Pan

By Birdy

Based on the story Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie

Chapter 1

There always has been one child who has never grown up and never will grow up -- or at least there is only one at a time. There has been on occasion a time when the child must grow up, leaving the job to someone else.

In fact, this has only happened once. There has been one such boy who had to grow up.

Most children know about Peter Pan, the boy who will never grow up, but not many people know about Pan. This Pan is not the Peter you know, but is really Philip Arthur Nord. Since he thought his name was dull he only allows anyone to call him Pan. Sometimes he did not even remember his real name.

Now, Pan was also a boy who would never grow up, but he was alive before Peter ever came into the picture. He lived on an island created by the dreams of children. There was a lagoon with mermaids and a rock pirates would tie prisoners too. There were Indians always silently hunting down the fearsome pirates led by their captain Blackbeard. There was a gorgeous jungle and a tall mountain. The best part of all was that there were adventures packed in so tightly that not a day could go by before you experienced dozens of them. The island was known as Neverland.

Pan lived on Neverland playing with the fairies and wild animals. When he found as many adventures as he could stand that were on the island, he would take to the sky and fly with all the happy thoughts he possessed. He'd jump on the clouds and play tricks on the stars. He'd fly rings around the sun because he knew it was so slow that it could never catch him.

His laughter could be heard for miles on a bright sunny day and Pan was always seen with a smug grin for he was proud of everything he did. He was the boy that would never grow up, or at least that is what everyone thought.

The island was a place created from the imagination and dreams of children around the world. What would happen if they stopped dreaming? The island would become a very sad place.

There was a time, although not for more than a few years, when children forgot to dream and imagine. They were obsessed with being grown up and grown ups have no time for that sort of nonsense.

Without the hearts of children to support Neverland, everything began to go wrong, but Pan never saw what would happen for another few years.

When the obsession with adulthood had begun, Pan had been on a trip to visit a city. He had been bored with his island and decided to go chimney hopping (one must jump from one chimney to another without falling in, it can be quite difficult). Pan was enjoying himself so much that he completely missed a rope thrown into the air at him until it had begun to pull him towards an open window.

Ha! He thought, this will be a synch to escape from. Normally, this would be the case, but he suddenly found he had not the strength to fight the pull. While children still dreamt of him and his island, nothing could beat him, but remember that since children had begun to forget about dreams and such, he was loosing his strength.

This does not mean he could not move, of course. Pan fought like a wild cat to break free, but at each second he became closer and closer and closer until he found himself on the edge of the windowsill.

Inside, he immediately saw a young man staring at him and holding the end of the rope.

"Are you Pan?" The young man asked, his intentions were still unclear to Pan at this point, but of course the young man knew. Henry Oswald Oscar King was 20 years old and determined to catch the boy who could never grow up.

Henry grew up an orphan, he sadly had no mother or father, so he had to grow up very quickly to take care of himself. He never dreamed of adventures or any type of thought a normal child would. When the other children would talk about an island called Neverland, he would listen very closely, but never really cared about it. At least until he heard about a little boy who lived there.

When Henry found out that this boy, Pan, would never grow up, he became very jealous. There was that boy having an endless childhood while he, Henry, had simply skipped over it! With this thought always pounding into his head, he decided that if he had no childhood, neither would Pan.

For years he waited for a chance to capture his enemy, but the chance never came around until he looked out his window to see a young boy chimney hopping. He knew of no other little boys who could fly, so he immediately knew that it was Pan. He grabbed a rope and made it into a lasso to pull him in.

The two stared at each other while Pan answered Henry's question: "Are you Pan?"

"Yes" Pan said. "And you must release me."

Henry was startled to hear this so quickly after meeting Pan that he did not respond immediately. He did recover his senses soon though and a cruel grin spread across his face.

"Never, Pan." While this was his answer to Pan's question, Henry also meant this as a reply to Pan growing up. Before Pan could fight back, Henry grabbed a blunt object and used it to knock the adventurous boy unconscious.

---------------

When Pan came to, he discovered his hands and feet were tied and he was sitting in a metal cage without any weapons. He was helpless and upset, so he began to cry.

"Why are you crying little boy?" Pan heard a girl's voice say. When he lifted his head, he found a curious pair of eyes staring intently at him. These eyes belonged to a 10 year old girl. She had curly brown hair that she had pulled back with a light pink ribbon. She sat very calmly on the floor in front of him.

Before he even opened his mouth to answer, the girl asked another question. "Who are you?"

This time, Pan knew what was going on and was able to answer immediately.

"I am Philip Arthur Nord." He said with pride. It was at times like these when he was able to remember his full name. When the girl realized he wasn't going to ask her of her own name, she supplied it herself.

"I'm Mary King. It's nice to meet you." She said politely and stood up to give a small curtsey.

"Is that all?" was all Pan had to say.

"Yes." Mary replied, not really offended, she did not get offended very easily. She liked her name. "And do you not have something shorter? I am not sure I can remember all of that, Philip Ar..art…um…"

Philip Arthur Nord interrupted her. "You can call me Pan."

Mary smiled happily since Pan was much easier to remember. "Alright Pan!" She said, testing his nickname. Suddenly her face became one of surprise, shock, and maybe awe. A thought had suddenly sprung into her head.

"Do you mean Pan as in 'The Boy Who Will Never Grow Up'? Are you saying you are the Pan?" Mary hurriedly asked. Pan's face glowed with pride. He was famous!

"Of course!" was all he could say and crowed in his joy as it was something he normally did when he was happy.

His crowing was very loud and quickly brought a certain young man into the windowless room the two children were in. The two of them jumped when he suddenly walked into the room and slammed the door. Pan knocked his head on the top of his cage when he jumped in shock, for it was not very large.

Henry took one glance and understood the situation immediately.

"Mary!" He practically roared at the girl. "I thought I told you not to go into this room. Leave at once!" Adults are very good at yelling and getting others to listen to them, so it is not unexpected that Mary stood up right after he said that.

"Of course, father" she said and hurried like a little lady out of the room with one last glance at Pan. He was crouched like a lioness hunting her prey, but inside of a cage and without claws or weapons. Frankly, Henry was not impressed at all.

"The 'boy who is forever a child' has woken up I see." He sneered at the boy in the cage. "Are you going to try and kill me? Try all you want, you will never escape that cage. I have caught you and you will remain there forever." Henry grinned cruelly at Pan. "The great Pan who can fight, fly, and is the great slayer of pirates, has been caught. How does it feel? No one will ever rescue you." He laughed, finding pleasure in taunting his helpless prey.

"I don't need to be rescued!" Pan indignantly argued, "I can rescue myself!"

"Then why have you not escaped from that cage yet?" Henry replied. "If you are so wonderful then why not escape and let us hear you crow once more!" He knew that no matter what his prisoner tried, he would not escape. Henry had complete power and was lavishing in the feeling.

"You will never escape Pan, never! You will stay here and suffer the worst fate you can imagine."

"I do not fear death, it is but another adventure!" Pan prepared himself for the stab of a sword or the bullet of a gun, but the pain never came. When he looked up at the man's eyes, he saw cruelty and all things to make him shake in fear. Indeed, Pan did have a reason to fear.

"Death? That is but a mere trifle. I would not subject that to you. Oh no, I have something much worse." Henry came right up to the bars of the cage and whispered into Pan's ear, "You will live in this cage forever. I will make you grow up."

Laughing evilly, Henry stood up and glided out of the room, feeling quite joyful. Pan on the other hand, froze for a moment, curled up into a ball, and began to cry.

Author's note:

This story I started writing around the begininng of Nov. 2006 after finally watching the 2003 Peter Pan movie. I actually wrote the first three chapters in one go, but I have not written anymore since. I just don't have the time, but I fully intend to finish it eventually. It may be months before chapters 4+ are up, but I want everyone to enjoy the chapters I do have available. I hope you enjoy reading it!