Chapter 14: Marzi's Pixie

"It's odd," Amy thought out loud. She and Petra was checking the stores of preserved food, cleaning out any that had gone bad.

"What is?" Petra asked.

"That fresh food --meat, bread, fruits, vegtables, etc.-- doesn't ever spoil here in Neverland, but preserved foods --beef jerkey and the like-- only remain good for a certain amount of time."

"That's because the process used in preserving the food destroys the magic that protects it from spoiling."

"Then, wouldn't it be better to keep the food as it is? It would keep longer."

"True," Petra smiled. "But preserving food is part of the Indian way of life. To not preserve the food would just seem --well-- wrong to the Indians."

Amy was about to respond, when little Marzi came into the room, looking for Peter.

"Where Peter go?" Marzi asked, pouting. She had not seen her "big brother" for hours.

"He went to Fairyland," Amy answered. "To visit the King and Queen. The messenger said that it was important for Peter to be there."

"When will he come back?" the child asked.

"He should be back soon."

"I hope so."

"Don't worry, Marzi," Petra put in with a smile. "Peter'll be back before tonight, I'm sure."

*~*~*

Peter flew back to the underground house, conflicting thoughts running through his mind. In his hands, he held a small, pink, pearlized egg, which he carried very carefully.

What did the king and queen mean when they said, "A gift of magic to a child of a child"? Peter thought. I don't understand that at all! Well, I'll ask Amy. Maybe she'll know.

The puzzle continued to bother him as he continued toward his hidden home. "A child of a child" the Fairy King and Queen had said. How is that possible? A child cannot have a child! They can have brothers and sisters that are children, but they cannot have children themselves! It was impossible!

But Neverland was an island of all possiblilities. What is impossible in the "Real World", could very well be possible in Neverland. Even "a child of a child".

He held the egg more firmly, determined to solve the mystery that had been handed to him.

*~*~*

"'A gift of magic to a child of a child'?" Amy repeated. Peter sat on his throne, studimg the shimmering pearled egg, the puzzle still rattling inside his head, searching for an answer.

"Yeah," he replied. "But that's impossible, isn't it? A child can't have a child. Right?"

"Normally," Amy agreed. "But if we think this out, you may be surprised at the answer."

"What do you mean?" Petra asked. She stood by her twin's chair, gazing at the egg in his head.

"'A child of a child', Peter," Amy smiled. "For five years, Marzi has been among us. Before I came, how was her needs taken care of?"

"We took care of her," Peter answered. "The Lost Boys, Petra, Tink, Dusty, and me."

"When I first came, though, who did she cling to? Who was the one person in all those who cared for her that she went to when she needed comfort, needed to be protected?"

"Peter," Nibs replied. The others nodded.

"Yeah," Slightly agreed. "Peter made her baby food for her, mashing bananas and other fruit, and she only let Peter feed her, and she slept with Peter all the time --but you already know she did that..."

"Yes," Amy smiled. "For the most part, Peter became her guardian...almost like a...parent?"

The Lost Children gasped and their eyes went wide as the puzzle began to fall into place. Amy was right: Peter had been like a parent for Marzi. Like a father. No matter how much he protested, how much he denied it, the Eternal Youth had taken on the paternal responsiblilies for the child. Just as Amy had become "Mother", Peter had just as surely become "Father".

"No," Peter whispered softly. "Fathers are grown-ups. I am not a grown-up. I will never be a grown-up."

"That's the thing about you, Peter," Amy said. She stood from her own chair and came over to him. "You don't have to be a grown-up to care for someone. Even if you had not brought me --or anyone else, for that matter-- to be 'Mother', you would've taken care of her. You're not her father in the literal since, but you are her guardian. Her protecter. You --and we-- are her new family. If we are Marzi's 'parents', it's symbolicly, not literally."

"Marzi is truely a 'child of a child', then," Peter whispered softly. He absentmindedly rubbed the smooth surface of the egg, wondering in the back of his mind what could be inside it.

"Yes," Amy smiled. She placed her hand over his, forcing the boy to look at her. "And can the great and powerful king of Neverland, Peter Pan, handle this, his greatest adventure to date?" Her smile and tone was challengling, daring him to take up the adventure she offered.

"As long as no one calls me 'Father' in any way, shape, or form," Peter grinned back.

"Deal!" Amy laughed. For a moment, their eyes locked, as they had often done before. Blushing, Peter returned his attention to the egg.

"This egg is for Marzi, then," he said. "If she is a 'child of a child', as the Fairy King and Queen said. But what it contains, I don't know. All they said was that it was magic."

"Then Marzi will just have to take care of it until it hatches," Amy replied. She looked over toward the little girl. Marzi toddled over to Peter, to look at the object he held.

"This is for you, Marzi," Peter said. "You have to take care of it. I don't know when, but it will someday hatch, and something special will come out for you. But it must come out on its own. You can't just break the egg and get it. Do you understand?"

"I think so," she answered. "Hatch the egg, and something for me will come out. I'll keep it nice and warm." Marzi found a scrap of fur left over from the strange winter they had recently had and wrapped it around the egg. She held it one hand, the other arm hold that arm as if it were a doll. Wrapped as it was, and held close to the child's body, the egg was perfectly safe.

Peter, Amy, and the others watched as Marzi cared for the magical gift as if it was a baby. Peter could not help but smile as he thought of the first time he had seen the little girl that day on Neverland's beach. Who would have thought that coming to the aid of the small child would have brought him so much!

They would help Marzi take care of the egg, of course, giving her advice and showing her some tricks that could make care for the egg much easier. But the hatching of the egg would be left completely up the the little girl. How well she cared for it would determine just what would hatch from it.

*~*~*

Day-after-day, Marzi watched over the pink egg, making sure it was warm all the time, and keeping it from breaking. There had been a close call early on, when Marzi had to put down the egg. She had put it down on the table, intending to continue her vigil as soon as her task was done. But she must not have set it right, for almost as soon as she had set it down, the egg had began to roll off the table. Had it not been for Petra's quick action, the egg would have hit the floor, shattering it, and spilling the unborn contents all over the floor. Marzi was a lot more careful with it after that.

Prehaps that's why it hatched so quickly, and Marzi's magic surprise was so wonderful.

*~*~*

It was shortly after breakfast when it happened. The table had just been cleared, and the dishes cleaned and put away. The children were getting ready for another outing --a day with the mermaids. Peter would make sure that the mermaids behaved, so it would be safe for the girls.

Marzi sat on Peter's throne, holding her egg, with Peter watching over her. She rocked gently, as if rocking a baby, and sang a lulliby.

Suddenly, the egg began to glow pink and grew warm in her hands. She had to grab a piece of think leather to hold it with because it got too warm for her to handle. As it glowed, it began to shake.

"What's wrong with it?" she asked Peter, holding the egg up for him to see.

"Nothing's wrong with it," he answered. "It's time for it to hatch."

When they heard that, Amy and the others came closer. They crowded around Marzi and Peter, anxious to see what would come out of the egg.

Cracks of light appeared on the egg, growing by the second. Pink light escaped from the inside, bathing all in range in its glow.

Prehaps they expected an explosion, then the whatever-it-was would burst out of the egg violently. If that's what they were expecting, they were either going to be very disapointed or very relieved.

What really happened was that the eggshell cracked open completely, then fell away, revealing a ball of pink light. The light dimmed to a level where everyone could see what --or who was giving off the light.

Standing in the debris of the egg, supported by Marzi's hand was a beautiful pixie!

She looked a lot like Tinkerbell, and even had her hair in the same hairstyle. But this pixie had red hair, set with a wide, Greek-style gold tiara. Her wings was pale pink, and she wore a deep pink, one shouldered Greek dress. The bottom hem was in points, like Tink's, but had a trim of gold. There was also gold trim at the neckline, and a belt of gold cord, crossed over the stomach area. On her feet were gold, Greek sandals with each gold ribbons double-crossed up her legs. To complete the outfit, she wore gold armbands and wristbands. As soon as she saw Marzi, she began to jingle a "Hello!".

"Hello," the little girl answered. "She says that her name is Eos."

"Eos was the Greek goddess of the dawn," Amy said. "She led the way for Apollo, the sun god. That's a very pretty name."

"You're very lucky, Marzi," Peter smiled. "Not every child get's a pixie of their own. I wonder what kind of magic she can do."

"What do you mean, 'what kind of magic'?" Amy asked. "Doesn't she have the same magic as Tink?"

"Yes, but each pixie also has something special. Tinkerbell's magic is for fixing pots and pans. That's why she's called 'Tinkerbell'. Dusty's magic is healing. He's a Healer Pixie. But what is Eos' special magic?"

The pink pixie jingled her answer, and the children listened carefully. Tink and Dusty looked at each other and gave an understanding grin.

"She says that her special magic can bring pictures to life," Peter said.

"Let's see," Amy replied. She fumbled in her backback and brought out a deck of cards. She thumbed through them, until she found what she was looking for. She showed the card to the others.

"This card is from a card game called 'Duel Monsters'," she explained. "This card is called, 'Fairy's Gift'." The children saw a gold --but not metalic-- card with a picture of a green fairy. Above the picture was the card name, a yellow circle with a Japanese character and the word "Light", and four red-orange circles, each with a yellow star. Under the picture was the words, "Spellcaster" and "This flying monster is know for delivering happiness to all" There was also a series of letters and numbers that read, "ATK/1400 DEF/1000". Immediantly, Eos dusted it, causing it to glow pink. In a glow of light, the fairy on the card flew off the paper, becoming a living, three-dimentional creature. As soon as it appeared, the fairy flew around the room, sprinkling everyone with her own dust. The children felt wonderfully happy. Tiger acted as if effected by catnip.

The fairy faded away, being only a product of the card. Eos then sprinkled the rest of Amy's deck, moving into her backback. When she came out, she jingled something to Peter.

"She says that she has given your cards the ability to become real, but only at your command," he translated.

"You mean, if I wanted the character on a card --let's say, Lady of Faith-- she would become real?"

"For a short time, yes," Peter answered. "But you will always be able to call upon the powers of that card, anytime you want."

"Wow!" Amy blinked. Peter grinned.

"Yep!" he replied.

Eos flew over to Marzi and landed on her shoulder. The very tiny pixie gave the little girl a tiny kiss on the cheek. Marzi giggled because the kiss tickled.

They forgot about going out that day, so excited about the new pixie were they. All day, Peter gave Marzi lessons about pixies, so that she could understand what they could do --and what they could not do. Pixies were not all-powerful --not even the king and queen. They had to eat and sleep, too. They could get sick, injured, and even die. The most important lesson Peter taught Marzi, however, was to always believe in faries. For whenever a child says "I don't believe in faries," there is always a fairy, somewhere, that drops down, dead. Tink reinforced this by relating the story of how she, herself, almost died when Jane --Wendy Darling's daughter-- had said those very words, only to be revived when the girl relented and finally believed. Peter, of course, translated for Amy, who was the only one that did not understand fairy language.

That night, Marzi slept with Eos close by. Peter and Amy could only watch the child sleeping peacefully, dreaming about her new pixie, no doubt. There would be plenty of adventures with the new fairy, and Amy would join the battle against Hook with her new, magical deck of cards. Hook has never seen characters and creatures like these before!


I do not own Duel Monsters. That belongs to Wizards of the Coast. I just thought that I'd give Amy a little firepower. ^_~

Next: Chapter 15: Peter's Injury. Peter is injured, and in order for Amy to look after him, she has to share the bed with him --without Marzi! This is the closest she has been to him physically in all the time she has been in Neverland. What happens when they get extremely close?