Five years later, the Wilmington family moved to Denver in Colorado, where Charles had found a job with a law-firm that paid very well.
Little Buck was growing up to be quite tall, dark and handsome by that time. So far, the little boy hadn't shown any signs of being a male witch; but Bianca always kept a close eye on him, waiting for the boy to show what magic power he had. The only person who ever baby-sat Buck, was Andrew, Charles' Whitelighter. They couldn't risk Buck being exposed as a witch to any humans, so the magical angel was the only person they could trust to keep their child's magic a secret.
Not long after they moved to Denver, Andrew discovered Buck's magic power - the little boy could change his shape into that of any animal he saw and desired to become. Fortunately, Andrew found that he could use his healing on Buck as an animal and the little boy would change back to his true form; Buck was very amused when Uncle Andy turned him back into a boy. Andrew told the parents of his discovery, and they began to look into how the little boy could be educated without risk of exposing his magic to the whole school.
Bianca was upset about having a magical child; it scared her because it was the first time she had mothered a magical child, let alone a child of her own. Buck could harm himself or risk exposure by using magic in public. Also, Bianca knew that demons liked killing witches - what if they came after Buck when Andrew or Charles weren't around to protect the boy? Bianca started spending time at her parents' house, leaving the child with Charles who could protect the child better with his magic.
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Several months after the Wilmingtons had been living at their Denver house, Charles had to go and fight a demon when he was meant to be looking after his son. Andrew offered to watch Buck for him and Charles gladly agreed. By that time, Buck knew that Andrew worked for his father and wasn't his real uncle, but he was still happy to call him 'Uncle Andy'.
"Dada? Why d' you have to go now?" asked little Buck Wilmington. His mother was staying with her parents again, so couldn't be there with him either.
"I won't be gone for long, Buck," reassured Charles. "Be good for your uncle." Then Buck's dad walked out of the front door, closing it behind him. Then he got into the car and drove off.
Andrew, Charles's Whitelighter, knocked at the front door then, and Buck opened it. The little boy was tall for his age and could easily reach up to open doors - a fact that had caused some distress for his mother in the past.
Andrew walked in and smiled down at little Buck. "Have you gotten taller since I was here last?" he asked the boy, with a friendly smile.
"No, you musta shrunk." Buck giggled at Andrew.
"Maybe you're right. What movie would you like to watch today?" Andrew walked to the shelf with children's videos on and looked along the bookcase shelf at the titles.
"BAMBI!" shouted Buck excitedly. "Then I can do my trick again."
"Or we could just watch it without you doing that," suggested Andrew, his serious tone indicating that he didn't want to have to change Buck back from being a baby deer again. Buck couldn't change himself back, but when they'd discovered that Andrew could, Buck had found it great fun to change, knowing that Andrew would always return him to normal. To start with, it had been a fun game for both Buck and Andrew, but then Andrew had started to realize it was a waste of Buck's magic and could also make the child more vulnerable if any demons attacked; so Andrew had tried to stop Buck playing the game anymore.
"I wanna be a deer 'gain though."
"Bucklin. Did your dad tell you to be good for me?"
Buck looked at Andrew with a guilty expression, knowing that arguing with his uncle was naughty. "Yeah," he answered in a small voice.
"You have to do as I say then," ordered Andrew. Baby-sitting a magical child who misused his magical gift wasn't easy - the little boy was too young to understand the real reason for his gift.
"Okay. But I don't wanna watch a movie anymore." Buck stood up and walked to the hallway. Then he jumped on each step as he went upstairs.
Andrew just let Buck thump upstairs, not bothered by how noisy the boy was being. "I'll just leave him to play quietly for a while," Andrew said to himself.
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About an hour later, Andrew walked upstairs to check on Buck. The Whitelighter walked into the boy's bedroom and stopped in shock. A Dalmatian puppy sat on the carpet.
"Buck?" asked Andrew suspiciously. The dog looked suspiciously like he was out of another Disney movie, and Andrew knew that Buck loved Disney movies.
"Woof," answered the dog, wagging his tail.
"I should've told you not to change up here either. Maybe I should leave you like that and let your dad find out that you've misused your magic powers again." Andrew was furious at Buck - surely the boy knew he wasn't meant to change into anything up here either. Before Buck had come along, Andrew hadn't had to baby-sit any young children, so he had to learn from his mistakes with Buck.
The puppy shook its head. Buck didn't want his dad to find out or he'd be very angry with him.
"If I change you back, you have to promise not to change again unless someone says you can."
Buck nodded his head in agreement. He didn't want anyone to get mad at him, as that meant he wouldn't be allowed any candy for ages.
Andrew pointed his hand at Buck, and the boy was returned to his normal self.
"Remember your promise," ordered Andrew sternly. "Daddy will be back soon. Time for a nap."
Andrew waved his hands over Buck and the boy fell asleep standing up. Andrew placed Buck on the bed and covered him with his quilt.
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Later that evening, Andrew and his charge, Charles, sat in the living room talking about Buck.
"It would be the best thing you could do for him," said Andrew persuasively. "At the moment he only misuses his magic."
"If I use a binding spell on him, will you use memory dust to wipe all knowledge of magic from his memory?" asked Charles; he knew that Bianca would be delighted if Buck had no knowledge of real magic. Buck would be the normal child that Bianca had always wanted, and perhaps she wouldn't need to 'visit' her parents so often.
"Yeah, sure. But you must promise to unbind his powers when he's old enough to use them responsibly."
"Of course, I wouldn't leave him ignorant of his true destiny."
Charles looked through his big thick magic book, searching for a power-binding spell. He finally found one and read through the page. "It will work so that either I say the reversal spell to unbind his powers, or they automatically become unbound if both Bianca and I die." Charles looked sad at the thought of himself and Bianca both leaving their son.
"That's not going to happen," reassured Andrew, "it's just there to make sure he gets his powers one day even if you don't unbind them."
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Meanwhile, in a dark cave in the underworld, dimly lit by two burning torches on the wall, a young woman with long black hair, which hung loose down her back, stood waiting for her servant to return. The young woman was actually a warlock - a good witch who had been turned evil. Her name was Gail.
Suddenly a large demon blinked into the room with short red horns on his head, and a large bare body colored red all over. He looked around the cave nervously, before speaking in his deep voice. "I bring bad tidings, Mistress."
Gail looked angrily at the demon, who was lower-ranked than her in the underworld and served only her. "I don't like 'bad tidings', Kronor. What is it?" Flames appeared in her eyes in place of her pupils, indicating her anger.
"The child has been misusing his powers again, and finally his parents have chosen to bind his magic. All memories of magic will be wiped from his mind."
"This isn't the news I expected to receive from you, you useless lower-ranking demon."
The demon bowed down to Gail apologetically, pretending not to be hurt by the reminder of his low rank. "We could find a way to unbind his powers if we captured him, couldn't we?"
"NO! We can't, fool," answered Gail, her rage growing at the failure of the demon to capture the boy. "Unbinding good witches' magic is above even my powers. The Source doesn't want him with his powers bound - he cannot turn him into a powerful warlock then. He has already lost one powerful magical child to good witches. I will not report this to the Source, you will. You are more expendable than I. Go now - I don't expect to see you ever again." Gail waved her right arm in the air and the demon magically floated toward the cave entrance.
When Kronor had gone away from the cave, Gail walked to the wall and looked in the mirror that hanged there. She tidied her hair with her hands, then began talking to herself. "The next child won't be so lucky - once we have him changed to a warlock, the prophecy will be broken."
To be continued...