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Chapter Nineteen

Peter

Present Day

“ T here’s a ship! It just docked on the south side of the island!” Stone called out to me from the beach, where we had set up camp for the night, and I intended to start training the boys how to fight and hide; however, they were more skilled than I was at hiding.

“Is the ship here in the bay or further out at sea?” I asked

“On the other side of the island. This is the north side,” Stone answered.

“Okay, are you all ready to go and defeat Captain Hook and his pirate crew?” I asked, walking from the tent. The group of boys were sharpening their weapons and gathering supplies, but as they were gathering, a swarm of pixies came chiming into the camp .

“Princess, Princess!” they chanted.

Fear surged through me. Were they saying that I needed a princess here? Just as they wanted Gwen to be the mother and me as the father of the last group of children they stole?

“No, I do not need a princess .”

“Peter! Peter! Save us!”

“Save you from Hook? Yes, that is my plan.”

“Save the stars! The stars!” they rang again, and I looked around as they swarmed me.

“What are they saying?”

“Lost starlight,” Stone said slowly.

“It is midday.”

“No, the pixies call the gems stars. They use them for everything; they probably even eat them because they are strange beings,” Leaf said, coming up beside me.

One pixie, not liking that comment, buzzed right in front of Leaf, causing him to sneeze.

“Sorry, but what am I supposed to think when you hoard them so?” Leaf asked.

“They don’t eat them,” Bear said, looking at the pixies with a wide grin.

“Anyway, these gems are more than just gems , aren’t they?” I asked.

“Lost starlight—Lost wishes—Lost—Lost pixies—Lost magic,” the pixies sang.

Did that mean that those gems were important to their very survival? If Captain Hook used the children to take the gems from the pixies–and I had seen for myself that he was doing just that—did that mean the pixies would be harmed?

Part of me wondered if it would be so bad if those mischievous, flitting beings did disappear.

They had already caused so much havoc in my world that I was not quick, nor happy, to help them solve their plight; however, perhaps there was more to them, and perhaps, I could convince them to stop stealing children, and we could all live in harmony.

“The pixies told me that each clear gem represents a particular star up in the heavens, and they do not touch those gems. Once those are removed from their proper place, they said, the gem’s magic disappears and is lost, and by doing so, the star they are aligned with also burns out and disappears,” Bear said, smiling at a hoard of pixies, playing with his curly hair.

“And that is bad?” I asked.

“Well, those gems are in the Mirror Sea, Bear. Captain Hook isn’t over there,” Stone clarified.

“I don’t think all of them are,” Bear said. “But even so, the colored gems all have magic. They seem to favor the yellow ones best as they make it possible for them to fly. I’m just not sure what kind of magic the other one’s have. ”

“If the pixies are worried, we should be, too,” Shadow added

“I’d imagine any magic in the hands of pirates would be bad,” I said.

“If we do not stop him from finding the other gems, what’s to stop him from searching for more? I am sure he is just as greedy as King Falcon was, and he will not stop till he has all the treasure of the Misted Seas,” Shadow grunted.

“Yes.” Stone nodded. “It would be like King Falcon, trying to drain all the magic from their world–again.”

“Clearly, he did not drain all the magic,” I said.

“The Misted Seas still exist because of the pixies and their magical gems. Many magical creatures fled here, not only to preserve themselves, but to protect what little magic Terra had left. Because these gems still exist—bright and full of magic—the entire world did not die,” Bear said.

“You seem to know so much about this,” I said, turning to Bear.

“He has a crush on one of the pixies,” some boy shouted from behind him.

Bear blushed, and I touched his shoulder.

“You may have just saved us all because of your interest in the pixies. You did well,” I said.

Bear’s cheeks became less pink, and he smiled.

“What do we do, then?” Stone asked .

“We protect the magic gems, and we defeat Hook. We cannot have someone else taking more magic from the world, and he should not be enslaving any of you lost boys and taking you from your home here in Neverland,” I answered.

The entire group of boys shouted, “To our home! To Neverland!”

I smiled at them and turned to face the pixies.

They chimed in agreement.

We walked through the tropical grasses and plants, heading toward the beach, where, on the horizon, we did see a ship. Only it was not the ship I had visited earlier. It looked– no . It looked like Dominick’s ship.

Has Gwendolyn come for me?

No.

No! I did not want any harm to come to her; she must have told Dominick about my note, and they had come to save me.

If she steps foot onto this island, will the pixies still keep their promise to leave her alone? Or will they steal her away again?

A few pixies were still with us as we peeked through the ferns to see the ship. Those pixies began to chime with excitement that more people were coming.

I turned to them.

“If I am going to save your starlight gems or whatever from Hook, you have to promise me that you will not harm any of my friends aboard that ship–or force them to remain here. No deals,” I said.

“Peter, Peter, Safe—Friends, Friends safe, Safe, Safe.”

With a nod, I looked back, watching with happiness and horror as boats were sent from the ship toward the shore.

I desired more than anything at that moment to pull Gwen into my arms and kiss her senseless, but if she was there, then she was in danger again. I did not want that. At least, the pixies would not capture her. I held myself back, observing, just to make sure it was not a trick of some kind.