25. What are you?

The new era of a friendship had begun that day. Four friends, completely unaware of the storms coming their ways, cut the cake with wide smiles plastering all over their faces. They all were happy and drunk.

"Are we just going sit here and spent this beautiful night like this?" Niya asked, looking at the ceiling as she placed her head on William's lap.

"Go to your bed, Niya. You promised me." William looked down at her face and said. 

"She is right by the way. This is the most beautiful night of our lives, a beginning of a never-ending friendship, we should celebrate it in a wild way." Edward said, who was lying on the other side of the bed with his head on Niya's legs.

"Let's go to the forest then. I want to explore it. It is so beautiful." George said while half of his body laid on the bed with his head on Edward’s legs and the other half hanging down the bed.

"Nice. Forest. Let's go." Niya said and stood up and. Everyone agreed, completely ignoring the danger as they all were drunk.

They all took their drinks with them and left Andino's house, heading straight into the woods.

Everything was just magical. Pink and orange trees covered with a blanket of snow and glowing flowers, all surrounded with those glowing butterflies, were making it look like some garden of the heavens. Everything was dead silent, the minty fresh fragrance of the trees and flowers was making the atmosphere more attractive. They all walked for fifteen minutes, talking, running behind each other carelessly, and found a beautiful lake with sparkling blue water.

"Wow. It's beautiful." Niya ran towards the lake. She bent to touch its water and realized it was a hot water lake.

"It's a hot water lake. Let's sit here for some time before returning to our rooms." She called the boys over there and they all sat there, dipping their feet into that lake, drinking their drinks, and staring at the stars. After a long time, it was a peaceful night for all of them. 

And now they were drunk enough to fall asleep without even caring where they were and what danger was waiting for them ahead.

******

The night was peaceful without any danger and they all slept well. It was early in the morning the next day and the Pollux was yet to appear in the sky. Niya, William, George, and Edward were still sleeping on the banks of that hot water lake. Someone threw water on them violently and they all woke up with a jolt.

"What the hell!?" Niya stood up, looking down at her nightdress which was completely soaked with the water now.

"Good morning, sweetheart." A familiar voice greeted her and she shut her eyes tightly, not looking up at the person as she knew exactly who he was.

"Good morning, Your Majesty." Both Edward and George greeted him while desperately trying to stand up.  Both looking flushed once they did.

"Shut up. I'll talk to you later." He said, without even looking at them as his eyes were fixed on Niya and her closed eyes. Stepping in front of her, he kneeled and rested his arms in between his legs. 

With a scowl, snapping his fingers in front of her face he said, in a dangerously intimidating tone,  "Niya, I am talking to you. Look at me." She opened her eyes with a jolt and looked at him. It was very clear from the look on his face that this was going to be a long day.

"Hi. Good morning. How are you?" She said, faking a smile on her face but she was shivering on the inside as she knew Archie will not go soft this time.

"Shut up. Just *shut up.* Care to explain what the *hell* were you doing here? Do you have any idea how dangerous it could be? There are creatures in this forest that can eat you alive, they can eat all of us alive. How can you be so careless?" He said, looking in her eyes and she could clearly feel that dark aura around him.

"I know. I know. But we are alive. Right? Nothing happened." She gathered all her courage to speak.

"Are you kidding me? You..." He gritted his teeth out of anger and grabbed her arm tightly, raising himself and her to their full height. She winced in pain.

"Hey, stop. You are hurting her." William said, who was watching all this silently till now, shoving his hand off of her.

"Stay out of it, William. I am not talking to you." Archie looked at him with anger.

"But I am. And I am warning you, don't you ever dare touch her this way or I will completely forget that you are the king." He replied with the same intensity of anger in his voice. They were all busy arguing when suddenly, Edward screamed in pain.

"George, Will!" Edward screamed. They all turned to see him and couldn't believe what their eyes were witnessing. 

A big blue dinosaur-like creature, almost forty feet tall with huge black wings was holding Edward in his paws. Niya had never seen a creature like this before. It was humongous and she was left with her mouth open before closing it after hearing Edward’s desperate cry. 

She looked at him, running towards him to save him but was stopped by a tight hold on her hand that didn’t let her go no matter how much she fought. 

"Archie, leave my hand. I can help him." She said, looking at Archie with anger.

"You can't, it's a Magnosaur, topper of the food chain on this planet. He can swallow each of us alive down his throat. His skin is thick enough that our powers are useless against him" Archie said, looking at the creature with narrowed and calculated eyes. 

Niya looked at him for a second and quickly brought his hand to her mouth and bit, hard. 

“Mother fu-” Archie loosened his grip due to pain and she jerked off his hand, running towards the creature as Edward was still screaming in pain. "Niya, stop!" Archie tried to stop her but failed.

Niya tried to reach Edward but the creature jerked her off with his wings and she landed at a distance, hitting her head on a tree and getting some bruises on her arms. Slightly dizzy she looked ahead and saw William and Archie trying to save Edward but every attempt was futile. She heard someone scream her name and she shook her head to get rid of the ringing. 

She looked at her arm to check if it was bleeding and it was but that wasn’t what shocked her. What shocked her was that instead of pure red blood, a red liquid with *sparkling golden* particles was dripping out of her wounds. 

Archie turned to see Niya and saw her standing up and for a second, he was filled with relief until he saw her bleeding. At that moment, he realized what he was thinking last night was true as golden blood belongs to Angels only. 

The Magnosaur clutched Edward tightly in his paws and took him closer to his mouth to gulp him down. All the men froze, all of them numb as they knew there is no way to save Edward.

George couldn’t help but feel useless as he saw the creature bring his dearest friend towards his mouth. "Noooo-"

But his desperate scream was cut by a bolt of strong silver lightning that hit the Magnosaur's paw, forcing it to release Edward. He landed on the ground as Magnosaur yelped and winced in pain. 

George ran towards him as he was bleeding badly. He quickly pulled him away from the creature and wrapped his shirt around his wound to stop the bleeding.

The creature turned to see the source of this powerful strike and it was from none other than Niya. It made it even angrier and it ran towards her. She concentrated on her powers to save herself from this attack and within a blink of an eye, a golden light surrounded her, she was many feet above the ground, in her real appearance, an appearance of The Angel of Creation. 

She was in her beautiful golden gown, dancing with that early morning wind with those big sparkling golden majestic wings. It was a beautiful scenario for all of them. The light emitting from her could be seen all over the Vamp Prime's sky. The pinkish-purple sky turned into a shiny golden one. Her long honey brown hair was waving royally under the effect of the wind. Her skin turned more glowy and golden, her golden-brown eyes were now fully golden. 

"Bow down to Your Queen, beasty." She ordered the Magnosaur in a deep royal voice, looking into his white eyes.

The angry Magnosaur started whimpering and bowed down in front of her, every tree present in that forest bent over in her respect as did every creature in the forest. William and George were on their knees while Archie, who was still in utter shock, couldn't stop himself from bowing down in front of her. 

"Go back to your place, all of you." She ordered the animals and the Magnosaur, and within a minute, they left the place and the trees returned to their original shape. Niya came back to her human form once she was back on the ground. 

She turned to look over at Will, Archie, George, and Edward, but the former were still on their knees while the latter remained leaning against a rock, clutching the shirt to his wound whit wide eyes.

"God... it's over, guys. Stand up." She rolled her eyes at them and they all stood up. She got closer to Edward, laying a hand on his wound, only for it to close up in a few seconds. He stood up and she quickly hugged him muttering how to never scare her like that again while Edward patted her back, still in shock over the events that had happened.

"I just can't believe what I witnessed. It was beautiful." George said while smiling, once the pair approach them. Everyone quickly patting Edward while Archie only nodded with a scowl on his face. His gaze on Niya.

"What are you ?" Archie looked at her in shock.  "An Angel? Angel of Creation? How can it be- Daughter of Michael?" For the first time, he was lacking words in his life.

"I can explain, okay? I mean no harm to you and your people." She knew Archie was in great shock and she tried to calm him.

"You have to... you have to explain to not only me but to the *whole* planet." He said, looking at her eyes and for the first time, Niya could see the fear in those shiny green eyes.

"No, please. I'll leave your planet but don't tell anyone, you have to keep it a secret." Niya pleaded, taking his hand in hers and squeezing it.

"Secret? Look at the sky." He said and Niya looked up at the sky, it was all golden, bright golden. "Your light is all over the sky and even a child of this planet can tell the reason behind it. They know that there is an Angel present on this planet. " He said, pulling off her hand.

"But they don't know it's me. Please don't tell anyone." She pleaded again but Archie only shook his head and left the place without saying a word.

"It's okay, we will get through it." William said, putting his arm around her shoulders and gave her a side hug.

They knew the problem was huge but little did they know that someone else had witnessed all of this who wasn't supposed to be there. And that was none other than Andino. 

"Angel of Creation? Oh my Lord, this is going to be breaking news for Samael." Andino whispered to himself, standing behind a huge tree, hidden from sight.

************