Elizabeth of the Lily

What We Fight For

Lost Boy Rule: If you get caught, die with honor. No sniveling or begging for your life. 

Lizzy was awakened by the sounds of running foot steps and panting from below the tree. She looked down to the forest floor and saw two boys searching for something. She climbed down to the balcony and got a view through the branches of the boys below desparately knocking at every tree in the clearing.  

Lizzy yelled down to the main hall below. "I see some boys outside trying to get in!"

Jack was by her side in an instant. "That's Ryan and Hunt. I'll go and let them in." Jack dissappeared again and Lizzy wondered if the boys outside the Hideout Tree couldn't hear anything within the tree's protection. That would be useful and it would explain why their heads didn't turn towards he when she shouted.

She watched them and almost a full minute passed. What was taking Jack so long? 

Something appeared out of the woods behind one of the boys. It was wraith like and hooded. It's body was all darkness much like a shadow. No face was visible, but it's hands were distinct in the negative space like a silhouette. This shadow was like a black hole, sucking in and snuffing out all light around it.  Lizzy watched in horror as it oozed with nightmarish slowness towards the unsuspecting boys. 

"Behind you!" she shouted. They neither responded nor moved. They could not hear her. The bigger boy must have caught that slinking  movement out of the corner of his eye because he turned fully to face the terrible shadow. He shouted to his smaller companion who was closer to the thing and in greater danger, but he was too late. The littler one was snatched up into the horrid shadow's arms. The bigger boy ran and began attacking the creature of darkness. The creature had no interest in fighting, it had what it came for and slipped away into the darkness.  That was when Jack Frost's shock of white hair appeared on the scene. He shoved the bigger boy into the entry and raced after the specter and his captive. 

She felt a hand on her shoulder and turned with a start. Peter's wide concerned green eyes met her own. 

"Why are you screaming?" He shouted. 

"I wasn't..."she began but realized that she must have been for her throat was sore. Shakily she answered, "One of the boys just got taken by a shadow creature. It attacked out of nowhere. Jack has just gone after it."

Peter's face looked grim as he asked, "Which boy?" 

Lizzy tried to picture what the boy looked like and finally said, "He was smaller, fair long hair."

"Hunt" stated Peter " What kind of creature attacked him?"

Lizzy shuddered and replied, "It was a cloud of black smoke or mist that materialized into a ghostly shape. It had no face."

Peter's face when white as he breathed, "A reaper." He turned back again to Lizzy and explained, "Those are Fae that have been tortured for so long that they have lost their glow completely. To even function, they do Simwe's bidding in exchange for a taste of the soul that they've captured. Any soul, you see, gives them back some glow. It is only temporary and they are right back to where they started; black and empty.  Jack is probably the only one of us who could get close enough to the reaper to actually save Hunt. The level of Faerie that turn reaper are usually Airy Faeries, or those that specialize in air magic.   I have had to take out several in the past fortnight." 

Lizzy sadness was palpable as she stated, "The faeries are really suffering under Simwe's rule."

Peter nodded solomly, "If you ever needed a reason to fight for your throne, saving any more of your people from becoming reapers would be a pretty good one." He didn't wait for a response but stood up and descended into the main hall to check on the Lost boys and to hear Ryan's version of events. Lizzy didn't join them, instead she held vigil and waited for Jack to return, hopefully with Hunt in tow. 

Peter's last statement rang in her ears with startling clarity. She pondered his words and wondered if there was any truth to them. It was true to some extent, she didn't feel like a princess or fit to be a ruler of a people she felt completely estranged from. Who she had been was a woman who's beloved husband had been taken from her. A teacher from a quite small school. A dependent, pathetic sister. None of those life experiences had prepared her for this event.  On the other hand, if her uncle was torturing the faeries until they became something so monstrous and evil they would steal children for a chance to feed off of them, she couldn't do much worse.  If that meant fighting a war to do it...well, she hoped it didn't have to come to that. 

Finally she saw a glint of silver in the moonlight. Jack had returned, boy unconscious in his arms. She knew the second he had entered the Hideout Tree for the talking that had been going on below with Peter and the boys rose to shouts and commands. 

Lizzy ventured down to the main level in time to see Peter directing Jack to a room that was obviously a sick room of some sort. Jack was breathless and angry as he laid the boy down on the exam table and let Doc and Liam get to work. 

He turned to Peter and practically shouted, "That cursed reaper decided it wouldn't wait to take Hunt to Simwe. It already started sucking the blue fire out of him when I intervened."

Peter put a steadying arm on his old friend and said, "Hunt's lucky to still be here. If you hadn't gone after him he'd be a goner."

Jack said, "He's already half a goner. Look at him." He gestured at the recumbent boy, angry. Lizzy noticed that Hunt had an interesting translucence to him. Doc was very careful not to touch the sick boy diretly as he ministered to him. Doc turned to Jack, "I need ya to open his mouth for me."

Jack obliged and none to gently wrenched the boy's jaws apart. Doc was calling out ingredient after ingredient which Liam brought to him. Doc mashed these strange unheard of herbs and berries together in a mortar and pestle then dumped the pasty contents into a clear liquid. He stirred the concoction exactly seven times. On the seventh stir the liquid began to glow with blue light, like flames. Ever so carefully, Doc tipped the liquid down Hunts throat. The boy sputtered and coughed then lay still. His body slowly began to lose it's translucence and turn solid again. 

Doc turned back to Peter and Jack and said, "He'll need rest for a few days. We'll see if enough of Hunt is left to return to us then." Doc then locked chains to every one of Hunts limbs. Lizzy heard snuffling and muffled sobs behind her. There were all the boys assembled. Hunt belonged to the twelve-fourteen group of boys. Monk, Curly, Leaf and Ryan were all very distressed for their friend. Lizzy's heart went out to them. She quietly went over to the kitchen and stood over a tray and though hard about four cups of tea with half and half and cardamom and honey. That is what she would always make herself when she was feeling sad or lonely. 

Silently she offered each boy a cup and sat with them as they kept watch over their sick friend.