AN: Here is the next chapter! It is told by Selene, a character that I added to the Once Upon a Time world. I hope you enjoy reading her as much as I enjoy writing her!
Selene: "Your majesty, a new ship has appeared in the Northwestern Sea."
"Is it any ship that we have had contact with in the past?" Selene questioned nobody in particular, as if a new ship landing in Neverland waters was something that happened every day. She knew that she could easily look at the model of the land and the immediately surrounding ocean that was right in front of her and easily place the mysterious ship to any of the twenty-some ones that had been in her realm in the last two thousand years, but the seven boys before her were being trained for the very elite post of watching over the island. Guardian, they had come to call it. And if a boy can't identify a ship, especially if it is known to carry pirates, they were not fit to be a Guardian.
"It appears to be the Jolly Roger, your majesty," Luke responded before anybody else could regain their composure after witnessing the monumental event of a ship appearing in Neverland from another realm, let alone being able to get a good look at the small replica. He is definitely going, wait, Selene thought. What the hell is the Jolly Roger doing back in Neverland waters? Shit.
"No," she gasped, pushing herself in between two of the Guardian hopefuls and placing her fingers on the edge of the display. The lukewarm water didn't do anything to cool down her suddenly heated mood or prevent the chill that took over the room and left small bumps on her arms. She let out a held in breath and smiled at the boys to assure them that nothing was wrong. Of course the Jolly Roger being back in Neverland was a huge problem. But they absolutely did not need to know that. Pirates were a vile species that she had learned to deal with brillianty in her lifetime. But she couldn't help but remember that the only crew of pirates that she had ever had a problem with resided on the Jolly Roger.
Shit, she thought again, trying to think of something to tell these boys reassure them that she was in complete and total control of the situation at hand, just like she always was, or at least appeared to be.
"How many days are they away from reaching land safely?" Selene questioned the boys, making it look like she had willed the ship to appear in the realm just so she could test the skills they were learning to be given this new rank.
"Three days if they are aware of the mermaids that live near the Northwest Shore and change course right away so that they land on the Western Shore. And, if you don't mind me asking, what makes you think that it is the crew's intention is to reach land?" Luke questioned before she could even run he had just given her through her head.
I may just take this kid out of the Guardian running and promote him to a Personal. This is the kind of kid I want protecting me at all times.
She took a deep breath and began to answer his quickly spoken question. "To start, the Jolly Roger is the only ship that has ever threatened the crown more than once and lived long enough to tell the tale. And as I recall, they spent the latter half of the three hundred years in this realm trying to find a way out; beginning a devastating war in the process. I don't think they would come back just to aimlessly sail around without making any trouble."
"What are we going to do," a timid boy, Mason she believed, spoke with worry.
"We are going to do nothing. I, on the other hand am going to wait until they set foot on land and arrest their captain," she replied confidently. The boys around her looked slightly less scared than they had a second before. They had confidence in her. She had never done anything since they had been here to make them think any differently.
"Well, I will turn you back over to Artie to finish your lesson. I'm sure that you will all have much more interesting things to talk about now than what you usually would have. Good luck to all of you," she said with a smile.
She was heading out the door to organize her thoughts and maybe come up with a better plan of action than what she had just shared when she passed Artie, the first boy to come to the island after she herself had arrived. "Keep a weather eye on that ship and let me know if anything unexpected happens," she whispered close to his ear so the trainees couldn't hear. They did not need to know that she may not be in total control of the situation. She knew that Artie already knew that something big was going to happen and he had complete confidence in her especially after her last encounter with the Jolly Roger's captain.
"Will do, m'lady," he said; a reassuring smile stretched across his still young face.
She kept walking and then stopped suddenly and turned around on her heel. "Hey, Artie," she said innocently.
"Wha-," he started, unable to finish because at that instant Selene flicked her fingers, still wet from gripping the edge of the three dimensional map, in Artie's direction and catching him completely by surprise.
He quickly recovered, and, with a smug look on his face, said, "I don't know if I've told you boys before, but rule number one of the Guardian Room is no touching the ocean water. That means definitely no splashing or flicking said water. The consequence of breaking this rule is being banned from the Guardian Room forever." He looked quite pleased with himself after he finished, a few boys snickering in the background.
"Well, I don't recall if I told you, Artie, but rule number one of this kingdom is that I get to do whatever I want." Selene grinned as she forgot completely about the state of emergency that they were going to be slaves to over the next few days and walked over to Artie.
She ruffled his red hair that he liked to keep two inches longer than regulation. "I think you need a haircut, boy."
"If I cut it you won't have as much fun running your fingers through it every time you see me." He grinned knowing that there was no way that she was going to disagree with him. She had made him cut his hair to regulation length once the entire time he had been on the island and he knew she quickly regretted the decision.
"Maybe if you tell me how you get it so soft, I would be able to touch my own hair instead of yours," she smirked as she instinctively brought her hand up to touch her own hair that was only a few inches longer than Artie's.
"It's a secret, m'lady. And who told you that I didn't like you touching my hair. Massages my scalp," he finished with a playful wink.
The boys who had just moments before been trying to stifle their snickers in fear of being punished burst out in laughter. It felt good to laugh. Even though she was the only girl on an island full of boys that never grew up, she felt that she didn't get enough opportunities to laugh and feel young like this. At least this is what she believed that feeling young felt like. Even when she was just learning to walk, she had been expected to be presentable and had been taught politics even before she could understand them. She never had a spare second to laugh.
Her laughter began to trail off at these thoughts and when she gazed over to the small boat bobbing up and down in the mock ocean she was reminded of the real reason she was on the island. That reason was not to mess around with the boys.
"Ok, boys, time to get back to your lesson. Be glad that you guys all get to train for the Guardian position now, because it seems that this room may get very interesting foreseeable future." She nodded to Artie in complete seriousness. They both knew that they would be seeing each other very soon. With the stakes this high, taking up permanent residence in the room simply to keep up to date on the situation began to sound like a good idea, even if the boat would simply be bobbing up and down in place for the next few hours.
She made her way to the door and turned around once again. "I don't believe that I need to remind you all that knowledge of everything that happens in this room is given out on a need to know basis. At the moment, nobody else needs to know," Selene explained with a stern expression and she left the room only when she heard as chorus of "Yes, your majesty"s and the sound of Artie beginning to hammer the boys with questions about the Jolly Roger and her crew. These boys were about to witness history first hand. She desperately hoped they were ready for it.
I hope I'm ready for it, she silently thought as she walked through the halls towards and towards her room.
"Your majesty," Felix said with a bow as she approached.
"Felix, I'm going to need you to tell a few of the best Sneakers to get a bag ready and come to see me immediately. We are expecting company in a few days and I want them to be personally escorted to the castle the second they make land."
"Ugh!" Selene screamed into her pillow as she flopped onto her bed. After a few thousand years she had gotten really good jumping from the foot of her bed and landing face first into the stack of pillows at the front. She figured out quickly that it took a combination of the right diving angle and the slightest amount of hovering to get her all the way across the bed without getting her feet caught on the foot board. Just another one of the perks of being able to fly.
The Jolly Roger being back in Neverland waters and being the sole person who has to deal with the problem was definitely not one of the perks of her job. Hence the muffled scream.
The ship wasn't going to make land for another three days at least and then who knows where the crew was planning to go. It doesn't matter where they want to go, Selene thought. I'll have some of my boys take care of them before they have a chance to pull out their swords.
Selene knew that she wasn't going to be able to scoff at their misfortune in front of them for at least a week. A long week at that. In retrospect, a week wouldn't be a long time at all. She had been on the island for centuries; living longer than her people thought the gods had. She would have despaired long ago that everyone she had ever loved would be dead by this point if everyone she had ever love hadn't died before she first arrived on Neverland.
She lifted her head from her pillow to gaze at the sundial on her bed table. She had two more hours until dinner. She had at least fifteen minutes until Felix would be back with Sneakers to be briefed. Fifteen minutes to stop moping around and come up with something to tell the Sneakers when they arrived.
Selene flipped over off of her bed and headed towards the model castle on a pedestal in the center of the room. Just like the island in the Guardian room showed where people were on other parts of the island, the miniature castle showed where all of her boys were on the grounds. She peered into the Guardian room and saw that Artie was still teaching the GITs (Apparently git was some sort of funny word in another realm. A few of the boys started using it and it stuck.).He was flailing his arms this way and that to emphasize the point he was trying to make; looking completely ridiculous in the process.
While she thought that she had only gazed at the sight for a few moments, she must have been mistaken as she heard a curt knock on her door. Sure enough, as she glanced over to the other side of the castle she saw that Felix had found himself five Sneakers to help prevent a war between the crown and the pirates of the Jolly Roger and they had arrived at her door sooner than she thought they would.
"I wasn't expecting you guys so soon!" She opened the door and greeted the boys, realizing that she must have been lying on her face feeling sorry for herself longer than she thought she had. She waved the group in and towards the chairs to the side of her bed. The room intended for formal meetings such as this was never given the chance to fulfill its purpose, so occasions when she had to sit down with only a few boys privately always seemed more relaxed than they should have been. Once they had sat down she took her place on her bed facing them.
"Felix, what are you doing standing?" Selene implored. She knew the answer as well as she knew that he would not sit down no matter how much she begged.
"Can't, your majesty. You know the rules," Felix said. Even through all of his seriousness, she could see a smile behind his words. She had asked him a hundred and one times to sit when he was in her presence and her refused a hundred and one times.
"Felix, I have been on this island for almost two and a half centuries and nothing bad has ever happened because someone sat in my presence. You don't need to be ready to defend me against assassins in every waking moment. " Felix looked down at his feet to hide his smile. "No one has ever been punished for smiling either. Keep that in mind," she winked and switched back into seriousness in less than a second.
"Ok boys, we have a situation on our hands. Before I go any further into detail, can you confirm that you are the best Sneakers in the force, pledge that you will not disclose the information I am about to give you about this mission to anybody and vow to successfully complete the mission at all costs?" she asked without taking a breath and adding a smile. She learned that adding a smile almost always gets you what you want.
"Yes, your majesty," all five of the Sneakers replied in unison. Sneaking was one of the most popular occupations for boys newer to the island. It was one of the few jobs that was advertised as adventurous instead prestigious like Guardians and Personals were even though the training was even more physically and mentally demanding. A Sneaker had to be able to outsmart as well as out battle an enemy as necessary. There were a fair number of Sneakers, but only a few really good ones. If Felix had picked these five boys, she knew that they were telling the truth.
"All right then. Your mission will be to fly to where the Western and Northwestern regions meet at the sea. In about three days, a ship will make land and dock. You are to follow the crew for as long as you can while making sure that they are headed towards the castle. Listen to their conversations and learn as much about them as you can about them. You are not to make yourselves known until you are a half days walk from here. Then you will escort them the rest of the way here. You can expect that they will not go without a fight, but try not to be hostile unless you have to. Savvy?" I hope this is a good plan, she thought. It was very hard giving orders to boys for a mission when you were not completely sure what the situation was yourself.
The boys nodded, still comprehending the orders that had been given to them. "Bennet, as you are the senior in this group, you are to be leading the mission. I expect regular reports. You are to take a messenger hawk with you when you depart, which will be right after dinner. Don't get too comfortable in your camp because your orders may change at any time depending on which way the ship moves. The West/Northwest border is the best estimate we have at the moment. I do not know of the number of men on the Jolly Roger, so I would be prepared for a fight when you do reveal yourselves."
"The Jolly Roger?" one of the boys, Javier gasped. He had come to the island near the end of the conflict with the infamous pirates. Of course they would seem like the most gruesome people in all of the realms when the crown had not been in a conflict since.
"Yes, the Jolly Roger is back in Neverland waters. One of the reasons that this mission is classified is to not bring panic to the rest of the kingdom. If anybody is to ask you about this mission before you leave tonight, you are to tell them that it is a practice exercise. The only other people on the island that know about this situation are the Guardians and a few GITs. I trust that you can get this done swiftly and quietly as to keep the war fever to a minimum," Selene replied.
She could tell that she did not quench the boy's fears as planned. She needed these boys to be afraid of their mission in some capacity. It had been proved many times in her many years in Neverland that fear made her boys preform much better than when they were not. It kept them from losing their heads in faux confidence and made them even more determined to succeed in the task at hand.
"Any other questions about your mission?" she asked to no reply. "Ok, then. Pack your bags and make any other arrangements that you need to before you leave. Keep me updated with any new developments. We will be monitoring your progress from the Guardian room. May the gods look after you on your journey."
They all five stood and bowed before they exited the room. Sometimes Selene wished that there was not a protocol for how she was supposed to interact with the boys when there was business to attend to. If it was not frowned upon, she would hug them all and wave to them as they left the castle. Alas, she was a ruler and not a mother to the boys even though on occasion she wished it was the opposite.
How do you guys like Selene? Who do you think she is (if she's anyone at all)? But most importantly, what happened years ago with the captain of the Jolly Roger? I wonder...
Thanks for reading and following! I hope you all like this jumble of emotions that I can't seem to stop coming out of my fingertips as much as I like seeing that people are actually reading said jumbled emotions. :0)