Author notes:
1)English is my second language. Forgive me for any mistake.
2)I don't own Danny Phantom.
3)I only own the plot for this AU and the eventual OCs
4)Thanks Truephan, DaughterofPoseidon32498 and Shaddow the Spirit for your reviews.
It took a good time for Alphonse to calm down from his latest discovery. That tree represented the life of all ghosts inside of the Dead Forest. When a leaf falls, it means that a ghost died and when one appears it means that a new ghost was born.
Granted, this information could be extremely valuable. He could easily get rid of anyone who threatened his existence. He even considered using it to get rid of his father, so he could finally become free of his schemes, however he quickly dismissed the idea. There was no way he could tell which leaf represented his father's life. He could end up killing himself in the process!
He also had to wonder that this was the reason why the leaves are so resilient to be detached from the tree. He was glad that Danny had failed in removing the leaf from the tree.
On the next day, at night, Alphonse went to the Cave of Beginning once again, but this time he was all alone. He had managed to convince Daniel to rest and also told him that the boy had helped him a lot and he was proud of him.
The boy believed in his words and went to rest that night satisfied and thinking that he had done something really good for his teacher.
When Alphonse brought the cave up once more he entered it. He was all alone and he would stay there until dawn if necessary, but he wasn't going to waste a single moment anymore.
He got inside of it and went straight to the tree chamber. The lycanthrope then fully examined the tree. He thought about taking a sample of the tree's trunk, but he feared what it could happen if he did so. That tree could end up killing all ghosts if damaged.
He examined every inch of that chamber, but he found nothing! He refused to believe that whoever built that place left no instructions at all! Then re realized that there was still one place that he hadn't tried to examine before. The ceiling.
It was full of extremely bright fireflies. A kind that he had never seen before. For one moment he wished he had brought with him a ladder, but it would be really troublesome to bring one. He then decided to climb the tree hoping it could handle his weight.
He decided to support himself on the main trunk and not on the branches to be sure that he wouldn't accidentally break a branch and therefore detaching any leaf from the tree.
He had some trouble to balance himself when he got to the top of it. When he got high enough he stretched his right arm and tried to touch the fireflies. For To his surprise, as soon as he touched them, he felt a burning hot sensation when he touched it.
'What is the meaning of this? I'm no human! Why did they burned me?' he questioned himself in his mind.
But he was taken away from his thoughts when he realized that the room was getting darker. The light of the fireflies were dimming and the lycanthrope quickly got down of the tree fearing he did something wrong.
Then he saw that in front of him dark blue letters were appearing. They were forming sentences which the werewolf read carefully:
"For the one whose thirst for knowledge is insatiable.
Read these words with extreme caution.
Your actions will have serious consequences.
This place was never meant to be discovered by ghosts or humans
Leave this place immediately and never come back.
Heed my words or you will endure a suffering beyond your very own imagination.
And, please, don't forget to close the door when you leave."
Alphonse's eyes were wide when he finished reading that. He couldn't believe what he had just read. Then the sentence disappeared and the lights came back as if nothing had changed.
The werewolf was as astonished as he was curious. Who or what exactly left that message? Was this person referring to the fact that the tree held the life of all the ghosts? And why did it seem that the first sentence was referring exactly to him?
So many questions and no answer. The lycanthrope felt like someone knew what he was going to do and left that message for him. But the question was 'who would do that?' There was no way someone could predict the future. That was what the lycanthrope thought anyway.
He then decided to leave the Cave of Beginning and as much as he hated to do it, he did close the door when he left. He didn't want to bring any kind of misfortune upon himself anymore.
Once again, he was literally thrown out of the cave as soon as he closed the door. He groaned as he got up and he closed the Cave and made sure to hide it once more.
While he went back home, he started to wonder about the reasons that the person who left that messaged had. Sure he initially thought that the person did it to protect the ghosts from being accidentally killed, but he started to formulate a new theory. What if the person who left that message wanted to prevent someone from getting control over the tree. He hadn't discover anything inside of the cave, but he wondered if there was any hidden manuscript. If his second theory were true, whoever controlled the tree would instantly become the new ghost king. Not that he was interest in the job. Being a king would make him be bound by several rules and responsibilities and Alphonse loved his freedom.
This made him remember of another subject. His incoming marriage with Wulf's sister, Jadiwiga.
'I wonder if I can fake my own death or something...Nah. It would be a pain to have to change my name, appearance and I would probably have to live in an isolated place for the rest of my life. I can't believe I have to put up with this!' Alphonse mused in his mind.
He sighed as he walked back home. He gave slow steps as he wondered about what was going on. There were too many things he didn't know and he didn't like it. Granted, he like solving hard puzzles, but there was no clue about what he should do to solve it and he had no idea about where to even start looking for it. Besides, everything seemed to make him just give up on his quest of solving the mystery of the beginning of the ghosts.
When he got to his abode, he went straight to the library and picked up all his books about the origin of the ghosts once again and placed them all over the table. When he was about to open the first one, he stopped.
'What's the point? I've read these books countless times and I found nothing valuable in them! I've even checked for hidden pages and I was unsuccessful at that as well. I've searched for years for more books, caves and even rumors and I found nothing! This is so frustrating! Why would someone make several tips about that blasted cave so people could follow them, but to end up being told to leave that place alone? Was that some kind of sick joke? I bet those idiots are laughing in their graves for making me of a fool! This was just a waste of time and effort in the end. Damnit!' he thought as he got up from the chair and went straight to his room in order to get some rest.
When he lay down, he closed his eyes, but his mind kept mulling over the time he spent trying to solve that mystery. Sure he did discover what the tree's purpose was, but the biggest questions still remained: Who built the Cave of Beginning, What CW meant? Was CW the initials of the person who build it? How can a tree hold the lives of the ghosts in its leaves? Why did those fireflies burned him? Was he going to experience the same side effects that Daniel did?
These thoughts plagued his mind until dawn. Alphonse was tired and not in mood to go to work, but he had to. He also had to keep a good mood so the hybrid wouldn't discover about what he did last night. He doubted that Daniel would like to know that his teacher didn't have any use for him anymore.
But now that Alphonse had welcomed the child in his house he couldn't simply kick him out. He would have to endure the boy until he graduated. Also, Alphonse had closed the door of the Cave of Beginning, which made Alphonse rely on the boy in case he needed to go there again, but he doubted he would have to.
Days passed by and the promised day when the party in Wulf's house to celebrate Alphonse's engagement with Jadiwiga came. Wulf had invited only a few friends for that, including Vlad, Skulker and Desiree. It happened on a Saturday afternoon and the children were outside of the house playing while the adults were indoors celebrating. All but Alphonse.
Wulf was with his sister because she had asked him to tell her everything he knew about Alphonse. She wanted to know his likes and dislikes beforehand in order to please him later on. Surprisingly, Wulf found himself not really answering much, but not because he didn't want to, but because he realized he didn't know that much about his friend.
Vlad, Skulker and Desiree were told to have fun by their friend while he was busy filling Jadiwiga in with what he knew about Alphonse. Vlad had to admit he was quite happy for his son's teacher to get married and he congratulated him as soon as he spotted him.
The silver lycanthrope was in a horrible mood though. He didn't want to get married. He was aware that this would take his freedom away and he knew why he was in that stupid situation. Because of his father.
Wolfgang did all that on purpose as a revenge plot against his son for not "helping" him gain the king's favor. Alphonse's father was still researching for sources of arsenic and how he could use it to kill as many humans as possible. He was having quite a trouble keeping up with King Pariah's wishes.
So, he elaborated a plan. He would use Alphonse's 'closed' personality as a way of making him pass as a shy guy who was in love with Wulf's sister. If Wolfgang wasn't going to get any help from his son, so he would make sure Alphonse wouldn't be able to work on his personal projects either.
The silver lycanthrope was talking with Wulf's father, Nicolas, at the moment. "I'm glad you're going to marry my precious daughter, Alphonse. You and Wulf were like brothers when young and now you're going to officially enter the family. I hope you'll treat my daughter as she deserves!" the leader of the Werewolf Village said with a mix of playful and threatening tones, which Alphonse got that.
"You must not worry. I'll be sure to treat your daughter with all the respect she deserves. The only tears that'll fall from her eyes will be tears of absolute joy while she'll be with me. I promise you that." Alphonse said what he expected Nicolas wanted to hear.
The older black werewolf smiled pleased with Alphonse's words and nodded in approval. Then he asked: "Do you have plans for the wedding date?"
Alphonse hadn't thought that far. His concerns were divided with the whole mess with the Cave of Beginning and so he didn't fully prepared himself for this party. However, before anyone else could say anything, Alphonse's father, Wolfgang butted into the conversation.
"I've been discussing that with my son and we decided it to be on the first Sunday in two months. We do need some time to arrange everything."
Nicolas nodded in agreement. "It's nice to know we can count on you, but I insist that we help as well. I also would like to pick the wedding place, if this isn't too much for us to ask."
Wolfgang smiled and replied: "It won't be a problem at all. I'm sure my son shares the same feeling."
The two lycanthropes then looked to Alphonse who resisted the urge to groan out loud. "Sure…" he replied quietly.
Nicolas smiled and patted the younger silver lycanthrope on the back so hard that it shoved him a little forward: "Loosen up a little! You're part of family now, you don't have to act so shy near us."
"Thanks…"Alphonse said not knowing how to make Wulf's father to just shut up. But what he truly wanted was to put a gag in his own father's mouth for good.
But his thoughts were interrupted when Wolfgang told Nicolas: "Do you mind if I borrow my son for a while, Duke Nicolas? I need to have a word or two with him about the wedding. I would like to start planning the details to show you later."
The black-furred werewolf smiled and said: "I see. But don't take too long. This is a party, you know. And you don't have to be so formal with me. Soon our families will be one!"
The older silver werewolf was quite pleased to hear that. "I really appreciate that. I'm also looking forward to that."
Then the father and son went to a room of the house, distant from the ears of the other ghosts. When they were all alone, Alphonse was the first to ask trying not to yell in anger: "What the hell is that all about? Are you setting up this whole marriage crap just to get Duke Nicolas appreciation? Or is it revenge?"
The older werewolf snickered and replied: " It's a bit of both. Even if you did help your dear father in the moment of need, I would still do it. I also hope you keep in mind what will happen if you try to jeopardize my plans. No one would believe in you. I'm the one who has the fame and the prestige! You may be smart, but I'm the only one capable of putting what you can produce to a good use. Like that saying says 'Anyone can paint a picture, but only a true genius can sell it.' I hope you enjoy your new life, son. It'll be amusing. At least for me."
End of chapter 13
I hope you enjoyed this chapter. See you next update. Please review. I love to read your comments.