Peter shivered when he woke up one morning. It was oddly colder than it normally was. While being underground was much cooler than on the surface, it had never been this cold before. Peter hugged his arms in attempt to get warm, then turned his attention to the two girls in the bed nearby.
Amy and Marzi was wrapped in the fur cover, but still seemed to shiver in the cold. Peter hopped out of the hammock and sprinted over to the bed. Carefully, he shook Amy awake.
"Hmmm..." Amy groaned as she struggled to wake up. "What is it, Peter?"
"It's colder in here than it should be," he answered. "Do you feel cold?"
"Yeah," she answered. She tried to cover herself back up. "It's very cold."
"That's not normal for Neverland," Peter said. "Neverland is a tropical island. By all rights, it should be just cool enough down here to contrast the warmth on top. Only the mountains should be this cold."
"Do you think something's wrong?" Amy was now awake, giving Peter her full attention.
"Maybe. Get Marzi and come into the main room. It'll be warmer in there. I'll get Petra and Dusty." Peter walked out, followed by Amy and Marzi.
Soon, the Neverland family were all in the main part of the underground house. The boys were all awake now, and a fire was lit in the fireplace. As Amy and Petra got breakfast ready, the children discussed the strange coldness.
"What could have happened?" Amy asked.
"I don't know," Peter admitted. "We've never really experienced winter before. Oh, we know that it's cold, and and that everything is covered in snow. But winter has never really come to Neverland."
"Are you sure that's what's happening?" Petra asked. "Have you been outside yet?"
"No," Peter admitted. "And I'm not really dressed for cold weather."
"One of us could go see," Nibs suggested. "We're dressed in fur. We won't be as cold."
"Well..." Peter cocked his head in thought.
"Do we have anything approaching a window?" Amy asked. "If we do, then all we need to do is look out the window."
"She's right," Petra smiled. "And I think we have a few opennings that could be considered windows. Well-closed and hidden, but we could easily look out of them to see what's going on."
"I'll look," Tink jingled. She flew toward one of the small tunnels. As she flew through the tunnel toward her destination, the blonde pixie came upon the little puddle that floated in the ceiling of the underground house. Somehow, the water in the little puddle remained where it was, even though the bottom of the puddle was open to the tunnel, and the fish that swam in it could peek at whoever was walking below them.
Now, however, the puddle was frozen over, and the little fish were trapped in the ice. Alarmed, Tink continued her journey to the window.
When she arrived, the pixie looked out of the hole, covered only by a leaf. Even if an enemy was in the area, the hole could not be traced back to Peter's underground home, and no one but a pixie could fit inside.
What Tink saw outside made her gasp in surprise. Quickly, she flew back to report her findings to Peter. Something very strange had happened to Neverland, and something had to be done about it as soon as possible.
"What?" Peter listened in disbelief as Tinker Bell told him about what she found.
"What did she say, Peter?" Nibs asked.
"She says that Neverland is covered in snow! And it looks like it's several feet high!"
"But yesterday, it was warm and pleasent out," Amy said. "How did it snow so quickly, and become so deep overnight?"
"Only one thing could do this," Peter answered. "Queen Crystal, the ruler of the Ice Kingdom, is walking around Neverland. She is a kind, good lady, but for the most part stays in her ice kingdom. Occationally, though, she comes out for awhile. It would be like staying here in the underground house for weeks at a time, never going outside. You get tired and bored. That's what must have happened to her. Who knows how long she'll stay outside. But she doesn't come out often, so we just cope with the cold. When she returns to her ice caves, it'll warm up extremely quickly. Amy, you check the food stores, see how much we got left. Slightly, you check the firewood. Petra, check the water supply. Dusty, you make sure we have enough medicine, and make more if we're low."
"We should make winter clothes for those of us that need them," Amy suggested. "We don't know for how long we're going to be snowed in like this."
"Good idea," Peter smiled. "Nibs, check the room where we keep the furs and leather we sometimes get from the Indians during trades. There should be enough to make warmer clothes out of."
As the Lost Children went about their assigned tasks, Marzi toddled over to Peter and held out her hands toward him. He picked her up and held her.
Marzi seemed worried. She was sure something had happened, something bad, but she was not sure what it was. But everyone seemed to be preparing for something. She laid her head on Peter's shoulder.
"It's going to be all right, Marzi," Peter whispered to her. He stroked her hair to comfort her. "It's just snow and winter. Nothing to worry about. It's nice and warm in here. Everyone will be safe." He knew that it was not something that could be taken care of easily, and that --should their supplies be low-- the situation could become very serious.
"Food stores seem to be okay for now," Amy reported. But we'll have to be very carefull, and ration what we have, so that it can last a long time. We may all have to eat soup everyday until it warms up again."
"Our water supply is full," Petra added. "Of course, refilling the water will be easy, should we need to. All we need is collect some snow, and melt it for water."
"Firewood's okay, too," Slightly reported in. "The firewood box is full to the ceiling."
"The Healing Dust was a little low," Dusty said, "so I added more. The Healing Dust is full, now."
"Good," Peter smiled. "That means we're in good shape as far as supplies go."
"I found plenty of furs and leather to make winter clothes," Nibs said. His arms were full of the materal.
"Good," Peter replied. "Amy, can you sew?"
"Sure. I had to do it all the time back in California." Amy intentionally avoided saying, "back home", but no one questioned her about it.
"Then make some winter clothes for you, Petra, Marzi, Tink, Dusty, and myself. Just in case we have to go outside during this winter.
"Let's get started, then," Amy said. Peter put Marzi down on the main bed, then stood straighter, allowing Amy to measure him for his new winter clothes. Then, she began her work.
Peter was now dressed in a gray/white fur version of his regular clothes. The shirt had long sleeves, and a pair of mittens covered his hands. Instead of his "pixie shoes", Peter wore fur boots. His fur shirt had a fur-rimmed hood attached to it, which he would wear instead of his green hat. There was even a furred belt, with a fur sheath for his dagger. Petra, Amy, Dusty, Marzi, and Tink were dressed in simular clothes.
"Now," Petra smiled, "if we have to go out in this weather, we'll be dressed for the cold."
"Yes,' Peter agreed. "But until then, let's change back into our regular clothes. Right now, I'm too warm."
The others agreed, and went to change their clothes. The Lost Boys had their own, less furry clothes for hot days. Mostly shorts and t-shirts, presents from a grown Jane. THe children gathered around the main bed as Amy prepared to tell them a story.
"This story is from ancient Greek Mythology," she told them. "It's the story of how the seasons came to be."
"The Greeks believed that gods and goddesses ruled over everything in the world. These deities looked like humans --well, except for one, but he doesn't appear in this story-- and even had human faults.
"Demeter was the goddess of grains, fruit, and other plants humans used for eatting. She made sure every growing thing was healthy for people to eat. A bad harvest usually meant that Demeter was upset with the people.
"Demeter had a daughter named Persephone, --who was sometimes called 'Kore', or 'the maiden'-- who represented flowers and young plants. Persephone loved to roam around in fields and meadows with her friends, picking flowers all day long.
"From the Underworld, where the dead was said to go, Hades, the ruler of the dead, watched the girls as they played. The gloomy god of the dead fell in love with the beautiful Persephone. Coming up with a plan, he first went to Zeus, his brother and king of the gods and goddesses, and asked for his permission. Zeus said 'Okay'. Hades then began his plan.
"Hades knew that Persephone liked to pick flowers, so he created a beautiful, but strange, flower and placed it where he knew she would be. When the girls came to pick flowers, Persephone wandered away from the other other girls. Soon, she came upon the flower.
"'What a lovely flower!' she exclaimed. She plucked the flower from the ground. But as soon as she did so, the ground openned up, and Hades popped up and grabbed her. He took her to the Underworld.
"Meanwhile, when the girls returned without Persephone, Demeter became worried. But the girls had not seen her all day. Demeter immediantly began to search for her daughter. She searched for a long time, but could not find her.
"Finally, she went to visit Apollo and asked him if he had seen Persephone.
"'Yes, I have,' he said. Then, he told her what happened. Demeter, in dispair, neglected her duties and allowed the Earth to grow cold and the plants to wither and die.
"Zeus got worried, and sent for Demeter. She told him that, until Persephone was returned to her, noting on Earth would grow.
"This worried Zeus, so he sent Hermes, his messenger, to the underworld to bring the girl back.
"When Hermes told Hades that he had to give back Persephone, Hades hit upon a plan to keep her. In the Underworld, if someone eats or drinks anything, they have to stay in the Underworld. So he went and told Persephone that she was going back, but maybe she should eat something first. He tried to get her to eat, but she would not touch anything, so eager to get back to her mother was she. Finally, he offered her a pomegranate, of which she only at about six --some sources say seven-- seeds.
"When Hermes returned with Persephone, there was a real big reunion with Demeter. Finally, though, Demeter asked if Persephone had eatten anything in the Underworld. Persephone had to admit that she had eatten six seeds of a pomegranate. Hades appeared and claimed Persephone as his wife, for, by law, she had eatten food from the Underworld, and must live forever with him.
"Demeter declared that, if Persephone was not returned to her, the Earth would be forever cold and barren. Zeus could not have that, so he made a compromise: For each seed that she ate, Persephone would stay in the Underworld for one month. For the other six months, she could stay with Demeter.
"For the six months that Persephone is in the Underworld, Demeter grieves, and the Earth is cold and barren, and hardly anything will grow. But when Persephone returns to the world above for the next six months, everything becomes warm again, and plants grow and flourish once more.
"And that, according to the ancient Greeks, is why we have Autumn, Winter, Spring, and Summer," Amy finished with a smile.
"That's a great story," Peter smiled. The others voiced their agreement.
"There are a lot of stories in Greek Mythology. In fact," Amy looked at Peter slyly, "your own last name is from ancient Greek Myths."
"Huh?" Now, Peter looked at her, puzzled.
"'Pan' was the name of the Greek god of the fields, worshipped mostly by shepherds. Although, King Midas --the king with the golden touch-- was also said to worship him. Anyway, the Greek Pan was the son of Hermes and an unnamed woman. He was a satuar --part man, part goat-- and played a certain instrument."
"The 'panpipes'?" Peter grinned back.
"Yep!" Amy gave him a little kiss on his cute little nose. "There were sevral stories about him. But we'll save that for another time. Time now to fix something to eat." She immediantly went to the kitchen.
Lunch, and later dinner, was soup, which she kept warm in the big pot over the fire. That night, the boys slept wherever they could find, while Petra slept in Peter's chair. Peter, Amy, and Marzi shared the bed --at the Lost Boys' insistance.
Neverland's sudden winter did not last long --just about two weeks. As soon as Queen Crystal returned to her caves, the snow and ice melted and all of Neverland warmed up again.
Peter and Amy planned on setting up a larger pantry, for when another unexpected winter hit Neverland. They learned how to preserve food from the Indians, and soon, everyone was helping. Every so often, they would clean out the pantry, throwing away anything that was past the extended expiration time, using those that was on the edge of the expiration time, and restocking with new food. In time, there would be other surprise winters. And Peter and his friends would be ready.
Next: Chapter 14: Marzi's Pixie. Peter, returning from a visit from the King and Queen of the fairies, carries a pink, pearlized egg. The egg is for Marzi, who must care for it --with help from Peter and the others-- until it hatches with a pixie for the little girl. But what will the pixie be like?
