𝐓𝐰𝐢𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐨𝐧 𝐅𝐥𝐚𝐦𝐞: 𝐈𝐭 𝐁𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐬

𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫

I was laying back on the silk sheets of the bed when I heard the door open, I quickly took out my earbuds and turned towards the door as the 5 girls followed Stella into her room with the quick mention of a date.

"Stell, you have a date? with who?" I questioned as I followed them into her bedroom and to her closet where the others attempted to pick out clothes for her. "Prince Skye, can you believe it?" She giggled, showing me the letter he used to ask her out on a said date, I smiled at her with a quick nod.

"You should've seen the way he looked at you at the ball, I'm not the romantic type but it was pretty dreamy" I smiled sitting down on the couch she had in the corner of her rather large closet. "Really!? did he say anything about me?" she continued to pry cause me to regret saying anything.

"You'll find out later" I smiled and shook her hand before sitting myself more comfortably in the chair. She groaned and turned toward a dress Bloom picked out "it's perfect" She smiled and began to slip the dress on. She had me take a few photos and post them to her socials, sending an alert through my phone as she tagged me as a credit for taking it. I opened the post and was one of the first to like it as the comments and hearts began pouring in, only taking a few seconds to reach ten thousand.

I thanked her for the free plug before sending Stella off to her date, quite reluctantly as she had left her ring in Blooms care while I was gone, I couldn't help but have an off feeling about this "date" as much faith as I had in Skye to be able to ask her out I doubt he would do it over a letter, he always seemed to be the type to try his best to get a girl. The kind who would ensure they asked them out in person rather than over text or mail.

The day went on as usual but when I got back to the dorms, Stella was still nowhere to be found.

"Have you not heard from her either?" Flora walked into the room as Bloom and Musa followed close behind. "No, I haven't, she'll be fine right? It's not as if she is the Princess of The shining sun, she can handle herself?" I spoke reassuringly, trying harder to convince myself than them. Flora nodded after thinking for a second but after a few minutes of convincing herself she was fine we decided to go to bed, cause who knows maybe she got a little action she would tell us about later.

But I didn't sleep that night.

I drowsily sat awake, listening to music in the main room when I heard the door open, I shot up and raced over to the door where Stella stood silent.

"What happened?! are you alright!? did Skye do something to you?!" I bombarded her with questions as she slipped off her heels and spared me a glare, I stood shocked feeling a strange strand of magic flowing behind her like residue and watched her walk over to her room. Having been waiting up all night with worry, once I knew she was okay I made my way to bed.

I opened the door to the room causing Flora to adjust awake when we met eyes. "Is she back?" She cuddled herself into the pillow with the question, strands of her brown hair lightly dusting her face as she drifted back to sleep.

"Yeah she's back, she seems a bit off but we'll talk to her in the morning" I smiled at her and pet her hair down before making my way into my comfortable sheets. I clicked shuffle on my playlist and slipped in both earbuds before falling asleep.

The next morning I woke up to loud crashes and both Bloom and Flora waking up. I jumped up realizing it was likely Stella when I made my way to the room, I knocked on the door lightly before I opened it. There she was, dark circles under her eyes, the same outfit as the night she got back, and dark magic filling the air as soon as she opened the door.

As the girls expressed their worry Stella spouted only excuses.

"Come on give us some details!" Bloom begged for any juicy details only causing Stella to grow even angrier. She yelled in Bloom's face, slamming the door shut in the process.

"Come on girls let's give her a break, we have classes soon anyways" I smiled to the now silent group who nodded, each of them heading to their rooms to change for the day and head to our class.

Once class was dismissed I heard far conversations about Stella's absence; Bloom made her way to our room while the girls and I stayed back.

But before we even made it to lunchtime, Stella jumped out of a window and we were on our way to Red Fountain to see Skye, and hopefully get some answers. The short flight was filled with confused conversations mainly from Bloom and Musa who were coming up with odd scenarios to explain what could have happened to Stella.

We stepped onto the bus that stopped at Red Fountain and after a short ride, we had arrived.

After a brisk conversation with Skye, him admitting her never sent a letter to Stella, and a quick bicker with Riven, we were stumped. Just then a large Golden retriever came to greet us.

"Can you get that animal to shut off" Tecna pointed to the pup as I bent down to pet her, after a few failed attempts of getting the dog to be quiet Brandon had to step in, causing the dog to run to his side and go silent? "Hey Brandon"  Bloom made her way over to the boy as he nodded hello to me, "hello Bloom" he smiled down at the shorter girl before they were interrupted by their instructor yelling something about them needing to slay dragons.

"Sorry girls we need to go" Skye spoke up as they backed away from the conversation. I waved goodbye and followed the rest of the girls to Magix.

Once we arrived we spent a good 30 minutes looking for the Black Lagoon, the place Stella said the date was taking place, but no luck. No matter who we asked, what search engine we used, or map we found there was no trace of a restaurant called "Black Lagoon'' at least not in Magix. We all sat in defeat on the corner of the sidewalk, Bloom and Tecna arguing over whether Earth methods or Tecnas technology was better, I felt the same strand of magic that was following Stella the other night, but this time a man peeking out from around the corner approached us.

"excuse me, ladies, I couldn't help but notice that uh well you were asking questions and I-I think I have the information you're looking forum, but maybe it's none of my business it's a great new restaurant just outside the city you follow the main road and keep going till you get to the bridge you can't miss it there's a huge oak tree right in front of it" The man spoke between stutters as he got closer, the strand of magic getting weaker by the second.

"Thanks a lot, mister i-" Bloom turned around to face the man, but when we looked he was gone.

The girls shrugged it off as we made our way to the black lagoon, following the man's instructions. But when we got there I was extremely overwhelmed by the dark magic I sensed, the cute little german style building was tainted in the fragrance of death and destruction, I felt nauseous. No one noticed it; they walked closer to the building, and to the large yellow-leaved oak tree that provided nice shade, but was lacking any trace of life. "It's like this tree isn't real, like an illusion" she placed her hand gently on the bark of the oak and closed her eyes trying to feel its life, but she couldn't.

I could barely feel my legs as the overwhelming dark magic watered my senses, I was scared, I couldn't see or smell anything else. My eyes flashed between the visual appearance of the spell and Bloom's body on the ground in front of me struggling to grab onto its life. The blood seeping out of her wound as the ragged cut hit bone, the black flames surrounding her torso as I used my own life force to save hers, with no regrets.