YAY I LOVE YOU PEOPLE! *glomps everyone* More Peter/Aurelia interaction in this.. Peter is a bit.. SCARY! O.o LOL!! Its great happy sad stuff!!! And Ana - I DID email you I really did!! *sob* I used the email in your bio I'm pretty sure.. *blink* Now.. time management.. school for the next five days.. so the next chapter may be out a bit later than like a new one every day. LOL weren't you happy to see so many new chapters at one time? YAY! This is Kristen's glory! She wrote almost all of this chapter! Its EXCELLENT!!!
Disclaimer: cheez its are so yummy!!! And by the way.. Peter pan doesn't belong to us.. but AURELIA and this storyline DOES! BWAH!
Aurelia ran at top speed into the forest, hoping its foliage would protect her from view, but to no avail. Peter stuck to her like white on snow. She ducked under low hanging branches, weaved around trees, dived behind boulders but he continued to tail her, and he was getting closer by the second.
"Great! Why do I always have to say everything that pops into my head? Look where that's gotten me - on a magical island, living in a cave, but currently being chased by a flying boy!" she mentally berated herself.
Swerving behind a boulder, she found herself out of Peter's view for a second and, lo and behold, she spotted a hole in the ground.
"Perfect!" She thought to herself, smiling triumphantly. She did not know what it held or where it went, but at the moment, she didn't care. Seizing the opportunity, she plunged into the hole and left Peter wondering where she had gone, as he had done many times before. He was sure she was just behind that boulder a moment ago.. wasn't she? Peter sighed and continued to search for the girl.
The hole was narrow, but eventually Aurelia squirmed and wiggled her way out and landed on something solid. The only problem was that it was so dark that she didn't know exactly what that "something" was. Remembering her waterproof lighter, she pulled it out and flicked it open, revealing a very angry horde of Indians. With very pointy spears.
Erm.. Hi.." She managed to choke out as they grinned maliciously at her.
"Sorry, I dropped in like this, all unexpected, but it really was an emergency," she squeaked, nervously tugging at the bottom of her shirt.
"I'll be going now, though. Sorry again. It won't happen a second time, I promise," she started to walk towards the exit, but promptly had spears thrusted at her. She jumped away from the spears and her voice raised an octave higher from nerves.
"On second thought, maybe I'll stay here a while. You guys seem like a nice bunch of chaps to hang around with."
Out of the darkness, a girl who seemed a bit younger than Aurelia appeared. Clad in Indian dress and her hair held in two pigtails, she said something in the aborigine language, which Aurelia could not decipher, but decided immediately that she did not like it. Suddenly, she bound and gagged and hoisted into a canoe. Aurelia would have fought back, but she had rather wisely decided that being shiskabobbed on a spear was not a pleasant feeling.
Another order came from the young girl and the canoe set off. An uncertain time later, for Aurelia was too petrified to take reliable account of time, they arrived at the Indian encampment that she had pillaged from earlier. More orders came from the girl, who Aurelia had grown to detest with indescribable passion, and Aurelia was strapped to a large pole as the other members of the horde lay kindling around her feet. The girl smirked and Aurelia wanted nothing more than to wipe off that smirk with a nice heavy rock.
"Oooh, I remember this from Salem! This is not good!" she cried to no one in particular, but she was gagged, so it all came out as gibberish anyway.
An older man came out with a torch, which made Aurelia squirm and twist with all her might, but all she got accomplished was spitting out her gag. She used this new freedom to vigorously try blowing out the torch, but as this didn't seem to work, she let out an ear-piercing scream which made every living being in a 200 foot radius flinch.
The man paid her no attention though, and soon the flames were licking at her feet. Aurelia was now extremely afraid. Was she going to die? Was this the end? Perhaps the mermaids were right; they would have been rid of her faster than any of them had predicted. She silently said goodbye to them all in her head and her life flashed before her eyes.
*flash!*
Two loving parents holding her tightly.
*flash!*
A plane ride.
The fires were getting warmer now, she felt them singeing her feet.
*flash!*
Her stealing some food and running from authorities.
*flash!*
Stowing away on a flying ship.
Aurelia had given up all hope of being saved when, out of the blue, a splash green flew down to the encampment. Aurelia, however, was a little too busy being cooked to a nice golden-brown to notice.
"Tiger Lily," the green boy started, "Have you seen a girl about my age around here. She took something from me and I...hey, that's her! Why're you burning her, not that I mind, of course."
"She was trespassing, Peter," Tiger Lily replied, simply.
Aurelia suddenly realized that Peter was there and was immediately groping for his attention. "Peter! Peter! HELP!" she cried at the top of her lungs.
"What do you want, thief?" he asked, his tone dripping with malice.
"I want to not be burned at the stake!" she cried.
"And if I help you..." he trailed off.
Aurelia huffed and thought for a moment.
"Yes, you can have the hook," she replied, a bit saddened.
"Deal!" he smiled.
"Tiger Lily, you can let her go! She's a friend of mine!" he cried.
Tiger Lily looked quite disappointed, but made the order and Aurelia was carried away from the flames.
"Ow, ow, ow, ow!" she screeched as she felt the burned flesh on the soles of her feet.
"Hook, please," Peter came over to her.
"Can't you see I'm in obvious misery? I'm too hurt to walk, but you want your hook? Do you ever think of anyone else but yourself? Geez!" she said, throwing the hook at his feet, "There's your precious hook. Get out of my face!" With that she turned around again and inspected the burns more closely. They didn't appear to be tremendously bad, and would heal soon enough, but she was still in great pain, and had a long way to walk before she could get home.
Peter's expression changed and he felt ashamed of himself, but he'd never admit it, of course. Instead, he offered to take her home, figuring he'd find out where she lived in the process.
"I said get out of my face!" Aurelia roared, at the verge of tears.
"Well, fine then!" and with that Peter flew off. Struggling to her feet, Aurelia found it exceedingly painful to stand and even more so to walk, but she struggled onward anyway.
"I hope he impales himself on that stupid hook," she mused angrily on her way.
About a third of the way home, Aurelia could take the pain no more and collapsed on the dirt path, sobbing uncontrollably. Peter, who was her least favorite person at the time, which was saying a lot considering she had just been burned at the stake by Indians, was flying overhead. Seeing her in such obvious pain, he felt he had to go help.
Before Peter could get to her, though, Aurelia passed out from the pain and sheer exhaustion the day had brought.
Thinking for a moment, Peter scooped her up in his arms and flew her towards Mermaid Lagoon. She was friends with the mermaids. They'd know where she lived.
As they were flying over the water, Aurelia began to regain consciousness. In a few moments, she was fully conscious - and fully aware that she was with the detestable Peter Pan and flying of all things. Her first reaction was to hit him, but for fear of him letting her fall she just held onto him tighter and held her tongue for the first time in her life. Well, about Peter, anyway. When it really set in that she was flying her mind flashed back to when she was seven and first developed her incredible fear of flying. Shaking those horrible memories out of her head, she clutched on to Peter even tighter, but as she felt him descend she couldn't help letting out a frightened whimper.
"You're awake!" he cried, realizing it for the first time. All she could do was mutely nod.
"Are you okay? You look really pale," he asked worriedly.
"I...I...hate...flying," she managed to choke out.
"I'll go faster, then. Make it go by quicker. We're almost there, anyway," he flew downwards at top speed.
Despite her fear, Aurelia's shouts of "Peter, I'll kill you for this!" were heard throughout the Isle.
"You're so loud," he commented, wincing, when they touched down at Mermaid Lagoon.
The mermaids were astounded to see their Aurelia in the arms of Peter Pan, in fact, they were quite jealous as well. She didn't even like him! However, their jealousy subsided when they saw the way Aurelia ran from his embrace like she was running from the plague. She sat on a rock as far away from the flying boy as possible and soaked her feet in the water.
"Oh, Peter, what happened?" they asked, leaving Aurelia to herself, which was fine with her.
"Well, your friend over there took something of mine, but I let her go, because I'm such a nice guy. Then, she got caught trespassing by the Indians and they tried to burn her at the stake, so I had to rescue her, but she wouldn't let me take her home, so I left. Later on, I was flying and I saw her passed out, so I had to go pick her up and fly her over here and she was still yelling at me. I tell you, I just don't get that girl," he said with a proud smile on his face.
"Mmmhmmm"s and "You're so wonderful, Peter"s permeated the group of mermaids. Aurelia, feeling betrayed by her closest friends, immediately dove into her cave.
"Hey, where'd she go?" Peter wondered looking around curiously.
"Where'd who go?" the mermaids asked, still too caught up in Peter to even think of Aurelia.
"Aurelia," he replied.
"Oh, she probably just went home," Pearl was snatched from lala-land.
Before Peter could inquire where "home" was, he was bombarded by requests for stories and he was never one to turn down an opportunity to toot his own horn.
Aurelia, in the meantime, was in her cave, soaking her poor, burned feet in the soothing water.
"Why do I have such rotten luck with friends? Everytime I think I have a real chum they leave me at the mercy of Scotland Yard or become complete ditzes when annoying flying boys show up. It's like I don't even matter!" she cried to herself.
"Of course you matter," Pearl's head bobbed up.
"Why aren't you with Peter?" she pronounced his name with incredibly ill will.
"He left," Pearl said, obviously saddened.
"Maybe you should follow his example," Aurelia said coldly.
"Aurelia! I'm sorry! But it was Peter! Peter!" Pearl pleaded.
"I don't care if it was Paul bloody McCartney! You can't just turn your back on people like that! It's not right!" Aurelia screamed, fuming. Her eyes were blurry from tears that seemed ready to spill over at any moment.
"Who?" Pearl asked.
"That's not the point, Pearl. You chose some pompous flying brat over your injured friend. How am I supposed to feel about that?"
"But it was Peter!"
"Pearl, I don't care! Just go."
"But..."
"No, please, just go."
So Pearl sullenly dove into the water and exited the cave. As soon as she was sure Pearl couldn't see or hear her, Aurelia broke down in torrents of tears.
By the next day Aurelia was feeling refreshed, her feet no longer ached when she even looked at them, she could even walk a little bit.
She crawled out of her tunnel and as she was pulling herself out, into the sunlight, she heard what came to be a most welcome sound of children's laughter. Her face lit up and she immediately speed walked/jogged towards the sound. She saw the boys playing kickball, one now a catcher, and one the pitcher. She leaned against a tree and watched quietly. Aurelia decided that perhaps the boys touched her so because they had not been forced out of childhood unlike someone she knew. She shook her head banishing the thoughts.
"Blast it, Aurelia, stop living in the bloody past," she whispered to herself before capturing the boys attention. They all ran over to her, albeit sheepishly.
"Something wrong boys?" she inquired. Slightly finally got up the courage to talk.
"We're sorry about the hook, and Peter's temper, and your feet," he said ashamed of himself.
"Damn the hook, damn my feet and most of all damn Peter Pan!" she exclaimed before she sat down and motioned for them to sit as well. Aurelia smiled at them all warmly, and finally the boys managed to smile back at her, seeing as she wasn't mad at them.
"I was hoping you boys would want me to tell you a story, considering I can't really play any games today," she trailed off, pretending not to notice the heads nodding eagerly around her, "but if you still want to play kickball then-"
"No!" Tootles cried, "tell us a story! Please Lia? Please?!" She laughed.
"Alright!" she said before pausing to think.
"Which stories have you heard?"
"Oh lots of them," Slightly started, "about Peter and Tiger Lily, and Hook losing his hand to the crocodile, and how we got here," he trailed off. She inwardly flinched.
"Today we shall do something different, there will be no Peter Pan in my stories," she proclaimed, "now.. would you prefer a story about a terrible and vicious ogre? Or perhaps a lovely princess locked in a tower? A dashing young knight who goes to slay a dragon? A scary witch who roasts little children?" the boys all started talking at once, each requesting a different tale, although none picked the one about the princess, and Aurelia had to hold up her hand to quiet them.
"Perhaps we shall save those for another day. Maybe you'd like to hear what happened yesterday? On Hook's ship?" she asked with a smile. This suggestion was immediately accepted, and she began to tell them about swimming over, the drunken pirates singing. She told them how she snuck into the captain's quarters..
"And just then.. Smee burst through the door!" she cried, putting her hands up. The boys backed away slightly, their eyes wide and fearful.
"He didn't!" the Twins cried.
"He did! And he walked right over to me and..."
"And? And?!" Slightly begged.
"and.. said.. 'Good evening capt'n!'" Aurelia said, imitating Smee's drunken voice almost perfectly. The boys howled with laughter. Aurelia told them the rest of the story, which they greatly enjoyed. There was another who seemed to enjoy the story as well, but he remained in the branch above Aurelia's head, listening quietly, not daring to laugh out loud, should Aurelia hear him and immediately stop the story. His fingers fiddled with a silver hook as he dreamily gazed down upon the bunch. Slightly, Cubbie and the Twins forming a miniature circle around the storyteller, with Tootles in her lap.
"Peter would like that story!" Tootles said when the story was done. Aurelia laughed bitterly.
"I doubt it, he'd only be interested if he was the star player."
The boy in the tree frowned. That wasn't true! Was it?
"The jerk probably didn't even apologize to the Twins for yelling at them yesterday," she muttered.
"He did Lia! He did!" the Twins echoed each other. Aurelia blinked.
"Whaaat?" she dragged out, her eyebrows raising.
"He was sorry about his temper and apologized this morning," Slightly responded. Aurelia frowned for a moment, before shaking her head and trying to change the subject.
"So...want to hear how to play a new game?" she asked. The boys nodded.
"It's called capture the flag!"
********
"BLAST IT! SMEE!" Hook bellowed. Smee bumbled over towards him, deadly afraid of what he had been accused of again.
"Y-y-yes capt'n?" Smee stuttered. Hook was furious, there was spit flying from his mouth, his eyes were wild in anger, and his entire body seemed to be trembling.
"MY HOOK!" He roared, "ITS GONE!!!! WHERE DID YOU PUT IT SMEE?!" Smee shivered and backed away slowly.
"I didn't do anything with it capt'n! Honest!" he squeaked out.
"None of the men did.. we were all outside last night! You know that!!" Smee said, his voice sounding like a mouse's would. Hook paused, and twirled his moustache around using his hook, letting it snap away from the golden hook, as was habit when Hook was deep in thought.
"Mister Smee, who do you know lives around here, that would want to steal me hook?" the captain asked a few moments later. Smee paused.
"P-Peter sir..."
"Very good Mister Smee," Hook said with a malicious grin. Hook looked up at the sky.
"Pan shall pay for this... mark my words Smee. Pan shall pay..."
MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAH!!!!! Evil evil evil cliffhangers!!!!! I hate monday's don't you? Homework bites!! I hope someone reviews for this one! Because that gets us totally pepped for getting the next chapter out! So see.. you review.. we get the chapter out faster! YAY! Both parties involved are happy! its a win/win situation! MWAHAHHA!! I like cheez its. Peter was a bit scary in this one.. but hey.. he's Peter.. *laughs* he gets better we promise!!! ^_^ Next chapter will be out hopefully some time next week!! Everyone who reviews gets a brownie!!