"... Cat boy?"

Grace could hardly believe it as she looked the child up and down. Sure enough, it was the same boy that had turned into a cat right above her head only the day before, except now he was here, digging through one of her shipments.

His slit, yellow eyes darted about, and he quickly moved to tuck a brown, feline tail behind his back. "I'm not a cat. Or a boy. Or wait-"

His gaze finally landed on the spoons in his hands, and he held them forward for her to grab. "These are yours."

Grace only blinked at him, taking careful note of the claws on the boy's outstretched hand. She gingerly pinched the spoon, easing it out of his tight grasp. "That they are." A frown pulled at her lips, and she began to tap a boot as she stared down at him, a necessity given that he only came to her hip. "Now, what are you doing here?"

And just like that, the fear seemed to fall from his face, washed over by a wave of confidence as he turned a stubby nose up in the air. "I have come to steal all of your treasure. Consider yourself plunder-dered."

She gave him a deadened look. "So you admit to attempting to steal from the top crew in Queen's fleet of pirates?"

"Absolutely!"

"Well–"

It wasn't hard to yoink the Reverie child up by the scruff of his bright blue scarf and haul him up the ladder to the main deck. Jack's floppy ears twitched at the sound of her coming up, but he didn't ask any questions as she shot him a dull look, continuing to carry the cat child until they'd reached the edge of the boat. The frayed rope bit into her hands slightly as Grace took hold, but it allowed her to lean over the ship's edge, holding the boy out and over the harbor. "-Enjoy your swim."

"What?" The boy sounded appalled, kicking and writhing to try and look at her over his shoulder, though she just gripped the scarf tighter. "No! No, you can't drop me in the water! I can't swim!"

She only raised her brows. "Then enjoy your sink."

"Noooo!" he whined. "Please, I hate water! Don't do this to me!"

Really, she should have tossed him overboard. That was the rule for stowaways, after all, but despite him kicking and hissing and acting like such a feral little thing, she could only bring herself to sigh. She shook her head with the smallest of smiles.

Eh. He's just a kid.

But she knew very well that you didn't let kids know that they were just kids, so instead she reeled him back in, holding him up closer to her stern face all while his limbs dangled.

"Then don't 'plunder-der' my spoons next time."

"Yes Miss Ma'am-Sir," he said, raising a single hand to give a salute. "I will only steal the spoons when you are not looking from now on, I promise."

"What?" The question shot out of her mouth, and she could hear Jack snickering behind her, choosing to sit on a pile of boxes to watch. "No. No stealing. Why do you want the spoons so badly anyway?"

Surely as a Reverie, the boy could tell there was no magic to them, right? Granted, they looked nice, but at the end of the day, that was it. Her lips pressed tight as she lowered him to the ground, surveying him keenly. Unless he knows something about them that I don't.

If that was the case, she certainly didn't know, because the moment she set the boy down, he tried to dart to the side, back to the trapdoor. Grace only moved to the side to block him.

He scowled at her, fluffy ears flattening against his brown hair at the fact that he was once again blocked. "I'm gonna sell them, and become the richest cat in Crisol. Then I can buy myself an entire chicken to eat. Or a bread. Or a mango. I like mangos." He nodded to himself, very self-assuredly. "Do you have any mangos?"

"I..." Grace paused, taking a moment to take off her captain's hat and fix her hair so it sat beneath it instead of lying across her face. Now that she was looking at him, the child was scrawny, and his furry hair was completely strewn with feathers. "Have you eaten today?"

He pouted at the ground, cheeks with brown, whisker-like marks puffing out in frustration. "It got away."

So he hasn't eaten then, and has to fend for himself? That was hardly right for someone his age. And yet, he was a Reverie. Didn't taking care of themselves come naturally?

"Well, we got mangos somewhere. Gimme a second."

Jack's voice caught her off guard, and Grace turned to find the Urco boy digging his hands into one of the crates, tail swishing behind him. "Um. Jack? Maybe wait on-"

"Found it!" he yelled, holding up the green and orange fruit proudly before tossing it over to the Cait Sith. The boy caught it eagerly, immediately stuffing it in his mouth, skin and all.

"Jack, I said wait!" She went to dart to him before quickly giving up as the second boy took off, nimbly winding around barrels, ropes, canons... "Cait Sith, I'm not done with you!"

"Yes you are," the boy apparently decided, nodding over his shoulder as he made his way towards the exit. "No one shall ever catch the Mighty Fel-"

It was then that Grace caught sight of a black ponytail heading up the ladder, and the boy crashed right into the girl's dark, ruffled skirts. Immediately, the lavender-skinned girl was reaching out, taking hold of him and staring down with slit, fuschia eyes.

She stayed like that for a moment, watching him closely. Then her gaze flicked up and met Grace's own. "Captain?"

The title came as a sharp, pricking reminder, and she hastily began smoothing her long, brown tailcoat over her own skirts. "Yes, Vessa?"

"You managed to catch the Cait Sith the Queen had a bounty for?"

"What?" Grace looked at the boy, at the way his fur bristled at the very mention of a bounty. But that couldn't be right. She'd seen the poster too, been given the same orders as any other captain of the Dreamseeker fleets, but she hadn't remembered the picture showing someone so young. Not a child. She would have remembered if she'd been asked to kill a child.

"No." She shook her head. "The bounty is for another. He just managed to find his way on the ship and I was promptly kicking him off."

"He's really funny!" Jack chimed in behind them, making Grace take in another, deep breath. She felt as though she was taking a lot of those today.

"Then why does he share the same mark as the Cait Sith?" Vessa argued, pointing at the boy's baggy, beige shorts. Sure enough, now that Grace was looking at them, they had that same forsaken symbol on them: of a crescent moon cupping a single orb, nine points coming off it to form the entire shape into a sun.

She crossed her arms. "Maybe it means something to them. I don't know."

"And you don't think that maybe simply throwing him off will come back to bite us?" she asked, her grip on him tightening.

Grace bit her lip. The Bruxa girl had a point; it just wasn't the one she was making. To throw the child off the boat would just mean that he'd be killed on the mainland later, a thought that twisted her stomach into knots. Not that she was against killing a Reverie– that would be foolish– but something about the boy's boundless energy, the way his eyes gleamed over the simplest things, his unwavering, even if unwarranted confidence...

Just like Lupe.

The reminder, as often as it came, still made her heart clench, but she tried not to let the emotion reach her face. No. She couldn't send the boy off to his death, but what other options were there? He was a Cait Sith, a Reverie, and as a pirate, it was her job to kill and steal from them until their magic was harvested for the Queen. Her hands shook, and she clenched them before the others could see, because they were all staring at her now. Jack, Vessa, the boy... They were all around her, waiting on her to make the call as their captain, but her throat felt so tight.

"Well?"

"A-actually—" Her voice came out shuttered. Weak. She clearly cleared her throat and straightened her spine. Besides, it gave her racing thoughts a moment to think, which she accepted most graciously. "I have a better idea."

The boy gave a sharp gasp. "Really? Does it mean I get another mango?"

Vessa only quirked a brow. "What kind of idea?"

"A great question." I have no clue. "Because you see..." she trailed, taking her time to walk over to the ship's edge, where Vessa stood, the entire time her mind circling back until it hit her. She leaned back against the wooden side, crossing her arms confidently with a smile. "As you said, he's a Cait Sith."

The girl's gaze narrowed, but she eased her grip on the boy slightly. "What are you suggesting?"

"I'm suggesting that he stays, and does the one thing we cannot." She let the words hang in the air for a moment for extra emphasis. "Sense magic."

"After all," she continued, circling her hand as she talked. "Whether we like it or not, the Queen is dying. If we don't find the cure now Crisol is going to fall apart. So, if we are going to be sailing in the Ocean of Dreams, who better to find what we need than a Reverie?"

"Grace, excuse my frankness but have you gone mad?" Vessa shouted, two sets of fangs showing as she flung a hand out to wildly gesture at the boy. "This isn't just a Reverie. He's either related to, or the very same one that poisoned her in the first place! We can't just let him stay!"

"I did what?"

The two looked down as the boy spoke up through a mouthful of fruit. "I don't remember poisoning anyone. That doesn't sound very me."

"It probably isn't you, but it doesn't change the law." Vessa crossed her arms, tapping a long, black boot on the deck. "He shouldn't even be here in the first place."

"I can leave!" the boy suggested. "You can let me off the ship right now. I don't mind."

Grace immediately shot him a look to shut up, but he didn't seem to notice, more concerned with the laces of his shoes. Or perhaps that could work in her favor too. She leaned over to Vessa, whispering as lightly as she could,
given the rumors that Cait Sith had ridiculously good hearing.

"We're not breaking the law. Reveries are not to live on Crisol. I'm not suggesting slavery. I'm saying that we take him back to an island, and we make him find Relics for us. Then we leave him there, and cure the Queen." It was a foolproof plan, really, when she put it like that, and she nodded to herself even as Vessa continued to give her a confused look.

"Is there a reason we can't just kill him? Even without a bounty, it's more blood we could have on hand for the rest of the trip?" she suggested, and the hopeful lilt to her voice wasn't hard to miss.

"Again, we're looking for a cure, and if anyone would know about how to cure Cait Sith venom, it would be a Cait Sith," she pointed out as the child began to walk forward, exploring and sniffing at the rest of the ship. "I have faith that you bought yourself more than enough blood already, and I'll make sure he isn't a threat, all right? And if he is..."

Her gaze wandered back to him. "Then I'll figure something else out, all right?"

A frown pulled at the girl's lips. "Sounds to me like for some reason, our captain can't bring herself to kill a simple Reverie. You're not going soft, are you?"

Grace only scoffed. "Of course not! I just... think this one can prove to be advantageous to us, that's all."

That was all it was, really. She didn't care for some random, raggedy Reverie. He would just help them on their mission in exchange for spoons or coin, and then she would send him off. The only reason she wasn't killing him was because there was no reason to be had. That wasn't going soft, that was being logical. So, settling the strange, guilty feeling in her heart, she finally walked over to where he was, reaching for his arm before he could touch the wheel of the ship.

"You," she began, leering down at him in hopes it would get him to focus. "Are coming with me."

"What?" he asked, and Grace noticed that he had a small scar over his lips as he pursed them in curiosity. "Why? Are you letting me go now?"

"No, because if you walk off this ship now, someone will most likely kill you."

"Yeah, they keep doing that today. It's very annoying."

"Annoy-" She cut herself off. You know what, if he's not that bothered by it, then I'm not going to make him be bothered. Instead, she shook her head. "Yes well, we're going to try to avoid that from now on, all right, and that starts by answering a few questions."

"Questions?" he asked, tail twitching behind him as he let Grace lead him away from the wheel and closer to her cabin. It wasn't a particularly far walk, just down one of the two staircases leading down beneath the wheel, but having to walk at the pace of his short legs certainly slowed it down a bit. "What kind of questions?"

"Well..." she trailed, opening the cabin door. Inside lay her office, though she'd forgotten what a mess it was. The desk was coated with random maps coated in hastily-drawn Xs. Wax dripped onto the wood from candles left unattended, Relics and boxes of random treasures were shoved in the corners, and Grace tried not to blush in embarrassment. After all, the boy was a child, and no doubt just as messy.

So you are on the level of an eleven, at most twelve year old, the back of her mind whispered. How admirable.

She shoved the little voice away, much like the stack of trading records on her chair, finally sitting down in it. Only then did she fold her hands, giving the boy a small smirk.

"Questions along the lines of: How would you like to become a pirate?"