It was no good- they couldn't hide any more. They'd been found!
"WHY can't you keep your big mouth shut just for once, mousebrain?" snapped Wizzy. "Always getting us into trouble!"!
"Look who's TALKING!" hissed Mr Mouse right back. "Mr Fifty Barks A Minute!"
(Not FAIR! Wiz isn't like that!)
VERRY slowly, the three friends came out from where they'd been hiding behind one of the strange bushes. It was kind of embarrassing.
"Come on, come on!" said the red-faced Zildith. "No need to be shy! We were just worried about where you were, that's all!"
"Poolbear... " went the tall dark Zildith.
"Had us all in a bit of a stew! Still, never mind, all's well that ends well!" the fat red one went on, smiling all over his face like a funny pointy-eared Santa Claus.
"POOLBEAR..." said the tall dark Zildith again (What was his name, Dot thought - oh yes - Cambor!) "Put your glasses on, in the name of fair Phargon!"
"Glasses... glasses... " went Poolbear, frowning and patting his strange coat with the moving pictures. (The movie on the coat seemed to be about polar bears - one of them jumped out of the way with a snarl as Poolbear's big red hands felt about in his pockets. The coat certainly had plenty of them, thought Dot - zipped, buttoned, tasselled - loads of pockets all over the place in fact!)
"Now... where did I put the silly things... I know I had them just now... "
Oh NO, thought Dot, trying not to giggle. It's just like how this all started, with Nan and her glasses!
Then she saw where they were. "They're on your head!" she said.
"What's that, my dear?" said Poolbear, still frowning and patting his coat. "You want to go to bed? Bit early, isn't it?" Cambor Zildith folded his arms, rolled his eyes, and did a big sigh. Back on his fave place on Dot's shoulder, Mr Mouse did the same. Cheeky!
"On your head!" said Dot. She reached up and pulled the glasses down from where she'd seen them, tucked away in Poolbear Zildith's curly white hair.
"Ah!" said Poolbear. "Thank you, my dear!" Then he peered at Dot and Wiz and Mr Mouse and jumped back a step. "But... who are you?" he said, looking very surprised. "You're not the Children of the Casement!"
"I could have told you" said Cambor Zildith. "Really, Poolbear! You and your fornaygling glasses! You MUST get them seen to!"
Dot cleared her throat. It's time to get on, she thought.
"Well I'm sorry we're not who you think we are" she said firmly. "But I'm Miss Dorothy.Com - Dot Com, and this is Wizard and Mr Mouse, and we're here to help. Sam the Server told us to come."
"Yeah, that's right" said Mr Mouse, standing with his hands on his hips in his best "I'm in charge here!" style. "But first, you gotta give us an idea of what in the name of the Net is going down round here right now!"
"That's just the point" said Cambor very seriously. "WE don't know what's going down round here, as you put it."
"Well... who are you, for a start?" asked Mr Mouse. (So RU-U-U-UDE!!)
"We" said Cambor, very proudly "WE are the guardians of all the memory of the Internet. We protect and keep everything the Internet knows. Every thing that goes in or comes out, and every way every computer remembers. Without us there is no memory!"
Then his face suddenly went very sad. And he looked down at the forest floor.
"And now... " he said. "And now... all our memories here" he looked up and waved at all the millions and millions of books in the trees of the book- forest "All our memories here are going. Every time we open one of our treasury books, all the information, all the memories in it disappear. It's terrible - terrible!"
"Yes, that's what happened to me!" said Dot. She was so pleased to find out it wasn't her fault!
"You see" said Poolbear - and now even his jolly red face was sad and serious "The worst thing is - we don't know why! We sent the Children of the Casement to seekforth, to try to discover what's gone wrong. If anyone could find out, they could."
Suddenly his funny face crumpled up - it looked like he was going to cry.
"And now... now, we've lost them too!"
