Lilly awoke with a start. She hadn't even realized that she had dozed off, leaning there against the smooth trunk of the tree. Yelling and the clanging of metal filled the forest, and in an instant she was up on her feet and running toward the sound as fast as her legs would carry her. Breaking through the bushes of a clearing, she stopped in her tracks at the sight before her. The entire clearing was a war zone! She picked out the boys she had watched yesterday, and old men dressed almost like pirates! Lilly's eyes widened when she picked out Smee among them! He was trying to fight, but also trying not to hurt anyone. The tallest of the boys dashed over and made a jab for him, almost hitting.

Instinct took over and in less than a second Lilly was running as fast as greased lightning towards the two. Grabbing up a dagger than had fallen by the wayside, she slashed out at the boy, not even thinking about the fact that he was years younger than she was as she stood over Smee's trembling form. With a fierce growl, her eyes dared him to take one step closer. The boy's eyes widened and his jaw dropped as she held the dagger up defensively and snarled again. Everything in the clearing stopped and everyone turned to look at her, but most surprised of all was the tall man at the opposite edge of the clearing. That man gave quiet orders to the ruffian beside him, and then slipped off through the forest so he would not be seen. The rest of the men stayed, waiting to see what would happen.

Chancing a glance down at Smee, Lilly nodded for him to get to a safer place. He still looked shock to see her standing there, and he glanced worriedly between the two, but Lilly stood firm. Turning back to face the boy, she held the dagger up to block anything that he might try to pull. They began slowly circling around each other, making sure to keep out of range of the other's blade. She glared hard into his eyes, her loyalty to her friend making her forget everything else. The only thing that kept her from attacking him was the fact that he hadn't actually hurt the old man. A little boy cried out from the sidelines, "Go on Peter, you can whoop her!"

Lilly's eyes filled with surprise. So this was Peter, a leader? He was only a boy himself! The boy called Peter took this moment of opportunity to strike. Suddenly everything was in slow motion to Lilly. She swung her dagger blade up to meet his descending one, and with one loud clash, the fight was on! Jumping back and forth to dodge swipes at each other, and lunging, each blow was completely met and blocked by another. It was truly a sight to see. After many tries, Lilly finally saw her chance and threw herself forward. To her shock, she landed on the ground where he had been! She whirled over and looked up to see him floating in air, and this time her jaw was the one to drop open. Could it be that he was possibly flying?

Her breath coming in a shudder, very slowly she sat up and stared up at him, grinning like a child who had just won a fight. Which was exactly what he was did, Lilly realized. "How did you…" she gaped up at him. He drifted down to the ground beside her, and extended his hand to help her up. She took it and looked down at him, still in utter amazement. Suddenly the crowd around them burst into applause. "That was the best fight we ever saw'd!" the boys cried out. Lilly's face quickly heated up to a bright red. She searched the crowd for Smee, and took a step towards him. "Are you alright?" she asked. She had to admit she was worried about him; he looked like he had almost had a heart attack!

Smee could barely breathe; what if he had hurt Lilly? What was she doing here in the first place? There were so many unanswered questions; it was all so overwhelming.

With one last backward glance at Peter, she took the old man by the arm and led him a little ways from the clearing. Coming upon the beach again, they sat down on a large log that had fallen it seemed quite a while ago.

After he had caught his breath, Lilly leaned forward a little and asked him. "What are you doing here, friend?"

"What am I doing here? What are you doing here?" Smee looked like he was about to go into hysterics, and the girl patted his arm until he could calm down a little. "I'm sorry," he apologized. I'm just so surprised to see ya here."

"Well, honestly so am I."

Smee took a deep breath and let it out in a shudder, realizing the time he had feared had finally arrived. "You don't know why you're here?" he asked, stalling for even just a few more moments. Lilly nodded and waited for him to go on.

"I'm not sure you're going to believe all this, but here goes: I suppose you have already figured out you're on an island. This island is called Neverland. I live here with the Cap'n and the rest of his men. We're pirates, you see. The boys you encountered back there are called de Lost boys. They ain't as defenseless as they look; Peter's taught 'em well in the ways of the sword. There's also Indians, wild animals – especially a crocodile, and . . . fairies."

Smee paused a moment to let all that sink in. Lilly looked down at the sand and showed a tiny smile. "Yes," she said quietly. "I know about the fairies." Smee just blinked at her twice, and as if to prove her point, a tiny flash of light was flying toward them from the treeline.

"Lilly Lilly Lillly!" the tiny fairy Afreeda called out as she zoomed toward them. "There you are, what happened? I heard battle in the Great Clearing, and when I got there, everyone was congratulating Peter on defeating a stranger girl! I was so afraid something had happened to you." Smee was trying to figure out what she was saying, for although he had lived on this island many many years, he had not been around the fairies long enough to learn their language. The best he could make out was a few words here and there, such as "Peter", and "Clearing", and "Battle."

"Well, don't worry too much about it now, Afreeda." Lilly comforted. "As you can see, I'm alright now."

"You're just full of surprises, ain't ya, lass?" Smee mumbled. The two girls giggled, and Smee tole them he must be getting back to check on…things. Right before he left, Lilly stopped him and asked. "Smee, is…is the Captain here too?" Hesitating for a moment, the old man nodded, and Lilly let him go, still not sure what to make of it all. She still didn't know why she was here, or how she could get home. Did she want to go back? Of course she did. But what was there at home? Nothing. It was so confusing, all of it, but Lilly knew she had to make the best of what she could at the moment. So she followed Afreeda back through the forest.