Pan stood before the blue fairy doing his best to calm his nerves. He can't do it though. Everything he is right now is nerves and he can't settle himself. He won't be able to settle himself until Ella is okay. The blue fairy and two of her assistants, a red and an orange, are fluttering around Ella.
"Well?" he asks impatiently. The blue fairy's head whips up to meet his gaze. He shaky and spastic, all over the place really but he's also confident he would walk through fire right now if he could just know what's happened too Ella. So he holds her gaze steadily throwing a glare back in return.
"There's nothing I can do for her." She says finally and the fairy holds up a hand to stop whatever words are about to come tumbling out of Pan. "The magic that is trapping her like this is flowing from the island. I can't interrupt the flow or I could kill her."
"What about me? I have magic with the island. Tell me what to do." The fairy shook her head. Pan despised her pity and he despised himself even more for knowing right now he looked like a boy that needed to be pitied,
"I do not know. Mixing the water of Neverland with the fairy dust…" She shakes her head sorrowfully. "It's never been done before. I don't know which laws apply and which do not."
"There has to be a way."
"I believe that as well. I just do not know it."
"Tell me what to do." Pan snarled at her. The fairy ran her hand through Ella's thick hair fondly with a sad expression on her delicate face.
"I do not know."
"You can't help her?"
"No."
"Then leave." His voice is cutting and cold and final. They understand his deeper meaning: Leave and never comeback. He settles on Ella's bed and takes one of her hands in both of his. She's cold but she doesn't seem to be disturbed by it in the least. She's peaceful as if she were only sleeping. The fairies leave and Pan hangs his head.
"Felix, we have to fix this." He says speaking to his closest lost boy.
"How? Your magic can't fix her."
"No, I know that I, I know." He still half barking but with the fairies gone it frustration that has nowhere to go. "But the is something to be done. The Reul Ghorm herself admits it." Pan feels like he's going to cry and Felix must sense this. He nods, his bright blonde hair flopping.
"Okay. Where do we start?"
"The lagoon. The mermaids know the water of this land better than most. Their healers night know something." Felix nods again.
"Their queen lamented the loss of our mother. She will help if she can."
"Call the others then. We'll take her down there." Felix left to fulfill his orders. A tear escaped past Pan's lashes and dropped onto Ella's waxy skin. Pan rubs it away with his thumb and takes a shuddering breath. She won't be lost to him so easily. But to help her find her way back he's got to be the strong one. How long has it been since he's had to be the strong one? Since before Ella perhaps… But even then he wasn't the strong one because there was no pair. He was merely a boy. Together they were a leader. Apart… he didn't want to think on it.
The boys carried Ella down to the shore where the Mermaids were waiting for them. A queen and two guards, and two more women who Pan assumed were the healers. The queen's crown was made up of sharp teeth and ocean pearls and it gleamed in the moonlight. Her black hair cascading down over it made it look more like it was part of her than it was an accessory. Her tail was silver and she was covered in a net of cascading pearls. Her eyes were big and wide and long and made so that it seemed like she was always looking down on you. Her face was angular and long. To Pan, she radiated regality.
"The fairies have gone." She commented in way of greeting.
"They may not return."
"The she-lander slumbers." It wasn't a question.
"Can you help her?"
"Bring her forward." She gestured for her two women to more forward with a languid motion of her webbed hand through the water. Pan ushers his boys forward with a jerk of his head. They set her on the water and the cot that she was carried on stays afloat as the two healers drag it closer to them. Her hair hangs into the water and curls happily like inky tendrils in the murk. The healer sing under their breath and their harmony rings in Pan's ears. The magic under it brushes over his skin. One of them cradles Ella's head and pushes until she's submerged under the water. As they sing, Pan watches her body convulse like she's not dreaming, but is instead trapped in nightmares and trying desperately to escape. She inhales sharply and her back arches and her eyes snap open. They focus on Pan briefly and he feels the hope flutter in his chest before she's gone limp again. The healers let her go and return to the deep. Ella seemed to fall in slow motion and the boys surged forward running into the water to catch her. Pan reaches her first and he cradles her head and spits out water to address the queen.
"What happened? Did it work?"
The queen dipped her head backward into the water listening.
"She is just beneath the surface." She tells him. Her voice is like an echo, like a whales song; distant and rich. "They were able to bring her forth for a moment but they are not powerful enough to keep her awake even for a short time."
"How did they reach her?" Pan demanded.
"The water. Neverland is much more than an island, this you know better than most. She is alive and the she-lander was blessed by her power. She shouldn't have left. The fae power keeps the land holds at bay, and should you break the curse it wouldn't be a problem again. The land is spiteful, but like all, it loves her."
"Neverland cursed her?"
"Yes."
"How do I reverse it?" The queen has a smile in her eyes that doesn't move her lips as she says,
"Only time will tell." The merfolk sink out of sight.
"Take her back to Home Mountain." He feels numb because the queen has given him an idea. He's just got to figure out where to test it out.
"Pan?" Felix finds him in his room.
"Time, Felix."
"I don't understand."
"I will cure her. I will and if I do it, then someone who can see the future will know how I do it."
"Do you know someone? Who can see the future"
"I know a little girl. A seer"
"Where?"
"In the Enchanted Forest."
"Hello." The girl was standing in the middle of the dark trees. She had to have been no more than sixteen. She was dressed in black and her blonde hair was braided back. Where her eyes should have been there was only a long jagged scar. Her voice is eerie like many people speaking at once.
"Hello." Pan said stepping forward. He wasn't at all perturbed that she knew who he was. She was a seer after all. "What's your name?"
"Irrelevant."
"Do you know why I'm here?"
"You wish to save the mother of your land."
"Yes." He swallows tightly before asking, "Do I succeed?"
"You do."
"How?" He stays calm and collected. He can't get his hopes up again.
"There is a boy…"
"What boy?"
"Who's belief is stronger even than yours. Who is with out magic, but resides in its very core." She's walking in circles around him waving her hands this way and that like a dog sniffs the air.
"Who is it?"
"The heart of the truest believer will help you restore the one you love."
"How do I find him?"
"I cannot tell you." Pan snarls and draws a blade pressing the seer back into a tree.
"I could kill you!"
"You will not." Pan growls and lowers his knife shaking in anger. She's right he will not. He turns his back on her.
"I cannot tell you. But I can show you." Before Pan he time to react she is behind him placing her hands over his eyes. Pan inhales sharply as the images flood his mind. There were pieces of the future coming in at alarming rates but at the forefront of it all he saw a boy.
His hair was dark black and wispy, he had a round nose and a smiling happy face. He held onto the image as the seer drew back into herself and away from him.
"This boy will save her?"
"The heart of the truest believer will help you restore the one you love." She says again with a nod.
"If you are a liar I will return."
"I do not lie, but you will return when these words come true: Your love will wake at the dusk of the day the fire flowers bloom. I will be gone by then but my successor will be here waiting. Promise me you will be kind to her, for the rest of the world will not."
"If you are honest, I will do as you request."
When Pan returns home he finds a parchment and magics the image of the boy onto the page.
"Let the search begin."
A/N: Hiiiii! O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I! I know i haven't updated in forever but i haven't orphaned this. The End is near! Your comments and support do help me write faster! but uh yeah, let me know what you think and fast because i'm going to try and finish this soon.