Grace thought about the parrot, and he smiled. "Old Willy died nineteen years ago. He was the longest lived parrot in the history of the kingdom. His descendants are concerned royalty, and buying one costs up to ten million beast coins. The royal family profited off Old Willy in the end."

Sienna sighed softly. "In that case, I will trouble you to find me to buy me an Old Willy. It’s the least you can do considering the fact that your daughter loudly insulted me on front of at least sixty people. The sting of her words is going to keep me up for the next one hundred days. I cannot hear the name Twindell without shuddering now. My poor heart...."

Grace groaned. "If it will shut you up and put this incident behind us, the yes. I will speak to Jolie. She has a dozen parrots, I am sure she can give up one."

Sienna smiled slyly, like a snake that was about to spit poison.

Grace felt the air turn colder.

"Good things come in pairs," Sienna said, suggestively.

Grace snorted. "Of course, we wouldn’t want your parrot to be lonely."

Sienna touched her chest, pretending to be touched. "Oh, how thoughtful. Thank You Mr. Grace. I have a feeling that this will be the beginning of a beautiful friendship between us."

Grace’s lips twitched as he forced himself to smile. He felt like his own ship was about to be robbed clean by a fellow....adventurer. At least, he made it clear he was there to steal. Sienna on the other hand, she was different. She made you hand over your goods as if it was your idea.

He quickly decided to tell another story before she found another way to bleed him dry. "Now, a more infamous tale." His voice grew mock-serious. "We once found our way onto a royal flying ship that had...accidentally run out of fuel and landed on a random dock. My men wanted to see some royal jewels, but such things are easily traceable. So I had a different idea and ah....stole, I mean borrowed the prince’s underwear."

Every eavesdropper gasped. Even the cubs had made it to the gate because the news had reached their ears that Grace Twindell was telling pirate stories.

Sienna froze. "You....what?"

Grace laughed. "Red silk, embroidered with golden lions. Worth more than any gem anyone had on their body. We displayed it on our mast as a trophy. News made it to every corner of the kingdom. Offers for the underwear poured in, thousands to millions. Prince Arkham was humiliated. He offered a bounty for my head but no one dared to claim it. Who would admit that they were chasing underwear?"

Sienna slapped the bench, laughing so hard that she almost choked. "You are telling me that the most feared pirate of the beast world was hunted for stealing underwear."

Grace raised his chin proudly. "The underwear was a symbol of my crew’s ability. And comfort. That fabric is still the best thing I have ever touched to date. Do you know how much I sold it for and to who?"

Her eyes widened. Grace leaned in and whispered, "Two million beast coins. I sold it to Lady Danlyn. She is Elias’s aunt. Don’t tell Marius about this or he will kill me because it was given to him as a gift when he became the Lord of the fox clan."

Sienna burst into laughter. No--it was more like a scream, as if she had heard the most scandalously delicious gossip in the world.

But the others did not hear these details, and their fur itched with curiosity.

"Damn it!" Grandma Byra cursed. "Who? Who bought it?"

"We will ask Sienna later." Grandpa Corven replied.

Meanwhile Sienna shook her head, utterly bewildered. "I don’t know whether to admire you or go back in time and lock you up so that you stop being a menace to society." For crying out loud, the man had obviously tried on the underwear. Only God knew who else had done so! How many butts had felt the fabric?

Indeed, Lord Marius would go on a war path if he heard about this. She could not help wondering why Grace had spilled the truth to her. Was it a test of her ability to keep a secret?

The waves crashed, gulls cried, and Sienna stared at Grace. He wasn’t the shadowy figure she expected. He was....open. Cheerful. His stories were ridiculous, yet told with such conviction that she couldn’t decided if he was mocking her or confessing sincerely.

"Why tell me all this?" she asked finally.

Grace smile, eyes twinkling. "Because everyone talks about me as if I am a monster. But monsters are cliche and boring. The so called witnesses I am rumored to have disappeared, they are simply people that took my money and moved to other cities. They have lived under the radar for their good and mine. They had secrets too. Do you really believe that the royal family would have allowed my daughter to marry in if I was such a dark figure?"

Sienna shrugged. "I don’t know, the royal family is complicated. They use people according to their needs."

Grace nodded. "Yes, they use people. They weigh everything on a scale and decide their value. The value to their family and the kingdom. If I had taken innocent lives, they would not want to be associated with me in any way because such things backfire.

I admit, my past is not savory. I did some things that are bad and caused some pain. I bought my way onto the council of foxes, but that money paid for the development of two highways in this city and a ship building factory.

I may have liberated some gems, but I have also built schools and hospitals. I have built orphanages where hundreds of cubs are cared for on my wallet.

The money from the sale of that underwear, I used it to build six undergarment factories in six cities. They employ at least three thousand people in the kingdom currently. How many families am I feeding from that? Haven’t I paid society back for what I took?" He looked at her, more serious now than he had been since they met. "I will not allow anyone to use my past as spring to pull me down and ruin what I have built through hard work. Not even you, Sienna Veythar. So, I hope that we will stay out of each other’s way going forward."