When Bella and her brother got home, they were confused and didn't know what to do.
As time went on, Gilmore thought out a plan.
"Bella…..I have a plan now," he said to Bella who was still lost in thoughts.
Unfortunately, she didn't hear him but not until he tapped her a little at her back.
She became startled immediately and then turned to face him.
"What plan?" She asked, looking at him in the face with curiosity.
With a low and mild voice, he whispered to her.
"We would swim to the surface and bring Mira along with us to our chamber and then secretly take her back inside the prison through the prison top. We would then go and tell the empress that we found her in the prison at the cause of our search just as she commanded. What do you think?" He asked.
"This is smart!" she exclaimed, without her notice.
"Shiiiii….." Gilmore tried to make her lower her voice while placing his right index finger on her lips in such a way that interrupted her exclamation.
"I'm so…r..r..y", she said.
"No, no, we are good," Gilmore responded warmly.
"So, that's exactly what we would do and no one would suspect anything fishy about it. Again, we have to be so careful doing this because I believe that the empress must have dealt with those securities after their meeting and I guess that they will all be more agile and aggressive by now." He added.
"That's true….but we can do this, the moon goddess will show up for us." She concluded, smiling.
On the other hand, the search was ongoing. Everyone on the search.
The young ones, the old, even the sick as they all wanted to be rewarded handsomely by the empress when they found the missing ones alive.
Ma'am Eva was not left out. She has been on the search starting from the day that she discovered her granddaughter's disappearance till then that they announced a general search.
She didn't give up on believing that she would find her granddaughter instead, she encouraged herself the more hoping that everything would be fine in the end.
Her hope doubled when the general search was announced.
This was because she had it in her mind that finding her granddaughter would no longer take a long time as everyone would be on the search.
She kept her search going throughout that day. She went ahead to search all the places she used to see her granddaughter before her disappearance.
She also visited Riya - the green fish but she told her that she and her friends didn't see her granddaughter and that it has been long since they last saw her.
She was disappointed but she still didn't give up. She left to look out for her in several other places that she used to visit before her disappearance.
***
Every being in Crums were seriously searching for the missing ones as they wanted to get the handsome reward from the empress.
Gilmore and the sister were not left out. They went round and covered the places they could during their search. They tried all they could to look out for Liamb and ma'am Eva's granddaughter too. They didn't bother much about Mira because they already knew where she was but what bothered them the most was how they could execute their plans easily without getting caught in the middle.
Sibraa on the other hand was busy searching everywhere he felt like his friend could be. In his own little way, he extended the search to the point that his strength could carry him but he got totally disappointed when he had tried his best but no good results were forth showing.
He returned to his chambers as he was already tired and then decided to visit the empress later on.
He was really tired as a result of the search he embarked on but he could not really rest well. He tried as much as he could but all to no avail.
The thoughts of his missing friend kept hovering around his mind making him feel restless the more.
It was after a while that he managed to catch a little rest by sleeping off.
°°°°°°
The day grew old and older till the little light was almost about to retire.
Bella and her sister were so restless as they anticipated the success of their plans.
They didn't also relent in making other plans to back up the one they wanted to carry out just in case it fails because they never wanted to see death at their age.
"Gilmore…." Bella called out from her end with a cold voice that portrayed fear.
His brother who was lost in the forest of his thoughts didn't even hear her calling.
She pushed, looked at him and then went closer to where he was.
"Gilmore…." Her voice came again, softly.
"I have been calling for your attention but you didn't hear me."
It was at this point that Gilmore, whose attention was totally lost in his thoughts, bounced back to life.
There, the question came again. "But, what if…..?"
"No my dear, it will pull through." He interrupted immediately without allowing her to finish up the rest of the things she wanted to say….
and don't nurture wrong thoughts anymore, he added.
"I don't even know why I'm feeling otherwise now that the day is growing old and it's almost about time we set out on our journey to the surface," she said looking at his brother.
"Hey…all you have to do for us is to be strong and not pessimistic. That way, our plans will pull through. So dear, cheer up, we can do this," he concluded smiling.
"I think it's time we set out for the journey to the surface right now as the day has become old enough to hide us," she said with so much courage this time.
"That's true," Gilmore said in affirmation. So she went back to what she was doing, gathered and quickly finished up with it and then they quietly left for the surface.