Lotus Is Missing

"Rgh..." The member got up to his feet with an offended and wronged look across his face, "Okay, wise guy—"

"Both of you, stop it." Riddle ordered firmly setting the two apart instantly with his own tone of voice snapping away their riled atmosphere to submission, "Sebek, your condescending tone isn't helping."

"Excuse me? I said nothing that was incorrect." Sebek huffed seemingly offended as well and not backing down, "I was merely stating the facts!"

"There's an idiom about flies and honey you would do well to contemplate." Riddle reminded him firmly not backing down either.

"This is no time to be arguing amongst ourselves." Silver's voice stopped the two instantly acting as the only words of reason left within their club, "We all need to stay put and wait 'til morning."

"Yeah, I second that." Ruggie hurried agreed with a look of relief and began to remind everyone, "The headmage is supposed to come get us in the morning. He'll be using the Dark Mirror to travel to the cottage."

"Right. When he sees no one's there, he'll suspect something's amiss and take appropriate measures." Silver nodded in agreement.

"I dunno, guys. When a bunch of nice, juicy sardines are kind enough to huddle in one place... CHOMP!" He mimicked a sound chomp with a wide smirk across his face, "Someone might gobble 'em up in one bite, y'know?"

"I still maintain it's safer for us to stay together than split up." Silver remained grounded to his decision.

"Hmm..." Floyd shrugged, "Eh, whatevs. Sounds like fun anyway, so why not."

"Hey, Yuu. You think we'll be okay...?" Grim called out to him in a whisper hesitantly.

"I just hope nothing else happens tonight." Yuu noted hesitantly as he prayed in his heart, "Please let us all get back in one piece..."

As everyone began listening to the leading figures in their group, they began to huddle together when Riddle quickly gathered everyone in his group together and finished setting up their campfires closer to the other clubs in the campsites.

"Riddle!" Sebek hurried to him with shocked expression across his face, "Lotus, he-!"

"Hush!" Riddle whispered quickly stopping him with a grimace, "Yuu is here right now. Let's not alarm him just yet."

Following behind him, Silver nodded nervously, "Don't forget the prefect and Grim are both very close with him. If they heard that now, they'd lose all sense of reason before we can."

"Right now, let's first finish settling everything here." Riddle whispered, "Moreover, we can't leave the group carelessly in this situation now."

"But-!" Sebek hesitated but stopped himself knowing that they weren't wrong and yet he can't help but feel rather unsettled by the thought of this.

However, he wasn't the only one having such thoughts about this. Silver and Riddle were both hesitant with the situation as they could only take on their responsibilities towards their clubs. Not long after doing so, Yuu approached them nervously as he noticed the obvious absence and a frown, "Riddle, have you seen Lotus?"

"Yeah. Where's that guy?" Grim responded in confusion before it hit him, "Wait! Don't tell me-!"

"Lotus has gone missing prior to your return." Silver jumped into the conversation as he confessed calmly.

"What?!" Yuu's eyes widen in horror upon hearing this.

"Naturally, we also want to go search for him. However, we can't leave the equestrian club as it is." Riddle added not wishing to lay all the burden on Silver.

"This..." Yuu frowned. He wanted to rebuke them and scold them from not paying closer attention to them. However, can he really do so? Yes, he was not happy that they left her. However, the other club members were just as important as her. In this state of emergency, it's already a miracle that they were able to remain calm and collected while working together to get over this dilemma. It could be dangerous to risk that just to find one person. However, that person was also very important to Grim and himself. They can't leave her to who knows where, yet they can't go out on their own to find her.

"Maybe we can get someone to come with us to find him..." Yuu suggested nervously.

"Yeah." Grim nodded, "But who?"

"The problem is that everyone is busy with something and some aren't well suited to go venture into the dark forest at night." Silver explained, "So, it won't be easy to send someone with you."

"Not to mention that both Ace and Deuce are still missing..." Riddle hesitated.

Yuu hesitated as he remembered that the two were also students under Riddle's leadership as well since they are from the same dorm and he's still their dorm leader. Aside from this, Lotus was also the mischevious one as she was also never one to sit still and cause trouble knowing that it would trouble others. Hearing this, Yuu shook his head and sighed bitterly, "I... I understand. I hope morning comes soon. Then we can find the three right away."

With that, they trudged back to the campfire sites as they sat amongst the other students huddling around the fire. Some shivering from the cold and others from the fear. Yuu watched on nervously as his mind continued to wander to the whereabouts of his own student. With that, hours passed as Grim had long started cuddling next to the fire.

"Hey, Epel. You know the time?" Grim shuddered as he huddled closer to the fire.

"It must be past midnight by now. Probably around 2 a.m." Epel responded and frowned, "Be careful not to get too close to the fire, Grim. You might burn your fur."

Moving back from the fire, Grim shuddered with a sneeze, "So we still got a while before the headmage gets here. Brrr... This campfire ain't even warmin' my whiskers. Don't we got any coats or blankets?"

"It does get cold at night here." Jamil frowned as he got up, "There should be a bunch of blankets in the tents..."

"A bunch, you say? That means there's enough to share with your ol' pal Grim! I'm gonna go snag one!" Grim cheered and jumped to his feet.

"Slow your roll, Grim." Ruggie stopped him in time,"It's too dangerous to go by yourself. We need to stick together."

"Aww, c'mon! The tents are like, right there!" Grim pointed to their tents as he whined a complaint, "I'm freezin' my tail off! I'm gonna catch cold if I don't warm up soon. And don't think I didn't see your teeth chatterin', Jamil!"

"Okay, fine." Jamil sighed as he relented and turned to Yuu, "Would a few of you come with us? We're going to get some blankets."

"I'll join you." Yuu nodded.

"Oh, I'll come along. I could use a blanket myself." Epel joined in as he got up and turned to Ruggie, "I'll get one for you too, Ruggie!"

"I'll go and grab a few for the Equestrian Club." The Sophmore who helped Lotus got up and hurried after them.

"Thank you, much appreciated." Silver nodded with a small smile of gratitude.

"I'll go, too!" A track club member jumped onto the wagon as the members continued to gather.

"I guess that's a big enough group." Ruggie nodded with approval.

"Hmph." Sebek scowled in disdain, "Humans are weak indeed if this minor chill is too much for them."

"What'sa matter, Goldfishie? You're tremblin', and your lips are all blue." Floyd smirked, "You won't be a goldfish no more if your hair turns blue too. Whaddaya think I should call you then?"

"Grrr... You never lay off, do you? Not even in an emergency!" Riddle scolded him as his face turned bright red from fury much to Floyd's amusement.

"Ahaha, now you're all red! Glad you warmed up." Floyd laughed.

"I guess you and Sebek don't mind the cold, Floyd?" Ruggie responded curiously.

"Nah. I'm from waters way colder than this." Floyd shrugged nonchalantly.

"Hmph. I'm simply better trained than mere humans." Sebek huffed ignorantly.

"Say, Jack, aren't you from somewhere cold too?" Ruggie turned to his dormmate curiously.

"Yeah." Jack responded as he folded his arms in contemplation, "This weather would be downright temperate back home."

"Must be nice." Ruggie muttered with an awkward shiver, "Man, it's seriously chilly…"

As an awkward silence fell upon them, Silver spoke up being the first to notice something, "Jamil's group is certainly taking a while."

"Maybe they're having trouble carrying all the blankets." Ruggie reasoned though seemingly desperately trying to remain calm.

"If that's the case, we should go help." Silver looked to them only to find the people here unwilling to look towards him or quietly whispering amongst themselves nervously.

"I don't think anyone wants to leave the campfire." Ruggie sighed in exasperation.

"All right. Then I'll go." Silver got up voluntarily.

"What a stand-up guy." Ruggie praised Silver's selflessness though more for being grateful that he didn't have to get up and leave the campfire instead then turned to Sebek with a curious look after Silver was out of sight, "You sure you don't wanna go with him, Sebek?"

"Why are you asking me?" Sebek raised a brow suspiciously.

"Because you two are always together." Ruggie pointed out.

"WE ARE NOT!" He exclaimed in protest firmly, "We simply happen to work together often as Malleus's guards. He makes for a more competent guardsman than the rest of the rabble, at least."

"Sounds like you just admitted he's good at what he does." Ruggie noted to himself curiously.