Thanks to all those who reviewed, keep it going guys. Fantastic to know your reading.
Dorryen, who knows. One of the reasons I love Peter Pan fan fic is that you can literally do anything with it-and I wouldn't count on Peter/Wendy not managing to get back together by the end.
The pirate ship was not a pleasant place at the best of times, but even less so when you're a captive aboard it. It stinks, to put it frankly, of rotting timber and curdling blood while the damp infests every plank and timber making you permanently wet.
This is particularly true of the bilges, were the Lost Boys where being kept at Hooks pleasure. It had been four days now since Wendy and Peter had disappeared and, aside from a few offers of food, Hook had steadily ignored them. He had kept them below decks, tied to one another to prevent any chance of escape and simply left them there to rot, or so it seemed.
In truth Hook was confused and dazed. His ultimate victory over Pan seemed to be complete and yet Neverland still wouldn't let him move his damned ship. More than that the incident in which Wendy had escaped had left him in a state of perpetual worry and fear, raw madness only held back by a wall of manners and form.
He had taken to stalking the ship, lashing out at anyone foolish enough to get in his way. Within the pirate ranks talk of mutiny spread, dissatisfaction with the mad captain slowly growing in the ranks. None of them yet dared to confront Hook, however, there fear of him still outweighing their worries.
It was in this situation that the spirit of Pan slowly infected John, creeping into his bones like dry rot. It spread through his body like a cancer, unnoticed but not unfought. He slowly succumbed to it, lying in the squalor that the bilges had become. It worked slowly, unnoticeable except to those where looking closely at him. His ears lengthened while his skin began to take on a light golden texture as he began to produce his own fairy dust. In the darkness of the ship he glowed gently.
He slowly felt the ropes around his wrists become looser, till he could slip his hands from their bonds and move freely around the deck. There were twelve of them trapped down there and, once he had found his hat, he began to free them one by one undoing their bonds and helping them acclimatise to the darkness. They waited for the next pirate to come down to feed them, ready to pounce like a tiger on its prey.
The duty of feeding the prisoners was not a popular one with the pirates and they delayed doing it for a long period while they waited for their master to give orders. Finally they nominated one of their number to find some hard tack and venture down below the decks, to where the ghastly smell emanated.
It was Long Armed Tim who drew the short straw this time and it was he who was surprised by a dozen stinking boys when he undid the door to the bilges. They stole his sword and then force him at swordpoint to enter the bilges himself, tying him up with the remains of the rope. He would remain there for many days, until finally some pirate who had escaped Hooks wrath would find his starving corpse.
As for the boys they ventured up the decks, overwhelming anyone unfortunate enough too get in there way and stealing whatever weapons they could. The stinking horde finally erupted onto the main deck, led by John himself, just as a trembling Smee began to knock on Hooks door with a list of demands. He was backed by four of the other more senior pirates who were knocked to the floor by the sudden eruption behind them.
John led his recruits high above the ship and they tossed off their stinking clothes to the ship's deck before heading back to the hideout on Neverland itself. John, however, stayed and hovered above the mainmast waiting for Hook to emerge. He leant his head back and crowed loudly, the sound echoing and reverberating through the bones of Neverland.
Hook rushed from his cabin at that sound, knocking a hapless Smee back and he looked upwards. "Pan!" He yelled, drawing his sword. "Pan!"
"Aye, codfish," John replied, "John Pan at your service." He bowed in jest.
Hook smile widened and the clouds that had surrounded his mind slowly vanished. So this was how Neverland worked! He would always have an enemy, always have someone to hate and love in equal measure. He glanced towards the cannon that had lain unused for far too long. "Prepare to fire!" He ordered, and watched as his men busied themselves about his orders.
John waited for a few shots to be fired before leaving with one last crow, back to his hideout on Neverland. He would need a new one of course, but he knew that it was already waiting for him, he had only imagine it and it was there. He grinned at the thought of the new adventures he would have, but first a far more urgent duty must be taken care of; in the skies above Neverland the angels had gathered. He flew high, ready to direct them to their final point of call.
Neverland needs a king and it had found one. As John Pan flew higher, memories of his past life already filtering from his mind to be replaced by new knowledge, it began to awake, the sun rising almost as quickly as his flight. Time would pass and he would reign over Neverland, having untold adventures that would be forgotten almost as quickly as they had been thought of. Yet he would never slacken in his commitment to his other, untold, duties, nor let anyone truly know what it was to be Pan. The king was dead. Long live the king.
There you go; another short chapter but very important I feel. The fic will get substancally darker from now on and as it appears to be getting away fom me a bit in terms of plot (a few issues come up that I didn't expect in the next chapter) then I feel that it may be longer than the planned 16 chapters. I hope that won't disappoint anyone.
Love,
BrooklynRed x
