The Lore Wain and Her Nephew Pt. 58

The sound of Echo's screaming brought Ramger and Kinabrick to the Captain's cabin to see what had happened.

"What is it this time?" Ramger asked himself with worry as he quickly stepped down the stairs from the highest deck and hurried over to the door of the cabin.

Kinabrick joined him from behind and watched as his brother in law opened the door.

From inside the cabin, Celeste tended Echo's wound while Clef had to hold him still so he wouldn't squirm.

Echo screamed with every dab of the wet cloth Celeste was using to clean the scratch.

"What happened?!" Ramger exclaimed, not helping the situation by adding to the noise.

"Cynthia accidentally scratched Echo." The voice of Zarabean replied from somewhere closeby.

Ramger looked for the source of the voice and jumped when he realized the ridgerunner was standing close behind him.

"Gracious!" Ramger exclaimed before huffing. "Could you not have said something?"

"Zarabean just did." Zarabean replied apologetically. "He's sorry if he frightened you."

Ramger rolled his eyes at him before getting back to the task at hand. He quickly walked over to the screaming child to see if he could evaluate the situation for himself.

Celeste looked up at Ramger before looking at Echo's wound with a strained expression on her face. "I don't... I don't know if it would need... stitches."

"I don't think Echo could take stitches." Clef said, seeming to be struggling to keep the young boy from squirming in his arms. It seemed that Echo had a lot of will to get away in his panicked state.

Ramger took a look at Echo's wound for himself and sighed. "... It's..." Going to need a tight wrapping then. Where's the medical supplies?"

A quick scamper noise nearly made Ramger jump once again; Zarabean had dunked under the advisor's legs to get to a drawer in Celeste's desk.

"Again with that!" Ramger huffed but quickly recovered as Zarabean handed him a roll of gaze.

Zarabean just looked back at Ramger silently with a straight face, like he was expecting him to use the gaze on Echo.

Ramger stared back for a second before clearing his throat and looking back at Celeste. "Was his wound cleaned?"

"Yes." Celeste replied with tears forming in her eyes. She couldn't stand seeing her nephew in such pain.

"I'll wrap him." Ramger replied and looked at the young King, who was still crying and whimpering. "King Echo, I'm going to wrap your scrape now. It might sting but it should feel better soon."

"No! Don't touch it!" Echo cried and squirmed more in Clef's arms.

"It's okay, Echo! Sir Ramger is going to help you!" Celeste tried to reassure her nephew but no argument would be enough to calm him in his tizzy.

Despite the young king's cries, the uptight advisor quickly started wrapped his arm in a gentle manner. He could tell that Clef was struggling to hold the little boy still and he didn't want to waste time. He made sure the wrapping was tight but still loose enough that it wouldn't be terribly uncomfortable.

Once he was done, Ramger looked over at Celeste. "It's all I can do until we find a doctor. Can you tell me how this happened?" He asked.

Ramger knew Cynthia had been sited as the culprit but his concern lied in what caused her to scratch poor Echo. He wanted to be sure it wasn't because she lost control or something of that nature.

"I didn't see it happen..." Celeste replied before looking at her nephew to ask him, "Echo, what happened? We know Cynthia scratched you but do you know how she did that?"

Echo sniffed and shook, crying quieter but still crying nevertheless. He struggled to form words.

With a sigh, Celeste took Echo into her arms from Clef and the boy clung to her as he did as an infant.

"If I may..." Zarabesn spoke up as everyone looked toward him. "I believe... Young Echo was the seeker and Cynthia was the Squeeblin."

"... What?" Ramger asked, not being familiar with this childhood game.

Zarabean looked up at Ramger. "The Squeeblin is supposed to chase and tag the seeker and then the seeker becomes a Squeeblin... but Zarabean thinks Cynthia was trying to catch Echo and accidentally scratched him."

"A strange game... Squeeblins are awful creatures..." Ramger mumbled to himself.

Celeste looked back at Echo. "Echo, is that true?"

Echo nodded while his bottom lip quivered. "Accident..." He murmured.

"That's a relief." Ramger remarked in such a way that Clef and Celeste looked at him strangely.

"Did you think she would scratch him on purpose?" Clef asked since he was unsure what his father was implying.

"As Lore Wain Celeste already knows... There were old reports of fangs slowly descending into madness the longer they were... Well, you get the idea." Ramger sighed. "I was just making sure our dear Princess wasn't suffering from that."

Zarabean immediately spoke up in defense of his friend, "I reassure you. Cynthia is very much sane."

Ramger looked down at Zarabean. "She might be now and I pray the Maker she stays that way until we can restore her. I'm only thinking of the safety of my dear King."

"That's for certain." Kinabrick commented from the doorway of the cabin. "... However, my concern lies with the other fang. I've noticed his strange behavior since we boarded at the Hollows."

"Nibble is processing somethings from his past, Zarabean is sure of it." Zarabean replied, also defending his lizard friend.

"Is that so?" Ramger questioned cautiously.

Clef nodded to Ramger's question. "Nibble... He doesn't remember who he was before his melding-"

"But-" Celeste interjected to add, "Nibble *is* a sane fang. His eyes tell me his real self is in there somewhere..."

"He is." Zarabean nodded to both Clef and Celeste. "Believe me, he is. He's just... struggling with remembering... It could be a very painful process to remember... Like touching a bruise you know that hurts."

Kinabrick sighed and looked out of the cabin to the crow's nest. "All I know is I heard some frantic scratching last night." He looked back inside the cabin at all of the adults sitting there. "I think you'd all agree it would be concerning... He isn't harmless."

"Nibble has never bitten anyone!.. At least... None that I've seen in the years I've known him... No matter what his name implies." Celeste also joined Zarabean in defending their friend.

"Besides," Clef snickered, "His registration was supposed to read 'Nimble'. That tells me they named him after his speed, not his biting."

"Even so, it is still a concern for the young King." Ramger didn't laugh at his son's attempt to lighten the mood. "... I won't deny it was hard to fall asleep the first few nights on the ship knowing a fang was on board..."

"But you've seen his character. Surely that counts for something!" Celeste remarked, surprised Ramger was still hesitant to trust her friends after the journey they've been on so far.

Ramger looked at Celeste and weakly smiled as if to be apologetic. "It does, my dear Lore Wain... but my concern isn't for me, it's everyone else. I'm sure Nibble is a good fang- er- man, whoever he was... But we need to think about a fail-safe."

When Celeste was going to protest further, Clef surprisingly took a different stance on the matter than she expected.

"You know... Ramger... my dad has a point." Clef said, receiving a shocked look from both Celeste and Zarabean. "We should be smart about this. I don't think your advisor is saying anything about getting rid of Nibble- just keeping an eye on him... and Cynthia as well."

After hearing Clef's explanation, Celeste started to understand. It would be reckless to not monitor the fangs' behavior in case it got out of hand. They had to think about not only the King but also all of the Annerian refugees... What would be best for the fallen Kingdom?

Celeste sighed. "Alright... We'll keep an eye on them... But we aren't doing anything evasive. We need a plan."

"We should be arriving at a Torrboro port in a day and a half's time. We have until then to have that fail-safe in place." Ramger looked at around at all the faces in the room. "So, what will we do in case a crisis emerges?"