Man, what a drag.

A young boy sat behind a tall wooden counter. His small fingers brisked through his dirty blonde hair, while his glazed eyes looked at numerous shelves. Although the room wasn’t all too big, the store he worked at sure packed a lot of merchandise. The shelves were covered in an assortment of goods, roughly organized at best. On the shelf the furthest left from him, trinkets such as daggers, bottle openers, cooking utensils, locks, keys and such were stacked on top of each other. As the shelves went on, the organization continued to get worse. He usually kept himself from looking at the shelves to his right. It looked less like a store’s merchandise and more like cluttered garbage.

The boy looked under the counter he was sitting at. Under the table was an old wooden chest, with a lock on it. This was where the shop kept its few magical items it sold. None of them were too special, just enchanted household trinkets that had been sold down the chain until they ended up at this dinky shop.

He then pushed his hand up beneath the table. His fingers twitched, rubbing against the rough underside of the counter, but then they hit wood as smooth as silk. A small rod, crudely hidden underneath. He smiled. This was the tool his father had given him to protect himself.

He’s such a good father.

He wasn’t his father by blood, but he still looked up to his father, even though his father wasn’t often present. The boy reminisced about when his father gave him the wand.

“Alright Pike, take this.”

“Wow!” a younger Pike’s brown eyes glowed, “Is this a wand?”

“Eh, kind of. More like a magically imbued stick. To use a wand you need magic, but anyone can use this puppy. I bought a tier one paralysis spell. It just has one use though, so don’t miss.”

“Uh, Cline,” a woman with brilliant blonde hair interrupted, “Shouldn’t you teach him how to use it?”

“Huh?” Pike’s father, Cline, looked at his wife confused, “What is there to teach? You point the stick at the burglar and he becomes paralyzed.”

“But how does he activate the spell?”

“I dunno, magic or something. He’ll figure it out.”

The woman, a bit discontent with the answer, turned to her son, “Just be careful, ok Pike?”

“Yes mom!”Pike whipped around the wand, “I’ll protect the store!”

“Oh dear, please put that down!”

Pike let out a small puff of air through his nostrils. That had been two years ago and he had yet to use the wand. His fingers caressed it.

I wonder what it’d be like to fight?

He was a big fan of the empire’s colosseum fights. His mother once took him and his sister to a fight when they were younger. He didn’t remember much, but that sparked enticement. Ever since going to the colosseum, he’s been keeping up with the fights. He would call himself a big fan, but his friends would call him a bit obsessive. He didn’t care though, he felt as if the spirit of fighting was flowing inside him. The blood corsing through his veins were itching for battle with viewing colosseum fights supplementing the need. This was the only way he could attempt to quench his thirst, by keeping up with this fighting league.

A small clatter came from the room behind Pike.

“Hm?”

Initially lost in thought, he turned his attention towards the rear of the store. He strained his ears, listening for any noise.

The first clatter sounded like something falling off a shelf. That alone wouldn’t cause any alarm. The quality of shelves this store housed were low, and the ones in the back were of even less quality than the ones on display. A simple object falling off an uneven shelf wasn’t necessarily uncommon, but Pike continued to focus his senses towards the rear of the store.

Faint whispers, and the movement of one? No, two? No, one? Pike shook his head, it didn’t matter how many, but there was definitely somebody in the back of the store. He snagged the wand from beneath the counter. His hands jittered, he had always looked forward to using this wand. The time had finally come, a burglar had broken in. Neither his mother nor father were in town, so it was up to him to protect the shop.

Pike silently approached the door leading to the back storage. He pressed his ear against it, hearing merchandise being moved around.

I’ll catch you red handed, just wait! Pike Van-Drighten will begin his legendary story by taking you criminals down!

He flung the door open, holding the wand in front of him. A figure, bent over an open crate. Without any conscious thought, a yellow spark ignited at the end of the wand, casting forth in a spiraling motion. The unknown figure was then momentarily encompassed by yellow light and then fell limp on top of the crate.

“Pike you dumbass!”

Wait, that voice.

A familiar voice came from the person he had just paralyzed with the wand.

His vision caught up to his actions. Slumped over the open crate was a girl, about four years his elder. She wore brown boots and a green cloak that covered most of her body. Her brown hair, held back in a ponytail, covered much of her face. Even without seeing the distinctive eyepatch, Pike instantly recognized the half covered face.

“Sh-Shellorn! What are you doing breaking into our store?”

His vision caught onto some movement. To his right, a black dog had lowered itself into a defensive position. Next to the dog, was a figure with both the color and texture of pure silk. Pike’s eyes slowly gazed up, his vision taking in the gentle sight. His face instantly glowed a bright red, his cheeks burned.

“Ah-Gu-Wa-Eh… Ah!”

He pivoted out of the room, slamming the door behind him. His legs gave out. Pike slid down the door, sitting against it. He heard his sister’s muffled voice behind the door, as well as a foreign voice. The foreign voice must’ve been the figure next to the dog.

There was a girl standing next to the dog, no not a girl, an angelic being. Her raven hair flowed freely down her back, her skin, without blemish, seemed softer than anything he had touched in his life. Her eyes. Her eyes radiated beauty. Her violet irises were like pure gemstones of the highest quality. Perfection. The only word Pike could come up with for what he had just seen.

These feelings of his may have been coerced by the fact that Lee had been the first girl he’d seen naked.

“Pike! Pike!”

Slowly coming back to his senses, he slapped his still red hot face.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

“Pike, you can come back in now.”

Pike stood up, quickly puffed out his chest, and then entered the storage room.

His sister was still draped over the crate. The dog seemed more relaxed. The angel, she was now clothed. Well, that was putting it nicely. The angel was wearing some weird black and gray rags he had never seen before. The fabric didn’t necessarily look cheap, but there were cuts and holes all over the rags, revealing the angel’s velvety skin.

The angel tried covering some of the rips in her clothing with her arms, her face flushed. Pike snapped his vision back to his sister, he caught himself looking too long.

“Pike! Why the hell would you use that thing? Y’know it's worth like half our inventory?”

He looked down at the wand in his hand. There was a prominent crack splitting down the entire length. A bit embarrassed, he gave the only reason that came to mind.

“Uh, I thought you were burglars.”

“Well, we’re obviously not.”

“Why did you break in through the window?” Pike instinctively snapped back, egging on the confrontation with his sister.

“Um, Well.” It was Shellorn’s turn looking sheepish. “I didn’t want to run into them.” she mumbled.

“Did you think dad wouldn’t hear you back here?”

“I was betting on it…”

Pike was well aware of the strife between Shellorn and their father. When he and his mother first joined with them as one family, he could tell Shellorn wasn’t the fondest of the situation. Even so, their family remained together running the shop, until a big altercation between Shellorn and their father occurred. He didn’t know the details, but it resulted in her living in the middle of the woods. Even with those troubles, Pike and Shellorn got along. He would even make trips to visit her, but ever since moving out there the year before, Shellorn had never come back to visit. He was surprised at his sister’s sudden appearance.

“So you didn’t come home because of what I said last week, huh?”

“Of course not, there are other circumstances.” Shellorn motioned with her eyes to the angelic being behind her.

“Oh.” Pike looked down to his feet.

“Before we get caught up and all that jazz, how long will this paralysis last?”

“I don’t really know.”

###

After Pike’s nice welcome home gift, Shellorn had requested that he left her and the other girl. She wanted to recover before doing formal introductions. He waited in the store behind the counter. He had been tempted to eavesdrop, but knew better than to mess with his sister’s personal business. After about twenty minutes, two girls and a dog emerged from the back room. Shellorn staggered a bit, contorting her fingers in different ways and occasionally shaking out her legs. The angel from before luckily wasn’t just a vision. She followed behind his sister, but this time not in rags. She wore a black skirt with stockings, a purple long sleeve shirt and a black vest over the top.

“Wow,” Pike’s eyes glowed, “You look amazing!” he let his thoughts slip off his tongue.

The angel gave a heavenly smile, “Oh, thank you. Shell insisted I wore this one, even though I don’t really think skirts are my style.” She lightly tugged down on the skirt, “I’m just glad it isn’t gray, hehe.”

“Haha.” Pike laughed, even though he didn’t find anything funny about what she had just said. But the angel had found something funny, so it must’ve been funny.

“Ok, time for introductions! This right here is my best friend in the whole world Leelee.” Shellorn put her arm around Leelee pulling her close.

“Oh, it's just Lee. Lee Johnson.” Lee dipped her head.

Shellorn smiled while sticking her tongue out, “Leelee sounds better.”

“It really doesn’t.”

So that’s the name of the angel.

Pike was entranced, staring into two violet portals that took him to another realm.

Shellorn cleared her throat, “Pike, this is where you formally introduce yourself.” Shellorn turned to Lee, “Sorry, he isn’t the best with manners.”

Lee smirked, “Must run in the family.”

Shellorn pretended to be offended, but couldn’t keep her contagious smile hidden.

“Uh yea!” Pike stood up from his chair, “I’m Pike Van-Drighten, the utmost pleasure to meet your acquaintance.” he deeply bowed.

“Oh, uh… you as well.”

There was an awkward pause. He could feel Lee’s eyes upon him. It both made him gleeful yet tense. He shook a bit and then broke the silence, addressing his sister.

“Um Shellorn.”

“Yea Pike?”

“What’s with the dog?”

“Oh, him.”

The dog was sniffing around the merchandise. On cue, it knocked a box of rings off a low shelf. The rings scattered across the floor, different tones of their resonances rang in the shop.

“That’s Lee’s dog. He’s harmless.” Shellorn smiled at him.

“Rules are rules sis, you remember what happened with the saw-rabbit.”

Shellorn furrowed her eyebrows, “Fine.” She turned around and walked towards a shelf and rummaged through some garba- no, merchandise. She then walked back with a small rope in her hands, tossing it to Lee.

“Take this. I doubt he’ll run off, but it’s custom to tie your animals up out front.”

Lee tried catching the rope, but most of it unraveled in flight. She managed to grab part of it, but the rest of it clattered to the ground.

“Oh, uh.”

“Don’t worry Leelee, we’ll get him a proper collar later,” her eyes brightened, “One befitting of his cuteness.”

“So should I just tie this around his neck?”

“Mhm. He’s smart, he won’t choke.”

Lee started walking out with the dog, “I wouldn’t mind if he choked a bit.”

“What was that Leelee?”

Lee turned her head back, smiling, “Oh nothing. I’ll be right back.”

Oh how beautiful!

Pike had caught a glance of the angel’s smile and it sent his heart to space. When the door closed behind Lee, he felt a moment of gloom. He perked right back up, remembering his sister was at home for the first time in over a year.

“Sis, how long are you planning on staying?”

“Rebecca and Cline aren’t here, right.”

“Yea” he nodded his head, “Mom and dad aren’t home.”

“When are they going to be back?”

Pike hesitated. He wanted his older sister to be at home with him, but he couldn’t lie to her. He looked up to her too much. No matter how stubborn Shellorn was, he still loved her as his sister, even if they weren’t related by blood. His vision went from Shellorn to looking down at the counter.

“Well, they said they’d be back late tonight, but there’s a chance they won’t be back until tomorrow!”

“In that case we won’t be staying the night. We’ll head back to my place later today. Don’t tell Cline that I was here.”

Pike clenched his fists, “But traveling at night is dangerous.”

“Heh, there’s no need to worry about your big sis,” Shellorn ruffled her little brother’s dark blonde hair, “Nothing can take me down.”

“Except for a paralysis wand.”

“C’mon now, I wasn’t expecting my own brother to attack me.”

“In any case, be safe,” Pike began to sway back and forth, “And uh- M-make sure to keep her safe.” He gestured to the front door, where the angel stood outside.

Shellorn’s laid back demeanor changed for just a second.

“Of course I will. She’s my friend.”

Lee came back into the shop.

“Sorry about the wait. I’m not the best with knots.”

“Don’t worry Leelee,” with a bright smile, Shellorn walked towards her, “We got you your clothes so we can start running our other errands.” She grabbed her wrist and began tugging her out the door she just came in from.

“Oh, right now?”

“Yup.”

“Well bye Pike, it was nice meeting you.”

Pike stood up, bowing deeply, “I assure you the pleasure was mine Lee Johnson.”

“Lee’s just fine.”

His face flushed red. He was glad he was facing the ground in a deep bow. Before he could reply, his sister had already dragged the wonderful angel named Lee out of the shop.

“Lee,” he smiled, “What a wonderful name for such a wonderful being.”

He sat back down, lost in thought. His hands began feeling under the rough side of the counter out of habit. They touched around until they found the soft wooden wand. An unusual sharp crack along its body snapped his train of thought in a different direction.

“Ah man, what am I going to tell father? Even if I try, he’ll probably figure out I used it on Shellorn.”

He shuddered, remembering something Shellorn had said.

“Was that thing really worth half our inventory? How was father able to purchase this?”

Pike sank into the wooden chair. The excitement for the day, no, the week had already passed. He smiled. He now had new things to think about while looking over the dirty shop. Particularly the fond thoughts of a specific person.