Elemental Cats

The doors to the greenhouse burst open with a bang at the same time as the shout. Toz saw a bulky hairy man charge in through the doors, headed straight for Stitches.

"You fucking bastard! Ready to pay me back yet?"

Stitches looked around, panicked, but neither Wulf nor Hayar seemed interested in helping him. Eventually, Stitches hid behind Toz.

"Are you sure you remember it correctly? Wasn't it Hods who owes you money?"

Stitches trembled like a leaf in the wind while betraying his friend without any hesitation. Stitches poked his head out from behind Toz's shoulder to see if Vaner had bought his excuse. However, Stitches came face to face with the man's bearded face grinning wickedly a few decimeters in front of him.

Stitches yelped and crouched down while clinging to Toz's arm

"T-Toz, we're friends, right? You'll help me, right?"

"I don't know, man. Isn't it better to pay off your debt?"

Since it looked like Vaner would let him explain, Stitches did just that.

"I would obviously do that if I could. But I can't since I don't have any fucking money."

"Maybe if you stopped losing at cards all the time, you wouldn't be broke, Mosshead."

"What's it gonna be, Stitch? You coughing up that money? Or do you wanna follow me to my room for a few moments?"

Stitches looked pleadingly at Toz, but since Stitches was clearly suffering from the consequences of his own actions at the hands of something similar to a friend, Toz didn't interfere. He just stepped aside and let Vaner grab Stitch and carry him away.

Stitches began crying while screaming and punching Vaner's back.

However, Hayar still wasn't completely satisfied with just that.

"He hasn't cleaned his room since we moved here, by the way?"

Stitches calmed down and looked up in abject horror as he tremblingly looked at Hayar.

"...When did you move here?"

"A few months after you disappeared!"

Hayar laughed as she finished her sentence, and Stitches' face turned sheet white. He struggled even harder to free himself from Vaner's grasp, but with no success.

Vaner trudged off with Stitches on his shoulder, but he stopped right at the entrance to the greenhouse and turned around to face Toz.

"Nice to meet ya, by the way. Name's Vaner."

After nodding to Toz, Vaner continued on his way. Toz understood that Vaner would force Stitches to do something involving his room in exchange for forgetting the debt, but Toz wasn't sure he wanted to know the details.

"You don't have to worry about Stitch. He'll be fine. Probably."

Wulf invited Toz to take a seat at the table after the almost reassuring words.

"What brings you to Pirate Haven, Toz?"

"Business."

Wulf's gaze had gotten noticeably less chilly as he struck up a conversation with Toz. Unfortunately, Hayar's glaring dispelled the amicable atmosphere.

"Do you have something to say, Hayar?"

"No."

Hayar answered Wulf's question with denial and a snort.

"Then why do you look like you do?"

"I don't."

Wulf sighed at Hayar's stubbornness and turned to Toz again.

"Don't mind her. That's just the way she is."

Toz understood that Wulf was used to Hayar's attitude, but he found it a little difficult to have a friendly chat when it looked like she wanted to pluck his eyes out.

Despite Hayar's incessant staring, Toz tried to converse with Wulf. But it was mostly Wulf asking questions about random things. Though, he tried to figure out Toz's real intention in coming to Pirate Haven several times.

Wulf didn't really buy Toz's reason or that they came all the way to Pirate Haven for Stitches and Hods' sakes. Wulf didn't believe in the tourism reason either.

Toz knew that Wulf didn't believe in any of the reasons he told him, but he didn't care too much about it since it didn't matter. However, he was worried about what the grey-haired pirate would think if Toz said he wanted to become the king of all the pirates based in Pirate Haven.

"Aha! I've got it! Snake eyes!"

Toz and Wulf turned to look at Hayar after her outburst. She slowly sat back down after realizing her overenthusiastic reaction had interrupted her captain's conversation.

Hayar looked like she was letting the two continue their conversation as she sat in silence without the slightest intention of explaining her outburst.

However, Wulf's gaze forced her to talk. Toz was also curious, but Hayar didn't care about that.

"Look at his eyes. That makes him Snake Eyes."

Hayar pointed at Toz's face while stating what she thought was the obvious.

"Oh, you mean my pupils? I guess they've gotten a little vertical due to my inclination.

"Do you wanna know what's funny, though?"

Toz leaned forward as if he was sharing a great secret. Wulf and Hayar responded in kind and huddled to the edge of their seats while moving their heads closer to Toz.

Toz looked around to make sure no one was listening in and made sure he had Wulf's and Hayar's full attention. It seemed like the atmosphere had intrigued Hayar enough that she no longer glared at Toz. But maybe that had been because she was thinking so hard about Toz's nickname.

"These eyes of mine aren't related to snakes at all."

Hayar gasped at Toz's revelation, but he wasn't done quite yet.

"I'm only telling you because you're friends with Stitch, so don't go around spreading this anywhere."

After Wulf and Hayar nodded solemnly, Toz continued.

"Cat eyes. That's what they are. It's a side-effect of the bonds I have with my cats. Look at these as well."

Toz pulled up his lips and showed off his teeth. At first, Wulf and Hayar only saw regular teeth, but when Toz moved his thumb to his canine and pressed it against the tooth, his skin broke. Toz's teeth were incredibly sharp.

"So I was wrong?!"

"Yep!"

Toz responded to Hayar's doubts with a smile.

"Wait a minute. You said your cats?"

"Yeah, why?"

"There aren't only rumors about you and Stitches floating around."