Sienna decided to test the waters. She sat down on the bench, throwing off her shoes to dip her toes in the sand. Grace sat down beside her, but keeping a respectable distance in the middle, for appropriateness.

"I don’t like mind games," Sienna said, "I feel like you are trying to play one with me."

The man sat straight with the dignity of a retired emperor. His eyes half-lidded, his lips showing a small smile. "It is only because you don’t trust me that you think I am playing a mind game with you. But I am being truthful. I am 77 years old. I don’t know how many years I have left but I don’t want to spend my last years working an assembly line or begging for food after I lose everything because of my foolish daughter. I worked hard in my youth. I deserve to retire with dignity, in the embrace of all the wealth I earned."

Sienna coughed a few times. That was quite a way to put things into perspective. Never one for subtlety, Sienna said directly, "So, old man, let’s talk a little about your wealth. I promise that I have no plans to touch it unless you come after me. I am just curious about you. You should hear the way people whisper about you. As if you are the scariest shadow in existence in this kingdom. They say you were a space pirate once upon a time. What kind of things did you steal? And don’t say food."

All the fox guards and falcons perched on the gate froze.

"What is she doing?" Geo hissed.

Timothy didn’t even wonder. He just fainted!

Linera wondered if now was the right moment to scoop Sienna up because Grace’s bodyguards looked twitchy.

Suddenly, they all heard Grace laughing. It wasn’t a sinister chuckle of a schemer, or hateful full laugh of a rogue before he killed. It was the belly-deep laugh of someone that had come across something absurd. "I see why people are afraid of your mouth, it doesn’t have any guard."

Sienna shrugged. "I say what I want to say, when I say it. Life is too short to restrict yourself on some things."

He snorted. "In that case, I will emulate your example. Yes, I was a space adventurer, once a upon a time."

She squealed her laughter at his response. "Space adventurer! Is that what they are calling it lately?"

He lifted his shoulders in a brief shrug. "I can’t call it piracy. Piracy is a crime. Now if it is adventure, then I can humor you with a few stories."

Sienna nodded eagerly. "Adventure it is."

Grace touched his chin with one hand, humming briefly as he thought back on his past. He leaned forward, his voice dropping to almost a whisper. "We once searched a cargo ship that was supposed to be carrying rare minerals, or so we thought. It was supposed to have gold, silver, star crystals, pearls and things like that. We blasted--err, gently opened the hull, boarded with wooden swords and crude toy guns, only to find barrels upon barrels of soup."

Sienna blinked. "I know you are toning down the story for legal purposes but be real. Soup?"

"No, I am real. It was soup!" Grace slapped his knee. "Hundreds of gallons of meat and cabbage broth. The crew had signed a contract to deliver it to a city in the North that was struggling with drought. My men were furious. They wanted to...see and play with some jewels before respectfully walking away empty handed."

"So you left?" She asked.

He laughed. "Well, my men couldn’t leave empty handed. We took...I mean bought a few barrels of soup. Just fifteen, and sold them at a ship loading dock near a mine in Okeron state." He moved his cane around, "That state is now gone, it was divided into three cities. But you can study that history for yourself. Anyway, we sold the soup. Do you know how much drunk miners will pay for broth at midnight? It’s practically breakfast for them."

Sienna snorted. "So you were not a pirate, you were a soup vendor."

Grace wagged a finger. "Not just any soup vendor, but a profitable soup vendor. After that, I set up a real stall in the area and hired three women to cook night meals for miners working night shifts. Today, I own sixty restaurants at thirty mines around the kingdom."

She drew her head back, surprised by that move. So the pirate had not simply raided ships to build his fortune like people imagined. He had a head for business opportunities.

Grace’s eyes gleamed. "Another time, I met a weasel beast man that convinced me he was a fortune teller. He sold me a parrot that was rumored to be enchanted. Back then, all sea pirates were into the parrot mascot thing. Space adventurers didn’t have the need or desire for parrot mascots.

So I buy the parrot which was supposed to mimic voices so perfectly that it could fool armies. I thought it was perfect, we would trick every flying ship into surrendering."

Sienna leaned in despite herself. "And?"

"The parrot was bought from a sea pirate originally. It could only mimic curses. Every sound it heard, it repeated louder. Imagine boarding a flying ship, shouting orders, and the parrot squawked, ’Fucking foo! Fucking rotten fish! I will fuck your mother!."

Sienna gasped.

Grace sighed. "That is how shocked I was. My crew thought it was hilarious. The people on the ships we stopped thought we were insane. My crew accidentally gained a nasty reputation for defiling people’s mothers!! They started hiding old beast women when they saw us coming. They would hand over whatever treasures they had just so we would go away quickly."

Sienna burst out laughing, clutching her stomach. "So your secret weapon was a foul mouthed bird?"

Grace sighed again, more dramatically this time. "Worse. One day, the parrot vanished. Flew off during a pursuit by the space enforcement officers. Weeks later we heard rumors of a mysterious parrot living in the palace of the beast king, insulting royals, guards and everyone until they paid it with seeds to shut up. Rumor had it that a few older lion beast women avoided the palace after it moved in, including the king’s mother. I like to think it retired happily."

Sienna wiped tears from her eyes. "That bird had more guts than half of the people I have met. I would have loved to meet it. Hopefully, it died a peaceful death and it wasn’t stewed for lunch eventually." She looked at him curious, a little worried about the fate of the parrot that she would never meet.