The Porcelain Girl- A Neverland Story
Written by Alia Davis
Chapter Four - Awaiting Explanation
Falling…. Falling faster than she thought anyone could ever fall… Falling forever…. Well, almost.
Sonal Rose didn't rember exactly what had happened in her half asleep state. But she DID rember the water, and how freezing it was, covering her completely, her pale body shivering and convulsing as she went into shock.
Her dark hair floated around her in the briny water like a halo, stretching out on both sides of her. When she gathered her wits about her shivering person she observed her soundings, Pan was not accurate enough when he said that they were nearly there, if this was Neverland...
With an exasperated sigh the girl looked toward the dark green speck on the horizon. I might as well start swimming. She thought, a small sad smile on her face, Leave it to me to be stupid enough to follow a strange boy to another world and not be holding on tight.
Rose did rember another time like this, when she decided to try and find a sandbar on one of her vacations with her uncle, when her aunt was away on 'business trips'. The only real business the other woman had was with a man, a cheep hotel room and probably a vibrator or something kinky like that.
She push the thoughts of what her aunt did aside, rembering then when she had swam and swam and swam, but she never found a sandbar. When she got tired she had turned back, to find that she had swum out into the deep ocean, the land nearly a speck of yellow colored sand.
That was three years ago, and now she was in the same position again due, yet again, to her own carelessness.
Rose was, if not anything other than clumsy and slight, an impractical girl. She always seemed to be dreaming. That was how it always was with the women in her family, they had some sort of wanderlust, a wanting to see everything and do everything that could possibly fulfill their expectations of magic and delight.
Her wicked Aunt had called it insanity, dreamer disease and other such pointless and stupid things. Rose thought it was the best gift she was ever given, the ability to create entire worlds and escape to them. The ability to be anyone anywhere at anytime, if you only used your mind.
While she was rembering her past adventures, a sudden fear fell around her like a think blanket. Something was wrong. Before, there were cheerful sounds of birds in the air, and now, they were gone.
That's when she felt it, an icy cold hand wrapped around her ankle. Not even a scream could escape from her lips as she was pulled underwater by an unseen force. High pitched shrieks and laughs reached her ears, their volume was so loud though, that she began to see spots, the last think she saw clearly before blinking out was a handsome and harsh looking young man.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o
The pain in her head was horrible. That was all she could think about, slowly raising a slender hand to her temple. "Dink this." Said a soothing voice and Rose felt the texture of the wooden cup pressed against her hands.
Thankfully she raised the cup to her lips, their ruby color slightly paled. As the liquid trailed down her thought her vision cleared and the pain that was hammering away between her ears subsided.
"Better?" asked that same voice. As her soundings became visible she found herself looking blankly at a boy about her age with long dark brown hair tied back at the base of his neck.
"Much…" she said looking around to find that she was in a room with no windows sitting on a bed strewn with animal furs and skins. The warm fur pressing to her bare skin. That's right, the only thing that stood between her and the handsome boy were the dead skins of animals, not very romantic if you asked her. She was glad to find that her locket was still attached to her neck. "Who are you?" she asked rather nervously, a frown on her face. "And where am I?" Her eyes scanned the room once more.
The boy gave a laugh, the smile making him look all the more handsome. "I'm Rebel, and you are in the lost boys' underground shelter. Usually we use this for a fall out place when the pirates attack, but Peter thought you would be more comfortable here while you recover."
"Peter!" she said, dropping the cup and spilling the contents on the furs. The picture of the man under the water coming back to her and the feeling of falling coming back to her in a flash. "Where is he, and what Happened?" She nearly shouted, her voice heightened with emotion.
Rebel flinched, looking at the spilt drink a in a forlorn way. "He's in the other room, resting, he had quite a battle with the mer-prince to get you back." He picked up the cup, carefully pouring some more into it. "Be careful with this one, we only get so much Honey to make the drink with." His voice was calm and soft like it was since she had begun talking to him.
"Sorry," she said quickly, "Can I see Peter, I don't know what happened, all I rember is falling into the water and something pulling me down I-I hope that Peter's not hurt I wouldn't want him to be like that because of me, I usually can fend for myself but they were so loud that-" The boy stopped her by clapping a hand over her mouth, a grimace on his face.
"Calm down and have a drink, okay, you'll get to see Peter in a bit." He gave a small smile, he was a gorgeous creature, "Can I take my hand away now?" he asked softly. Rose nodded her head slowly, her wide eyes resembling that of a small child, his hands were calloused and powerful. He gently lifted the hand from her face. Rose sat there for an extra moment just staring at him before she snapped out of her trance and brought the cup to her mouth.
Rebel gave a small laugh, "I'm going to go find you some cloths." He stood up taking the tray off the table beside the bed. Rose frowned at that, taking the cup away from her lips.
"About that, did you...Ummm...Take my cloths... Or did someone..." she stopped and he turned around, an awkward smile on his face. "Peter didn't tell us about you till after you were here, It's been about an hour, the fairies said that Peter carried you in here covered in seaweed, So I don't know what happened, You'll have to ask him." Rebel gave a nod and ten was out the door, leaving Rose to chew on her lip absent mindedly till his return.
It was only a few minutes before he re-entered the room, his arms full of clothing, she could hear the laughter of boys behind him, as there was a particularly girly pair of Underwear fitted over the top of his head, it was all black lave and lavender silk and ribbons. Rose instantly wondered where they had gotten the clothing from.
"Milady," he said bowing as he dumped the pile of clothing, sarcasm laden in his smooth voice, he seemed to be a completely different person; even his face seemed a bit darker like he'd been out in the sun his entire life. "I bring you greetings from your King Peter Pan and a message to dress nicely for his welcoming feast for you. His Highness says you have an hour to get ready."
The boy, who she was now sure was not Rebel took the pair of Underwear off his head and bowed, tossing it on the top of the pile as he left, the laughter erupting as he opened the door. Rose couldn't see the source of the uproar, but she knew that it was the lost boys that were screaming.
Rose jumped out of the bed quickly, beginning to search through the pile of cloths, all of them were large and fancy dresses it seemed. There was only one form of a Bra that she could find, and it was attached to a velvety green corset. She frowned at this, but put it aside and continued searching.
By the end of her navigation of the mountain of cloths she had found a white puffy shirt which she put under the corset she found, and a pair of leather pants that only went down to about two inches above her knees. Unfortunately the pair of underwear that the-boy-who-was-not-Rebel had put on his head were also the only ones in the entire mountain.
She arranged all the dresses neatly in one of the wardrobes for future use. Mostly incase she could rip them up to make something different.
This took all of about thirty minutes, and instead of waiting around in the room (Or her room, whichever one it really was) she decided to go and see what was going on on the other side of the door.
Her pale bare feet padded lightly on the worn stone floor as she approached the door, opening it slightly to peek out first.
There in what seemed to be a living room was a group of boys sitting around in a circle, a circle surrounding a gilded throne, which upon perched Peter Pan. He looked different from the last time she had seen him, his left forearm was wrapped up in cloth, and there were a few scratches on his face.
Her breath caught in her thought; even with his obvious injuries he looked stunningly handsome. His eyes were the green of a salty sea, and they looked down upon the boys as he shouted something that she didn't catch. But then the world re-focused once more and she could hear.
"So the Mermaid king is holding Rose tightly agents him all the while I was fighting off his lackeys, laughing at me as the seaweed started to turn her into one of them. When I finally reached him he put her down on his throne, called her his princess and drew his sword. The blood from his guards still hung in the water around us and then I-" Peter stopped speaking as he saw the door open a bit more, and Rose walked out, smiling at him.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o
Peter's voice was lost when he saw Rose walk out, a smile on her face. She wasn't wearing any of the dresses he had sent in. Wendy had worn those dresses too. He rembered this sadly, but soon the feeling of remorse was gone. She was wearing an old pair of hide pants that clung to her thighs in a way that made something inside him stir. The Corset she wore was loose fitting but showed off the curves she had. A sixteen year old body was much different from Wendy's eleven year old one.
When he regained his senses her jumped off of the high throne, the lost boys had fallen quiet and parted for him as he walked past them. "Here is Rose, the flower of vision that I speak of." He said to the boys, his piercing eyes never once leaving from Rose's soft ones.
He bowed in front of her, still staring. God she was beautiful.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o
Rose tried not to shift nervously as the form of Peter drew closer, all she could see were his eyes, focused on her in a way that made her tremble with anticipation inside. "Peter." She said the word more as an exhaled breath than actual speaking.
He lifted her hand to his mouth, kissing it lightly, but his lips lingered longer than most proper men would dare. Somehow she liked it.
"Leave us," he said commandingly, never once looking away. "On the morrow you will all be formally introduced, but Rose and I have some things to discuss." He smiled warmly as the boys filed out, silently.
Rose let out the breath that she hadn't noticed she'd been holding. It seemed to echo endlessly in the room.
They were alone.