Chapter 4
Back in the Castle, Knightriss had just raised the alarm that the quake had stopped.
"Oh, thank Heavens." Gildar said. He then gasped, and fumbled around on the floor. "Has anyone seen my mirror?" he asked.
No one answered.
"I'll ask again," Gildar said, sounding exasperated. "Has anyone seen my mirror? I need to see if my hair's been messed up! I NEED TO SEE IF MY FACE IS STILL HANDSOME!"
All the other Defenders groaned.
"Gildar, it's right in front of you." Skabb said.
Gildar glanced at his feet, to see that his mirror was indeed just in front of him. "Oh, so it is!" he said, laughing as if he knew along.
Tinkor was jumping around.
"What's up, Tink?" Ballista asked.
"Must check Castle!" Tinkor replied, looking as if he was ready to bolt off at any second.
Ballista shook her head. "No, you can't do that yet. It's too dangerous."
Tinkor's head dropped, and he gave a heavy sigh.
Knightriss called everyone to get in a line, for a role call. "Just checking that everyone's safe." she said. Mid-way through, everything seemed to be going well, and everyone was present. Well, almost everyone...
"Thorne?" Knightriss called.
There was no answer.
"Thorne!" Knightriss called again, firmer this time.
Still no answer.
She moved onto Shaiden, hoping that if she was still there, she could help find Thorne.
But, there was no answer from her either.
"This is bad." Kook said to himself. This is really bad!"
"Kook, it's fine. " said Ballista with a slightly evil smile. Shaiden's a ninja, remember? She's probably hiding somewhere, she'll come back soon."
"Yeah." said Crocness, "Besides, when have you ever cared so much about Shaiden?"
All the Defenders turned to look at him. "Well, think about it." he said, trying to get out of it, "If we don't have those two, then how are we gonna defend the castle properly?"
"He's got a point." Gildar said, now gazing into his mirror as usual. "I mean, why did we have to lose the ninja and the alchemist, of all people? We could have just lost the barbarian."
Skabb growled, and punched Gildar hard on the shoulder. Gildar winced, and took a few tentative steps back.
Knightriss glared at both of them. "Look, we need to all stop arguing, and start looking for Thorne and Shaiden. They're two of our most valuable Defenders."
Ballista groaned. "Does no-one remember the Splatty Awards?" she muttered to herself.
After a short discussion, everyone agreed that they should at least try and find them.
They set off, having no idea that the people they were looking for were caught up in their own problems, very far away...