Hey readers! Thanks for reading this far into the story. Sorry that i haven't been posting as well as i should be, but i'm trying. Also, thanks for the reviews! They're major encouragements to write my chapters whenever i've got writers's block. Anyway, Without further adieu, the next chapter!
Chapter 10: The Unexpected
"What?" The Winx and specialists said.
"Don't do it, Riven! It's just some of my blood!" Musa shouted. "I can handle it!" But Riven showed no sign of favoritism to the choices Fury offered, though it was pretty obvious which choice he did prefer. Might as well just say, "Hey, we'll give you new fighting equipment if you hand over the monster." Nicely done, Fury. I began to feel my fate being set as I searched through the specialists, looking for Matt. He was found to be leaning against a tree as if amused by the situation, which didn't make me feel any better.
"Well?" Fury asked, "It's either your girlfriend, Scarlet, or you. Take your pick." Riven closed his eyes for a second and when he opened them, they were looking at me. But the weird thing was that they didn't look cold or mean, but rather…thinking about not selling me to the devil. Finally, he looked up at Fury.
"All you need is blood, right?" Fury nodded. "Then take mine."
I thought I was going to burst into tears of joy. My hands were still over my mouth, keeping in my cries of relief. For some reason, Riven not handing me over overwhelmed my vampire instincts from taking over, numbing the pain for a while. My friends relaxed in relief smiling down at me and at Riven.
"Are you crazy, Riven!" Musa shouted.
"Oh shut up," Fury replied. She flew down and began to approach Riven. "Are you sure you want to do that, little boy?" Riven showed no sign of fear towards her, but answered, "I'm sure. Just let my girlfriend go and leave Scarlet alone."
"But why do you want to keep a monster among your friends? What if she kills them?" I noticed Riven's hands rolling into fists as if wondering the same question himself.
"She may be a monster," he began. His eyes went to Musa as she continued to struggle in Darcy's grasp. "but if my team and girlfriend trust her, then I have to trust her too." Fury paused and looked at her fellow witches.
"Well, sisters, what do you think?"
"I say we stop talking and take some blood," Stormy announced.
"Yeah," Darcy second, "Besides, we've got Musa. She's one of the people we're after, so let's get some of her blood." I watched the witches carefully, trying to think if there was anything I could do to help. Slowly, I felt the Winx leaving my side and noticed them tip-toeing towards the witches, ready to ambush them in their debate. As they got closer, Icy's eyes moved towards them and stretched out her hand, releasing a blizzard wrapping around my friends. I quickly got on my feet to run after them, but something grabbed my wrists and held me back. In the same motion, I was jerked backwards and was wrapped in a pair of long arms.
"Don't move." I pinched my lips together tightly, piercing a bit of my upper lip since my fangs were still trying to grow. "If you stay hidden, we'll have a chance that they'll focus on them and not you."
"I can't leave my friends, Matt," I whispered, slowly licking my lip to get my blood, "I've got enough strength to fight."
"No you don't." His grip became tighter as if I was fighting against him, which I (surprisingly) wasn't. "You were fine until Riven stepped in. You put up a good fight, but you're just as tired as the other girls." I took a deep breath and looked back at my friends. Their lower halves were in blocks of ice. I watched Bloom and Stella trying to melt it with their sun and fire power, but oddly enough, it wouldn't melt. Icy began to laugh as she watched them struggle.
"That's an old ice spell I just learned from the ancient witches many centuries ago. Not even fire can melt it." Bloom looked up at her, her hands tightly clenched in fists.
"We'll get out of this."
"Right, moving on…" She faced the other guys with hands placed on her hips. "Now it's up to you, boys. Give us your blood or your girlfriends are going to suffer."
"Riven's already decided on trading himself for Musa," Stormy reminded, "Will you do the same?"
"Of course we are," Sky said, "And I speak for the team." Fury pointed at Nabu.
"What about you?"
"I'm with the team," Nabu answered. Fury smiled and shrugged her shoulder.
"This is going a lot better than I thought it would."
"Come on, then," Icy replied. She held out her hand and within a glowing blue ball, an ice blue dagger appeared that looked identical to Darcy's. "Let's start cutting." Fury and Stormy too created their daggers of purple/red and green and followed Icy. Darcy let Musa go and placed a dark spell on her, paralyzing her midair, and followed the other witches. The boys stood strong as they approached them.
"This is crazy!" I hissed, "I can't just stand here as they get their blood! This is so-" A sudden idea popped into my head, interrupting me midsentence.
"'This is so' what?" Matt whispered.
"I've got an idea!" I replied, ignoring his question. "It involves dark magic, but I'm sure it can work."
"Dark magic?" Matt said with a surprised tone.
"My dad taught it to me. It's a long story." There was a pause before Matt placed his mouth by my ear and told me, "I'd like to hear that sometime." My whole body, especially my face, became hot from his voice.
Focus, Scarlet! You know a spell that can save your friends. Alright. I can do this.
"Umm…Matt?"
"Hmmm?"
"I need my hands."
"Oh. Sorry." He slowly let me go and I took a deep breath. I stood tall with my eyes closed and my hands laced together. Conjuring up dark magic was hard to do when I was in full fairy form, but it wasn't impossible. My anger towards the witches stirred inside of me and I began to convert that into negative energy. Once I was filled with so much hatred and anger, I lifted my index fingers, placing them together with my other fingers still laced over. My energy began to swirl up through my body towards my index fingers and building in my hands. Eventually, I allowed some of the energy to form a small, dark blue ball above my two fingers, placing the final touch of my preparation portion of the spell.
Carefully, I aimed my index fingers with the dark blue ball at Nabu first since he was closest to me. The witches were coming closer and I had little time to hit all six guys. That still shouldn't be a problem. With a push of my energy, I released the dark ball at Nabu, which was quickly absorbed into his skin. Next, I aimed at Helia, Timmy, Riven, Brandon, and Sky, each of them having the same, positive results. My negative energy was still flowing through me and I felt that I should do something else with it, so I decided to take aim at my friends, starting with Musa. I pushed my energy though my fingers and hit her followed by the other girls.
Just one more thing before this spell is complete. "Rin Wel Jhool." Inside of my body, I felt twelve pieces of my dark energy swirling within the people I had injected.
Now none of them can get hurt by these witches. I withdrew my energy from my hands and kept the spell alive by keeping my dark powers in the core of my wind power.
"You're already done?" Matt whispered. I turned my head to see his face, looking amused by my actions, "That was pretty fast."
"When I perform these spells, time tends to slow down, giving me enough time to focus on my energy. Then when I'm ready, time returns to normal. But to those around me, it's like I prepared the spell really fast."
"Let's hope it works." I nodded and looked at the guys first. The witches were now face to face with them, each picking the one they want first. Finally, Darcy was ready to strike Riven. I watched her placing her purple blade against Riven's skin while his eyes were tightly shut. Quickly, she pulled the blade back and I heard my friends gasp. My hands immediately went over my mouth, preparing for blood to spill in case my spell didn't work.
"Woah," I heard Brandon say. My hands slowly moved away from my mouth as a smile grew on my lips. The look on Darcy's face was priceless! Her eyes and her jaw were wide open, her body completely frozen.
"What the-" She pulled her dagger back and examined it.
"What's the matter, Darcy?" Stormy asked.
"It's this dagger that Cian gave us. It won't cut Riven's skin." In hearing this, Riven opened his eyes and rubbed his cheek that was touched by the blade. His eyes grew wide as he felt no pain.
"That can't be right," Fury replied, "Cian would never give us useless weapons." She looked over at Helia and smiled. "I think you'll be my victim." She swiftly moved the knife across his cheek, causing for Helia to turn his head.
"Helia!" Flora screamed. Fury laughed and looked at her dagger. Suddenly her laughing stopped and she examined Helia's face.
"Why isn't there a slash across you face!" Helia rubbed his cheek and shrugged. Quickly, he launched his string grabber…thingy (I still don't know what it is) and wrapped it around Fury, who dropped her dagger.
"This is impossible!" She screamed. Icy and Stormy tried to slice Sky, Brandon, Timmy, and Nabu, but they were also unharmed. Fury summoned her knife and cut the strings around her.
"They're spelled!" Icy shouted.
"Then let's shred up those fairies," Stormy suggested, "They shouldn't be spelled." The witches nodded and headed towards my friends. The specialists began to chase after them, but only to stop in their tracks when they noticed that the blades didn't work again them either.
"W-why aren't we being cut?" Flora asked as Stormy's blade kept brushing against her skin.
"I don't know," Bloom said in amazement as Icy tried to saw her arm off, "It's like someone casted a spell on us too." I watched with a grin on my face until Bloom said that. Fury immediately picked up her words and quickly faced me.
"You!" she shouted, "You cast a spell over them!" I gave a shy smile and took a step back.
"I didn't think that it was necessary for you to slice and dice my friends like vegetables." Fury began to grind her teeth in anger and flew towards me with her green dagger held tightly in her hand. I had my arms outstretched, ready to create a shield if she was going to slice me.
"I'M GOING TO SKIN YOU AND PERSONALY HAND YOU OVER-" Suddenly, there was a figure in front of me and I could hear the sound of skin breaking. My teeth suddenly began to throb with pain as I tried to hold them back with my own will power. However, when I recognized the figure, my throbbing teeth were the least of my worries. In front of me was Matt, his left hand gripping tightly onto the green dagger and his red blood pouring around it. The sweet smell filled my nose, weakening my body to the point where I was shaking and panting. I can't do this…I have to transform… Finally, I allowed my fangs to grow, causing my black hair to grow, my fairy outfit to change from silver to midnight blue, my fairy wings turning into the bat wings, and my eyes to shine silver like my ribbon in my hair, waist, and forearms. Luckily, no one noticed because Matt's height blocked everyone's view of me. However, even though I had transformed, I was still trembling, especially since I was beyond thirsty.
"You have some blood," he said coldly, "Now get out of here before I take this dagger out of your hand and stab you with it." I couldn't see Fury's expression, but judging the faces of the other three, she must have looked terrified. Swiftly, she pulled out her blade from his grasp and flew as far away from him as she could. I watched her examining the dagger, which was filled a bit with Matt's blood.
"It works," she announced, "The blood that fell upon this dagger was absorbed into the crystal blade. Come, sisters, we have gotten the blood from one out of the fourteen victims we were assigned to." The Trix glared down at us, pausing before doing or saying anything.
"Don't think we're through with you," Icy said, "There's thirteen of you left to give your blood and we will succeed." With that, they vanished. I began to take a few steps backwards when Matt suddenly collapsed. We all ran towards him, me wrapping my arms around his shoulder and across his chest to support him.
"Matt, what's wrong?" Riven asked, coming over to the left side of his body. Matt weakly opened his eyes and took a deep breath.
"My…hand…it's…" Bloom immediately bent down and examined it.
"I can heal this with my powers." She closed her eyes and began to glow fire red, her matching hair rising and acting like flames. When it calmed down and the glow went away, she looked surprised. "I…I…" She gave me a worried look. "I can't heal it." I heard Riven growl in his throat as he shot me a death glare.
"I shouldn't have spared you," he spat, "If I had handed you over, Matt wouldn't be this badly injured!" Normally, I would stand up for myself against him, but since Matt was hurt because he was trying to protect me, I felt responsible for his suffering.
"Riven, you can't blame Scarlet," Musa said, "It was my fault that I didn't listen to her when she told me not to fight anymore."
"That's not-" But Musa shook her head.
"If I had listened, Matt wouldn't have been hurt…and I'm sorry for that." She closed her eyes and looked away from Riven, like she was embarrassed for what she did. I noticed Riven about to leave and comfort her, but once his eyes saw his injured friend, he decided to stay.
"There must have been something on the blade to cause him this much pain," Flora suggested, "Or that something is so powerful that even Bloom's dragon fire can't heal it." My grip on Matt's shoulder and chest tightened with anger as I felt tears coming to my eyes. Although the sun was setting, the trees provided shade to protect me, but that didn't stop the pain I felt. Even though I was mean to him earlier, he still gave his blood to protect me from Fury's blade. There has to be something I can do to help him.
"Gross," Stella commented, "The bleeding won't stop." Layla took Matt's injured hand from Bloom and began to thoroughly examine it. After about a minute, she said, "Flora's right about something being on that blade." With her right hand, she created a pink ball to cover up her hand like a rubber glove and gently swiped the area around Matt's gushing wound.
"Check this out." The girls huddled over her as she continued her explanation. "It's a clear liquid that doesn't mix well with the blood. Plus, because it was away from the cut and the blood itself, it's possible that this liquid is what's causing the bleeding to continue."
"Can I have that sample, Layla?" Tecna asked. Layla removed the rubber glove and folded the pink liquid to be like a pink rod, holding the mysterious clear liquid at the other end. Tecna grabbed it and began to analyze it with her techno-magic.
"This is unbelievable," she cried when she did some research, "I can't even find it in my database." Everyone groaned while Tecna continued to type away.
"Hey Scarlet, maybe now's the perfect time to try out your healing powers." I looked up at Stella, who was giving me a kind smile. "You can try putting the healing liquid on the wound without putting your mouth towards it, right? Now's a good time to try it out."
"That's a great idea, Stella!" Bloom said.
"Well, I'm always full of good ideas."
"Do you really think I can do that?" I asked, not feeling so confident with my vampire powers.
"Of course you can," Flora answered, "You just have to focus and look within yourself to find your power."
"And we have faith in you," Musa replied. She did her best to give her supporting smile, "So give it your all."
"Okay then." I rested Matt's head on my lap and I placed my palms together, resting my chin on my thumbs and my nose hovering above my index fingers. It was easy for me to summon my vampire healing liquid from my fangs. The hard part was trying to get only the liquid out and without landing on my tongue. Suddenly, a thought came to me. It's worth a shot. I can at least use it like a lotion of some sort. I took a deep breath and pulled my lips away from my hands.
With my hands still pressed together, I stretched my thumbs down, creating a ninety degree angle between my index fingers and thumbs. This angle revealed to me a dark hole, an area that my palms couldn't reach. Keeping the ninety degree angle, I tilted it a bit to the left as I tilted my head to the right. I began to create the liquid and I brought my hands to my mouth. Acting as if I was going to bite myself, I opened my mouth wide and placed my fangs into the small hole. Thankfully, my lips were touching my hands, thus not spreading around my spit (which if I knew was on Matt would totally embarrass me till the end of time). My hands felt the warm liquid slide slowly down in two neat rows. When I felt that they reached the other side of my hand, I pulled my hands away from my mouth and opened them. A smile grew on my face as I saw two clear, dark blue color trails across my left hand.
"Nicely done Scarlet," Tecna commented, "You were able to successfully place your healing liquid onto your hands."
"Thanks, Tec." I rubbed my hands together of the liquid, feeling confidence rise within me. "Riven, could you support Matt's head while I do this?" When he didn't answer, I looked at him, but I didn't see his mean face. Instead, he looked amazed at what I've done. "Riven?" I asked again. Snapping out of his amazement, he shook his head and came over to look after Matt's (beautiful) head. I flew over to Matt's hand rubbing as much of the liquid as I could onto the cut. Bloom kept his hand steady as I placed every drop of Vampire ointment over it.
When I removed my hand, I watched as the deep, gushing wound began to close up, leaving only dry blood around his hand. I felt a buzz of excitement flow through me, but at the same time I felt myself having trouble supporting myself mid-air. Bloom moved over and made room for me next to Matt's side, allowing me to collapse over my knees, taking deep breaths so as not to get dizzy. The air was fresh, without any trace of fresh blood. Thankfully, I began to transform back into my fairy form. Even after I was fairy again I still felt dizzy, though it didn't bother me as much as I thought it would, for a smooth groaning escaped Matt's lips, which assured me that he'd be alright.
"Matt!" Riven shouted, "Are you okay?" His eyes slowly began to open as he began to look all around him.
"Yeah," he answered, "I think I'm fine."
"How's your hand?" Bloom asked. He slowly tried to lift himself up, which he couldn't do without Riven's help.
"Feeling less painful." He looked at it and began to open and close it, making sure it was functioning properly. "What happened?"
"We're not really sure," Timmy replied, "Layla found some weird liquid around your hand that we suspected came from the dagger. It apparently kept on making you bleed and deepened your wound a lot."
"Did you ever figure out what it was?"
"Negative, but I'm sure if I do more research on it, I can figure it out."
"You can always count on her," Timmy whispered, "She's an expert."
"And you're madly in love with her," Brandon added. As Timmy's face changed colors, I felt a hand grab my arm.
"You feelin' alright?" I looked up seeing Matt's concerned look. "That witch was going full speed at you and you refused to move."
"I was prepared to use my wind shield if she got any closer," I said, "But then you jumped in and really hurt yourself." I heard him "hmmm" to himself in amusement, bringing up his right knee, resting his elbow on it, and placed his head on the back of his hand. His sly smile and look in his eyes made my blood rush through my body and my wings flutter.
"So you were worried about me?"
"Of course I was! You were the one they weren't after and you risked yourself for me!" He blinked in astonishment as I continued, "At Inter-Realms, we were taught that sacrificing yourself was only necessary when the enemy isn't focused on you, but on the person you care about most. In the event that you do, it's the greatest honor you could perform to that person and normally you die. But what worried me so much was that you performed this great act for me…and there was a big chance that you would die for the person you don't care about most." I paused for a moment as I stared into his eyes. They appeared to have been listening to my every word, which embarrassed me even more, so I added, "And I really can't handle any more deaths right now considering how many people I've lost over the course of the school year. The thought of losing another-"
"Okay, okay, I get it," Matt interrupted, sounding suddenly a little annoyed, "I was more that glad that I did that. It was the right thing to do and that's what I was taught." I felt my body freezing in place as a cold chill of embarrassment ran through it.
"Right…that's what you were taught…at Red Fountain."
"So I just rewarded myself with some extra credit points. It's not every day a specialist could sacrifice himself for a fairy. So really, I should be thanking you."
"Oh…" For some reason, I had the sudden urge to just leave and pretend he never existed. I must have had a blank expression on my face because I heard Matt calling my name. Sorry. No one's available right now. Instead of responding to him, I just got up and headed towards Musa.
"How're you feeling?" I asked her. She still looked a little tired from the battle, but she did her best to smile.
"I feel fine. I'm glad that you were able to heal Matt. He must be thrilled that you saved him."
"Funny you mention that. It didn't come up in our short conversation, so I'll just leave it for him to imagine."
"What? Are you serious? But you saved his life. He should know that!"
"Even if he did know he only stepped in front of me because of school work and because it's his duty." I sighed. "But I'll admit…I thought for a moment back there that he put himself between me and Fury because he wanted to protect me." Musa wrapped her arms around my neck and gave me a hug.
"It's okay, Scarlet. I'm sure he meant to protect you. He probably just doesn't want to say it."
"I hope that you're right." Musa pulled away and closed her eyes for a moment.
"I'm sorry that I didn't listen to you earlier. If I had listened then-"
"It's okay. Either way everything turned out alright. Plus I learnt a new way to heal people. That's good, right?"
"Musa." We turned out heads to see Riven, looking like his normal, grouchy self, but Musa apparently saw something else. She headed on towards him as I began to look at my friends and specialists. They were all wrapped up in one another, as if everyone was separated by war. The only other single person in the crowd was Matt, and he was walking around, stretching his arms and swinging them lost in thought. The look on his face appeared like it was confused about something and that he was determined to figure out what.
Oh Matt. Why did I have to fall for a guy that's hot and cold towards me?
"Can we please head back to Alfea now?" Stella pleaded, "I'm really tired and the thought of blood makes me queasy."
"Sure thing, princess," Brandon said. He turned his head to find Sky and shouted, "Hey lover boy! Let's bring these girls back to Alfea!"
"Good idea!" Sky replied. The mumbling crowd huddled around towards the wind-riders. The boys mounted and the girls prepared to fly.
"Scarlet, are you feeling up for flying?"
"I feel fine, Flora. I can definitely make it back to Alfea with my wings." Flora didn't look convinced, but smiled anyway.
"I just worry about you. That's all."
"Thanks. And I know you are." Once everyone was ready, we all headed towards Alfea. I hope everyone's still alright. Last time we were there, the school was under attack by silent-takers. I hope they're gone now. We were all silent on our way back to Alfea as the trip didn't take long. Once we reached the campus, I noticed the students and faculty still out and about, relaxing and resting from their battle against the gruesome creatures. Faragonda sensed our presence and looked up at the sky with a proud smile on her face.
"Welcome back Winx. It seems that the silent-takers have retreated."
"Same with the witches, at least for the moment," Bloom announced once she landed.
"Well done girls."
"How're things here?" Tecna asked.
"It seems that those creatures are an endless bunch," Griselda replied, "But after some time, they too began to vanish."
"Is it possible that their power source is connected to the four witches?" Layla wondered aloud.
"That we're not sure about," Faragonda answered, "But for now, say good-bye to the boys and let's head up to my office. I must know the detail about your battle with Cian's helpers." Without hesitation, the girls sprinted towards their guy, hugging and kissing and saying how they'll talk soon. I was about to head inside when something hit the side of my head. Down on the ground was a paper airplane, folded perfectly and symmetrically. Naturally with curiosity taking over, I picked it up and opened it.
"Meet me on your balcony at midnight. Don't tell the other girls." I blinked at the note as I re-read it, not quite sure what to make of it. When my ears picked up the sound of wind-riders getting ready to leave, I quickly turned around to see if it was Matt, but I was too late. They were already out the front gates and the girls were walking towards me.
"What's that you've got there?" Stella asked as she walked by me.
"Nothing." I answered, folding the paper into fours and following them. We transformed out of fairy form and I slipped the note into my jean skirt pocket. As usual, Faragonda was at her desk sitting in her red chair, though she appeared more tired than she normally did.
"So my Winx girls…What happened?" Bloom took the liberty of telling the headmistress what happened, looking at each Winx as she talked about them. Faragonda listened closely and nodded every now and then letting us know that she was paying attention.
"Finally, Scarlet used her vampire healing liquid to heal Matt's wound without placing her mouth over it and now he's full recovered. Then we came back here and…well…here we are."
"That is quite a story," Faragonda admitted, "So the witches are after the blood of the specialists and you girls. That frightens me a little."
"How so, Ms. Faragonda?" Flora asked, "Should we be worried?"
"Not at the moment, but what bothers me is how I have no idea what he wants your blood for. And it's not even a large amount, but like a decent prick or slice should do the trick."
"His tactics are definitely different from our past enemies," Bloom mentioned.
"That's affirmative," Tecna second, "And from what little I know about this guy, he seems to take a slow approach with each battle. Sort of like he's allowing for a lot of error on the witches part."
"If that's the case, then why do they seem more powerful as we fight them longer?" Musa questioned, "Like before this battle, Icy, Darcy, and Stormy didn't have enough power to affect all of us. And the weirder part is that they did it easily and successfully and we have one more Winx."
"But they also have one more witch, which apparently increases their strength greatly."
"So what can we do, Ms. Faragonda?" I asked, "If Cian's taking his time and studying us, then we should probably do the same."
"I agree with you, Scarlet. And judging by today's sudden attacks, I don't believe we'll really know when the witches will strike next."
"Then can we just relax until then?" Stella asked, "A spa vacation sounds perfect to me!"
"Not yet, Stella."
"Yet?" she repeated, "I never got a 'yet' out of Faragonda ever!" She began to shout with joy while Faragonda continued.
"Once we have a better understanding of who Cian is and what he's capable of, you girls are going to need your power to the max, and that can be easily accessible when you're relaxed and full of positive energy."
"But what about achieving full enchantix power?" Layla reminded, "Shouldn't we focus on that primarily since it might help us defeat Cian and his creepy creatures?"
"Your school curriculum this year is already covering that, so don't worry about it, Layla." She sighed and nodded in response.
"And we're going to get a spa vacation soon," Stella chanted, "I can't wait!"
"Well now," Faragonda said, changing her tone and expression. She had on her kind smile once again. "Why don't you go to your room and rest. I'll assure you that the witches won't attack like that again."
"How're you so sure?" I asked.
"I'm going to put up a barer to keep them, their creatures, and (in worst case scenario) Cian out. Sort of like I did when Valtor was on the lose."
"Is the barer going to go up at eight o'clock sharp again?"
"I'm not sure Tecna. I'm actually going to have to look up and ancient spell barrier to keep those creatures and people away. Why are you asking? Wondering if you can invent something to open the barrier again?" Tecna began to blush as she did her best to give her innocent smile. "I don't mind if that's what you're trying to do. I learned last year that it's impossible for me to keep you girls within the school walls at night. I'll tell you what: Once I find a barrier to use, I'll let you know how you can open a small section without weakening it and without letting the enemies in." The girls began to cheer with joy while I just stood there, not understanding anything.
"Now go relax. I've canceled classes for today because of the sudden raid attack, so you don't have to worry about making up school work."
"Thanks, Ms. Faragonda," we said together and with that, we left her office.
For the rest of the day we just hung out Winx style with pillow fights, sweets, and lots of gossip, which was Stella's favorite part. Of course we talked about the guys, especially Matt. Everyone was surprised when I told them how our conversation went, but I assured them that it was alright and that I was cool with it. Even though they weren't convinced, they began to grow tired and headed off to bed. I followed their lead and slipped into my bed. However, once I heard Bloom snoring across from me, I knew I was safe. I quickly changed back into my regular clothes and sat on my balcony, waiting for the mysterious note person to come. I began to feel the night breeze trying to lift me into the air, but a quiet humming sound distracted it. My stomach clenched tightly as I saw a wind-rider coming towards me. Once I saw it, I knew exactly who it was.
"You came."
"Well, you asked me to," I replied, pulling out the note from my pocket, "By the way Matt, did Helia teach this to you?" Matt chuckled as he passed me a spare helmet.
"Get on. I'm gonna take you somewhere." I looked at the helmet, recognizing it as the one Matt threw at me when we were formally introduced. With a smile and shrug, I got onto the wind-rider, wrapping my arms around his waist.
"Thank you for not throwing my helmet at me this time," I said as he began to start the engines.
"You welcome." With that, we drove off into the night, over the Alfea gates and over the trees of the Magix forest. I noticed Black Mud Swamp and Pixi Village, but as my eyes scanned over the many spots of green trees and dark blue waters, I realized that there're many places I haven't explored yet. After a while, I noticed Matt driving lower towards the ground, ending my aerial view of the forest and heading straight towards something. Eventually he began to slow down, and once the vehicle completely stopped, we took of our helmets.
"Go on," he encouraged, "Get off and take the first look." I gave him a questioning look as I slid off the bike and faced forward. I felt the wind being knocked out of me because of the beautiful sight before my eyes. A large lake shimmered a bright blue even at the dead of night. It sparkled as if the sun or moon was shining on it. Under the waters of the lake were shallow stoned floors that fell deeper into the lake at random spots. But the most captivating beauty was the waterfall that probably created this lake and made every shallow stoned step like miniature waterfalls.
"Oh my god," was all I could say, "Oh my god oh my god oh my god!"
"Do you like it?" I spun around and took a deep breath of the fresh, crisp air.
"Like it? I love it! I can feel the wind spirits are more pleased here than anywhere else in Magix."
"I'm glad you think so." He jumped off his wind-rider and stood by me. "This place is something."
"Does it have a name?"
"Of course it does. Every place has a name."
"Then what is it." Matt gave me a sly smile and said, "This place is one of the purest spots in the realm of Magix. That's why it sparkles this brightly even when the moon or sun isn't out. Plus this lake holds many secrets that only those worthy and pure enough can retrieve."
"Okay," I interrupted, "And because of all these great qualities, it's called…?"
"The Lake of Wonders."
"The Lake of Wonders," I repeated, trying to fit the name with this beautiful place, "It sounds a bit…odd, don't you think?"
"How so?"
"'The Lake of Wonders' sounds a lot like-"
"The Cave of Wonders."
"Yeah."
"That's and old Earth tale."
"I thought so…but how did you know?" Matt shrugged his shoulders.
"Sky's girlfriend lent him a book about it and he shared it with us. Cool story actually."
"It is. When Dad and I completed our Earth studies, we agreed that their fairytale interpretations were the most interesting things they created."
"Impressive." I smiled at him as I continued to stare at the scenery. We were quiet for a while before he asked, "So how is it that my hand is completely healed?" I felt an electric chill run up my spine and back down.
"Why're you asking me?" I asked, turning my head a bit away from the scenery and away from him.
"Because when I woke up you were right next to me."
"Well it's like I said earlier: You risked yourself for a person you didn't know."
"So you had nothing to do with my rescue?"
"Of course not!"
"Then how did your hair grow so long?" I felt my blood freeze. Slowly, I ran my fingers through my hair and measured that he was right. I got so caught up in the fight and his note that I totally forgot about it! Shit!
"Th-that's easy," I stuttered, "I told you before that I did black magic. Well, when I conjured it to save everyone else it took a lot of negative energy and that causes magic to flow through me at a fast rate. That's why my hair grew. Because of the magic rushing through me."
"So did you use any black magic to heal me?"
"I tried, but I haven't learned enough yet. Sorry." He shook his head and examined his hand.
"I was sorta hoping that you'd know." I started back at the water and sighed.
"I wish I could help." With that, he suggested that we returned me to Alfea and as usual, we were quiet the rest of the way.
"Thanks for showing me that spot," I replied, sliding off his bike.
"No problem. Thought you'd be interested in it." I felt my heart skipping a beat when I asked why. "You mention wind spirits. That's not something a normal fairy can do, even a warrior one. Her magic has to be the purest that the universe has to offer."
"How do you know all this?"
"I do my research. Anyway, I gotta go." I watched as Matt slid off his back walked towards me and placed his lips on mine. They were warm and I could hear my blood rushing past them. As quickly as they arrived, he removed them and said "See ya, Scar." He jumped on his bike and drove away into the night.