Hi and welcome to "Elven Charms" my first story on this site and in general! So sit back, relax and I hope you all enjoy! And before I forget:

Winx Club and the characters in it do not belong to me, they belong to Rainbow S.r.l

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GO!

Why did he agree to this?

That singular question had buried itself stubbornly into Avalon's mind as he looked at the festival around him.

"'Festival' isn't even the right word," he muttered to himself, watching unamused as some drunkard swayed towards his general direction and fell short of him by a few inches. Festivals were times when the people of a town would respectably celebrate a moment in history that had occurred on the same day of the celebration. They should also be safe for all ages that entered the vicinity and the stalls would packed with games, treats, and souvenirs.

This alcohol-fest could hardly be called a festival.

Nothing had happened in history this day and nothing had happened recently either to warrant celebration; these people probably just threw a party, roped a whole bunch of other people into it and then some nearby vendors thought that they could probably sell off things they didn't want by setting up stalls.

Speaking of which, the stalls weren't very impressive either, just some con artists getting rid of some junk by giving them exotic names and meanings that didn't make any sense. Avalon tsked and continued walking. The only stalls that weren't scams were the bars. "That explains the state of everyone," he mused, "everything else is fake except for the alcohol."

He sighed and continued on. He wasn't here by choice. He wasn't talked into it by an untrustworthy friend or family member either; he was here on an assignment, sent by his higher-ups. According to rumor, someone here had apparently been dealing in highly dangerous illegal magic and potions.

This rumor would have probably been ignored if it weren't for the recent crimes involving fairly high-scale, yet unsuccessful robberies of an upper-class bank by painfully inexperienced teen hooligans.

A gangly dark elf who had unbelievable strength that disappeared shortly after his apprehension. A young woman who was confirmed to be a mere scripture fairy was suddenly able to change her appearance with a thought. And the last one, another woman, a witch, was able to render any male helpless to her charms.

In the right hands, these abilities could create the ultimate team of villains but, as said before, those lot were incredibly inexperienced and were caught as soon as they stepped out of the building.

Surprisingly, thorough body searches on the two women quickly revealed that their newfound power wasn't even their own but were actually the result of separate charms disguised as jewelry (both of them being shockingly powerful in comparison to the charms used by the paladins). In the boy's case, a simple blood test showed that he'd used a potion to gain his awesome strength; the effects being only temporary, much to the boy's dismay. Powerful charms and potions such as these weren't allowed to be sold to minors, yet the three teens claimed to have bought them with their own money at a regular stall in the local festival with no problems or questions.

This new information was naturally quite worrying to the higher-ups. After all if a trio of teens could gain possession of such dangerously powerful items, they didn't even want to imagine what unimaginable chaos would ensue if they fell into the wrong hands.

So he had been sent to this hell-hole of drunkards and scammers to investigate and try to find the dealer that had caused such trouble. All the information on this dealer had been given to him to assist his search.

Name: unknown. Age: unknown. Gender: unknown. Species: unknown. Preferred method of making illegal goods: unknown

It was so convenient that the three couldn't remember the face of the dealer that had given them such powerful items, for whatever reason.

Bloody brats.

Now, he had been forced to walk for goodness knows how long, his wings were itching to be let out, the smell of this place was horrendous enough to make him sick, and he knew nothing of the dealer in question, hell, he didn't even know if the dealer was still here! And to top it all off, he wasn't allowed to leave until the festival was over for the night.

Avalon flops down on a nearby bench, far too tired to even bother trying to be graceful in doing so.

"'Go find the black marketer in the festival,' they said," he muttered in irritation, "'It'll be fun,' they said." Well actually, it wasn't what they said at all. It was more along the lines of: "Avalon, there's a vendor in a festival at Calibar town selling incredibly dangerous charms and potions without any restrictions! You need to find them before they sell something to the wrong person! You're the only one we can trust to find them! It won't be too hard, right? You're one of our best!"

Usually being 'one of the best' was a huge honour, well yes it still is, but it also meant that he had to get the tougher assignments like: defeat the dragon at so-and-so mountain, protect this important person from this nearly unbeatable person, or, his current situation, find this person with no indication as to who or what they are other than they sell potions and charms at this completely packed festival.

Avalon sighed once more and leaned back in his seat, pulling out a pocket watch from his totally inconspicuous black cloak and flipping it open. Another twenty minutes before midnight, when he was allowed to leave. "Time truly flies when you're having fun," he mumbled to himself sarcastically, putting the watch back in his cloak. He honestly didn't feel like moving from his spot on the dirty old bench to continue his 'investigation' so he instead opted to look at the stalls around him. (The dealer is supposedly a vendor here after all, for all he knew one of these stalls could be the one he's looking for).

'Wharl's Wondrous Weapons'. Clever alliteration, but the weapons themselves would break instantly in a real battle. Innocent enough. 'Beer Store' Self-explanatory and original. Nothing he was looking for. 'Pretty Jewelry for Pretty Women'. Useless trinkets and fake jewels. They would've been a potential suspect for the charms if not for the obvious lack of magic in them.

Sweeping his eyes across the multiple stalls, Avalon's disinterest and irritation increased, as did his temptation to just leave, consequences be damned. Then, he stopped. His eyes focused on a stall with a gypsy-like caravan stationed behind it, rather unique in comparison to the scams around it.

'Elven Charms'

His curiosity suddenly piqued and hope tentatively raised its head at the sight of a stall that apparently sold charms, perhaps it even sold potions too. With new resolve, Avalon stood up and began striding his way towards the stall, feeling just a bit more hopeful with each step that carried him closer to his goal. Mere moments later, he was standing before it, surveying the area with devious interest.

He could feel the unadulterated, magic emanating from almost everything inside from where he stood; everything was definitely authentic. "I think I just found a lead in all this madness," He thought smugly with a matching grin as he looked around. Multiple charms of various shapes and sizes hung from hooks and many more were on display in several boxes on the counter top along with a locked chest, presumably for the payments.

Avalon picked up the charm nearest to him, a pale pink medallion the size of a large coin with a rose etched on one side, the other side was etched with delicate writing, reading:

"Love is a beautiful risk that some are unwilling to take.

Someone loves you dearly but is afraid to act.

They need the strength to speak their mind and heart.

Give them what they need with the charm you wear."

Avalon placed it back in its box with a raised brow, a love charm combined with a strength charm? "Whoever made this is certainly talented, I'll give them that." He mused thoughtfully and looked around once more, brows furrowed in slight confusion. The caravan's windows were lit and the wares were set out rather extensively, which meant that the shop was still open but if that was the case, where was the vendor?

A coppery, gold-coloured fox, the sellers pet was his guess, looking at him calculatingly from its spot on the caravan's deck, was the only other living being on the other side of the counter. No people to be seen. Having their products out in the open with no one to watch them was just asking to have them stolen, wasn't it?

Quickly deciding not to question his good luck, he busied himself with the charms once again. Many interesting charms were set out for his examination: charms that protected the wearer from water, lucid dream charms, a suspiciously familiar shape-shifting charm, a warmth charm, and several other rather unique charms. Avalon, so deep into his investigation of the charms, never heard the footsteps descending the small set of stairs in front of the caravan, nor did he hear them making their way to the counter where he stood.

"See anything you like?"

A soft and calm voice suddenly appearing from the blue was enough to startle Avalon out of his reverie and make him pull his cloak's hood down a bit to hide his face.

"I - No, j-just browsing," he stuttered quickly, keeping his head down and trying to get his heartbeat back under control. The mystery person replied with a light chuckle which, much to Avalon's surprise, was very soothing to the ear. Avalon looked up to face whom he assumed was the vendor and took in his appearance.

He seemed to be around Avalon's age but was a little shorter than him with a thin, yet masculine frame, coppery-gold-streaked hair that greatly exceeded his own in length framed a softly-featured face with light tan skin and bright, citrine eyes that sparkled brightly in the lantern light. A cream-coloured, long sleeved shirt with a forest green waistcoat covered his torso, a red ascot was tied neatly around his neck and, if the ears were any indication, this man was an elf.

Avalon couldn't deny it, this man was very handsome.

The elven merchant smiled slightly before saying, "I noticed that you seemed rather interested in our love charms earlier," in a rather amused tone. "How did he see me when I never even saw him?" Avalon briefly wondered, "and who is this "our"? Is there someone else with him?" Avalon's train of thought was interrupted, however, as the handsome elf leaned forward with his arms folded, looking him dead in the eye and his amused smile growing just a little bit larger.

"I don't see why you would need it," he stated. "With your aesthetics, I'd have thought that women would be falling over themselves and each other to confess their undying love to you." At that point, Avalon realized that his hood had slipped back a bit to reveal his face somewhat and reached up to pull it back down, chuckling as he did.

"I have had a few admirers in the past." he replied light heartedly.

Avalon did have his fair share of female (and sometimes male) admirers, though they tended to be a bit more subtle than how this merchant assumed them to be. A bit.

The aforementioned merchant just smiled at the comment, citrine eyes alight with mirth as he started to busy himself with his wares. Avalon felt his morale slowly drop with each passing second as he watched him.

This elf, he seemed so...innocent. Avalon couldn't imagine such a lighthearted character selling anything dangerous to anyone, of course he knew that you should never judge a book by the cover, but still, he didn't know why he felt this way but he did.

He honestly felt that this man couldn't be the one but he needed to remain neutral, making decisions based on emotions could only end in disaster.

"Do you need something from here?"

Once again, the soft and calm voice broke him out of his thoughts with a slight jump and the owner of the voice looked at him with confusion and a little bit of concern in his eyes. Avalon felt his face warm as he realized that as he had been considering the possibility of the man on the other side of the counter not being the dealer, said man had been watching him awkwardly stand in silence the whole time. What was he supposed to say?

"Excuse me?"

Apparently he didn't need to say anything, a pretty young woman with silver hair (was she actually young or just a young-looking elder) and a bright red dress and hat* strolled in gracefully and stole the elf's attention away from him, saving Avalon from quite a bit of embarrassment in the process.

With the vendor distracted, a suspect in mind and time almost up, Avalon started to slink away in an attempt to escape, only to stop once more as a strange sparkling caught his eye.

There he saw, hanging from a hook in the wall by a thin yet strong looking chain, a singular white charm the size of his palm, vastly different from all the others.

The other charms were mostly medallions of precious metals with images and text etched on each side, some encrusted with small jewels and stones; this one on the other hand, was made of some kind of milky-white mineral, no images or words scratched anywhere, no jewels set in it at all. The most interesting thing about it however, was the shape that it was carved into. The white stone had been shaped into the familiar form of an angel, wings outstretched and arms reaching upward as if calling to the heavens in prayer, no feathers were etched on the wings, the upward tilted face had no features, and it was absolutely beautiful.

He reached out and, with a strangely familiar shiver shooting down his spine when he touched it, gently grasped the pendant, marveling at how smooth the charm felt against his slightly calloused skin. To his amazement, the charm gave off pale violet and icy blue hues when it was hit with the light of the amber festival lanterns, what kind of charm was this?

"I see you're interested in this particular charm"

Jumping slightly and stiffening, Avalon suppressed what would have been a very irritated growl.

"How many times am I going to get a near heart attack from his comments?" He thought hotly. A chuckle from the elf quickly confirmed to Avalon just how amused the other man was by his reaction.

"Maybe you shouldn't get so deep into your thought, things like that won't surprise you then," He said in a sing-song voice. Avalon looked at the smirking elf in surprise. "You said that out loud," He said in response to Avalon's shocked expression, he was certainly enjoying this particular customer. The silver-haired woman who just left with a skin care charm couldn't compare to him in hilarity.

Reaching over and taking the charm off its hook and out of Avalon's hand, the elf's citrine gaze met his own obsidian eyes.

"You want to buy it?" he queried seriously, gesturing to the angelic-looking charm. This must be his seller side showing through.

Shaking off his initial surprise at the sudden change in tone, Avalon replied, "What kind of charm is it, exactly?"

Smiling, the bright eyed elf lifted the charm a bit, letting it shine with its purple and blue hues in the contrasting lantern light.

"This," he said in a quiet, mysterious voice "is a light charm, carved out of a stone chip from the walls of the ancient palace of Lumenov." His eyes seemed to glaze slightly as he spoke, "Any light magic thrown its way will be absorbed instantly, then that light magic can be reused to block dark spells and negate curses."

Ah. That was the strange shiver he felt. He had a similar feeling whenever he cast a spell of light, but the sensation was always overshadowed by his need to concentrate on the spell, not focusing on anything like that at that moment in time was why the shiver down his spine felt strong when he touched the charm.

Avalon stared at the charm in question, thinking about what it would look like around someone else's neck, the neck of someone who saw it as nothing more than a pretty trinket and never use it to its full potential.

The very thought irked him more than he expected. He made his decision.

"How much?"

The elf's eyes cleared from the glaze at the question and was instead replaced by a calculating expression, (it seemed oddly familiar, hadn't he seen a similar look earlier tonight?) looking him over, he replied.

"Well, the colour of your eyes might be sufficient payment..." What? "Or perhaps one of your most precious memories," he continued, ignoring Avalon's perturbed expression, "If you don't want to lose either of those, you could pay us in materials," The elf's calculating look never dropped. "You wouldn't happen to have any gold from Mount Aurarius, would you?" He asked, looking straight into Avalon's eyes.

"I'm afraid not, never been there actually" Avalon said shakily, the elf's sharp gaze was really quite unnerving, especially since his eyes were so brightly-coloured.

"What a shame, it makes nice jewelry, you know. Then perhaps an ice corundum? Or maybe a Paladin's feather, if you have one?"

Now that, Avalon definitely didn't see coming. In his surprise, Avalon had to ask "Why would you need something like that of all things?"

"A Paladin's feather? They're filled with light essence, it makes them good ingredients for purification charms or healing tonics." the elf clarified simply "So then, how will you pay for your purchase?"

Avalon looked once again at the charm he wanted in the elf's slendet hands and briefly wondered whether it was worth giving up a feather for. He didn't wonder for long. Closing his eyes, he reached into his cloak and did the one thing that he'd wanted to do all night, he released his wings.

He quickly plucked a feather from his wing with a wince of discomfort and retracted them instantly (too soon, he felt), then pulled his hand out of his cloak letting the single gold feather flutter down onto the polished wood of the countertop. There it lay, almost glowing against the dark chestnut wood in a surrounding silence.

The elven vendor didn't say anything; he just stared at the unoffending feather with raised brows and slightly widened eyes, not completely shocked just...mildly surprised at the sudden appearance of not just the feather, but the partial identity of the man before him.

"A paladin..." At last a whisper was sounded from the elf and he finally tore his eyes away from the feather to look him in the eye once more, still appearing only mildly surprised with a hint of curiosity. Either he wasn't shocked by much or he was just really good at hiding his emotions.

"Would you like it as it is or do you want it wrapped?" he suddenly asked. The sudden change of subject took Avalon by surprise but he let it go and asked for his charm to be wrapped, he didn't want it to be stolen from around his neck after all.

Nodding once, the elf unlocked the chest next to him and opened it, inside was an assortment of gold, silver and copper coins from many different countries, precious stones of various sizes, tiny bottles containing strangely coloured fluids and, wait was that hair? The vendor dropped his feather inside, and then reached in and grabbed a small square of brown paper and some string before closing the chest and locking it once more.

He set the square of paper flat on the countertop, placed the beautiful white charm in the middle and started to wrap it neatly.

"So..." he started, not looking up. "What's a high-ranking paladin like yourself doing in a dingy place like this?"

Avalon blinked in surprise, how had he known his status without even asking?

"Your magical aura is bright and intense, not many people have that kind of power."

Avalon blanched.

An aura was the form that the soul and excess magic took when radiating off the body of a being, the being's personality and type of magic would always affect the way it looked.

But auras were difficult to see, one needed strenuous training to be capable of seeing an aura and trying to figure out exactly what it meant.

Where did this elf learn to see and determine auras with such ease?

"It's not hard to see an aura when you're a very good judge of character; it's just a natural gift of mine"

The merchant looked up from his folding and laughed slightly at Avalon's expression.

"Your face is an open book; I don't think you even need to speak to say anything to anyone, your expressions do it all for you." He said with a teasing smile, he wouldn't be forgetting this customer anytime soon that was for sure.

Regaining his composure and ignoring the heat creeping up his face, Avalon replied, "I'm here on an assignment, and that is all."

A smile was all he received in response.

Avalon took another look around the stall intriguingly, then back at the vendor.

"Who makes all of these?" he asked, gesturing at the many charms on display that glittered enticingly in their stands. "Do you?"

The elf was silent for a moment, then he chuckled humorlessly

"No. I don't make them" He said, sounding oddly monotonous. "The old lady in the back does." He nodded his head back at the caravan behind him.

Avalon raised a brow at this new information. "Here I was thinking that the talented person who made these would want to be the one to sell them." He mused thoughtfully. The elf chuckled once again, this time with a little humour heard in it.

"Having me sell them brings in much more customers than whenever she's at the counter." he said with a smirk, tying the knot on the package deftly. Avalon's brows shot to his hairline at this comment.

"Tell me," he said in response to Avalon's quizzical expression. "Would you rather buy something from a decrepit old woman or would you rather buy something from someone like me?" The elf flipped a lock of coppery-gold hair behind his shoulder at those words, his bright amber eyes gazing at Avalon and his smile revealing a set of pearly white teeth. A compelling argument indeed.

The undeniably pretty elf handed him his neatly wrapped purchase at last and Avalon put it into the safety of his cloak; he would marvel at its simplistic beauty and test out the promised power later.

"Thank you for your time and have a lovely night." The practiced lines left the elf fluidly and he smiled at Avalon with a winning smile. The chances of that line being a mere formality were pretty obvious, but Avalon smiled back nonetheless and wished him the same.

"Good luck on your 'assignment', Sir Paladin" The elf smiled knowingly and winked. Avalon, blushing heavily at the gesture and pulled his hood down a little further, muttering a quick "Thank you." Internally however, he smirked victoriously.

"I may have had more luck than you thought."

The elf started to pack up his merchandise for the night and Avalon pulled out his pocket watch, flipping it open once again. Quarter past twelve, he should have reported back fifteen minutes ago.

Turning back to the caravan, he etched every detail of it into memory, he would need to recognize it later. Moving his eyes to the deck, Avalon suddenly noticed something amiss: the fox with the bright pelt that had given him an odd look earlier was missing.

He looked towards the elf, who had packed everything away and was starting to pick up the stack of small boxes. Might as well ask about it while they were both still here.

"Excuse me?"

The vendor looked up but, much to Avalon's disappointment, didn't jump like he had done every time the elf had called on him. Said elf raised his brow.

"Oh." he looked surprised, "You're still here."

Avalon smiled; the surprised expression suited the elf quite nicely.

"Yes, I'm still here, I just wanted to know..." he trailed off, wondering how to phrase his question. The elf looked at the paladin, head tilted in curiosity

"The fox you own," he gestured to the deck where it lay earlier "Where did it go?"

The elf's eyes widened slightly then a strangely sullen expression settled on his face.

"He's..." the elf paused. "Around."

Avalon stared at the elf in surprise; he and his partner let an instinctively wild animal roam around?

Avalon didn't know why he was so interested but still, it seemed strange to let an animal like a fox just wander around.

"It roams freely? Doesn't it try to run away?"

The elf stiffened. Then he smiled, almost sadly.

"It's tried in the past." he turned to face caravan, completely obliterating Avalon's view of his face. "It never got far." his voice sounded melancholy, "It can't," he turned his head toward Avalon slightly but not enough for him to see the elf's face completely. "It's given up on being free."

Avalon was stunned into silence as the elf turned to look at him completely, something in the elf's eyes bore into his soul, a look that didn't seem to fit him. It was like he was trying to say something without words, but what?

"PALLADIUM!" both men winced in surprise and a bit of pain at the sudden shriek that shot out from behind the caravan doors, knocking them out of their silent exchange. "STOP GOSSIPPING WITH THAT CUSTOMER AND GET IN HERE!"

The elf shook off his surprise with unusual ease and turned back toward the caravan, calling a monotone "Yes, Madame." in response.

It was time to leave, Avalon decided, turning to the exit. He had a suspect, a charm from that suspect, a face to remember, and, if he put off his report any longer, his higher-ups were going to kill him.

He started to walk away from the stall but turned back towards the stall one more time. The elf had picked up all of the boxes he needed and had made his way up the stairs to the caravan door. The elf's legs, which were earlier hidden by the counter, were wrapped in a pair of light brown trousers, (Avalon had to admit, he had a nice pair of legs) a pair of dark brown, knee high leather boots were on his feet and... What was that?

Avalon rubbed his eyes and looked again, staring in utter shock. Fastened around the elf's slim ankle, was an iron manacle. A chain hung from it and coiled outward like a long, iron snake, disappearing into the caravan, out of sight. His jaw dropped as the realization hit him full force.

"You-" he called out without thinking. The elf turned to Avalon with a look that was clearly said "what in the world are you still doing there?" Avalon looked back at him with wide eyes.

"You're a prisoner?" he finally whispered. The elf froze at these words, glancing down at his chained ankle then locked eyes with him again. His shocked expression slipped away and his face hardened.

"You weren't supposed to see that!" he hissed and without another word, he whirled round and strode into the caravan, slamming the door behind him.

Avalon stood numbly in the darkness of the early morning as the festival lanterns went out one by one, shocked at the revelation and confused by the elf's hostile reaction. At last, he slowly turned and started to make his way to the exit, mind reeling with questions. Why was he chained? Why did he react so angrily when Avalon noticed his chain? Was he the dealer he was looking for? Who even was he?

Avalon's train of thought grounds to a halt at that last thought; a quick flashback to just before he left gives him an answer.

Palladium, the elf's name is Palladium.

One question answered, but so many others to find the answers to. Why did he sound so sad when he was talking about the fox? And was he trying to tell him something through that strange look in his eyes?

Enough is enough, Avalon decided. Those questions will be answered soon enough; he had a job to do.

Once again and for the last time that night, he pulled out the pocket watch from his cloak and flipped it open, this time however, his index finger lit up with pure light magic and traced a symbol onto its clear glass face, a hooked curve, a slight arc downward then another arc upward and yet another hooked curve, all in one smooth line**. The symbol glowed brightly, nearly blinding Avalon then the light faded, leaving behind a six-inch projection of one of his higher-ups hovering over the watch face. She was light-skinned with dark, red hair in a braid, a pair of glasses were perched on her face that sported a stern expression. Her name was Lady Amalthea.

He held the projection at eye level, staring at it seriously.

"I come bearing news, milady."

Back at the caravan of 'Elven Charms', all had been silent other than the early morning crickets singing their songs, the serenity of the night was incredible. Then the caravan's doors slammed open angrily and an old lady strode out from within.

The old woman was as thin as can be, her arms like twigs and her back hunched, her dusty red dress hanging off her thin frame almost completely. Greasy, grey hair that escaped her unruly bun hung in her angry, wrinkled face in tendrils.

In one hand, she gripped the scruff of the coppery-gold fox that Avalon had been so curious about and was dragging it out from the interior of the caravan. It didn't bother trying to escape her grip, it knew it couldn't.

Pushing it down onto the deck unceremoniously, the old woman glared at the fox who, in return, stared into her eyes flatly with bright orange eyes.

"We're not going to waste any more time." She hissed with the venom of a snake in her voice. "We leave at dawn tomorrow and I better not hear any whining from you," her eyes narrowed further.

"Do I make myself clear?"

The fox seemed to bob its head, as if nodding and settled itself down onto the deck, placing its head between his paws, a small jingle sounding from a chain at the slight movement.

Snorting, the old woman turned and hobbled back inside, closing the door behind her and pulling the night into silence once more.

The fox was alone; the stars were its only source of light in the blackness of night. He closed his eyes and let his mind wander where it willed; a mysterious stranger in a dark cloak with a bright light surrounding him appears in his thoughts quite frequently.

A field of green grass stretched for miles before him, a bright yellow sun gently caressed his face with its rays. He took a step forward, then another, and stopped.

He tilted his head back and let the wind run its fingers through his hair.

He smiles.

Freedom.

*Guess Who!

**The symbol that Avalon drew is the one that was on his armour in the first episode he was introduced

And that's that! (For now) rate and review!

Tell me what you liked, what you didn't like and report any spelling or grammatical mistakes.

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Whelp, this is yaoi'sokay signing out!

Peace.