‘AM – I – GLAD – TO – SEE – YOU!’ shouted Shimlara when she saw them. ‘I – DON’T – THINK – I – COULD – TAKE – MUCH – MORE – OF – THIS!’

Nicola thought landing on the edge of a cliff had probably won her first prize for Worst Possible Place to Land in Your Bubble-Jacket, but Shimlara had won second prize. She’d fallen right into the middle of a frozen lake. The good news was that her bubble-jacket had inflated properly and saved her from crashing through the ice. The bad news was that Shimlara was now trapped in a ball that was turning on the spot like a spinning coin. Shimlara’s face was green.

‘IT – WAS – FUN – AT – FIRST!’ she cried. ‘BUT – NOW – NOT – SO – MUCH!’

Nicola was about to run to her when Topaz stopped her. ‘Your shoes aren’t convertible, are they?’

‘Convertible?’

‘It’s a Shobble innovation for skating on our frozen seas.’ Topaz reached down and adjusted something on her shoes. Blades sprang out from the bottom. Her shoes had suddenly ‘converted’ into skates.

‘Don’t worry, I’ll get her.’ Topaz glided smoothly across the ice towards the spinning Shimlara.

The rain had stopped, the sun was shining and Shobble’s rainbows were once again shimmering above them. The air on top of the Cloud-Capped Mountain was so pure, Nicola wanted to drink it up in big refreshing gulps.

‘OKAY! HEAD-CRUNCH CHAMPIONSHIPS START NOW!’ cried Joshua.

‘YEAH!’ yelled Sean.

‘YEAH!’ yelled Tyler, although not quite as enthusiastically. Nicola hoped he didn’t smash his glasses trying to impress the other boys.

‘I bet I can beat all of you with my gymnastic skills,’ said Greta.

‘I’ve never heard of gymnastic skills but give it your best shot, Earthling!’ Joshua looked delighted at all this new competition.

Nicola was left standing on the side of the lake next to a tall, frizzy-haired girl who had joined them on the hunt for Shimlara. Topaz had introduced her as Serena Golddust. Serena seemed to be a quiet, serious girl with a soothing sort of stillness to her that was a marked contrast to the characters of both Joshua and Topaz.

As they watched Topaz skating across to Shimlara, Nicola said, ‘I hope you don’t mind me asking, but is Topaz okay? She seems sort of depressed.’

Serena kept her eyes fixed on Topaz and didn’t say anything for a few seconds. Then she sighed. ‘Yes, she is depressed. It’s partly because she’s got a bad cold but other things have been getting her down. People keep telling her it’s not worth fighting Enrico and that we’re only making things worse for the people. They’d rather spend their lives reading about what the hairities eat for breakfast. Also, one of the marshmallow miners had an accident and it was our fault. We all felt terrible about that.’

‘What happened?’ asked Nicola.