CHAPTER THIRTEEN: Pan
Shielded almost on every side by high walls of craggy stone, the lake lies ever still and silent, the air above it hanging dark and thick, that even the sun had long ago given up trying to wiggle its fingers through the heavy mist. Seldom do any foreign eyes venture to peer into the gloom, as most of the creatures kept well away from the mermaids' lair.
High above that dark cradle, the winds blew wild and shrilly, once again delighting themselves with secrets, caring not if anyone heard, for they spoke in a tongue which almost no one else understood anyway, or even leastways bothered with.
But secrets have a way about them which allowed them to trickle unnoticed through crevices in the rough stone too deviously hidden to be seen by the careless eye. The result of this was that the darkest and most mysterious secrets hiss between the cracks and issue forth into the vast halls of stone and still waters below as hauntingly melodious echoes. The mermaids glide silently, their tiny ears strained in an attempt to understand the strange music from above. Their eyes have long before melted into a deep, deep black, blacker even than the gloom veiling them, wide open but almost never seeing nor blinking in their immersion in deep thought.
The mermaids' dark ways and obsession with all things mysterious made the other inhabitants of the Never Land most wary of them, for though they never actively perpetrated evil, they were still very strange, too strange even for a place such as the Never Land. Even the pirates of the Jolly Roger were more than a little uncomfortable at the prospect of seeking the water-dwellers that day, but their fear of the Captain was far greater, that they had no choice but to row with trembling hands into the lightless caves.
Indeed, the Never Land was such a curious place, full of the strangest things, and Smee's ability to understand many of the languages spoken there was just one of those unexplainable facts. It was another well known fact that though the pirates were a fearsome lot, they were also stupid for the most part, so nobody minded that the fat old pirate understood, for he would be no threat to them. But that was then, before the pirates got themselves a new Captain, one whose glittering eyes surely reflected the sharpest of minds which would know how to use all kinds of knowledge to his advantage.
And so when the light from the lamps borne by the nervous pirates impudently permeated the gloom, a frantic splashing could be heard as the mermaids scrambled to get out of their way, though no trace of fin nor scale could be seen in the dancing shadows. The Captain had anticipated this reaction, and so he urgently hissed instructions to Smee.
For some reason, the old pirate thought it necessary to take off his glasses and wipe them against the front of his dirty shirt as he loudly cleared his throat. When the glasses were once again perched on his rather large nose, he called out, sounding like a mother calling her children to dinner, "Oh, mermaids, the Captain is here to see you. He only wishes to have a few words."
When only silence answered this cheerful greeting, the Captain growled to his second-in-command, "In their language, old fool!"
"Oh, of course, yes, yes," Smee stammered. He opened his mouth and a strange melodious lilting poured out from his throat, interspersed with sharp clicks of his tongue which echoed against the damp walls.
A head bobbed out of the water just in front of the rowboat where the Captain and Smee stood. The creature before them had long black hair, sleekly clinging to her finely-boned face. Grey skin thinly stretched over smooth flesh gave the illusion of transluscence, and the eyes that looked back were deep pools of black, wherein hostility swirled for all to see. The mermaid answered in kind, though the sounds which came from her were far more hair-raising than Smee's attempt.
"Well?" the Captain impatiently demanded, one eyebrow raised as he pinned Smee with his gaze. "What did she say?"
"I… ah… well – "
"Is my question too difficult for your small brain to understand? What - did - she - say?" The Captain's lips were almost unmoving as he spoke each word tightly.
"She… ah… Shesaidweweren'twelcomeandshouldn'thavecomehere … !" Smee rushed out in a single breath.
The Captain directed one of his humorless smiles to the mermaid. More faces have appeared out of the water, and all of them bore varying expressions of wariness. "Tell them, Smee, that I commend their courage in greeting the Captain of the Jolly Roger and his pirates with such rudeness."
The obedient Smee did just that, and an outraged mermaid scooped some water in her webbed hand and flung it at the Captain. But before the clammy arm could touch the water again, it had been grasped by the Captain's unforgiving hand. In a burst of strength, the Captain single-handedly dragged the poor mermaid half into the rough wooden bottom of the boat, and the mermaid could only flounder helplessly against the Captain's unshakeable grip. In another lightning-fast move, a sharp sword was held against the mermaid's neck.
"My patience has run out, little fish. You will tell me what I need to know or we'll all know shortly if mermaids' pale veins do in fact hold blood in them." The eyes that were normally ice blue were now a deep shade of blood-red. "Tell me why the sun is out and the ice is melting, and I may yet spare you your pitiful life."
Smee translated rapidly, taking pity on the poor creature, who wailed back an answer in terror. Tears have begun to pour down her face as the Captain listened to Smee's reply.
"She only says 'Pan,' Captain."
"What is 'Pan'?"
There was another exchange of lilts and clicks, and then, "It's not a what, Sir; it's a who."
"Who, then, is this 'Pan"?"
Lilts and clicks.
"She says the winds go on and on about the Pan who flies around in the jungles and coaxes the flowers to bloom and the leaves to reach out to the skies, and all the fairies follow him and do his bidding -- !"
There was a moment's silence, save for the hoarse gasps of the captive mermaid, as the Captain thought about what he had heard. "His, you say? A man?"
"A boy," Smee corrected.
"A boy…" A vague image of a little person flying over the warm jungles came into the Captain's mind. He had lived for so long with his pirates that he had forgotten what a boy exactly was, and his brow crumpled in deep concentration as he attempted to recall the blurred image.
When his eyes lifted, they were once again blue, and he thought at first that the shadows were playing a trick on him, for on the mouth of the cave, outlined by the faint light of their lamps, a figure was floating in mid-air, and a ball of light flew energetically around it. An unexplainable wave of emotion and remembrance crashed though the Captain, and at once the image clicked on his head. A boy! This was a boy!
This was the Pan who had roused the Never Land sun and woke up all the flowers.
And then the boy crowed once, and the pirates jumped in surprise.
"Hullo, pirates! I meet you at last!" Even in the darkness the smile was carried by the loud voice, though the men could not see it. More than that, the youthful exuberance shot daggers through the Captain, and he keenly felt every single point pierce through his chest, that he thought real bullets actually pierced him.
The laughing voice continued, "Tsk, tsk, picking on these lovely ladies? Ow!" The last was uttered as the ball of light, which suddenly turned green, hit the boy's head with a smack and a tinkle.
The gloom was too thick and the boy was too fast, that only a blur could be seen as suddenly, he was right in front of the Captain. For an endless moment cold blue eyes glittered against warmly laughing green ones, and the Captain stood frozen in surprise. And then a grubby hand was raised between the faces, and the middle finger was suddenly flicked hard against the Captain's nose. In the sharp pain the Captain stumbled back, and with an "Aaarrghh!" and a splash the Captain had fallen overboard.
The boy whooped around in glee, kicking his legs as he somersaulted in the air. The other pirates had snapped out of their surprised state and suddenly, the air resounded with gunshots and the swish of knives being thrown. But through all this the boy only laughed harder at the pirates' furious and disbelieving expressions. In all the commotion the captured mermaid managed to slip quietly into the water, and then she and her friends disappeared from the surface.
The Captain spluttered in indignation, but before he could clamber out of the freezing water back into the boat, the boy was flying away, and his laughter and his crowing was slowly becoming more and more faint, until at last, only the echo of "Till we meet again, pirates!" was left of him.
And the Captain could only shake in cold and anger and roar after the boy, "Come back! Come back and face me like a man! You'll pay for this, Pan!"