Pan's Tiger

Chapter 35: Henry

'Pixie dust.' He replied, showing him the vile concealed under his scarf. 'I stole it because I thought I could use it to come home, but I can't. It's useless.' He added dismissively.

'It's ok, my family's coming for me. We can take you with us too.' Henry said gleefully, but also confidently. It made me wish I had that level of belief and trust inside of me. Perhaps I was right; Henry did have the Heart of the Truest Believer.

Pan chuckled, unamused by this, because Pan hated this kind of behaviour. Both of us had had useless families, so didn't know what it was like to trust grown ups, it was one of the rare occasions when I pitied Pan. 'You think you're the first boy to believe his parents are actually coming for him?'

'My family's different, we always find each other.' Henry insisted and my heart yearned to be part of a family like that, a family that stuck together no matter what. Despite my allegiances to Pan, I always wanted to help people who would give up so much for their family. It reminded me of when I left my son and husband to protect them.

'You better hope they don't, otherwise Pan will rip their shadows into oblivion.' I commented between my teeth, chipping into the conversation Pan and Henry had between them.

Henry walked towards me and placed a hand on my shoulder encouragingly and comfortingly, my eyes travelled down to it and I gave him a small smile, realising that I would definitely help him. 'It's going to be ok, I promise.' He declared. 'All we need is time, is there anywhere we can hide from the Lost Boys?'

I admired his practical mind and turned to Pan, who said, 'There is somewhere they can't track us: the echo caves. But it's far.'

'Then what are we waiting for? Lead the way.' Henry said finally and allowed Pan to lead us through the dense jungle, away from the clamour of the Lost Boys coming our way. I stumbled and tripped behind them, pleased Henry hadn't questioned me about the Lost Boys chasing me. I didn't even know whether in his storybook Peter Pan already hated Tiger Lily or whether they were allies, but I doubted that they hated each other.

Suddenly, an arrow pelted past us, hitting a nearby tree. I screamed dramatically, jumping out of the way and missing it by a fraction. 'They know about the caves!' Henry exclaimed panicked. 'C'mon we have to go this way.'

We ran further through the jungle, the noise of our footsteps on the ground and our panting the only thing we could hear. My bare feet were rubbing against the floor and were littered with scars and scratches, but I pressed on.

'Watch out!' I gasped, jumping backwards as we almost hit the vertical drop at the edge of the cliff. I peered over, looking around for another way down.

'They're over here!' Came the distant cries of Lost Boys. I turned to the boys, looking at them helplessly, pretending there was no other option but the cliff, even though there were plenty other alternatives.

'What do we do? Is there any other way to the echo caves?' Henry asked hopefully, turning to ask Pan.

'No.' I said wearily, turning around to look at the clearing we came through to see if I could see them, then turning back to stare hopelessly at the others. 'We're done for!'

'I'll give them the pixie dust, maybe they'll let us live.' Pan suggested hopefully, reinforcing the memory of pixie dust into Henry's mind, as he turned to face him.

'Your just going to give up?' Henry gasped, astonished at how we had come so far, but had given up so quickly. Little did he know that Peter Pan never fails, you're better to give up before you've even started, otherwise you're just humouring him.

'We don't have a choice, they have us.' Pan continued in a state of bewilderment and fear. 'We're trapped here.'

'No, it's our way out.' Henry said, taking the pixie dust from Pan, who looked appalled and confused at that prospect of using it.