Hey,
As usual, thanks for reading my story.
Finally finished the other part of my story! It seemed to take forever! 😅
Please vote and comment- I always read and take note of what you say and I really value both the good and the bad.
I was really looking forward to writing this chapter because I really liked the mermaid scenes in the original episode of Once Upon A Time.
Enjoy,
Annabelle_the_reader
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'Oh, finally.' Pan murmured, approaching me with an enormous, amused grin. 'You've decided to amble out of the water, have you? Took you long enough.'
'Oh really?' I replied bordely, trying to cover up that he couldn't be more right. I hadn't delayed exiting the water, but only because I found Wendy. I didn't mind though because this delayed and shortened my day with Pan. 'Did you know that sarcasm means to tear flesh in Greek? You just ripped me apart.'
Peter laughed with me, remembering my random knowledge of unknown, useless and generally unusable facts. 'What about that date now?' Pan mused.
I sighed my eyes flitting around the gaggle of Lost Boys, but no obvious excuses came to my rescue. Shrugging, I said finally, 'Sure, but what exactly are we planning on doing?'
'I'm going to show you around Neverland.' Peter said proudly, beaming at me enthusiastically as I walked around the camp, depositing the thousands of weapons stored in my clothes to my pile of weapons outside his tent. Pan had provided me with all of these weapons, but he didn't need to though because most of the weapons I didn't know exactly how to use.
'A tour of Neverland?' I mused, snapping back up from when I was leaning down to lock my weapons in the chest, holding back my knife. 'Have you already forgotten I know my way around Neverland, Pan? I used to live here. In fact, I remember giving you your first tour of Neverland.' I pointed out.
'Aye, Tiger,' Peter began, smirking at his use of pirate dialect. 'But a lot has changed since you lived here, hasn't it?'
He wasn't just talking about the landscape- which admittedly had changed a lot. He was also reminding me of the two of us and how since I left Neverland, everything in Neverland had changed for the worst. The shadow, Peter Pan's arrival, Rumple's death and the mass murder of many natives. It wouldn't surprise me if there was more. 'Yes, yes it has.'
'Okay, Tiger, let's go.' Pan said, unfolding my arms and placing them securely around his neck. His hands slipped downwards, gripping onto my waist. I bit my lip, not wanting to tell him that I hated heights in case he thought I was a coward, and allowed myself to be lifted into the air.
'Peter put me down!' I squealed, my nails digging into the skin on his neck. He didn't even flinch in pain. 'It this really necessary? Can't we just walk?'
'We could, but that wouldn't be nearly as fun!' He teased, his eyes darting around us to work out which direction would be best to travel in. Pan's hand hoisted me further up and I squealed, wrapping my legs around his torso, as if I was climbing up his body to get further away from the forest floor.
'We need to get closer to the ocean.' He stated softly and began to turn slightly to the side. With fairy dust, I am a capable flyer. But Pan would never give me fairy dust for two reasons: one, I would probably escape and two, he loved the sense of power he had that my life depended on his mercy.
Somehow I didn't feel comfortable putting my life in his hands. What if he dropped me? What if he wasn't strong enough to carry me? What if I slipped from his grasp? My eyes tore away from his, as I tried to inspect our surroundings up-side-down, but it didn't really work. 'Put me down!'
'What, now?' He teased and let go. I plunged down to towards the ground, my skirt flapping around me. My eyes widened with terror and my shriek rose an octave. My hands flew around wildly, trying to regain my balance. Nothing worked. Nobody heard me.
I saw a blur of green and felt a heavy, secure grip on my legs. Suddenly I was swooping like a pendulum, inches from the tips of the trees, and into the arms of Peter Pan. He laughed harder than I'd ever seen him laugh before, and at my extensive expense.
'Pan!' I squealed as our bodies were manoeuvred so that mine was rested beneath his. I saw a smirk grace his lips as his hands skimmed down my lower back, holding me there. My hands clung around his neck and my legs wrapped around his hips to ensure I didn't fall to my death in our horizontal position.
'Comfortable?' He mused.
'No!' I cried, squirming under his grasp to escape his fingers, stupidly. I felt his grip loosen and I squealed, wrapping my legs tighter around him and digging my fingers into his neck tighter. His laugh echoed in my ears. He had me trapped at his mercy. I despised him for it. I couldn't squirm because then I could potentially fall to my death, but neither could I release my grip on him.
We glided through the clouds, like we were swimming through a lake of candy floss, because it was so soft. And then, as the clouds seemed to part for us like the sea for Moses, I began to see why Pan was so keen on flying here: the sea.
Ebbing ever so gently, the sea looked at peace in its jade-green gown. The golden sand swept around in a scythe of beach, with a gash of zephyr-haunted cliffs . Far out to sea, rivers of pulsing light saturated the sea with gold.
The mighty heap of sea flowed in its astral-blue smoothness from the horizon in. The horizon itself was a thin seam where the canopy of sky and the plane of sea hemmed each other into a line of silver. It was as if they had been welded into an extended splinter of perfection. In the distance, streamers of tapered light splayed out, flowing through cracks in the cloud.
Suddenly, stone dashed sand teemed as the sea hissed, washed, polished, and lashed the pebbles before sloshing back. It hissed, slipped, dashed the sand and released; fizzed, spit, seethed the beach and released: sizzed, slapped, swished the stones and released.
The waves were really sloshing, slurping and slobbering with their salty lips. They pounded into the cliff of the sheltered cove, then paused and pounced with malice onto its ankle, slamming the rock before releasing.
I shivered. The wind died down. The sea bubbled. Trembling, throbbing to its rotten beat, its malicious soul stirred, a warning from the ages. It foamed and frothed, plunged down hard and pummelled the hated cliffs; it lathered and lacerated, bucked waves and buckled itself; it smacked and smashed, surging waves and expunging its awful rage.
I had been a Princess, a wife, a mother and a Lost Girl. But I was also a sailor, and henceforth I fell in love with the sea, like I fell in love with the forests.
Suddenly silver flashes glided through the water. They were long and majestic, slowly coming clearer as they edged closer to the surface of the water. My reflexes tightened their grip on Pan's body, fearing for my life at these unusual creatures. The first one broke free of the water and revealed itself to be a mermaid.
My eyes widened, as a child I was never allowed to venture into the deep waters, were the mermaids dwell. Now, it would seem, Pan had banished them to live in the ocean near the shore.
'Fly back to land, Pan!' I shrieked in terror. 'The mermaids, they'll kill us!'
Pan just chuckled, hosting my further up from the surface of the water as the mermaids screamed and gnashed at us hungrily with their webbed fingers. He gently glided us back to shore and I punched him lightly in the gut as soon as he let me go.
'What the hell, Pan? What was that? Mermaid lagoon, you serious? They were trying to kill us!' I exclaimed angrily, my eyes looking back over the cliff at the mermaids. They swam around the edge of the cliff, glaring at me with more vigour than I had ever seen before.
'Correction, Tiger, they were trying to kill you.' He smirked, folding his arms in from of this chest and smirking at me. 'They know better than to mess with me, ever since they were banished to mermaid lagoon, it was stupid for them to bother.'
'Pan!' Came a cry of desperation from in the tree line. Without complaining about the unannounced arrival, Pan's head snapped over to follow the cry, until a frantic and worried Felix came pounding around the edge, looking more concerned than ever before.
'What?' Pan snapped. He was both angry to have been disturbed and concerned with Felix's news, for Felix knew that he couldn't interrupt Pan unless it was important.
My breath hitched at the troublesome look on his face, but catching sight of me, Felix paused and arranged his complexion into a gleeful smile, but just looked constipated.
Pan recoiled from me. I hadn't even noticed how close he was, but he pulled his hand that was clenched comfortingly around my waist as if he had been caught red-handed. Felix didn't move, simply bobbing his head to myself and Pan and said, 'Sorry Pan, Tiger Lily,' I nodded awkwardly back to him. 'But I have to report some troublesome and very startling news.'
'Felix,' Pan began, almost a little too softly, nodding in acknowledgement as he turned completely away from me. My eyes darted between them, wondering what was so sincere to interrupt us, something which would have resulted in punishment if the reasons weren't so sincere.
'Yes, Pan?'
'If you dare to interrupt such an occasion, against my request, I know there must be something important happening.' His words were fundamentally to reassure him, but there was a sinister edge of warning him never to do such a thing again. I could tell immediately he wouldn't.
'There's a problem with one of our prisoners, she's escaped.' Felix panted and my eyes locked with his for a moment, my mind battling with what this meant. Suddenly my eyes widened as I realised what that meant: could it be Wendy? The only other girl in Neverland? Had she returned to her brothers and new friend? I decided to find out.
'The girl?' Pan scoffed, rolling his eyes doubtfully. It was clear he didn't think she could commit such an act alone. 'I highly doubt that, Felix. Have you checked the area? Call out loudly to remind her of her situation, particularly her homeland. I think she would find it very interesting to know the consequences of her foolish actions.'
My face contorted into a look of disgust that Pan would do such a thing to a young girl. I vowed to help her from that moment onwards. I couldn't leave the island, but I would be sure to uncover a way so that Wendy could find her way home to her family and friends.
'It's not as simple as that, I'm afraid she may be hiding and we cannot search the whole island quick enough' Felix reported. He spoke seriously, as if hinting more than I could understand to Pan and speaking dangerously slow, I began to wonder what horrible things Wendy had to endure that made her so eager to escape. I cringed. 'I require your assistance... To help me, recover her from these terrible circumstances... She could get herself hurt.'
My eyes darted between them as they exchanged worried, yet knowledgable glances. 'Can I help?' I wondered eagerly, not expecting them to accept my offer in the slightest. Adventure appealed to me more than I could admit, but I also needed to find the girl so that I could easily help her as much as I could.
'No.' Felix replied coldly, his eyes not even meeting my own. And added mockingly, 'Tiger.'
Felix was usually kind to me, or at least civil, so this outburst of refusal startled me and I realised it must be more important than he first made it seem. Peter Pan's vacant, yet worried appearance enhanced this idea.
'Kitten, much as your assistance will be appreciated,' Pan explained, flashing me one of his flirtatious, charming smiles that made my heart melt. 'We must pursue matters without you this time, the more you know the more danger you could be in. This prisoner may seem fragile, but I think you could misunderstand things, it could lead you to more danger than you realise.'
'I can handle it!' I objected, having rolled my eyes at his reasoning. I wasn't a china porcelain doll, more than Wendy Darling would get me killed. I was so bored and angry with the norm that just giving me the slightest job to do would work for me, even just standing on the beach to see if she came there.
Without looking at me, Pan nodded to Felix, who scampered off into the forest. Pan ran to the edge of the cliff, about to jump off, when I grabbed his hand.
'Pan, what are you doing? Please don't go?' I begged as his eyes met mine, loving and caring, but almost daring me to object.
'I have to, to keep us safe. It's better in the long run, ok?' Pan mumbled, wriggling his fingers to release my grasp as he looked across at me.
Eventually, I nodded. 'Stay safe, don't do anything stupid.'
'Oh we live for it,' he whispered, and with a wink, giving me a brief smile, he disappeared again into the tree line.
I didn't wait long. I stayed out for a few moments, watching the spot where he disappeared and wondering if a Lost Boy would be sent to help me back. The fact that none came was flattering, because amidst all this commotion, it meant that Pan trusted me and thought I was capable enough to make my own way back. Naturally, I didn't.
I knew the path ways around Neverland like the back of my hand, so it didn't take me minutes to locate my special tree. There was nothing particularly special about it, except that it had a hollow section, protected by a layer of branches and covered by thick leaves, that held within it the one thing that bought me my freedom: fairy dust.
My finger nails dug into the surface of the bark angrily, remembering how eager I was to hide the fairy dust where no one would ever find it, so that if I ever returned to Neverland, I had an easy way out.
I pulled out the small vile, admiring the beautiful dust within. It brought back so many memories of trust, deception, happiness and cruelty. In this bottle was simultaneously everything I loved and hated about my childhood.
My toes dug into the floor, the only part of my body ever reluctant to leave the ground. I had confidence in myself, but never in other people not to drop me, hence my feet were always trying to grip the floor and never let go.
'Here goes nothing,' I said and opened the vile. The gold sprinkled around me, like droplets from heaven. I smirked, admiring the way it sparkled into life immediately. Fairies hadn't been plentiful in Neverland for years, but the magic they left behind was eternal.
'Thank you.' I mumbled to the fairy who had provided me with it, and leapt from the ground, allowing the earth to fall back into place far below me. With an unfaltering smile on my face, I floated away, eager to find the one being I could ever call my friend, and now the only thing that could possibly help me.