Okay, I'm back and lot quicker than I normally am! I finally have the rest of this season planned out. I like where it's going, I'm excited to post it, and I'm going to do my best to keep pumping these chapters out!

Musa stumbled in. It had been her turn to go on a search and those were so exhausting. She sighed and rubbed her forehead. She was so tired that she could just about fall asleep on the floor. But, because she had access to a much more comfortable bed, she forced herself to trudge through the kitchen and past the living room to the bathroom to change into some comfortable pajamas before flopping down and sleeping for the next year.

Musa smiled. It seemed like such a nice plan. She pulled her hair down from the pigtails and closed her eyes from the relief it gave her head. Sometimes she forgot how much that hairstyle pulled on her scalp. But it was all over now. She could plop down on the mattress and let this whole day fade from her mind.

"Ech— Ech, ka— Ka reponne werr fe. Ja reponnes kan. Ku ponne rall!"

She turned to the couch, startled to see Bloom laying on the couch and struggling as if in a nightmare. She had a grimace on her face and shook her head roughly. Musa hesitated—she'd heard it was bad to wake someone in a nightmare—or was that a sleepwalker?— but then reached out to see if she was alright.

"Ka reponne da errinn ul Domino!"

Episode 7

The Pumpkin Witch

"What were you dreaming last night, Bloom?" Musa asked at breakfast. It had been difficult to fall asleep after seeing her. She'd stayed up for about an hour pondering it before exhaustion truly drove her to pass out. She yawned and rubbed her tired eyes. Then Musa looked over at Riven to see if he'd noticed. He was ignoring her like always. She sighed.

Bloom glanced up. She stayed silent for a moment as she processed the question. Forks clicked against plates and there were a few murmurs of how they liked this strange Earth breakfast cake. Bloom finally answered with, "Um . . . . As far as I know, I didn't really have any dreams last night. Not that I remember anyway."

"Well," Musa said as she removed her fork from her mouth, "I walked by you and it looked like you were having a nightmare."

Bloom shrugged. "Well, I don't remember anything."

Everyone (which wasn't quite everyone, as Stella was still recovering from the attack) glanced at her curiously for a second before turning back to breakfast. To change the subject, Flora asked, "Where's Riven?"

"He had a search," replied Timmy. The conversation died down for a moment, but picked up back to the same point it always did: what would happen next.

Tecna said, "The Trix took Stella's ring again." She exchanged a look around the table that clearly meant something to everyone but Bloom. The redhead leaned over to Flora and whispered her confusion.

"Stella and S—Brandon told me a little about objects that heirs of planets have to protect them. Um, are the Trix trying to collect them all?"

Flora smiled sympathetically. "It's all we can assume." She raised her voice to speak to the whole table. "Sky, I would advise you to be careful. They might come after you soon. Brandon, sweetie, maybe you should stay with him at all times? I just think it would be best at this point." Everyyone seemed to agree.

"I—"

The door slammed open. Riven dragged in a pale girl that could only be assumed to be a witch from her attire. They stood from the table and hurried over to see.

"She's unconscious," snapped Riven.

Musa rolled her eyes. "Don't you think we know that? But this is the first person other than us we've found and—"

"Don't you think we know that?" Riven quipped sarcastically. He started to lay the witch on the couch, but Flora stopped him.

"Put her in my room. I know a few spells that might wake her up. Bloom, come with me. I could use your help."

The four hurried down the hallway to the room that had been taken over by plants. Riven shifted the girl in his arms so she was easier to carry while Flora chattered off about what she'd need to do. Bloom trailed quietly behind, still feeling a bit awkward and unsure of what was going on. She pushed the sleeves of her hoodie up her arms as she passed through the doorframe and stood by the wall, out the way.

"I need to tell the teachers," Riven said. Flora nodded. She grasped the girl's arm and muttered something. When it didn't work, she called for Bloom to bring her a book that was sitting by the bed, half tucked under the curtains.

As Bloom handed it to her, she said, "Um, maybe she's not having problems that can be solved with magic. Like maybe she's dehydrated or . . . ."

Flora smiled in the same polite way she always did. She turned to one of the nearby plants that was snapping at her fingers and tried to soothe it. "Yes, it is very likely that she was dehydrated. What I did was a little charm that would replenish her water supply and another that would fill her stomach. At this point, her body will be adjusting to being healthy again and she should wake in a few hours as far as I know."

Bloom said, "Oh."

Flora still had the smile on her face. "Don't sound like that, honey. I know you don't understand magic that well. Would you like to come with me to visit Stella?"

Bloom shook her head. "Um, no. I think I'll just stay here. In case she wakes up and wonders where she is."

That same stupid smile! "Alright. Bye!"

She turned and walked out the door. Bloom sat on the ground, pulled up her hood, and buried her burning face in the fabric.

Timmy leaned over Tecna's shoulder to get a better look at the screen. "Are you sure that music fairies emit waves with that high of a frequency?"

Tecna nodded surely. "Yes. I tested Musa and gave a pretty large margin of error for the computer. That's the range they should be coming in."

"But it looks so high compared to the rest of them."

"Well, it's not like they all have to be in the same area!"

"Of course not, but I'm saying it's strange that most would be and a single one wouldn't."

Brandon/Sky looked over at the two. "What are you doing?"

Tecna turned to him with a huff. She fixed her purple hair and said, "We're making a machine that pick up the transmission that magic sends off. As long as the witches or fairies are using their powers frequently, this machine will help us pick up a trail to follow. And I took measurements of what the girls and I gave off, but Timmy doesn't believe that my tests are accurate, despite the many, many trials I made." With a casual flick of her head, Tecna waited for him to contradict her. Timmy rolled his eyes, not even bothering with her at this point.

Brandon/Sky smiled. "Oh, that's cool. Uh, hey, Timmy? Don't you think that maybe you should listen to your girlfriend?"

"She's not—" Timmy cried immediately. Tecna turned her green gaze up to him. He paused and looked back down at her. What was she thinking? That he'd told his friends that? That he shouldn't be denying it because it was true? That she couldn't believe that anyone would think she'd ever consider dating him? He could never tell. Her gaze was just like program. You could see what it made, but not the programming behind it. Timmy sighed and began to work again.

The girl sat up in bed, gasping and grasping for something around. She looked around and came face-to-face with Bloom. They stared for a minute before the girl opened her mouth. "Where's Lucy?" she asked quietly.

"Um . . . ," Bloom said, "who? Um, we—well, er, it was Riven, really—found you in the forest and brought you back here. All of the headmasters are here and we're looking for other witches, fairies, and specialists. Um, actually, I'm none of those; I'm from Earth, but I survived the attack from the Trix. My name is Bloom."

The girl blinked warily and replied, "Not sure I followed that, but my name's Mirta. Lucy is my friend. The Trix were trying to take us back to Cloud Tower and—"

"What?" Bloom asked.

Mirta stared. "You know. The Trix found us and were trying to take us back to Cloud Tower with everyone else, but Lucy made them let me go and they tried to just take her so I tried to cast a spell, but I guess I was too weak to and—"

"She's awake?" Bloom and Mirta glanced up to see Sky. Bloom nodded. He sighed. "Why didn't you come get someone?"

"Well, she was telling me—"

Sky dragged Mirta out of the room. Bloom sat down on the bed and sighed.

On Earth, Bloom was normal. She fit in; she had her place, whatever you preferred to say. Sure, she wasn't super popular and she maybe made better grades than the average student, but over all she didn't stick out. Bloom was fairly well-liked. She had plenty of friends and as far as she could tell no one hated her. Well, there was Mitzi, but Mitzi was rude to everyone so she didn't really count. The point was, Bloom tried to get herself back on task, that Bloom was a normal girl that had her place in the world. She wasn't an outcast.

Now she was.

And it wasn't even like they were trying to make her feel like an outsider. Everyone was ridiculously pleasant and understanding. They did their best to make Bloom feel like she fit in. It still didn't help.

She looked around. It was even apparent now. Everyone had their own tasks to be doing. Timmy and Tecna were still working on that machine, Riven, Sky, and Brandon were trying to fix one of the ships, Flora was inside with Stella, and Musa was listening to an mp3 player she'd found. They had tasks that they could do that were suited to their abilities. All Bloom could do was laundry and cooking and cleaning random things. And she was finished with everything she could do so now she just stood around uselessly!

"Hi."

Bloom turned her head to the door. Mirta stood awkwardly. She'd changed into an old gray sweatshirt that washed her skin out a bit.

"Um," she continued, "you're Bloom, right?"

Bloom nodded. "Yeah."

"I'm Mirta. I think I told you that already, but, um, I just wanted to make sure." Mirta blushed under her freckles.

"Nice to meet you," replied Bloom. They both stood quietly before Bloom attempted to speak again. "Um, you're a witch?"

Mirta smiled. "Yes. Not a very good one though."

"What do you mean?"

"Well . . . I, um . . . I don't like doing the things that most witches do," Mirta said, shrugging. "Witches are supposed to hex people and stuff like that. I prefer helping, but there's not many things I can do to help."

Bloom nodded to show that she was listening and smiled. She felt a certain affinity with this girl.

"I hope you have good reason for calling a meeting, Miss Faragonda," Miss Griffin said. She cast a look at the students gathered around the table and lowered her voice. "Especially because they're here." She did make sure to smile at Mirta very briefly. Miss Griffin was pleased to know that at least one of her students was safe.

"I have very good reason," Faragonda replied. She sat down at the table and called everyone to attention. "I'm sure that by this point you all know what has happened to at least some of the other students. Since we know that they've been taken back to Magix, I feel that we could stage a rescue mission."

The whole group stared at her as if she was insane. She continued anyway.

"Now, obviously we can't rescue many, but if we can at least take a few . . . . The plan for this would be this: We will send the fairies. None of you have the abilities to teleport yourselves that far away—and, yes, Stella, I know that you could with your ring, but that isn't here, is it?—so Saladin, Griffin, and I will teleport you there. However, because of the amount of you, we will not be able to do that more than once. The trip to Earth is an hour by ship. After rescuing some, or if the mission fails, find a place you can hide for an hour, contact the boys, send them your coordinates, and wait there. Mirta, you will stay behind because you are still recovering." Miss Faragonda looked around and saw Bloom. "Oh, and you I will send with the fairies."

"What?" Bloom asked weakly. Sky/Brandon, sitting next to her, reached out and patted her arm comfortingly. Tecna's eyebrows shot up. Flora looked concerned. Everyone looked skeptical.

Riven asked, "Is that a good idea? She can't protect herself."

Miss Faragonda shook her head. "On the contrary, I think Bloom can protect herself very well. Also, she is good at hiding. I believe she will be vital to this. But if you're so worried . . . Brandon, why don't you train Bloom on how to use a sword for the next few days? The rest of us can use that as time to prepare other things for this mission. Meeting dismissed."

They didn't rise quietly, chairs squeaking, loud stretching, but no one spoke. Bloom hustled to Stella's side and whispered, "No one is going to go against her?"

"You don't say no to Faragonda," Stella said. It seemed that she didn't care. "Oh, and, Bloom, I think I may need to trim your bangs again? They're hanging on your eyes again. Does your hair grow quickly or what?"

Okay, if you want to know what Bloom said, you can check the bottom. It's not really spoilers, but it's an option to not know. Anyway, that whole thing will come into play more later.

I know it's still not quite up to par, but I'm trying to get back in the swing of writing for Winx Club.

As you can tell, I've toned down the relationship between Mitzi and Bloom. I'm sorry, but I always hated that. Sure, there could be a mean girl, but I thought it was kind of ridiculous to have her pick Bloom out singularly. It makes much more sense to me the way that I wrote it. In any case, she won't be mentioned much so it's okay.

"Ech— ech, ka— Ka reponne werr fe. Fe reponnes kan. Ku ponne rall!"—"But— but, I— I'm not like that. That's not me. You're wrong!"

"Ka reponne da errinn ul Domino!"—"I am not the princess of Domino!"