Note: I'll try to update the story as much as I can. I may have to skip some days, though.
Peter woke up one day to someone in the room coughing. He laid in his hammock, trying to figure out who it was. At first, he thought it was him, but he did not think he ever got sick. At the next cough, he knew that he was not the one. That only left Amy and/or Marzi. Alarmed, he got up and approached the bed.
Amy and Marzi looked all right, but as he watched, Amy suddenly coughed again. In the next moment, Marzi also coughed.
Uh, oh! Peter thought. They're both sick! I'd better get the thermometer. To Peter and the Lost Boys, a thermometer was the be-all and end-all of doctoring equipment. Somehow, it told them everything they needed to know about how a sick person was. Few were the Lost Boys that could read the numbers on the glass tube; fewer still were the ones that could understand the meaning of the numbers and the level of the red liquid inside.
Peter found the thermometer where they left it --with a box that Amy had told them was a first-aid kit. He immediantly rushed back to his room to see about the two girls.
Amy's eyes fluttered open, only to find Peter sticking something in her mouth. After a few moments, he took it out and looked at it. He knew a little about how to read the thermometer --Slightly was the one that could really understand the numbers. The fox-pelted boy had told Peter that ninety-eight point six degrees was normal human body temperature. Anything lower or higher could mean the person was sick.
The level of the liquid in the tube was at about one-hundred degrees --a little higher than it should be. Concerned, Peter felt Amy's forehead. It was warmer than it should be.
"How are you feeling?" he asked her.
"Not...::cough::...too good...::cough::..." she answered weakly.
"It looks like Marzi's sick, too," he said. He felt the child's forehead. She, too, felt hot to the touch. He took her temperature, as well. Marzi's temperature was also around one-hunderd.
"You two stay in bed," Peter told them. "I'll see about getting something for you to eat or drink."
"Okay..." Amy said horsely. She settled back in the bed with Marzi. Peter left the room to tell the boys that they needed to be quiet because Amy and Marzi was sick.
Peter was surprised to learn that the Lost Boys were also sick. He told them to stay in bed, then headed for Petra's room. Normally, he would have knocked on the wall to get her attention and ask for permission to enter. But with everyone sick, Peter thought that maybe he should check on her as well.
Petra was also ill, coughing and sneezing as she tried to keep warm under the fur blanket. Dusty sat on a pillow nearby, worried about his friend.
"Dusty," Peter whispered, trying to get the pixie's attention. When Dusty looked his way, Peter motioned for him to come over to him. Although reluctant to leave Petra alone, Dusty did so, jingling a soft, "She's sick," to Peter.
"I know," the boy answered. "Everyone but me, you, and maybe Tink are sick. What are we going to do?"
"Take care of them, of course," Dusty replied. "My Healing Dust will help. But even the dust will take awhile to work."
"Okay," Peter agreed. "The sooner we get started, the sooner they get well." Together, the boy and pixie went into the kitchen to prepare the medicine.
Peter handed out the nine cups of medicine to the sick ones. The medicine was water, with three pixie-handfulls of Dusty's Healing Dust, and mixed well. Peter encouraged each of the Lost Boys to drink the whole cup, then told them to stay in bed. He then tended to Petra, and then Amy and Marzi.
The medicine --a very big improvement over their usual medicine of sugar-water-- tasted like honey and milk, and was just as soothing. Mixed with water and ingested, the Healing Dust could cure any illness and neutralize any poison. Mixed into a paste and applied to any kind of wound, the Healing Dust would speed up the healing process dramatically. In a pinch, the dust could be spread on without mixing it with water, but the healing was slower if done that way.
Peter spent the day tending to his sick friends, barely having any time to himself to rest. He managed a few naps, either on his throne, or in his hammock. At noon, he managed to make some decent soup to feed to his patients, which he had to spoon-feed to some of the younger ones.
During one lull in his duties, Peter slumped in his chair, lost in thought.
I wonder how they caught the --whatever it is they have, Peter thought. We haven't been anywhere for them to contact anything. All the fresh water sources in Neverland are pure and clean, unlike those in the "real world". Maybe some of the mudholes has something in them. The air is normally clean, except where the smoke from the Indian villiage rises, and even that's in such a small area that the smoke doesn't effect the rest of Neverland. Could the pirates have come up with something? No, I don't think so. Hook's smart, but not smart enough to create illness. I've heard about scientists in the "real world" making things that could make people sick as a way to fight them. They call it "germ warfare". It even sounds sick. What grown-ups won't do to each other! Peter shook his head, unable to understand the things adults do. He did not even understand war. To him, fighting Hook and his pirates was a game. For the most part, Peter never hurt anyone when he fought the pirates. He had his fun, but never did anyone harm. Not counting the time he had cut off Hook's hand, of course. But sometimes, the battle would get serious, like the time Hook had tricked Tink and kidnapped his friends.
There may come a day, Peter mused, when I will finally do in Hook once and for all. He'll do something so evil, I'll have to kill him. What that might be, I don't know. I'll just have to keep my eyes open and be alert.
The boys woke up, but were so weak, they could only stare at their leader. Peter felt sorry for them. They had been having a rough day. Well, thanks to Dusty's Healing Dust medicine, everyone would be well by tomorrow. Peter took out his panpipes and began to play them for his friends. The boys smiled as they listened to the music.
"Feel like eatting something?" Peter asked them at last. "There's still some soup left." They nodded. "Okay. Feel like eatting at the table?" At that, the boys piled out of bed and quietly settled themselves at the table. Peter poured them bowls of soup and set the bowls in front of the boys. Then, Peter fixed a bowl of soup and took it to Petra. Two more times, he filled bowls, one each for Amy and Marzi. As soon as all that was done, Peter fixed a bowl for himself. Then, when everyone was fed and back in bed, he made his way wearily to his hammock and fell in, not even waiting until he was entirely in the swinging bed before he was fast asleep.
It's been a very long day, he thought. They'll be well by tomorrow, but I'm beat! I could sleep for a week! Well, maybe not that long, but close enough. Maybe tomorrow I'll go and see what ol' Codfish is up to. I didn't get out to the ship today. He might be wondering what happened to me. Peter grinned in his sleep as this thought floated through his mind. I'll --reassure-- him tomorrow.
Peter sighed in his sleep, exhaustion finally quieting even his thoughts. For the rest of the night, he was in a deep, dreamless slumber. Tomorrow, things would be back to normal, pranks and all. For tonight, there was only sleep.
Note: Sorry for the relatively short chapter. There's only so much you can do with a sick day.
Next: Chapter 10: Stormy Weather. Peter and Amy get caught in a storm --alone. As they take shelter to wait it out, they pass the time by talking. How do they feel about each other? And what will the future hold for them?
