"Hey! Hey Musa! What's going on?" Tegryn yelled, jogging over to catch up with her.
"Oh Teggy, something's happened to Layla. She fell ill and left the class so we went to find her cos we were all so worried but she wasn't..." Musa babbled quickly.
"Whoa whoa - slow down a bit will you? What's happened to Layla?"
"Oh, there's no time. Come on, I'll explain on the way."
They all rushed out of the castle and into the forest, but their friend was nowhere to be seen.
Bloom looked around and sighed heavily. "She could be anywhere... we'll have to split up."
A good idea's a good idea, so that's exactly what they did - Bloom, Mimi and Nini carried on ahead, Flora, Tecna and Charlotte went off to the left, and Tegryn, Musa, Stella and Anyuna took the right.
"Layla!" Tegryn yelled at the top of his voice. "Layla! Where are you?"
Stella groaned. "This is hopeless... she could be anywhere."
"Wait... what's that?" said Musa, pointing to what looked like a dark figure standing around amoungst some distant bushes.
"Hey, that might be her!"
They raced up to the figure, but as they approached it, they got a less than pleasant surprise as they came face to face with her. They also noticed she wasn't alone - a man was sat nearby, deep in concentration.
"Darcy! I might've known you'd have something to do with this!" Tegryn scowled.
"Yeah! Where's Layla?"
The young witch laughed. "Layla? I have no idea what you're talking about!"
Polli let out a little "Eep!" and started whispering into Tegryn's ear.
"Stop lying to us! You know exactly what we're talking about! What have you done with her!" Musa yelled.
"What have I done with her? Why, I've done nothing at all!"
Tegryn looked at Polli - the little pixie was silent.
"Hmmm, so maybe YOU haven't done anything... but you DO know what's going on!"
"So what if I do? What are you going to do about it?"
"Look, we don't have time for your stupid games - just tell us where she is, or else..."
Tegryn was interrupted in mid-rant by Kaiser's grumpy voice coming from behind Darcy.
"Hey! How am I supposed to concentrate with all this racket going on? I've totally lost my hold on her now!"
Kaiser looked over at Tegryn, and laughed.
"Ah, so you must be Darcy's friend!"
"I am NOT her friend." Tegryn replied grumpily. "Still, at least now she has a boyfriend of her own - maybe she'll stop bugging me and Musa now."
A look of revulsion came onto Darcy and Kaiser's faces.
"Boyfriend? Don't be so revolting! This is my brother, Kaiser."
"Brother! Oh, well that's just great, that is." Tegryn groaned. "Female Darcy's bad enough - now we've got to put up with a male version!"
Kaiser grunted in disapproval at this insult. "I really don't like the way you're speaking to me - you'd better apologise, and quick."
"And what if I don't?"
Kaiser chuckled menacingly. "You're really not afraid of me, are you?"
"Of you? No."
"Oh, you will be!" he said as he raised his hand in Tegryn's direction. "Fear Factor!" A dark blue bolt shot out of Kaiser's hand, slammed into Tegryn... and did absolutely nothing.
Tegryn looked around with a slightly bemused look on his face, then laughed.
"Was that it? Was that the best you've got? Cos if it is, this is gonna be a very short..."
Tegryn stopped abruptly and sniffed - he could smell something... something burning. He looked around anxiously, fear slowly trickling into him as his gaze fell upon a small cloud of smoke billowing over towards him, quickly getting thicker and darker. Then completely out of the blue, the ground around him suddenly burst into flame, completely surrounding him in a ring of fire.
Tegryn gasped in fright and crouched on the floor, shielding his face with his arms in a desperate effort to protect himself from the flames, which seemed to be creeping closer and closer, tightening the circle in which he was trapped.
"No! Get it away from me! Help! HELP!"
And what about Musa, and Stella and Anyuna? They were totally trapped too...
...well, actually they weren't - they were well away from the fire. In fact, there wasn't even a fire. Kaiser's diabolical magic had played on Tegryn's worst fear, his fear of fire. In his mind, the entire world was alight, but in reality, everything was normal, especially for the others who looked on worried at Tegryn cowering from an imaginary blaze.
"Teggy? What's wrong?" Musa cried as she started to race forward.
"That's as close as you get, pixie!" cried Icy from behind them as she caught the three girls by surprise in her trademark Ice Coffin attack. They struggled to get free but it was no good - they were well and truly frozen.
"Kaiser? Is that you?"
Kaiser reluctantly tore himself away from the fun, and turned around to see Layla standing there.
"Hey babe!"
"Hey, it is you!" she beamed, running forward and hugging him. "This is so wierd. I don't know what's going on... I was in my lessons, and the next thing I know I'm out here. What's happening?"
"Layla!" Musa yelled. "It's a trap!"
Layla looked behind Kaiser, and was shocked by what she saw. She started to run forward to try and help her friends free themselves from their frozen cocoon, but stopped in her tracks as she noticed the three witches standing behind them.
"Witches!" she gasped. "Watch out Kaiser! I'll protect you!"
He chuckled menacingly. "My dear, I don't need YOU to protect me from them!"
"Get away from him!" Musa shouted. "He's one of them!"
"What? No, it can't be!" Layla spluttered in disbelief. She turned around and faced Kaiser.
"Kaiser..." she pleaded with him. "Please tell me this isn't true!"
Kaiser said nothing, but just stood there, arms folded, staring at Layla with a look of pure malice.
Darcy laughed. "Ah, so YOU'RE my brother's new girlfriend! So nice to see you... sister!"
Layla started to panic. Sweat started to trickle down her forehead as a million thoughts raced through her mind. Kaiser... is Darcy's brother? How could this be? How could he betray her like this? How could she be so stupid? She had to get out of here and warn the others, but there was no way out - she was flanked by Kaiser, Darcy and Icy, and Stormy was hovering overhead like a sinister vulture waiting to pick off her prey.
There was no escape.