So this story wanders to an end. THE end? Maybe. We'll see where season 9 goes and if it inspires more of Mirta's adventures. If not, there will be some other story. Thank you for reading this far! I feel like you should get a prize for conquering such a long story, but I'm fresh outta prizes so just thank you.

19 167 Vera ~Lost~

It was really fun, fighting. The whole room pulsing with magic and a clear obvious enemy that whisped apart into nothingness because they were just magic, not alive.

Until we get mobbed. Princess Amber makes her great speech and the nemesis falls apart into a million snaky things and they all come at us at once.

We manage but there's a second where there are too many of them and I yell for my sister but she's busy protecting Amber. I shouldn't mind. It's her job. Shimmergloom saves me, she always does and I'll always save her. But I feel something crack.

If it hadn't cracked I think I could have fought back when something grabbed my hair and dragged me out of the world.

I appear in the shadowy forest and don't mind. This is a nicer place than backstage, gray and quiet. Someone definitely brought me here but I'm alone now. And that's fine. I'd been tired after the fight but now my magic feels strong again and I don't feel like I want to change out of my magical clothes. I'm not sure I even could, here.

Everything feels fine. It isn't fine; someone brought me here and I don't know who or where they are. And I'm in the World of Dreams but I'm not asleep in the real world. I'm all the way here, awake.

It's not a place I recognize. This forest is thicker and there are thorny, leafless bushes bunched around the foot of the trees and faintly glowing mushrooms all over the place. It's darker but I don't feel afraid. This place with its violet shadows and silvery starry sky is too lovely. It takes a long few minutes before I realize my sister and my friends will be wondering where I went. I should go back. I close my eyes and try to wake up in the real world.

And open my eyes still in the forest.

My first feeling is relief.

Then concern. I always appear here when I want to get away from something, usually family stuff. And now I can't get back. I should probably be worried.

Maybe if I find whoever brought me here they can send me back. Funny that whoever it was grabbed me then didn't stick around.

I start walking, detouring around the tangled black bushes. I'm not going in any particular direction, just downhill. Sooner or later I'll get tired and hungry and it would be nice to find people before then. Everyone in the World of Dreams knows Shimmergloom and I can probably bum dinner just by being her friend.

Suddenly there's a loud thump, shaking the ground. A few more thumps and shakes, it sounds like something really big is… doing something. Nearby. Are there giants here? Or dinosaurs? Shimmergloom hasn't mentioned any and they aren't in the Peter Pan book but that doesn't guarantee it. I can imagine Shimmergloom just forgetting to mention dinosaurs.

I push off from the ground and let myself float up to treetop height. There's a breeze up here that tugs at my scarves and makes the bare branches whisper against each other.

All I see is more forest, a distant ocean and the thatched roof of a single cottage.

\ Someone lives here? In a house? Shimmergloom's parents live in a tree and Tiger Lily's people live in tents. I let the breeze pull me closer, curious to see inside. But when I get close to the house it rises up.

Stands up. On legs.

I make a surprised noise and fall into a tree. Not far and I can grab a branch but in the minute it takes to find someplace to stand and pull myself up the house turns to look at me with two front windows. I don't see anyone inside but it's very obviously looking at me.

It doesn't occur to me to be worried. The house is up on giant chicken legs and I know what that means. Baba Yaga, the witch from Russian legend. With iron teeth and a flying mortar and pestle. Probably eats people. I remember the sharp-toothed mermaid and lift back into the air, backing away. I shouldn't act like I'm safe just because this place feels peaceful.

The door opens and my mind snaps into focus. It's the woman from Madder's driveway, whose spell left behind a chicken feather. "You!"

"You." the woman replies, sounding out of sorts. "I wanted an Earthling with a magic voice not a witch from the magic dimension. But I guess you'll do."

"Do for what?" I ask. She may have brought me here but it's not like I'm a prisoner. I can just fly away anytime. Because of that, I feel safe to linger well out of grabbing range and ask, "Did you release the Nemesis we just fought?"

"Of course. That little boy wasn't ever going to use it and that would have been such a waste. Just a little bit of revenge on the Winx!"

"The Winx?" I ask. Everything always seems to come back to them.

"They banished me from Earth, my own realm!"

Curious, a little, I step closer along the branch. It doesn't dip under my weight. There's something I remember from reading fairy tales, "You're from earth? ...Little Grandmother?"

"So polite! I didn't think anyone remembered! Why don't you come in?" but as she speaks the woman's shape changes, growing taller and broader. The long silky hair goes gray and swirls itself up into a bun. The witch is now a huge, stooped old woman with peglike black teeth. I scoot back against the trunk of the tree. "No thank you. I'll stay out here."

Baba Yaga waves a huge hand, 'Oh I won't eat you. you're a polite, respectful girl."

This is starting to be creepy. I should just leave. I'm sure Shimmergloom is coming to look for me. But I have a chance to learn the villain's plan. "Little Grandmother, why did you come to Madder's house where we saw you?"

"I wanted to steal away that talented woman with the awful dyed hair and the magic voice. My own sisters have't returned from banishment and I can't very well conquer the earth fairies in Tir Na Nog without a coven."

I think my eyes bug out. Defeat the earth fairies? "U-um, the earth fairies?"

"Earth is only big enough for one sort of magic! Those fairies may be hiding in Tir Na Nog doing good deeds in secret but they're spreading positive energy! At this rate the world will never fall back into a glorious dark age ruled by witches and wizards!"

It must be because we're in the World of Dreams that lets her words unfold into a vision of Baba Yaga's dream. A world of ordinary people slaving away living in peasant huts while witches fill the sky on broomsticks and flying cauldrons and wizards rule the land from their towers. This is not the middle ages we heard about in school. "Is that what it was really like?"

"Ah, it was nice! But then the Wizards of the Black Circle threw everything out of balance and everybody forgot about the magic. Now that magic is coming back we could return to those days! Witches should rule the Earth! That silly fairy queen wants to share magic with everyone, build a kingdom of 'peace' and 'equality' and even combine magic and technology! What nonsense!"

Sounds pretty good to me. That's what Mom and Dad were working on when they lived on earth. But I'm not going to say that now and interrupt Baba Yaga telling me all her plans just like the baddie in a movie. "I guess that wouldn't be as good."

"No place for witches like us! Join my new coven and we'll build a world to rule!"

"Um… I'm too young for that. I'm still in school." I try, and I look back to make sure I have a clear path to fly away.

Baba Yaga waves a giant hand. "You can be my apprentice. You can't have any family to miss or you wouldn't have gotten Lost."

Lost? But I would miss my family. I'm just annoyed at my sister and angry about having extra parents, but not at them. But I have to say something now so I go with, "I'll think about it. I'd better go."

And I launch myself away, as fast as I can fly because Baba Yaga is certainly evil and even if she wants to make friends now she might change her mind and capture me. Though a chicken-leg hut probably doesn't have a dungeon.

After a few minutes in flight I get out of breath and have to land, clumsily almost tripping over my feet. I grab a treetrunk to avoid banging into it. Long strings of moss come loose and fall around me.

Safe. Maybe. I've lost sight of the ocean, which was my only landmark. The World of Dreams must be bigger than the island where Shimmergloom and her family live. I close my eyes and try again to wake up, but again it doesn't work. Then I hear the distant sound of a bell.

"Shimmergloom!"

She lands in front of me, looking grumpy. "Vera! I did warn ye! Now here you are."

"A villain brought me here! the real Baba Yaga, who is a character in folklore but she's real here. And she wants to turn the world back to the middle ages so witches can be in charge and she wants me to help."

"Oh. Hmm." Shimmergloom says, startled out of whatever she'd been about to say.

"So we need to go back and tell the grownups so they can tell the right grownups. But I can't get back."

"Aye." Shimmergloom runs a hand through her tangled hair. "This be trouble, Vera. Ye got Lost. Ye can't get back until… well. Normal times someone gets Lost they can go home as long as their family leaves the window open so they can fly back but you… hmm." She sits down on a rock and looks at me like I'm a puzzle, which does not feel great after everything else that already happened today.

What really doesn't feel great is that I can guess why I got lost and it's… annoying. Why should magic stuff depend on me figuring out my family stuff? "...that's dumb!"

"Huh?"

"'Lost' is a family thing, right? I come here when I'm upset about family stuff so I have to make peace with my feelings before I can go home? I can't just sit around until I figure it out, that might take forever! Magic rules are dumb!"

Shimmergloom's amber eyes go wide and she stutters, "Ye don't be wrong but that's just how it works!"

It's dumb and I'm angry. "Since I'm going to be here forever is there any food around?"

"Just eat imagination food." Shimmergloom holds out a hand and a banana appears in it.

"Imagination food?"

"Here ye can just imagine food and eat it. That doesn't work anywhere else in the universe."

That was in one of the Peter Pan movies, I think. "Do you need to use the imagination bathroom later?"

"No, silly! That's only if you eat real food too." Shimmergloom says like that's perfectly normal.

I put that biological impossibility aside and some of my anger goes with it. Shimmergloom is just Shimmergloom; she's not the problem. "Are you sure you can't use magic to send me back?"

"I be sure. It be only you who can do it."

Maybe Baba Yaga can. I want to visit this world, but not be here forever. I need to go back to school! It isn't fair that World of Dreams magic is going to ruin my dream even after we beat the nemesis.

"Shimmergloom—you should go. Tell everyone I'm fine and I'll be back later. Probably after I flunk out of school. I don't want them to worry." And maybe Mom can rescue me.

"Aye." Shimmergloom grumbles. I guess I'm not being kind to her. It isn't her fault. It's never anyone's fault.

Shimmergloom unhooks the silver bell from around her neck and offers it to me. I look at her in surprise.

"In case ye need it. Ye have a magic sword but it might not be enough. But if ye really are marooned here long you can live in the great tree with us."

Shimmergloom stretches her wings, jumps and goes twirling into the air and out of sight over the trees. Leaving me alone which is what I wanted. I hang the little silver bell around my neck. I'm sure Shimmergloom can use it to spy on me so I'm probably not very alone.

That feels good.

Now I just have to figure out how to get un-Lost. To escape from the place I always escaped to. But I never wanted to stay here away from everyone forever.

I walk through the forest and try to attain enlightenment. It's endless twilight here, all silvery black trees with violet shadows. I pass a big tree with shelves of glowing mushrooms growing in a spiral around its trunk then find a stream, a tiny trickle of water that at least gives me a direction to follow while I try to think things out.

The thing in the book about parents leaving the window open… Mom and Dad will leave a window open forever. My other parents too. But unlike in the book I can't just fly home. There's more to it.

I guess I have to want to go back to my family. My different, happy sister who likes magic more than anything and doesn't need me. My parents who love me but never told me the truth of what they are. And my mother and father, broken people who look at me like I'm the only thing that matters in the universe. Just because I want to get away from them doesn't mean I wanted to stay away forever. I wouldn't give up everything that's happened in the last year even if I could. I've seen amazing things, I found my own magic, and I found out the world is a whole lot bigger than I thought. And I met celebrities and famous literary characters and fairies and the ultimate mean girls and a flying horse. And Shimmergloom. Even if I feel a little disconnected from my family, I can feel connected to my friend.

That should be enough.

"Stupid magic! that should be enough to work!" I say out loud to the world, which continues to be shadowy and beautiful and doesn't change at all because I'm grumbling at it.

The little creek I've been following spills into a little pond growing with greeny-black cattails and waterlilies with pale blue flowers that glow in the gloom. The water is dark and still as glass. My reflection is sharp and clear, dressed in violet and deep teal, the same colors as the forest.

I ask my reflection, "What if I promise I'll get to know my parents? Which I was going to do anyway once school lets out but I could promise to start now. I could spend my supper vacation in Magix, everybody would like that. I'm going back to earth somehow even if I have to join Baba Yaga's coven to do it. My dream is back at madame Sophie's fashion school and I'm going to make it come true no matter what dumb magic rules try to stop me."

But maybe my next dream…

My reflection smiles. And like a key turning in a lock I know I'm not trapped here anymore. I close my eyes and disappear.

I reappear backstage, in the same place I was stolen from. Nobody is right here, but in the distance I hear fading crowd sounds. The concert is over but the audience must still be trickling out of the building. I go looking for people.

Before reaching the door of the dressing room I can hear the grownups laughing. Annabelle says, "The effects people are going to hate me! Now everybody's going to want this kind of thing!"

I peek in. The performers had time to get changed, Madder back into her normal clothes and Annabelle into slouchy sweats. "Maddy, it was fun having you out there. Want to come along on the rest of the tour?"

"Well maybe."

Miss Nadine has her phone out and is looking at social media posts about the concert with the other two huddled around. She looks up and sees me. "Mademoiselle Hume! You're back! Mademoiselle Barrie went looking for you. Your mere is here, everyone's in a break room, that way down the hall. They would not all fit in here."

"Ok, I'll go find them." I'm sure Shimmergloom will turn up soon.

The grownups—the other set of grownups—really have arrived. The first people I find are Amber and her mother, whose blue velvet suit makes her look so official and dignified I bet nobody asked her if she has a pass to be here. They're sitting close together and I hear Amber say, "It's not that I don't want to marry Aiden but..." and realize this is a serious mother-daughter conversation like the one I have to have soon, and I'd better not eavesdrop. I wave and say, "I'm back, I'm gonna find my sister."

And there they are. Mom's sitting on a table and Twig is talking a mile a minute, something about Amber and Jamie and she's obviously got a lot to say. She at least pauses to say, "Hey, you're back!"

Mom comes to put an arm around me. "Shimmergloom said we didn't have to worry but I worried anyway."

"Mom." It feels good to get a mom hug.

"Are you all right? Where did you go?"

"Um..." This isn't really a great place for a big talk. "Can I come back home with you? Just for the weekend. Then I want to go back to school. But I think I'll come for the summer too."

Twig does a silent cheer. Mom says, "Of course you can. Bloom can take us back. Maybe your teacher too. The talents said Bloom wasn't allowed to leave until she tells them everything and since this isn't the most comfortable place for a long explanation I bet we go somewhere else soon."

I look around, "Where'd Jamie go?"

"Jamie..!" Twig bursts out, "He's the Shadow Thief! He really was! You thought so didn't you?"

"Well he had the same coat." I say. "Is that what Amber's telling her mom about?"

We all glance over at them.

Mom giggles. "Sorry, comparing the situations my kids get into to the situation her kid got into." she waves it off.

Quickly Twig says, "Jamie reformed, he doesn't want to make trouble anymore."

"He made a lot already! Me and Shimmergloom had to clean up all his messes1 he'd better apologize, and Shimmergloom is going to yell at him for sure."

Then Queen Bloom bursts out laughing and we all look at her again. She waves to mom and says, "Poor Jim, he has to go through the teen years again! That's a fitting punishment I think!" and Mom laughs too.

Amber mouths at us, "What's wrong with the teen years?" And Twig and I both shrug. We're in them and they don't seem too bad.

The queen says, "Anyway. We've all been invited back to Madeline's house for dinner. I assume your friend Shimmergloom and Jim can find us when they come back?"

I nod. "Shimmergloom can. Is Jamie hiding right now?"

Amber nods so solemnly the rest of us laugh.

So we ride a sort of minibus for transporting famous people back to Madder's house and Shimmergloom is already here helping James feed the puppies.

Now that we're not in public Madder and Annabelle pounce on Queen Bloom and Amber for the 'what happened?!' stuff and most everyone gets pulled into answering because Queen Bloom just came from Magix and doesn't know everything that happened. So Twig and Shimmergloom go help explain and I catch Mom with the magic words, "I need to talk."

We go outside and sit on the bench in the garden and I say everything. All jumbled up with 'I do want to get to know my other parents but it feels like pressure' and 'Twig is always having fun when I'm in trouble and it's annoying' and 'I didn't sign up for all this magic stuff and it's scary and I also like it.' And Mom listens and hugs me and says she's sorry and says sorry again for magic being like magic is.

"That sort of thing a mom can't fix, I wish I could. You're a magical being and magic will find you. I can promise I'll talk to Queen Nebula. she's got people to deal with magical trouble. Not World of Dreams trouble but maybe you won't have to deal with the next thing to come along."

"The next thing is Baba Yaga. She came back from wherever the Winx sent her to. She's in the World of Dreams and she tried to recruit me to join her coven."

"What?"

So I explained all that, and being Lost, and Mom hugs me and says sorry some more. "I didn't mean to make you feel that way. I meant the exact opposite actually. I'm not winning parenting. But about Baba Yaga, don't worry about her. The moment she comes to Earth, Queen Nebula's warrior fairies will chase her away again. ...probably."

I smile a little.

Mom turns and calls, "Bloom!"

Th queen appears immediately from the other room. She sits down with us and whispers, "Thank you! They're… a lot."

Mom teases, "Three women with enough fame and money to be used to getting what they want are trouble?"

Bloom smiles, quietly proud. "The first thing they all asked, even before 'what happened?' was 'can we use magic to save the world?' So I explained we're working on it, then they wanted to visit Magix then they wanted to know what happened. I left Amber and the pirate fairy to explain."

Mom says, "New problem for you. Baba Yaga came back. She tried to recruit Vera."

Queen Bloom just says, "We'll banish her again."

Like it's not even a question. I'm very impressed. How many adventures has Bloom had if she's this casual about it? This is what my sister wants to be. This confident. This able to just solve someone's problem without even worrying about it.

I think I understand her dream better now.

Bloom asks about what Baba Yaga said and looked like and all that so I tell her everything I can think of and she gets on the phone to the rest of the Winx and it's so nice to have the grownups stepping in!

My dream is definitely not the same as Twig's. I don't think I want to go out and rescue people, unless I have to. That's too hard, it's too much. I can create beautiful things and inspire people. that's more like me.

Princess Amber comes out of the other room. "Mom? Everybody says please can they come visit Magix?"

Bloom looks back at her phone and decides, "All right. Since we have to take all of us back we might as well bring some guests. And Musa wants to see Madeline and Sella wants to see Nadine so consider it an invitation."

Amber makes a happy little trill and goes to tell everyone.

So we go to Magix. it's night by now but Miss Nadine and Annabelle and Madder go off with Queen Bloom to have a late dinner with the Winx. Mom and Twig and I go home to the wizard tower Dad built with magic and Shimmergloom stays in the guest room.

In the morning Mom says we have all day and Miss and Shimmergloom and I can go back to Paris tonight. Back to school at last! Back to my normal life.

Before that we've got a few things to do. The first thing is to see what Jamie's going to do. He turned up sometime overnight. Shimmergloom and I find out by text from my sister while we're eating breakfast. The messages say Jamie came to say goodbye to Amber but Queen Bloom caught him and gave him a long lecture.

"I be sorry I missed it!" Is Shimmergloom's opinion.

So am I. After all the trouble the Shadow Thief caused he certainly deserves… maybe not a terrible punishment but certainly to have a grownup give him a lecture. "I hope Miss nadine got in on it. He almost hurt Madame after all."

Jamie wants to apologize to us too so after breakfast Shimmergloom and I catch the bus to Alfea. Twig meets us and we hike a little ways to a lake near the school. Jamie's setting up a magical boat on the water. Princess Amber sits on a log, looking displeased and a bit pouty.

"You don't have to leave."

"I got banished. By the queen. Personally." Jamie doesn't sound angry about it. He sounds weirdly mature, like maybe he was acting a little before and he stopped. Then he smiles and adds, "I might not be banished forever. And maybe we can write letters."

I feel sorry for him now. Shimmergloom does not. She launches into, "You ought to be keelhauled for all the trouble you made for us and Madame and our classmates and people who play video games and an annoying chef! What were ye thinking to be such a bilgerat?"

Poor Jamie looks terribly ashamed. "I really am sorry. I made a plan when I was really angry and it took a while to see that wasn't really a good idea. I didn't mean to mess with anyone who wasn't involved in—uh—my downfall. I guess."

"You should have known everybody would get messed with. That's how this stuff works." Twig says with an exaggerated eyeroll.

Jamie nods. He does look sorry, and in the end there wasn't any permanent damage done. I guess being banished is a bad enough punishment.

Princess Amber seems sad but not heartbroken so I hope she and her mother talked and found a way for it to be all right. Amber's sweet and it seems like she puts up with a lot being a princess.

So I'll say, "I'll tell Madame you said sorry. I don't think any of the others believe in magic."

We chat a little, and after a while it feels like enough and I have something else to do today. So I leave a fun conversation between everyone about life in the World of Dreams. Shimmergloom seems to have forgiven Jamie enough to join in talking about her mother.

By myself I catch the bus to a nice neighborhood of little houses and lots of trees. This must be a normal suburb in the magical city. Some of the houses even have thatched roofs like in England. There are cats and stranger pets on porches and people out gardening and taking walks. It's a very peaceful place.

This is where my birth parents live now, in a colorful little cottage that looks nothing like any building in Coventry. Except that their little house is the only one on the block with a black rose bush newly planted in the front yard and a glass witch ball hanging in the window.

Now I'm nervous. This is going to be awkward and awful. They're not expecting me. But to go to the World of Dreams and come back again I have to try something. And I'd rather have an awkward afternoon than risk not being able to visit the World of Dreams.

I ring the doorbell, which is a real bell with a little hammer on a string.

A voice calls, "We're out back!"

I step onto the grass and go around to a wooden side gate under the branches of a wide tree. My mother is kneeling with a trowel, planting something in an empty garden bed. There are more big old trees in the backyard, a weeping willow and a big oak. A swing hangs from a branch and my father is sitting sideways with a book open on his knees. He sees me first and his face lights up. "Vera!"

"Hi." I say dumbly. "I… came to see you. We're in Magix just for today. You… want to have that sword fight we talked about?" I open the gate and go in.