The Lore Wain and Her Nephew Pt. 55

Not long after Zarabean had returned to the top deck from the crow's nest was he nearly ran over by Echo running away from Cynthia.

"Eep!" The ridgerunner quickly jumped backwards to avoid his barefoot from being stepped on by the children running past.

"Sorry, Zarabean!" Cynthia called back an apology before turning her attention back to Echo. "Echo! Slow down! You're not being careful!"

Echo didn't hear Cynthia over his own laughter. As it would turn out, Echo's mental age was that of a toddler and he didn't recognize the danger of running into people on a sailing ship. In fact, he didn't recognize the danger of being reckless at all because he nearly slipped over the side of the ship when making a sharp turn to avoid being tagged by Cy.

"Echo!" Cynthia called for him again. At this point, she wasn't playing anymore. She wanted Echo to stop so he wouldn't hurt himself.

Zarabean, who realized what was happening, joined in with Cynthia, "Be careful, Echo!"

As if on cue, a strong hand caught Echo by the back of his shirt and stopped him in his tracks; Clef had caught him.

"Hey, little King." Clef looked down into those big blue eyes of his. "You need to slow down. We're mopping the deck and you don't have digtoad feet. If you aren't careful, you could slide right off the edge into the Sea of Darkness."

Echo pouted up at Clef. "But I wanna play!"

"You can still play but no running on the deck right now. Okay?" Clef replied as Celeste came up behind him with a mop in hand.

"Mr. Clef is right, Echo. Please don't run around right now. I can't lose you." Celeste added, sounding a little more stern than Clef. She feared losing her nephew like all the other family members in her life, which what added to her tone.

"It's not his fault! It was my idea to play Tag, Tag, Rag... I didn't think it would be so slippery..." Cynthia admitted in Echo's defense.

"And I apologize for both of them. It was I who put the idea in Cynthia's head." Zarabean added before whispering to the adults, "I needed to check on Nibble."

Clef nodded to Zarabean to put him at ease, understanding that Nibble had been acting strange ever since they got back on the ship.

Echo sniffed and started to whimper, bringing everyone back to the situation at hand. He, who had never been scolded before, was starting to cry.

Celeste kneeled beside him and looked him in the eyes. "You aren't in trouble, Echo. You just need to be more careful so you don't end up hurt."

"I was having fun..." Echo whined.

"And we can still have fun!" Cynthia patted Echo on the back with one of her talons. "How about I teach you another game? I learned a game when I visited Glipwood called 'Hide and Squeeblin'¹. Let's play that instead!"

Echo looked over at Cynthia with sad eyes and sighed. "I guess..."

"It'll be fun, trust me." Cy reassured him and took one of his hands in hers. "I think there are better hiding places below deck." She wasn't sure if there were better hiding places but she figured that it would be better below deck to avoid getting in the adults' way.

The ridgerunner caught on with Cynthia's idea and agreed, "Oh yes, she's right. Besides, there are some Hollish fruits down there that I would love to sample..."

"Alright..." Echo replied before getting smooched on the cheek by Celeste.

"Have fun." Celeste softly smiled at her nephew and watched him go to the belly of the ship with Cynthia and Zarabean. Celeste looked at Clef as she got up from kneeling. "Thanks for catching him."

Clef shrugged and chuckled. "No problem. I'm sure it's just as weird for him as it is for us."

Celeste nodded in response and began to mop the deck again. "I still can't wrap my head around what happened yesterday... And while I'm glad that he was able to warn us about the grey fangs..." She paused from her mopping and sighed. "... I have a feeling that he might be hard to contain once we get to Torrboro if he's already running around like this..."

"Then we'll just have to keep a closer eye on him, right?" Clef reassured her. "Everyone on this ship is pledged to you both and Anneria. Try not to worry so much, that's a lot of sets of eyes."

"I suppose but..." Celeste looked at Clef. "Why do I have the feeling something will go wrong?"

"You've had a lot in a short period of time go wrong... I think it's only natural to assume something else will." Clef tried to give her a reassuring smile. "But we've made it this far, haven't we?"

"Well, yes..." Celeste sighed again and tried to muster a smile back. "Maybe I shouldn't be worrying so much..."

Clef paused a moment in thought before looking back over at her. "If it makes you feel better, I could teach you how to handle a sword."

Celeste's eyes widened at such a suggestion and she looked away. She had never learned how to properly fight and hadn't the desire to do so having been the fourth child in the royal family in the Wingfeather family. Years ago, she would have said there was no need for her to learn how to fight but considering all the tragedies that followed, Celeste was starting to consider it.

Celeste looked back at Clef and nodded with hesitation while wearing a slight grimace. "I suppose I should..." She looked longingly over at the stairs her nephew just went down. "... For him."

"Aha!" Clef exclaimed before suddenly clashing the pole of his mop with Celeste's, making her flinch. He wore an excited smile. "Then why don't we work on that later today? I haven't seen you fight, I need to see what we're working with."

She nervously laughed, not particularly excited for her first lesson. "Okay..."

Clef smiled at her. "We can switch to the brooms for practice to be safe- not that I would hurt you while sparring."

"Alright." Celeste replied before anxiously as she went back to mopping.

Shortly after they got to mopping, they heard the rope above creak as Nibble slowly descended on the ladder that connected to the crow's nest. They both looked at him and immediately could tell he didn't feel good.

"What's up, Nibble?" Clef asked upon seeing he's lizard friend's downcast face.

"Wouldja mind if I... Took a nap?" Nibble asked in response, not really answering his question.

Clef blinked in disbelief and looked over at Celeste to see what she would say.

Celeste looked back at Clef and then at Nibble. "It's in the middle of the day. Are you feeling alright?"

"Heh." Nibble rubbed the back of his scaly fang neck. "I guess I'm just feeling sssick..."

It wasn't so much that Nibble felt "sick" per say but rather that he had a nagging feeling in his chest causing butterflies in his stomach. He figured that if he took a nap, he might be able to sleep it off.

"Well..." Celeste seemed visibly worried and wondered if Nibble was telling the truth. "I suppose..."

"I promissse I'll run right up here if there's trouble. You jussst gotta call my name." Nibble reassured Celeste before he walked to the stairs.

"Oh- Nibble- I should probably tell you before you try to sleep... The kids are playing downstairs. It might be a little loud." Celeste added.

Nibble paused and shrugged without turning back around to face her. "Eh, that'sss alright... I don't mind."

Celeste exchanged another worried look with Clef.

"We hope you'll feel better, Nibs." Clef told him before he continued down the stairs.

"Yeah..." Nibble thought as he disappeared into the lower deck. "Me too..."