The Lore Wain and Her Nephew Pt. 17

Once back on their ship, they began their journey back to the Shining Isles and the palace. In the meantime, Celeste fed Echo the milk the stranders had provided and sat with her crew on the top deck.

"So we still don't know why the Capt'n Sealy eye stole the wee babe? I'd smack the lot of em for doin' this thing." Alagatha remarked with her arms folded. "Even the worst of pirates might think twice before stealin' royalty- especially a babe one at that."

"He's a different kind of pirate Captain, Alagatha." Clef said, seeming rather aloaf ever since the mention of Silver-eye. "He's got the nastiness and cruelness of a strander and the coy cleverness of a pirate."

Celeste looked back at Clef, having noticed his strange behavior more after hearing about Captain Sealen. "Is that all that's bothering you, Clef?"

Clef sighed, "Something isn't sitting right with me." He replied honestly, "Between that woman in the cell and that captain... Things aren't adding up, Celeste. I have a knot in my stomach."

"I think the sooner you all get back to the palace... the better." Cynthia said with her eyes drooping before looking up at Clef.

Clef took a look at Cynthia and seemed even more uneased. He got up from his seated position on his crate and started working to get the ship moving faster without a further word.

Nibble took the silence as an opportunity to tease Zarabean on the events that had just happened. "And thisss isss why I tells you to eat more meat. Ssskinny people are easy baggage."

Zarabean gagged at the mention of meat, "Nibble, please. I want to keep down the apple I already had. Your kind of meat rots for weeks before you eat it."

Nibble cackled, "One of these daysss you have to try it!"

"That would be the day Zarabean dies." Zarabean frowned at Nibble, either not enjoying the conversation or being so good at acting it only seemed that way.

Nibble laughed all the more at Zarabean's responses. No wonder the two teased each other so often.

Cynthia giggled at the temporary distraction from her worries.

"So, what's yer name, little claw hands?" Alagatha asked with a gentle teasing in her voice. Her nickname calling was only meant to start conversation, not to pick fun at Cynthia's talons.

Cy looked up at Alagatha and tried to not take the nickname personally because she saw Alagatha as a kind sort. "Cynthia... I'm called Cy by my friends though."

Alagatha grabbed one of Cynthia's talons hands and shook it like they just made a business deal. "Nice to meet cha, Cy Claw Hands! I'm Alagatha the Earless but you can call me Laggy!"

Cynthia, while alarmed by the sudden greeting, smiled to see the pirate woman so kind and accepting. "Nice to meet you too, Laggy!"

Alagatha retracted her hand, "My, yer nails are sharp! File them like me do ye?" She showed Cynthia her pointy nails that looked like little daggers on her fingers.

"No, actually... They're always like this." Cy looked down at her claw-like hands to compare them with Alagatha's.

Nibble saw the two of them talking about sharp nails and clawed hands and felt the need to contribute. "Ha! You thinksss those are clawsss?! He held out one of his fang claws to compare with the two girls like it was some kind of competition. "I thinksss I trump ya!"

Alagatha looked at Nibble with a smirk and pointed at Nibble's claw feet, "If anything, yer feet do the job just fine. Look at that big toe! Mighty frightening on its own, Nibble. Mind ye introduce yourself before shoving yer claws in the wee girl's face?"

Nibble cackled, taking no offense to Alagatha once so ever. He looked at Cynthia, "Sssorry. Name'sss Nibble. You've already heard that though. Good to meet you, Cy."

Cynthia couldn't deny she was first disturbed to meet a fang on board Celeste's ship but upon seeing him interact, she realized quickly that he wasn't like other Fangs. In response to his greeting, she smiled. "Good to meet you too, Nibble." Cy looked around at the whole crew she had just joined and sighed in contentment. "This isn't like any crew I've seen."

Zarabean snickered a bit, "I think it's because we're the first crew of this kind."

"Celeste!" Clef suddenly called from the crow's nest of the ship. "Celeste, somethings wrong! I see flames!"

A expression of fear overtook Celeste's face as she rushed to the front of the ship. What she saw next shook her to her very core. The palace she had grew up in was up in flames.

The rest of the crew joined Celeste at the front of the ship and saw what she saw. All of them looked just as horrified as she did.

Celeste's eyes could not pull from the flames as she gazed on. The sound of her crewmates beside her blurred from her field of hearing. The one thing she could hear was a voice inside her head shouting, "This was all your fault!"