Everyone who had sk8boards were hovering 200 feet in the air above the DreadNawt. The DreadNawt was on the dunes on a small dune between the tall dunes. Grandma Grey was piloting the B&B laying out the course on the dunes. The B&B was almost 90 degrees on its side. Every 500 yards Grandma Grey dropped a javelin shaped beacon into the ground, Ruby was handing the beacons over Grandma and Grandma dropped them into the sand. Grandma could turn the B&B on a dime if she wanted to, she was awesome. They dropped 33 beacons, every beacon shot a ray of red light up into the darkness. When they were done with the beacons Grandma Grey hovered the B&B 200 feet above the sk8ters and switched on the lights. The whole course was illuminated, the colors varied between red, orange and yellow. Grandma Grey and Ruby sk8ted down to the other sk8ters, Grandma explained it would be unfair on Ruby as Ruby couldn't see the other colors so she would only use colors Ruby could see today. Everyone nodded their heads in agreement.

The whole track was about ten miles around. The first race would be once around. The track started on the highest dune and ended there as well. The bar was in the middle on top of the DreadNawt. There was no liquor available on their trips but the barman was highly skilled at fizzies.

Granny Grey rode in front for the test round, Grandma made sure everyone struggled to keep up to her steroid boosted sk8board.

While the people not going to race were guiding the last of the huge speakers into their positions around the track everyone else glided over to the bar. The bar was almost 60 yards long and every imaginable kind of bottle was stashed against the shelf. Grandma went over the rules again.

The speakers weren't for commentary, they were for music, the barman was the DJ as well. Andy the barman also worked in the kitchen, he used magic in his drinks and some of the meals they served in the DreadNawt were also enhanced with magic.

Thirty sk8boarders were behind the line in the sand. Angie, the girl with the slightly injured ankle was next to Ruby. As soon as the music started they could go, everyone adjusted their dust goggles. As soon as the music started pumping everyone shot forward. Clouds of dust shot up and the people behind the leaders looked through the dust at the beacon light running into the sky. The lighting pulsed with the music and changed color as well to the music.

It was an adrenaline rush; the bass was pumping loudly, everyone sk8ted at top speed. One of the shorter girls cut off a boy on a turn and he went plowing to the side, he caught up again soon enough and sat on her ass and overtook her behind the short dune just after the halfway mark. Ruby finished last. The person who crossed last in the first race was removed from the race however Angie withdrew so Ruby was eligible for the second race.

Everyone went to the bar. Granny Grey worked with red magic on Angie's ankle. Ruby watched Granny Grey pump red magic into the ankle and saw the relief on the Angie's face. Some doctors just used ointment to do the same thing that Granny Grey was doing with magic.

Andy stood behind the counter, "We are going to have a 'burpy' in honor of Ruby, it's also red so she will be able to see it. Tonight you can order red, yellow or orange drinks, rules of the house.

He filled a huge bowl with a few bottles of something red. He stirred it with a huge spoon. He took some herbs out of another jar and magically made them hang in the air above the bowl. He spun around and made ice cold snow float around the herbs with ice magic.

He stood back, he pushed his hands closer to each other and the herbs compressed with the ice. He did some fast movement with his hands and hundreds of ice balls formed from the squashed ice, he let the ice balls drop into the bowl. More than thirty glasses dropped from the rack above the bar and landed in a row in front of him on the counter. He held his hands over the bowl and directed the red liquid with the ice blocks floating in the liquid over and into the glasses. When all the glasses were full and the bowl empty, all the glasses slid over in front of everyone at the bar.

"Everyone knows the rules, you have to down the drink, it's filled with vitamins and natural boosters, okay everyone down your drinks now" the barman shouted out.

Ruby downed the delicious red cold fizzy drink. It made her tummy cold then she started burping, a long drawn out burp of about half a minute. She was embarrassed and blushed, she turned around and everyone was staring at her holding their breath, then everyone else let out a long burp in unison that also lasted about thirty seconds. Then everyone was laughing. Glasses back on the counter everyone headed on the sk8boards to the starting position.

The second race would be two rounds and the last two to finish would be eliminated. The pounding base started the race, dust flared up and everyone was trying to get to the front, Ruby was stuck in the crowd at the back. When they finished the first round she was still at the back with one girl and boy, she tried her best to get ahead of them. All the sk8ters were spread out over 200 yards so it would be a close race.

With half the track to go, two boys in the middle clicked their sk8boards together and went down in a cloud of dust. Everyone else in the pack went over or around the boys. As she went around the boys and looked back she saw the two boys dusting themselves off, they wouldn't be able to catch up now, they shook hands, hopped on their sk8boards and glided to the bar. That meant Ruby was eligible for round three.

Back at the fizzy drinks bar the barman had made the round of orange drinks in advance, the orange nectar ran sweetly down Ruby's throat and she could feel her energy returning as her body cooled down again. Everyone was dirty from the dust with clean white rings around their eyes from the goggles; everyone was smiling and were enjoying themselves. Ruby realized the sk8ters generally avoided liquor. May and Ruby chatted about the last race as their bodies recovered for the next race.

Maw connected with Ruby and they spoke telepathically about the fun she was having. Afterwards a girl came over to her and told her she also wanted a tattoo in ruby red on her temple that glowed as well, she thought it was 'fricking awesome'.

In round three there were three laps and the last three would be removed from the race, Ruby was enjoying it way too much and was going to make sure she finished in the middle of the pack in the race.

Ruby got into the centre pack in race three; it was difficult keeping up with everyone. She was sweating profusely, as were the others, the adrenaline and the music was pumping as they raced over and around the sand dunes. In the third round she was getting the hang of it, one of the boys in front slacked for the upcoming turn and was going to bump into the front of her sk8board. She nudged her board left and slightly down, oops, mistake, she went down as the front of her board connected with a small pile of sand that normally wouldn't have been a problem. Sk8ters went over and around her; she went plowing down the edge of a dune. Her face plowed in the sand and she came to a stop. Luckily it was the other side of her face and not the side with the tattoo. She lay back and let her body relax, she was disappointed about being out of the race but in the sk8ter crowd falling wasn't a sin, it was a challenge to overcome. Ruby sat up as Grandma Grey hovered down on her sk8board down next to her. Grandma made sure Ruby was okay and said she would look at her face when they were back at the bar.

Supper was being served on long table near the bar, it was self help and everyone sat in chairs arranged in a huge circle next to the bar. Grandma took Ruby to the side and looked at her face. Grandma told Ruby she was going to make her go blind so she could take the goggles off. Ruby took off her goggles after she went blind, "How did you do that Grandma" she asked. Only thing Grandma said was "Magic my dear, Magic". Grandma cleaned her whole face with a moist bar towel and hovered a bit at the spider tattoo and said "Maw gave you an amazing tattoo, she always does good work".

It turned out Maw was friends with Grandma; those times when Maw went away she would sometimes go with Grandma. Grandma cleaned Ruby's face properly, and then Ruby felt the slow throbbing magic working on her skin. It would go as hot as fire and then cool down again. When Grandma was finished Ruby put her goggles on again. She felt her blindness withdraw while she was rubbing her face to feel how her skin was doing. "Don't worry dearie, its perfect, I do have the magic touch" Grandma said.

They went to the table to dish up into their plates and went to sit with the rest of the sk8ters, Ruby sat next to May and they chatted while the other races were going on, May had also been eliminated in round 3. The food as always was good. The races continued and everybody was really enjoying themselves. The tall skinny sk8terboy with the cute smile and earring won the races. His sk8ter girlfriend gave him a peck on the cheek after he received his prize.

Everyone helped pack up and headed for the showers, tonight most girls just sat on their skateboards after they had washed themselves. They would sit under the hot shower water, hovering about three feet in the air, sitting on their boards with the water running over their back or their aching muscles. They sat and talked for ages until it was time to go to bed. Ruby didn't feel "out" anymore, she did feel a bit self conscious about having to keep on her goggles but it didn't seem to bother anyone when they spoke to her now.

She slept soundly and before she knew it the bell was ringing again. Again there was a rush of girls and boys to the showers on their sk8boards.

The Green grapes were 15 miles from the DreadNawt. The vine of the plant twined around a living tree, the tree gave it support, the vine in turn gave nutrients beneficial to the tree. The grapes pulsed in green slowly. All the sk8ters harvested with baskets and cut the grapes with pruning shears.

Before harvesting Grandma Grey rounded up all the sk8ters and picked a bunch of grapes and showed it to everyone. The grapes were in bunches about three feet long with the pulsing green light. When the grapes were ripe there would be a fine yellow powder pulsing on the skin of the grapes.

The harvesting started. The grapes were reasonably soft. When a basket was full the sk8ter would bring the basket to Grandma Grey and she would pulse all the grapes in the basket with bright blue magic to preserve the fruit and make the fruit harder so it wouldn't be bruised either, Ruby of course couldn't see the blue yet, that was tomorrow.

They were back at the DreadNawt before supper so there was some sk8ting before and after supper. The sk8ters worked every day of the week and didn't have weekends, they were paid so well that they could relax for at least 3 months before having to go on another harvesting trip but all the sk8ters were bored after a week and came asking when the next trip was going to be.

The next day it was the color blue. Grandma Grey said the people who wrote the books on color should have separated light blue and dark blue.

The patch of bright blue and dark blue pulsing was about 90 miles from the DreadNawt. When Grandma Grey saw the tree she was amazed. The dark blue pulsing fruits were as big as soccer balls, this meant the tree was hundreds of thousands of years old, the fruit grew exceptionally slowly. The dark blue fruits were a preservative of exceptional quality. One container full of the fruit paid for two trips, everyone was getting a major bonus this trip.

The side branches of the tree flared outwards from the trunk, on the straight branches the dark blue fruit hung under the branch, on top of each branch were the light blue pulsing balloons with foot long bright blue pulsing crystals. The gas inside the balloon was poisonous so everyone was warned to stay away from the bright blue balloons. The soccer ball sized dark blue fruits were closest to the tree trunk. As the branches grew outwards the fruits became smaller.

A laser cutter was used to cut the stem of the pulsing dark blue fruit; the huge fruits would fall into the container below with a loud crack but didn't break because they were so hard. Harvesting was done from the trunk to the tip, oldest to youngest fruit. Harvesting went extremely fast.

Ruby wasn't allowed to use the laser cutting shears because she wasn't competent to use them. Instead of harvesting Grandma Grey took Ruby and May to the other side of the tree and showed them the light blue balloons. The crystal was the actual fruit. The tree had two fruits, the dark blue fruits and the light blue crystals.

When the light blue crystals were mature the balloons would start forming. In the case of this fruit, the vine created the bright blue balloons to hold up the branches to hold the weight of the dark blue fruits. The gas inside the balloon pulsed bright blue, the foot long crystal also pulsed. Grandma explained how the gas in the balloon helped hold up the branches.

Ruby connected with Maw telepathically. Maw looked through Ruby's eyes and identified the fruit. Maw explained how to harvest the crystal, the crystals were rare but the use of the crystal was for a very seldom used chemical process. Four of the one foot crystals would be enough for them.

Ruby asked if she could harvest four crystals and Grandma Grey said it would be fine as long as Ruby could do it safely. May couldn't see Essvee or Calistherm so she couldn't see the magic Ruby did, May however figured out Ruby used magic to harvest the crystal.

Ruby spun a tight 3 inch needle in Essvee on her index finger, stuck the needle into the balloon and pumped a little Calistherm into the balloon through the needle. The balloon just deflated and dried out in ten seconds. "Awesome" said Grandma Grey who could see in Essvee and Calistherm, "I see you can also do some magic as well". "Simple" said Ruby "I asked Maw via telepathy, she told me the quick way to do it". Ruby harvested 3 more of the foot long crystals.

They were back at the DreadNawt before noon and another round of Sk8er races were held. Ruby and May were eliminated in the third round. That night all the girls sat in the shower on their sk8boards again.

The next day it was time for the indigo color. Grandma said the color magicians were crappy at selecting the colors, they should have made it red, orange, yellow, green, light blue, dark blue and violet. The color mage's divided the light spectrum into frequency slices and made everything too technical, practical magic was meant to be practical not complicated.

The dark blue and the indigo were very close in color and difficult to separate. In the darkness of the drivers nest Grandma Grey first apologized to Ruby then tore out the dark blue, indigo and violet pages. Grandma said Mr. Bookbinder could fix it for Ruby when she got back home. Grandma Grey turned on all three colors. It was going to be difficult. Grandma Grey flew and directed the harvesting from the drivers nest.

Ruby had to open her mind to see all three colors, the dark blue, indigo, and Violet. Then she had to block off one color, focus on the other two colors. Then she had to swop it around, see the one color and block the other two colors. This was repeated with every color. She got the hang of the three colors just before lunchtime, roughly four hours.

At lunchtime Grandma Grey asked Ruby to stop the B&B on top of a flat dune and let the B&B hover about 3 inches off the ground. When they got down Ruby saw the engines were hovering 3 feet above the ground, "practice makes perfect" Grandma Grey told her.

Everyone sat under the B&B eating their packed lunches, everyone tidied up their wrappers and bottle caps after lunch, sk8ters weren't litterbugs.

After lunch Ruby took over the flying and flew to a patchwork of dark blue, indigo and violet. As they hovered over the multicolor patches Grandma Grey pointed her laser pointer at the patches on the ground and asked Ruby the color, Ruby always had the color right. The laser pointer made a line through the air and made a yard wide circle on the ground.

May hovered up to the drivers nest and sat on her sk8board. Grandma Grey would point to a patch of growth and a sk8ter would go fetch a sample. The sk8ter would hover up to Grandma Grey in the drivers nest and show it to Grandma. Grandma named the herb; May would memorize the appearance of the herb and recite the stock level of the particular herb. All the herbs were in stock. After an hour of moving the B&B and hundreds of samples they found a spice that was low in storage. Everyone went down to harvest.

The herb was oregano, the pizza spice, it was always in demand. The spice was like a carpet of fluffy balls lying on top of the dunes. There were 3 teams of harvesters, one team would sit on their sk8boards on their feet on the board and their legs were drawn up to their chests to harvest, you couldn't stand on the dunes otherwise the dune moved and the fluff balls would start moving away. The oregano grew on the steep dunes so the uncomfortable method of harvesting had to be used. A team would work for ten minutes then the next team would take over. So it was ten minutes harvesting, twenty minutes rest for their knees. Eating pizza was definitely more fun than harvesting the spice.

They were back at the DreadNawt for supper, no one sk8ted that night, everyone put cream on their knees or sat on their sk8boards in the shower.