Here He Comes (ouat)

Selfishness

Max's POV:

I wanted to sleep in today, but I couldn't sleep much at all last night. Of course that meant that when Pan saw I was awake, he reminded me that he wanted to teach me magic so unfortunately, I had to get up.

I'm currently dragging my feet behind him in the glum, foggy woods, trying to peak through the fog and the trees to see the sunrise. The few glorious moments when I could finally see the bright orange orb came to an end as we arrived in the same clearing we went to for target practice. I couldn't see if the bow and arrows were still in the hollow log because it was leaning against a tree on the far side of the clearing.

"The First thing you should know about magic.." Pan started while slowly pacing back and forth in front of me. "Is that it always comes with a price." He finished with a hard glare that was beaming at me.
"What would be the price for a magician that pulls rabbits out of hats?" I asked out of boredom.

He stopped pacing. "First of all, that's not real magic. Those are magic tricks, someone tricking others into believing they can actually perform magic.
Secondly, Max stay focused. No more stupid questions." He explained before continuing to pace back and forth in front of me once again.

"This is going to be fairly tricky, seeing as you weren't born with magic.. But I think I can do it." He mumbled to himself.
"Do what exactly?" I questioned.
"In order for you to learn how to use magic, you must have some amount of magic in you. But it can't be my magic, it has to be some form of natural form of magic. For example.. a potion or a poison.." He explained.
"What kind of potions do you have? Are you gonna turn me into a frog? I could be a great many things, but a frog is not one of them." I added quickly.
He smirked. "Well, I have news for you. Would you rather the good new first or the bad news first?" He asked, but before I could answer, he began telling me the good news. "The good news is that I won't turn you into a frog. The bad news however, is that I don't have any potions. So we'll have to use a poison.." Pans words angered me.
Why would he mention potions if he had none? Does he honestly think I'll let him poison me just so I can use magic to fight in his battle? Is he insane? Well yes, of course he's insane. "You're not poisoning me. I just won't use magic in your stupid fight." I tried to stay calm while speaking, so I closed me eyes and faced the ground.
"It doesn't work that way." He spat.
"Its gonna have to work that way!" I was losing my calmness as my voice kept rising.
"Well I had a feeling you weren't just going to do as I instructed, so you're making me pull out the death penalty card." My eyes shot open. He too was attempting to stay calm, his arms were folded over his chest, his eyes were shut and his breathing was heavier than usual.
"If I don't accept your poison invite, where it's very likely that I will die, then you'll kill me? What kind of a threat is that?" I questioned. His eyes flickered open.
"Not quite, you see, if you don't fight for me, with magic of course, than think of how many Lost Boys will pay your price for you." He said with fake sympathy. He already pulled this card, and I hate it because he knows it will work. "I doubt you're selfish enough to let all those Lost Boys die. Especially because they wouldn't even be dying for a good cause. They'd die for me, because of you." He urged.
I sighed. I was being selfish. Not half as selfish as Pan, but selfish enough to have others pay the price for me.

"So that's the price to learn magic. I have to allow poison to run through my veins?" I muttered.

- - - - - - - - - -

Jake's POV:

This morning was beautiful. The sun was shining brightly in the sky when I came out of my tent. I looked around for Max, but she was nowhere to be seen. She's an early riser, so I'm not sure why I was so disappointed that I couldn't find her. I guess I was just a little too excited for today. Maybe it'd be more romantic if I asked her out while a bonfire dances in the background. I can picture it now; her smile lighting up the camp, the way one word rolls off her tongue, "Yes" and suddenly, all of my worries slip away. The heaviness in my shoulders, lifted. The way that being with her would be as simple as breathing.

My romantic fantasy was taken away from me when Mason and Oliver came over to me.
"Hey man, Pan wanted us to go fishing today, you in?" Oliver asked.
"Yeah, sure." I smiled.
"By the way dude, Mason lost his hook to a monstrous fish last time we went fishing and we were wondering if you had an extra?" Oliver chuckled during his explanation, so it took me a minute to process what he said.
"Yeah, actually I found one at the Lagoon a while ago, it's a good one. You can use it as long as you don't lose it!" I joked as we marched off to the East side of the island.

On the way to the fishing, I thought I saw Pan beside a patch of Dream Shade. It was weird, because I thought we already had some back at camp. I blinked and Pan was gone, it could have just been my imagination acting up again, but I'm pretty sure he was actually there.
I shrugged off the odd thought of Pan needing poison and caught up with the boys who were almost at Fisher's Peak by now.

- - - - - - - - - -

Bella's POV:

I'm sick of everyone here talking about Max!
"Did you see her fight?"
"Who knew a girl could be so good?"
"I hear that Pan thinks she's so good that he's gonna teach her magic!"
Blah. Blah. Blah.

So today, I was going to impress them all. I began by waking up super early so I could trail behind them while they ventured off into the woods together. I don't know why he didn't want to teach me magic, but when I learn how to use it today and everyone sees me, they'll be so impressed! I'll be the star of this wretched island and people will be talking about how great I am!

They began talking once they were in a huge clearing. Something about her having to fight a battle and using magic to do it. Wait until the others hear about how monstrous her plans are! Then all of a sudden, Max said something that caught my interest.

"You're not poisoning me. I just won't use magic in your stupid fight." she whined.
"It doesn't work that way." Pan's handsomely dreamy voice spat at her.
He's truly brilliant! Get rid of her waist of space so that everyone will be happier! She kept whining, it was such a yawn fest, but Pan finally shut her up and began heading towards me, leaving her behind.