Chapter 2

Jaw Dropping

The mere split-second Cubby decided to jump was also the moment he regretted it. As he hovered motionless in the air, weightless without the aid of pixie dust, it struck him as most surreal.

Then gravity kicked in. Cubby dropped like a rock.

Jake and Izzy tipped forward as their sense of balance was knocked off-guard. They grabbed onto the corners of the slide before they could topple over the edge, and watched as Cubby slid down the never-ending drop slide, screaming at the top of his lungs.

"Cubby!" Jake, Izzy, and Skully shouted at the same time.

"WHY DIDN'T YOU PUSH ME?" Cubby screamed in between screams.

Jake yelled back, "But we were gonna push you on three!"

Cubby was still in free-fall – because the drop was that long – when he managed to respond, "I THOUGHT YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO PUSH ON—" Finally, he hit the gradual curve and rocketed toward the first of the many corkscrews. "OOOOONE!"

Skully dared to pull his eyes away. "Izzy! We've got a major emergency on our hands here!" He paused. "Not to mention wings."

"I couldn't agree more," Izzy said, then reached for the pouch of pixie dust that hung from around her neck. "Pixie dust…" She felt the tickling sensation on her fingertips, but another of Cubby's screams averted her attention.

Silently, they watched Cubby as he zoomed through the twists and turns, finding themselves mesmerized by the spectacle, unable to move or think. Cubby twirled through the corkscrew turn, then flew straight up, over, and down a loop-de-loop. He moved as a blur, they could see streaks of blue and red behind him. It looked so fast and so insane, and yet so…

"Wow…" Skully murmured, spellbound. "Look at him go."

"Yeah," Izzy said. Her fingers still dipped in the pouch. The desire to throw it got smaller and smaller with every element Cubby cleared. "That actually looks…"

Jake smiled. "Pretty fun?"

Izzy nodded then smiled back. "Yeah! It doesn't look that bad now that I think about it." She retightened the string around the lip of the pouch. "You know what? Why let Cubby have all the fun? I wanna go!"

"Me too!" Jake took a step back and bowed courteously. "Ladies first."

All fear and doubt was swept aside as Izzy, without so much as a second thought, eagerly jumped onto the slide and down the drop. "YAY HEEEEEEY!"

Jake and Skully struggled to keep track of both Cubby and Izzy as the former slipped down a butterfly inversion. He waited until Izzy, the pink blur, had cleared the first loop-de-loop. The anticipation made those seconds feel longer.

"Have fun," Skully said to Jake. A dash of jealousy laced his voice. "I'll meet up with you on the other side."

"Sure thing, Skully." Finally, it was Jake's turn. "Yo ho," he started as he jumped, "LET'S GOOOOOO!"

Skully fluttered up high to get a bird's eye view. Even from his elevated height, he could hear Cubby's shrieks of horror and Izzy's hollers of joy and Jake's laughter of excitement. Skully should not be too jealous; he was a bird after all. He could fly and perform loops and twists whenever he wanted. In fact, he realised that he did that on a regular basis so much that he had taken it for granted.

He floated there, over the theme park attraction, and saw Cubby disappear into a tube that covered a loop drop. His squeal was abruptly cut off. Two seconds later, Cubby shot out the other end, along with his constant cries for help. Izzy cleared the second corkscrew around the same time Jake cleared the hammerhead turn. There were times where it looked like they could slip straight off the track, but the route seemed to keep them on course somehow. It was as if it was designed that way.

The green parrot turned to the jungle threshold where the slide snaked into. He guessed with Cubby nearing the unknown, it would be good of him to be at the drop-off early, ready to console the map reader when he came to a stop. Skully stopped flapping, allowed himself to drop, and then propelled himself downward.

Skully guided himself fluently through the inner workings of the slide. He threaded a loop-de-loop and followed the gap around a corkscrew. He passed Jake along the way – his voice hitting a crescendo at the nearest point of contact. Skully followed the rest of the slide down, deep into the unknown. The murky shadows of the jungle allowed him to see only twenty meters ahead. He flew for tens of seconds, yet it continued in the same steepness. There were no turns, no changes in the curve, no crazy elements – it just went on and on, it was like the Crazy Corkscrew simply would not end. It went so long that Skully started to wonder if he was still aboveground, or even above sea level for that matter.

Finally, Skully reached what he had been waiting for: the point where the Crazy Corkscrew ended.

"Crashing crackers," Skully said to himself. "They're in deep trouble."

The adrenaline rushed through Jake's veins with the same speed he and his mateys were travelling right there and then. The slide was surprisingly smooth and seamless on his back, like sliding on ice that had been polished a million times. Everything in Jake's body was not in the right place as the slide threw him in every direction. His brain span in circles in his head. His heart throbbed in his oesophagus. The contents in his stomach – the light bites back at Butterfly Bluff – stayed inside somehow.

Jake could not think straight. He, along with his friends – his family – were lost in the ecstasy, the rush, the thrill. Well, two of them at least.

Cubby reached the apex of another loop-de-loop. His momentum halted for a brief moment. He dared to look down and reeled at the gaping distance between himself and solid earth. "COCONUTS!" he shrieked as he completed the loop. "WHY DID I SUGGEST THIS?"

Cubby disappeared down the summit, out of view. Izzy followed shortly behind. Next came Jake, last but not least. The mid-afternoon sun became lost behind several layers of thick canopy. Jake reckoned that this would be where the journey would end; the slide would reach its end and he would meet up with the others.

However, it did not. It kept going, and going, and going.

Up ahead, Jake spotted a hovering green dot. It first appeared as a falling leaf until he focused on it, whereupon it transformed into Skully. Their reunion was brief. Skully shouted something as the leader sped past. Jake did not catch all of what Skully had said, but it sounded like "—ide is ou—".

Ide is ou? Jake thought, confused. What does that mean? The tide is ours? Wide is outside? The slide is…

That's when Jake saw it: the end. The descent curved upward, where it stopped, incomplete. The abundance of mossy logs, rotten planks of wood, worn rope, and dusty tools in the vicinity suggested one thing, and that was that the Crazy Corkscrew was unfinished. You would have to be crazy to ride on it.

At the last moment, Jake understood what Skully meant. "THE SLIDE IS OUT!" he yelled. "YO HO—" With no way to stop himself, Jake slipped off the end and was sent hurdling through the air. "OH NOOOOO!"

Jake screamed as the trees passed him on his left and right. He whipped through thin branches, which snapped against his body. Up ahead, the hanging vines multiplied into the hundreds. This was Jake's one chance to stop himself from making a pirate-shaped crater in the ground. He reached out as the vines knocked and span him around. He managed to grab hold of one and held on tight. He swung up, through the canopy, and out above the treetops, making one final loop. For one second, the sky was the sea, and the sea was the sky. He crashed back down to the vines, where he finally came to a stop.

For minutes, Jake refused to budge on the vine. His heart was like a stampede against his ribcage. His breathing irregular, rapid, and shallow. The first realisation set in that he could not believe he had just survived that. The second realisation set in that there were two other people who had been on the slide before him. That one hit him hard with worry.

While looking forward, Jake called out, "Cubby? Izzy? Where are you?"

"Right here," Izzy said from nearby.

Jake turned his head to the right and spotted Izzy hanging from an adjacent vine.

"Izzy, you're okay! Where's Cubby?" Jake asked.

Izzy motioned with her head to Jake's opposite side. He turned and found Cubby wrapped tightly around another neighbouring vine. The little matey trembled uncontrollably.

"Is… is it… o-over?" Cubby asked with an equally as shaky voice.

Izzy wished she could pat him on the shoulder. Her words would have to do. "Yes. It's over. We survived."

Skully burst through the brush. "Mateys," he cried with relief. "Are you guys okay?"

Izzy raised her thumb. "We're shipshape, Skully," she said. Izzy did not sound convincing, however.

"I wouldn't say we're shipshape, but we're still in the land of the living," Jake added.

"That's good news," Skully said. "I wish I could've warned you earlier about the whole slide being unfinished thing."

"That'll be my fault, mateys," Cubby said after working up the courage to turn his head. His eyes gloomed with deep remorse. "I'm sorry. I had no idea that the Crazy Corkscrew wasn't complete. I could've gotten us all hurt… or worse."

"Don't beat yourself up, Cubby," Jake reassured. "You had no way of knowing that was going to happen."

Cubby sighed. "I know, but… I really, really wanted to try out that slide. Not to impress you guys, but to show myself that I was brave enough to take the plunge." He closed his eyes and recalled the events that happened mere minutes ago. "That slide just now. It was so fast and scary and dangerous. It was… It was…" Cubby's face scrunched up. "It was… AWESOME!" He beamed as he threw a fist into the air.

"Huh?" Jake, Izzy, and Skully said in bewilderment.

Cubby started to bounce on his vine. "Let's ride it again!"

"NO!" They immediately retorted in unison.

"Aww, but it was so cool!"

Suddenly, Cubby's vine snapped. He remained in place while the length above slackened, falling limp over his hands. Cubby's pupils narrowed into pinpoints.

"Uh oh," he muttered, then fell.

Once again, Cubby's friends could do nothing but look on as he fell for the second time that day. There was not enough time for Izzy to throw some emergency pixie dust his way. Thankfully, Cubby landed in a bush. It still resulted in a hard thud, but at least it was softer than dry earth. Jake and Izzy, as fast as they could, dropped down safely to the dirt ground.

"Cubby?" Jake spoke to the shrub that contained his matey. "Are you alright?"

The red berry bush began to rustle, accompanied by Cubby's pained voice. "I'm okay… the bush broke my fall. That's not so cool." At least he was alive; at least his sense of humour was alive. Further rustling and crunching indicated that the little pirate was rising to his feet. "Hey," Cubby unexpectedly said with surprise, "check it out."

Jake felt an eyebrow raise. He leaned over to get a better look, but could not make out anything besides leaves and berries. "Check what out, Cubby?" he asked.

Cubby emerged, covered in leaves – some jutted out from under his blue bandanna. Something was cupped in his hands. "Look what I found," he said as he opened his fingers.

The others edged in closer. At first, they did not see anything. On closer inspection, however, they saw it. A small, white stone – no bigger than the size of a pea – lay in the map maker's pale hands.

"A tooth?" asked Izzy. "Where did you find it?"

"In that bush back there," Cubby replied. His mateys eyes turned from the tooth to him. "It was just lying there." He glanced back down at the tiny incisor. "I wonder whose it is."

Cubby looked back up at his friends to find them strangely silent. Their mouths were open but no words came out. Cubby looked at their eyes and noticed that they were not making contact with his, nor were they looking at the tooth. They were looking at something in between.

"Um, Cubby…?" Skully murmured.

Cubby stared back, puzzled. "What?" he asked. "What is it?"

Jake waved his finger around Cubby's mouth. "Don't be alarmed, but, uh…" he began, but struggled to get the words out.

Izzy, who stood right next to Jake, opened her mouth and pointed at her teeth. Cubby did not understand what Izzy meant by this gesture. Was there something stuck in her teeth? He realised that she was not just pointing at her pearly whites, but at one specific tooth: the lower central incisor. Her fingernail tapped against the outside.

Wait, Cubby pondered. Is she trying to say something about…? His left hand came up to his own mouth. My teeth? He pressed his index finger against his choppers, in the area where Izzy was emphasising, and felt the gap.

"That's your tooth," Jake confessed.

Cubby's eyes went wide. His finger remained on the crevice in his choppers. "My-my t-tooth?" He shot a look back down to the tooth in his palm, and grasped that it was his. "My tooth! Oh no!" he cried. "My teeth are falling out! I don't wanna lose them!"

"Calm down, Cubby," Jake said. "Your teeth aren't falling out. You've just lost your first baby tooth, that's all."

"But I've never lost a tooth before. I don't know what to do." Cubby touched his remaining teeth, fearing that they would come loose at any second.

Izzy giggled. "You don't have to do anything. Eventually, another tooth will replace the one you lost. It happens to everyone." She pointed at her teeth again. "I remember losing my first tooth. Jake has lost some of his baby teeth. Everyone in Neverland will've lost all their first sets of teeth, so don't worry about a thing. It's a part of growing up."

"Really?" Cubby wiped his brow with the back of his hand. "That's a relief," he said before he brought his lost tooth up. The same thing that aided in the chewing of many fruits, treats, and coconuts was now gone, detached from himself in an instant. "But I took care of my teeth so well. I brushed them and everything, and now..."

Izzy smiled warmly. "And now somebody's going to get a visit from the Tooth Pixies."

"The Tooth Pixies?" Cubby asked. "What's a tooth pixie?"

Jake took a step back. "Shiver me timbers. You've never heard of the Tooth Pixies?"

"No, I've never heard of them in my life. Who are they?"

"Only the brightest and whitest fairies in the entire world." Izzy motioned them towards two downed tree trunks and a rock. "Take a seat and I'll tell you the story."

Jake and the Neverland Pirates walked over and planted themselves down. Jake leaned against the lone rock; Izzy sat alone on one log while Cubby and Skully shared the other.

"Now, where to begin…" Izzy tapped her cheek in thought. "We're friends with the pixies, but did you believe that only one type of fairy existed?" She held her hands out in front of her, picturing the scene. "The Tooth Pixies live in a magical kingdom, hidden high up in the clouds. They are as white as the teeth they worship, with hair like snow, and skin as pure as ivory. They live in little white homes, and play in their lush, pearl fields, and everything is overlooked by the tooth castle."

Izzy paused to get a look at the little pirate's expression. Cubby – with a huge grin on his face, the gap prominent – was hanging on to every word.

She resumed, "It is believed that they have a strong connection to all the teeth in the world, and when somebody loses a tooth, they feel in. Teeth are the life blood of these pixies, for it is the source of their power, which is why they collect them. The legend goes that if you place your tooth under your pillow at night, the Tooth Pixies visit you while you sleep, take your tooth, and replace it with a gold doubloon."

"A gold doubloon?" Cubby asked. He rolled his tooth between his thumb and forefinger, inspecting it the same way one would inspect a diamond. "So, if I place this little baby under my pillow tonight, do you think they'll come?"

"They might do, Cubby. Why don't you do that tonight and see if it's still there in the morning."

Cubby slips the tooth into his pocket. "I think I'll just do that." He turned upwards to the canopy and made out the rays of sun through the green leaves. "Look at the time, mateys. We should be getting back to Shipwreck Beach right away. Bucky will be wondering where we are." He jumped off the log, retrieved his map and eagerly scrolled it open. "Thankfully, the beach isn't too far from here. Follow me."

As Cubby took the lead, the rest took their sweet time to stand up and follow his lead, allowing a wide breadth to grow between them and him.

Skully flew in close and whispered, "Great job with that story, Izzy. He'll sleep like a baby tonight."

"Thanks, Skully," Izzy whispered back. She looked at Jake. "And thank you for backing me up. Did I sound convincing enough?"

"For a moment," Jake said, "you almost convinced me that the Tooth Pixies were real." They shared a quiet giggle before the boy continued. "I'll sneak a gold doubloon out of the team treasure chest later today. He'll be none the wiser."

"Don't forget his bed is on the top bunk," Skully informed. "I can switch the tooth for the doubloon if you want."

"That's okay, Skully," said Izzy. "We know you like to get your beauty sleep. Leave it to Jake and me. A pinch of pixie dust should do the trick."

Cubby impatiently called out from far away, "Hey, guys, are you coming or what?"

Jake broke away and responded, "Coming! Let's go, crew."

They dashed beside their delegated map-reader, and together, all four of them proceeded down the worn path back to Shipwreck Beach.

The jungle became quiet, void of life. However, that was not true. From high up in the vines, hidden from plain sight, something stirred. A crimson-suited figure slowly descended from up high, like a spider coming down on its prey. He gazed with dark, beady eyes as the pesky popinjays made their exit. His right hand gripped the rope while his artificial left twirled his thin moustache.

"Did you hear that, Mr. Smee?" Captain Hook spoke in a hushed voice.

Something grunted with discomfort from above, followed by a series of snapping sounds. Hook's first mate, Mr. Smee, dropped beside his captain, coiled head to toe in vines.

Mr Smee adjusted his spectacles, which were lopsided upon his nose. "Aye aye, Cap'n," he responded. "Ah, to lose your first baby tooth. It feels like a lifetime ago." He clasped his hands in thought, recalling his days as a young lad. "I remember so fondly placing those teeth under my pillow and—"

Captain Hook reached over and nicked a single vine with his hook. As that vine snapped, so did all the others – cutting off both Smee's reminiscing and his safeguard. The first mate tumbled a short way down to the clay ground below. He landed with a hard bang, billowing up a cloud of dust – no bush to ease the crash like with little Cubby.

"Yes, yes, heart-warming indeed," Captain Hook said dismissively. He landed beside Mr. Smee and snagged him by the shirt, pulling the portly first mate to his feet. "But let's not dilly-dally in your childhood tales, Smee. I'm more interested in these supposed 'Tooth Pixies' of theirs."

"The Tooth Pixies?" Smee stuttered for a moment, lost in confusion, then chuckled in his peppy manner. "Cap'n, don't be silly now. That be just a…" He stopped and giggled some more, tickled by what he was about to say. "Fairy tale."

Sharky and Bones appeared from the foliage, holding a bongo and cymbals respectively. Sharky went ba dum, followed by Bones who went tish! Then they disappeared as quickly as they came.

Mr. Smee found his footing before he continued. "Why, it's all made up, of course. A story to tell young sea pups, nothing more."

"Preposterous," Hook barked back. "Those pintsized pests would never lie about anything regarding fairies. Need I remind you who that irksome Izzy gets her pixie dust from? Or that they're friends with that loathsome Tinkerbell?" He paced down the path while he scratched his chin, both in thought and in frustration. When he thought of Tinkerbell, he thought of Peter Pan – a name that made his stomach burn with disgust. "Methinks there's some truth to their words."

Mr. Smee placed a palm on his forehead and shook his head in a discreet manner. If his captain was not underestimating Jake and his crew, he was overestimating them instead. "Aye, Sir. What you got planning in that noggin of yours?"

Captain Hook span back around. Mr. Smee dropped his hand to his side and smiled in the nick of time, not wanting to provoke his already cranky captain.

"These pixies replace all lost teeth with doubloons, yes? This means that they must have some way of supplying doubloons to all the people in the world." His greedy brain wandered, filled with visions of shiny metal in the bucket loads. "Do you know how many doubloons they'd need to fulfil such a task? They'd need to have millions; billions; trillions of them. Meaning they have either a humongous supply of gold, or a never-ending source of doubloons."

Smee said, "Well, the next time you lose a tooth," and judging by your attitude, I'm surprised you aren't wearing dentures already, "I'll remind you to place it under your pillow."

"You misunderstand your captain," Hook retorted. "I don't want just one measly doubloon." He wagged his finger. "No, no, no, Mr. Smee. I want all of them!"

"Then how do you intend to find where they live?" Mr. Smee asked. "You heard Izzy, their home be hidden from all non-tooth pixies."

"Which is exactly why I won't go looking for them. They will come looking for me. If I can get me hands on one of those pixies, I can convince it to take me to its home." He chuckled darkly. "Then I will find the source of their doubloons, and swipe it all to meself." He caressed his steel hook. "Ah, such ingenious. What else can you expect from the great and glorious Captain Hook?"

"First you be needing a tooth, Cap'n," the first mate reminded, rolling his eyes. "But methinks nobody on the Jolly Roger is willing to give any of theirs, not to mention Bones."

"Oh, Smee, I wouldn't ask any of you to sacrifice a tooth for my sake." Hook wrapped his arm around Smee's shoulders. "Even though I could, and if you didn't I'd make you walk the plank, but I digress. I know someone who'll gladly give us a spare."