Miku's heart was racing. She was absolutely terrified – and for once, she thought that even Nero wouldn't blame her for feeling that way. If Len was the one who told her to run…and anyway, Miku was very sure that the blonde woman with the icy blue eyes was more than she appeared to be.

Call it intuition perhaps, but she just didn't feel good about the newcomer. At least Miki, though she didn't seem too fond of her, didn't make the hairs on the back of her neck stand when she smiled. Although admittedly now, if Miku ran into the girl again, she probably would be scared out of her wits too. Her footsteps slowed and she looked around, breathing heavily. Thick forest surrounded her in every direction, which made it hard for her to decide how to proceed. How was Len supposed to find her afterwards?

Hesitantly, she stepped through the foliage, parting the leaves of ferns carefully as she wove through the greenery. She could smell salt in the air – they had to be near saltwater, maybe the ocean…she couldn't see where the water body could be, though. Nothing but trees surrounded her. The ground wasn't even sandy. She could hear the shrill calls of wildlife around her, which was quite different from what she was used to in their own territory. There were animals there too of course, and they did make sounds, but it wasn't as loud as here. The wildlife here just seemed much bolder – she had seen a couple of monkeys and such, screeching and following her, utterly unafraid of her presence.

She couldn't imagine any animals doing the same thing in the Lost Boys' territory. Over there, the Lost Boys were apex predators – when they stalked the forest, the animals quietened and hid, even the wolves sometimes. Rei was the only one whom the wolves seemed to trust at all…she shook her head, breaking free from her distracting thoughts. She was in foreign territory now, and it was every bit as dangerous as the rest of Neverland. She would have to pull herself together and think hard.

Her main objective now was to avoid the pirates and reunite with Len. She and Len had split up at the arrival of the blonde, with Len shouting hurried instructions to get to the other side of the forest as soon as she could. But the thing was, she had no idea where the 'other side' he referred to was. Her sense of direction was practically nil here. Had she even run in the right direction? But she had faith that he would find her. Maybe a while ago she would have doubted she would ever be saved, but after yesterday evening…she just trusted Len more. Maybe it was the shock of sort of witnessing a death in the Red Indian camp, maybe it was the fact that he never abandoned her while in the Lost Valley of Souls, maybe it was the fact he was considerate enough to share his hammock with her…

Well, she couldn't explain her newfound belief in her leader even to herself, so for now she would just go with the flow. She heard a loud screeching sound from behind her and whipped around to look, her hand instinctively darting to her knife sheathed at her hip – suddenly, she was never more thankful for her weapon. Now that she was truly alone here, she would need it more than ever.

The bright, beady eyes of two monkeys stared back at her, and she sighed in relief, letting her hand drop back to her side. The monkeys cocked their heads at her, then scrambled up the branches of the tree they were in to higher places. She decided that she had dawdled enough here and it was time to move on. Besides getting to the place where Len told her to meet him – wherever that was – she also had to avoid the pirates as best as she could. She didn't want to imagine encountering yet another ethnic group. The Red Indians themselves had been hostile enough even when Len had brought a peace offering. She didn't want to be found by the pirates while alone and vulnerable.

The only pirate she remembered was their captain, Hook…the one with the navy hair, the calm blue eyes and the hook in place of his right hand. During the Hunt, the first time she ever laid eyes upon him, she thought that he seemed like a nice enough person, but first impressions could be wrong. And she didn't want to put her life in the hands of a man she had never properly spoken to.

People couldn't be trusted. She wanted, so badly, to believe in someone, but even when she found someone she might trust, she didn't believe in them fully. No one was entirely good or pure-hearted on Earth or in Neverland, she bet – which was why for her, meeting Gumo had been such a precious thing. He was a ray of light in a world where people were ruled by greed and desire. She would do anything to see him safe, which was why she felt so awful when he got into that fight with Rei…was he doing all right now? She wondered what the Lost Boys were doing right now. Probably beefing up the defences of their den and hunting…that was really all they ever seemed to do during this period.

Len though…he had shown himself to be a capable and trustworthy person. And he was her leader, the one who had saved her before so many times. She would have to trust him if she wanted to survive, and she hoped that she would be able to find him now. Where could he have gone, and who was that woman they ran into? Judging from the way Len's blue eyes widened, she guessed that he knew who the woman was, and also figured that she was dangerous. Len wouldn't have told her to run if she wasn't dangerous. But it also made Miku curious about the woman and her relationship with their leader.

She was perspiring a little. It was more humid here than in the Red Indians' territory, or in their own. Most probably because this forest was near the ocean…she shook herself, realising that she had stayed in this one particular spot for quite a while already. 'The only thing more dangerous than moving in a forest is staying still' – she couldn't remember where that piece of advice had come from, most likely from Nero or Piko during one of their more philosophical moods, but it was something which had always stuck around in her memory. She didn't want to be targeted by something in the forest which might be stronger than her, so she carefully continued on her way, always looking around and observing her surroundings.

The sunlight filtered through the trees, dappling the forest ground. It was slightly wet, almost muddy but not quite, and the smell of damp leaves and slight rot lingered around her, wafting through the air and permeating her skin. The leaves on the trees seemed to glisten with water droplets. She was grateful for the sunlight, since it allowed her to see where she was going – this was definitely better than the last time she had been out in the forest alone, back in the Lost Boys' territory. The forest in their land was so dense that it was practically impossible to see anything, especially late at night.

She knew the Lost Boys could see in the dark since their nocturnal vision was just so much more developed than hers. Maybe when she returned, she would be able to see better at night as well, since she really did seem to be undergoing some kind of physical change. Her grip tight around the hilt of her knife, she stepped through a gap in the undergrowth and found herself in a small clearing in the middle of the forest, surrounded on all sides by tall, towering trees. She hesitated. This place seemed like it was…suspicious. The clearing just looked too perfectly formed for it to be natural.

However, for now it didn't seem like there was anything dangerous about the clearing, so carefully she took a step towards the centre of the space. The sounds of the forest still rang loudly here, which was a good sign – Miku realised that when the animals stopped calling, it usually meant that there was something terribly wrong. Continuing to observe the area, she was certain that the clearing was manmade rather than natural – it seemed too perfectly circular to have formed by itself…but Neverland might not follow the same rules as on Earth. The thought suddenly sprang to mind. Well, either way this clearing seemed to be a place of interest.

She looked at the trees around the clearing, and after squinting carefully at each one, she realised that one of them had a rope tied to the branch, which dangled down the trunk towards the ground. The brown cord blended in so well with the tree that she almost didn't notice it the first time she looked in that direction, and she had to stare really closely to be sure that it was actually there. Keeping a safe distance away from the tree, she approached the rope and observed that it was a trap of some kind, probably for capturing prey or intruders. So now she knew that she had to avoid this tree in particular, then. She was actually very pleased with herself for being able to notice something like that. In the past, she would have just blundered right into the trap, and then she would be forced to pray and hope that Len would come and save her soon.

She went on her way, deciding there was nothing else in the clearing that deserved further inspection, though some little part of her mind still wondered about the perfect symmetry of the clearing. It just didn't seem natural, but it wasn't possible to actually clear the trees in Neverland, wasn't it? Len did tell her before that the trees in Neverland were alive, and for every tree that was felled two would grow to take its place. That certainly didn't seem to be happening, so really…it was quite the mystery.

Maybe the pirates' forest simply wasn't the same as the Lost Boys. Their forest was, after all, thinner and easier to navigate through. She continued walking, and after a while she was actually starting to get bored. She did run into a few wild animals, like snakes and monkeys and even once an alligator, but they all ignored her, going about with their usual business. She was beginning to let her guard down – there seemed to be little human influence in this forest, and she guessed that the pirates probably hung out more in their ship than on dry land. She still worried a little about her situation though, since she didn't know how she was supposed to find Len. She must have walked for an hour or so already, and there was still no sign of his bright blond hair anywhere. Should she just try to remember the way back to the den?

Her knife always held loosely in her hand, she ended up wandering all the way to a fork in the forest. Two dirt tracks, faint and clearly underused, stretched out ahead of her, one leading straight ahead into the greenery and the other one veering off towards the left, into the darker undergrowth. She set off straight ahead, intending to keep to the route she was already following, but just as she stepped forward some sort of intuition made her stop and look down the other road. It veered all the way into thick shrubbery and the deep forest, and she was hesitant about going down this left track since it seemed likely that she would just get lost – but in a way, she was already lost, wasn't she? The urge to take the left road got stronger and stronger, and eventually Miku just caved in, changing her course and setting off deeper into the unknown forest.


It was stupid to have gotten separated. He should have grabbed Miku's hand and run off, but he knew that if he did then they would just be chased. He had to stay behind and buy her some time so that their escape wouldn't be futile. He had feared for his own life actually, but in the end he didn't even need to fret. After her shocking appearance, she just smiled at him and then she…she simply walked away, as though nothing had ever happened.

But by then Miku was already gone too, and he had no idea where she went. He tried tracking her, but the humidity of the forest was really getting to him and after a while, the trail went cold. Her route zigzagged all over the place, and he was pretty sure she would end up travelling in circles, but the forest of the pirates wasn't as dangerous as their own territory so he was certain that she would be relatively safe. All that was left to do was to find her before she got herself captured by Hook and his crew.

But the appearance of that woman…he would have to talk to Syrena about this when he returned. This was the first time he had seen anything like this taking place, and it unnerved him. He was certain that the mermaid queen would have an idea about what the hell was going on. Maybe this was all because of the kararehe and their sudden awakening – before this particular Hunt, none of the elemental beasts had ever appeared before any of the Neverland natives, at least not that he could remember. Their awakening – the arrival of the Flame Wolves, the movements of the other elemental kararehe – seemed to signal the start of a change. And the change coincided with Miku's arrival in Neverland as well…what was it about this one weak, human girl which catalysed all these changes?

Well, it wouldn't do to just think about it right now. Action was more important right now than considering endless possibilities and futures. He had to find Miku, get back to their territory, drop her off at the den, find the water kararehe and then talk to Syrena about what he just witnessed. It was a substantial to-do list, but having goals motivated him and he felt like he would have no problem pulling it all off. Still, just how was he supposed to find Miku when he knew that she was wandering around lost, somewhere deep in the forest?

There was a loud screech, and he turned around – a flock of parrots rose from the trees, a bright colourful group of birds flying up towards the blue sky. He was mesmerised for a while, just watching the avian group – the colours and vividness were everything his own territory was not, and it just made him think of his own past. Not that he could really remember much about his past. His twin sister, his mother…drowning, and being lost at sea. In this forest, he was so close to the ocean, and it was on the beach that lay beyond that he first woke up and saw that he was now in another world.

Don't think about that, think about more important things. You're too old to think about the past. He shook himself and dove back into the undergrowth, trying to find some kind of trail to follow. Miku was clumsy and she still wasn't the quietest of people – she was bound to make some kind of mark upon the forest from stumbling around with no direction. The forest ground, which was mushy, did not provide many clues – it wasn't wet enough to create footprints, but it was liquid enough to make travelling somewhat annoying…plus the dead leaves and twigs all sank a little into the ground, trodden in by other animals or people, so it muffled the forest ground and took away any chance of him hearing her if she was nearby. Unless she stupidly happened to be making a whole lot of noise, of course.

Another loud screech rang out through the vicinity – he glanced around again and saw another parrot, this time separated from the flock, staring right back at him. It screamed, extending its colourful wings, then took flight and, instead of flying up into the air like the previous group of parrots, this one flew past him into the forest. When Len did not follow immediately, the bird landed on a nearby branch and screamed again, once more staring very intently at him. Len was sure that the bird wanted him to follow it.

But that was so strange. Animals didn't usually behave this way. He would have suspected that it was a kararehe, one of those elemental beasts with intellect on par with, or even surpassing, a human's – but the bird's plumage didn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary, and he was sure that if the bird really was a kararehe there would be something obviously different about it. This looked, for all intents and purposes, just like any ordinary parrot. It just happened to want him to follow it.

Now, Len was a very careful person. He always thought about every possible option he had available and he always weighed the pros and cons of any choices before finally deciding upon what to do. So because of that, he certainly had doubts about following a bird. It just seemed too suspicious – like he would be walking right into a trap of some kind – but at the same time, it wasn't as though there was anything better he could do at the moment. He wouldn't be able to find Miku by himself, at least not for now, and for all he knew maybe the parrot was trying to lead him to Miku. Maybe birds were smarter than he assumed them to be and the parrot knew that he was looking for her…no, he was just clutching at straws now.

The bird screeched again, and if he didn't know better he would have thought that the parrot was getting impatient. There was no emotion in those beady eyes, at least none he could recognise, but the distinct screech of the parrot was a lot more abrupt and it was getting louder and louder too. He didn't want the stupid bird to attract any attention – there may be pirates nearby, he couldn't be sure – so he finally decided to just follow it, walking towards where it was perched. Satisfied, the parrot took off, always ensuring that Len didn't lag too far behind. He felt a little uneasy about just following a strange bird into the unknown, but…for now he tried to set aside his misgivings.

He followed the bird all the way to a clearing, surrounded by extremely tall trees. This clearing in the middle of the forest looked too perfect to be natural, but it didn't make sense for it to be manmade either. There were no manmade clearings in Neverland – space was controlled by the trees, and they grew wherever they willed. He hesitated at the edge of the clearing, uncertain about stepping into the place – he was very sure that it was a trap of some kind, or at the very least it would result in a nasty experience. But the bird alighted on a branch beside him and started to scream again, and the harsh sound really got on his nerves. Crouching down, he picked up a pebble and threw it at the bird, trying to get it to fly off and leave him alone, but the parrot expertly dodged the pebble and flew towards him, claws aimed at his eyes. He ducked just in time, but instead of just flying off the bird spun around and remained in place, flapping its wings to stay airborne. It screeched again, a warning this time, and darted into the clearing.

Why was it so determined to make him follow it? He should have just caught and killed the parrot earlier instead of being so stupidly curious and following it all over the place. He still had no idea where Miku was, and the sky was starting to become a rosy pink. It would not be much longer until the sun set, and when darkness fell, Miku's chances of survival alone would plummet. It was true that this forest was not as dangerous as their own, but nevertheless there were wild animals here and it was always possible that the dangerous predators here only came out at night, just like how the Lost Boys always waited for darkness to fall before leaving the den to hunt. Either way, he had to find her as soon as he possibly could.

But he could probably spare five minutes to enter the clearing and see what the dumb bird wanted from him. He had already followed it all the way here after all – he might as well see the whole thing to its conclusion. He entered the clearing and waited for further instruction, but the bird simply continued to perch on one of the surrounding trees and stare at him with its silent, beady gaze. He glared back at the bird and eventually decided that this was getting him nowhere – he might as well try to see if there was anything of interest in the clearing. It was pretty empty, just a large circular patch of forest ground encircled by tall trees. There was nothing noteworthy here besides the very obvious rope trap that was attached to one of the trees – it was probably used to catch intruders rather than prey, since the pirates preferred to fish rather than hunt forest prey. There was nothing else for him to do here.

"Kagamine Len," a voice called out from behind him, the person having managed to sneak up on him while he was looking around the clearing. Len stiffened – he recognised that voice. Slowly, he turned around and saw the owner of the voice. The pirate captain, Hook, was standing there, the parrot Len had been following earlier now looking very comfortable on his shoulder. Hook was wearing a white ruffled shirt, black pants and boots, with a cutlass strapped to his hips. His hook caught the faint light of the sun and glinted weakly in the dim forest. "I never knew you were one to trespass. It always seemed more likely that Tiger Lily would charge in, demanding something from us. But I never thought that you would do the same."

"I'm not here to start a fight with you or your pirates. I have enough problems on my plate," Len answered tersely. The pirate captain appeared to be alone, which was strange. He was sure this was the first time he ever saw Hook without Gakupo, his First Mate. The two of them were generally inseparable, at least whenever he saw them at the Hunt. Maybe things were different when they were in their own territory and no longer had to put on a show of solidarity for all the other Neverland natives. "I'm just passing through here to get back to my own territory. I just visited the Red Indians plains, and as you know your territory is a shortcut back to mine. Tiger Lily was tiresome enough to deal with, so I'd like to avoid trouble if possible."

"We all want to avoid trouble, don't we? But trouble has a nasty way of finding us no matter how well we hide," Hook's words were placid. Len didn't like the captain's serenity, especially in the face of his own rising sense of urgency. He had to get out of here quickly and find Miku before it got dark, and she was stranded alone in the forest at night. "I'm afraid I have to ask you to come with me. Of course, I don't take your intrusion to be a declaration of war, but…well, we have to follow procedure. If my pirates find out that I just let an intruder go, then I would probably face a mutiny," he shrugged.

Len paused. "Can't we work around that?" he forced a smile upon his face, folding his arms across his chest. "You're a reasonable man. And like I've already mentioned, I have plenty of other problems to settle back in my territory. Every minute, every second which ticks past, is precious for me. Though I'd love to make your life easier, I really have other things I ought to be doing right now. So I hope you can let this incident slide," he concluded.

"I know what are the other things you have to settle. I was there at the Hunt, and I saw the wolf your Lost Boys killed. But you have more urgent things to think about right now besides that, don't you?" Hook gave him a small smile, one that looked almost sad. "Miku is a very pretty girl, and she's…well, unlike any of the other women on my ship. The men are rather interested in her, to put it lightly."

He froze. Miku was on board Hook's ship? "What have you done with her!" Len snapped, instantly pouncing on the pirate captain. Hook's eyes widened as Len gripped his shirt, his teeth bared at the taller man. "She's one of my Lost Children and if you harmed even a single hair on her head, I will take that as a declaration of war, do you understand me?" he hissed. Part of him was frightened by the possibilities Miku's capture raised, while the other half of him was just furious. He had no idea whether the other pirates had already done anything to Miku, but if they treasured their lives…

"Relax," Hook stepped back, breaking free from his grip. His blue eyes were fixed inquisitively upon him, clearing wondering about his reaction towards this bit of information. "Miku is safe in my cabin, and she's with my First Mate now, who wouldn't allow any of our pirates to get near her. We had a pleasant conversation, actually. She told me her name, and that you were just using our territory to get back to your own…I already knew that even before I found you," he admitted, brushing down his top. Len still didn't trust him though, and he remained tense, carefully watching the captain's every movement. "Miku is safe," Hook repeated slowly, clearly enunciating every single word. "And if you want to see her and bring her back with you, then you need to follow me. You know that. I'm not going to try and kill you or anything – you said so yourself, I'm a reasonable man. It's all up to you, really."

"I don't think I have a choice if one of my Lost Children is with you at the moment. I need to get her – I can't just leave without her, can I?" he gritted his teeth. "I don't know how you ended up taking her back to your ship…we shouldn't even have split up. Just get this over and done with so that we can continue on our way, I don't want to waste any time travelling or making small talk," he said flatly, narrowing his eyes at Hook. Hook nodded and turned away from Len, walking into the forest – presumably to lead him back to his pirate ship. Len followed the captain, letting out a quiet sigh.

And just a while ago, he had been thinking about how he would be able to finish his to-do list fairly easily. This was a complication he had not foreseen, and it was going to eat into his precious time. "I was rather surprised to see a lone girl wandering around in our forest, actually," Hook suddenly said while they were travelling through the undergrowth, him using his cutlass to clear the plants out of the way, creating a clear path through the trees. "She was just walking down our shortcut from the forest to the ship as though she knew where it was leading…and when my crew accosted her, she admitted that she was one of the Lost Children and that she was, well, lost. And then I recognised her to be your new Lost Child," Hook paused for a moment. "Why a girl this time? We found that…strange."

"It's not really any of your business now, is it?" Len muttered, still feeling rather antagonistic towards the pirate captain at the moment. Hook didn't try to push for an answer, thankfully leaving him alone for the rest of the trip. Len was left to stew in his own thoughts, and the frustration he suddenly felt was unbearable. Why did they keep being diverted away from their original course? He had not wanted to run into the pirates at all, much less talk to their captain. If he had gone on this journey alone, he bet he would already be back home by now. Maybe he really should have just gone alone, or at least chosen one of the more experienced Lost Boys to accompany him. It would have been so much easier since he wouldn't have to look out as much for his Lost Boys, even for Gumo, the youngest. Miku was the only one who required so much of his attention, simply because she was so new to this hostile land.

The journey to the pirate ship didn't take too long, and soon enough the beach and the ocean came into view, the vessel floating near the sandy shore. The forest was thinning out into the beach, and he could smell the sea salt and hear the crash of waves as they broke against the beach. Instantly, his spirits lifted. Despite being lost at sea when he was little, the sea was still one of his favourite places, and just seeing it and smelling it instantly made him feel a little better. The captain glanced out at the ship and looked back at Len, tilting his head towards the prow. "We might have to swim to get there since the vessel drifted a little further into the open sea than usual. But I'm sure that you wouldn't mind getting a little wet, would you? We do have spare clothes if you require them."

"I don't need spare clothes," he answered shortly, his slightly better mood souring again at the sound of the captain's voice. "A little bit of saltwater never hurt anyone. But I hope Miku isn't wet?" he added, suddenly concerned about that. Her health would suffer, and she might even fall sick if she was drenched again so soon after her swim in the river. And obviously, now wasn't the best time for Miku, or any one of the Lost Children, to be falling sick. Of course, he and the Lost Boys had not gotten ill in a long, long time, but Miku was new here and it was unlikely that her resistance towards cold and disease had increased too much yet. He noticed that her rate of recovery had sped up though, which pleased him. It showed that she was acclimating well to her new surroundings.

"No, we didn't let her get wet. When she came to us, the ship wasn't quite as far out so we lowered a lifeboat and let her cross over through that. But obviously the crew wouldn't bother for two men," Hook glanced at Len, a wry smile on his face. Len didn't particularly care about staying dry – being wet would be uncomfortable, but once he dried off everything would be back to normal. "I'm glad that you aren't fussy then, Peter Pan. Follow me, and we'll help you get your Lost Child back."

Without further ado, Hook stepped out into the open sea, wading into the deeper water. When the water level reached up to his waist, he began to swim instead of walk, and Len sighed to himself before he followed suit. The cold saltwater was shocking at first, but he slowly got used to it, the small child from his memories relishing the icy sea in fact. Eventually he reached the point where he began to swim as well. The ship loomed in the distance – it had been a while since he last boarded the pirate ship, actually – and suddenly, he thought of his dead twin sister. Swimming made him feel closer to her, although he knew that she was already long gone. It made him think about how she might have died. By old age, he hoped. Because for him, this swim made him recall what it was like to flounder in the ocean and be swept away by forces greater than himself. His sister must have felt guilty about his disappearance for the rest of her life.

In a way he was dead too, just like her. Though his physical body remained intact and his thoughts were still clear and sharp, he had departed from the real world and gone to live in Neverland. Maybe he was actually dead, Neverland was Hell, and he had drowned in that ocean when he was a child instead of being swept out onto the shores of an island fantasy. Who knew? Maybe everyone else here was dead too, and none of them were aware of that fact or simply chose not to acknowledge it.

But no, that was a stupid thought. He pushed the idea aside and looked up at the ship, treading water now that he wasn't too far away. The massive wooden construct towered over him, casting a long shadow over the ocean. Miku was up there. He had to save her, then they could finally continue on their way.