chapter 2
Aboard the rouge ship Jolly Roger, things were not nearly so peaceful. Bitter and sore from their defeat, the pirates had loused about the hold grumbling at each other and patching their arrow knicks with strips of unwashed cloth. They'd left shore immediately, and were now some few miles far from Neverland and bobbing about on the night time waters like a dead bird. The griping had originally started about the simple failure of the attack, but with some time (and some liquor from dented tin cups) it turned to other things. They barked about the shoddy gin itself (though where they had gotten it in the first place nobody knew), they grumped about the rotting ship, the heavy labor, the often uncooperative winds, the lack of women, the annoying way fairies tangled the rigging, the mermaids that slapped the side of the boat with their tails while everyone was trying to sleep, the salted meat, and the shortness of tobacco which, unlike the liquor, did not seem to be infinite in it's amount.
That was as far as anyone got before the notable steps of the captain were heard coming down. He was in a foul mood, that was obvious, and anyone why knew why he was walking oddly had the reason. Instantly, anything he might find objectionable was stuffed away, but the one thing no one noticed was the thing he picked out.
The lantern that had been lighting the area was smudged and therefor spotty and dim. Someone had removed the glass cover to clean it on his shirt hem. In consequence, the low candle sat unprotected on the metal base, the whole of which was atop a barrel in the very middle of the room. Arriving, Barbecue's cold eyes focused on it immediatly. Every pirate but the one who didn't know better scattered.
That one was Starkey. He stood next to the barrel, still holding the lantern cover where he'd frozen. He did not know what was happening, and he did not know what he had done wrong, but he knew from that cruel glint in the captain's eyes he was in trouble.
Starkey had not been a pirate before coming to Neverland. In fact, he had never been on a boat at all. The poor fellow had worked at a school, with children, whom he'd found rather annoying. One day he had simply appeared on the Jolly Roger. No one had questioned it, as if he had been there the whole time. He'd nearly begun to believe he had. So, having never been a pirate and never been a sailor, Starkey was quite lacking in knowledge as to some of the rather nasty rules that went along with it.
"Mr. Starkey," Barbecue said coolly, a tone he only took when someone was in trouble. "You weren't always a pirate, were you?"
"N-no sir."
"You haven't really even been on a boat before."
"That's right, sir."
Barbecue's eyes sparkled, and he began to slowly circle Starkey like a fleshy vulture.
"Tell me, Mr. Starkey, do you know what Moses's Law is?"
"Umm...wait..." His mind whirred back to before Neverland, when he'd still gone to church once in a while. Moses had something to do with the ten commandments. The only one he had managed to remember fell out of his mouth. "Thou shalt not kill?"
"WRONG answer, Mr. Starkey!"
With a grin to fiendish for any normal man, Barbecue backhanded Starkey across the jaw, sending him into the barrel, which knocked over the candle, and caused the pirate to drop the lantern cover. It shattered against the warped wooden boards in a dazzling and momentary explosion of twisting, flying, prismatic glass, which inevitably settled on the floor and sparkled no more. Barbecue pushed himself forward on his wooden leg and leaned down over the bewildered pirate, in almost the same motion setting his hand down onto the candle flame. In the new found darkness his eyes caught the moonlight that filtered down thru the gratings, and any poet might say that they glowed.
"Wrong.....answer....."
The pirates of the Jolly Roger always did what Barbecue said, so when the captain ordered Starkey be stripped and tied by wrist to the grating, they obeyed. Starkey, bewildered and unknowing of his crime, made such a display of protesting shrieks and whimpers that even the sterner of the pirates felt sorry for him. All had gotten in trouble somehow or another in their sea faring careers, and a few had even managed to anger Barbecue, and they did not envy Starkey what was to come. But fearing their captain too greatly to disobey, the crew grabbed the scrawny Englishman and dragged him atop the deck. Two of the pirates held him while others pulled the metal grating from the boards and leaned it against the cabin. By the time Barbecue came leisurely up to the deck, hands clasped hidden behind his back, Starkey's clothes had been tossed aside and the man tied spread-eagle against the upright grating.
The captain slowly wandered towards the crew, his face calm and docile, yet somehow all the darker for it. The moon on the ocean cast thin shadows over his visage, and the sea itself had taken on a silvered sheen below them. All was silent save the lapping waves as Barbecue came to stop beside Starkey.
"Mr. Starkey," he said smoothly "In the interest of your obviously meager education, I should like to submit to you what is known as Moses's Law. It is still and originally instituted by the regular navy." The last two word were spat as though they were serpent venom, but the inflection quickly vanished. "The law states that, as these ships we sail are so prone to fires, there will be no uncovered embers, no open flames, no uncapped pipes, and NO......lanternless candles."
Starkey, his neck twisted in a frightened attempt to keep the captain in view, quite suddenly lost sight of him. When the next words were uttered they were from behind him.
"The breaking of this law carries a punishment, Mr. Starkey."
The pirates watching from along the ship rail felt a tremor of startled fear as Barbecue seemed, in the merest instant, to become something far too degenerate to be human, something grinning and devilish with an unwholesome sparkle in his eyes.
"Thirty nine lashes!"
In a cruel and practiced movement the corded scourge which had previously been hidden by his arms and coat swung out, and to all it seemed as if his arm had grown into a many branched tentacle of which he had perfect and ultimate control. In fear of the words and the unseeable action behind him Starkey gave a loud and terrified whimper. The scourge came up, flared terribly in the moonlight, and Starkey mercifully could not see as it sped down towards his skin.
***
"Ja-ames! Your not trying hard enough!" Tiger Lilly said, her short patience fading to innocent exasperation. "We can't play the game if you don't try! Now think. If I'm a tiger, what can you be that destroys a tiger?"
The two were walking on a little used deer path not far from the lagoon, supposedly looking for a specific ritual herb but not trying terribly hard. It had been three weeks since James's acceptance by the redskins, and with the aid of their excellent healing skills his leg was as good as it ever was. He still did not know how it had been injured in the first place, or really anything more than he had learned that first night, but somehow it didn't matter anymore. He had a name, he had a place to be, and thanks to two curious and often bored children he had people who wanted him to be there. The adults of the tribe had found him exceptionally useless as far as hunting or artful skills went, and so had no particular interest in the man. But the children found him interesting, not only because he was different from them, but because he was one of the few adults who didn't know more than they did. It was a rather selfish motive, but it makes one feel very intelligent and skillful when in the presence of an adult who knows nothing.
The rest of the tribe did not mind that James was the friend of the children. In fact, most viewed him as being the same level they were, as some oversized child or perhaps pseudo adult. In ways of common sense he knew more than the children, and that alone kept him from permanent classification there. And, being so blessedly childish and useless, he was sent on childish and useless errands, which explained why he was wandering around with Tiger Lilly looking for a certain kind of never bush.
"Lets start over." Tiger Lilly said. "And this time, really TRY."
She paused to think, examining a few bushes as they passed.
"I am a wolf." she finally said. "Now what are you?"
James thought a moment "I am a lion, wolf killing."
"Then I am a hunter, lion spearing."
"I am a...uh....cockatrice, hunter poisoning."
She raised an eyebrow at him "I am a basilisk, turns a cockatrice to stone."
He paused. What could destroy something that turned all who saw it to stone?
"I know! I am a blind leopard."
Tiger Lilly snorted "I am a hole in the ground, which the leopard falls into and dies."
"I am a dog. I fill up the hole."
"Look, there it is!"
The sudden break from the game confused him for a moment, before realizing Tiger Lilly was pointing to a low, thick bush with tiny blue flowers on it. It matched the description Great Big Little Panther had given them to find.
"Now, er, James, which part were we supposed to bring back?" the girl asked, turning over a few leaves.
He looked blankly at her. "Part?"
"Well he can't have wanted the whole bush! Did he want the leaves, the flowers, the root?"
"I thought you were listening!"
"I thought YOU were!"
They stared at each other a moment, then stared at the bush.
Five minutes later they were walking back towards the village, the entire
never bush in James's arms.
The winds of Neverland had an adventurous power in them today. They blew in from the sea (but then, any direction was from the sea) and seemed to hold a very real taunt in them. Above the trees one boy answered, searching vainly fir their promised adventure. This boy is one all would know if they saw him, for they've seen him many times before, but more often when they were children. His hair was uncombed and swirled about his neck and ears as he flew, without wings, without glider, simply flew. It was a thing a child could do in Neverland, when sprinkled with fairy dust and shown how. He was clothed in skeletal leaves and quite shoeless, and to someone chancing to look up he could be a fairy himself.
Of course, that would not have been odd in the slightest, not in Neverland. In all fact there was indeed a fairy present, also. A blue light of about a hand's length high was skimming along below the boy. It was not his original fairy, surely, for his fairy died many many years ago, and he had long since forgotten him. Since then, many fairies had been his fairy. There was something oddly attractive to them about this boy, whom would never grow older, would never destroy them thru his disbelief, and always be as heartless as one could be.
This boy was Peter Pan.
The fairy flying below him was Tybalt, so named because before becoming Peter's fairy he had been largely friendly with cats, and some had taken to calling him the king of cats, hence Tybalt. Peter did not understand the connection, and personally found it a foolish way to name anyone.
"Peter, look!" shouted Tybalt, in the ringing fairy language Peter had learned even before English. Quickly looking down, Peter saw a pair of figures wandering across a very old deerpath. One was small, and dressed in skins, while the other was large and carrying, oddly enough, an uprooted bush. Peter paused in midair to get a better look at them. The small one was the indian girl, who's name he could not remember, and the other was a grown white man and could therefore only be a pirate. Neither appeared to be armed, but why a pirate and a redskin would be carrying a bush was enough to investigate, and he might even get to kill the pirate.
Holding Tybalt in cupped hands to hide the glow, Peter slid down into the trees, alighting silently on the soft decay of forest floor. The indian girl was speaking.
"Fine then, I am a spider, fly eating."
"I'm a sparrow, spider eating." the man replied.
"I am a sparrow hawk."
"Then I'm a redskin, hawk shooting."
The girl's jaw snapped closed, and she frowned.
"Nothing can defeat a redskin! That's not a fair move."
"Sure it is." the man said. "That means I win?"
"I guess so." she grumbled.
Thinking it a fine jest to startle them, Peter launched out of the trees and landed directly in their path, Tybalt getting rather knocked about in the process and having several choice words about that. The girl looked hardly surprised at the appearance, though the man jumped and nearly dropped the bush.
"Nice of you to finally reveal yourself, Peter." she said flatly.
"I thought so." he said, and put his hand on his sword. "You want I should kill the pirate for you?"
"What pirate?" she asked, looking genuinely confused.
"That one! Carrying the bush! Why are you carrying a bush, anyway?"
"Pirate?" James said, his face again quite blank.
"He means you." Tiger Lilly said, elbowing James. "And your wrong, Peter, he isn't a pirate. He's staying with us."
If the man was not a pirate, that made the whole situation rather uninteresting. His eyes wandered off and Tiger Lilly thought he would fly away again.
"What about the bush?" he asked, not really hoping for an interesting answer.
"My father sent us out to get something from it. We forgot what." she explained.
"Ah."
Entirely bored now, Peter looked at Tybalt, who had settled on his shoulder. The fairy was straightening a crease Peter had caused in his wings when he jostled him.
"Come on, Tybalt, lets go look for bears."
Peter flew off towards the north. Really, it was unfortunate he did, because if he had flown to the south he might have had a rather lovely adventure with the pirates clustering near the cove. As it was he will not find out they had come until it was a day too late to battle them, but so it goes sometimes.
The cove had been discovered by the pirates on a foraging trip the week before, and to their delight it perfectly fit the Jolly Roger and made a wonderful hiding place. This is, of course, intentional on the part of the children who dreamed it, because all magic islands need a pirates cove. These pirates were up to mischief again, as all good pirates must be, and there was some discontent between the crew over why they were doing this again. Half of them wanted to kill the redskins, and half would rather kill the captain. Starkey was among this latter half, who had spent a week sick and in pain over his skinless back. It was still a bit sore. The only pirate who had absolutely no opinion on the matter was a new one, a bespectacled Irishman who was pathetic on all counts. He had appeared a few days ago to replace the old bo'sun. The poor fellow had insulted the captain to his face, and for it had a rope tied about one ankle and was dangled over the side of the boat. Barbecue let him flounder, sputter, and nearly drown before pulling him up again, letting him rest a few hours, and throwing him back over. Eventually he stopped struggling and simply drown. Therefore, the next morning, his usual hammock was filled by the short and genial Irishman. No one even wondered where these replacement crew came from, anymore. They simply were.
The crew became hushed as the captain was seen coming towards them. Like the rest, he was armed to the gills, and had donned his most threatening suit of clothing. He met the glaring eyes of his crew with a harsh stare that would make a tiger cringe. Unfortunately, one among his crew had less intelligence than a tiger. A brutish man who had come from Rio, who wore gold earrings and had a back tattoo on his chest, stepped forward from the group with a malicious scowl.
"Barbecue, we don't like the way your runnin' this ship."
"Oh really?" the captain said pleasantly.
"Yeah, really. You're not even a proper pirate, you're islander scum, and you captain like it!"
The thinnest lines of amusement began around Barbecue's mouth "So what do you suggest?"
"We oughta kill y--kkck!"
Before anyone even saw him move, Barbecue had torn a knife from his belt and rammed it between the ribs of the Rio pirate. The body doubled over as much as the dagger's hold would let it, red bubbling from between his lips as blood flowed into his punctured lung. The inhuman glint had come to the captain's eyes again, that degenerate and violent glimmer. The Rio pirate's eyes locked on his and he felt a cold and terrible fear, not of death, but of this creature, who was worse than all death. As his vision began to wash and fade, he saw the captain's head split into a grin, and heard faintly the rasp of breathing sharply thru clenched teeth.....then he felt cold. His sight drew back, pulled away from the world, and his hearing faded, became tinny.....and was gone.
Barbecue ripped the knife from it's nest and kicked away the dead corpse. The pirate crew was absolutely silent. Walking slowly before them , holding the claret dagger before his eyes, Barbecue asked thru his terrible grin "Would anyone else like to complain?"
No one did.
Content and knowing, cleaning the dagger on the sleeve of his coat, he replaced it to his belt and looked towards the main of Never Land.
"Towards the village, you filth. And if one of you so much as
whimpers, we'll see what color your blood is."
Arriving at the village with an entire bush in tow made several redskins question just how intelligent James really was. The more optimistic of them said it was only because his brain was still fuddled from loosing it's memories, and that could be true. Some said he was a downright fool. James, the person who ought to care the most, didn't even think about it. He didn't think about much at all, truth be told. He'd discovered something quite disturbing in these past few weeks.
That place that had given his name, that strange and dark corner of his mind that denied him entry but loomed over like a mountain's shadow, that place was not dead. It was as though someone had been buried alive in the dark soil of his mind, and now they clawed ceaselessly at the lid of their coffin. When he lingered near their hopes of salvation arose, and the struggle increased...so James did not linger. He fled from the place, he fled from his mind and it's great labarythian tunnels. He contented himself to wander the outer mazes, never coming too close, and running at the scritching of the coffin lid. But he wondered how long he could stay away.
The village offered him mindless tasks. He carried water for the women, patched huts, and followed the girl Tiger Lilly like a dog. Her brother, Hard-To-Hit, was not nearly so interesting to him, though when he thought on the topic, it seemed odd. The two children were much alike, and if the redskins were any example, it was far more normal for men and boys to be friends that men and girl children. But he heard the scritching of that buried man, and quickly turned his attention to other things.
In fact, he was so concentrated on not thinking he did not realize when the moment came TO think. There was a slight noise in the very near trees, something like a squirrel might make, and immediately any redskins still in the village tensed. Those present were Tiger Lilly, Blue Hawk, Deer's Sister, and a young woman named Yellow Bird, who was quite some ways into a pregnancy and rarely left the village. James saw something like sunlight off metal in the woods, but did not realize these implications until Blue Hawk bolted, shoving Yellow Bird into one of the huts and grabbing an axe out. Tiger Lilly silently dashed for her bow, and Deer's Sister, who was not one for battle, slipped into the hut with the pregnant woman, a small knife held tight in her hand. Blue Hawk shoved the handle of his own hunting blade into James's palm, and suddenly he understood. They were being attacked........
He felt distanced from his body, and when the pirates poured into the village he did not move. Blue Hawk bellowed and flung himself bravely into the group, knowing he would die. One, two, three pirates fell dead before one managed to slide his knife into Blue Hawk's leg, stumbling him enough that a stab in the back succeeded. Tiger Lilly's small arrows stung at the pirates but did not kill. Unable to do anything, and frightened to die, she dropped her bow and ran into the forest, away from the pirates and away from the death, tears of shame and fear on her cheeks. Still James did nothing.
The entrance to the occupied hut was slashed open, and James watched as Deer's Sister launched out as if driven, burying the knife in the throat of the nearest pirate and having her innards halved for it. The pregnant woman was dragged out, and though James wasn't quite sure what happened, next he saw, her swollen belly had been turned inside out, and her mouth hung open in an unfinished scream.
Then they looked to him. He dropped the knife, and felt nothing. The upturned mouths of the dead women drew his eyes, and that premature grave in his mind became violent, fists pounding the lid, soil pushing to the side, dark claws tearing thru the barrier.....
And then thankfully, there was nothing.....for one of the pirates had knocked him out.