THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to the 4 wonderful, lovely, fantastic reviewers, and to those of you who added this story to their alerts and favorites. It means SO much to me! And I am so sorry that this update is almost three months late, but, like I said, I have a pretty bust life. But my semester is over now, so I should be able to update more regularly now! At least till September, anyways... And as long as people want to read it. So, if you like the story, review! That is the only way I know that this is worth spending time on.

DISCLAIMER I do not own Peter Pan, or the original characters... those are J.M. Barrie's work of fiction; but this story, and Mariah, are mine.

Before the word "okay" had barely left my mouth, Peter had swept me up in his arms and began flying.

Of all the thoughts jumbling around in my head, the first one the made its way onto my shaking lips was, "Second star to the right?"

Peter laughed a bit and said, "Kind of. I'm not going to go into the relative placement of stars according to one's placement on earth, but, basically, it's second to the right in London. Here, it's just a sort of bright star. Makes it no more difficult to find, though. I've been making this flight for over a century, I could find my way to Neverland from any place in the galaxy."

I nodded, and a second thought bubbled out. "Did Tinkerbell not come with you tonight?"

Peter chuckled. "Ah, no. This was sort of an unauthorized trip. I've actually already been to Earth once this year, I was supposed to wait another 4 months before I could go back, but this morning I looked into the Oracle Well and saw you so clearly and I suddenly knew exactly where to find you- I couldn't wait."

"I- I mean the flying bit," I stammered back.

"Oh, this. Yes, well… You do need fairy dust to fly, but I brought some along for you. Honestly, I have learned that it is easier to teach people to fly this way. Because now you are used to the idea of being in air and I can just…" he opened his arms and I drifted away from him, but to my surprise I remained suspended in the air and I was matching his speed. He grabbed my hand and turned me over, so we were both facing the right way, and led me on.

From the perspective of an almost-twenty year old who had gone to university, or preschool for that matter, the trip to Neverland is impossible. It is illogical, physically incomprehensible, and defies everything we claim to know about the universe. I never felt at a loss for oxygen, or an extreme temperature change, or any sort of lightheadedness. It seems to me that the trip is less of a physical one, but a metaphysical one. I mean, the journey is initiated by flying, which is a feat yet to be mastered by man without the aid of machine or device, and is concluded on a floating island in the universe which is surrounded by an ocean that had no bottom and rests on no land, but is permanently suspended in space.

All these thoughts and many more, were simmering in the depths of my mind as we approached Neverland, but at the forefront of my thinking was something more like this: "Wow!"

Neverland was remarkably like I expected it to be, but so much more. As we flew, just inches over the water, I could look down and see schools of thousands of brightly colored fish. At times I could even see a larger body darting- a mermaid. The island itself was a massive piece of land which was a series of beaches and harbors on the side we were approaching and a rocky cliff full of caves and inlets on the other side. The island also appeared to be a mountain, sloping gently up at first but turning into a steep, jagged, peak. Only the topmost part of the mountain was not covered in forest. As we drew closer I realized that the top of the mountain was actually a volcano, and I wondered if it was dormant. Peter brought us towards a beautiful crescent-shaped lagoon with a sandy beach around it. As we flew over it he whistled to some figures below- Lost Boys, going fishing! When they heard the whistle and saw Pater they dropped their spears, hooks, and nets, and ran into the forest.

We soared over the green canopy of the jungle, and after about a minute, Peter suddenly pulled me down. We swooped down, breaking through the leaves, and came out in the middle of a ring of trees, all surrounding one bigger tree. The tree in the middle was much larger around than the others, and was knotted and gnarled, with holes and gaps in the trunk. Peter set me down on the floor of the jungle and I took in my surroundings. The large tree was surrounded by a perfect circle of smaller trees (though, even these "smaller" trees were some of the biggest trees I can imagine) and beyond those were even more trees. Up in the branches above was the most beautiful and complex system of tree houses I had ever seen. From out of these tree houses popped the heads of Lost Boys, and even more Lost Boys surrounded my from out of the surrounding forest. Somehow, I had always thought there were only 15 or maybe 20 lost boys, but there were almost 40, maybe even more, boys around me now. They were of ages ranging from 4 to 15, and they were all dressed in leaves, furs, and rags. Their faces and any exposed skin were painted vibrant colors in the most intricate patterns- and many of them had tattoos. Every single one of them, though, had the double sun tattoo I had noticed first on Peter, on the left side of their chest. Even the littlest guy- who couldn't be a day over 4, and who had the most adorable, huge, brown eyes I had ever seen- had it.

When I looked into the distance, I noticed that there was a perimeter around the tree house complex made out of tightly woven vines, grown together braches… it seemed to me that it was almost like a giant nest encompassing the Lost Boys hide-out.

Finally, I circled back around to face Peter, who had picked up little huge-brown-eyes and put him on his shoulders. He just smiled like a maniac at me and said, "Welcome to Neverland, these are the Lost Boys."

I couldn't do anything but laugh. I could barely believe my eyes! I was in the middle of my favorite book of all time. It was everything like I expected, and nothing at all like I expected, all at the same time. Dozens of Lost Boys, all with these tattoos, living in a nested-in tree house complex… It was all so bizarre. Finally I gathered myself together enough to say, "I'm Mariah."

"You're the girl from the drawings!" One boy, probably 9 or 10, yelled out.

"I- What? Excuse me? What drawings…?" I was now rather confused. I had been expecting him to say the girl from the well, but drawings? I looked at Peter for an explanation, but he looked embarrassed. Little huge-brown-eyes tugged on Peter's ear and whispered something to him. Peter's mouth curled into a sly smile and whispered something back to the little boy, and then truned out to the rest of the boys, who were murmuring among themselves now. "Gents!" Peter exclaimed, and all the boys quieted and focused on him, "I believe we need to introduce Mariah to some people!" The group let out a whoop and surged towards me.

I am not entirely sure how I was moving. It was clear to me that I was going over the very tall nest-wall, and then through the trees, at a remarkably fast pace, but I don't recall actually moving myself. I can only assume there was some sort of combination of being carried by this mass of children and flying through the forest, because I never put a foot down. But before I knew it, we came out of the forest and into a town.

This town looked to me like an old colonial port town, like the ones I had visited on my trip to the Caribbean back in high school. Stone walls, cobblestone paths, and every one walking around looked like they had come straight from the 1600's.

"What is this place?" I asked my group of little escorts- and Peter. All together they replied, "The Pirate town!"

"Pirates?" I practically yelled.

Peter looked confused. "Yeah, pirates. Don't you know there are pirates? You said you read the book…"

"Yeah, yeah, I know there are pirates, but don't you all hate each other? I mean you spend all day shooting canons at each other and challenging each other to duels."

Peter laughed. "No, not really. An invention of Mister Barrie's, again. We are quite friendly with the pirates. Come on, you need to meet Hook." With that we began moving again, and again with no effort on my part. All I could think was, "MEET Captain Hook? Where's the fun in that?"