Chapter 4: Around the Fire

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Ella loved the sound of the music. The way the drum thrummed and fire crackled and the wood the Lost Boys carried snapped soon had her on her feet. She skipped to stay in time with all the taller boys around her. She spun a circle every once and a while and twisted her arms in time with the music. Peter stood and started play his flute. He stood so close to the fire, Ella almost feared he would catch fire. Almost. The new slow enticing sound made Ella want to dance even more, made her want to get lost in the sway. She took a step forward out of the boy's circle and began a new dance to her own beat. Her arms were stretched out, one up and one down and she stepped in timed circles with the music. The music made her want to sing. She let a few notes float into the air and the boys looked around at this new development. She vocalized with the music carrying out low long notes that stretched up into higher sounds. All the while she never stopped dancing.

The boys protested when Ella finally stopped singing and sat down on outside of their everlasting circle of dance. She wanted to kept going but just couldn't bring herself to it. She was comforted by the fact that every night could be like this is she wanted it to be. She looked behind her where the forest awaited her, it was pitch black and she was barely able to outline anything, even by the light of the fire. She stared into the blackness that contained all the secrets of Neverland.

"Afraid of the dark?" A voice asked from behind her. She turned and saw Peter coming over to her. She moved over so that they could share the log she was sitting and shook her head.

"Never been afraid of the dark." She said, looking back into the dark, "Everyone else is afraid of it because it contains the unknown. For me it always just made me curious as to what secrets the dark concealed. Its an adventure, a taunting one." She looked back at Peter, "Does that make sense?"

He nodded at her, "That's not how most people would see it." He mused.

Ella laughed lightly. "No, I think you've made it apparent that I am different."

"That's not such a bad thing to be," he said in mock defense.

"I know," she said. "But it would be nice to know why."

Pan fell silent at that and Ella looked at him searching his face. He wasn't telling her something and she felt slightly offended because she put trust in him and he wasn't returning the favor. She considered whether or not he would tell if she asked and decided it was worth a shot.

"You know why, don't you?" She said and fixed her gaze in the fire. For some reason she felt like whatever he would say in response to the question wasn't going to be good. She wasn't afraid to fall to her death before, wasn't afraid to fly before, wasn't afraid of the fire, and wasn't afraid of the dark. Yet for some reason she feared Pan's next words. He fiddled with his pipe and swayed side to side. Ella thought he wasn't going to say anything at all but eventually he did.

"Finding you, bring you here, was no accident. Just as you had said." He began. "You are the first girl to come to Neverland since before you realm was even born."

"But why? What's so special about me? What was so special about Edwin?" Ella's voice faded away at her brother's name and again for a moment there was silence.

"There is a fairy, not from this land, but still she comes and goes between the realms. She is Reul Ghorm, otherwise known as the Blue Fairy. When a person has a true wish she will appear to them to grant it. I did not even know I was wishing at all until she came down in front off me. I asked what it was I wished for and she said that I wished to find the piece of Neverland that was missing. As soon as she said it I knew it to be true. Neverland was young and free, and so too was it reckless and dark and never ending. I asked her what was missing. She replied that it was not a what, but a who that I lacked. She told me of a house in your realm and said that there would be a child. A child who would possess the heart of the truest believer, the one who would make Neverland complete. You were not yet born the first time I visited that house. I thought that the child whom the fairy had spoken of was your brother. But that cannot be now. It's you Ella. I did not believe at first, and for that I am sorry. But I have lived many countless years and I have never witnessed any belief more powerful than yours. It must be you."

Ella could tell that Pan was finished with his story and she let out a breath she didn't she'd been holding. She considered asking him if he was sure that he was right, that maybe Neverland's savior hadn't even been born yet. But somehow she couldn't believe he would have brought her here if he weren't sure. She still couldn't grasp that she was this truest believer he spoke of, yet seeing the lost boys reaction to her journey was did solidify his theory. Could she handle this much responsibility? Hadn't she always?

She looked at Peter. His eyes were already searching her. She saw something that she knew wasn't supposed to be there: Fear, worry, desperation. He needed this to be true, but still he was afraid she would try to… leave? Perhaps that was it, because Ella it would seem was the only one who actually could without Pan.

"Do you believe you are the savior?" Pan asked quietly

Ella thought about that before saying, "I could believe it. I don't see it right now though, I'm just a girl, I don't know how to use magic, I still don't even know how big the island is, let alone how to change its destiny."

"You don't need to know. It'll just happen, destiny always does. As for your magic, I think you do know how to use it. Its not something a believer has to practice but rather something that just happens."

Ella fell quiet at that. She looked around the camp distantly. Some of the smaller boys had fallen asleep on the ground, one with a large belly was snoring loudly. Peter's word's still rang in her head. And when she thought about it now her connection to the gate had seemed natural, not like a task that needed to be focused on but rather something she was meant to do. She had felt so tranquil, so calm. Just like Pan and the fire. There was harmony between the two so then there was no resulting disaster. If it was something ran on belief then just maybe…

Ella stood and crossed the distance to the dwindling fire. She took a breath and closed her eyes reaching out toward the flames. There was warmth. Just warmth and even when she stretched further still no burn. She opened her eyes and saw her own arm immersed to the elbow in the flames, completely unscathed. She huffed out a breath of excitement and pulled back her arm.

Pan's voice came from very close behind her, "Do you believe now?"

Ella had to admit, she was starting to. She moved so that she was sitting cross-legged very close to the fire. Pan sat with her and they simply sat watching the fire and listening to the chaos of the lost boys slowly fade to sleep. After a while Peter broke the silence with a whispered question.

"What did you mean before when you said you needed me?"

Ella almost forgot the scene in her room; she clasped her nervous hands together. "After Edwin died my parents they… Changed. My mother, it was like she couldn't bear living any more. My father became, quite the monster." She touched the scar inside her palm. Peter noticing the action took her wrist to view the scar.

"Did he do this?" He asked, anger tainting his calm demeanor. Ella shook her head.

"He would throw tantrums and break the dished and mirrors and basically anything that would break. He did it about once a week and the next day I would clean it all up. A piece of glass caught me bad here and neither of them would take me to a doctor so it healed up pretty ugly." Peter looked appalled, and Ella shrugged. "It happened a couple times…"

Pan laid his hand on the scar and Ella felt a flash of heat. Looking down she saw the scar was gone. "You won't need ugly reminders anymore. We're your family now and we're going to look out for you."

Ella smiled flexing her hand. "You know it's kind of hard to believe this place needs saving at all. It's been a dream come true."

Pan smiled tightly. "You'll see, sooner or later." The resignation in his voice put Ella ill at ease. The fire was dying and the world was going to black. She was about to ask Peter more questions when a boy started to scream. It appeared she was going to see what Pan was talking about sooner than she thought.