"Are you Lost, Little Girl?" She laughed at that, at those words. She laughed at those words, like many who had come before her and all those that would come after. She was not Lost. And she certainly wasn't a Little Girl. She never really had been.
Non Desistas Non Exieris - Never Give Up, Never Surrender
"You are magic" her mother whispers when she is a child "You were meant to be more".
There is power in her bones she can never deny. A roaring ocean in her soul. Magic she will never be able to access as long as she is stuck under the barrier.
She sinks into the water and the power pulls at her, wanting to shift, to transform, to become something no sane man could love and even insane ones fear.
(Her boys do not love her any less. If anything, they love her more once she finally breaks free.)
(Some say she owns her boys, that she fought the father of one for him and physically bought the other. When asked about it she just smiles, her boys are loyal to her and that's all anyone needs to know.)
(They do not need to know that she would move heaven and earth to keep her boys at her side. That she keeps them both sane and grounded and that they do the same for her.)
She is angry, she rages, she is a storm in not-quite-human skin trapped behind a barrier.
There are days when breathing hurts, when every step feels like she's walking on knives, her skin is dry, always too dry, and her magic pushes and bubbles under her skin.
(These are the days she needs her boys the most.)
(She is a daughter of the ocean. She was never meant to live on land.)
She is the captain of the Lost Revenge.
She is a pirate and a sea witch and she will have her revenge.
(She will get out and her enemy, who was once her best friend, will pay.)
She will get out, one day, her boys by her side, always, and the world will drown.
Her name is Uma.
Ad Astra Per Aspera - To The Stars Through Difficulties
She is the daughter of a captain, one of the most famous pirates in the land.
(She is the daughter of a man that spent decades, if not centuries, fighting a boy that would never grow up.)
(She is the eldest daughter of the Isle)
She is the oldest of four, and, while the only magic in her is left-over pixie dust, she will raze the world to the ground to keep her little brother and sisters safe.
(She watches as her father mistakes her brother for his hated enemy more and more as her brother grows older and vows that she will never grow to be this man.)
She challenges her own father for a ship and wins, it is to keep her little brother safe from their father's drunken benders, to give her sisters somewhere to stay without having to deal with their father's crew, but she is still the one in command.
(Her brother chooses to follow the Sea Witch instead. She watches him go, knowing that she'll always have his back no matter how much she says otherwise.)
(Her sisters leave too, to the city and the forest, chasing a Voodoo Witch and a genius human respectively. She watches them go and waits for them to come back, like they always do. One never does.)
She steps into the role of leader like she was born for it, because she was.
(She is the daughter of a captain and has spent so long looking after three younger siblings that she does not remember what it is like to not be the one in charge.)
She is the Captain of the Forgotten Treasure.
Her crew is the most feared on the Isle.
She will pillage and plunder Auradon for every bit of gold it has as payment for the suffering the Isle children have endured.
What fool said women didn't belong on ships?
Her name is Harriet.
Alis Volat Propis - She Flies With Her Own Wings
She is the daughter of a witch that fears death. She thinks her mother's fear is stupid. Everything dies in the end, why waste time fearing the inevitable?
(Her little sister is dead because her mother thought she could challenge the ruler of the Isle, the mistress of all evil, and get away with it.)
She is the unofficial leader of the witches children on the isle. They rally to her for protection.
(She is the seventh child born on the Isle.)
(They stop counting after her.)
She takes her seat on the Isle council with pride.
(All they're trying to do is live another day. If she has to go against everything her mother ever taught her about trusting others, so be it.)
She reads, devours every book on magic she can get her hands on and then some.
She practices, recites spell after spell and fells the power inside her grow and grow
(Her fingertips always tingle now, magic built up inside them with nowhere to go.)
Her mother relied on someone else for the power to stay young. She will use no power but her own.
(She counts her witches daily, ensures every single one makes it to the next whenever she can.)
(When her count drops, well, the person that steals one of her witches always regrets it, even if it isn't for long.)
Her mother called herself Mother. She will accept no title but her name and one day all of Auradon will fear it.
Her name is Ginny.
Deo Volente - God Willing
Her father claims to be a holy man, that he did nothing wrong. She disagrees, but keeps her mouth shut.
(If he was as holy as he claims, he would not be on the Isle. He certainly wouldn't have tried to force himself onto her.)
(One day, she thinks, one day she will kill him for that. But, still, it is better her than her remaining sister, the only family she truely has left.)
She says her prayers every night, even though she doubts that anyone listens. She says thanks before every meal, and listens when her father tells her to stay away from the men of the Isle.
(The women are far more entertaining anyway)
She shoulders the responsibility for the children of the Market Square and wears her crown of thorns well. They know, now, that when she is around they have less to fear than when she is not.
(She can do nothing for those who are already dead, but she can fight for those still alive. So she does)
She learns to smile prettily when older customers come into her father's shop, to hold their attention while her sister takes everything of value on their person.
(They do not take from another Isle child. They're all just doing their best to survive after all.)
On the good days, she can live with the hole in her heart that her youngest sister once occupied.
(Her little sister had done nothing, she'd simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time, caught in the crossfire of a fight between the Genie boy and a hunter's son. Her little sister had paid the price.)
On the bad days, she can't.
(There are far more bad days than good ones.)
She is the daughter of a man who claims to be holy, the third daughter of the Isle.
Her cross is heavy through no fault of her own. She carries it anyway.
If she has to die so the children of the Isle can live, so be it.
Her name is Claudine
Memento Vivere - Remeber To Live
She sees souls and reads them like most people read books. That is magic not even the barrier can stop.
She sees the blood dripping from the souls of most Isle residents, she sees the growing black spots of madness on the other children of the Isle and notice how they shrink when certain people interact.
She watches as the souls of the leaders crawl out more and more, embracing more and more children until there is nobody that doesn't have a coil of one colour or another wrapped around their soul.
(She sees both the beauty and the horror in this. They are children. They should not have to rally together, to defend against and protect each other from the people that were supposed to raise them, love them unconditionally.)
She finds a pirate, a blonde haired girl with eyes and soul a matching shade of blue, and the duo that was her and her sister, turns into a trio with the addition of a pirate with an ocean blue soul.
She finds herself dragged into adventure after adventure when she stays with the pirate
(Though she knew the moment she met the other girl that she was a wanderer.)
Accidentally getting herself and the pirate wished to Auradon is just another adventure for the two of them.
Her name is Freddie
In Flagrante Delicto - In Blazing Offence
She is the youngest of four, the younger twin when they were the younger siblings to begin with.
Her father presses a hook in her hand and tells her to prove herself before she can read. She does.
(Her father always liked her best. Her older sister is too much like their father for the man to like, her brother just reminds her father of his hated enemy and her twin sister is the least-pirate like out of all of them.)
Her sister is a Captain, her brother is a First Mate, her twin is a Negotiator. She grabs a coat and her hook, steals a hat, and goes off chasing adventure. She can make allies, can lead just as well as they can.
She finds her allies in the daughters of the Shadow Man, and learns why her twin is so protective of her genius human.
(In the end, she does more than they ever could. She escapes the barrier long before they ever do and gets first dibs when it comes to reigning havock down on Auradon.)
She pillages and plunders and terrorizes whereever she goes, chaos and havock following in her wake. The daughters of the Shadow Man flank her as she runs through the Isle and later, in Auradon, she runs alone, the elder one guarding her back from afar.
She is the youngest daughter of one of the most famous pirates in the land, the only one the man can stand. Nobody sane dares to stop her as she does what she wants, scared of her father, or her brother and his Sea Witch, or her older sister and her crew, or maybe it's her twin and her genius psycho who scares them. She doesn't particularly care.
She does what she wants, goes where she wants, damage and destruction in her wake.
(She leaves the barrier and the pixie-dust in her veins leaves the ability to cause chaos with a wave of her hand.)
One day, her siblings will leave the Isle, and she will greet them, feet planted firmly on the bow of her own ship that she stole herself, rather than the hand-me-downs from their father her older sister and brother sail in.
One day, they will stand together and Auradon will know true fear. This, she tells herself, is a promise.
Her name is CJ
Uno Die Tempus - One Day At A Time
She is the third child of six (seven), the eldest daughter (the second daughter of the Isle), and her father named all six of them after himself. Her older brothers—twins—are their father's pride and joy, her younger brother ran away to be a pirate, her youngest sister spends more time with her band than at home and her younger sister—born in between her younger brother and her youngest sister—is dead.
She has a cousin who is her youngest sister's half-brother and her only full sibling is dead.
(She calls her cousin her youngest brother and helps her mother and aunts with the chores. None of their parents care so why should she?)
(How many children of Gaston are there out there? How many siblings does she have that she just doesn't know about? Isle children so vary rarely know more than one parent after all.)
She is the unofficial mother of the Isle children and the main reason most of them are still alive.
(She hunts down the man that killed her little sister and makes an example of him. Even her father's henchmen flinch at the sight of her now.)
She is the most peaceful of the Isle children, the negotiator, the one people turn to when they need a disagreement settling without spilling blood.
(She is, perhaps, the only truly neutral leader on the Isle. She doesn't care about who sired or birthed the children she protects, who their siblings might be, she only cares that they are young and need her protection.)
Her brothers 'wage war' on each other, (The older two against the younger two, always), (play fighting and practising and hiding friendship from their father), her sister makes music, pours herself into the songs until her father yells for all of them to be quiet. She mourns her younger sister (all the lost children of the isle) and tries not to think about how strange her family looks to an outsider.
(She and her younger sister shared a mother. Her youngest brother and youngest sister share a mother. Her older brothers share a mother. She has no idea who her younger brother's mother is, just that his mother isn't the same as any of theirs.)
(Her father gloats about bedding an Enchantress, saying women have no idea what to do without a man, and she seethes, mentally calling him every foul name she can think of. She does not dare say them aloud. Not when others will be caught in the cross-fire and she cannot kill him.)
She will rage and scream every single thought she ever bit back when the barrier breaks. She will act on every impulse and burn the house—and the man—she has always hated to the ground.
Until then, though, she will do as she has always done and make sure all those under her protection see another day.
Her name is Toni
Spero Meliora - I Hope for Better Things
She is just one of many, many sisters and nieces and granddaughters and even great-granddaughters. There is nothing special about her, nothing that makes her stand out.
She is no less important.
Her grandmother rants and raves, goes on about how the aunt she's never met is worthless and how the aunt she has met us useless and how her mother can't do anything right.
She picks up a broom and sweeps the floor of the salon for the fifth time that day. Her grandmother is never happy with anyone. Not anymore.
(She grows up with names of people she will never meet in her mouth. She grows up with names of dead cousins and dead sisters and dead nieces.)
(Her oldest cousin is the oldest of her generation, the generation born on the Isle. He is the only one who wasn't born here.)
(Her grandmother only recognises her as her oldest cousin as grandchildren, but she does not care. She knows her family and that woman is not part of it. One day, when the barrier breaks, she will scream it from the rooftops.)
She sweeps and she designs, jewellery and dresses and hundreds of other things that will sparkle and shine if she ever gets the chance to make them.
Her name is Dizzy
Sum Quod Sum - I Am What I Am
She is the daughter of a man that bargained with forces he could never hope to control.
She can read tarrot cards and crystal balls and people's palms. She can see the future if she really wants to, no barrier can stop her magic.
She is not her sister—with her soul-seeing eyes
She is not her father—with his bargain-making brain.
She is herself, with her quick hands and quicker fingers, picking through people's futures and telling them the bits they want to hear as she slowly raises the price until it costs them everything they have.
The cards fly under her fingers, her own hand made set featuring the children of the Isle.
Her sister may see people's souls, and her father bargain for them, but she knows what's coming long before everyone else does.
(She knows her sister will find a pirate before her sister does.)
(She knows the children of the Isle will escape before the teenage king even thinks of his little proclomation.)
She spreads her cards across the table and awaits her next victim.
Everything comes to those who wait know it's coming after all.
Her name is Celia
Neutiquam Erro - I Am Not Lost
She isn't magic, not really, she is the elder twin when they are the younger two out of four. Her older sister is a leader, a Captain, her brother follows a Sea Witch, her twin sister a wild adventurer. She isn't quite sure what she is. A talker? Words have always come far more easily to her than the other three. But sometimes words are not enough.
Her father presses a hook in her hands and tells her to prove herself before she really knows who she is.
(She never does manage to prove herself. Not to him at any rate)
Half her heart is with her twin, off on wild adventures, the other half rests with the girl always at her back.
Her genius inventor is hers, her blood splattered girl dressed in red and black and white, she saved the girl that follows her blindly, they are each other's everything.
(Her genius needs stability, someone to drive away the darkness in her mind. She does not mind being that stability)
Together they conquer the forests of the Isle. She talks and people listen. The Lions and the Huns respect her and her genius.
She follows in her brother's footsteps and ends up in the service of a Sea Witch, her genius at her side, as she always is.
One day the barrier will fall, she will travel with her brother and her sister to meet her twin. Her genius will follow—or maybe it is her that will follow her genius—and Auradon will fall.
Her name is Jaz.
Luctor Et Emergo - I Struggle And Emerge
She's powerless. There isn't a single drop of magic in her veins. Her mother doesn't tell her that she is meant to be more—her mother has never wanted children. Her father never presses a weapon in her hands and tells her to prove herself—she's never even met the man.
Still she rises.
She takes the knives, the bear traps, every single weapon that has ever been used against her, and turns them on her enemies. History refuses to remember her name—choosing her brother instead—so she will carve out her own place in the books.
She is her mother's psychotic daughter and she wields that title like a weapon.
She has no magic in her bones, no power aside from that others are willing to give her—and that is very little.
She runs, jumps out the window in the middle of the night and meets a girl with black hair and a red coat and pixie dust covered veins.
(She runs because her mother was going to sell her soul to one man and her body to another all for a few fur coats.)
(She cannot remember a time when she loved the woman that birthed her. Maybe she never has)
She gives her pirate her loyalty and in return, her pirate keeps her from losing her mind on the bad days.
(The bad days are less when her pirate's around)
(Her pirate is her heart, just like she is her pirate's heart, though neither of them dare say the words aloud)
She does not believe in magic, or in gods, she does not believe in any sort of higher power or in things such as fate or destiny.
What she does believe in, are people. Her captain's raging, bitter fury, her pirate's stubborn, unwavering loyalty, her own brillaint, genius mind. She believes in the way the children of the Isle band together against their parents. She believes in the love they hold for every lost soul, in their bottled anger and buried fire.
She believes the barrier will fall—and it will.
On the day it falls, she will run with her pirate, burn her mother's house to the ground, and finally be free.
Her name is Lottie.
Vivat Regina - Long Live The Queen
She is no-one's daughter, not anymore.
She has a Name.
Captain Uma Strand
Daughter Of Ursula
Captain Harriet Hook
Daughter Of Captain Hook
Ginny Gothel
Daughter of Mother Gothel
CJ Hook
Daughter Of Captain Hook
Freddie Facilier
Daughter Of Dr Facilier
Claudine Frollo
Daughter Of Claude Frollo
Toni Legume
Daughter Of Gaston
Dizzy Tremaine
Daughter Of Drizella Tremaine
Celia Facilier
Daughter Of Dr Facilier
Jaz Hook
Daughter Of Captain Hook
Lottie De Vil
Daughter Of Cruella De Vil
And the World will Remember it.
They should have remembered the Girls of the Isle, but they are not Lost Little Girls, not anymore, maybe they never were.
The Barrier will fall and Auradon will burn, because Hell hath no fury like a woman with something to prove.