Hook's lips parted into a laughter, a loud and cruel laugh that froze the blood of the most valiant warrior. Peter saw in the murky shadows and the foggy enviroment that no blood poured from Hook's wound. Even more, there was no blood to flow since, under the rip of Hook's shirt, Peter saw the rib bones poking out with an old and dusty appereance. Hook's face was peeled from all skin and flesh, and only greyish bones with the strands and patchest of rotten flesh formed his features.
"see how the boy was Peter Pan?" laughed Hook looking at Kelly with blood tinted eyes.
Liz landed nearby and saw the appereance of the crew of this ship, which differed nothing from that of their captain.
"Peter, what's going on?" inquired Liz confused, staring at the silent figured with distrust, gripping her sword tightly.
"ah, good quaestion, but directed to the wrong person, young lady!" said captain Hook taking a backwards step to get rid of the sword that penetrated it's body.
"the thing is!" he started pacing around the rotten wood of the deck, "that your friend Peter threw my whole self to a vicious crocodile, but in chapters. First he threw my hand, and then my whole self. The beast fought with me and my crew for days, the result was the death of both sides, my crew and the beast. But you can not kill evil, which was deep in our bodies, that gave us life in a way we are dead, the poison of hathred.
There was something I left undone, and until I finish we wont rest in peace!" finished the captain with a deep growl of an angry beast.
"killing me, that's why you captured Kelly, because you found out I was very close to her sister!" barked Peter pointing an accusing finger at the pirate.
"indeed Peter, it seems like your witts have grown down there...as well as that body of yours!" said Hook trailing his eyes up and down the boy's body almost with a pleasure that made him lick his rotten lips.
Peter growled and pounced forward, his sword whipped the mist with a whistle and the sound of metal clashing sparkled in the silence before the storm.
"kill the girl!" yelled Hook pointing at Liz.
Peter flinched at that remark but attacked furiously, with the skills that made him fearsome to pirates, for he was quick and accurate.
The crew leapt over the girl like a pack of hungry dogs, but the valiant woman fought them with strength gathered from the courage that built her personality. She swinged the sword somewhat clumsily but accurate, keeping the undead at distance, attempting hopelessly to fatally strike but knowing it was useless. She would have flown away into safety but the pirates kept every muscle of her body and neuron in her brain occupied into survival, into mantaining them at bay to keep her body save.
"you love her Peter, like you did to Wendy, but it's the story repeating itself again, isn't it?" the captain commented with a malicious glisten in his eyes.
"no!" Peter growled striking with more fury and strength.
Liz yelled to gather power in her blow, cutting the mist she sliced the arm of a pirate, arm that was gathered and placed back. Liz gasped and winced, recoiling slightly when she felt cold steel slice past the skin in her shoulder, creating an open gash that poured warm blood, flowing with crimson fluid. Burning pain that was not to make her stop, and with a broken yell she plunged forward.
"she is getting tired Peter, for how long will she keep them at bay?" muttered Hook with malice.
"she will, she is strong!" moaned Peter lastimously, staring fearfully at the woman who fought with courage.
"even if she was to escape alive, do you think she will stay in this island with you? No, once again the story will repeat itself, she will grow...finish growing, marry and have children, and you will be nothing but a memory, a hazy image from her dreams, nothing real, nothing that ever ocurred!" said the captain in a dark, low whisper.
Peter was hit with the strength of reality, drained of all the strength his body possesed, and left weaken and defeated, the sweating figure of a frightened child, once again possesed by the dark shadow of a doubtful heart and a frightened soul. Bitten by the razor jaws of the beast that drained his spirits of happiness and left nothing but terrible thoughts. He kneeled before Hook and looked up with pleading eyes, suddenly he knew what he wanted.
"take me but let her go!" gasped Peter looking up through his teary eyes and sweating skin.
Hook recoiled, for in the boy's eyes he saw something greater than life and honor, grater than revenge, and that was giving Peter a courage far greater than the will to live, and it was the wish to see a loved one safe. Peter, unknowing to him, had grown and had learnt to love, and now echanged his life for that of a person more important than himself.
"I can't!" said Hook, grinning with effort, yet keeping his nerves cool.
Peter stood up, narrowing his eyebrows and feeling part of his strength returning to him, the boiling fury boosting his power. He striked and the sword was stopped by Hook's blade, which trenbled in his hand.
Liz fell on her knees, weak and sweating, breathing heavily and resigning to death, her arm pained from where it had been cut. The pirates praised each other and looked down at the woman hungrily. One of them with holes on his skull where the crocodile bit him, raised his sword readi to grant himself the pleasure to strike, a cruel smile on his lips. Liz closed her eyes and gave in to the obvious, a tear trailing her cheek, sad about her sister's destiny and Peter's luck.
The sword whistled in unision with a distant shrill, the blow was certain and a cool, fresh breeze flew past her, she scent of ice and wind floated tender into her nostrils. Liz wondered wether if death was the pleasant aroma of freshness, but the wound on her arm kept stinging hence this was not such. The blow had never reached her.
The woman oppened her eyes and saw a white blurr striking viciously against the pirates, dispersing them from her suroundings. An angry growl echoed in the griffins throat as his paws slashed back and forth, throwing the creatures off board or against the rotten wood that formed the ship.
"LIZ, GO!" called Peter's voice at her upon seeing her safe, away from the pirate's attention.
"NO! I'll never leave you!" Liz complained looking at the boy with loving eyes.
"I SAID GO!" yelled Peter now angrily, fearfully yet determined to see her safe.
Lightning leapt next to her and waited until the woman was situated on his back, then, with a graceful leap, he took off and flew into the mist, blending with it and vanishing from sight. Peter sighed and silently waved good bye, then steel cold of chains wrapped around him, a group of pirates binded him tightly with chains to keep him from scaping.
"you are mine, finally Peter!" laughed Hook with a roar, raising his metallic hand to the foggy sky.
Liz leaned forward, gasping breathlessly, gripping her arm. She felt the gash under her hand, the stinging sensation of a thousand burning blades tearing her flesh. The warmth of a sticky fluid flowed past her fingers, staining her white vest with intense, dark crimson. The teenager coughed lightly, feeling the gentle breeze tenderly caress her cheek. This managed to apale the constricting of her stomach and the need of throwing up that attacked her. The gentle swaying of the griffin's flight, mixed with the dizzy sensation derivated from the loss of blood made her world spin and difract as if observed through a broken lense.
"Liz, hang on tightly!" Lightning called with a worried shriek, feelng the woman's hands loosing the strength to grip on the white feathers for a second longer.
"I...I will, dont worry!" murmured the girl weakly, attempting to keep her tired eyelids open, and pressing the animal's sides with her legs in a very tender way.
Liz ignored if she had really lost all efimerous trace of conscience, but she remembered the slapping of leaves against her bare arms, and the itchy feeling of branches scratching her viciously. The beast hand landed carefully, with a gentle thump and a very weak shaking of his body. However the weakened girl could not hold on for longer and rolled off his back, hitting the bed of grass and moss gently.
The girl blinked several times as the sun pointed with wondrous and bright rays at the magnificent hawk eyes. She coughed roughly and stood up on her shaking muscles. The griffin was standing over her, the dawn like violet eyes staring at her through a veil of concern, the sharp beak clicking with nerves.
"perhaps you should not stand up." Had said the animal but was ignored with a moving hand that pushed the great face away.
"what happened?" inquired the woman through a cracked voice.
"the pirates were undead, consumed in their hathred torwards Peter." Lightning explained looking sideways, not wanting to cross his eyes with those of the girl.
"Peter? Where is he?" inquired Liz staring around intently, expecting to see the boy land by her.
Lightning refused to look at her, a misty gaze lost in the infinity of nothingness, penetrating the frondous jungle, the rainbow of greens and darkness, the collection of misterious beings and sounds of all lights.
"Lightning, where is Peter?!" yelled Liz gathering her strength from the pit of her stomach, where fear resided, frozen yet living.
"he stayed in the ship, I believe he was captured!" said the winged beast looking intensely at the girl.
"what? We have to go back, oh Peter, we have to!" yelled Liz going into a fit of histerics, her hands gesticulating profusely and her eyes staring around and seeing nothing but what fear revealed.
"Liz, LIZ! Relax, I rbought you here, it's the only way to help Peter and Kelly now!" explained Lightning, pointing at something situated behind Liz with a quick say of his head and beak.
The woman looked behind herself, relaxing only a bit, being beaten by curiosity. The dark mouth of a cavern expulsed it's breath of ancient and closed space, of humid freshness. But there was something else in the aroma, the gentle but very characteristic and sharp scent of ice. With trembling legs the woman stood up and stared intently at the mouth of the cave, round and dark, and crowned with the humid and bright green of a velvety curtain of moss.
Liz's eyes looked back at the griffin, inquiring and somewhat suspicios. The animal stared at her with sincere eyes, he nodded and urged her to walk into the cave. Liz did as she was expected to, and paced towards the entrance, stopping with hesitant paces right before being engulfed by the darkness. The winged beast stood right before her, smiling contently through his eyes, observing her with the joy of a dog who has first seen his owner from a few days' separation.
Liz, taking a deep breath, took a long step forward and entered the darkness, seeing nothing but a faint glitter, a magickal sparkling of stars in a very dark and clean night sky. She felt a cold, almost polar breeze, entering her nostrils and running down her lungs.
A gentle shifting, the rippling sound of glass and the tender darkness of a shadow covering the sparkling sky before her startled Liz. She gasped loudly and looked front very intensely, attempting to gather enought vision as to discover what being caused the movement, the rippling. A stray hand reaching towards a wall discovered soon a burning sensation. It was ice.
The appereance of stalactites, white like the moon itself, sharp and razor, like fangs. This was accompained with a gust of air, frozen air, and the shrilly sound of a crystaline roar, which sounded like music played with glasses, but was equally threateting. The vicious glimmer of pale, cold eyes, stared intensely at the girl. And Liz yelled, loudly, startled and frightened, and imperiously angered knowing she had been cruelly betrayed by her best friend. And she had fallen, shattering all her dreams and her fantasy, all her hopes.
"you are mine, Peter, and know I?m going to feel the pleasure of killing you, for once and forever!" screamed Captain Hook, a maddening glitter in his eyes, which were stained with the deep red of the blood he desired pouring and saboring.
"Captain Hook, dont do that!" yelled a tiny voice that had passed unnoticed through the heat of the battle.
The captain sighed, discontented, staring up at the sky not pleading but more tired about the situation. His eyes bore into the little girl with a hathred that, mixed with the whole vision of his demacrated face, was frightening. Kelly drowned a whimper but remained cold and passive, inflating her chest with bravery.
"Liz will come back, if you kill him now...and me, you wont be able to please on killing hir before her, and seeing her suffer!" Kelly explained with an intelligent glint in her eyes, and a charming smile that had won the hearts of many.
"you know little bitch? You are very smart, but not enough. I know it's a trick but nothing can stop me so...I'll follow your game and see what happens in the end!" said the captain with a snarl in the face, showing putrefied and rotten teeth. This vision made Kelly convulse with disgust, but she remained cold and firm.
"meanwhile I will please myself in torturing Peter, right Peter?!" Hook said turning to him, that vicious smile returning to his rotten lips.
Peter sighed, he was tired of this game. He wanted Hook to vanish, and everything to be the way it used to, perhaps as it was before Wendy came, he had fun but he was nothing but an animal. But with Liz, he had changed, he had known things never dreamed, and had felt something so deep and precious that glittered like a diamond.
"you know Peter? You have grown! You are nearly as tall as me, and you have grown thicker...and your face, is that I see the trace of a beard?" inquired Hook pointing at the boy.
Peter looked at him through fearful eyes, it was true, he had had the need to shave since a year ago, but he had resigned to it since he was in the Mainland. But being in Neverland once again, enjoying the pleasured of being free, of being a child, he started to realize he was growing. And a pang of fear stinged frozen in his veins. He could not return, it was a year to go and he would start the college, then a job, and then be a grownup with too many responsibilities to have fun. He could not go back or he would loose the brief trace of childhood that remained in him.
To Be Continued...
AN: ok, not as quick as I would have wished to, but I presume it didn't take longer than the others. SO here it comes, another chapter, and perhaps one or two more to go. SO what will happen to Liz? And to Peter? Will Liz return? Or will Hook get tired of torturing Peter and stab him through the heart with his hook?
Thank you for the reviews, by the end of the story I will write a personal thank you to all the readers that have used their time in reviewing.