The Lore Wain and Her Nephew Pt. 54

In the morning, everyone began waking up one by one in the lower deck. It progressed from the eldest present to the youngest, Ramger to Cynthia, until everyone in the belly had awoken and started to head to the upper deck for briefing.

As Zarabean got up from his sling, he looked over to where Nibble's hammock was hanging and found that his fangy friend hadn't returned to bed like he had promised the night previously. Puzzled by this, he stared tiredly, wondering why Nibble wasn't there. It wasn't until Cynthia woke up and greeted him that he snapped out of his thinking spell.

"What is it, Zarabean?" Cy asked as she sat up in her bed roll and looked up at the curious ridgerunner. She sounded groggy but not too groggy to take notice of her friend's behavior.

"Ah, Cynthia..." Zarabean rubbed one of his eyes and fixed his glasses on his nose. "Sorry... Zarabean was just... I was just thinking."

"About what?" Cynthia asked with more intrigue after hearing Zarabean slip his signature tic.

Zarabean shook his head. "Never mind it. Zar- I will just go check on Nibble myself. He must be alright..." He muttered his last sentence as he climbed out of his hammock and helped Cynthia to her feet.

"Why don't you see if our little King is awake yet?" Zarabean suggested in an effort to change the topic. "I'm sure he'd love to play with you."

She was skeptical of what the ridgerunner was really thinking but Cynthia smiled in response to Zarabean's suggestion regardless. "Maybe I can teach him 'Tag, Tag, Rag'¹!"

Zarabean smiled softly. "That sounds like fun. Be sure you knock if he's in Celeste's cabin."

Cy nodded and quickly ran up the stairs to look for Echo so they could play.

When Zarabean saw her go, his smile faded and he fidgeted his hands a moment before he headed up the stairs after her to look for Nibble.

Above deck, the others were bustling about with various tasks. Alagatha worked the sails, Clef and Celeste were working on mopping the deck, Ramger and Kinabrick could be heard speaking amongst themselves on the higher deck, and Cynthia and Echo had just commenced the game of 'Tag, Tag, Rag'... But Nibble was no where to be seen.

As he observed this fact, Zarabean set his eyes on the crow's nest and decided to see if Nibble was still up there.

Zarabean walked over and carefully climbed the rope ladder to reach the bucket. Once he reached the top, he peeked inside to find a concerning scene.

There in the bucket was Nibble lying on his side, curled up in a ball, but that wasn't what concerned Zarabean. Along the sides of the nest was various claw marks carved deeply into the wood, like there had been some kind of struggle.

The scene made Zarabean nervous as he perched himself on the top of the wall of the nest. He debated on waking Nibble, torn between wanting to know what happened and the fear of what had occurred to make such deep impressions on the walls.

However, the sun shining on them made it so it wasn't long before Nibble stirred from his sleep. His lizard tongue stuck out for a moment before his eyes opened tiredly.

Zarabean observed and held his breath, not knowing what state his friend was in. He said nothing, unsure on how to greet Nibble.

After a fangy yawn, Nibble looked around and nearly jumped out of his scales when he saw Zarabean staring at him. "Sheesssh! Bean! Thought we said you wouldn'tsss sneak up!"

Zarabean breathed a sigh of relief to hear Nibble acting like his normal self. "... Sorry... Again..." He tightened his grip on the ledge before continuing. "Zarabean was worried when he didn't see you this morning. Is everything alright?"

"Yeah... I just fell asssleep... Sorry, Bean." Nibble slowly sat up and tapped his claws on the flooring beside him nervously, like he didn't want to talk about something but felt the ridgerunner was going to pry anyway.

"... Nibble, I hope you don't mind me asking... But why are there claw marks on the wood?" Zarabean asked, feeling a little more comfortable that he saw Nibble's rich brown eyes looking back at him.

Nibble sneered slightly at Zarabean's question. "Can't we talk about sssomething more fun than sssilly claw marks?"

"What's silly about claw marks?" Zarabean asked as he gestured to his upper arm where Cynthia had scratched him days prior. The impression was still deep but it was healing. "What's going on, Nibble?"

"... I don't wantsss to talk about it, Bean." Nibble replied, averting his eyes to his tapping claw. "I jussst... Had a little freak out... That'sss all."

Zarabean became visibly worried as he leaned in closer. "'A little freak out'?"

"Aw, sheeesssh, Bean. It'sss not a big deal." Nibble shrugged of his ridgerunner friend's concerns.

"It is a big deal, Nibble. We have royalty on this ship..." Zarabean used a firm voice. "What happened?"

Nibble groaned like a child being told to do chores before replying, "Jussst a memory. A sssmall memory! Don't make me think, Bean. I don't want to thinksss about it."

Zarabean sighed with a little irritation. "But what if another memory comes and you aren't alone?"

"I'll be sssure I get alone then. Relax." Nibble replied, not much enjoying for Bean's prying but knew it was because he cared about him. "If I don't thinks, I won't have to worry about memories."

"... Don't you want to remember who you were? Who you truly are?" Zarabean asked, trying to understand Nibble's reasoning.

"I don't know!" Nibble suddenly shouted, which took Zarabean by surprise. He adjusted his tone when he saw the ridgerunner rear back. "I jussst... I don't know. I'm still processssing what I remembered lassst night... Pleassse, stop prying... I'll... I promise I'll come to you if it continuesss to be problem. Alright?"

Zarabean stared at his fangy friend for a moment before sighing and nodding. "Zarabean will make sure you keep your promise. He just wants to help..."

Nibble sighed. "I knowsss... I don't know how you can but... thanksss for caring, Bean..."

"It's my pleasure." Zarabean replied before glancing back down the rope ladder. "Will you be joining the rest of us soon?"

"Yeah... but, Bean?"

"Yes?"

"Don't... go talking about thisss with everyone... If you wanna tell Celeste, that'sss fine but... don't tell anyone else... Okay?"

"Alright... I promise."

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¹ 'Tag, Tag, Rag' was a game commonly played by the children of Dugtown. It was similar to a game of cops and robbers mixed with hide and seek. There would be a tagger and their goal would be to tag the runner three times on order to get them out of the game. The runner gets three chances to hide from the tagger but if they're found after their chances, they get one step closer to being ragged. Being ragged was like being in pretend prison but you have to sit on a stool with a rag on your head. The game was mostly for kids that liked the thrill of being chased but didn't want to actually do any wrong doing.