Fun Trivia time!
Did you know that early concept art has Musa with short, light green hair and Flora with glasses?
In the 4Kids dub Stella's voice actress voiced Stella, Chatta, Mirta AND DARCY? Flora's voice actress voiced Flora and Amore, Musa's voice actress voiced Musa, Digit, Mitzi AND ICY!
According to Ignio Straffi, Tecna's whole appearance in the show was inspired by the singer P!nk, Flora's by Jennifer Lopez, Stella's by Cameron Diaz and Layla's by Beyoncé.
Bloom's whole personality was inspired by Ignio's wife (which probably explains why he gives her the most screen time…)
Isn't that so freaking cool? Anyway, moving on…
You Shouldn't Have Trusted Me
"Hey! It's Princess Layla! What's she doing here?" Stella exclaimed when Musa opened the doors to the nurses' wing. The walked up to her to the side of her bed and looked at her pained expression.
"She woke up last night, she's just sleeping now." Said the nurse who stood in the doorway. "I need to go sort out some other patients, let me know if anything happens. Oh, and Flora, you're from Lynthea, right?" I nodded, a little startled. "Could you make her some of that healing tea? I think that's exactly what she needs right now." The nurse left. I walked up to the kettle. It couldn't be that hard, I'd read my mothers diary on plants, I'd never had it but I kind of knew how to make it. I conjured up some Sanitatem leaves and Suscitatio petals and brewed them with boiling water. I took the mug over to Layla's bedside table and put it down.
"Do I give it to her now, or…?" I asked. Bloom shook her head.
"Wait until she wakes up," Bloom smiled.
"Or…" Stella walked up to the buttons on the side of her bed, and nudged the lever holding the bed in a flat position. The bed sprung up, waking up the poor girl in the worst way possible.
"What? What… What's going on? Where am I?" she looked around frantically, "Oh, I'm still here? Wait… Where's Piff?" she exclaimed worriedly.
"Calm down, if you're talking about that Pixie, she's asleep over there," Musa pointed over to the heater which had a cushion on top of it, the young pixie was curled up like a cat.
"Oh thank goodness, at least I managed to save one of them," Layla said with her hand on her heart, "But I have to go back! I have to go back for the others!"
"What are you talking about you crazy princess you?" Stella laughed, patting her head.
"Thank you Princess Stella," Layla said sarcastically, "But this is serious! There are five other pixies stuck in Shadowhaunt, and if I don't save them they could die! The only reason Lord Darkar is keeping them alive is because he needs information from them, I had them all but… He managed to take them right out of my hands. I guess Piff must've hidden in my hood." She said sadly.
"Okay, please calm down," I said with my hand on my forehead, I couldn't handle anyone speaking so hysterically, "Here's some tea, drink it, then tell us again." I told her, handing her the Lynthean healing tea.
"Thank you," she said politely, taking a sip of the tea, then retracted looking a bit surprised, "I had no clue the homeopathy thing actually working! I feel tons better!" she said aghast. "What's your name, anyway?" she asked me, smiling kindly
"Oh, it's Flora. I'm from Lynthea." I told her quickly.
"How do you already know Stella and Musa?" Bloom asked her.
"We're all princesses. We see each other about three times a year at royal gatherings." She explained.
"So what happened? Why were you in Shadowhaunt?" Tecna asked. The other girls prepared themselves for the tale by sitting on the edge of Layla's hospital bed. I stayed standing stiffly by her bedside table.
"There's a village very close to Magix called pixie village. It's home to the flower of life and it's were all the pixies in the magical universe come from. Other than that, it is also one of the only places in Magix that holds a piece of the Codex."
"What's that?" asked Bloom. Layla sighed.
"There are fours pieces of the Codex. One in Pixie Village, one at Cloud Tower, one in Red Fountain and one here, at Alfea. They fit together to form a key to Realix."
"What's that?" asked Bloom again.
"JUST SHUT UP AND LET ME FINISH!" Layla fumed, I couldn't help but laugh. "Whoops, sorry for the outburst," she giggled. "Anyway, Realix is home to the most powerful force in this universe, and if it falls into the wrong hands, it's could be the end of magic forever." She said sadly.
"Why haven't we been told about this?" Stella fumed.
"It's a bit obvious, if they went around telling people then we could do something reckless." Tecna stated.
"TOO DAMN RIGHT WE WOULD!" Musa exclaimed.
"Anyway, when I overheard my parents talking about it, and how he had captured the Pixies, I had to do something. When I was younger and first discovered the village, I used to play there a lot, and bonded with little Piff over there. I had to save them, I had to stop Darkar, even if it was by myself."
"By yourself!" I exclaimed, everyone stared at me. "Lord Darkar is at least ten times stronger than you, not to mention his minions and secret spies!"
"You know who he is?" they asked me blankly. Okay, maybe I missed out one tiny little detail; Baltor and Darkar were actually allies at one point. Which meant that naturally, I was his ally as well. This all stopped a couple of years ago when Baltor double-crossed Darkar and trapped him in Shadowhaunt. This wasn't a surprise, Baltor double-crosses everyone. Even me.
"I read a lot." I answered quickly.
"But yesterday you said that you didn't know who he was," said Musa.
"I don't like interrupting teachers," I answered again. They shrugged and turned back to Layla.
"Like you said, girl with pink hair, when you find out you just want to do something reckless." Layla sighed.
"No, that's not exactly what I said…" Tecna said slowly. Layla flapped her hand in her direction.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm not one hundred per cent this morning, okay?" Layla said, taking another gulp of her tea. "I had no one to help me anyway. I didn't want to get my parents angry. A bit late for that." She muttered the last part.
"Well you have help now!" Stella exclaimed, pointing to herself and the rest of us.
"Uh, Stella, with all due respect you can't go offering our help to other people," Musa frowned.
"But we will help her, right?" Stella whimpered, Musa put an arm around her shoulder.
"HELL TO THE YES!" Musa exclaimed.
"Wait but…" Stella began.
"YOU'RE not allowed to offer my help," Musa slapped her forehead.
"So how do you suppose we do this?" Tecna asked.
"We could ask the Redfountain boys to help!" Bloom said enthusiastically, while Stella vigorously nodded her head behind her.
"Ugh, like we need a bunch of stupid boys helping us out," Layla smirked. "It'll be better if it's just us fairies."
"As much as I agree with you about the whole 'no boys' thing, "I began, "It would be better if we didn't totally rely on magic, didn't you realise how draining it was to your power? If we get too weak, then we'll need to use other options. Believe it or not it'll be most effective to Stella and I, a quarter of my power originates from the sunlight and of course one hundred per cent of Stella's does. We won't last too long down there, so until we get to the pixies we'll have to save up every last drop of our energy for fighting. That means no flying or using spells unless we absolutely have to." I had no idea why I was so enthusiastic about this whole plan. If I were to sit back and allow some completely defenceless pixies to rot in a cave, that would be totally demoralising. Another reason for my enthusiasm was probably because I hadn't been to Shadowhaunt since I was twelve. But maybe, just maybe, I wanted to help out the girls; they had no hope of getting out alive without my help. I knew it would be frustrating; this isn't the power I'm used to. It's a strange feeling to explain, it's like getting a bike and living on that bike. It becomes your best friend; if you get on another bike straight afterwards, it doesn't work. You don't have the same connection, it's not fitted to your height, the brakes don't work so well and the tyres have no air in them. I'd have to get used to being the fairy of nature over the fairy of blood, but I wondered how long it would really take.
"Wow! Flora's smart!" Stella slapped me on the back, making me yelp slightly. "If I get too drained, seeing as I'm at the biggest disadvantage, would any of you be opposed to carrying me?" We all rolled her eyes at her.
"I know a potion which can preserve your energy, we can take it just before we leave." I told them.
"So when do we go? Who knows how long the whole mission would take." Tecna said, pushing back her hair.
"I suggest we wait until after Redfountain's opening ceremony. It'll give us some time to plan and some time for Layla to get her strength back." Bloom suggested. Layla shook her head.
"What about the Pixies? We can't leave them for a whole week! They could be dead by then!" she almost cried.
"Lord Darkar won't kill them, he found them by chance and he doesn't know where the village is. If he doesn't have them, then how will he get the Codex? Trust me, we have time." I told her.
"I still don't get how you know so much about this." She replied, with one eyebrow raised, "But I guess you're right, I mean, you'd BETTER be right."
"So Layla, how are you feeling right now?" Ms Faragonda walked in, startling us all.
"A lot better thanks to this delicious tea," she smiled.
"I just got off the phone with your parents," Ms Faragonda began. Layla groaned and slapped herself in the face.
"What did they say?" she said unenthusiastically.
"They said that they would like you to start tuition here at Alfea, I tried to convince them otherwise but they said they blame what happened on your lack of experience."
"Wait what?" Layla took her hands away from her face, "Just like that?"
"Yes, just like that." Ms Faragonda replied. "We can put another bed in Stella's room for now,"
"What?" Stella asked, reacting to her name.
"Come on Stella, you can survive sharing for once," Musa sniggered.
"Although you may need to sort out your own closet space, Stella's the kind of girl who owns seven of the same outfit." Bloom giggled. Stella just sighed.
A/N:
So the next chapter is where I FINALLY let Flora and Helia meet -.-