Chapter 124: Extra - #2 - Not Necessarily Canon

Chapter 124: Extra Chapter #2 - Not Necessarily Canon

[City of Argus - 12 Years in the Future]

Hidden deep within the forest on the outskirts of Argus, Sylas was in his elevated camp, which he had built himself among the branches of a tree... which was definitely not a treehouse, but rather his secret operations lair, and he planned to beat up anyone who said otherwise.

With a very serious expression, he scribbled his future plans into his notebook, starting with his short-term goals: become physically stronger, obtain capital, gain influence, and, finally, take over the world.

A smile appeared on Sylas’s face as he proudly nodded while reading his own plan. He was still missing plenty of details to turn it into a solid plan, but the general idea was sound. He wanted to start working out the finer details, but his pen stopped when his wolf ears twitched, picking up the sound of some small, very quiet footsteps.

"Ah..." he sighed tiredly, already guessing who it was.

"SYLAAASSS!" a girl’s voice shouted at an excessively high volume, confirming his suspicions.

Reluctantly, Sylas stood up, closed his notebook, and headed toward the window. The number of people who knew about his secret hideout was extremely small. He had made sure to build the base deep enough in the forest, where other children or people normally didn’t tend to go...

Unfortunately, he hadn’t taken into account that elves did tend to roam around this area.

When he poked his head out the window, he saw her: mauve skin, green hair, and pointed ears. Also known as the thorn in his side... Naisha.

Naisha waved at him when she saw him and gave him a huge smile.

Sylas rubbed his tired eyes.

"What do you want?" he asked, slightly annoyed.

Shyly, Naisha put her hands behind her back before answering.

"Can I come into your treehouse? I brought something interesting that you’ll like."

Sylas’s eye twitched when he heard her call his lair a treehouse. "It’s not a treehouse!" he growled irritably.

That place was his operations base, not somewhere for children. Although, technically, he was also a child, but that detail was beside the point.

Naisha pursed her lips into a small pout and crossed her arms, looking skeptical.

"Your base is in a tree?"

Sylas reluctantly nodded.

"Your base is made of wood?" she asked again.

Sylas nodded once more, still not understanding what point she was trying to make.

Naisha couldn’t hide her smile. "Then it’s a treehouse, silly! Hahahahah!"

Sylas didn’t approve of his logic.

"BAM!"

Annoyed, he slammed the window shut, hoping that would get the message across and make her leave.

It didn’t work.

"BAM! x2"

The trapdoor in the floor suddenly flew open, and Naisha’s head poked through it.

"I’ve told you so many times that you can’t come in!" Sylas protested, furrowing his brow.

Naisha smiled smugly. "And I told you many times that I don’t care what you say!"

Sylas wanted to hit her. He wanted to do it very badly, but he held himself back, clenching his fists tightly as he kept his anger under control.

He couldn’t hurt her. Not if he didn’t want to die.

Attacking an elven girl within elven territory was practically a direct provocation, so he had no choice but to restrain himself. He took several deep breaths, trying to calm down as he watched Naisha begin forcing a sack through the trapdoor.

Something large and heavy was sticking out of the bag, making it difficult for Naisha to get it through the trapdoor. Even so, she kept pulling until she finally managed to get it completely inside the lair.

When she opened it, Sylas had no trouble recognizing what was inside.

"A saddle?" he asked in confusion when he saw a leather saddle sitting in the middle of the room.

Naisha nodded repeatedly, clearly excited.

"The huntresses let me take it! They said it had a manufacturing defect and that it was too small for any of the mounts they had." She looked at him with stars in her eyes. "So now it’s mine!"

Sylas nodded, understanding where the saddle had come from, although he still didn’t understand why she was showing it to him.

"And you carried this heavy saddle all the way from the elves’ settlement just to show it to me?"

Naisha played with one of her locks of hair, trying to look cuter before answering.

"Well, like I said, the saddle is too small for any of the huntresses’ mounts..."

She slowly closed the distance between them until she was practically pressed against him, resting her shoulder against his.

"...but do you know who it would fit perfectly—?"

"No," Sylas interrupted with a firm answer that left Naisha in shock.

The girl quickly moved away from him.

"But you didn’t let me finish!" she complained angrily. "If you transform into a wolf, I could—"

"No."

"We’d make a great team—"

"NO!"

"FINE!" Naisha finally shouted, genuinely angry.

Her aura exploded as she marched toward the saddle. She grabbed it and hurled it at the window with all her strength, smashing through the wooden frame and shattering it on impact before falling outside.

"And you know what!?" she continued, pointing a finger at him. "I don’t need you! In a few years, I’ll have my own mount and join the huntresses!"

Her cheeks turned red from all the shouting, but she still didn’t stop. Clenching her tiny fists, she continued venting her frustration.

"It’ll be a great and majestic Nightsaber! Unlike you, you dirty, ugly DOG!"

A vein became visible on Sylas’s forehead. Although he was mature for his age, just as his mother always said, he was still a child... a child who had just reached his limit.

"I’m not a dog!" he growled through gritted teeth as he stood threateningly in front of her.

Naisha laughed, clearly delighted that she had managed to push his buttons.

"Words are coming out of your mouth, but all I hear is: woof, woof, woof," she teased, repeatedly opening and closing one hand in front of his face.

Sylas lightly slapped her hand away.

"And just so you know, I would never stoop that low. I’m a descendant of the great White Wolf of Argus, and even if I weren’t, no werewolf with a shred of dignity or common sense would ever let themselves be ridden by another..."

"SYLASS!"

His words were cut short when he recognized the voice of his sister Luna coming from outside.

Sylas narrowed his eyes at Naisha, who simply stuck her tongue out at him. Annoyed, he turned his back on her and headed toward the broken window. He didn’t bother wondering how his siblings had found him, certain that they had followed his scent.

The moment he looked out through the broken window, Luna quickly spoke up.

"Look what we found!" she laughed, pointing at Lucas, who was transformed into a wolf.

But more importantly, he was wearing the exact same saddle on his back, the one Naisha had thrown through the window just moments ago.

"Hahahaha!" Luna laughed, bouncing excitedly. "It’s awesome, don’t you think?!"

"NO!"

"Pff." Luna dismissed his objection with a snort and a wave of her hand. "You’re just jealous because you don’t have a saddle like ours, right, Lucas?"

"WOOF!" Lucas barked in agreement, wagging his tail.

"Stealing from tourists is going to be so much easier with this!"

Naisha poked her head through the window, curious about what they were talking about, until she saw Lucas with the saddle on his back. She immediately turned her gaze toward Sylas with a smug smile on her face, earning a growl from him.

Her appearance did not go unnoticed by Luna and Lucas. The two exchanged a knowing look, deciding not to waste the opportunity to tease their brother.

"Well, well, well. Turns out our big brother is hiding in the forest to make out with his little girlfriend. HAHAHA!" Luna laughed, accompanied by Lucas’s barking.

"We don’t do that..." Naisha murmured shyly, lowering her head as a slight blush appeared on her cheeks.

"Don’t blush! You’re not helping!" Sylas scolded her.

The twins, now with all the evidence they needed, didn’t stick around to see how the argument ended.

"HAHAHAHA!" Luna laughed as she jumped onto Lucas before he took off toward the city of Argus. "We’re telling everyone!"

Sylas could only watch the idiots run away as he thought about how much he was going to enjoy beating them up later.

Taking advantage of his distraction, Naisha slapped both cheeks with her palms, regaining her composure and her usual bold attitude.

"What were you saying about how a werewolf with any dignity and common sense would never use a saddle?"

"I stand by what I said..." Sylas replied, turning his back to her as he returned to his notebook.

"Hey! Don’t ignore me!" Naisha protested, following him.

—/—

Several hours later, just as the sun was setting, the two of them were lying on the roof of the treehouse, looking in the opposite direction from where the sun was setting.

"Do we really have to do this?" Sylas asked tiredly.

"Shh!" Naisha shushed him. "It’s about to start," she said excitedly as she stared intently at the horizon.

They didn’t have to wait long. Just a few seconds later, something began to appear in the distance. Little by little, an enormous planet became visible, shining brightly and surrounded by twelve moons... Etheria.

Naisha’s eyes lit up when she saw it. "Isn’t it beautiful?!"

Sylas barely paid it any attention, unable to understand why she liked the planet so much. It appeared every night, just like the moon, and it had done so for as long as he could remember. At this point, seeing it was completely mundane.

Naisha slid closer until she was right beside Sylas.

"You know, the other elves say that, unlike this world, that one is filled with magic."

Her words caught Sylas’s attention. It was common knowledge that werewolves possessed magic, but they could only use it when they were in large groups, something he and his siblings had never managed to activate no matter how much they tried.

Sylas continued staring at the planet for several seconds, deep in thought.

"Hmm..."

Without saying anything else, he decided to add finding a way to reach Etheria to his plans. If the inhabitants of that world really possessed so much magic, surely at least one of them would know how to activate his own without having to rely on large groups.

Although, if he was being honest with himself, that might prove difficult.

The inhabitants of Etheria rarely had any contact with this world, and as far as Sylas knew, they had never shown much interest in establishing communication or working with them, generally keeping themselves isolated. Without any contact, finding a way to get there wouldn’t be easy.

Even so, Sylas wasn’t discouraged, confident that he would find a solution.

"Don’t you think it would be awesome to go there?" Naisha asked, pulling him out of his thoughts.

Sylas nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I think it would be."

His answer surprised Naisha, who turned to look at him.

"Does that mean you’d go right now if you could?"

"Not right now."

His answer slightly disappointed Naisha, who turned her attention back to the beautiful planet in front of them.

"Why not? It’s beautiful and full of mysteries. I’m sure it would be way more awesome than this world full of Grimms."

Sylas looked at her in confusion.

"I thought Grimms didn’t attack elves."

Naisha nodded, confirming it.

"They don’t, but that doesn’t mean we like having them around."

"I didn’t know that..." Sylas said with some surprise. "...I guess that’s one of the reasons I’m not in a hurry to go to another world." ℯℯ𝑙.

"The Grimms?" Naisha asked, now confused as well.

Sylas sighed and shook his head. The Grimms were a problem, of course. Having to kill one every time he ventured into the deep forest was pretty annoying, but that wasn’t the reason.

"I mean everything I don’t know. This world is full of mysteries and things to discover... although I do plan on going to Etheria someday."

Naisha opened her mouth to say something, but stopped, unsure whether she should ask or whether she really wanted to know the answer. Even so, she eventually worked up the courage to ask.

"Would you take me with you when the time comes?" she asked in a very serious tone.

"Yes, I would," Sylas replied without hesitation.

Upon hearing his answer, Naisha broke into a huge smile and began kicking her feet excitedly, unable to contain her happiness.

"I can’t wait for that day to come!"

Sylas simply watched her, unable to keep himself from smiling a little at her enthusiasm.

The two of them continued gazing at the planet for quite some time, enjoying that moment together, until it was time for them to part ways.

However, that would not be the last time they saw each other. They would meet again the following day and, from then on, they would continue doing so for the years to come.

—//—

Author’s Note:

Another Chapter that isn’t necessarily canon. I think I’ll do one or two more of these...

...

I always forget what I was supposed to write in the author’s note. Well, whatever. I’m sure I’ll remember later. I hope you enjoyed it! Leave a comment if you did, or if you have an idea.

Anyway...

Kisses and hugs. Bye!