The new Bureau of Magical Things had to wait for it's official start until after the winter break. Professor Maxwell shoved his whole class out of the library and told them to go and have fun. Darra wasn't going to be around anyway and as Kyra once said, after school comes vacation. They all felt they needed to install this human tradition.

Lily and Ruksy decided to spend the time learning a few neat fairy tricks and of course Ruksy got to spend some quality time with Peter. Something she wanted to do because it helped her deal with humans. Or so she claimed.

Imogen didn't want to go with her dad to Europe, she still couldn't quite forgive him for his treachery. Instead she made an arrangement with Lily's father to take a short intern-ship at the DMI.

That left Kyra feeling the odd one out.

Her dad had to work his regular hours and human school had winter break as well.

That first day she spent cleaning up her room, preparing Christmas dinner and playing her guitar, but by the end of the day she got bored. Mathilda was on holiday, all her magical friends had things to do and Darra ...

With her chin in her hand, she thought about the last conversation she had with the grey eyed elven boy. He was going to Europe with his mum and dad. Snowboarding. Was it possible to jump all the way to Europe?

And did she want to? She had told him she would like to, but now that she had the chance, she got nervous. Not so long ago, she told him she couldn't focus on anything other than a friendship, there had been too much going on at the time.

But now Orla was behind bars, or something like that, her powers were under control and even after one day, she had to admit she missed him.

His dad had told her she wasn't meant to be a part of Darra's future, but that was before she saved the world. Now that things were better than ever between the three races, fairy's, elves and humans, and she possessed the most powerful magic of all, nobody could object to them discovering the possibility of something more than friendship, could they?

However that still didn't solve the problem of how to get to Europe. And what about the time difference. Would she be ripping time as well? This needed some expert advice and so she ran to the little bookshop under Story Bridge. The sign said closed, but she knew Maxwell practically lived in the library, so she flicked her wrist and jumped inside.

"Professor?"

Ladder came sliding towards her, but there was no sign of the Professor. Kyra called a few more times, but he really didn't seem to be in.

This would be so much easier if her magical friends had mobile phones.

There was nothing to it, she had to discover the answer for herself.

"Ladder? Can you help me find something on making a rip to the another side of the world?"

The helpful wooden contraption, came into view and enthusiastically began to slide in the opposite direction. Kyro followed suit. Ladder brought her to an alley and one of the books on top flew down into her arms.

"Umpf, thank you, Ladder."

Browsing the book, she discovered that jumping to an other time zone didn't require any additional magic. The trick was to imagine the place you were jumping to and knowing you would end up in a different time. So all she had to do was imagine Austria in the dark and she would be fine.

She closed the book, coughing when she inhaled lungs full of dust and put in on Ladders steps.

Walking back home, an other difficulty presented itself, because, as far as she knew, Austria was no small place. And without knowing exactly where she had to jump to, she could spend the entire six weeks looking for Darra, instead of being with him. So, even though she didn't want Imogen to know about her intentions with her brother, her next stop was the DMI.

"Kyra? What are you doing here?" was the first thing Imogen asked, when she saw her. "I'm in the middle of an emergency, so this better be worth it."

Even though they were all friends now, Imogen's attitude hadn't improved much. It had taken Kyra about fifteen minutes to walk over to the hiding place of the DMI, but the perfect way to put forth her question still had yet to present itself to her.

In the end she merely asked: "Do you know any good spots to go sn- skiing?"

"That's what you disturbed me for? Don't you have the internet?"

"I know, but you've been skiing before, right? Somewhere in Europe? Isn't that where your mother is? I believe your father told about it at the award party."

Her elven friends eyes squinted, would she believe the half-lie?

"We have a cottage in Austria, yes."

"That is so awesome", Kyra enthused. "Is it pretty there? Easy to ski for beginners? Where is it?"

Still in slow motion, as if she had to over think every syllable, Imogen replied: "Our cottage is near Zell am See."

"Sellamsie? Is that a thing?"

"Zell am See! It's German. It has amazing slopes. Can I go now or do you need more of this kind of essential information?"

Quickly Kyra thanked Imogen and let her go. After that she jumped to her room, quickly checked on dinner, because her father was cooking, and then returned to look up Zell am See.

It turned out to be a real place near some lake. Google showed her large hotels next to a tranquil lake and snowy mountain tops. "Doesn't look too large", she mumbled, it would be possible to locate one magical family, would it?

Right, so now she knew how to make a rip around the world, she knew where to jump to, sort of, last thing to do was to come up with a plan to explain her absence for a while. She needed to go somewhere her father wouldn't be able to check in on her, but would let her go to alone.

All the while through dinner she thought about it and it wasn't until deep in the night that she finally came up with a sound plan.

The next morning she woke up early, made her dad breakfast for a change and said, as soon as he came down: "Dad, I've been thinking. Do you think I'm old enough to go on a trip by myself?"

"Sure. Where do you want to go to? Sunshine Coast? Go see the zoo? Underwater World?"

She pinched her lips. "What am I? Ten? No dad, I mean a real trip. To Canberra and beyond. I have six weeks of vacation. Mathilda is gone, Peter has things to do, you have your job. I want to go out, see stuff."

"Well, you have been studying hard, I guess you deserve a break. Can you wait for a few weeks, though? I have leave coming up, we can go together."

Shaking her head, she pressed: "No dad, I want to go alone. Hence the question?"

"Alone? On your own? To Canberra?"

She nodded vehemently and waited with puppydog eyes till her father chewed over the idea.

"What do you mean by, beyond?"

Oh right, she'd said that. "Well, I'd like to see the big city, but I also want to check out a little wildlife. I'll go on one of those tours, you know, with a guide, see the kangaroos." With a big smile she presented the idea that just popped up into her mind.

Her father was still chewing.

"And you want to do this alone?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because ... I want to ... prove that I can do it." She bit her lip, that was a stupid thing to say. "To myself. You know I'll have to leave for college one day, this will be a good test. To see if I can manage on my own. Plus, I want to meet new people." Stop talking, Kyra. She slammed her mouth shut and hoped her dad wouldn't respond to those last words. Luckily his phone rang just when he was about to open his mouth.

It was a colleague, and soon he was engrossed in a conversation about a case. On her phone she quickly looked up some travel agencies that gave tours around Canberra, so that she could show her father some real material. Hopefully he wouldn't want to see actual bookings or pay for stuff.

Perhaps she had to let go of the idea and just jump back and forth at night. But somehow she didn't think she could pull that off for more than one night and she really wanted to spend some time with Darra. See if there really was something they could build on except the obvious attraction.

She remembered the first time she had seen him. Even before she had touched the book and knew he was in fact an elf. He had smiled at her and she had felt butterflies in her stomach.

"I have to go to work, we'll talk about this when I get back, alright. I want to see some actual planning, Kyra. None of this walkabout stuff."

With a big smile she nodded and waved him off. This would totally work.

In the evening she had come up with a solid plan to present to her dad. It involved a couple of days at an inn in Canberra and a two week tour around Googong Foreshore. She showed him several addresses and a agency that allowed for after pay, so she could book the tour and cancel it without losing money.

In the end, after many, many questions, her dad gave in. She had to promise to call every day, which she promised, although she did warn him that there might not be sufficient coverage everywhere.

"When do you want to leave?"

"This Wednesday."

"And you're sure they have room, with Christmas and everything?"

"Oh sure. People won't be in hotels, they'll be with family."

"I want you back here by then, alright?"

"Yes dad."

***

The next few days she tried to pack as inconspicuously as possible. It had to appear that she was packing for warm days, while in fact she needed thick sweaters, hats and her winter coat. After long mulling, she finally came up with the brilliant idea to pack a second suitcase, store it in her closet and jump to her room to switch the cases.

She told Peter and Ruksy about her plans, only because they came over in the middle of her exploded room, when she was sorting through her winter clothes. It took some convincing to make them promise not to tell a soul and especially not her father or Imogen, but in the end they promised. Besides, what could go wrong? Ruksy was even helpful by providing the exact address of the cottage of Darra's family. Google maps gave her the picture she needed to visualise.

The two of them, together with her father, waved her off at the bus stop that would take her to the airport. At least, that's what her father thought. As soon as the bus paused at the next stop, she got off and at a secluded spot, made a rip back to her room, changed into winter gear and switched the suitcases.

Next stop: Zell am See.