IT WAS A BIG adventure. One that required a lot of reading matter to absorb, strange things to look at and an eager seeking after familiarity so that comfort could be achieved.
Flitter travel was all about sitting still and letting the world move around you, changing the scenery and revealing a whole new universe of sights and sounds.
Vetta Mindal had taken up a window seat and being such a young passenger was carefully watched by the onboard stewards as she settled into her night seat.
'There you go,' said the soft-spoken lady in a smart uniform as she handed an extra pillow to the girl. She smiled at how wrapped up she was, thinking once she reached Frangea the sweltering heat of early autumn might be a little too much for her.
'Thank you for your kindness,' Vetta said, placing the cushion-like thing behind her head, positioning it so she could look out the window. Other passengers had lowered their window blinds for the darkness outside was nothing to see.
'Are you sure you wish the blind up?' the lady then asked, thinking of the storm barriers to come and their flickering displays of energy. During the period of close approach by the great moon Serenity the barriers lost much of their menace yet the display was still unnerving to new flyers. The schoolgirl was obviously not a regular commuter between the lands across the Face of the World.
'Yes, thank you,' Vetta replied with rising enthusiasm. 'I would like to see.'
'But there is nothing out there, except some distant lightning now and again. Nothing to worry about of course,' she reassured the excited girl.
'Papa says to see nothing is as much as to see something for absence teaches its own lesson. Darkness is enlightening and I wish to learn everything I can. That is why I am going to a big school in Frangea. Education is one of the five wellsprings of joy.'
'Well, it sounds as if you know what you want,' came a smiling response.
'Only that I want to know.'
With that the uniformed lady left her young charge with additional assurances she would be on call for the rest of the night.
'A curious little thing,' she said to a colleague also on duty for the night flight. 'Wants to see everything and yet closes her eyes to sleep.'
'Perhaps she sees with more than her eyes,' the other said. 'Like those people from Granite out eastwards some say can do. Mindreaders and the like,' and she shuddered.
'Not this one,' the lady laughed softly. 'From Poldorama. I feel sorry for her a little, for Frangea is no place for those of a gentle soul. She'll see a lot of things she could never have imagined before the year's a month older I fear.'
From where she stood she could see the small figure curled up in her night seat, soft blonde curls resting against the cushion, and a faint snoring breath could be heard over the growing rumbles as the flitter approached the first storm barrier of the night. Once passed they would be over the Great Central Ocean and then on to Frangea.