Wow. Wow. Wow. I am soooo sorry this took so long but I have done a lot of things since the last chapter was updated. I graduated college, worked on a cruise ship, quit that job, came home, was a hostess, quit that job and am now moving to England. I also did a lot of rethinking about how I wanted future chapters to go. I have essentially planned out the plot of most of the series and did a lot of re-planning for certain plot points.

This chapter is dedicated to the late and forever great Robin Williams, who passed away between this chapter and the last. When he died I cried a tear for every happy thought he brought into my life as the funny actor and grown-up Peter Pan that helped inspire this fanfiction and the future it brings. He will never be truly gone, just as Peter Pan will forever be young in our hearts.

CHAPTER NINE: LOST BOYS AND INDIANS

Jacob kicked several rocks out the way while he did his best to imitate Elvis's pelvis thrust and keep up his walking pace. This proved more difficult than he thought and was quickly abandoned in favor of simply walking, though he would occasionally stop and click his fingers at a tree to say, "Hey there, pretty momma," accompanying it with a wink and a tongue click. He laughed at himself and continued walking, his ukulele bouncing against his back. Nibs had helped him fashion a type of rope belt which they had secured to the headstock and to the bottom of the base.

Jacob didn't hear the footsteps rapidly approaching him from behind or the brief pause before something slammed into his spin and pitched him forward. His head snapped back from the sudden force before he hit the ground and his face ate dirt. Whatever had hit him in the back was now resting on it, feeling legs on either side of his torso he reached back to push the person off.

"Get off!" He wheezed, but soon found his hands being restrained behind him.

Beginning to panic with how quickly control of his body was being taken away, he desperately began rocking his weight from side to side and trying to wrench his arms free. He could feel rope roughly tightening around his wrists and knew time was running out, so he craned his neck upward and attempted to call for help with the little air not being crushed from his lungs.

His cries were quickly cut off when his assailant grasped him by the upper shoulder and wrenched him onto his back. Whatever cries were bubbling in the back of his throat quickly died when he felt fingers grasp his hair and pull his head back while something cold and sharp rest against his throat.

What his eyes fell upon was not what he expected. Instead of a pirate about to cut his throat it was a brown skinned girl straddling his stomach and pinning him down. His eyebrows furrowed and for a moment his fear was gone. Blinking at her he wheezed out, "What are you doing—"

"Stay quiet!" She hissed and pressed the knife further against his skin.

Immediately shutting up, he waited for her to make the next move. She had somehow bore her weight down directly under his ribs. He could kick his legs but they would connect with nothing of hers, and his arms were useless and twisted behind his back. His mind was racing, wondering what this Indian girl was getting at doing this to him.

She didn't look much older than him at all, but her eyes were not those of a child. They were black as berries but sharp as a hawk's. The only time they left his were when a sharp snap of a twig caught her attention. Her eyes left his but she didn't turn her face, scanning through the brush to see what possible threats to her catch lay out there. Jacob's heart sank when a bird emerged from the bush before flying away with a mouse hanging from its beak, just another predator taking down a prey.

She wrenched him up and before he could attempt to run a rope was put over his head and tightened into a noose. His eyes were wide as he stared at her as she rounded him, not breaking eye contact with him at all. A moment went by as he was lost in her eyes and they could have been staring at each other for hours if she hadn't had tugged the rope roughly and sent him stumbling forward. He regained himself in time to see a corner of her lip turn upward before she said, "Walk."

What. The. Bloody. Hell. Just. Happened. Jacob was prepared for getting into skirmishes with pirates, the other boys, and even his sisters, but this completely took him by surprise. But all the more he had absolutely no idea what to do. Should he try to fight against this girl? She was about his size, maybe he could away and get back to the others before she caught up. But every time his neck turned the Indian felt the rope move and she jerked it forward.

"Um, look," She didn't pause at all in their trek, "I don't know all the rules of this game you play with the lost boys—and by extent me, I guess, if you think that counts—but I'm pretty sure that after one team has caught a member of the other tribe, then that's pretty much it for the day. You have to wait until the next day at least to start hunting again, giving the other team a chance to cover their tracks and prepare. It's only fair." Still nothing from his captive. "Hello?" He tried again, "Do you speak English? Have any idea what I'm saying?" She didn't turn around or make any indication of acknowledgment to his existence. At that moment he didn't know what was making him more furious: his capture or his captor and her complete ignorance of him. She had taken him down so easily and now acted as if he wasn't a threat and wouldn't even take one moment to listen to him. It wasn't fair! He bounded two steps forward and attempted to sidestep her and get into her face, "Hey, Tonto! I'm talking to you—"

"You talk too much!" She shouted and shoved him against his chest. Jacob anticipated it and twisted to the side so she only pushed his shoulder, giving him enough momentum to try and ram his body into her and shake her ground. He was able to push her back slightly and in that moment he attempted to run away in the opposite direction only to be yanked back and almost choked by the rope around his neck. He forgot about the bloody noose!

The lack of oxygen reaching his brain and the constriction on his throat threw him into a panic, knowing that he was about to be right back to where he started. He decided to try something desperate.

Lily Pad expected him to try to get away again or pull against the rope, but when the lost boy's back suddenly came rushing toward her and slammed into her chest she was taken by surprise. She was pushed back with a grunt and forced backward until the wind was knocked out of her when she hit a tree, and before she could recover as he pulled away he slammed himself back into her for good measure.

Jacob jumped forward and heard her body fall and took off with looking back. With his hands behind his back he was sure that he wasn't going anywhere near as fast as he could have, but at the moment the adrenaline pumping through his body made him feel like the winner of the Olympic marathon. He ran through the bushes and thick branches that caught his face and snagged his clothes, determined to get his freedom.

After a few minutes of he came upon a stream, stumbling into it, falling to his knees at first before getting back up. He rushed to the other side but stopped suddenly before stepping out of the water. Indians were trackers! He was sure the Indian girl could track him easily with the way he was stomping around the forest, so he should stick to the river. He started heading upstream, because he was sure the girl would think he would go downstream if she caught wind he'd taken the river. He took long strides against the current before he found himself sitting in it, twisting his arms under his butt until be brought them to his front. At least now his hands weren't tied behind him, but the rocks in the river were too smooth to try to cut through the rope.

The river wasn't deep, maybe just up to his shins, but he was getting tired of going against the current and thought that maybe it was safe to venture back on dry land and risk the tracks he would make. His wet pant legs stuck to him as he ventured onto the dry land, leaning over and taking deep breathes as he took in any familiar landmarks that could help him.

"Okay, now where the heck do I go and how do I get there?" He thought.

Should he try to go back to the others at the Water House? He knew the direction but then again the others could have started the trek home already. The Indian girl was more than likely that direction as well. Even if he didn't cross her path again if the others were gone he would be all alone again. The Home Underground? He was fairly certain in what direction it lay but it would be quicker if he could fly there. Fat lot of help he had in that area, the pixie dust would surely have all washed out by now, not having been in Neverland long enough it hadn't yet set in the skin.

His uncle had once told him that the sun set in the west, so if the Home Underground was east then that meant…he looked up and saw the sun straight up in the sky, causing Jacob to moan, "It's noon, great!" It would be at least another half hour before he knew what direction he was going.

He could climb up a tree and try to see if he could find familiar landmarks, except there was the small matter of his hands still being tied together. He needed to find something to cut trough this rope. Jacob was never a kid who could just go out and do things, he always needed a plan. And now having a series of actions in his head that could get him back home he began to relax a bit more. He walked about the stream hoping to find a sharper rock and suddenly realized why all the lost boys carried a dagger of some kind, and mentally made a note to acquire one later. He took his teeth to it and began trying to undo the knot that way while trying to find a suitable tree.

That proved easier said than done, and after almost 10 minutes and some aimless wandering he realized he couldn't keep going without some sort of idea of where he was headed. He judged an oak tree that looked the least likely to kill him and attempted to pull himself up to straddle the first branch.

He wheezed as he tried to reach up and pull himself up with his wrists still tightly bound together. Just when he thought he had a good grip he tried swinging his leg up to bring his body over, under estimated it and fell short. He tried again, again and again until he finally hauled himself up one whole branch. The next one was just higher up on his left and by the grace of God or whoever was worshiped in this island he was able to jump to it and lean back against the stump. He brought up his bound hands to wipe away the sweat on his forehead.

At this rate it would take forever to reach the top, but he had gone too far to back down now. This next branch would be tricky like the first one. Sucking in a deep breath he reached up and wrapped his legs around the branch directly above him, trying to haul himself over the top. He was trying for the third time when he heard something that made his blood freeze.

Voices. Adult voices.

Pirates!

His hands must have been sweatier than he thought because suddenly his arms slipped and he felt the panic rush into him. He gripped his legs against the branch and somehow was able to lock his ankles together. He tried to stop breathing as the world swung upside down behind him and halt his swinging.

"Oh bugger."