Winx Club Fanfic: Child of the Moon

Chapter 1: Bitten

Summary: Bitten by what she originally thought was a dog, Roxy's life takes a turn for the worse when she is turned into a creature of the night. How will her friends react? How will she be able to return her life to normal? But before she could do anything, strange things begin happening in Magix...

Roxy sprinted down the deserted hallway, making a beeline for the library, hoping it was close to empty. Her feet grinned to a halt as she reached the double doors and she quietly entered, surveying the gigantic room. There were only several fairies, the studious ones, who had decided to stay back in Alfea's library instead of hanging out with their friends on that day. Good. Roxy scurried across the room to an empty table in a corner, where she dropped her bag onto her chair and made her way to the shelves.

"Magical creatures, magical creatures..." she muttered under her breath, browsing through the 'M' section, running a finger down the spine of almost every book. Mermaids, kelpies, dragons, Cyclops and various beasts with odd names, but there was nothing there that met her needs. About to give up, she finally spotted a leather-bound tome in a dusty corner of the shelf. Just as she was about to pick it up, brush the dust off and see if it was anything she was looking for, the bite mark on her wrist itched ever so slightly. Instinctively, she reached up to it, and her mind flashed back to what had happened the previous night.

#

Saturday night couldn't come fast enough for the mostly-teenage students of the three schools of magic in Magix. It was pretty normal, given the fact that Saturday nights were all about clubbing, meeting up with potential soul mates and hanging out with friends.

"Hurry up, Stella!" called Bloom, slightly annoyed by her best friend's usual wardrobe issues. As much as they loved Stella, there were quirks of hers that the Winx sometimes wished they wouldn't have to put up with.

"I'm coming!" the fairy called back, finally picking out the 'perfect outfit'. Roxy was on her knees, trying to search for an equally perfect pair of shoes for the fashionable fairy for the sake of the Winx's time. She finally grabbed a pair and tossed it up to Stella who pulled them on and strutted into the living room. "What do you think?" she asked, striking a pose for them.

Bloom rolled her eyes but couldn't contain a smile. Musa, Tecna and Layla were already on their way out of the door, muttering something about 'being late'. They hurried out and left Alfea, headed to Magix in a bus.

"Wow, looks like a lot of people are here," remarked Tecna, surveying the designated meeting spot, a club with a live band playing and plenty of students their age hanging about, chatting, laughing and gossiping with their friends. They spotted the Specialists who were seated at one of the tables closest to the stage, much to Musa's delight.

"Five minutes late," Brandon commented, checking his watch. "Not bad, Stella." They shared a kiss. The other girls embraced their boyfriends while Roxy and Aisha merely took a seat. Roxy glanced over at the dark-haired fairy and noticed that her cheerful countenance had been shadowed by a sorrowful expression. She reached out and took the fairy's hand, giving it a little squeeze. Aisha shot her a small, appreciative smile.

"Hey, Roxy," a voice spoke in her ear as someone nudged her. Roxy turned. It was Bloom. "Look over there." The red-head winked before turning back to her blonde knight in shining armour.

Roxy turned, confused, to look in the direction Bloom had been indicating, and her cheeks immediately turned a deep shade of red as she singled out Manuel from a group of second-year Specialists. Her mind flashed back to the last time they had met and she began to feel nervous. She couldn't approach anyone in a nervous state.

"I'll be right back," Roxy said to Aisha, who didn't seem to hear her. Roxy hurried towards the exit, hoping to compose herself, and stepped out into the chilly night air. She walked down the street which was still filled with cars and people and turned into an alley. She could still see the street from where she was. She leaned against the wall, drawing in deep breaths, trying to pull herself together, but all the while thinking of her newfound love interest. But the images vanished as soon as her animal senses picked up on the presence of a creature. She turned and spotted two gleaming yellow eyes looking at her from the darkness. She could make out the faint outline of the rest of the anatomy and noted it to be that of a dog's. Glad she hadn't brought Artu along that night as he would've flown at the animal given his first chance, she got to her knees and held out her hand towards the dog.

"Don't worry," she whispered. "I'm a friend. I'm the fairy of animals and I won't hurt you." The creature didn't budge, and merely continued staring at her. She inched towards it. It didn't move either. "I'm a friend," she repeated. For a moment, she wondered what the dog was doing there, whether it had an owner and if it was hurt.

What happened next happened much too quickly for her to process. The dog flew at her and bit her hard on the wrist of her outstretched arm. The pain was excruciating and she felt as though her bones were on fire. Roxy let out a scream, one that didn't go unheard as several people from the street rushed down the alley towards her. The creature turned and fled. As Roxy watched it go, panting, it seemed to just disappear into the darkness.

"What happened?" a girl called, her tone laced with worry.

"Are you alright, miss?" A man's voice.

"I'm fine..." she spoke, in barely a whisper, her energy drained. She got to her feet. "I'm fine," she repeated. Covering up the bite mark, feeling blood seeping out of it, she reassured the two concerned folks that she had been frightened by something she must've imagined. She thanked them for their concern and only when they were out of sight and earshot, did she check her wrist. In the darkness, it was barely visible. Doing her best to cover it up without looking suspicious, Roxy hurried back to the club, where she raced in and headed straight for the female bathroom, oblivious to Manuel's voice calling after her. She hoped no blood had dripped onto the streets or the floor of the club on her way back there. Judging from the patrons' unchanged behaviour, they had not noticed anything.

The bathroom was quiet and deserted. As the door swung shut behind her, muffling the sounds of the music and merry-making going on in the club, Roxy stepped into one of the cubicles, lest someone should enter at any moment and notice the mark on her wrist.

There was something so strange and out-of-place about the dog and the bite. She sat on the toilet seat and glanced down at the incision which was bleeding and touched it cautiously. Back in Gardenia, Roxy had had quite a reputation among the townsfolk for her interactions with animals. They were amazed by how she could calm a wild dog, how she understood all their pets, even ones that kids her age usually refrain from touching such as pet lizards and chameleons. Once or twice, she would be approached by a pet owner who wanted their pet trained. Usually it would be a dog. Roxy recalled a time when a particularly big man came to her with an equally big dog of his who had bitten him twice. The bite mark had been a large, terrifying one, and Roxy remembered it vividly, but it was nothing compared to what she now sported. And the creature had bit her precisely at the wrist, causing a blood flow that she found hard to staunch at that moment. Using a little magic, she got her blood to clot faster than usual, and watched as it stopped flowing. Was the dog trying to kill her? Why would it? What had she done? Wasn't she the fairy of animals? Animals were supposed to love her, not attack her for no apparent reason.

Roxy's pulse accelerated as a heart-breaking realisation dawned on her; the dog had not been a dog at all.