I had been wanting to do something to give back to the boys. Most had been welcoming even if it had taken some time for them to warm up to me. It took me a good part of the day, but by afternoon I had gathered a staggeringly large amount of edible leaves, which Jace had pointed out to me, and berries that I was able to mix into a salad and present in a simple display. I had pushed a few tables together to make enough room for everyone to sit together.
The time I had spent gathering, with only the company of distant avian chatter overhead, had given me the chance to calm my mind and discard any fanciful imaginings of confronting Pan with my newfound knowledge of his trickery. I doubted the act would produce from him the desired outcome of shock and defeat I had drawn up in my mind. I tried my best to focus on maintaining a positive and healthy mental state, enjoying the beautiful day and calming sensations of the forest surroundings.
I was able to prepare some leftover meat to create a hardy meal along with a mashed berry dressing I planned to add as a finishing touch. Looking at the table, I was pleased with my handiwork. Each place had a wooden bowl with meat and salad. A large bowl of berry dressing with a crude label I had constructed out of some thick, curved bark sat at the center of the table. There was still some time before evening, and I wanted to add a special finishing touch.
I set out through the woods in the direction of some wildflowers I had seen earlier. I took note of the smile that had made its way on my face as a colorful bird winged through the foliage above. Having spent most of the day in the forest alone, I was startled when a voice broke through the stillness.
"You didn't listen to a word I said, did you?"
It was Liam's stoic countenance that greeted me when I turned around.
"Now what's this about?" I countered, crossing my arms in mock seriousness. Being in a good mood, I wasn't willing to have it spoiled by a grumpy Liam.
"You're going to get into some serious trouble if you aren't careful Rayvn."
"What is it this time?" I asked halfheartedly, stooping to pull up some lovely pastel colored flowers.
"Pan, he's .... he's on to you." Liam hesitated.
"What does that even mean?!" I huffed, turning to stare at him, irritation blazing through my retinas.
"I suppose you didn't see him follow you out of Legend after your conversation with Will yesterday?" Liam lorded.
"W-what?" I was taken aback.
"I told you to be careful, something is breaking.... I can feel it."
"It was a completely harmless conversation! What are you even talking about? You aren't making any sense Liam!"
"Neverland! Don't you get it?!" Liam through up his hands in frustration, letting them fall to his hair. He tugged on his locks absentmindedly, brow creasing. "You don't.... you don't get it and I don't blame you. Just please Rayvn. Please be careful. I don't know what's coming but whatever it is.... it's not good."
"By 'careful' are you telling me not to talk to Will? Liam, that's low even for you." I was finding it hard to reign in my emotions and clamped my jaw.
"I didn't say that." He countered, choosing his words carefully.
"But that's what you are implying isn't it?" I managed. Liam only turned his head away and I continued, "This is stupid. Will is a good friend and even if it was something more, I sure wouldn't let a jealous Pan destroy our friendship just because he is a control freak who thinks he's king of an island."
Something deep inside told me I was making a mistake. A small voice screamed not to underestimate Pan, but I didn't listen. I was sick and tired of the fear of this one boy controlling my life and the harness he had on my emotions. It was time he knew I would no longer play by his ridiculous rules.
I stomped passed Liam, unwilling to continue the conversation any further. I ignored the shouts of protest from behind and pressed onward, back towards Legend. I moved on, scenarios of confronting Pan rolling through my mind like a tumbler; none of the realistic. I sighed, realizing a single conversation had seemingly shattered my mental resolve.
My boot squelched into a soft, slimy substance and an unpleasant aroma arose. I looked down to find I had stepped on what looked like a rather large, rotting mushroom. There was a cluster of iridescent blue mushrooms in a small circle around me, all healthy looking but for the one I had stepped on, now bruised from my boot. It looked like it had been rotting for a while now for no apparent reason. I didn't think much of it, wiping my soiled boot on a small tuft of grass and continuing on.
I made do with the small cluster of flowers I had and arranged them on the table. It wasn't long before the boys started to file into the dining hall as if drawn by the smell of food. I scooped up the berry dressing and began ladling it out over the salads as the boys began to sit down and dig in.
Soon everyone was seated, but for an absent Pan. It didn't take a lot of convincing for the boys to be seated but for many, eating the food I had slaved over was a different story.
"Salad?" Daxon complained, pushing the leaves around with his utensil and continuing to grumble. I poured a generous amount of dressing over his salad.
"Oh, come on, at least give it a try." I prodded.
The scraping of wood on wood sounded and I glanced over to see Nate shoving his bowl of salad away.
"I'm not eating this." Came the foreseeable snarky comment from the redhead.
"Oh, come on Nate." Came a friendly voice from across the table, "She obviously put a bit of time into this." Countered Seth.
"For all I know she could have poisoned this food." Nate said a bit too smugly. But the comment made a few of the boys pause mid mouthful.
"To get rid of you, that wouldn't be such a bad idea." I halfheartedly joked, pouring some dressing over Nate's salad.
He immediately pushed the bowl in front of Timothy who was sitting next to him.
"I'm certainly not going to risk it." Spat Nate.
An oblivious Timothy dug right in, and I continued ladling out dressing until I had covered all the boys and sat down to my own meal. Pan came in then, sitting at the head of the table, surveying his crew as a king would his subpar subjects.
I crumpled inwardly as his eyes roved from the boys seated nearby, to me. I looked away for a moment, then steeled myself and turned to return the gaze, but he was no longer watching me. Instead, his eyes had settled on one individual in particular.
I glanced to where Pan was looking to find a pale Timothy staring at his half-eaten salad, small hands gripping the table, knuckles whitening. Timothy coughed once, then again. His small body was soon wracked with a coughing fit and everyone paused in time to see him tumble from his chair onto the floor.
Nearly everyone stood to their feet in alarm as Pan rushed to the small boy's side.
"I knew it, she poisoned my food!" shouted Nate, pointing at me.
Heads turned in my direction and I stood speechless in utter shock. How was this happening? I looked to the boy on the floor who had ceased to cough and now looked to be writhing in pain.
"N-No!" I sputtered.
"You said as much!" Nate growled.
"I would never!" I shot back.
"We all heard it from your own mouth, you said you wanted to get rid of me." Nate said stepping towards me. "And that was my bowl of weeds Timothy just ate!"
"If you were so convinced it was poisoned why would you give it to Timothy?" came a familiar voice across the table. Eyes turned to Will, now making his way around the table and positioned himself between Nate and I. Nate rolled his eyes, clearly not going to answer the question.
"You know she didn't mean what she said Nate, stop blaming her for everything that goes wrong here!" chimed in Cade.
Nate ignored Cade, reached for Timothy's bowl, digging out a blue tinted berry and holding it up to the light.
"Bingo, you know what this is, right?" Nate questioned; way too pleased with himself.
A few muted gasps of alarm came from the lips of the surrounding boys.
"Wonder how this got here, hmm? Now do you believe me Pan? This girl is a menace." Nate shoved the berry close to Pan's face. In one motion Nate's arm was flung aside and the berry bounced across the floor. Nate looked like a scolded child for a moment. It happened so fast I hardly saw Pan knock Nate's arm away.
Pan held up one hand, the other hovering over the writhing child's stomach, his eyes closed momentarily in concentration, brows furrowed. He looked so innocent then, deep in thought. Then as sudden as it had come it vanished and Pan was back to the sly cobra I had come to know.
"I-I made sure to avoid the blue ones. Fox told me!" I stammered as Pan's eyes grated over me like hot coals.
"Oh, Fox told you, did he? Ha ha, suuure he did." Mocked Nate.
"He did!" I shot back.
"Who is responsible?" Pan's voice, deep and firm rose over both of ours.
A cough greeted Pan's inquiry. Byron, face white as a snow-capped mountain, gripped his throat dramatically and spit out a mouthful of food. Berry juice running down his chin. Pan took one glance at the partially eaten platter of food and turned his attention back to Timothy. Nate reached over and scooped a blue tinted berry from Byron's bowl holding it out, this time not in Pan's face, and declared, "The rat tried to poison Byron as well!"
"She did not you liar!" Will shouted.
"What, you think I would poison my best friend?" Nate responded with what I assumed to be his best attempt at innocence. Byron coughed theatrically in the background.
"I wouldn't put it past you." Growled Will.
"I wouldn't put it past her! She hates me and Byron!" Nate snarled.
"Yeah, well I hate you too and I'm not trying to kill you! Use your brain, oh wait, I'd forgotten that's something you lack." Shot Will, stepping forward to block more of my body from Nate.
In a flash the redhead was on him. I stumbled back in surprise, Will's body falling back and nearly pinning me. The scuffle was finished almost as soon as it began, Pan standing in between the two boys, anger clear in his forest green orbs.
"He came at me first, everyone saw it!" Nate called out.
"That is not—" I tried before being cut off.
"Silence!" voiced Pan. Even Byron's coughing stopped for a moment.
"I will not have you two fighting while two boys are sick. Since nothing can be done about what has happened, I will see to it something is done to whoever is responsible." Pan said with an eerie calm.
"Will pretty much admitted to it. And him and the girl have the motivation. They both hate us. Let me guess, you had enough of us playing with your precious little girl so you two decided to poison us?" Nate crossed his arms.
"Playing with her? You were downright harassing her!" Will shouted.
"Oh, so you don't deny it?" Nate arched a brow.
There was silence.
"Will?" Pan questioned, his gaze boring unforgivingly into Will's eyes.
Will dropped his head.
"No."
"No what?" Sassed Nate.
"Did you or did you not, intentionally poison Byron and attempt to poison Nate?" Pan pressed. There was a long pause before the unspeakable came from Will's lips.
"I did." Will's answer was barely above a whisper. I was stunned into silence.
"Look me in the eyes and tell me you did." Pan demanded, his tone raising the hairs on the back of my head.
Will's head rose to meet Pan's eyes. At that moment Timothy wretched violently. Pan's attention diverted quickly, and I looked in time to see blood in the vomit coating the floor. Pan hovered over the boy's body concern showing ever so slightly on the well-controlled mask that was his face.
"Should we start with preparations for Will's punishment?" Nate pressed.
Pan hesitated, seemingly conflicted.
"Look!" yelled Nate pointing at Will. "I knew it!"
I looked to where Nate was pointing and noticed a dark stain bleeding through Will's front pant pocket.
"Will?" the brewing's of menace in Pan's voice shot fear through my heart.
Will seemed surprised as he dug out the substance from his pocket. Smashed blue colored berries.
"Pan?" Nate seemed on the verge of giddy.
"Bring him to the unfinished hut...and Felix," Pan paused, an unholy spark flickered into his eyes as he spoke "Finish it."
In a flash, Felix had grabbed Will's arm and twisted it behind his back, forcing him forward to Legend's exit, Nate hot on their heels, his face overcome with malicious glee. Felix had his orders it would be no use to try to stop him, if I wanted to help Will I'd have to change the mind of the whipmaster. Seth started ushering the rest of the boys out and attempted to herding me along with them. Pan held up a hand at my protests and Seth nodded leaving me behind. I stood alone with Pan and a pitiful Timothy.
"There is nothing you can do?" I asked, kneeling down by Timothy's side.
Pan seemed to soften ever so slightly, still hovering over Timothy's now sweating frame which was cold to the touch.
"The blue berry is called Moonshade. It is a cousin to Dreamshade. It contains magical properties that counteracts the effects of healing magic rendering it virtually useless." Pan waved a hand over Timothy's head and the boy grew limp.
"Will he survive?" I asked, heart breaking at the sight of the pale boy laying on the dirt floor.
"Moonshade isn't as potent as Dreamshade and causes no permanent damage in well-developed bodies. To children it can be much more dangerous. I have put him in a deep sleep which should allow his body to fight the poison off naturally. He didn't eat enough to kill him, but I cannot yet say to the lasting effects."
"So, then Byron will be fine?" I questioned, almost disappointed.
"Besides a stomachache and possible hallucinations, Byron should be fine." Pan responded, scooping up Timothy and carrying him to the boy's quarters.
I followed after him, trying to decide how to present my next words. I knew I had to be careful.
"Will didn't do it.... you have to see that."
Pan had laid the unconscious boy in the corner of the room and at my words seemed to change gears. Any softness that had been there was now gone. A look of steely determination overtook his features and he brushed passed me and out of Legend.