Hearts Fall Unnexpectedly

Chapter One: Lost

Tall, dark trees with leaves that drip with an unknown substance cover the terrain. Miles away, a pack of wolves can be heard hunting down anything in their paths. If they can smell you, you're dead. The fallen leaves scatter the dried out floor, as nothing natural can grow here.

Just outside the forest barrier, a woman can be seen walking into a tent with a small child on her hip and a sack slung over her opposite shoulder. By her direction, she just came from the marketplace. Inside the tent, the woman lays the boy down on a cot that is much too big to be his, but he snuggles into it regardless, falling asleep almost immediately. The woman sits down at the desk that is placed in the center of the covered area and sighs as she looks over the endless amounts of maps, journals, and miscellaneous objects from over the years.

Suddenly, the sound of a child's cry outside of the tent brings the woman out of her daydream and taking a glance at the boy in the cot, the woman sighs once more before walking out of the room. Opening the tent door, she sees another boy, about a year or two older than the one currently sleeping in her tent, and she crouches down to the familiar boy.

"Oh, Ambrose, you've got to be more careful," the woman softly scolds as she looks at the bleeding cut on the boy's knee.

"I'm sorry, Mama."

A few more boys come over to check out the situation to watch their 'mother' fix up their 'brother's' leg. Looking around, the woman makes sure that no one else is watching. When she sees that the coast is clear, she starts waving her hand slowly over his knee. The cut closes itself, for the most part, with the help of a purple glow. Holding out her palm again, this time face up, a small, purple cloud appears. When it dissipates, some alcohol and cleaning swabs are left in her hand.

She gives the boy a sympathetic smile, "This is going to hurt, Bud."

One of the other boys, Orion, comes up to the two and sits next to his fellow lost boy. He grabs Ambrose's hand as the woman starts to pour some of the alcohol onto the swab. Once it's properly doused, she starts to dab it onto the boy's cut, he shouts in pain, making the girl sit up and stop her movements harshly.

"Sh, sh, shh," she pleads with the boy, "I just got Baelfire to sleep. You know he hasn't slept well in weeks."

Ambrose nods with tears in his eyes, and squeezes his friend's hand tighter. The woman gives him another sympathetic smile and continues to clean the blood off of his leg. He whimpers in pain, but he doesn't shout again, making the girl let out a breath of relief.

Once the cut is fully cleaned off, she wraps the boy's knee in some bandages she keeps on her at all times. When living with over half a dozen boys from the ages of 5 through 12, she needs to be prepared.

"Okay," the girl says after the bandage is fully wrapped and held in place, "you're good to go. I need to go to work. Please, check up on Bae every now and then, especially if he's crying."

Both boys look at her sadly as Orion speaks up, "You really have to go?"

The girl sighs, "Yes. With Pan gone, we have no automatic food or protection. I'm getting that for us."

She kisses both of their foreheads and turns to the other boys standing around them and repeats her actions for each boy. Most of them smile at her, making her give them one in return, but a few of them keep their looks of despair, which have only gotten deeper these past few months since Pan took off with himself and all of the old boys.

"I love you, have fun, be safe, and.."

"Stay out of the woods."

The woman gives her boys a sad smile as they finish her sentence for her. It's the same one she says everyday since she got the hang of things months ago. Turning around, she makes her way to the restaurant she works at with some of her life long friends. She walks through the dirtied streets of the island, and makes sure to stay out of everyone's way. What she told her boys is true, their automatic protection from the name 'Pan' is gone. Yes, she can protect herself and her boys if need be, but she rather not get into a fight. Especially not one where a good majority of the people there would side against her.

Her walk to work reminds her of her first week back when she was making her first trek to ask for her current position, except she was a lot more brazen back then. And stupid.

Walking through the streets of Seaside, the corner of the island where all the pirates, sea monsters, and all of their offspring live, the woman holds her head high. She is determined to walk into the restaurant, demand a job, and walk back out to her boys with some money in her pocket for the first time since being back.

She rounds the corner, and grabs a sword from a random, old pirate, one too old to care or fight back, and sticks it into the sword loop of her leather, lace up jeans. Her hair has been effectively dyed to green, trying to mask her identity as much as possible. All her life, she's been known for wild, unruly, blonde curls. Those curls have now been tamed back into two identical French braids.

Coming to a harsh stop, the girl looks up and sees the name in bold letters and flashing lights.

"Ursula's Fish & Chips."

The girl snorts, "Well, at least her name is in lights."

Pushing open the doors to the restaurant harshly, everyone snaps their heads over and their jaws drop at the sight before them.

"Well if it isn't Payton Pan," Uma says with a shocked smirk slapped onto her face.

Neither Gil nor Harry have picked their jaws up off the floor. After the barrier broke, everyone knew that Pan evacuated back to the real Neverland, leaving all of his youngest lost boys behind. He saw them as useless and had no wish for them to be around anymore. Only reason he kept them as long as he did, was because of his daughter. They were the only reason she truly still lived with him. Was it nice to have a father around? Yes, but she knew he was using her.

Shortly following the coronation, it was announced all over Auradon, and therefore for the Isle because of their shared television coverage, that Payton had gone missing and that King Ben refused to speak on the matter. Everyone assumed that she went to Neverland to be with her father. But here she was, back on the isle of all places.

"I guess this lost girl ain't so lost anymore."