Wings were fast.
Avi knew that already, to an extent. Facing off with Trudric, she has dodged and evaded effortlessly, her wings moving her out of harm's way at a moment's notice. That, however, was almost nothing compared to what they could do with a little bit of effort and her friends beside her.
"I can't believe we only left an hour ago and we're already in Kentucky!" she yelled over the wind. "That's, what, a hundred miles?"
"Closer to three hundred, more or less," Saf responded, equally loudly. "And from the steady buildup of the fairy tracker's power, I bet we'll be there in just another hour or so."
Light smirked as she glanced down at the tracker she held. Her blonde ponytail whipped in the breeze. "This is nothing. If you had Solarian charms, I'd show you how to transport."
"But if we don't know where we're going, how would we transport?" Roxy asked.
Light scowled. "I didn't think about that," she admitted.
Behind the rest of the group, Amanda floated on top of a little black raincloud that she had conjured, grabbing it hard with both hands. Her wings didn't flap along with the rest of the group, but she managed to more or less keep up. "Are we there yet?" she called nervously, clutching the soft cloud tight.
Roxy paused in midair and gave her friend a reassuring smile. "You're not going to fall, I promise."
"Look, Roxy, I believe you and all, but I still prefer to float on a solid surface than fly."
Avi threw up her hands, still flying forward. "A rain cloud isn't even solid!" she exclaimed.
"It is when you're the fairy of storms," Amanda shot back.
"I don't get how you're able to do that, magic or not," Saf said, agreeing with Avi.
"The same way Roxy can make animals talk despite their mouths and vocal cords not being built for that."
The rest of the group was silent for a moment in thought. Amanda smirked. "I win."
"If you call being a fairy who's afraid of heights winning," muttered Avi. Amanda glared at her.
"Anyway," interrupted Roxy, desperate to avoid an argument, "We need to think. When we get to where Marea is, what are we going to do? We don't know if she's being held in a cell, or if they're trying to get her to leave the barrier. We don't know much at all, really, just that they think she's Light from Solaria. I guess that they think that is beneficial to us, but if they realize that we have the real Light…"
"They might try to force me out. I'll have to fly low," Light said. "If I get too high up, one push would easily put me out of the game for good, and you can bet I don't plan on leaving Earth anytime soon. I don't really have any place to go besides Solaria, and I'm not too fond of seeing my parents after four months."
"Actually, I've been thinking something," admitted Saf. "What if Light is the Very Special Fairy? If they made the Special Fairy be someone not from Earth, it'd be really hard for us to find her, almost impossible! That would also explain why they're so desperate to get 'Light' off the planet, right?"
Roxy grinned. "That's brilliant! Hey, Light, take a shot at the barrier, won't you?"
Light shrugged. She placed her hands next to each other, each of them cupped as though she were cradling something precious. A small ball of light began to form, and she thrust it out and towards the sky. "Solaris Illumine!" she shouted.
The beam of magical light went up, up, up, through the barrier. Roxy flew quickly after it. She'd never seen an attack go through the barrier… all the attacks seemed to bounce off it or disintegrate. Did that mean that the wall trapping Earth was no more? Did that mean…
She hit the barrier and started plummeting down for a moment in surprise. Quickly, she began to flap her wings again, cursing. "It's still there. When I saw the bolt of magic go through…"
"It must be because the magic is part of Light, and she can pass through," Amanda deduced.
"Yeah, something like that," affirmed Avi.
The girls sighed and disheartened, began to fly where the tracker led once again, this time in silence.
As Saf predicted, in almost an hour they landed in the middle of Mammoth Cave National Park. The fairy of lightning looked around, her scarab-shaped wings catching the last bits of light from the sunset. "I've always wanted to visit here," she said happily, "though I do hope I get to return under better circumstances."
"I'm just happy to be on the ground again," said Amanda.
Avalon shivered. "And I'll be happy if we can save Marea before it gets full dark."
Roxy pursed her lips. "Whether or not we can beat the sunset, you're gonna have to face your fear, Avi." She glanced at the fairy tracker that Light held. The magic, almost connecting the rungs, was trying to lead the group into a large, dark cave.
"At least it's the main tourist one and not one of the smaller, dangerous ones that are around here," Saf said with forced cheeriness. "There have been deaths in those…"
"Really not what I need to hear right now, Saf," Avi said through gritted teeth.
"Sorry."
Avi took a breath. "Well, we have to do what we have to do. Let's go."
"Aren't you forgetting something?" The group turned to face Light, who had placed her hands on her hips sassily. "No need to worry about darkness with me around. Magicae Digito." She took one hand off her hips and snapped her fingers. Immediately, seven stars in a familiar pattern floated around the girls, each easily giving off enough light to see by.
"The Plough?" Saf asked. At the look of confusion on her friends' faces, she clarified, "What Americans call the Big Dipper, right?"
"Yeah!" Light confirmed, "but in Solaria we call it the Magic Point, cause it looks like a person casting a spell to us. The spell to conjure it is one of the first spells we learn."
Avalon seemed much happier. "Alright!" she exclaimed, "enough with technicality! Time to storm the gates and mess stuff up!" The girl charged down the stairs into the wide, deep cave.
Saf laughed. "You know she's back to normal when she says things like that."
"She's so ready to fight that she forgot we can just fly down instead of running," Roxy added, giggling. "Come on, let's beat her down there so we can see her face when she realizes she's the last one."
"Leilani, have you seen Roxy?" asked Lysis.
Leilani paled. "She went out."
"Oh. Do you know where? I need to ask her about the fairy tracker… I think I misplaced it… that's unlike me, but it has happened before."
Leilani racked her brain. She hated lying. Misdirection, for some reason, was okay, but flat out telling an untruth was almost beyond her. She chose her words carefully. "I'm not entirely sure where she went!" she said, pleased with herself… she really didn't know the exact location Marea was, only the general direction. "I don't think she'll be back for a while, either… wait, did you say the fairy tracker is missing?"
"Yes, and I need it." Lysis looked frustrated. "Nebula called, her lab is working on a tracker of their own, and they believe there may be a fairy located in Scandinavia. I want to check it with our own tracker and possibly get the team on the road. Do you at least know where Avi and Saf are?"
"With Roxy." Phew. That was an easy one.
"They went out for the night? The new girls too?"
"Macy was tired and she's asleep, but yeah, everyone else went."
"Except you?"
"I have things to do here." Though she was still technically being honest, it was getting close. Leilani tugged on her hairbow nervously.
Lysis opened her mouth as though to say something, then closed it and smiled. "Very well. I suppose we'll leave tomorrow instead. If I can't find the fairy tracker, it isn't like I can track them down anyway. Do you happen to have any idea of where it is?"
Crap, Leilani thought. She bit her lip. "Have you tried searching in the classrooms, or the library?" she asked. It was a deliberate nonanswer, and she hoped Lysis wouldn't notice.
"Not yet," Lysis admitted. "Thanks for the idea. I'll see you later."
As Lysis walked down the hall, Leilani breathed a sigh of relief. She went to her private room, as quick as possible, and dialed the phone. It was only a matter of time before Lysis would put two and two together.
"I didn't think I'd be actually in the Historic Entrance until I was in my twenties, at the least," Saf breathed.
"Will you stop being a nerd for five seconds and help me open this lock?" Avi grumbled, fiddling with the door leading to the rest of the cave. "Silencing all the alarms was hard enough, but this lock seems to have been enchanted or something. No matter how hard I try to see myself breaking though, I can't!"
"What about a spell?" asked Light.
"What can a spell do that I can't with a lockpick and some visualization?" Avi shot back.
Light sighed. "Oh yeah. Earth doesn't have compulsory magic education yet. Uh, let me try to explain. A spell is just a way of enhancing your belief, I guess. It tells you that other people have previously done the same thing you're trying to do, and connects you to their magic as well as your own!"
"Great. So do you know a lockpick spell?"
"Uh," Light said. Her face fell. "Not exactly."
Saf grinned. "Clear the way. My time has come."
The four other girls looked at her like she was insane, but got out of her way. Saf extended her hands and focused, letting blue and gold sparks form around her. "Alohomora!" she shouted, her voice echoing powerfully off of the cave walls. As it did, the lock clicked and the door swung open. Saf turned to face her friends gleefully. "Who's the nerd now?" she asked.
"Still you, but I'm glad you are," said Avi, racing over to hug her best friend. "That was awesome, even for what it was."
"What was it? I've never heard that spell before," asked Light.
Amanda chortled. "That's cause it's from a famous Earth children's book about magic. But if it works, I guess…"
Saf's smile grew larger. "It helped me believe, that's for sure. If Hermione could do it, there is no reason I shouldn't be able to."
As the girls started to slip through the door towards the main portion of the cave, an alarm sounded, loud and echoing. "Crap!" yelled Amanda. "We're totally busted!"
"Avi, I thought you prevented this!" Light added.
Roxy frowned and put a hand to the little built-in pocket where she kept her phone when transformed. It was vibrating. "No, it's my cell," she said. "I had a loud ringtone, sorry." She pulled it out and put it to her ear. "Hello?"
"Roxy!" said Leilani from the other side. "Lysis is looking for you. She thinks you're out for dinner or something, but she'll figure it out soon, so you should… oh yikes!"
"What is it?" asked Roxy, but Leilani didn't seem to hear.
"How did you get here?" said Leilani to someone else, though her voice sounded a little far away. "Why didn't I see you?"
"Camouflage spell. I thought something was up. So, would you mind enlightening me?" said Lysis, her voice also a little far and fuzzy, but definitely mad.
Roxy covered her phone's microphone. "Uh, guys… we might want to hurry up and do this. Lysis just figured out we're trying to free Marea."
Multiple curses… some English, some Spanish, some Arabic… were uttered, and the girls began to run, following the tracker as well as they could. Roxy kept the phone pressed to her ear as she did, listening in.
"I didn't lie at all!" claimed Leilani. "I don't know where they are, I don't know where the tracker is, and I'm here being busy."
"You're good at misdirection," Lysis said. "My lie detector spell didn't pick up on a thing, even though my intuition did. So I'll ask one more question. What are the girls out doing?"
"Helping Light with stuff," said Leilani. Roxy could hear the stubbornness in her voice, an utter refusal to tattle.
"With what stuff?" Lysis prompted.
Leilani was silent. Roxy grimaced and facepalmed, still running. "How much farther?" she asked Light.
Light smiled grimly. "The prongs are almost connected. Any moment now."
"Let me talk to the princess," Lysis ordered over the phone.
"I dropped my cell; I don't know where it is."
In her other ear, the one listening to what was happening in Mammoth Cave, Roxy heard another conversation. "Déjame ir!"
"Now now," said one of the Apprentices to the Spanish-speaking girl… Marea? "You've only got a few more minutes. Once it's full dark, we'll go and try again to get you out of this barrier. You may be solidly rooted here, but we need to make sure that you understand that Earth is no home for you, little fairy princess. Or were you just nobility? Whatever. You're of no matter to us."
Marea fired off more words that Roxy couldn't understand, though from the way she said them, they were probably not exactly the best words to hear anyway. "¡Asqueroso! Usted es un fraude viscosa repugnante y horrible de un usuario de magia. ¡Zoquete!"
Next to Roxy, Light was literally wincing. "That's the strongest language I've ever heard her use."
"What's she saying?" asked Avi curiously.
"Paraphrased, it's something like 'you're gross and no good at magic,' but in a lot more words."
Avi grinned. "Girlfriend's got a way of speaking the truth though."
Over the phone, Roxy heard a scramble, then a voice. "Princess Roxy," said Lysis, her tone low and threatening, "I demand you and your fellow students return at once."
"Lysis, we've found Marea and the Apprentices! We can't just leave now."
"Oh yes you can! Or do you not remember one single Apprentice almost destroying you a couple of weeks ago in the pizza parlor?"
"Lysis, we outnumber them."
"You outnumbered Gunner three to one. What are the odds now, five to four? Much worse. Get out before they see you, I order it."
"You can't order me! I'm your princess!" Roxy screeched indignantly.
There was a pause on both ends, and then two people spoke at the same time. "I'm coming to find you," said Lysis, hanging up just as the Apprentice who had been speaking asked "Did you hear that?"
"Crap, this is bad," whispered Roxy.
"Do we run?" asked Saf.
"We have to save Marea!" Light said, and she began to run… towards the voice.
Avi nodded. "We've come this far!" she agreed, following the Solarian noble.
Roxy, Saf, and Amanda looked at each other. Unlike the other girls, they were afraid and nervous, but they were still loyal. "Lysis is coming to get us," said Roxy weakly. "The worst that can happen is a little bit of hurt, right?"
"Right?" said Saf, and it came out like a question. Amanda gave an unsure nod.
Then, the three of them charged.
Marea's hope was sparked when she saw her best friend rushing in, full Charmix outfit on and her golden wings out. "Clara!" she exclaimed joyfully.
The four wizards who kept her captive glanced at the fairy running towards them. "Clara de Luz," hissed Killian. His multicolored eyes flashed darkly, red, blue, black. For a moment, he looked angry, but then his expression turned pleased. "Nyklus, you want to prove yourself. If you would?" he said in English.
Next to him, redheaded Nyklus began to move his hands in a swirling motion. Water began to leak from the cave walls, racing over to his hands as though they were magnets. A ball of cold cave water began to form in front of him, growing larger and larger until it was a fairly good sized projectile. "Clara, watch out!" yelled Marea.
Clara dodged the large bolt of water at the last second, and Marea was shocked as she realized there was a girl behind her as well, another fairy. The water seemed to deflect from the dark-skinned girl, however. As it bounced back to the wizards, Marea saw that the other fairy had conjured a mirror shield.
Nyklus waved a hand, and the waterball disintegrated before it could hit him or any of his friends. "Two fairies might require two wizards," he said, looking towards the tattooed Trudric. The large man nodded, and suddenly, the cave was dark. Marea could see no detail… except for the six people around her, each standing out against the black.
Clara grinned. "Even illusion darkness can be dealt with if you have a little light and love! Rising Sun!" From her hand shot a beam of light. It knocked into Trudric, sending him flying through the air. By the time he landed on his butt several feet away, the illusion had vanished.
Killian sneered. "You two are good for nothing, and Gunner, you aren't much better for standing around."
"Hey, you were the one who wanted to give them a chance to prove themselves," said Gunner, rolling their eyes. They ran a hand through their unruly brown hair. "Besides, this party has barely even started. If you were paying attention, you'd know that there were three more fairies just waiting for us to be caught off guard. Pay some attention, brother." The last word was spat almost sarcastically.
Clara raced over to Marea. "Friend, are you okay?" she asked in Spanish. "Don't worry, we're going to get you out of here."
Marea nodded hopefully. She couldn't wait to go home, to be with her parents. Maybe to leave magic behind. She wasn't yet sure.
Clara pulled her up out of the chair she had been sitting in, not even tied up… she had given up even trying to escape after about an hour. Four wizards versus an untrained fairy was no competition. Still, she was not beyond a surge of hope now that her friend was here. "What do I do?" Marea whispered.
Clara took her hand. "We're going to converge," she said. "I've never done it before, but I've heard about it, so it's worth a try. Focus on the moon!"
With all her heart, Marea thought about the crescent up above in the sky, about the stars dancing around it. She thought about the stories and folktales her mother had told to her about it. As she did, she felt small prickles of power all about her, but especially where Clara held her hand, sharing her warmth.
Clara raised the two grasped hands to the cave ceiling, and a burst of light so powerful that it dissolved everything in its path burned a way through to the Earth's surface. Clara grabbed Marea and up they flew. Behind them, Marea could see the wizards and the other fairies… not one now, but four… follow. They flew up, up, and up until Marea landed solidly on the ground. Clara looked her over. "Do you think you can transform? You really have to, so please tell me you can."
Marea took a deep breath and nodded. Then, she allowed thoughts of the moon in the sky to spread until they consumed her. A flash of dark blue light formed around her, and she squeezed her eyes tight.
When she opened them, she was a fairy.
Marea made a lovely fairy. Her dark brown hair was held in two braids, and a light blue V-neck top and shorts showcased her long limbs. Dark blue bracelets and boots mimicked Light's in style, and the wings on her back looked like those of a luna moth. Joyfully, the young teen flew up in the air, next to her friend. Roxy smiled. Mission almost complete. Now to escape with our lives intact.
The Wizards didn't have wings, but they turned out to be just as nimble in the air as any fairy. Gunner shot bolts of magic at the Royal Fairy Academy students… it seemed the girls spent more time dodging than attacking, something that seemed to Roxy to be a bad sign. Beside Gunner, Killian raised his arms. Immediately, birds of prey swooped from the trees towards the girls. Avi, Amanda, Saf, Light, and Marea covered their faces with their arms, but Roxy needed to see. "Birds!" she commanded. "Turn around! He's controlling you for his own purposes. You don't want to attack us!"
The birds looked at each other, and Roxy heard their thoughts. She's nuts, one thought. Killian's a good guy. I've never been short of carrion since he came around.
That girl's just trying to talk us out of it 'cause she knows she looks delicious.
One bird cawed a sort of laugh. He's our friend, he isn't controlling us.
Had Roxy been on land, she would have taken an uncomfortable step backwards. As it was, she floated warily in midair. "Is your power…" she trailed.
"The power of animals?" Killian gave her a knowing smile. "Why, Princess. However did you guess?"
Roxy's heart sped up nervously. She let her mind probe, attempting to make a connection with an animal, any animal. Every time she found one, it rejected her. "Did you really…"
"Make friends with every single animal in Mammoth Cave National Park, including the insects? Yes. Yes, I did. Face it. You're all but powerless here, as all your normal partners are under my control. Just like you soon will be yourself!" Killian gestured towards his birds, and they began to race towards her again. They swarmed like gnats around her, scratching and pecking her, and she couldn't help but beg for mercy until her voice turned into sobs.
She was too busy to see Avi getting swept from the sky by a big stream of water, or Saf and Amanda being pelted with Gunner's magical bolts. When the birds finally stopped attacking Roxy enough that she could pay attention to other things, her wings were torn and full of holes. She plummeted towards the ground, with only her magic to make sure she landed safely.
Up in the sky, clear and bright from the light of the moon, she could see the Apprentices grabbing Marea and trying to force her out of the barrier. They slammed her against the wall until she fainted, her wings fading away and her outfit returning to a normal civilian form.
Then, they dropped her.
Roxy watched, weak and powerless, as a wingless Marea fell through the sky. Light flew after her, but by the time she had reacted, it seemed almost too late. Marea was going to crash, and there was no fairy that could stop her. And while Roxy may have had the magic to save herself from a similar fate, no fainted fairy could work the proper spells.
Death. Failure. The loss of a new friend. Roxy closed her eyes, but then opened them. She had to see the end. It was almost a compulsion, almost like punishing herself. She could have stopped this, but she had done the wrong thing, and then what happened? Then what?
Then, Marea landed gently in the arms of Princess Bloom Peters of Domino.
The headmistress of the Royal Fairy Academy was flanked by Lysis, Tora, and four other former Vengeance Fairies. Her youthful face was set into a stern expression, and her Believix wings were fully unfurled. "Apprentices of the Black Circle!" she barked. "Come down here and face some fairies your own size!"
Killian laughed, loudly… his voice almost seemed to be amplified magically. "Thank you for the invitation, but we'd rather not. In fact, we have places to be. Let's see… Bergen, Norway? Or would you prefer Chicago, Illinois? Where would you rather race to? That's all this is, right?"
Though it was too far away to be possible, Roxy swore she could see his eyes flash black. "All this is to us is a game, you know. One we're willing to do anything to win, but still, you won't ever see us being serious. You aren't nearly powerful enough for that. You aren't nearly as powerful as you believe."
Bloom roared, and from her chest burst the fire of the Great Dragon. It spiraled into the sky, half an attack and half a show of power. Killian only laughed.
Then, as the Dragon faced him eye to eye, he snapped his fingers and the Apprentices were gone.
Each of the girls spent the next day in bed; even after Bloom used her fairy dust to heal the worst of the wounds, the experience was so tiring that there wasn't much of a choice. When Roxy woke up around seven in the evening the next day, the others were all waiting for her, having already awoken. That was the good news, that everyone was okay.
The bad news is, they had been summoned to the headmistress's office.
Lysis was pacing as Roxy walked in. "I think they should all be grounded… both in terms of powers and places. And the responsibilities of the Travel Team should be revoked and given to Queen Nebula's professional forces. We were idiots to have teenagers in this position in the first place."
Bloom shook her head. "There's a reason they were chosen, Lysis, and you know that. One bad decision doesn't mean they're bad people for the job. I've made enough mistakes to know that. I still make mistakes. As for the grounding, I'd consider it, but these girls need their powers and their freedom to keep safe and do their jobs, not even counting classes. However, that does give me an idea…"
"Oh?" asked Lysis.
"It's something I'm very familiar with. A popular punishment for freshman at Alfea who get into trouble." Bloom smiled wickedly. "Who knows how to use furniture polish?"
"I can't believe we have to clean the whole cafeteria," Avi grumbled as she moved some chairs so she could sweep under them. "And without magic, too."
"I can't believe that Marea and Leilani got out of it!" Light said.
"Technically, they did nothing wrong," said Amanda. "Leilani never did lie, and Marea was just, oh, you know. Getting rescued."
Saf only sighed as she wiped the tables clean. "I don't mind doing the cleaning," she added, almost as an afterthought, "but then we have to make a meal for everyone? I can't cook at all."
"I call server position!" Roxy yelled. "After all, I'm the most qualified."
Amanda stuck out her tongue as she mopped behind Avi. "Yeah, but that doesn't get you out of cooking!"
"Oh yes, it does!"
When Bloom walked in to see five fairies collapsed on the floor in a giggle fit, hair and clothes soaked and soapy from mop water, she couldn't help but smile.
Still, in her heart, she felt a pang, not necessarily for missing her friends, but for… well, a different kind of missing.
They were no longer the girls who splashed each other and argued and did stupid things. They were well thought out, mature, and maybe a little bit too uniform.
Maybe getting stuck on Earth and rediscovering herself was the best thing that could have happened to Bloom Peters.
Or maybe her friends, now so similar, would be prepared to reject the slightest bit of difference.
Only time would tell.
AN: Yooo that was a quick update, and so fun to write! I hope you enjoyed it!
My Spanish is a tad rusty so Marea's Spanish is likely to be imperfect. Sorry. :/
Hey! While you review this time, you should tell me who your favorite character is! I'd love to know!