Trolls in the Dark

1/4

By: The Sadistic Cow

Kitty bounded along, leaving his tail straight up in the air as he led the human and the brownie away from the cottage. Not that "Kitty" was his real name; the boy just called him that as he couldn't speak animal tongue and there were no translators anywhere in the immediate vicinity. It didn't matter though; if "Kitty" worked for the human child, then it could work for him as well.

He glanced back several times to make sure the boy and the brownie were following. Kitty couldn't afford to lose them, not this early on. There was still so much left to do! And those damn monkeys had pissed him off right fierce; never in his life had he heard such vulgar foulness spilling from the mouths of those possessed creatures as he had this night. It was filthy, and blasphemous, and Kitty didn't like it.

Kitty didn't particularly like any of what was going on. He had waited so long to perform his duty, to come to the Chosen One and guide him towards his Destiny, but he had never expected it to be quite like this. Of course he had learned himself in the lore of old magics and prophecies, but everybody knew that prophecies never, ever came out the way they said they would in the scrolls. All those years he had studied and listened and been mentored, only to be thrown into a situation he wasn't prepared for.If he could have sighed, he would have. Nobody was prepared for this, especially not the boy. The brownie wasn't Kitty's business anyway so he had no clue whether or not this 'Pyewacket' was anywhere near prepared. It was the boy Kitty was concerned about, as it was the boy, not the brownie, that he had to protect.

What if the boy couldn't do it? What if, when faced with the responsibility, he refused? Or was unable to handle it? That would not bode well for Never Land, nor for anyone.Perhaps he needed more support? Kitty mused, pausing to sniff at the air for any sign of the monkeys, or for any other animal that might come their way. Perhaps, so that he might succeed, he would need guardians other than Kitty. The brownie was obviously useless; he was awfully small and, the cat thought, had a mouth that was far too big. The boy needed guardians he trusted and loved. Friends.

But who would do? Kitty wasn't stupid, but he barely knew the boy. What friends did the human have? The Indians? The Eternal Youth? Well, of course. Kitty at the very least knew that the human was a Lost Boy and the Lost Boy's leader was the great Peter Pan himself.That brought to mind another thought. If he hadn't already, the enemy would find the Weave. The Weave connected directly to Peter and once the enemy found that out he would, most likely, have a grand time ripping the Eternal Youth apart from the inside out. And Peter would never know what had hit him.

Disturbing thoughts for a cat to think, but it only served to make him move more quickly. There had to be someone, or something that would help the boy.

And Kitty would find it.

Pushing a branch out of his way, Billy Jukes moved through the forest like a ghost. He didn't know where he was going, or why, but he knew he had to find shelter. Since he hadn't been there as often as the other pirates, he didn't know the layout of Small Monday Island as well as they did. But he did know that there were several small taverns that could give him what he needed, and so he headed in the direction he thought they were.

As he walked, he thought back to the mermaids and the Croc. Just what was going on? Mermaids weren't prone to just attacking anything en masse, although they did try to make the pirates' life a living hell every time they left the ship. And why was blood on their teeth? Just what had they been eating before they came after him? Each other?

Billy felt a shiver race through him at that thought. A little too disturbing to even consider, though it wasn't impossible. It just wasn't something he wanted to think about. Cannibal mermaids. Gross.

As he pushed through another cluster of bushes, Billy found himself on a path. He paused for a moment, looking around. A flash of colour to his right caught his eye, and he turned to look. His eyes widened.

Not too far down the path, a boy with sandy blonde hair was sitting on a rock. His clothes were torn, his face, hands and legs were covered in bloody scratches that Billy could see even so far away. At his feet a small, black and gray striped cat was sitting, looking up at him. The boy just breathed deeply, his shoulders slumping as though in exhaustion.

'Slightly!' Billy thought. 'What's he doing here? And what happened to him?'

Concern washing through him, Billy began to jog down the path, splashing mud and water as he went. The two companions looked up quickly at his approach, and Billy slowed down for a moment as he saw wild fear dancing in Slightly's eyes. He also noted that there were several ugly cuts on his cheeks and forehead, and the concern returned full force.

"Slightly?" he called, beginning to speed up again. He saw the boy relax a bit, though the fear vanished to be replaced by relief. The blonde stood up quickly but slipped in the mud half a second later. Billy lunged forward, catching him before he hit the ground. Slightly hissed, as Billy wrapped his arms around his waist and held him up, the blonde's hands clutching his shirt. "Are you alright Slightly?"

"My foot hurts," the boy replied through grit teeth. "Stupid monkey slightly chewed it up."

Frowning, Billy held him close and helped move him back to the rock. Slightly clung to him until his butt was safely planted again, and he sighed as Billy sat down next to him, looking him over carefully. "What happened?" Billy asked after a long moment of silence. He looked down at Slightly's foot and saw the chewed boot and the blood caked around the frayed edges.

"I don't know, it was slightly weird," the blonde replied, hissing in pain.

Billy's frown deepened and he stood up, moving around to kneel down in front of Slightly. He took the other boy's foot into his hands and began to pull the shoe off. Slightly yelped and tried to pull away, but Billy held tight. "No you don't, cully," he said sharply. "I want to take a look at this, it could get infected or something. Alright?"

Slightly nodded and grit his teeth again as Billy pulled his shoe off, almost crying as he felt the skin tear and fresh blood begin to well up from the wound. "Go on," Billy said softly, eyeing the bite marks and wincing. They looked painful.

"We were attacked when we went into a cabin slightly outside of Small Monday Fair," Slightly said, biting his lip as Billy's fingers probed the cut. "A big group of monkeys came in through the windows and tried to kill us. One of them took a slight bite out of my foot."

"Ow." Billy winced. "That must have hurt." He frowned for a moment. "This needs to be wrapped up," he muttered. Propping the blonde's foot up on his thigh, he reached up and untied the bandanna around his neck and began wrapping it around Slightly's foot. As careful as he was it still hurt, and Slightly sucked in a breath. "Sorry," Billy said.

"It's okay…"

The cat growled at him a little bit, never letting his eyes waver from the pirate. Billy glanced at it, then let out a little hiss himself. The cat looked insulted. "Maow!"

Slightly giggled. "Kitty, be nice," he admonished the cat. "Billy is my friend. He slightly won't hurt me."

Mewing again as though to say 'I'll judge that for myself, kid', "Kitty" leapt up onto the rock and curled up next to Slightly's hip. Raising a paw and watching Billy at the same time, he began to clean his paws in a way that made the pirate think he was being insulted somehow. Slightly smiled a bit, scratching the cat behind the ears. Kitty purred like a motor.

"Weird cat," Billy commented.

"Maow!"

Billy rolled his eyes and tied the bandanna into a tight knot, patting the blonde's foot lightly before standing up. "There you go, cully. It's the best I can do with what I got."

Slightly nodded, taking his shoe back and slowly sliding it on. He winced again, realizing that his foot had swelled a bit and the shoe was tight. Billy sat down next to him, watching him carefully. Slightly sighed and leaned back on the palms of his hands, staring down at his feet unhappily.

"Are you sure you're alright?"

"Yeah. I'm just…I don't know, I'm just slightly confused."

Billy snorted. "Join the club. After what I saw earlier I think I'm as confused as a baby in a topless bar."

Kitty's head shot up and he twitched his whiskers. "Mew?!"

Slightly stared at him. "What?"

The gunner chuckled quietly to himself, also leaning back and turning his face to the sky. "Never mind."

As Slightly stared at him in confusion and Kitty gave him a look of disgust, Billy's eyes traveled the skies. Not for any particular reason; he just didn't feel like talking about the mermaid's attack. That kind of gore Slightly didn't need to know, he thought darkly. As he scanned the sky, he noticed something out of place amongst the thunderclouds. His eyes narrowed and he squinted a bit to get a better look.

There it was again. Darting in and out of the clouds was a twisting, spinning, wildly sky-dancing flock of neverbirds. Billy blinked as they rose up and down violently, making crazy circles and twisters in the air as they went. Dimly, he could hear their screeching and it didn't sound quite right. As the pirate continued to watch them, it seemed they took notice of him when they drew closer to the ground on their last nosedive. They paused, swarming about in an enormous cluster and hovering above the path.

Billy blinked, a sinking feeling erupting in the pit of his stomach. "Slightly," he began, his voice growing tense as his muscles began to bunch up. The blonde looked at him.

"Yes?"

"Get ready to run."

Slightly frowned, also looking up. "Why…?"

The birds cupped their wings and dropped, shrieks ripping from their throats. Slightly gasped and Billy yelled something unintelligible, turning suddenly to pounce on top of the blonde as the birds burst through the treetops with a shower of feathers, branches and leaves.

A great wave of muddy water rose up around them as Billy pushed Slightly violently to the ground, landing on top of him and knocking the breath out of both of them. He cried out in pain as the beak of one bird stabbed into his back, and he lurched over the other boy in an effort to protect him. Slightly screamed in terror as the birds came down in a swarm, pecking and clawing at them, unable to touch Slightly since Billy was basically sitting on top of him.

Arms on either side of the blonde's head, Billy took every blow the birds rained down on him with a cry of pain and a spasm. Blood began to drip beneath his vest, seeping through and staining it. He trembled and twitched as one of the birds got its clawed foot tangled in his hair and began to beat at his head with its wings. He screamed.

Kitty hissed and jumped on Billy's back, coming up behind the bird and clawing at it. It shrieked and pecked at him, and Kitty bounced back, only to be driven off the gunner's back by more birds. There were just too many for him to take alone, so he settled for running around the two boys and clawing and knocking any birds that came too close away from them. Kitty couldn't get at the one stuck in Billy's hair but he sure as hell could get some of them.

Meanwhile, Billy was in agony. The bird was ripping chunks of hair out and its heavy wings beating at his head didn't make him feel much better. Slightly's eyes widened, then narrowed. He reached up quickly and grabbed one of its wings; the bird stabbed its beak into his arm and he yelped, but didn't let go. Instead, he took hold of its feet with his other hand and tried desperately to free it from Billy's hair.

The bird continued to shriek, and more were coming down on them. Billy was getting the worst of it since he was more exposed to them than Slightly was. He continued to scream, and then began to writhe. He brought one arm up to try and fend them off, to no avail. All he succeeded in doing was exposing Slightly to the horde, and tangling the neverbird more deeply into his hair.

They came down en masse, and the only thing that prevented Slightly and Billy from losing their eyes was Kitty. The cat was going nuts, bouncing and spazzing this way and that, clawing at anything that came too close. Although Kitty was one small cat against a swarm of big neverbirds, he was holding his own quite well.

At that point Slightly finally freed the bird from Billy's now-tangled hair. He yelled and thwacked it in the head, sending it spinning off into the shrubbery. It was right about then that Billy, already exhausted from his ordeal with the mermaids earlier and in serious agony from the birds pecking at his flesh, passed out. His eyes rolled back into his head and he dropped on top of Slightly in a dead faint.

Slightly's eyes widened. "Billy!" he shouted, wrapping his free arm around the other boy. He gasped as the birds came at him again, closing his eyes tightly and pulling Billy closer to himself. He curled up as best he could in an attempt to protect them both, pressing his face into Billy's tousled hair and screaming wildly as the birds started attacking his head.

Abruptly, he heard a thud and a shriek, followed by another thud. He didn't dare look up for fear of having his eyes gouged out, but the sound of bodies falling to the ground made him wonder idly just what was going on. He held tightly to Billy, shaking as the birds screamed and flapped overhead, their wings sounding like the rustling of leaves in the wind.

It took a few minutes for him to realize that the sound was fading, and even then he feared to look. What if they were sitting in the trees, waiting to poke out his eyes? It could just be some kind of trick, and at any second they were ready to pounce again. Slightly didn't move, clinging to his friend with tears streaming down his dirty cheeks. The water he lay in had thoroughly soaked him by now, and he shivered with terror and cold.

Something touched his shoulder and he screamed, flinging his arm up to knock it away. He cried out again as whatever it was caught hold of his wrist and held it fast; he still didn't dare to open his eyes.

"Slightly, calm down," a soft voice spoke. "It's just me."

"And me!" said another voice.

He finally opened his eyes, and they widened. "Hard-To-Hit!" he whispered hoarsely. "Pyewacket! How…where….what?"

"Look here, boss! I found an Injun!" Pyewacket grinned, winking.

The Indian boy smiled gently, though worriedly. "It's all right, Slightly," he said. "The birds are gone."

His bottom lip quivered. Fear was in his eyes, wild and ready to burst out of control at any second. "Are you…slightly sure?" he whispered.

"Yeah."

Slightly moaned low in his throat, turning his face away. His shoulders shook with repressed tears, and choked sobs escaped his lips. Hard-To-Hit rubbed his arm gently, his own face a mask of fear and sorrow.

"It's okay," he said again, softly. "They're gone, Slightly, they're gone." He felt the need to repeat this, again and again. Not just for Slightly but for himself as well. Those birds had frightened the hell out of him when he first saw them. And not just because they were attacking Slightly and Billy, but because they had slugs on their backs.

Hard-To-Hit shuddered.

Slightly kept his face hidden, crying as softly as he could. 'Get a slight hold of yourself!' he admonished himself harshly. 'Lying in the mud and crying won't help any of us. Do you really want Hard-To-Hit to see you cry? So what if you ache all over and are dirty. So what if you were attacked by crazy animals? You're still alive, aren't you? And Billy's slightly worse off than you are. So get up!'

"Hey, boss." Pyewacket leaned over from where he sat on Hard-To-Hit's shoulder. "Boss, you okay?"

Kitty hissed at him, having come over to sniff and nuzzle the unconscious Billy. 'What a stupid question' he seemed to say, flattening his ears and puffing his tail up. Pyewacket scowled at him.

"Piss off, puss."

Slightly sat up slowly, disengaging himself from Billy. He rubbed one arm across his face to try and dry his tears, but only got more mud on himself. He choked back another sob, hating everything about the night. He was filthy, he was in pain, he was scared and worst of all, he was crying in front of his friends. How he hated life right then.

"We should get out of here, Slightly," Hard-To-Hit said, looking around nervously. "The forest is too quiet and the trees are whispering dark things. It's too dangerous to be out here like this."

Slightly sniffed, gritting his teeth. "I'm slightly not leaving without Billy," he said forcefully. "He…he saved my life, he got hurt trying to protect me. I'm not going to leave him here."

Hard-To-Hit smiled wearily. "I never said we were going to," he said. "But you're hurt and he's too heavy for me to drag. We have to wake him up."

Kitty mewed, pawing at Billy's head. He paced around the pirate, sniffing and pawing here and there before he came to a stop in front of his face. Seeming to think for a moment, the cat leaned forward and licked Billy's nose. When there was no response, he batted at said nose, then licked it again.

Billy stirred a bit, his brow creasing. Kitty mewed loudly, lashing his tail. A low groan escaped the pirate's throat and slowly, ever so slowly, his eyes fluttered open. "Uhhn…"

"Billy?" Slightly asked hopefully. He leaned over his friend, shaking him a bit. He swallowed. "Billy, wake up. We slightly have to get out of here."

"S-Slightly? What happened…?" Billy blinked slowly, groaning again. "Oh gods, I feel like shit…"

"I know you do, Billy. So do I. But we slightly have to go before the birds come back. Hard-To-Hit and Pyewacket drove the birds away after you passed out but they might come back."

Billy nodded slowly, rolling over to try and get to his feet. Slightly helped him as best he could, his own injuries making it harder for him. The two boys clung to each other as they got to their feet, both of them shaking, both of them in pain. Hard-To-Hit was right there with them, helping them as best he could.

"So…" Billy took a deep breath, fighting back tears of pain. His arm tightened around Slightly's waist and he fought to keep from leaning on the other boy too much. For his part, Slightly held onto Billy as though he was a lifeline, afraid to let go. "Where do we go from here?"

Kitty mewed, trotting around their feet. Hard-To-Hit glanced down at him. "I think…he wants us to follow him," he said quietly. Pyewacket raised an eyebrow.

"You speak cat?" he asked dryly.

Hard-To-Hit threw him a dirty look. "My father was…is…a shaman. I have learned many things from him and animal speak is one. I'm not an expert but I know enough to get an idea of what he's saying."

"Yeah? Well tell me, what's his real name? Pussy?"

The Indian boy looked down at the cat, who meowed softly. He nodded and looked back at the brownie, who continued to watch him with his eyebrow still raised. "He says his name is Mungojerrie," Hard-To-Hit informed them all.

"What kind of name is that?" Pyewacket demanded. "Fluffy. Now that's a name for a cat. Smooth and short. Not Mungo-whatsit." Kitty, or Mungojerrie, hissed at him.

"I slightly don't think it matters," Slightly retorted, leaning his head against Billy's shoulder. "Let's just go already, okay?"

Billy nodded weakly. "Yeah. Let's go. Follow the cat, cullies."

"Silky. Even better name for a cat," Pyewacket said. "I have yet to meet you formally, human," Pyewacket told Billy as the five companions set off slowly into the woods, either limping or stumbling their way along.

"And I think I'm not looking forward to it, brownie," Billy grumbled back.

Ahhhh, so there you are…I thought I would find you here…

Peter moaned softly, his brow creased as invisible hands slipped across his face, poking and prodding at his skin. He couldn't escape them, they were persistent and no matter which way he turned his head they were there, touching him. He bared his teeth.

"Let me alone," he whispered. His entire body was frozen, and no matter how hard he tried he couldn't move any of his limbs aside from his head. He could barely even raise his voice above a whisper. It wasn't often that he was in such a situation, but now that he was, he found that he really didn't like it at all.

I don't think so, Pan. I have business with you that can't be put aside.

The voice came from nowhere. It had no body, no form, and it echoed in the darkness that surrounded him. Peter bristled.

"Who are you?" he hissed.

Your worst nightmare. The voice replied. Peter could almost feel it smirking at him, and he raged inside. Ah, Pan, to see you in such a vulnerable state is a joy to me. You have no idea what it is like to be weak and unable to defend yourself. How does it feel?

Peter didn't deign the voice with an answer and instead scowled into the darkness.

You're being obstinate, I see. The voice laughed delightedly. It will be such fun to break you. To see you squirm, and cry, and scream. Not that I'll let you, mind you. I rather like seeing you unable to even shriek.

"Who are you?" Peter demanded again.

I could answer that, but I have a question for YOU.

Peter frowned, his eyes narrowed. The hands poked at him again and he jerked his head away. "What question?" he asked darkly.

How are your friends doing?

"My…what?"

The voice barked another laugh. Do you not have any friends, Pan? Last I heard you had a whole troop of idiot children ready to follow your every whim.

Peter snarled. "I have friends!"

Do you know where they are?

"I…they're at home."

Not all of them. Am I correct in assuming that your current situation is mostly due to the fact that you were looking for one of them?

"What's it to you?"

Well…I am a source of information, Pan. I have many connections that allow me to see everywhere, all at once. You may not know where your friends are, but I do. ALL of them.

Peter felt a knot growing in his stomach. "What are you getting at?" he asked quietly.

Oh, just that some of them are having quite a hard time fending for themselves out there in the wilds of Never Land. Say, for instance, that blonde boy of yours. What was his name? Oh yes…Slightly.

Before Peter's eyes a great ball of flame exploded, sending a shower of sparks raining everywhere. His eyes widened as an image appeared within the flames.

Slightly sitting on a rock in the forest, a cat on the ground in front of him. The pirate Bill Jukes approaching, looking worried. Slightly wincing in pain as Jukes looked at his foot, which appeared to be injured. Birds circling in the sky, their eyes gleaming and with strange, ugly slug-things perched on their backs. Circling, swarming about above the two boys.

Oh dear, the birdies appear to be somewhat angry at your friend and that pirate boy. I wonder what they are going to do?

"No," Peter whispered. "No! Slightly, look out…the birds!"

The birds attacked. Jukes pushed Slightly to the ground, covering the blonde with his body in an effort to protect him. Blood everywhere, Jukes fainting and the birds covering the entire area in feathers and thick bodies. The last image was of Slightly burying his face into Jukes' hair, screaming.

Then it was gone.

"You…you…what have you done?" Peter tried to scream, but his voice was forced into the tiniest of hisses. His eyes blazed angrily. "What happened to him? Tell me! I order you to tell me!"

The voice laughed again. Oh dear no, Peter. I think not. I have something else to show you.

Peter snarled silently as another image appeared within the flames. Peter blinked. The Indian camp? What could this voice thing possibly show him…His eyes widened.

Millions of those ugly black slug things he saw on the backs of the neverbirds were crawling their way through the forest and into the camp. They slithered and crept their way along, squashing themselves flat and slipping beneath tent flaps.

"What…are those?" Peter whispered, his eyes growing wide as he watched the slugs creep up to unsuspecting Indians. He saw their eyes go blank upon first touch of the slug-things' slimy bodies, and he watched in horror as the creatures slimed their way up to perch on the back of their necks.

Those are my personal servants…A smile was in the voice's voice. They are quite useful to me.

Peter's horror grew tenfold as he saw Tiger Lily walking through the camp with a big lump under her shirt. She moved like there was nothing around her, and when he saw where she was headed he tried to scream.

"No! Stop it! Leave them alone!"

Tiger Lily attacked her brother, attempting to bring him over to servitude. Hard-To-Hit struggled beneath her, and the image faded out before Peter knew whether or not Hard-To-Hit escaped.

Peter stared at the blank flames where the image had been, worry for his friends rushing through his veins like wildfire. His chest heaved and his eyes blazed with fury as he snarled at the shadows. "How dare you!" Again, his voice was diluted to a small whisper. That only served to infuriate him more, and he tried struggling against his invisible bonds. "Leave my friends alone!"

Ahh, but Peter, I have such lovely plans for them. Especially that little girl…Wendy, her name is.

Peter went rigid. "You leave Wendy alone," he hissed, his voice dropping low of its own accord. It was a threat, not a warning, and it promised serious bodily harm should it be ignored.

She's quite a pretty thing, is she not? I can see why you like her so much. Perhaps my pets need a mother, of sorts. She would be the perfect candidate.

"Wendy is our mother and you can't have her!" Peter tried to shout.

Pan, you don't seem to understand that whatever I want, I get. And I've taken a fancy to that lovely little thing. Now just sit back, relax, and watch…

Peter didn't have a choice, and as the ball of flame exploded once more to bring up new images, a wild, untamed scream of denial and fury ripped from his throat, roaring through the darkness and out into the light.