Tinker, Pirate, Princess, Pan - Chapter Two
Chapter Two
At the centre of the island near their home beneath Hangman’s Tree, the Lost Boys were on the lookout, knowing that with spring returning to Neverland, their leader was surely close at hand.
Even now they were looking to the skies over Neverland for sight of Pan. Rhys, their leader when Jack was gone, was holding up a spyglass when suddenly he saw something he had never seen before.
“What is it?” one of the other boys asked.
“It’s a large white bird,” Rhys replied, spying Gwen in her nightgown. “And quite ugly too.”
“No it’s not!” “Give it here!” “I want a turn!” the boys exclaimed as the fought over who got to look through it.
“Give it here!” Rhys ordered as he grabbed it back out of their hands. “When Jack’s away I’m in charge, so I get to look through the telescope.” He raised his eye to it once more and told the boys it was getting closer before he shrieked in surprise as Ianto smirked through the end of the lens at him, surrounded by a bright yellow cloud of faerie dust.
“My God, I’ve gone blind!” he exclaimed rubbing his eyes as the other boys laughed.
“Hello Ianto, where’s Jack?” the boys asked
“He’s blinded me!” Rhys continued to complain as the other boys said their hellos.
But as Gwen drew closer, Ianto made a decision. There would be no peace in Neverland with Gwen here, and it was up to him to do something about it.
Now some say faeries are so small that they only have room for one feeling at a time. Ianto, being a Tinker, had a bit more room than most, but after being pushed aside for Gwen more than once, and worrying that Jack might soon be lost to him forever, fear and jealousy blended together until they took over any sense of remorse he might feel at what he was about to do.
“Ianto says the bird is called a…Gwendolyn,” Mickey, another of the boys, explained as the Tinker whispered in his ear. “And Jack wants us to shoot it down.”
“Well boys,” said Rhys. “We have our orders.”
The Lost Boys took aim and, aided by the bull’s-eye that Ianto drew in the air to guide them, fired. Gwen saw the arrows and flapped her arms in desperation, trying to avoid them but to no avail. As she fell, the Lost Boys whooped in triumph and raced to find where she had fallen.
Ianto, seeing Gwen lying on the forest floor with an arrow in her chest, clapped his hands in delight. With Gwen gone, now Jack wouldn’t leave and Neverland was safe.
“That is no bird,” said one of the Lost Boys as they came closer.
“’tis s a lady,” said Rhys reverently before turning around to Mickey’s startled face. “And Mickey has killed her.”
Before Mickey could speak, they heard a swooping noise as Jack landed. Turning as one, they hid Gwen behind them hoping that Jack wouldn’t notice.
“Hi kids, did you miss me?” he said with a grin before flying up to perch on the branch of a nearby tree. “Great news! I know how Cinderella ends. There was slashing, fighting, and a great battle until they all lived happily ever after.”
“Well, that’s a relief I must say,” answered Rhys nervously.
“I have even greater news!” Jack continued as he leapt down from the tree to join them. “I have brought you she who told us the Cinderella. She is to tell us stories. She is-“
Jack stopped as the boys parted to show him were Gwen lay.
“Dead,” Rhys said quietly. “Tragic really, just awful. Good shot though.”
Jack pulled out the arrow and glared at the boys. “Whose arrow?” he demanded.
Mickey stepped forward. “Mine,” he said as he knelt down beside him and opened his shirt. “Strike Jack, strike true,” he said closing his eyes.
Jack held up the arrow and leaned forward, only to drop the arrow when Gwen began to stir.
“The Gwendolyn lives,” Rhys said in surprise as Jack lifted the chain holding the acorn he had given her. The acorn now had a hole in it from stopping the arrow.
“My kiss saved her,” Jack said in wonder.
“Let me see it,” Rhys asked taking it from Jack’s hand. “Aye that is a kiss,” he confirmed. “A powerful thing kisses are, especially for ladies.” Gwen moaned and Rhys looked at Pan with concern. “We shouldn’t move her if she’s hurt,” he warned.
Jack nodded in agreement.
“We shall build a house around her until she wakes,” he commanded as the boys scurried off to comply. “When you are finished, I want someone guarding her door at all times until she awakes.”
While Jack remained behind staring at Gwen in concern, Eugene, the smallest of the lot, came back and whispered to Jack that the Tinker had done it.
“Ianto!” Jack called out knowing that he would be somewhere close.
Ianto flew down beside him and Jack narrowed his eyes as he grabbed his friend and held him in his fist.
“Was it you Ianto?” Jack asked.
Ianto shook his head no, and then unable to deny it nodded yes.
“Then I am your friend no more,” Jack said with a snarl, throwing him across the glen.
Ianto stood up and looked back at Jack in sorrow. He hadn’t meant to hurt Gwen, not really. But as he started to explain, Jack simply turned away from him to stroke Gwen’s hair and ignored him.
Heartbroken, Ianto flew off into the woods, hoping that Jack would soon change his mind and be his friend once more.
By the time Gwen awoke she was most distressed. The last thing she remembered was franticly trying to avoid an arrow before falling from the sky and now she was lying inside a strange little hut cobbled together with vines and flowers. A giggled drifted in from outside as someone ran past and she decided that she best find Jack. Taking a breath she opened the door and found a group of rather dirty boys kneeling down before her, asking her to be their mother. Well, all except for the dark haired one who seemed to be their leader, who just knelt silently at the back muttering something about a mother being the last thing he needed.
After protesting that she had no real experience, and finding that storytelling was the only real experience needed, she agreed and the boys eagerly blindfolded her to bring her to their hideout under Hangman’s Tree.
~~~~~~~~
While Gwen and the Lost Boys were getting better acquainted, Owen and Andy were busy trying to navigate their way through the Neverland jungle after falling from the clouds over Hook’s ship.
A run in with the infamous crocodile that had stolen Hook’s arm lead them to being strung up by their ankles in a simple rope trap that they had missed as they ran from the crocodile in terror.
“How humiliating!” Owen exclaimed as his nightshirt slipped down over his face, exposing his lower half for all to see.
“Owen, there’s something worser,” Andy answered as Owen lifted the shirt from his face and saw a Japanese girl perched in the tree before them with her mouth hanging open in shock.
As the boys tried frantically to pull their nightshirts back up to cover their privates, the girl laughed so hard she fell from the tree and immediately found herself face to face with Hook and his gang.
“Princess Toshiko,” Hook greeted her as she staggered to her feet. Hook motioned to his crew and they quickly took her knife and restrained her before she could run away. “We search as ever for Pan’s hideout,” Hook continued. “Luckily, two boys of his acquaintance were seen falling into this part of the jungle.” He said as he inched closer. “Have you seen them?”
Unafraid, the girl began to call Hook several nasty names in Japanese, even going so far as to spit at Hook’s feet.
“She says no,” Smee translated as Hook rolled his eyes.
“My Hook thinks you have, Princess,” he said with a sneer as he ran it up her shirt to rest it underneath her chin.
“I say! Unhand her you perverted bastard!” called down Owen, no longer able to stand by while the girl was threatened.
Hook looked up at him and smiled.
“Thank you ever so much for joining us,” he said cordially as he gestured for his men to cut them down.
~~~~~~~~
Gwen was quite enjoying herself with Jack and the Lost Boys. He had taken to calling her mother and himself father and she rather fancied the idea of them being a couple. Well, that was if Jack would have a proper wash first of course. A lady did have her standards.
She was teasing the boys about punishing them for shooting at her by giving them horrible sticky medicine, when she noticed that Owen and Andy were missing. The Lost Boys and Jack immediately fanned out and searched the surrounding jungle, looking for her brothers, but they soon were far too distracted with chasing fireflies through the growing twilight to make any real progress.
When Gwen started to cry over not finding them, he had no idea what to do.
With no other options, he decided to consult the mermaids, hoping that they might have some answers.
He was silent as they flew towards the mermaid lagoon, even allowing Gwen to hold his hand as they went as it seemed to calm her and keep her still. For mermaids in Neverland are not as they are in storybooks; they are dark creatures, in touch with all things mysterious. If Hook had captured Gwen’s brothers, the mermaids would know.
As Jack called the mermaids from the depths with his pan-pipe, Gwen giggled in delight.
“Oh, how sweet,” she said as Jack glared at her. “Are mermaids not sweet?” she asked noting his expression.
“They’ll sweetly drown you if you get too close,” he replied in annoyance as the mermaids surfaced in front of them.
While Jack traded clicks and whistles with two of them, asking if they had seen Owen and Andy, Gwen found herself looking deep into the fathomless eyes of another mermaid who slowly crept forward to grasp her hand in her cold, webbed fingers. Just as she started to lean forward into the water, Jack hissed at the mermaid who leapt back and hissed in return before she and her sisters disappeared into the depths.
“Hook has your brothers,” Jack explained to a startled Gwen. “At the Black Castle.”
~~~~~~~~
The Black Castle was a fearsome place, waterlogged and littered with the bones of those who had perished while chained to the marooner’s rock at the courtyard’s centre.
Owen shuddered and Andy pulled his teddy close as Hook directed his men to chain them and Toshiko to the rock to await their fate with the coming tide.
Positioning himself on the broken battlements above the great rock, Hook aimed his gun at the castle gate, watching for Pan’s arrival.
“Come on, fly to their rescue,” he muttered to himself. “And I’ll shoot you down, right through your noble intentions.”
Jack and Gwen meanwhile had arrived at the topmost tower of the castle.
“Can you use it?” Jack asked as he handed her one of the swords he had brought.
Gwen looked at it curiously before attempting a few quick slashes against Jack’s blade.
“Promise me one thing,” Jack demanded as he pulled her close and their swords crossed. “Leave Hook to me.”
“I promise,” Gwen breathed, trying not to blush at his closeness.
Jack nodded and pushed her back. “Wait here for my signal,” he said with a wink before flying off.
“Wait here?” she scoffed. “Not very likely, JACK!” she cried out as he disappeared over the cliff to the castle below. Footsteps sounded on the stone steps leading to the tower and Gwen slipped into a crack in the rocks at the side of the tower, watching as the dark figure of Captain Hook, the villain that haunted her stories, stepped onto the top of the tower. She saw the piercing eyes and was not afraid, but entranced.
While Gwen was contemplating the merits of Captain Hook’s flashing eyes from her hiding place, Jack was busy enacting his plan, imitating Hook as he convinced them to release the children from the rock.
By the time Hook returned down to the courtyard, the children were gone.
“Mr. Smee, where are the children?” he asked, seeing the rock empty.
“It’s all right Cap’n, we let ‘em go,” Smee replied amiably.
“Let them go?” Hook asked, watching Smee and his fellow crewman nod in unison once before he shot the man beside Smee for his stupidity.
“Mr. Smee!” called out a voice that sounded just like Hook.
“Who are you stranger?” Hook demanded.
“I am Jonathon Hart, also known as Captain Hook of the Jolly Roger,” Jack replied.
“If you are Hook, then who am I?” Hook demanded.
“You are a codfish,” Jack replied with a laugh.
“Tell me Hook,” Hook asked as he crept up the broken stairs to where Jack had hidden himself atop a broken statue. “Have you another name?”
“Aye,” Jack replied.
“Mineral?” Hook asked again.
“No,” Jack replied.
“Vegetable?” Hook tried gesturing for Smee and another crewman to go up the other side.
“No,” Jack answered still in character.
“Are you animal?”
“Yes,” Jack replied in Hook’s voice.
“Man?”
“NO!” Jack replied unknowingly in his own voice.
“Boy?”
“Yes!” Jack answered again.
“Wondeful boy?” Hook asked as he took aim.
“Yes! Do you give up?” Jack asked.
“Yes,” Hook answered as he swung his pistol into position.
“I am…” Jack started.
“History,” Hook answered as he took his shot.
“JACK!” Gwen screeched as he jumped out of the way.
Jack laughed and crossed swords with Hook as the two of them met on the stairs.
“Ready to lose the other one?” Jack asked with a cheeky grin.
“Not this time,” answered Hook as he pushed him away.
While Jack fought with Hook and Gwen tried in vain to hold off another pirate, Owen, Toshiko and Andy were desperately trying to lift the portcullis and escape in one of the crew’s rowboats.
One of the pirates saw them and attempted to run Andy through, narrowly missing and taking off his teddy bear’s head instead. Owen, angry that someone would try and hurt his little brother, kicked the pirate between his legs and punched him in the face, knocking the would be attacker into the water below.
Princess Toshiko, surprised at his fighting skills rewarded him with a kiss that lasted just long enough for Andy to crinkle his nose and declare it ‘gross.’ Owen feeling invincible after her kiss, reached over and turned the wheel himself, lifting the portcullis so that they could escape.
“If I were you,” Hook said as he and Jack fought on, “I would give up.”
“If you were me,” Jack replied wrinkling his nose. “I’d be ugly.”
The two fought to a standstill until Hook threw Jack through the air, allowing his crew to capture him inside a net fired from the small cannon they had hidden in the shadows of the castle.
Gwen, who had joined the others in the rowboat, panicked and begged them to turn the boat around.
But Jack, having freed himself from the rope, had already made his way back up the great rock and was fighting Hook once more.
Once Hook finally had him pinned and his hook at Jack’s throat, he sneered in triumph.
“And now Pan, you will die,” he said as his eyes turned red.
“To die will be an awfully big adventure,” Jack answered, causing Hook to pause.
In the moment that followed, a loud ticking began to echo through the castle.
“Oh no,” Hook said closing his eyes in frustration as Jack smiled.
Turning from Pan he saw that the great gray crocodile was sitting on a rock at the entrance to the castle waiting for him. When he turned back, Jack was already standing in the rowboat saluting him as they left. And all that remained of the crocodile was the flash of his tail slipping into the water.
Hook scrambled up onto the top of a broken dragon statue, attempting to hide himself inside its upturned claw, and screamed for Smee to bring round the other boat to aid in his escape. But Smee, smart enough to not to put himself between the beast and his dinner, was hiding with the other crewmen inside a watery side passage a good safe distance from the statue where Hook now hid. As the ticking dulled, Hook decided to sneak a peek around the edge of the statue and the crocodile immediately thrust itself up out of the water, attempting to capture him. Pan and the others laughed as the crocodile snapped at the statue again and again, while Hook cringed, trying to avoid the beast’s sharp teeth as they scraped against the crumbling rock.
By the time the crocodile lost interest and left, Pan was long gone. As Captain Hook carefully climbed from his perch he cursed the name of Pan. As his crew rowed back to the Jolly Roger, he kept a wary eye on the surrounding waters while forming his most devious plan yet.
“It’s time to get rid of the boy once and for all,” he muttered to himself. “And I know just how it is to be done.”
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