Chapter Seven: Into His World

"Tinker Bell!" Peter called into the mist above us. A little light appeared between two clouds. "I found Rebecca! Let's go!" There was a quiet chime of what sounded like fast, angry bells, like the fairy was mumbling irritably to herself, probably about me. 'Not much I can do about that, though,' I thought to make myself feel better about her hard feelings toward me. Moving on, I looked at Peter with a nagging question in mind.

"Peter? Where is the second star to the right?" Peter grinned and I felt my arm yanked forward as we suddenly increased speed. Wind brought tears down my face, and I was loving the feeling of my hair being stretched behind me as far as it could go.

"Right there, Rebecca," I heard Peter tell me. I looked ahead as he pulled me up next to him pointed to two stars, the one on the right slightly bigger than the first, and both twinkling brighter than any other stars I had ever seen. I might have taken them both to be planets, but what two planets are aligned so perfectly, one just a bit bigger and sitting just to the right and higher of the other? Besides, I swear I felt some sort of magic in the air as we got closer, aside from the pixie dust. Nay, this was a feeling of adventure awaiting me only a little ways off. If adventure has a smell, it's...well, impossible to describe, really, but I was smelling it right there. It was a mix of salty sea, fresh air, rich soil, pine trees, sweat, a hint of blood, and magic. It was the smell of Neverland.

"Oh..." I whispered in wonder. "How have I never spotted those stars before? Or have I and I just didn't recognize them?"

"Maybe you just have to know where to look," Peter suggested, shrugging his shoulders. He was enjoying watching me as I was mesmerized with those two brilliant stars, but he soon was bored. "We're slowing down. Come on! The sooner we get there, the sooner the fun can start!" With that, he took off, no longer holding my hand, and it was all I could do to keep within at least 40 feet of him. I bit my lip. His absent-mindedness was so cute, but I did not like being left behind...at least, not in the transition between this world and his.

"Peter! Wait!" I shrieked. What happened next was…well, I had always believed in the impossible, but this experience would have made anybody believe that the impossible is possible. Peter was at my side in a second and I felt my hand in an iron grip.

"Rebecca. Look at me." I turned my eyes to face another pair of eyes that were both firm and playful. Whatever he had to tell me, I was all ears. "Do not let go." And with those four words, we took off.

"WHOA! AHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!" I screamed to the heavens. I held onto Peter's hand with both of my hands and it was all I could do not to let go! The temperature went very hot, and just when I thought I could not survive the heat, I was suddenly freezing. A flash of red and yellow, fiery colors, and then as black as anything can get, and tiny diamond lights all around me. I tried to gasp, and discovered that I could not. I couldn't breathe! Were we really going that fast? Now a mix of incredible heat and cold at the same time…my hands ached terribly from hanging on so tightly, but I did not dare loosen them. My grip was very nearly slipping as it was, and it would have slipped if not for Peter's amazing unyielding clutch. I attempted to scream Peter's name, but like I said, I couldn't breathe, hence, I could not talk. I couldn't really make any sound at all, nor could I hear anything expect for an incredible rush of wind and pressure like I had never experienced before. If the pressure in an airplane is uncomfortable, this was over a hundred times worse. My lungs were being flattened and I don't think I could have lasted another moment, but in that very next moment, I was free.

I breathed gratefully and coughed, still gripping Peter's hand with everything I had, but his hand loosened and we slowed. I looked around and saw delicate white puffs about to collide with my face. There was barely time for a gasp before I bounced upon the most comfortably soft material I had ever known. Peter released my hands, but my hands insisted on holding on steadfast, and I heard a laugh.

"You can let go of my hand, now, Rebecca." I slowly pried my fingers from around his palm, as they were literally in a finger lock. I forced them to stretch and un-clamp themselves, and then pushed myself into a kneeling position. Peter dropped to one knee in front of me. "Did ya like that?" He was smiling and my jaw was hanging open.

"Whoa…" I whispered. It took me a few seconds to collect my thoughts, and then I said, "That was bloody brilliant." Peter sat back and laughed.

"You handled it a lot better then some of the others I've brought with me!" I exhaled a sharp breath in a tiny laugh. I was just…dazed in amazement.

"Wow," I whispered, shaking my head from side to side ever so slightly. "I'm going to want to do that again!" Peter laughed harder.

"You just might be the first one who has said that!"

"Well, who wouldn't want to do that again?" I exclaimed, collapsing onto my back. Ooo, this stuff underneath me was incredible! "Peter, what is this?"

"What's what?"

"This," I replied, pointing at the fluff, and then looking over the edge and fully opening my mouth with a huge gasp in joy. I didn't even hear him say, "It's a cloud," which is a good thing because he said it in a tone that would have made me feel like an idiot. But I was too busy absorbing everything underneath us. The bluest and greenest mix of seawater glistened up at me, as if to welcome me. A wonderfully, perfectly green island balanced atop the water, holding up snow-capped mountains and the Indian Camp, and the Mermaid's Lagoon, and faint waterfalls and golden beaches, and oh yes, the surrounding water harboring Skull Rock and the Jolly Roger and radiant rainbows…

"Like it?" I looked to my right to find Peter leaning over the edge with me.

"It's…" I murmured. My head was shaking again. "It's…magical, Peter…" I whispered in elation.

"I'll take that to be a yes," he laughed. "Awesome, isn't it?"

"Eh, YA! It's past awesome. Try…try amazing, incredible, brilliant, beyond dreams!"

"Well, what are we waiting for, then?" Peter hopped off the cloud and at the moment I truly didn't care whether I fell into that glimmering water or floated in the air, so of course, as I jumped off after him, I floated, being so happy.

I was more startled then happy, however, as a thunderous crack exploded in my eardrums. A cannonball headed in my direction and I dove out of the way, head first into another cloud as the thing whistled past. I carefully looked over the tip of this next cloud, only to duck back down as another cannonball streaked into the sky.

"Rebecca, look out!" Peter called to me, and I just barely rolled out of the way as that cannonball shot through the cloud. "LASHER! I TOLD YOU NOT TO…ah, I've gotta go and talk to him. Rebecca! Tinker Bell will take you to the island. I'll catch up with you later. GO!" I nodded and rolled the rest of the way off of the cloud, wondering who this 'Lasher' was and chasing the tiny light through the air. Hook didn't have the Jolly Roger anymore, did he? Hadn't Peter defeated him and taken over the ship? More explosions sounded and I glanced back to see Peter headed toward the ship, dodging the cannonballs, seemingly not phased by the danger at all. He was so funny in that way, among so many other ways. I turned back to see the light far ahead of me disappear under the treetops.

"Tinker Bell, you are not going to fool me. Wendy, maybe, but not me!" I said. With that, I changed my route and headed for the Mermaid's Lagoon. I supposed I could land on the rocks there and walk around a bit until I found Peter or the Lost Boys. Perhaps I was being paranoid, but I was not about to succumb to a plot to be shot out of the sky. My plan worked.

As I neared the cliffs surrounding the lagoon, I looked back to see stones, sticks, and arrows shot at a very large bird passing over the trees, a kind of bird I had never seen before. It was black with sapphire blue and emerald green patches on its back and belly, and it looked as if it had dipped its wingtips in a pool of silver. As I admired it, an arrow pierced the poor thing's breast and it fell into the forest with a blood-curdling squawk. I shuddered at the sound, softly saying, "Poor bird. Well, this time, they actually did shoot a bird, at least, and not a human." I sank through the top of the forest and after landing, began to walk through the very dense greenery. It was beautiful. Smelled of every nature smell I can name, plus new ones that I suppose only exist in Neverland. "Now, how to find my way to the hideout. Wait a minute. Will there be a hideout? In the Disney, Hook bombs it, but in the book, he tries to poison Peter…" My first question about finding the hideout was answered.

"Rebecca!"

"I'm over here!" I called back, running toward Peter's voice. 'I'm going to have to get skillful at dodging all this foliage,' I thought as I tripped over a tree root and slammed my knee into the ground. I clenched my teeth against the sting and continued to run.

"Rebecca!" Another few seconds and I nearly crashed into Peter, skidding to a stop…I actually ended up slipping on the dewy leaves under my feet and I fell on my bum at Peter's feet and laughed.

"Ouch," I chuckled. He gave me a hand up, laughing with me.

"Are you okay?"

"Yep. I'm fine."

"What happened there?" I looked down to where he was pointing and spotted a patch of dirt on my pajama pants over my right knee, the one I had slammed into the ground.

"Ah, I just tripped. No big deal," I said, dropping onto my left knee and snatching up my pant leg to see the damage. It was skinned and there were little bits of blood. Nothing huge. I pushed my pant leg back down, shrugging, and stood. "Don't worry about it. It's nothing," I told Peter. He looked at me strangely.

"Normally girls completely freak out when they see blood," he commented. I laughed.

"Not me! I guess I have a stronger stomach or something. Blood is usually no big deal to me."

"Huh. All right, then, come on. I'll show ya my home." He took my left hand and started to lead me through the forest. "Say, why didn't ya follow Tinker Bell?"

"Um, Peter, she would have had the Lost Boys shoot me down is why."

"No, they shot down tonight's dinner."

"Thinking it was me," I insisted.

"Tink wouldn't do that." His tone made my assumption sound ridiculous.

"She did it to Wendy, did she not?" I retorted.

"Oh. Yeah, but she wouldn't do it again. She knows better now."

"Whatever you say, Peter," I relented, still feeling fairly sure that Tink had meant for the boys to shoot and kill me instead, but I didn't comment on it any further, as I didn't see a point in pursuing the matter. Then something else occurred to me. "Peter, didn't you defeat Hook?"

"That codfish? Yeah, why?" Peter asked.

"Well, who was shooting those cannonballs, then?"

"Oh. Lasher. It's a game between us; he shoots the cannons while I dodge them. It's a lot of fun, but I've told him time and time again not to do it when I've got someone with me," Peter told me, rolling his eyes and shaking his head. 'Huh, a game involving dodging cannonballs. How…like Peter Pan to take such risks,' I thought amusedly, shaking my own head.

"Say, who's Lasher?"

"One of the Lost Boys. He's the tallest, next to me, but his twin sister is my second-in-command." 'New Lost Boys…excellent!' I thought excitedly. I certainly liked the ones I knew from the stories, but new ones were quite intriguing.

"What of the crocodile? Is he still around?" I asked curiously.

"Don't know about that. Haven't seen him since he chased Hook into the sunset. I think he swallowed the codfish…but I'm not sure what happened to the crocodile after that. All I know is that Hook is gone." Peter smiled broadly with this last confident statement.

"Oh! Poor thing!" I said with concern.

"Hook?!" Peter stopped short and whirled around to face me, shocked and appalled.

"No! The crocodile!" I quickly clarified, not liking the look on his face at all. "I mean, his insides could have been damaged if Hook clawed him. I'm not sorry for Hook!"

"Oh. Good." Peter seemed to have to shake himself out of the shock and he was silent as we continued to run through the woods.

"How much farther is it, Peter?"

"Not far."

"Is it still Hangman's Tree? Or did Hook bomb it?" I had to know which had happened, Peter nearly getting poisoned or bombed.

"The codfish bombed it, all right, but we fixed it up a bit. Had to get a new set up, though, and it took a while to clean the rubble above ground." So it had been bombed.

"Hook never tried to poison you, then?" I asked, meaning to think it instead of saying it.

"Oh, Hook tried to poison me too," Peter said, surprising me.

"What?"

"Too different plans to kill me." I did not quite understand, but I just shrugged, as I didn't feel like pursuing the matter and confusing myself more.

"Well, if he bombed the hideout, what's the set up now? How are you living in secret?" I wanted to know.

"You'll see." With that, we broke through some vines and I saw Hangman's Tree, exactly as it had always looked in the movie.

"It doesn't look any different to me," I commented.

"It will," Peter assured me. "See, that's just a chimney now. We've expanded a bit." I followed Peter to a large mushroom, wondering if 'we' meant the Lost Boys from the movie or new Lost Boys, and watched in curiosity as he nudged a tree root in a certain way with his foot. The mushroom slid to the side, revealing a hole. Peter looked at me, jerked his head indicating for me to follow, and jumped feet first into the hole in the ground. He let out a whoop as he vanished into the hole. I looked into the hole, only to see darkness. Biting my lip, I sat on the ground and slipped my legs into the hole, easing myself into the ground, but then the large mushroom began to slide shut.

"Oh!" I exclaimed, starting to push myself back up, but I couldn't do it fast enough. I held my breath and let myself fall, the tips of my fingers just barely slipping through before the mushroom slid shut. "Whoa…!" I yelled as I fell through a dark tunnel. In seconds, I was flying through the air in a lit room. I landed on some cushions on the floor, which must have been there for that very purpose. I looked up and saw Peter, fists on hips, grinning down at me. "That was wicked!" I said excitedly. He laughed and gave me a hand up.

"Ready to meet the Lost Boys?" Peter asked me.

"Sure!"

"All right. Lost Boys! Line up, boys!" he called.