Aldus Aborigine had spent thirty seven years of his life behind a fairy ward. In the actual measure of time only a year and some had passed, and though his body had only aged that sorry year, the perception of time inside a fairy prison and the reality of time were two very different things. By his perception they had brought him fish heads and bits of tails every second week, but despite this infrequent diet he had never felt hunger pains. Aborigine had laughed at King Oberon when the stunted ruler sentenced him to seven hundred years in a fairy prison; he didn't expect he had seven hundred years to live. He should have known Oberon would find a way to make him serve the entirety of his sentence.
To effectively be held in a fairy prison cell, which turned out to be an enormous parrot cage buried in the dirt, Oberon had woven the bars with warding spells to prevent Aldus from digging away the sides and forcing the door. However, it did little good to ward a cell when the occupant has no magical properties to be effected. Magical properties had thus been put into him. It had been a blue ball about the size of a pee-wee marble, which, with one owl standing on his head and another on each wing and leg, the prison warden had stuffed up into his ribcage through a slit cut in his side that had itched like the devil for years. With this in him, every time Aborigine tried to push his beak out the top of the cage, he was instantly and effectively reprimanded. These wards gave little more than a warning tingle to the guards who stuffed fish parts through the top.
This was why Aldus Aborigine, who had never been bothered by the fact there was a Heart to Neverland, and who had never once cared that it was warded, suddenly pitched out of the air as he crossed the border.
He had been flying above the treetops, watching the ground carefully with his better eye and absently tonguing the metal brace in his beak, when his heart gave the warning stutter he'd learned so well. The muscles in his chest seized and he spilled the air from his wings, startled; the barest sliver of time later a lightning bolt shot from his chest to his eyes, nearly bursting every capillary it jumped through. He was not aware he was falling until the pain of a branch hitting his backside overwhelmed the spasms in his chest and he forced his eyes open, watching his blood pop red behind his eyes. Aborigine curled himself into his body and struck the ground without the slowing help of a leg of a wing. His ribs and necked screamed obscenities at him while he lay there trying to breathe. His mind had scattered like a flock of pigeons.
He wasn't sure how much time passed or if time passed, but when his thoughts began to reassemble there was a fly pestering at his face, trying to suck the fluids from his right eye. Aborigine blinked, and the fly immediately flitted over to his other eye, sticking its filthy nose under his lid. Aldus jerked his head to the side and pinned the fly between his cheek and the dirt, feeling its tiny legs scrabbling against his feathers. It worked frantically to pull its abdomen free, and when the little body had slid almost all the way out from under him Aborigine rolled his head, pinning it under his brow. The fly struggled once more and freed itself again in even slower, more difficult spurts, and when the last leg pulled away Aborigine rolled his head and crushed the tiny body into the dirt.
Aborigine slowly picked himself up and fluffed the dirt out of his feathers. Everything between his chest and his eyes throbbed with the residual effects of crossing the fairy ward, while the rest of his bones simply complained at the sudden meeting between bird and ground. He shook it off and glared at the dark spaces between trees, daring them to come after him. None dared it.
He wasn't quite sure where he was in relation to where he had been. Muttering curses under his breath, Aborigine stalked slowly into the brushes, listening. There weren't any birds (thank god for that, at least) and no animals seemed to scuttle through the bushes here. There was, however, the distant, clumsy, clunking sound of boots against earth. The size had to be human, though there were two if there were any at all. Aborigine dropped his head and crept after them.
***
"We need a better bait." Billy said, sitting down next to Slightly, who had fetched his marginally singed hat from over the bird. The sparrow just stood there looking cold.
Slightly frowned. "Like what?"
"Like something a little more tangible than a shout in the woods. Maybe Hook couldn't figure out where you were." Billy said.
Slightly went a little pink and stared at the fire. "Maybe I should go back and lead him on a chase, like Peter would have."
"What if Peter is still looking for you?"
Slightly shook his head. "He won't be bothered."
"I don't want to risk him ruining everything either way." Billy said, glaring at the fire (and, by consequence, the sparrow) "I'll go this time."
"NO!" Mullins and Slightly snapped at the same time, startling each other.
"You're the one whose blood he wants." Mullins said. "He'll kill ya on the spot if he sees ya!"
"And you slightly can't fly away if he gets too close!" Slightly added.
Billy scowled "But Peter won't follow me into the trap and mess everything up for us! If we don't catch Hook now we aren't GOING to catch him! I'm dead either way if this fails, but if I go, maybe you won't be!"
"Billy, stop playing the martyr and shut your trap." Mullins said, tapping him smartly in the head. Billy flinched.
"But Mullins—"
"Look here, even if he catches Slightly, they're still going to have to go through the caves to get to us. I'll be here with you when they come in and Hook won't be leaving this cavern alive, you can bet your teeth on it." He gave the evil eye.
"But if Peter comes—"
"Hook'll kill him where he stands and won't give a second thought to it." Mullins said calmly.
Slightly blinked. "Hook can't kill Peter! Peter always outsmarts that codfish!"
"Hook LETS him outsmart him by playing his games. You haven't seen him since. He isn't going to play along this time."
Slightly jumped up. "Well then I HAVE to go! I slightly have to make sure Peter stays out of the way!"
"It's too dangerous, cully!" Billy snapped, grabbing his elbow. "Letting him chase you is a lot more dangerous than letting him follow your voice!"
Slightly frowned. "Don't worry about me. I'm not going to let myself get even slightly hurt."
"You haven't done a very good job of that so far." Billy said. He brushed his thumb against the growing bump on Slightly's forehead, where he'd cracked himself running in, and showed him the flakes of dried blood that came away. "See?"
Slightly pushed the hand away, but he didn't let go of it. "Well you slightly can't expect me to let YOU go out there! Hook'll just chase me. He'll try to KILL you!"
"I can take care of myself against the likes of him!"
"Oh yes, I can see that." Slightly deadpanned, imitating Billy and pressing his palm against the bruised side of Billy's face. Billy flinched; the marks hadn't had any time to heal. Slightly softened his hand and leaned in a little too close, making sure he had the boy's eyes. "I'm going. To be. Fine." He said, nodding the emphasis into every word. "Don't worry about me."
"Cully—"
"I'll be back soon with Hook in tow." He said softly, squeezing Jukes' hand. "You have YOUR end ready and this'll all go off without a hitch."
Momentarily dumb, Billy watched Slightly disappear into the dark, unaware just how red his ears had gone until the sparrow rudely sang "Billy's got a boy-friend!"
Billy tried to kick the sparrow into the fire.
***
In the Heart of Neverland, Mason was becoming increasingly bothered by a scar underneath his left arm. All that was left of the knife fight that had left an inch of iron dagger imbedded in his side was a thick pink scar, present since he was eighteen and having not bothered him a bit since the wound sealed shut. It was beginning to itch, almost to burn. That insistent nagging seemed to be working away on the last nerve he had left, because he could swear that the shadows were moving, like cats in the trees. Now and then the pirates would walk across a dark spot and the shadow seemed to split beneath them, even their own running away from their feet as they passed. For Hook they gave a wide berth, but for him they reconverged and rushed like water, only to break away before they touched his feet. It had to be an illusion, but in Neverland, especially after Starkey had run off, it wasn't safe to assume.
He'd become so accustomed to trying to ignore the shadows that, when something white flashed at the edge of his vision, Mason didn't turn to see. A moment later the bush next to him shivered. He paused. With a thrash he was struck in the side with a thorned branch, a quick, bloodless swipe that snagged the skin of his wrist. He shouted and jerked his arm away, inadvertently opening his side for a second attack. White burst from the brush like a shattered milk jug and Mason was pierced at the hip by a long, sharpened beak. It jerked its head back before he could swing his arm into it and the thing pranced away to a safe distance.
"What in the saints of Hell was that!?" Hook shouted, swinging his cutlass out. Mason clapped a hand over the oozing pock in his hip, absently dropping the hat to do so.
"I don't know, Cap'n! Bloody thing stabbed me!"
"Show yourself, you yellow livered scalley wag!" Hook shouted at the trees. Silence echoed back.
The mark in Mason's hip had been stopped by the bone, puncturing nothing but flesh. It was hardly the worst injury the carpenter had come across in his life. On the ground at his feet, two little heads peeped out from under the wool lip of the cap.
"I don't suppose you know where Billy Jukes is by chance?" A voice said, sounding bored.
Hook snarled. "What matter is it to you!"
"Well before I leave, I'm getting one of two things from you…" Slipping out from between shadows came a tall white bird with a smudged beak, balancing on long grey stilts of legs. "First would be the location and present condition of Billy Jukes. Second would be those parasites you were last seen with, Captain Popper and Picadilly Circuit." The egret thoughtfully tapped its beak with a primary, spreading out the 'murder' brand for Hook to see. "Actually, I'm taking Popper and Picadilly whether or not you tell me where the ghoul is. Consider it a bonus. I understand they're quite annoying."
Hook looked at him levelly, having been in Neverland too long to be fazed by talking wildlife. "You have the mark of Cain on your wing." He observed. "What makes you think I'd give you the privilege of assaulting young Mr. Jukes OR the fairy?"
The egret bowed gracefully. "Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Aldus Aborigine, acting in the official capacity of King Oberon of the fairies to retrieve Billy Jukes for sentencing." Aborigine smirked. "Or something like that."
Captain Popper, who had been watching this quietly from the mouth of Mason's cap, immediately flared up. Picadilly grabbed ahold of his foot.
"Let go!" Popper snapped, kicking.
"You can't go out there, you idiot!" Picadilly hissed. "That's Aborigine! He's a murderer!"
"I don't care! Let-me-GO!" He wriggled himself free and popped out the lip of the hat in a puff of feathers and indignation.
"ABORIGINE!" He shouted, stomping towards the egret. "YOU'RE the one Tory sent to do my job?!"
"Ah! You must be my dear Captain Popper!" Aborigine said with a smile. "A pleasure to meet you, I'm sure."
"Don't give me that!" Popper sniffed. "You were sentenced to seven hundred years in prison for more murders than I care to think about! What are you doing loose?!"
"Earning my pardon. Which, by the way, I don't get if you find the ghoul before I do. I'm sure you understand that's it's nothing personal. I'm just protecting my interests."
Aborigine surged forward like a spear gun. Popper squawked and jumped back, barely avoiding that silver-lined weapon which imbedded itself in the dirt instead. In the moment it took for Aborigine to wretch himself free Captain Popper took to flight and dodged low into the branches.
At the feet of a very confused looking pirate, Picadilly slipped out from under the woolen hideaway and shot off in the opposite direction.
"COWARD!" Popper screamed after him.
To effectively be held in a fairy prison cell, which turned out to be an enormous parrot cage buried in the dirt, Oberon had woven the bars with warding spells to prevent Aldus from digging away the sides and forcing the door. However, it did little good to ward a cell when the occupant has no magical properties to be effected. Magical properties had thus been put into him. It had been a blue ball about the size of a pee-wee marble, which, with one owl standing on his head and another on each wing and leg, the prison warden had stuffed up into his ribcage through a slit cut in his side that had itched like the devil for years. With this in him, every time Aborigine tried to push his beak out the top of the cage, he was instantly and effectively reprimanded. These wards gave little more than a warning tingle to the guards who stuffed fish parts through the top.
This was why Aldus Aborigine, who had never been bothered by the fact there was a Heart to Neverland, and who had never once cared that it was warded, suddenly pitched out of the air as he crossed the border.
He had been flying above the treetops, watching the ground carefully with his better eye and absently tonguing the metal brace in his beak, when his heart gave the warning stutter he'd learned so well. The muscles in his chest seized and he spilled the air from his wings, startled; the barest sliver of time later a lightning bolt shot from his chest to his eyes, nearly bursting every capillary it jumped through. He was not aware he was falling until the pain of a branch hitting his backside overwhelmed the spasms in his chest and he forced his eyes open, watching his blood pop red behind his eyes. Aborigine curled himself into his body and struck the ground without the slowing help of a leg of a wing. His ribs and necked screamed obscenities at him while he lay there trying to breathe. His mind had scattered like a flock of pigeons.
He wasn't sure how much time passed or if time passed, but when his thoughts began to reassemble there was a fly pestering at his face, trying to suck the fluids from his right eye. Aborigine blinked, and the fly immediately flitted over to his other eye, sticking its filthy nose under his lid. Aldus jerked his head to the side and pinned the fly between his cheek and the dirt, feeling its tiny legs scrabbling against his feathers. It worked frantically to pull its abdomen free, and when the little body had slid almost all the way out from under him Aborigine rolled his head, pinning it under his brow. The fly struggled once more and freed itself again in even slower, more difficult spurts, and when the last leg pulled away Aborigine rolled his head and crushed the tiny body into the dirt.
Aborigine slowly picked himself up and fluffed the dirt out of his feathers. Everything between his chest and his eyes throbbed with the residual effects of crossing the fairy ward, while the rest of his bones simply complained at the sudden meeting between bird and ground. He shook it off and glared at the dark spaces between trees, daring them to come after him. None dared it.
He wasn't quite sure where he was in relation to where he had been. Muttering curses under his breath, Aborigine stalked slowly into the brushes, listening. There weren't any birds (thank god for that, at least) and no animals seemed to scuttle through the bushes here. There was, however, the distant, clumsy, clunking sound of boots against earth. The size had to be human, though there were two if there were any at all. Aborigine dropped his head and crept after them.
***
"We need a better bait." Billy said, sitting down next to Slightly, who had fetched his marginally singed hat from over the bird. The sparrow just stood there looking cold.
Slightly frowned. "Like what?"
"Like something a little more tangible than a shout in the woods. Maybe Hook couldn't figure out where you were." Billy said.
Slightly went a little pink and stared at the fire. "Maybe I should go back and lead him on a chase, like Peter would have."
"What if Peter is still looking for you?"
Slightly shook his head. "He won't be bothered."
"I don't want to risk him ruining everything either way." Billy said, glaring at the fire (and, by consequence, the sparrow) "I'll go this time."
"NO!" Mullins and Slightly snapped at the same time, startling each other.
"You're the one whose blood he wants." Mullins said. "He'll kill ya on the spot if he sees ya!"
"And you slightly can't fly away if he gets too close!" Slightly added.
Billy scowled "But Peter won't follow me into the trap and mess everything up for us! If we don't catch Hook now we aren't GOING to catch him! I'm dead either way if this fails, but if I go, maybe you won't be!"
"Billy, stop playing the martyr and shut your trap." Mullins said, tapping him smartly in the head. Billy flinched.
"But Mullins—"
"Look here, even if he catches Slightly, they're still going to have to go through the caves to get to us. I'll be here with you when they come in and Hook won't be leaving this cavern alive, you can bet your teeth on it." He gave the evil eye.
"But if Peter comes—"
"Hook'll kill him where he stands and won't give a second thought to it." Mullins said calmly.
Slightly blinked. "Hook can't kill Peter! Peter always outsmarts that codfish!"
"Hook LETS him outsmart him by playing his games. You haven't seen him since. He isn't going to play along this time."
Slightly jumped up. "Well then I HAVE to go! I slightly have to make sure Peter stays out of the way!"
"It's too dangerous, cully!" Billy snapped, grabbing his elbow. "Letting him chase you is a lot more dangerous than letting him follow your voice!"
Slightly frowned. "Don't worry about me. I'm not going to let myself get even slightly hurt."
"You haven't done a very good job of that so far." Billy said. He brushed his thumb against the growing bump on Slightly's forehead, where he'd cracked himself running in, and showed him the flakes of dried blood that came away. "See?"
Slightly pushed the hand away, but he didn't let go of it. "Well you slightly can't expect me to let YOU go out there! Hook'll just chase me. He'll try to KILL you!"
"I can take care of myself against the likes of him!"
"Oh yes, I can see that." Slightly deadpanned, imitating Billy and pressing his palm against the bruised side of Billy's face. Billy flinched; the marks hadn't had any time to heal. Slightly softened his hand and leaned in a little too close, making sure he had the boy's eyes. "I'm going. To be. Fine." He said, nodding the emphasis into every word. "Don't worry about me."
"Cully—"
"I'll be back soon with Hook in tow." He said softly, squeezing Jukes' hand. "You have YOUR end ready and this'll all go off without a hitch."
Momentarily dumb, Billy watched Slightly disappear into the dark, unaware just how red his ears had gone until the sparrow rudely sang "Billy's got a boy-friend!"
Billy tried to kick the sparrow into the fire.
***
In the Heart of Neverland, Mason was becoming increasingly bothered by a scar underneath his left arm. All that was left of the knife fight that had left an inch of iron dagger imbedded in his side was a thick pink scar, present since he was eighteen and having not bothered him a bit since the wound sealed shut. It was beginning to itch, almost to burn. That insistent nagging seemed to be working away on the last nerve he had left, because he could swear that the shadows were moving, like cats in the trees. Now and then the pirates would walk across a dark spot and the shadow seemed to split beneath them, even their own running away from their feet as they passed. For Hook they gave a wide berth, but for him they reconverged and rushed like water, only to break away before they touched his feet. It had to be an illusion, but in Neverland, especially after Starkey had run off, it wasn't safe to assume.
He'd become so accustomed to trying to ignore the shadows that, when something white flashed at the edge of his vision, Mason didn't turn to see. A moment later the bush next to him shivered. He paused. With a thrash he was struck in the side with a thorned branch, a quick, bloodless swipe that snagged the skin of his wrist. He shouted and jerked his arm away, inadvertently opening his side for a second attack. White burst from the brush like a shattered milk jug and Mason was pierced at the hip by a long, sharpened beak. It jerked its head back before he could swing his arm into it and the thing pranced away to a safe distance.
"What in the saints of Hell was that!?" Hook shouted, swinging his cutlass out. Mason clapped a hand over the oozing pock in his hip, absently dropping the hat to do so.
"I don't know, Cap'n! Bloody thing stabbed me!"
"Show yourself, you yellow livered scalley wag!" Hook shouted at the trees. Silence echoed back.
The mark in Mason's hip had been stopped by the bone, puncturing nothing but flesh. It was hardly the worst injury the carpenter had come across in his life. On the ground at his feet, two little heads peeped out from under the wool lip of the cap.
"I don't suppose you know where Billy Jukes is by chance?" A voice said, sounding bored.
Hook snarled. "What matter is it to you!"
"Well before I leave, I'm getting one of two things from you…" Slipping out from between shadows came a tall white bird with a smudged beak, balancing on long grey stilts of legs. "First would be the location and present condition of Billy Jukes. Second would be those parasites you were last seen with, Captain Popper and Picadilly Circuit." The egret thoughtfully tapped its beak with a primary, spreading out the 'murder' brand for Hook to see. "Actually, I'm taking Popper and Picadilly whether or not you tell me where the ghoul is. Consider it a bonus. I understand they're quite annoying."
Hook looked at him levelly, having been in Neverland too long to be fazed by talking wildlife. "You have the mark of Cain on your wing." He observed. "What makes you think I'd give you the privilege of assaulting young Mr. Jukes OR the fairy?"
The egret bowed gracefully. "Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Aldus Aborigine, acting in the official capacity of King Oberon of the fairies to retrieve Billy Jukes for sentencing." Aborigine smirked. "Or something like that."
Captain Popper, who had been watching this quietly from the mouth of Mason's cap, immediately flared up. Picadilly grabbed ahold of his foot.
"Let go!" Popper snapped, kicking.
"You can't go out there, you idiot!" Picadilly hissed. "That's Aborigine! He's a murderer!"
"I don't care! Let-me-GO!" He wriggled himself free and popped out the lip of the hat in a puff of feathers and indignation.
"ABORIGINE!" He shouted, stomping towards the egret. "YOU'RE the one Tory sent to do my job?!"
"Ah! You must be my dear Captain Popper!" Aborigine said with a smile. "A pleasure to meet you, I'm sure."
"Don't give me that!" Popper sniffed. "You were sentenced to seven hundred years in prison for more murders than I care to think about! What are you doing loose?!"
"Earning my pardon. Which, by the way, I don't get if you find the ghoul before I do. I'm sure you understand that's it's nothing personal. I'm just protecting my interests."
Aborigine surged forward like a spear gun. Popper squawked and jumped back, barely avoiding that silver-lined weapon which imbedded itself in the dirt instead. In the moment it took for Aborigine to wretch himself free Captain Popper took to flight and dodged low into the branches.
At the feet of a very confused looking pirate, Picadilly slipped out from under the woolen hideaway and shot off in the opposite direction.
"COWARD!" Popper screamed after him.