"It's an adventure!" Bubbles Bannatyne declared to her school chums as they lounged around on a half day in the dorm. A mild spring day wafted in fragrances from the forests on Mount Syzywyg but a short distance away from the open window and birdsong could be heard across the playing fields of Miss Plazenby's Extremely Exclusive Seminary for Girls.

"I have mountains at home in plenty," Princess Rapture of Xenia insisted languidly. "We climb them, then ski down them again, before climbing up and so on." She continued to flick through a glossy magazine with detached interest.

Bubbles looked across the room where the twins Fizzy and Divvy Massking were plaiting each others' blonde hair in a complex tanglement of arms and hands and fingers that defied logic. They were so familiar with the process they could do it with their eyes shut. Those great big blue orbs of observation were fixed upon the animated figure of Bubbles as she gestured towards them in an endeavour to gain their interest.

"Our mountains of Nordeyer are very steep," one said.

"So steep some are even upside down," the other added.

Bubbles presumed she meant they were reflected in one of the great still lakes of their Home Winkel far to the north among rugged hills, but one could never be sure with the mischievous Massking twins. The auburn-haired girl sighed. Then the door to the room opened and Sharshua Dragonsong and Sunshine Allouette entered clutching pamphlets and comparing notes. Bubbles brightened at sight of them.

"What about you two?" she said, approaching the two girls. They stopped abruptly and looked around in suspicious alarm.

"My apologies," the Octora girl Sharshua said, bowing nervously. "Have we committed an error by entering at this moment?"

"You might have," laughed the twins in unison. They had completed their plaiting activity by using identical ribbons in their hair to ensure maximum confusion.

"I certainly haven't," growled the feisty Sunshine, who hailed from the desert lands of the near east, a Winkel called Greetiyah.

"It is spring break," Princess Rapture explained, "and our good friend of Frangea wishes a companion to share the joys of exploring the northern district of her Home Winkel."

"That's the wild mountain wastes next to the dangerous storm barrier," Sunshine frowned. "Full of feral beasts with teeth and claws and a sky where lightning suddenly descends and frazzles the unwary."

"Precisely," Bubbles agreed. "An adventure!"

"I am heart broken," the unassuming Sharshua bowed again. "For I am unable to accompany you on this journey of a lifetime with a high likelihood of sudden death, as Sunshine and I intend to explore the Flower Fest in Blossom Bay, every day it's on," she quickly added to underline her meaning. She showed the colourful pamphlets the girls had been sorting through that advertised the event.

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"Flowers do not have teeth, nor explode in your face like a lightning struck rock," Sunshine said unnecessarily.

"Just me then?" Bubbles mournfully replied, looking down at the carpet a moment.

"There will come a time I am sure when we shall all join you in exploring this mighty land of hills and forests and sea breezes," the princess said, tossing her magazine aside, "but for now, three months away from home among strange girls and even stranger mistresses at this curious school is enough for all of us at present I fear. We would quietly usher in our first spring in the beautiful land of Frangea."

"Nicely said," Bubbles acknowledged with a smile. "I won't be alone of course. Other girls will have signed up. A chance to make friends with those outside the Flare Dormitory." With that she left the room under a bit of a cloud of disappointment and sought out the main entrance foyer down several flights of softly carpeted stairs.

The main building of Miss Plazenby's school was luxuriously appointed, with statues on plinths and paintings upon every conceivable wall. Bubbles's favourite was a massive landscape view that confronted the visitor when they entered the great portico through the heavy double doors. It hung high up opposite the entrance and showed a view of distant blue mountains, dark forests sweeping like skirts among the foothills and a sea of flowers across grassy plains in the foreground. And there, stood amid the sage and suncups and mallow was a lone girl, shading her eyes as she took in the grand view, having discarded a great straw hat which lay among the flowers forgotten. The slim figure had reddish hair and Bubbles liked to imagine it was her in the picture, breathing in the outdoor beauty of Frangea.

Beneath this masterpiece that encapsulated the spirit of the land of her birth was a more prosaic and ordinary noticeboard, upon which were pinned various announcements. The one that drew Bubbles towards it was a spring break tour planned by Miss Dubbers, the junior sports mistress and outdoor enthusiast without equal. It described an adventurous itinerary in bold purple letters where any number of pupils would be whisked off to the great unknown of trackless forests, empty prairies and hills lost amid the splendour of barren isolation where no settlement had dared to plant its foot. All this against the backdrop of the formidable storm barrier that marked the boundary of Frangea Winkel, a writhing mass of cloud and lightning that was instant death to those who approached too close. Bubbles grinned and a surge of excitement coursed through her.

The pinned up sheet had upon it a few names already of older girls she did not know. The name of Vanira Suthiam written dashingly in bright red ink displayed a forthright firmness which impressed the first year. Bubbles thought this was someone who would not shirk the terrors of the north and be a cool head in a crisis. She determined if she could, to seek her out and learn from her. With a swift motion, the redhead place her pen against the list underneath the impressive name, determined to imitate her well-formed writing style when a voice intervened.

"Sure you want to do that?"

Bubbles turned and was confronted by a cloud of dark hair like thunderous vapour swirling around a moon pale face.

"Danique?" she said in surprise, recognising a member of the Sensation Dormitory which was next door to her own, and therefore inevitable rivals in everything happening in and out of school.

"I mean," the mysterious girl said, sweeping hair from her eyes and smiling, "it's not for the faint hearted."

Bubbles huffed, turned her back on the other and quickly scribbled her name on the list in a less than impressive way before marching out the open front door into the spring sunshine.

When she returned later she glanced at the list to see if any new names had been added and there in a greenish ink in keeping with her eerie persona was the name of Danique Ferale. She had volunteered to go on the same tour with Bubbles, much to her dismay. When she looked closer at the writing though she was surprised to see that the defiant hand that had written out the name had trembled noticeably when she had done so.