Frightful, indeed! There was a gloomy, awful what-do-we-do-now silence round the table when Edward explained dag-tyg to the group. If it hadn't worried anybody before that the daycloths were vulnerable, it did now. Wendy flew to alert Tinker Bell, letting her know the villagers would be coming shortly, to stand guard round-the-clock.
"Bim is worried," said Melicent. "He says he'd 'wink out' if the daycloths were destroyed. Does that mean..."
"Just what it says," answered Jane. "You're safe. If your cloth were destroyed, you'd just replace it with a new one on your next visit. But Bim and I, and many others, can't come back like that. Our lives depend on the daycloths. If ours are torn up or destroyed, poof- we're gone, and we'll never be back."
"And Peter."
"Yes. Even my mother had heard of him when she was a little girl. He wanted to not grow up, and the fairies accommodated him. He's ages old. He lives by his daycloth; if it's taken and destroyed, he winks out."
But, while Peter and the Lost Boys roused a team of defenders, there was business to conduct on the Duchess before the pirates tried to sail away with their precious cargo. Once again, the rescue mission fell to the flyers.
-o-
Since Michael had been freed, the pirates had secured the escape routes. The cannon port was now nailed shut. Penelope's heavy cage sat on the hatch; she had to be hoisted whenever they opened it to throw scraps of food down to the prisoners.
Those trapped below were miserable, powerless to escape, with nothing that could be used as a weapon other than a few spoons and the nurse's pencil. She tried to cheer them with more of the Arabian Nights tales, and a few songs. They were encouraged by her success in sending the message and obtaining Michael's escape, and hoped that another little bird would come toddling in the cannoneer's starboard peephole, so they might send another message. It was so boring in their prison; why, the fair must have ended, and they had missed it!
Then, at just the right moment, on the main deck, two enemies met again.
"Hi, Skrael! Remember me?"
Skrael looked up. There was Michael, standing calmly at the end of the plank. Many a pirates' prisoner had been forced to walk that plank to a watery doom in the old days. Michael was smiling and waving.
"You! Ye little Neverland rat!" muttered Skrael.
"Hey, did you enjoy your swim the other night? Wow, what a big splash!"
"I'll take me sword and dice ya into mincemeat and feed the pieces to the sharks!"
"Why don't you waddle over here and try?"
"Say yer prayers, fer ya ain't got no place to run!"
Skrael wasn't going to let this moment go by. He had been waiting for a chance to settle with Michael. He took out his huge curved scimitar and came forward.
Of course, Skrael wasn't aware of the saw-cutting that the boys had quietly done. Oh, not the cut in the rudder; they had finished that job already, and this ship would be completely unsteerable if it were ever moved. No these were the saw cuts across the bottom of the plank. So, Skrael, foolish as always, walked the plank. The plank broke under his weight, whereupon he made a big splash for the second time that week, while Michael was left calmly hovering in mid-air where the plank used to end.
The other pirates came to see what the fuss was. Once again, nobody was left on guard! Melicent quietly flew to the cage, and began removing the pins that held the door on all sides. The tigress saw her, stirred, and stood up in the cage.
Michael and Edward had the crew's attention. They taunted the pirates from above, flying figure eights over their heads, just beyond reach of their swords.
"Hey, Edward, have you ever seen such funny pirates?"
"Ridiculous, aren't they? Peter and the boys look more like pirates than they do."
"That round one looks like a hot-air balloon at a circus."
"Is that his belly, or a beachball?"
"I'll bet they float as good as Skrael."
"We'll know in a minute."
The pirates would have none of it. "Come down here and fight like men, ye two twitterin' canaries!"
"Not today," answered Edward. "We want to watch you ladies swim the Channel."
"Ye won't get us in the water so easily. What do ye take us for, ye little fools?"
"You are going to go for a swim, y'know. Either I convince you, or Penelope will."
"An' who's Penelope - yer shrimpy mate here?"
"Uhh... no. Penelope's the tiger."
Reminded, the pirates suddenly looked at each other, then back at the tiger - just as Melicent floated away from the cage, pulling the last pin and holding it up for the shocked pirates to see. She waved at them. "Bye! Have a nice swim!"
With a leap, Penelope knocked open the unlatched door, and began creeping towards them.
With a leap, each and every pirate opted to jump into the water after all.
With a leap, Penelope followed them. After all, tigers are one of the few kinds of cats that love being in water.
Skrael's splashing had already chased away all the fish and mermaids nearby. After that, there was quite a lot of fussing and jumping and splashing and yelling in the water. I don't want to tell you everything that was going on, as it might disturb small children; not yourself, of course. Messy and scary, though, if you happened to be a pirate who couldn't swim to safety on Marooners' Rock very, very quickly, and they all did their absolute best. (Americans would probably say the Tigers shut out the Pirates, but that's a very lame baseball reference, and I would never use it here.)
Once the fuss was over, Penelope looked around her, then up at the ship, making noises, then turned towards the village. She hit the shore running and roaring.
"Where is she going so fast?" asked Michael.
Melicent spotted the answer wandering around the deck, mewing and looking lost. "She jumped, but the cub didn't! She thinks the cub is still being held captive!"
Speedily, she picked the cub up by the scruff and flew to shore. Don't tell me I have to do this a secnd time! she thought.
"Right behind you, sis," came Michael's voice.
"Are Edward and the boys with you?"
"They're going to pry open the hatch and hoist the prisoners out. The fishermen are bringing their boat alongside. Where's Penelope going?"
"She's retracing her route to the ship. She must be after the crusaders for capturing her and the cub. If we return the cub, she may leave them alone."
They found the crusaders at the Mysterious River on the plain, with their flock of terrified, rearing horses and bellowing camels. Slightleigh, Dumric and the troops had dismounted in a defensive line, decidedly threatened by a snarling Penelope.
Melicent, with her squirming passenger, hovered over Slightleigh.
"Milord, here's the cub. Move slowly, and let her see you take it from me. Then slowly put it down in front of you."
"You can put it down," fidgeted Slightleigh. Why don't you just put it down?"
"I freed her; she's not after me. She has to see you free the cub."
Slightleigh, as nervous as he had been in many a year, raised shaky hands, took the cub and quickly lowered it from Melicent's grasp to the ground, to toddle towards its mother. As before, the tigress was torn between nurture and slaughter, and made the best decision.
She nudged the cub aside - then suddenly, leaped to slash the bottom of Slightleigh's robe with one paw. She roared at him, snorted her total disrespect, and walked away.
"I think," said Melicent, "that she just told you to never trap them again."
Slightleigh was unhurt. He nodded to Melicent. "I suppose I now owe you a favour for Number 14."
Melicent, almost as scared as the last time, nodded back. She was not amused at having been put through this again. "I'll think of something, milord."
Slightleigh glanced up at something beyond his rescuers, and pointed. "Actually, we may need to work together right off. The ridge is on fire."
"The ridge?" asked Melicent, turning. "Oh, no! It's at the fairies' garden! The daycloths!" One thing after another! It was as if all the adventures in Neverland were trying to resolve themselves at once, before they went home.
"Get help, girl! If the daycloths burn, we'll wink out! It will take us too long to get there, and the elephants can't climb that."
"Yes, they can. Michael can show you how."
"Then we'll try it. Go!"