Return to the Island

Mermaid Lagoon

"Alice! Alice! Where are you? It's not safe being by yourself!" called out a young voice. Alice rushed towards the sound of the voice.

"I'm over here!" she shouted in reply. A couple of seconds later she burst through the foliage and came face to face with Pinocchio.

"There you are! Are you alright?" he asked as he kept her from falling.

"Yeah, just a little tired is all," she smiled in response.

"Alright, well, rest for a bit, but we've got to get going soon. Jim's over at Mermaid Lagoon, he got some help from a mermaid to find you," Pinocchio told her.

"Really? Wendy said that the mermaids are completely horrid and will only help out Peter Pan, if they felt like it," Alice said.

"Well, this mermaid's different. You'll see when you meet her. Oh yes, before I forget. Hey, I found her!" Pinocchio shouted the last bit at the top of his lungs. Various whoops and shouts followed, scattered across the island.

"Stay where you are, we'll come to you!" came a shout.

"Alright!" Pinocchio shouted back.

"Well, I guess I can't meet this mermaid then," Alice said, feeling a little down.
"Oh, you can, Mermaid Lagoon isn't that much further. Do you think you've rested enough to walk the last little bit to the lagoon?" asked Pinocchio.

"I think so, especially if it's not that far," replied Alice. Pinocchio held out his hand to help her up, then led the way to Mermaid Lagoon. It wasn't too hard to find Jim, he was sitting on a rock close to shore, the only other person there was a red-headed mermaid casually chatting with him. When he noticed Pinocchio and Alice, he waved them over.
"Good job, Pinocchio, you found her!" Jiminy exclaimed, jumping from Jim's shoulder to Pinocchio's.

"Yeah, well, I'm glad we found her before anything happened to her," Pinocchio smiled at his little friend. Alice began feeling restless, she wasn't sure if she should tell them of her encounter with Hook or not, but that decision was quickly pushed to the side when she got a better look at the mermaid. She had long, wavy, red hair, deep blue eyes, and was wearing a purple, lacy shirt. Alice couldn't see her tail very well in the water, but she could see flashes of something and wasn't sure if it was pink, blue, or green.

"Um, thank you so much for helping them look for me. I hope it wasn't too much trouble," Alice told her.

"Oh, not at all, I'm glad to have been able to help and bring those lazy mermaids to shame. Well, I hope it brought them to shame, they're so vain they probably didn't even notice," sighed the mermaid. "Besides, I wanted to see more of the island, so it's perfectly fine. I just wish I could get on land, then I can see more of it. Jim's been kind enough to tell me as much as he can, but considering that he hasn't seen the whole island yet, he can only give me a limited description. Thanks for telling me what you do know, though," the mermaid turned to Jim.

"Oh, no problem, just wish I could tell you more," Jim replied.

"Maybe you can later, when you've explored more of the island," the mermaid told him, batting her eyelashes at him.

"Alice!" cried a voice from behind. Alice soon found herself being hugged by Wendy. "Are you alright?"

"Oh, yes, perfectly fine, thank you. I'm sorry if I made everyone worry about me. It was perfectly selfish and silly of me to create a scene like that," Alice said apologetically.

"Oh no, we shouldn't have pushed so hard on you. Listen, there will be no more flying lessons today, alright? We'll go back to the tree-house, get some rest, and we'll try again tomorrow. We'll figure it out as we go," Wendy told her. Alice didn't get to answer her for at that moment they were instantly surrounded by the rest of the children, asking if she was alright.

"You didn't run into any wild animals, did you?" came Mowgli's question.

"No, I didn't see even one," replied Alice.

"Not even Hook, or any of his pirates?" asked Peter. There was silence as he landed in the middle of the crowd of youngsters.

"Uh, I didn't run into any trouble at all," replied Alice, a bit hesitantly.

Peter looked at her for a minute before speaking, "OK then, well, I just wanted to say I'm sorry for pushing too hard. I didn't realize that thinking of happy thoughts might be hard for you if you're trying too hard. So, I figured we'd go treasure hunting instead!" His face beamed when the children cheered.

"Great, Jim should be able to find it in no time!" exclaimed John.

"No, I won't, I don't know the island very well, and there's no map or clues as to where it is, like my last treasure hunt," remarked Jim.

"Why do you even need a map or clues?" Peter asked.

"Well, Captain Flint, the pirate who buried the treasure, needed to remember where he buried it so he could go back and find it again. Besides, it's more fun that way," stated Jim.

"We've always done it my way, and the Lost Boys always have fun," said Peter.

"Actually, I kind of want to try it the way Jim did it, with clues and all. It does sound like a lot of fun," commented John. Several of the children agreed.

"But I've already hid the treasure," grumbled Peter, glaring at Jim.

"Well then, how's this? We'll go find it using your way today, and tomorrow I'll do it my way and hide it," said Jim. The children nodded their agreement, then glanced at Peter for his response.

"Oh alright, we'll do it your way tomorrow. It'll actually be nice to get to look for it without knowing where it is already," grinned Peter.

"Oh, she's gone!" exclaimed Alice.

"Who's gone?" Wendy asked.

"The mermaid!" said Jim, realizing what Alice meant.

"What mermaid?" asked Peter, as he watched Jim, Alice, and Pinocchio looking around the rock Jim had been sitting on.

"There was a mermaid here not too long ago. Didn't you see her when you showed up?" Alice asked. Everyone else said that they hadn't noticed.

"Oh, and we didn't get her name either," Alice sighed.

"Actually, I did, it's, uh, it's . . . oh great, I forgot it. Well, I think it was something like Mary, but it wasn't pronounced like that. She did say that she'd be around, maybe we'll run into her again later and we'll know for sure," stated Jim.

"Probably, mermaids are coming and going, there's definitely a chance you'll run into her again. Anyway, we have treasure to find, so let's get going!" shouted Peter as he flew into the air, leading the band of children on another adventure.