The countryside of Floricea raced passed the windows as the carriage sped on. Flora had been silent ever since we left the Cleansing Fountain; it seemed as though she was in deep thought.

Finally, when I was done eating and watching the countryside race passed the window, I turned to Flora. What she had told me in my cell was not enough.

"So where are you taking me?" I asked finally, wondering not only why we were headed to a patch of the outer woods, but why Flora rescued me. There were plenty of other women and girls who had been at the fountain far longer than I had, and yet Flora came down my hallway. Talked to me. Took me on a vineway ride down from the sixth story and offered to teach me magic. Was currently letting me ride in her silver carriage.

So why did she chose me?

Flora's tinkling giggle filled the carriage, "All viable thoughts my dear, but for the common interests of myself and my sisters, I cannot tell you what exactly lead me to choosing you. I'm sorry, I know that that's terribly vague, but someday, when you're ready, I'd like believe I'll tell you."

I hadn't realized that I had voiced my thoughts aloud, but I was glad I had. Flora's answer was incredibly frustrating, but it wasn't like I wasn't used to it. Any time I asked anything of my father when I was little, he would tell be that it wasn't my business to dream up anything more than a family. At least Flora's answer was different.

At least she was trying.

With this new information swirling around in my head, I fell asleep against the glass window of the carriage; nodding off to the gentle bumps and simple sounds of the journey to my new life. Again.

~o0o~

"Aria! Wake up! We're here!" Flora shook me awake gently, gradually getting harder until I sat up groggily.

"Wha- where- Flora?" I asked, my voice slurred. I knew not only from my changed tone of voice but from the way the sleep was cracking around my eyelids that I had been asleep for a while.

"Oh thank the god almighty you woke up," Flora fell back on her bench, looking more an old woman than the vibrant woman I met earlier.

"What's the matter?" I asked, my finishing school training coming out in the form of my words.

"Oh, nothing to worry your little head about, dear." Flora sighed as she exited the carriage, suddenly deep in thought.

I raised my eyebrows at Flora's retreating form as I followed her out of the carriage, and I stopped on the carriage block. There was no way I was going into the dark and strange woods at this time of day, and I was about to voice those very thoughts when Flora's head of rapidly growing hair around to face me.

Before she could say what she had turned around to say, I blubbered something along the lines of, "Why is the- hair growing?"

She released a laugh that eased the tension that hug so heavily around us like a fog, waving away my question as her hair reached the ground and continued to grow.

"Don't worry about my hair," she said finally, "because you'll be grateful for it in a second. There is no other way to enter my sister and I's home."

At this statement, I looked at the woman I had placed my trust in quizzically. How was her rapidly growing hair going to lead us to her home? And why did she not invest in a key or some other simple object to merely open a door?

My questions were answered when Flora's hair began to twist into separate ropes and then turned into vines. I watched in amazement as the vines broke off of Flora's head and snaked across the clearing and into the woods, leaving her with the exact same haircut as earlier.

"Come along, now. We mustn't keep my sisters waiting any longer. There was such a long debate regarding which of us would go out into the kingdom to get you," Flora let out her tinkling laugh and began walking at a leisurely pace towards where the vines had slithered off to.

Because of her slow pace, I caught up to Flora- as soon as the total shock of being shaken awake and hair vines detaching themselves and slithering away sunk in.

"So what can your sisters do?" I asked, trying to figure out what exactly I was walking into.

"Well," Flora smiled, almost as in a memory, "my sisters all have a specialty; Heartea is simply wonderful at matchmaking- and don't be surprised if her arms are covered in pink garland, it's her favorite of all of the matchmaking things. Sanshe is the sister who controls light; that's the reason we have to follow my vines to find the correct way in. We can't risk the lives of all the creatures that come to us for help. Witersea can control ice, snow, and water; you'll have to be careful around her- she's the youngest of all of my sisters and the most mischievous by nature."

On the cover of the book that got me into this amazing mess it said that it was written by the five floral fairies. She only told me about three, and if I was counting her, that left one more sister to be told about.

We continued to walk through the underbrush after the hair vines while I stared at Flora's back. I was waiting for her to tell me about the other sister, but five minutes later it was apparent that I would need to ask.

"Flora, on the cover of that book it said it was by the five floral fairies. You only told me about three, and including yourself, that adds up to four. Who's the sister you aren't telling me about?"

Flora turned to me, abruptly stopping with a dark look on her face, "Slepa." she whispered. "She was the sister I was closest to before she... left."

I could tell that Flora was far beyond distraught at the thought of her sister disappearing, so I didn't press any further. I could find out what I wanted to find out later; right now Flora was stopped in another clearing looking at a rippling thing in the air.

"Here we are. Home sweet home," she sighed, waving at me to follow her as she walked directly underneath the rippling air and disappeared.

After a couple of deep breaths to calm my inner panic at Flora's disappearance in the middle of a clearing and I ran at the area underneath the rippling air to get it over with faster.

I held my breath as I felt an odd watery feeling pass over my skin. As quickly as the feeling started, it ended and I was pushed into a beautifully magical land.

Where there was once a dense and almost impenetrable forest stood a tree house. Flora was rapidly climbing the rope ladder to the entrance, and once she was at the top I followed suit. 

The outside of the treehouse was boring and predictable; dark wood, straw, and logs. It was very long and wide, closer to resembling a full sized cottage than a small treehouse, but the outside was completely misleading.

Once I entered the house, I was rendered speechless. Flora looked on with me with a sparkle in her eye, as if she was encouraging me to look around.

The house was set up like a meadow, with flowers and grass and tall willowy trees growing in the middle. On the left there was an astonishing waterfall that filled the small pond below it, but the pond never overflowed. I was surprised when I saw what was obviously Heartea's space. There was a small office set up, with a computer, desk, and chair. The only thing that really showed that it belonged to a matchmaker were the pink and purple hearts pasted on the walls and the desk. And in the last corner a huge ball of light hovered over a model of a town, almost as if the maker of the ball was making a model of the sun. Or hiding something inside of the ball.

Eventually, my speechlessness wore off and I could finally say what I had meant to say from the beginning, "Woah."

"Yes, this place is certainly magical," a new and even for feminine voice than Flora's said, and I turned around to face the very pink garland forearms that Flora had told me about.

Heartea was the type of antitypical beauty with oval shaped brown eyes, olive skin, and her hair was vivid pink. Her long and willowy frame swayed as she walked up to Flora for a hug.

"Ahh, my darling! How was hunting the new witch? Did you find her? Nolan's been asking about where you were and I couldn't tell him because-"

"Sister," Flora gently interrupted, "the new witch is right behind you. And did Nolan complete the exercises I showed you?"

Before Heartea could say anything, I burst out. I didn't want to be left in the dark anymore. "Who's Nolan? What exercises? What's a fairy? Why am I a witch?"

Heartea tsked, "This one's a spot curious now isn't she."

Flora sighed and shot me an apologetic look. It seemed I wouldn't be getting my answers just yet.

Another beauty walked in, Sanshe I presumed, because her forearms were covered in a soft glow that caused her skin to change colors as she moved.

"Is this the new witch?" she asked. "Nolan is coming out soon, and I don't believe Witersea's the type to hold him back from curiosity. Remember his specialty finding days?" Sanshe visibly shook and I didn't take that as a good sign for my own specialty finding days ahead.

Flora looked at Sanshe, "I believe that she is the witch."

The way Flora didn't meet my gaze after she made that statement, and the way Sanshe and Heartea looked at me quizzically afterwards lead me to believe that this witch was important. But weren't they all?

"Okay I don't know what's happening but I'm coming in there and you're going to tell me!" a boy's voice shouted out, and he came running through a wall I had previously thought solid.

He was tall with a muscular build and brown mussed hair. His green eyes glinted with mischief as he slowed to a swaggary walk. 

"Nolan, this is a new witch. You are to go back to your room now, and don't make a fuss," Sanshe said and Nolan waved his hand at her, causing a playful breeze to flutter her blonde hair.

"Nolan is a wind specialty. When he masters it, he'll have wind vortexes around his arms," Flora explained as Nolan obediently left the room.

"So there's other rooms?" I asked as Nolan went through the same portion of wall and disappeared.

"Yes, of course! You didn't think that this communal space was our only living space did you? We are fairies!" Heartea exclaimed, and she proceeded to the wall behind her desk and disappeared.

"Sorry about our sister," Sanshe said, "she has a flare for the dramatic. Your room portal should be in that area there."

She pointed me in the direction of the wall between the waterfall and the big ball of light. I decided to go to my room now and think some things through before I started anything or did something rash.

 Like do more magic.

"Just push yourself through the wall, honey. It's just an illusion," Sanshe advised as I walked in front of the wall.

I pushed my hand through first, if only to see how it worked, and then I closed my eyes and ran through the wall.

At first, it felt as if grains of sand were moving over my body, as if they were making room for me to pass. I ran out the other side of the wall and was faced with a long corridor with only one door at the end.

I strode to the end of the hallway and placed my hand on the doorknob. The place card on the dark wood stated that this room belonged to me.

With a deep breath I walked in.

And saw a dragon.

~o0o~

Word Count: 2046
Total Words So Far: 20,296

I have completed the challenge! This update is long overdue so I hope that you loved it :). Also: thoughts on this one. What do you think of the sisters? What about that DRAGON? heehehehehehehehe... I added that one last minute. As always thank you so much for the votes, comments, and reads. I hope that even though I am passed the word count that you keep coming back to here Aria's story.

Thank you so much, have a wonderful day,
~Happy