Chapter 07
Stormy looks up at the tall trees. "How are we going to get through all this? Is there a car or something?"
Flora lets out giggle. "No cars. Technology is forbidden on Linphea."
"So, we'll have to walk?" the witchling looks up at the nature fairy worriedly.
"If we did, then I would gladly carry you. But there is another way. The number one mode of transportation on this world." As if on cue, a giant leaf lands in front of them. Flora then picks up their bags to set them on the leaf. "Come along, Stormy!" she hears the child gasps. Turning, the teen sees the terror in her eyes. She tells the witchling, "Don't worry, Storm Cloud. I've flown on this many times and I swear it's safe," and holds out a hand.
The witchling hesitantly accepts and hops on the leaf with the nature fairy. "Y-you won't let me fall?"
"I promise that I won't let you go. I'll always hold onto you. Now, let's go meet my family."
As soon as they sat on the leaf, the wind picks up and lifts them into the air.
.oOo.
"Don't worry, Storm Cloud," Flora says. "We're safe."
Slowly and hesitantly, Stormy opens her eyes to see that they have landed. The witchling sighs in relief.
The fairy assists the child off the leaf before grabbing their bags. The Nature Fairy then grabs the Storm Witchling's hand and leads her to a descent sized house that seemingly blends into a tree. Stormy is at awe at the sight of it.
"Come along, Storm Cloud," Flora tells her as they get closer to the house.
Just as the two reached the house the door opens to let a woman with brown hair done up in a bun wearing a pink leafy dress exit. The woman looks at the door and shouts inside.
"Rhodos! They're here!"
A bearded man in a green leafy shirt and blue pants hurries to the door. "Flora!" the man runs up to his eldest daughter. "Long thyme no see."
Hearing that, Flora facepalms. "Oh, Dad."
Ignoring his daughter's distress, Rhodos hugs her. Once breaking away, the man takes notice of the frizzled hair child hiding behind the Nature Fairy. "And who's this little bean sprout?" he then lowers himself to get a better look at the girl, who only further hid herself behind Flora.
Flora lowers herself next to the witchling and places her hands over the girl's shoulders in a comforting manner. "Storm Cloud, this is my dad." The child briefly looks at the man before shielding her face with her hands.
Rhodos thought for a moment before smiling at the little girl. "Well, hello," the man kneels, getting the witchling's attention. "What happens when a flower blushes? They get a little rosy."
"Dad!" Flora whines a little. Stormy on the other hand lets out a giggle.
The man smiles up at his daughter. "You may find my jokes a little bit corny, but they can make people smile from ear to ear." The little girl's giggles increase.
"Hey there, little pear! I'm Rhodos." The man introduces himself.
The child managed to quiet her giggle fit long enough quietly say, "Stormy."
"Nice to meet you, Stormy. I hear that Flora has been taking good care of you."
At this, the girl nods her head as she looks up at the Winx.
The woman's voice then enters the conversation, "Hello there, Stormy. I'm Alyssa."
Stormy timidly looks up at the woman who had just walked up to the group. "H-hi, Alyssa."
"Tell me, Stormy. Do you like flowers?" Alyssa asks and receives a nod from the child. "Would you like me to show you our garden?"
"Um…" Stormy looks up at Flora.
"Go on, Stormy," the Winx smiles down at her. "You'll love it."
"Okay," the witchling smiles and reaches for Alyssa's hand. The woman just smiles at the girl before accepting the hand and leading her around their house.
The Nature Fairy's eyes never left her mother nor the child until they where out of sight.
Rhodos then says, "Seems you're very frond of her."
"Ugh, Dad!" Flora covers her face. She then removes her hand and looks around. "Where's Miele?"
"Oh, your sister is in her room," the man looks up at one of the windows on the house. "Hiding. Miele was very excited to find out that you were coming home. But once she found out that you wouldn't be alone, she locked herself up."
The Nature Fairy looks up at the same window with worry and can make out the silhouette of her sister.
.oOo.
Miele sits at the window. The young fairy wanted to go and greet her sister but knowing who is with her made it hard for. The girl ended up just watching from the window.
A knocking comes at her door followed by her sister's voice. "Miele. May I come in?"
Miele folds her legs close to her chest. "Yeah!"
The door opens and Flora walks in. "Hello, Miele," the Winx goes over to her sister and hugs her. "I'm surprised you weren't waiting for me at the door." and the two broke apart.
"I wanted to," the young fairy looks away. "But I couldn't."
"Miele," Flora runs her hands through her little sister's hair. "You want to talk about it?"
With a sigh the young fairy says, "It's hard. With what happened with the Black Willow Tree. Just the thought of seeing one of them is scary."
"Oh," the older sister hugs the younger. "What happened was scary. But remember how scary it was for Stormy and her friends?"
Miele looks up at Flora. "Huh?"
"You know exactly what happened. But the Trix? They have no memory of before falling into the Tears of the Black Willow tree. They were all afraid because none of them had any idea what was going on. All those girls knew was that they were in a strange place surrounded by people that they don't know."
The young fairy turns away from her sister. "I'm still afraid of her."
"And that's okay. But let me tell you this. That Stormy out there is not the same person as before. I won't force you to do anything but if you'd just give her a chance, you'll find out that she's a shy but sweet girl."
The two are then startled by a loud boom.
"What was that?" Miele asks.
Flora quickly gets up. "I think that came from the garden!" and runs out of the room followed by her little sister.
.oOo.
The two sisters came running into the garden to find their father leaning over their unconscious mother. Not far is a patch of charred grass with an empty bucket next to it with evidence that there was once water in it.
"Mom!" Miele shouts as she rushes over to her parents.
Flora approaches them as well. "Dad! What happened?"
Rhodos looks up at them. "I'm not sure," he then turns back to his wife. "I just heard the bang and came as soon as I could and found her like this with a fire started. As worried as I was for your mother, I had to priorities the fire first."
Flora looks at her mother worriedly but soon took notice of something and starts looking around. "Where's Stormy?"
The man looks up at her eldest daughter. "I-I'm not sure. Your mother was alone when I came into the garden." He notices the look of sadness in Flora's eyes and knows that as concerned as she was for Alyssa; she was also worried about the witchling. "Go and find her. I'll take care of your mother."
The Winx looks up at him briefly before nodding and getting up. "Stormy!" she starts shouting while running around the garden. "Storm Cloud! Where are you!?"
.oOo.
Miele is next to her mother who is lying on the bed. Still unconscious.
Her dad comes in with a wet rag and places it on his wife's forehead.
"Dad," the young fairy looks up at her father. "Will mom be all right?"
"I can't say," he looks worriedly at his wife. "It's too early to tell."
Miele clenches her fists. "This is the witch's fault."
"No…" Alyssa groans. "It's mine," the woman manages to sit herself up.
"Mom!" the young fairy hugs her.
Rhodos places his hands on his wife's shoulders. "Easy, honey. What do you mean it was your fault?"
"I showed her the cyclo medicine anise and forgot to warn her about staring at them and got startled," the woman looks down. "Given that Flora never mentioned Stormy's magic, I doubt she meant any harm. What happened was most likely out of instinct."
It was at that moment, Flora walks in. "Mom! Are you all right?"
"I'm fine, Flora," the woman smiles at her eldest. "Have found her?"
The Nature Fairy looks down and shakes her head. "No. I'm worried. This is her first time on Linphea. What if she gets lost?"
"We'll just have to find her," Alyssa tries getting up but finds herself too sore to stand. "Oof!" and instantly falls back on the bed.
"Mom!" both girls shout.
"Easy there," Rhodos tells her. "You are in no condition to go out there. You stay here while Flora and I go."
"All right, dear," the woman sighs. "Just find Stormy."
Flora smiles sadly, "We will, Mom."
With that the father and eldest daughter left in search of the missing Trix.
After a few moments of sitting in the quiet room, Alyssa looks over at her youngest daughter. "Miele? Are you all right?"
.oOo.
Stormy is sitting in the hollow of a large tree. The witchling is crying in her arms while clutching a magnifying glass.
A voice of a girl then reaches the Trix's ears. "Stormy?" looking into the opening is Miele. "Are you okay?" the young fairy enters the tree and as a reaction, Stormy turns away. Miele sits next to her. "I'm Miele. Do you remember me?"
The witchling nods. "You were there when Mommy pulled me out of the river."
Titling her head, Miele asks, "Mommy?"
"Flora." The Trix looks down shocking the young fairy.
After a few minutes of silence, Miele asks, "Why did you run away?"
At this, Stormy continues crying. "Because I hurt Alyssa!" between sobs, the witchling lets out. "They were right. I am nothing but destructive."
"Who told you that?"
The small child sniffles. "Other fairies at Alfea. The Winx do their best to keep things away from me and my friends. But there were times when they took their eyes off of us that the mean fairies would approach us. I never told Flora because I didn't want to worry her," Stormy cries intensifies even as Miele hugs her. "N-nothing g-good can, can come from a-a destructive witch."
Miele herself is upset. Less so at the statements of the smaller child and more at herself. How could the young fairy be afraid of this witchling.
"Hey, Stormy," the older child turns to the younger. "I want to show you something."
.oOo.
Miele leads Stormy through the forests by hand and eventually they come to a clearing where the few trees there were burnt and charred, and the ground is covered in ash.
The witchling worriedly looks at her surroundings. "What happened?"
"There was a storm," Miele answers. "Lightning hit one of the trees and the fire spread. Luckily, the rain helped contained enough so that many people could help put it out."
"All this destruction…" Stormy looks down. "…all caused by one storm. Nothing good can come from something so horrible."
"That's what I thought too when Flora showed me something like this," the young fairy smiles sadly at the smaller child. "Do you want to know something else that my sister taught me that day?" she kneels down to the ground. "As destructive as storms maybe, they are just as much a part of nature as plants and even have their own job. Sometimes, forests can get overcrowded and can disrupt the balance. It can cause disasters to the ecosystem in many ways. Such as causing a landslide from a mountain. So, the lightning causing a forest fire is nature's way to clear things up and make room. As a result, the fire helps purify the surrounding soil," Miele moves some of the ash away to reveal a small sprout, "To make room for new life."
Stormy marvels at the small plant. Surviving in a place that she thought it couldn't.
"Stormy!?" the voice of Flora calls out.
The witchling looks up and calls out. "Mommy!?" she runs up to the Nature Fairy.
"Oh, Storm Cloud!" the Winx takes the witchling into her embrace. "I was so worried about you!"
"I'm sorry!" the small child cries into Flora's shoulders. "When I hurt your mom, I was afraid that I'd do it again. But it's okay now," Stormy looks back at Flora's little sister and smiles. "Miele made me feel better."
Looking back at the younger fairy, Flora smiles herself, seeing her sister and Stormy getting along. "That's good to hear. Let's get back home."
.oOo.
Alyssa is still In bed, looking out the window. Linphea may be a peaceful world and safe world but a child should not be out there alone.
"Oof!" the woman feels as small weight landing on her.
"I'm sorry," comes a sob from the frizzled hair witchling. "I didn't mean to hurt you."
Alyssa blinks before smiling and hugging the small child. "No worries, Stormy. It was an accident after all."
With teary eyes, Stormy looks up at the woman. "Are you going to be okay?"
"I'll be fine. I just need some rest," she reassures the witchling. "Luckily for me, many of the best medicines can be made from extracts from our own plants."
"I-I'm glad to hear that," the Trix buries her face back into the woman's shoulder.
.oOo.
A Couple Days Later
Everyone is currently working in the garden.
Miele was helping Stormy removing a flower to carefully place in a pot when the witchling says, "Hey, Flora!" The Nature Fairy looks over at the small child. "If you're my mommy, what does that make Miele and your parents?"
"Uh…" Flora wasn't entire sure how to respond. She had yet to fully explain this part to her parents.
Miele then spoke, "I think that would make me your aunt," she holds her chin in thought.
Alyssa and Rhodos look at one another with surprise at first but soon smile before turning to the little girl. The woman tells her. "Well, Stormy. I would be your grandmother and Rhodos your grandfather."
"I've never been a grand-pear-ent before," the man says with a smile causing the witchling to giggle. "If I were an apple tree and Flora's my apple, then you'd be my grand apple."
Hearing those jokes causes the Nature Fairy to once again facepalm even though child seems to enjoy it.
"Stormy, dear," Alyssa's approaches her new granddaughter. "May we have a word with your mother for a moment?"
"Um…" Stormy looks up at Flora.
"It'll be okay, Storm Cloud," the Nature Fairy reassures her before she and her parents walk away from the two children just far enough where they couldn't be heard but close enough where they remain in sight.
"Mom, Dad, I can explain…" Flora starts.
"You don't need to explain, Flora," her mother starts.
Rhodos beams. "By the way you talked about her and the moment we saw the two of you together, we knew that you were close. We just didn't know it was closer than peas in a pod."
Alyssa nods. "It's only been a few days since we met but we love Stormy." Everyone turns to where the witchling is and watches her concentrate hard to conjure a small rain cloud to water the newly plotted flower. "Your father and I had already discussed the possibility of officially making her a part of the family."
That catches the Winx's attention. "Really!?" the teen receives a nod from her parents.
"But…" her father starts. "…it seems like we might need to change those plans a little."
"Flora…" Alyssa approaches her oldest daughter with a serious look. "You do know what kind of responsibility this is?"
The Nature Fairy turns back to where Stormy is and sees the witchling trying her best to swat the rain cloud away as it starts over watering the plant.
"I do," Flora smiles and faces her parents. "I truly do." The parents return the smile as they watch Miele comforting an upset Stormy as the smaller child believed she killed the flower.