Chapter 08
As soon as Stormy walked through the door carrying a plotted plant, Darcy was quick to run up and hug her. "You're back!"
Flora stands behind the little witchlings, smiling at the sight and soon the rest of the Winx walks in along with Bloom is a very upset Icy.
"You're both back!" the Illusion Trix goes to hug the whitehaired one.
"Of course, we're back," Icy returns the hug even though she's glaring.
Stormy walks up to them. "Icy? What's wrong?"
The Ice Witchling only crosses her arms and turns away.
Bloom lets out a chuckle. "Don't mind her," the Fire Fairy walks up to pat charge on the head. "Icy's just grumpy because she got grounded."
"Grounded?" Darcy turns to Stormy. "What's that?"
"I'll tell you!" Icy lets out a huff. "It means I can't have any fun all because of a little prank." She then gets scolded by her guardian.
"That prank could have serious her someone!" Bloom glares down at the witchling causing the child to flinch a little.
Before anything else was said, Tecna walks in. "Guys! We have a lead on the Water Stars!"
The Winx girls glance at one another with understanding.
Bloom looks down at the children. "Will you three be fine if we leave you alone for a few minutes?"
The Trix looked at one another before nodding their heads and with that, the little girls were left alone.
After a few moments of silence, Darcy hesitantly walks up to a still grumpy Icy. "I-if it makes you feel any better. I made Ms. Musa upset, making her say some mean things to me. But we made up and are friends now."
Icy just deadpans. "Yeah, I'm not sure that's the same thing."
"Um," Stormy holds up her hand. "I, I, I accidentally threw lightning at Flora's mom. That really hurt her." the frizzled haired girl starts tearing up.
The other two wearily glance at one another, unsure how to respond. Then Icy asks, "Does Flora's family hate you now."
"Actually," the storm witchling sniffles before smiling. "They were worried about me and forgave me since it was an accident. Flora's parents even said that they would be my grandparents," the frizzle haired child starts giggling. "Or as Grandpa would say, grand-pear-ents," and she couldn't control her laughter as the other Trix just stare at her with their brows raised.
.oOo.
The Winx are leaving Faragonda's office after discussing the current whereabouts of the Water Stars. Tecna, Musa, and Aisha walk ahead while Bloom, Flora, and Stella are discussing something important.
"So…" Bloom starts, "We'll go give the girls the bad news about going off on another Winx Mission, then we'll pack and leave them in the hands of Knut."
At that, Stell fell behind. "About that." Flora and Bloom stopped and turned to the Light Fairy. "After our little tea party on Day of the Rose, Knut took some vacation time so he could revisit the swamp he grew up in."
"What!?" Bloom raises her voice a little. "Are you saying that Knut's gone!?" and receives a nod from the blond.
"What are we going to do?" Flora asks worriedly. "We can't leave them here by themselves."
The redhead sighs, "We can't stay here either as we need all the help we can get. But there's no we're bringing them with us. It's too dangerous."
"We could ask the teachers?" Flora suggests. "I'm sure that a couple would be understanding."
"They may understand, but they'll be busy teaching all the other students. We had a hard enough time between our classes and the Trix. Just imagine how much harder it would be for them."
"But what else can we do? Not many here in Alfea are willing to give those girls a chance."
As the other two were discussing this, Stella had been thinking quietly about something. "Um…" she gets the attention of her friends and fellow guardians. "There may be one person. I've actually been meaning to talk to on behalf of Darcy for an unrelated reason. But I'm unsure of how she'll take to the request."
.oOo.
The Winx have gotten ready for their next mission and the Trix are getting set up for their sitter.
Stormy who is playing with her doll says, "I can't wait to play with Mr. Knut."
The Winx suddenly stopped with Flora, Bloom, and Stella glancing at one another as something occurred to them.
"About that," Bloom starts. "We forgot to tell you that Knut is not in Alfea and won't be able to watch you guys."
The Trix looked at one another in worry. They trust the Winx, but the three girls are still uneasy when it comes to meeting someone new.
A knock can be heard. "That's her," Flora gets up to answer the door.
When the door opens, a young pale woman with dark pink hair walks in.
"Girls," Bloom speaks as she introduces the newcomer. "This here is Mirta. She's a good friend of ours and will be watching over you for a little bit."
The Trix walks up to Mirta who seems almost as timid as they are.
Stormy was the first to say something. "H-hi. I'm Stormy."
Mirta leans down while giving a small smile. "Nice to meet you, Stormy. I'm Mirta," she then looks to the other two. "And you must be Darcy and Icy."
Icy nods. "Yup!" while Darcy hides behind the Ice Witchling but nods regardless.
The Illusion Fairy tilts her head. "Is something wrong, Darcy?"
"Don't worry," Stella walks up to Mirta. "Darcy is just extra weary of meeting someone new. She just needs time to get to know you. Now then," the princess claps her hands. "Do you remember what we told you?"
"Um…" Mirta starts listing off. "Stormy needs training pads, Darcy sleeps better with a nightlight, Icy can't sleep without her toy, and—"
"I do not!" Icy shouts causing the new girl to visibly flinch. Noticing this, the Ice Witchling walks away while looking away.
Mirta is unsure what to do but hears Bloom speaking up.
"Sorry about that. Icy likes to think of herself as a big girl but hates being reminded that she's not quite there yet," Bloom can see the worried look in her friend's eyes. "Are you sure you'll be all right? We can find someone else."
Mirta turns back to her. "N-no! It's fine. I'll make sure they're taken good care of," she insists.
"If you say so."
The Winx soon say their goodbyes to the Winx, promising to be back as soon as possible. And with that, Mirta was left alone with the three witchlings. The pink haired girl just stood there in silence before one of the witching's get the courage to walk up to her.
"Ms. Mirta," Darcy looks down while glancing up. "I'm, I'm sorry if this is rude. But you don't look like a fairy. You seem different from M—Stella and the other fairies we've seen."
Any worry that Mirta was carrying soon melts away and she smiles while kneeling in front of the child. "It's not rude. I'm actually used to that. You see, Darcy, I wasn't born a fairy. I was a witch." this revelation caused Darcy and Stormy to gasp and has Icy intrigued as they haven't heard many good things about witches. "Before coming to Alfea, I attended Cloud Tower. I never felt like myself among witches. The only one who accepted me there was my best friend. But when I was offered to transfer here, I had to take the chance to be me."
Icy walks up to her. "Wasn't it hard? Being a witch among fairies?"
Mirta stands. "Most magic isn't inherently good nor evil. The only real difference behind Witch and Fairy Magic is the emotion put behind the spells. If that weren't the case then…" the Illusion Fairy transforms before their eyes into her fairy form. "…I wouldn't be able to do this."
The girls marveled at the sight of her. They've seen the Winx in their fairy forms, but they hadn't actively seen the transformation before.
The Illusion Fairy changes back and then looks at the little girls. "So, what would you like to do?"
They looked at one another and Stormy whispers something into Icy's ear. The white haired witchling turns back to their babysitter. "Stormy wants to know if we can go to the park. Knut always took us."
Mirta smiles. "I don't see why we can't."
.oOo.
The four were now in the park. Mirta was playing dolls with Stormy and Icy, with the latter seemingly insisting that she's doing it because she's forced to, despite the child enjoying it herself. Darcy was sitting at a nearby picnic table with some paper and crayons. For a while the Illusion Witchling seemed to have had a hard time deciding what to draw until her eyes landed on Mirta and her eyes widened as she got to work.
Mirta was enjoying her time with these girls and started wondering what she was so worried about.
"M-Ms. Mirta…" Darcy squeaks out as she shyly holds up a piece of paper. "I hope you like it. I drew it for you."
The Illusion Fairy's eyes widen as she sees the crude drawing of a pumpkin and looks between the little girls who were suddenly no longer little and can feel herself panicking and before she knew it, the fairy was crying.
Wait! She wasn't crying.
Mirta then notices something gripping her and she comes out of the panic attack and sees that Darcy is hugging her with tears running down the little girl's eyes.
"I-I-I'm sorry," she lets out. "I didn't mean to hurt you. I just saw your shirt and thought you'd like it."
The fairy suddenly feels bad and hugs the child. "I'm sorry, Darcy. I didn't mean to worry you."
Icy then asks, "It wasn't the first time, was it?"
Looking over, Mirta sees Icy turning away from them. Stormy tries approaching her friend only to be pushed away.
"Icy…" the former knows from the child's posture that she's feeling left out, like an outcast. Much like what Mirta used to feel.
"I know that we weren't always kids. I think Darcy and Stormy too," the teary-eyed ice witchling looks over at her friends and they look down. "We weren't nice to anyone which is way nobody likes us!" a set of arms then wrap around her.
"The Winx like you, Icy. And so do I," Mirta cradles the little girl and then looks up and the other two with a warm smile.
With a sob, Icy says, "You don't mean that."
"But I do. You see, it wasn't you that worried me. I was once cursed by three evil witches into a pumpkin. So, the picture Darcy drew brought back some memories. You three are so sweet and kind. Nothing like them," Mirta then sets Icy down before standing up. "How about we head back to Alfea. I know that I'm not supposed to keep you up past bedtime but how about we stay up watching cartoons?"
Icy lets out a huff and crosses her arms. "I don't watch cartoons!" after a few moments the girl nervously asks, "Can we watch the one where the prince falls in love with a maid?"
With a smirk, the fairy replies. "I know that one. It was one of my favorites."
.oOo.
Valtor walks into the office of Cloud Tower, taking in the silence. "Things have been quiet since the Trix left."
Valtor…
Hearing his name, the sorcerer turns around but finds nothing. "Perhaps I miss them more than I thought," he turns back around. "At least they were entertaining."
Valtor!
He suddenly grips his head as the voice is louder, and he finds himself suddenly standing in a cold desolated place.
Not much can disturb Valtor but he was startled by the appearance of three spirits he hasn't seen since before his banishment.
"Ancestresses!?"
Find the Trix
"Why? Indeed, they are strong. But they nowhere reach the level of ours.
They hold more potential than you think, Valtor.
We need them.
Do as we say. Remember that you would not exist without us. We can easily end that existence.
The Ancestral Witches gets up into his face.
Even from our imprisonment.
Once the headaches stopped, Valtor sees that he's still withing Cloud Tower.