Another chapter!!! YYYYYYAAAAAYYYY!!!!!! Okay, so I think that's two updates within the same month? New record for me? Hahaha! I actually was stuck on this one for a long time because while I have soooo many plans for this story, I hit a spot where I wasn't sure how to push forward. But I figured it out for now, so (quote from Disney movie) "here we goooo!!!! Off to Neverland!!"...

Disclaimer: I own no characters or anything that you recognize.

Chapter Sixteen: "'Ello, lass"

Pirate. The word echoed through my mind as if I had shouted it into a tunnel. Was I doomed to meet people in bad situations? First I had met Peter Pan as he pointed his dagger at my throat…and now a pirate was walking towards me and…I had to get myself covered as fast and possible. And keeping in mind that my right ankle was still caught within the grasps of that blasted vine! I trembled, watching the man take step after step towards me, his eyes hardly at all waving from my uncovered region, and only to take in other parts of my female body. I wished so badly that I had not yet gone through puberty.

Tearing my eyes from the all-too-obviously eager pirate, I scraped my left leg the rest of the way across the branch and pressed my foot on the other side of the tree. Then I used that support and pulled myself up and over so that I was on my stomach stretched along the branch. Hastily, I reached up with my right hand while holding a death grip on the limb with my left hand and frantically began to fix my shirt. I tugged it down so hard that it might have ripped in the middle had I not switched hands to fix the other side. I could still feel my bare stomach against the bark, but I was happy with my top being covered again. Turned furiously red between extreme humiliation and anger…and a bit of fear…I looked back to the ground to find the pirate. At first I could not spot him. He had disappeared from the brush, or so it seemed. Of course, for all that I knew, the dirty man might have been crouched beneath the leaves once more, out of sight.

"Oh my, where did he go?" I asked myself softly in a voice that shook with anxiety. I hugged the branch, squeezing my cheek against its wood, and taking a hard swallow, forced myself to try to slowly sit up so that I would be straddled upon the tree branch and in a better position to look for the pirate; but I was looking for the pirate all the while anyway. "Uh…" I breathed, pushing one hand behind the other and walking them up the bark, gradually moving myself so that I sat up with my back straight against the base. I might have relaxed even in the slightest bit except that, well, although I had not caught any further sight of that pirate, I could have sworn that I felt a certain presence around me. Like he was watching me. Needless to say, I did not like it at all. And I had no idea were he was. I just knew the urge within my body to cover myself up with my arms and escape, as if there were eyes tracing me. Unless I could find that pirate, I was as vulnerable as a mouse under the preying eyes of a cat. All he needed to do was pull some sort of a stunt and…

I shuddered. My first encounter with a pirate and I couldn't even find him while I was so sure that he was observing my every move. Subconsciously, I tugged my t-shirt down a bit more. I still had my back against the tree's base, and I tried to calm myself as I looked around beneath my perch, open-mouthed and breathing in short quick puffs. Deciding that I had better do something other than stare around me, I began to lift my right foot along the trunk of the tree so that my hands could reach it and free it of the vine. My heel scratched its way up the hard bark, gaining on my waiting right hand. Wherever that pirate was, I had to try to get myself free so that I could run, or just move as necessary. I didn't even get that chance.

Crunch. The sound came from behind me and made me jump so much that I was suddenly on the edge of the branch and reaching for something to hold me up. The right side of my head knocked right into the tree as I whirled around to find that the pirate was climbing the tree behind me, in surprising silence, except that he had stepped upon some loose bark, which crunched under his weight. He saw me looking at him, and smiled up at me, climbing faster. I was shaking uncontrollably, backing up from him as my first instinct instructed, and then screaming as I felt air behind me in place of more of the branch on which I sat. I tried to grab for the branch, but it was too late. Instead of the branch, I ended up grabbing my right ankle as I fell from the tree, scrunching my eyes tightly shut as I waited for the pain of feeling the vine become taught. And just as it went taught, I got extremely lucky. I was clutching my ankle, so my leg was not straight but very much bent with my knee in front of my face. That must have been what saved my leg from being dislocated and broken; instead, the vine broke with a loud snap and my ankle actually slipped from the mutilated piece of jungle. Now there was the problem of landing…

I hardly gave any grateful recognition to the vine breaking and releasing me as I snapped my head back to watch the fast-approaching ground. I was going to land within the edges of the brush where the pirate had been. Again, following instinct, I tucked into a tight ball and wrapped my head inside my hands and arms for protection. I listened to the wind zip past me as I braced myself for the ground hit. My upper shoulders made the first contact with the brush, and then I rolled onto my back and tossed through the thick leaves (which were thankfully soft). I actually came to a halt standing upon my feet, looking at the ground, and then the tree, dazed at how I had pulled off that landing. It reminded me of a time back home when I had tripped on concrete and gone down headfirst; but then I had curled into a similar tight ball and rolled upon the pavement, coming instantly back onto my feet with only a bump on my elbow as injury. I had laughed at it then and…in spite of the pirate still being there, and the shock, I began to laugh now.

"I pulled off that landing again!" I laughed out loud, holding my stomach and allowing the laughter to calm my jittery nerves. That's when I heard a loud thump into shrubbery from not too far away. I looked up and saw that the pirate had jumped from the tree and landed behind it. He stepped fully out in front of me, grinning and moving his hand to his cutlass.

"'Ello, lass," he said with a rough, choked chuckle, as if his throat was clogged with liquid (probably rum). He was not the tallest of men, but he was built and very tan will brown greasy hair that looked as if it had been soaked in something other than water. His loose shirt had a low collar and was turned almost dirt-brown from what may have been a creamy color long ago. Over that, he wore a tattered leather vest with holes here and there, some of which looked to be the result of burns. I could see chest hair doused in a spit and mud mixture just above his shirt collar. And low and behold, as my eyes scanned down to his waist, I noticed a cracked, filthy bottle of what I assumed to be rum secured to an equally tattered leather belt that looked like it would give way at any movement. Below that, black pants with holes at the knees and torn hems, stopping above bare and disgusting feet. Feet that were taking steps advancing towards me. I did the first thing that came to mind: I took a step back. This only quickened his steps.

"Wait, I-I'm weapon-less," I stuttered to myself absurdly. Apparently the pirate heard me because he let out a loud laugh. 'Like he'll care about a fair fight,' I thought. I was terrified…at the same time as being completely fascinated in the face of my first real-life pirate…

"Aw, ye're weaponless, are ye? I be protectin' ye then from the jungle, miss," the man replied, his voice swimming in mock sympathy. "Just come wi' me now." He was beginning to draw his weapon from its sheath. As I debated where to run, the most peculiar thing happened. The pirate suddenly seemed to see something or someone behind me, and his eyes went wide. A moment later, he had snapped his cutlass fully within its sheath again and collapsed himself into the brush. The leaves rustled for a few second and then went still.

"Huh?" I uttered in confusion. Something to scare off a pirate…I hastily turned to look behind me lest I should be harmed by whatever scared him, and I smashed into someone. With a little yelp, I landed on my bum among the foliage. I began to crawl backwards quickly as I looked up at my new pursuer: Peter Pan. Who laughed at the fright on my face. I wasn't so quickly amused just yet. "Peter!" I yelled, scrambled up to my feet and leaping upon him. I actually surprised not only Peter, but also myself as I swung my arms around his neck in a quick and panicked hug. Peter recognized the panic, and he took my arms and pulled them off so that I faced him. The smile had disappeared from his mouth, though it was still in his eyes where it always was.

"Rebecca, what's the matter with you?"

"Pirate!" I said quickly. I blinked and felt myself yanked beneath the leaves underfoot. Peter's hand was around his dagger…but his smile had widened and he was laughing.

"Oh really?" he said with much mischief. "Where is he?" I looked around us. We were only crouching, but the brush grew impressively high and it was like a whole different world down here! It was dark and mysterious, smelling of Earth and I had always loved that smell. Earth mixed with greenery, stems of all sorts of which were popping up all around us while the leaves provided a shield from the world above our heads. I was so fascinated that it took me several seconds to pay attention to the question again.

"Yeah, it's exciting down here, huh?" Peter said, calling my mind back to him and his question.

"Yeah! He was…" I pointed behind me. "Well, he kind of disappeared into the bushes when he saw something behind me." I suddenly giggled. "I think it must have been you that he saw!" Peter laughed out loud.

"Probably. For some reason, the pirates are scared around me without Hook and a complete crew. They're just scared of me now. 'Cause I'm the best there ever was! Come on!" The laughing boy tumbled over and began to crawl away. I laughed, just out of relief of being with him again and new excitement about where we were going. Peter crawled forward fast, and then looked back, his eyes big and grinning at mine. Suddenly, his expression changed. "Rebecca, what happened to you?" he asked me. He was staring just below my chin. Apparently he had just noticed one of my newest wounds.

"Eh…some stuff," I mumbled.

"Like what?" I sighed.

"Well, I got stuck in a tree for one thing. A vine wrapped around my ankle-"

"Oh, don't tell me…the Lost Boys like to set up traps like that to catch animals. I should have warned you before. I'll show you what to look for so that doesn't happen again," Peter said, taking my hand and pulling me forward to where he was. His eyes remained fixated at my throat. "What happened there?" he said, putting a finger to it. I winced as he touched it, and he quickly moved his hand. "Sorry. How did that happen?"

"Ah…it's just a scratch," I said, trying to get out of making an explanation.

"A scratch that looks like it came from a blade," Peter said seriously, studying it closely. I turned away. Somehow I didn't want him to have any more anger with that girl than he already had. I don't really know why, but I didn't want to tell him about it.

"It's nothing, Peter. Really, let's just go," I said, not at all meeting his eyes. Peter was not so easily deterred.

"Did that pirate do that to you?" he asked through a tightening jaw, this time removing his blade from it's sheath. I couldn't hold back a little smile of admiration at how obviously defensive he was of his friends.

"No, no, Peter, it wasn't the pirate," I said, laughing a little before realizing that that probably had been my venue out of telling him the truth.

"Then who was it?" Okay, he knew it was from a blade. I wouldn't be able to convince him that it was from something else.

"Uh…Peter, it really doesn't matter. I'm fine. Let's just get back to the hideout. I want to see everyone again and-"

"It matters to me. Tell me who did it," Peter said, lowering his voice. Now he was making me nervous and before I could stop it, my mouth spoke.

"Braith." Peter stared at me for a second longer and it seemed as if rapid thoughts were going through his mind as he made some sort of a decision. I panicked; he wasn't going to banish her, was he? "Peter-" I said quickly, about to beg him not to do that.

"I don't usually do this for girls, and I sure wasn't going to do it this soon…" he said in thought. My face was heating up from the tension within me, wondering what was going through his mind about Braith and what he was going to do. I tried to protest again as he looked back at me.

"Peter, I-"

"I think it's time to make you a blade," he said with finality and a small grin. I nearly started to protest again, and then his words sunk in.

"Ablade? Of my own?!" I exclaimed excitedly. I was thrilled at the idea! Peter laughed.

"Come on," he said again, and we crawled forward, where to I did not yet know. But I was practically shaking all over in anticipation of my own weapon.

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