After days on the boat, it's surprisingly hard to sleep without the constant rocking. I'm left awake a lot of the night, staring at Scar shifting around, pretending to be asleep. Every muscle of me wants to find True and hurt her for what she did to my friend... but I can't. We just have to hide from them. Get the egg back to Pearl and hope she gives us protection. 

I don't know when it is that I drift asleep, but it's not any easier mentally as all I find are uneasy nightmares of True and Grian's death and the dragon and-

I scramble awake as dream-Beef screams for the billionth time. It's morning, sunlight streaming through the window. Scar's staring at me, eyes half closed. His night's been even worse than mine. I don't think he slept at all.

'Morning.' I mumble. 

'Are you ok?'

'Nightmare. You?'

'Yeah, yeah, I'm fine.' He lies. Cub's still asleep, me and Scar still half are as I slip out of bed.

'Wanna join me downstairs?'

'Yeah, yeah of course...' A glance at Cub. I don't know whether to help him stop wobbling as he stands. He's utterly exhausted, even more tired than before he tried to sleep. I lead the way downstairs, into the main area of the room.

'Doc! Scar! Over here!' Ren calls over from a far table he and Martyn are at. Scar keeps at the edge of the room, back always to the wall, eyes over everything. My urge to find and kill True rises again, but I have to keep it down as we reach the table.

'Good sleep?'

'Not the best.' I admit. 'Still... what's the plan for today?'

'Find who has the egg, get the egg. I imagine whoever got it went here and Sausage seems to be the kind of person who... tells everyone everything.' Martyn explains as I sit down. Scar's got the chair looking out on the room. Still paranoid. Constantly paranoid. 

'We also thought we'd explore Sanctuary a bit more... see what shops there are, maybe get a bit of money playing music...buy stuff.'

'Good morning!' Sausage bursts into the room to say. 'How's everyone doing this fine morning?'

Again, he appears behind Scar, who glances over, instantly awake. 

'Don't keep doing that, ok?'

'Doing what? What am I doing?'

'Appearing behind Scar. He doesn't like it.' 

'It's fine. I need to get over it anyway.'

'That is the most ridiculous thing I've heard all morning.' Martyn retorts sympathetically 'Including Ren's dream about Hermes showing us around our own wagon.' 

'What even happened? Why's he so nervous all the time?'

'He was captured and hurt. Hurt badly. And very very recently. So don't go sneaking around or surprising him.'

'Hurt? How? Who hurt him?'

'We don't want to talk about it.'

'Oh! Sorry! I'll try not to... I'm just always so worried about my friends... Anyway, I forgot to ask you yesterday where you're going and why you've come to my humble abode in Sanctuary.'

'Adventuring. Searching for something.' I reply vaguely. Martyn's more specific.

'Has anyone with a dragon egg come by here recently?'

'Oh! My fri me Oli had one. He was travelling up to the Ancient Capital with it... To give it to almighty King Pixlriffs I think.'

'What... Did it look like?'

'Dark purply black... Pretty big. Why? Are you looking for it?'

'That's what we're hoping to find... Which way is it to the Capital?'

'I've got a map somewhere... Ah here it is!' Sausage pulls a map from his pocket, unfolding it on the table. 'You wanna take this road here all the way up. But, if you wanna cut Oli off there's a cave across here that leads right....'

'No. We don't take any caves.'

'Are you sure? The dragon there is really really friendly. His name's Simon.'

'Too dangerous. Sorry.'

'Well... I hope you find the egg... Cub! Good morning!'

'Hey Sausage... What's going on?'

'We know who has the egg.'

He stops.

'What? How?'

'Sausage saw them passing by. He's got a map of the way there to find him... His name's Oli.'

'Don't hurt him though. Or... If you do get back all the debt he owes Sanctuary for breaking the pole dancing pole accidentally when he came before. I mean, we fixed it but it was still a bit disrespectful.'

'Thank you, Sausage. Your help is really appreciated.'

'That's ok! I love helping my new friends. And my old friends. And all my friends! I like helping everyone! Scott! Joey! Good morning!'

The rest of our party crosses over to us. But before we can give our news, they give theirs.

'We're not joining you on the rest of your campaign through the Great Empire.'

'What? Why?' Martyn frowns.

'We're... Not adventurers. We never signed up for adventuring. I'm sorry. We'll be here when you get back to take you to Hermitia but... No more than that.' Scott explains. 'And I can't be away from water too long. I'm sorry.'

'That's fine, dudes. We're sorry for getting you involved at all.'

'We're sorry for not helping with True. We'll see you back here when you return. And we'll be here until you set off. Also, there's some strange noises from our room.'

'Yeah, there were.' Agrees Ren. 'Can you check that out?'

'Yeah, yeah, of course! Probably just a mouse or something.'

I watch as everyone leaves until just me, Cub and Scar are left. Scar's asleep again.

'Hey, Scar.' Cub notices as well. A glance up.

'What is it? What's going on?'

'Head upstairs and get more sleep. You need it.'

'I'm fine.'

'You barely slept at all. No one will mind. Go and sleep.'

A sigh. Scar stands, back to the wall as he walks across the room and up the stairs. Cub watches him the whole time.

'Why did True do this?' I mutter. 'Why would True hurt him. He's innocent.'

'I know.'

'And don't blame yourself, Cub. You're not the reason they're sadistic coward murderers.'

'I'm the reason they're after us though.'

'Don't blame yourself, Cub. Don't.' I put a hand on his shoulder. 'You've done nothing wrong.'

'You don't know that.'

'We know what you did and we don't blame you.' I repeat. Cub doesn't reply, staring at the ground.

'Thief.' He mumbles.

'What?'

'On his back.'

'What.' I want to throw a table across the room. 'No.'

'All because... All because of the stupid egg.' Tears run down Cub's face. I shift closer.

'Don't blame yourself.' I don't even know if repeating it helps as he starts sobbing. 'Don't.' I don't know how long I spend comforting Cub but it's nowhere long enough. He's just starting to calm down as we're interrupted.

'There! That's Uncle Cub and Uncle Doc there!'

I look up at Hermes's excited voice.

Talking to someone.

True.

:)