Deep Dark Valley was the next place in Neverland to visit, more's the pity for Sharky and Bones. As the name suggested, it was dark enough to get hopelessly lost in without a map, not to mention it was made worse by the terrifying creatures and sinister plants that called the place home. The legend of Deep Dark Valley warned that any pirate would have to be crazy enough to go there. But it was the only place where the Drip Drop Milkweeds could be found, so it was a chance that had to be taken, for Hook's sake.
Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on who you ask), it did not take as long to reach the valley as it did Ch-ch-chilly Canyon. And so, within a short time, the buccaneers disembarked on the shores of the dreaded valley, just before the starts of several paths that scattered throughout the place.
"Well, here we are. Deep Dark Valley!" Jake looked this way and that and then turned to Cubby. "Ok, Cubby, which path do we need to take?"
"Hmm, let's see..." Cubby looked thoughtful as he studied the parchment in his hands. "According to my map, the second path from the right is the one we need to take in order to safely reach the milkweeds."
"Blimey," Bones muttered miserably. "I'm not lookin' forward to riding Cascading Slides or visiting Teeter Totter Plain like we did last time"
"You don't have to worry about that, Bones," Cubby pointed to the spot on his map where the milkweeds were marked. "Lucky for us, we don't have to go that far in Deep Dark Valley to have to make our way to those places again. As long as we follow the correct path, we can just turn around and come straight back here once we're finished."
"Right," Jake pointed at the aforementioned path with his sword and waived everyone forward with his hand. "C'mon, mateys! The faster we find the milkweeds, the faster we can get out of here."
"I'm for that," Sharky started jogging, hesitating slightly along with Bones as they entered the valley, but tamped down his fear as he and the others continued down the path. The adults were careful not to let anything frighten them into running in every direction but straight ahead, leaving them as hopelessly lost as the last time they were there.
After a few minutes of jogging, the pirates could all make out the sound of running water. Before any of them could wonder about the source, the path seemed to widen and lead out of a patch of tall trees. As they came out of the other side of the trees, the area opened up to reveal a pond, with what looked to be a small island in the center.
It would have seemed like any regular pond one would find on the main island of Neverland, except for the water, which looked incredibly cloudy as to appear white, almost like skim milk.
"Shiver me timbers," Izzy said as she leaned closer to examine the water. "I wonder what's causing the water to look like this."
"I don't know, Iz," Jake answered as he reached out to gently grab Izzy's hand as she was about to stick it in the pond. "But it would be best not to touch it. For now, let's see if we can find a way to get to the other side of this pond."
"We may not have to do that, Jake," Cubby piped up. "According to my map, the milkweeds should be right in this area."
"Like right out in the middle of the pond?" Bones asked.
"Uh, maybe..." Cubby looked up at the pirate. "Why do you ask?"
"Cause there they be out there," Bones pointed out towards the water. "Hangin' out from that little island."
Following the direction of where Bones was pointing, the rest of the group looked over to where the island was sticking out from the water. Sure enough, growing all around from the edge of the island were white flowers that seemed to surround a large, green, thorny-looking bulb sticking up from the middle. The flowers had grown in between vines that were covering the island. Their stems curved downward toward the water, causing their petals to hang down, giving a droopy appearance. They almost resembled narcissus flowers, and yet they weren't. One look at them and it was easy to see where their name, the Drip Drop Milkweeds, had come from. From each flower, out from the middle of their petals, came a continuous drip of nectar. The nectar took on a thick, opaque white appearance, like heavy cream, and each drop fell into the pond, to mix with the water. Now the pirates knew what caused the water to be so cloudy.
"Way hey! That's them all right," Izzy exclaimed. "I recognize them from Nanny Nell's book."
"Nice going, Bones." Jake praised. "Now, we need to figure out how to collect their nectar."
"Crackers, that shouldn't be so hard to get to them," Skully said as he eyeballed the milkweeds. "I can just fly out there and pick one from the island." Skully flew out towards the flowers before anyone could stop him.
"No! Skully wait!" Jake cried as he watched his parrot friend get closer to the middle of the pond. His cries came too late. Suddenly two slits on the top of the large thorny bulb opened to reveal eyeballs! The eyes immediately focused on Skully and, without warning, the vines that were hanging down from the island took on a life of their own, lifting off from the island and, like spiky whips, quickly lashed out towards Skully. Only quick twists and dodges saved the parrot from getting hit by any of the vines. No matter which direction he flew, up, down, left, or right, he found himself in danger of getting hit. Finally, he flew back to where the rest of his mateys were, and the violent plant thrashing stopped. The vines went back to where they had rested previously, the bulb's eyes closed, and the plant stilled as if the entire attack never happened.
"Skully! Are you alright?" Jake asked as he and the others ran to where the out-of-breath parrot had landed.
"I will be in a moment," Skully managed to gasp out in between breaths. "What was that?"
"It's that giant plant in the middle of that island," Izzy pointed out. "It looks like it's there to guard the milkweeds."
"Aw coconuts!" Cubby exclaimed in dismay. "How can we get to the milkweeds now? There's no way to get close to them without those vines hitting us."
"Maybe we can try to get them from here," Sharky said. "If you notice, the vines are not tryin' to attack us now."
"None of them even tried to hit us while they was attackin' Skully," Bones pointed out.
"They're right," Jake looked thoughtful as he contemplated the challenge. "Obviously the vines can't reach this far to hit us, so our safest bet would be to try to get the nectar here from the shore. But how?" Jake rubbed his chin as he stared at the cloudy pond. Somehow, it reminded him of the froth and foam of the sea as he would lean against Bucky's rails while he was out on the ocean, using his pole to catch fish for lunch or dinner or even his favorite snack, fish jerky. Hmm...fishing...fishing!
"Fishing! That's it!" Jake snapped his fingers as inspiration came to him.
"What's it?" Izzy asked as they all turned to look at him.
"Since we can't get close to the milkweeds, and none of us can reach them from here, why don't we try to get them another way: we can use fishing poles with weights tied at the end to 'fish' for the milkweeds."
"But Jake," Cubby said. "None of our fishing poles are on board Bucky."
"We don't need them," Jake explained. "We can use branches from the trees behind us as poles, and I know Izzy has string in her bag. There are plenty of small rocks here too. They can be used as weights."
"So if we use the poles to cast the weights towards the island, and if we aim them right," Izzy said, trying to picture in her head the plan Jake had in mind. "We may be able to use them to grab one of the milkweeds and bring it here!"
"Exactly! C'mon, mateys! Let's go make those poles!" Jake rallied the others and once again, inspired by the fearless leader of the expedition, each pirate got to the task of making his (or her) own fishing pole. In less time than it takes to describe, the poles were made and the group stood around the pond, each trying to aim at a flower from the island.
"Remember," Jake emphasized. "the trick is to aim it so that your rock goes around the flower. Whoever does so first, give a shout so the rest of us can help you pull it towards us. Ready, cast off!"
And with that, the lines went flying. It took a while in between casts, as the pirates did not have the luxury of fishing reels and had to pull the weights back by hand before tossing them back out. The plan seemed to work, for although the weights nearly touched the island and made noises as they plopped in the water, the large bulb did not stir or open its eyes.
After a couple of hours of this, suddenly the group heard an exclamation coming from Cubby.
"Hey! I got it!"
At this triumphant declaration, the rest turned to look at the island. Sure enough, the weight at the end of Cubby's fishing line had reached the island. Cubby's cast of the line had twisted it in a way so as to go around one of the milkweeds.
"Yo ho, way to go, Cubby!" Jake loudly praised. "Now, let's gently pull the line and 'reel' the plant in."
Unfortunately, the excited commotion served to "awaken" the bulb, its eyes immediately focusing on Cubby's line. It frowned, then a vine quickly unwrapped the line from the milkweed. At the same time, several other vines simultaneously grabbed each pirate's fishing line and gave sharp yanks. Before they realized what had happened, each of their poles flew out of their hands and all perfectly landed in their corresponding vines. Each vine wrapped around each pole and with a twist, snapped it in half. The broken poles then dropped into the water, followed by the weights and fishing lines. As before, the vines then went back to their resting places and the bulb closed its eyes.
Moments passed. Child, adult, and parrot alike stood still at the shore, eyes wide and still unable to fully comprehend or even believe what they had just seen. Not just incredulity, but all were feeling upset that all the work they had done was destroyed by a plant in less than 10 seconds.
"Umm.. anybody got any other ideas?" Sharky asked out of the blue, to no one in particular. There really wasn't anything else he or the others could think to say.
All faces fell as sighs escaped from them, for no one else had any ideas as good as the fishing one, or at all. As their shoulders slumped, each one went to look for a place to sit down and face facts. Without the nectar, the healing tea could not be made and Hook would not be cured of the forever flu he was stuck with.
As Jake sat on a rock he stared at the water. Nanny Nell and Mama Hook were not kidding when they warned about the challenges with collecting the ingredients. The giant Ice Maze game was daunting enough, but this?
Jake continued to look at the water and considered the challenge. He still felt sure they needed to stay on shore to gather the nectar. If he thought it would be enough, he would just collect the water the nectar was dripping into, however he figured it would be too watered down to be of any use. He looked up at the milkweeds and at the nectar in particular. How it reminded him of the cream Mama Hook sometimes used when making her teas. Hmm...cream mixing with water. Where in Neverland had he heard that before? He shifted as the book in his pocket uncomfortably pressed into him.
Jake suddenly sat up straight as it hit him. The book Peter Pan gave him! The one he had decided to take with him, even though he had no reason to. He pulled out the book and quickly flipped through it. It was a book of Mythology, full of stories about powerful beings from places he had never heard of. Peter had told him that his friend Wendy had given the book to him, mostly because of the colorful illustrations. He, in turn, had given the book to Jake, both for safekeeping and because he knew Jake would enjoy reading it. Jake reached the story he was looking for and quickly read through it. It was crazy, the idea blooming in his mind, yet he and his friends were facing the same situation. Besides which, at that point they were desparate. And desparation forced him to be creative.
"Hey guys," Jake looked up and quietly called out. "Come on around here for a second."
The rest of the buccaneers all walked towards Jake until they were gathered at the rock he was sitting on. Jake looked thoughtful as he cautiously continued.
"I think we've been going at this the wrong way," Jake explained. "All this time, we've been trying to gather the milkweeds themselves when truthfully, we don't really need them. We just need the nectar they produce. Like the tea plant back at Ch-ch-chilly Canyon. We just needed the leaves."
"Yeah, Jake, but how else can we get the nectar?" Izzy asked. "Right now, any nectar that is coming from the milkweeds is dripping right into the water."
"She's right," Skully said. "I mean, it's not like we can get the nectar straight from the water itself." Skully looked at Jake's face as his friend gave a small smile at the statement.
Then it hit him.
"Crackers, Jake!" the parrot gasped. "You aren't thinking...!"
"That's exactly what I'm thinking, Skully," Jake confirmed. He reopened the book, to one picture in particular, and turned it around so that the others could see it. The illustration showed what looked like a giant snake wrapped around a huge, pointy rock. There were two groups, one of colorful people, the other of sharp-fanged monsters, each holding one end of the snake.
"Whoa!" Izzy breathed as she looked closely at the picture. "Isn't that the book Peter Pan gave you?"
"The same," Jake answered. He pointed at the people in the drawing. "This story tells about how these people never grow up, like us, except they need to drink this cream to stay that way. One day, the cream spills into the ocean and they are unable to drink it. So they come up with a plan to use a large rock with this large snake wrapped around it to churn the water, to make the cream foam and separate from the water so they could collect it and drink it again."
"So you're sayin," Bones stared at the picture as he thought about what Jake was planning. "Is that we twirl a huge pointy rock in the water to make the nectar separate, like a huge churn?"
"Yes, exactly," Jake affirmed. "Except I think it would be better if we used a rope, rather than a huge snake."
Out of the corner of his eye, Jake saw Cubby quietly exhale in relief.
"So here's what we'll do," Jake continued. "Cubby, you and Bones go back to Bucky and find the heaviest, longest rope we have. Make sure it's a little rough, too. Sharky, Izzy, help me get this rock into the water so it sinks to the bottom, then we need to roll that pointy rock near those trees over to where the flat rock is. We need to be able to rest the point on the flatter rock so it won't sink in the bottom of the water while we're trying this." Jake clearly remembered the part of the story where the giant rock rested on the back of a turtle to keep it from sinking.
The pirates separated and got to their tasks. By the time Cubby and Bones got the rope and used the map to return to the pond, the others had moved the flat rock into the water (but still close to the shore to avoid the vines) and were rolling the pointy rock. Everyone was then able to help lift the rock onto the other, with the pointed end fitted into a grove on the flatter stone. Sharky, Bones, Izzy, and Cubby then stood in the water and held the rock up while Skully and Jake wrapped the rope around it, like it was illustrated in the book. Jake gave one end to the two adults, and the rest took the other end.
"Ok, so when I say go, Sharky and Bones, you pull your end first, then we pull our end. Remember, once we get it going, we can't stop until the nectar separates." Jake stressed.
Everyone nodded in understanding, then tightened their hold on the rope.
"Go!"
And with that, the bucanneers started pulling their respective ends, one group at a time. That's not to say they were able to churn the water right away. In fact, it took a half hour and several tries, including the pointed rock dropping into the water several times and had to be lifted back up. Once the rhythm was established, however, the rock twirled beautifully, the cloudy water swirling as it was being churned.
An hour passed, then two. Still, the churning continued. To pass the time and keep their spirits up, they sang pirate ditties and played word games. Even Skully would sometimes help, taking the rope in his feet and beating his wings. At the end of hour three, it was clear that everyone was tiring out and nothing appeared to be happening to the water. And still they kept going.
"Coconuts, Jake," Cubby said in exhaustion. "I know you said we can't stop, but couldn't we take a little break? My arms are about to fall right off my shoulders."
"Mine too," Bones piped in. All the others nodded their agreement.
"I know you're all tired and hurting. I am too," Jake said. "But we can't stop. If we do, we would just need to start this all over again. And think about Captain Hook. We need to get this nectar for him. We can't let him stay sick forever."
No, the others all agreed. They couldn't. So they kept at it, despite their fatigue and sore muscles. A short time later, though, the water begin to change. Skully was the first to notice it.
"Jake! Look!" he screeched. "Look! Something's happening to the water!" Sure enough, a thick foam began to form on the surface, slowly bubbling up almost like the potions in Misty the Wonderful Witch's cauldron sometimes did.
"Guys! I think it's working!" Jake exclaimed. "My book says that's what supposed to happen!"
Encouraged by the sight and by Jake's enthusiasm, the pirates continued on. Still, though, it took another hour before any significant change was made, based on the changes they all kept trying to observe in the water.
At long last, the nectar completely separated. They could tell when they could no longer see the bottom halves of their legs in the water and the surface took on the same thick, opaque quality as the nectar dripping from the milkweeds.
"That's it!" Jake cried as they continued pulling, fearful of stopping and having all of their hard work be for naught. "Quick! Someone collect it before it mixes again!"
Skully, who had been sitting on the empty container left out for the nectar, carried it as he flew towards the pond. He dipped the container in the nectar, filling it to the top, then carrying it back to set it next to Izzy's tote.
"Got it!" Skully yelled. "You all can stop now!"
That was all the permission they needed. All immediately dropped the rope, causing the large rock to fall into the water and splashing them. Izzy went to the nectar-filled container and put a lid on it to keep the liquid from spilling out, then put the container in her bag. She was about the collapse on the ground, as most of them seemed to be doing, but then Jake spoke up.
"Yo ho, way to go everyone," he said tiredly and slowly. "We got the nectar and nine gold doubloons. Let's grab them and get back to Bucky. I know we're all tired, but it'll be getting dark soon and I don't want to be in Deep Dark Valley when it does. We can rest once we get back on board."
In their spent and drained states, and with all the churning they had done, Sharky and Bones had completely forgotten where they were. With renewed energy, they immediately got up and helped the kids up too. It took a little longer getting back to Bucky than it did getting to the pond, but within 30 minutes all had dragged themselves on the ship and into their bunks. Luckily for them, Bucky did not have to have one of them awake to steer him, for all Jake had to do was tell Bucky to head to Big Bug Valley, where they would find the last needed ingredient: honey from the giant bees.
As the mateys snoozed and snored, and as Bucky set sail towards the next destination, none were aware of the pair of eyes watching them from one of the trees on the edge of Deep Dark Valley, eyes that had spied on them from the moment they had landed on the shores of the dreaded place earlier today.
Author's Note: Wow, guys. I cannot say I'm sorry enough for the incredibly long wait. I can make up excuse after excuse as to why I have not updated this story for close to a year, but the truth is I kept putting it off because I just did not feel like getting back into it. Pretty ironic, as it was always on the back of my mind, because I kept reminding myself how much it irritated me that I would wait for months at a time for some of my favorite fanfiction to be updated. Shoe on the other foot, which is now in my mouth. Luckily, I know exactly where the next chapter is going and have it written out in my mind, I just need to have it written down on my computer. I promise, I will try not to make you all wait another year to read it.
Ok, down to business. The story from Jake's book, about the beings churning the ocean, is the Samudra Manthan, a well-known story in Hindu mythology. The "colorful people," the gods, made a deal with the "sharp-fanged monsters," demons, to help them churn the ocean, using a mountain and the multi-headed serpent king as the rope, to collect amrita, life and youth-giving nectar, that had spilled into the water. The story served as my inspiration for this chapter. I recommend reading it if you never have.
So, it now appears someone is, and has been, spying on our group of questors. The question is: who? Sound off in the comments and here's my only hint: it is a familiar show character.
PS: There is a teeny, tiny easter egg in this chapter. Did anyone catch it? The answer next chapter.