Aerilyn pulled down the hem of her safari outfit's shorts and crossed her arms. She tapped her foot on the swampy floor and caught her foot in a pile of mud and shook it vigorously to get it off. She stood next to Flora who was listening intensely to what Professor Palladium said, she swatted a swarm of flies that was causing irritation to her skin. After a while of swatting she got fed up and casually blew the flies away with her air magic by 'sneezing'. A red-headed girl interrupted Professor Palladium's talk and looked annoyingly at Palladium. "Professor Palladium a mosquito just bit me." A girl next to her started laughing, and Palladium sighed and replied. "Well yes we are in a near a swamp."
The girl continued to laugh hysterically and another girl joined in. The red head rolled her eyes and lifted her shorts to reveal a mosquito on her thigh. Palladium's face turned red and started stuttering trying to continue the lesson, everyone burst out laughing while Aerilyn stood there not so much cracking a smile.
Bloom, who was standing beside Stella, sympathised with Palladium. "Poor Professor they really shouldn't give him such a hard time." Aerilyn shuffled towards Bloom and nodded with agreement. Stella shrugged her shoulders. "If he was more confident he would get more respect."
Aerilyn raised an eyebrow and looked at Stella. "What's wrong with having no confidence?" Stella flipped her hair and pushed her fingers through it. "Well I have more confidence and no one messes with me." Aerilyn sighed.
"Of course they don't." Palladium cleared his throat and looked at them sternly. "When you're ready girls." Aerilyn sighed and stood back next to Flora and fiddled with her fingers. "A good fairy must be able to listen to nature and what it tells her, this assignment will test your skills,"
Aerilyn shot a glance at Flora "Now you have been assigned into groups and have 3 hours to get out of Black-Mud Swamp and reach gloomy wood forest." Aerilyn sighed and relaxed easy. "Without using your powers."
Aerilyn almost had a heart attack and the wind picked up making the trees shake and rustle. Palladium looked at her sternly and she looked at him apologetically. "Sorry, pure reflex?" Palladium shook his head.
"For a true fairy to connect to nature you must learn to use your skills without magic" Aerilyn internally rolled her eyes but she knew she had to learn. He turned away from her and looked at the rest of the girls.
"And remember listen closely to the voice of nature." He snapped his fingers and disappeared leaving only bright yellow sparks behind. Everyone gasped at this and started to make their journey. As they were walking the others trudged into a mud puddle but Aerilyn halted and stayed on the grass, she sniffed the air and smelled gas, though it was not noticeable.
"Uhh guys I don't think you should go in there." Stella gagged and covered her mouth in disgust, Musa turned to her and waved her over. "Stop being such a pussy and come here." Aerilyn hesitated and looked down at the sludge, she shook her head furiously and took a few steps back.
The gas smell became stronger and the others started sniffing the air. "Is that...gas?" Flora started to trudge towards Aerilyn while the other stood still, still sniffing the air. "Guys come on the gas is poisonous, get out of there!"
They all ran back onto the land and crouched behind a log. Bloom picked up a stick and threw it on one of the gas bubbles and it exploded spewing blots of magic. Many more bubbles followed, Aerilyn covered her nose in disgust. "I mean it doesn't smell that bad." Stella said.
"Easy for you to say, we air fairies advance our senses, what you smell I smell tenfold." Techna looked at her confused. "By my database, you are able to turn off this said ability or at least lessen it's affects." Aerilyn placed a finger over her lips and shushed her.
"Stop, I need them to feel sorry for me." They all started laughing and Aerilyn groaned.
They continued walking for a while, jumping over logs and dodging vines and drooping trees. Aerilyn looked at the sky as she was walking she saw a ship descending from the sky and into the fields. She shook Flora's shoulders and pointed upwards, they all looked up in shock and started running towards the ship.
When they arrived 3 specialist were sitting down on the sludge beside the red ship. Riven scratched his head and groaned with Sky and Brandon behind him. "Are you okay?" Flora asked, Riven looked at her in slight disbelief.
"Isn't it obvious?" He said in an annoyed tone. Aerilyn stood next to Musa who bit her lip as she looked at Riven. So that's the type of men she likes? Aerilyn cringed on the spot and walked 'casually' to Flora, it was now obvious to her that Musa had bad taste in men and that if she were to ask for dating advice she would be her last option. Sky looked towards the gap in the ship. "Oh no" He said in disbelief.
He trailed his eyes over the huge footsteps that were imprinted into the grass. "The troll's gone!" Aerilyn looked at where he was looking and saw the huge footsteps. "A troll escaped?" The girls muttered in horror and looked around the area. "How could you let him escape?" Riven gritted his teeth and shot her a glance.
"We didn't we just got into an accident." Aerilyn felt something metal in the sludge by her feet, she bent down and picked it up and shook the water out of it. It was a pair of handcuffs, big ones. She thrusted the handcuffs towards Riven.
"And I presume this is what you handcuffed him with?" Riven looked at the handcuffs dumbfounded and took it from her. Brandon scratched his head nervously and turned to Bloom. "Anyways what are you doing here?"
"We're doing an assignment right now." Riven gave the handcuffs to Timmy and wiped his hands on his suit. "Well go back to doing your assignment and leave this to the specialists." Stella put a hand over her eyes and looked around the place and looked back at him confused. "Specialists? I don't see any here." Riven growled at her like a dog and Aerilyn tried to keep her laughter in. He pointed his finger at her. "Right here you silly little girl." Aerilyn walked up to Riven and glared at him.
"Well you better start acting like one." She slapped his finger away from Stella's face. "Oh and only desperate boys looking for validation call girls 'silly' for no reason" Riven got up in her face and glared at her. "You better shut your mouth." Aerilyn laughed in his face.
"What are you going to do growl at me? last I checked I could beat you with my pinkie" Riven clenched his fist and gritted his teeth. "Let's go then, ill fight you right now." Aerilyn turned her head and waved him off, crossing her arms. "I wouldn't even dream wasting my energy on something insignificant as you." Sky stood in-between them pushing Riven back.
"Come on guys we shouldn't be fighting, lets go Riven we need to find that troll." Riven gave Aerilyn a dirty look before walking away with Sky, she stuck her tongue out when his back was turned and walked to the girls. "That little bitch, i swear the next time we encounter-" Flora stopped her mid sentence. "I agree it was wrong be we should be going back to continue our assignment." Stella scoffed and turned to Aerilyn thanking her.
"You really put him in his place." She smiled and Aerilyn smiled back, out the corner of her eye she saw Musa looking a Riven with some disgust and hurt. Aerilyn walked up to her and placed a hand on her shoulder reassuring her.
"He's not worth it Musa, you'll see." She mumbled a 'mhm' under her breath and trudge towards the rest of the winx. Aerilyn felt a deep guilt in her chest and followed her. "I don't know maybe we should help them find the troll." Aerilyn scoffed and frowned. "As if let them do the job if they're 'so strong'"
Bloom urged Aerilyn to accept and out of sheer annoyance she did. They trampled through the swamp with their boots covered in mud and swamp water. Aerilyn groaned and hung her head, "This is not what I thought I would be doing when I first arrived." Musa pushed some vines out her face and kicked at a stick.
"Nether did I but do you see me complaining?" Aerilyn scoffed and broke a branch of a tree and started playing with it, when she looked to her side Flora was glaring at her. She chuckled nervously and placed the branch on a tree and outstretched her hands to show Flora.
"See Flora, good as new." The branch fell and hit the swamp floor creating a small splash. Bloom hushed them and told them to keep quiet. Aerilyn looked down at the branch and saw huge footsteps. "Hey guys I think I might have found something."
They all looked down at the footsteps, Techna kneeled down and examined it while the others went to look for more clues. Aerilyn leaned on a tree and whistled lazily. She turned to Flora to see her looking at plants and approached her. "Maybe you should use some of those 'Mother Nature' senses you have."
"That's it!" Aerilyn was shook violently then pushed away by Bloom to be caught by Flora. "We need to use the voice of nature, that's how we'll find the ogre." Aerilyn clenched her head and was steadied by Flora. "And I need the voice of healing." She said drunkenly.
Flora straightened herself up before closing her eyes and concentrating alongside Bloom. Flora snapped her eyes open and looked towards a place where the trees slopped over each other and pointed towards it, Bloom then opened her eyes and looked towards where Flora was pointed. "Wow you're better than this than I am."
"Well she isn't called the fairy of nature for nothing."
As they walked through the forest they were abruptly stopped by Flora raising her hand, she placed a finger over her lips and whispered to them. "We have to be quiet, these are carnivores and they hate noise." Stella raised her eyebrows and looked down at the plants.
"I find that hard to believe." She placed two fingers in her mouth and whistled, she then paused for a minute and looked around. She relaxed herself and looked at Flora. "See nothing at al-L!" Purple vines wrapped around her legs and heaved her up, it swung her around as she screamed. Bloom shushed her and quietly walked up to her. "Be quiet Stella."
Aerilyn covered her mouth as small laughs escaped her mouth. She whispered something to Musa's ear and she too was trying not to laugh. The vines soon let Stella go, she fell and landed on the swamp floor dirtying her clothes. As she got up she groaned in disgust and tried to wipe away the swampy dirt from her clothes.
Aerilyn grabbed her arm and helped her up. Suddenly there was a shriek, as Aerilyn had put her senses on high alert the shriek was far from pleasant. She briefly put her hands over her ears to lessen the sounds and then removed them after a minute or two, they ran towards the sound of the shriek much to Aerilyn's dismay as she was the one who had to lead them, they found the specialists bounded up by the vines.
Aerilyn's dismay turned to happiness as she saw Riven tied up struggling. That ought to teach him a lesson, she thought. Bloom instructed them to be quiet while Flora bent down to the ground, a few vines rose towards her face and she spoke softly to them. "Its okay now you can relax." The vines fell down and so did the vines around the specialists, they stop groaning and sighed with relief as Flora rose from the ground.
They emerged from the forest, Brandon took Bloom hands and thanked her softly. Bloom looked deeply into his eyes and accepted the thanks, Stella interrupted their moment by telling Brandon that he didn't have to whisper anymore. "I think we should stick together from now on." Bloom suggested, Riven scoffed and shook his head, Aerilyn mumbled under her breath as she gritted her teeth. "I refused to work with fairies."
"Its fine its not like we need you in the team anyways." Aerilyn gave him an unbothered look and walked past him. Riven glared at her, as he was about to say something Sky butted in. "Well then if that's the case Riven you're own your own." He walked a few steps forwards before turning his head to face Riven again. "Oh, and if you find the troll just give us shout." Aerilyn started to laugh. "Yeah, we'll be sure to get there real *fast*"
Sky jumped on a lily pad, it sway side to side for a moment before steadying. Timmy then tried to jump but instead landed into the water, everyone burst out laughing but was caught short by Riven's complaining. "Great as if we didn't have enough on out hands now we have to take care of Timmy." Brandon glared at him and shouted.
"Okay now you have gone too far Riven." Aerilyn nodded in agreement. He scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Your just Prince Sky's servant, why don't you go clean out the stables."
"You're insulting." Riven shrugged his shoulders.
"So what" Aerilyn walked up to Riven and jabbed a finger at him.
"Please as if you in any position to talk about status at least he has relation to a royal family, if they saw you they would probably think you're a peasant." Riven swung a punch at Aerilyn, she quickly managed to dodge it and retaliated with a punch to the face, he held his face and groaned in pain while the other stood there watching. Aerilyn turned back to look at them.
"I think your buddy is bleeding, better go help him."
"Uh right." Timmy got out bandages and an alcohol wipe and went over to Riven. The girls looked at Riven in disgust. "That's a specialist? I don't think so." Stella remark, Flora clenched her fist and glared at Riven. "That little selfish-" Aerilyn placed a hand on Flora's shoulders and smiled. "It's okay Flora just leave him, he doesn't need two fairies to embarrass him today." Bloom gave him the side eye and continued walking. "Let's go girls, we've got more significant things to do today."
Aerilyn looked down at her reflection in the pond, her black hair was dullened by the swampy interior around them. Timmy pointed at lily pad and Techna nodded and jumped on it, the other followed. Aerilyn flailed her arms around before steading herself, she felt a pulling sensation underneath the lily pad and looked at the water. Ripples of water started to move forwards and so did the lily pads, everyone was startled by the sudden movements. "I don't wanna sound crazy but I think these lily pads are moving."
"I was thinking the exact same thing." Bloom responded.
"Well you can stop thinking, cause these lily pads are moving for real." Techna stated. The lily pads started to float faster and faster straight ahead. Aerilyn jumped on a lily pad away from the current. "What's happening Brandon?" Bloom yelled, Brandon bent down and placed a hand on the lily pad he was on, he squinted his eyes looking ahead of him. He then turned around and shouted to Bloom. "It's a whirlpool, we've got to get out of here." Aerilyn groaned in annoyance.
"God, if only we had a water fairy." She whined. Stella slipped and Sky caught her, she looked into his eyes and thanked him. Aerilyn turned away from them in jealously, when is it my time to shine I've waited 16 years for this, She thought. "Careful not to fall guys." Techna said, Aerilyn smiled to herself and pretended to jump into the water. "I wouldn't do that if I was you."Techna said, Aerilyn laughed and contiuned to do it. "Oh Techna what's the worst that could happen, OH SHIT-"
She flapped her arms around trying to regain balance but then slipped and fell in. She felt the cold water on impact, and kicked her legs to try to reach the surface. She exhaled dramatically when she reached the surface and looked around, she saw her friends looking at her with relief.
"Okay you were right Techna." She turned around to see herself floating closer and closer into the whirlpool, she turned to out swim it but was caught in it. "AERI" She heard someone say. She felt herself being spun round and round and all she could think off is that how silly she must look right now. Suddenly she felt something wrap around her waist and push her up to the surface, it gently placed her on land and she felt its grasp weaken.
She coughed up water and tried to look at the thing who saved her, but her eyes was blurry and she wiped it. When she reopened her eyes the thing that had saved her was gone. She heard footsteps behind her and felt a hand grasp her arm and pull her up. Flora was looking at her worriedly, she smiled softly. "God I must of looked so weird when I was spinning." She heard a few people sigh with relief and a few laughing. "Come on let's get you out of here."
Aerilyn walked slowly, feeling the heaviness of her clothes drenched in water. Flora and Bloom was by her side asking questions on what happened. "How did you get out?" Flora asked, Aerilyn tilted her head and slapped one ear trying to get the water out.
"I don't know, I felt someone wrap around me and lift me up to the surface." Her afro was floppy and wet, she lifted her arms and squeezed the water out of it, wishing she could use her powers to dry it. Suddenly there was a shriek, everyone halted in their steps and looked around. Aerilyn pointed towards the sound, Riven looked at her confused. "How do you know."
"Voice of Nature bitch." She said drunkenly to him, he still looked at her confused and she snapped. "I'm a fucking air fairy, I have advance senses." He nodded in response and everyone ran towards the sound. They all stood a few feet away from the troll, it had cornered some fairies and they were shaking with fear.
"Okay guys here's what we're gonna do, you guys will distract the troll, Brandon and Timmy will grabbed a hold of him while Me and Riven put the cuffs on him, any complaints?" Aerilyn raised her hand up, Sky looked at her and nodded.
"Can I sit this one out, not trying to be rude or anything, I am exhausted."
"Uh sure, we'll be fine anyways." Aerilyn sat down near a tree and sighed with exhaustion, the girls went up to the troll and got his attention while Aerilyn drifted off to sleep.
She snapped her eyes open and looked around at her surrounding, the place had a dark blue interior to it. As she walked around her surroundings stayed the same. She then fell to the floor exhausted, she looked down at the floor and saw planets and stars under it and gasped in shock. It was like looking at the universe through a blue tinted glass window.
She placed a hand to the floor but couldn't get through it. She concentrated to get through the floor but felt nothing happen then with a blink of an eye she had transformed. At first she was confused and stood up, she looked back at the ground and decided the only way to get through the ground was to destroy it.
She flew up and charge an attack towards the floor. "Tornado Burst!" She outstretched her hands towards the floor and there was a blinding light as it came in contact and she covered her eyes. Minutes later the light vanished and when she reopened her eyes and looked at the ground it had only made a small dent.
She swore under her breath and flew back down to the ground, she looked around for any indication for what she had to do but found nothing. She slammed her fist to the ground and shouted to the abyss. "What do you want me to do?!"
Then in blinding speed a hand appeared, it was pale and ghostly. It attached itself to her face and shone brightly. She woke up startled, she glanced about frantically. She saw that she was moved to another location in the forest, a few feet away from her Flora stood talking to Stella.
Stella eyes met hers and she pointed at Aerilyn, Flora ran up to her whilst Stella went to tell the others. Aerilyn was helped up by Flora and the girls ran to her to make sure that she was okay. "Are you okay Aeri, you gave us quite the shock." Aerilyn placed a hand to her forehead and steadied herself by placing a hand on the tree she was standing by. "Yeah I'm fine, what happened?" The girls anxious faces turned to disappointment, Aerilyn felt her heart sink at the realisation.
"You didn't catch him did you?" They all shook their heads. Aerilyn got up to her feet and sighed. "Well you guys thinking to try again? Cause I'm down." Flora shook her head as she looked at Aerilyn.
"You're too weak to fight, you should have some rest." Aerilyn shook her head and looked at all of them. "And let you guys have all the fun? I don't think so." They all smiled and agreed, Aerilyn turned to Flora. "Well looks like you're the guide now Flora."
She looked at Aerilyn inconvincibly. "I mean it, we need your voice of nature Flora, you're the only one who can do it." The girls all spoke in agreement, Flora smiled at them all and nodded.
"Ill try my best." Aerilyn smiled and patted her on the shoulder.
"That's our girl now let's get going."
They all walked for a while, Aerilyn was accompanied by Stella who refused to let her walk by herself. "I mean it Stella I'm fine." Stella ignored her and continued walking by her side. They halted by a spot and Stella helped Aerilyn down on a rock for her to rest. "Are you sure we're going the right way, I mean how do you even know?" Riven asked.
"It's something you can't hear with your ears but you feel inside." Flora said giving Riven the side eye. "Though I don't expect you to understand." Riven mumbled something under his breath and walked away from Flora. She closed her eyes for a moment and reopened them turning to a path and pointing at it. "Are you sure you know where you're going?" Sky asked.
"Hey lay off, I don't you think have any better ideas and besides this is Flora we're talking about the fairy of nature, anything that involves nature she's the best at it." Musa snapped at Sky, Sky didn't say anything back and shut his mouth. They walked to a wet place in the swamp when Flora stopped in her tracks, she looked around for a moment before turning and looking at them. "The feeling is gone, I don't sense nothing." Aerilyn felt a tingly feeling at the back of her neck. "Hey Stella do you feel that, I feel a lot of negative energy here." Stella nodded.
"Like something casted a dark spell." Techna said
"Or someone."
"So someone helped him escape, then they help him disappear, anyone come up in mind?" Musa asked, Aerilyn looked down at the swampy floor, she saw a pair of purple feathers floating in the water. "Hey Bloom looked at those." Bloom turned away from Brandon and looked down and where Aerilyn was indicating, she bent down and picked up the feather, shaking off any water in them. "They look a lot like-" Aerilyn began to say.
"-Icy's duck pepe." Flora finished.
"But what does she have to do with this?" Musa asked. Bloom shrugged her shoulders.
"I doesn't matter anyways, we know that she was here but that's all."
Aerilyn walked down from the steps with Flora holding her up, she was a few minutes from dropping down from where she stood. They all walked up to Professor Palladium who was standing next to a bunch of girls. After the others said goodbye Palladium confronted them. "I am really pleased with all that you have done even if you had come last, you displayed remarkable qualities fit for fairies and for that I would to say that this was a test run."
Some girl scoffed and looked at Palladium angerly. "No fair so we did all this for nothing?" Palladium shook his head. "Not all for nothing young girl, some of us learned a lot today." Aerilyn nodded. "Yeah I learned how to hold my breath for 3 minutes and be able to walk when I can barely see two feet in front of me." The girl walked up to Aerilyn and took her other arm.
"How'd you get so messed up anyways."
"Well I got whirled around by a whirlpool, tho usually I don't get so exhausted and weak from things like that."
"Maybe you touched a poisonous flower." Aerilyn nodded slowly.
"Could be."
"Okay girls let's head back, Flora would you mind taking Aerilyn to the medical room, I'll teleport you right there." Flora nodded and they were teleported into the medical room. The nurse instructed her to place Aerilyn on the bed. As soon as she felt the soft bed against her back she fell asleep. The nurse laughed and placed a hand on her forehead. "Poor dear must have had a rough day." Flora nodded.
"Yes, she did." The nurse placed an ointment on her forehead and drew up the covers.
"Well don't you worry about your friend she'll be just fine, Ill keep her here for the night and she should be fine tomorrow, just make sure she doesn't do anything extreme for the next 48 hours, Ill notify her teachers in case she has any exercises." Flora smiled and thanked the nurse before leaving.