Comics are being removed

I am sorry to say but I am removing all the comic pages because I simply do not have time to go and translate them all.

UPDATED Jan 30, 2011: I recently read the fine print on the comics. I found out that I am not allowed to reproduce them digitally. I am requesting ImageShack to delete the images that I uploaded. I really do not want to toe the line, so I just won't scan them. However, I can translate them.

Le Rallye de la Rose: Chapter 4: What Bloom does not know

Crazy with rage, Riven walks by all the attractions without paying attention. This girl had held her head high! She had humiliated him! She had ridiculed him in front of his closest friends!

It seems like the icy cold water would not stop pouring down his neck. How Prince Sky and Brandon's laugh did not stop haunting him.

And all around him, everyone are aware of his humiliation.

"I don't need them!" Riven grits between his teeth. "I don't need anyone! I don't care about this holiday!"

Perched on the roof of a building, three slender silhouettes follow him with their eyes. The most attentive has hair the colour of mud. Her eyes, like all hopeful witches, irresistibly call swamps to the mind. She is called Darcy, who bends down over to look at the road, a sentimental look on her face.

"I like this boy. He has personality and muscle."

Her sister Stormy throws a mocking glance at her:

"Say, you're not in love, by any chance?"

For a witch, there is no greater insult! Darcy becomes upset, and they launch into an argument. Until Icy, the leader and older sister, intervenes.

"Ugh! Stop bickering! We have a mission to complete. And the scene between Bloom and this boy has given me a little idea... Riven doesn't like losing and us, we have the power to make his dreams come true."

Darcy understands suddenly:

"Then, it won't be difficult to have him in our pocket!"

The enormous and stupid ogre Knut is summoned as reinforcement. In a flash of evil lightning, he appears. He kneels at the feet of the Trix.

"I'm here, my Lady. What do you wish?"

Icy lifts a hand and the ogre understands that she wants to transform him. He pleas but she cackles. She adores it when he is scared.

"Oh no, not that!" the yellow monster groans.

"Too late, Knut!"

Hey presto the ogre takes on the appearance of its contrary: a young man, slender, gentle and astute. There does not exist but one common trait between the two: both of them are myopic and must wear glasses.

The witches are pleased: no one will recognise Knut disguised as Timmy, the friend of Prince Sky, Brandon and Riven!

Le Rallye de la Rose: Chapter 3: Riven is a pain in the neck!

I have never seen the city of Magix so busy! Not only is it magnificent but, moreover, the organisers had come up with wonderful ideas, such as making it rain roses on bystanders. Roses without thorns, of course.

And there are the boys! They are dressed up to the nines, and how handsome they are!

Prince Sky catches a rose and offers it to Stella, delighted. Blushing in a charming manner, Brandon gives me a rose of my own. We exchange enamoured stares...suddenly interrupted by Riven, their friend with a sullen face:

"Come on, we're going somewhere else. Are you coming?"

One glance is enough to know that this boy is jealous. Wanting to not destroy the mood, we follow him to the Main Square, where we find the starting line of a levabike race.

"They're preparing already!" Brandon is surprised.

Riven shrugs his shoulders:

"They just don't get that it's useless."

"Oh right," Brandon entertains, "They will be dealing with three champions! Sky, me and you."

"Three? I was under the impression that it would only be me," Riven counters without a smile.

Immediately, Stella worries about her favourite prince:

"Isn't this race a little too dangerous, Prince Sky?"

The to-be racers assure us no. We stay to watch those who are preparing to turn at full speed on the course. The boys try to assess their chances, while Stella and I, we prepare to cheer for each of our champions. But Riven does not cease to boast and Prince Sky loses his temper.

"And you, Riven, since you're the best, you surely have a crowd of fans ready to cheer for you?"

"Speaking of fans, I can get any girl I want. You want to bet?"

"What kind of bet?" Brandon asks.

"Simple. If I win, I will chose one of your girls as a date to this evening's dance."

"But that's stupid!"

"You think so? Well," Riven adds, "Since it's like that, I'll choose right now, qua my fan as well, and date for this evening, I choose...Bloom."

"What?!"

I was not expecting that at all! Brandon clenches his fists. But I react first. In a few thousandths of a second, I overcome the amazement to fury.

"Hey, Riven!" You don't think that you should ask me my opinion?"

The large brunet* and active boy taunts me.

"Oh?"

"No, but who do you take me for? It's me who chooses whom I go out with!"

His condescending attitude exasperates me so much that I cannot help but add:

"Even if you were the last boy alive in the universe, you wouldn't interest me. All you do is boast, you're ridiculous!

My friends are stunned: I rarely get angry, then, inevitably, when that happens to me, they don't respond. Riven, him, he looks very amused by my anger.

"On the contrary, Bloom, I believe you are pleased with me. If you don't know it yet, you will soon know it."

And like a compliment to his unbelieveable words, he catches me by my chin as if he wanted to charm me, maybe even kiss me!

With a gesture of my hand, I get away from him.

"Leave me alone! You would do better to learn how to respect others!"

For him to understand that his manners are unbearable, I magically pull a vase of flowers that decorated a window and I tip over his head. Seeing Riven wet and stupefied is a very funny sight. We laugh heartily--all except him...

When I realise that at the point that he looks angry, I regret my action. I wonder sometimes if I'm too nice... But in any case, it's too late. Riven refuses my apologies and turns his back to us, moving away alone into the crowd.

---

* Don't ask how Riven became a brunet.

Le Rallye de la Rose: Chapter 2: What Bloom does not know

After Bloom and Stella's departure, Musa climbs to the top of Alfea's highest tower. From there, she has a magnificent view the lake and the forest, as well as downtown Magix, further down the horizon. The sunshine is perfectly warm and the wind is gentle.

The young girl sits with her back to the wall, placing a lotus with delicate pink petals before her. The flower opens and a three dimensional image appears. It is of a beautiful young woman, endowed with the same brilliant hair as Musa's. Her clothes resemble those worn on Earth, in the past, of Chinese women.

The fairy of music speaks to the image of her mother naturally as if she were there in the flesh. She tells about how she declined Stella's invitation:

"...Finally, I think that all the holidays are the same. It's true that I could've probably seen Riven. He's a little bizarre for a guy, but he interests me and I would like to get to know him. That is for another time..."

The young woman nods softly smiling. She looks like she is truly listening to Musa full of affectionate attention.

The atmosphere is different at Cloud Tower, school of witches. There, nobody even thinks of wishing their mother a happy holiday! The Trix had been summoned by their headmistress, a bone-white witch. Very angry, Miss Griffin paces in her office, between her grimoires and candelabras covered in melted wax. Her eyes flash purple and yellow. In her hand, she shakes a letter from Alfea.

"You are incompetent, ladies! Miss Faragonda knows that you introduced yourselves to her school; she is demanding me to punish you. And I will punish you..."

The Trix recede to the wall, anxious. The headmistress takes a breathe before continuing.

"...not because of what you did, but what you didn't do! You did not succeed in fouling up those stupid fairies' lives!"

Icy, Darcy and Stormy exchange ironic and relaxed stares. How naive, this Miss Faragonda! Does she really believe that the headmistress of witches would be offended by their intrusion into Alfea?

"I sense an immense negative energy around you," Miss Griffin sniggers with satisfaction. "Miss Icy, Miss Stormy and Miss Darcy, you could become some very interesting witches. But to be this, you must prove it."

Between her fingers, the ripped letter bursts into flames by itself. The headmistress of Cloud Tower breaks out into a cruel laugh, before she lost her temper even more:

"Each day, the relationships between the Winx Club and Specialists strengthen. And that, I cannot stand!"

She lightly brushes her hand over the crystal ball on her desk. Brandon, Sky and Riven appear, walking without hurry to the city centre. They are without Timmy, the fourth boy of the group, because he had went back home.

"Today they are having that stupid Rally of the Rose. As punishment, you are obligated to go as well. You will use any means you want to destroy this friendship. I want that by the end of today the Winx Club and Specialists hate each other!"

Le Rallye de la Rose: Chapter 1: A very special holiday

"Bloom...Bloom..."

In my dream, a mysterious voice calls me... One that I've already heard before... At Cloud Tower, while we were under a terrible spell, this voice had guided me and we had escaped.

"Bloom, remember..."

What must I remember? In the glaring light, I cannot even see the person who is talking to me. Who is she? What does she want from me?

But I conclude by discerning a dancing silhouette, thin and supple, who wears a golden wolf-shaped mask.

I open my eyes. And there appears before me the graceful face of one of my friends. My dream is finished, I wake up.

"What am I supposed to remember, Flora?"

The fairy of nature smiles.

"Well, for starters, today is a holiday."

I notice that she has a suitcase in her hand.

"Where are you going?"

"Back home. For the Day of the Rose. There are no classes today and everyone is going home to wish their mother a happy holiday."

Oh! It's a sort of Mother's Day... While my rabbit Kiko jumps into my arms for his morning cuddle, I get up and leave my room. I see Tecna, who is preparing a traveling bag.

"Hello, Bloom. So are you going home?"

I grimace.

"If I go home for one day, I will be depressed when I get there before I even leave."

Will I be alone at Alfea? A little later, in the hallways of the college, I come across the small professor Wizgiz hopping, a bag in hand. When I asks if he would leave too, he points to the rose on his buttonhole:

"Oh yes, Bloom, I have every right to see my mother just as everyone else!"

What a relief to see Stella join me, without a suitcase, and full of cheer.

"Don't worry, Bloom! You, Musa and me will keep each other company."

However, in the empty dining room, Stella plunges into a cup of chocolate. She takes on a casual tone, but her heart is not there:

"Personally, I don't celebrate the Day of the Rose. My parents are separated. Oh yes! The king and queen of Solaria no longer agree on anything."

She turns to the fairy of music, who stays pensive looking at her bowl.

"And you, Musa, for what reason are you still at Alfea?"

Our friend raises her pretty face, framed by her high black pigtails.

"I lost my mother when I was very small. For me, it's one of the saddest days of the year."

"Oh, Musa! I'm sorry..."

"You don't know, Stella. Besides life continues. At least, I have beautiful memories to accompany today..."

It's so sad to imagine Musa without a mother that a few tears fall into my coffee. Stella and I pull our friend into a hug...

A cell phone rings. Stella flips open a phone, so thin and elegant that we could say it was a small makeup compact.

"I'm dreaming! It's a message from my favourite prince! He's going to town with his friends and he's inviting us to join him."

Musa declines the invitation. But on my part, I accept with enthusiasm: I'm going to see Brandon!