A roaring fire set shadows dancing through the darkness. Tigerlily stared into the blaze, her gaze matching its intensity. Once or twice, a shadow would flicker in this specific way that she couldn't put her finger on. Nevertheless, it always caught her eye, made her look up in surprise and see her people resting, speaking in hushed worried tones. They're afraid. They want to go home. We cannot stay here.
The touch of a hand on her shoulder made her jump. "Oh, it's you, Mother Willow," sighed Tigerlily, trying to settle her heart. The elderly woman took a seat on the ground next to her, worry creasing her already lined face. "Are you alright?" she asked as she held her hands out to warm them. "Not scared, are you?"
Tigerlily looked astonished. "Mother Willow!" She forced a laugh that surprisingly didn't feel forced. "When am I ever afraid? Neverland is only a temporary situation. We will stay here for a time to regroup and then we will return home, ready to reclaim what is ours."
Mother Willow looked at her for a moment in silence, as if unsure whether or not to believe her young charge. Tigerlily did have a penchant for exaggerating. But in another moment, her face relaxed into a broad smile. "Let us hope so, little one," she replied as she leaned over to kiss Tigerlily's forehead. She resisted the impulse to squirm away. Flower. Little one.
Long after Mother Willow retired to her sleeping mat, Tigerlily stayed by the fire's remains, looking into the glowing embers. All her life, she had been patronized and talked down to and all her life, she'd tried to prove herself worthy of better treatment. Why should this attempt be any different? Her eyes drifted to the trees again, her mind to the unknown that stood beyond it. Maybe... this time she wouldn't just be a liability. She would explore, discover what the tribe was up against. Maybe that would garner some respect.
Standing slowly, Tigerlily walked, quickly and quietly, out of the clearing her people had claimed earlier that evening and into the forest. Into the home of shadows.
It had been barely half an hour before she heard his voice. "Not lost, are you?"
Tigerlily didn't jump. She didn't squeal or squeak. She simply let the leaf she'd been examining fall and turned to look at him. Let him see that she didn't scare so easy. "I couldn't sleep," she muttered, hesitantly trying to do the curtsy Lewis had attempted to teach her. He'd given up soon after he'd begun, complaining of poor posture and asserting that she'd never really have to use it anyway.
Peter didn't seem to care much about her poor posture, though. "I appreciate the gesture, but there's no need for that here," he assured her, a lazy smirk proudly displayed on his face for the whole world to see. "Neverland doesn't care much for etiquette. And neither do I."
She nodded, feeling rather relieved. If constant curtsying had been one of his rules, the Indians would've had to leave the island right away.
A moment passed. And then another.
When it became apparent to her that he wasn't going to leave, she figured she may as well utilize him. "I don't recognize this plant," she said, pointing to the leaf she'd been so interested in. He walked over, his thumbs resting in the loops of his belt. "That doesn't surprise me," he replied. "It's native to Neverland. Most plants here are."
He wasn't looking at the plant when Tigerlily looked back at him. He was looking at her, full in the face, his eyes of ice inquisitive. "What?" she snapped, her brain reminding her moments later that this was the ruler who had so kindly allowed her people to stay in his land only hours before and no, that was probably not the way to speak to him.
His eyebrow arched and, though she'd seen people do that thousands of times, somehow on him, it looked ridiculously threatening. Was she just being distrustful? Probably. But she had a feeling he deserved it. "Is there a problem? I was only looking at you," he told her. Tigerlily bit back the retort that 'was' implied that he had stopped.
"It's the way you're looking at me," she huffed, glancing around to make sure no one from camp had followed her into the forest. When her eyes moved back to Peter, he was even closer to her. "How am I looking at you?" He smirked, so pleased with himself. Too pleased. "Tigerlily, was it? Sounds like Lillian, do you mind Lillian?" He didn't wait for her to respond. "You seem a little jumpy, Lillian. Are you frightened?" Clearly, someone needed to knock Peter Pan off his high horse. And that someone would be her.
"No," Tigerlily replied, glaring up into his face. "I fear nothing."
Peter laughed, shook his head. "Really. It's not good form to lie to people," he said. Her blood boiled. She knew that tone, that patronizing, you-don't-know-what-you're-talking-about voice. Forget about how he should be spoken to; he deserved an arrow through his forehead for speaking to the daughter of a chief that way. For speaking to her that way.
"What about dying?" he mused, now circling around her, an animal eyeing its prey. She gave him a steady look. "Fearing death is useless," she replied coolly.. "It is inevitable. It will claim us all eventually. After I die, my soul will be reborn into another form; therefore, I will never truly die."
He frowned the slightest bit. "That's not exactly certain here," he explained. "On Neverland, a person never grows any older. I've looked this way for quite a few years now."
Her brows rose. Could this be true? It doesn't matter. "We are not staying." She added a polite smile at the end for effect.
Apparently, he didn't like that answer.
Peter's eyes grew darker, angrier. A scowl was firmly etched into his features. "What about your father dying, your grandmother?" he spat, his eyebrows drawn down low. Tigerlily shrugged, picking through strands of her hair as if he were boring her. "Their deaths are also inevitable, Peter. They will be missed, but I will become chief and I will guide my people. And then I will die and someone else will guide them."
A warmth began in her belly and spread to her limbs, loosening their stiffness, making her glow, making her grin. Whether it was accidental or purposeful, he was forcing her to realize something she'd hoped for all her life. For once, Tigerlily understood she really, truly did not fear anything. Not pain, not sickness, not heights or water or even the white man. Long ago, she'd thought she did. Even an hour ago, she'd thought she did. But now, standing in front of this boy who seemed able to inspire more terror in her people than any man she'd ever known, she could admit to herself that any fear she felt was feigned.
"I told you." She looked up at Peter, her delight obvious on her face. "I fear nothing. You do not scare me, and you never will."
This was long before Tigerlily learned of the games Peter Pan liked to play, and how absolutely irresistible he found a challenge.
With his head cocked to one side, Peter's face shifted instantly. He looked almost puzzled. "Is that so?" he wondered aloud, touching his fingers to his lips. Then he snapped his fingers and shadows flowed out of the woods and her knife slashed through pure darkness and something hissed and her arms were behind her and she couldn't remember putting them there.
Someone lay hunched on the ground, hands over his face, soundless but breathing. While Tigerlily struggled with the boy who'd restrained her, Peter moved to the figure. "Felix..." The name was almost a question. Felix lifted his head and blood dripped down his cheek to the forest floor. Tigerlily's knife was on the ground in front of him, moonlight glinting off the blade.
It was too dark to see exactly what damage she'd done, but she sincerely hoped that the wound would bleed forever.
Peter was back in front of her then, his hand holding her head up, his eyes on hers. "You don't fear me, Tigerlily?" he snarled. He reminded her of a wild animal, looking gentle from afar, but ready to bite anything and everything once you came closer. "Then I'll make you. From this moment onward, you are my prisoner."
She bared her teeth at him, wishing that she hadn't deliberately walked so far away from camp. But wait. Wasn't the point of her expedition to gain respect? Certainly, Peter's would be more valuable than her tribe's, and much more hard won.
"Taking me captive will not make me fear you, Pan."
The corners of his lips curled upwards as he looked down at her, his smile mischievous. "No? Well, perhaps this will. Maybe if I kidnap you and then free you and then kidnap you again when you least expect it, you'll learn to fear me," he laughed. "It's true that nothing scares you, Tigerlily, but I can see that there's a deep love of freedom in you."
It was true. Since she'd been subdued, she hadn't stopped struggling, not even once Peter had begun to speak.
He nodded at the boy behind her. "Toss her in a cage for the night, we'll release her in the morning." The boy nodded once and turned around, forcing the straining girl forward with the point of his own knife. Peter followed, calling a "Get up, Felix" over his shoulder.
And so it came to be that Tigerlily became a sort of prize on Neverland. Peter would have the lost boys steal her away every so often and when Hook came to Neverland, even he would join in on the fun. For a time, she lived in fear of being abducted every moment.
But then she realized that that was exactly what Peter wanted. Fear of what he might do was no different from fear of him. The instant she realized was the very instant she stopped struggling. And the day she didn't struggle was the day Peter Pan decided that his game was over.
Tigerlily was no longer the prize. Tigerlily was an opponent.