Voices. Loud voices. I woke with a start and listened. Confused, I began to panic. Where was my tower? The cold brick and stone walls? But then I remembered. I struggled to quietly get up. I kicked a few pebbles and they scattered across the rocks. I froze, scared and listened intently. The voices didn't faze, though, and I continued to slowly rise. I peaked around the rock, cautiously, and watched them. There were three girls, and three guys. One of the guys walked with a cane, while the other had no hand, just a hook on his stump. I gasped and ducked quickly back behind the rock. Breathing rapidly, I forced myself to peak back around the course rock. The last man was comforting a lady as she was bent over heaving her stomach onto the sand. She held her stomach in pain and tried to gasps of air when she could. Another lady was standing apart from the group and looked nauseous herself, although was holding it in. I let my eyes wander to the blonde lady. She was looking over everyone and watching the tree line. Her hand was laid loosely over the hilt of a sword she had hanging on her side. The man who had the hooked hand walked away from the group and I continued to stare at the sickened lady. She seemed to finally get over her sickness and held tightly on to her man, looking around.
"Aye, look what we have 'ere!"
At the sound of the gruff voice, I turned to see the man with a hook for a hand standing behind me.
I screamed, my voice crackling from lack of use, and vaulted over the rock. I looked behind me to watch the man throw me a flashy smile. The wind was knocked out of me when someone yelled "Hey!". An arm caught my mid section and threw me onto the ground. I back peddled in the sand, only to be slammed down by a boot on my chest. Looking up, I saw her red jacket and blonde curls before I saw the sword pointed at me.
"Emma! You're going to hurt her!"
I looked towards the lady with short cropped hair as she looked on with wide eyes. Focusing back onto the lady who was holding me down we met eye contact.
Without breaking our gaze, the woman replied, "Mary Margaret, I wouldn't-"
"Who is she?" The last girl demanded, cutting the blonde off.
Glaring at the lady, Emma, looked back down to me, and removed her boot, but not the sword. "Who are you, kid?"
"Alexandria, ma'am." My voice cracked and I coughed.
"What a nice name you have."
The man with the cane watched me and limped over. He pushed Emma's sword away and gave a smile, but it looked more like a grimace.
"And all of you?" I spoke expectantly. I slowly rose and adjusted my pack, it suddenly felt very heavy, I was exhausted.
"Emma."
"Mary Margaret."
"David."
"Gold."
"I am Captain Hook."
I looked from one to the next and waited for the last to tell me her name. I raised my eyebrows, "You?"
She rolled her eyes, "Have you seen my son?"
"Look, lady, I'm not the town's babysitter." I replied to her.
"She is Regina." I turned to look at Emma who sent another glare in the lady's direction.
"Where are we?"
"Why you're in Neverland, folks! Where else would you be?" I giggled at the ridiculous question. "You can call me Alex, by the way." I offered a smile towards them, trying to be friendly. I tucked a strand of long, jet black, wavy hair behind my ear.
They all looked around and then at each other as if they knew something I didn't. Where else did they think they were? Of course they were in Neverland. Maybe they just thought they ended up in another world or something, I mean, after all, they could have gotten lost at sea, and grew wild conclusions. "Do you have a place we can stay?" I looked over to see Mary Margaret looking hopeful, "We haven't slept on land in a while and I need someplace to get my land-legs back. Sailing is not for me." She threw an apologetic look to Hook who just shrugged his shoulders.
Surprised, I stammered out a pathetic response, "Uh, sure. It's a long travel, though. If we leave now, we should reach it before dark."
They all began to walk off, but I continued to look at the ship. It was huge and a mermaid was cut out on the bow. It gently rocked back and forth. "T'is a nice ship, ain't she?" Hook muttered behind me. I looked at him and quickly jogged up to the rest of the group who were waiting for me, he gave me the creeps.
My timing was way off, it was growing dark and we still had a long while to go until we reached the tower. Everyone was tripping over uplifted roots and I felt embarrassed at my horrible timing. I heard a squeal and turned in time to see Mary tumble face first towards the ground. David's hand quickly shot out and grabbed her wrist, pulling her up and into him. He held her in his arms looking deeply into her eyes and gave a slight smile. She peered up at him and gave him a great big grin, "Why thank you, charming," she muttered under her breath. He bent to kiss her forehead, and they turned to catch up with the rest of the group. They stopped when they saw all of us staring at them. Mary Margaret, bashful, grew red in the face and turned her head, smiling. David just looked at everyone and smiled.
Eventually we made it to the tower. "This is your place?" Emma frowned.
"Uhhh, yeah, why?"
I lead them to the vines and ivy and pulled it all back for them to enter. Slowly, and unsure they all crept in. They looked around my courtyard. Studying my garden and the rising tower of stones and bricks in the middle. I had always thought that my prison had been pretty big. I never really felt confined. There was a little creek that ran inside the large stone walls to water my garden and I had a swing attached to a large oak. I was always busy keeping up with my chores and rarely used it. But not until then, had I realized how small my tower and courtyard were. There was a whole world out there, and for sixteen years, I never set foot outside until today. Saddened, I expected a lot of oncoming questions from the strangers, but until then I just focused on staying silent.