The Princess and The Piper

Chapter Eleven

Enraged. 

That was the word anyone around me would use to describe my current emotional state. And why? Well, it's really quite simple. 

Parker had the audacity to try to assassinate me while the lost boys and I were out hunting.

I'm enraged because I have zero ideas as to why he would make an attempt to take my life because, as far as I was aware, I had only known the boy for about a month.

However, it was extremely difficult to record the passing days in a place where time stood still. I resorted to relying on the rising and falling of Helios as he burns the sky above.

But most of all, I was enraged that, in his pursuit to remove me from this earth, Parker didn't draw any of my blood at all, but Pan's instead. That's why I was angry. That's why I finally found someone on this planet to hate. But I don't know exactly how the last reason hit me so hard, like a baseball bat to the face.

The flames danced among the firewood that blazed between stepping stones, emitting an, ironically, pleasant scent that spread around the camp in the form of grey smog. Holstering the cryptic silver blade, its radiant purple scriptures glowing at my touch, I spotted Baelfire situated on a thick log not so far away. Approaching him, I trudged my legs along the grassy path, inhaling the chilled night air. 

"Hey, _____. What's up?" While making room for me, he eyed the charcoal-coated boar hanging from its four hooved feet above the campfire.

Dinner.

I sat down next to him, my stomach growling at the enticing sight, tempting me all too much.

"You see, Bae, I've been wasting much of my time pondering the same questions, and I'd hoped that you may know some of the answers," I stated truthfully.

"Okay? What is it?" My friend's neutral, happy face was replaced with a look of confusion and bewilderment.

"More like 'who is it?'," I told him, confirming that my inquiry was based on a person in particular.

"Are you going to tell me or not? Because that pig is just dying to be eaten." Baelfire complained as his attention, once again, betrayed me and turned to focus on the delicious meal on which we were about to feast.

"Parker," I began, starting out vague. "Who is he?"

"What do you mean?" Baelfire knit his eyebrows before continuing. "He's only the oldest lost boy to be on this island, besides Felix, of course. I don't really know anything about his past, other than some mere legends. I do know that he hasn't always been this angry and aggressive, but I've only been on Neverland for a few months. The other lost boys said that he has always been wistful and downcast-- well, up until a few weeks ago, at least. That's when he changed completely," Bae explained as thorough and clearly as he could. "Come to think of it, your arrival marked the beginning of his new character."

Did I change him?  I thought. Why me? What did I do to him to make him hate me? I don't even know him.

"I'm sure you did nothing, your timing just wasn't all that great." He could clearly read my emotions like a page in a book as he soothingly stroked my back in a calming, friendly gesture.

"What legends did they tell you?" I asked, gradually growing more and more curious.

"Well, the boys that have been here for a while say that he disappeared for a long time. Like five years or something. They say that what happened in his absence was what made him bitter. I've heard many reasons, the most popular being the possibility of a girl." He explained the best he could, though still unaware of my reasoning behind the original question. And I would have liked to keep it that way. I opened my mouth to speak-- to thank him for his help--, but was instantly interrupted.