Disclaimer: Yeah, I know. This should be on the first page, but this story was orginally on my Peter Pan Room ezboard forum, and I never put the disclaimer there, either. Anyway, here it is: Peter Pan and related characters do not belong to me (I wish!), but the concept of Petra Pan, Peter's twin sister, does. I also own Dusty --Petra's pixie--, Amy Rhimes, Golden Tiger, and Marzi Pan. Marzi Pan is a pun on marzipan, the sweet.
Peter, Petra, and the Lost Boys awoke to the smell of breakfast cooking. Peter carried Marzi, who had been left with him in the bed, into the main room of the Underground House.
The table was filled with food for breakfast: Eggs, pancakes and syrup, bacon, sausage, toast and jam, milk, orange juice, fruit, etc. Everything the boys would want to eat to start the day. Near Peter's chair, in a small bowl, was some berry mush for Marzi.
"Good morning!" Amy greeted her new family. "Breakfast is ready, if you would all like to come and sit down at the table. Peter, would you be a dear and feed Marzi, please? Thanks."
"Sure," he replied. Peter sat in his chair, the baby on his lap, and began to feed the mixture to Marzi. The Lost Boys, meanwhile, piled up to the table, and began filling their plates with food, sometimes fighting over a particularly large pancake, or a choice piece of bacon or sausage.
"WHOA!" Amy yelled to get their attention. The boys stopped in mid-tussle to look at her. "How about some manners and organization, here?"
"'Or..gan...iza...tion...?" Cubby asked, drawing out the unfimular word.
"That means, let's at least make our meal neat and tidy," she smiled. With a little encouragement from Amy, the boys actually had a fairly quiet breakfast.
Since he was feeding Marzi, Amy fixed Peter a plate for his breakfast. She set it in front of him, then poured him some milk and orange juice.
"Eat up, everyone," Amy smiled. "Today's going to be a full day!"
"Why?" Peter asked, pausing for a moment in his feeding of Marzi to take a bite of his own food.
"I'm thinking of taking everyone on a picnic today. Just a day together to get to know one another. And, hopefully, have some fun with little Marzi, there." She nodded toward the little girl. "I have a few things we can do, and include her in on the fun."
"Sounds great!" Peter grinned. Petra slipped into her chair next to her brother and filled herself a plate. Behind her came Tink and Dusty, who sat at a smaller table set up in the middle of the bigger table. They got small plates and cups for themselves.
Suddenly, a small ball of fur lept onto the table and began to nibble on a piece of sausage, then turned to lap up some spilled milk on the table.
"Tiger!" Amy laughed. The kitten looked up at the gathered children and let out with a tiny, "Mew!" before going back to his meal.
After breakfast, Amy organized the kids into helping clean up the dining area. They, she and Petra packed the picnic lunch. Before they were ready to leave, Amy grabbed her backpack and put it on.
"Do you know a good spot for a picnic, Peter?" Amy asked. "It should be in a nice, cool spot, but with enough space to play."
"I think I know of a place," the eternal boy smiled. "Just follow me." Lifting into the air, Peter flew out of the house. Moments later, his small band was following him.
It was not long before he pointed out a nice meadow below them. A small woods lined one edge of the meadow, with a tiny creek running through it. Under the trees, near the creek, it would be nice and cool for their mid-day meal, while the meadow would provide the space they needed for active play. Course, Amy planned for Marzi to have some time for playing with her new brothers, and the small picnic spot would enough room for that.
"That looks wonderful, Peter!" Amy cried. "Let's go down and set the cloth up. It's not time for lunch, yet, so you guys can play for awhile. After lunch, we'll have some time to play with Marzi."
With a cheer, the boys dived down and landed in the meadow and immediantly started up a game of Red Rover. Peter, Petra, Amy, and the pixies flew to their choosen spot, landing gently on the ground near a big oak tree. Amy spread the cloth and sat down. Peter then handed her Marzi.
The baby squirmed in Amy's arms, trying to reach out to for Peter to take her back. The boy looked uncertainly back at Amy. It was taking a long time for Marzi to get to know Amy, much less, Petra and the Lost Boys. Would leaving her with Amy and Petra now be a good idea?
"Go on," Amy urged. "She needs to know that, even if you leave, you'll come back. When she learns that, she will learn to be comfortable around the rest of us. Right now, she has been with you so much, she only feels safe with you. The only way to change that, is for you to be away from her for awhile, then return. That will show her that when you leave, you will always come back. That will reassure her that you won't ever leave her."
"Okay," Peter agreed, but still uncertain. "I'll be right back, Marzi. I promice." He gave the baby a little kiss on the cheek, then left to play with the Lost Boys. A scream from Marzi followed him, but he ignored it. He hated to. He wanted to go back and comfort the baby. But if Amy said it would help break Marzi of clinging to him, Peter knew he had to go along with it. So he joined the boys in their game.
"Shhh...don't cry, don't cry, shhh..." Amy was rocking the baby in her arms.
"Do you have a musical instrument that you can play?" Petra asked. "If you don't, I do..." The eternal girl prepared to pull out her own set of panpipes.
"I've got a little something," Amy answered. Handing Marzi to Petra, the girl rumaged through the little backpack. From somewhere in its depths, Amy brought out a strange object that looked a lot like a sweet potato with holes.
"It's called an 'Ocarina'," Amy explained. "I learned a few pieces of music playing a video game." With that, she put the instrument to her lips and began to play several pieces of music. First, she played "Zelda's Lullaby", then played "Epona's Song". Next came, "Sun's Song", then "Saria's Song". These were followed by "Song of Time", and the "Song of Storms". "Minuet of Woods", "Bolero of Fire", "Serenade of Water", "Nocturne of Shadow", "Prelude to Light", and "Requiem of Spirit" rounded out the list of music she played. By the time she was finished, Marzi was silent, watching the girl in fastination. Petra also stared in quiet awe in the music.
Peter and the boys had heard Amy playing, and had stopped their game to listen. Each stared open-mouthed as Amy played the beautiful music on the odd-looking instrument. When she stopped, no one moved a muscle.
"Well," Amy said, breaking the silence, "I certainly never expected an audience!"
This snapped everyone out of their trance. They looked at each other and blushed, embarressed at their reaction to Amy's concert. Each looked back at the girls, giving them embarressed smiles.
"Where did you learn to play music like that?" Peter asked.
"The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time video game," Amy answered. "I liked the music so much, I bought a real ocarina and learned to play the music from the game."
"Can this music be adapted to be played on panpipes?" Petra asked. She held out her own seven-reed instrument.
"It could," Amy said. "But it will take some time, and practice. We can work on it later, though. Time to eat!"
The boys' faces lit up at that news. They helped her set out the food for the picnic, then began to chow down. For the first time, Marzi let someone else, other than Peter, feed her. Amy gently spooned some banana mush into the baby's mouth. Amy's plan seemed to be working. The boys and Petra also took turns feeding Marzi, turning it into another game. A game the tiny girl seemed to like!
After the meal, Amy rumaged through her backpack again, and brought out a large bottle of bubbles. She had Nibs to clean a plate in the creek, then bring it back to her. She asked Slightly to cut some reed straws, one for each of them. Meanwhile, the rest of the food and dinnerware was cleared away, leaving only the picnic cloth on the ground.
When Nibs and Slightly returned with the plate and the reeds, Amy poured some of the bubble liquid into the plate. She then showed them how to blow bubbles with the straws. For herself, she chose the wand that came with the bubbles. She dipped it into the bubbles on the plate and brought the loop of the wand near her mouth. Pursing her lips as if giving a kiss, Amy blew gently into the wand. A stream of colorful bubbles flew out of the loop, spreading out to cover the boys. The bubbles burst, giving the boys an unexpected shower.
Marzi giggled, trying to catch and break the bubbles that came near her. The boys did not mind getting covered with soapy water, if it made the baby happy.
"Let's see how big you can make a bubble, Amy!" Peter challenged with a laugh.
"Okay," she agreed. She dipped the wand in the plate again, and readied herself to blow the swirling, rainbow colored liquid into a giant bubble. She started to blow very slowly, and gradually, the bubble grew. It grew until she ran out of breath, till it reached the size of Peter's head, before she relased it into the air. The bubble rose above the children, then suddenly burst, raining the soapy water all over them all.
After a good, long soaking with the bubbles, Amy poured the remaining liquid back into the big bottle to save for another time. Maybe she could work out a bubble solution with soap found in Neverland. For now, everyone had to get the sticky stuff off them. To do that, they had to have baths.
"Awwww..." Cubby complained, and the other Lost Boys echoed his reaction. "Do we have to?"
"It would be a good idea," Amy replied. "Especially with the next game I have in mind."
At the thought of a new game, the boys rushed to the creek to clean off the "bubble stuff". Meanwhile, Amy and Petra cleaned themselves and Marzi up, as well. By the time everyone was finsihed with the cleaning, they were ready for the next game.
Like the bubbles, the new game had to include the baby in it as well. There could be absolutely no rough play, so the children had sit and play quietly.
"This next game is more of a magic show --sorta," Amy told them.
"'Sorta'?" Peter asked. "Why, 'sorta'?"
"It's more like stage magic, the kind you see from a magician on a stage."
"Not real magic, then?" Petra asked.
"Depends on your definition of 'real'," Amy smiled. She took out twenty-one cards from a deck and shuffled them. Then, she laid them out in three columns.
"Choose a card, Peter, but don't tell me what it is. Just point to the column that it's in," Amy instructed. Peter did so, choosing the King of Hearts. He pointed to one column. Amy picked the three columns of cards up, making sure to get the one Peter pointed to in the middle. Without shuffling again, she laid the columns out again and again asked Peter to point out the column with his card. He did so, and the cards were once again removed and again laid out. Peter again choose the column with his card. When Amy picked the card up for a third time, however, she simply counted out eleven cards. When she turned up the eleventh card --it was the King of Hearts!
"Is this your card?" she asked him, holding up the red king.
"Yeah!" Peter cried excitedly. "Do it again!" She did so, each time revealing Peter's choosen card --an Ace of Hearts and a Queen of Diamonds. Marzi got caught up in the excitment of the game and began to laugh.
Soon, however, it was time to go home. They had played the day away, and had gotten to know each other very well. Inside the Underground House, they had a late supper, a story, and then bed.
In Peter's room, Peter and Amy were getting Marzi ready for bed.
"How long do you think we're going to have to keep sleeping like this?" Peter asked.
"Making you nervous, huh?" she asked with a smile.
"Who? Me?" he looked at her as if saying, "You have to be kidding!"
"You've never slept with a girl before me, have you?"
"No," he answered flatly. "It's not that I don't like girls. I do. But sleeping like that is for..."
"Grown-ups?"
"Yeah. Grown-ups.
"Don't worry. You won't have to do it for long. Today's picnic was a good start."
"Yes. But will I have to share my room with you, or will you be able to move in with Petra?"
"I don't know. We'll have to see. Now, lets get to bed. I expect you to give me a tour of Neverland tomorrow. I'd like to know where to go if I need to go somewhere in Neverland."
"Okay. Good night, then, Amy," he said as he climed into bed.
"Good night, Peter," Amy smiled back and climbed in on her side of the bed. Soon, the three of them were fast asleep.
Next: Chapter 6: Golden Tiger's Magic. Hook and the pirates confront Peter and their new mother, only to meet with Amy's kitten, Tiger. But could this kitten be more than Hook bargained for?
