The Lore Wain and Her Nephew Pt. 57

Nibble's brown eye shot open as he awoke to the sound of a child screaming and panic outside of the resting cabin. At first he assumed it was Zarabean and the children playing but he quickly realized something had happened.

Having no time to think about his dream, Nibble quickly got up from his one and scrambled outside the cabin to see what was the matter.

The fang walked into a worrisome scene.

"Echo, I'm so sorry!" Cynthia apologized profusely with tears rolling down her cheeks. "I didn't mean to!"

Echo was holding his arm tightly as blood was running through his little fingers. He couldn't help but sob like the baby he still mentally was. "Owwww!" He kept crying, unable to process what had just happened.

"Oh dear, oh dear-" Zarabean panicked as he tried to calm the two children after the accident. "Echo- let's get you to Auntie Celeste-" He tried to shepherd the young King upstairs for some medical attention but Echo wasn't having it. The boy dropped to his knees and wouldn't move an inch.

"I'm so sorry!" Cynthia kept apologizing over the screaming, feeling immensely guilty for the accident she caused.

"What happened?" Nibble asked over Echo's and Cynthia's screaming.

Zarabean jumped and looked up at Nibble with a very overwhelmed look on his face. "Zarabean doesn't know! He didn't see!"

Nibble looked between Echo and Cynthia before the sound of footsteps were heard quickly coming down the stairs.

Celeste and Clef arrived at the scene and immediately saw that little Echo was bleeding from his arm.

"What happened?!" Celeste exclaimed and hurried over to her nephew.

Zarabean immediately moved out of the way so Celeste could get a look at her nephew. "Zarabean didn't see! He was hiding like the game said to!"

Cynthia saw Celeste come to look at her friend and she began to apologize to her as well. "I'm so sorry! It was an accident! I didn't mean to hurt him!"

"What did you do?" Celeste asked, not meaning to sound accusatory but her worry making her tone sound like such.

"I was just trying to tag him but-!" Cynthia started to sob. "My stupid claws got him! I'm sorry!"

"Clef," Celeste looked over her shoulder, "Please help me take Echo up to my cabin. We need to clean his wound and bandage him up."

Clef nodded in response and quickly gathered the screaming child in his arms and hurried up stairs.

Celeste quickly followed, leaving a bewildered Zarabean and Nibble with a sobbing Cynthia.

"Oh, this is awful..." Zarabean remarked as he looked at the drops of blood on the floor before looking at Cynthia.

"I know, okay?!" Cynthia shouted in response and covered her face with her hands. However, when she looked at her talons, she only began to sob harder. She quickly darted into the general sleeping quarters, hoping to be alone.

The door that was usually propped open was slammed behind her, leaving the fang and ridgerunner in the hallway.

Nibble and Zarabean took their eyes off the door and then stared at each other, not sure what to do in that situation.

"... How about..." Nibble audibly thought through the way he thought they should respond. "You go up and keep an eye on Echo? That way you can give Cy sssome news..."

"... Are you sure?" Zarabean questioned, never knowing Nibble to be the confrontational type. "Cynthia is very upset."

Nibble glanced down at his own claws and then back at Zarabean. "I think I underssstand."

After seeing yet another change in Nibble's demeanor, Zarabean narrowed his eyes suspiciously at him.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Nibble asked, having only seen Zarabean's shifty eyes when he felt he was in danger.

"Are you *sure* you've got this?" Zarabean asked suspiciously. It wasn't that he felt Nibble was a danger to Cy, he just couldn't help but sense something was even more off about his fang friend.

"Yesss! Now ssstop looking at me with your ssshifty eyes!" Nibble replied, seeming more in character with his response.

Zarabean's eyes returned to normal. "Fine, I believe you..." He looked toward the door. "... Take care of her for me."

"Will do, Bean." Nibble replied before giving him a reassuring look and headed inside the sleeping quarters.

As for Zarabean, he watched Nibble enter the room before he scampered upstairs to get an update on Echo's condition.

The door creaked open as Nibble entered the cabin. All he could hear Cynthia's sobbing and it was gut wrenching to him; He never liked hearing a child cry.

When Cynthia had first aboarded the ship, Nibble had been one of the first to introduce themselves to her. His playful demeanor was hard to deny even though he was teasing Cynthia about her talons. He had encouraged her somewhat by downplaying how they looked when compared with his own. Nibble hoped that he could encourage her like that again, seeing she had accidentally hurt someone with those same claws.

"Cynthia??" Nibble looked around the room before he laid his eyes on a lump on the floor that was curled up within one of the bed rolls. Recognizing she wasn't in good spirits, he carefully walked over and quietly sat beside her.

The mass, that was also known as Cynthia, shook with each sob. She didn't respond to Nibble calling her name.

"Hey..." Nibble attempted to speak in a soothing tone but it was difficult with how fangy his voice sounded. "You didn't mean to... Echo ssshould be fine..."

"I-I-I... I'm a monster..." Her crying continued.

"No you're not." Nibble argued. "You're a little girl who had sssomething awful happen to her. You're the furthessst from a monster as you can get, Cy. If anyone is a monssster, it's me."

There was a long pause of silence as Cynthia slowly peeked her head out of the bed roll to look up at Nibble. "You... You aren't a monster..."

"Oh?" Nibble smiled a fangy grin, happy she decided to come out of hiding. "Why'sss that?"

"... You might... h-hiss like a fang but... Your face looks more... more like a sea dragon. Sea dragons... They're not monsters." Cy replied with red eyes and she wiped her nose with her forearm.

Nibble cackled. "They're sssea monstersss, Cy. I still hisssss like a snake, don't I?"

Cynthia shrugged and averted her eyes. "I guess... but... You're the kindest snake I've ever met."

Nibble broke out into a gaggy laugh, like her innocent comment about him being a snake amused him.

"Hey- why are you laughing?!" Cynthia asked as she sat up.

"Sssorry-" Nibble snickered some more. "Usssually people call us snakesss as an insult."

"Oh no! I didn't mean to upset you!" Cynthia began to get worked up again.

When Nibble saw Cynthia was worried about offending him, he stopped laughing to reassure her. "No, no, I'm not upssset, Cy." He gently patted her head with one of his claws. "I don't think you could offend me even if you tried."

Cynthia sighed as she leaned on Nibble's side. "... I'm sorry... I just... feel so bad for Echo..."

"He'll be alright. Hisss auntie is taking care of him." Nibble was unbothered by her leaning on him, as he was there to support her anyway.

"But... I scratched him... He's going to hate me now..." She sniffed. "I didn't mean to... it's all because of these stupid claws... I should have never listened to Sealen..."

Nibble looked over at Cy with his spikey eyebrows raised. "... Did he give you clawsss?" He asked this genuinely as he himself didn't remember his human life before this.

Cynthia went to nod but she stopped herself. "... Kind of... I'm still confused about it..."

"What exactly... happened...?" Nibble asked curiously.

"... When Sealen... took me from my home... He offered me a choice. He said... I could either sing a special song and go free... or I could be imprisoned forever..." Cynthia started to cry again. "I... I thought he would let me go but... when I saw that the song was changing me... I wouldn't finish it..." She sniffled again and whimpered as she looked up at Nibble. "I shouldn't have... believed him..."

Nibble gently pulled Cynthia into a side hug but didn't say anything to reply. He began thinking about what she said and questioned in his heart if he had possibly been through the same thing. The dream he had moments prior came to mind and he wondered if it had anything to do with his past.

After a minute of thinking, Nibble looked back down at Cynthia. "We'll fix you one way or another... But I want you to promissse me something."

Cynthia looked up at him with a sniffle. "What's that...?"

Nibble's brown eyes met her blue ones. "Promissse me you'll be patient with yourself when stuff like thisss happens. You're ssstill a little girl, even with those claw handsss. You're too young to carry sssuch a big weight on your own..." He paused a moment before adding, "... Inssstead of blaming yourself and running away... ask for help."

She looked down for a moment before looking back up at Nibble. "I'll try my best, Nibble..." Cynthia smiled before giving the fang a hug. "Thank you."