Dorm Sensation were having a picnic. By some miracle known as the all year round summer of Frangea Winkel, the weather was predicted to be nice that weekend and a special hamper of goodies was ordered from a Cherryball Flats outdoor activities shop catering exclusively to those in need of picnic foodstuffs.

"Are we expected to carry this to the park off Orangey Walk?" Petal Mara said, examining the giant basket-like hamper sat in the foyer of the main school building with the other girls standing around and admiring it, not all from their dorm. The great bulky thing had attracted attention from numerous pupils from various years.

"You might tie it to the back of the Mangoria girl, pack mule fashion," some second year quipped, giving the hamper a brief kick that accentuated the solidity of the thing.

Soo Toglak, the thus mentioned Mangoria girl, made a grab for her weapon as habitually worn by her people when out upon the endless grassy plains of her homeland, for tribal feuds were frequent. Alas her hand came up empty for when she had first arrived at Miss Plazenby's the decision was taken to confiscate her various throwing knives and deadly spears as things not quite seemly in the exclusive school. They had allowed her to keep the shield though, and that hung proudly above her bed in the dorm room. She therefore fell back upon a feral snarl as a response to the slight.

"If we perhaps took a corner each, a four way solution we might then reach," Lyra Bellicosa suggested.

"There's five of us," Soo replied, still snarling. "Who gets the free ride?"

"That will be me," Pinky Ponsonby skipped forward holding a small box in her hand. She wore a wide brimmed hat that matched the hamper, a soft orange blouse and skirt ensemble and shoes that shone in the sunlight pouring into the foyer. She also wore a knowing smile that irritated Danique Ferale.

"Who decided that?" she snapped at she of the pink hair.

"Tut," came the dismissive response from the Perfecta girl for whom all things were deemed a matter of style. It had been she who arranged the delivery of the hamper and thus she took proprietorship of it naturally enough. She thrust out a slender arm, pointed her little box thing at the much larger box on the tiles and pressed a button. There was a beep, a whirr and a shudder. The hamper then rose off the ground on six previously concealed wheels and rolled towards the steps where it proceeded to bump down to the gravel path.

"The fizzy drinks are getting a good shaking," the girl laughed as the thing settled to rest in the driveway like an obedient pet, waiting patiently for its mistress. She then did some things to the complicated looking device in her hand. "There. It'll follow me like a faithful dog. Let's have a pleasant walk to the Orangey Park," and then she paused, striking up a pose as if waiting for someone to say something.

"Can I drive it?" Danique skipped down the steps, now all eager to be involved.

"You are supposed to say, oh Pinky, how clever, you are wearing an orange outfit that so matches our destination, Orangey Park," the girl huffed disappointed.

"If that's how everyone talks in Perfecta, I'd rather have a conversation with a horse. More intelligent," Soo Toglak said as she too ignored the posing Pinky to stroll towards the main gate. "Let's get moving. I'm hungry."

"If you must know," came a sniffy response, "we Perfectines do talk like that all the time. It's called civilised aesthetic appreciation. Entire support groups are built around certain designer lines and stylistic perspectives." With this clarification concluded to her satisfaction Pinky descended the steps with a regal air and walked down the path. Petal watched her in some awe, then gazed interestedly at the hamper which seemed to hum to itself a moment and then its wheels spun and turned and it rolled on after the orange-clad girl just as she said it would.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

One of the numerous pleasures of studying at Miss Plazenby's was the wonderful location atop Mount Syzywyg. If one were to descend in any direction some beautiful location would soon be reached. To the south and east could be found valleys filled with exotic blooms and sparkling river cascades, to the west stretches of fragrant pine woods, oh and a boys' school too but that was considered barbarian territory and totally out of bounds. To the north was the extravagant settlement of Cherryball Flats with its boulevards and numerous shops and wide open parks, and beyond that Blossom Bay fringed by golden sands and tropical islands dotted about in a blue, blue sea.

The girls were of course only going as far as the Flats for their picnic and soon turned off to the right through an avenue of orange blossom trees to enter the grassy rolling spaces that constituted a public park.

"This spot is fine, shaded and cool," Lyra declared after a moment, eyeing some dark spruce trees towering at the edge of a slight rise that overlooked a distant view of the sea.

"I'm sure your next line ends in fool," Danique jumped on the lyrical girl's pronouncement with a laugh and sought that very shade the other was going to give some poetic turn to, for the Evernight girl was no worshipper of the sun. "Yes," she continued, "this will do perfectly," and she struck up a certain pose that reminded everyone of a certain someone else.

"I could not agree more," Pinky replied, refusing to rise to the bait. The hamper trundled up the grassy slope after her and settled next to where a blanket was being laid out by Petal and Soo.

"Shame we can't light a fire and gather round it," Soo said, reminiscing on camp fire gatherings in the chilly open air of her homeland.

"We could set fire to everything and simply watch it burn," Danique offered in compensation.

"Or," Pinky intervened with a contemptuous smile, pressing a button on her controller so that the hamper's lid popped open, "we could tuck into this yummy spread and enjoy our lunch."

And so they did, except for the fizzy drinks which had indeed suffered a bit of a shaking during the bumpy ride so that many a face was covered in fruity froth in attempts at taking refreshment between sandwiches, pastry puffs and creamy cakes.

"How fun it is to watch the simple folk of Frangea enjoying their harmless pleasures on a sunny day," Pinky eventually observed from where she sat, wiping her face and making conversation upon the subject of others in the park leisurely strolling around.

"Ooh, look at the really large man with his tiny dog," Petal chirped happily.

"See that small child trying desperately to control a really enormous blotting paper dog," Danique said with a slight tinge of alarm. "Oops, the lead appears to have slipped and the dog is free."

"Free to run directly towards us," Lyra said, rising and making no attempt to match words in her growing alarm.

"Free to run directly towards me," Pinky gulped, waving a mustard dipped sausage ill-advisedly. The great blotting paper dog, for it was a large dalmation with very white teeth, loped eagerly over to where the picnicking girls sat, having clearly spotted the savoury meat and making straight for it.

"Scatter!" Petal squeaked and everyone including the fierce Soo Toglak raced off in the same direction instead, Pinky rather sensibly tossing the sausage treat at the rapidly approaching dog to buy herself some time before departing in haste through the line of spruce trees and bushes to safety with the others.

Blotty the dog was only briefly fooled by the meaty treat which he devoured in a trice, for the savoury aroma still clung to the big orange thing that had run away. He wanted more so pursued the fleeing creature with a hunter's determination, terrifying the girls wherever they went.

"Perhaps we should tie Pinky somewhere and leave her," Danique suggested.

"You'd do that to a dorm mate?" Pinky protested tearfully. "Look out, we're cornered!"

They had indeed run into a kind of dead end within the park, surrounded by rose-covered walls in a sort of sunken garden with benches and a sundial at its centre that told them their time was up. The dog paced down the terrace towards them, slavering hungrily, giving Pinky a meaning look as he approached.

What she and everyone else forgot about of course was the hamper. Not so speedy as the frightened girls, it was nonetheless inexhorable in its instructions to follow wherever the Perfecta girl led. Feeling sore at being abandoned no doubt, it thus trundled up behind the dog in a most unexpected way and the startled creature almost lost his spots at this sudden attack from behind. He howled, leapt over the great basket thing that threated him and loped off to seek safer prey.

The hamper trundled on unconcernedly and settled next to where Pinky sighed in relief, sitting upon its faithful lid in gratitude.

Somewhere in the distant reaches of the universe the Imp of Entropy might be heard to scream, if such a personification of cosmic nature had possessed vocal chords.