Potential for Darkness (Peter Pan)//(Robbie Kay)

22 ~ Patrol

<<<Day 31>>>

For the very first time of her life in Neverland, or of her life really, Adelina had been assigned to patrol duty. Initially, she'd been wary, since patrolling with Felix wasn't an option, seeing as he didn't even speak to her anymore, and she wished to avoid another incident like the one she'd had with Ryan. But for some miraculous reason, or perhaps some sort of sudden burst of pity for her, the green eyed demon himself had paired her up with Gabriel, claiming that it was because he'd been paired with his brother before his death, and now lacked a partner.

As she made her way down the sunlit beach, the warm, golden sand giving way under her leather boots, Adelina's hand rested on the handle of the dagger strapped to her belt, a familiar weight on her hips that she had grown quickly accustomed to. She never left her treehouse without Metentis anymore, feeling vulnerable without it.

Adelina was really becoming accustomed to life in Neverland, something that she never voiced out loud, but deep inside she was proud. Almost effortlessly now, she could find her way back to camp anywhere in a five kilometer radius, she could identify any berry or fruit and say if they were edible or not. One of the skills she'd found most useful was being able to tell the time by looking at the sun's position in the sky. Countless times had she been scolded or punished by Pan for being late, even if others had come even later than her, they had gone unpunished. It was as if he was fixating on making her the perfect little soldier. It was always her that his eyes sought out in a crowd to check if she was on time, it was always her who was given the hardest tasks when Pan was the one taking care of their training, and his green eyes would never leave her as she strived to do her best, yet even when perfection was achieved, the disappointed set of his lips always seemed to ask for more. And for all that she hated the guy's guts, she couldn't help but want to improve just to make him proud, to erase that disapproval from his face.

Glancing up at the clear sky now, Adelina judged that they still had at least an hour to go until midday. Her eyes fell on the shock of dark hair that bobbed up and down besides her happily. Gabriel was whistling, if you could call that noise he made with his mouth whistling, some tune she wasn't familiar with, his eyes sweeping the beach for god knows what. She didn't understand why they had to patrol the beach, it wasn't as if the mermaids were going to start walking suddenly and attack them by surprise.

Abruptly, Gabriel stopped in his tracks and his eyes widened, pointing at something in the sand close to the water.

"What are you looking at?" Adelina asked as she tried to spot anything that was out of the ordinary, her eyes scouring the innocent looking shore.

"Look! Right here!" Gabriel hurried to the spot he'd pointed at, and as she caught up she saw he was looking at footprints in the sand.

"So? It's not like no one ever walks on the beach," she said, still not getting what all the excitement was about.

"But they're not lost boys tracks! It must be the pirates!" he exclaimed, not daring to believe that he'd actually stumbled onto something interesting while on patrol.

She squinted at the footprints. "How can you tell?"

Gabriel knelt down, pointing to the nearest track. "You can tell from the shape of the shoe, see how it's pointy at the end?" he asked, looking up at her. "We don't make shoes like that, they're all rounded at the ends. Plus," he added as he got up, dusting off his knees, "the round indentations of a wooden leg king of gives it away." He took her hand, as if it was the most natural thing in the world. "Come, we have to tell Pan about this. Pirates invading our territory is something he'd definitely want to hear about as quickly as possible."