The Wizard's Broken Angel

Chapter-3

"Tragon, how are you?" Miley went to see her pet wolf in the clinic.

Tragon woke up hearing her voice and jumped down from the bed, lolling his tongue and revolving around her, wagging his tail. Miley kneeled to Tragon's height and caressed him, "aww! I am glad you are ok now. You indeed recover faster than the other animals." She chuckled as Tragon licked her cheeks, "take a good rest here, I am going to finish writing the ending of my novel tonight, wish me luck."

Tragon placed his front paw on her head, she broke into laughter, "thanks for your blessings." She stroked him and headed towards her room while Tragon hopped on the bed again, he curled himself into a ball with his head resting on his rear feet and his legs and tail tucked in.

"Ok! Now let's begin writing," after adventurously wasting her whole day she started typing on her laptop again. It was almost midnight when she started typing and this time the words flowed quite smoothly for her. When Miley was immersed in her story she isolated herself from the world around her mentally and physically. She rarely paid attention to what was going around, that's how authors generally are.

This was a boon as well as a curse at least for Miley it was going to be proven as a curse this time. Unaware of the presence of a stranger in her room she typed the last word in her first draft, "finally I have finished this novel. Although I am not that happy with my work, still I have finished 200k words, that's like a lot of words."

"Good to know you are done with your work here," she heard a stranger's voice and turned back with a jerk. Zach stood in front of her.

"Who are you?"

"Me? You don't remember me?" Zach was confused. Although I feel the saviour symbol aura around her I can't see her wings, is it because she's born as a human? No. Even if an angel incarnated as a human, their soul wings are visible to me, what exactly happened to her? What did that Lake Shadow do to her? He contemplated.

"I am sorry, but I don't think we have met before," her words made Zach peer at her.

"We have... we have met before. It was so long ago that you don't remember me," Zach didn't even blink. She looks exactly like she looked before turning into a human. An angel's beauty can't be hidden, after all, he thought.

"Uhm... We can go down and talk. Dad would..."

"No one knows I am here except you."

Miley gasped, "a thief! A robber! A KIDNAPPER! MOM! DAD! TRA..." before she uttered a word more, Zach teleported behind her and closed her mouth with his palm.

"Shut up!"

Miley struggled to get out of his grip, but he was too strong for her. She remembered a fight scene she wrote in her book, hitting Zach's stomach with her elbow. She stepped on his foot and twisted his hand to set herself free. She sprinted out of her room and dashed downstairs, "MOM! DAD! TRAGON!"

Suzan and Delan got out of their room, "what happened Miley?" Meanwhile, Tragon dashed upstairs, Delan understood, he grabbed the rifle from his room and ran upstairs with a word. Suzan hugged Miley who was panting, "calm down Miley, what happened?"

"There was a stranger in my room, he-he was trying to kidnap me. I kicked him and ran downstairs," Miley said while hugging her mother, her hands still trembling.

By the time Tragon and Delan reached her room, Zach was gone. Tragon transformed into his shadow form, "how did he get in here? I am sure I created a shadow barrier around our house."

"There's no time for that, he entered my daughter's room. Tragon, we will leave, somewhere far away. I won't let him lay his filthy fingers on my daughter," Delan stormed out of Miley's room.

Tragon closed his eyes and gulped, "I don't know if there's any place that's safe right now. He is no other than the ruler of Strong Earth, his powers can overpower the most powerful werewolf in our world, humans are weak after all." He transformed back into his wolf form and ran downstairs.

"Dad! Where is he?" Miley rushed to Delan seeing him come down.

"There's no one inside, Miley, you must have had a nightmare," said Delan.

"No. No. I saw a boy, he looked like he was in his twenties, a little taller than me. Although the room wasn't brightly lit, I saw him," Miley said, fastly.

"Miley, you must have been writing too much, you are hallucinating your characters," Suzan stroked Miley's hair.

"It's ok. There's nothing to worry about dad will handle everything. Suzan, you take Miley in our room and sleep with her, I have a little job to finish," Suzan followed Delan's words.

Miley slept, hugging her mother tightly.

Meanwhile, Tragon has returned into his human form, "where do you plan to go?"

"Somewhere far away. I will ask the police for help…"

"I don't want to disappoint you, but the one who has come from the Strong Earth is the king himself," Tragon looked at Delan who peered out of the balcony.

"He is nothing in this world, Tragon, do you know some way to save my daughter?"

"The only way I know is to fight him till my last breath and protect lady Miley. That's what I was created for by the prince of Nigrack. I am just his shadow, I have a replica of his powers, but at the time he created me, he was in a very weak state. Therefore I am weaker too. Right now, sacrificing myself for lady Miley is all I can think of," Tragon put his head low.

"I understand, you have protected my daughter since she came into this world, but now it's my turn to save her. Tomorrow we are flying to Denmark. I have a family villa there."

I wonder if that's going to be of any help, Tragon thought and the black bandages wrapped around his hands unwrapped, swimming in the air they surrounded the house radiating neon red lights that guarded the house against all sides, "I wonder if this would be able to stop him, I just hope it does."

Delan booked the tickets overnight and the next morning they were ready to leave.

"Dad, why are we going to Denmark?" Miley questioned. "Are we shifting? Is it because of yesterday's incident?"

"No," Delan smiled, "we are going on a vacation for as long as I want. If you don't study, many places in Denmark can inspire you to write." He tried to hide the truth from Miley.

"What about Tragon?" Suzan asked, pulling the suitcases outside the room.

"He will be brought by road, don't worry we'll all unite in Denmark," Delan signalled Tragon who was in his wolf form. Tragon nodded and ran outside the house transforming into a human. He stood near a van dressed in a jute robe covering his bandaged face. "He'll bring Tragon to us in Denmark."

"I should start moving, your pet is inside," Tragon got into the old, rusted van and raced it on the road.

They boarded the plane and were on their way to Denmark.

"Dad, I will go use the washroom," Miley got up from her seat while Delan took a nap.

In the aisle between the seats, Miley collided with a steward who was wearing a mask, "I am sorry, ma'am."

"It's ok, my bad," Miley didn't even look at the steward and side passed him. The steward took off his mask and smirked, "fools. They are heading exactly towards the place I wanted them to go, Miley, that's what you are called now, Iris."

Miley felt as if someone took her name, she turned back but no one was there, not even the steward she collided with, "where did that air host go?" She asked a crew member nearby.

"I am sorry, but there are only air hostesses on this flight, it doesn't have any air hosts," the crew member informed.

"What? Ok, thanks," delusion, she entered the washroom, "gosh! What's wrong with me? Am I seriously hallucinating? I will have to stop writing for the time being," she talked to herself.

They finally reached Denmark in a villa that looked as if it hadn't been used for ages full of spiderwebs, a thick layer of dust and a foul smell. "Are we going to live here?" Miley scrunched looking at Zach.

"Yes, for today we'll sleep in the van. I'll get help to clean this place," Delan called someone and got back into the van that they had hired to travel to the villa located deep into woods cut from the rest of the world.

"This place is perfect for a fantasy world setting, but it's not livable," Miley looked at her mother.

"Tsk! What can be done? Your father looks in a hurry, sweety go and rest in the van, I will see how much I can do the cleaning of this house myself."

"No mom. If you are going to clean, I will help you. Let's start from the door," Miley and Suzan entered the villa, its door opened with a creak and several bats flew out from it. Miley jumped behind her mother, peeping from behind. "This set looks good in books, not in reality."

"This is their villa? Who exactly are these Boris? This villa used to belong to the only humans who travelled to our world. Although it was ages ago, I still remember how the owner of this villa had a big influence on the wizarding world from centuries ago." Chains revolved around Zach like snakes allowing him to float in the sky from where he kept an eye on Miley. He wasn't visible to normal eyes until he wished to. Just then Zach's eyes went on Delan's shadow that detached from him and crept on the ground submerging itself into Miley's shadow. "Oh, so that's the protector Lake left for Iris, a part of his shadow. Funny, all this makes me laugh. You entrusted yourself to a dark creature and look — what he did to you. I would have cherished…" Zach peered at Miley who was lifting heavy wooden boxes out of the house to the lawn, "...you better. If you didn't dare to rebel against me. But now, I hate you from the core of my soul."

"Mom, did you hear something?" Miley asked.

"What?"

"A voice. Something like a wolf's cry."

"Perhaps, Tragon is here."

"No, it wasn't Tragon's howl, it was like that of a werewolf."

"You have watched too much fantasy for your novel, you are…" just then Suzan too heard a howl coming from the woods around their villa. "You are right, perhaps there are wild wolves around here, call your dad and ask him to come back, it's dangerous to ponder around."

Miley called Delan but the call didn't connect, "mom, it's not connecting."

"Keep trying," Suzan looked around the areas near her house. "Miley, stay at home, I will look for your father, he must be nearby."

"Mom, I will accompany you."

"No, it's dangerous, stay at home."

Suzan too disappeared into the woods, Miley was all alone at home she left the main gate open while waiting for her parents, sitting on the grand sofa in the huge living hall. A squall gushed in from the door making her look around the place frantically.

"It's not safe for a girl to stay all by herself in such a huge villa. Don't you fear some outsider might barge in?" Someone whispered from behind her, she felt as if someone was standing inches close to her, their breath passing by her ear as they spoke.

Fearing a ghost, she stood frozen in her place, too afraid to look behind. She could feel someone's fingers run through her open hair and play with them. Without thinking for another second she sprinted towards the gate of the door, just when she was about to run out of the house the gate shut on its own, she gasped and ran upstairs without looking behind.

"Where do you think you are running too!"

What the heck am I doing? It must be my hallucinations again, there's nothing like a ghost in real life, she thought and stopped in the middle of the grand staircase that led to the second floor. She turned back just to see Zach was standing right behind her, she screamed and stumbled. She was about to fall from the stairs when Zach held her waist, hugging her he saved him.

When Miley came back to her senses she found herself in Zach's embrace, she pushed him and ran down the stairs, "kidnapper! Mom! Dad!" She pry opened the door and dashed into the woods.

"What the heck! She's nothing like she was in her previous life," Zach's chains saved him from falling on the ground face-down. "Calm angel has become a chaotic human!"

Miley grabbed her phone and switched on the flashlight, "mom! Dad! Where are you?" Walking into the dark woods she reached far away from the villa finding her family. It was already evening and she could not trace her parents' whereabouts. Running through the woods, she reached a cliff, "what? How did I end up coming near the cliff? Where are my parents? I can't even contact them."

"Want my help?" She heard Zach's voice again.

"W-Why are you after me? What have I ever done to you? Where are my parents? What do you want!" She snapped, in a trembling voice.

"Are you afraid of me?"

"I am not! I just want to go back to my parents, that's all I want," Miley said, panting as tears trailed down her cheeks.

"It's been ages since you cried. Do you remember when you cried last time?" Zach tried to wipe her tears, but she jerked off his hands.

"I cried last week when mom didn't let me buy a dress," Miley stepped away from Zach.

Zach looked at the ground and smiled faintly, bleary eyes he blinked several times. He pointed towards Miley's shadow, "your pet might be able to help you better."

Miley looked around frantically, "my legs aren't my pet."

"Not your legs, your shadow."

Miley looked at her shadow that stretched in the ground in the shape of a wolf. Afraid she shifted back and Tragon lunged at Zach appearing out from her shadow.

Miley tripped and fell on the ground seeing Zach slam Tragon on the ground, "TRAGON!" She shouted and crawled towards Tragon who had passed out from the attack. "What the heck is happening here? Who are you!" She looked at Zach.

"It's not important to know who I am, you should be asking me who you were, Iris Scintilla," Zach looked at Miley as the calm breeze turned violent dancing past them as they faced each other on a cliff.