Two whole days without school. Endless days of sunshine and fair breezes. A Frangea weekend was paradise to the young souls who flocked to the beaches along the twenty mile coast of Blossom Bay. The girls of Miss Plazenby's Extremely Exclusive Seminary were no exception as they set off early in the morning down the slopes of Mount Syzywyg in various hired vehicles or private cars, through Cherryball Flats and then onto the wide coast road with its numerous slipways that led directly onto the golden sand.

Rivalries that existed in the school became rivalries on various stretches of the wide beach as games were organised and battles fought for pride and the joy of victory.

"Come on Lyra!" a bronze-haired girl said, the athletic and competitive Soo Toglak of Mangoria Winkel to her dorm mate as they raced down a slipway amid the crowds to find a space where they could relax and watch the fun. The other girl, weighed down by numerous beach bags and rolled towels, staggered through the soft sand to where a shady outcrop of greyish sandstone marked a popular place to sunbathe between surf splashing and tide racing.

"We tread upon the fragments of time, a thousand thousand years in the making," the lyrical Meditia girl said as she unrolled a bright towel and knelt upon it for a moment of grateful rest.

"This stuff certainly is in fragments," and Soo picked up a handful of the glittery dust and let it filter through her fingers in the gentle breeze. Beyond her Lyra could see the cloudless blue of the sky and the flashing light of stirring waves as they marched towards the beach. "From where I come there are sandy deserts in patches, but mainly it's grass and more grass as far as the eye can see," she added.

"Great bodies of water that sway in restless repose are less familar too, I might say," and Lyra began arranging the contents of several bags around her as if she were setting up an encampment.

"Oddly no," and Soo Toglak lay down upon her own towel, facing away from the sea, her muscled back gleaming in the sun. "When breezes sweep over the plains the grass is as restless as the sea, and the sound is like the thunder of surf."

"And hooves they thunder too, bringing the restless souls of mighty herds sweeping across your land."

"Now you're making me feel homesick," and Soo laughed.

Mangoria was a land dominated by great herds of horses and Soo naturally enough having been brought up there was an expert rider. Coming from a tribe of nomadic people who often found themselves clashing with rivals for the best pasturage, her young life at times was a witness to fierce fighting. Thus she had been trained from as earlier as she could walk to run and jump and wield weapons. Yet her noble father, head of one of the great families of Mangoria, thought it meet his beloved daughter should see something more of the world, and get an education besides. That daughter however was less enthusiastic, especially when her weapons had been confiscated by the head mistress Miss Plazenby on her arrival at the school.

She trained to keep herself fit, tolerated the book learning on offer, and tried her best to understand the more placid natures all around her, like Lyra Bellicosa and her poetical way of expressing herself whenever she opened her mouth. At times of heightened emotion she even broke into rhyme. This was indeed like seeing something more of the world.

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Shouts of laughter and groans of dismay sounded further along the beach and the two girls looked to where a game of beach ball batting had just ended in victory for one side.

"Did we win?" Soo said.

"I fear not, for the identical ones of Flare slap hands in high glee whereas our poor Pinky and Petal drag their dejected selves from the field of defeat in vivid shame." Dorm Flare was of course a rival first year dormitory at Miss Plazenby's whereas the two defeated girls as well as the watchers on were from Dorm Sensation. Dorm Wonder had already been despatched by the crack blonde twin team from Flare.

"Pinky and Petal? Who thought up that combination?" Soo winced, not liking the idea of fellow dorm mates being bested. "At least our fearless Danique might have fared better."

"Alas the sun is not a favoured companion of the Evernight girl," and Lyra indicated an overhang of rock where a slim pale figure sat deep within its shade absorbed by the contents of a magazine rather than all the life and colour around her.

"At least she came down to the beach with us," Soo observed with a sigh. "Come on Lyra, enough lounging. This girl needs to work off some frustrated energy, and taking on those duplicates at their own game seems a good idea." With that she pulled the lyrical girl up off her towel and dragged her over to where the Massking twins, Divvy and Fizzy were playfully tossing a great squashy beach ball between them as some boys from Chancefleet were calling and teasing and begging for a match.

"No boys allowed," one of the girls said.

"Especially loud boys," the other added, and a stubby youth with a shock of blond hair looked particularly disappointed. Soo however would brook no refusal.

"I'm loud, but I'm not a boy," she said. "If you've still got the energy, let's have a do or die game for the honour of our dorms."

"Matched!" the twins said in perfect unison and tossed the bouncy ball at Lyra to serve, challenger's privilege.

The rules were simple. Within a basic confined area of the beach, cleared of pesky sunbathers and encroaching boys, all the attacking team had to do was get the ball over the heads of the opposing team so that it landed in the sand without being touched. No net was required and no boundary lines needed either. The nature of the ball of course made it difficult to get height or distance that could defeat the defending team. A grounded ball was anyone's and fighting over it was half the fun.

It soon became apparent this was something Soo was good at so she often found herself the attacking player while Lyra kept her distance to defend the back line, yet they were no match for the telepathic coordination of the tall and long limbed Massking twins from Nordeyer Winkel. They drew the others in and with combination swipes of the squashy ball were able to loop it successfully over the Sensation girls' heads two times in a row without answer. The last winning hit just escaping the finger tips of a backpedalling Soo when Lyra had been teased to approach by a clever tactical ploy.

"We win again!" the Flare girls crowed happily amid cheers from the Chancefleet boys, for they had now gathered a fan club. A third successful hit would win the game outright. "You need bigger hands," the twins teased.

"You need smaller mouths," Soo retorted fiercely, making the goodnatured opponents pucker up and go cross-eyed in such coordinated fashion the Mangoria girl could not help but laugh.

Then Soo prepared to serve and she was so determined to make a good start she smacked the giant ball for all she was worth, but it veered off into the surf and ended up being sucked away by the receding waves of the sea before anyone could react.

"That is out of bounds," one of the twins said casually.

"And you're bound to go out and get it," the other observed with a smirk.

Soo just stood there watching the big round thing roll lazily upon the surf as it drifted further away from the beach.

"You win," she said sullenly and walked away.