I know that it has been awhile since my last update…again. Sorry! But in my defense, I have been having a lot of fun lately and my fun took priority…sorry. But I managed to finish this chapter and hopefully I'll finish the next two before I leave for my trip to Italy.
So here's junior league – I hope you enjoy!
Junior League
Something was different.
It was a relatively normal day when it came to classes and things like that, but Musa had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. It was as if she were sure something bad was going to happen. But, things seemed to be looking up for her, over the past week she had no problems in school and she and Daniel were just fine.
And yet she felt uneasy for some reason. It was as if she knew something bad was about to happen, but she was choosing to ignore it. It had been a week since she had last seen her boyfriend and things so far were pretty much good, she was trying her hardest to think less about Riven and she focused on the fact that she would get over him eventually and until then she was going to go on like nothing had changed from when she left home. Musa was actually really relieved when she and Daniel talked because it sounded like he was fine and completely secure with their relationship, which was a nice change from the way things were. Musa was beginning to open up a bit more to Karen, who actually had some good advice on pretty much anything she had a problem with.
Everything was pretty much going great, there were the witches to worry about, but they were the last thing on Musa's mind. But still, she couldn't shake the feeling of anxiety like something was coming. Maybe it was because everything was going right, that she felt like something had to go wrong. Like what Techna always said in these situations 'if everything is going right, you're overlooking something' it seemed a little pessimistic, but it seemed to be pretty true. But if you're not looking for something that might be wrong, then nothing will be. And that was Musa's approach on the situation.
And yet, she still felt uneasy.
"You okay?" Ali asked as she and Musa made their way back to their dorms right after dance practice. Ali was not only the only other freshman on the dance team, but her dorm was right next to Musa's so the two had become fast friends because of the amount of times a day they saw each other.
Musa nodded and stared forward and continued to walk. "You know that feeling you get when everything is going right and yet you feel like…I dunno really anxious?"
"Ugh, all the time," Ali said with an exasperated sigh. "But that's usually because I forgot about some killer math test or something. But when it happens I try to think of the positives. I'm young, beautiful and heir to a huge fortune," Ali finished as she did an excited twirl and then continued along in the orginal pace with Musa.
"Well, that doesn't exactly work for me," Musa said. She didn't think the number of times she told herself that she was a princess was going to help her feel less uneasy. Besides the whole idea of it sounded completely preposterous. Did Ali really tell herself that?
"It will help," Ali insisted. "Come on think about it. You're hot, a great dancer, a princess, you have a sexy boyfriend…"
At this point Musa tuned Ali out and continued on her way trying to figure out what it was that was bothering her. Finally, she got to her room and threw herself on her bed face down, taking comfort in the soft sheets. "Ugh," she said aloud to herself as she pulled herself up and leaned on her elbows with her face resting in her hands. She looked straight at her desk and knew that she should be doing something productive, but she would have rather taken a nap.
Musa then looked up and noticed that her roommate was nowhere in sight, which was odd since she and Techna had a class together in twenty minutes and Techna usually used the time right before a class to review notes and triple check her homework. Musa admired her roommate's commitment, but at the same time wished Techna would take it easy every now and again. But of coarse Techna was under a different type of pressure, Musa was hear to basically learn how to strengthen herself and then go onto college and learn how to rule a kingdom, Techna on the other hand was at Alfea on scholarship and a lot of her future depended on her grades here. It was a lot to think about but the pressure on Techna was very real. (1)
With that, Musa felt bad for putting on her studies on the back burner just because she could and she looked down to her bag and pulled out a textbook and began to read as she chewed on the top of her pen. That was when she heard Flora come into the room. The last thing Musa needed right now was a distraction since she was already super behind on her work, but she was always a procrastinator, so she welcomed Flora's visit. "Hey Musa, have you seen Techna?"
Musa looked up from her papers and saw Flora at the door. "Nah, she's been off the radar," she answered honestly wondering herself where her roommate was.
"I need to find a spell you unshrink couture,"
Musa noticed the worry in Flora's voice and knew that Stella must have said something to Flora since Flora was the type of person to feel really bad if someone was even the slightest bit angry with her. "Doesn't nocturnal ivy do something like that?" Musa said recalling what she had learned from
"Oh yeah, I could combine it with some sparking palmseed oil," Flora said as she opened Techna's wardrobe for whatever reason and hear a muffled mumbling. Musa looked up when her ultra sensitive ears picked up on the mumbling and saw her missing roommate tied up by vines that were wrapped around her entire body.
"Techna!" Flora exclaimed with surprise. Musa got up from her bed and quickly walked over to help free her roommate, who by the looks of it was ready to throttle Flora. Of coarse, if it were her stuck in a closet being suffocated by a bunch of plants, she probably wouldn't bee too happy with Flora either. But Musa took her seat back on the bed when Bloom and Stella came into the room to help out Techna, probably after hearing Flora's surprised scream.
"All I wanted was a jacket and got kidnapped by this psycho plant," Techna complained as she climbed out of the vines that had bound her before. Musa had been dealing with all of Flora's experiments for the last week and trying to keep a level head about it all. She knew Flora meant well, but after finding a vine growing in her clarinet and seeing that another plant had broken several guitar stings, the little patience she was given in life, was wearing thin.
"You see what Flora is doing to our living conditions?" Stella complained. Musa hated agreeing with Stella, but she was right, the last thing Musa wanted was to wake up to a plant slowly making roots all over her bed.
"Yeah Flo, that stuff is not cool, not cool at all," Musa said in agreement.
"This plant nonsense has gone too far," Stella said after Flora had informed an angry Techna that she was probably not going to be able to recovery the notebooks that she had lost to some hungry plants. Judging by her roommates' reaction to the whole situation, Musa could tell that Flora was not going to get off easy for this disturbance. "this is a dormitory, not a rainforest,"
"I understand, I'll move out till black Mud Swamp and I wont come back until I finish my potion," Flora said sounding a little like she was wallowing in self pity as she walked over to the door.
"You'll move out?" Bloom said stupefied that she was taking such a dramatic approach.
"Yeah I'm really sorry about the trouble I caused," Flora said as she hung her head shamefully.
"You can't move to Black Mud Swamp, there are keek bugs and not to mention sludge slugs," Bloom said trying to make Flora stay and then turned to her other roommates and addressed them directly. "She should stay, right? Tell her to stay," Bloom finally commanded. But the girls fell silent and Flora had already walked out of the dorm before they had a moment to think about the question at hand.
"Unbelievable, you call yourselves her friends and you let her leave like that," Bloom yelled.
"Get off your high horse," Musa said sitting up in her bed. "you are just as annoyed with this whole thing as we are, you're just not bold enough to speak up," Musa said, she didn't really care if people called her names, but she was a good friend and she cared for Flora, but Flora was being a bit ridiculous right now. Just because they were in a disagreement she up and left, it was obvious that she was feeling sorry for herself and Musa hated pitying people since most of the time, it was the last thing they needed. "She's just being overdramatic right now,"
"That's not like Flora," Bloom demanded. "She's upset,"
"All the more reason to storm out and try to guilt us into feel bad, trust me I did it with my parents all the time," Stella said forming an alliance with Musa.
"Flora is out friend you guys, so she made a couple of mistakes, doesn't mean she has to go live in a swamp," Bloom said still not budging from the high horse she was on. She then stormed out of the room and back into hers.
"Okay, I understand where she is coming from, but …" Techna began when Bloom left the room and left Stella, Musa and herself looking at each other.
"We're not bad friends," Musa said stubbornly as she crossed her arms. "I mean we didn't boot her out the door,"
"Exactly, she is just doing this for attention," Stella began defensively. "I mean I know it's not like her to do that, but come on she's a girl and us girls have the gift of guilt trips.
I mean come on, you can't believe that she really thinks gong out to the swamp will make things better, she's trying to make a statement."
"But," Musa began starting to feel bad about not stopping Flora. It was kinda obvious that Flora was trying to make the feel bad on some level, but Musa didn't want her friend out there alone, she could really get hurt and all she really was trying to do was help. "she might need out help, maybe we should go out there, I mean what if we finish this potion quicker, the quicker out lives can go back to normal."
"That's all I'm saying," Bloom said as she walked back into the room with hiking boots for everyone. "Let' go help her out,"
"Sounds like a plan," Techna said as she walked over to her bed and picked up her mini laptop. "I guess it's only logical since we can't keep living with all this freakish vegetation in our dorm,"
"And Flo cat just live out in Black Mud Swamp all alone," Musa added.
"Well you girls have fun, I'll stay here in civilization until you get back," Stella said as she plopped down on Musa's bed and pulled out her nail file. It was obvious that it would take some convincing to get her there, luckily guilt trips worked both ways.
"Come on Stel, Flora forgave you when you totally trashed our room," Bloom said. "And now all she is trying to do is help us so we never have to deal with the witches again, so come on,"
"Hey, I was under a spell," Stella said in defense. "What happens when you are under a spell is not your fault,"
"You're going," Musa said throwing the pair of boots that Bloom had brought in at Stella.
"I AM NOT WEARING THESE HIDEOUS BOOTS!" Stella yelled as she caught the boots and threw them to the ground just as Musa, Techna and Bloom walked.
"Thank you so much for coming, only true friends would follow me into this swamp," Flora said to her roommates as they all set up camp along side the swamp. It had taken a lot to get Stella to come here, which included Musa reluctantly agreeing to by a frilly pink skirt that matched one that matched Stella's and agreeing to wear it at an event that involved all of Alfea and Red Fountain. Musa would have found this unfair but Techna agreed to tutor Stella in Calculus and Bloom agreed to try on Stella's clothes for Stella so that Stella could judge weather they would fit right on her.
"Hey wouldn't miss it for anything," Stella said as she looked down at her shoes as she stepped into mud puddle.
"Yeah Flo, we're your friends, for better or for worse," Musa said as she took a seat on a rock and rested for a second. It had taken almost an hour to find Flora in the swamp. As Musa looked around she remembered back to the last time she was here. IT was when she had first met Riven, well officially anyway. When Musa used to think back to that day, she felt excitement, but now all she felt was stupidity for being so naive about everything. Especially because she spent that time seriously thinking about ending things with Daniel, luckily for her Riven had shown his true colors before she did something stupid.
"Oh wonderful, I'll need you're help to find one main ingredient," Flora informed as she opened up a book and flipped though the pages. Musa sat up attentively and paid close attention, the quicker she got out of this swamp, the better, there were bugs, slime and annoying old feelings that kept popping up. She was gonna be so happy when this was over. "Its not going to be easy, here it is, the cheerful gladiolus."
"If that's it, couldn't you have had it delivered," Stella asked oblivious to the fact that if it were that easy Flora probably would have done it already. "It's a flower,"
"Actually there is only one left in the world, the BMJL has it," Flora said and Musa could only guess that Flora had read the confused looks on their faces when she said the acronym so she continued on. "It's the Black Mud Junior League, they do volunteer work around here," She said happily as she closed the book and held it close to her as if it were very special.
"Oh so it's like the Solarian Junior league, I got the cutest shoes at their silent auction," Stella said.
"Don't most junior leagues host have debutant balls?" Techna asked as she thought of those particular charitable groups.
"Yeah," Musa and Stella said at the same time. Except while Stella said it with much enthusiasm, Musa was hardly excited a the memory of her debutant ball. "They are probably the most boring thing in the world you can be subjected to and the whole idea is to let the 'right people' now you're single and available. It is just a ploy by a bunch of old rich people to marry their daughters off into the perfect family," Musa continued.
"You know, for a girl who hates the idea so much, it seemed to have worked on you," Stella pointed out to Musa.
"Excuse me?" Musa said taken aback by the statement.
"Well, let's see I can only guess Daniel accompanied you to this event since you said he always ended up being your date to royal affairs," Stella said as she began connecting some dots and gaining insight into Musa's past as they trudged along through the swamp. "And now you're dating Daniel, a prince who just happens to be the 1st in line for the throne of a planet that just happens to be the greatest ally to your planet," When Musa heard it said to her she couldn't help but feel at awe by Stella's logic. Musa hated the idea of her life being lived for her and her decisions being made for her, but now it seemed almost like her family had tricked her into a relationship with Daniel without her even knowing it. "Coincidence, I think not,"
"Yeah, that's definitely not what happened," Musa said dismissing the thought or trying to. She had always kinda had a feelings of obligation when it came to Daniel, but was her family so set on uniting two families that they would have planned hers and Daniel's relationship from birth? No, it was too deceitful and how could they have even known things would turn out this way? Musa tried to let the thought pass, but a part of her couldn't let it go.
"Well, this junior league is run by the undines, little water nymphs, they've ruled the swamp for centuries," Flora said looking at her book once again as she changed the subject back to the task at hand.
"Reality check Flora, you're going to ask them for the last cheerful gladiolus, why would they ever give it to you?" Stella reasoned, getting something for nothing ever happened.
"I don't expect them to, that's why I developed a potion especially for this, all I need is to borrow the flower and use a drop of my invention," Flora said as she presented the girls with a bottle that had a light pink liquid inside. She then dropped a drop of the pink substance onto a leaf and in seconds the drop created an identical plant right next to the original. "I call it the vegal cloner, this way the flower won't be endangered anymore,"
"Okay so let's get a move on it," Bloom said as Flora put the potion back safely into her backpack. "We should get that flower as soon as possible, god only knows how long it will be until Stella starts to whine and complain,"
"You mean she hasn't started already," Musa asked drolly as she quickly dusted the dirt off of her jeans and began on her way as she listened to the low irritated mumblings of Stella, who was whining about the fact that she was a princess and that she shouldn't be subjected to a swamp. Musa had learned to just let these things go since Stella's little 'princess fits' as she began to call them were pretty common.
The girls began to make their way through the familiar swamp that seemed to be under constant change. One thing that Musa managed to noticed while they were walking by was the cove that was full of the quietus carnivourous, which then caused her in turn t think again about that day I this very place where they had their run in with the troll.
"Can we take a break!" Stella whined after about an hour of hiking around the swamp. The heat seemed to be even more intense in the swamp, which explained why there was such a dense overgrowth of plants and why the girls were getting fatigued of quickly.
"I'm with Stella on this one," Musa said as she wiped her forehead with her hand and leaned against a tree. "It's really hot, not to mention we still have a lot of swamp to cover, there's no point in going on if one of us is going to keel over from a heat stoke,"
"I agree," Techna said stopping in her place and sitting down on a rock and enjoying the cool shade that the tree behind it provided.
The girls decided that it would probably be best to take a break since they had been in the swamp for a while now. Musa sat down at the base of a tree beside Bloom and leaned her head back against the tree and tried to shake the bad feeling that was still looming over her. It was lie every time her mind was off of it, she would remind herself of all the confusion and chaos in her mind and then that feeling would come back.
"Let's play a game, we're sitting here why not have some fun while we're at it," Stella said as she sat on a large rock and kicked her feet up and laid back as she basked in the sun. "Everyone has to share a secret, that way we can get to know each other better,"
"That sounds like a very bad idea," Musa said as she sat at the base of a tree. These kinds of games never ended well. It usually led to some type of horrible secret being let out and that would cause a massive eruption of hate and anger that sometimes ended with a sever cat fight. "and the only person that would have fun with that game is you, besides we all know each other pretty well so I think we're good,"
"Yeah, why can't we just sit here and relax," Bloom said as she leaned up against a tree. "Besides that's not a game,"
"It is to a game,"
"Not even a little," Musa stated as she let out a deep breathe and thought about it, since Stella brought t up earlier, it was all she could think about. She had been debating whether it mattered if someone else had a hand in getting her and Daniel together, but all that she could settle on was that this was not making her mixed feelings become anymore clear. "What you wanna do is called being nosy,"
"Fine," Stella said obstinately and crossed her arms and pouted. "So what? Are we just going to sit here? Can we at least talk about something interesting," Stella complained further and was finally silenced when Musa randomly spoke up.
"Do you guys really think that Daniel and I were picked for each other," Musa said allowed as she looked toward the sky not realizing the surprised look on her friends faces, they were not used to Musa opening up that quickly with such little help. Usually someone had to broach the subject to get Musa to open up, but now Musa was just too preoccupied with everything that she really needed someone to put her mind at ease. Besides, what Stella had said earlier was really getting to her. "It's conceivable that our relationship is pretty convenient but, I mean do you think that all this time my family was scheming about this,"
"I wouldn't call it scheming," Bloom said as she thought about the situation and saw how much her family's interference bothered her, even if it was for the best. "I mean they want what's best for you and you two do seem to be really do together. I mean I guess it is a little odd if they set things up, but does that take away from what you guys have?"
"Besides who cares if they did or didn't," Stella pointed out. "If you're happy it should hardly matter how you got together in the first place." Stella finished eloquently, much to the surprise of everyone around her.
"I forget how smart you can be," Musa said as she smiled and looked towards Stella.
"I'm taking that as a compliment," Stella affirmed and then looked back at the group with a determined face. "Now back to my game,"
"How about we get back to looking for the flower and the junior league instead," Techna said not wanting to play Stella's game either. "It is why we're here,"
After getting back too looking for the junior league in the swamp, it looked like they were making some headway since they had managed to see, according to Flora, some of the houses that the undines lived in." I cannot wait until we find those nymphs and get back to civilization," Stella complained as the girls continued to search around the swamp.
"Chill out Stella," Musa scolded as she turned around and saw Stella standing precariously on top of a rock that rested in the mud. Although Musa wanted Stella to stop complaining, she would endure a day more of it if she could see Stella fall ass first in the mud. Musa then continued to look through the vegetation in the swamp when she heard a shrill scream that she knew belonged to Stella after hearing it so many times and then as if the universe had heard what Musa had secretly wished for, she turned around to see Stella sitting in the mud with her clothes saturated in the slime.
"I'm a princess, I should not be subjected to swamps and slime," She screamed angrily as she threw her hands into the mud angrily. "Just find those stupid nymphs," Stella began angrily as she brushed herself off and ignored the many 'shh''s that Flora yelled to her and continued to rant. "You know what, I bet those stupid nymphs don't even exist."
"Stella SHH," Flora scolded as she ran up behind Stella and put her hand over her mouth to muffle one of Stella's insipid rants. "Look, its them," Flora said as she pointed over to the lake that passed though Black Mud Swamp. There Musa saw, for the first time, the junior league. And they were definitely junior; the undines were only about the size of the flowers that they were floating around. They reminded Musa like the small forest nymphs that would occasionally wander into one of the palace gardens, these nymphs however were a little different looking. While the ones around her palace had wings and looked more like miniature fairies, these undines looked like small mermaids.
"Well hello, welcome to the Black Mud Swamp Junior League," said one of the undines as it popped it's heard out of the water and sat on a lillipad that was floating on the water's edge. "I supposed you are here to purchase tickets for the literacy benefit for butterflies tea parties, there aren't any left, but I suppose we can put your names on a waiting list, follow us," Said another undine as she popped out of the water. The girls began to follow the two undines when Musa felt her phone go off for the fifth time that day, she had been ignoring the phone calls all day so that she could find the junior league, but after five calls from Annabelle, Musa was getting the impression that something was wrong.
"Hey guys I will catch up in a second," Musa said as her friends walked over and followed the water nymphs, she walked over to a tree and picked up the phone. "Hello?"
"Hey Musa," Annabelle began nervously. "I – I, okay I have this problem and I need your advice on something. And you need to be honest okay?"
"Okay Anna, but what is it?" Musa said picking up on the worried tone in Annabelle's voice. "Please tell me there aren't any members of the secret service involved again,"
"No," Annabelle said with a laugh. "Not that. It's this problem…. Okay what would you do if you thought you knew something about a friend that you knew would hurt them and someone else if you told them but by not telling them you would hurt them also, if you hadn't already hurt them before."
"Uhhh….what?"
"I dunno what to do because it's one of those damned if you do and damned if you don't situations and now I need to figure out what to do!"
"Alright well explain again, this time slower and maybe tell me the whole story,"
"Okay," Annabelle said taking a deep breathe. "I think I saw…. Okay well I saw…Justin. Yeah I saw Justin cheating on Penelope and I have no idea what to do,"
"Oh, I didn't even know they were back together," Musa said not sure on how to answer. "Well are you sure you saw him cheating? Maybe it was something else… and why are you asking me? Leslie is so much better with this kind of stuff,"
"Oh, well Leslie is really busy and I needed to talk to someone," Annabelle said still very nervously. "But, I'm pretty sure I saw someone that was not Penelope leaving his dorm yesterday very early in the morning,"
"Anna, that could mean anything you can't base a whole argument on what could have happened the night before. They could have been studying -,"
"I know what you're going to say, but she is one of those girls. Trying to climb the social ladder and sleeping with D-," Annabelle stopped and luckily for her Musa didn't pick up on her little faux pas. "And sleeping with Justin is her way in, or so she thinks, not to mention he and Penelope are always so on and off,"
"Well I wouldn't tell Penelope until I was sure," Musa advised. There was no telling the amount of problems that would erupt if there was a false rumor like that being spread around. "And if you are sure, you should tell Penelope."
"But, I can't just tattle on Justin. We're friends and what if this ruins that?" Annabelle complained. "I mean I can't just do that to him, I think he loves Penelope,"
"Well if he loved her, he wouldn't have cheated," Musa spat out. "Besides he and Penelope have always been so on and off. I figure telling her this will be telling her something she probably already knows. But, I think you should tell her if you're sure,"
"But they've changed," Annabelle said stubbornly. "They have been getting close and I think that they are serious now, something like this could ruin them. Not to mention what it will do to everyone else, this could tear us apart,"
"You need to stop over thinking everything okay?" Musa said as calmly as she could. She had really thought that when she left Devon that she left all this drama behind, but that wasn't case. But, she refused to let her friends go through this kind of crap alone. "If they really want to be together then they wouldn't be doing crap like this and as for them getting close, maybe this is for the best. Tell her if you're positive and if not then give Justin the benefit of the doubt. And our group has weathered worse storms, I'm sure nothing that bad will happen,"
"I hope you're right,"
"Oh stop being so dramatic," Musa said wondering why Annabelle was so torn about this. It wasn't like she and Penelope were best friends or anything, but Anna was the kind of person to feel bad if someone else felt bad. "Everything will be fine; we can straighten this all out when I get home in a couple weeks, if it hasn't worked itself out by then,"
"Okay thanks M," Annabelle said and then hung up the phone. And Musa walked back over to where all the girls were crowed around the lake and a small throne where they were talking to, who Musa could only guess was, the queen of the water nymphs.
"We're here to borrow your cheerful gladiolus," Flora said
"A big request, may I ask why you need the last flower," asked the queen. And then Flora proceeded to tell the queen of the undines that she needed to make a potion to try to ward away the witches that were on a major power trip. And when Flora was finished explaining why she needed the flower, the queen offered a type of exchange. It turned out that the island, the one place in the swamp where the water nymphs got their food, zillith, and the one place where it grew was being plagued by a type of monster and all their attempts to stop this beast were futile.
The queen told them that the conditions had gotten so bad that it was conceivable that many of the undines wouldn't be making it through the night or past the week. That was all the convincing all the girls needed because without the undines even asking, they transformed quickly and flew off in the direction of the island hoping to get to the bottom of the whole situation. The girls were told that there was a monster in the water and that it was stopping them from being able to go to the island.
"Okay so you know how this monster is way enormous, well the undines are teeny so maybe we could be able to take this thing down easy," Stella said trying to ease the tension that everyone was under. Then, Musa and the rest of the girls turned to her and looked at her with shock. Although Stella didn't know it, the reason that everyone was looking at her with the same scared looks on their faces was because the monster that they were looking for was right behind them. "What, you don't think I'm right,"
"Oh my god!" Musa yelled as the monster jumped out of the water and began to attack them. They tried to group together and use a spell together, but the monster dove into the murky water and became invisible to their eyes as they peered into the water. Musa and the rest of the girls flew back until they were all back to back and for a few seconds Musa felt a lot safer knowing her friends had her back, literally.
Suddenly, breaking the silence that had fallen over the swamp as they waited for the monster to strike, the monster shot up into the air and stuck Musa and split up the girls from the circle and the last thing Musa could remember was falling into the water before she went unconscious.
When Musa came to, she was on the shore of the island that the nymphs got their food from. As she took in a deep breathe she began to feel a bit light headed, but she ignored the feeling, passing it off as some residual effects of being knocked out by the monster. She stood up and rubbed her head and then looked around at the island and noticed a weird pink haze in the air. "Okay let's find the zillith," Flora said as she looked around the island. The zillith was the food that the undines ate and the girls looked around for the plants that grew them, but so far there was no luck.
"A systematic search is in order," Techna said looking around the quiet island. Musa straightened out her outfit as she tried to get a good footing on the ground, but it was like with every second she was standing on the island, she felt even more tired. Maybe it was because of the fact that she had just regained consciousness, but as she observed some of her other friends, Musa noticed that she was not the only one who was feeling a bit off.
"Hey Flora do you know what kind of tree this is," Bloom said through a yawn as they began to move more inland on the island. The zillith grew on a special type of tree and so far they had yet to spot that specific tree. As Musa looked around she could feel her eyelids begin to get heavy and she couldn't stifle the yawns that occurred every couple of seconds. "Wow…I am so seriously tired, I guess it must be from all that swimming we did earlier." Bloom said through another yawn.
"They smell really nice, like designer perfume," Stella said and Musa turned around to see all of her friends were beginning to look like they were about to fall asleep any second. The weird thing was, for the first time in awhile, Musa had actually been sufficient sleep. There was something going on here, and Musa would have pondered it further but the overwhelming pull of sleep was beginning to take it's affect on her. "I could totally go for a power nap right about now,"
"It's awfully quiet around here, don't you think," Techna said addressing the girls.
"There are no birds," Stella said as she began to fall deeper into fatigue. "I so miss my duvet right now,"
"That's right, there are no birds," Techna began as she summoned some of her powers. "I am going to analyze the air composition," By now Musa had already fallen to the ground and found a nice soft spot on the ground and took another yawn in before closing her eyes and surrendering to the pull of sleep. Right before she fell asleep, Musa could faintly hear Techna give a panicked command. "Girls stop breathing, there is narcoleps spray in the air," she yelled, but it was too late, Musa and Stella were already into Stage 2 (2) sleep while Flora was getting there. (3)
"Good morning, I could go for some pancakes" Musa said a few minutes later after she woke up on the island feeling like she had jus slept for hours, except judging by the surroundings, she came to the conclusion that it was probably a spell or something that they had fallen under. Narcoleps Gas was all Musa could recall from before she fell asleep. Well that explains the oxygen bubble that we're in Musa thought as she looked at the barrier that Techna had erected.
"Let's call room service," Stella said as she woke up and stretched out her arms. "I kinda want the continental breakfast," Stella remained in a sleepy state for a few more seconds until she observed a small lady bug crawling up the side of her arm and began freaking out thinking it was a zit bug.
"Should we tell her that it's a normal lady bug," Flora asked Musa as they both watched Stella run around the island frantically trying to get the bug, that had probably flown away the second she first screamed and began running around, off of her arm.
"Maybe later," Musa said as she and Flora turned back to Bloom and Techna.
"We need to make a barrier to cover the whole island," Bloom said.
"Let's power converge," Musa sad offering a way to accomplish the problem at hand. Just as Stella rejoined the group after her mild freak out over the bug that she probably killed with her shrill shrieks.
"Alright then," Techna said as the girls huddled together and got ready to power up. "Everybody ready?" With that the girls nodded and put their hand up in the air and concentrated their power to make the oxygen barrier stretch over the entire island.
"Hey go check on the undine, we'll keep the barrier up," Musa said to Bloom as she and the rest of the girls tried to make the barrier last longer without constant magic being pushed into it to keep it from falling, while Bloom went over to the water nymph to check if she was okay.
Just when they were finally able to keep the barrier up they went up to the undine and found out that she had gone out to find food, but only found one zillius leaf. Just as she explained Musa and the rest of the Winx Club, they felt the ground quake with great force almost knocking them off of their feet. "The monster is coming!" Musa said hearing the sound waves and realized that they were in very close to the island, very close.
"Actually my dear, the monster is already here," The water nymph corrected. "We're standing on it," Seeing the confused looks on their faces, the water nymph continued. "This island isn't an island at all, it is actually the shell of a giant turtle that lives in the swamp. And the poor turtle is not evil, she's just under the willow's spell,"
"But why would a tree want to put a spell on a turtle," Asked Musa trying to connect the dots, but failed when she tried to think of a motive for a tree to want to spell a turtle. "Aren't tree's supposed to be peaceful,"
"This type of tree is different, it's a Windiago Willow," explained the undine. "It's a type of parasite that is feeding off the turtle, and if it doesn't stop soon, everything on this island...or turtle shell will parish. Along with our only food source,"
"We can take care of that," Techna said offering some help to the poor undine. "I mean how hard could a tree be to defeat?" And then, almost as if answering her question, the tree came to life and began to attack the Winx Club.
The only way that they could think of to get rid of the tree was to burn it, but when Bloom went into the tree's air zone and fired a flame attack at it, the attack didn't seem to phase him. "It's fireproof," Flora said and then thought up a way to make it's roots susceptible to fire and finally brought the tree down.
Afterwards, the girls were presented with the cheerful gladiolus and Flora used her cloning potion to create enough food for the nymphs to live on. Flora also told the girls that she planned on using her cloning potion to clone the cheerful gladiolus as well. And with that, the girls left Black Mud Swamp with their friendship in tact.
"See Stella, plants can come in pretty useful when you think about it," Flora said as she used one of her potions that she had made to remove a stain from Stella's shirt, that she got after dinner. Techna and Bloom had gone out the library to study for a test they had the next day leaving Stella, Flora and Musa in the dorm to chat.
"Yeah yeah, I guess you're right," Stella said as she plopped down on the couch next to Musa, who was tuning her guitar and working on a melody she had thought of while she was in the swamp. "So Musa, what's been bugging you,"
"Me?" Musa questioned as she looked up at Stella's inquiring face and then noticed that Flora looked like she wanted to know as well, not that Flora would ever be so prying. "I'm fine, there's nothing wrong…"
"Oh, really?" Stella said sarcastically. "Then why have you been so jumpy when anyone mentions Daniel?"
"I'm not!"
"Are so! Flora you agree with me, right?" Stella asked but saw Flora packing her things and walking into her room, as to avoid the question and the possible fight that might come from it. "That means she agrees,"
"It's not about him," Musa insisted. "it's just this weirdness between us, I dunno why,"
"Hmm, maybe it's cause you haven't seen him in awhile," Stella pondered. "I mean you two were simply adorable when he came here to visit you. And he's the sweetest thing, not to mention you seem to be really happy after you guys talk on the phone. I'm sure this will pass,"
"I guess," Musa said with a shrug and continued to tune her guitar. "Oh, that's Daniel," Musa said a she looked at her phone and stood up. "I should get this,"
"Say hello for me," Stella said as she walked into her room.
Musa then walked into her room was lying on her bed laughing on the phone as she joked around with Daniel. "Hey Musa?" Daniel asked his voice transitioning from a laugh to a more serious tone.
"Yeah?" Musa answered not sure why he had gotten to serious all of a sudden.
"When you said 'I love you' did you mean it?" Daniel asked almost afraid of hearing the answer. He knew he would miss Musa when she went to Magix, but he really didn't think he would lose her. But, with recent revelation he had yet to tell her about, he had begun to think, if Musa wasn't interested in the relationship anymore, why should he be? "I mean did you only say it because I –,"
"I love you Daniel," Musa said knowing she didn't mean it in the way Daniel was mentioning. She loved him, there was no doubt in her mind about that, but she still couldn't see herself as 'in love' with him. But she figured she could love him, he was perfect for her so why wouldn't she fall in love. Maybe all she needed was time. And for a second, Musa thought that maybe this is what was bothering her all day. Maybe she wanted to make sure Daniel believed her, even if she was lying. "I love you," she repeated feeling the guilt rise up inside of her again. But this time she had convinced herself she would fall in love with him eventually and then everything would be perfect.
Musa heard a relived sigh on the other end of the phone. "Okay, I just wanted to make sure you weren't saying it cause I did. I mean if there is something you want to tell me, ever, you know you can right?"
"I know," Musa affirmed getting a shadow of suspicion that Daniel might have picked up on her hesitance. "But you're okay right? I mean you sound, I dunno different,"
"Yeah, I'm fine," Daniel answered. Musa thought she heard something different in his tone and she knew she was right. Daniel had just lied, something was wrong and she didn't know whether it had anything to do with what Annabelle called about earlier or not. Were they somehow involved in what was going on between Penelope and Justin? Whatever it was, it was not helping her at all either and the fact that they were both not being completely honest with each other was starting to put Musa on edge again.
"Promise" Daniel affirmed when there was an awkward pause between them. With that out of the way, the two picked up on their normal conversation, even though it was obvious there were things that they were keeping from each other that neither of them wanted to bring up. Maybe it was the feeling of obligation that Musa had towards her family that made her try so hard to feel something for Daniel or maybe she really did love him but lost her way a little when she met Riven. Whatever it was Musa was still as confused about what was going on with her relationship as she had ever been. They continued until late that night and Musa ended up falling asleep to Daniel's voice.
Hopefully that would keep the dreams she knew she shouldn't be having at bay.
1. Okay so if all these princesses are going to Alfea, then it must be a great school, which usually means a steep tuition. So, this makes me wonder…how can normal people afford this? So that is why Techna is here on scholarship, I figure it adds and aire of normalcy in this 'perfect' world.
2. Stage 2 sleep is when you just begin to fall asleep and is usually when you are still a little aware of what is going on around you, characterized by sleep spindles which indicate you are falling asleep.
3. if you watch this episode, the girls don't seem sleepy, they seem like they are drunk….just an observation.
Miss Magix is up next –
xoxo,
princessm