Okay! Getting to some plot points in the chapter… and some foreshadowing! Look out for it!
Chapter 4: Developments
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Peter fumed as he flew around Neverland, smacking leaves off from the tops of trees and cursing any wind that blew him off course. Pesky fly he calls me! I'll show him just what a pesky fly I can be. Peter continued on course to Hangman's Tree, where around the base he saw the Lost Boys playing a game of Pirates and Indians. When they saw Peter approaching them, they abruptly stopped and gathered around him, each one talking in a hurried voice. Already agitated, Peter was quick to silence them.
"If you want to tell me something, then one person say it!" The Lost Boys quickly shut their mouths, staring up at their usually cheerful leader. "Now," Peter said more calmly. "What is it that you want to tell me?" Hesitantly, Slightly stepped forward.
"We all saw Hook's ship dock last night, and you left before anyone could tell you." He said cautiously, picking at the hairs on his fox's tail.
"Yeah, yeah I know that all ready. Is that all you have to tell me?" Peter was irritable and they all could tell. The Lost Boys hesitantly shook their heads in unison, and then ran to the other side of the tree to finish their game. Peter flew and sat on one of the branches of the tree overlooking the boy's game. Somehow, watching young boys pretending to battle each other was soothing. Oh, that's a nice thought. Peter inwardly yelled at himself. But as he continuously watched the boys play, his mind began to drift. Before him now, he saw a pair of green eyes staring at him in an inviting nature, and he now no longer heard the yells and battle cries below him, but instead he heard a haunting melody of a song. Hastily he shook his head, ridding himself of the thoughts he was drifting upon. Again he shook his head, then he jumped from the tree limb and joined in the game.
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Aboard the Jolly Rodger, Leah was put to work. She scrubbed, scrapped, mopped, swept, cooked, and did any other job that Hook thought would make her stay "productive". At the end of the day, Hook would have her sing to the whole crew before they all retired for the night. Leah wasn't unhappy, but she wasn't happy either. She was glad she was away from the place that she was forced to call home, but the ship stank of deception, as did its Captain. After a week on the ship, Leah started to become more and more curious of the motives Hook had on bringing her to Neverland. One night, as she walked around the ship with him, she voiced her curiousness to him, but all he answered was a single word.
"Atmosphere." He grinned at her, raised her hand to his lips, bid her good night and left her standing at the bow of the ship. Ridiculous. She thought to herself. She rested her elbows on the railing and placed her chin in her palm. Behind her, there was the distinct sound of the watchman snoring at his post. Leah stared out at the open sea, watching the rippling reflection of the moon on the water. She sighed and closed her eyes, after dark the ship became boring. Either the men were asleep or getting drunk below deck. They were so predictable. She was about to leave to her quarters when she saw something move out of the corner of her eye. On a hunch, she leaned over the wooden rail and looked out across the side of the ship. But she saw nothing. Shrugging, she began to turn when from below the railing Peter shot up before her. Startled, Leah stumbled back onto the deck where she landed on the palm of her hands, receiving many a scrap and splinter on the old wood. She let out a small whimper as she pushed herself off the floorboards. She examined her hands in distaste and inwardly groaned for she knew what she would have to do to mend them. Intently staring at her hands, she had forgotten about Peter and was taken aback when one of his hands cupped hers; she stared up at him as he looked over her scarred palms.
"Well, sorry about that, but now worries. This is easily taken care of." Peter pulled Leah by the railing where he sat on top of it. He took one of her hands firmly in his, and with his other hand, removed the small blade from his boot. He flipped the blade over to the blunt side and brought it in over Leah's palm at an angle and began gently scrapping out the splinters. Peter felt her flinch slightly when the blade ran over the cuts on her hand, but other than that her facial features remained impassive. He finished both of her palms quickly and in silence. When he was done, he replaced his blade and allowed Leah her hands back. "See, that wasn't so bad." Peter hopped off the railing only to then realize that he himself had gained a few splinters as well.
"Thank you." Leah said, carefully cradling her hands to her chest. She stared up at him and Peter grinned widely. He opened his mouth to saw something when from behind Leah a drunken pirate fell out of the doorway of the side cabin, his grimy form illuminated by the light from inside.
"Filthy bastard," He slurred, raising his arm in a rude gesture towards the man who appeared in the doorway. The pirate stood, teetering from side to side and jabbed his finger into the person's chest. "You don't deserve to be Cap'n, your plans never work, you filthy," The man wobbled to the side and spit on the Captain's boot. "You filthy," Standing in the doorway, Hook grew impatient with the pirate and kicked him in the stomach, who stumbled over the railing and fell into the water below with a loud splash. Hook spat after the man and returned inside, cackling madly. Leah stood staring dumbstruck at the railing where the pirate had flipped to drown in a drunken haze. She suddenly snapped back to reality and turned sharply to face Peter, only then to realize he was gone. She sighed and made her way into the ship.
Above the water next to the ship, Peter struggled to hold the drunken pirate above the water line, while at the same time keeping him conscious. The pirate's glazed eyes searched over Peter with an unrecognizing look and began to nod off again. Peter shook him and the man groaned.
"What do you want?" He asked groggily, his sour breath puffing across Peter's nose, who contorted his face into a look of disgust.
"What does the dear old Captain have in store for me, you ugly pirate?" Peter asked. The pirate looked at him with hazy eyes.
"Who are you?" Peter sighed and shook his head.
"What does the Captain have in store for Peter Pan?" At the mention of Peter's name, the pirate let out a foul laugh and gripped Peter's wrists and pulled himself closer to Peter's face and grinned and holy, yellow toothed grin.
"The Cap'n has a twisted mind lad. Once the Cap'n through with Pan the next time, there won't be nothin' left of 'im." The pirate laughed again, then his hand slackened and he slumped back into the water.
"Hey," Peter shook him harder but the pirate's head just rolled on his chest in limp unconsciousness. Peter scoffed and dropped the man in the water, then took off into the air, heading for hangman's tree.
When Peter reached his destination, he walked inside through on of the bottom entrances and almost tripped over one of the Twins. Squinting in the dark, he saw that all the lost boys were lying in odd places as if they were waiting for him to return. He shrugged it off and carefully stepped over all of them and walked into his room. In the doorway he stopped and stared. His room was in horrible disarray. Everything was flipped over onto their side, the feathers from his bed were strewn all around the room, and when he lit one of the lanterns, he noticed scuff marks on the floor. His anger growing, Peter turned back to the Lost Boys.
"What happened in here?" He bellowed. The Lost Boys awakened suddenly, Cubby fell from his perch on the branch above the doorway and landing on Nibs, who elbowed him in the stomach. Soon all the boys were awake and bickering with each other. Peter's patience had ended and his anger grew. "QUIET!"
The boys stopped in mid track and sentence and all turned towards Peter.
"What happened to my room?" His asked again, his voice more calm but still agitated.
"We don't know," Slightly said hesitantly. "It was like that when we got back. But Peter, Tink's gone! We can't find her anywhere!"
"What?" Peter's mood shifted from agitation to worrisome in a fraction of a second. "What to you mean she's gone?"
"We haven't seen in her in a week!" Cubby said.
"We even went to see the other fairies," One of the twins started.
"And they said they don't know where she is either." The other finished. Peter pursed his lips in tight concentration, staring at all the faces of the Lost Boys standing before him. Suddenly it dawned on him.
"Hook." He bit out the single word through gritted teeth. "This was his plan." The Lost Boys stared curiously at their leader. "C'mon boys! We're going to the Jolly Rodger!" The boys all nodded and grabbed their weapons and arrows, then marched out the door and through the terrain of Neverland.
The small army of Lost Boys led by Peter, reached the Jolly Rodger, right at dawn. Peter flew over the deck, angrily staring at the pirates on deck.
"Hook!" Peter yelled, waking some of the pirated on deck. "Hook! You old codfish! Get out here!" He continued to yell until an aging fat pirate walked out from the main cabin.
"Ah, it is you Peter Pan," Mr. Smee said greetingly. "I shall fetch the Cap'n for you." Smee turned on his heal and walked back into the cabin. In the small corridor, he met up with Hook who seemed to be in a rather chipper mood. "He's here Cap'n."
"Ah yes. I heard his squawking all the way from the dungeon deck." Hook secured his hook and handed Smee a large bag, who took it with a nod. "Plan B Mr. Smee, don't miss."
"Right Cap'n." The plump man nodded.
"Is everything ready Mr. Smee? Are all the men in place?"
"Yes Cap'n"
"Good." They made their way down the corridor and emerged into the open air, where they spotted Peter planted a few feet away, dagger gripped tightly in his hand, ready to pounce. When Peter spotted them he snarled. "What a pleasant surprise Pan. What may I do for you?" Hook asked innocently.
"Don't play games Hook." Peter spat. "Where is she?"
"Where is who?" Hook asked, cocking his head to the side. "Do you know who he's talking about Smee?" Smee shrugged and turned to walk up the stair to the main deck. Peter paid no heed to him.
"You know who I'm talking about you old codfish!" Peter's patience was growing thin. Hook took a few steps forward towards the boy.
"I'm sorry, but I don't. Might you want to clarify it a bit?" Hook was teasing him. But in his angered state, all Peter's sensibility drained from him and he lunged at Hook, grabbing his collar with one hand and positioning his dagger at Hook's neck. Hook made no attempt to move or draw his sword, which angered Peter more. "Are you going to kill me Pan?"
"Where is Tinkerbell?" Peter snarled, pushing the dagger deeper into Hook's neck.
"Pardon? Have you lost her? Oh, how dreadful." Hook said in mock caring. "Now please, lower that knife and talk this rationally." Hook brought his hook over Peter's dagger and slowly lowered it from his neck, but Peter resisted.
"I know you have her! Give her back." Hook pushed harder on the dagger and Peter slowly relented, but kept the dagger poised to strike.
"Now you see, that's quite impossible." Peter glared at him.
"Why?"
"Because she's not, with us." For a moment Hook's voice turned cold and for that moment all Peter heard was the rustling of the sails above them. Peter stared at Hook, who grinned wickedly back. Before Peter could form coherent words, behind him a pirate shouted to Hook.
"Look wha' I found on shore Cap'n!" Peter turned to see the youngest of the Lost Boys, Tootles, struggling in the arms of his captor. Then in the moment Peter had his back turned, it happened in a blink of an eye. He watched as Tootle's eyes widened and he turned just in time to dodge Hook's swing at him. But before he could react again, he felt something hit him in the neck. Reaching down, Peter pulled out a small dart lodged in the crook of his neck. As he stared at it, his vision became fuzzy and he grew increasingly dizzy, dropping the dart and the dagger in his hand, Peter stumbled back hitting the mast and sliding down it into the floor. With blurred vision, he sat Hook pick up the dart and squat before him, grabbing his sweat-slicked hair, pulling it back roughly.
"Clever little invention these Indians have, huh Pan?" Hook cackled madly as he let go of Peter's hair. With the support gone Peter slide all the way to the ground Hook's laugh of triumph echoing in his ears before the world went dark.
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Phew! A long chapter! Well the plot is starting to take shape, but we haven't even hit the thick of it yet. We thank everyone fore reviewing and being so patient with us. Hopefully we will have the next chapter out soon because it is the first chapter we wrote and based the story on! Weeeeee! Next chapter we will begin to see how twisted Hook really is and maybe the romance part of the story will start to grow…Hmmm..
-Star and Glade
1-11-03