Here, Kitty, Kitty

A Matter of Time

It came as a surprise to no one when, the evening after Cassie's 'reintroduction' into the crew, the cat herself came storming into Uma's shoppe like someone had stolen her favourite toy. In fact, the majority of Uma's pirates wagered as much. Some had bet that Cassie would come right back for answers after she left for the ship that night, knowing that their first mate would be all too eager to let her know he was taking over her training. When this didn't happen, some wondered if Cassie would be so overcome by anger that she'd come to the shoppe after the sun had come up and ferociously dismantle the place in retaliation for being handed over to Harry. But that didn't happen either. There was a temporary dismay brewing about the crew, since almost all had put a bet down on Cassie's temper getting the best of her. And so, when the little cat did return to Uma's shoppe during the early evening, only half an hour after the sun had gone down, her crewmates huddled together gleefully, exchanging rusty old coins or whatever else they'd put in as currency.

As they watched Cassie burst through the doors and into Uma's shoppe, the little cat's distress became amusingly evident. With flushed cheeks, likely due to the colder weather rather than the haste with which she'd come to the shoppe, Cassie's dark eyes were wide and clouded by an unbearable fury. Her hair, usually tamed down and curling at the edges, was tussled and unbrushed, and a faint glimmer of sweat built along her hairline. To encourage their belief that she'd been rather frantic in her desperation to get to the shoppe, she'd left behind the black leggings they always saw her wearing and simply thrown on the new sweater Starla had gifted her the evening before. In truth, the fact she'd even considered throwing on her boots came as a surprise to most. It was clear their cat was consumed by annoyance, but her presence now meant a form of entertainment for her crewmates.

"Captain!" she yelled, her gaze roaming around the shoppe for the teal-haired VK.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm ready," moaned Uma from her 'throne'.

The crew had wondered why their captain had decided to settle down on her chair since she usually went about her daily routine of serving the customers. Then, it became obvious. Like the rest of them, Uma had also been expecting a negative reaction from Cassie. So instead of beginning her duties as normal, Uma had first decided to deal with their cat.

Cassie's eyes zeroed in on their captain, and the crew knew right then that they were nothing more than furniture to the little cat.

Since the moment Cassie's upcoming decision to join the crew was announced, they'd been somewhat doubtful of the outsider but incredibly intrigued. There had been plenty of whispers among those in pirate territory where she was involved, even before Uma had told them about her. It wasn't rare for their first mate to set his sights on a pretty Isle-dweller, regardless of which side of the Isle they belonged to, but the lengths he'd gone to to continuously capture Cassie's attention had been astounding. It had honestly baffled most of them. Mainly because no one had known that the Cheshire Cat had been dumped on the Isle, and his daughter had suddenly become an unknown threat to Harry. But the first mate's unwavering fascination with her and how to defeat her time and time again had the entire crew bewildered. At least until they began to trade stories and theories, and they discovered Cassie's determination to seek out Harry every single time he did something to mess with her. If Cassie hadn't known it at the start, she'd grown to find out how merciless and violent the hook-wielding pirate was. And still, she came back. Most would've admitted defeat and slinked back into whatever hole they came from after dealing with him, but not Cassie. The feud between the Cheshire Cat's daughter and the son of Hook had stretched out for months, to the point they'd become the most talked-about subject on pirate territory.

The last 'war' Uma's crew had been actively involved in was their captain's feud with Maleficent's daughter. It had hardly been as intense as Cassie and Harry's ongoing feud, though. Uma's animosity towards Mal had stemmed from betrayal and abandonment. Everyone on the crew knew of Uma's friendship with Mal when they were younglings and that they'd been as thick as thieves, along with Mad Maddy. But Mal had gotten arrogant as they grew older. Suddenly, the sight of Maddy's lilac hair stirred an odd annoyance in Mal, and she'd dumped a pail of toxic substance over Maddy's head and turned it green, thus severing any ties of friendship with Madam Mim's granddaughter. Not long after that, Mal had pushed Uma into a container of bait that the pirate's used for catching fish, plaguing their captain with a faint and displeasing scent that still hovered around to this day. Everyone on the crew knew of Mal's horrendous nickname for Uma, and all refused to speak of it at the risk of their captain hearing it. Gil was absentminded, and as one of the Sea Three, their captain hardly took offence when he was idiotic enough to drop the nickname. It wasn't done with malice or dislike, but purely the routine of hearing it all over the Isle before the Core Four left, so he was occasionally given a pass for his tendencies. Nevertheless, Uma's interactions with Mal hadn't been consistent. The daughter of Maleficent would infiltrate pirate territory every few months and do something to enrage Uma, after which the captain would dispatch her pirates to take revenge. While Uma was, understandably, fueled by anger whenever she found out Mal had been on their territory, her crew knew better. Yes, their captain was irritated, but there was also a sadness in her responses, as if the hurt of being betrayed was still raw in her memory.