𝙷𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛 𝚠𝚘𝚗𝚍𝚎𝚛𝚎𝚍 𝚒𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝙶𝚘𝚍𝚜 𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚒𝚗 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚏𝚊𝚟𝚘𝚛? 𝙳𝚘 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚢 𝚙𝚕𝚊𝚢 𝚏𝚊𝚟𝚘𝚞𝚛𝚒𝚝𝚎𝚜?
𝙸 𝚝𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑𝚝 𝚖𝚢 𝚠𝚑𝚘𝚕𝚎 𝚕𝚒𝚏𝚎 𝙸 𝚠𝚊𝚜 𝚊 𝚐𝚘𝚘𝚍 𝚙𝚎𝚛𝚜𝚘𝚗. 𝙱𝚞𝚝 𝚍𝚒𝚍 𝙸 𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛 𝚍𝚎𝚜𝚎𝚛𝚟𝚎𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚙𝚊𝚒𝚗? 𝙱𝚎𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚐𝚘𝚘𝚍 𝚒𝚜 𝚊 𝚜𝚒𝚗? 𝙼𝚊𝚢𝚋𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝'𝚜 𝚠𝚑𝚢 𝙸 𝚠𝚊𝚜 𝚙𝚞𝚗𝚒𝚜𝚑𝚎𝚍 - 𝙸 𝚍𝚘𝚗'𝚝 𝚛𝚎𝚐𝚛𝚎𝚝 𝚒𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑. 𝙸 𝚜𝚊𝚟𝚎𝚍 𝚖𝚊𝚗𝚢 𝚙𝚎𝚘𝚙𝚕𝚎 𝚒𝚗 𝚖𝚢 𝚕𝚒𝚏𝚎𝚝𝚒𝚖𝚎 𝚜𝚘 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚏𝚎𝚕𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚠𝚊𝚜 𝚖𝚢 𝚛𝚎𝚠𝚊𝚛𝚍. 𝙱𝚞𝚝 𝚍𝚒𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝙶𝚘𝚍𝚜 𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛 𝚝𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑𝚝𝚜 𝚜𝚘?
𝙽𝚘 𝚖𝚊𝚝𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚑𝚘𝚠 𝚖𝚞𝚌𝚑 𝙸 𝚌𝚛𝚒𝚎𝚍, 𝚜𝚌𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚖𝚎𝚍, 𝚢𝚎𝚕𝚕𝚎𝚍. 𝙸 𝚠𝚊𝚜 𝚋𝚎𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚘𝚛𝚝𝚞𝚛𝚎𝚍 𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚍𝚊𝚢𝚜.
𝙸 𝚑𝚊𝚍 𝚝𝚘 𝚎𝚗𝚍𝚞𝚛𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚛𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑 𝚒𝚝. 𝙸'𝚖 𝚊 𝚖𝚘𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛, 𝚊 𝚠𝚒𝚏𝚎 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚐𝚞𝚊𝚛𝚍𝚒𝚊𝚗 𝚏𝚊𝚒𝚛𝚢.
𝙰𝚕𝚕 𝙸 𝚑𝚊𝚍 𝚝𝚘 𝚍𝚘 𝚠𝚊𝚜 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚝𝚘 𝚕𝚎𝚝 𝚐𝚘...
______________________________
“She's been missing for three days, Sebastian! Three days!” Helia cried out in pain as he was on his phone and he couldn't keep up to stay still. “Bro, stop talking nonsense and do something!”
“Helia, stop raising your voice at me--”
The dark-haired man punched the wall next to him, causing a picture of him and Flora fall from the same wall. “Your wife is the Queen of Linphea-- Linphea's guardian fairy is missing and she's just chilling?! Talk to Krystal!”
Sebastian hanged up the call on him.
“Selfish Royals!” He tightens his fist then noticed the picture on the floor and quickly hurries to pick it up but the glass was broken. “Argh.” He put the picture away and started picking up the pieces of glasses.
His mind was so focused on Flora's unknown whereabouts and wellbeing, he accidentally cut his hand and embarked to hold back the pain, because Lilian was still sleeping since it's early in the morning.
Helia carried the last chunks and tossed them out then aided his hand himself. Right at that moment, little steps were heard coming down the stairs, fast.
“Dad?”
“Kitchen!” Helia was about to get up but Lilian already found him.
Lilian rubbed her eyes and climbed up onto the chair next to her father as she sighed and her hair was all messy. “I give up, why is Mom playing hide-n-seek for so long?”
“Urm, don't worry. Soon she'll give up and we win, okay?” Her pushed her hair off from her eyes, adoring her emerald eyes, reminding of Flora.
“Yeah! Mom won't beat us!” Lilian lifted her fist and Helia gently bumped his against hers. “Oh, Daddy, your hand! Is that a boo-boo?”
“Uh?” Helia looked at the messed up bandage with a red stain. “I hurt myself but since Mom is still not here I had to try to do it myself. I did good, right?”
Lilian shook her head. “No. Mom would've done better.”
Helia frowned and tilted his head. “I see, what happened with being Dad's girl?”
“I'm a Lilian girl.”
“Alright. Yes, you are. Now, let's brush our teeth then I'll make you some waffles. Deal?” He raised his hand that wasn't injured and waited for his daughter to high-five him.
Instead, she proudly punched his hand. “Deal!”
-
“Voilá!” Helia said in front of the bathroom mirror with Lilian sitting on a high chair because he attempted in the first time in a while of his lifetime, to do his daughter's hair.
Lilian glanced at her dad then proceeded to shake her head. “You tried Dad, you tried.”
Helia was startled because of her bold-faced, yet quite funny, attitude but he didn't mind it, considering that's what he had to keep up with every day - along with Flora.
Just the thought of her, made his soul wounded once again and tears emerged from his blue eyes. He tried to push them back because Lilian was with him so she wasn't supposed to witness his condition.
“Are you gonna cry? I was joking! I love it, Dad!” The little girl reassured as she smiled and admired her hair to cheer up her father. “Look, I'm pretty too! Like Mommy!”
“Hm, yes, you are.” Helia couldn't help but chuckle. “C'mon, let's get ready for Grandma and Granpa.” He assisted Lilian to come down from the chair by picking her up and leading her back on the floor.
“Will I play with Aunt Miele?” Lilian hopped excitedly, clapping her hands, which saddened Helia. He found it upsetting that his daughter was unaware of everything but he had to keep a smile because she was too young to understand anyway.
“Yes, you can play all you want. In the meanwhile, I'll try to convince Mommy to stop playing hide-n-seek.”
“Okay! I'll get my backpack!”
And the little girl sprinted out of the bathroom as Helia sighed and squatted on the high chair Lilian was sat on earlier. He stared at Flora's bracelet on his wrist, which brought back memories when she was still there with him: their family walks, picnics, cooking together, conversations before going to sleep, etc...
Helia never anticipated for such a situation to come to pass but he was grieving, hard.
He was looking for his wife for the last three days but it was exclusive because he still had to individually take care of his daughter. The dark-haired man couldn't even provoke himself to let Lilian sleep by herself because she kept having nightmares, so she was sleeping with her father but her father didn't sleep much because he had to guard. He had because he lost Flora by letting his guard down.
“I'll bring you back home, I swear. Even if saving you sends me to Heaven...”
“I got it!” Lilian appeared at the doorframe of the bathroom with a little backpack consisted of little flowers as decor. The little girl pointed at her feet. “Look, I did it myself!”
Helia stood up, smiling as he kneeled and put his hand on her shoulder. “Those are your crocs, not your shoes.”
“But I wanna wear these!”
“It just rained yesterday so the grass will be quite muddy, don't you think?”
“Ugh, but I wanna wear these now!" Lilian pouted as she crossed her arms.
Helia also crossed his arms and pouted to imitate his daughter, which made her giggle at first. “Would Mom like you to ruin your new crocs with mud?”
“No...”
He stood up on his feet. “Is it nice for children to act badly and not listen? Mom said she doesn't like when you act like this, don't hurt her feelings.”
“No, Mom never said that. No, no, no! I'm not bad! You are!” She stomped her feet, throwing a tantrum as Helia sighed and watched her do so, while processing - since Lilian can be sweet, sometimes.
He massaged his eyebrows and pinched his nose to think before speaking, especially in situations like this with his daughter of three years. “Lia-- Okay, sorry if I was bad to you. What about you?”
“I'm sorry I was bad to you, Daddy!” Lilian whimpered and hugged his leg. “Sorry!”
Helia chuckled and brushed his fingers on his daughter's soft wavy hair. After a few other fits from Lilian, Helia managed to put on her proper shoes and let her eat her grapes as a snack in peace before leaving so when she'll go to Alyssa's and Rhodos', Flora's parents, she'll get tired after playing occasional minutes and nap.
Eventually, the dark-haired man clenched his daughter's hand as he closed the door of his house. He turned around and, while locking the door, he hoped not to visualize about Flora being tugged away somewhere and he wasn't there to defend her.
Lilian commenced pulling her father's hand. “Dad... Dad, Dad, Dad!” She pointed at something.
Helia blinked repeatedly in commotion and came back from his daydream as he was lost in his thoughts and was confused at the beginning of where she was talking about. “What, what, what? What did you see, Lili?”
“Oh... nothing.”
“What did you see?!” He gently shook her shoulder but she shrugged it off.
“Stop, it was nothing! You're scaring me!” Though, after that, she hid behind her father's leg and wrapped her arms around.
Although, Helia was not buying it and had to remind himself to check it out later. Whatever he suspected Lilian to have seen, it must be a clue left behind of how to get back Flora. Anything could be useful. In the meanwhile, he behaved neutral.
“Do you still want to go to Granpa's house?”
Lilian unhesitatingly nodded. “Yes! Let's go.”
-
“We arrived!” Helia exclaimed when he stopped on the doorstep, in front of a dark wooden door. “Do you want to knock on the door?” He questioned his daughter as her emerald green eyes lightened up at the idea and nodded instantly. With her minuscule hand, Lilian knocked on the wooden door and waited for someone to answer.
Not many seconds later, a lady in her 40s, answered the door cluelessly but when she saw her daughter's husband and granddaughter waiting behind, she was able to pull off a smile of relief then buried her face in her hands.
She didn't see much of Flora lately and the rumours going around didn't make her feel any better and every day she keeps worrying more and more, so Alyssa wasn't looking decent much, which Helia quite observed.
“Helia, oh my...” Alyssa, Flora's mother, was at a loss of words then remembered Lilian. “My sweet Lili, you keep getting more beautiful every day! Want to come in? Abuelo is bored anyways and needs someone to talk to. Okay?”
The little girls smiled. “A mission? Yeah, okay!” Lilian skipped inside as Alyssa watched her in awe. Then closed the door behind her so she could have a talk with her son-in-law.
Helia politely bowed. “Sorry for the disturbance--”
She shook her head and lunged to the point, with no hesitation whatsoever. “Is it true?”
“Uh? What's true?”
“Some theories are going around that say that the Queens of Solaria, Andros and Eraklyon have gone missing as well as the six guardian fairies of the main planets, Linphea included.” Alyssa sighed as she gently took Helia's hands into her cold ones and whimpered, “It's not true, right? My daughter is doing fine and she's with you right now, right?”
“I'm sorry, Mother... I haven't been able to rest at all without thinking about how she's doing. It's all my fault.” His voice broke and Alyssa's tears finally came down and embraced Helia.
“Shh, don't blame yourself, please. You're a good man to my Flora and I know she would be hoping for you and Lilian to be safe instead of thinking of herself.” She rubbed his back. “I'm sorry I wasn't there for you.”
They broke the hug as Alyssa was lost emotionally, rethinking of her whole life. Helia reached for his pocket to get his phone.
“Queen Krystal, King Sebastian. They aren't helping at all with the situation, they don't care. I've been calling them but they say they're taking care of it. It is not true.” He raged, almost breaking his phone as Alyssa was both attentive and non-attentive, trying to process everything. “So, the Specialists and I will step up.”
“And we'll take care of Lilian in the meanwhile, don't you worry.” She turned around, to her husband, busy chatting calmly with his only granddaughter at the moment. Alyssa sighed, rubbing her arms. “Lilian doesn't visually perceive the world through our eyes, and mostly it is a good thing that she can't. She sees excitement and possibilities... I see danger and a world of uncertainty.”
“You're right, Mrs Alyssa. More reasons why I should leave her for a while. I don't know what I'll be going against to.” There's was a moment of silence, just smiling at each other and feeling the warm breeze caressing their skins. Helia spoke again, gratefully, “Thank you again, Mother. We will find the Winx soon and put an end to this. I promise you this.”
The woman smiled, delicately patting his shoulder with her fragile hand. “Rosa... Your mother.” Alyssa recalled what she wanted to say from the beginning. “I'm so sorry, you must be going through a lot all by yourself. How is she doing?”
“As usual. I sent her a few gifts because I couldn't be able to visit her again.” Helia explained but had a small smile because Alyssa also cared for him and he has all the time seen her as his second, delightful mother.
“She's a strong one.”
Fun fact: almost twenty-nine years ago Alyssa and Rosa knew each other when they were both Alfea student fairies but were not as close but Alyssa did see Rosa as a friend. Coincidentally, both of their firstborns married each other which got them to re-enter each other lives.
It was evident that Alyssa was preoccupied for a friend. Sounds a lot like Flora, Helia thought.
Something commenced vibrating from Helia's pocket and before answering he and Alyssa both said bye to each other and kissed Lilian goodbye on her forehead one last time before going. He went ahead to answering his phone.
“Timmy--”
“Dear Magix, Helia! Someone who can finally answer their phones! Riven is useless.”
“Alright, have you found anything new?” He turned on his heels and began striding back to his house, but then he interrupted.
Helia sulked as he was perplexed and got distracted by what Timmy solely stated.
“Woah, woah! Timmy, could you slowly elaborate that?”
“We need to meet up ASAP! But first, remember that gadget that Tecna sent to the girls so they could send stuff to each other?”
“Yeah--?”
“I'm about to send you this device and use to analyze the last place you have seen Flora! Try to get as much as you can then submit the analysis to me. I think I got something.”
Helia sighed, frustrated if he should do what Timmy requested to or demand more answers before doing so. He palmed himself then nodded as he began running back to his house.
Once he arrived, he kicked the door opened then looked for whatever device Flora managed to utilize a long time ago, but his memory was fairly poor. Then it hit.
Basement.
Helia sough and ran his fingers through his hair before entering in the basement on the lower floor. The device he was desperately looking for was on a shelf, with not much dust on it as Flora would usually clean the entire whenever she was bored, which was almost always.
“Found it. Now what?”
Helia checked the device and brought it with him back up the stairs and made sure to lock the basement door. He placed it on the table in the living room, that's when a phone-looking tool appeared on top of the device and the sender was from Timmy.
“Ah, I think I quite remember how to use this. Flo, do you--” He halted. “...You're not here. Right.”
The Specialist concentrated back on his expedition and went ahead outdoor on the front porch of the house, where he reckoned that was the last location of Flora's. He pressed a few buttons before a green light appeared, which analyzed the surrounding.
For a while, he was getting weary until the tool abruptly beeped non-stop rigorously right at the ebony scar on the grass he found three days ago when Helia was searching for Flora.
He strived to obtain a reading of the data as a diagram materialized in front of his eyes, illustrating the outcome the tool distinguished. Helia didn't even know if the word ‘confused’ was the right word of what he was feeling while peeking on the diagram and presently dialled Timmy's phone again.
“Timmy. What the heck is this? Tell me... Is this what I think it is?”
°°°°°°°°°
END OF CHAPTER 31!
New chapter, yes it's short, but new chapter!
It's fun writing this story, all these ideas come in my head all last minute.
Just feel like I needed to say this if you don't understand who's Sebastian - it's just a random character I created. He used to be Helia's friend and that's how Krystal, princess of Linphea, and Sebastian met and ended up marrying, becoming the Queen and King of Linphea.
Want more? You know the answer! VOTE & COMMENT + SHARE with other Winx fanfics lovers, why not? :D
Until then, see you next time fairies.