VETTA STIFFENED at this unexpected question, which made her ponder deeply on many things all at once. She liked Truancy more and more. There was a fascination about her troubled soul that inspired a desire to help her, to bring her the joy she so much craved. She wanted to know things, to comprehend things that Vetta herself barely understood. She knew Miss Plazenby would never accept such a pupil in the extremely exclusive school she attended so somehow she had to find another way. She fretted inwardly, searching her mind for answers.
Fiercely she searched her memory, the words of her father and the respected elders of the Blessed Hub, and then the realisation seeped into her mind laden with panic.
'I don't know,' she eventually said, tears of disappointment welling up in her dark blue eyes as if from a wellspring of despair. Of all the things to be ignorant of, this was perhaps the worst. The other girl just stared at her.
'You really don't know, do you?' Truancy replied with a reassuring smile. Vetta shook her head, short blonde curls dancing in the lamplight. Truancy got up from her seat and went over to where the Poldorama girl sat. She hugged her a moment and then released her, literally.
'I am letting you go again,' she said. 'So you can return to your friends. Your other friends,' she added, correcting herself.
Vetta stood abruptly, seemingly alarmed at this sudden dismissal.
'You want me to leave? I'm so sorry I couldn't answer your question. It was really difficult and so unexpected.' She seemed heartbroken by this flawed conclusion to their little meeting.
'You have answered my question,' came a soft response and Truancy's eyes gleamed in the lantern light.
'How? I am so stupid,' Vetta said mournfully.
'You are not.'
'You are kind to say so.' There was a sense of relief in her response. Then she gave the girl an uncertain look. 'Where will you go now? What will happen to you?' The thought of suddenly parting from this strange girl and her unknown fate troubled Vetta more than she realised.
'Don't worry about me,' she laughed softly. 'We are all children of wandering ways. Wherever we go, whatever we do, our destinies are fulfilled as needs be. The Blue Hair Clan have lived in the wild out of the way places of Frangea for generations. We'll turn up again some day. Perhaps by then you'll be a teacher, like you said.'
'That would be amazing,' Vetta admitted.
It was time indeed to leave for it was getting late and though the evening meal was of no concern to the girl who had feasted on a plate full of beans, still there was a time she was expected to be back in her dormitory and that time was close. Thus the two girls walked out into the star-filled night again and felt the warm breeze of a Frangean autumn as it rustled the trees around them. They gazed up at the unattainable in silence and then embraced before parting, perhaps forever.
'As for the fifth wellspring of joy,' Truancy said, unable to keep silent any longer.
'Yes?'
'It's you, Vetta. It's you.'
THE END
AFTERWORD...
Well, this story really cannot end here for it is but a small part of a much larger tale, one that reveals the mysterious origin, true nature and final terrifying fate of the FACE OF THE WORLD. The complete story is so large and complex it had to be squeezed into no less than twenty six volumes, the full titles of which are listed below in chromatopedic order:
The Centre of Everything (A23)
The Perils of Pinky (B17)
Death Spiders (C1)
Teeth (a Sophelia Smog Adventure) (D21)
A Dying Art (E7)
Twinkle Twins (F5)
Bubbles Goes Wild (G4)
Dragon Post (H22)
Tinker Gold is Wealth Untold (I13)
The Golden Girl (J6)
The Sacred Hamster of Ragadoon (K15)
The Great Cheese War (L12)
Snow and Steam (or from Xenia to Gloriosa) (M26)
The Feeding Frenzy (N20)
Fairy Tangle (O14)
The Wicked Witch of Arbornica (P10)
Battle of the Spoons (Q19)
The Drowning Games (R2)
The Congress of Dolls (S8)
Tinker Dawn (T24)
The Fifth Wellspring of Joy (U9)
The Lonely Ghost (V3)
The Fatal Flaw (W11)
Invasion of the Dust Mice (X18)
The Other Meditia Girl (Y16)
The End (Z25)