Prologue

Lost Wings

"Don't you worry, evil Pan; your plan will work, your plan, your plan!" it sang, a maniac giggle falling from its lips as it crouched in the corner, concealed by the thick shadows that coated the cave in black. Not even a drip could break the silence when no one was with the creature, nothing could break the silence that had made the creature insane. "But when I escape you shall be doomed; and then you will be also entombed!"

"Be quiet you crazy old hag; Peter Pan can never be destroyed!" said the ignorant masculine voice of someone who adored the person he was speaking about. Standing towards the front of the cave near the entrance, a tall and lanky boy clad in a knee-length cloak that swirled around him, was holding a torch high above his head. His knee-high boots were laced up and his muddied trousers were tucked into them to prevent them from snagging unhelpfully on anything. His cowl, although low over his face, could not disguise the gnarled scar on his face and several tufts of unkempt blonde hair poked out from under his hood.

Holding up a hand to silence him, Pan glared at the boy. "Be quiet Felix," he hissed, taking a hesitant step into the darkness.

Dirty-blonde hair swept aside, there was nothing to hide Pan's mischievous emerald eyes that had captured many a heart before. He was tall but not nearly as tall as his follower, Felix, who was at current leaning forward slightly as he stretched his arm to hold the torch further ahead of him. Pan had an athletic body over which he wore clothing that was made up of greens and browns all quilted together, and a dark bandanna was wrapped around his neck to chase away the damp cold of the cave. Wearing knee-high boots that were laced tightly and cuffs tied around his wrists, almost every part of skin was covered except for his face.

Taking a hesitant step forward, Felix cringed as the wet slap echoed off the walls and Pan shot him a furious glare, telling him to retreat before something went wrong. Felix did so and took several backwards steps towards the entrance, his hands tightening their grasp on his wooden cudgel that was slung over his shoulder.

A yelp shot out and Felix's cudgel was being brandished in front of him within moments, his grey eyes searching the darkness for his leader who had been swallowed by the shadows. A shift in the black told Felix where the creature was and within moments he had sprinted into the darkness and bowled the creature to the ground, the torch falling from his grasp and rolling out of reach. Pan, who had previously been pinned by the shoulders, was finally released as he leapt to his feet.

Pan had cast a spell on the cave to prevent anyone from using magic within its boundaries and it was clear he was now regretting that decision.

Crouching over the creature, Felix was taken aback when he met a pair of all too familiar blue eyes that were glittering in the dark, staring wide-eyed at him from the ground. Releasing the creature's shoulders, Felix stumbled away and watched in terror as the creature rose to its feet. Pan had caught the torch and was holding it towards the creature's face, proving Felix's suspicions.

"How will I find it? Where is it? Where is he?" Pan demanded, waving the torch back and forth, the creature's eyes following it hungrily as if it truly was an animal.

Silence followed, not even a drip to prevent anyone going insane like the creature had, but surely Felix had gone insane also? Surely the face in front of him wasn't...

"A-Aldora?" he stuttered, the word tasting like dried honey that was old and unused. "B-but it can't be you! Y-you're not here; you're h-home! A-Aldora had wings, y-you don't have w-wings!" But her eyes told him all he needed to know: his old friend, the one whom he had been led to believe was back at home in the Enchanted Forest, was in fact the seer imprisoned in the Echo Caves by Pan over the last twenty years. It was enough to drive anyone insane, but not enough for someone to lose their wings, surely? "W-where are your w-wings, Aldora?"

After a moment, her blue eyes left his and instead turned on Pan who had been examining them as they exchanged words. Felix's stomach knotted.

Surely not? Surely the person he had adored for years, surely the person he had scrambled to obey, surely the person he had dreamed of pleasing hadn't stolen his old friend's wings. Surely not...

"He did it; Pan did it," she confirmed, causing Felix lean against the wall for support, eyes locked on something in the black that he wasn't sure was there, all colour draining from his already pale face.

Was it really Aldora? Aldora had had wings black as midnight and hair red as the bleeding sun; Aldora had had skin as tanned as a shepherd boy's and lips as soft as a feather. This girl, this creature, brought to life by the dim and eerie golden light of the torch, had limp orange hair, skin paler than the moon and lips that were chapped and bleeding. However, if he really squinted, if he really tried to see, he could see a slight hunch between her shoulder blades, and if he looked even harder he could see the black stumps that had once connected her wings to her body. This trembling, naked pale form was not the Aldora he knew, but it was Aldora all the same, and her pain and misery had been caused by the same person Felix had been falling over himself to obey.

He did it.

But surely the person who had loved Aldora even more than Felix had himself wouldn't destroy the person they knew? A person beautiful and brave and strong?

Pan did it.

Felix knew the truth, he knew what he had to do, he knew it would haunt him forever but he had sworn an allegiance, sworn to protect, so he approached Pan, ripped the dagger from the sheathe and turned on his victim.

Pan would pay.

And then he plunged his dagger into their heart, deep until the blood seeped from the wound into a river under his feet, and a pair of familiar, pain-filled eyes met his.

"Well done, Felix," Pan muttered from behind him.

Aldora's lifeless body fell limp at his feet. She was dead.

I know it's sad and kind of depressing and scary, but it had to happen for my story! Sorry :( For the rest of the story it will be Aldora's story: how she arrived in Neverland, her relationship with each of the boys, why Pan trapped her in the Echo Caves... You get the picture. I'll try and post again soon!