MORE THAN CAPABLE | Riven

3

Chapter Three
A Fairy in Danger

Luella sat quietly on the bench listening to Bloom, she went on about how she didn't have a good relationship with her mother and sometimes her father.

She fiddled with the rings on her hand, turning them from side to side, occasionally looking up.

"It's like the fire had a life of its own," Bloom spoke, her voice shaking as she continued. "I don't know how long I let it burn, I just remember... the screams," she whimpered.

Bloom had described the terrible event as that the fire had leapt to life, that it was like a blazing war. As if, every time it snapped, it grew bigger slithering across furniture and the floor.

"My mom was covered in third-degree burns ...cause of me," Bloom muttered, her shoulders slumped. "Every day after that, I snuck out. I was so scared that I would hurt them again, that I slept in this creepy-ass warehouse near my house until Miss Dowling found me," she finished, sniffling.

Aisha shrugged her shoulders and nodded her head while Luella gave a thin look of reassurance. "Alright," Aisha gave in. "Fire story beats shit story, you win." Bloomed laughed lightly in reply.

Luella pinched her eyebrows together, gripping the back of the bench, and raising her shoulders. "Did your parents not know it was you?" Luella questioned.

Bloom shook her head, "I don't know how distant my fairy ancestors are, but the most mystical thing my parents believed in is knocking on wood."

Aisha stood up from the bench and took herself to the balcony of the hallway, staring ahead coming to the realisation of something.

"What?" Bloom asked.

She turned to face them, "it's just odd. You drew on a good deal of magic without even trying. It's hard to believe you're from a dormant bloodline." Aisha carried on, trying to put her words nice as possible. "Is there any chance you're adopted?"

Bloomed chuckled refusing to believe, she knew her birth story and could tell it without stuttering by now, "no, I've heard the story of my birth a million times. Miracle baby. I had a heart effect in the womb but a day after I was born, it was gone" she explained.

Luella's and Aisha's eyes went wide, "oh god," Aisha spoke. "You're a changeling."

Bloom looked between them in confusion, "what's that?" She asked worriedly. "Guys, what's that?"

Luella looked at the ginger-haired girl before she talked, "a changeling is a fairy baby that switches with a human one at birth."

"Wait what?"

"It's barbaric. It barely happens anymore," Aisha carried on explaining.

"That's not possible."

All the lines had connected for the water fairy, she thought it was clear what Bloom was. She continued her say, "you're clearly very powerful, Bloom. You have to be pure-blooded."

Bloom looked at them like they had exploded a bomb, which rhetorically speaking, they had. She shook her head multiple times, "I would know if my parents weren't my parents."
Bloom stood up, "how could you even say that?"

Luella butted in, "Aisha's just trying to help." Of course, Lue thought the conversation was a bit oblivious but it made some sense; the strong magic, (that could just be losing control) and miracle baby (that really could just be a miracle).