Chapter 12: The Festival (Part 2)

Sky's POV:

We all followed the small girl through crowds of people. She had light brown hair tied up in a high pony and she wore a light green frock. She walked quietly with Flora behind her and the rest of us behind Flora.

"My name is Alice. Nice to meet all of you. As soon as we all heard that the prince and princesses were training you personally we just had to see what kind of people you were. Those from new worlds don't normally get invited to get trained here unless the slayers have set their eyes on that world. Most of us understand the situation since most of us have been there." She told us while having a very sympathetic look on her face.

So something like this has happened before? Then why have they let the slayers live. They should have killed or imprisoned them the first time it happened.

"Thank you for your consideration Alice. But what is the festival that everyone is so eager about?" Layla questioned.

"I can answer that, though explaining the entire thing would be kind of hard. And you might not understand half of it." A very familiar voice answered.

We all turned around to see Lady Aria standing behind. She was wearing a white cloak that emitted light and looked elegant. Her hair was put up in a twisted or braided style and her white crown sparkled in its place. Behind her stood the white haired man we had met before, he too was wearing a white cloak which seemed to emit light. The noisy people who crowded the area, quietened down and seemed to have made way for her because a clear path was visible in this crowded area. Plus every single one of them was on their knee.

Flora and Alice knelt too. Stella looked at all of us and slowly knelt. I realised we all had to do it to show our respect to the crowned heir. So I slowly knelt too, pulling Bloom down with me. We all knelt and I looked up to see Lady Aria smiling.

"Rise my friends. Thank you Alice I shall lead them from now on." She told us.

"Yes off course my lady, no gratitude is required for something this small." Alice replied while her eyes sparkled.

We all rose again while Lady Aria walked past us. We followed her and again in silence. We all walked till we were nowhere near the throng of people. I noticed that while we walked everyone made way for her and knelt, some cried and thanked her, others gave her small gifts. By the time we left the crowd the six guards who accompanied her had their hands filled.

"I shall explain now." Lady Aria started.

We were far from the crowds. Everyone stopped walking at looked at her expectantly,waiting. We were always waiting for someone to explain something out the other to us.

"Calling it a festival is not entirely accurate. I don't even know how that name sprouted. It is actually a tournament. Anything can be tested during this time. Your wit, you strength, your speed, you healing capabilities, your skills as a strategists, and so on. Normally those who are in a high ranking position get questioned whether they deserve it. This tournament was set up for that reason. So that people could challenge whoever they wanted to and prove themselves. This tournament is specially tiring for level zero officers, greed is a quality in everyone after all."She explained.

"Level zero? I thought it was only from level one to seven?" Stella questioned.

"Stella, do you choose to forget what I say? The ranking does range from one to seven, one being the weakest while seven is the strongest. But the prince or princess and their right hand of each planet are level zero because they are unbeatable in any skill challenged." She explained slowly.

"So should you not be in a challenge right now?" Bloom questioned.

"It's much easier for me as my people are mostly healers and not fighters. But that is not the case for the other planets, everyone else is already in their own battles." Lady Aria answered.

"Then why did we buy gifts?" Riven asked rudely.

"That is used as an offering for those you wish to challenge or for those you acknowledge after you have seen their match, or if you just feel like giving it to a leader." She replied gently.

"Then shouldn't we be watching the matches?" Layla asked.

"I shall let you go watch soon. I am here to tell you something important. We have all, that is the prince and princesses, decided that how you are training now is taking much too long. The slayers will soon attack your home world. So we have decided that after this festival, each of us will take the winx girl and the specialists that we are training to our own home planet." She explained.

"I don't get what you mean." Riven replied.

"That's because you are an idiot Riven." Musa barked back. Riven glared at her but Lady Aria stopped them

"Please don't start arguing. In short what I mean is you shall all be split up for training, you shall all go your own way." She told us shortly.

"What?! We are going to be split up?" Brandon asks surprised.

"The specialists shall stay together but everyone else shall go their own way. Stella shall come with me back to the light planet, Musa will go with Mato to the wind planet, Bloom shall stay here, and Tecna shall go to the metal planet, Flora to the earth planet, Layla to Anna's home planet or the water planet." She explained

"As for the specialist, you shall personally be trained by my-" She got interrupted by some one who also had a gloriously beautiful voice.

"By me." Someone behind us finished her sentence.

We all turned to see a very familiar yet unique girl standing behind us. She had black, straight hair which was cut along her jaw line. Her hair was parted to her right and her bangs almost covered her right eye. She was fair skinned and had black, beautiful eyes. She wore a black cloak thatdestroyed any light in its vicinity and seemed to have a very sinister aura. She reminded me of a witch. What was familiar about her was that she looked exactly like Lady Aria, though her hair and eye color was the exact opposite. And while Lady Aria reminded me of an angel, this woman reminded me of the devil.

There was a man standing behind her. He was dark skinned and had his black hair, which came down till his shoulders, tied in a ponytail. He too tore a dark cloak and had a sinister aura about him.

"If she is going to train us, I have no objection" Riven whispered to us while he slowly checked her out. Now it was Musa's turn to glare at him.

The white haired man bowed while Flora knelt. The woman nodded her head towards both of them and they straightened back up. While the man in the black cloak bowed to Lady Aria and winked at Flora with a grin. They both smiled back.

Such a normal gesture, but I knew it bothers a few people. Helia specifically but he didn't say anything, hell he didn't even look at them.

"Everyone. This is my twin sister Zhalia. Z these are the winx and specialists. In order of how they are standing they are Bloom, Sky, Brandon, Stella, Musa, Tecna Timmy, Layla, Nabu, Riven and Helia." Lady Aria introduced us.

"Heheh what's this? They seem like , how did you survive with such useless people till now? And plus who names their group winx? That's just so stupid." Zhalia states ruthlessly with an evil grin on her face.

She was meant to train us? I thought they were training us to fight people like her.

"Please stop being so mean to them. And I think winx is a very cute name for such a group." Lady Aria defends us.

"Right. You would think that."sherolls her eyes "Anyways Layla come with me. I'm gonna teach you a few skills before I have to train those weaklings." Zhalia commands.

"You can be nice when you say that. Bloom can you please come with me? I would like to teach you a few things as well." Lady Aria asks sweetly.

"The rest of the winx girls have to go elsewhere, so specialists stay with Flora. She shall show you around." Zhalia commands again.

These two sisters were polar opposites no matter how similar they looked. On top of which she was going to train us, specialists. This will be difficult. I would have been more comfortable with a guy. Suddenly Bloom let go of my hand and walked over to Lady Aria. I looked over to see her desperately while Lady Aria saw my plight. Actually I was pretty sure most of us were not happy with this new arrangement.

"I have to leave my schnookums? I thought you already finished training me Lady Aria. Even if that is not the case why can't we spend the festival together?" Stella asked ready to throw one of her tantrums. And for once I was going to agree with her completely.

"I trained you quickly because we didn't have enough time. I have much more I can teach you. And I am really sorry you must part now. I-" Lady Aria tried to continue but got interrupted.

"Stop being so clingy and weak. You are representing your home world. Behave like mature adults." Zhalia spoke giving us all a look that made my blood go cold. This woman had an ominous vibe that frightened me.

"I understand. Why not a compromise. Let each of the couple go to where they must. So Sky can come along with Bloom and I, Nabu can go along with my sis and Layla and so on." Lady Aria speaks out trying to make us happy.

She was a sweet lady who I could see becoming a kind and a just queen. Her sister on the other hand would never rise to such power.

"I do not agree to this. But it might be the only way to shut them up. Sky, Bloom you know where to go. As for the rest of you. Tecna and Timmy you shall go to Fred, Musa and Riven shall go to Mato, Stella and Brandon can head over to Vlad while Flora and Helia can go over to Pratap. My men shall take those who might get lost." Zhalia told us while she raised her hand and snapped her fingers.

Three men suddenly appeared behind her and were kneeling down. They were dressed in strange attire. They were in complete black. Full pants and full sleeved shirts. They also had their faces covered with a cloth so you could see only their eyes. They were already splitting all of us now? They should give us some more time together. I suppose the only one happy out of this is Helia.

"Alright let us go now. I have a challenger waiting for me." Zhalia turned around and started walking away. The man in the black cloak followed.

"Layla and Nabu go with her" Lady Aria prompted gently.

They looked at her uncertainly and then at us.

"Well I suppose we should go." Layla tells us.

"Otherwise that lady might kill us." Nabu states.

"We shall all meet up before the festival gets over alright." Bloom looks at all of us.

"Yes I agree." I say.

"I wanted to spend more time together winx." Stella grumbles.

"We shall see them soon. Don't worry honey bear." Brandon replies.

"I don't know about you guys, but I want to know what happened here before." Musa states, looking intently at Flora.

"And I have a lot to tell you guys as well, so can you please wait patiently." Flora asks quietly.

"If you don't explain it to us Flora, I'm going to annoy you for the rest of your life." Riven told her in a scary voice while Musa glared at him for the second time.

"Don't scare her Riven. I agree we shall all meet up before the festival gets over." Helia tries to return to the original topic still anticipating for his time with Flora.

"It seems to be the most logical thing to do." Tecna announces.

"So it's settled then. We shall see other soon." Timmy finishes.

"If your minds have been made up. Then let us go." Lady Aria tells us with a smile and then turns around and walks away.

We all look at each other before we leave. Bloom and I follow Lady Aria, Layla and Nabu follow Zhalia, Stella and Brandon follow one of the strangely dressed people, Musa and Riven glaring darts at each other follow another, Tecna and Timmy follow the third, while Flora quickly walks as well, with Helia walking behind her with determination, which could be seen in his eyes.

This was not how I had planned this day would go. I was ready for the unexpected, but I really could not count this as anything unexpected. This was just abnormal.