Up Where We Belong
Peter
The forest flashes past my vision as I sprint through the undergrowth. A bird call shrills through the trees but I keep running. I lift my feet to fly but nearly fall on my face instead. I think once about calling out to Tink, but think against it since I'm being followed. Number one rule to Cops and Robbers: never call for help. Especially when you lose at 'no-nose-goes' and have to be the robber who steals Hook's hook.
The growl of pirates makes my heart skip a beat as I run even faster. Pirates are not graceful creatures, but even less so on land than the high seas. The call of the lost boys rings in my ears. Not only are the pirates after the hook, but the lost boys are after the robber. I would feel a whole lot safer it was merely the boys… then the game would be fair.
I lift my feet again. No luck with flying. I stumble on a tree root and catch myself by putting both hands in front of me and catching the trunk of a tree. I turn around just in time to duck under the knife of a bulky pirate. I watch a couple hairs fall from the top of my head as the pirate laughs.
"Hand it over boy!" he growls. Pirates seem to be appearing from out of nowhere. From behind trees, rocks, bushes, or simply the mist that surrounds Pirate's Cove. My breath catches as Captain Hook appears from the mist, hiding under his wide brimmed hat. I stay completely still as he comes closer and closer. "I said, hand it over," the big pirate growls more softly, but twice as menacing.
"Ow!" I turn sharply from the pirate to Hook who is rubbing his head and cursing to the air. The glint of a fairy appears over our heads. I smile at the light as the pirates point their guns at the sky. Tinkerbell sticks out her tongue and flies back into the trees. I watch the pirates warily. One shoots the air causing Captain Hook to swear again. "Hudson!" he bellows. "Why in God's name are you wasting ammunition?"
"I didn't mean it capm'," the wiry pirate hangs his head. Captain Hook hits him over the head with his good hand as a stone strikes his skull.
"Ow!" he screams again and takes the lowly pirates gun from him and aims wildly into the vegetation.
"You'll never find them!" I taunt, earning a blow to the stomach from the burly pirate still holding a knife to me. "Never!"
"Will you be quiet?" Hook yells back, now holding the gun to his hip. "I'm trying to kill some children and you, Peter Pan, are getting in my way!"
"Isn't that the point?" I lean back towards the tree and away from the knife held to my neck feeling more relaxed then I've felt all day. Hook stands there with his mouth hanging half open. "Is the codfish speechless?"
A bald man lets out a small laugh, but before I can breathe, the man his dead with a bullet through his skull. Captain Hook waves the gun at the rest of his crew and they back up holding up their hands. "Anyone else?" he bellows. "Come one, might as well teach you sea dogs a lesson in manners!" he shoots the man next to me with a grunt. The man drops his knife and holds his chest tightly.
"But… Capm'…" he gasps.
"You're all useless!" Captain Hook tells his crew. He turns to them with vengeance in his eyes. I watch the back of his greasy head for a couple second before slowly inching around the tree. I make a mad dash for the check point at the Indian Village.
I stumble on roots and rocks as I climb the steep hill to the ring of tee-pees. The pirates must not have noticed that I'm missing yet since no one seems to be following me on my struggle. "Come on!" I try jumping a little off the ground. "Why won't you work?" I fall back down and clutch the side of the cliff like a life line. "Happy thoughts… happy thought…." Nothing. An Indian call comes from the bottom of the hill and I glance down to see Slightly pointing up at me while the rest of the lost boys catch up. Tinkerbell's glow comes from one of the boy's shoulders as she watches me carefully.
I shake my head and keep climbing. I can hear Slightly behind me yelling for Tootles, Nibs, Cubby, and the twins to catch up but I ignore them all together in order to reach the village before they do. Rocks shift under me as I climb higher and higher. I lift my hand up one more time to feel grass and soil under my palm. Slightly yells something from below and I hoist myself up onto flat land.
I look up to see the lost boys standing in front of me with their hands on their hips.
"It's over Peter!" Nibs steps forward.
"Yeah, we've won, and you've lost!" Slightly joins him. The rest of the lost boys step forward nodding their heads in unison.
"Come on fellas!" I put up my hands in surrender. "No need to be like that!"
A sharp bird call comes from behind the boys. I glance over them, being the tallest, and smile at the face of the Indian princess, Tiger Lily. "Catch!" I call to her. The lost boys turn their heads abruptly behind them as I throw the hook over their heads and towards Tiger Lily. She catches it and waves it in the air. I start running past the lost boys before they can say "codfish."
I snatch the hook from Tiger Lily and start to run towards the totem pole. The hawk on the top seems to be glaring at me as he predicts his fate. I stop mid stride as the boys hover over me menacingly. I watch them for a moment, then chuck the hook towards the hawks face. Each boy comes back to the earth gently as they watch the silver hook shine in the sunlight as it twirls towards the totem pole.
"Bull's eye," I announce. Tiger Lily gives my middle a quick squeeze as her father comes out of his tent. I put up my hand in the customary greeting and he returns it with a satisfied nod. The boys shrug and start to return home.
The old tree that we live in takes twenty minutes to walk from the Indian Village and back. Each lost boy seems to collapse as soon as we get through the door. Tinkerbell hovers above us with her hands on her hips. "Lazy… good for nothing," is all I can make out before she disappears into her room behind a leaf.
I sit in the bear skin chair with a satisfied grin spread out across my features.
Hours pass and the boys slowly make their way to their hammocks and cots before beginning to snore. I make my way carefully across the floor of sleeping bodies to where Tink's light is glowing from behind a leaf. I pull back the curtain between her and the boys gently, as not to startle her, and poke my nose inside.
Tinkerbell has her blond hair draped down her back and a little silver brush in her hands. She turns around from looking at herself in the shell I gave her last year when she almost had her light put out. She smiles a little and puts the brush down.
"Is something wrong?" she asks in her bell-like voice.
"Nothing's wrong," I whisper back. Tink shrugs her shoulders knowingly and turns back to the shell to examine her face. She prods her cheeks and squishes her face up and down. "Nothing's wrong," I whisper a little louder.
"Who are you trying to convince?" Tink stands up and puts her hands on her hips. Her foot taps impatiently on the mushroom she's standing on. "Me or you?"
"No one!" I insist.
Tinkerbell nods with a silly smile on her face saying "uh-huh." Tink struts over to the other side of her little room and steps into her hammock while her wings help her to keep balanced. She lies down with her hands behind her head.
"Tink?"
"Peter?"
"Why couldn't I fly today?" I ask quietly as not to wake the lost boys. Not that they would wake anyhow since Cubby seems to be filling the whole room with noise.
"I don't know," she shrugs, closing her eyes as if she were about to fall asleep.
"Yes you do!" I argue.
"Well, were you thinking happy thoughts?"
"YES!"
"Then I don't know!" she props herself up on one elbow. I wait quietly and watch Tinkerbell settle back down. "I don't know…" she mumbles. "Maybe something bad happened."
"What do you mean?"
"I don't know."
"Stop saying that!"
"Well what am I supposed to say?" Tinkerbell stands up and pokes my nose with one jabbing finger. "That maybe someone died, or got hurt or maybe sick! Sometimes it's a little hard to believe in those times whether you know about it or not."
"D-do you think we should go to London…?" I spread out my palms in desperation. Tinkerbell crosses her arms and shakes her head. "Just to make sure everyone's okay?"
"Like Wendy?" she demands.
"Maybe!" I walk away from her room and sit on my own bed with my legs and arms crossed. The fur prickles at my legs and I flop over on my back in desperation for a comfortable spot. "It's one thing for Wendy to grow up… but dead?" I choke silently. "Or Jane…"
"Peter?" I very tiny hand places itself on my cheek. I turn away from it. "Peter, don't cry," she whispers, landing in from of me. "I could be wrong."
"I'm not cryin'!" I wipe away a few stray tears from my cheeks violently. I open my eyes to see Tink glowing in front of my face. She sits with her legs crossed and her hands on her knees. "Besides," I gulp. "What if you aren't wrong? What then?"
"There's only one way to find out," she stands up and holds out her hand.
"But I can't fly."
"Has that ever stopped us before?" she smiles.
I think back to every adventure I had ever had with my fairy by my side. How many times we got in trouble with Captain Hook, Wendy, and Jane… the lost boys, or the boys from Newberg's. I smile meekly back at Tink and shake my head. Tink laughs and grabs my shirt collar firmly and leads me out of the tree house.
~The question: Is this based on Peter and The Starcatchers, or the original Peter Pan? Well, the answer is: a little bit of everything. Since Jane is a Disney character (I think, correct me if I'm wrong) and the name for the lost boy Curly which will be Cubby since that's the Disney name. But Molly will be mentioned, and the theories from Peter Pan's original book will be present! :D Hope that's a good answer.
Anyways, I wanted to have Peter show the effects of Wendy's sickness and I thought the biggest way to show that was the inability to fly. Deep in his mind he knows what's going to happen to her, and for that, sad thoughts have rooted him to the ground. All very cool, I know :)
Sorry these chapters take so long, but I'm trying to make it my best! REVIEW! *please*