Chapter Text
Bloom woke up to soft calls from her mom. She raised the sheets up to her head and rolled over, she didn’t want to move, didn’t really want to do anything.
Two months prior she’d gotten into a huge fight with her childhood best friend Selena and the week before, she had been dumped by her boyfriend Andy. This was going to be a great summer.
Her door creaked open and her mom placed a hand on her shoulder, “Sweetie? You awake?” her mom asked as she carefully sat down. Bloom shifted away, “Honey… I made your favorite breakfast, pancakes with chocolate chips and blueberry syrup, I even made bacon, you know your dad will finish it in a minute if you don’t hurry downstairs.”
Bloom slowly peeked her head out, just looking at her mom made her want to cry. Who knew it was so easy to cry in the presence of your mom?
“I don’t even want to get out of bed.”
“I know sweetie. Believe me I know.” Vanessa pulled her daughter into a hug and gently caressed her hair, “But you can come with me to the flower shop, or we can go to the mall. You shouldn’t stay inside all day.”
She kissed the top of Bloom’s head and left the room.
Bloom sighed and threw the covers away, the covers falling on top of her cat, Kiko. The gray and white cat didn’t even move, nuzzling into the covers.
Bloom took a moment to pick up the mythology book she’d been pouring over the previous night and placed it on her desk before heading downstairs.
She said nothing as she ate, but she could feel the concerned glances from her mom and dad. Every time she looked up from her pancakes she could see her parents exchanging glances and occasionally mouthing words.
As she took a final bite, her dad made a big deal out of folding his newspaper before speaking, “So what will you be doing today sweetie?”
She sighed and placed down her fork, “I think I’ll head down to the park. Mom, is it alright if I help you at the shop tomorrow instead?”
“Alright.”
Bloom took her plates to the sink and hurried back upstairs.
She took her time showering and getting dressed. She put on her favorite pair of bell-bottom jeans, dark blue high tops and a pale yellow crop top with two small blue buttons, she didn’t bother pulling her hair up since it wasn’t that hot outside.
Kiko jumped into her arms and climbed up on her shoulder, refusing to be left behind.
Bloom climbed down the stairs to find her parents standing by the door, her dad looking slightly excited… so not an intervention.
“What’s up?” she asked.
“Well, your dad and I got you a little present.” her mom said, more calm than her dad. “It’s outside.”
Bloom’s heart jumped in her chest. There was no way. She ran out of the house, almost stumbling down the stairs, she whipped her head around, looking for one of the Vespas most of her classmates had been getting over the past months.
Her eyes instead fell on a small, cute red bike with a small basket on the front with daisies.
“Oh.” she did her best to hide her disappointment as she turned back to her parents. “It’s really pretty.”
Her mom flinched, clearly seeing past her charade, her dad kept on smiling.
“It’s great right?” her dad asked as he stepped forwards and placed a hand on her Kiko-free shoulder, “Should last you a long while and there’s even a little basket for Kiko.”
Bloom stepped forwards and set Kiko down on the basket, hoping to avoid her mom, she ran back in to snatch a small leather backpack with her phone, money, sketchbook and pencils and swung it over her shoulders.
“Alright then I uh… I’m off to the park. Thanks dad.”
His dad smiled, “You’ll see the fresh air will do wonders for you.”
She couldn’t help but smile back at her dad, his endless positivity had rubbed off on her as she grew up.
She set off, riding through the streets. She’d only made it a few blocks before she heard a familiar, incredibly annoying voice calling out to her.
“Hey Bloom! Have you finally learned to ride without training wheels?”
Mitzi. That annoying bitch.
Bloom took a deep breath and turned to her right, ready to keep her head up high and not let Mitzi get to her.
And then she saw Andy. He and some of his friends were standing with Mitzi and her minions.
She almost fell of the bike, her breath knocked out of her at seeing Andy.
Mitzi laughed again, “Maybe not so much.”
Andy grabbed her arm and spoke under his breath, but Bloom could still hear him, “Come on, leave her alone.”
Bloom took a deep breath, “Not everyone can annoy their parents into getting them a Vespa so they’ll shut up.”
She hadn’t meant to snap, but the anger that always seemed to be bubbling under the surface burst out in a split second as it usually did.
Mitzi stuttered and started saying something, but she ignored her, riding away in a hurry, Kiko meowing at her when she jumped over a bump without slowing down.
Once she made it to the park, she leaned her bike against her favorite tree, Kiko jumped down and stretched in the sunlight, Bloom sat down in the shade and pulled out her sketchbook, taking deep breaths to calm herself.
She hated when she snapped like that. She’d always suspected she might have some anger issues, based on the way she was prone to explode if she was pushed a little too much. She tried to suppress it and act in a rational way, but sometimes it was hard.
She could feel a heat in the bottom of her stomach all the time, when she got angry it climbed to her chest, making her heart pound so hard she could barely breath.
Drawing had always helped to calm her down, so she began sketching. She picked up where she’d left off the previous night, drawing wings and faeries and dragons, she’d always had a passion for mythology and magical creatures.
That was one of the reasons why Mitzi and some of the other kids at her school had started bullying her.
She’d been drawing with charcoal the image of a dragon spitting fire over a forest when she heard yet another painfully familiar voice.
“Hey Bloom.” she looked up to see Andy approaching the tree slowly, like she was a wild animal he was trying not to scare. “How are you?”
“I’m fine.”
She looked back to her sketchbook, intending to ignore him, but she didn’t miss how her traitor cat quickly went to rub up against Andy’s legs.
Andy picked the cat up and scratched his ears, “You should ignore Mitzi, you know how she is.”
“Everyone knows what Mitzi is like…” she put down her charcoal and cleaned her fingers in the grass, “Look… I know it really isn’t my business anymore… but why are you hanging out with her? After everything?”
Andy slowly set Kiko down, scratching the back of his neck, “It really wasn’t on purpose, I was with the boys and then Mitzi and her minions started harassing us asking me about…”
“About?”
“About you. She wanted some uh… details.”
Bloom felt the fire in her stomach starting to climb its way to her chest, “And did you tell her what she wanted to know?”
Andy refused to look in her eyes. “Her- her dad owns the place my parents work at and the cafe where we perform and-”
Bloom snapped her sketchbook close and jumped up, “What did you tell her?”
He didn’t say anything, she scoffed, “You are…” her anger left her in a second, replaced with pure disappointment, “forget it.”
She shoved her stuff back into her bag and placed Kiko in the small basket.
“Bloom-”
“Forget it.”
She walked with her bike, moving deeper into the park to a more secluded area, and as she walked further away, tears started falling down her cheeks.
No friends, her boyfriend spreading details about their relationships to her bully and no interesting summer vacations to escape.
What was she going to do?
She wiped her tears and Kiko bumped his head against her, clearly trying to cheer her up.
That’s when she heard it, a scream coming from deeper in the woods.
She almost let her bike fall down, Kiko jumped back into her arms. She stayed completely still, hearing some kind of explosion coming from her left.
Bloom’s mouth went dry, someone could be hurt.
She got closer to the sound, being careful to not make noise, Kiko’s hair rising up with every step she took.
She made it to the edge of a clearing, staying within the last line of trees to observe the unreal scene before her.
There was a monster at the opposite side of the clearing, it was a gigantic creature with yellow skin and angry dark brown eyes, it wore a pair of ripped, dark red overalls and no shoes.
The horrid creature was surrounded by smaller monsters, these ones red with abnormally long extremities and shinning yellow eyes. They reminded Bloom of small devils or imps.
The yellow monster, perhaps an ogre spoke, “Just give up the staff blondie and we will be on our way.”
She’d been so focused on the monsters she hadn’t noticed the other figure in the clearing.
It was a girl, with long blonde hair in low pigtails, pale skin shinning under the sun. She wore an outfit made of some kind of glittery, orange material, it was a two piece with shorts covering half her thighs and a cropped shirt. She wore blue pieces of fabric around her forearms and a blue headband. Thigh high boots the same bold orange hugged her legs.
That wasn’t what surprised Bloom the most though. What truly shocked her to her core was that, emerging from her back and through the fabric, the girl had wings. Translucent blue wings. She was also holding a long staff, it looked to be made of silver, the head was a simple circle with lines connecting to a golden sphere at the center that shone like a small sun.
The girl was leaning heavily on the staff, gasping from breath, Bloom could see a trickle of blood on her forehead, staining her bangs, “You will never get your ugly-ass ogre hands on the staff of Solaria.”
The ogre laughed, it was a deep horrible laugh that made Kiko let out a small hiss, “We’ll see about that blondie.”
The ogre growled something under his breath that Bloom couldn’t make out, but in a second the smaller imps were running at the girl at full speed.
The blonde swung down her staff, a flash of light descending down in an arc and splitting the imps in half, the imps dissolving into red dust.
Bloom had to rub her eyes, her vision returning to normal just in time to see another three imps sneaking up on the girl from behind.
“Watch out!” she screamed, Bloom didn’t think as she tackled the girl from behind, the imps jumping over them.
The girl raised her staff, another flash of light disintegrating the imps.
The girl pulled her up, “Thanks for the heads up.” she looked around her, making sure there weren’t anymore imps sneaking up on them. “You should probably stay back though.”
Bloom didn’t argue, stumbling back, picking up a large stick just in case she needed to defend herself.
The ogre stepped forwards just as the girl rose her staff, a ball of light growing at the tip of the staff, she threw the ball towards the ogre, which exploded against his chest and sent him flying backwards.
Two of the imps jumped on Bloom, she managed to hit one with the stick, sending it flying against a tree, but the other one, grabbed on to her, biting down on her leg. She screamed and fell down, shoving the stick between the creatures teeth and down its throat, trying to get it to let go.
The girl hit the imp over the head with her staff, the creature letting go, a piece of Bloom’s favored pants in its mouth. The girl used her staff like a baseball bat and hit the imp, sending it flying away as well.
“Are you alright?” the girl asked, crouching next to her, wincing at the site of blood.
“I think so.” Bloom said, breathless. Seeing blood wasn’t exactly helping her catch her breath.
The girl let out a small scream of frustration as more imps climbed on her back, dragging her down and scratching her.
Bloom tried to pry the imps off, but they wouldn’t budge, desperation was building up on her chest as she witnessed the imps managing to pin the girl down.
She heard a low chuckle from behind her. The ogre.
It was approaching slowly and in that moment, she stepped in front of the girl.
Bloom didn’t know what she was going to do, but she couldn’t just stand by and do nothing.
“Step away.” the ogre spoke in a threatening tone, “And I might just let you live.”
“No.”
Bloom stepped back as the ogre stepped forwards and something cold brushed against her ankle, the staff. It was a brief second, but it felt like something had been unlocked within her, a key turning to a lock she’d never even been aware existed.
The pressure that had been building up on her chest was no longer overwhelming or chocking her, instead it was warming her and giving her a sense of calm and power.
“Stay away!” She instinctually raised her hand, a blast of power coming out of her in a sphere. Fire.
The warmth brushed against her but didn’t hurt her, it wrapped around the ogre and reduced to ash the imps that had been attacking the girl.
The ogre screamed in pain and stumbled back, hitting his arms in an attempt to stifle the flames.
Once the flames were out, the ogre was horribly burned, sagged skin hanging off his arms and half its face melted off. She had done that.
“This isn’t over! I will have that scepter!” the ogre screamed before pulling out a small device and pressing a button, the ogre and remaining imps disappearing in a flash of light.
Bloom looked down at her hands, almost expecting to randomly burst into flames. She heard a grunt behind her, the girl.
She hurried to her side, the blonde didn’t seem to have any major injuries, mostly some scratches along her arms and legs.
She smiled kindly at her, “Thanks for the assist, I owe you one. I’m Stella by the way.”
“I’m Bloom. Are you hurt?”
Stella waved her off, “Nothing major, I’d be more worried about your leg.”
“Yeah…” she trailed off as Stella checked her injury, wincing and picking at the fabric of her jeans with pinched fingers, “Hey, I know you’re probably tired after that but… what the hell just happened?”
Stella didn’t even look up at her, still inspecting her wound, “Well I was attacked by an ogre that seemed to want my staff for some reason and you helped me fight him off. It’s a little unusual but I don’t think there is much explaining to do.”
“Are you serious? This morning I didn’t think ogres existed let alone magic staffs and faeries! You- you are a fairy right?”
Stella frowned at her and, for the first time since they’d met started looking around, “Uh… this isn’t Magix is it?”
“I have no idea what Magix is.”
“Damn. All right look. I’m Stella, princess of Solaria, a planet mostly known for having multiple suns. I was traveling to a planet called Magix, where I will be going to school at a college for faeries, Alfea. I was attacked in the middle of my transportation spell and I landed… here. Wherever here is.”
Bloom felt like her head was going to explode, “So you’re saying you’re from another planet?”
“Yep. Wait hold on, how come you don’t think faeries are real? Sweetie, sorry to break it to you but you are a fairy!”
“What?”
“That firewall thing you did? That’s a fairy spell, it’s similar to one I use only that I use light for mine instead of fire.”
“I’ve- I’ve never done anything like that before.”
Stella tilted her head, “Never?!”
“No. I don’t know about your planet but in this one… magic is a myth it isn’t supposed to be real.”
“Huh.” Stella jumped up when they heard a rustle coming from the bushes, but it was Kiko, trembling as he made his way to Bloom, bumping his head against her palm. “Look, is there somewhere we can talk? I need to gather some strength and figure out what to do and you need to treat your leg I’ve uh- I’ve never been really good with healing magic.”
Stella rolled her shoulders and in another softer flash of light, her outfit had changed. Her wings were gone, and in the place of her two-piece and thigh high boots, she now wore a simple long yellow dress with small, blue metal tubes hugging the dress in an intricate design, she wore yellow platforms and her hair was down.
After a second of starring, Bloom snapped out of it, “Yeah, my house isn’t far from here.”
“Excellent.”
As Bloom stood up, Kiko on her shoulder, a thought creeped into her mind, “Hey I didn’t… I didn’t kill the ogre right?”
Bloom wasn’t sure she could live with the knowledge of having killed a creature, even a monster.
Stella’s face softened as she placed a gentle hand on her shoulder, “Oh no sweetie. Ogres are as disgusting as they are durable. They have spectacular healing abilities, that ugly monster will be back on its feet in hours.”
Bloom let out a sigh of relief, “Okay, then let’s get going.”