"Wow, this place is SO creepy." remarked Mimi.
"I know", Charlotte replied. "I'm not sure this is such a good idea."
"Shh!" whispered Anyuna "Keep quiet, will you? We won't find Tegryn if anyone finds us first."
"I suppose so. The sooner we get him and get out of here, the better!"
They turned a corner into a dimly-lit corridor. There at the end stood three ominous figures.
"I'm afraid you girls won't be doing THAT any time soon!" laughed Icy.
"Hmph. They're sending in baby pixies now?" said Darcy, looking bemused at the young fairies that now confronted them.
"Baby pixies?" said Anyuna. "We're the Starz!"
"Yeah, whatever. I guess the others are too scared of us!" Stormy gloated. "Hey Teggy! It looks like your precious Musa couldn't be bothered to rescue you!" she shouted towards the now-empty cell. "Some girlfriend she turned out to be!"
No reply.
"What's the matter Teggy?" Darcy sneered. "No witty comebacks? Too upset, huh? It looks like you made the wrong choice!"
Anyuna yelled "That's enough! No-one does that to our friends and gets away with it!"
"Hmmm. You will excuse us if we don't wet ourselves in fear, won't you?"
Charlotte stepped forward with a fire in her eyes and undid the large ribbon tied in her hair.
"So what are you going to do, little girl? Tickle us?" the witches taunted.
"You can laugh all you like, but you won't be laughing much longer." Charlotte replied as she swirled her ribbon above her head. "Flame Ribbon!"
Without any warning, the ribbon erupted into a bright red flame. She cracked the ribbon like a whip, and a large fireball shot out straight at Icy. She ducked out of the way just in time, and the fireball slammed into the wall at the end of the corridor. Icy picked herself up and glared at the young fire fairy.
Charlotte laughed. Icy looked confused for a moment, then became aware of an acrid burning smell. Her long, flowing white pony-tail was on fire!
"Give him back to us NOW!" shouted Charlotte.
"It'll take more than a party trick to beat us!"
"Okay, you asked for it... Fire Storm!"
She twirled her ribbon around and around, faster and faster until a fiery tornado started to form, spitting out huge sparks in the witches' direction. Slowly, the scorching wind surrounded the three witches as they shielded themselves against the blistering heat and red-hot embers.
"Grrr! Enough playing around!" snarled Icy. Waving her hand, she cast her Ice Coffin spell at Charlotte's ribbon, encasing it in ice. It dropped to the floor and shattered into hundreds of small pieces. Charlotte gave a little yelp of pain and looked at her hand - her entire right forearm was also encased in ice. Being a fire fairy, having her arm frozen wasn't exactly her favourite feeling in the world.
With the fire spell broken, the heat soon dissipated and the witches picked themselves up, drenched in sweat and their hair singed. They had sorely underestimated the brave young girls, but they won't be making that mistake again - now they meant business.