Breakfast was a brief but extravagant affair, noisy with the chatter of excited girls. The day was fair and as everyone said a relieved farewell to the Fleabane, the coach trundled on along the coast road with the rising sun cutting through mountain forests and casting great shadows upon the pale blue sea.
Bubbles saw none of this for her view faced east where rising ground was at times a wall of pines, broken here and there by glimpses of grand mansions upon open rises and power stations that kept the world wide grid alive with energy. Then the view changed abruptly as the coast was abandoned and the large six wheeled vehicle turned off into a dark narrow mountain road that rose steeply amid shadowy woodlands.
"This is more like it," Danique enthused next to her, looking out the various windows at green vistas and leafy aisles as tall trees soared upward far above their heads, making everything on a human scale seem very small indeed. One great monarch of the forest had ended his reign in impressive style after a thousand years of growth, tumbling down across the path the coach traversed. Such was the size of the trunk and the slope of the land that the vehicle was able to drive underneath a gap and the girls watched in awe as the huge gnarled bulk swept over them, blotting out the filtered sunlight momently before being left behind. There were cheers as the coach accelerated up a final incline and drew to a halt in a clearing, where it circled and shuddered and fell silent.
"Here we are girls," Miss Dubbers declared brightly. "Civilisation ends and raw nature begins." With this she leapt out onto the soft carpet of pine needles and moss and gestured with exuberant enthusiasm for her young charges to do likewise. Rucksacks were retrieved, what looked suspiciously like a cuddly toy was placed back upon the coach, no one daring to claim it was theirs, and the great vehicle shuddered back into life. Bubbles felt sure she saw a smile of amusement on the face of the driver as he passed by and navigated his vehicle out and down the road into gloomy shadows, abandoning everyone to their fate. There was a sense of foreboding as the sound of the vehicle faded and faded before being replaced by the noise of the surrounding woodlands. Birds chirrupped, small animals rustled both below and above, and the wind sighed in whispering gusts through the leaves.
"Well," Bubbles mused, "we're really on our own now."
"Hup, hup girls!" came the brisk encouragement from the mistress. "We've a quick ten mile hike up over that ridge to the Bestaway Streamlet before lunch." She consulted her map, disconcertingly turning it this way and that with a frown before nodding and pointing to a gap in the trees which might once have been the starting point of a frequented trail a hundred years ago. "Everyone's locator online?" she added as an afterthought.
"Yes miss," came the standard response.
"Mine says I'm in Perfecta, the Golden Plaza Mall, third floor, luxury party shoes, twenty third aisle," one second year pointed out after a moment during their walk.
"Ooh, which brand?" came a response.
"Give me that," Miss Dubbers intervened and snatched the wristlet from the girl. She pressed a few buttons frantically a moment and then returned it. "Needed some serious resetting," she sternly admonished the offending girl.
Stolen novel; please report.
"Now it says I'm in the middle of nowhere," came the mournful reply.
"You are not. You are on the southern tip of the beautiful Wilds of Fregonia, the loveliest district in all Frangea." Miss Dubbers was a native of the Winkel and Bubbles, also a born and bred Frangea girl, warmed to her after this speech. They were after all the only natives present. All the other girls came from affluent families scattered across a multitude of distant Winkels.
The trail warmed in the morning sun as the long line of girls wandered along its dusty path, making comments here and there at glimpses of wildlife, squirrels leaping from tree to tree being the favourite.
"Is that a Pangol, miss?" one observant student said, pointing at a clump of shrubbery to their left where a beady-eyed, pointy-snouted creature watched them warily as they traipsed past. It was the size of a large dog, but with armour plates along its flanks and six inch claws on short strong limbs.
"Indeed," Miss Dubbers agreed. "A harmless insectivore. It uses those claws to peel the bark back from trees to get at ants and centipedes. Best step quietly, so as not to alarm it. Come along girls."
Danique stopped to stare at the thing, until it moved away with a snuff and a low growl, disappearing among the rich greenery down the slope. Bubbles pulled the Evernight girl away and they resumed their hike.
"We have those in our forests back home," the girl said. "Some are insectivores, and some are flesh eaters. To avoid being killed by the dangerous sort, the thing to do is stare them out of countenance. Show them who is master."
"It probably thought you were a very large fuzzy beetle and decided it would take too long to consume you," Bubbles observed wryly. True to her nature, Danique Ferale had chosen to wear dark shorts and a black jacket over her school blouse, so that with her mass of cloudy hair she did indeed resemble some creature of the night. Her Home Winkel of Evernight was a place of shadows for it was a wilderness of great trees very different from the tall, slender pines and firs of Frangea. They were mighty deciduous oaks and elms with great root systems and widespread foliage that blotted out the sun for hundreds of miles. Thick woodland was a second home for Danique, but it was a flat and featureless landscape for the most part. Here in Frangea great forces of nature had ripped and buckled the land, thrusting masses of granite thousands of feet into the air and split massifs with deep ravines that never saw the sun at their depths even in high summer.
The ridge was crossed and the land opened up with a north facing slope of grassy hills spangled with millions of flowers. Beyond was the silvery sparkle of cascades and plunge pools and more than one rainbow hung in the misty air. Everyone raced down the slope, some unable to keep their feet as they tumbled among the flowery masses. Shrill cries and squeals of delight filled the air and colourful birds scattered in surprise at their quiet wilderness having been invaded by a mass of excited girls.
There was still three miles to the plateau that overlooked the Bestaway Streamlet and many girls were weighed down by gathered flowers by the time they reached the stopping point for lunch.
"Those harebells bring out the colour in your eyes Eventa," Miss Dubbers observed indulgently as one girl spread her treasures before her on the mossy rock that overlooked a plunge pool. The day was warm and clouds drifted in small clusters across the sky in lazy satisfaction at the beauty of the landscape. Bubbles ate her sandwiches happily but Danique, who had stuck by her side during the descent, not picking flowers and ignoring the great butterflies disturbed by her progress down the succession of grassy terraces, seemed restless as she looked around at the loveliness of nature.
"There are caves and tunnels aplenty in this region," the auburn-haired girl said, rolling her eyes. Without response the Evernight girl took a long drink of water from her flask, stood, and peered over the edge of the plateau at the clear water below. She straightened up, turned her back on the drop and looked across at Bubbles, a curious image in dark clothes, soft black hair floating around her pale face. Momentarily she fixed her gaze on the other, then she disappeared over the edge.