la rolled her eyes sympathetically.
Topaz said, 'I'm here with Nicola Berry.'
Joshua's voice changed. 'The evil Earthling? Where are you? We're on our way!'
'It's okay, Joshua.' Topaz smiled at Nicola. 'She's not that bad. In fact, she's actually pretty nice for an evil Earthling.'
31
'There she is! Over there!'
It was Topaz's brother, Joshua, who finally spotted Shimlara. Joshua was a short, square-shaped boy who brimmed with so much energy Nicola couldn't imagine him standing still. He and Sean had quickly figured out that they were kindred spirits. As they'd tramped through the snow calling out Shimlara's name, Sean had been showing Joshua karate moves, while Joshua demonstrated a Shobble sport called Head Crunch. It seemed to involve running as fast as you could towards a particular spot in the snow and then diving at it headfirst while yelling HEAD CRUNCH! Sean thought Head Crunch was hilarious and Joshua thought karate was hilarious, and they had both become sweaty and elated.
'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.
'Well, we broke into one of the marshmallow mines and exploded a Fizz-Bang Bomb. They're perfectly safe. It's just a lot of noise and red smoke.'
'I think we saw that,' said Nicola, remembering the explosion at the marshmallow mine when they'd first arrived on Shobble.
'We just wanted to hold up production a bit. We left behind a big sign saying, MARSHMALLOW MINERS SHOULD BE PAID FOR THEIR WORK. It all went really well except that two miners who were blinded by the smoke collided and broke their noses. Topaz's mother said it was irresponsible of us and someone is always going to get hurt if we keep doing that sort of thing, but how else do we get noticed? And we already knew that Enrico had arranged for some Earthlings to try and kill us - well that's when Topaz started saying we might as well give it all up.'
'But Enrico shouldn't be allowed to get away with it!' said Nicola.
'I know,' said Serena. 'But what can we do? My father drilled for chocolate for over forty years. He worked on the most dangerous chocolate rigs where they drill for the rarest, sweetest chocolate at the bottom of the sea. His teeth have rotted from breathing in pure chocolate fumes every day of his life. And he has never been paid a single gold coin. Do you know how much they charge for ShobbleChoc in far-off galaxies? The profits are huge. And my dad just says, Oh, well, the hairities know best. I say, Dad, having long brown hair does not mean you've got a brain, it just means you've got long brown hair, and he says, Yes, Serena darling, whatever you say, and that's the end of that.'
As Nicola watched, Topaz popped Shimlara's bubble-jacket. Shimlara staggered and Topaz caught her. They talked for a few seconds and Nicola saw Shimlara's face light up with joy.