Chapter 18

For over an hour of being locked in the trap, Artemis tried various things to get out. She tried ramming her body into the walls, but found the twigs it was made of to be very sturdy. The hawk even tried helping with this, but since its wing was still sensitive it had to stop to prevent any damage. The two even tried swinging the trap to cause the ropes it was attached to snap, but to no avail. Eventually they had no choice but to stop.

Sitting down in frustration, Artemis began looking around her surrounding and was shocked at what she didn't realize before. She remembered being in the Autumn Forest, but now it seemed they were in the middle of summer which was impossible as they were no where near the Summer Glade. In fact, the forest they were in now looked to be more of a rain forest made up of palm trees, rather than the pine and oak trees the Summer Glade was known for. Unfamiliar animal noises could be heard all around them and Artemis began to wonder what kind of animals could be in this place.

In order to wrap her mind around how they got there, she decided to go back through her memories. The first thing which came to mind was the crow, the hawk rescuing her from the evil black bird, then she slowly began to remember the small details she didn't notice when they were being chased. She remembered they had to fly out of the trees due to the large thorns they almost flew into and then with the crow on their tail, Artemis recalled the surge of powerful energy she felt before they ended up in the unfamiliar forest.

Deciding to think more about this energy, Artemis could recollect feeling like electricity was flowing through her body as they flew through it. The fact this happened after she saw the shimmer in the sky could only mean the energy and the shimmer was the same thing. Then out of nowhere, Artemis remembered the vision she had of the magical barrier which formed over Pixie Hollow and she immediately began to put two and two together. There was a barrier over Pixie Hollow and since it seemed as if nobody was aware of its existence then no wonder nobody ever told her of the forest she was in which meant her world was larger than she had come to believe.

As Artemis continued to put more thought into this discovery, she didn't hear the sounds of large footsteps coming towards the trap. The feeling of the cage being lowered was what did the trick and snapping out of her reverie, she was then looking into the large eyes of a human. Crawling back as far away from the human as possible, she frantically looked all around her to see two more humans who were peering into the cage as well. The hawk next to her tensed up, but couldn't do anything due to the small space of the trap they were in.

The humans started saying something unintelligible and the with a nod from one of them, the cage was then undone from the ropes it was attached to. Now in one of the humans hands, the cage would shake as the human carried both hawk and fairy to who knows where. Artemis guessed they were far from the humans home because it took a couple hours of the humans running, each taking turns holding the cage, to finally reach it. Once there, she noticed there were humans everywhere and they all looked similar. Long black or very dark brown hair flowed down the humans darker skin and all of them were wearing clothes which most likely were made of animal skins.

The strange humans looked to live in tent-like homes which also to be made of animal skins and this made Artemis wonder what kind of humans were these. As the walking continued, the human carrying their cage soon set it in front of another human who was wearing a long headdress made of feathers. This human was older and stared at the cage with a curious expression which soon turned to surprise as he peered closer. With a movement of a hand, another human came forward and opened the trap carefully without damaging it.

Once it was opened, the hawk flew out of it and began baring its talons in a protective gesture as Artemis sat in the cage with mixed emotions. Artemis felt fear and curiosity at the same time as she held the humans gaze. Unlike the pirates who looked at her with expressions of greed, the human who sat before stared at her with equal curiosity and excitement. The expression the human had began to dispel her previous fears and Artemis could tell then she was not in any danger.

"What is your name?" The human asked her, straining on saying the words correctly.

Shocked at hearing English coming out of his mouth, instead of the gibberish the others had spoken, Artemis answered "My name is Artemis, I am an animal fairy from Pixie Hollow and this is my hawk..." Forgetting the fact the hawk had no name, she blurted out a random name which came into her mind. "Strider."

The human began shouting in his own language to the other people and the only words she could understand were her name, the hawks new name, and something about a Hawk Rider. Then the humans shouted in excitement once they heard the last word which caught the animal fairies curiosity. The fact they could understand her, shocked Artemis immensely.

"I'm sorry what did you say?" Artemis questions.

"I told them who you are young Hawk Rider." Was the human's answer.

"I don't understand, what is a Hawk Rider and who are you people?" The animal fairy had to shout as the humans yelled in excitement again.

"I am Great Big Little Panther chief of my tribe and you are Artemis a Hawk Rider, protector of Neverland." Was the Chiefs answer, raising more questions in Artemis's head than giving answers.

Author's Note: Hola amigos, I'm back again! Agh we're finally going to be delving deep into Artemis fully becoming a Hawk Rider, by starting off with her finding out about Hawk Riders. I'm so excited! I'm really curious on what you guys think about bringing in the Indians and the fact they can understand fairies when most people, except for Peter Pan, can't. Don't worry, I will be explaining why they are able to but I think the answer I'll give will be basically self explanatory so stay tuned for that! I do have an idea of how I want the next chapter to go so it probably won't take too long for it to come out, but knowing me I wouldn't get too anxious for it to come out soon. It all depends on when I have time for it and if I have enough inspiration for it. TinkFan4Life, I hope this chapter answers your question on how Artemis and the hawk ended up in the trap, if not just let me know! I also want to know everyone's continued guesses on who Artemis's sibling is because I probably will be revealing it the chapter after the next or the one after that so give me those guesses! If anyone hasn't done it yet, I'd appreciate if you go into my poll and vote on what story I should work on next, as I got some rough drafts up on Fanfiction that could be continued or I could just go into the sequel of this story but that's entirely up to the votes. I want to thank you all for your continuous support of this story of mine and I shall update again as soon as I can! Bye!