The Isle of the Lost is in chaos. Uma is standing on the dock, waiting for Auradon's shipments to arrive, and she is not the only one. She panics because she can't remember how to do this, it feels so bad to fight for crumbs again; but when she remembers Gil, Nerea, the little girl who waits for her and Harry, and she knows that she can't come back empty-handed. She just can't.
The ship is approaching, and Uma feels that someone pushes her; she turns on her heel to smash the face of whoever has dared to touch her (because that's what she must do here, because she must feel the blood on her knuckles again to earn a name), but she can't find the guy. Many of those who chose to stay on the Isle when the barrier fell are not happy that those who went to Auradon have returned.
Uma used to be the queen of the Isle, and as soon as they returned, the VK's who lived in Auradon waited for her to take over, because even with so many years of living among princes and princesses, Uma never let them forget who she was.
Although apparently not everyone is satisfied with it.
She doesn't have much time to think about it, because at that moment she needs to fight tooth and nail to get what her family will need. She and Harry divided the list of items, and she can't deny that supplies have improved (now there are new things, and more of everything), so she gets everything what is necessary first and then she takes somethings that she thinks she can negotiate or sell later. In the process, Uma receives several elbows, and she punches anyone who dares to get close, but when she reunites with Harry her heart has already stopped beating and she can't help but sigh when she sees that he is okay. Harry is still strong, madness never left his eyes, but even when they were younger, Uma always feared something would happen to him in those supply fights. And it seems that the way they are distributed hasn't changed much since then.
"Let's go home, lass," says Harry, and Uma only can nod.
She hates the smell of stale air, the pain in her chest that the knowledge that she can't go to the sea (the real one, the one that is blue and clear and more wonderful than all the stars in the sky) gives her, she hates with all her might having dreams taken away (again, and honestly, how many times can a person survive that?); but when they are back on the ship and Gil gives her the baby, and Uma takes her into her arms, she think that at least she has something good this time, something for which she has to keep moving.
Nerea is so tiny, and Harry and Uma never get tired of looking at her. When she was born, two months ago, it seemed that their world was rearranging and that everything fell into the right place. And Uma never felt luckier.
They are lying on Uma's old bed, watching Nerea sleep, and Harry strokes the fuzz of black hair on her head as gently as possible. Her skin tone is like Uma's, but she has Harry's eyes. She is the most beautiful creature they have ever seen.
"Why did we bring her here, Harry?" Uma can't help asking and her voice sounds broken. She won't let pain seep into her words out there, but in the privacy of her cabin, she can afford that luxury. "She wasn't supposed to live like this. We should have given her everything, and we will only give her hopelessness and no future."
What we had.
Harry kisses Nerea's forehead, and Uma can't help but marvel again at how soft he can be. It's not that she hasn't seen this side of Harry before; she has seen it now for years, but it is still something to see. The baby gurgles with joy, still in her sleep, so Uma brings her closer to her chest because everything in her body and in her mind and heart tells her that she must protect her, she has never wanted something so strongly. Desiree said that was called maternal instinct, and that Uma always had it.
"We weren't supposed to come back here either," Harry replies. His eyes search her gaze, longing for the only comfort he knows. When they were children, Harry decided that he would go with Uma to hell and back. Maybe that was easy to decide because it seemed like the Isle of the Lost was hell on earth.
Someone knocks on the door and when Uma gives permission to enter, Gil peeks through the half open door.
"Mal and Ben are on deck," he tells her, and Uma can see the way he tries to smile, but he just can't. Gil was never cut out to live here, this is not fair. But his eyes light up a bit when he sees Nerea. She is the only hope they have brought to this place where the wind cries and the moon doesn't exist. The crew adores her, and Uma takes some comfort in thinking that no one will let someone, or something, hurt her.
"Tell them that we'll meet with them in a moment," asks Uma. Gil nods and closes the door behind him. Harry and Uma get out of bed.
"Have you fed Nerea yet?" Harry asks, picking up the girl and setting her against him. The way he says his little daughter's name is a lot like the way he says Uma's name.
"I breastfed her before she fell asleep. Maybe when she wakes up, she'll be hungry." And Uma is grateful that her body can feed her, at least for now, because she doesn't know what she would do if she couldn't give Nerea enough. She remembers hearing frequently of children dying of hunger on the Isle, when their mother's body did not produce milk.
The sound of all things on the ship is also comforting. They were pirates before Auradon and they continued to be pirates there, so their home was always the Lost Revenge. When Ben ordered his people to repair the ship and take it to Auradon, it was the first time Uma felt there really was a place for her in the city of promises.
On deck, Desiree and Bonny are going through the supplies Uma and Harry got and sorting out what they'll keep on the ship and what is going to be sold or traded. Gil has his back to them, talking to Ben and Mal.
When the Fairy Godmother decided that King Benjamin and Queen Mal were caring more about the Isle of the Lost than Auradon, and when the Royal Council decided that conditions on the Isle were now good enough to send them back, Ben could have chosen to stay in Auradon. He could have chosen to follow his father's orders and show himself submissive to the Fairy Godmother. He would have been forgiven.
Instead, he chose Mal, and he chose the VK's as his people.
So now he is here, another lost child like them, even though he is no longer a child, none of them are. They are twenty-one years old, but the tiredness in their shoulders makes them feel as if they have already lived many lives.