Once We are Descendants

Chapter 39: When No One is Watching

Uma slips out of the hospital after nearly being torn in half by Mal. Despite the brave face, she'd put on when the two had confronted each other, the daughter of Ursula had been terrified. Despite having magic of her own, Uma knew that Mal's magic was much more powerful than hers, and if this town had magic too, there's no knowing what could happen. Fortunately, Evie had distracted her rival, allowing the pirate captain to escape unscathed.

She begins walking through this strange new town as she thinks about what has happened. She definitely did not anticipate being pulled into the portal by Mal or for any of this to happen. The whole purpose of making the green portal potions was to free her crew from the Isle and then send Mal and her friends through so they could conquer Auradon and then pillage the many lands that were beyond the sickeningly perfect kingdom. Of course, her idiots Gil and Harry had screwed this up so Uma just tried to improvise and now here they were all here. She hated when Mal had attempted to drop her from a very high place, forcing her to cautiously climb onto the roof of a clock tower and cling to that while the purple dragon finished her temper tantrum. The teenager had actually felt fear; she's always hated heights, which is why she avoided the crow's nest on the ship. It took her a long time to get over the fear she felt about being so high up. She'd used her tentacles to slowly climb down the side of the tower, moving the hands of the clock as she went. Once she was safely on the ground, she'd turned back into a bipedal being and then followed the group of strangers as they went towards the hospital.

While Uma hates the perfect esthetic atmosphere that this town portrays, it is certainly an improvement from the Isle. The place is pleasant looking, with lots of places to shop and eat, something that was sometimes scarce on her former island. At least this place didn't get leftovers from another place. She passes a woodcarver's workshop, a few dress and clothing stores, a bar, and what appeared to be a combined shoe and psychiatry building... whatever that was.

The turquoise-haired teenager stuffs her hands in her pockets and keeps her eyes down low, trying not to draw attention to herself as she went. This, however, was hard considering she is dressed like a pirate captain and her long, brightly coloured braids were an attention drawer. Uma couldn't understand why people here seemed to dress so blandly; there is no excitement in what they wore, no desire to express their individuality, except for maybe an occasional bright plaid shirt worn by some very short men as they pushed past her.

Uma's stomach begins to growl and she realizes she hasn't eaten in quite awhile. She sees the neon sign for Granny's across the street, but if it was anything like her mom's chip shop on the Isle, she didn't want the memories. Eventually, she comes to The Dark Star Pharmacy; while she had no idea what a pharmacy was, she spots good looking food inside that could settle her hung pains in no time.

She opens the door and is greeted by a bell ringing above her, signalling her entrance. She goes straight to the food aisle, ignoring the person who comes to the front counter and says in a nasal voice.

"Good afternoon, how may I help you?"

This is greeting is followed by a series of loud sneezes.

Uma ignores the guy's comment and begins searching through the piles of piles of junk food displayed on the back wall. All of these things had flavours that she'd never heard of and she also notices candy bars and tubs of ice cream in a freezer, something that all villain kids were deprived of on the Isle. She'd never tasted anything sweet in her life and as long as she was here, she may as well indulge.

She tosses her long hair over her shoulder and begins grabbing as much as she can. She snatches every type of candy bar and a few bags of flavoured fried potatoes called chips.

"Whoa slow down there," the man at the counter calls over to her. "Who are you anyhow? I've...I've" he then sneezes into a handkerchief.

Again, the daughter of Ursula ignores him completely looking for the best-looking junk food that she can find.

She knows she doesn't have the money but decides that this shouldn't stop her from getting what she wants. She glances over at the man, who is wiping his eyes with his piece of cloth, obviously trying to recover from his sneeze. With her arms full of candy and chips, she goes to the very end of the pharmacy, out of his viewpoint. She pretends to be looking at other products, something called Tylenol and Advil, tiny looking rocks that were supposed to help with pain. This seems completely foreign to the pirate as the only was to deal with pain on the Isle of the Lost was to suck it up or drink it away. She continues scanning around, waiting for the perfect moment, knowing what was going to happen sooner or later.

Sure enough, the man at the counter goes into a fit of sneezing. Uma slowly begins moving towards the door, waiting just until...

Once he starts blowing his nose, Uma is out of the place like a rocket. The bell on the door barely has time to ring before the pirate captain is outside and rushing down the street.

She can barely hear the words.

"HEY, YOU, COME BACK HERE!"

She makes a sharp right turn onto another street and then into a small alleyway in between two buildings. In the distance, Uma can hear shouting and a growing commotion. She can't help but laugh to herself with glee, having duped this dumb man so easily. She continues down the alleyway until she enters another street. She knows she'll have to lay low now, considering her bright hair will be easily recognizable by witnesses and it wouldn't be too long before they send the guards out after her. She walks in the shadows of a nearby shop and restaurant until she comes to a place that peaks her interest.

Mr. Gold's Pawnbroker and Antiquities Dealer

She tries the doorknob, only to find it locked. She then tries using her magic to unlock it, but it doesn't seem to work. Faced with no other choice, Uma uses her sword, slides it between the gap of the door and the frame and finally manages to pry it open.

She's immediately met by the smell of furniture polish, mould, dust, and other musty smells. She wrinkles her nose but then carries her loot inside. The place is filled from top to bottom in objects that look extremely valuable. Uma's eyes light up in excitement; finally, things are going her way. She dumps her pile of junk food on the counter, shuts the door to the shop, and immediately goes looking through the different shelves and cases open to her. She grabs one candy bar, rips off the wrapper and begins eating it while she searches the place. She only briefly savours the delicious flavours of the candy before going on her new mission.

She finds two creepy marionette figures, that seem to stare at her as she walks past. There's a spyglass, an old wooden clock, a silver cup, a piece of a broken sword, an armillary sphere, a fancy looking tiara, a necklace made of plated gold, a warrior's helmet, a pearl necklace, a pair of eyeglasses encased in glass. A snow globe with an entire town frozen inside, a jar of ink, what looks like a magic wand, a globe of the world, a severed hand, a spinning wheel, chunks of ruins and other various artifacts that can serve this pirate captain well.

"Oh man, what a find!" she grins to herself, going after a chunk of diamond encased behind one of the glass cases. She shoves the valuable in her back pocket. She looks at the diamond tiara and while thinking it could be valuable, she'd rather not associate with the fake royalty of this world. She tosses it across the room. She grabs the pearl necklace, puts it around her neck and then continues raiding the place, not noticing someone appearing behind her.

"Found what you are looking for?" the voice says, scaring Uma half to death and forces her to turn to meet the dark brown eyes of a man in a business suit, leaning against a cane and looking down at the teenager. "It seems that closed sign was merely a waste of money."

Uma immediately draws her sword and points it out defensively at the man In doing so, she drops the objects she had been holding, obviously incriminating herself. She prepares to do battle with this guy, but he merely smirks at her feeble attempts to protect herself.

He chuckles to himself several times, his smile creeping Uma out more and more.

"Who are you?" the girl demands, raising her sword.

"You ought to be more careful of your impulsive nature dearie, it will not benefit you in the long run. Thinking you can do whatever you want is not the nature of the universe, it will always... always come with a price..."

A/N: His famous quote and his daughter's trigger word. Please review.