The Lore Wain and Her Nephew Pt. 15

"Can I come down now?!" Nibble asked from the crow's nest, seeming a bit eager to get down from a high height.

"Can you please check the speckle again?!" Celeste called up, "Only you can see so well in the dark!"

It was the dark of night at this time and Nibble was the only one on the crew who could see in the darkness. Unfortunately, Nibble was not fond of heights despite being very good at his job.

Nibble checked the scope once more and observed the top deck, "It looksss like mossst of their crew went to sleepiesss! They're dropping the anchor!"

Clef looked like he got an idea, "Maybe nows our chance..." He called up to Nibble, "How many are on the top deck?!"

"I sssee maybe... No, there's about ten! I don't see many guarding the cage our friendsss are in... Mossst of them are having a hard time staying awake!" Nibble giggled to himself, "Sssleepy criminalsss, they are!"

Clef placed a hand on Celeste's shoulder, "I think it might be possible to get in close with one of the row boats. Would you like to join me?"

Celeste looked at Clef with an uneasy expression, "Oh, I don't know... Are you sure it's safe?"

"Ten crew members on deck a huge ship and they're dozing off? It might be our only chance to do this stealthily." Clef walked over to the side of the boat. "If there's any trouble, I'll distract them and you can flee."

"I don't want you kidnapped on top of it too, Clef." Celeste said with concern as she watched Clef step into a rowboat.

Clef offered her his hand, "Going my way?" He said with a soft smirk.

Celeste rolled her eyes as she took his hand with a soft smile and got into the rowboat. "This is no time for teasing. Let's get over there quickly." She didn't mean to sound like she was barking orders at him but she was concerned about her nephew and Zarabean.

-

Cynthia returned to Zarabean with a soft cushion about the size of Echo and slid it through the bars. "I think this should work..."

Zarabean took the pillow and placed it on the metal cage floor before resting Echo on top of it. Once he saw Echo was set, he used the burlap sack, the one used to snatch them, to tuck Echo in.

Echo fussed a little bit at the roughness of the burlap but ultimately stayed asleep regardless.

"So, you were going to tell me why you say your name instead of 'I'." Cy said, picking up right where she left off before she went to get the pillow.

Zarabean looked at her as if surprised that she was still on topic. "How old are you...?"

"About ten. How old are you? How long do ridgerunners live anyway??" Cynthia asked, looking confused as to why Zarabean asked for her age.

"Most ridgerunner children would of dropped the topic by now..." He muttered before responding, "Ridgerunners can live a good amount of time... Zarabean is older than you by about thirty years."

Cy looked at Zarabean as if he were lying to her.

"... What? Zarabean is telling the truth!" He insisted, "Did you think I was older than that???"

Cynthia nodded, "Your forehead is rather wrinkly."

Zarabean huffed and touched his forehead, "It is not that wrinkly..."

"My mom used to say that forehead wrinkles were from stress over a lifetime." Cynthia said, seeming more open to Zarabean after talking with him for some time. "Is that why you speak the way you do sometimes? Because of stress?"

Zarabean tilted his head and deflected the question again, "You said you're only ten?"

"Zarabean, why won't you talk about it?" Cynthia asked, determined not to get off topic again. Her curiosity had made her quite bold.

"Well..." Zarabean started to explain before stopping suddenly. His ridgerunner eyes, which are normally wide open, start to narrow as one of his ears twitch. He turns his attention to what seems like only he can hear.

Cy looked uneasy at Zarabean's sudden change in demeanor and looked towards what he was looking at.

A figure could be seen carefully coming over the top deck of the ship but it was too dark to make out who it was.

Cynthia looked around and saw that the other stranders were asleep. She turned toward the figure and looked like she was poised to attack.

"Wait." Zarabean said as he stood up. He kept scanning the darkness, straining to see who it was.

The figure slowly came into the light in a crouched position.

"Clef!" Zarabean exclaimed in a whisper.

Cy looked at Zarabean and back at this masked man she had never seen before. "This is... a friend of yours?"

"Yes." Zarabean responded to Cynthia before looking back at Clef, "The key is with the Captain."

Clef quickly snickered to himself as he made it to the cage, "My friend, I have no need for a key." He said as he took out a small dagger to pick the lock.