Militant (Sequel to Warrior)

Sunset

**Henry POV**

Pan brought me to a dock hidden by a cliff that raised way over my head. He acted as if he was in a hurry as he started to untie the boat.

"Get in." He ordered as he started to rig the boat. I did as I was told and watched as he pushed the boat away from the dock and jumped quickly onto the boat.

"There we go." He said happily. He grabbed the two oars and started to paddle along the water. As he paddled I started to notice how the sky was turning a fast color of dark blue. I turned toward where the sun was and saw to my surprise that it was already sinking into the water from the horizon.

"You like sunrises?" Pans asked from behind me. I turned back around and saw that he looked at me curiously. I shrugged.

"Not really. I'm just confused by the timing of the sun setting. I thought it was only three here." I started. Pan chuckled.

"There is no time here on Neverland. The sun sets when I tell it to set and rises when I tell it to rise."

"You must not like sleep then. I can barely remember the last time I fell asleep in the dark." I replied. Pan chuckled.

"I like the dark when it comes in handy. I don't like it when it can cause a problem for me or my lost boys. I prefer seeing an attack in the light then when its dark out." He finished. I nodded. There was a silence as he continued to paddle the boat. Finally I couldn't take it anymore and asked.

"Was that Lottie's mother in the cage?" Pan gave me a quizzical look before answering.

"Yes. It's a sad story really about that woman. She acts like she loves her daughter when really she is pretty insane. Lottie wanted to escape her mother because of how crazy the woman was."

"But I heard stories from the lost boys that she trained some of the boys here.." Pan made a noise under his breath that made me stop.

"What did I say about listening to those stupid stories? The boys here like story telling."

"Did Wendy ever tell the boys stories?" I asked, remembering the storybook. Pan showed an amused look.

"Maybe. She does like stories doesn't she?" I nodded.

"Well let's hope you can do your part in order to let her read one more book in her life." Pan finished. I sharply inhaled at his words. Poor Wendy was dying because of Lottie's mother. Poor Wendy.

I turned back around again and saw that we were nearing the dock to Skull Island.

"That was fast. Do you control the water too?" I asked jokingly. Pan showed a small smile.

"In a way." He replied.

**Lottie POV**

The moment I jumped into the water I felt a bubble circle around me. Ariel had her tail back and was swimming around me as her tail seemed to make the bubble bigger as it started to cover my whole body. When she seemed satisfied she grabbed my hand again and started to drag me deeper into the water.

At one point she told me to look up and I saw that I was underneath the waterfall exactly, just a little further down in the water then I was before. She winked at me as she pulled me along again.

The further we went into the water, the deeper we went. Since I was to nervous to ever open my mouth, I never asked her what she was doing. As she continued to swim I realized we started to go faster until the water was just a rush of water. The water got darker as we went along and I started to see nothing under the water by the time we surfaced.

When I met clean air I could understand why. The sun was setting. I turned to Ariel and saw that she was grinning again at me.

"Here we are." I smiled and started for the edge of the rock and that's when I saw Ariel coping my movement. I froze and turned to her sadly.

"You can't come with me Ariel." She looked at me sadly.

"Why?" I looked down at the water and then up at the rocky wall of the island.

"It's dangerous and I... I need someone to guard the water and tell me who comes in and out." I said, lying. Ariel looked at the entrance and sighed sadly.

"Well I guess only I can do that." I smiled sadly and hugged her.

"Thank you so much Ariel." I heard her chuckle.

"Be careful in there." I nodded.

"I will. After all, I have this." I said, pulling out my necklace. Ariel's eyes sparkled with excitement.

"It's so strange. Sometimes I swear you are a mermaid. You have the gifts of one and you act like one and well I guess I've only really had friends who were mermaids." She mumbled excitedly. I smiled.

"Well as you can tell, no mermaid here." I said pointing to my legs. She nodded.

"Goodbye.. girl.." I almost stumbled on the rock climbing up from the water.

"I completely forgot to give you my name!" I said shocked. Ariel laughed.

"Lottie." I said quickly. My face I felt go warm. Ariel winked at me.

"You even have a mermaid like name." I smiled and watched as she disappeared under the water. I sighed and turned back to the entrance. Just then I heard a noise of water splashing and turned the corner of the rocky island and saw a boat nearing the shore. Quickly, I turned away from the boat and ran into the skull structure.

**Pan POV**

When I dragged the boat out of the water I saw the last rays of sunlight leave the water. Perfect. Complete darkness was what I needed. I turned to see Henry watching the sun disappear as well. This kid was weird.

"Come on Henry. Let's get this over with shall we?" I asked, putting as much excitement as possible in my voice. Henry turned back to me and nodded.

We walked through the edge of the island until we reached the entrance. I stopped right by the edge and drew a line across the entrance. Henry looked back at me confused.

"What are you doing?"

"Adding one last protective measure to this place." I replied quickly. Henry nodded slowly and turned back around. I took one last glance out to the water and watched with satisfaction as a goldish haze shined through line.

Perfect.