Page 18

Chapter Fourteen

Peter

Present Day

S alty air was something I was used to. But that salty air was different—thicker, heavier—and I knew the taste of that air as well–from my nightmares.

I shook my head, feeling something heavy over me. As I opened my eyes, I realized I was lying in the sand upon the seashore—not a seashore in my kingdom, but on Pixie Isle.

I blinked a few times, dislodging the sand from my eyelids.

I knew I had to be covered, head to toe, in the grainy substance.

Getting myself up, I went into the water to get rid of the grittiness, which felt as if there were ants crawling under my clothes.

Once I cleaned off the sand as much as humanly possible, I walked carefully up the beach with my shoes in hand, up to the edge of the jungle.

Sitting on a rock and after brushing the sand from my feet, I put my boots back on.

The island was balmy, and I would dry, eventually, even with the humidity in the air.

It was better to be wet than to have sand everywhere.

There was a tinkling bell behind me, and I turned. Sure enough, a glowing pixie hovered just behind me.

“Peter! Peter!” the pixie sang.

“I am here, so what must I do to fulfill my debt?”

“We must go! Must go!”

Pixies are irritating, I thought. One-track minds, or simple-minded, maybe? I stood up and motioned for the pixie to lead the way.

I was a captive on that island until they released me. I marched like the prisoner I was, though with no clanking chains and iron bands. Instead, it was invisible magic keeping me with them until my debt was paid.

Keeping me from Gwen.

We moved through the thick, wet jungle. Vines and tall palm trees leaned across our path, as well as the abundant spring flora.

It always appeared to be spring on that island.

Many tiny creatures flitted this way and that.

As we continued to walk in and out of the jungle upon some invisible path, which only that pixie seemed to know about, we came to the lagoon with that cascading waterfall.

I’d been there before. It was a beautiful sight, one that, perhaps, in a different situation, I would have enjoyed .

I had once enjoyed being there, actually, only because I had finally found Gwen and was able to save her.

I remembered that clearly, and I fell into that memory.

One Month Before Present Day

“Let her go!” I shouted as the pixies chimed all around me. “I know you have her!”

“Cannot! Cannot! Ours! Ours! Ours!” Their bell-like sounds made me even more enraged.

“She is not yours! You stole her!”

“Foolish human! Foolish human!” they chimed. They spun around me, and I desired to push them away, yet I refrained. If I injured one of them, it might have been worse for Gwen.

“They need a mother. Mother! We need her! Need her!” they chanted.

Suddenly, Gwen was there, emerging from behind the waterfall.

Her eyes were wide, and she wore only a nightgown—white with a blue ribbon around her waist. She looked beautiful—she was beautiful.

My heart beat wildly in my chest as I stood in awe at finally seeing her again.

It had been a painful month since I had seen my beautiful storyteller.

I was happy that she did not seem to be injured, but I ached because I saw that look in her eyes: emotional pain and fear.

“Let her go!”

“We cannot! Not! Not! We cannot!” they hummed around me.

I did not say anything, but I quickly walked over to her, the sounds of the pixies swarming around me, but I only looked at her , focused on her .

She was kept back from me as the pixies created a wall, causing me to stop when we were only a few feet apart.

Only one small section of the lagoon was between us.

“Peter!” she called. It was the first time she had used my actual name, and I paused. I had always imagined that moment—hoped she would say it in a different way—not as she just had in despair. A new anger ignited inside of me. Gwen was mine, and I would not let them have her.

I could see hope and something else alight in her eyes. My heart was pounding.

Gwen, how dare they do this to her! So sweet, kind, and delicate.

“Let her go, now!” I shouted.

“No, no, No, no!”

“It’s okay, Peter; they are kind—”

“Kind? How is this kind–when they took you from your home in the middle of the night? ”

“There are children here–so many children,” she said with tears in her eyes.

“Children?”

“Yes, they were brought here. Many from the orphanages in Walden—”

“The missing children?” I said in surprise. My mother had worked tirelessly, trying to discover how or why they had been taken. One of our greatest fears was that Captain Veeto was doing it. But no, it had been those pixies.

Gwen’s tears dripped down her cheeks. I turned to the pixies.

“You have stolen the children from Walden, and my— Gwen , and yet you have no remorse?”

“They need us! Need us!” they chimed.

“The children are not being hurt, and I do believe the pixies think they are helping these lost children,” Gwen said.

“And yet, this is harmful. Pixies are fools,” I said to her, hating that she was in that position.

“Peter, I missed you,” she said softly. My anger dissipated at her words.

“I can tell because you have finally called me ‘Peter.’ It was more glorious than I ever imagined,” I said, watching her cheeks blush.

“Well, considering the circumstances, I thought it would be better to be direct. ”

“Yes, always be direct from now on,” I said with a wink. If possible, her cheeks seemed to grow even more rosy. “I am so happy to see you—find you. Do not worry, I will find a way to get you and the children back to Walden safely.”

She nodded, and the pixies swarmed her, pulling her away from my view, back behind the waterfall. I leaned into the group of pixies that swarmed in front of me.

“No! Gwen!”

“She is ours! Ours, Ours! We need a mother, Mother, mother! Mother and Father!” they said, pulling me away from where Gwen was. Once I was on the other side of the lagoon, they let me be.

“Mother? What are you–?”

“Gwendolyn is mother! Peter, Peter is father! Father! Father!”

“You are attempting to give these children a mother and a father,” I said, dumbfounded.

It appeared to be true; those pixies were not truly evil .

They seemed to have good intentions, taking children out from terrible circumstances, trying to give them a better life.

And yet, living in a jungle? Did they have beds to sleep in, or food?

I doubted it, seeing the sadness on Gwen’s face when she spoke of them.

“Yes! Yes!”

“No, they cannot stay here.”

“We help! Help! Help!”

“I know you are attempting to help; however, it is not helping. What can I do to get you to release them?”

“We need!”

“I can help; let Gwen and the children go, and I will come and help, only after I make sure they are all home safe.”

“You? You?”

“I will help, but let them go; let the children and Gwen go.”

“Need help! Help, Help them!”

“Yes, you have helped, but we can help them now by taking them back to Walden. Gwen will help them there, and I will help you here.”

“You will come back? Come back?” they asked.

My heart ached. I did not want to be without Gwen and my family, but I cared more about Gwen than anything else.

I always wanted Gwen more than adventure.

I touched a hand to my heart. Having seen her there, physically safe but with tears in her eyes?

I would have moved mountains, gone to the traitor king’s mountain, myself, if it would have kept her safe.

But I would also stay right there. I would stay and take her place if it meant she could be free.

“I will. Take me instead.” I was grateful that Gwen had been pulled far enough away to help with the children so that she could not stop me.

The pixies swarmed around me, chiming a song .

Is it glee? Or are they about to attack?

“We make a deal, deal, deal,” they chimed. “You go now, now. You go, but we come. We come, come for you; for you. We come! We will come, claim your debt! Debt! Debt!”

Gwen returned with a herd of children surrounding her. They looked worn out, filthy, and underfed. No, there was no way they were thriving there, but we would make sure they were taken care of in Walden.

“Peter, what did you do? They told us we could go,” she said as I walked up to her. I took her face in my palms, my thumb dangerously close to her mouth. Her brilliant blue eyes shone up at me. How had I not seen it? Everyone had but me.

I love this woman. I loved her more than I had loved anything ever in my life.

She was my starlight on the sea, guiding me to her.

Every moment, I waited desperately to see her again—that was love.

It was unyielding love. I was still worried about my curse, and I did not want to have anyone tied to my fate—tied to someone who always wanted to leave—but maybe, maybe we could talk about it.

Maybe she would be willing to read to me to help my curse for the rest of our days.

All my thoughts and desires pooled up in my mind, swarming like a hoard of pixies on a mission.

I looked into her perfect eyes. She had that look of confusion upon her face because I was just looking at her.

I had seen her so many times, yet that was the first time I looked at her and saw my future.

Without another thought, I pulled Gwen into my arms and kissed her. She, in all her properness, gasped, and I heard giggles from the surrounding children, so I made it brief. I wanted to ravish her with kisses, but that would have to wait. She melted into me, welcoming the kiss.

Does she truly feel the same? How can I be so blessed, especially when I am a cursed prince?

“Gwen, I—” I said, gasping for breath as that kiss took all the air away from me.

“I know, Peter. Me, too.” Her cheeks turned a very beautiful shade of pink.

“You are free! Free! Free!” the pixies shouted, and not needing to be told a second time, I motioned for Gwen and the lost children to go onto the jungle path toward the beach and then onto the boat, which would take them far away from Pixie Isle.

Present Day

Being back on Pixie Isle was only positive because it meant Gwen and the children would remain safe in Walden. As I walked around the lagoon, I saw that the entire floor of the lagoon was covered in more gems than before–large and small, all of varying colors.

“Peter! Peter!”

I grunted. Pixies were very difficult to speak with, for they moved and flitted around and repeated themselves, irritatingly.

“Peter! Peter!” they chimed.

“I get it, you know my name. How long is my sentence here?” I asked as they moved around me.

“Forever!”

“Forever?! No, no, I will stay for a while, but I have to go home.” Fear pulsed through me. I would not–could not remain on that dreadful Island.

“Till the task is complete, Debt repaid!”

“Okay, what is my task?” Relief flooded through me.

As I looked around and the fear of never seeing my family and Gwen again overtook me, the pixies pushed me forward and sideways until I was walking behind the waterfall, the one Gwen had emerged from the last time I was there.

We walked through a glowing cavern, piled high with golden gems. As we took a left turn, I saw piles of dust, and what looked like a fountain of that golden dust falling like water from the side of one wall.

Looking around, I noticed that some of the pixies didn’t glow at all, not until they dipped themselves under the falling dust.

“What is this?”

“Dust! Dust! Dust!”

“What?” I said, pausing to observe the scene before me. “I see it is dust, but—” I watched how the pixies who doused themselves in the dust flew about.

“Pixie dust! Pixie dust!” they chanted. “Fly! Fly fly!" they sang.

They led me to another branch of the cave, filled with golden gems—gems that small pixies were cutting and shaving down, creating the dust.

They make pixie dust from gems?

Finally, we moved from the caverns and walked to another side of the island. There was a dirt path, which led us to a small grove and a rather nice-looking campsite. There were only a handful of home-like structures there, but they all appeared to be well cared for.

“Peter is here! Peter is here!” the pixies chimed, moving around me.

I looked to see small movements from within the trees.

There were ten boys, of all different ages and sizes.

The eldest didn’t look to be more than twelve.

The youngest looked to be about six. I thought we had taken all the children away from there.

Had they collected more? Was it a different group?

Gwen told me that the stolen children lived in squalor.

Those children looked organized. Their faces were smudged with dirt, yet their clothes seemed well-kept, for the most part.

They even appeared well-fed. They did not appear to be living like the children I had saved with Gwen.

“Who?” one little boy with light blond hair asked me, looking up.

“My name is Peter. How long have you all been here?”

“I’m Stone,” a taller boy said, “and we don’t know. Time is different here.” He had wavy light brown hair and stood more confidently than the rest as he was the eldest; I could see it in his eyes.

“I do not know why the pixies took you, but I will help you,” I said.

“No. Neverland is our home,” a blond boy beside Stone said.

“Neverland?”

“Yes, this is Neverland. It’s part of Pixie Isle, officially, but unofficially, we named this area,” a larger boy said, who had a kind face and big brown eyes. “That’s Leaf.” He pointed to the blond boy. “I am Bear. Welcome. Are you here to help us defeat Captain Hook and save the pixie?”

“Who is Captain Hook?”

“A blasted pirate,” Leaf snarled.

“He stole some of our own people,” Stone said.

“Some of your– ”

“Boys. We call ourselves the lost boys,” one boy said, wearing all black with black hair and a small dagger, hanging at his side.

“Lost?” I asked, looking from that boy and then around to the others.

“Yes, we were once lost, but the pixies found us and gave us this place. We have thrived here,” Stone said.

“And you are?” I asked the boy in all black, who looked about to stab me.

“They call me Shadow.”

Stone walked up to me and shook my hand. “Will you help us?”

“Yes,” I said, looking from the boys to the pixies.

Satisfied, the pixies left, and I looked back at the lost boys of Neverland.