In the Midst of the Lonely Sea of Loneliness (6)

The four of them were silent as they made their way with the crowd to the cliffs so they could watch the last part of the festival play out.

Meanwhile, without their knowing, the dust of the fang was found by a patrol and it was immediately reported to General Gnorm. As a result, an investigation was opened in an effort to catch the culprit and fangs began to harshly question attendees of the festival for foul play.

Arriving at the cliffs, Artham only became more and more tense. Would he be blamed for Neet's doing? After all, his scent would still be on the fang since he had fallen on him before he was 'poofed'; not to mention the wall could possibly have his scent as well. Artham could only pray to the Maker that he would not be blamed.

"It's starting!" Leeli excitedly exclaimed upon seeing the first sea dragon begin to dance.

Everyone became more attentive and quiet once the dragons began to sing and dance, the majestic beings invoking all sort of emotion for those observing. Thankfully, this included the fangs- and they despised the songs all the same. Artham thought perhaps this would be their chance to get away before anything more could go wrong.

However, before Artham could start leading the children back home, he heard his niece begin to sing along with the dragons in a way he had never heard.

It was this song that summoned a dragon from the depths, as it was familiar to him. With the sound of waves crashing below, an elder dragon rose its head and startled those standing close by.

All but Leeli flinched and stepped back from the gigantic beast, terrified of its power. Both Janner and Kalmar backed away and stood close to Artham with that same sense of fear but still in awe of its beauty.

"How can this little one know Yurgen's tale?" The beast spoke and yet, no one could hear him- that was, except Janner and Artham, who were startled by his booming words in their minds.

"The dragon... It's speaking!" Janner said with shock, looking up at his uncle.

"Yurgen? Could it be?" Artham wondered aloud.

The beast suddenly turned its attention on both Janner and Artham, surprised that the two of them had knowledge not commonly known by humans.

"You hear my words?" The eldest dragon asked, snorting air out of his nostrils. "Who are you?"

Janner froze on place, too afraid to answer the sea dragon's questions.

Artham became somewhat enchanted in the moment, realizing the legends he had read about were true regarding the communications between the Wingfeather family and the dragons. Unfortunately, he was not able to indulge his curiosity for his fear soon took over.

Leeli's singing was gaining more attention from the fangs and it was only a matter of time before they tracked the scent from the crime scene to Artham.

In a rash decision to save their lives, Artham quickly covered Leeli's mouth to stop the singing. "We have to go."

The Igibys stood as still as statues, looking into the face of the beast before them.

The sea dragon narrowed his eyes at Artham and snorted with annoyance before slowly lowering back into the sea below.

Without any further explanation, Artham picked up Tink piggyback style and quickly gestured Janner and Leeli to stay close behind him before carefully passing through the crowd toward home.

Once out of the crowd, Artham quickly eased into a jog, hoping to get some distance between them and the fangs.

Poor Tink and Leeli were left pretty much in the dark on the whole situation until they had gotten out of sight of Glipwood.

"Uncle Artham, what's going on?" Tink asked at the half way point between town and home.

"Yeah, why did we need to leave so quickly?" Leeli asked with much confusion.

"A woman I saw in the crowd... She killed a fang to protect me after a misunderstanding." Artham finally answered, much to the children's horror. "I'm almost certain the fangs found my scent at the scene..."

"You didn't do anything wrong!" Leeli protested. "Why would they come after you?"

Artham sighed. "I'm sorry, Leeli, but the fangs aren't fair... Not that I'd want the woman to get in trouble either. It was me or the fang... One of us was going to have to go."

"But who was she?" Tink asked, still pondering why he felt he had seen her before. "She looked very... familiar."

Artham fell silent as he averted his eyes away from his niece and nephews with a look of guilt. However, he didn't answer this question and instead, began to hurry all of them all the more. "We need to get home."

When his uncle didn't answer their questions, Janner's anger got the better of him and he suddenly stepped in front of his Uncle, staring up at him with a determined look on his face.

"Janner? Janner, we can't stay here-" Artham reached out his hand to move Janner aside.

"No! You've been acting weird since this morning!" Janner pushed his uncle's hand off of his shoulder. "No- you've been acting strange for months... Years even! You haven't been sleeping, you're always distracted- You probably wouldn't be in trouble if you didn't pick fights with the fangs! It's like you're hiding something from us and I want to know what that is!"

Artham was taken back by Janner's confrontational attitude but he calmly replied, "Janner, I know you're upset but I can't go into details with everything right now. What we need to focus on is getting home and after that-" He sighed. "I can explain what's been on my mind."

Janner's expression softened upon hearing the sincerity in his uncle's voice and slowly moved out of the way without another word.

For rest of the trip home, Artham ran as fast as he could without leaving Janner and Leeli behind. He was afraid that time was running out.

The front door to the Igiby cabin swung open as the four of them poured inside with exhaustion.

Artham set Tink down and tried to catch his breath.

"What in the blue blazes?" Podo rose from his rocking chair in the corner.

Wendolyn peeked her head out from the kitchen. "You all look like you've run three miles!-" She paused, the look on Artham's face made her realize that was exactly what had transpired. "Oh my..."

"Why in Aerwiar were ya all runnin' home like a thwap with its tail caught in a trap?" Podo questioned, also noting the serious silence that followed their arrival.

"I... I didn't know what else to do..." Artham replied with his hands on his knees as he tried to catch his breath. "There was... An incident... in town today."

Podo sneered and his voice lowered. "And what kind of incident was that?"

"I saw her, Podo..." Podo's expression briefly softened. "But... When I went after her... I ran into a fang..." Artham wiped his forehead with his forearm. "It was going to bite me... But she... she killed it on the spot."

"And WHY did you wait until now to tell us this?" Podo began to lecture. "Why didn't you just come home on the wagon?!"

Artham shook his head. "I... I didn't want to ruin Dragon Day... I made a promise..." He glanced at Janner and then at the ground.

"Oh, Nia..." Wendolyn covered her mouth with her hand and shook her head.

"'Nia'? Who's... Nia?" Janner asked.

The three adults present looked at Janner like he had a horn growing out of his forehead. A long silence from them followed.

"Okay... I can't be the only one that thinks the scarf lady is Nia... Right?" Tink wondered aloud, unintentionally opening a can of worms that could not be closed. "Why is she important?"