Red-Handed Jill (A Peter Pan Fanfiction)

Chapter 23~ The Start of War

Vinny's POV

I woke up in a cave somewhere in the middle of the jungle lying on a matt made of giant banana leaves. I didn't know where I was or how I got there, but I did know that someone must not want me dead because they had left me some berries and water in a wooden bowl.

My mouth felt like sand paper from sleeping with my mouth open. Whatever saliva I produced got sucked up by my greedy, parched tung, but nothing seemed to be enough. It just crawled sickly around my mouth and stuck to the insides of my cheeks. I hated when that happened.

I tried to sit up and bit my lip to keep from yelling out. I felt like someone was sticking a dull knife into my shoulder and twisting it. I fell back on my back with a groan and decided to lay there for a moment as I caught my breath.

When I made my second attempt I was able to get back into a sitting position. My back was as stiff as a board and I could literally hear my joints groan and pop as they began to move again. My head throbbed and my vision was foggy. I wondered how long I had been out. Probably for a few days at least.

Another thing that I realized was that Hook must have been really stupid to not know where the heart was. I mean seriously, how do you not know that? He probably wanted me to bleed out on the ground so that my death was as painful as possible. Well that backfired, didn't it?

I picked up the water bowl with my good arm and filled up my mouth with the precious liquid. I never thought I could be so thirsty.

I had just started on the berries when I heard someone approaching.

It was a young Indian boy carrying a sack over his shoulder. He looked older than one of the lost boys but younger than most of the other Indian men, just breaching thirteen. He had a blue stripe painted across the bridge of his wide nose and a large tooth dangling from his neck. It looked like it was from a jaguar.

"Who are you?" I croaked.

"My name is Penta Dragonfly," he replied, placing his sack on the ground, "I am the assistant of Princess Midnight Lilly."

"Where is Midnight?" I asked.

"She is nursing Red-Handed Jill back to health," he replied, "She is in very bad shape. She hoped you would understand."

"What's wrong with Jill?" The last time I saw Jill she was being dragged away from the gates of the Black Castle.

"She is very sick," he said, "Do not worry, Owl-Faced Man. The Fairies are going to heal her."

"Good."

Over the next few days I started running a fever and coughing. I could tell that the wound was infected and if I didn't get help soon, I'd really be dead. I spent a lot of the time sleeping or passed out, I could never really tell which.

Penta took care of me the best that he could with his limited knowledge of herbs and plants, putting honey on it to try and fight the infection, but he didn't know everything. He was able to make some teas to make the fever go down and had me chew some leaves for the pain but that was really the extent of his abilities.

"I have been studying under Midnight Lilly for a long time," he explained, "But people in the village don't get sick like this very often. I am going to need help."

"What are you going to do?"

"A long time ago, I saved a young sparrow man who got caught in a rain storm," he said, "His wings were wet so he couldn't fly. I made us a shelter and we became friends."

He disappeared and came back with a fairy.

"Hello Vincent!" he said, "My name is Travis."

"Hi Travis," I greeted weakly, "Are you a healing fairy?"