Chapter 2:
Uma growled in frustration and anger as two idiots started a brawl in the restaurant, knocking into other people and breaking a few chairs. Normally she loved fights, but not inside where she'd have to clean up and then fix everything these knuckleheads were damaging. Shoving at Harry and Gil's shoulders over the counter, she pointed at the two fighters. "Break 'em up, now!"
The two boys nodded and launched themselves into the fray, causing more shouting and a table to be thrown into a wall.
"That'd better not be in MY restaurant, brat!" Ursula yelled from the kitchen.
Uma leaped over the counter and jumped onto the back of one of the fighters, pinning him to the ground with a boot on his neck. "Move and I'll break it," she snarled. "Harry, Gil, get 'em out of here now!"
The boys jumped up, grabbed an arm of each fighter and hauled them out of the double swinging doors.
"Sorry Uma," Gil muttered, seeing the barely leashed fury in her face.
"Anyone else wanna start something?!" Uma yelled. Everyone left ducked their heads to concentrate on their food. "Good, now clean this mess up!" She glared meaningfully at Harry and Gil as she shoved a broom into the boy's hands.
For the millionth time, she cursed her luck and wondered why she had come back to the Isle after that fiasco on the coronation boat. She could have swum anywhere she wanted, she should have gone somewhere else and started over. She could have passed for human unlike her mother, and nobody would have been looking for her, she doubted even her mother would have noticed her absence and it's not like she would have reported her missing.
Every day was the same, sweeping and cleaning the shabby, urchin encrusted fish and chips shop, her mother bossing her around, nobody appreciating or respecting her and her life going nowhere fast. In Auradon, however, things had been so different, even in the brief time she'd been there she could tell from the looks in all those pastel, preppy goody-two-shoes kids eyes; they were filled with happiness, hope, and more emotions than Uma even had words for. Certainly not any emotions she'd ever felt, there was no anger, fear, resentment or hatred; and she couldn't even describe the feeling that still lingered whenever she thought of how Ben had looked at her, taken her hand and told her how beautiful she looked when she'd come down the stairs all decked out in that fabulous dress.
Uma hated to admit it but she wanted to go back, she wanted to be the center of attention, have people adore her and compliment her dress, her hair and tell her how happy they were that she was there. She wanted her prince charming to hold out his hand and ask to dance, to sweep her off her feet all night long.
Harry suddenly bumped her elbow, his face pinched as he looked at her. "You alright? You look..."
Uma scowled and glared at him, daring him to finish that sentence.
"Distracted, you look distracted," Harry finished quickly, grabbing up a few more plates of food off the counter.
Uma sighed, it really wasn't Harry's fault, but it was almost instinct to lash out at him and Gil for everything. "Do you ever wish things were different? Like what it would be like if we could get off this God forsaken island?"
Harry slid the plates onto the waiting tables, ignoring the customer's complaints about them not being the right items. "I suppose, I've always wanted to sail to all the places my father has told me about. He wasn't always stuck in Neverland, chasing Peter Pan and those stupid Lost Boys all the time."
"Exactly! If I could get out of here I'd swim as far away as the tide would take me, I could be the queen of my own island somewhere. Nothing to do all day but lay in the sand, warm on some beach, nobody telling me what to do," Uma replied, stretching her arms over her head at the wonderful thought.
Harry leaned over the counter, smirking devilishly at Uma. "I'd sail you to the most beautiful beach in the world, sparkling white sands as far as the eye can see. Nothing but the crash of waves, the swaying palm trees and the hot sun warming your skin to distract you."
The smile on Uma's face widened as her eyes closed at the almost sinful promise. Then her shoulders slumped and her arms flopped heavily down on the counter. "We'll never even get the chance, our parents got all the glory and fun and we're going to live and die on this island."
Harry's smile drooped, Uma was right, they'd be doing this exact same thing day in and day out until they finally died of old age, or if they were lucky someone would get the drop on them and kill them before then. The silence stretched on, Harry wasn't sure what to say to turn things around. For a brief moment, the smile on Uma's face had lit her up, had brightened everything in the dingy restaurant and made him long to do anything to keep it that way.
Uma and Harry worked in silence for the rest of the day until the sun set and the day time crowd thinned and made way for the drunk insomniacs that usually kept them busy until dawn. It was just as the last of the small, dilapidated fishing boats docked that the double swinging doors slammed open and a man stumbled inside in a near panic.
"Something's happening to the barrier! It's still there, but not as strong, my boat almost went through it!"
Uma and Harry charged the man, each grabbing one of his arms and shoving him into a chair at one of the tables.
"What did you say?" Uma demanded.
"The barrier, I was out fishing and didn't realize how close I was getting, suddenly my arm was tingling and when I looked over the whole front of my boat was through the edge of it!" the man exclaimed.
Uma exchanged a look with Harry and she bent down closer to the man. "Did you go through it?"
The man frantically shook his head. "I tried to put my hand through it but it burnt all the hair off. I didn't want to lose my hand."
Uma looked around the restaurant, there were only two other customers and neither had paid any attention to the loud fisherman. "Who else have you told?"
"Nobody, I was the last boat in but maybe we can get through it now. Shouldn't we try?" the man asked eagerly.
Harry let out a bark of a laugh and slung an arm around the man's shoulder, grabbing the arm that was missing all the hair up to the elbow. "I thought you wanted to keep your limbs? Ya, you go ahead and throw yourself through the barrier if you want but don't come crying to us when it fries you alive."
The man snatched back his arm nervously.
Uma smirked dangerously down at him, "Don't let me hear you told anyone else about this, otherwise I'll throw you into the barrier myself and we'll all see whether or not your fish tale is true!"
The man nodded in fear, shrinking back from Uma's feral grin and blazing eyes. He wasn't stupid enough to cross Ursula's daughter and Captain Hook's son, especially if he wanted to keep his head on his shoulders. He quickly scrambled up from his seat and raced back through the double doors.
"So?" Harry asked.
"So what? You want to go out there and see for yourself if what that idiot said was true?" Uma asked.
"You think it's possible?"
Uma shrugged, though the thought swam tantalizingly in her mind. "You really think the Fairy Godmother would let the only thing keeping all the world's villains trapped, weaken even a little bit? If they found out there was even a chance, every one of them would be trying to break through it."
"Ya if they knew, can you remember the last time anyone even tried?"
"Didn't we dare that guy last month to see how deep he could dive to see if there was a way underneath it?" Uma asked.
Harry chuckled, Uma could get quite creative when she got bored, it always kept things interesting. "My point is, if we all think it's still there it could go down and we'd never know."
Uma tapped her nails thoughtfully on the table, her gaze steady on a point just outside the front doors. If there was even the slightest chance of getting through that barrier and away from this island she wanted it. Hopefully, if she did get through it would give her a big enough head start before everyone else figured it out as well.
"If we did manage to get through the barrier, what then?" Uma asked.
"We could go anywhere we wanted, with just a little bit of magic we could get the Jolly Roger sailing in no time and have the whole ocean all to ourselves," Harry replied.
"What about my mother? You think she'd just let me go?"
Harry paused, his old man was already gone, but Ursula had once wanted to rule all the world's oceans and if she got her tentacles on that trident once again there wouldn't be a puddle that she couldn't find them in.
"Well, we gotta know one way or another," Uma declared, pushing away from the table.
Harry stood up as well, "you're going out there, aren't you?"
Uma glanced back at the kitchen where her mother was busily frying up the next few batches of food. "She won't notice right away as long as you keep serving the food. If she asks, tell her I ran out to get more potatoes."
"Wait, how long are you gonna be gone?" Harry asked.
"Dunno, guess it depends on if I can get through or not," Uma grinned and dashed out the doors.
Harry raced after her, stopping at the edge of the dock while Uma leaped off in a graceful arc before diving head first into the water below. He watched as she surfaced a few dozen feet away, already transformed, her own tentacles much like her hated mother's spinning and slashing through the water. Harry wished he could sprout a tail, tentacles, gills or fins and go after her, but the water was Uma's domain and his bitter secret was that he couldn't swim.
There was another reason why most people didn't test the barrier very often, it was a lot further away than it looked. Uma didn't have much reason to swim for long periods or at all these days and by the time the barrier's near iridescent sheen came into sight she was barely able to keep herself afloat. Leaning back into the water, she spread herself out and tried to catch her breath. It was pitch dark out here, the only light far behind her on the island and the near blinding brilliance of Auradon far ahead of her. Floating on the gentle current that bobbed her to and fro in the water, Uma wondered if she could just stay like this, between the two places, neither on the Island of the Lost or Auradon, neither villain nor hero. Sighing, Uma rolled her eyes in annoyance of her melancholy thoughts, of course, she'd have to choose, there was no in-between place where she could hide. Looking back, the island looked depressing, shrouded in a heavy gloom that never lifted, dilapidated buildings sagging under years of neglect and people beat down by their meaningless existence. Auradon, however, gleamed brilliantly in front of her, even at night their buildings shone radiant, and Uma could almost feel the warmth coming from inside those cozy homes where fireplaces were stoked and offered a welcome to everyone. Where everyone would smile and greet her as a friend, happy and full of life and hope.
Before she even realized it, Uma was reaching out, her hand grasping for the warm light surrounding Auradon, wanting to be part of it. A buzzing tingle raised the hairs on her arm just as her palm pressed against the barrier and a red hot searing pain shot up to her shoulder. Uma yelped and yanked her arm back against her chest, plunging her scorched hand into the cold water. Once the burning had subsided, Uma looked at her palm, surprised that except for a definite redness there was no other mark. She'd seen people's skin burned straight down to the bone after being thrown into the barrier before and she'd never gotten this close without being blistered.
Curious, Uma slowly stuck her hand out once again, this time bracing for the pain. It certainly didn't feel good, and she wouldn't be fool enough to touch it until she hurt herself much worse but it was bearable. Trying a tentacle under the water this time, Uma pushed harder against the sizzling heat, the cold helping to ease the pain almost immediately. She made it nearly an inch past the edge of the barrier before pulling back. Her tentacle was burning fiercely, the flesh bubbled and blistered slightly but still whole. Somehow the barrier had weakened, and Uma wanted to shout for joy.
Glancing back at the island, Uma gave a thought to Harry, she'd promised she'd be right back but if she went now she didn't know when she'd get another chance like this. Auradon and freedom were so close, she couldn't give up. Pushing herself backward in the water, Uma took a deep breath and dove under. With the most powerful thrust of her tentacles she could manage, she threw her arms up and shoved as hard as she could against the barrier. Her palms screamed in pain, her skin burned until blisters burst along her arms but she continued to fight forward, she thrashed at the water until waves broke the surface but inch by inch she moved through it. Uma's sensitive octopus like skin blackened and shriveled as she screamed in agony, clawing at the water, desperate to free herself. When the last bit of her was through the barrier, she used the last ounce of her strength to surge for the water's surface and take a much-needed gasp of fresh air. The salt water stung like a million jellyfish and Uma sobbed in pain, her entire body shaking in fatigue. Every inch of her was bright red, the skin peeling away in strips of charred flesh, her tentacles were curled up like dead sea weed and she floated gasping in unbelievable pain.
Looking to her right, Uma once again saw Auradon, clearer now that she was through the barrier and that much closer. She had to keep going, there was no way she could make it back now, it would probably kill her, hopefully, she could ride the current in most of the way or catch a passing boat.