They sat in the seats of honour in the royal flitter of course. Those were the ones which had the best view of everything out the wraparound windows but where they themselves could not be seen by scramble crowds gathered outside.

Princess Rapture made a curious purring noise just then as the flitter engines revved up a little and Bubbles gave her a puzzled squint.

"Oh, that's just mother, getting anxious for my arrival," she explained and produced from her blouse a large glowing ruby that vibrated with crystal impatience. She stroked the thing to quieten it and whispered words close to its blood red surface, her face pink in the reflected glow. Bubbles smiled at this parental concern.

"My father just pecked me on the cheek, shook my hand firmly and wished me safe journey," she said, sitting back to gaze at the moving scene out the window as the vessel began rolling past the crowds and other smaller craft towards the launch site.

"He is no less loving and concerned for all that," Rappy said gracefully. "I have told my mother we are taxi-ing for flight. That should soothe her concerns. I presume your father was that tall handsome man in flight uniform with medals upon his blazer's lapel. A very fetching moustache too may I say. Yet his hair is not red like yours?" she added questioningly.

"I get the good looks and go-get-em attitude from dear daddy," Bubbles said, enjoying the rattling of the vessel as it picked up speed. She loved flying more than just about anything. "But my hair is from my mother. When I was younger and helped on the family ranch during the holidays I often drop-kicked my boy cousins as a reminder us red-haired folk were not to be messed with. They got the message."

"Well," Rappy replied calmly at this violent anecdote, "you will fit right into the world of Xenia with such renowned antecedents." Then she settled back for the long flight through the stormy skies of Winkel World and Bubbles did likewise. She had barely closed her eyes or so it seemed when a jolt more violent than the three hundred or so that preceded it hinted they had arrived.

The landing was bumpy due to the bumpiness of the land but once the craft had settled then it began sliding down an icy slope for there were few flat areas large enough for a flitter to settle upon. Of course the flitterport crew were familiar with the procedure and quickly applied various hooks to the side of the vessel to stop it falling into a crevasse to join other less successful landings.

"There. We've stopped moving," the princess said from a curious angle.

"Have you thought of having landing gear bigger on one side than the other?" Bubbles said from another curious angle as she fiddled with her safety harness. "You know, to level out the craft."

"Indeed, but when a flitter came in from the wrong direction it merely flipped upside down and then slid into the Graveyard of Passenger Travel as we like to call the crevasse at the bottom of the strip."

Bubbles was going to reply to this but the sloping floor was slippery too so she ended up on the door as it opened, tumbling her out with a squeak of alarm. Luckily a large mound of pink and purple fur met her on the icy tarmac, softening her landing and making her sneeze all at once.

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Ever graceful at all angles, Princess Rapture descended the steep stairway without a hitch and was saluted by another honour guard lightly frosted by a summer snow blizzard on one side of their uniforms and tall hats due to prevailing winds.

Of course she was all wrapped in pink and purple furs too, but these seemed to cling to her in stylish masses that made her look toastily warm amid the flurry of snowflakes.

"Intelligent little creatures are they not?" she said to the struggling mass of fur next to her. "As soon as you step outside they gather round you and keep you as warm as themselves. We call them Furrybits."

"So you don't skin 'em?" Bubbles sneezed from somewhere deep within the soft bundle next to the princess.

"Of course not. That would simply be barbaric and we are a civilised people."

"Greetings, Exalted One," a man shouted in stentorian tones as he stepped forward, saluting so briskly the cone of snow atop his helmet avalanched sideways onto a shoulder. "Your Exalted father awaits you in the warm and snowflake free Cake Lounge. If you and your guest would follow me, I shall be honoured to lead you to him."

Bubbles sneezed again and just managed to dig herself out of the mountain of fur in time to watch the officer begin a somewhat high kicking march along a sloping carpet towards a splendid one storey edifice picturesquely dusted with a white layer resembling icing sugar atop a cake. As the frontage of the building was curved and made of a dark brown stone this image was accentuated and the Frangea girl's stomach rumbled at the sight.

When she tried to walk away from the furry landing pad towards this huge and tempting piece of confectionary it clung to her with many tiny little hands so she was forced to drag the mass along the tarmac with her, up hill all the way and through the wide doors behind the princess until she entered the Cake Lounge, every muscle straining at the effort.

As soon as she crossed the threshold and warm air blasted into her face the fur cluster released her by mutual agreement and she tumbled forward, rolled expertly several times as she had been taught to do in gymnastics class and only halted when she hit some steps. Thus she knelt there gasping for breath at the effort but was pleased to see Rappy kneeling beside her, so she looked up.

There, sat upon a throne seemingly made of crystal shards was a very large man, made even larger by thick embroidery and puffy fabric. Upon his head was a filigree crown of spun glass interlaced with gold thread and jewels. Half his face was covered with a thick beard and bristly whiskers so that his mouth was completely invisible, unless he had hairy teeth of course. Yet Bubbles knew he was smiling for grey eyes fixed upon her showed crinkly good humour.

"Father, may I introduce my good friend once again, Bubbles of the House Bannatyne, from the Quite Beautiful Winkel of Frangea."

"Ho, so we meet again," the jovial man said, referring to the reception she had attended after the attempted kidnapping incident. He had shook her hand then briefly but was diverted by a slap fight breaking out between the Massking twins as to who took precedence between them, for all of Dorm Flare had been there at the time. "You may rise."

"Cake," Bubbles gasped out in response, still trying to catch her breath, for reality remained difficult to grasp. She pointed vaguely behind her. "Furry little demons," she spluttered and collapsed again.

"The child is starving," came a soft feminine voice next to King Zolid's throne and a woman who could only be Princess Rapture's mother stepped forward. The same warm chocolate eyes and long rich brown hair, the same graceful movements as she gently lifted the exhausted girl off the floor, and the same pulsating heart ruby dangling from a necklace that kept her in constant touch with her precious daughter's whereabouts at all times. "We must feed her up so she may survive the harsh trials that await her," she said.

"Harsh trials?" Bubbles managed to drool before being dragged away she knew not whither.