Disclaimer: I do not own Shugo Chara! nor do I own Peter Pan.
Chapter 3: Neverwood
There was too much green suffocating the earth. Deep olive grass clung to the earth that rested underneath a ceiling of emerald leafs dripping from branches of trees blanketed with wet, green moss. The shrubbery was so thick that only a small bit of sunlight could seep in to light up and warm the forest.
Way, way too much green.
Amu leapt over a fallen tree and nearly tripped over herself as she ran in between trees and through streams. Gasping for breath, her chest rose and fell quickly. She paused to lean against a nearby tree, plastering her back to the trunk. Her heart hammered in her ears and her fingers tingled as they unconsciously picked at the pieces of bark behind her.
Glancing around to the other side of the trunk, Amu breathed out deeply as she let her eyes close. She had taken off running as soon as she realized that her hiding spot had been revealed to the four strange boys. For all she knew they could have taken her captive. That blue-haired one was suspicious enough. The rest were just plain crazy. The last thing Amu wanted was to be kidnapped by four strangers in a strange world she had never been to before.
As her breathing became more regular, Amu ran her fingers through her hair and tugged at it in agitation.
"I'm going to die from all this green. I bet this place is just swarming with mountain lions and sabre-toothed tigers!" She whined to herself, nervously fiddling with her lock necklace. She glanced uneasily over her shoulder to make sure no beasts were lingering behind her. "Where am I?"
Soft chirps of birds and rushing water answered her.
A soft thud reached Amu's ears as she moved to sit down. Her eyes widened as a pink egg rolled to a stop just beside her foot. A moment passed as she stared at the egg laced with heart designs. Quickly looking from the egg then to the space in between her legs, her jaw dropped as her eyes bulged. She stumbled away from the egg and tripped over herself, crashing through a bush and falling to the dirt in a heap of cries.
Coughing, the pinkette pushed herself up to stare at the egg in wonder. She did not just give birth to a pink, heart-decorated Easter egg, did she? Amu shook her head to get rid of such absurd thoughts. This was definitely a unique welcoming gift. 'Welcome to our land, here's the ability to crap an egg at random!'
Amu sat up a little straighter once the egg started cracking on its own, her eye twitching as she stared at it suspiciously. With a small 'pop' the egg burst open and out flew a tiny human-like creature who stared back at her with wide, pink eyes and hair that resembled her own.
A grin broke out on its little face.
"Amu-chan!"
Amu cried out at the top of her lungs and scrambled to her feet, not expecting the thing to be able to speak.
The fairy-like thing flailed its arms in an attempt to show she meant no harm. "Amu-chan, Amu-chan! It's okay, I won't hurt you!"
Amu pried open one of her squeezed-shut eyes and peered around the shield she created with her arms. The thing was clad in all pink, from her shoes to the pompoms in her hands, with her pink sun visor proudly bearing a large, red heart. It paused in the air and just seemed to realize that Amu had no idea what it was.
"I'm Ran, your guardian character!"
Amu was still confused, and didn't bother hiding the fact, either. "You ran?"
"No, my name is Ran."
"I didn't know names were capable of running," Amu murmured, more to herself, as she slowly let her arms down so they no longer protected her face. Though she shouldn't have been surprised, as this place had tiny humans that flew so it was probably normal to have names capable of running away.
Ran paused to smack her forehead, "My name is Ran. I am called Ran." She stared at Amu until she understood.
Despite her thumping heart and curious fascination with this ordeal, Amu feigned indifference and rolled her eyes while brushing off her jeans.
"Well, Ran, I'm a little busy right now." She replied apathetically. She mentally kicked herself for not asking the questions that burned on her tongue.
Pushing aside thin branches of the bushes that blocked her line of vision, Amu began to resume her tread through the forest. She was wasting precious time required for escaping.
Ran's voice stopped her from getting too far.
"So it's true…you really aren't being your true self."
Amu's eyes widened briefly. Slowly turning around, her curiosity grew. "What you talking about?" She asked quietly.
Ran flew over to her, frowning. "Just now you wanted to ask me questions and go into full panic mode because you don't know where you are and because of that, you're scared. But to stay true to the image you've built for yourself over the years, you're pretending like everything is fine!"
No words were capable of forming on Amu's numb tongue as she stood in a wide-eyed silence in the middle of a bush. She stared dumbfounded. This flying thing knew too much for her own good. Everyone else she had met had fallen for the façade she had perfected over the years.
"How did-" she began, but Ran cut her off with an energetic flail of her pompoms.
"That's why I brought you here, Amu-chan!" she exclaimed happily. "I'm going to help you find your true self!"
There was silence between the two. Pompoms continued to bounce around happily while Amu's honey-coloured eyes sliced through the air. It took a moment for it to process, but once it did, something inside Amu snapped.
She reached out and grabbed the flying thing right out of the air, "You're responsible for taking me away from home and dumping me in a completely foreign place with strange boys who prance around like Indians?" She yelled, nearly chomping Ran's head off in the process.
Ran squirmed and wiggled to get out of Amu's death hold. "It's for your own good, Amu-chan! You're already showing more emotion than you have this whole year!" Ran declared happily, a slight waver in her voice from being yelled at.
Once realizing that Amu's grip wasn't loosening whatsoever, Ran sighed and tried a different approach.
"I'm a chara…we don't exist in your world so I had to bring you here for the time being. Time was running out and you're almost grown up so I had to act quickly. I exist only while you're still a kid."
Rubbing her temples, Amu exhaled sharply before glancing at the plants surrounding her. The plant life was suffocating. She was already sick of it.
"Where are we?"
"In the Neverwood…it's a forest!" Ran chirped, smiling widely.
Amu gave her an unimpressed glance. "Where is this forest located?"
"Oh, we're in Never Land!" The chara responded whilst floating about. "It's quite the magical place. From Mermaids' Lagoon to Crocodile Creek, everywhere you go there's an adventure! Just stay away from Pirate Cove… oh, the nasty people who poison Never Land live there. Pirates are the worst." Ran spoke with her cheery grin fading as she mentioned the pirates.
It took a moment for the dizzy spell to finally leave Amu alone. This was all too much to take in. It was impossible to believe that she had magically been teleported by a chara, who brought her to a place called Never Land, the home of pirates. Pirates only existed in fairy tales, not in every day life.
"I just want to be in a normal place again!" Amu groaned while pulling her hair. Although she wasn't too happy with her life back home, it was better than being uncomfortable with unfamiliar surroundings that loomed over her.
Amu was silent as Ran went on about how great Never Land was. She was warned to never be in the forest alone (like she was, currently) and not to go swimming at Mermaids' Lagoon at night.
"Oh!" Ran stopped her speech and halted in mid-air. "It isn't safe for us to be out here…"
Placing a hand on her hip, Amu arched an eyebrow. "You just noticed that?" She sent a wary glance over her shoulder.
Chuckling nervously, Ran readjusted her sun visor before clearing her throat. Searching her surroundings, she pointed in the direction Amu was originally headed, "That should take us to the Lost Boys!"
'Lost Boys…' it sounded so familiar.
Pushing her way through the forest, Amu jumped and shrieked every time Ran screamed bloody murder at the sight of a bug.
After getting Ran to tell her more about Never Land, the screams became less frequent, which Amu's ears were grateful for.
The pinkette's interest grew when Ran started speaking of the mermaids. Apparently they were friendly to few and when you weren't on their good side, it'd be best if you stayed as far away from their lagoon as possible. When the sun went down, everything in the water changed for the worst, even the inhabitants. It was a death trap for swimmers.
They reached a clearing in the trees where the sun was finally visible. Amu happily let her scratched skin soak in a bit of heat as she slowed to a stop in the clearing.
Ran slowed as well. Growing silent, she examined the area with suspicion crossing her face. She didn't recognize this part of the trail. The Lost Boys' hideout was full of trees without a single clearing for miles. They had been going the wrong way. Ran figured they had either passed the hideout (that was doubtful), they were headed towards the Indian Camp, or…
A screech from Amu confirmed Ran's suspicion as her blood turned ice cold. Whipping around, she found Amu in a pitfall in the ground.
"Amu-chan!"
"Wh-what is this thing?" Amu panicked.
A large, cloth material was thrown overtop of the pinkette as cheers and gruff laughter erupted from the trees.
They had reached Pirate Cove.
Author's note: I'm so sorry it took me ages to update this. I'm going to start writing the next chapter now so that I can update a lot sooner. I don't know if I'll have Miki and Suu in this story, so stay tuned! Sorry I'm always leaving it at cliff hangers...heh... And if you have any requests as to what you would like to see happen in this story, feel free to let me know and I'll take it into consideration!