Hunter grinned. Brown tousled hair blowing softly in the breeze, tanned skin shining under the morning sun and green eyes sparkling, he swept into an exaggerated bow. "Welcome to Aenoxis," he said brightly, introducing them to the planet he had grown up on; the world they had just fallen into.

Allowing the visitors chance to gather themselves from the grassy floor, he kept his head tilted towards the overgrown footpath until he saw in their heads that they were waiting for him. Lifting his hand, he took the hand of the Gatherer and gave the girl's olive skin a small kiss. After a moment, he let go, his smile everlasting and his gaze falling on each of them individually for longer than necessary.

Sweeping his arms out to his sides to encompass the great thickness of dark green trees, bushes and vines, even his voice smiled as he said, "Welcome, friends, to Stillhallow, capital city of Kaizagalla. The place the magic in your souls call home." His smile did wonders to relax the tallest two still looking at him with such distaste and distrust.

Mind-reading was a useful talent when getting to know people. "Sage, it is a pleasure. Tallie, Kailani, Kallai, Lexis. Your presence here has been long awaited. Come, please. The king-carer would like to meet with you."

At hearing her name, the olive-skinned girl jumped, her amber eyes alight in a way that Hunter had seen reflected in many females before her. He sent a smile over to paint a delicate blush across her cheeks.

The blue-eyed blonde - Tallie - was holding a hand out towards him. With a smile, he took a step forward and, instead of offering the handshake she'd been expecting, he lifted her hand, turned it, and span her in a gentle circle under his arm.

What he had not expected - but was ultimately grateful for - was that the Elements and Gatherer would be anything other than brutish men.

Before they had even reached the end of the twisting thorns, Kallai spoke, though Hunter almost wished he had not bothered. No one needed to be growled at. "Who are you and how do we know we can trust you?"

Hunter was still honoured to be the one chosen to welcome the Elements home after seventeen long years, but the excitement was wearing off. "I am Hunter Triggs, and I can assure you that you can trust no one better than I." They did not need to speak for him to know that was not strictly speaking true - they trusted each other more than anyone was saying.

"How old are you?" Kallai asked.

"Eighteen," he smiled, "But do not quote me on that, that may change with time." With a wink and a laugh of his own, he did not fail to bring a laugh from each of those three girls. Still, the boy and his- Oh, that was interesting. "I did not know, when I was sent to collect the Elements, that they would belong to such beautiful people. Now, if you will follow me." He turned to walk through the forest of unkempt shrubs and twisting trees, thorns and open flowers gathering every so often in distasteful bunches.

"How come it's so overgrown here?" Kailani asked, "Assuming you didn't design it this way?"

He was glad he'd turned around to answer her question because the girl was touching everything - every leaf, every tree, every branch - and he could hardly move fast enough to take ahold of her hand before she poisoned herself. "Me? No, I would have built at least one welcome sign or swimming pool," he said with a laugh as he guided her onward, ignoring the glare from the girl as white as snow from the Slefodian Mountains. "This area has been left to its own devices for a few years, seventeen and a bit, to be exact."

Sage gave him a look that called him stupid. "Saying 'a bit' isn't being exact."

Grinning at her, he made an exaggerated effort to guide them onward, inviting Sage to walk beside him. Tallie and Kailani moved to walk closer to them, hands held between them. The two more stubborn, moody Elements stayed at the back.

When they reached the end of nature's tunnel of potential harm, they opened into the busy streets of Stillhallow. People with ears both pointed and round, animals of both instinct and consciousness, wandered between the shops and houses that were painted too many colours to count on your fingers - Earth did not have nearly that many, or so his parents had told him.

He supposed most people took for granted the prettiness and safety of the pitied, indiscriminate capital city, but Hunter knew it was one of the very few places that halves like himself were welcome, and they had built it from nothing themselves. Perhaps it was because the number of halves there equalled the number of pure fae, that their king-carer's castle, rising up in the centre with gates wide open daily, was one of green metal.

"Welcome home," he said as he spread his arms wide as if to hold the whole city. But it was not Stillhallow that landed in his arms, having jumped out of seemingly nowhere. Hunter grinned as he brought his arms round Flax, clapping him on the back. With the power of invisibility, the skill of catching people off guard came even more naturally to him as it did Hunter.

When they parted, Flax's eyes were grinning right back at him as his deadpan voice said, "I see you decided not to kill them then." Hunter hit his arm before turning back to their guests to apologise and reassure them he was never going to kill them, and that Flax was just a brain-dead chipmunk - an inside joke that earned him a punch in return. Both Hunter and Flax erupted in laughter and Hunter had to remind himself that he was on official business.

"Flax, perfect timing to join us in walking to the castle," Hunter laughed, waving his friend to walk beside him, the girls having moved away to make space.

Flax might have blended in with the Elements - white skin, freckled face, brown curls atop his head with short back and sides - if it was not for his violet eyes and pointed ears. "So, Hunt," he smiled, pointing to the five people beside him with his chin, "Which one is the Gatherer?"

"Her," Hunter grinned, pointing to Sage and waving the group onward without an explanation. The king-carer had given him strict instructions to leave the explaining to him.

"Stop," Kallai growled, stopping Hunter and Flax in their tracks. "I want a full explanation of what this is and what's going on."

"You brought yourselves here. You have to know enough to have managed that." And he would have left it at that if Lexis had not caught his gaze, stolen his confidence and dropped his grin onto the cobblestone street, walking all over it.

Hunter sighed, his hands trying to calm her down while he amended, "You will get your explanation when we reach the castle. Kaizagalla's king-carer wants to see you to explain it himself." He ignored Flax's laughing at him because it was shortly cut off by the same glare that had silence him just moments before. "Follow me and you will get your answers," he said, his smile returning a little as both Fire and Earth nodded to him. A sigh, and then he turned round and gave Flax a halfhearted smile, "You might not be allowed in the actual castle with us. I will meet you in the courtyard after." A hug and a wink later, and Hunter was leading the group of supposed saviours through the bustling streets towards the castle gates.

The castle courtyard was a joyful mass of market stalls and children playing. Flax jogged off to challenge a younger friend to a game of Kubb while Hunter wished he could join them, instead walking straight past in the direction of the large metal doorway.

As the castle doors swung open, Hunter grinned at the guards and held out his hand for a fist bump. Eventually, he pulled back his hand and saluted instead, promising, "Someday." And then they were inside, walking along polished metal floors through wide and welcoming hallways, flanked by armed escorts. The weapons were just for show, the king-carer having publicly forbidden all battle training, so Hunter found himself completely relaxed, even when face to face with the king-carer seated upon a throne of golden metal. Rumour said he kept his emerald throne - the only piece of luxury he had been allowed - in a more private part of the castle.

"King-Carer," Hunter started with a bow, "I present to you the Elements and their Gatherer." He moved to one side to stand shoulder to... well, chest, with one of their escorts, on the opposite side of the throne room from the other.

Hunter watched as the Elements and their Gatherer stared up at the man on the throne with expressions ranging from polite waiting to aggressive expectancy. The king-carer was a rather large man, but his size was pure muscle, his body a weapon crafted over generations. His hair was thinning, and his beard was kept short, likely because he did not want any association with wizards - those blasted creatures. His eyes, though, showed none of his inhuman strength, nor his old age, but a promise of kindness and trust. "Elements," his booming voice hushed the whole world, the silence echoing through Hunter's ears before the king-carer continued, "Gatherer." He gave Sage a pointed look, and then looked over towards Hunter who simply nodded - yes, Sage was their Gatherer. "Your arrival has been long overdue, and tonight we will feast!" A cheer went up around them and it was only then that Hunter became aware of the hundred or so other people milling about the throne room. The king-carer was a popular man, his innocence and honesty providing refuge for travellers from other countries and continents. "But tomorrow, we have important business to discuss, and I ask you back here at dawn."

Holding his breath, Hunter was trapped in a moment that felt like forever before Sage nodded. Unfortunately, it was not she who spoke next.

Earth stepped forward, her chin raised higher than the king-carer's own. "I won't feast, until I know why." Simple, clear, sharp. Hunter could not help but admire her for it - how she could say everything on her mind with so few words - and he did not fear the king-carer's reaction. The kindhearted soul was not one of tempered arrogance.

"I can offer you no more explanation until tomorrow, I am afraid," came the deep reply of a man who did not like to displease his guests.

A glare. She was glaring at the king-carer. Perhaps she misunderstood that a king-carer was not a carer for the king but the king himself, a man who was chosen by the Queen to care for this country while she oversaw the future of the continent. He was one of many sets of eyes and ears for Queen Lilianna, and was not to be disrespected. "So you don't know anything." Hunter could feel the king-carer's annoyance at the abbreviated 'do not' heating the room to an insufferable degree.

If his company had not been the king-carer and the Elements, he would have let out a low whistle of pleasure at the tense battle of wits that followed. If it had been anyone else, he would have laughed and bet on who would come out victorious. But it was not anyone else, and he did not whistle. He made eye contact with the guard opposite him and the eyes that stared back held the same nervous worry, anticipation, preparation. Except no one knew what they were preparing for.

Sage laid a hand on her friend's shoulder and made to apologise to the king-carer, but Fire stepped forward and took Earth's hand, and Hunter focused on his parent-given name, Kallai, so he could at least pretend he was an ordinary human who could not burn the whole kingdom to the ground if he wished.

Whatever the king-carer saw, whatever it was that made him stop, he gathered his hands in his lap and spoke with a soft clarity that was nothing short of a threat, "I will give you the answers you need, when you need them. What happens next is the feast, and what happens after that is tomorrow's to deal with."

Hunter almost did not recognise the man on the throne. It was still he, the king-carer, but also a man who would not be made a fool of. His voice had taken a darker tone, and everyone in the throne room found somewhere else to look. Despite that, Hunter was surprised when both Lexis and Kallai nodded and crossed their arms in submission.

The king-carer smiled again, showing the only expression Hunter had ever seen him wear before today, and said, "Servants! Come and show our guests to their rooms. Have them ready by two, I will not be left waiting." The people who had been milling about the throne room suddenly swarmed the Elements and he realised they had never been guests in the castle at all. They escorted each Element and their Gatherer by the arms and hurried them through a door and down a hall to Hunter's right.

He had never heard such a tone on the king-carer in all his life, and he told himself he had only dreamt it. When it was his turn to receive word from the king-carer, he waited patiently for his dismissal. Instead, two more servants were sent to flank him and guide him down the same hallway the Elements had been taken. He would never decline an offer like that, but he had promised Flax that he would meet him shortly. "King-Carer, I do not mean to be rude but-"

The king-carer lowered the hand that had silenced him. Hunter waited. "You are to attend the feast with them for the same reason you were to collect them from the Gateway. You are one of those most human, in looks and in blood, and this transition will be easier for them if some part of it is recognisable. Familiar." Hunter did not know if the king-carer knew how disrespectful 'one of those' came across, but he would never point it out. Instead, he swallowed once and nodded slowly. And though it was common knowledge that his talents took the form of enhanced senses, mind reading felt like the only explanation for what he said next. "If it will make you happier, I shall send for Flax Hilles to join you."

For the first time in all of Hunter's life, when he expressed his thanks, the king-carer's responding smile did not reach his eyes. Part of him wondered if he had been offered a place here because he had seen too much - seen the friendly façade fall. If that was the case, he had just taken Flax down with him. Hunter could only nod before he was encouraged from the room, shivering in the warm air.