"To feel alive you've got to take the blows"
Walking along the path leading from the fairy dormitories to the garden, Rose had to use her hand to shield her eyes from the morning sun shining through the leaves of the trees.
It was a Saturday in early April and the weather was nice. While March had had a lot of rainy days, the sombre grey sky had now given way to a brilliant blue one and the sunlight warmed her skin as she made her way over to meet her roommates.
Cheerful chatter and laughter filled her ears as she reached the picknick table Musa, Terra and Bloom were already sat at, and it was obvious that spring, a time of renewal, had lifted the moods of most students.
"There she is!" Bloom called out as she laid eyes on Rose. "One down, two to go."
"What has gotten you so excited that you demanded us to meet up at 09:00 am on a weekend day?" Rose asked as she took a seat at the table.
She noticed the knowing looks exchanged between Terra and Bloom, grins spread on both of their faces, but neither one of them gave her an explanation. Musa, on the other hand, looked just as puzzled as Rose.
"Just wait until we're all here," Bloom said as her hands fumbled around in her bag to pull out her sketchbook.
Fortunately, it didn't take long for Stella and Aisha to arrive too, and Terra cleared her throat as if she was about to give a speech.
"So, as you know, I've come to love you all. I'm just really glad that we're roommates and I think our friendship should be sealed by a little something extra."
Though her words were touching, they were also a bit confusing, and Rose's eyes darted over to Bloom, silently pleading her to elaborate.
"Yes, and now that Professor Palladium has informed us about the new assignment for the fourth trimester, asking us to form teams and to sign up, Terra and I have come up with a name for our group."
Expectant gazes of all the other roommates followed Bloom's movements as she opened her sketchbook and held it up in the air so everyone could get a good look at it, a proud smile curving her lips up.
'Winx," Stella read out loud, her words full of disbelief and something that equalled annoyance. "You've called me out of bed just to tell me that our group name for the new assignment will be 'Winx' ?!"
Her voice had raised towards the end of the sentence and her hands flew up, waving around in frustration while the others burst out in laughter. Terra and Bloom, however, didn't look as amused.
"Well, yes. And to tell you all that we appreciate you," Terra added uncomfortably as she shifted in her seat, eyes scanning the faces of the other girls to see if they shared Stella's outlook on their announcement.
"Winx," Rose repeated as well. The word sounded strange coming out of her mouth, but she had to admit, there was a nice ring to it. "I like it."
"See!" Bloom practically shouted. "At least someone appreciates the effort we've made."
Her facial features were overtaken by a sour look and a fresh wave of giggles erupted from the other girls again.
"Okay, you're right," Musa said as she composed herself, but it was obvious she had to stifle her laughs. "It's really cool that you guys took the time to come up with a group name, and I have to add, I'm glad to have you all as my roommates as well."
A collective "Awhh" was released by the others and the sceptical looks on their faces gave way to soft smiles.
"So, from now on, we're the Winx," Terra announced cheerily as she got up and grabbed hold of Bloom's arm. "Let's go inform Professor Palladium."
Rose watched as the two of them left in a hurry and eventually, it was just her and Stella sitting at the picknick table in the garden as Musa and Aisha had excused themselves as well.
"I can't believe I'm awake this early," Stella complained again.
"Well, at least now we can do something useful with our time," Rose remarked, trying to make her feel better.
"Like what?"
Rose had to think about it, but before she could come up with an answer, she noticed the sparkle in Stella's eyes.
"Shopping!" she cheered. "You and I can go shopping."
It wasn't exactly what Rose had had in mind, but on the other hand, who was she to say no to shopping.
"Sure, we could go into town."
"I have a better idea," Stella responded. "We are going to Magix City."
"Magix City, Stella, how are we supposed to get there?"
"You just wait and see, I'm going to blow your mind. First we have to get through the barrier."
Rose wasn't so sure it was a good idea, but Stella's determination seemed to convince her. A little adventure never hurt no one. Except it did, all the time, her consciousness added, but she was quick to push that thought aside.
So there they went, off into the forest to get past the barrier while Stella told her how she had been gifted a special ring for her birthday. It was a family heirloom which boosted her powers and allowed her to teleport herself and others. It caused Rose's jaw to drop in amazement as she examined it. It was beautiful.
"Teleporting inside the barrier will alert headmistress Dowling, so that's why we had to get through first," Stella explained as she wriggled the ring off of her finger and threw it in the air. "Are you ready?"
Rose observed in awe as the ring turned into a sceptre, and Stella gracefully caught it before it could clatter to the ground.
Still amazed by what had happened, Rose only managed to slowly nod her head, and as Stella reached out for her hand, she could feel the world around her starting to spin.
She felt the same strange feeling she'd experienced when Professor Green had teleported her over to the ancient fire fairy cave and it left her with a tingling sensation. It was as if gravity was pulling at her body, the force so strong it had her closing her eyes, and as she opened them again, she could notice that they were still surrounded by trees.
"I don't think it worked," Rose stated as she took a look around. They were still in the forest, or a forest, though something was off. It was quiet, too quiet.
"I know. I know, something went wrong," Stella shrieked and the tremor in her voice sent a chill skittering up Rose's spine.
The atmosphere had turned gloomy and mysterious real quick.
"What are you talking about?" She questioned miserably as she inched closer to Stella.
As the sceptre had turned back into a ring, the light fairy was fumbling apprehensively with the small cool piece of metal in her hands, trying to get it to work again. She was not paying attention to their surroundings, but Rose was.
She noticed a shadow moving behind the trees, the blue skies turning eerily grey and the wind picking up around them. The sound of the twigs snapping under her shoes seemed magnified, echoing through the forest like an announcement made over an intercom.
"Stella, talk to me," Rose pressed as her hand flew out to grab hold of her friends' wrist and she hoped the desperate squeeze would alert her.
"Someone is messing with us. I never intended for us to land here, the course was altered."
Rose swallowed hard at that new piece of information and her stomach turned, heart thudding loudly in her chest. This was bad.
As she looked over at Stella, she could see her own fear mirrored in her eyes and she knew they had to pull themselves together or they wouldn't stand a chance against whomever it was that was closing in on them.
"Transform," Rose instructed in what she hoped was a firm tone, but the leaden and shaky feeling in her legs told her otherwise. She was scared, and it was showing.
Nonetheless, she managed to take on her full fairy form and found some reassurance in the warm and vibrant power cursing through her veins. She just hoped Stella felt the same way.
The rustle of the wind in the trees was getting louder and it seemed to carry another sound over to them. At first, Rose couldn't make out what it was. It was ominous, a quiet unintelligible whisper, but it soon turned into somewhat of a scream and eventually it clicked. It was breathing. Ragged, hoarse breathing seemingly coming from somewhere behind the trees.
As the shadow seemed to flow across the forest ground again, Stella threw up her hands. "Show yourself!" A bright beam of sunlight formed in her palms, and she aimed it towards the moving darkness.
With a loud roar the shadow seemed to come alive, rising from the ground, growing into a human silhouette. Its eyes were cold and glowing, but instead of legs its body ended in a tail, hovering above the ground.
"A Shadow Creature," Stella croaked out, her hand covering her mouth in horror. "This is dark magic."
Rose just stood frozen on the spot, her mind whirring between a state of panic and disbelief. This couldn't be. Someone had summoned a creature with dark magic, and it wasn't a coincidence. They didn't just happen to stumble upon it, this was planned. A set up.
The Shadow Creature slithered over to them, though it was slow, and Rose shook her head lightly in an attempt to get a grip on herself again. "Okay, well we just need to think. You're light and I'm fire, we should be able to take out the darkness."
Apparently, the creature didn't like what Rose had said as it suddenly lunged forward with incredible speed. Its dirty claws dug into her skin as it took hold of her arms, the force of its attack causing her to lose her footing.
She could hear Stella let out a shriek as she tumbled to the ground, the Shadow Creature pinning her down. Its awful sounding ragged breaths were close to her ears and as it opened its mouth, rows upon rows of razor-sharp teeth became visible.
Her mind was working frantically, trying to reach her magic, but her senses were overtaken by the sudden attack.
Just as the Shadow Creature was about to plunge its teeth into her skin, a blaze of light appeared, crashing into the monster. It let out a loud screech, signalling it was in pain, and it let go of Rose to attack the source of the light. Stella.
Rose quickly scrambled to her feet, her mind still struggling to catch up with what had just happened. As she looked over to her right, she noticed that Stella had formed a shield of light.
The Shadow Creature was howling out, frustration clear in its deafening cries. It was vulnerable to light, but as the shield started to waver, Rose knew she had to do something.
"Over here!" she yelled loudly as she spread her arms at her sides and summoned her magic. Two bright firebolts formed in her hands and she didn't hesitate to aim them towards the creature.
The first one landed on its target, and the monster howled out again in pain. Plumes seemed to rise up off its skin, the fire burning it, but it was fast enough to dodge the second firebolt.
Panic welled up inside of her as the creature turned around. She fired firebolt after firebolt, but the monster dodged them easily. As it was almost right in front of her, there was only one thing left to try.
She quickly threw her arms up, and with it, fire rose up from the ground. It stretched out high into the sky, and Rose could only hope that it was enough to keep the Shadow Creature at bay.
She strained her eyes to catch a glimpse of it through the blazing fire, but she couldn't see a thing. Seconds passed by, though it seemed like hours, and all of her strength was used on keeping up the fire wall, throat dry and hands trembling.
"Behind you!" A warning rang through the air, but it came too late as the monster had managed to sneak up behind her and closed its jaws around her shoulder.
A sharp sting went through her body, and she yelped out in pain as she sank to the ground, but the creature didn't let go. Her vision had started to turn blurry, her own cries and the monsters' growling fading out and her eyelids felt heavy.
"Hold on!" Stella shouted, and a searing burst of light shot through the air once more.
It caused the creature to let go of Rose, but all she could do was lie on the cold, wet forest ground as the pain of the bite still reverberated through her body.
Sounds of fighting filled her ears again as she eventually managed to lift herself up onto her feet, her head pounding as she tried to get her bearings. It was Stella groaning with effort to strike the Shadow Creature down and the screeches of the creature as it tried to escape Stella's attacks.
Rose was exhausted, her whole body shaking, but she knew Stella needed her help, and it was that thought that gave her just enough strength to summon her magic again.
"I'll trap it, you take it down," she managed to get out before she channelled her magic to form walls of fire around the Shadow Creature.
A stinging pain rippled through her body again, and she gritted her teeth in an attempt to block it out, but her walls of fire were on the verge of burning out as her strength was compromised.
"You can do this!" Stella encouraged her.
It reminded her that she wasn't just doing this for herself, and she drew a sharp breath as she called on her magic again.
She desperately tried to ignore the aching of her body, and managed to deliver just enough power to keep the monster trapped as Stella attacked it with bright beams of light, but as the monster let out its final roar, shrinking into nothingness, Rose collapsed too.
The world had gone silent for a while, her eyes shut. Her heart seemed to slow down, no loud thumping anymore, and she could no longer feel the pain. It felt nice and she just wanted to rest, give in to the fatigue that was tugging at het whole body. But then she heard noises, pulling her from her comfortable oblivion.
She could pick up on faint shouting in the background, people surrounding them. Specialists? She didn't know. She was fading in and out of consciousness as a voice kept pulling her to the surface. It was a familiar voice. She liked that voice. Riven.
She felt arms wrapping around her body, lifting her from the ground. Soft and soothing words of comfort were being whispered into her ear.
Thank you, she wanted to say, but it didn't come out.
It was the last thing she was aware of before everything around her turned black. Exhaustion had taken over and darkness had pulled her under.
***
~ So, kind of curious to know what you guys think about this chapter? Anyways, thanks for reading, voting and commenting! Also, over 2.6k reads, I'm so grateful 💘 ~