Many years ago, fairies lived peacefully in Never Land, in a place called Pixie Hollow. They were ruled by their queen, Clarion. The guardian of the island, Mother Dove, lived in the top of a grand maple tree called the Pixie Dust Tree. Very few fairies even knew Mother Dove existed. The dove was a close companion of Queen Clarion.
Each fairy had a different talent. A fairy named Tinker Bell was a tinker fairy. A fairy named Fawn was an animal fairy. A fairy named Nyx was a scout fairy. A fairy named Terence was a dust-keeper fairy. There were many other talents, too.
One day, the tinker fairy named Tinker Bell was flying around Never Land. She was more adventurous than most, and she loved to venture outside Pixie Hollow. She was one of the few fairies that knew about Mother Dove. Many things had happened to her. She had almost ruined spring, broken the blue moonstone, met a human girl, found out she had a twin sister, had temporarily become a water fairy, and had become friends with the Neverbeast, Gruff.
Tinker Bell's nickname was Tink. She was close friends with a few fairies from other talents. There was Vidia, a fast-flying fairy, Rosetta, a garden fairy, Iridessa, a light fairy, Fawn, an animal fairy, Silvermist, a water fairy, and Zarina, a dust-keeper fairy. Her sister's name was Periwinkle, a frost fairy who lived on the winter side of the border.
Today, Tink was flying over the ocean. She suddenly saw something floating on a broken raft. She flew closer. When she saw what it was, she gasped. A redheaded human boy was floating on a raft, about to be eaten by a shark!
Tink flew directly over the boy's head. He looked up. Throwing caution to the wind, Tink yelled, "Fly, silly boy, fly!"
But the boy didn't know how to fly, and he also didn't have any pixie dust. Tink showed him how to position his body, then sprinkled pixie dust on him.
The boy rose. He gasped in amazement, then flew away from the shark. The angry shark tried to chase him, but it couldn't get out of the water high enough. The boy and Tinker Bell flew away, laughing.
"What is your name?" Tink asked the boy once they were a safe distance away from the shark.
"Peter. Peter Pan," the boy replied. "What is your name?"
"Tinker Bell," Tink replied.
"Tinker Bell, what a nice name," Peter said.
Tink was surprised. The only other human she'd met, a girl named Lizzy, couldn't understand fairies. To her, fairy words just sounded like jingles. Tinker Bell wondered why this Peter Pan could understand her.
In fact, most humans can't understand most fairies. There are a few humans who have the Gift of being able to understand all fairies, and a few fairies who can speak loud enough to be heard by humans.
Peter Pan didn't have the Gift. The reason he could understand Tinker Bell was because he was in Never Land. If any human child comes to Never Land, the child will be able to understand what fairies are saying forevermore. If adults come to Never Land, though, they will still be unable to understand fairies. It is also possible to learn the fairy language, but it takes a very long time. Captain Hook learned the fairy language, but it took him years.
Tink didn't know all that. All she knew was that this boy knew what she was saying. She liked him from the start.
Then Tink noticed his ears. Unlike other humans, his ears were pointed like a fairy's!
"Why do you have fairy ears?" asked Tink in surprise.
"What?" Peter cried. Then he realized what she meant. "Oh, you mean my ears are pointed?" he said. "I don't know, actually."
Tinker Bell realized that when the boy had laughed for the first time as a baby, some of the laugh must have stayed with him and given him fairylike ears. There were incomplete fairies that lived in Pixie Hollow. One of them must have been Peter's laugh.
"What are you doing on Never Land?" asked Tink.
"I've lived here for a few months," Peter Pan said. "I was in a ship. Then I woke up here, on the shore."
Tink scratched her head. She hadn't known that this human had lived here for a few months!