Ch.2 A Fledgling's First Flight
Moira woke to the tinkling of bells filling the air and a small white light flooding the room. She had heard enough of her parent's stories to know who it was, "T-Tinkerbell?!" she exclaimed in a whisper hoarse from sleep. Slowly the unintelligible tinkling formed words.
"Stupid girl goes and drags him off and then what happens? Well now the little idiot can't see or hear me. Well, on second thought he's not so little anymore, but still! Honestly, you'd think he'd remember the pixie that saved his life a few dozen times now wouldn't you?" by this time Moira had regained her powers of speech.
"Excuse me, Tinkerbell?" Tink gave a start then whirled around to face the being who'd frightened her. Finding only a scrawny girl in a thin white shift she relaxed and snapped
"What do you want? Can't you see that I'm busy trying to get braindead over here to remember me?" at this Moira felt a prickling of pity for the fairy,
"It won't work. He doesn't want to remember. I don't think he even wants to believe in magic anymore, let alone remember his experiences with it." Just the thought of this made Moira want to cry again. She remembered the early days of her childhood. The days when her father told of great battles between himself and various pirates and beasts. Battles always fought for the sake of her mother, Wendy. The days when her mother would sit by the fire knitting, desperately trying to hide her blush in the glow of the embers, her blue eyes shining with remembrances. The days when her parents made the stories come to life for her, the days before Jane left.
"And who might you be Missy? I haven't got time to babysit, there's trouble on Neverland."
"I'm his daughter." Moira explained simply, adding in her thoughts and the only person in this house with some spark of imagination left.
"Impossible!" Tinkerbell scoffed throwing back her miniscule head in laughter. "Peter doesn't have a daughter. He only left four years ago."
"YES HE DOES!" Moira hissed anger overwhelming her, "He has two actually, well had two at any rate. And it's been a lot more than four years ago in case you hadn't noticed." Tink looked Moira over thoughtfully.
"Come to think of it you do look a bit like Pete. Same ruddy hair, same puckish nose, your eyes have been tainted by your mother, but his temper hasn't been calmed in you at all! That much I can see." This evaluation only served to make Moira angrier than she already was and she was just about to tell this little imp just who was in charge when Tink said, "Shut your mouth girl, you look like a gasping fish. Well if I can't have Peter you'll have to do. You do know how to fly now don't you?" Too confused to do more than shake her head Moira gave Tink an inquisitive look. While the fairy in question sped around Moira's head sprinkling what appeared to be gold glitter all over her. All the while muttering things like " The stuff I have to put up with around humans." Or "Doesn't even know how to fly."
Now, you never told me your name child."
"Moira, but I couldn't exactly tell you when you were-"
"Just the name will suffice thank you." Said Tink cutting her off sharply, "Now, Moira, it's very simple really, you just step off of the window ledge and let the wind catch you." Moira rolled her eyes and did as she was told. She fell like a rock in water for about ten feet before the air caught her and lifted her up to the stars. As she had fallen she had just barely contained a scream of pure terror. Because flying was something that she thought she knew, having heard both her mother and father describe the sensation countless times. Neither of them ever mentioned falling like a duck on shooting day. Moira thought sulkily. Tink merely muttered something about inexperienced flyers and then huffed away. Before she really knew what was happening Moira was on her way to a mythical Island guided by a magical fairy she had just met. She had always made fun of her mother for leaving in her night clothes, but now she understood where she was coming from.
"Can…we…please…stop soon?" gasped Moira flapping her arms in a vain attempt at keeping herself aloft.
"No we can't. You can rest when we get to Neverland. Don't you have any stamina girl?" since learning Moira's name she had only used it once, preferring to call her by the generic, girl or child.
"Tink,.. we don't stop soon I swear I'm going to fall out of the sky." With a long drawn out sigh that would have made Wendy proud she said,
"Fine, there's a church up ahead a few miles, we can stop there. Will that be enough to satisfy your whining?" Too tired to fight back Moira merely nodded her head and squared her shoulders for another few miles of grueling flight. They had been flying for hours, Moira never knew quite how many, and the sun was just beginning to dye the sky a pleasant, peachy, pink. Up ahead she saw the outline of a steeple that looked as though it had been painted in India ink. It wasn't much, just a simple square building with a steeple and bell tower. But at that moment Moira would have sworn it looked nicer than Buckingham Palace. She gratefully plummeted downward, no longer caring a about grace and crashed into the gray, stone bell tower. Where she proceeded to pant and wheeze in such a way that she would have been turned away at the door to St. Abigail's even if she had wanted to attend. As she struggled to regain her breath, Tinkerbell floated down next to Moira's head where she found a comfortable out jutting stone. "You have ten minutes, no more. Make the most of it." Tinkerbell said this without any pity. Normally she would have been kinder to a new flyer, but she was determined to save Neverland and Neverland only had so much time left.
"What exactly is wrong with Neverland?" Moira asked having regained enough breath control to speak. Tink looked her in the eye her own betraying her hopeless despair.
"Hook"