,,May I might have time to consider your generous offer?" Wendy asked before she stepped into the tree cottage the pirates had brought her in.

,,Absolutely." Hook replied. ,,My fellows will return you and your cottage whenst they found you. You can return safely to Pans home, I swear that none of my crew will follow you. I'm not interested in Peter Pan or his whereabouts any longer. My new obsession is you."

Wendy awoke to golden sparkles of morning light, and stretched herself on the flowery floor. The visit at Jolly Roger surfaced her mind, and a shiver ran down her spin, but at the same time she felt a string of excitement in her stomach and felt her lips twisting in a crooked smile. It felt good to have a secret of one's own – even a gloomy one!

When she stepped out the door into the green glade outside, she was nearly thrown back inside by the welcoming shouts and little dirty smiling faces, which greeted her. Of the many shouts she sorted the words ,,Mum", ,,Pirates", ,,Girl" and ,,Get'er keelhauled!" out.

,,Stop, Ssh! One at a time! And I'm not sure you should use a word if you don't know what it means John."

,,Indeed I do…" John's indignant voice was interrupted by another excited one.

,,There's a new pirate aboard The Jolly Roger."

,,And she's a girl!"

Wendy silenced the boys with a gesture, and turned to Pan whose smile she found a bit too smug. ,,How do you know this?"

,,The mermaids. One of them told me her name is Red Handed Jill." The golden boy with the dirty, glowing cheeks and spiky hair said the name with a spark in the eye. He drew his sword dramatically.

All the boys quivered with excitement by the sound of the name, except Chubby Stephen who quivered with something else. ,,She sounds fearsome." He said.

Wendy felt her gloomy secret sparkle inside her and pictured a feared, dark pirate queen raise her sword elegantly.

,,Why?" Pan shrugged. ,,She's just a storyteller."

The dark pirate queen disappeared inside her head.

,,Just a storyteller? Red Handed Jill may be a brave swordsman!" Wendy exclaimed.

Astounded silence was replaced by laughter.

,,Brave or not," said Pan. ,,I shall cut her throat."

The string of excitement withered in her chest, and a layer of cold iron wrapped her mind. She grabbed a sword from the nearest boy in the crowd without letting go of Peter's eyes.

,,Then ready yourself Peter Pan. For I am Red Handed Jill."

Peters jaw hardened, and his sunburnt, boyish face paled.

,,Wendy…" sounded it weakly from her astounded brother.

,,Yes John," Wendy said, without losing Pan's gaze. ,,Your sister has been invited to piracy."

Pan stepped forward with a pair of eyes that made Wendy walk a tiny step backwards.

,,But mother… Hook is a feint!"

,,And a banter!" Wendy didn't listen to the boys' objections.

,,On the contrary. I find captain Hook to be a man of feelings." She held Pans gaze and raised an eyebrow.

kitsch! The sound of sparkling steel rang through the surrounding woods, along with the rattling, chirping sound of sparrows taking off from a tree, as Pans sword hit Wendy's. She made a few parades, correctly performed, but too weak to stand against Pan's cold and angry blade and its elegant, precise flight through the air. Her sword soon lay tossed in the grass and Pan's with its tip on her throat.

But Wendy held stand and pride and her voice shook only a bit when she declared:

,,Sir, you are both ungallant and deficient."

,,How am I deficient?" His voice had not quite the same confidence as his sword.

Her expression lost the smallest hint of fear as she realized it.

,,You're just a boy."

,,Are you really to be a pirate, mother?" cried her youngest brother.

She looked at him, but her gaze was far away from the chirping, spring green glade she stood in.

It was her adventures at Neverland which appeared inside her head; the island appearing before her eyes with tree covered mountains and a blue sky a head, dirty, brown faces staring down at her with bows in their hands, slick, gloomy mermaids bathed in moonlight, orange skinned Indians howling around a bonfire, fairies dancing around her, Peter...

One picture stroke out for her eyes: A dark pair of boots walking by her hiding-place on a moonlit night. The pale, piercing profile with the majestically, curled black mane of the Great and Widely Feared Pirate Captain, suddenly lit up by a crashing thunder.

Suddenly the features of the pirate captain transformed into the gentlemanly, slick-haired, glasses wearing ones of her father, flimsy and strict, but always kind. She felt her mother's gentle and calm presence like a steady river. Wendy realized that though she loved them both, she felt no desire of taking over their steady, predictable lives, which meaning seemed ungraspable for her at the moment. It seemed hidden behind a veil of bared tedium and heavy responsibility, of French grammar, tea visits and the making of apple pies.

Flush! Her line of thoughts was pierced by a keel shooting through tinkling, foreign waves. She saw herself as the Pirate Queen rushing forward along with the uncontrollable wind; straight, wild, desired by all and dangerous like a quivering knife. She would experience strange, foreign countries at daylight, and be the storyteller of her own amazing adventures at nightfall.

,,Yes I am.".

Pan shook his head gravely and turned away from her. The lost boys and her brothers just looked at her in disbelief. Wendy felt she was in a trance as she walked straight to her brothers, kissing them each on their foreheads, where after she swept into the consuming line of trees without looking back.