The other girls found the still furious Sunshine uprooting a wooden pole that might once have belonged to a tent long decayed. It was a hard, dry wood, and fit for whatever purpose she was intending it.

"I hope you are not going to beat that man to death," Princess Rapture said. "He was perhaps only being helpful."

"Humph," came the simple reply and after rummaging among her bags Sunshine retrieved a small shawl which she tied to the pole and began waving it about as if signalling distant observers.

"I am Lady Sunshine Allouette," she declared, trying to reclaim her heritage after the Picture Folk disappointment. "We shall trek across the sandy wastes of Ragadoon like a nomad tribe of wanderers and pay our respects to the Terrified Forests. If we are attacked by marauders you are to rally to my banner for I am the chief," she declared proudly.

"I wondered what the flag was for," Bubbles replied.

"I thought it was to signal a bus to stop," Divvy offered.

"Or to hypnotise giant invisible birds to swoop down upon us and carry us unharmed in huge claws to a land rich in grapes and honeycakes," Fizzy said brightly.

"Sunstroke can create curious imagery, I may suggest," Sharshua quietly did just that.

"Just go with the moment," Sunshine said, shaking her head, holding the banner and shouldering her hand luggage as she marched briskly off in one direction, paused and began marching in another.

"I fear she is already lost," Rappy pointed out. "Which way is the Frightened Woodlands?"

"If you mean the Terrified Forests, it is that way, o miss of generous means," and the Picture Folk man who had caught up with the girls by this time extended an arm to indicate the desired direction. At the same time he bowed with gracious ease so the top of his turban was all the princess could see briefly.

"You are very kind to tell us this," the Xenia heiress nodded. "Who might you be?"

"Ah," came a hesitant reply as the man straightened himself, adjusted his turban, and realised he was in the unmistakable presence of royalty. Thus he knelt. "Mighty and generous princess," he began, "I am but an ant at your feet, a microbe of life called Pickkl of the Roaming Figitiyah," and he kissed the sand in front of her, spluttering a little afterwords as some got in his mouth inadvertantly.

Sunshine approached with her banner fluttering in the brisk wind that was a feature of these empty lands. She had gone some distance before realising no one had followed her so she doubled back to see what was happening. Her annoyance surged up again on seeing the defacer of ancient works of art but mention of the man's tribe gave her pause.

"Why do you linger here, o man," she said, "when the Figitiyah must be many miles distant?" She made no secret of the fact she rather enjoyed exercising the formal speech of Greetiyah.

"I was, um, trying to evoke the spirits of the land to bless the Picture Folk Well with water long since dried up so that when my people return this way refreshment would enliven them as of old. Perhaps it might even rain, whatever that is, if I drew the right pictures."

Stolen novel; please report.

"He made that up really quickly. He might be a priest," Divvy suggested.

"If so he could be the first worshipper of the Sacred Hamster of Ragadoon," Fizzy enthused.

"He could be all sorts of things," Bubbles laughed, "but hardly that."

"Do your people go round and round in circles, then?" Rappy asked curiously. "If so you must know these wells very, er, well."

"I have visited the five sacred wells many times since I was a small child," Pickkl insisted proudly. "Never have I seen a hamster at any of them," and he glanced nervously at the rodent with beady eyes and twitching whiskers peering at him from his basket.

"Have you seen any water, may I request to know?" Sharshua asked.

"Only in bottles," and he produced the very thing from his rucksack, took a swig and offered it around. The beverage was politely declined by all but Hamlit but he did not get so much as a drop.

"This is a harsh land," Pickkl began once his parched throat had been suitably lubricated, remembering it was time to sell his services at a price. "Young, distinguished and generous ladies such as yourselves may need a guide to ensure their safety and most importantly to ensure they do not get lost so that their bones end up lying scattered in unknown places bleaching in the sun."

"Mind the bones!" the twins chirped up.

"Your guidance will be most welcome," Rappy said, before being reminded by the sudden vigorous flapping of a banner that Sunshine had delegated to herself the leadership of the Plazenbyah tribe.

"We will be guided, o man, by your guidance," she said. "Guide on."

Instead of doing as instructed, Pickkl dropped his rucksack in the sand, scratched his turban, searched about his person until he retrieved a toothpick and then began worrying his colourful gums thoughtfully.

"O man, is there a problem?"

"O man, there certainly is," came a less than respectful response.

"He wants payment," the worldly wise Bubbles intervened. "There you go," and she dropped a couple of tokens in an outstretched hand that flashed forward to receive them of its own volition while the toothpick continued its operations uninterrupted. They jingled a little before being pocketed.

"That's good for about twenty feet in any direction," he said provokingly.

Princess Rapture sighed, sauntered forward and placed something very small and sparkly in his ever ready palm. He glanced down, the toothpick disappeared, and he made obeisance.

"Mighty and generous princess," giving Sunshine a slightly withering side glance, "I await your instructions."

"My instructions are that you obey our noble leader, a Lady of the Allouettiyah, is that how you say it?" and Sunshine nodded with a delighted smirk. "You are to follow her commands in all things. That is my instruction."

"Your command is my instruction to obey the instructions of the Lady of Allouettiyah as if they were commands. I hear and obey."

"Here you go. Carry this," Sunshine said, loading her luggage upon him. "I have a banner to wave so my hands are too busy with such trifles. Don't drop anything."

"Now, which way are the Apprehensive Trees?" the princess asked.

Several other bags and holdalls were piled atop the guide, who became a pack mule all of a sudden, and without further ado he staggered south towards a distant dark shimmer with the six girls trotting along behind him.

"Do you think he's weaving about to increase the fare?" one of the twins asked as they approached the third of the Five Sacred Wells.

What they found were a multitude of truncated trees, some dark as jet, spread out as far as the eye could see. It had once been a flourishing forest but now appeared withered into silence and solitude with sand sifting among dead and ancient roots.

Someone had helpfully placed a sign up against one of the broken stumps.

"Welcome to the Terrified Forests," Bubbles read. "We have branches everywhere. Please do not litter."

"It does indeed make you wonder what was so terrifying," Rappy said.

"They are not terrified," Sharshua observed, picking up a piece of glossy bark. "They are petrified."