Title: Terra Firma
Author: Andúnië of the Nimloth and Andúnië team.
Rating: G-PG
Summary: Neverland is alive and needs help.
Author's note: My muse gave me this story in the middle of the night and here it is for your reading pleasure. I'm not sure where it's heading, or if it's worth continuing, so constructive reviews are most definitely encouraged. Although I wanted Rai to be a boy for Peter to play with, land, like ships, are always female, so Rai is going to be a tomboy, but there will be no romantic involvement between her and Peter, I promise! Also, I'm yet to read Barrie's original story, and I'm currently just working off last year's movie. Thanks, Andúnië.
Neverland is alive. She comes to Peter in the form of a tomboy called Rai and is his confidant, counsel and muse. She prefers to only appear when he is alone, and tells him tales of Anor and Indil, the sun and the moon. He in turn relates the stories of his most recent adventures away from her.
When Wendy leaves, taking the Lost Boys with her, Peter becomes miserable and Neverland falls into disarray. After almost a full year of unsuccessfully badgering Peter to return to her, Rai decides to bring Wendy back her own way. The girl's return is critical for both Neverland and all her people...
The night she appeared in Wendy's bedroom, Wendy had fallen asleep by the window again, hoping for Peter to come back and whisk her away.
Rai didn't fly in through the window as other visitors would. She was just there, the land projecting her personification all the way to London.
"Who are you?" Wendy asked as she rose from the window seat. The girl before her was dressed as only someone from Neverland would be. She wore earth coloured boys' pants, a torn blouse that was once upon a time white, with a black corset tied loosely over it. Her dark hair was adorned with Indian extensions as Wendy's had been in Neverland, and she had fairy runes on her wrists like bracelets.
"My name is Rai, but you know me as Neverland." Her eyes as green as the jade at her throat were without age, being both immensely infantile and incredibly ancient. Wendy didn't hesitate to believe her.
"Then tell me, Neverland, why are you in my bedroom? And where is Peter?"
"He is with me."
At this, Wendy jumped to her feet and looked frantically about. "Where? Peter, where are you hiding?"
Rai gave a sigh. "No, Wendy-lady, he is with me, in me, on me, however you would see it. Peter is through the second star to the right and straight on until morning."
"He is still in Neverland?"
"Still in me, yes. You see, I am alive. Neverland is not suppressed like the magics of this world. I can create any shape I wish so I can approach the people of my land, although it is only Peter Pan that I converse with, as you would say, 'face to face'."
A look of slightly muddled acceptance dawned on Wendy's moonlit face. Rai saw this and explained her reason for being there. Peter was a part of Neverland, her child, brother, alter-ego, but his mind was totally independent of the land. The connection was mostly a one way thing with Peter's moods affecting the weather and seasons. Since Wendy and the Lost Boys had left, Peter's depression and loneliness had turned Neverland into a cold, desolate wasteland. He didn't understand that he needed his friends, and especially Wendy back to keep him happy, not even after Rai and Tinkerbell had spent the better part of a year trying to explain that.
So Rai had come to get Wendy back herself.
"Indil will give us the light to guide us back, Wendy," Rai said, stepping onto the window seat.
"Is Indil a fairy?"
"No!" Rai laughed and back in her land, a few blades of grass pushed through the snow. "That is Indil there," she said, pointing to the silvery, almost full moon outside.
"Oh. But if Indil is the moon, and not a fairy, then how shall I fly back to, um, you?" Wendy was puzzled.
Rai threw herself out of the window and floated just outside. She shrugged and held out her hand. "Just fly."
So Wendy did.
Please review and tell me if I should continue.
Andúnië.