a/n: Hi! New chapter for everyone, enjoy!
At noon, I'd left the clearing to head to the Indian camp while Wendy left for Peter, of course, that was no surprise to me. She'd been half decent when I'd trained her, not as annoying as I had originally thought that she would be, hopefully I just wouldn't have to train her again. When I arrived at the entrance of the camp, Nibs stood by a fence post, hands crossed over his chest, hair pushed back, and he was bouncing his leg anxiously. As soon as he saw me, he blew a huge sigh of relief and waited for me to approach his eager figure.
"So," I smiled at the boy, "Where's this girl at?"
"She's waiting for me with Tiger Lily in the camp and-"
"Tiger Lily's there?" My face lit up at the sound of my Indian friend. "Thank god, I need a little time with a girl friend. Wendy just doesn't do me any justice."
Nibs gave me a laugh and we entered the camp, strolling past braves and familiar faces all the way to the complete opposite side from the entrance. A tent was painted with red and blue streaks in front of us, making it blatantly obvious that the princess lived in there. But the two of them stood in front of the entrance in conversation. I took in Naira, judging her, but not in the negative way that one would assume.
She was gorgeous, but then again, all of the Indian girls were even if she did not look very native to me. She had short brown hair, a clean creamy complexion with just a hint of rosiness to her cheeks, chestnut brown eyes surrounded by long eyelashes, and two red war streaks painted on each cheek bone. As soon as she noticed Nibs and I arriving, she smiled gently at us, and I faintly wondered why I'd never met her before.
"Nibs," She greeted kindly in cleaner English voice than Tiger Lily's thick accent, "I assume that you're Birdie. Very unique name you have."
"Yes, that's me, and thank you. Naira's quite different and unique as well," I complimented her, because it truly was. "Tiger Lily." I gave her a grin.
She grinned at me as well, "Birdie, I haven't seen you in a while. Where've you been hiding, friend?"
"Everywhere away from my annoying Lost Boys," I nudged Nibs with a smirk.
He pushed me back with a snort, "Yeah right- more like away from Wendy."
"Wendy?" Naira asked with a questionable look.
"Ah," said Tiger Lily. "I've heard some things about her. A Worldling, she is?"
"Yes," I rolled my eyes. "She's quite aggravating, she's got Peter wrapped around her little, disgusting-"
"I see what this must be about." Lily smirked, and I could've sworn I've heard that once already before.
Naira whispered something to Nibs, and they turned to walk in the other direction away from us. I didn't mind though, surely the boy could figure out the odd feelings all on his own. True emotions don't need any help finding themselves from others, that's why we can't read minds.
Lily took my hand suddenly, walking the complete opposite way from where the other two had strolled off, "Finally," the princess sighed. "That girl has become a thorn in my side."
"What's she done?" I wondered aloud as we walked back through the entrance of the camp.
"She's continuously rambling nonsense to me about the strangest things." She shook her head, stepping over a log and into the tree line with me.
"Like?"
"Like how she sees things, visions of some sort when she's asleep, and that she also seems to find my braves quite handsome. Just wait until she meets Peter."
I scoffed, my blue eyes flickering darker for just a moment, "Like we need someone else with a relentless crush on him, especially if it boosts his ego even higher than it already is. That would be terrible for everyone."
Lily laughed, "Very true."
We walked skillfully through the trees, unlike Wendy had done with me earlier this morning, over broken twigs and leaves upon the ground in the forest. Like I'd said a while ago, Lily was more like me than anyone else on this island, and I appreciated her for that. It took me a second to realize that we were headed for the hot springs, and I sighed with deep relief.
"So," Lily began curiously. "Who's this Wendy lady- not the annoying one that you described. There must be more to her than what you believe her to be."
A frown lit up my features at the thought of her, "Everyone thinks that she's so bloody great just because she tells stories and she's pretty. Worldling's, always visiting in their dreams but never staying over night, it seems that Peter's made an exception for her. I personally do not like her at all. She's bad news if you ask me."
"Why?" Lily asked. "Because she steals Peter's attention away?"
"Exactly."
"I'll take your word for it, Birdie," said Tiger Lily, "Unless I find out otherwise. But when would you ever lead me wrong?"
"Absolutely never."
We entered into the clearing finally, and I was extremely happy to see the hot springs for bathing just ahead of us. The water was surround by large rocks that were scattered around the outer edge of the spring, and the trees beside them seemed to give the pool of water a cover of canopy leaves from above. Lily reached into her leather bag and pulled out two bottles filled with a lavender colored liquid inside.
"Shampoo and conditioner; I knew you'd want a bath." She told me, leading me over to the spring, "Why else would you come at noon?"
"Because," I replied, stepping behind a rock and I began to undress. "Nibs told me that he'd met Naira and that he felt 'fuzzy' when he saw her. Damn that boy, always dragging me places just because he's adorable."
"Do you feel fuzzy when you see Nibs?"
My eyes shot up to her, and I noticed the humorous gaze in her chestnut ones. I threw my dirty leggings at her and hopped into the spring, dunking under the water to wet my hair. When I arose again, I squirted the liquid from the shampoo bottle into my hand, and the sweet smell of wild flowers drifted into my nose.
"I could never feel fuzzy when I see that boy," I rubbed the shampoo through my hair, staring at Lily who stood behind the boulder laughing. "He doesn't even know what these 'fuzzy feelings' are."
"He won't feel them for long with that girl."
"How'd she get here anyway?" I asked, dunking under again to rinse my hair out.
Lily sighed, staring off into the distance in thought, "She told me that she washed ashore, had no clue where she was, and that my braves brought her to camp. I'm not quite sure about that though, my braves don't just bring anyone into camp like so."
I squirted the conditioner into my hair, "What if she works for Hook? I haven't seen that damned bastard in a while, who knows what he's planning."
Lily began to brush my dirty clothes off in an attempt to clean them, but it seamed that the stains of grass were permanently a part of my hunter green flannel. "I considered that," She replied. "But she's very weak to be a pirate."
I dunked under to rinse my hair out again, relishing the feeling of the clean water sinking into my pours. It wasn't very often that I got time away from the Home Tree to bathe, mostly because the boys didn't really believe in baths every day. Their excuse was that they'd just get dirty again within the next few hours, so I preferred to let them have their way. Fighting with them to get them into a pool to bathe was not very fun.
"Birdie?" Lily questioned as I waded around lazily in the spring.
"Yes?"
"Why is it that you don't like when Wendy is with Peter?"
My blank expression faltered at her sudden change of subject, but I replied easily, "It just bothers me."
"Do you 'feel fuzzy' when you see Peter?" She smirked knowingly.
I stopped wading around with a small sigh; of course she'd realize something. She always seemed to know things like that, nothing ever slipped by her. "Unfortunately," I spoke. "I do."
"That's not unfortunate," Lily replied, leaning against the rock with a grin. "I approve."
"Except he would never return such feelings for me."
But it was true, how would he ever when he had Wendy? Was I really making it so obvious that I liked the boy? Or was everyone just learning to figure me out? I squeezed the excess water from my wavy cascade of hair out, and swam over to lean on the ledge of the hot spring.
"Do not say that, how would you even know? You can't assume such things. What does this Wendy girl have that you don't?"
"Everything." Was my reply, only because deep down I truly believed it, and the sudden familiarity of sadness struck at my heart.
"Birdie," Lily shook her head and knelt down to hand my clothes over to me. "Sometimes you're too hard on yourself."
"Well," I shrugged and pulled myself up onto the smooth grass. "If I were too easy on myself than I wouldn't be Birdie, would I?"
Lily smiled at me, "Clever and very true."
After some time of mindless chatting with my friend and sitting in the heat of the sun, I figured that I was finally dry enough. Being around Lily was easy; she always knew how to keep me interested and active in conversations if she felt that I was shutting down. Somehow my mood changes managed to do strange things like that to me, but she understood a lot more than I did about it. I never questioned her, for who would question someone such as Tiger Lily?
I eventually got dressed, pulling on my leggings, hunter green flannel, and torn up pair of combat boots. They were as clean as they'd been in quite some time but the stains were still very noticeable. As I wrapped the belt that held my small dagger around my waste and strapped my bow and satchel of arrows to my back, Lily brushed her fingers through her jet black her in an attempt to smooth it out. But it was already smooth; it looked impeccably clean and soft. I braided my hair quickly to the side and we decided to make our way back to camp.
When we arrived back at the camp after a short trek through the dense forest, we noticed that Naira and Nibs were throwing rocks into a ring of leaves, a small game that the Indians had created long ago. Lily and I walked over to them, only a little hesitant because the princess didn't want to be around Naira more than what was absolutely necessary. It almost reminded me of Wendy and I's situation.
"Hey, Birdie!" Nibs said as he threw a rock into the ring successfully.
"Nibs, Naira," I greeted them, folding my arms over my chest. "It's nearly sunset, we've got to go back to Home Tree."
Nibs groaned and turned to face me, a pile of rocks held within his hands, "I don't want to go back right now, can't we stay just a little longer?"
"No, you blockhead, we've got to go now and you know that. It's a long trek home, it'll already be dark before we get back to base and I really don't want to travel through the forest at night, alright?"
"Fine," He replied with a frown, "Give me a second."
Nibs walked over to Naira, most likely explaining to her that we had to go, and gave her a soft hug. My stomach dropped at the sight and I silently wished that I could experience such a tender hug like that, but no one in Neverland ever seemed to share the same feelings with me. Especially Peter. Lily also gave me a quick hug though, explaining that 'we had to come to the party in two days' that their tribe was hosting. Of course, Nibs and I agreed before we headed off back into the tree line.
We walked in comfortable silence for the majority of the time; we were both exhausted from spending so much time with the Indians. Somehow they always managed to do that to you.
"What happened with Naira? Do you still like her?" I questioned, breaking the comfortable silence as we turned down the last stretch of the trail towards Home Tree.
"I think so," Nibs replied in an unsure tone. "But she's real strange, always talking about weird things."
"Like what?"
"Like how she almost drowned one time from the mermaids when she'd washed ashore and saw me while she was unconscious, like she dreamed of me or something. But I'd never met her before today, so how would that even be possible? It's real weird, Birdie, I don't know what to think."
"Who says something like that?" I laughed loudly at the thought of it, because surely that could be awkward.
"Her!" He exclaimed. "I can't tell if I still like her, what do I do?"
It took me a moment to think of a suitable response to his question, considering that somehow the answer could apply to my situation as well.
"Well," I said as Home Tree came into view. "Don't think too much about it, Nibs, you'd know in your gut if you really liked her. Things like that don't give you mixed signals, you know? You can just kind of tell if they're real, and you'll now when you feel it."
He stayed silent after that, not speaking a word in response and I knew that he was considering what I'd said. But it was true, you don't mistake feelings like that, for they are unmistakable when it really came down to the extent of infatuation or love. I didn't even know what they were like until it had hit me like a train one day, knocking the wind from my lungs unexpectedly. All Peter had done was charm me just like he did with everyone else, but it had a particularly strange affect on me. Those feelings aren't the ones that you can just 'get rid of' though, that's not how it works. I'm not even sure if I would do that if I could.
We entered Home Tree as the moon approached the middle of the sky as a signal of midnight. It was quiet at first, and I then noticed that everyone was already asleep. The candles that had once alit the room were blown out, and the soft snores of Cubby could be heard echoing around the home. Nibs and I got into our hammocks comfortably, winded from the day with Naira and Tiger Lily. We said small 'goodnights' to each other before we could both drift off into sleep, something that gave me a little escape from the reality at hand for a while.