First Snow

We were pulled out of the underground house, one by one, through one of the tree entrances. The boys were struggling desperately to get out of the grasps of these men, but their efforts were useless. Each of their wrists were closed in iron rings too, and all their kicking and squirming got them nowhere. Outside, the forest had undergone a complete transformation; a thin layer of snow blanketed the ground and the light from the full moon bounced around in icicles now hanging from the trees. Not long before this looked like a bear autumn forest and even though I noticed the sudden temperature drop outside, I didn't think the change would be this dramatic. It was so cold outside now that our breath was visible.

I looked up at the man who was holding me; he was dressed more elaborately than some of the others. A heavy green frock coat was buttoned closed around him and a red embroidered dragon snaked from the back of the coat, to up over his left shoulder. His hair was longer than mine, and was a lighter colour brown. He wore a piece of a flag as a bandana; I recognized the dragon on this, and on his coat; he was Welsh. When he looked down at me, and I guess got a good look at me in the light, he seemed a little surprised.

"Whoa! You're an older one!" He turned and called out to another man, "Oi, Isaac, think I should take this one too?"

The other man was dragging two boys at his sides, one of them was Spots, and the other one was Penn. As he walked over, he narrowed his eyes at me.

"Aye, take him to Jas. Better safe than sorry."

I felt a tug on my arms pull me again, "Sorry mate, just following orders. I think you'll be alright though, I doubt Jesper wants anything to do with you."

From behind us, another pirate laughed, "Don't tell him that! Jesper doesn't want anything to do with any of these little bastards. The only good Lost Boy is a dead one!" He hoisted Trinket up and over his shoulder and marched ahead of us. My guy followed, at first he was dragging me, but once I got my footing, I just walked next to him.

"Yeah, there's that too…" he said, responding to the earlier made comment, "But like I said mate, I don't think he wants any trouble with you."

"Who doesn't?"

"Jesper...King James..?"

I shrugged.

"No idea who I'm talkin' about, huh?"

I shook my head, "No..."

He sighed, "You'll see..."

There were twenty-four of these men all together, some of them were holding on to children while the rest must have stayed outside to keep watch. They were all dressed exactly the same; black pants, white long sleeved shirts and dark blue velvet doublets. They all wore white leather wolf masks with the area around the eyes blackened out and the men that weren't holding on to a child were armed with muskets.

All the children were forced to stand in a line, each of the men holding onto their rings to keep them in place. I was at the far end of this line. My eyes were darting around in the trees looking for Peter and Kat, or at least their footprints in the snow to where they had gone, but there was no trace of them.

It was so cold out that not only was I shivering, but so were the men. The only ones that didn't seem to mind the weather were the children, whether it was because they were too scared to notice, or they were just used to the weather, I couldn't say, but even with as little clothing they had on, they stood still as stone.

A small floating lantern peeked out from behind the trees and started towards us, right away all the men came to attention and froze in their places. I even felt my guy's grip on me tense as the lantern came closer. The bubble of light it gave off revealed lean but muscular man in a grey wool coat and a white bandana wrapped around the top of his head. Once this man started to come into view, I heard a soft chuckle right next to me and my guy shouted out, "Guess who's getting a raise!" A few of the other men laughed.

"Commodore Yale! Well done, sir, didn't think you had it in ya! I'm impressed," He shouted back.

"Quit the arse-kissin' Starkey. I succeeded where you failed. Blimey, their new entrance might as well of had a sign pointin' to it. At least I knew what trees to look for. When I say I know something, usually I'm telling the truth."

As this new man approached us, he raised an eyebrow, "Usually?"

"Usually... I know what I said, Starkey."

Starkey shook his head, "You're something else Nef... Regardless, I think King James will be pleased."

Commodore Yale whispered under his breath, "That's why Jesper put me in charge of this run."

"Did you find Kaitlin?" Starkey asked.

"Uh... no... She wasn't in there... However! We found this one with 'em." The commodore gave me a rough shake, "I'm thinkin' we hold on to him, that's what Isaac said."

'What did they want with Kat?' I thought.

Starkey directed his attention to me and leaned forward to get a closer look. He wasn't too much taller than me and when he was in front of me, he held up his lantern and squinted in the dim light,

"Here? Ya don't say. Eh, I would say hold on to 'im. I'm sure he knows something."

"Actually, dude, I just…"

"OI! SHUT IT YOU!" Starkey's voice boomed and echoed through the forest. "You weren't given permission to talk, boy."

This took me by surprise. I didn't expect him to shout at me like that. I shouted back, "Yo! Who the hell you think you're talkin' to!"

Before Starkey could say another word, Commodore Yale held his free hand up, "Let it go. Jas might need this one and he'll kill you if you kill him."

Starkey shot me a glare. The moment he turned his back I mumbled under my breath,

"Wow, that guy's a prick..."

I wasn't expecting a response from anyone, but sure enough, I heard a snicker from the commodore,

"Aye, he can be..."

Starkey walked down the rest of the line of children and silently took his frustration out on little Seven by giving him a swift kick in the side. There was a faint pop that was followed by the boy's scream. I tried to get a look at what happened and noticed that his left shoulder hung down low under his skin; it was dislocated. I gulped and looked away.

Starkey stopped at the end of the line and he shouted into the trees, "They're all here!"

There was a heavy thud, then a quiet shifting of leaves and snow accompanied by the soft jingle of sleigh bells. From the edge of the tree line a tall black shadow started to take shape in the lantern light. "All just waiting your approval, Sir."

Commodore Yale gave me a slight nudge, "That's King James." He whispered, "And if you wanna get out a' this alive, you do your best to bite that tongue a' yours. No more of them outbursts and back talks, got it?"

I nodded.

A chill went down my back as I saw the shadow begin to gracefully approach us. The man was draped in a long black cloak, its hood up, covering most of his face, and a large black horse in a white caparison walked beside him with its head lowered and four silver sleigh bells hanging from its reigns. As he got closer he lifted his head up and the lantern light reflected orange off of his blue, round lens glasses. A mask, shaped to look like the mouth of a snarling wolf covered the bottom half of his face and long, black, curly hair fell from the hood on either side and blew gently in the breeze. Tufts of smoke blew out of the nose holes of the mask with each breath.

He stopped and stood in front of us, no expression was readable on his face and I think that's what scared me the most. It was just a snarling set of fangs that started at us. The horse however, let everyone know how it felt; it shook its head, pawed at the snow and snorted when Starkey tried to take hold of its lead line.

"Don't touch him." King James hissed, his voice projected quite clearly behind the mask.

Starkey froze in place and dropped the line.

"He was fine until you had to touch him."

"I'm sorry sir, I didn't think..."

"Clearly," King James growled, cutting him off.

He raised his arm out from under the cloak and slowly pulled his glasses off his face, revealing his icy blue eyes. He held the glasses in front of Starkey,

"Here, but you're allowed to hold these." Starkey narrowed his eyes and snatched the glasses from King James' hand, ungracefully shoving them in one of his coat pockets.

King James pulled his hood away and shook out his hair, which reached down to his waist, then began to pull the mask away from his face and drew a deep breath as he lowered it and allowed it to hang freely around his neck. His face was very thin with wide cheek bones which gave him an almost skeletal appearance. His pointed goatee and silver, talon shaped jewelry he wore pierced through his lower lip exaggerated the sharpness of his jaw and made his face appear even thinner. His eyes calmly scanned the line of children. They were cold, steely blue eyes, and because of the lanterns, they gave off a reddish-orange glow from the inside, like a cat's eyes reflecting light. As he turned his head towards me I was able to see the other half of his face. A large black four-pointed star tattoo circled his left eye and quite literally took up the entire side of his face.

Snowflakes began to speckle his wavy black hair and cloak and he too, gave a shiver and pulled his cloak closed around him. He looked over at Commodore Yale,

"Is this all of them?" he asked. His voice had a hollowness to it.

"All the ones in the tree house, Sir." he responded. "There was no sign of Peter or Kaitlin anywhere though."

"Well then, who do we have here..."

King James glided in front of the line of children, walking slowly, getting a good look at each one. The children's faces contorted into expressions of pure hatred. They narrowed their eyes and wrinkled their noses in a sneer as he passed in front of them, his long cloak wiping away his footsteps in the snow. As he walked passed Spots, he gently ran his hand through the boy's snow speckled hair. Spots jerked away and screamed,

"Don't touch me!"

Everything stopped. The soldiers stopped. King James stopped. Even the wind stopped as this man looked down his nose at the little boy.

"I hate you!" Spots screamed again. His soldier gave a sharp tug on Spots' ring to keep him quiet, but children don't listen very well.

"Get away from me! I hate you!"

King James looked offended by the remark; he rested his hand against his chest and knelt down, placing himself at eye level with the boy.

"Now, now, why would you say such a thing? Hate's a strong word." His voice was much softer now; it was almost eerily calming.

Spots didn't respond right away. Instead he stared daggers at King James. Wearing only shorts and an open vest, not shivering once.

"Because you kill people..." He eventually mumbled. The anger rose again in his voice and he pulled forward, "You kill everyone! You killed Roarer, you killed Buzz, you killed Tech, you killed Nine, you killed Cody, you killed my big brother, you kill everyone! I hate you! I hope you die! I hope the Indians rip your guts out and light them on fire and you die! I hate you!"

My mouth fell open and I whispered back to Commodore Yale,

"That kid has quite the mouth, damn... I think he's only like, 5."

The commodore nodded, "Aye, quite the colourful vocabulary..." He was just as surprised as I was.

Spots closed his eyes and began to cry. King James raised his arms out from under his cloak. My eyes caught a gleam of silver as his right sleeve cuff rolled down; the sight of a wickedly curved hook made my breath stop. He wrapped his arms around Spots and pulled him into a hug. I was surprised to see him try to bury his face into King James' chest, giving in and allowing himself to be comforted by the soft white velvet of his coat he wore under his black cloak.

Quietly hushing him, King James lifted him away from his chest. He raised his hook up and touched Spots' face with it, and to my surprise he didn't flinch. It couldn't have been warmer than 10 degrees outside and a piece of metal touching anyone would have spurred some sort of reaction. But Spots just stood there, as if nothing was touching him at all.

"Cold out here, isn't it?" King James whispered. Spots shook his head,

"I don't feel anything..."

King James' eyes widened.

He used the cuff of his sleeve to wipe away Spots' tears, and pulling him into another hug, said, "Don't worry my dear, you'll be in good hands soon."

Spots nuzzled his face into King James' coat. The snowy velvet seemed to have a calming effect on the boy. It seemed odd to me at first, but looking back, that was probably the first hug that kid has gotten in years.

He kept one arm wrapped around Spots while he reached into his coat. He started to calmly sing with a beautifully rich voice and everyone, including myself, couldn't help but become entirely entranced by it.

"Lullay, thou little tiny child
Sleep well, lullay, lullay
And smile in dreaming, little one
Sleep well, lullay, lullay" Then I heard a gunshot.

There was a red spray, Spots' head jerked back and he fell limp on the ground with a smoking wound under his chin and a gaping hole in the back of his head.

"Farewell, lullay lullay"

The children started screaming. 'He just shot him,' I thought, 'Oh my God, he just shot him.'

Commodore Yale leaned down and whispered, "Shoulda' warned ya about that, sorry mate. Gotta kill the Lost ones."

I didn't want to, but morbid curiosity forced me to keep looking. King James had tucked the gun in his right arm and began reloading. He stood up, the sleeves of his white coat and face spattered with blood, and he looked at the rest of the boys who were now trying to fight to get away, but the carol continued,

"Oh sisters two, what may we do
To preserve on this day
This poor youngling for whom we sing
Sleep well, lullay, lullay
Farewell, lullay, lullay

Herod the king in his raging" CRACK! A third shot was fired and Trinket fell down.
"Set forth upon this day
By his decree, no life spare thee
All children young to slay" CRACK!
"All children young to slay" A fourth shot had rang out. Seven collapsed on the ground.

"Then woe is me, poor child, for thee
And ever mourn and say
For thy parting, neither say nor sing
Farewell, lullay, lullay
Farewell, lullay, lullay" CRACK! Penn was the last of them to fall.

"And when the stars fill darkened skies
In their far venture, stay
and smile as dreaming little one..."

The singing stopped when he finally made it to me at the end of the line. The rest of the children laid in heaps on the ground either gasping for breath or already dead from the gunshots, the soldiers had no need to hold on to their wrists anymore. Laying still in pools of their own blood, now mixing in the snow, they weren't going to run away now.

King James stood in front of me and his eyes locked into mine. The contrasts of his blue eyes with his pale skin made it almost impossible to look away from him. These colours commanded your attention.

He tucked his gun away inside is cloak and he reached out to touch my face with a gloved hand. On each finger he wore a jointed armor ring and I instantly shivered from the coldness of them as they glided across my face. He took notice of this and gave a sigh of relief.

His eyes darted around, studying me; my face, my hair, my clothes, everything, like he couldn't believe what he was seeing. When he spoke his breath wisped in front of his face like the smoke of a dragon.

"My God…" he whispered. King James leaned forward so his face was inches from mine, smoke pouring from his mouth.

"What's your name, child?" he asked, resting the back of his velvety glove against my cheek.

"Sidney Alton..." I wasn't so sure I wanted to answer, but it just came out anyway.

"Sidney?" He whispered to himself. He straitened himself out, raising up to his full height, he was a good foot taller than I was, "Where did you find him?"

"He was in the tree house with the others, Sir." Commodore Yale said.

He brushed my hair away from my face and leaned back down closer to me, "You need to come with me."

I shook my head, "No..."

King James' brow furrowed and he slightly tilted his head. Before he could say another word I jumped forward and head-butt him in the nose. There was a simultaneous gasp from everyone who witnessed the attack, and in the shock, I felt Commodore Yale let go of my ring. I made another strike at King James, this time hitting him in the jaw with my shoulder.

And then I ran. Faster than I ever had in my life.

Several muskets clicked behind me and fired, spraying up snow around my legs, but King James shouted over the barking guns,

"Leave him!" His voiced echoed through the forest. I turned around just in time to see him lick the blood pouring from his nose and lip, "He's mine!"

I heard more commotion and yelling from behind me as I sprinted through the forest. The ground was entirely white with snow. The wind blew snow into the sides of the trees, making them even more difficult to see in the dim moon light, the whole forest just looked like towering black lines on a white background in every direction. Not only was it difficult to judge where I was going, my hands were still locked behind me, which made running through the forest incredibly difficult; I only had to trip once and I was done.

I heard a deep rumble from behind me, I knew King James was after me on his horse and it was only a matter of time before he caught up to me. I did my best to dart in and out of trees, trying to veer away from any clear path. It was already difficult for me to run through and I hoped that it'd be even more difficult for such a large horse. But soon enough I saw a large shadow out of the corner of my eye; not only was this horse keeping up with me, but it easily stomped through any obstacle that was in its path. King James was practically standing in the saddle, his hair and cloak whipping wildly behind him and a glowing lantern swinging by his hook.

I found a patch of densely packed trees and ran in through there, no matter how agile this horse was, I knew for a fact something so big couldn't fit through these trees. Horse and rider continued to keep pace with me though, just outside the patch of trees. I turned away from them, deeper into the patch, I knew I had gotten away when I heard a loud whiney from the horse as King James pulled it back and brought its gallop to a sudden halt.

I don't know how long I had been running for, but I knew I was far enough away from everyone. I couldn't hear anything in the forest, actually the only thing I could hear was my heart pounding in my chest and my heavy breathing. The trees started to spread out more and more and eventually opened up to a large earth mound that looked like it had been dug out on the inside. I did one last look around to make sure King James wasn't in sight and I hurried into the mound.

Being careful not to slip or trip over any unseen rock or hole, I shuffled my boots once inside and stayed close to the wall. I felt my leg bump into a large rock in the dark and I quickly swung around behind it. I sat down and was able to pull my arms around over my legs so that they were now in front of me.

It didn't take long before the sound of pounding hooves rumbled from outside of the entrance. I tried to duck down behind the rock, but at the same time wanted to see what was going on outside and the hole was dark enough that no one would be able to see me.

Soon I began to hear the soft sound of bells again, which was followed by heavy grunting and the crunching of snow. I lowered myself a bit more behind the rock but still kept an eye out. The cold was starting to settle in again and paired with my nerves, I started to shiver. The bells became louder and soon the crunch of snow turned into clicking of hooves against hard rock.

Standing now at the entrance and silhouetted against the moonlight and snow was King James mounted atop the giant Friesian. He guided the horse inside, puffs of smoke accompanied each of the horse's heavy snorts. King James pulled the horse to a stop and swung down out of the saddle. The glowing lantern swung from his hook and glowing eyes lit up his face; as his eyes shifted I noticed their glow would fade and flicker with the lantern's flame.

He glided in, quiet as a ghost, tufts of smoke flowing from his mouth with each breath. There was actually a moment when his eyes seemed to be looking right at me, like he knew where I was hiding.

"Fe, fi, fo fum…"On the last syllable he used his hook to sharply pull back the hammer of his pistol with an echoing click; this caused the lantern to swing freely, like a pendulum, and created a dizzying lightshow on the walls which was accompanied by a warm, but wicked laugh; he was taunting me.

With the light, I was able to see more of the inside of mound, it's walls had holes cut out and inside each hole was what looked like bodies wrapped tightly in furs and woven blankets. I lowered myself further behind the rock.

"You can't hide in here forever, you know." He started walking over towards me and was actually standing on the other side of the rock. His attention was kept away from me though, if he would have looked down, he would have seen me.

"What makes you think I'm going to harm you?" He touched his lower lip, which was lightly bleeding, gently with his finger, "Even though I rightfully should."

He took a few more steps away from the rock and turned his back to me, occasionally looking out the mouth of the cave. "You can only hide for so long, child. Eventually, I will find you."

I didn't know if it was his voice or the cold that sent a shiver down my spine. I pulled my knees up to my chin, and gave a heavy sigh and closed my eyes.

I heard his footsteps start to come closer to the rock again, but the horse also began moving, making it difficult now to hear where he was. Suddenly, everything stopped. I waited a minute, then opened my eyes and lifted my head up a little bit. It seemed safe and I put my hand on the rock as I stood up to look around. As soon as I turned around I saw two cloudy red spots staring back at me and I jumped. I lost my balance, slammed back into the cave wall and actually fell back down on the ground again. King James was sitting on the rock, lantern on his lap, staring down at me with a demonic grin.

"JESUS CHRIST!"

His hand shot out and covered my mouth, "Relax, I'm trying to help you!"

I pulled my head away from him and in my struggle smacked the back of my head against the cave wall, "OW! ...What?"

"I'm trying to help you," he whispered again.

"Trying to help me?! You damn near almost killed..."

"Shh! Not so loud!" His hand shot out over my mouth again. He paused and looked around, trying to focus in the dark, "You're going to get us both killed if you keep shouting like that. Now get up and come with me, I have to get you out of here."

"Oh hell no. I'm not going anywhere with you."

"You don't trust me?"

"Not really no! I find it a little hard to trust someone who shoots little kids point blank in the face for no reason."

He arched his back, leaning in closer to me, "What have they told you?"

"What are you talking about? They haven't told me anything."

"Nothing?"

I shook my head.

"Nothing at all?"

"No."

"I find that hard to believe."

"What, you don't trust me?"

We both paused and King James straightened his back and smirked.

I narrowed my eyes at him, "Don't say it."

His soft, deep laugh echoed through the cavern. "Alright, enough of this playing around, I need to get you out of here..."

"Don't you start that shit again!" My voice was little louder than I probably wanted it to be, but I couldn't help myself. "I'm not going anywhere with anybody! I am staying. Right. Here."

"Handcuffed, by yourself in a cave, unarmed, with no way to keep yourself warm for the night?"

I paused to think for a moment, "Yes. Yes I am."

King James just shook his head at me. "Don't let that stubbornness be the death of you."

He slid down from the rock and knelt in front of me. As he did so, he opened the clasps on his cloak, slid it off his shoulders and wrapped it around me. When I looked up, his face was right in front of mine. I felt him grab the ring on my wrists and after a muffled click, the ring opened and slid off. His voice became softer and much more sincere,

"When you decide you need my help, come find me."

I didn't give him any sort of answer; I didn't nod or anything, but he knew I understood him. It was hard for me to tell though if it was genuine and he really was trying to help or if he was just trying to trick me but either way, I'll admit, I felt a little bad for not taking his offer. Without another word, he simply stood up and turned around to leave.

"Come on, London." He said softly. The horse raised his ears and lightly trotted over to King James. He took the horse's reigns and turned to look at me one last time, the glowing in his eyes faded as he narrowed his eyes at me,

"And, hopefully you come find me, before anyone else finds you."

I stood up and was about to say something but stopped. King James had pulled his out his pistol and was pointing it into the cavern,

"Get down!" he hissed.

I ducked behind the rock again and the cave lit up with a loud crack.

When I looked up over the rock, he was tucking his pistol back into his belt and began to lead the horse further away from the cave. I could hear shouting from a few men, but they were too far away and I couldn't understand them. King James shouted back over them,

"I took care of him! We're going back to the Harbour. We're done here for the night!"

I waited until it was completely silent outside before I let myself at ease again. Aside from the soft falling snow, the forest was dead silent; no bird calls, no animals, no children even.

Nothing.

I pulled the cloak closed around me. It was lined with a thick grey fur and was really the only thing keeping me warm. The clasps were two silver wolf heads biting down on a centre ring, blue sapphires were set in the wolves' eyes and at certain angles they gave off a bright red shine. I leaned back up against the cave wall and closed my eyes. I had no way of knowing at the time if he was being serious about helping me or if he was just making the offer to trick me. Either way, my curiosity was certainly peaked. Why did he kill those children, but not me? What did he want with Kat? Hell, what did he want with me? He could have easily sent those soldiers out to find me and shoot me, but he went out of his way to make sure that he not only found me, but found me long before the others did. That shot his fired was just a decoy, he needed to convince the others that I was dead so they wouldn't continue looking for me. What was going on here?

I brought my focus again onto the snow outside. The gruesome memories of the children and their murder tried to take over my thoughts. The stone-like expressions of the children as they stared death in the face, the gun shots, the cracking of bones and spraying of blood. The screams. The screams that seemed to instantly change the children back human again. Their bravery only lasted them so long until they realized this was all real, then suddenly they were nothing but scared and helpless children.

The hollow howl of a wolf brought my attention back outside the cave. Several more joined into the song and the wind picked up, almost as if to sing with them. I had to stop thinking about them, what's past is past and no amount of worrying would bring them back. I instead tried to turn my thoughts to myself; I knew I wasn't going to survive out there, not for very long anyway, and if I wanted to make it through this, survive long enough to get back home, I really only had one option. I didn't like it, but I had to figure out what was going on here. I had to go with my safest bet. I gripped tighter to the inside of the cloak.

I would have to find King James tomorrow.