#hunterxluz

There was garbled static for a few moments as a gust of wind beat down on the poor news reporter and practically buried them under a few feet of snow. The reporter struggled against the wind and their voice grew louder, shouting over the storm:

"The Emperor's Coven is, at this very moment, working on the second batch of care packages for the residents of Bonesborough. Depending on how quickly they can process them, those packages are due to be sent out either tomorrow or the following day. The Coven is working around the clock for the safety and wellbeing of Bonesborough, and they would like to reassure everyone that the situation is under control . . ."

Luz groaned, switching the crystal ball off with the remote control.

"This is gonna be the worst Christmas Eve ever!"

Perched on the other side of the couch, knitting something that was striped red and green, Eda commented blandly,

"Considering none of us know what that even is, I'd say it doesn't matter much."

Luz had her face buried sadly in her hands. She complained forlornly,

"That was the whole point of what I had planned for tomorrow! I was so excited to share one of my weird human traditions with all my demon realm friends, but this dumb blizzard had to go and ruin everything!"

She looked around the living room, at all the hard work she had put into decorating it for Christmas. She did her best to make it look as festive as possible with what she had available. The living room already had large, beautiful red curtains, so Luz had strung green banners along the curtains to make them more Christmas-y. She had patiently cut out tons of white paper snowflakes and attached them to the walls, and had somehow managed to convince Eda to let her cut down a small tree from the woods and drag it indoors to display. They didn't exactly have any Christmas ornaments, but Luz attached string to any small baubles or odds and inns she could find and then hung them on the tree. The red boughs of the tree cheerfully displayed things such as toys, utensils, paperclips, eyeballs, glass vials, and other oddities. Luz had fashioned a wreath for the door with her plant magic, and decorated the fireplace mantel with more plant magic; she'd even hung some old socks as stockings above the fireplace and tried to make a little snowman out of cotton balls.

The finishing touch was going to be lots of lights with her glyph magic, but there wasn't any reason to bother with that anymore. None of her friends would be able to make it to the party she had planned. Luz heaved a sigh.

"I swear, it's like the Titan is out to get me or something. This is like the opposite of a Christmas miracle."

Eda asked dryly,

"Didn't you say you wanted it to be a 'white Christmas'?"

Luz turned and gestured dramatically as she replied,

"Yeah, but not like this! Regular snow is pretty and peaceful, but a deadly blizzard that buries the entire town under like 30 feet of snow?! That's not peaceful!"

Eda chuckled.

"Sorry, kid. The Demon Realm doesn't really get much of what you call 'weather.' We're more about the plagues."

The young witch groaned again and pulled the blanket tighter around herself. King tried to reassure her.

"Hey, at least this means more food for us. You promised this human festival involved a lot of food, you haven't forgotten that part, right?"

Ok, maybe it was more of a reassurance for himself. Luz looked at him and smiled sadly. Eda spoke,

"Uhh . . . I hate to break it to you, King, but we're running pretty low on food as it is already. If we want to survive this storm, we're gonna need to ration things, not binge all at once."

King's eyes grew wide.

"WHAT? N-no! I don't wanna starve, that's like the top on my list of the worst ways to die!"

Luz patted his head.

"It's ok, King. We should have plenty of food to make it to the next care package the Coven is sending."

Eda frowned, muttering,

"I wouldn't put too much faith in the Coven's 'care packages' if I were you. That first one they sent barely even qualified as 'care.' More like 'token gesture package.'"

Luz felt a little bit of worry worm its way into her head. She said,

"Yeah, but they said that was because they expected the storm to end sooner then it did. The next one is supposed to be better, the news guy said so."

Eda made an unimpressed huff, but after a moment, she noticed Luz and King looking at her with concern. She carefully amended,

"You're probably right. I'm sure it'll be fine."

Glancing to the windows, she added,

"Besides, this storm'll blow over sooner or later. I don't think we'll need to wait much longer."

Luz lay back on the couch, moaning,

"I hope so. I'm bored out of my mind, it's already been five days of this. If it goes on for much longer I might just go running out in the blizzard anyway."

The wind outside whistled and howled, and Eda gave her a stern look.

"I wouldn't recommend it."

Their conversation was interrupted when the magic orb began to flash green. Luz used the remote to turn it on and a tiny version of Willow appeared on the orb. Brightly, Luz greeted her.

"Willow, hey! I'm so glad you called, I am so bored. How are things going over there?"

Her friend smiled, answering kindly,

"Hey, Luz. I just wanted to apologize for not being able to make it to your party tomorrow. I know how much you were looking forward to it."

Luz folded her arms and leaned back against them.

"Pfft, it's not your fault hell decided to freeze over today. It just sucks we're all stuck here like this. Have you and your family been as bored as us?"

Willow shrugged a little.

"Oh, things have been okay. I've mostly just been reading and working ahead on my homework."

Luz chuckled.

"Leave it to Willow to think of homework even in the middle of a blizzard."

Her friend put her hands on her hips and answered,

"Hey, I didn't used to be this much of a nerd until I met you, you know."

Luz grinned.

"Yeah, but you love it, admit it. Little Miss Top of the Plant Track now."

Willow gave her a modest smile and admitted,

". . . well, it is nice when people appreciate your work."

Her smile slowly faded, and she added quietly,

"Homework has been a good distraction, anyway."

Luz sensed something was wrong.

"Is something up? You seem worried."

Willow seemed quick to reassure her.

"I-it's nothing, really. We're fine!"

Luz gave her a hard stare. Slowly, Willow drooped.

". . . we just, um, we're sort of running out of food . . ."

Luz gasped.

"What! That isn't nothing! Eda, we have to help her!"

Willow quickly replied,

"Wait, wait, that's why I didn't want to say anything!"

Luz glanced back to the crystal ball as Willow said,

"I knew you'd want to help. But it's fine, really! We just have to be careful with our supplies. The care package is probably coming tomorrow, so after that I'm sure it'll all be fine."

Luz gave her friend a scrutinizing gaze.

"What exactly have you had to eat today?"

Willow crossed her arms and glanced away.

"T-that's . . . that's not really important . . ."

"Willow."

She sighed.

"A muffin and some tea."

"One muffin?! That's it? Tell me you're gonna eat something more today."

Evading the question, Willow said,

"Luz, I'm sure you and Eda and King have enough to worry about already. You don't need to worry about me too."

Exasperated, Luz replied,

"But Willow, I can't just--"

She paused as she heard another voice on the line and Willow turned away. Apparently one of her dads was saying something. After a moment, Willow responded to her dad and then turned back to the crystal ball.

"I gotta go for now, Luz. Just promise me you won't do anything crazy to try and help me, like run out into the blizzard or something."

"But . . ."

"Promise me."

Luz sighed. Dejectedly, she said,

". . . ok. I promise."

"Thank you. I'll talk to you later, ok? Love you."

"Love you. Bye."

The crystal ball switched off. As soon as it did, Luz said,

"Eda, I'm gonna go bring some of our food to Willow's house."

Eda didn't even look up from her knitting. In a resigned tone, she said,

"Somehow I could see that coming."

 Before long, Luz had scrounged up as much warm clothing in the house that she could possibly find. She was carefully layering the clothing on as Eda lectured her.

"Look, the only reason I'm letting you do this at all is because I know you'll just do it anyway behind my back, so I might as well make sure you do it right. This isn't your run-of-the-mill pansy snowstorm we're talking about like from your Human Realm. This is a snow plague. It doesn't work like normal weather, it runs off magic."

Luz nodded as she pulled on a second pair of pants. Eda continued,

"Remember the signs of hypothermia. You'll shiver at the beginning but as it gets worse you might actually stop shivering-- that doesn't mean you're okay. If you feel dizzy, confused, or your heart or breath start to really slow down, I want you to stop immediately, seek shelter, start a fire with one of your glyphs."

Luz smiled at Eda, saying,

"Wow, Eda, you know a lot about freezing to death!"

Eda sighed, buttoning up a tiny dog sweater on King.

"Uh-huh. I want you two to stick close together. When I say close, I mean CLOSE, don't stray for more than a few inches apart. All it takes is a moment for somebody to vanish in the snow."

"Oh, actually, that's why I got this!"

Luz showed her what she had found while scrounging through her old human trash: a dog leash.

". . . huh. That's a good idea, actually."

King was less enthusiastic about the idea.

"Wait, I do not consent to this! The King of Demons does not wear a leash!"

Eda grabbed him and fixed him with a stern look.

"It's either the leash or the baby sling, you choose."

King tapped his chin with a claw a moment, looking thoughtful.

". . . maybe the King of Demons is okay with a leash."

Luz chuckled as she pulled a fourth sweater on over her head. Eda attached the leash to King and continued her lecture.

"Keep your eyes peeled for pockets of deep snow. Use the staff to feel the path ahead of you, that should give you an idea of what you're getting into. Don't rush, take it slow."

Luz frowned in thought as an idea occurred to her.

"Wouldn't it be easier if we just flew on the staff?"

Ed shook her head.

"No, not with the winds and the visibility the way they are-- you don't have that kind of flying experience. Stick to the ground."

Luz realized that made sense. She pulled a cat-eared beanie onto her head and began to coil a long scarf around herself. Eda materialized a scroll and handed it to Luz.

"Keep this with you. It'll be hard to see much out there, so it'll act as your map. And if you run into real trouble, you can call me."

Luz beamed as she looked at the handheld magic scroll.

"Whoa, a scroll just for me? I thought you had to have a magic bile sac to use one of these?"

Eda grabbed her magic staff and answered in a distracted tone,

"No, anybody can use scrolls, if they have enough common sense."

Luz glanced up from the scroll, confused.

"Really? Why didn't you give me one of these sooner then?"

Eda sighed, her staff starting to glow with magic.

"Because I was hoping you'd never get curious and ask for one. Do you know how insufferable kids are with those things? Their Penstagrams and all that, ugh."

Luz's eyes grew wide.

"Ooh, good idea! I should make an account!"

She played around with the scroll, but Eda seemed busy with her magic staff. It was glowing a soft pink, and a small sphere of light began to slowly expand around Owlbert. Luz stopped fussing with the scroll to watch, noticing that Eda seemed to be concentrating very hard-- and Owlbert, as well, his eyes glowing white.

Eda muttered quietly,

"C-cmon, Owlbert, you can do it . . ."

Starting to feel a little concerned, Luz said,

"Um, Eda . . ."

The older witch answered through clenched teeth,

"In a minute . . ."

The pink sphere expanded wider, forming a mostly-transparent globe that engulfed the staff and Eda. The magic seemed to fluctuate, flickering, and the glowing sphere began to fill with a dark shadow. Eda's grip on her staff tightened, and she closed her eyes, hissing,

"No, no, no need to panic, we still got this . . . I believe in you, Owlbert."

Luz watched, agape, as the shadows gradually receded, and the pink sphere of light expanded further, until some sort of force-field encompassed Eda a little more than a foot in all directions. Once it reached that point, Owlbert's eyes stopped glowing and Eda released a breath, wobbling a little on her feet. Luz stepped forward in case she needed help and asked,

"Are you okay?"

Eda took a moment to survey her work and then smirked, looking very pleased with herself.

"Yeah."

She touched Owlbert's head gently and said,

"Good work, Owlbert."

The owl hooted softly, looking exhausted but happy. Eda held the staff out to Luz, causing the edge of the force-field to cross over Luz and then encompass her. It felt a little funny when it crossed over her, like a ripple of static electricity, but didn't hurt.

Eda told her,

"Take this. The shield will help protect you from the storm. It'll still be freezing and you still need to watch your step, but it should make things a little easier."

Luz took the staff. She stammered,

"H-how . . . I thought you couldn't use your magic like that anymore?"

Eda crossed her arms and gave her a crooked smile.

"That was 90% Owlbert's doing. I was just giving him a little boost. We've been working on some more complex things lately."

Luz looked at Owlbert, confused.

"A boost?"

Eda sat back down on the couch, looking tired.

"Yeah. Staffs have their own innate magic in them. That's why you're able to use them without any innate magic yourself. But witches normally combine their powers with the staffs they use. It's sort of like . . . the staff lets them focus and magnify their own magic. You work together with your palisman."

She crooked a finger at her.

"I don't have a lot of my own magic these days, so Owlbert has been taking up the slack. Make sure to say thank you."

Luz looked at the little palisman and chimed,

"Thank you, Owlbert!"

The owl gave her a tired hoot in return. Eda gestured impatiently at them, saying,

"All right, then, you two, you'd better get going before it gets any later."

Luz finished putting on a pair of gloves-- they were a bit too small and a little worn, but they were better than nothing-- and slung the bag of food over her back, then grabbed hold of King's leash in one hand and the staff with the other. Luz said brightly,

"Okay! Wish us luck. Not that we'll need it, I'm sure we'll be okay."

Eda sighed, the concern still clear in her eye. She answered,

"Well, good luck anyway. Oh, hold on."

She stood and took the thing she had been knitting and wrapped it carefully around King's neck, a festive little red-and-green scarf.

"There. Now, be sure to come back alive, or I'll kill you both."

Luz laughed at Eda's joke (it was a joke, right?) and headed to the front door.

"You don't need to worry so much, King and I can handle a little snow."

She opened the door, and immediately, a massive wall of snow buried her up to her head. In a panic, she flailed and struggled to escape. When her head popped out, she saw that Hooty was encased in a solid block of ice, his expression frozen into a twisted visage of horror. Luz gasped,

"Hooty!"

Eda sighed again, shuffling over and pulling Luz out of the huge pile of snow, saying,

"Don't worry, he's been through this kind of thing before. He just needs a little . . ."

She borrowed the staff from Luz.

"Tap."

Smashing the staff against Hooty's face, the ice shattered, and Hooty gasped for breath and immediately started screaming.

"HOOT HOOT, PLEASE DON'T LEAVE ME OUT THERE, I'LL BE GOOD I PROMISE--"

He started coughing up snow. Luz sighed, realizing this trip may be a little tougher then she had anticipated.

 Luz and King's journey started off a little slow, as Luz had no choice but to break out some of her fire glyphs already so they could burrow their way through the snow that had piled up around their house. Once they immerged from the slushy mess, they found themselves in a world completely transformed.

Taking her first few fumbling steps out beyond the Owl House, Luz was amazed at what was there to greet them. The winds were howling fiercely, sending flurries of snowflakes rushing in all directions, beating wildly against the nearby trees. All around them was a blanket of pure white, engulfing the once familiar woods and leaving behind nothing recognizable, save for some of the taller trees Luz knew. Luz slowly walked forwards, feeling around in front of her with the staff and stepping carefully, her breath drifting out in soft puffs. The snow crunched underfoot and she sunk down several inches, but fortunately no deeper than that. It made walking a little difficult, as she had to lift her feet up pretty high, but it was at least manageable.

"Man, Eda wasn't kidding about this storm, was she? Stick close, King--"

The young demon had other ideas, unfortunately.

"I have to eat the white things!" he yelled, wagging his tail and plowing forwards, pushing past their magic storm shield and running headlong into the storm on all fours. He opened his jaws wide and snapped at the snowflakes, even as the winds pushed him and his paws slipped and slid in the snow.

"King! Get back in here!"

She tugged on the leash, but he ignored her, leaping into the air to catch the dizzying flecks of white. After a few jumps, he suddenly vanished from Luz's sight, and she cried out in alarm.

"King?!"

As she moved forward, she realized he had fallen into a deeper pocket of snow. Sighing, she muttered,

"Well, that didn't take long."

She stuck her staff upright into the snow for a moment. Standing beside the pocket of snow that had swallowed up King, she reached down to see if she could feel him. After she got a decent grip on one of his horns, she pulled on both the leash and his head to drag him up. He flailed his little paws and shrieked,

"Everything was white but then it all went dark! And really cold!"

Luz set him back down carefully, brushing the snow off him. She lightly scolded him,

"That's what you get for running off! Stay inside the shield, ok? Your feet are so teeny tiny and you're shorter than me, you can get buried way too easily."

He whined and Luz gave him a stern look. Reluctantly, he grumbled,

"All right . . ."

Luz nodded.

"Good. Now let's take things nice and slow."

She grabbed the staff again and the pair continued walking.

Progress was indeed slow, but it was steady. Luz definitely felt grateful for their magic shield. It felt an awful lot like being inside a snow-globe, in a way. She could see the snowflakes swirling all around them, but they never fell inside their little pink globe. The shield also protected them from the winds, which were blowing pretty fiercely. She could hear the winds howling and the trees swaying, but the sound was somewhat muffled by the shield, so for the most part what they heard was the steady crunch-crunch-crunch of their footsteps.

Something that the shield did not protect them from was the cold. Most of Luz was covered up pretty well, but the parts of her face that were exposed were starting to really sting, and she was starting to feel how worn and thin her gloves were. She was also starting to tire from walking through the snow, which she didn't expect-- but being forced to slog through some very deep parts was actually a lot of work. King seemed to be doing better than she was, despite being smaller and wearing less clothing. He occasionally sunk down too far and Luz had to pull him out of a deep pocket, but for the most part he seemed to have a natural talent for moving through the snow. Maybe moving on all fours helped? An interesting idea, but Luz was going to stick with bipedal movement, personally.

After a rather exhausting trek through the woods, slowly working their way down from the cliffs where the Owl House stood, they finally immerged onto Bonesborough proper. The moment they did, stepping out of the woods and into the clearing, Luz sucked in a cold, surprised breath at the sight.

She uttered a quiet,

"Holy smokes."

She had been expecting there to be a lot of snow, of course-- but not this much. The snow had apparently been piling on long enough to completely bury a massive portion of the town. Where there once were streets lined with shops and charming little houses was just a vast white blankness, with only the rooftops barely peaking through. The upper half of the cathedral that dominated the center of town still remained intact, and many of the taller bones and monster arms still remained visible, but other than that . . . not much remained.

King stood back up on two legs and stared in awe along with Luz. He asked,

"Are we, uh . . . gonna even be able to find Willow's house in all of that?"

Luz wrapped her scarf tighter around herself, looking confidant.

"We will. We'll get to her even if we have to dig to her house."

King looked at her and shrugged.

"Okay, you're the boss."

They continued their trek forward, determined to reach their destination. Willow's house was in a suburb immediately outside of Bonesborough's downtown, so Luz planned on passing straight through. Their initial approach involved a few more slopes, however, which ended up being rather exciting because they kept losing traction and sliding down the hill. It didn't help that King was always moving ahead at a fast pace and sometimes pulled Luz along with him when he slipped. Thankfully, they reached more solid ground before too long and didn't need to deal with any more slopes.

However, they ran into a new problem. It seemed that the snowfall was only increasing. The winds had picked up, too. It grew progressively worse as they both slogged forward through the fresh snowfall, until their visibility became almost a joke. They could hardly see for more than a few inches past their storm shield, the entire world swallowed up in a wild, spinning swirl of snowflakes. Luz's face and hands started to feel numb, and even King seemed to be shivering a little.

"Aren't we supposed to go this way?"

Luz paused, glancing down at her magic scroll. She shook her head.

"No, no, we need to keep going this way. We should head past Beelzebub Street."

King tilted his head.

"How do you know that's where Beelzebub is? I thought it was that way."

Luz looked up from her scroll.

"Because! We've been moving this direction for the past fifteen minutes, and we haven't seen the Dead Hand Cul-de-sac yet, so it has to be right."

She fell quiet, staring at the snow howling and twisting just outside of their magic shield. In a quieter voice, she added,

". . . right?"

King's eyes grew worried. Luz shivered, starting to feel awfully tiny and alone inside their little bubble.

"We're not lost," Luz said, sounding defensive.

"I didn't say we were."

"Yeah, but you're thinking it."

King looked at her. Luz sighed.

". . . ok, maybe we're lost. Just a little. But all we need to do is keep going until we see the Dead Hand."

"If it isn't buried by now," King muttered to himself. Luz pocketed her scroll and continued to walk, pretending she didn't hear him. They would see it sooner or later, the thing was super tall. There's no way they could miss it.

 After around 20 minutes of searching, Luz was starting to think they somehow missed it. They'd come across some parts of snow that had been recently plowed by the Coven's Abominations-- an effort that was pretty much just a drop in a bucket in the current weather-- but those hadn't been particularly noteworthy. Whatever path they'd been trying to make seemed to have already been swallowed up in fresh snow.

At one point, they passed by a large, red sled on its side, abandoned in the snow, with random boxes and supplies scattered around it. They both paused briefly to examine it. Luz picked through the boxes and junk, but there didn't seem to be anything of value left, just trash and things.  

King had clamored up on the sled's side. He asked,

"You think the people who used this are still around?"

Luz gave the sled another glance, but shook her head.

"Looks to me like they're long gone now. It might have been some equipment the Coven have been using."

King hopped back down.

"I guess they're the only ones left crazy enough to go out in this."

Luz gave him a weak smile and then urged gently,

"C'mon, let's keep moving. We've gotta be close by now."

He followed without further comment, but Luz could tell he was growing worried. Truth be told, she was too, but she stubbornly refused to give up hope. Surely any time now, something recognizable would pop into view.

Eventually, Luz did come across something recognizable-- but what she found was not at all comforting.

Gazing at the ground, Luz spoke tentatively.

"Um . . . King?"

He looked up. Luz gestured at the ground to their right, nervously.

"Are those, uh . . . your footprints?"

He approached and touched the snow covered in his little pawmarks, which were clearly a perfect match. It took him a second to realize what it meant, and then he demanded,

"Wait, are we going in circles?"

Luz laughed nervously.

"M-maybe?"

King reeled back, immediately looking on the verge of panic.

"We're gonna die out here, aren't we?!"

Luz moved quickly to touch him on the shoulder and tried to sound soothing;

"Hold on, stay calm. We're not gonna die out here. Worst comes to worst, we can call Eda, remember?"

He didn't seem to be reassured.

"How would that even help?! She'd have to find us out here first, and that'll never happen!"

Luz was about to argue, but she paused, blinking. Uhh. Hmm. That was . . . kinda good point.

Shoot.

"We're gonna die!! I'm too young to die, I haven't even had a chance to accomplish most of my dreams! Like eating an entire giraffe in one sitting! And biting the Emperor on the ass!"

"King, we're not going to die--"

"HEEELLPP! HELP--"

Luz held a hand to King's mouth, suddenly hushing him;

"Shhh! What was that?"

"What was what?"

Warily, Luz stared past their transparent magic shield, into the endless mess of snow. They both remained silent for several moments, the only sound being the muffled wailing of wind.

Luz whispered,

"I swear I heard something."

King wrung his claws together anxiously. Cautiously, Luz started walking toward where she thought she heard the noise. King whispered urgently,

"Why are going towards the noise?"

Luz whispered back,

"Because what if it's a person? They could be lost out here too! Then we--"

She stopped short when she spotted a flash of light coming from somewhere in the snow. It flickered out, only to reappear again a few moments later, a large, curving arc of light and a muffled hissing noise. Excited, Luz walked faster, pushing through snow that she sunk into up to her knees. As she hobbled closer and the light flashed again, she finally realized it looked like flames. In the middle of a land plagued by snow, there was this small flash of fire burning brightly.

Luz turned to quickly pick King up so he wouldn't drown in snow, and then pushed forward again, guided by the light. She struggled through, and slowly, surely, they drew closer, closer, until she could make out the figure of a person. They were covered head to toe in warm clothing, with heavy-duty boots and a big puffy jacket that had a fur-lined hood, which obscured the person's face entirely. They held a magic staff, which they kept swinging, sending out jets of flame. Luz was confused at first about what exactly they were doing, but as she got even closer, she realized they were standing beside a house. They seemed to be focusing the magic flames in an attempt to unbury the house from the snow.

"Look, King, that must be their house. We should help them. HEY! HELLO THERE, DO YOU NEED HELP?"

The person stopped and immediately jerked to look Luz's direction-- and then hopped onboard the staff and took flight.

"HEY, WAIT! Oh, crap!"

Before she could think the better of it, Luz leapt onboard her own staff, taking King along for the ride, and took off after the startled person. They were flying low over the roofs of houses, battling the winds, so Luz didn't have too much difficulty catching up to them-- however, they seemed to be ignoring her shouts entirely.

"WE DON'T WANNA HURT YOU!"

They took a hard turn upwards and she dove up after them, and before she knew it, they had spun around and shot a jet of flame at her. She dodged low, narrowly avoiding smashing into the top of a building, then turned and tried to come at the stranger from behind.

"HEY--"

The stranger shot at them again, this time much more point-blank, and Luz had to react fast, grabbing a glyph from her pocket and hoping she'd grabbed a useful one-- mercifully, the glyph she set off created a large chunk of ice that interrupted the flames. Their foe swerved in a panic and seemed to be briefly caught off balance by the winds. Luz saw an opening and quickly checked the next glyph she'd grabbed-- plant. Perfect. She dove and set the glyph off, knocking the stranger clean off their staff and sending them sprawling to land in the snow below.

When Luz landed beside her fallen quarry, they were struggling to climb to their feet, caught in a pretty deep pocket of snow. She rushed up to them, determined to get them to finally listen.

"I'm so sorry about that, but I swear I don't want to hurt you! We just want to help, I promise!"

The figure trapped in the snow seemed to freeze for a moment. Luz reached out, offering her hand. They ignored the offer and instead struggled to their feet unaided, then simply stood there, presumably staring at her-- Luz still couldn't actually tell, with how tightly they had their fluffy hood around their head.

Something small darted through the air, fluttering down to land on the person's shoulder. It took Luz a moment to realize it was a little red bird.

A . . . very familiar little red bird.

As the palisman shifted back into a staff, Luz gasped,

"Wait, Hunter?"

The stranger pushed back their hood, revealing a rather irate witch. In an extremely exasperated voice, he demanded,

"What in the festering Titan are you doing out here?!"

Luz blinked, too shocked to even mind the fact he was angry at her. She said,

"I could ask the same?"

With a huff, he shot back,

"I was carrying out a mission until somebody came along and decided to attack me for no reason."

Luz was quick to defend herself.

"Hey, you attacked first! You're the one who kept ignoring me, didn't you hear me asking if you wanted help?"

He gestured wildly all around them.

"Does it seem like this is a great place for hearing things?! All I knew was that somebody with a force field was hollering and charging right at me."

"Oh," Luz said, suddenly feeling bad. With a sheepish smile, she said,

"Sorry."

Pointing his staff at her, he asked again,

"Seriously, why are you out here? Absolutely no one should be running around in this storm unless they have a death wish."

Luz exchanged a look with King and then offered,

"Um, well, Willow is running really low on supplies, so we were bringing her some food."

Hunter stared for a moment and then pressed a gloved hand to his face. He grumbled,

"So you do have a death wish."

King put his little paws on his hips and piped up.

"Hey, at least we're doing a better job out here then you are! You're the one who fell off his staff and ate a face full of snow!"

Hunter's eyes flashed dangerously and his staff glowed with a charge as he pointed it.

"Anyone's flying is impaired in these winds unless they have a shield-- that's the only reason you briefly had the upper hand."

"Hey," Luz interjected, stepping between King and Hunter,

"We don't want to fight! If anything, we could be helping each other!"

Hunter glared for a few moments, but stood down from his aggressive posturing. He shook his head.

"I don't need help. Just stay out of my business."

He turned to leave, but Luz wasn't finished. She rushed to follow after him.

"Hold on, you haven't told us yet what you're doing! Why were you excavating that house?"

He kept walking, not looking back at her.

"Don't worry about it. Coven business."

She struggled to make sense of that as she followed behind.

"Wouldn't the news tell us if the Coven was doing something important today? And wouldn't there be a whole team? It looks like you're all alone out here."

"I said don't worry about it."

They reached the house that Hunter had been clearing snow away from, and for the first time, Luz noticed a cloth bag was left in the snow.

"What's this?"

She reached to pick it up, but Hunter snatched it away from her.

"Will you get out of here already?! It's supplies, I'm delivering supplies. Are you happy now?"

Luz gazed at the house, feeling confused.

"But the Coven said the packages aren't due until tomorrow or the next day. And besides, aren't those are all being delivered by Abominations? They said it's still too dangerous out here for people."

Hunter looked about ready to blow a gasket.

"If you don't scram I swear I'm gonna--"

He stopped short. There was a strange, deep rumbling sound, and they all looked about in confusion. After a few moments, Luz could see something immerging from the snow some distance away-- an Abomination, pushing a rumbling device along the ground, plowing the snow.

To her surprise, Hunter looked a little panicked. Grabbing up his bag and hopping on his staff, he said,

"Uh anyway, gotta go, see ya!"

He took off, but there was no way Luz was leaving it at that. She yanked King back onboard their staff and followed in hot pursuit. For a few awful moments, she thought she'd lost him in the endless streams of snow, but she caught a vague silhouette out of the corner of her eye-- the smallest of shapes in a field of white static-- and she locked on to him. She followed until he eventually chose to land on top of a tall, flat roof, on top what was originally a store of some sort.

When she landed on the roof with him, he seemed startled and incredibly annoyed. In disbelief, he growled,

"Are you kidding me?"

Luz started to cautiously approach him, saying,

"If you'd just stop a moment and listen--"

He seemed to snap. Stalking forward, he quickly pushed past her magic force field and leaned directly into her personal space, glaring daggers and demanding,

"Why are you so obsessed with following me?!”

Luz stood very still, returning his gaze. She calmly pressed:

“Why are you hiding from them?”

He continued to glare at her for a few moments as she patiently waited.

Then the anger seemed to drain from him, slowly. He released a disgusted sigh through his nose and turned away, moving to sit on the snow-dusted roof. After a few moments, he muttered tersely,

“My mission isn’t exactly authorized by the Coven.”

King glanced at Luz, looking surprised. Luz cautiously sat down on the roof beside Hunter. Carefully, she asked,

“So . . . you’re acting alone?”

He sighed. Still gazing out into the blizzard, he answered quietly.

“I’m just trying to get supplies to those who’ve been hit the hardest.”

Luz's brow crumpled. This still wasn't making sense.

“I don’t understand. Aren’t there care packages due tomorrow? They said those should have plenty for everyone.”

He gave a dry laugh, his face already dusted with a buildup of snow.

"Plenty for those who are considered worth it, sure. Not so much for everyone else."

Luz stared at him. Warily, she asked,

"What exactly do you mean?"

He glanced at her, his smile crooked and humorless.

"You really haven't noticed by now? The Coven's very meticulous and organized. They have people sorted into categories. Those who are loyal to the Emperor and considered the most useful . . . and then, well, the 'lower priorities.'"

Luz felt a deep swell of disgust rising within her.

"Tell me you're not saying what I think you are."

He answered in a way that removed any room for doubt.

"The Coven's sitting on an entire bank of emergency supplies, but what they're passing out to the lowest priorities will hardly last them for more than a single afternoon."

Luz was silent a few moments, not even sure how to respond to that. From beside her, King said,

"That's horrible."

Hunter shrugged.

"It's the way the system works."

Luz's mind flickered over the implications of what he was saying.

"So you've been helping out the 'lowest priorities'? Where have you been getting, um . . ."

He chuckled, letting her see the bag he'd been carrying.

"It's pathetic, I know. Stole what I could carry. Just rushed out and started chucking things at houses. Great plan, right? I've only visited four houses out of dozens and dozens slated for starvation. It's made basically no difference."

Luz studied him thoughtfully. He seemed uncomfortable with the scrutiny and glanced away from her. Softly, Luz said,

"It made a difference to the people in those four houses."

He looked at her a moment and then released a small puff of a laugh, looking weary.

"I guess. Not enough, though."

Luz rubbed her numb hands together and pondered things. Here she'd been just trying to get supplies to one of her friends, and Hunter had been trying to help out the entire town. It made her feel pretty self-centered in comparison. She had no idea things were this bad, though. Knowing it now kind of changed everything.

"Wait," she said, as something occurred to her,

"You were pretty quick to call my plan dumb when you've been doing basically the same thing."

He seemed mildly amused.

"That's because I hoped you weren't out here doing something as stupid as I was."

Luz crossed her arms.

"It's not stupid. You saw something awful was being done and you tried to do something about it. It's compassionate and heroic."

He brushed the snow off that was accumulating on his jacket and turned away, muttering.

"Tch. That'll be what the few survivors write on my grave, then. 'He was heroic.'"

Luz watched the snowflakes as they continued to dust Hunter's fluffy hair and stick to his eyelashes. Despite the sulky front he was putting on, she could tell it was truly bothering him. Luz struggled to think of a solution. His basic idea had been a good one-- it's just the logistics were difficult. It was an awful lot for just one person to accomplish, delivering all those packages on their own. In order to do that, you'd have to be almost superhuman, like . . .

Luz's eyes widened and she gasped. Hunter's hot-pink eyes shifted to her quickly, curious.

"Hunter! Oh man, this is so perfect-- you're basically Santa Clause!"

He narrowed his eyes, frowning, looking very confused.

". . . what?"

With glee, she realized they'd already come across exactly what they needed. She excitedly grabbed onto King and said,

"King, you remember that sled we saw earlier? The huge red one?"

"Uhh . . . yeah?"

She turned back to Hunter and said jubilantly,

"This could actually work-- you only stole what you could carry, right? What if we loaded up a whole sleigh with stuff? Enough so we could deliver things to everyone?"

He stared at her.

"You . . . you expect us to just march up to the middle of the castle and just load an entire sleigh up without anyone noticing or stopping us?"

Luz cackled in joy, rubbing her hands together.

"Yes, because we'll be using a little Santa magic!"

At this point both King and Hunter were staring blankly at her. King asked,

"Is this about your weird human holiday thing?"

Hunter crossed his arms. He stated plainly,

"You're insane."

Luz grinned.

"Am I? Or do I have something up my sleeve . . ."

She fumbled a moment with her gloves and extracted a glyph from her sleeve.

"Now you see me . . . now you don't!"

When she blipped out of existence, she got to enjoy the sight of Hunter's irritated, tired expression suddenly change into something dumbfounded. King laughed, saying,

"I forgot about that one. That's actually a good idea."

Mouth slightly agape, Hunter reached out cautiously into the space Luz had been occupying. His gloved hand touched her shoulder and she giggled, reappearing. He jerked his hand back in surprise.

"What do you think?" Luz asked, smiling at him. Hunter was silent at first. After a few beats, he admitted,

"I didn't realize glyphs could do that."

Luz's happy smile increased. He continued,

"But, still-- what you're wanting to do is . . ."

He sighed, rubbing his face with his hands, looking anxious.

"It's insane. You're asking me to infiltrate and steal large quantities of supplies from the Coven. The most fortified, ruthless, powerful force in the Demon Realm."

Luz shook her head.

"No, I'm not asking you to-- I'm wanting us to, together!"

He stared at her again.

"Do you have any concept of how ridiculously dangerous that is?"

King laughed, saying confidently,

"We're not afraid of danger! Or your Emperor's Coven. We've faced it before and we can again! Right, Luz?"

Luz nodded at King, but she could see this wasn't a compelling argument to Hunter. She spoke to him appeasingly.

"Look, before you automatically reject the idea, just . . . hear us out. Let me take you to the sleigh we found, I can show you the glyphs working on it."

He groaned,

"I can't--"

Luz reached out and touched his knee, quickly saying,

"Hold on, hold on-- you're the Golden Guard, right? If anyone knows how to steal from the Coven, it'd be you. With your knowledge and our help, I know we could do it! Instead of just four houses, we can help everyone!"

He looked at her, and Luz hoped he could see how much she sincerely believed they could do it-- she continued to smile encouragingly at him. His eyes flickered briefly to Luz's hand on his knee and then he glanced away, fussing with his jacket as if looking for a distraction.

"I-I . . ."

Luz took her hand away in case she was making him uncomfortable, and patiently waited for his reply. He continued to stare out into the snow, but she could see he was grappling with the idea. After a few moments, he muttered very quietly,

"I can't believe I'm doing this . . ."

Luz immediately leapt to her feet, unable to suppress her excitement, cheering,

"Yeah! Just wait, you'll see! We're gonna pull off a Christmas miracle together!"

He stood slowly, his expression showing that he was still in disbelief over his own actions. With a small sigh, he muttered to himself,

"Titan save me . . ."