The Wizard's Broken Angel

Chapter-2

"It's happening again," said Miley Boris taking a deep breath. "I have been constantly staring at this stupid laptop for an hour now, words are just not coming to me, ugh! It's so irritating, gosh!" She leaned back on her chair, placing her hands behind her head.

She turned on her favourite song playlist and closed her eyes.

"Miley! Take Tragon on a walk! It's been a month since you took him on a walk," her mother, Suzan Boris, screamed from the kitchen. "You promised you would take good care of him when we adopted him."

Miley closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, "fine!" She closed the music system, her laptop, grabbed her phone and earphones, and ran downstairs. "Tragon, you stupid wolf! Where are you? Mom! Tragon isn't in his wolf-house again!" Miley searched for her pet wolf, Tragon, a black furry wolf with glowing red eyes and almost the same age as Miley.

"He might have gone on a walk without you, go search him and bring him back," her mother shouted through the kitchen window that opened up in their backyard.

"He must have run into the wild again, I am going into the woods," Miley informed her mother and chained her hoody as she walked out of her old fashioned villa.

Looking around at the busy streets in her hometown, she listened to the slow music burning inspiration, "ridiculous, why do ideas come when I am not writing. I am on the last chapter of my novel, I have so much to do and then get it published and I am here finding a wolf! Tragon! Where the heck are you?" Miley entered the woods. The chime-like chirping of birds, the rustling of leaves and the sound of water forced Miley to take off her earphones and get invested in nature's music.

"Tragon! Tragon!" She kept on looking in the bushes, behind rocks and trees, but she couldn't find Tragon. Placing her hands on her hips she frowned, "Tragon never went too deep in the woods. He never crossed this river, could it be that he went on the other side?" She talked to herself while looking at the dense canopy of the huge trees.

She went deeper into the woods, crossing the barriers that were set by the government, "sorry, government, I need to find Tragon. Where did this wolf go?" She looked around and crossed the bridge over the river. While she was in the middle of the bridge, she heard a howl. "It's Tragon!" She dashed towards the reserved forest.

Running she followed the howls and reached close to a waterfall, following the sound of water she reached the waterfall, "I didn't know there was a waterfall nearby? Although it's small, still it's beautiful. Looking around the waterfall she found Tragon lying unconscious close to the stream in which the waterfall ended. His legs were bleeding, his blood mixed with the stream and he was breathing heavily.

"Tragon! Tragon!" She rushed to him and dragged him out of the stream, "Tragon! What should I do now? Are there hunters in the reserved forest? I need to take him away," she picked him up while hugging him and dashed out of the forest. While she ran, she saw a few black animals that looked like shadows follow her. Adrenaline rushed in her veins and she crossed the bridge coming into the safe zone of the woods, she fell on her knees, panting, still holding onto Tragon tightly.

"Gosh! What were those things? Man, that forest is scary. They might be following us," she picked Tragon and ran out of the forest.

"Mom! Mom! Call dad!" Miley shouted carrying Tragon to her father's clinic. Miley's father, Delan Boris, was a veterinarian.

Suzan, a middle-aged woman, came into the clinic, wiping her hands in her apron, "oh my! What happened to him?" She called Delan.

"Probably got in a fight with wild animals or something," said Miley, giving Tragon first aid.

"Hello, Delan, Tragon is hurt, can you please come and have a look?" Suzan talked to Delan on phone. "Ok," she hung up the phone, "he is coming."

Suzan came nearer and had a look at Tragon, "my God, it looks so bad."

"We'll have to buy chains, he needs to stay at home, going in the woods is dangerous. Reserved forest has really strange creatures," Miley treated Tragon's wound with ointments and bandaged it.

"You went to the reserved forest!" Suzan snapped. "Miley! You know it's a prohibited region, right?"

"Mom, please, Tragon went there, I just rescued him from there. No one saw me, don't worry," said Miley, at least I hope no one did, she thought.

"Don't ever go back in there, do you understand?"

"Yes, mom. I will make sure that Tragon is chained properly."

Delan, a man in his forties entered the clinic. Dressed in a brown leather overcoat and a black cap, he rushed to Tragon and took the charge, "how did this happen, Miley?"

"Dunno dad, perhaps he got into some kind of fight with wild animals."

"She went to the reserved forest to look for Tragon," Suzan told Delan.

Stopping the treatment he looked at Miley, "what? Why did you go there?" He looked at Tragon, "both of you go out, we'll talk at the dinner table."

Suzan and Miley got out of the clinic.

"Why did you tell him?"

"Why shouldn't I? You can't always do what you want. You dropped out from the university to pursue a writing career, did we say something? You keep on doing what is not good for you and you expect us to stay put." Her mother headed to the kitchen after her lecture. "Come in the kitchen, help me set the table."

"Coming," said Miley, annoyingly.

"Tragon, why did you go in the reserved forest?" Delan asked. Tragon lifted his neck and looked at Delan with his red eyes. "No one's here, you can transform."

Tragon, the black wolf, gradually transformed into his human form, his face was partially covered with black bandages from his head to his nose. His tanned brownish complexion was visible from below his nose to his neck, beneath the neck he was covered with black bandages till his feet.

"I sensed the aura of someone from the Strong Earth," said Tragon.

"Yeah, you told me before. What exactly is this Strong Earth? How is it going to affect Miley?"

"Strong Earth is a place where I and your daughter's soul came from. I can't tell you the details, but I think the ruler of our world has come to your world. My job is to protect Lady Miley and I will do it until the very end," said Tragon.

"That person, won't come looking for my daughter, right?"

"I don't know I have been successfully taking care of everything and everyone that came out from that waterfall for twenty years now. When my shadows in the forest informed me, I went there to see what it was. Never expected the king of our Earth to show up. Before him, my powers are nothing," said Tragon.

"So, what should we do now? Should we shift to some other country?"

"He can find us anywhere we go."

"Then what should we do?"

"We don't know what he intends to do. We don't know if he has come for lady Miley or not. We'll have to wait and see. Until then, ask Lady Miley to avoid going in the woods."

"You too, avoid going into the woods. She might go searching for you again, you can protect her, staying close to her. Turn back into your wolf form and stay in the clinic for today. I have treated your wounds. Take a good rest," said Delan and Tragon transformed into a wolf again.

Once when Miley was just a year old, I found Tragon on our doorstep. He was just a cub back then. I picked him up and brought him in. He grew up with Miley. Once when she was five years old, we went campaign in the woods. Pondering around, she went into the reserved forest. Suzan and I thought she was in the camp, so we didn't pay much attention initially. Later on, when we found her missing, we went to search for her in the woods. It was evening and would get dark soon, I thought she might have headed to reserved forest, so I crossed the bridge. Looking around in the forest, I saw some boy dressed in black pull Miley out of the stream. I was about to call out to him when he suddenly transformed into Tragon. For a few days, I couldn't believe what I saw, but later, Tragon opened up to me and told me a few things about Miley.

Delan walked to the dining room and looked at Miley arranging the table, one thing that I got to know was — my daughter's soul was that of an angel who had come from a place called Strong Earth.

"Miley!"

"Yes, dad."

"Don't leave the house. No matter what happened, you will not go into the woods, promise me," said Delan, bleary-eyed.

"Dad, what's wrong? Are you crying?"

"No. I am not. I am asking you to not step out of the house until I ask you to, ok?"

"Yeah. Your dad is right, reserved forest is dangerous. Being your parents, we are worried you might get hurt."

"Mom, you asked me to take Tragon on a walk," Miley looked at her mother.

"O-Of course, I asked you to take him nearby not in the woods."

"Mom, he ran to the woods himself..."

"Don't talk back! Even if Tragon goes into the woods, don't go looking after him. Tragon is like our family member, but you are more important to us, got it!"

"Yes, dad," all of them sat around the dining table for dinner.

"How's your story going? Did you finish writing the novel?" Delan asked.

"Yeah, I am on the last chapter..."

While the Boris family had a good family time together, Tragon peered out through the window as if he was keeping an eye on someone, Zach Zero, what do you need now? Haven't you hurt Iris enough? What do you need from her now?

"So this is your new house? Humans and their old fashioned houses, they make me sick," Zach stood outside Miley's house, contemplating.