The Ring

Chapter 24

     We had about two hours until sundown, and since I was assigned to be in here, I had time to actually focus and enjoy the privacy. Tink was flying around and helping where she could. but considering her size it wasn't much. But I appreciated her help. Of course, she had wanted to know how I survived this far. I told her the same thing I told Jaz, that I hid near mermaid Lagoon and Lissie and Mickey helped me. She almost looked as if she was onto me, but let it go and commented how impressed she was. "Wendy would've never survived on her own for so long."

     "Wendy?" I asked, puzzled.

     "Yeah, you know? Wendy Darling? John, Michael? Her daughter Jane?" Tink replied as if it was common knowledge. Well I suppose it was, from the stories and all.

     Damn, I forgot about her.

     "Can you tell me about her? About... Peter too? I mean if it doesn't hurt too much?" I figured if I needed dirt, who better to ask than his best friend.

     She shivered at the mention of Peter, but kept her head up and motioned for me to sit down. I didn't even realize that we were already done cleaning, which left us about an hour to do whatever we wanted. I wanted to take my grungy shirt off so bad, but with my luck someone would storm in here and figure out I wasn't Steven.

     "Peter, well, as you probably know from the stories, was brought here as a baby. I was just a newly born fairy myself, and we stuck to each other right away. The older fairies had combined their magic to allow him to stay here, make him remain young forever. No longer a human." I noticed she was starting to tear up, but she kept going.

     "We did everything together. I taught him how to fly, and he taught me how to blend in, follow people unnoticed. But right after he turned ten, the year he was supposed to stop aging. She came along." Tink spat out the word she as if it burned her tongue. "It's not that I hated her, I... I was just extremely jealous. I get that way, it's who I am. But Peter forgot that. And when I tried to get rid of Wendy, he banished me. Wendy was a strong spirited girl, imaginative, innocent, beautiful." She looked at me when she said this.

     "But she was an English girl, and back then, English girls were dainty." Raised to do as men told them to, so while she often told stories of pirates, and played with wooden swords back home, she wasn't any good here. Always getting kidnapped, used to get to Peter. But Peter, he really loved her, and he would've done anything for her."

     This made me look down, and I felt tears pricking my eyes too.

     "But your stories aren't entirely correct." I perked up at this, maybe that means nothing really happened between them!

     "Wendy's brother's, John and Michael, actually went home after being here for about two months, but Wendy stayed. She didn't want to grow up, and she loved Peter. They even built a separate room higher up in the old tree so they could sit alone and talk for hours."  Yeah, talk. I thought. But I scolded myself for it, I had to remember Peter was ten when this all went down.

     "But things got worse. Once word got to Hook that Wendy hadn't gone with her brothers, he became hungry for blood. He had spies everywhere, always ready to grab Wendy whenever opportunity showed. And he succeeded, over and over again. But Peter always saved her. But it got to the point to where he had to hide Wendy deep in Pixie Hollow while he tried to defeat Hook. Wendy, feeling trapped, had asked to walk around outside of the Hollow for a bit. Our Queen agreed, but only if she had a guide with her. While Wendy was picking some flowers, Hook had personally found her, having figured out long before where she was hidden."