Tinker, Pirate, Princess, Pan - Chapter Four
Chapter Four
The following morning Gwen went down to see the Lost Boys and found them as unruly as ever. After a particularly good round of chase round the house, Owen settled down at the table with the others to eat breakfast.
“Owen?” Gwen asked, suddenly worried that she could not remember mother’s face. “What’s our father’s name?”
“That’s easy,” scoffed Owen. “It’s Jack.”
“Yay Jack!” the other boys chorused between bites.
“Andy, who’s your mother?” Gwen asked again, her worry growing.
“Why, you’re my mother Gwen,” Andy replied as melon juice dripped from his chin.
“And isn’t she just first-class?” called out Mickey as the other boys cheered her name.
“There’s a new pirate aboard the Jolly Roger,” Jack interrupted when he joined them. “The mermaids say she is called Red-Handed Jill.”
“Another adventure boys!” called Rhys. “Finish up so that we can go capture her!”
The boys cheered and began to eat in earnest.
“Red-Handed Jill?’ Gwen asked innocently. “Sounds quite fearsome.”
“Fearsome?” Jack scoffed. “She’s just a storyteller.”
“Just a storyteller is she?” Gwen curtly replied. “I bet she’s also a brave swordswoman,” she added crossing her arms.
“A girl like that?” laughed Jack. “I shall run her through!”
“Then ready yourself Jack the Pan,” said Gwen as she stood up from the table and grabbed a sword from the wall. “For I am Red-Handed Jill!”
The boys stared in shock, surely this was a joke or some new game Mother had made up to keep them on their toes.
“Gwen?” Owen asked unsure.
“’Tis true Owen,” she answered haughtily. “You sister has been invited to piracy.”
“But Hook is a fiend,” Owen replied.
“And a bounder,” Rhys added.
“On the contrary,” Gwen retorted glaring at Jack. “I find Captain Hook to be a man of feeling and quite refined.”
Jack glared and raised his own sword, and the two began to fight their way across the room.
“Uh, oh,” said Andy with a sigh. “Mother and Father are fighting again.”
“And you sir,” Gwen continued, “Are both ungallant and deficient,” she said with relish after a particularly good stroke.
“How am I deficient?” Jack wanted to know as he parried the stroke and readied his sword for another blow.
“You are just a boy,’ Gwen answered with a shrug as Jack lowered his sword.
“Are you really going to be a pirate, Mother?” Andy asked.
“No,” Gwen answered as she moved past Jack to face her brothers. “And we are going home,” she added tossing her sword onto the floor.
“Home?” Owen asked. “You mean leave Neverland?”
“We must,” Gwen answered bending down to pull a distraught Andy into a hug. “We have forgotten our parents. We need to leave before we ourselves are forgotten.”
“If you wish it,” said Jack quietly from where he stood watching them.
“If you wish it?” Gwen asked her face full of hope as she turned to face him.
“IF YOU WISH IT!” Jack yelled back at her before pushing himself off the ground and up through the top of the tree.
Gwen wondered why he was so angry. After all he had said they could leave, hadn’t he? Puzzled at his reaction she turned to the Lost Boys as an idea began to form. Maybe if she could convince them to come with them as well, Jack would come along too. Smiling to herself, she sat down and began to tell them all she could remember of her life back home in London, making it seem like an even more magical place than Neverland.
~~~~~~~
While Gwen and the Lost Boys talked of leaving the Neverland, Captain Hook was busy on the Jolly Roger making plans of his own.
Dressing in his best red velvet jacket, he turned to where Ianto was pounding his fists against the glass walls of the cabinet Hook had imprisoned him the night before and crouched down until he could see the Tinker clearly. Hook had dunked him into a barrel of ale until his head swam but even stone drunk, the stubborn faerie had refused to betray his friends. But Smee had been in the area the night before when they stole Gwen’s house, and between the two of them had deduced that Hangman’s Tree was Pan’s hideout.
“Don’t do this Hook!” Ianto pleaded. “You don’t know what will happen. In all of Neverland’s history there has never been a time without a Pan.”
“Don’t fret, Eye Candy,” Hook said with a wink he stood to don a well-plumed red hat to match his coat and the malice in his heart. “With Pan dead we’ll both finally be free,” he added tipping his hat to the faerie in farewell before leaving to meet the others.
Ianto kicked the side of the cabinet in frustration. Some Tinker he turned out to be. When the elders had chosen him, they mentioned a great prophecy of an unlikely Tinker who would be Pan’s equal in all things, and how only he could truly save the Neverland and keep Pan safe. Some had even hinted that his choosing had been foretold as evidenced by the birthmark he bore on his left ankle in the shape of a star. Ianto had read the myths and prophecies more than once himself but never saw anything within their lines or in the annuals of Neverland’s history that would suggest that he might be this mythical saviour of his homeland. Right now he didn’t care a lick about a silly old prophecy; he just wanted to get out of the cabinet and save Jack before it was too late.
A squawk sounded as the mangy parrot that Smee kept as a pet started munching his way through the remnants of Hook’s dinner and Ianto smiled. Now all he had to do is get the blasted bird to help him and maybe, just maybe, he could reach Jack in time.
~~~~~~~~
Back at Hangman’s Tree, silence fell upon Jack’s return.
“I’ve arranged for a faerie guide to lead you back,” he said as Gwen stood up from her place amongst the boys to greet him.
“Jack, we’ve been talking,” she said as Jack eyed her warily as the rest of the boys stood to join her. “What if you came back with us?”
“Please Jack, can we go?” the Lost Boys begged.
Jack closed his eyes for a moment, trying to force down the familiar feeling of loss that came when each of the children that had found the Neverland inevitably left him.
“If you wish it,” he answered, opening his eyes and forcing himself to smile.
“Get your things,” Gwen said cheerily, and the Lost Boys cheered as they ran off to fetch them.
“You too Jack,” she said with a smile, only then noticing the sadness that clouded Jack’s face.
“Would they send me to school?” he asked her quietly.
“Yes,” Gwen answered, unsure why he was so distressed. Didn’t he want to come with her?
“Then... to an office?” he continued trying not to wrinkle his nose.
Gwen nodded. “I suppose so.”
“Soon I should be a man,” Jack said holding her gaze. “I bet you’d like that.”
“Of course,” Gwen smiled and lifted her hand to touch his cheek.
“You can't catch me and make me a man,” Jack replied, backing away from her.
“Jack, wait,” said Gwen, not sure why he was trying to get away.
“I want always to be a boy and have fun,” Jack stated, trying to make her understand.
“You say so, but I think it is your biggest pretend,” Gwen answered in a huff before stalking away to help the others. Why couldn’t Jack see that she was just trying to do what was right? Everyone had to grow up sometime. Sure, Jack may not know what love was, but she was certain that she could teach him. Especially once they left Neverland and he had a chance to see what the real world was truly like.
~~~~~~~
On the Jolly Roger, the parrot was half way through a nice juicy lobster claw when an insistent tapping coming from the other side of the table made him pause. Letting out a belch and tossing the claw aside, he started making his way towards the cabinet and Ianto grinned.
“Yoo-hoo! Come on you mangy bag of feathers!” he called out. “Come over here and see what Hook left behind for dessert.”
He continued to taunt the parrot, making faces and calling it names until the parrot began smashing its beak against the cabinet door in an ill-conceived attempt to open it. Rolling his eyes at the bird’s stupidity, Ianto cowered in mock fear near the back of the cabinet as he decided to move things along.
“Oh no, I hope he doesn’t try and use his talons to open the door, or I am done for,” he said, pretending to shiver at the thought.
The parrot narrowed his eyes and reached for the key to the door with his talons and turned it, releasing the lock before pushing the handle down and shoving his beak inside, eager to get at the tasty faerie within.
“Finally!” Ianto sighed in relief as he shot up and out of his prison.
The parrot screeched at him and Ianto turned and blew it a cheeky kiss before taking to the sky and flying towards Hangman’s Tree for all he was worth, praying he would get there in time.
~~~~~~~~
Captain Hook smiled from his hiding place near Hangman’s Tree. A shimmer of stardust streamed past and Hook wrinkled his nose in distaste as the faerie that Pan had secured to lead the Darlings home landed on a nearby mushroom.
“There's no such thing as fairies,” he whispered smiling in glee as the faerie froze in place, and his light faded. Glancing toward Hangman’s Tree, Hook saw the Lost Boys leaving. Gesturing to the rest of his crew to get ready, he flicked the dead faerie out of his way and crunched it beneath his boot heel as he slunk his way closer to his prey.
~~~~~~~~
Gwen looked around Hangman’s Tree one last time, hoping that Jack would change his mind now that they were alone and come with her.
“Jack,” she tried, but he merely turned away from her and played his reed pipe, ignoring her attempts at trying to get him to leave.
In desperation she gathered up a bit of water in a flower and set it on the table as an offering of farewell. “Don't forget your medicine,” she said sadly. When Jack didn’t answer she sighed and made her way up the hollow tree to join the others.
But when she got there she found something she had never expected. Hook had captured the Lost Boys, each and every one.
“Surprise,” greeted Captain Hook as Smee and the others laughed. “And so a new era begins,” he gloated as the men hoisted the captives onto their shoulders to take them back to their ship.
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