Miss Plazenby's Extremely Exclusive Seminary for Girls was beginning to fill up again as the summer holidays waned and pupils returned from their various vacations, often from distant Winkels.
Although it was still several weeks before the new academic year began yet the Dorm Flare girls were in full attendance as all six gathered for a celebratory party. There were cakes and fizzy drinks, belches and giggles in abundance as the girls shared their recent experiences with each other in the dorm room.
Bubbles Bannatyne, renowned for her harum scarum antics, had brought back from a visit to Princess Rapture's homeland a whole series of new bruises which she showed off at every opportunity.
"This one," the redhead boasted, pointing to a contusion on her shin, "was when I won an avalanche race against all the odds."
"Really?" Sharshua Dragonsong said, shuddering at such vigorous activity. She was a quiet, unassuming creature, though occasionally known to have her own adventures in distant lands now and again.
"It is so," Princess Rapture affirmed. "I was a witness to it all. A most dangerous affair yet my friend surmounted all difficulties to achieve a notable success."
"Brrr!" Sunshine Allouette shivered for her own reasons. Coming from the desert barrens of Greetiyah Winkel, the very ideas of snow and cold were things not to be endured. "I would rather enjoy dune surfing beneath a blazing hot sun than such frigid games you describe," she said.
"Dune surfing!" the twins, Fizzy and Divvy Massking, perked up at this curious occupation.
"Indeed. If you were to pile up all the sand on every beach in Frangea it might be possible to create a dune just high enough to be worth surfing down." Sunshine took a wafer and made gliding movements with her hand to demonstrate how she would ride the sandy waves of her homeland. There was a look in her eyes that suggested she was already there amid the sweeping sandy wastes with her three brothers. An illness had kept her home for the summer and she missed everyone terribly as a result.
The blonde and pigtailed twins, hailing from the cold and rocky land of Nordeyer had also stayed in Frangea mostly and kept the girl company for which she was hugely grateful. Although completely crazy, they were also big hearted and forever seeking ways to be helpful, not always with the result intended. Never ones to miss the most trifling thing they began whispering to themselves on a matter of secret import.
Bubbles huffed at a slight seemingly made upon the glories of Frangea, her Home Winkel, and cut herself a particularly large slice of lemon cake which she proceeded to devour with noisy contentment. The gesture brought an elbow into prominence and Sharshua, who sat upon the floor to better reach scattered snacks, noticed another bruise.
"How, may I be permitted to ask, did you acquire that wound?" she said, hiding behind a candy puff as she spoke, nibbling it discreetly and with well mannered stealth. "Was it when you battled vampire moths or renegade death spiders, or while you were saving the princess from an evil baron and his well armed minions?"
Bubbles belched thoughtfully and glanced at the indicated elbow.
She continued to stare at it a minute, as if trying to recall the numerous life and death struggles she had faced in Xenia where Princess Rapture came from, to identify which danger resulted in that particular injury. Her friend came to her rescue.
"Is it the left elbow?" the princess inquired softly. "Then it must have been when you tripped over some luggage on the tarmac at Portangel after our arrival here."
Bubbles blushed, smirked, and took another bite out of the spongy lemon wedge.
"Can't be a hero all the time," she shrugged. "Hurt too, that one."
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
Meanwhile the whispering in the background from the twins had become more animated and soon escalated into the inevitable slap fight. No one knew how the winner of such a contest was ever determined but no sooner had the fight begun than it was ended and the little demons in duplicate sniggered when everyone looked at them.
"By the Sacred Hamster of Ragadoon," one of them said.
"By the grace of the Twinkle Twins," the other declared.
"We have thought of a new game to play," they announced together.
"Uh oh," came a quiet warning, no one was sure from whom.
"One of those games everyone plays when bored," Divvy announced.
"A bored game of course," helpfully explained Fizzy.
"But we're not bored," Bubbles insisted, thinking the tales of her various bruises had kept everyone entertained for hours at a stretch.
"That's not important," insisted one of the twins with equal firmness.
"What we need," the other pursued, "is a game of chance with a reward for the winner."
The other girls looked at each other as ideas filtered through their varied minds on what sort of game it might be and what the eventual prize.
"We might hold some beautiful jewel hidden in a hand and guess which it is," suggested Princess Rapture, gently fondling her beloved soul ruby.
"We could juggle sharp knives to see who throws the highest number without drawing blood," Bubbles said, seeking thrills wherever they could be found.
"A scoop of sand might be provided and everyone guess the number of grains it contains. The nearest thousand would win," Sunshine offered, pining for any reminder of her beloved homeland.
"A solution to the Grid backfeed anomaly might be posited," Sharshua considered. "I already have several theories in mind."
Everyone gave her a puzzled glance. The twins sniggered, whispered a little to themselves and then cleared their throats in perfect harmony as a prelude to further discussion.
"Too boring, too dangerous, too long and," they looked at the Octora girl, "too whatever that suggestion meant," came the final summation.
"Well," Bubbles huffed again. "What do you think then? I'm bored of this game already," and she folded her arms defiantly.
"Five destinations," and the twins held up a hand each.
"That's ten," Sunshine counted.
"Cross your eyes so we overlap to avoid arithmetical confusion," was the immediate response to this objection. "One whorl," and a solitary finger was raised by the twins. Sharshua's dark eyes contorted at this and she nodded for she knew they were referring to the Life Whorl she had recently acquired from the Tinkers of Affinity as a reward for helping them track down a rogue Tinker who threatened the well-being of Winkel World by tampering with the Triple Shield mechanism. That world spanning device no longer had the power to transport people from place to place as formerly, but the Life Whorl in the possession of the Octora girl did. She had told her summer tale to the other Dorm Flare girls during the party and the twins were very curious about it, as they had formerly been regarding the Triple Shield. They loved the idea of instant travel to distant lands. It gave them unlimited opportunities to bless other places with their special brand of chaos.
"So what is the plan, may I ask?" Sharshua said in her somewhat apprehensive way.
"We are going to write the names of five Winkels on five cards, shuffle them, and the place which comes out on top we shall all visit for a day, to bring Plazenby happiness to the people there."
"There is merit in such a plan," Rappy said thoughtfully. "We have the means to be helpful to others. What Winkels do you propose on this list? Surely not our five homelands?"
"Frangea is already here," Sunshine pointed out with inverted logic, "and Xenia recently visited by some of us, as well as terribly, terribly cold."
"We have chosen Perfecta, Gloriosa, Poldorama, Evernight and Grittier," the twins announced.
"Greetiyah," Sunshine corrected with a sigh of delight at mention of her home Winkel.
"I just wrote Grit on the card so it's too late to correct it now," Divvy admitted and began shuffling the thick rectangles with a dexterity that would impress a card sharp, hands blurring rapidly. Then she fanned the cards out and held them before her twin sister to select one at random.
"And the winner is," Fizzy declared in her announcer voice, "Grot." She blinked, puzzled. "Where's that?"
Divvy took the card, frowning.
"Sorry, spelt it wrong. Supposed to read Grit."
"Greetiyah! Greetiyah!" Sunshine jumped up and clapped.
"Well, this is a pleasant game," the princess agreed, liking the outcome for the joy it brought her desert friend.
"So then, tomorrow we go off on a jaunt to the land of dunes and dust," Bubbles said. "Sand surfing most definitely on the agenda."
Sunshine Allouette was too overcome to say anything. She just hugged the twins simultaneously and danced around the room humming the Greetiyah national anthem, which sounded suspiciously like a popular hit song of but a month ago.
Fizzy gathered up the scattered cards as the party broke up for the night and looked at the writing on them. Each had a hastily scribbled version of the word Grit.
"This says-" she began but her sister hushed her.
"Don't be boring," she simply said and winked.