As soon as she stepped out of the red fountain ship, she felt a shiver wrack her whole body. She had never felt so cold in her life. She was not used to these kinds of temperatures. Her Home planet had tropical weather all year. And Magix switched between beautiful sunny days or gray rainy ones. The weather went below zero. This was only her second time seeing naturally snow and ice (first being their sky trip in second year). She had forgotten the sound of the snow made when they stepped on it. Snow was a side of nature that she was slowly learning to love. But the freezing cold was still something needed to get used to. She pulled her coat tighter around herself. The others were doing the same thing. Except Timmy he was too focused on the small table in his hands. His eyes kept focused on the small representing Tecna's position in the winter desert. She admired his determination and dedication towards her friend. Even after everyone had told him she was gone. He kept on searching for her. Kept on hoping and believing in her. And in the end he had been right. Without him, she honestly doubted they could have found their friend so quickly. Flora quietly wondered. If it had been her who had fallen in the omega portal.,would someone have done like Timmy, kept on looking for her even when everyone told them to stop? Would someone have done that for her?
She did not have time to ponder the question longer, because Timmy was already showing them the way.
"She's this way, everybody. Follow me." They slowly walked through different ice tunnels and caves, the more they walked the colder it got. her coat was not doing a good job in protecting her from the freezing temperatures.
"There!" He shouted. Instead of their friend, she was disappointed to only see a small little blue gadget on the snowy ground. Timmy picked it up, and confirmed that Tecna had made it and programmed it to send her message and location to him.
"But how are we going to find her now? This place is huge." Layla voiced out the question they were all asking themselves.
However, they did not have time to answer her question, because out of nowhere weird armor and mask wearing men came out from different hidden corners in the tunnels around them. An ambush. The girls hurriedly transformed into their Enchantix forms while the boys were trying to fight off the closest attackers. but even after transforming, the group was quickly outnumbered by the well organized gang. To the girl's dismay, the fairies' wings seem to be slower and weaker because of the overwhelming cold in the caves. As the masked soldiers slowly advanced towards them while successfully deflecting most of their attacks, the flightless fairies could only back up. However none of them saw the huge crater-like hole behind them. They all tripped and fell in it. A weird strong wind current seemed to pull them to the bottom.
Dimitri was playing with a small hoop earring while climbing the stairs towards the fairies' dorm. He had found behind one of the couch pillows;. He had seen Flora wear them often. So she assumed that she would want to lose one of them. He had decided to quickly place it on the flower fairie's desk , before going to join Faragonda in the library. However he was surprised to find someone in the supposedly empty flat. He quickly hid the earring in one of his jean pockets before the red haired could see it. He had no energy in making up lies right now.
"Sir! I've been looking for the other girls everywhere but I can't find them. Do you know where they are?" The red-haired girl did not look in the best of shapes. She was pale and her skin was covered in small scrapes and bruises. The mission must have been grueling.
"They left barely an hour ago for Omega, the nerdy specialists... you know the one with glasses always on his wrist computer thingy..." He just could not remember the boy's name.
"Timmy?" Bloom guessed correctly.
"Yeah, Timmy, he received a message from Tecna, so the girls and some of their specialist friends left to go and bring her back." He quickly explained to her.
As soon as he was done he saw her walk towards her room.
"Where are you going?" He asked curiously.
"Get my things I need to go and help them." He rolled his eyes at his action. She was starting to get paler just by walking around the room. Did fairies have no sense of self-preservation?
"Don't be dumb, girl. You're in no state to go anywhere. Just rest and wait for their return." He patiently tried telling her.
"I can't just stay here. They need me!" He frowned when he saw that she was actually being serious. He hurriedly put himself between her and the exit.
"Have you looked at yourself in a mirror? You look like you won't even be able to climb down the main stairs, so don't even think about going gallivanting to one of the dimension's most dangerous planets." He tried reasoning with her. Flora would kill him if he let one of her friends go in a dangerous situation, unfit to fight or even defend herself.
"They need my help, Sir. I need to go get Tecna." She was getting angry at him. And he was really losing his patience with the stubborn girl's attitude.
"Listen here, fairy! Right now you would be no help to anyone. Go there, you'll just be a burden to your friends." He was not going to be the nice guy. Blunt honesty is sometimes the best tool.
"Your friends are on the job. Don't you trust them to succeed in their mission without you? You and I both know they are all powerful and competent enchantix fairies."
"But..."
"NO buts." He interrupted her. " Think for a second. When they get back you all still have a powerful evil mage to fight. And you're the only one who can defeat him. Do you think you'll be able to if you're half dead? Let your friends do this so that you can be at your best when we'll all actually need you in the next mission."
He saw she was not completely convinced.
" Adding one exhausted spent fairy to the mix won't change their odds much for this mission. But a powerful, rested dragon power user in the next battle against Valtor will change everything."
"I agree with him Bloom." They both jumped in surprise at the sound of their headmistress's voice. She was standing in the hallway behind them, a worried frown on her face.
"Come you two, let's go to my office. Bloom can sit down and eat something and drink some healing tea. I'll ask the School's nurse to check on you too, while we talk about the next steps we need to take to take down Valtor".
When Flora finally opened her eyes, she was met with the sight of the sun fairy sitting back turned to her. Facing off with the biggest white snake she had ever seen. They were surrounded by a small weak light. Stella's light magic. It seemed to be the only thing keeping the monster away from them. Its huge terrifying blue reptilian eyes were fixated on them. But the light was so weak. Now that she paid attention to her own magic core, she noticed that her magic felt almost non existent. The deadly cold in this dark cave around them not only made them weak physically but affected their magic too. She was impressed that the blond fairy had been able to even use her sun power in this condition. But it was only a matter of time until her friend's magic would run out.
"Why do I feel like I just got run over by a truck?" She heard Musa mumble behind her, the other girls were slowly sitting up and taking a look at their surroundings. Layla was the first one to answer her.
"I Think these caves are enchanted to keep imprisoned the most powerful convicts by weakening their powers." She explained slowly. But both quickly went quiet at the sight of the monster in front of them.
"It's looking at us like we're its next meal." Musa whispered in fear. "Because we are." Layla shot back.
"Girls, I'm not going to last any longer, can any of you use your magic." They all answered in the negative. Most of them could not even find the energy to get up. Was this it for them? More than half of the Winx club would meet their end here in the middle of nowhere?
That's when Flora felt a small feeling of warmth against her chest. The amulet was still emitting some magical energy, Perhaps the enchanted cold had no effect on magical objects. She did not waste time coming up with theories. Stella's light dom was flickering around them. Any minute and they would turn into snake food. She clasped her hands around the necklace's crystal and spoke up, surprising the other girls.
"Dimitri! We need your help." She should have asked him in more detail how to activate the amulet's power. But honestly she had been too distracted at the time (by their goodbye kisses) to ask more about the object. However, it seemed that she had done it right, because suddenly the crystal opened in two and a cloud of crimson smoke surrounded her. In the middle of this red cloud appeared the image of Dimitri sitting in a red armchair. He looked surprised and worried.
"Flora? Are you okay? What's happening?" She would almost dare to say he looked panicked.
"We're trapped in a cave, our powers are weakened and well we're cornered by a snake monster" It was weird to describe their terrible situation into a short brief sentence like this. The other girls were sitting behind her looking at the smoky hologram of their teacher in confusion but also some relief.
He nodded in understanding, but she saw that his eyes still looked worried.
"I'll transfer a bit of my teleportation magic. The others need to hold on to you. And you need to imagine in your mind a place less than two miles away from your location. Somewhere safer. Can you do that for me Flora?" She nodded hurriedly. Stella had finally run out of magic and the snake was slithering towards them. The others hurriedly grabbed her arms and she closed her eyes picturing the surface where they had been standing before falling. It took only a few seconds for them to feel the familiar sinking of Dimitri's teleportation magic. This spell had always gotten them out of risky situations throughout the years.
As soon as they saw that they were out of the cave and away from the snake, they all let out a sign of relief.
"Thank you so much, we owe you one Sir." Musa told him. As soon as they landed in another area of the planet far away from that terrible place. they all slowly got up, shaking the snow and ice off their coats and pants. This area seemed to not have any enchantments. It was just a normal cold temperature surrounding them, nothing more nothing less. It felt like suddenly their magic core was unlocked.
"Are you girls okay? No one's hurt? " The smoke had quickly formed again but this time it was not only showing the history professor but next to him stood Faragonda and Bloom.
"Bloom!" They all exclaimed in delight. She waved at them happily. They chose not to comment on the scratches and bruises on her face and arms. "You came back!" Stella sounded relieved to see her red haired friends again.
"I just arrived a half hour ago. I'm so happy you're all safe." She explained to them. But the image was already getting blurry. Dimitri spoke up, his words were spoken at a faster pace.
"Time is almost up, the crystal is almost out of my magic, I'm sorry I won't be able to help you more than this."
Flora was quick to reassure him.
"Thanks for helping, but we can handle the rest ourselves." but just as a way to make him feel better she added. "See you later!" She implicitly told him they were coming back safely no matter what."
He nodded his head; "Yeah see you later." She heard him answer right before the smoke dissipated and the crystal was completely empty of the beautiful red colored magic.
"Come on, we need to go find the boys and Tecna." Musa reminded them. And Layla and her started to walk in the direction where they had seen the gang come out.
But as Flora was about to follow them she felt Stella grab her left arm.
"You know, you still owe us a lot of explanations when we come back, about your little disappearance act and that little magic thing you did with Darkell. Don't think I forgot." Flora gulped at her friend's words, she still seemed mad at her. She doesn't know how she would get out of this without revealing the truth. Was she ready to tell them everything?