"Ladies, today we will be working on connecting with nature. You will be hiking through the Black Mud Swamp." Professor Palladium stood before the crowd of students, silencing any conversations that were going on as he spoke. "You will be in groups of five that I have chosen randomly."
"Hey, what happened during the dance? I heard you ended up in the nurse's office." Lyra whispered as Palladium continued to speak.
"Oh, I just got lightheaded and needed some fresh air." She didn't feel right with lying to Lyra, but it was on headmistress Faragonda's orders. When she woke up at the nurse's office, the older woman was sitting by her bed.
"You shouldn't tell anyone what happened last night. It's a common tradition for witches to prank the dance, but it's best you didn't tell anyone so we don't cause panic among the students."
Her words felt more like an order than advice. It wasn't just a prank, it felt personal like they were going after the Neo Winx specifically. The days after the dance, her roommates would come and go, distancing themselves from her. It stung that they didn't trust her and their secret meetings with the headmistress, especially since she risked her life for them.
"Azalea of Linphea, Callista of Solaria, Guinevere of Domino, Lyra of Melody, Nicole of Earth." The black haired girl came back to reality when her name was called. She turned to see who she was partnered up with besides Lyra.
She and Lyra were partnered with the cotton candy haired girl, the sunny blonde, and the brunette she had seen with Bridgette. Oh, this was going to be great.
"Excuse me, professor?" The cotton candy haired girl piped up, "Can't we just be a group of three? We work better by ourselves."
"I'm afraid there's no room for negotiations, Azalea. You will need the numbers if you want to get through the Black Mud Swamp."
That name alone sent a shiver down Nicole's spine, it sounded like something out of a horror movie.
"Fine." Azalea huffed, then turned to Lyra and Nicole, "Try to keep up, you two."
They made their way into the swamp, hoping to complete whatever task that was being set up before them.
As the quintet walked through the swamp, Azalea lead the group with Callista, Lyra, Guinevere, and Nicole trailing behind her.
"Did you say you came from Earth?" The brunette, whose name was Guinevere, asked Nicole. Unlike her friends, the girl had been nice so far. It made Nicole wonder why Guinevere was even a part of Bridgette's group in the first place.
"Yeah, it's where I grew up."
"My aunt was raised on Earth too. I also have adoptive grandparents there, but we don't visit often. Is your mom an Earth fairy? Like from Tir Nan Og?"
"Actually she's from Magix. I've never met any Earth fairies, what's the difference?"
Her eyes sparked as knowledge excitedly came from her lips, "From what I've read, fairies from Earth or specifically Tir Nan Og usually are connected to the four fairy Majors; The Fairy of War, the Fairy of Justice, the Fairy of Peace, and the Fairy of the North. Which one are you connected to There's also the Fairy Queen, but that's only through blood-"
"No one wants to hear some nonsense you heard from some dusty old book, Gwen." Callista interrupted, the blonde who hadn't looked up from her phone since they started walking.
"Right, sorry." Guinevere apologized, "I tend to blather on."
"I like your voice, you can keep talking if you want." Lyra said. Nicole nodded, seeing how down she became when Callista cut her off.
"You really don't, she's a chatterbox." Azalea scoffed, "Besides we need to stay on task if we want to complete the assignment and get out of here."
"Aren't you the fairy of spring? Isn't nature your thing?"
"Spring isn't the same as yucky dirt." Azalea scoffed, "It's blooming flowers, sweet scents, and-"
Nicole didn't bother to listen to the rest of the argument, the Fairy of Spring was already losing the argument by wearing high heels when she should've been wearing hiking shoes. Instead her attention was focused on something else. Off the road, she felt pulled towards something like she was being led by an invisible compass towards an unknown source.
Adiuva me, Magni Draconis filia, adiuva me.…A thought came into her mind, it was of a language she did not know and in a voice that was not her own. She clutched her head, a sting of pain pierced her skull. Then the images came into her mind.
"Nicole!" Before she even realized it, she had begun walking towards a cliff, only to be brought back to reality by Lyra grabbing her by the arm and pulling her back from the edge.
"What…what happened?" Nicole shook her head, the connection snapping in two as the rest of the quintet looked at her with various ranges of concern to bewilderment.
"You walked off the trail. I tried to get your attention, but it was like you couldn't hear me."
"I thought I heard a voice."
"Seriously? You're going to have to come up with a better excuse than that." Azalea scoffed.
"I'm serious! There was someone in my head, they were talking about…I don't know."
"Come on, we need to get back on the trail."
Nicole did not object, she silently followed, still trying to figure out what happened to her.
"I believe you." Guinevere whispered.
"Really?"
"Yeah, I mean this place is a hub of wild magic, I wouldn't be surprised if there were some ancient, unexplored ruins for us to find." Guinevere had a curious, excitable glint in her eyes.
"In the swamp that's explored by hundreds of students each year? Very unlikely."
In another area of the swamp, the Neo Winx had been grouped together for a secret mission.
"How much farther is this place?" Undine groaned, "My feet are killing me."
"We're close if this map isn't outdated." Andromeda scanned the digital map that had been given to the Neo Winx by the headmistress. The six fairies had been sent on a mission through the Black Mud Swamp, though they had no idea what exactly they were looking for.
"I need you to find this artifact, it is crucial to taking on this threat." The girls had been shown the image of a golden circlet with jewels decorating the front and back of it. They were told that it once belonged to one of Bridgette's ancestors, a holder of the Dragon Flame like her. The fairy had been a warrior, fighting on the front lines as a soldier rather than sitting on a throne. She had no children, so the Dragon Flame was passed on through her younger brother's descendants. At least that's what Andromeda recalled from the books she had read through the night before. The circlet was a prized item of hers, except it was omitted from multiple books, oddly enough, only seen in depictions of the warrior fairies.
"Maybe I'll be able to sense it. It was used by one of my relatives." Andromeda rolled her eyes at Bridgette's pridefulness.
"It's an ancient, mystical headpiece, not a phone."
"Something isn't right." Rhea looked around at the plants in the area, they looked trampled and decayed, black and bruised roughly.
"So you can talk to plants now? Maybe the daisies know where the circlet is." Bridgette laughed but no one else laughed with her. None of them enjoyed being grouped with miss high and mighty, but they were the Neo Winx, surely if their mothers were able to work together, then they could too. After what felt like hours of walking, the girls found some old ruins. It resembled a temple with vines and plants growing over and around the once majestic stone pillars. There were crumbing statues that were covered in vines and moss. They looked like women but their faces and features had long since faded into the centuries. There were also dragon statues and pictures displayed on the walls, but they were in a similar decrepit condition as the statues.
"This looks about right." Minuet examined the stone slabs, there was writing scrawled on them but she didn't recognize the language, "Anyone know what this means?"
"I can try and translate it later." Andromeda pulled out her phone and started taking pictures of it, "But I can't promise anything coherent, these look centuries old."
"Obviously, this is the right place." Bridgette gestured to the dragon motifs scattered throughout the ruins. "Now where is that circlet?"
Suddenly, a loud roar echoed through the ruins, causing all six girls to jump.
"Did the books mention anything about a guardian? Or a protector?"
"No, but it's likely that a creature made this their home." Rhea noticed the claw marks on the stone, "And we've just trespassed in their territory."
Walking into the ruins, a massive lion-like creature with a scorpion tail growled and snarled as it glanced at the six girls with a hungry look in its eyes.
"That's…"
…a manticore." Rhea finished Andromeda's sentence, both frozen and speaking not above a whisper. Manticores were dangerous with teeth and claws that could cut someone to ribbons. An added danger was the scorpion tail that's tip held a lethal poison that could take down an entire army in seconds.
"Aren't they extinct?"
"Tell that to him." Minuet muttered.
"Maybe he hasn't seen us yet and we can walk away slow-" As Andromeda spoke, the manticore roared and began charging in their direction. The beast was stopped by some vines that extended off the walls. The vines wrapped around its body, keeping it in place and slowly hurting it with the thorns, striking the manticore in the
"You've got some nerve, trying to hurt my friends." Rhea was already transformed into a sparkling light green poncho with a darker green shirt and pants underneath it. She wore dark green fingerless gloves that were covered in a dark green aura as she concentrated on the vines. The boots were also green and vines slowly began to wrap around them like she was connected to the vines themselves. Her wings were a light green and resembled bright spring leaves.
"Nice! Let's show this beast who they're messing with!" Minuet shouted, "Magic Winx!"
"Did you guys hear that?" Lyra whipped her head around to some noise in the distance. It sounded like screaming, but that couldn't be right.
"Probably, some unlucky group got caught in a trap." Azalea huffed, "Look we're almost to the end then we can finally rest and…"
Nicole could barely hear Azalea's voice as a humming sound drilled into her skull. It was the same sound she heard before but more urgent this time.
**Filia draconis magni, child of Terra, veni ad me et dabo tibi desiderium maximum The voice switched between english and the other language, almost screaming in her mind.
"Nicole! Nicole!" She could hear someone call for her but it was merely an echo to the pounding in her head. Her legs began to move on their own, walking in a daze. Lyra and Guievere looked at each other as Nicole stumbled onto an unmarked path in the swamp.
"If you want to follow her, be my guest." Azalea scoffed, "She's dead weight anyway."
Lyra didn't say anything but glared at her, choosing to follow after Nicole.
"Nicole, hey, you need to stop." Lyra tried to push back, but nothing was working.
"Wait for me!" Guinevere raced after Lyra and Nicole.
Nicole felt like a puppet; not in control of her own body, yet her mind was racing at a thousand miles. Where was she going? Where was she being taken? Who were they? The invisible strings continued to tug at her body until she reached a part of the swamp that was made of old, ancient ruins.
"Where are we?"
"I can't hear anything, no animals, no bugs, nothing." Lyra looked around the place, "Where did you take us?"
"I-I don't know, I just heard a voice, then my legs just started moving on their own."
"Do you know what they said?"
"No, not really." She shook her head, trying to understand what those words were.
"This is amazing!" Guinevere squealed as she examined the ruins carvings, "This is old Dominion dialect!"
"Dominion? Wait like Domino?"
"A long time ago, Domino wasn't just one planet but an empire encasing the whole Magix Dimension." Guinevere explained, "There used to be temples just like this with devoted followers to the Great Dragon, worshiping it and the Domino royal family."
"Draconis Magni." Nicole grumbled, the migraine lingering in her mind.
"Yes, that's the traditional Dominion word, but everyone uses the more common Great Dragon."
"So that means this is one of those temples?"
"It's only rumors, but some of the temples were used as catacombs for the royal family. Maybe we'll find one here?"
"I'm not planning on desecrating an old person's grave. That just screams horror movie plot all over it." Nicole grumbled.
Suddenly, a loud booming sound echoed through the place and the nearby wall exploded. Out of the debris and dust, Minuet struggled to get up to her feet in her magic winx form.
"Lyra, what are you doing here?!" Minuet's eyes were immediately on the blonde haired princess.
"We got turned around, what's going on, Minuet?"
"No time, you need to get out of here."
"Where's Nicole?" There was no sign of the girl from Earth, she was gone.
Nicole felt the migraine coming again and she began moving once more. She had seen Minuet, her injured state, the marks on her body, it made her angry. She wanted to turn around and help her, to resist whatever was going on in her mind. She tried to grip the stone wall in defiance but her fingers would've broken if she continued to grapple on it. Why did her roommates keep getting hurt? Why was the universe always after them? First the witch and wizard, now this monster? It wasn't fair, the secrets, the lies, the deflection. She was sick of it all.
***You wish to help them, paulo draco? Te adiuvare possum.
"Who are you?"
A friend.
"Yeah, that's not vague at all." Nicole mumbled. She could hear the muffled sounds of a fight above her as she descended further, further into the ruins. The ruins became more complex and more intricate the further she walked. Yet her guide navigated her with no problem.
Eventually, she came into a room with dimly lit up torches. It was like the rest of the ruins, stone walls, except untouched by vines and vegetation. In the center of the room was a carving of a faceless head. Nicole looked down as a glint of gold caught her eye and she saw a plague written underneath. Hestia immortali. Luceat inter astra.****
A golden headpiece with rubies and citrines sparkled in the torch's lights sitting gracefully on the sculpture's forehead. As soon as her fingers grazed the circlet's outer rim, Nicole felt a spark in her light up and burn. Her vision began to blur and her legs gave out.
Your blood is holding you back and your friends do not trust you to keep their secrets. I can understand your pain. The need to help, to protect, it is in both of us. I hope this helps you more than it helped me.
"What do you mean?" It was all she could say before Nicole fell unconscious.
Bridgette slipped away as the rest of the group fought the manticore. She didn't have time to deal with some hairy monster, she needed to find the circelet.
*****Hoccine legatum fratris mei redactum est? Tam vastum The redhead had started to hear the voice since she first got here. She couldn't understand it, but she had the feeling it was taunting her, insulting her.
You do not deserve my power. The princess deserved everything. She had the crown, the fame, and the magical prowess of a god. Who was the voice to deny what was rightfully hers? She finally made it to the circlet's location…only to find nothing but an unconscious girl.
"Where is it? Where is it?" She grabbed the girl who started to stir from her slumber.
"Where's what?" Nicole awakened to Bridgette shouting in her face.
"The damn circlet! It was supposed be here!"
"I don't know…" Nicole looked at her hand that once held the circulet, but it wasn't there. Had it been a dream?
"How can you not know?! You were here before me! How could you not have seen it!?" Bridgette grabbed her by the collar of her shirt and pushed her against the wall. Fury and anger could be seen in her eyes, her fingers sparked with the beginnings of a fire, one that threatened to harm Nicole. The black haired girl froze at the possibility of being burned alive.
"Bridget! Is Nicole alright?" Her annoying cousin, Guinevere, stood at the entrance of the room. Bridgette did not like Guinevere, always following her around like a lost puppy. She was pathetic, always excited for some dusty old stories, she had parents who loved each other, who could tolerate each other's presence in the same room. Bridgette wasn't jealous of her cousin, how could she be? The princess of Eraklyon had everything she could ever want in life.
"She's fine." Bridgette shoved Nicole to the ground and walked past Guienevere with an annoyed look, "Your friend should be more careful where she stumbles into."
Her teammates were still struggling against the manticore, so she transformed and unleashed the full power of her dragon roar onto it. It whimpered and ran off, probably going to lick its wounds.
"It's not here, we're wasting our time." Bridgette stormed off, leaving the rest of the group confused and shocked by how easily she defeated it. The daughter of Bloom had better things to do than walk around some ruins.
BOOM, baby! I'm back with another chapter of Of Fairies and Changelings! Sorry for the lack of update, school was busy, thanksgiving break was a blast (so much turkey), and my lack of motivation did not help things at all!
In this chapter, I decided to have the language of Domino be Latin (translations courtesy of Google Translate) since I wanted the planets of Magix to have their own tongue beyond the common usually spoken. Most people use common Magix to speak, no one rarely uses their own tongues unless among family or in their home planet. There are languages that have been lost to time such as Ancient Dominon which is not used anymore as there aren't any native speakers who speak it. As for Hestia, you'll find out more about her eventually. For those who are curious, here are the translations:
*Help me, daughter of the Great Dragon, help me
**Daughter of the Great Dragon, child of earth, come to me and I shall grant your greatest desire
***Hestia the immortal, may she shine among the stars
****Little dragon? I can help you.
*****Is this what my brother's legacy has been reduced to? Such a waste.
I also added the fact that Domino wasn't just one planet, but an influential part of Magix. You can not tell that the Great Dragon, Domino and its royal family were not worshipped like gods in ancient Magix.
Thank you for reading, I appreciate any and all comments, favorites, follows. I hope to update again soon!