Even Miku was aware of how much noise they were making as they made painfully slow progress through the forest. She could feel how tense Len's shoulders were as he kept looking around, her still using him as a makeshift crutch. She swore she occasionally spotted dark eyes deep in the undergrowth, but when she turned quickly to catch the person, the eyes would already be gone.
"They're watching us, aren't they?" she said as quietly as she possibly could, her words barely even a whisper. Len nodded curtly, and she swallowed, looking around nervously. Every rustle in the forest caught her attention. The possibility that an entire tribe of Red Indians might be lying in wait, their bows poised to shoot as they watched for a single wrong move, frightened her. If the Red Indians were anything like Furukawa Miki, she wouldn't put it past them to try dirty tricks or ambushes.
"They won't shoot. They're curious," she almost missed the small smile – it was a strangely sinister smile, one she was unused to seeing on Len – which flitted across his face. "And they know better than to shoot at me," he added, tone dismissive. Clearly, Len had great authority in Neverland, and she wondered if it was because he was connected to the dark beings which controlled the place. Perhaps the Red Indians were aware of this? She didn't know, and at the moment she was honestly too exhausted to care. Then she glanced at the satchel Len still carried, despite their ordeal in the river just moments ago, and something just went off in her head – was it because of that satchel?
"How much further?" she continued whispering, her voice cracking slightly. It was difficult to force the words out from her throat, which felt scratchy and dry, like sandpaper. The forest here was a little different from what she was used to – it was wetter here, more humid, almost tropical compared to the cool, misty forests in the land of the Lost Boys. But it wasn't so warm and wet that she would really call it tropical…the wetter atmosphere probably just had something to do with how close they were to the raging river. She heard a crackling sound from behind her and, instinctively, she shot around, ignoring the dull, ever-present pain in her leg. The next instant, something whipped through the air and impaled itself in the ground right next to her foot, the stem still quivering – a sharp arrow, a dark brown which gleamed faintly, catching the rosy light of the setting sun.
She gulped, unable to take her eyes away from the arrow. It had almost impaled her foot, and somehow she felt that the miss had not been an accident. Len placed a hand on her shoulder, forcing her to continue walking, and she kept glancing back at where the arrow landed until they turned a corner and she could see the warning no more. "Don't make any sudden moves," he said tersely, voice as quiet as before. "Just follow me, keep your head down and don't stop moving, no matter what. We'll be there very soon, the camp isn't very far away from the river itself."
She nodded, not wanting to say a single word. Her voice didn't sound like her own. The two of them traipsed on in silence while the sun set, throwing the area into a twilight darkness where she could still see, but just about barely. Their progress felt unbearably slow, and she wanted to hurry Len, but she knew that even if he walked faster she wouldn't be able to keep up with him. The faint path here was too narrow for both of them to walk down it at the same time, so it would be difficult for him to support her as she hobbled. She could see the shapes of the trees and branches around them, feel the wetness in the air, and sense the flitting shadows around her as the Red Indians followed them to their base camp, but she resisted the temptation to look around for the tribal people. She didn't want to receive another warning, and she doubted they would miss her if they shot a second time.
"We're here," Len suddenly stopped before her, and she knocked right into him, skittering back as she struggled to catch her footing. She lifted her gaze and saw that the faint path they were following opened up into a sort of passageway that was clear of any trees or foliage – this larger, more obvious path in turn seemed to open into a clearing beyond. Len turned and, cupping his hands around his mouth, made a loud, echoing call that sounded like an owl hooting. A few seconds later, three figures slipped down from the nearby trees to stand around them, and she shivered, both nervous and curious about these people – the trio ignored her, their attention focused entirely on Len. Two boys and one girl, probably slightly younger than her from their youthful looks…they all had jet black hair and tanned, olive skin, with eyes so dark that they seemed black. As one, the trio turned and walked forward, escorting them, and slowly, Miku and Len followed their lead.
As she limped down the pathway, she could see in the distance orange light dancing and flickering, throwing shadows onto the forest ground. In this twilight, the dark shadows seemed ominous, and she shivered again, suddenly reminded of the shadow monsters which haunted her at night, back on Earth. She had not thought about them in a long time – indeed, had not needed to think about them since they did not appear to bother her in Neverland – but her helplessness and the fact that she knew absolutely nothing about what would happen next were reopening the old insecurities. She reached out to grip Len's arm, shaking a little. He glanced back at her, but he didn't say anything, allowing her to continue to hold on to him while she took deep breaths to calm herself down.
As they approached the orange light, it got warmer and warmer, and she knew it had to be the light of a campfire – probably quite a vast one too, at that. The three youths who were their supposed escorts made that same hooting sound that Len made earlier, and she saw dark figures rising from the trees, lowering curved shadows which looked suspiciously like bows. The people in the trees watched them as they passed, though she could not see their faces as they were hidden in the leaves. A chill ran down her back as, while walking past these guards, she saw various wooden poles in the ground, animal skulls staked atop each pole – it reminded her of Nero and his own gruesome room décor. At the very least it wasn't a human skull, unlike Nero's pole. Did staking a skull atop a pole signify something in Neverland, or did Nero and the Red Indians just have similar tastes?
A tall figure awaited them at the very entrance to the camp, which was blocked off by a makeshift wooden fence – a whole series of wooden poles which plunged deep into the hard ground, orange firelight spilling out through the empty spaces. She could now hear human voices and laughter in the camp beyond, the sound of drums and celebration. There was only one gap in the wooden fence large enough to accommodate a person, and the tall figure was standing right in it, waiting for them. She could not see who the person was since they stood with their back facing the firelight – all she could see was a dark silhouette. But Len chuckled softly as the figure approached them, and she suddenly thought that everything would be all right. After all, she was with Len. They were fine.
"I don't see what's so funny, Kagamine Len," a smooth, coldly melodious voice spoke, her words poised and almost calculative. "You and your…new Lost Child are trespassing in my territory. You're lucky I didn't have you shot on the way here. State what your business is, then leave right after."
"Such a cold welcome, Luka," Len pushed his fringe away from his eyes, his hair still damp but no longer dripping wet. Miku could see a smirk on his face. "I don't have business with you. I'm here to talk to Silver Winds about something important, and I have something for her…something which I'm quite sure she's been wanting for a few months," his tone became serious right then. Miku glanced up at the woman who was speaking to them – Luka…Megurine Luka, the pink haired princess of the Red Indians. "If you don't let me talk to her, then she won't have what I brought for her, and she'll die because of that. I don't think you can do without your soothsayer quite yet," he taunted her.
She knew Luka's eyes were normally blue, but she couldn't see the colour of them in this darkness. She saw the princess' eyes narrow though, and wordlessly she stepped aside, allowing Len entrance into the camp. He proceeded forward without any problem, but when she tried to hobble past the princess, the taller woman blocked her way. "And is this one necessary for your discussion with Silver Winds?" she directed her words towards Len, her voice cold. Miku swallowed, her first instinct to back away from the imposing princess, but the knowledge that there were Red Indian archers watching her every move rooted her to the ground. The earlier warning lingered on in her mind.
Len glanced back, his lips curling into a scowl. "Let her through," the three words were spoken quietly, but the evenness of his tone did not deceive. The princess glared back at him, obviously reluctant about complying, and he opened the satchel, taking out something from the bag – the thing that had shocked her when she tried to open the bag earlier. It was a small bottle of some sort, nothing particularly special about it, but the princess leant towards the bottle the moment she saw it, her hostility towards them momentarily forgotten. "If you don't, I'll spill everything, and you will be left with nothing," Len concluded in that same quiet manner. Miku knew that it was not a bluff.
Evidently, the princess knew too. With a soft growl of frustration, she looked back at Miku and shifted aside, crooking her finger imperiously at her. Miku followed her leader and Tiger Lily, who were headed deeper into the camp, where the source of the flickering orange light appeared to be. "Silver Winds is expecting you. She is ill, and it is late. Give her the bottle and make your audience quick," the princess commanded, looking straight ahead as she spoke. As the three of them walked through the camp, Red Indians started slinking out from tepees, squaws and braves watching them silently with all the predatory intent of hawks. Miku tried her very hardest not to look at them, but it was difficult to ignore the hungry, piercing looks of curiosity being shot her way, especially the looks of curiosity directed towards her bad leg. She could feel them sizing her up, judging her strengths.
The camp was very different from the den of the Lost Boys. For one thing, the area covered was certainly much wider. The clearing was gigantic, and she wondered if the Red Indians had cleared the land themselves or if they settled where there was land for them. Given what Len said about the forest and trees being alive and self-replicating, it was probably the latter. But the forest here didn't seem to be quite as dark or dangerous as the one she lived in – there was no constant feeling of being watched, and the space just seemed to be much more open, and far less suffocating…
The Red Indians lived above rather than below ground. There were tepees made from rough animal hide, tattered flaps that were patched up with hides from other animals, creating a tapestry of patches and stitching. There were children running and screaming around the camp, either fully naked or wearing just a pair of dark pants. The boys wore red face paint, the girls wore white. It was strange, because none of the adults seemed to be wearing the same face paint as the children. There was a squaw near the large campfire, which was just beginning to come into view, who was roasting hunks of meat on a stick and passing other sticks of meat to the other tribespeople. The children ran towards the squaw and tore away with their meal, ripping chunks of chewy venison with their teeth as they ran and screamed, playing some kind of game. It looked like a war game.
There were those with grey and silver hair seated near the tepees, and she took them to be elders of the tribe. They were talking to each other in soft murmurs, their voices hushed in comparison to the loud cacophony of the children. One of them looked up at her, and the rest of them all turned to stare, their beady brown eyes watching her with a hawk-like intent reminiscent of the rest of the tribe. The force of their gaze did not diminish with age. She resisted the urge to bow her head and quickened her pace, catching up with Len, who was already quite some distance ahead of her.
There were so many people here, more people than she was used to interacting with. She had dropped out from high school when she was sixteen, so it had been a while since she had to see so many people – she was used to huddling in her room, doing her own things. Sure, she saw crowds on sites and videos, but she never had to be there physically. She remembered when she was sixteen. It was a bad year for her, the year she convinced herself that people were innately bad and there was nothing anyone could do about it, not even her with her shadow monsters and whispered ideals. The crazy daughter of a drunkard couldn't do anything – not even protect herself from people who would wish her harm, because she was powerless despite her craziness, and her lunacy gave her no strength. So she retreated into herself, and she had been hiding within her own mind ever since.
She did not move to touch the dagger by her hip, which miraculously had not been lost during her turmoil in the river, but was comforted by the feeling of the blade against her skin, rubbing against her thigh with every shaky limp. She was getting used to the pain, and she knew it would not be long before she could finally rest. It helped, comforting herself with the fact that it was only sprained, and not broken. Things could be a lot worse. She looked up, and saw Len and Tiger Lily ducking into a large tent in the centre of the camp, some distance away from the giant campfire. She hopped forward frantically, not wanting to miss out on anything important, and managed to close the distance between them within half a minute or so – she was quite proud of her feat, actually.
The tent was dark, but there was some light radiating in from a flap at the side, so it wasn't so dark that she could not see anything. Her nose wrinkled as she got used to her surroundings – the air reeked of sour sickness, and the raspy coughs of someone pierced the air, drawing her attention. "It's Peter…Pan," an old, wavering voice croaked, and she craned her neck, looking towards the source of the voice. She saw Tiger Lily standing a little distance away from a mat on the ground, with Len crouching down right next to it. There was someone lying on the mat – it had to be Silver Winds.
"Yes," Len murmured, attention focused solely on the old woman. One of his hands was gripping the old soothsayer's wrinkled ones, the other hand gripping tightly on to the bottle he brought here. "This will help you live through a few more months, but you know there is a limit to what I can do," he uncorked the bottle, gently holding the neck of it to the old woman's lips. Miku glanced at Tiger Lily to see her reaction to this, but the princess seemed indifferent, watching the proceedings with no visible emotion on her face. "I would think it is best for you to find an heir soon," he continued.
The old woman swallowed feebly, but as she continued to drink from the bottle, Miku could see her regaining some semblance of energy. Eventually, the bottle was emptied, and by then Silver Winds had the energy to sit up. Len helped her as she struggled into a sitting position, supporting her back while she coughed and spluttered, a wet cough that sounded…sick. Miku could tell she was dying soon, and wondered how old she was. She was a mass of wrinkles within wrinkles, her beetle-like eyes bright and sharp, the only thing about her that seemed to be young or vibrant.
"You," the old voice rasped, and she jumped, stumbling a little on her bad leg – her lips parted as she realised that Silver Winds was staring right at her, her shrivelled arm pointed right at her. "Come here, child," she continued, already sounding noticeably better than before she drank whatever Len had given her. Cautiously, Miku approached the woman, painfully aware of Len and Tiger Lily's gazes on her. The throbbing in her ankle had become almost dull, a lingering annoyance rather than a sharp, demanding pain. Had her ability to heal sped up already, like the Lost Boys? Or was she just getting used to the pain? Silver Wind's surprisingly strong fingers latched on to her wrist and the old woman pulled her down, forcing Miku to collapse to her knees. Her breath froze as Silver Winds stared right into her, her other hand reaching out towards her face. Miku resisted the urge to withdraw from the searching hand with the dry, powdery skin. The cooler touch of the old woman's fingers felt almost intrusive, and she flinched when Silver Wind's pinched her cheek.
"You are empty," the soothsayer breathed, her voice low and wavering, and immensely quiet – as though she wanted only Miku to hear what she said. But Miku was sure Len and Tiger Lily could hear the old woman just fine, since they were both so close by. "You are a shell, an unknown. When I see you, all there is left is darkness," she rasped, her wrinkled fingers slowly moving up to stroke Miku's dripping hair. Her hair, being so much longer than Len's, needed a much longer time to dry. Again, the feeling of powdery skin against her scalp made her shudder. She wasn't sure why she had such a bad feeling about this, but she didn't like what was going on at all. Something within her seemed to react to those words, and it wasn't in a pleasant way…she felt almost defensive. Hostile. Like she was being told truths she didn't want to hear. But Silver Winds didn't even say anything concrete…
"What do you mean?" Len asked beside her, voice low and urgent. Miku glanced at him – he was focused entirely on the old woman, but she saw that his fingers were clenched into fists by his side. The pale skin stretched out over his knuckles, white and tense. The old woman released her, and she clambered away as quickly as her ankle permitted. She suddenly felt suffocated in this tent, as though the old woman had wrapped an invisible noose around her neck and was tightening it with each second she spent around her. Unconsciously, her hand reached up towards her neck, her fingers curling and uncurling. She swore her throat burnt, but when touched her skin was smooth.
"You are…obsessed," Silver Winds coughed then, a long and sickly coughing fit. Miku winced at the sound of rattling phlegm. "Obsessed with the unknown. In your consciousness, you are aware," she coughed again, and Miku noticed Len's lip curling, probably in impatience. "You must awaken!" she proclaimed, ending with yet another coughing fit. Miku's skin crawled, and she wondered whether coming all the way to the Red Indian territory had really been a good idea. The soothsayer gave her a bad feeling, plus it was clear that the old woman was terribly sick. Maybe they shouldn't have come to bother her in the first place. Then they wouldn't be hearing all these cryptic warnings either.
It made her wonder whether the old woman was driven mad by illness, but she knew that she was the one person in this tent who had no right to claim that another person was insane, or judge them because of it. Since she herself was considered a lunatic too. And maybe Silver Winds was right about her being empty. Honestly, what did she have to live for? She, who had willingly come along with Len although she knew that the barren fields of Neverland had absolutely nothing to offer her.
"You should leave," she jerked upright when she heard a low, stern voice sound near her head, whipping her head around so fast that she thought she might have whiplash. Megurine Luka was standing right behind her, leaning down so that she was speaking right into her ear. Her blue eyes were frosty cold. "You are clearly agitating Silver Winds. It does not matter to me whether you or Pan get your answers from tonight, but our soothsayer's health is important for my tribe. I am afraid I have to ask you to leave, else neither of you will get the answers you seek, and Silver Winds' health will further suffer. There is nothing more for you to offer here," Miku wanted to protest, but a little voice in the back of her mind asked if she really wanted to stay here any longer – she glanced at Silver Winds again, who was clutching at Len and making low, guttural groans. She sounded like she was in pain. Miku decided that she didn't want to stay in this strange place any longer and nodded, clambering up to follow the princess out of the tent. She turned back right before she ducked out.
Len was staring at her, his arms in Silver Wind's grip as she moaned something about being lost. She looked right at him for a few seconds, remembering that he told her not to go anywhere without him, and starting to wonder if just following the princess so trustingly was such a good idea. Len slowly nodded, as though giving her permission to leave, and feeling a little relieved she pushed the flap aside and walked out into the open air. The subtle grip around her neck eased, and she felt like she could breathe again, happily taking in a whole lungful of air. There was something about the dark, beady eyes of the soothsayer, those two bright eyes that lay sunken in a mass of wrinkles and dry, creased skin, that made her feel like…like she didn't belong, like she wasn't meant to be here.
The tribe's princess was waiting for her, so coldly beautiful that she wanted to flinch away from her. She had long, slightly wavy hair that fell thick and silky to her hips, and she wore an elaborate headdress with tall, slender dark-tipped white feathers. Her cheeks had two streaks of red each, and another black streak stretched from one corner of each eye to the other, reminding Miku of very thick eyeliner. But there was nothing about the face paint that spoke of culture or civility, unlike makeup – it was quite evident that this was not worn to enhance her beauty, but rather to signify something. She wondered what it meant, and why no one else other than the children wore the same kind of face paint. "You're new," the princess stated, her voice calm and removed. She looked down at Miku like she was some insect she had accidentally stepped on. "Why was a girl chosen?"
"I'm sorry?" Miku blinked, stuttering as she tried to speak as politely as she could. She was, after all, dealing with a princess, and she was fairly sure that Megurine Luka would order her killed or grievously injured if she was offended in any way – she remembered the hints the Lost Boys had dropped about the princess and Piko, and knew that this tall, statuesque beauty was the reason for Piko's various injuries every few weeks. Not that she had actually seen Utatane Piko get injured yet.
"You understood me," the older girl narrowed her eyes. "Why was a girl chosen instead of a boy this time? You must mean something to Pan, and I'm determined to find out what it is. You are the first girl to ever join Pan and his group of runaways, and every person who joins is special in one way or another. So what's so special about you?" the princess tilted her head, studying her almost condescendingly. Miku resisted the urge to squirm, instead looking away at the rest of the campsite.
The Red Indians were still bustling around with their own business, though she could tell that they were beginning to wind down for the night. It was quite the opposite of the Lost Boys, who only emerged from underground when the evening came. The Red Indians followed a more diurnal lifestyle, it seemed – though it wasn't that surprising, given that they seemed to receive a lot more light from the sun than the Lost Boys did. The children were being called over by one of the older women, and as they scampered over to her, she grabbed each child and scrubbed the face paint off their faces, dipping her hands into a clay bowl whenever her skin became stained. Some of the children seemed reluctant to have the paint removed, but all of them went through it without fuss.
The campfire was still roaring, the dancing flames blazing away. She could feel the heat on her face, evaporating the water that still dripped from her hair and her clothes. The warmth was a nice change from the cold discomfort she was put through the past couple of hours. The fire didn't show any signs of dying down, and she wondered if it was meant to burn through the night, all the way till morning. Maybe the Red Indians used the fire as a way to keep away wild animals, since their lands were filled with dangerous beasts and, unlike the Lost Boys, they did not live underground and were thus open and vulnerable to attack. Some of the tribe still shot her curious looks, but generally most of them seemed used to their presence by now and treated her like she was pretty much invisible.
"I don't think there's anything particularly special about me, other than the fact that I had little left to live for," she answered as honestly as she could. She knew that she wasn't considered sane by most people, but that hardly seemed like something…special. Nor did she want the princess to think she was a dangerous lunatic and kick her out of the camp before Len was done with his meeting. "And I guess that being the only girl in a group of boys makes me pretty special as well?" she added as an afterthought, the upward inflection in her words making the statement sound more like a question.
Tiger Lily raised an eyebrow, looking almost scornful. "I highly doubt that it's as simple as that. But no matter, you don't interest me so much as their weaknesses do. It'd be nice to have some leverage against the other territories…" she glanced at Miku, who was openly gaping back at her. "I don't care even if you tell your leader about what I just said," she added, "since Kagamine Len does the exact same thing, digging around for secrets…we all just want the best for our people, isn't it?"
She didn't know what to say in response to that, so she kept quiet. There was nothing but silence between them for a while. It wasn't the comfortable kind of silence she was used to with Gumo, or even the semi-awkward kind she shared with Piko. It was the kind of silence that made her fidget, and the looks Tiger Lily shot her seemed almost like claws raking down her back. When Tiger Lily finally spoke again, she instinctively cringed, her shoulders hunching – being alone with her made her feel so tense. "Silver Winds called you empty. It's not a good thing, you know," the princess tilted her head, her long pink hair draped over her shoulders. "In our tribe, we see empty people every once in a while. We don't usually see them for long after the soothsayer calls them that."
"And why not?" Miku asked quietly, somehow already knowing the answer. Somehow, she could tell that being empty wasn't a good thing – she saw it in the way Silver Winds stared at her, and in the way the princess spoke to her now. There was something ominous in those words, as though being empty was a state much like unconsciousness or tiredness…like it was an actual physical state of the body, not a mere metaphor. Miku could already tell that whatever being empty signified, she wasn't going to like it. Tiger Lily remained silent for a moment, as though weighing her options – it wouldn't surprise Miku if she really was, actually. She seemed like the kind of person who would withhold important information so she would have something to bargain with at a later point in time.
"I'm only telling you because you don't irritate me as much as the…rest of your group do," Tiger Lily finally said, sounding almost bored. Maybe she was bored, since Miku probably seemed powerless and unworthy of her time. "Those who are empty die, you see," the princess continued. Her eyes widened at those words, her breathing suddenly irregular. Did she just mishear the princess? "It's like a state they're in, almost…those people who have nothing left to live for. They don't die because of age or illness or hunger…no, they kill themselves," Tiger Lily's lips curled in disdain. "Throwing their lives away because they can't think of anything better to do with what they've been given. The empty ones disgust me the most, and I have no regrets knowing that they probably turned into the walking dead in the Lost Valley of Souls. They aren't even worth being sacrificed to the elders," Tiger Lily smiled sweetly at Miku, who was finding it difficult to breathe properly. "But you're not of our tribe, so maybe it means something different for you. It's just something you have to find out."
"I'm not about to kill myself," she said, perhaps a little too loudly – a few of the tribe who were standing nearby looked up at her curiously, but Tiger Lily shot them a look and they turned away, back to minding their own business. "If I wanted to get myself killed I wouldn't be training with the Lost Boys and learning how to survive in Neverland," she argued, more for her own benefit than for the princess. Tiger Lily cocked her head, studying her with an intensity that made her feel vaguely uncomfortable. It did not help that the princess was noticeably taller than Miku was – it made her feel like the princess was looking down on her, both literally and figuratively.
"If you didn't wish to die, Lost Child, then why did you come to Neverland to begin with?" that simple question left Miku stunned, and the princess smiled, reaching out lightly to touch her shoulder. For once, her smile did not feel fake or superior – it was almost genuine, but in such a situation it only made Miku feel worse. The princess turned and walked back deeper into the camp, leaving her alone to think about her words. What she said was very true, come to think of it. Why had she chosen to come to Neverland, knowing the dangers of the place and what fate she would meet there? She thought it would be nice to run away to a place where she might not be seen as crazy. She thought she might be running away from her nightmares. But was the reason really that innocent, or did something in her subconscious yearn for a darker ending? She swallowed.
She couldn't tell, maybe because she was too frightened now to acknowledge the truth of her desires. She would think about it later – she told herself that being this frightened of dying surely meant that she wasn't suicidal. But, just to keep her mind off such morbid thoughts, she decided to take a walk alone through the camp first. Maybe that would help her distracted mind settle.