Chapter Ten
"Easy does it, Aralyne," said Peter carrying me through the air and landing on a boulder not far from Hook's ship. I continued to struggle with the ropes behind me, but unfortunately right when I got my left hand loose, it shot out of the sack right as Peter opened it up. "You should have seen Hook's face when I- Ow!" My fist accidentally connected with his cheek and he quickly pulled away.
"Ow! Ow! Ow, ow, ow!" I muttered crawling out of the sack and tending to the hand I had just injured hitting Peter Pan. "I'm sorry, Peter!"
We heard a loud boom and turned towards Hook's ship in time to see a cannonball heading our way.
"Look out!" Peter cried shoving me out of range and dodging the cannonball.
"Pan, you double-crossing pipsqueak! Come back here and fight like a man!" Hook shouted out.
"Come and get me, you old codfish!" Peter taunted. He suddenly grasped me and took off into the sky, "Come on. We gotta fly out of here."
"Wait! Where are we going?" I cried out in alarm.
Ignoring my question, Peter flew about and I realized we had arrived at Neverland. Wow! The pirates certainly wanted to get as far away as possible!
Peter took me to a rainbow and we ran our fingers over it, before flying through it and coming out all colorful. Peter took me to Skull Rock and I watched in amazement as flying fish jumped out of the ocean before we headed over to the Indian camp, and then to the Mermaid Lagoon. The mermaids had taken me from Peter and while two of them were charming her, a third tried throwing water on me , but Peter came to my rescue right away. "Hey, this is great. You can stay here forever," Peter declared as he hovered in the air on his back with me balancing on his knees.
"I can't," I said looking down at him, glad to have decided to wear short under my shirt, "I have to get back to Nesidy.
Peter ignored me and suddenly dropped me over a tree stump, and I fell down into a hollow, landing on a slide that took me deep underground to Peter's home. After soaring off the slide, Peter caught me and set me on my feet, feeling dazed by the sudden ride.
"That was fun, huh?" Peter said with a laugh, "Lost Boys, fall in!"
One by one the Lost Boys appeared out of nowhere performing dangerous stunts.
"Oh, careful! You're going to fall!" I cried running up to Tootles who was swinging upside down from a tree root. When I grabbed him, he struggled, causing me to fall over on the giant bed in the center of the room, and he scampered off.
"Sound off!" Peter said, and then the Lost Boys jumped into a line stating their names.
"Slightly!"
"Nibs!"
"The twins!"
"Ow!" cried Cubby when a bucket fell from the ceiling and landed on his head, "Cubby."
"And that's Tootles!" said Slightly pointing to the child dressed as a skunk.
The boys then spat into the palms of their hands and clasped them together in a multi-high-five.
"Eww," I said scrunching up my nose in disgust and trying not to vomit.
"Boys, this is Aralyne, remember?" said Peter reintroducing me to the others, "She's gonna stay here and be our new mother, and tell us stories."
"I'm not- What do you mean by—" I tried to protest, but my voice was lost to the boys jumping around and shouting at once.
"Yeah! Stories!"
"Tell stories!"
"Come on!"
"Um, actually, I'm afraid I'm not very good at telling stories," I said trying to weasel my way out of it.
"Ah, that's okay. We're not very good at listening to stories," said Cubby with a shrug.
"I know. Let's play a game instead," Peter suggested.
"Red rover! Red rover!" the Twins cried out gleefully.
"Nah. Something else," said Slightly.
"Let's play the no more hitting Cubby on the head game," Cubby said, then Nibs smirked and smacked him on the head.
"Hey, how about a treasure hunt?" Peter said, and again all of the Lost Boys spoke at once.
"Good idea!"
"Yeah! A treasure hunt!"
"I hid it really good this time. You guys will never find it," said Peter with a smirk. Again, they spoke at the same time.
"Sure we will!"
"Rubies!"
"Treasure! Treasure!"
"Diamonds!"
"Yeah, come on!"
"Let's go! Let's go!"
I couldn't handle this, being the only adult surrounded by children, and they were all so obnoxious! "No!" I said firmly looking at each boy in the face, "No, no, no, and no!" Tootles stuck his tongue out at me. Shaking my head, I stood up and said, "Ohh. I have to go." I walked out of the room down a hall way trying to find a way out of the den.
"What's the matter with her?" I heard Cubby inquire.
"I don't know," said Peter thoughtfully, "She acts kinda like a... grown-up."
"Eww!"
I shook my head at them. As much as I loved Peter and the Lost Boys, they could be so annoying some times!
Siren remained in the shadows as she watched Belle go about the town with a knife she had picked up somewhere and stabbed people without Mercy. The entire front of her blue dress was splattered with blood, creating a horrifying scene, especially with her deathly pale skin and glowing black eyes.
"Belle, stop this!" Jim Hawkins yelled, holding a long piece of rope. He had planned on using it to restrain her. She ignored him, and kept trudging forward, aimlessly waving the knife around.
Jim wasn't the only one that was carrying rope. Captain Amelia and John Smith each had the same idea he did. The two adults threw out their ropes and caught at Belle's arms, holding her pinned in place. Jim threw his, and it wrapped around Belle's throat. That should hold her!
With an unbelievable amount of strength, Belle jerked back, the ropes slipping out of Amelia's and Smith's hands. Jim held on tight to his, though, which he later on regretted. There was a sickening snap and Belle's head fell limply to the side. To their horror, she remained standing, and shook off the ropes about her arms, and cut off a portion of the one around her neck. It continued to hang about her throat, but at a shorter length, and she kept moving forward.
"Bloody hell!" Captain Amelia said.
Jim's eyes widened in terror at what just happened and took off running.
Siren laughed maniacally at the events transpiring. This turned out even better than she had imagined.
When people began bringing out weapons to destroy Belle, Siren pouted. Time to end her fun. She could't allow them to break her toys. With a sigh, Siren waved her hand and made Belle vanish, sending her into the dungeons of her castle.
"Where'd she go?" People began to shout out.
"Don't worry, little heroes," Siren purred, "We'll come back to play real soon."
After a couple of hours, I had managed to create a raft and collected enough supplies to last me a while. With luck, I would be able to make it back to Nesidy!
"Half-dozen bananas," I said going over a list I had created on a leaf with a piece of coal I found, "Check. Ten coconuts. Check. Two oars—"
"Hey, Aralyne," said Peter flying up to me and I turned to him slightly annoyed, "How come you want to go so bad?"
"I just have to," I replied.
"Why?"
Good question. I could just stay here. As childish as Peter was, he would never betray me, right? But deep down, I felt something was terribly wrong in Nesidy.
"Well, um, I can't really answer that," I said.
"Why not?"
With a sigh of irritation I said, "If you must know, I have a bad feeling about not returning to Nesidy."
"Why?"
"Because my evil side maybe off causing havoc somewhere," I said.
"What? Why?" Peter asked in shock.
"Well, oh, I don't know! Because she's evil?! But I have to get back and make sure everything is okay," I said.
"Why?"
"Because! That's why!" I finally snapped at him.
"Well, you know, you can't get home that way," Peter said gesturing to my poor makeshift raft.
"I- I've got to try," I replied quietly tucking a strand of hair behind my ear, "Well... good-bye. It was nice meeting you again, Peter Pan. Duty calls." I took the raft out onto the water and climbed onto it. After a few seconds of sailing, the boat sprung a leak and I ran to cover it up. Then another leak sprang up, and another, and another, and another. The entire rafter sank and I was left floating in the water with all of the bananas and coconuts I had collected for my journey.
"You okay?" Peter asked flying out to me.
"I just have to go home," I said quietly, blinking back tears.
If anything happened to my friends in Nesidy, it would be my fault because I wasn't there to protect them. Despite the fact they were all lying to me, I still cared about them.
"Well, you know, the only way out of here is to fly. Come on, I'll show you how," said Peter then grasped me around the waist and lifted me out of the water.
Captain Hook and his pirates sailed onto Neverland's shores and left their rowboats on the beach as they began their search. "Step softly, you worthless dogs! Set your sights for Aralyne!" Hook ordered, "There'll be no rest until we have that girl in irons."
Peter had taken me to a clearing where there was a small cliff, and had me perched on it for a minute. Down below, the Lost Boys were watching in fascination.
"Oh, no, Peter," I said when he had picked me up again, "I really don't think this will wo—" He dropped me and I landed on my knees on the cliff. With a sigh of relief, I continued, "This is ridiculous. I can't fly!"
"Well, of course you can't, but I can! I guess I'm just smarter than you," Peter said with a smirk, lounging about on the air.
"I highly doubt that," I said with a snort.
"Braver."
"Right," I said rolling my eyes.
"Stronger!"
"Oh, yeah, that's it," I said sarcastically.
"Well, then it must be my good looks."
"Or maybe you're full of hot air," I said.
"Hey!" Peter cried, not put off by the insult, "Look, anybody can do it."
The Lost Boys spoke in turns as they floated in the air.
"Yeah! All it takes is faith—"
"Trust."
"And, uh, something else," Cubby said in thought.
"Pixie dust?" I suggested for him.
"That's it!" he exclaimed.
Peter produced a bag from his pocket and opened it, pulling out a handful of sparkly golden dust. He blew it all into my face.
"Now, that's enough!" I said as I accidentally inhaled a great deal of it, and sneezed.
"Okay, Aralyne," said Peter hovering around me with a sneaky grin on his face.
"Don't even think about it," I said eyeing him warily.
"Ready or not—" Peter cried shoving me off the cliff. I fell towards the ground screaming. Below me, the Lost Boys ran around talking at once.
"I got her!"
"I got her!"
"I got her!"
"I got her!"
"I got her!"
They stopped at random places waiting to catch me, and I painfully landed well out of their range in a heap.
"I thought you said you got her," said Cubby trying to place the blame on someone else.
I sat up with a groan and said, "Oh, how will I ever get back to Nesidy?"
"Hey, what's this?" said Peter picking up a golden ring that was lying on the ground. My hand automatically went straight to face, but found my fingers bare, knowing full well what the child was holding.
"Oh, give that back. It's my ring!" I declared getting to my feet and running towards Peter, "Grandpa gave that to me so I can get back to my own world! It's very important to me!"
"Huh! No wonder you can't fly," Peter said keeping it out of my reach with a large childish smile plastered on his face.
"Give it back, Peter," I demanded.
Peter tossed it to the nearest Lost Boy crying, "Slightly, catch!"
"Keep away from Aralyne!" said Slightly as he threw it to someone else. I chased after the Lost Boys as they threw the ring to each other, and I was really starting to lose my patience.
"I got it!"
"I got it!"
"You boys are horrid!" I screeched at them.
"Come on, come on, over here!"
"You're going to lose it!" I yelled in distress.
"Come on! Why don't you guys ever throw to me?" Cubby whined.
"No, stop it! This isn't funny!" I said tripping over my own feet and crashing to the floor.
"I've got it!" Cubby yelled finally catching the ring. Since I was near him, I grabbed his foot and yanked him down to the ground with me, and snatched the ring back.
"This is just a game to you, isn't it? Well, I'm tired of playing," I snapped angrily putting the ring back on my finger.
"Gosh, Aralyne, we didn't mean to make you mad," said Peter shrugging slightly.
"Oh, grow up. You did so," I said angrily getting to my feet and marching straight up to Peter, "You're just a bunch of silly, ridiculous children." I shoved him backwards, which surprised him. "Good-bye!" I stormed off out of the clearing.
"Oh, yeah? Well, good riddance! Hmm!" Peter huffed out.