The Lore Wain and Her Nephew Pt. 53

It was only a few more minutes that Celeste and Clef spoke before heading their separate ways to go to bed; Celeste to the captain's cabin and Clef to below deck with the others.

The night progressed peacefully, almost everyone doing the best sleeping anyone could on a ship in the middle of the sea. However, not everyone slept as soundly.

Nibble, who had fallen asleep before everyone else, stirred in his sling. He was on his side with his lizard-like tail laying across his claw feet but unlike the rest of his body, his claw hands were digging into the supporting fabric of his hammock like he was in some kind of distress. His body eventually jerked itself awake, causing Nibble's eye to shoot open and him to silently gasp.

Once awake, Nibble quietly looked at the others around him and found that no one had witnessed his sudden awakening. He shook his head as he eased himself with assurance that he was safe and then rested his head back down into the hammock.

Nibble lied there for another few minutes before realizing he couldn't fall back asleep. He sighed a low hiss-like sigh and carefully got up from his sling as quietly as he could. He found it a little difficult to tiptoe past everyone on bed rolls because his big toe on each foot had a large clawnail scratching and tapping the wood planks beneath him as he walked. Thankfully, he made it out alive and proceeded to the upper deck where he climbed up to the crow's nest and sat there to hopefully relax. He leaned against the back of the wooden wall of the crow's nest and looked up at the stars.

While Nibble was up in the bucket stargazing, Alagatha continued to steer the ship in a westward direction. She had heard his footsteps and his climb but couldn't abandon her post if she wanted them to stay on course. If it hadn't been for her duty to the crew, she would have checked on him.

"I wo'der what that lizards up to now." Alagatha muttered to herself curiously.

Around midnight, Kinabrick came up from below deck to relieve Alagatha from duty. He tiredly marched himself up to the captain's stairs and took the wheel from Alagatha.

"Go get some rest." Kinabrick told her. "Thank you for taking a turn. It can be tiring taking turns with only three people."

"Aye, no problem..." She replied with a yawn and then carefully climbed down the upper stairs. Before she went down the next set of stairs, Alagatha paused when she looked up at the crow's nest, remembering she heard Nibble earlier.

"I wo'der if he be up there still..." She wondered before she walked to the center post.

To prevent from being loud, Alagatha tapped the post that connected to the bucket that Nibble was in and spoke at a medium level. "Hey, Nibs. Are ye up there still?"

There was a brief silence before a lizardy head popped out to look down at her from above. "Yeeeessss..." Nibble replied in a slightly louder tone so Alagatha might hear him from the distance. "Jussst couldn't fall back asssleep..."

"Do ye need to talk 'bout it?" Alagatha asked.

"No... I'll be fine. Truth isss, I don't know what woke me... I just can't sssleep." Nibble replied with a sigh following his statement.

Alagatha yawned and covered her mouth with her hand before she could respond. "Well... I'll leave ye to stargazin. I'd crawl up there after ye but me bones are aching to be put to rest... I'll be down in the belly if ye need me, a'right?"

Nibble smiled softly and nodded with understanding. "Aye, aye, matie." He would have winked but alas, that was hard to do with one eye.

She smiled a toothy grin at him before retreating to the sleeping chamber.

Nibble watched her go before he turned his attention back to the sky. He knew something was troubling him but he wasn't sure what it was... which made him more uneasy.

As Celeste stated before, Nibble only remembered his time as a fang before he joined her crew. He was in a small green fang gang in Dang that thrived on theivery and cruelty over the humans that dared to venture or live there¹.

After Celeste had visited the Hollows, she made her way south around the small coast off the Killridge Mountains. There, she began looking for a place to rest from their encounter withe the rowdy ridgerunners in The Hollows. Celeste led her crew along the southern Mountain range, hoping it would lead to a city but alas, she never found any. In fact, Celeste and her crew were in danger of being kidnapped by Nibble's gang. Thankfully, Nibble's heart changed before this could ever happen.

The first thing Nibble could remember from that time was when he was scouting out Celeste's crew for his gang. When he overheard her telling stories and saw Celeste's kindness to such undesirable people, he felt a part of him awaken that he hadn't realized he had. From that day forward, he began being harassed by those in his group for acting different and not being as cruel as they were. The day Nibble decided to leave was when his lovely friends gave him a parting gift- an eyepatch after they took out one of his eyes².

Nibble couldn't help but shudder upon remembering the moment they took out his eye and he placed one of his hand over his eyepatch. It was one of those memories that crept up on him whenever it was quiet. To him, it became odd that the only memories that came up in those moments were bad ones.

"Ssstupid fangs... Toap and Thump were never good friendsss..." He muttered to himself and tried to remember good memories of things that happened to him in an effort to replace the discomfort he felt from the silence.

Nibble recalled what happened after that horrible event when he headed to the shore and he began to feel better. He remembered that when he came stumbling out of a small wooded area in tears, he was warmly welcomed by Celeste and her crew. Even the ridgerunner Zarabean, though he was wary, was kind to him.

Thinking of Zarabean, Nibble snickered a snakey sounding laugh. He and Bean had a unique friendship of banter and occasional games of chase but neither meant to ever hurt the other during such events. Still, he enjoyed that kind of freedom in their relationship to simply be what they were- a fang and a ridgerunner.

One thought led to another and he began thinking about his first meeting with Cynthia and her unique looking talons. He had compared their claws and bragged about how his were more scary than hers but didn't mean anything by it as he was only trying to make her feel comfortable. It wasn't until after that he saw that Zarabean had gotten an injury from her that he wondered where Cy got her talons from.

"But little girlsss don't get clawies... Only fangsss have clawies..." Nibble muttered to himself before groaning and holding the sides of his head. "Ahhhh, my head's buzzy... Thisss is why I hatesss thinking. Stop thinksing, Nibble. Maybe if I ssspeak in third person like Bean, my brain will ssstop. That alwaysss seems to help him..."

"It really doesn't help Zarabean all that much..." A voice spoke from above Nibble, causing him to snap his gaze upward. What he saw was the silhouette of Zarabean perched on the ledge of the crow's nest.

"But I do it anyway." Bean could be heard softly snickering like he was amused that Nibble thought of his tic as a solution to his problem.

"Sheesssh, Bean. You nearly scared my scalies off." Nibble hissed out a snicker.

"Sorry." Zarabean hopped down into the bucket beside Nibble. "Alagatha asked me if I could check on you. Is something bothering you?"

Nibble waved one of his hands like he was brushing it off. "Ehhhh... I just couldn't fall back asleep... Then my brain got thinksing about thingsss."

"What kind of thingsss?" Zarabean quietly teased in his curiosity.

"Ah, jussst... I can't remember past a certain point... And sssomething isn't sssitting right with me..." Nibble replied before trying to brush it off again. "But I don't want to thinksss about anything but sleep right now."

"Hm." Zarabean thought a moment before replying, "If you want to sleep, why not come back downstairs?"

Nibble shrugged. "I thought I needed some fresssh air... and maybe the starsss would be relaxing."

Bean looked up at the stars and adjusted the glasses resting on his nose. "They really are beautiful, aren't they...? Doesn't it make you feel like the Maker is closer than you think?"

"Sssure does..." Nibble looked over at Zarabean. "Hey, Bean?"

"Yes?" Zarabean replied as he looked back over at his lizardy friend.

"How are we going to help Celessste...? It doesn't ssseem like Clef or Ramger knows what to do... We're just drifting to Torrboro without much plan..." Nibble expressed, seeming unsure of how he was supposed to help a nation of people get their country back.

Zarabean sighed. "Zarabean wishes he had all the answers... He can't see what lies ahead of us... But... I have to believe the Maker has a purpose for all this."

Nibble nodded slightly. "I sssuppose... A little direction would be helpful..."

"Well... We're headed west... Surely that's a direction, right?" Zarabean smirked softly.

"... I'd ssshoves ya off the ledge if you weren't sitting next to me." Nibble became oddly straight-faced when he dimly made out his friend's smile.

"Aw, you're just saying that." Zarabean snickered, knowing Nibble was only kidding.

Nibble laughed his signature gaggy laugh. "Ah, Bean! You're alwaysss good for a laugh. Thanksss for checking on me. I'll be back to bed in a bit."

"Alright." Zarabean replied before hopping up onto the ledge again and looking back down at him. "Goodnight, Nibble."

"G'night, Bean." Nibble bid his ridgerunner friend a farewell before watching him disappear over the edge of the nest.