Second To The Right, And Skate On Till Morning, 3/11
Title: Second To The Right, And Skate On Till Morning
Rating: G
Summary: Peter Pan AU. Queen Yu-na gets down to business, and there are some changes in store for Neverland.
Disclaimer: I own neither skaters nor magical flying children, and anything that happens to them herein is entirely fictional.
Part 1 Part 2
The next day, Queen Yu-na the First of Neverland began her reign. First, she established her court. Johnny, although he was already a princess, became Royal Designer. Someone had to make Adam and the lost boys their pockets, after all, and Yu-na flatly refused to do it. She also refused to do the cooking, and appointed Bear as Royal Chef. Adam was Royal General of the Royal Army.
“Who’s the Royal Army?” Mullet asked.
“All of us,” said Yu-na. “In battle, we do what Adam says. The rest of the time, I’m in charge. Right, Adam?”
“Right!” said Adam.
Mullet, who could bring down anything he shot at no matter how wide his arrow seemed to go, was Royal Hunter. Bug’s tendency to babble in what the others were fairly certain were foreign languages, as well as his ability to understand and even almost speak the fairy language, made him Royal Linguist. Googly was Royal Historian, which meant that he got his dream job of telling Yu-na everything that had ever happened in Neverland. Blade, of course, was Royal Nurse, and the lost boys had never been so clean in their lives.
“What about me?” asked Evan.
“You can help me sew,” said Johnny, who foresaw a lot of work ahead of him.
“And you can help me cook,” said Bear, who was baffled by his new job.
“Okay,” said Evan, “but I want something of my own, too.”
“We’ll find something for you,” said Yu-na. “In fact… would you like to write our note to Papa Brian and Papa David? You could be Royal Scribe!”
Evan smiled cautiously. “I think I’d like that.”
“Good!” said Yu-na. “You work on the note, and bring it to me when you’re done. The rest of you may work or play as you like, but stay close in case Johnny needs to measure you. Adam? Googly? I’d like your help, please.”
The boys rushed to Yu-na’s side, Googly remembering just in time to let Adam get there first. “Yes Your Majesty what is it I’m all ears!” said Googly.
Yu-na shared an amused smile with Adam before she answered. “Tell me about Captain Morozov. What is he like?”
Adam thought for a moment. “Old,” he said.
“Old and mean and ugly!” added Googly. “And he only has one hand! This one time he was like, ‘I’m gonna kill you, Adam Rippon!’ And Adam was like, ‘No you’re not!’ and he kicked like this-” Googly kicked one leg high into the air. “-and his blade cut his hand off! And then he threw it to the zamboni!”
“The what?” asked Yu-na.
“The zamboni!” said Adam. “Didn’t I tell you about him?” Yu-na shook her head. “Oh. Well, he’s the animal that makes the ice!”
“The animal…that makes the ice?”
“Uh-huh! That’s why the water around the pirate ship is always frozen now,” said Adam with a grin. “The zamboni liked the taste of Morozov’s hand so much, he keeps hanging around, hoping to get the rest of him.”
“But he goes other places, too!” said Googly. “That’s how we got our puddle!” He pointed to the patch of ice in the center of the room, currently occupied by a blur that Yu-na thought was Bug. “You’ll get to meet him!”
“I’m looking forward to it,” said Yu-na, her head whirling. “But back to Morozov. He tries to kill you?”
Adam scowled. “He tries to kill everyone. He has killed lots of people. Lost boys, fairies, Indians… he doesn’t play fair.”
“And he knows voodoo!” added Googly in a loud whisper.
“Voodoo?” asked Yu-na.
“Voodoo!” said Googly. “Sometimes when he’s fighting he’ll just stare at someone and mutter and then they fall down. And he keeps trying to cut off Adam’s hair so he can curse it or something!”
Yu-na gasped. “Oh, Adam, not your hair!”
“He’ll never get it,” Adam assured her, setting his curls dancing with a toss of his head.
“Especially not if we get rid of him,” said Yu-na. She jumped to her feet and paced, deep in thought. “The Indians and the fairies don’t like him either, right?”
“They hate him,” said Googly. “Especially the Indians.”
“But you fight with the Indians too, don’t you?”
“Of course!” said Adam. “But they’re not as bad as the pirates. They only kill people if they have a reason, just like us.”
“Killing aside,” said Yu-na, and she took a deep breath, “I think we should form an alliance with the Indians.”
“An alliance?” squawked Adam. Googly said nothing, but his eyes went wide and even more googly than usual.
“Well, it makes sense, doesn’t it? We both want to defeat the pirates, and if we’re fighting each other, that’s just doing the pirates’ work for them!”
“But we’ve always fought with the Indians!” said Adam.
“You’ve also always not had a queen, but you like having one now, don’t you?”
“I do!” said Googly immediately.
Yu-na smiled at him. “See? Can’t we at least talk to them, Adam?”
“I guess,” said Adam dubiously. “If they’ll listen.”
“We’ll send an ambassador,” declared Yu-na. “Oh, boys!” All around the room, the boys stopped what they were doing and looked at her. “Thank you. Gather around, we need to have a meeting.”
“What kind of meeting?” asked Johnny, trying to unwind his tape measure from Bug before it became too tangled.
“A very serious one,” said Yu-na. She waited for the boys to seat themselves in a circle. “Now, I need an ambassador to the Indians. Are any of you on good terms with them?”
The lost boys looked at each other, and eventually Mullet raised his hand. “The chief didn’t kill me once.”
“She didn’t kill any of us,” Adam pointed out.
“Yes,” said Mullet, “but she didn’t kill me even though she caught me hunting in her territory.” He smirked. “I got a deer.”
“Ooooooh,” said the lost boys.
“Send him!” said Adam. “If she let him live after that, she’ll let him live after anything.”
“All right,” said Yu-na, “Mullet will go. But - ‘she?’ The chief is a girl?”
Adam and the lost boys nodded. “Chieftain Mao,” said Googly. “She’s amazing. Not as amazing as you! But still amazing. She can shoot three arrows at the same time!”
Yu-na smiled. “Then we should be able to reach an understanding. You see, boys, we are going to form an alliance with the Indians, and then the pirates won’t stand a chance!”
“And I have to tell them this?” asked Mullet, all evidence of the smirk wiped from his face.
“Don’t worry,” said Yu-na cheerfully, “our Royal Scribe will write you a script!”
Mullet gulped.
***
Yu-na was pacing again. Mullet had been sent off to find Chieftain Mao two hours before, white flag in hand and Evan’s medal around his neck for good luck. Jeremy had gone with him, just in case a message needed to be sent back quickly. The remaining boys all channeled their nerves into more or less productive pursuits: Evan worked on his note, Bear tried out his cooking on Blade, Adam fenced with Bug, and Johnny began to make over Googly.
“Ow!”
Yu-na snapped to attention. “What is it, Googly?”
“He kicked me!” said Googly, pointing at Johnny with one hand and rubbing his shin with the other.
“He said boys can’t wear peacock feathers!” Johnny said before Yu-na could reprimand him.
“We can’t!”
“Anyone can wear anything they like,” said Yu-na severely. “But Johnny, kicking is against the Royal Law. Don’t do it again.”
Googly cringed under his queen’s disapproval. “I don’t have to wear the feathers, do I?”
“Not if you don’t want to. But I expect you to treat Princess Johnny with respect.”
“Yes, Your Majesty. I’m sorry, Johnny.”
“I’m making your pockets last,” said Johnny. “And Quatchi says he’s not talking to you.”
Yu-na sighed. “Please, boys, be civil? The Indians won’t want to join us if we’re fighting amongst ourselves.”
Johnny and Googly looked at each other. “Fine,” said Johnny. “Quatchi forgives you.”
“Good enough,” said Yu-na.
There came an excited tinkle from the iceless tunnel, and Jeremy flew into the room. “He says Mullet is back!” said Bug, somersaulting in the air to avoid Adam’s dagger. “Chieftain Mao didn’t kill him again!”
Mullet soon followed Jeremy, looking shaken but otherwise not worse for the wear. “The chief says she will meet with you in one hour,” he said to Yu-na. “She’ll be in the clearing in their forest. If you aren’t there, she’ll leave and won’t give you another chance.”
“One hour!” exclaimed Yu-na. “We’d better hurry!”
“It’s more like fifty minutes now,” said Mullet helpfully.
“As I said,” said Yu-na.
***
Forty-six and a half minutes later, Yu-na and her subjects reached the clearing. It was empty. “They are coming, aren’t they?” Yu-na whispered to Adam. She touched Evan’s medal, which Mullet has passed on to her. “And they’re not going to attack us?”
Adam shook his head. “The Indians always keep their word. They’ll be here.”
As if on cue, three girls dropped down from the trees that surrounded the clearing. Each one carried a bow on one shoulder and a pair of skates on the other. One girl moved to the center, and Yu-na saw that her bow was curved and notched to accommodate three arrows at once. This, then, was Chieftain Mao. The other two, equally intimidating, fell into place behind her.
They were not really Indians, of course. None of the tribe were. But Adam thought they were, and in Neverland, Adam’s whim was law.
The two groups stared at each other until Mao broke the silence. “I am Mao,” she said. “These are Miki and Shizuka, my best warriors. You are Queen Yu-na?” Her lips twitched at the title.
Yu-na suddenly felt very small. She was just playing at being queen, she knew, and had none of the authority that Mao obviously wielded. Adam had the real power, and all she had was the tiara that Googly had found in an abandoned treasure chest. Yu-na lifted her chin. It was a really nice tiara. She’d had to fight Johnny for it. And besides, had Adam ever formed an alliance that could quite possibly give them the edge over the pirates? No, he had not. “Yes, I am. I believe my ambassador informed you of my intentions?”
“Ah, yes. Something about banding together as a brotherhood to bring down a common enemy, teamwork makes the dream work, there is no ‘I’ in ‘team,’ that sort of thing?”
Yu-na winced. Why hadn’t she remembered to look over Evan’s script one last time, or at least to tell Mullet to cut the clichés? “Exactly,” she said. “It’s silly that we waste time fighting each other when we could be fighting the pirates, don’t you think? An alliance would serve both of our interests.”
“My warriors and I can handle the pirates on our own,” said Mao. “Your lost boys would just slow us down.”
“Is that so?” asked Yu-na. “It was my Royal General who cut off Captain Morozov’s hand. Have your warriors ever been able to injure him? And my Royal Historian tells me that we defeat you in battle just as often as you defeat us.”
Mao narrowed her eyes. “Not just as often. We’re one ahead.”
“We could fix that,” said Adam. Mullet, Bear, and Bug reached for their daggers, which sent Miki and Shizuka to their bows.
“No!” said Yu-na. “There is to be no more fighting between us! That is, Chieftain, if you accept our offer.”
“And what exactly is your offer?” asked Mao.
“Peace,” said Yu-na. “We don’t fight each other, and we help each other if the pirates attack. We can even plan attacks together, but we don’t have to if you don’t want to.”
Mao hesitated. “You wouldn’t get to hunt in our territory.”
“We wouldn’t dream of it,” Yu-na said, with a meaningful glance at Mullet.
Mao turned around to confer with her warriors, and after a minute of frenzied whispering, she turned back to Yu-na with a smile on her face. “We accept,” she said.
“That’s wonderful!” Yu-na squealed, and then, remembering that she was a queen now, she cleared her throat and held out her hand. “Allies, then?”
“Allies,” said Mao, and the two leaders shook on it. Then Mao gave a loud, piercing whistle, and at the sound, more of her warriors dropped from the trees. “The terms have been accepted!” she announced. “The lost boys and their leaders are now our friends.”
“Friends?” asked Yu-na.
Mao grinned at her, almost shyly. “Friends.” With a relieved giggle, Yu-na pulled her into a hug.
The lost boys and the Indians mingled, shaking hands and joking about past battles. One warrior, who said his name was Daisuke, found favor with Johnny by gravely shaking hands with Quatchi. Another, Nobunari, laughed so much at the height difference between him and Evan that Evan gave in and laughed as well. Bug attached himself to Shizuka, who looked shocked, but not displeased by the attention, and she awkwardly patted his shoulder. While Miki was comparing arrows with Bear, her pet spider crawled out of her quiver and settled on her chest. Jeremy took one look at the spider and went flying back to Adam, who was talking to Mao.
“Sorry for beating you all those times,” Adam was saying.
“It wasn’t all those times,” said Mao.
“It doesn’t matter anymore,” said Yu-na quickly. “Now we just have to beat the pirates!”
“Right,” said Adam. “We’ll show them!” He kicked playfully at Mao, but her face had gone serious.
“Do you hear that?” she said.
“Hear what?” asked Yu-na.
Mao whistled again, and everyone fell still. In the silence, an odd grunting sound could be heard. “That,” said Mao. “The pirates are close by.”
“Should we attack them?” asked Yu-na.
“Not yet,” said Mao. “We aren’t prepared. But we can watch them. Into the trees!” Mao’s warriors obeyed her instantly, but Yu-na, Adam, and the rest stayed on the ground, confused. “You can fly, can’t you? Into the trees!” Impatient, Mao grabbed Yu-na’s hand and yanked her into the nearest tree. Though they couldn’t fly, the Indians were all excellent climbers.
“What if they see us?” Yu-na asked.
“They never look up,” said Mao. “You’d think they’d have learned by now, but they never do.”
The grunting grew louder and the pirates entered the clearing, giving Yu-na her first glimpse of the infamous Captain Morozov, who reclined in a chariot drawn by his men. The hook which had replaced his right hand gleamed in the sunlight, but his eyes were cold and dark. Yu-na shuddered. She could easily imagine this man performing feats of voodoo. She turned away from him and looked instead at a small, balding pirate who was helping with the chariot. The grunting seemed to be coming from him. “Who is that?” she whispered to Mao.
“That’s Scoot,” Mao whispered back. “Morozov’s bo’sun. Because of him, we can hear the pirates a mile away.” She pointed at a jovial-looking pirate in a tie. “That’s Mr. Button. He’s killed more people than any of the others. And that,” she said, pointing to sour-faced pirate, “is Cranky Frank.”
“Too slow!” bellowed a female voice from behind Morozov’s chariot. “Move fast, or I crush you like pomegranate!”
“There are women pirates?” asked Yu-na.
“Just the one,” said Mao. “Galina the Terrible. And that’s her son-in-law, Viktor - she forced him to marry her daughter, and then forced him into piracy to support her. You don’t want to fight her.”
“I’m sure,” said Yu-na, and then her attention was once again drawn to Morozov.
“Galina,” said the captain, his voice dangerously soft, “did I tell you to speak?”
“No, sir,” said Galina the Terrible.
“If I wish to move faster, I will order it myself.” To make his point, Morozov rose from his chariot and delicately clawed the top of Scoot’s head, extracting a single drop of blood. “We are not running a race here, we are searching for Adam Rippon’s hideaway. How that boy taunts me!”
“He’s nothing compared to you, Captain!” said Scoot, rubbing the sore spot on his head. “Don’t you worry about him!”
“How can I not, when he is the one who gave the zamboni its taste for me? Oh, I will never be free until the both of them are dead!”
Yu-na stifled a giggle at Morozov’s distress, and almost failed to notice when a cold breeze blew through the trees, causing icicles to form on some of the leaves. “Was that-?”
“The zamboni!” gasped Morozov. “Save me, Scoot! Save me!”
“I’ll save you, I’ll save you!” said Scoot. He dragged Morozov back into the chariot.
“Now move fast,” muttered Galina, and the pirates were off. The breeze rushed after them. Yu-na strained to see the zamboni, but all she saw was a blur of white that might have been the size of a large dog.
When the clearing was empty once more, Mao descended from her tree and whistled for the others to follow. “That is what we’re up against,” she said to Yu-na. “What do you think?”
“I think,” said Yu-na, “that the pirates had better look out!”
The lost boys cheered, but the Indians laughed. “We’ll see how you feel after your first battle,” said Mao.
“I have faith in my Royal Army,” said Yu-na. She smiled at Mao. “And I have faith in my friends.”
Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11
Rating: G
Summary: Peter Pan AU. Queen Yu-na gets down to business, and there are some changes in store for Neverland.
Disclaimer: I own neither skaters nor magical flying children, and anything that happens to them herein is entirely fictional.
Part 1 Part 2
The next day, Queen Yu-na the First of Neverland began her reign. First, she established her court. Johnny, although he was already a princess, became Royal Designer. Someone had to make Adam and the lost boys their pockets, after all, and Yu-na flatly refused to do it. She also refused to do the cooking, and appointed Bear as Royal Chef. Adam was Royal General of the Royal Army.
“Who’s the Royal Army?” Mullet asked.
“All of us,” said Yu-na. “In battle, we do what Adam says. The rest of the time, I’m in charge. Right, Adam?”
“Right!” said Adam.
Mullet, who could bring down anything he shot at no matter how wide his arrow seemed to go, was Royal Hunter. Bug’s tendency to babble in what the others were fairly certain were foreign languages, as well as his ability to understand and even almost speak the fairy language, made him Royal Linguist. Googly was Royal Historian, which meant that he got his dream job of telling Yu-na everything that had ever happened in Neverland. Blade, of course, was Royal Nurse, and the lost boys had never been so clean in their lives.
“What about me?” asked Evan.
“You can help me sew,” said Johnny, who foresaw a lot of work ahead of him.
“And you can help me cook,” said Bear, who was baffled by his new job.
“Okay,” said Evan, “but I want something of my own, too.”
“We’ll find something for you,” said Yu-na. “In fact… would you like to write our note to Papa Brian and Papa David? You could be Royal Scribe!”
Evan smiled cautiously. “I think I’d like that.”
“Good!” said Yu-na. “You work on the note, and bring it to me when you’re done. The rest of you may work or play as you like, but stay close in case Johnny needs to measure you. Adam? Googly? I’d like your help, please.”
The boys rushed to Yu-na’s side, Googly remembering just in time to let Adam get there first. “Yes Your Majesty what is it I’m all ears!” said Googly.
Yu-na shared an amused smile with Adam before she answered. “Tell me about Captain Morozov. What is he like?”
Adam thought for a moment. “Old,” he said.
“Old and mean and ugly!” added Googly. “And he only has one hand! This one time he was like, ‘I’m gonna kill you, Adam Rippon!’ And Adam was like, ‘No you’re not!’ and he kicked like this-” Googly kicked one leg high into the air. “-and his blade cut his hand off! And then he threw it to the zamboni!”
“The what?” asked Yu-na.
“The zamboni!” said Adam. “Didn’t I tell you about him?” Yu-na shook her head. “Oh. Well, he’s the animal that makes the ice!”
“The animal…that makes the ice?”
“Uh-huh! That’s why the water around the pirate ship is always frozen now,” said Adam with a grin. “The zamboni liked the taste of Morozov’s hand so much, he keeps hanging around, hoping to get the rest of him.”
“But he goes other places, too!” said Googly. “That’s how we got our puddle!” He pointed to the patch of ice in the center of the room, currently occupied by a blur that Yu-na thought was Bug. “You’ll get to meet him!”
“I’m looking forward to it,” said Yu-na, her head whirling. “But back to Morozov. He tries to kill you?”
Adam scowled. “He tries to kill everyone. He has killed lots of people. Lost boys, fairies, Indians… he doesn’t play fair.”
“And he knows voodoo!” added Googly in a loud whisper.
“Voodoo?” asked Yu-na.
“Voodoo!” said Googly. “Sometimes when he’s fighting he’ll just stare at someone and mutter and then they fall down. And he keeps trying to cut off Adam’s hair so he can curse it or something!”
Yu-na gasped. “Oh, Adam, not your hair!”
“He’ll never get it,” Adam assured her, setting his curls dancing with a toss of his head.
“Especially not if we get rid of him,” said Yu-na. She jumped to her feet and paced, deep in thought. “The Indians and the fairies don’t like him either, right?”
“They hate him,” said Googly. “Especially the Indians.”
“But you fight with the Indians too, don’t you?”
“Of course!” said Adam. “But they’re not as bad as the pirates. They only kill people if they have a reason, just like us.”
“Killing aside,” said Yu-na, and she took a deep breath, “I think we should form an alliance with the Indians.”
“An alliance?” squawked Adam. Googly said nothing, but his eyes went wide and even more googly than usual.
“Well, it makes sense, doesn’t it? We both want to defeat the pirates, and if we’re fighting each other, that’s just doing the pirates’ work for them!”
“But we’ve always fought with the Indians!” said Adam.
“You’ve also always not had a queen, but you like having one now, don’t you?”
“I do!” said Googly immediately.
Yu-na smiled at him. “See? Can’t we at least talk to them, Adam?”
“I guess,” said Adam dubiously. “If they’ll listen.”
“We’ll send an ambassador,” declared Yu-na. “Oh, boys!” All around the room, the boys stopped what they were doing and looked at her. “Thank you. Gather around, we need to have a meeting.”
“What kind of meeting?” asked Johnny, trying to unwind his tape measure from Bug before it became too tangled.
“A very serious one,” said Yu-na. She waited for the boys to seat themselves in a circle. “Now, I need an ambassador to the Indians. Are any of you on good terms with them?”
The lost boys looked at each other, and eventually Mullet raised his hand. “The chief didn’t kill me once.”
“She didn’t kill any of us,” Adam pointed out.
“Yes,” said Mullet, “but she didn’t kill me even though she caught me hunting in her territory.” He smirked. “I got a deer.”
“Ooooooh,” said the lost boys.
“Send him!” said Adam. “If she let him live after that, she’ll let him live after anything.”
“All right,” said Yu-na, “Mullet will go. But - ‘she?’ The chief is a girl?”
Adam and the lost boys nodded. “Chieftain Mao,” said Googly. “She’s amazing. Not as amazing as you! But still amazing. She can shoot three arrows at the same time!”
Yu-na smiled. “Then we should be able to reach an understanding. You see, boys, we are going to form an alliance with the Indians, and then the pirates won’t stand a chance!”
“And I have to tell them this?” asked Mullet, all evidence of the smirk wiped from his face.
“Don’t worry,” said Yu-na cheerfully, “our Royal Scribe will write you a script!”
Mullet gulped.
***
Yu-na was pacing again. Mullet had been sent off to find Chieftain Mao two hours before, white flag in hand and Evan’s medal around his neck for good luck. Jeremy had gone with him, just in case a message needed to be sent back quickly. The remaining boys all channeled their nerves into more or less productive pursuits: Evan worked on his note, Bear tried out his cooking on Blade, Adam fenced with Bug, and Johnny began to make over Googly.
“Ow!”
Yu-na snapped to attention. “What is it, Googly?”
“He kicked me!” said Googly, pointing at Johnny with one hand and rubbing his shin with the other.
“He said boys can’t wear peacock feathers!” Johnny said before Yu-na could reprimand him.
“We can’t!”
“Anyone can wear anything they like,” said Yu-na severely. “But Johnny, kicking is against the Royal Law. Don’t do it again.”
Googly cringed under his queen’s disapproval. “I don’t have to wear the feathers, do I?”
“Not if you don’t want to. But I expect you to treat Princess Johnny with respect.”
“Yes, Your Majesty. I’m sorry, Johnny.”
“I’m making your pockets last,” said Johnny. “And Quatchi says he’s not talking to you.”
Yu-na sighed. “Please, boys, be civil? The Indians won’t want to join us if we’re fighting amongst ourselves.”
Johnny and Googly looked at each other. “Fine,” said Johnny. “Quatchi forgives you.”
“Good enough,” said Yu-na.
There came an excited tinkle from the iceless tunnel, and Jeremy flew into the room. “He says Mullet is back!” said Bug, somersaulting in the air to avoid Adam’s dagger. “Chieftain Mao didn’t kill him again!”
Mullet soon followed Jeremy, looking shaken but otherwise not worse for the wear. “The chief says she will meet with you in one hour,” he said to Yu-na. “She’ll be in the clearing in their forest. If you aren’t there, she’ll leave and won’t give you another chance.”
“One hour!” exclaimed Yu-na. “We’d better hurry!”
“It’s more like fifty minutes now,” said Mullet helpfully.
“As I said,” said Yu-na.
***
Forty-six and a half minutes later, Yu-na and her subjects reached the clearing. It was empty. “They are coming, aren’t they?” Yu-na whispered to Adam. She touched Evan’s medal, which Mullet has passed on to her. “And they’re not going to attack us?”
Adam shook his head. “The Indians always keep their word. They’ll be here.”
As if on cue, three girls dropped down from the trees that surrounded the clearing. Each one carried a bow on one shoulder and a pair of skates on the other. One girl moved to the center, and Yu-na saw that her bow was curved and notched to accommodate three arrows at once. This, then, was Chieftain Mao. The other two, equally intimidating, fell into place behind her.
They were not really Indians, of course. None of the tribe were. But Adam thought they were, and in Neverland, Adam’s whim was law.
The two groups stared at each other until Mao broke the silence. “I am Mao,” she said. “These are Miki and Shizuka, my best warriors. You are Queen Yu-na?” Her lips twitched at the title.
Yu-na suddenly felt very small. She was just playing at being queen, she knew, and had none of the authority that Mao obviously wielded. Adam had the real power, and all she had was the tiara that Googly had found in an abandoned treasure chest. Yu-na lifted her chin. It was a really nice tiara. She’d had to fight Johnny for it. And besides, had Adam ever formed an alliance that could quite possibly give them the edge over the pirates? No, he had not. “Yes, I am. I believe my ambassador informed you of my intentions?”
“Ah, yes. Something about banding together as a brotherhood to bring down a common enemy, teamwork makes the dream work, there is no ‘I’ in ‘team,’ that sort of thing?”
Yu-na winced. Why hadn’t she remembered to look over Evan’s script one last time, or at least to tell Mullet to cut the clichés? “Exactly,” she said. “It’s silly that we waste time fighting each other when we could be fighting the pirates, don’t you think? An alliance would serve both of our interests.”
“My warriors and I can handle the pirates on our own,” said Mao. “Your lost boys would just slow us down.”
“Is that so?” asked Yu-na. “It was my Royal General who cut off Captain Morozov’s hand. Have your warriors ever been able to injure him? And my Royal Historian tells me that we defeat you in battle just as often as you defeat us.”
Mao narrowed her eyes. “Not just as often. We’re one ahead.”
“We could fix that,” said Adam. Mullet, Bear, and Bug reached for their daggers, which sent Miki and Shizuka to their bows.
“No!” said Yu-na. “There is to be no more fighting between us! That is, Chieftain, if you accept our offer.”
“And what exactly is your offer?” asked Mao.
“Peace,” said Yu-na. “We don’t fight each other, and we help each other if the pirates attack. We can even plan attacks together, but we don’t have to if you don’t want to.”
Mao hesitated. “You wouldn’t get to hunt in our territory.”
“We wouldn’t dream of it,” Yu-na said, with a meaningful glance at Mullet.
Mao turned around to confer with her warriors, and after a minute of frenzied whispering, she turned back to Yu-na with a smile on her face. “We accept,” she said.
“That’s wonderful!” Yu-na squealed, and then, remembering that she was a queen now, she cleared her throat and held out her hand. “Allies, then?”
“Allies,” said Mao, and the two leaders shook on it. Then Mao gave a loud, piercing whistle, and at the sound, more of her warriors dropped from the trees. “The terms have been accepted!” she announced. “The lost boys and their leaders are now our friends.”
“Friends?” asked Yu-na.
Mao grinned at her, almost shyly. “Friends.” With a relieved giggle, Yu-na pulled her into a hug.
The lost boys and the Indians mingled, shaking hands and joking about past battles. One warrior, who said his name was Daisuke, found favor with Johnny by gravely shaking hands with Quatchi. Another, Nobunari, laughed so much at the height difference between him and Evan that Evan gave in and laughed as well. Bug attached himself to Shizuka, who looked shocked, but not displeased by the attention, and she awkwardly patted his shoulder. While Miki was comparing arrows with Bear, her pet spider crawled out of her quiver and settled on her chest. Jeremy took one look at the spider and went flying back to Adam, who was talking to Mao.
“Sorry for beating you all those times,” Adam was saying.
“It wasn’t all those times,” said Mao.
“It doesn’t matter anymore,” said Yu-na quickly. “Now we just have to beat the pirates!”
“Right,” said Adam. “We’ll show them!” He kicked playfully at Mao, but her face had gone serious.
“Do you hear that?” she said.
“Hear what?” asked Yu-na.
Mao whistled again, and everyone fell still. In the silence, an odd grunting sound could be heard. “That,” said Mao. “The pirates are close by.”
“Should we attack them?” asked Yu-na.
“Not yet,” said Mao. “We aren’t prepared. But we can watch them. Into the trees!” Mao’s warriors obeyed her instantly, but Yu-na, Adam, and the rest stayed on the ground, confused. “You can fly, can’t you? Into the trees!” Impatient, Mao grabbed Yu-na’s hand and yanked her into the nearest tree. Though they couldn’t fly, the Indians were all excellent climbers.
“What if they see us?” Yu-na asked.
“They never look up,” said Mao. “You’d think they’d have learned by now, but they never do.”
The grunting grew louder and the pirates entered the clearing, giving Yu-na her first glimpse of the infamous Captain Morozov, who reclined in a chariot drawn by his men. The hook which had replaced his right hand gleamed in the sunlight, but his eyes were cold and dark. Yu-na shuddered. She could easily imagine this man performing feats of voodoo. She turned away from him and looked instead at a small, balding pirate who was helping with the chariot. The grunting seemed to be coming from him. “Who is that?” she whispered to Mao.
“That’s Scoot,” Mao whispered back. “Morozov’s bo’sun. Because of him, we can hear the pirates a mile away.” She pointed at a jovial-looking pirate in a tie. “That’s Mr. Button. He’s killed more people than any of the others. And that,” she said, pointing to sour-faced pirate, “is Cranky Frank.”
“Too slow!” bellowed a female voice from behind Morozov’s chariot. “Move fast, or I crush you like pomegranate!”
“There are women pirates?” asked Yu-na.
“Just the one,” said Mao. “Galina the Terrible. And that’s her son-in-law, Viktor - she forced him to marry her daughter, and then forced him into piracy to support her. You don’t want to fight her.”
“I’m sure,” said Yu-na, and then her attention was once again drawn to Morozov.
“Galina,” said the captain, his voice dangerously soft, “did I tell you to speak?”
“No, sir,” said Galina the Terrible.
“If I wish to move faster, I will order it myself.” To make his point, Morozov rose from his chariot and delicately clawed the top of Scoot’s head, extracting a single drop of blood. “We are not running a race here, we are searching for Adam Rippon’s hideaway. How that boy taunts me!”
“He’s nothing compared to you, Captain!” said Scoot, rubbing the sore spot on his head. “Don’t you worry about him!”
“How can I not, when he is the one who gave the zamboni its taste for me? Oh, I will never be free until the both of them are dead!”
Yu-na stifled a giggle at Morozov’s distress, and almost failed to notice when a cold breeze blew through the trees, causing icicles to form on some of the leaves. “Was that-?”
“The zamboni!” gasped Morozov. “Save me, Scoot! Save me!”
“I’ll save you, I’ll save you!” said Scoot. He dragged Morozov back into the chariot.
“Now move fast,” muttered Galina, and the pirates were off. The breeze rushed after them. Yu-na strained to see the zamboni, but all she saw was a blur of white that might have been the size of a large dog.
When the clearing was empty once more, Mao descended from her tree and whistled for the others to follow. “That is what we’re up against,” she said to Yu-na. “What do you think?”
“I think,” said Yu-na, “that the pirates had better look out!”
The lost boys cheered, but the Indians laughed. “We’ll see how you feel after your first battle,” said Mao.
“I have faith in my Royal Army,” said Yu-na. She smiled at Mao. “And I have faith in my friends.”
Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11