I own nothing except my characters.
Chapter Eight: Another little Lost Girl
Piper stared boredly into the forest, Fiercemoon perched on her shoulder, her spiky black and silver tail sweeping lazily against her back. The feral cat had decided her worthy after about...an unknown amount of time ago. The two are inseparable except for when Piper goes into camp. Then the feral cat wanders off into the forest or uses the hidden escape flap to snooze in Piper's tent. It is uncanny at times, the intelligence of the feral cat. Piper has grown used to it but it still creeps Angelo out.
Salazar on the other hand, finds it one of the coolest things though he does nurse a small grudge to Fiercemoon for refusing anything to do with him. Piper secretly suspects it might have more to do with her being a girl than anything. Still, it is amusing to see the little boy pout because the little feral cat wouldn't take a piece of bread from him but eagerly snatches it up when Piper holds it out.
"Anything?" Angelo asks, breaking the comfortable silence between them. They have been assigned to watch their eastern border now that it has been expanded, yet again. Her and Angelo have along the border all night and Piper stifles a yawn as she gives a curt shake of her head. The sun is out today, glimmering gold in the air and making it seem like a magical place. Piper isn't fooled though. She has seen the darker side of the island and while she isn't all that fond of it, she prefers it to this. There is more shadows to hide in and no beauty to hide behind.
Piper shakes her head in the negative, shifting on her heels and rising to her full height, catching Angelo by surprise with the sudden image. She looks fierce and deadly with the glint of daggers hanging loosely in her palms as her dark eyes scan the forest, turned into liquid flames by the golden sunlight. Then she turns, the shadows shifting over her face and the look fades away. Blinking, Angelo shakes his head, scrambling to his feet when he hears people headed their way.
Readying his crossbow, Angelo glances over at Piper but seeing her relaxed against a tree (Fiercemoon had already left when she heard the boys), he lowers it without hesitation.
It took a little while but him, Salazar and Felix have learned to trust Piper's sharp ears. It beats the hell out of them but she can recognize if it is the Lost Boys or savages just by the way they sound moving through the forest. Piper tactfully decided not to tell them she can tell the difference because the savages are not as loud as the Lost Boys are. Piper really had to restrain her mischievous side to not tell them that she could only tell the difference because the Lost Boys are so much louder than the savages when they are traveling.
"Hey, Piper! Hey, Angelo!" Salazar chirps cheerfully, breaking through the forest and bounding over to them eagerly. His dark green eyes were sparkling happily and for a moment, Piper marveled at how the kid could stay so upbeat before she was distracted by the rest of the group coming out. Narrowing her dark eyes, Piper scanned the group for Felix's blonde hair and scarred face but he wasn't there. Felix normally led the first morning patrol to give the boys that guarded at night time to rest and the boys that were just getting up time to get wide awake.
"We got a new...person." Tony volunteered, his tanned skin and dark eyes reminding her of Cortez. The comparison ended there. He was about sixteen and his hair was long enough that he could and does tie it back in a low ponytail. Cortez would never allow his hair to grow out that long. Piper cocked a dark eyebrow, narrowing her dark eyes at him and he fidgeted before blurting it out. "It's a girl!" The other boys began grumbling and Tony flushed.
"Come on, Tony! You weren't supposed to tell!" One of the other boys protested and Tony shrugged.
"Sorry guys but you know how it is..." He fell uncomfortably silent, casting a searching glance at Piper as the other boys nodded in agreement. They did know how it was. When Piper wanted to know something, either you told her after the glare or she would pin you down with a dagger until you spilled all of your dirty little secrets. All of the boys knew how bad Andrew and Smith were with their bullying and one morning, Andrew is missing and Smith is following Piper/Pierce around like a Lost Puppy. It made them more wary of her, to say the least.
Piper had to hold her surprise in but the curiosity and cautiousness swirled together until they were a hard ball tucked uncomfortably under her rib cage. Striding forward, Piper had to hide a smile when the boys parted for her, Angelo and Salazar right on her heels. Walking confidently down the path, Piper half listened as Angelo began grilling Salazar about the girl.
Unfortunately he didn't know much because he had been on his way out of the camp when the girl had been brought in locked in a wooden cage. Piper cocked a slender, dark eyebrow, a wide grin bursting across her face and revealing gleaming white teeth before it faded away. Amusement glinted in her eyes as Piper thought over the differences between her and this new girl, deciding that it is a good thing she had been wearing the baggy clothes she has had on for weeks now.
It was hard when she was on her monthly but Piper has managed and Felix has been hinting at another rite of passage she will be having to pass soon. It stirs her curiosity because then Angelo and Salazar exchange excited and anticipatory looks along with the rest of the Lost Boys.
Breaking through the tree line, Piper, Angelo and Salazar spot the loud group of Lost Boys gathered around a wooden cage. Piper glimpses a flash of blonde hair before the boys shift and jostle each other in front of it again. Moving up behind the boys, Piper spots Felix at the same time he spots her. Moving over, he ducks his head down so that he can speak a little more clearly over the loudness of the other boys.
"We found her this morning. The shadow had been hovering over her unconscious form and she'd had a gag in her mouth. Something about the shadow..." Felix paused, seeing conflicted. "Something about the shadow made me think it had done it." Looking unsettled at his giving out information so freely, Felix snapped his mouth shut before glancing around with cautious blue eyes. "I have to let Pan know. Stay here and keep an eye on the boys. Don't let them get too rowdy." Felix ordered before hurrying away in search of Pan.
Piper nodded at his back before turning on her heel and walking over to the camp line, sitting back against a tree and flipping the hood of her cloak up, crossing her arms. Angelo and Salazar hesitated, glancing between her and the wooden cage before moving over and slinging themselves down on either side of her. Piper flicked Salazar's nose and he grinned brightly at her from where he flopped on his back before rolling over and drawing in the dirt.
Slowly scanning her gaze over the camp, Piper wondered why she suddenly has this deep shadow of dread forming in the pit of her stomach.
~Unbowed-and-Unbroken~
Shifting anxiously, the boys glanced at the cage off to the side of the camp. Piper leaned back on the log, rolling her dark eyes from the safety of her hooded cloak. After Pan and Felix had gotten back, Pan had cleared out the camp, ordering them to one side and one side only. Then he and Felix went back into tree house and haven't emerged since.
It was left up to Piper to organize patrols and send the boys out, only staying behind in camp to follow Felix's order of making sure the boys didn't get too rowdy while he was gone. She hasn't been having many problems, considering none of the boys want to cross her. Piper shifts on the ground, glancing up at the slowly darkening sky. Her eyes lag a little and she wants to sleep since she has been up all night patrolling but even though Angelo offers to take over, Piper refuses to disobey a direct order from Pan's second.
That is not a good way to fly under the radar at all.
A tired group of boys trudged into camp, veering around the wood cage and dropping down around the rest of the boys by the fire.
"Salazar, get the boys some food. Stan, Curly (the small, slightly chubby boy with dark brown curls brightens up eagerly), Anton, Grady and Owen, you are going to take over their patrol. Hurry and finish eating." Angelo says, glancing at Piper every so often to see which boys she wanted going out. The boys nodded to Piper, scoffing down their food before rising, gathering their weapons and disappearing down the path.
Salazar scoops out The Stew, asking the boys questions about their patrol.
Piper leans back against the log, discreetly slipping long, slender copper fingers into her laced up combat boots, stroking a finger down the leather wrapped handle of the special knife. It is too long to fit fully into the boot so Piper has forced herself to wear them with the baggy black cargo pants pulled over them. She hates to do it, preferring her pants tucked inside the boots but then again, a boy wouldn't be too concerned with 'fashion' so she has reluctantly gotten used to it.
Still though, she swears to herself as a 1976 new year's resolution (assuming it is still 1975 back home), Piper will tone it down on the drinking and turn it up just the slightest with fashion. She has never really been the type to care about that stuff, a fact that has saved her life here. Still though, it is a little insulting day after day to be considered a boy when she is not. Granted, she is doing her utmost best to hide her femininity but still, very insulting. At least her hair has grown out some, barely reaching her shoulders but it is grimy and matted, the curls no longer appearing.
Hygiene. Another thing going at the very top of the list. Piper swears she will never ask for anything else in her life if she can just take a warm bath without having to worry if she will be caught. Right now, she would kill for a hairbrush. Luckily, she had a bottle of toothpaste hidden in one of her many pockets that she had swiped from the house before she started drinking. She has had to ration it but as a result, she has gleaming white teeth and minty fresh breath every morning, a fact that frustrates Angelo to no end because she hasn't showed it to him.
"Copper for your thoughts?" Angelo joked. Him and Salazar had started calling her copper because of her skin and because she carries a 'lucky' copper penny in one of her pockets. Often when she is bored, Piper can be found spinning the copper in the air and on her thumb.
Piper shot Angelo an unamused glance and he shrugged, unbothered by the look.
Him and Salazar seemed to be getting a little too comfortable with her, Piper mused, returning her dark eyes to the fire. A boy raised his voice, rising from his seat as he clenched his hands angrily. Piper lashed out, kicking his ankle harshly and shooting him a warning glance. The boy paled a little, sitting back down and rubbing his ankle. The other boys shifted away from him the slightest bit, none of them wanting to be on the receiving end of Piper's glare.
"Did'ya have to do that, Pierce?" Salazar groaned, flopping down beside her. Piper eyed him before tilting her lips up in a faint smirk. Salazar rolled his dark green eyes, wrinkling his nose before he picked up a dagger and a stick, sharpening it with quick and efficient strokes. It is one of the first jobs boys in camp are shown. After the stick is sharpened, there is an arrowhead lashed to it and feathers flecked on it so that it can turn into an effective arrow.
"Do you know when they are coming out?" Travis, one of the younger boys asked hesitantly. Piper shrugged her shoulder and nodded, sitting back and staring at the fire. Normally, the boys would be split up. There would be some shooting arrows, others wrestling, others making more arrows and then the ones just dancing around the fire and being wild. Then there were the ones like Piper that sat at the fringes of the chaotic whirl of shouts, laughter and groans and silently wished they could join in. Piper doesn't wrestle though.
She doesn't touch for long because she doesn't want anyone to feel comfortable enough with her to touch. If they did, they might feel something they shouldn't and then Piper would be caught out as a girl. Something that apparently isn't very fun on this island from the look of that wooden cage. The door to Pan's tree house opens, revealing the boy himself with Felix close behind him. Instantly everyone is on their feet, crowding as close as they dare.
"Well now, lads! It seems we have a visitor!" Pan grinned viciously, his emerald eyes glinting with shifting shadows and his bronzed hair looking as windswept and soft as always. "Let's take a look, shall we?" As one, the Lost Boys let out a wordless roar and Piper could barely make out the startled yelp from in the cage. Pan snapped his fingers, kneeling in front of the cage and the door swung open. "Hello there, darling. Come on out and greet my Lost Boys." Piper drifted closer, curiosity stirring in her as Pan spoke softly, holding out his hand.
Then a trembling little hand reached out, clasping Pan's, a delicate silver chain bracelet with a single little silver charm of a ballerina dangling from it...and Piper's heart just...stopped.
Because she recognized that bracelet.
She had bought that as a present for Dolly when they were twelve and the strawberry blonde was still under the impression that she would become a Prima Ballerina someday. Piper knew she shouldn't but she pushed closer still, until she was just behind one last boy before she would break out into the clearing.
Dolly slowly emerged from the cage, dirt smeared on her face and her eyes tinged with red. Her clothes (which could normally be found impeccable despite their living conditions) were torn and dirt stained. Piper clenched her hands into fists, her face hardening and her dark eyes flashing at the thought of anyone making Dolly- her Dolly- cry.
Piper's heart was pounding in her chest, almost as though it were a wild horse trying to break free of her chest.
She felt simultaneously great relief at seeing one of her best friends...and great terror for what could happen to little Dolly in Pan's all too cruel hands.
"Now then, what is your name?" Pan asked, a wicked gleam in his dark green eyes and a smirk curling on his dusky lips. Dolly hesitated, glancing around warily and Piper recognized her friend trying to look for a way out. Good girl, just wait for the right time and answer his question...Piper inwardly coached, small tremors running through her at the effort it took to hold herself back.
"Dolly." She answered quietly and Pan chuckled, a sarcastic edge to it as his hand tightened around Dolly's. She cried out with pain and Piper felt a snarl building in her throat as she took the smallest of steps forward and froze...but it was too late. Dolly saw her and sheer relief swept over her face and glowed in her blue eyes. "Piper! Piper, help!" Dolly cried out and it felt like she was ripping Piper's heart out.
Pan's head snapped around, his eyes locked unnervingly with Piper's. His eyes flooded with dark intent and Piper knew she was going to have to do some damage control before this all spiraled. Out. Of. Control.
Piper took a step forward, pasting an amused look on her features.
"I'm hurt, Dolls. I really am." Piper rumbled, ignoring the twinge of pain in her throat at the effort of speaking so low. Dolly just looked confused, swaying on her feet and just about to buckle. "It's Pierce, now what do you want with my twin sister?"