It Feels Like Magic
Morning sunlight filtered through gauzy curtains woke Bloom from her sleep. Mmm, I don't want to get up yet. She was comfortable, bundled up on her bed. She closed her eyes and snuggled deeper under her covers. Wonder if I can sleep a few more minutes before I have to talk to Mom and Dad about Stella again?
A sudden jolt of adrenalin shot Bloom upright in her bed with a gasp. "Stella!" Kicking her covers off, Bloom tumbled out of her bed and down the steps. She found her parents were already in the kitchen, cups of coffee in their hands.
"Is Stella awake yet?" she asked.
Vanessa shook her head. "She's still sleeping."
Disappointment swiftly set in. She wasn't going to get anywhere with her parents regarding what had happened the day before without Stella to back her story up. "Oh. Um, I guess I'll go get dressed then."
Bloom took her time getting ready. She wasn't eager to face her parents until Stella was awake to back her up. Eventually showered and dressed, Bloom could stall no longer, so she made her way downstairs where the mouthwatering smell of pancakes filled the air.
"I'm going to check on Stella," Bloom said before ducking in the guest room. Stella was still sprawled on the bed where Bloom had left her, though someone – probably Vanessa – had tucked the blankets around her. Padding over to the bed, Bloom reached out and gently touched Stella's shoulder. "Hey, Stella."
Stella grumbled and squirmed, but her eyes blinked open focusing on Bloom's face. "Bloom?"
Bloom smiled, relieved to see her awake. "Morning. My mom is making pancakes if you're hungry."
Stella sat up with a yawn. "Oh dear, I must look like a mess."
She sort of did. Her long hair was tangled, and her once elegant dress was hopelessly wrinkled. But Bloom didn't feel like it would be very polite to agree. Instead, she simply offered, "You can use my shower and borrow some of my clothes if you'd like."
Stella smiled at her. "Oh, Bloom, you are a dear."
"Did you want to eat breakfast first?"
Stella sniffed the air; the smell of the pancakes was beginning to permeate the whole house at this point. "You know, I think I will. Using that much winx leaves me famished."
Bloom led Stella out of the guest room and to the kitchen where her parents were waiting. Bloom hastened to make introductions. "Mom, Dad, this is Stella. Stella, these are my parents, Mike and Vanessa."
"Thanks for letting me spend the night," Stella said. "I really appreciate it!"
"Of course you're welcome," Vanessa said. "Would you like some breakfast?"
"Please!" Stella said, accepting a seat at the table.
Bloom sat beside her, and soon everyone had a pile of pancakes in front of them.
"Now, Stella," Mike said as they were eating. "I don't mean to interrogate you first thing, but could you tell us what happened last night?"
"Sure thing," Stella said agreeably. "You see, I was on my way to Alfea – that's the leading school for fairies – when that nasty ogre and his ghouls attacked me. I'd have been in real trouble if Bloom hadn't helped me." She turned to look at Bloom then. "You really do have some awesome magic you know; it takes a lot of winx to toss an ogre through a tree! Oh, that gives me an idea! You should totally come to Alfea with me! You'd love it, Bloom. It's the best place to get training."
"Okay, hold on," Mike interrupted, putting his fork down. "You can't honestly expect us to believe that you're a magic fairy."
Stella frowned back at him. "I am a fairy, and I can prove it."
Pushing her chair back from the table, Stella stood and closed her eyes. A golden glow wrapped around her then faded away moments later, revealing Stella in the outfit that Bloom had first seen her in the day before. Gossamer wings fluttered, lifting Stella from the floor, and Stella grinned triumphantly at Mike. "Still think I'm not a fairy?"
"You're hurt!" Vanessa said.
It was true; Stella's side had darkened to a nasty bruise where the ogre had managed to hit her. "I'll be fine," Stella said. "It's just a bruise, and we fairies heal quickly." She settled back down, and with another brief flash of light she returned to her regular outfit, hiding the bruise beneath her wrinkled dress.
"See, I told you she was a fairy!" Bloom said, glad to have her story validated. "And I really did use magic!"
"You sure did," Stella agreed.
"So where is this Alfea?" Bloom asked. She hadn't missed Stella's suggestion that she attend, and the idea of going to a magical school sounded too good to be true.
"It's in Magix, which is sort of another dimension from here," Stella said. "It's totally the best school for learning magic though."
"No," Mike said emphatically. "I'll admit that I guess you are a fairy, and that means Bloom really must have used – used magic, but that doesn't mean I'm about to let my daughter go off to another dimension to attend a magical school."
Stella seemed surprised by Mike's response. She cocked her head at Bloom. "Have you really never used magic before?"
Bloom shook her head. "No, never."
"Hm, that's weird. You're winx is activating late. Maybe it's an Earth thing?" She turned back to Mike. "But honestly, Alfea is probably the best place for Bloom. I mean, it's taken a weird amount of time for her winx to start, but now that it has it isn't just going away. She going to have to learn to use it somehow, and I'm guessing there aren't a lot of magic schools around here."
"I appreciate your concern, Stella, but we'll handle this."
Bloom deflated a little at Mike's words. She knew that when he used that tone of voice there was no changing his mind. The idea of actually learning how to use magic was, well, magical. Bloom would pick magic school over regular high school any day, even if it was in another dimension.
Vanessa began gathering their now empty plates from the table, and Bloom quickly stood to help her. But as they worked, the back door suddenly started rattling.
"What now?" Mike asked as he began to stand. The words were barely out of his mouth before the door fell in off its hinges, the hulking figure of the ogre filling the doorframe.
Plates slipped from Bloom's fingers and crashed to the floor as she recognized the ogre as being the same one that had attacked her and Stella in the park. A golden blur flew by her, and suddenly Stella was between Bloom's family and the ogre, once more changed into her fairy form.
"Didn't you learn your lesson yesterday, ugly?" Stella demanded.
The ogre grinned at her. "Sure did. I brought more ghouls this time."
He stepped to the side, allowing the red crablike creatures to spill into the house. Vanessa screamed, stumbling back towards the table. Before Bloom could make up her mind what she should do, she felt Mike's hand on the back of her shirt, dragging her back away from the danger and shoving her towards the front door. Bloom stumbled a few steps in that direction.
But Stella's going to need help!
And Bloom was the only one that might be able to help her, assuming she could manage to use her magic again. She started to turn back, but Mike and Vanessa were right behind her. Mike didn't bother turning her around or speaking. He leaned down and grabbed her, hoisting Bloom over his shoulder before she could manage any sort of protest. From her position, Bloom caught a glimpse of Stella. She had summoned her staff, and was managing to hold off the ghouls so far with blasts of light, but Bloom could see that there were just too many, and Stella was already too tired. She wouldn't be able to hold them off for long.
Then they were out the front door and Bloom lost sight of Stella, though she could still hear the crashes of the fight, and see flashes of light through the windows. "Dad, she needs help!"
Mike set her down on the sidewalk. "First rule of emergencies," he snapped.
Don't become another victim.
Mike had hammered that rule into Bloom for as long as she could remember. He was the one trained to run into burning buildings, not her, and he'd never wanted her to feel inspired to do something she wasn't really equipped to handle. Jumping into situations she wasn't trained to handle was a good way to make things worse.
But I'm the only one who can help her!
Maybe cops could help, whenever they got there. Maybe. For all Bloom knew, ghouls and ogres might be bullet proof. But she did know they weren't magic proof, and Stella might not last long enough for the cops to help even if they were able to do something.
The front door of their neighbor's townhouse opened, a neighbor sticking his head out, clearly wondering what all the noise was. Mike took several steps towards him, shouting for the man to get anyone inside and to get out. Everyone on their block knew that Mike was a fireman, so the man didn't hesitate to obey.
Bloom judged the distance between her and Mike, and then her and the front door. Decision made, Bloom sprinted for the door. She didn't pause or look back as her parents shouted her name. She just ran.
She'd been outside for maybe a minute, but already the house looked like a warzone to Bloom. Furniture was toppled over and broken, scorch marks on the wall from Stella's energy blasts, and Stella herself was bleeding from various cuts where the ghouls must have gotten to her.
The ogre noticed her entrance and pointed at her. "Don't let the earth-girl interfere!"
Three of the ghouls turned, their yellow eyes fixing on Bloom. One of them charged at her, scuttling across the floor faster than she expected. Bloom threw up her arms in defense at the creature leaped at her, but for all that it didn't come higher than her knees, the ghoul was heavy, and Bloom fell back onto the floor, the ghoul on top of her.
Bloom thought she had been afraid the day before, when the ogre had grabbed her, but that was nothing compared to the pure terror that sang through her veins as the ghoul's pincer inched towards her neck.
Heat pulsed through her, and Bloom's world faded into red.
The good news was that Bloom had destroyed the ghouls. The bad news was that the house was on fire. The worse news was that Bloom lay unconscious where she had fallen, surrounded by an orange glow as her winx kept pouring out of her, shooting flames across the floor and up the walls.
Stella had heard of this sort of thing happening to fairies that didn't have good control of their winx, but she'd never actually been unlucky enough to see it before now.
Stella hovered above the flames, panting in the heat. She could tolerate some high temperatures – she was from Solaria after all – but this heat would quickly become too much for even her to handle. Luckily, the ogre seemed even less thrilled about the flames than she was. They were fire resistant, not fire proof. Glaring at her through the flames, the ogre beat a retreat for the back door.
Sagging with relief that that problem was handled for now, Stella fluttered over to Bloom. "Hey, Bloom, snap out of it!"
Bloom didn't move, didn't seem to notice Stella's presence at all, even though her eyes were wide open. Stella reached down and patted Bloom's face. "Come on, you're safe now, you can stop!" The house groaned ominously. Perhaps safe wasn't really the right word.
Desperation clawed at Stella. She couldn't move Bloom until she stopped sending out waves of flame, and it was getting hard to breathe. She didn't know how to snap Bloom out of this, but she had to try something. Stella shifted her scepter back to its ring form so she'd have both hands free. Holding her hands over Bloom's chest where her heart should be, Stella let winx pool in her hands, and refused to think about the risk she was taking if this didn't work.
Merging the winx of two fairies was a high level technique, usually only doable by fairies that had a strong trust between them. Failure often resulted in injuries to both fairies.
Stella poured her winx into Bloom, and was greeted by a raging inferno, flames lanced through with fear. Gritting her teeth against the pain that seared through her, Stella poured more of her winx, using its warmth to send a message of safety, of gentle sunlight in a spring meadow, of light glinting off a cool pond.
It worked. The terror faded and the flames of Bloom's winx receded. "S-stella?"
Stella cut off her winx at the sound of Bloom's voice, and suddenly every part of her felt like lead. She tumbled to the ground, catching herself on her hands and knees so as not to fall completely on top of Bloom.
"What happened?" Bloom mumbled. Her skin was pale and slicked with sweat, though whether that was from overuse of her winx or the heat of the flames that hadn't vanished when Bloom's power stopped feeding them, Stella wasn't sure.
"We've got to get out of here," Stella said, struggling to keep her voice brisk and not let her exhaustion show. They were slightly closer to the front door than the back, but Stella could hear shouting from out front. There would be a lot of nonmagical humans out there by now, and the first rule of visiting Earth was to never let them see you.
Well, actually, the first rule of visiting Earth was don't visit Earth, but it was a bit late for that one.
Making a quick decision, Stella looped one of Bloom's arms around her shoulders, and lifted her up. With one last burst of energy, Stella flew for the back door, coming to a stop as soon as she felt the cool outside air wash over her skin.
The ogre!
He'd waited for her in Bloom's postage stamp of a backyard, hidden from other humans by the fence that surrounded it.
I can't fight him right now.
Neither could Bloom. Even if she could have controlled her powers, she'd lapsed back into unconsciousness. No, they only had one shot at getting out of there now. Her ring glowed as it shifted into its larger form, and kept glowing as Stella geared up for the transport spell. She couldn't focus well enough to pick a location to go. The best she could manage was to tell the scepter to take them somewhere safe.
The ogre lunged for them, but too late. The scene faded away, to be replaced by clean white walls, familiar décor, and an even more familiar Specialist gaping at her.
Stella managed a relieved smile, because if he was here, then she and Bloom were definitely safe. "Hey, Sky. Catch me."
Brandon lunged forward as Stella passed out, and Sky managed to grab her friend so that she didn't hit the floor of their common room either.
"What the hell?" Riven asked, echoing Brandon's thoughts completely.
Brandon carefully laid Stella down, eyes darting over her in a cursory examination. He wasn't a healer, or even a medic, but every student at Red Fountain was taught the basics of battlefield medicine. Stella smelled like smoke, but he didn't see any burns. She did have a nasty bruise on her left side, along with various shallow cuts, but she didn't seem to be at risk for bleeding to death. Most worrisome were the obvious signs that she'd depleted her winx to dangerously low levels.
"Timmy, get help!" Brandon snapped. A part of him would have liked to have snatched Stella up and run her to the infirmary himself, but that would have been stupid to do when help was so close. He didn't know what kind of internal injuries she might have, and he wouldn't risk moving her himself.
Timmy sprinted for the door, shouting for a professor to come.
"How's the other one?" Brandon asked, finally glancing over at her. Bandon didn't recognize the other girl, but that didn't mean they weren't going to try and help her.
"She doesn't seem physically hurt," Sky replied. "But she's definitely out of winx."
Brandon turned his attention back to Stella. What happened to you?
It was a question that would have to wait. Timmy returned, followed closely by Professor Codatorta and Headmaster Saladin. "What happened?" Professor Codatorta demanded.
"Not sure," Brandon said as he reluctantly moved away from Stella to give Headmaster Saladin room to examine her and the other girl. "Princess Stella transported them here, but she passed out immediately after arriving. The other girl was already unconscious."
"I am taking them to the infirmary," Headmaster Saladin calmly announced. Raising his staff, the purple jewel glowed for a moment before he vanished, taking Stella and the other girl with him.
"Any idea why she'd come here?" Professor Codatorta asked.
Brandon shook his head. "No, sir. I mean, we're friends but…I don't know." He couldn't guess whether Red Fountain had been her destination, or if maybe he had been. She didn't have any particular attachment to the school that he knew of, but Brandon was fairly sure the two of them had been on their way to being more than just friends the year before, at least until Stella had gotten herself expelled from Alfea and indefinitely grounded with no communication allowed over the summer months. For Stella to have specifically sought him out for safety displayed a level of trust that Brandon wouldn't have expected from their relationship yet.
Apparently done questioning them, Professor Codatorta wheeled about and left the room.
"Come on," Sky said. "Let's see if we can find out what's going on."
"You two go ahead," Timmy said. "Riven and I will clean up here first."
At first Brandon wasn't sure what Timmy meant by volunteering to clean, but then he noticed the blood staining the carpet where Stella had been laying. His jaw clenched. Whenever he found out who or what had done this to Stella, he was going to make them pay.
Bandon and Sky rushed through the halls to the infirmary. They found that Professor Codatorta had beaten them there, standing several feet away from the beds the girls were laying on with his arms crossed and glaring at everything. Healer Akim stood between the beds, a glowing hand over each girl. Headmaster Saladin noticed them first, and motioned for them to approach. They did, stopping by Professor Codatorta. Brandon was relieved to see Stella's injuries closing up and fading away under Healer Akim's ministrations.
"Princess Stella is an Alfea girl, isn't she?" Professor Codatorta said. "Think there's any chance something happened at that school?"
Headmaster Saladin shook his head. "Whatever may have happened to Princess Stella and her friend, it did not happen at Alfea. I have already contacted Headmistress Faragonda. She assured me everything was fine at her school, and she's on her way over here to check on the girls."
"The other one is one of hers then?" Professor Codatorta asked.
The headmaster shrugged slightly. "Without seeing the girl or knowing her name, Faragonda couldn't say."
The glow faded from Healer Akim's hands and he opened his dark eyes to take the others in. "They will both recover," he said. "But they have depleted their winx to dangerously low levels. I wouldn't recommend either of them trying to use magic for at least a week."
Headmaster Saladin nodded. "I'll make sure that Faragonda knows your recommendation."
A whole week with no magic?
Bandon and Sky shared a look. For them to have used up so much of their magic meant they had to have faced something bad. Well, obviously they'd faced something bad for Stella to have been as injured as she had been, but it must have been even worse than he'd initially thought. Unfortunately, the only thing he could do right now was wait for one of them to wake up.