The Real You (Xylophoney Gift Fanfic) (#Wattys2018)

Chapter Two; Erased Hope

The winter had just ended and spring was upon the lands.

Botanists were hard at work getting their magical gardens open to the sun with the help of some guild recruits.

Everyone was happy and healthy with no sign of the evil wizards anywhere. Well, almost everyone. Xylo, the strongest member of the Twilight Paladins was planning an event for the spring with Pugz.

You see Pugz had gotten the idea that he wanted to do a spring harvest fest for Botanists and to try to gain some apprentices.

So you see Xylo couldn't refuse to help his friend- he says but really Xylo owed Pugz for teaching him a couple Botany tricks so he could fly.

The harvest feast was happening the next day and the two wizards were going over last minute preparation; a young Botanist had registered for a booth last minute.

The young Botanist had kept his green hood on over his head so nobody saw what he looked like but Pugz couldn't refuse a young Botanist in-training.

Xylo was looking forward to the event, not because of all the Botanist or that it'll bring the guild into a better light with all those evil wizards around. Those were just added bonuses. The part he looked forward to is hoping to find Mevoda and his new henchman- woman? Again.

He had seen Mev in the crowd at their first show with a young lady that appeared strange and hadn't been able to find either since.

So as he heads to his tower he contemplated how he'd go about interrogating the girl as lightning struck monsters who dared approach his home.

The lightning rod works well, I'll have to put a sign up with a warning for rookies.

As the lightning wizard slept he dreamed of the god Ankseram. The god appeared to be arguing with a girl with black hair, what stood out the most is it appeared to be a wolf-girl. Just like Mev's new henchman. Xylo couldn't make out what they were arguing about but it appeared Ankseram was loosing.

In a split second the wolf-girl had pulled out a scythe and ran at Xylo and!-

He woke up. It was the middle of the night, the lightning had stopped. Xylo sat still for hours trying to calm his breathing. He eventually made his way outside to see a large brown wolf sniffing at Pugz Botany stuff.

Xylo grabbed his spell book and approached the wolf from the sky is sure to stay completely silent. He prepared a lightning spell that was much quieter not wanting to wake his guildmates.

As he was about to shoot it the wolf had appeared to freeze and sniff the air. It shook its head and continued inspecting the elven portal. Xylo couldn't bring himself to attack yet and he couldn't figure out why.

Just as he thought the wolf was never going to leave the young Botanist wearing green appeared with a broken chain leash.

He made hand gestures at the wolf as if saying hurry up. The wolf nodded and turned black for a moment and then reappearing as the young girl that sat next to Mev.

The brown haired girl dug through her bag before pulling out some form of a book with a strange pendant and placed them where Pugz would find them.

"What took you so long?" a strange echoed voice asked

"I wanted to make sure I got my set up right- if done wrong it could cause a tear in the elven dimension and they'd come through and wreak havoc!" the wolf girl had walked over to the source, the green-cloaked Botanist

"Not a good enough excuse, I know about your elven buddies. Besides, you know I wouldn't let them, there's a couple wizard I wish to keep alive. Cone along."

And with that, they left. Xylo now understood that Mev and the girl sitting next to each other was just bad luck, that was not Mevoda. Just a much bigger threat.

When the world says "Give up" Hope whispers "Try it one more time"