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Owle, who had just come out of the kitchen with a big old pot of water, immediately dropped what she was doing at Jade's shriek. She knew that the crab would let go of Rand as soon as it was happily in the water; she had been thoughtful enough to read up on the more dangerous sea creatures around here once Rand's careless nature became apparent.

What she hadn't expected to see was the crab, declawed, scuttling about on the floor, with Jade yelling at her to catch it.

Rand, in the meanwhile, was stuck trying to pull the claws off his throbbing fingers while watching the crab go scuttling around and burbling in abject fascination. "Thanks, Nikolai! I think you made it mad, though."

Nikolai's mom looked like she was in trouble, so Rand should probably leap to her rescue, but he was busy trying to get these tight things off...

Owle, torn between catching the crab to calm Jade down and helping Rand ice his doubtless hurting fingers, decided that keeping the crab from causing further mischief was the wiser course of action.

The woman melted down, her body turning viscous and black. The strange liquid Owle had become hurtled to the floor, then solidified into the furry mass of a black cat.

This crept up on the crab, sticking to the shadows beneath the tables and chairs of the tavern, and...pounced!

A paw reached out, flipping the crab neatly over onto its back, where it flailed about helplessly for a moment...until Owle clamped her jaws onto its two swimming flippers, in the back. Gladly, the cat carried her prize over to the pot of water, proud as a button, and plopped the hapless creature inside.

Then she sneezed, spitting crab taste out of her mouth, and resumed her more human form. "It's okay, Jade...he's not going to hurt anyone, now."

"You... You changed!"

"Well, um, yeah," Owle admitted, squirming in embarrassment. Was that really so weird? "I can't...really catch things as a human...too clumsy..."

Then Nikolai hugged her unexpectedly around the middle, and she grinned down at him. "You like cats?" she asked in delight, fluffing his hair. "Well, let me just make sure Rand's okay, then I'll be a kitty again for you, okay?"

"I'm fine, mom!" Rand protested, as the first of the claws fell to the floor. "I just need some ice...maybe a bandaid..." he muttered, staring at the blood in idle fascination.

"And I'll make sure you get them," Owle told him, as if that was the end of that.

"I'm sorry..." Jade murmured, looking away. "I-I didn't think such things were humanly possible."

Owle cringed. She knew the other woman was trying to apologize, but she couldn't have picked worse words.

"I know I'm not...human," Owle said, the words coming heavy in her throat. "Doesn't make me any more or less than them, though."

She reached out to help Rand get the second crab claw off him, but the little boy pulled away.

"Mom, I'm fine! It doesn't hurt much anymore, honest!"

Owle sighed. "Well, let me help you get it off faster..."

Allowing no further protest, she took him by the arm, and used her other hand to help pry the crab claw loose from his finger. Then she led him behind the bar, handing him a bag of ice.

"I'll be right back with those bandaids and some cream to make sure it doesn't get infected."

Not looking at Jade, Owle began to leave the room.

Rand shivered with his fingers underneath the lumpy bag of ice.

"It's cold," he told Nikolai. "Mom says it stops the bleeding, and it kind of makes it hurt less." His voice lowered to a conspirational whisper. "But I feel like my fingers are freezing off!"

He looked up at Jade, hearing her words. "Aw, don't worry about mom. She gets mad at everything!"

Anyone who would get mad at such a little thing like him trying to keep a fish in his bed with him, just had way too much of a temper. Mom needed to relax once in a while.

Owle wasn't feeling very charitable at the moment. Jade's words had brought up some bad memories...it was kind of like acting startled when a Holocaust survivor practiced their religion. Owle had been kidnapped, in the past, brought to a place that was essentially a concentration camp for nonhumans, worked to the bone and abused emotionally and physically. All because she was a "mutie", that man's derogatory term for anyone who wasn't strictly human.

She wasn't any better than a human. But she wasn't any worse, either.

If she hadn't been so angry, she probably would have realized that Jade hadn't meant any harm. It wasn't fair to the poor woman to act this way when Jade had just been startled, saying the first thing that popped into her head. But anger, and old memories, clouded her judgement at this moment. She didn't even want to go back into that room.

But Owle had to tend to Rand, so, a moment later, she came trudging down the stairs with bandaids.

"Here. Give me your finger," she said to Rand. The boy stuck out his hand obediently (though not without some grumbles) and let Owle put a bandaid over each cut.

Owle stared up at Jade, torn, her heart warring with itself. She wanted to narrow her eyes, say something cool and cold along the lines of Perhaps you should, pretend that she couldn't hear the nervous tremor in Jade's voice that wasn't fear or loathing but simply embarrassment. Just let herself believe that Jade was insulting her further and feel better about kicking them out.

Part of her heard that note in Jade's voice, though. And part of her wanted to rush over there, explain that everything was okay and that she'd just had a bad experience and it wasn't Jade's fault and she couldn't possibly have known and...

"Stop by again sometime, okay?"

Owle rose from her knees after securing the last of the bandaids. Her tone was flat, and she said the words with difficulty, but she said them.

And she meant them.

She still didn't look at Jade, but she turned to go from the room.

"Aw, mom!" Rand protested, seeing Nikolai's look. "Can't he stay for a little longer? Please!"

When Owle didn't immediately answer, he turned to Jade, beaming. "See? Mom doesn't mind. He can stay a little while longer, can't he?"

Owle glanced from one boy to the other, then shook her head. "Rand, Nikolai has to go home now..."

She turned to the white haired child, noting the stubborn set of his jaw. The shifter sighed, and forced a smile to her face. "I did promise to be a cat for you again before you left, though, didn't I?"

Slowly, ever so slowly, her eyes met Jade's. "With your permission...?"

Owle sighed heavily, heartstrings jerking involuntarily at Jade's words. She knew what she should say, but the words wouldn't come. So she melted.

Literally melted, down into the viscous black goop that spiraled and puddled on the floor until it solidified into the shape of a black cat.

She blinked her emerald green eyes, once, slowly, then padded across the Firebrand's floor to rub reassuringly against Jade's legs.

It was always easier in this form...she didn't have to speak, and no one could read the emotion on her face. When it seemed too hard to be human, Owle retreated here.

Hoping Jade would take the apology and reassurance for what it was, Owle purred faintly and made her way back to Nikolai, allowing him to pet her for as long as he wanted.

"Rand...could you tell Miss Jade that she hasn't done anything so horrible I'd kick her out for it?"

Rand started at the voice in his head, and scowled down at his mom. He hated it when she did that. How was a boy ever supposed to get away from his mom when she could throw her voice around wherever she wanted? Luckily, mom didn't do it all that often...she'd only told him about her ability recently, demonstrating once or twice in case she ever desperately needed to reach him.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll tell her," Rand said, stroking the cat roughly along her spine. Then he straightened, facing Nikolai's mom.

"I told you she wasn't too mad! She said she doesn't mind you staying, and you haven't done anything wrong." Typical of him, to exaggerate Owle's message like that.

"Mew," Owle said noncomittally to Jade. She mewed again, plaintively, when Nikolai picked her up, squirming in his arms to try and get into a more comfortable position. She was a good cat, though...her claws never came out, and she never seriously shoved off against the lad.

Jade was rewarded for her efforts by a tiny rub of Owle's head against her hand.

Rand, in the meanwhile, watched the display, grinning. "She's even funnier if you get some string."

Ack! No! Catnip! Owle had been trying to lay off the stuff...good as it did make her feel, she hated being in less than full control of herself. And it always made her see things that weren't there...pleasant things, it was true, but she was pretty sure seeing such things wasn't healthy.

Sure it didn't have any lasting effects. Sure it wasn't particularly harmful. But it was, in its essence, a hallucinogenic drug for cats, and Owle didn't want to go there.

The black cat quickly shook her head, and sneezed for further emphasis. Even with just the smell of it, though, she could feel her muscles relaxing, her body seeming to just smoosh itself down into Nikolai's lap. Before she knew what she was doing she'd started to purr.

"A plant?" Rand wrinkled his nose at it, but turned to Jade curiously. "What's she going to do with a plant if she's not going to eat it?"

Rand looked over at his mom skeptically. She didn't look much different than she normally did, except he'd never seen her sneeze before like that. It looked kind of funny!

Well, far be it from him not to accept a gift. He pocketed the plant that made mom sneeze, and smiled up at Nikolai's mom. "Thanks, Miss Jade!" he said in his most high proper voice.

Mom'd probably scold him if he didn't.

"Meow," Owle commented passively when Nikolai hugged her, too mellow to squirm this time. She noted with some relief that Rand had put the plant away...she'd have to turn back and tell him to get rid of it...just as soon as she got up...yeah...

It was so comfy here, though, felt so nice...

Owle's gut twisted, her conscious mind aware that it was just the effects of the catnip making her feel that way. She was suddenly very afraid, but even fear had a hard time piercing through the catnip-induced fog.

She'd have to get up...

...so comfy...

Soon, she'd have to get up soon. But she was warm...

Very soon.