The Heart of the Truest Believer

chapter four

"Lost what?" the girl asked. The hooded boy was still astonished, as was she. No girl had ever heard the music of his pipe, ever. She hadn't said she heard it, but he knew, they way she was now looking at him. There were no girls in Neverland. He'd travelled through all realms, never had he encountered a–

"Lost Girl," he said and she shook her head with a laugh of disbelief.

"As in, the Lost Boys?" she asked. Her heart was pounding violently in her chest, she felt like she was going mad. The taller boy grinned and she stepped back. But she was. Lost. She only had one friend, no parents, no home, really. She never felt safe at home. Her life was like a map with no compass to guide her. She only had vague memories of her parents, just images flashing through her mind at night. She could barely remember the warmth of her mother as she would grip her tightly in her arms, it nearly made her cry.

"Excuse me," the hooded boy said to the girl, who was trying to catch a glimpse of his face, and then walked off. There was something extremely familiar about this girl, maybe she'd been on this island before? No, no, that couldn't be. There are no Lost Girls because girls are far too clever to fall out of their prams, that's what Pan would always say. He'd remember a Lost Girl.

He reached a treehouse at Hideout, North of the island and he climbed up. He searched for that scroll that he'd gotten from Tinkerbell a long time ago. He looked around, then opening a splintered and dusty drawer of the desk in the corner of the room, and he saw a rolled up piece of parchment. He carefully took it, and opened it. The first thing he saw, was the drawn picture of a beautiful girl, her name written underneath it. He'd waited for the arrival of this girl for decades, and she was on the island right now.

He climbed down, tucking the piece of paper in his belt, removing the hood from his head and revealing his face. Reaching the camp, he watched his boys for a while. A few of them were talking by the fire, a couple were roughhousing and others cheering. A few were just visiting in their dreams. There were only seven, no six, Lost Boys including Pan.

Tootles, the most humble of the Lost Boys. A long time ago he was the one to shoot Wendy with an arrow and once he realised his mistake, asked Pan to kill him, he did so, with pleasure. Nibs, oh, Nibs was the most cheeful and perhaps the barvest of the boys, always cheering along with the rest, welcoming new boys to Never Never Land with open arms. Slightly. He was conceided and believed he could remember life before being lost. He was one to dream about home, that's why he was the most bitter of the boys. Then there was Curly, the other of the boys to escort this girl to the camp, not very smart, but very strong and was always put to do the heavy lifting and the dirty work. The twins, which of Felix was the one left alive due to a pirate attack many many years ago. His brother was killed by an arrow, that only scraped Felix's face before hitting his brother.

He was looking at the new comer of Neverland curiously. "Who is he?" she then asked.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," Felix said with a wicked smile.

"Try me," she said and the boy stepped back, turning around. He looked back at her and then began walking.

"Peter Pan." Chills travelled though her body and her lips parted in surprise. She had the heart of the truest believer, yet she didn't believe the words coming out of the boy's mouth. She'd heard stories of Peter Pan like every child in the world, but–

"Lost Girl!" she heard a call and reacted immediately. "Come with me."

She stepped back once she recognized him to be the boy who had helped her in the woods. "You," she said and the boy turned.

"It's Peter Pan," he said. With careful steps, she followed him into the dense forest, off the clearing. She wasn't sure what to think of him at the moment.

"Can I go ho–me, now?" she was still uncertain what to call the orphanage that she merely lived in.

"Now why would I let you do that? My boys are bored, they need entertainment," he said and she didn't want to imagine what 'entertaining' meant. She just laughed and the boy turned toward her.

"You know women don't exist for the entertainment of men, right?" she asked and Pan scoffed.

"Oh, I know," he said, approaching her slowly. "But you're just too cute."