Chapter Ten –

Peter had flown half way across Neverland and was now encircling a part of the forest Wendy had never seen before. Although it was similar to Peter's home, the forest was less dense here and the plants appeared to be of a more exotic nature. There were also the remains of what appeared to be an ancient temple of sorts.

'Why would the Lord of all Fairies live in ruins?' Wendy pondered to herself. She would have thought that if he ruled over some of the most magical creatures that he would have a grand palace or something along those lines.

"Right," said Peter interrupting her train of thought. "There's no sign of Galahad's beastly pet, so I'm going to take us down. If you see any kind of sudden movement get as low to the ground as you can. I don't need to remind you of what this beast can do to you, do I?"

"No, I think your demonstration of 'sharp point fangs' was sufficient, thank you," replied Wendy trying not to laugh at the memory.

Peter merely rolled his eyes at Wendy's amusement and swooped down on the old ruins at a startling speed. Landing with a thump of the hard stone, Peter looked around his familiar surroundings, admiring its magnificence.

"This is Faylinn. It was once the stronghold of the Kings of Neverland," Peter informed Wendy, taking her hand and moving swiftly yet silently up the stone steps.

Wendy followed him inside the ancient stone structure and gasped. The roof, if there ever was one, was long gone; she could see straight up into the green canopy of the forest. The stone floor, like everything else, was slowing being engulfed by vines. Ancient carving adorned the walls and at the far end of the vast hall, stood a lone stone alter that had been completely cleared of any foliage that may have attempted to over take it.

"Beautiful isn't it," continued Peter, smiling at Wendy's awestruck expression. "King Adair, the fifth king of Neverland, erected it. Unfortunately, the Royal Family has long since died out, they were before even my time. The last king, ­­­Alaric son of Edric, died before he could conceive a male heir. He left everything to his fairies, for he felt for akin to them than he did his own folk. Iorwen, the wife of the King and Queen via marriage, was angered by her husband's expected departure, as their marriage was only deemed legal with the birth of a male heir. Thus, Iorwen was entitled to nothing. She lost her home, power and title of Queen when Alaric died and left her with nothing."

"Enraged, Iorwen decided that if she could not rule then no one would. She gathered all the men still loyal to her and launched an attack on the fairies, the likes of which Neverland had never seen. She destroyed Faylinn She brutally tortured and murdered all who opposed her and showed no mercy to those associated with fairy kind."

"The Fairy Queen of the time, Cwen, and her armies became overwhelmed with the battalions of men Iorwen was sending forth in an attempt to rid Neverland of her kind; and when fairy extinction seemed immanent, she withdrew underground of the once brilliant, Faylinn, along with what remained of her once glorified race."

"For many years all fairy life remained underground, to afraid to venture out to the surface. Though they possessed powers of immeasurable capacity, fairies were, or rather still are, the guardians of Neverland. They are charged with the task of protecting all Neverland's inhabitants and keeping the balance between good and evil. Iorwen wasn't threatening the existence of man or beast, only fairy; thus Cwen was unable to put an end to her tyranny on fairy kind. Fairies are unable to directly end human life, though they are capable of acting through others to carry out evil deeds if they so desire."

"Peter," Wendy interrupted loudly, "how does this have any relevance to anything?"

"I just thought you might want to know the history behind Faylinn," said Peter purposefully not looking at her. "It may be useful to you later, and keep your voice down. I want our presence to go as unnoticed here as possible. The last thing we need is a surprise attack from Galahad's beast."

On cue, a loud screech was heard from the skies above, followed by the sound of wings like that of an eagle swooping on it's pray, only this was much louder. Wendy looked up to behold a huge creature descending on Faylinn. Though Wendy couldn't get a proper look at the beast, she was sure that the creature she was observing was a legendary and mythical griffin. Its head, chest and wings were feathered and it displayed the forelegs and talons of an eagle, yet it had the hindquarters of a lion.

"RUN!" yelled Peter, breaking Wendy from her daze and spurring her into a run. "Don't look back! We have to get to the alter!"

Wendy sprinted down the long hallway as fast as her legs could carry her. The alter was only thirty yards away and closing. She could hear Peter's heavy footfall behind her, pounding on the hard stone floor.

Ten yards to the alter. The griffin had spotted them was also closing in. It was just a matter of who reached what first.

She was only five yards away when Peter flew past her and landed on the alter. He turned around and grabbed Wendy around her waist, hauling her up onto the alter with him. The griffin had crashed through the canopy landed at the other end of Faylinn. It waited a few seconds before charging full speed at them. "Galahad!" Peter cried out desperately. "It is I, Peter Pan, and I request that thee shows thyself!"

Wendy clung fearfully to Peter and waited for something to happen. The griffin was seconds away from them so in a last attempt to salvage their lives Peter added, "I have Wendy Darling in my care!"

Immediately, the stone below their feet began to glow and a blue light engulfed them both. The griffin reared on its hind legs and came to an abrupt stop. It turned to shield it's eyes from the incandescent light that as being emitted from the two figures standing alone on the alter and with a final screech, the beast took flight through the thick leaves that made up the roof.

Even though the griffin had left, the blue light did not subside. On the contrary, it grew more intense until both Wendy and Peter were forced to screen their eyes from it to prevent themselves from going blind.

"Peter," said Wendy sounding rather anxious. "Has this ever happened before?"

"No," replied Peter, he was as mesmerized by the phenomenon as she was. "Never."

Peter pulled Wendy in close to him, afraid that she would become lost in the haze.

'That'd be right,' thought Wendy. She looked around but the light was so overwhelming that she could no longer see the ruins or the trees.

Then, all of a sudden a loud crack came from nowhere and the two figures who had been standing on the alter along with the bright light disappeared. Everything returned to normal and the only sounds that could be heard was the rustling of the leaves and the singing of the songbirds high in the trees.

AN: Ah ha! I've done it! I finished chapter 10! You should all be very proud of me. I've been writting and rewritting this chapter over and over again. It's taken me forever to get right. Still, it's probably going to be confusing. Ah well, not the end of the world. The next chapter is where we meet Galahad and all is explained. But I won't go on about that, I wouldn't want to give away the story line :D. Ok, moving on to answers to reviews: Draechaeli, I'm sorry you didn't get to Neverland... but it's the idea of it just cool! My cousin gave me that one... ah it's brilliant. Dreamless mermaid, Jack Sparrow indeed! I love Jack! I'll have to work out a way to put some more of Jack's quotes in the next chapter. As for the cliffhangers... I can't help it I love cliffhangers, and I've done it again mwhahahahahaha. Zeldy, yes Slightly is rather confusing isn't he mutters 'strange little boy' but it's just all the stuff about how their going to get to Neverland so it's not that interesting anyway. kasmira36, thanks for the encouragement mate. I'm sorry it keeps taking me so long to update but I've got exams at the moment so it's making it hard for me to find any time to write :(. kitkat47, I'm glad you're enjoying my story and it should start to have some real action kind of stuff in it soon. bigreader, I'm nothing like hook! I just enjoy tormenting people, you should try it some time... you might learn to like it. Ooies, yeah I know. But you're going to have to except that John doomed for evil-ness. I'm glad you're amused my Peter and Wendy, they amuse me too :). LiRA, again, I'm sorry I keep you waiting so long but I haven't really had any time to write. blondie3862, I know, I know. Wendy and Peter are being annoying but if I let everything happen to quickly then it'll ruin my master plan, and we can't have that now can we? Alison, sharp point fangs indeed. But you can't deny that it, Monty Python are just hilarious! And what's wrong with having Jack in you're head, he's so very amusing. Liana2, thanks mate. I fully agree with the Wendy being older thing. How can she go off with Peter when he's like 4 years younger than her? It doesn't work! I'm glad you enjoy my bio, if you can't tell I'm pretty big on the quoting thing :P. Zorrina, wicked cool indeed. I'm glad you're enjoying it. And last but not least babs08, thanks. I don't think anyone has every called my story awesome... that's so cool! Anyway, I hope you all enjoy this chapter. I'll get the next one up ASAP, but I guess with me you can never tell when that's going to be.

Toodles kids!