“…watch them as they steal by in single file, each with his hand on his dagger.”
It seemed like Peter was abandoning his boys. Sure he hung around them most of the time but it seemed to them like he was drifting away. Sachet, naturally, tried to fill in for Peter whenever he wasn’t around, but, he just wasn’t as good as a leader as Peter was. He knew this too, even though he would never admit it.
Sachet sat in Peter’s chair with his chin cupped in his hand, trying to think of what Peter would do.
Curly and Copper were arguing over an incident that had happened the day before.
Tiny was arguing with himself.
Dodo was trying to paint a picture on one of the stone walls of the home under the ground.
Curly and Copper’s argument quickly turned into a fist fight but no one paid them any attention for fear of being pulled in to it.
Sachet finally had an idea. He stood up from Peter’s chair.
“All right boys, pay attention!” of course no one paid any attention.
“All right boys, pay attention!” he said a little louder. Still, Curly and Copper continued to fight, Dodo kept painting, and Tiny kept arguing with himself.
It was quite a chaotic scene, with everyone yelling or rolling around on the floor. Sachet stood up on Peter’s chair and yelled as loudly as he could,
“Boys, be quiet!” in fact he said this so loudly that the home shook a little. The boys stopped immediately, Curly, in mid-swing, said, “What’s got yer britches in a bunch?”
“Boys, I’ve decided somethin’,” Sachet said as he hopped down from the chair and started pacing around the small home, “We’ve got to do somethin’.”
“Like what?” Tiny asked.
“Well, I haven’t decided yet. All I’ve decided is that we need to do somethin’; somethin’ that’ll impress Peteh.”
Dodo cupped his chin in the palm of his hand, “Maybe we could…”
All the boys leaned in, listening closely to what he had to say, “We could paint him a picsha.”
“Aw nuts, Dodo! Peter wouldn’t be impressed by no picture!” Copper said, folding his arms across his chest.
“I’ve got an idea guys.” Tiny said. None of the others paid him any attention, being the youngest he usually had nothing good to say.
“We could go treasure hunting!” Copper suggested.
“Naw, we did that last week.” Curly said.
“Guys, I have a idea.” Tiny said, pulling on Sachet’s sleeve only to be pried away.
“We could kill a croc and bring it home for him!” Sachet said.
“That’s a good idea…but a bit risky. We’re really not good at croc huntin’” Curly said.
“You should know,” Copper teased, “You almost got eaten the last time!”
“I’ve got a idea guys!” Tiny cried desperately
“Oh be quiet! At least I tried to kill it and didn’t hide in the bushes like you!” Curly argued.
“I wasn’t hidin’! It wasn’t the right time to shoot at it!”
“Hello? Guys? I’ve got a idea!”
“Sure, ok.” Curly said sarcastically, “Coward.”
“Guys, guys!” Sachet said, holding back Copper, “This is no time to reflect on times past!”
“Guys!” Tiny yelled, everyone turned to him, “I’ve got a idea!”
“What is it?” Sachet pleaded, hoping that it would be something worth hearing.
“You know that day when we went fishin’ with the Indians but Peteh decided to stay behind? Well we were about to get in the boats when I realized that I fergot my dagger back at the home so I went back and-“
“Is this story going anywhere?” Curly asked, folding his arms around his chest.
“Just be patient,” Tiny said, then getting back to his story said, “I went back to the home to get it and as I was enterin’ I saw Peteh over there in that corner,” he pointed to the far corner with the fox rug, “holding a wooden…well a wooden thing and it was covered half in diamonds!”
“So what’s yer point?” Curly prodded.
“My idea is, we should go get diamonds to cover the other half of Peteh’s thing in!”
“Ya know,” Sachet said, placing his arm around Tiny’s shoulder, “I was thinking that too.”
“It’s a great idea!” Copper said.
“Of course it is, that’s why I was thinkin’ it!” Sachet said proudly.
“If you were thinkin’ it then why didn’t you say it?” Dodo asked.
“’Cuz…well that’s not the point,” he said, placing his hands on his hips, “The point is that we need to go find some diamonds. Any ideas?”
“We could ask the mermaids.” Dodo suggested.
“You dope, the mermaid’s haven’t talked to anyone in almost a week, there’s no way of getting a hold of them.”
“I’m sure the faeries would know where any diamonds are.” Tiny said.
“Another great idea.” Copper stated.
“And another thing that I was just thinking.” Sachet said. The other boys just rolled their eyes at him.
“Alright,” he said, “Let’s gather some supplies and head out towards the faerie’s territory.”
The journey was a long one, but the boys stuck it out, knowing that what they were doing would please their leader.
When they finally got to the section of forest that the fae called their home, they went immediately to the Court.
“We need diamonds,” Sachet said, bowing courteously, “Could you tell us where we could find any?”
One of the Court members floated gracefully over to the boys.
“We could,” he started, “But what do we get in return?”
“Protection from the pirates.” Copper blurted out immediately, as it was routine.
The Court member thought about it for a second, “We give you different things all the time, yet you always give us the same thing.” He glanced back at the rest of the Court as if for permission to carry on and they nodded their heads in approval. “What else could you offer us?”
The boys thought for a moment. “Let us discuss it.” Sachet said. The boys huddled in a circle.
“What could we give them?” Tiny asked.
“I don’t know you’ve been the one coming up with all the good ideas today, why don’t you tell us what we could give them.” Curly said.
“I can’t come up with all of the ideas.” He argued.
“We could paint them a picsha.” Dodo said.
“Dodo you-wait a second, that might actually be a good idea.” Sachet said.
“What do you mean? The Court wouldn’t be pleased with just a simple picture.”
Sachet turned to the Court, “We could repaint the walls of your buildings.”
The members of the Court looked at each other and agreed.
“That’s a deal. You can find diamonds and stones of all sorts in the caves on the north side of the Frozen Forest.”
“The north side of the Frozen Forest? That’ll take all night to get to!” Curly whined.
Sachet turned to him, “But it’s worth it, isn’t it?” he turned back to face the Court, “Thank you,” he bowed again, then looked at the boys as if saying, “Bow you blockheads!” The boys bowed and then started off to the north side of the Frozen Forest, off to get the diamonds for Peter’s wooden thing.
“Are we almost there?” Tiny asked innocently.
“Almost…I think.” Sachet said, looking at his compass.
“Look! Over there! I can see the caves!” Copper said, running in the direction of the caves that were just becoming visible. All of the boys took off at once, racing each other. The first to arrive at the mouth of the cave was Copper, close behind was Sachet, then Curly, Dodo, and Tiny.
“I won, I won!” Sachet said, out of breath.
“No you didn’t, I did!” Copper said, punching Sachet in the arm.
“You had a head start which isn’t fair so that means I win.” He said rubbing the spot where he had been punched.
“Whoa…boys come and look at this.” Curly said, as he walked deeper into the cave.
They all walked into the cave and as they looked at the walls and the ceiling their mouths gaped in awe and amazement. Everywhere you looked there were little diamonds, rubies, emeralds, garnets, opals, sapphires, and topaz glittering in the evening sun.
“How many should we take?” Copper asked
“All of them.” Dodo said
“We can’t fit all of them into our sacks you blockhead.” Curly said
“How many should we take, Tiny?” Copper asked him
“Um…well, I would say take lots of diamonds, maybe ten, then take whatever else you want.”
Now to you and me, ten is not a lot at all, but you see, the Boys had forgotten how to count so ten to them was whatever they made up their mind to be. Tiny asked for ten diamonds, and they ended up with about sixty.
When they got back to the home they half expected to see Peter there, but of course, he wasn’t. When deciding who would open the hatch that the wooden thing was in, they voted that Dodo do it because they didn’t know if it was booby-trapped or not and he was the least valuable.
Dodo removed the fox rug carefully and opened the hatch. The other boys, on the opposite side of the home, covered their faces with their hands and hid behind one another.
He took out the Eiffel Tower and held it up for all the boys to see.
“Is this it?”
“Yes! Bring it over here.” Tiny said.
He started over to the other side of the home when something else in the hatch caught his eye. He set the tower down and kneeled down over the hatch and reached in.
“What are you doing?” Copper asked as he headed over to the hatch, the rest of the boys followed.
Dodo slowly took what had caught his eye out of the hatch.
“What is that?” Sachet asked
“I don’t know.”
“Me either.”
“I don’t know either.”
“I wonder what it does?”
It had been a long day for Peter. First he had helped the Indians build more huts, repair canoes, and make spears and arrows, then he spent hours looking for the Boys so he could tell them a funny story that Tiger Lily had told him, then after giving up his search he spent time at The Cliff with Tinker Bell. All he wanted to do now was go back to his home under the ground and rest for a few hours.
As he stepped silently into the home he saw a horrifying sight. All his Boys were huddled around his secret hatch gazing at the orb.
“No!” he shouted. This startled Dodo, who was still holding the orb. It startled so much that he dropped it.
“No!” Peter shouted again, flying as fast as he possibly could to catch the orb with as little impact as possible. As he caught it, the orb gave a slight flash. Peter closed his eyes tight, hoping that what he thought was about to happen didn’t happen. Thankfully, it didn’t and he let out a sigh of relief. He put the orb and the tower back into the hatch and closed it up, this time putting a lock on it.
“What is that, Peter?” Copper asked
“What do you think you were doing?!” he demanded.
“It was Sachet’s idea!” Tiny said.
“No, it was Tiny’s idea!” Sachet said
“I don’t give a rat’s ass whose idea it was! I want to know what you were doing!”
“We-we were going to cover the rest of your wooden thing with diamonds.” Tiny said, looking down.
“We thought it would make you like us again.” Dodo said, ashamed.
Peter picked up the bag of diamonds and set it over the hatch.
“Oh, lads, I never stopped liking you,” he said, ashamed he had been so harsh, “I’ve just been so awfully busy the last few days.” Ruffling their hair he said, “But if I ever catch you cod fish going through my things again, I’ll slit your throats and I won’t regret it. Understood?”
“Understood.” They said in unison.