Dylan ducked under the oncoming seagull. It squawked loudly, frantically flapping its wings to swerve away. Feathers flew in every direction. He shook his head to wipe away the mist and dirt from his face and spat out a foul-tasting feather. Pip buzzed over Dylan's head with a wild grin and a quick wave. "That's why you have to watch your mouth when you're flying!"
Knox and Spoken laughed. It wasn't a mean-spirited jab, but a joyous celebration of the moment. Dylan didn't share the feeling; he tightened his grip on their arms afraid that he would plummet to the ground at any moment. His eyes clinched shut, hoping that it would soon be over. It was then that he realized that his body felt almost weightless as though he were swimming at the deep end of a pool. His arms did not suffer the strain of his weight. "How's this possible? You can't just fly because you want to. That's impossible!"
The wind and the attitude distorted Spoken's voice. "We try to do six impossible things before breakfast."
The wind was shrill and bracing. Dylan shivered, trying to keep warm. The air felt light somehow. He took several extra breaths to make sure his lungs were filled with oxygen, but he noticed that the others seemed to be breathing normally. He opened his eyes and tried keep his breakfast where it belonged. "I don't feel too good."
Pip circled them with an unusual frown on his face. He hovered above Dylan and slipped off his goggles to examine him. "Fellas, he's turning a bit green around the gills."
Knox's eyes opened wide with concern and glanced down at Dylan realizing that he might not have been enjoying the flight as much as expected. "He's acting like it's his first time in the air. We should set him down, Spoken. Let him remember slowly."
They glided through white glimmering gossamer clouds. It felt like breaking through a spider web made of water. The cool water reinvigorated Dylan and he felt less like vomiting. "Let's land over there!" Pip suggested. "On that building that looks like a spinning top."
Knox smacked his lips and pointed down to a green patch of land. "And we can play in that park. Maybe grab some grub!"
Dylan's gaze followed Knox's gesture downward and instantly regretted it. The sprawling landscape of Seattle rotated slowly below him. The familiar floating disk tower of Space Needle seemed like a tiny saucer, slowly growing in diameter. "Don't drop me!"
"Don't fret. We've done this before."
"Done what?" Dylan asked.
"Have courage, Trouble!" They paused mid-air, allowing Dylan a few moments to adjust to the air. Spoken and Knox exchanged knowing glances over Dylan's head. "The chicanery's just beginning."
The rush of wind against his face faded. His stomach felt queasy like it might rise through his throat. The world below them grew rapidly. The Space Needle expanded from a small saucer to a giant menacing disk that threatened to collide with them. Dylan closed his eyes and screamed. The others joyfully joined him.
Dylan opened his eyes as they swooped past the Space Needle, circled the grey metal tripod base tower, and then floated over an amusement park past an enormous steel Ferris wheel. They swooped over a plastic log ride, dragging their toes along the brilliant sparkling blue water, splashing several kids waiting in line. Afterwards, they ducked under a giant wooden ship ride that swung back and forth much to the delight of squealing children riding inside of it.
"What is that?" Spoken asked, horrified. He pointed at a colossal building that seemed to have been made piecemeal out of dozens of broken metal pieces of a variety of colors and wielded together to form the vague shape of a guitar. "It hurts my eyes just gazing at it."
"That's the Experience Music Project. It's a music museum," Dylan explained. "How can you not know that?"
Pip laughed. "It looks like someone took a dog turd and painted it like it was an Easter egg."
Dylan found it difficult to argue the point. Knox pulled them towards the ground. "There's train tracks!"
"That's just the Monorail. Not a real train."
Knox frowned, clearly disappointed. "I've always wanted to see a real train."
Pip smirked and then flicked Spoken's ear. "Bet you can't catch me!"
Dylan gasped and clutched closer to Spoken and Knox. "Don't worry about catching him! Worry about holding me!"
Pip flew through the spokes of the Ferris Wheel and then dashed towards the log ride. The boys followed, skimming their feet along the water and splashing a group of tourists. Pip dashed ahead and then swiped a large bag of popcorn almost half his size from a vendor kiosk. He flipped a large silver coin onto the vendor's head and flew away. They found him sitting on a bench munching on popcorn.
"They're flying! They're flying!"
Dylan was amazed that the only person that seemed to realize that they had been playing was a little boy with shaggy blond hair. His parents sat on a blanket under a large maple tree. The parents continued eating their sandwiches oblivious to the flying boys.
"Why didn't they see us? Why didn't people react? What's going on?"
Pip slipped off his goggles. "Dylan, it's copasetic. The P-Dust balls up most olders and they can't see us when we fly."
Knox gently set Dylan firmly upon the wet grass and then coasted over to Pip. He happily munched on the open bag of popcorn. "Have some!"
Knox dug both hands into the white kernels and scooped out a small pile. "That was aces, Pip!" he said and then crammed it into his mouth.
Dylan dropped to his knees, confused. Spoken landed next to him. "Do not fret! It will all return, Trouble."
"Why do you talk like that? What's going on? How did we just fly?"
Pip tilted his head, concerned. "The P-Dust should've joggled the noggin by now."
Spoken nodded, studying Dylan through his glasses. "I admit that it appears perplexing. Perhaps he-."
"Quit talking like I'm not here! I'm not Trouble!" Dylan finally felt well enough to stand unaided. His face flushed with frustration. "I don't know what you're talking about so there's no way I can remember. You have the wrong kid."
Pip held up the bag of popcorn meekly. "Eat something. You'll remember."
Dylan groaned. "I wish my Dad were here."
The Lost Boys gasped collectively. "You have parents? Olders that take care of you?" Pip asked.
Dylan nodded ruefully. "Well, I had a Mom. She died last year of cancer. She was a lawyer. My Dad works as a computer programmer."
"What's a computer?" Knox asked.
Dylan's screwed up his face in frustration as yet another question that should have been obvious was asked. "That's not important! Tell me what's going on? We flew! We actually flew in the air."
"Very well. What do you wish to know?" Spoken asked.
"How did we fly? People can't just fly whenever they want."
Pip grinned mischievously. "The Lost Boys can."
"With P-Dust," Knox added, between bites.
"The Lost Boys? You mean like Peter Pan?" Dylan asked.
At the mention of the name Peter Pan, all three of them turned solemn and placed their hands over their hearts. "He died saving us all from Red-Handed Jack ages ago. We thought he was gone forever, but he came back."
"Peter Pan dead? I thought he was immortal or something," Dylan said, awed.
"Immortal just means you can't age." Knox sniffed. He shook his head. "Everything that lives can die."
"But I've never heard of Red-Handed Jack."
Their eyes opened wide with surprise. Dylan suddenly understood how they must have felt when Wayne had mentioned Ty Conrad. "He's the most feared pirate that sails the Dream Sea."
"Is that where Neverland is?"
Spoken nodded. "In the realm of dreams, it is the soul of us all."
"Is that why you guys talk so funny? How old are you?"
All of them answered at once. "Twelve."
"Twelve? You guys talk like a teacher."
"We don't grow old. Unless we forget. And then we have to leave Neverland," Pip explained.
Dylan scratched his stomach, feeling a bit better. "And you're looking for your friend, Trouble, because Red-Handed Jack is back?"
"Trouble hid Pan's Treasure. He gave us a map before he left, but Jack stole it," Knox said.
Spoken sighed. "If a scoundrel like Red-Handed Jack finds Pan's Treasure, we'll all be balled up."
"And so you need to find Trouble to get the treasure first. Won't Jack be able to find it first?"
"Trouble was clever. Map's in code. Jack won't know where to look at first," Pip explained. "But he's devious. He'll figure it out."
"When was the last time you saw Trouble?" Dylan asked.
"Ages ago."
"There are no calendars in Neverland."
"Wish Wayne was here, we could google Seattle and see if anyone named Trouble lived around here." Dylan had a rush of guilt. "Hey! We left Wayne behind! He's going to get into a lot of trouble. We need to go back for him."
"There is no helping him." Spoken shook his head. "Your friend has the Taint. I fear that his heart has been corrupted."
"What Taint?" None of this made any sense. He felt in his pockets for the costume jewelry he had stolen. What would his Dad think of him now? His stomach burned as though he had bitten a battery in half and swallowed. "I don't know why I did that. I didn't need to be a pirate. What's going on?
None of them answered. Pip suddenly found his feet very interesting. Spoken suddenly felt the urge to clean his finger nails. Knox took another bite of popcorn. Pip eventually answered. "He's sick. Doesn't look like it now, but he'll get worse."
"I don't understand. How can you know that?"
"We can smell it." Knox shrugged his shoulders. "Like rotten oranges and sour milk. Sometimes a Lost Boy gets sick. We don't know why. They get angry for no reason. Steal. Hurt people."
"In the end, they go to the Maelstrom of Forever in the Dream Sea and return as a pirate."
Dylan swallowed. "What's that?"
"A place where the Dream Sea runs black. We've never been."
"Or we'd be pirates," Pip added.
"Did you bring the Taint with you? From Neverland?" Dylan asked.
They shook their heads. "Then how did Wayne get it?"
Spoken tapped his chin. "There must be a leak from the Maelstrom of Forever leading to here."
Knox shook his fist. "Red-Handed Jack must've done it!"
"What can we do?" Dylan asked.
"Pan's Treasure can help him. Helped Trouble, it did," Pip answered. "Cured him of the Taint, it did."
Dylan nodded. "Then, let's find it. Is there anyone you know that could maybe help us?"
Spoken looked at the other Lost Boys uneasily. "There's a wizard that used to trade with us. He's an ancient older named Remington Borri. Haven't seen him since the Great War. Perhaps he still dwells there. He was friends with Trouble. He lives on the piers."
"Are you sure that he's still around?" Dylan asked, suspicious.
"It's a place to start."
They coasted past the wharf to get a glorious view of the Puget Sound. The blue water horizon was punctuated by dozens of white sailboats. Dylan and the Lost Boys spotted the Seattle Aquarium and then slowly descended. "This wizard Borri lives at the Aquarium?"
Pip laughed and pointed to a wooden building on the pier adorned with vibrantly painted totem poles framing the entrance. Children and tourists entered and left the store with balloons, fudge, and tarantula paperweights. "He works in there!"
Dylan shook his head. "Ye Old Curiosity Shop? That's a joke shop. Shrunken heads and fake babies in a jar! I'll believe that when I see it."
Spoken coughed. "Seeing is not believing. Believing is seeing."
"My Dad and I go here all the time."
Dylan opened the door and ushered the rest of them into the store.
There were shrunken heads, gag gifts, crazy mugs, zombie bobble-headed dolls, and signs for the Seattle Ghost Tour. Pip pressed his face against the glass case containing the wax gypsy fortune-teller in and started searching his pockets for a coin small enough to fit the slots. Knox and Spoken sized up the decayed mummy, wondering if it might spring to life at any moment. The cashier eyed them suspiciously. Spoken raised his hand. "Excuse me, kind sir. We're lost and we're looking for Mr. Borri."
The cashier scoffed and gestured to a large metal door. "Mr. Borri is busy right now."
Dylan scratched his head trying to remember if that door had been there the last time he was here. "Is that new?"
The phone at the cash register rang. The cashier looked at it confused and then answered it. He listened for a few moments and then nodded. "Will do Boss!" The cashier reached under the counter, clicked a button, and then the metal door slowly opened.
Knox led them through the doorway and down a set of stairs into a concrete tunnel. "This is the real Olde Curiosity Shop."
At the end of the tunnel, there was an entirely different store. It reminded Dylan of a used bookstore with countless stacks and shelves arranged haphazardly. He tried to absorb it all, but every spare inch of room was crammed with artifacts of interest and various knickknacks from all over the world. They found everything from enchanted glasses, singing skulls, and dancing stone gargoyles. The shop had seemed rather small from the outside, but now that he was following Knox and the others through the labyrinth of the store it seemed larger than a school's football field.
Dylan was amazed by the strangeness of it all. He held up a bizarre curved crystal decanter that seemed to hum at his touch. "That is essence of knotweed and burdock. An excellent natural revenant repellant for a young boy. Good choice."
Dylan flinched with surprise. He did not see the thin, frail man with delicate features until he spoke. He looked younger than his Dad with curly black hair and large expressive brown eyes. "Mr. Spoken, Mr. Knox, and Mr. Pip. It has been twenty years since the Lost Boys have returned to this world. I had thought that you forgotten the way. And it seems that you have brought a new member of your esteemed club."
The Lost Boys each bowed to Remington Borri. "Sir, this is Dylan. He's not a Lost Boy. He's helping us," Knox said.
"Really? You don't normally recruit in these waters. Dylan? What is your last name?" Borri asked.
Dylan hadn't expected to be the center of attention. "Uh, Foley."
Borri's eyes narrowed. "Dylan Foley? You come into my shop with your father, don't you?"
Dylan suddenly understood why the Lost Boys were treating Mr. Borri with such respect. He innately seemed to know everything that happened in his establishment. "Uh, yeah. Yes, sir."
Spoken stepped forward. "Mr. Borri, we need your assistance locating Trouble."
Borri regarded each of them silently for a moment. Dylan felt like he was being weighed and measured. "You boys know that I can't reveal his location. I'm under a contractual geis. It simply can't be done."
Pip forced himself to look up at Mr. Borri. "Red-Handed Jack has returned from the Maelstrom of Forever. He has the map!"
Borri frowned a bit. His voice grew angry. "You lost the map to Pan's Treasure!"
The Lost Boys flinched. Knox closed his eyes and stepped in front of his friends as though to protect them from a monster. "He stole it from the Wendy Tree, honest."
"Nothing can be done about it now." Borri walked past Dylan and the Lost Boys and gestured them to follow him. "You will have to secure it again."
They followed him into an elaborately decorated office. Mr. Borri sat at his oversized oak desk and began searching through a drawer. "I shall be with you in just a moment."
The Lost Boys stood silently. Curious, Dylan glanced around the office looking at the various photographs. Some of them were very old. One of them was labeled Great Seattle Fire, 1889.
The photograph depicted several men searching through a burned out landscape. One of the men looked suspiciously like Mr. Borri. He studied Borri's face and then returned to the photograph.
"Yes, I am in that photograph, Mr. Foley," Mr. Borri said, without looking up from his drawer. Startled, Dylan looked away. "No, it is okay for you to look at my photographs. I have displayed them, after all."
"How can you be in that photograph? Wait, are you an immortal like the Lost Boys?" Dylan asked.
"There are many different paths to immortality, young man. Each with their own price."
"How old are you?" Dylan asked.
"That is a very long story, Mr. Foley. I don't believe that your new associates have the time just now," Mr. Borri replied. He opened a second drawer in the file cabinet next to his desk. "Here it is!"
He produced a cracked leather scroll and then unrolled it on top of the desk revealing a map unlike Dylan had ever seen. The ocean was a dazzling blue that swayed back and forth mimicking the currents. There were dozens of islands that seemed to explode with life and activity. A swirling black amorphous cloud blocked the center of the map.
"Is that the Treasure Map?" Dylan asked hopefully.
"Alas, it is not, Mr. Foley. It is a map of the Sea of One Thousand Islands." Borri tapped an island partially covered by the black cloud. "It will lead the Lost Boys to Mafdet, the Queen of Cats."
The Lost Boys gasped. "She's dangerous."
"Indeed, however she knew where Trouble was headed when he hid Pan's Treasure. You will have to find her," Borri stated.
"How do you know she knows where the treasure is? Will she help us?" Dylan asked.
"She will help the Lost Boys. Trouble saved her life from the mermaids and cat honor, such as it is, will require her to aid the Lost Boys in this cause." He tapped his fingers on the map indicating an island near the border of the black cloud. It was a barren island covered with strange ivory towers. "She is trapped on Bubastis Island. The Lost Boys will save her from the Bone Tower. You, Mr. Foley, will be returning to your father."
"I can't, Mr. Borri. My friend Wayne's sick," Dylan protested.
"He has the Taint, sir," Pip added.
"Then the rest of you must bring back the treasure to cure him," Borri insisted. "I think we all know what will happen if it is allowed to spread in this realm."
"Why do you care if I go?" Dylan asked, annoyed. "I need to help my friend get rid of the Taint."
Borri opened his mouth as though he were going to speak. His face flushed as though something caught in his wind pipe. "Do not bother me with foolish questions, boy!" He nodded to the Lost Boys. "When we are finished here, you will take him home to his father. Do you understand?"
The Lost Boys reluctantly nodded their agreement. Knox raised his hand. "Mr. Borri, we can't fly to Bubastis Island. There's too many storms. Not even Peter Pan would fly there."
"Indeed, Mr. Knox. That is why you are going to raise the Tempest."
Spoken raised his hand. "But, sir, we can't raise her. Trouble has the whistle."
Mr. Borri reached into the top drawer of his desk and produced a yellowed envelope addressed to Pippin. He gave it to the short, curly-haired Lost Boy and nodded. "I promised Trouble that I would deliver this should you come to my office."
Pip opened the envelope and grinned. He showed the others a small bone whistle. "This was Trouble's whistle. And he trusted me."
Mr. Borri coughed. "Yes, he did. As I am trusting all of you to follow my directions." Borri marked a location near the eastern most border of the map. It was a large foot-shaped island. It looked like it had once belonged to the mainland it hugged the shore so closely. "This is where Trouble scuttled her. You will raise her and claim her again for the Lost Boys."
Knox rubbed his hands together. "That's near the entry point to this realm from the Dreamlands!"
The island looked familiar to Dylan, but he wasn't as good with maps as his father. He peered closely, hoping to find a name for the island. "Where is this?"
"The name of the island in this realm is unimportant, especially to you, Mr. Foley," Mr. Borri answered sharply.
"How are we—I mean—how are they going to raise a ship in the sea?" Dylan asked.
"The Tempest belongs to the Lost Boys. It is a ship made of ancient trees. It will answer their call."
Pip gulped. "But what about the dream pirates?"
Borri raised an eyebrow. "You'll have to defeat them, of course."
The Lost Boys visibly shivered. Spoken steeled himself. "May we borrow that map?"
"Do I have the appearance of a librarian, Mr. Spoken?"
"Can we buy it? Or trade?" Dylan asked.
"Ten pounds of pixie dust after you have the Treasure," Borri stated.
"Ten pounds!"
"That would take ages to gather!" Pip complained.
Borri sniffed dryly. "My map is worth twice that."
Spoken extended his hand. "Your terms are acceptable, sir."
Borri shook Spoken's hand and then gestured to the map. "Take care that you do not rip that map. You would not appreciate the consequences."
The Lost Boys nodded. Dylan had a thought and raised his hand. "Mr. Borri, can you get a message to Trouble?"
Borri pondered that a moment. "I will try. Now, it would be best if the three of you escorted Mr. Foley back to his home. I shall know if you do otherwise."
They exited Mr. Borri's office silently, trudged up the stairs, and out of the shop. They waited until they were past the tourist crowd and sat down on a bench. Pip patted Dylan on the back. "Sorry you can't come with us, chum."
Dylan grinned. "Why not? We have the map now."
"Lie to Remington Borri?" Knox asked, horrified. "Do you know what he can do to us?"
Dylan shrugged his shoulder, pretending to be much braver than he felt. "My friends are in trouble. Both you guys and Wayne. Besides someone has to keep you grounded. Dad will understand. Eventually."
"So now what?" Knox asked.
"We raise the Tempest and then we fight some pirates."