She drove Greyson’s truck, of whom she was eternally thankful for considering he also offered to turn in their hunts for payment since she was temporarily banned from collecting bounties. Cam explained the process to Iris, who listened attentively with eagerness to get started. She fidgeted with her seatbelt en route to the Coernix bypass. “Thanks again, Cam. I really mean it, if there’s anything I can do to make it up to you, just name it.”

Cam nodded, the gist of a smile on her chapped lips. “Don’t thank me yet, gotta kill something first. Also um,” she looked away from the road for a moment and gave the girl an earnest look, “maybe let’s keep this between us until you’ve developed your skillset. I know your brother will be less than ecstatic that I’m doing this...”

“You didn’t tell him?” an air of concern toned Iris’s voice as they pulled over to the side of the road at their destination, the hunt a short trek away from the pavement. “I thought you guys were...I-I mean-”

“Oh, no no,” Cam shook her head a little faster than she’d intended. “We’ll approach him once you’ve already got a killcount going, hard for him to deny you once you’ve already proven your worth.” 

“Good idea.”

They hopped out of the truck and Cam came around to Iris’s side, but not before stopping to grab something in the back cab. “I have something for you.” 

She presented the teenager with two handguns, the very same ones she’d began hunting with. Iris turned them back and forth in her hands, testing the weight of them, her face a jumble of emotions. Cam explained, “These were mine, before Gladio moved me up to swords. It’s not much, but it will kill stuff and that’s what we need to do for now, at least until you can afford to-”

Iris set the guns on the hood of the truck and pulled Cam into a sudden, unexpected and wordless hug, overcome with gratitude. Cam sighed, returning the gesture. After she showed Iris how to tighten the holsters around her belt, Cam shrugged her swords into place behind her back and they headed into the fray.

The bounty was on a small gang of hobgoblins, something slightly more intermediate than Cam had hoped to offer on a first-timer hunt as they could hit hard; she’d have to ensure they couldn’t get a blow in otherwise things would go south, and fast. She pondered about sparring later down the road and surmised it would be required, remarking that the majority of her quick reflexes were honed through duelling. First Iris had to gather enough gil to get some armor, before moving onto close-quarters combat with melee weapons. Cam could sense the deja-vu with her own progress, but she thought it better to stick with what she knew.

They followed the ungroomed path down the hillside, carving through the overgrown brush and rerouting themselves at impassable areas. “Feels good to get out of the city,” Iris spoke from behind Cam, who was following the map on her phone, “like I can finally breathe or something. It’s so crowded there, even on the best of days.”

“I know the feeling,” Cam replied, keeping her voice low so as to not draw attention to themselves, “Like your thoughts aren’t even your own there, huh?”

“Yes, exactly!” Iris checked behind them periodically. “Like I barely have room to breathe some days. Out here, at least I can move without feeling like I’m about to bump into someone…” 

Just as Cam stepped out from around a large boulder her eyes landed on a swatch of purple-grey skin and she stepped back, certain they hadn’t spotted her. She held a hand up to halt Iris, instead motioning her to slowly peek around the side and get a closer look at them. “There’s three, maybe four total. That’s a lot of fists, fists that will easily knock you out cold with one hit.” She turned back, narrowing her eyes at the brunette. “I have a plan, but how confident are you in your aiming abilities, would you say?”

Iris pursed her lips, considering. “A bit, but not much.” 

At least she’s being honest, Cam thought. “Okay, don’t worry, it comes with experience. For now try to aim at their limbs. Avoid shots to their torsos, all that muscle will just eat your bullets. If you can manage head shots they’ll drop like flies.” In a slinking motion Cam reached back and unsheathed both swords, eliciting a hushed woah from Iris. She glanced around the corner once more, plotting her plan of attack before turning back. “Okay, I’ll head in to get them started. Can probably take one out with a couple quick blows myself, but I’ll need you to start firing as soon as you can get a good line of sight on ‘em. Feel free to start with just one, too, if both guns are overwhelming,” Cam nodded. “Ready?”

Iris gave a brave nod in return, flicking the safety off the gun in her grasp. “Ready.”

With that, Cam all but leaped from behind the rock and the hobgoblins reacted in surprise, animalistic growls as they beat their chests with massive bludgeoning fists. Sure enough Cam could detect a wide opening for one of the daemons and made quick work of it, arms windmilling through the air as she launched herself into a devastating whirlwind attack. Her blades sliced at it’s flesh like a hot knife through butter, the skin ripping to expose planes of flayed muscles, it’s anguished yelps only pushed her bloodlust into overdrive, and with one fell swoop she separated it’s right arm from it’s body. The enemy swayed and dropped, blackened-purple daemon blood spurting in all directions as it bled out, staying down for good.

Cam swivelled just in time to dodge a fist, countering with a well timed blow to the back of the daemon’s neck, the edge of her sword almost getting lodged in between the links of its spinal column. Just then she heard a gunshot ring out, and the hobgoblin occupying her blade fell limp, the telltale black hole that blossomed on its temple the culprit. Beginner’s luck, Cam thought and grinned, though it was short-lived as a hobgoblin unsurprisingly barrelled towards Iris, who had begun running around the perimeter of the action. Good girl, Cam thought, keep moving…

Cam had another near miss that moment, one of the daemons catching her off guard and trying to swipe her legs out from below her. Dammit, where was her honed composure and focus all of a sudden? She reeled back, her elbow connected with it’s jaw, giving with the force of impact and going slack. It howled in pain but attempted to swing at her once more, just glancing Cam’s wrist and causing her blade to slip from her grasp. It flung through the air with a boomerang effect before smacking into a tree. 

She was down a weapon, and there were two daemons left. Iris was firing at one of them, though missing or just grazing for the most part due to the distance and the fact that she was moving. But then the petite girl did something that gave Cam a surge of pride: she withdrew the second gun from its holster, jammed the safety off, and started firing at both enemies at once.

One dropped, still reeling in it’s death throes but Cam ignored it, chasing after the last one until she was in range to attack. She slashed at it’s back, causing it to slow and whip around just in time for her sword to slash its neck. It swayed drunkenly before dropping at her feet, dead. 

“Excellent!” Cam breathed, catching her breath. “All clear.”

Iris panted as well, but movement caught her eye and she approached the last hobgoblin that wasn’t quite dead yet, thrashing around in agony. “Not yet!”

She swung her leg up and with a cleaving slam brought her boot down on it’s face.

  “That was AWESOME!” Iris was positively beaming on the drive back to HQ. “I feel like I could take on an Astral!”

Cam snickered. “Let’s save that one for another day. But you did great, girl. For your first time, you really stood your ground.” She offered her a supportive grin, a rare teeth-baring one, and Iris all but jumped out of her skin with adrenaline-fuelled glee.

“So, when’s the next one?” she asked eagerly as the truck entered the tunnel. “I really like bashing daemon heads in.”

“I don’t see why we can’t get another one out before the day is done,” Cam checked the time, surmising she could grab a blue hunt or two for them to quickly scrape off the docket and earn the girl some extra gil. Oddly though, she was feeling rather beat after that green level hunt, something she hadn’t felt since her earlier training days…

Passing it off as a long day of repetitively sharpening blades, she pulled out of the tunnel and into hunter HQ. The blood puddle at the entrance had dried, the behemoth corpse now gone as several hunters had driven up and around the rock shelf earlier in the day to tow the body a few miles away. 

As she found a spot to park, Cam asked, “Have you ever been here before?”

“Just once,” Iris replied, checking her face in the visor mirror for any spots of blood. She was surprisingly clean for just having committed daemoncide. “I came here with Gladio...right after Noctis went into the crystal.” 

“Oh,” Cam coughed, the prince’s -no, king’s name causing ripe goosebumps to pepper her skin. Gladio had told her many moons ago of his relation to the Lucis family, how his family was responsible to act as the shield of the king, how the scar over his left eye was caused by a bully attacking him and he came between them...She’d asked him to share more about their travels together but he brushed it off, said he “wasn’t ready” to revisit the good times so soon, that he’d need to hold onto them for when he truly lost hope that light would never be restored to Eos… 

Cam slinked out of the vehicle and Iris followed, unbuckling the holsters from her belt loops and setting it on the back of the truck. They spotted Greyson chatting with someone near the western guard post and he waved them down, meeting them halfway. “So,” He hummed, adjusting his bandana around his neck. “How’d it go?” 

“She’ll be a certified hunter in no time,” Cam replied, much to Iris’s delight as she held back a laugh. She handed Greyson the completed hunt flyer and pulled her phone out to send him the kill shots so he could collect their bounty. “We’ll stick with guns for a bit, as my first trainer did with me,” she continued, nodding at the husky man, “but if you want we can switch to something pointy and sharp later on.”

“That’s what I’m looking forward to,” Iris replied, and Cam could swear she puffed her chest out a bit. It was inspiring. “Eventually, I want to have a greatsword, like my big brother.” Cam’s eyebrows bounced a bit. “Wow, ambition girl. I can respect that-”

“IRIS?!” 

Cam’s heart leaped up her throat as Gladio’s voice bellowed from behind them, echoing off the natural stone walls of HQ. Her and Iris turned simultaneously to find Gladio, coated in a layer of sweat, blood and something mucus-like, hands balled into tight fists as he approached. He looked ripe to kill whatever he’d already offed previously. “Why are you here??”

Iris shrunk her shoulders, her mouth opening to respond but the words wouldn’t come. She looked at Cam for help, at a complete loss for words. Gladio’s eyes fixated onto her as well; her soulmate marking indicated so, the outline tingling slightly. 

Cam considered herself an honest person. She’d barely told anything above a fib before and thought herself not great at being dishonest. It always left a bad taste on her mouth at just the thought of bending the truth, yet in the two seconds it took for her to reply to Gladio, her soulmate and one of only a couple people left in the world she could trust…”She needed to get out of the city, so I brought her here to visit you.”

She lied. 

Iris followed suit like a well thought-out plan they’d discussed. “Yeah, I missed you big bro. Plus I had to see what the commotion was about over this behemoth-”

“Dammit, Iris,” Gladio growled, “It’s not safe here for you-”

“It’s not safe anywhere, Gladdy!” Iris’s shrill yelp in response cut the air around them, people staring. “When will you get that? One of these days something bad is going to happen and you won’t be there to protect me-” 

Gladio turned on his heel and walked away from them, calling over his shoulder. “I’ll drive you back to Lestallum myself. Cam, we’ll talk about this when I get back.”

Cam’s brain was throbbing. Why did she have to complicate things… She offered an apologetic look to the younger girl. “Sorry, Iris. I-I don’t know why-” 

“No, thank you for covering my butt,” Iris replied as they trudged behind the messy man, steam almost radiating from him as he made for his Jeep, passing the hunt posting board on the way. Iris’s eyes lit up at the sight, and she trailed behind to get a look at it. “Woah...There’s so many…” she mumbled to herself.

When Gladio reached his vehicle and noticed Iris was still behind, he turned around and found her stopped in her tracks, fixated on the hunt postings. His teeth mashed together. “Iris, what the hell?”

She jolted and ran over. “Sorry! I saw something…”

Without another remark, Gladio backed out of the parking spot and drove off into the darkness of the tunnel. Cam watched his taillights dim as his Jeep faded into the distance.

She wanted to throw up, the lie she’d told had burned her tongue like a fresh cup of Ebony. She regretted it immensely, but at least now she had time to plan her next move, determine when the best time to take Iris out would be. He’d texted her about his new patrolling gig, conveniently provided her with a schedule, suggesting they could spend time together or go on a drive when he wasn’t on duty. She liked the idea very much, though realized now just how thinly stretched her time would be…

Her phone buzzed in her pocket, an incoming text message. She pulled it out and opened it. It was from Prompto: So I see you outside without a beer in your hand. Come inside and I’ll change that. 

Cam’s eyebrows scrunched in confusion, before she realized she was standing just outside the bar. She peered into the window and sure enough, a familiar chocobo-butt hairstyle was visible in the dim bar lighting. He flicked his hand in a casual wave to her and she returned the gesture.