Lars the wolf: (01) childhood.

I'm making some short stories for Webtoon to explain Lars' life from his point of view. I'll probably make 3 of them: this one for his childhood, another one for the moment Ragnar left and the last one for the present moment. I hope you'll enjoy them!

There will also be a comic update latest by Sunday.

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1. Childhood.

Lars had always been a mute child, and also a lot bigger than other kids his age. Two oddities that made him the perfect target for teasing from other children and scornful looks from adults.

At first, Lars had stoically put up with being picked on, but after breaking the nose of a kid who had called him brainless, he had realized that his size made him stronger than those puny little wolves, and that he didn't have to put up with their nonsense.

That act had resulted in people becoming afraid of him (and therefore less likely to ineract with him for better or worse), but also in another boy a year younger taking notice of him: Axel.

"Did you really break that jerk's nose? So cool!" the kid had said to him, his eyes twinkling. It was the first time anyone had ever said anything nice to him, so Lars didn't know how to respond to that. He simply nodded.

"Do you want to be my friend? My name is Axel," the other boy continued, reaching out to shake his hand without stopping talking. "I heard you're mute, is that true? Or do you just not talk because you don't like people? I don't care if you don't talk, we can be friends anyway. But maybe we have to come up with a code or something, so I understand what you want to say."

Too much information, what the hell was wrong with that kid? How many thoughts could such a small head have in so little time?

But when he shook his hand and Axel responded with a broad smile, something moved in Lars' heart, and before he could understand what was happening, he began to cry.

"Yeah, I'd cry too if someone as cool as me wanted to be my friend," Axel joked without letting go of his hand, and the little squeeze he gave it seemed to want to comfort him.

Lars bent down and wrote his name on the ground with a branch.

"Lars," Axel read aloud. "Well that's it, we're friends for life now, Lars!"

And so it was. Axel, who by the way he spoke could have been the most popular boy in the forest, decided to hang out with the outcasts instead. It was him first, and then the other misfit named Ragnar, who was practically a ghost boy who didn't fit anywhere.

That chatty, crazy kid soon became the center of his life, and Lars turned him into his reason to exist.

With him, he'd never be alone again. With him, life would be worth living.