My Sorcerer

Chapter 4

“No, no, I am waiting to move her here. Right now, she is in the living room with your parents, and I didn’t want to shock them by her sudden disappearance,” he said with a smile.

She rolled her eyes, losing her patience with him and all this nonsense. “And my book?”

“Right here!” He held out his hand, and her diary appeared in his palm. He then walked over to her and handed the book to her. “See, I wasn’t lying.” He smiled happily. “I’m pretty great,” he added, smugly.

“When Fang gets here, then I might be inclined to agree with you,” she responded, taking the book and flipping it open, eyeing the pages, making sure it was indeed her handwriting, and when she was satisfied, she closed it and set it next to her cup.

“You called your dog Fang? That’s an odd choice for a female dog,” he said as he took a seat across from her.

She smiled as she popped some food into her mouth, savoring the sweet, salty taste of the pork and rice she had just put in. She swallowed before speaking again. “It is, but I was reading a fantasy book, and one of the characters had a pet named Fang. She was my favorite character, and so when my parents brought her home, that’s the name I chose.” She smiled at the memory of her dog coming home for the first time. She was already the size of a small dog when she was a pup.

“It sounds nice,” he said dreamily.

“Can I ask you something?” she questioned.

He perked up, confused by her sudden politeness. “Sure.”

"Why did you change your demeanor? I mean, when I met you outside, you were a grouchy older man with a shotgun, and then when I went to leave, you became a teenager who acts like a gentleman. I’m confused, which one is the real you? What are you really like?” she finished and took another bite of her food, waiting for his response.

He thought momentarily before answering. “Well, the older man isn’t me. I shifted to look like him and decided a grumpy demeanor was best, considering it was an unknown situation. I changed when I realized what was happening and what you were,” he finished.

Just as she was about to ask him what he meant by what you were. He jumped up. “Be right back, your parents just put Fang outside.” He disappeared and then was back in the blink of an eye with her precious Fang, a gray and white Irish Wolfhound.

She quickly pushed back her chair and ran to her. “I missed you so much!” she squealed, wrapping her arms around the neck of her beautiful Fang. Fang set her head onto Cora's shoulder and sat down, relaxing happily, wagging her tail. “How have you been, girl?” she asked as she stroked her head.

She stood up to look her over. She noticed that she looked thinner than when she had last seen her. She felt her over, finding that her ribs were protruding. She held back a gasp and tears, realizing that her parents had been neglecting her. She suddenly felt a hand on her shoulder. “She’s innocent,” she whispered to him.

“She will be well taken care of now,” he comforted, nodding to a barren wall in the kitchen. She watched in awe as a bowl filled with delicious food and a water bowl beside it appeared. Then other objects appeared, toys in a basket, a leash hung on the wall with a beautiful black collar. A shelf with a dog brush, a small treat basket, and other essential items materialized.

She smiled up at him with tears in her eyes. “Thank you,” she said with a teary-eyed smile. He smiled back and motioned for her and Fang to eat. She sat back down at the table, beginning to eat again, and Fang followed her lead, going over to her bowl and starting to eat, slowly.

Soon, she and Fang ate all the food and drank all the water he had provided. Cora was feeling full, and now that she was, her exhaustion was catching up to her. “Why don’t you take the bed? I’ll take the couch,” he offered, motioning toward the bed sitting under a window near the fireplace.

“I couldn’t. This is your home,” she refused politely. “I can sleep on the couch,” she added as she started to walk toward the couch.

“You haven’t had a good night's rest since you left your parents’ home. Please, I insist that you take my bed.” He smiled sincerely, wanting her to take the bed.

She finally relented and walked over to the bed. She slid under the covers and suddenly felt enveloped in a cloud of softness. She pushed herself further into this comforting feeling. “Oh, but if you could keep…” his voice trailed off as Fang jumped happily onto the bed and lay down next to Cora.

“Sorry, what were you saying?” she asked as she peeked out from under the cloud covers.

“Nothing,” he responded, scratching his head and looking at Fang.

She laughed lightly. “Sorry, Fang has always slept with me. I can tell her to get down,” she offered, but as she did, he saw Fang glare at him, daring him to ask her.

“No, that’s alright,” he said with a sigh, swallowing the little fear that the dog was imposing on him. He went over to sit down on the couch, where he had already laid out bedding. He dimmed the fire. “Rest well,” he said, smiling over at Cora as she seemed to be sleeping peacefully. As he continued to look at her, he heard a low growl from Fang, who was staring daggers at him.

He cleared his throat and nervously looked away. If I had known this dog was going to be like this, I would have thought better of bringing her here. He laughed lightly at his foolishness of being afraid of a dog. He lowered himself onto the couch. However, he didn’t actually need to sleep, but figured it would put her at ease to see him doing more human activities. He pulled the thin blanket over himself and rolled to face the fire, but as he did, he sensed something. Someone was outside his home. Their presence appeared to be close enough that they were nearly able to look into his home. Quickly, he cast a cloaking spell to cover Cora and then a spell that put her into a deep sleep. He didn’t want her waking up to this situation, she was already stressed and exhausted as it was.

He glanced over at Fang and pondered cloaking and putting her to sleep as well, but the look she gave him made it clear that if he did, she would wake up ready for revenge. So, he opted not to and instead spoke to her. “Let’s pretend you're my dog until the intruders are gone, and then you can go back to hating me.” She nodded her head, as though she had understood him.

He looked at her quizzically for a moment before shifting into his grouchy old man disguise. He got up from the couch, followed by Fang. He went to his storage closet and pulled down his shotgun from a shelf. He turned and slowly went over to his window, near the front door. He peered out the window and was startled by silver eyes peering back at him. He raised his gun, clearly startling the man on the other side. “Back away!” he shouted in a gruff voice.

The man obliged. The sorcerer then moved to the door and opened it slightly. He stuck his gun out before speaking. “Why are you on my property?” he asked, glaring at the four men outside his home.

The three human hunters looked to the warlock, worried. The warlock took this as his cue to speak for them. “We are in search of this young girl,” he answered, showing the sorcerer a picture of Cora on a wanted poster on his phone.

“Now, what could a small girl like that have done to be awarded a warrant for her arrest?” he questioned, chuckling at the ridiculousness of the situation.

The men remained composed. “She is more dangerous than she appears to be,” the warlock declared.

The sorcerer was inwardly cursing at the warlock. He had hoped to trick him into revealing why they were hunting Cora, but the warlock didn’t seem to be willing to divulge any information. “She isn’t here,” he muttered to the warlock. “Now get going,” he added, moving his shotgun to point them off his property.

“We would really like to leave you. However, we have tracked her to this location. Thus, we would like to take a look around your residence,” he said matter-of-factly.

“I would prefer you leave, guess we can’t both get what we want. But since this is my home, I can get what I want. Leave, or I'll shoot. Simple,” he said harshly, tired of this warlock and his hunters.

“Sir, we do have the authority to inspect any resident we believe her to be in,” he shot back, pulling a folded paper from his suit pocket and handing it over.

The sorcerer took the paper and quickly unfolded it. He read the contents thoroughly, hoping to get more information about Cora’s situation. However, the paper simply stated that those suspected to be aiding and abetting the fugitive Cora would have no right to refuse entrance to the bounty hunters. Well, at least he now knew what their titles were for the human world. He sighed, pushed open his door, and stepped aside. “Touch or break anything and I shoot,” he grumbled.

“We will be quite careful, I assure you,” the warlock replied smugly.

The sorcerer gritted his teeth, forcing himself to refrain from turning the warlock into a frog or some other random small creature. The moment he used magic, this warlock would know he and his home were not what they appeared to be. He waited patiently, watching each man as they moved around his house, well aware of the magic the warlock was casting. He was throwing out weak detection spells that would only be able to find the cloaking spell of a novice, and he was definitely no novice. “Hurry up!” he yelled at the men. “Do you know the hour of the night it is? If she were here, you would have found her.” He glared at them but silently cursed himself for not covering her scent that led to his home. That was what brought them here. He had been careless.

“Please wait a few more moments,” a hunter finally spoke, but he did not have a strong presence. He was quite meek for a hunter.

“How long can it possibly take? My home is but this room with a washroom and a storage room. There are not many places to hide,” he growled.

The hunter nearly jumped out of his boots. “We must be thorough,” the warlock interjected. “By the way, why is it that you have made yourself a bed on the couch, but have a perfectly good bed there, in the corner?” the warlock asked, looking from the couch to the bed.

The sorcerer mentally kicked himself. How could he have forgotten the bedding? He would normally never make such rookie mistakes. “You see, I’ve recently acquired a dog, but the seller didn’t tell me how big she was going to get or how selfish she would be. I initially made the couch for the dog, but she takes the bed,” he grumbled, looking over at Fang, hoping she would somehow understand and play along. “She is quite possessive of the bed and won’t let me sleep in it anymore.”

“She is your beast, should she not listen to you?” the warlock asked with a raised eyebrow.

“You would think, but try it, go near the bed and see how she reacts. Seeing is believing,” he said gruffly, clearly showing his patience for them being in his home was running thin.

The warlock did as he had suggested and walked toward the bed. Just as the sorcerer had said, Fang began to bare her teeth at him, snarling, daring him to take another step. “I see why you sleep on the couch.” The warlock chuckled at Fang's reaction. “Well, men, did you find anything?” They shook their heads and responded no. “Alright, looks like you are clear, and she has evaded us once again. It isn’t the first time,” he mumbled the last part mostly to himself.

“Glad to see you go,” he said as he followed them. He slammed the door behind him, making sure they understood his disdain for them while keeping up appearances as an old, grumpy man.

He waited near the window, listening for signs of them leaving. However, he could still hear them outside. He pressed his ear up against his front door, straining his ears. Normally, he would use magic, but the warlock was too close, and he couldn’t risk it. What he heard from the warlock made his jaw drop. He was finally hearing why Cora was being hunted.