Life was hard. My father missed my mother. Honorary member of the Winx club, princess of Sparkx, keeper of the Dragon Flame, Queen of Arakleon. And she was gone. I'd met her, briefly. Only in my earliest memories. Since she disappeared before I was two. My older brother knew her, he was five when she disappeared. Our father just can't get over it, and we don't blame him.
I sighed as I was frustrated. I could never get my magic to work. Father told me it would take time that was something I didn't have much of. I would be leaving for Alfea shortly and I still couldn't reach into myself to unlock the fairy within.
"Aurora, what are you doing? The voice startled me out of my thoughts. I looked up to see my brother, Xavier was much taller than me. By three years, older too. He had our mothers striking blue eyes, our father's blonde hair, and our father's physical attributes. Xavier was strong, he was a member of the Red Fountain hero school. Been there for a few years now, too. He knew Alfea fairies as well. One of the daughters of another Winx fairy caught his fancy, but the daughter wasn't at school yet. She was my age, apparently.
I sighed. "Just practising." I mumbled.
Xavier looked down at me. Considering I was on the floor, it wasn't that embarrassing. "Come on, father wants to talk to us. And I want to hear it before I have to go to school." He explained.
I nodded and stood up. "Of course, I'll just, um, finish up here. Be down in a moment." I replied.
Xavier smiled and left my room. I dusted myself off. I may have been a princess, but Xavier was next in line to the throne, no me, so I had nothing to worry about.
Looking in my mirror, I sighed. My red hair was straight, flowing down past my elbows in one long wave. I had striking blue eyes which stood out more than the rest of me. I worse a light blue t-shirt which was loose, followed by some darker blue denim jeans. Father always said I reminded him of mother. I thought I did too, sometimes when I looked at her photos we looked similar.
I combed my hair briefly and pinned it back with my heart clip. Then I headed downstairs to see what it was that father wanted me to hear. He was always talking to us. More Xavier, because he was older. But now I would be starting at the school for fairies.
When I reached the Great Hall, I was surprised to see my grandfather Arandor standing next to father proudly. Grandpa Arandor was the previous king of Arakleon, before my father, Prince Sky, took over rule. We still saw him from time to time, he was sort of scary though. Don't want to get on his bad side.
"Hello, Aurora, how are you today?" Grandfather Arandor asked me, smiling politely. In all honesty, he favoured my brother it was probably because Xavier was a boy, but he did like me. I think.
I smiled and curtseyed slightly. "Just fine, thankyou, Grandfather. I replied graciously.
Father rolled his eyes. "Your Grandfather has come not for formalities, young daughter, rather to wish you luck for the school year."
Grandfather nodded. "Well, what school year wouldn't be kicked off without a gift?" his strong face broke into a grin. He looked young, I thought.
I smiled and he held out his arms. I rolled my eyes as I ran into the warm embrace. He chuckled and had me out at arm's length, looking at me warmly. He seemed pleased, as he nodded his head in satisfaction.
"You've done well with this young one." Grandfather said proudly.
I blushed a deep scarlet, almost the colour of my fire hair. "Well, thankyou..." I mumbled.
My father laughed a deep laugh. He held onto my shoulder too. "Well, I can't take all the credit." He admitted. I knew he was referring to mum. I missed her. Having a female role model would have been nice.
Grandfather chuckled. "Well, to start of this school year, my gift to both of you children is this." He held open his palm and showed two small, glowing objects.
Xavier rushed in and took out one of them. It glowed a bright green colour and swelled on his palm. After a moment, the object became a large, glowing green sword.
"Cool." He muttered in awe. He'd been talking of how much he'd like a sword which was disguised, and now he'd gotten one.
Grandfather held out the last of the objects and I took it wearily. It heated up in my palm and glowed a vibrant blue colour. I watched with interest as the small stone shifted and grew. The small stone grew more weight and I felt it sharpen. I watched it become a sword, a brilliant, blazing blue sword. I didn't know what to say.
Father sighed. "It's not meant to be used unless your powers fail you. I know how much you like hand to hand combat." He winked. I blushed slightly.
I smiled and moved the sword around. The light catching it. It was beautiful. Not too heavy, not too light. But I wouldn't need it. I would just train with it, I loved weapons. The bow and arrow were my favourites.
"Thankyou, grandfather." I said, beaming.
He nodded. "Well then, I believe that's me done. I shall be off now." And without another word, the previous King clapped his hands and his body disappeared. He would be back in his home now. Lucky him.
Xavier rolled his eyes. "Nice sword, sis." He said to me. I blushed, he noticed and started to laugh. "Your one strange princess." He said between laughs.
Dad looked at both of us. "Well, your school friends should be here soon, yes, Xavier?" he asked.
My brother nodded. "Yeah, Daniel's coming soon. We're going to pick up Jackson and Scott too though." He explained. I'd never met Daniel, but I'd heard of Jackson and Scott. Scott was a year younger than Xavier at Red Fountain. He was the prince of Solaria, son of Queen Stella and Prince Brandon. They were once members of the Winx club too. Jackson was two years younger than Xavier and one year older than me. He was the son of Musa and Riven, another of the Winx group.
Dad smiled. "Of course. Well, you'd better get a move on then, shouldn't you? Don't want you to be late, first day back." He teased.
Xavier rolled his eyes but left the room, heading towards the front gates of our castle. I sometimes got lost, I do admit.
Dad put his hand on my shoulder and sat on his knee, looking me in the eyes with a stern, yet concerned, look on his face. "Now, Aurora. I know you don't think that you yourself have much control over your powers, but they will come. I believe that you have it in you. Be brave this year, don't give up. Remember your mother and I love you very much." He said.
I nodded and smiled. "Thanks, dad." I said softly.
He stood up and beamed. "Well, I guess we'd best get you to Alfea, then, hadn't we?" he announced.
I nodded again and headed to my room. My bags were already packed, all I needed were my few special belongings to go into a small bag and I was ready to go.
Dad called to the staff to help me with my bags. I took my smaller one and put it over my shoulders as we defended the flight of stairs from my room.
As I was walking out the front doors to the castle, I ran into something. As I looked up, I quickly realised it wasn't a something, rather a someone. I blushed a deep scarlet as he apologised to ME.
"I'm sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going." He said gently, his voice accented.
I blushed and nodded, opening my mouth and closing it again. Man, this was embarrassing, and my name was Aurora! This wasn't supposed to happen! "Um, no, it's my fault, I should have been looking where I was going." I stuttered.
The reason why I was stuttering? This guy was gorgeous. He had brown hair, cropped in such a way that it looked fabulous. He wore the Red Fountain uniform, the blue cape with the jumpsuit in a royal blue coll. He had striking green eyes which stood out beautifully. He was amazingly handsome.
Before I could continue staring, Xavier joined the conversation. "Hey, Daniel. I guess you've met my little sister." He said with a chuckle. He'd probably seen the whole thing, silly brother.
The guy, Daniel – how it suited him – looked to Xavier and smiled. "It's nice to meet you, Princess." He bowed his head slightly in respect, making my blush deepen.
"Please, it's Aurora." I hated being called Royalty, it was embarrassing and made me feel as though I should actually try to do something with my life.
Xavier laughed. "Don't get any ideas, mate. She's my little sister." He warned lightly. The way he said it in a joking manner made me feel happier, but there was the underlying message of: don't mess with my sister. Fair enough.
Daniel laughed and held up his hands in mock surrender. "Wouldn't think of it." He sent me a wink before heading towards the air craft with Xavier.
Dad gestured for me to board our own aircraft, shortly after their departure, to which I followed. He powered up the air craft and leapt into the air. He kept the craft to a low speed, which I was thankful for. I couldn't do fast flights, I couldn't do fast – end of story. I would know, my magic wasn't coming along anytime soon.
Once we arrived at Alfea, dad helped me off the craft. I hugged him and felt a tear leak out of my eye. I wouldn't see him until the start of the holidays. That would be hard for me. I found it hard to make friends, so I would mostly be alone.
Dad pulled back and kissed my forehead. "You'll do great. Your just a late bloomer." He said.
I smiled. "I suppose." My mother's name being Bloom, he was making a joke there. I almost laughed, in spite of myself.
Without another word, dad turned and left me at Alfea on my own. I sighed and turned determinedly. I could do this. I headed towards the teacher who was signing people in.
Getting in line, I waited my turn. The teacher looked rather unfriendly. My nerves increased as my turn got closer. I dreaded having to say my name in front of her. She had a mean face and scary eyes. I wasn't ready for this. Why couldn't dad have stayed?
My turn was next. "Name?" the teacher asked bluntly.
I stumbled for a moment. "Au-Aurora, miss, Aurora of Arakleon." I announced shakily.
She went down the list and my heart stopped for a moment. Would my name not be on the list? Would my dad have forgotten to put me down on the register?
Finally, she nodded. She handed me a paper and told me, "Take this to the headmistress. She'll help with your room." Then she moved on to the next person.
I breathed a heavy sigh of relief as she let me through. I went into the school yard and towards the head mistress. She was an elderly fairy, kind blue eyes and grey hair. She was only slightly short too.
She smiled warmly at me as I approached. "You must be new here. A first year." She said kindly. I nodded shakily and handed her the paper given to me by the previous teacher. She read through it and nodded. "Aurora, Bloom's daughter. I taught your mother.'' She announced sadly.
Mrs Faragonda, the headmistress, told me that my room was 'top floor on your right, last door. Can't miss it.' I followed her instructions and came upon a large, green and pink room. There were three rooms adjoining, each with two beds.
There were tags on each sub sectioned door. One had Tamara of Zendira, Sonya of Solaria written on it. I'd only heard of Solaria, never Zendira. Another door had Lullaby + Ruby of Melody. They appeared to be sisters as there was nothing to suggest otherwise. The furthest door in the dormitory had two names, the last two. Rose of Linphea and Aurora of Arakleon.
I went to the room and looked around. There were plants dotted around the half of the room, the bed covered in green ivy. It looked sort of messy. I looked to the half of the room with no plants on it. That would be where I was sleeping.
A girl walked out of the bathroom and saw me. She waved and said, "Hi, I'm Rose!" happily, cheery and sweet.
I smiled, how could I not? She was so sweet. "Aurora, umm, what's with the plants? If you don't mind me asking!" I hurriedly added, not wanting to overstep my boundaries.
She shook her head, smiling. "Not at all. My mother is Flora, fairy of Nature. I get her love of flowers, I guess." She shrugged.
I nodded. "Part of the Winx?" I asked, curious.
She nodded happily. "Yep, yours?"
"Queen Bloom." I replied.
She gasped quietly, obviously shocked. "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to pry." She said quickly, obviously thinking that I was offended. I felt bad, she was so kind and here I was being rude to her. Or was I? Was I just stating facts?
"It's alright, I'm sort of used to it by now." I said calmly.
She sighed. "Sorry, it's just... well, I don't know, my mum used to talk about Bloom a lot, more than the other Winx, but not anymore. It's like she's given up hope." She said sadly. Oh, given up hope that we'd find my mum? I hadn't. We were going to, it would just take time.
I shook my head. "I haven't." I said determinedly. I would not give up. I needed to find my mother.
Rose smiled. I took a moment to take in her appearance. She had soft, light brown hair, like photos of her mother I'd seen. She had skin a shade or two darker than her mothers, but not by much. She had green eyes, which seemed to show her love of flowers. She wore a green tank top and a knee length green skirt. She was beautiful, the colour suiting her natural beauty.
"Have you met the other girls yet?" she asked suddenly. I shook my head and she laughed, pulling me towards 'Sonya and Tamara's room. I stopped in front of the door and waited as Rose knocked.
Two girls appeared from the doorway, both looking sort of out of place together. One had purple hair, brown eyes and a lot of technical gadgets on her clothing, whilst the other had long blonde hair, blue eyes and a smart fashion sense – from what I could tell.
"Hey, this is Aurora. She's Bloom's daughter, Aurora, this is Tam and Sonya." She gestured to Tam, the purple haired girl, and Sonya, the blonde one. I waved cautiously.
The both gasped. "No way! We're all the daughters of the Winx club in here. Lullaby and Ruby, they're Musa's girls. I'm Stella's daughter, and Tam here is Techna's. That's so cool how they put us together." Sonya exclaimed excitedly.
Rose rolled her eyes. "Yeah, it's as though they put the strong fairies daughters together for a reason." She said thoughtfully.
Sonya laughed and shrugged it off. "Or it could just be that we all had one thing in common..."
Tam rolled her eyes, smirking. "And what's that?" she asked lightly.
"A great fashion sense!" Sonya yelled, giggling after she'd done so.
I laughed. "Sure, because I'm sure you'd call this, fashion." I referred to my own plain attire, it was nothing to be proud of. But it was what I felt comfortable in, so that made it alright.
Sonya rolled her eyes. "Well, it's nothing a good shopping trip won't cure!" she exclaimed happily.
Tam sent Sonya a warning glance. "Careful Sonya, it's our first day here, we don't want to get into any trouble." She warned.
The princess of the sun merely shrugged her off. "We're allowed to. Besides, classes don't start until next week. We have four days to get ourselves ready."
I sighed. That meant that I had four days to get my magic to come out. I wasn't really good, I couldn't do anything with my magic. Occasionally I drew with it, but that was as far as it went. I wished more than anything that Bloom could teach me how to use my powers.
It was decided, unfortunately, that the six of us would go down the town of magix. By six, of us, I meant Musa's two twin girls as well. Lullaby and Ruby were very similar. I could barely tell them apart, but there was a major difference between them: their voice. Ruby had a lower one, whilst Lullaby was higher and softer. Lullaby was shorter and slightly recluse, Ruby was full of energy and ready to go to the city of Magix. I'd never been outside my father's castle, so this would be a new experience.
Sonya left to go tell Miss Griselda, the women of the front gate earlier, that the six of us would be leaving campus soon. We waited for her just near the exit of the school grounds.
Tam and Rose were deep in conversation. By that, I mean that they were arguing. A very intensive one at that. Rose was fighting for the natural beauty of the worlds, where Tam was fighting over the revolution of technology. I didn't have a side, they were both pretty stupid to me, but if I had to, I would have chosen nature.
Great. First day here and already there's arguing going on. If I wanted to witness this, I would have just stayed at home. Not that there was many actual arguments, it was more that my father and brother trying to get me to be more lady like. To be more of a princess, so to speak. Never really worked.
I sighed as I sat down next to a tree on the ground. The tree covered over me with its soft brown branches filled with green leaves. I myself found plants rather incredible. The technology wasn't my strong point. We had a greenhouse which I would spend most of my time inside, it was fantastic.
Eventually Sonya returned. I hopped up and then followed the group to the bus stop. Almost immediately, a bus came for us. It was cool, we hopped on and the driver sped away towards the town.
When we reached our destination, I was shocked. Magix was like nothing I'd ever seen before. At home, it was old fashioned walls and stone. Here, it was all plaster, wood and all coloured paints. Vehicles floated in the air, people with wings flying above the people, this place was amazing.
I stood in awe of the massive city, mouth just open as though trying to believe that this was real. The other girls had been here before, so this wasn't much of a shock to them.
They turned to me. "So, what do you think?" Sonya asked after a moment.
I shook my head slowly in amazement. "It's, wow. Big." I stumbled. Not as bad as before with Daniel, but that was bad. That was embarrassing too. This, not so much.
Sonya laughed. "Wow, you really don't get out much, do you?" she teased playfully.
Tam glared at her for a moment. "Sonya!" she scolded.
"What?" she asked, a shrug and an innocent face soon following.
I rolled my eyes. "It's fine. She's right, I'd never left the castle before today." I admitted.
Everyone gave me blank, shocked looks. Roses shifted quickly to sympathetic, but everyone else stayed shocked. Way to make me feel better guys. I glared at the ground as though it could kill me.
"Why ever not, Aurora?" Rose asked gently after a long while. It was sort of nice to ask, the rest didn't seem able to. Great friends I got here, if I could call them that.
I sighed. "Just didn't. I was scared. My brother always told me stories of what could happen to me, should I step out of the castle. Left me scared." I explained weakly.
Sonya gasped. "Doesn't your brother just sound like a right pain?" she teased lightly.
I laughed. "Don't let him catch you saying that." I said. I wasn't going to stand up for her if he did, anyway. It would be her fault for bagging my brother.
They all seemed to recover from their earlier shock quite quickly after that. Tam looked down at one of the technological gadgets. "Right, let's get shopping! I propose a pizza after woods." She announced.
Everyone agreed, so we headed off to our first dress shop. Instantly, Sonya pulled out a bunch of red and orange clothes, then went to the change rooms. She loved shopping, that much was clear.
Rose pulled out a long green dress from the rack and smile as she headed to the change rooms. Tam got a pink tank top and a black skirt out and nodded, heading to another change room. Musa's twins couldn't seem to find anything that would look good on them. They were clearly picky. I looked around the room and spotted a piece of silky, light blue fabric squished between two red ones.
I walked towards it and pulled out a beautiful dress. It was a thin strapped dress, which had a straight flow to the ankle length. There weren't any patterns on the skirt, however the top half had a bow at the waist with some floral patterns in a darker blue colour. The dress was so soft that it almost fell through my finger.
Seeing a spare change room, I headed towards it. I took off my top and jeans and slipped the silky dress over my head. The blue ignited my red hair perfectly. The waist band set just above my hip and clung tightly to my curves. My boobs weren't too obvious, not that I had very big ones to begin with, but the dress made them look pretty. The skirt ended just at my ankles and I didn't feel trapped. The fabric allowed me to move around easily.
I nodded my head and slipped of the dress, putting on my own clothes. I folded the dress neatly and carried it to the register. Sonya gave me some money and I paid for the beautiful dress. The next store we went to was a shoe store. Musa's twins were looking at long boots, which looked rather unconfutable. Sonya had found a pair of golden heels which looked extremely uncomfortable too. Rose found some small green flats which matched the strapless green gown she'd bought from the previous store. Tam was looking at some technologically advanced sneakers.
Myself, I was looking for some sandal type heels. Nothing too fancy. Eventually I found a pair of dainty blue shoes. They had a bow on the top of the shoe, which was open. There was a thin ankle strap which was blue the whole shoe was the same colour. It had a small heel on it, not even the entire length of my finger nail on my thumb.
I tried the shoe on in my size. It fit well and I took some steps and found that I loved them. They were easy to move around in. I matched them with my dress, finding that they matched evenly. I grinned as I took them to the counter and paid for them, using my own money this time.
Sonya came out of the store eventually with three bags. She's bought three pairs of heels, four dresses and some odd pieces of clothing, shirts and skirts, that sort of thing. She wasn't afraid of spending her money that was for sure.
We headed towards a café and took a seat out the front. We sat at the table of six and under an umbrella. A small pot plant under the window. I recognised it as a rose, my favourite flower. I could see Rose staring at it too, she was the daughter of the Nature fairy, anyway.
Tam ordered for us and we got our meals quickly. I got a salad, which had lots of leafy greens on it. I must admit, I was a vegetarian. I didn't eat meat. Both my brother and my father didn't know why or how, I just did it. I just couldn't eat something that was once alive.
The rest of the group got some meals with chips on the side. It smelt sort of gross. As I looked to Rose, she too was eating no meat foods. She was probably more like her mum than she would let on.
After we'd eaten our foods, Sonya announced that we would go for a walk. We complained. What about our bags? She told us that we had not to worry, she sent them back to our rooms at Alfea using her magic spells.
The group laughed at Sonya before we headed towards an open park. We walked under the cover of the trees and towards the centre, which held a water pond. I could feel the energy of the fish swimming around inside, yet I couldn't see them. I'd loved water ever since I could remember.
Without warning, something hard hit my back and I tumbled over, heading face first into the water. It was fairly deep already, not being able to touch the bottom. The cold water seeped through my clothing, yet I didn't feel cold. I felt alive, happy and at peace. I didn't seem to care that I could have drowned.
I came up out of the water and spat some of it out from my mouth. The water seemed too grown unhappily as I was lifted out of the water by a very shocked Rose. The moment that my body was out of the water, I collapsed onto the jetty, feeling drained. I felt better in the water.
Hearing a laughing, cackling sound, I turned to face three girls. They looked mean, really mean. One had a silver hair which was done in a high pony tail. Another, messy brown hair and the last had long, past the elbow brown and blonde highlighted hair.
"Look what we found, a bunch of Alfea first years." The silver haired one snickered.
I swallowed.
Witches.