my own version to reverse the spell.” She lined the edge of the circle with twigs from Puddles’ nest. A quick spell circle made the twigs twine together and grow upwards. Jerbo had taught her some plant magic, but it wasn’t her strong suit. The twigs quickly branched out, filling the inside of her makeshift tunnel. Viney stopped the spell, grumbling under her breath and taking claw trimmers to the inside of her tunnel. She traced the entrance to the tunnel with a magic circle, glowing with beastkeeping magic, and the other end with healing magic.

“Here we go.” She pushed the tunnel towards Hunter. “Let’s see… bit of plant magic… healing… beastkeeping… you think that’ll be enough wild magic to reverse it?”

Hopeful agreement trembled up their link, and Hunter hopped carefully into the tunnel. The tunnel rattled and shook as he made his way through. A jackalope had gone into the tunnel. And a jackalope came out. Viney clucked her tongue.

“Did it not work?”

Viney jumped. Hunter’s voice—coming from the jackalope. So her spell had worked, or at least partly. “Oh—wait—Hunter, do you know who you are?”

“Yes.” Hunter shook his head. “I think I’m me again, but I’m not…” He hopped experimentally. “Hm.”

“I thought for sure that would work.”

“I think it is working. Just… slowly.” Hunter scratched his ear with his hind leg. “I think we should wait a little before we try anything else.”

“Sounds f—”

A squawk sounded, and faster than Viney could catch, Puddles wriggled through the door and pounced. Hunter yelped, and in a flash, disappeared under the bed. Puddles hissed, swiping as best she could at the new creature in her domain.

“Call off your beast!” Hunter screeched in an almost-comically high-pitched voice, “She’s going to eat me!”

Suddenly, the rarity of jackalopes was starting to make sense. Viney grabbed Puddles around the neck, tugging her away. “No—bad Puddles! Do not eat my friend!”

Puddles snapped and screeched, but Viney managed to shove the griffin out of her room and closed the door firmly. Almost immediately, Puddles started to scratch at the door and whine to be let in.

"No," Viney told her firmly, “You have been a very bad griffin. You are in time out.”

She locked the door and crouched down next to the bed. Hunter sat huddled against the wall, his ears pressed back against his head and his whole body trembling. Viney hissed in. “Hunter? Are you still in there?”

He thumped his foot and whined. Viney scooted under the bed, gently stroking just between his eyes and tracing a line up to his head. “Shshshshshhhhh,” she soothed. The contact brought back the emotional link. She didn’t need it to tell he was scared, but the half-formed emotions and prey feeling confirmed that he’d slid back into an animal state. Viney carefully gathered him up in her arms and brought him back out.

“See? No more griffin,” she told him, continuing to rub right between his eyes. It was a trick that had worked on a baby Puddles, and it worked now. Slowly, the tension eased into sleepy relaxation. “There you go.”

Hunter’s nose twitched. “Your griffin has it out for me,” he sniffed. He hopped out of her arms, scratching behind his ear embarrassedly. “I think she can somehow still tell it’s me.”

Viney laughed. “You might be right about that.” She leaned back against the bed. “Anything you want to do while we wait for the counterspell to finish the job? Any jackalope skills you’ve always wanted to try.”

“I’ve already hopped around, and I’ve had enough of antlers for one lifetime. If we could just… wait… that would be ideal.”

“Mm.” Viney absentmindedly scratched the scruff of his neck, and to her surprise, he didn’t stop her. “Hey, Hunter?”

“What?”

“Do you have a scar on your back?”

“Ha. Uh. What makes you ask that?”

“It’s just… there’s a patch of brown on your back, and all the other patches match up with where your scars are, so I wondered is all.”

He twisted around to look. “Hm. Yes. I do.” He shook his brown foreleg at her. “At this point, I think it would be easier to list places I don’t have scars, though, huh?”

“What happened?”

“Oh. It was just… you know. The usual. Belos, curse, injury, scar, here we are. Doesn’t hurt or anything. Usually.”

Viney frowned. “Back scar? Did you ever get it checked out? Could have damaged a vertebra if the wound was deep enough.”

“Well, it wasn’t,” he snapped, then sighed. “Sorry. It was… it happened when I was maybe eight? You know, I’d already…” he pawed at his own face, where his original scar sat. “…but it was the first time I ever saw him fully transform. I panicked and ran, and haaaah, you know how running from predators can be a bad idea, because it activates their hunting drive?”

Viney’s gut clenched. That much was true. How many times had she been told to back away slowly from a wild animal, or to make herself look bigger rather than run? “I’m sorry,” she murmured.

Hunter’s front legs rolled in a way that she realized was a jackalope version of a shrug. “It was a glancing blow, and I was wearing armor. Shattered the armor of course, but all things considered, I got off pretty lucky. No permanent damage, like I said.”

“Yeah… lucky…” Viney squinted. “Hang on—” she gently tugged on one of his antlers, and it snapped off easily in her hand. “Oh! Look—it’s working.” Now that she really looked, she could find more changes—she was pretty sure he’d gotten bigger, and his ears had shrunk down. “Hunter—tell me something else—something that was good for you this time. Tell me something about the human realm."

"Um… well, when Ms. Noceda found out I was interested in sewing, she almost immediately showed me her sewing machine. She taught me all the basic functions, and together we sewed a little pouch for her dog treats when she’s at work. The dumb thing turned the back of it into a mess of thread halfway through, though. We spent ages trying to undo all those stitches. But once I got used to it, it made sewing a lot faster.”

She wasn’t imagining the changes—over the course of the sewing story, he’d doubled in size. He was now the size of a large dog, and his second antler fell off without a touch. His fur was shorter, too—except the fur on his head, which seemed to be getting longer.

“Keep going—tell me something else, anything that connects you to your witch self. The wild spell feeds off of your animalistic emotions, like fear. My spell is feeding off the opposite. So tell me something… I don’t know, something that’s you. Wait.” Viney took a blanket off her bed, throwing it over him. She didn’t know if his clothes had transformed with him, but she didn’t intend on finding out the hard way. “Okay, now go.”

“Um… palisman carving is going well,” Hunter continued, somewhat muffled by the blanket, “The palistrom tree is growing steadily, and Dell said it’s getting big enough that soon the branches will need trimming, which will give us wood for new palisman. Oh, hey, I’ve got fingers and toes now.”

“Keep going,” Viney urged him, “Just—keep focusing on what makes you yourself.”

The blanket went quiet and still, until finally, Hunter piped up, “Thank you.”

“What?”

“You and Gus, and Willow and Luz and Amity and Skara—all of you. You said to focus on what makes me, well, me, and I—I never would have figured out how to be myself without you. It may not always be as… literal as a spell that will turn me into a prey animal without you and your magic to keep me here, but you guys… keep me anchored. So. Thanks.”

“Oh,” Viney said softly. What else was there to say?

Hunter’s head poked out of the blanket, fully back to normal. “Did it work?”

“It worked,” Viney confirmed, “Welcome back to the less-beasty side.”

“I should get back to Gus—he’s probably out of his mind wondering what happened. Thanks for all this.”

“Anytime. Well—try not to wander into any more wild circles, okay?”

“Yes. Definitely. I will do that.” He started towards the door.

“Hey—Hunter?” Viney couldn’t stop herself from calling out. He turned back towards her, tilting his head in a way that almost made him look like a jackalope again. “I’m glad we’re friends, too.”

A lopsided grin broke across his face, and he nodded. “See you around, Viney.”

He disappeared out the door. Viney looked around, and realized that her make-shift wild circle had completely collapsed, leaving nothing behind. Well—almost nothing. She picked up one of the shed antlers, turning it over in her hands. A jackalope antler. At least she had some proof this whole thing had actually happened.

I, personally, headcanon that the over-the-top antics were Hunter's way of trying to get people to take him seriously. Unfortunately, being an incredibly sheltered teenage boy, he ended up landing on dramatics as his preferred method of "intimidation".

The Golden Guard is supposed to be a figure of respect for civilians, but a source of fear for Wild Witches and disreputable criminals alike? Hunter is going to act as big and scary as he possibly can while wearing the Golden Guard mask!