𝕊ℍ𝕆𝕆𝕋𝕀ℕ𝔾 𝕊𝕋𝔸ℝ𝕊 {Peter Pan}

Chapter 4

Molly and Mara put the padlock back together before leading Peter to their room. They peeked inside, checking that it was empty. "Please, sit. This'll take some time." Molly started out softly.

Peter sat on Mara's cot, watching Molly and Mara standing silently for several moments. "We shouldn't be telling you any of this," Molly said.

"But you..." Peter looked frustrated.

"Just listen. We shouldn't tell you, but, given the circumstances, we've decided that we have no choice." Molly interrupted him.

"I'm not sure how much to tell you, there's not much I know myself. Mara knows more than I do, but she's promised not to tell anyone unless she had absolutely no choice. But if we're to ask for your help, if we're to ask you to risk your... I mean, there is terrible danger, and it would be wrong if you... that is... if you didn't..." Molly trailed off.

"Molly, just tell me!" Peter was exasperated at this point. "Or Mara could tell me."

"All right. Peter, have you ever seen a shooting star?" Molly sighed.

"Yes." Peter nodded.

"Do you know what they are?" Molly asked.

"They're rocks, that fall from the heavens." Peter replied.

"That's true of most of them. Almost all of them, in fact. But not quite all." Mara murmured, just loud enough for Peter to hear.

"What do you mean?" Peter asked, turning to Mara.

"I mean that some shooting stars are not rocks. Some, very few, are made of starstuff, that's what we call it anyways." Mara continued, voice rising only a little.

"Starstuff? You mean the pieces that fell from a star?" Peter asked.

"Truthfully, we don't know what it's made of." Molly told him. "But it's not rocks, and it comes from the heavens, and sometimes it comes to earth. And when it does, we have to find it, before the others do."

"Who'd you mean by 'we'? Who are the 'others'? What does this have to do with..." Peter asked question after question.

"Please, Peter. I'm explaining the best I can." Molly sighed.

"Sorry, go on." Peter looked down.

Molly continued to explain who the starcatchers are, who the others are and what they do. Then she went on to explaining the starstuff.

"That's what's in the trunk. It has amazing power, Peter. Wonderful power. Terrible power. It... It let's you do things." Molly told the confused boy.

"What kind of things?" Peter asked.

"Well, that's one of the mysteries. It's not the same for everybody. And it's not the same for animals as it is for people." Mara added in.

"The rat, the flying rat." Peter said.

"Yes. That's one of the powers it can give. Flight." Molly smiled.

"To rats?" Peter looked confused again.

"Not just rats. People, too." Molly smiled again at the thought.

"It makes people fly?" Peter looked extremely doubtful.

"It can." Molly said.

"Can you two fly?" Peter asked.

"We have." Said Molly.

"Prove it."

"What?" Molly asked.

"Prove you can fly." Peter said.

"Peter this isn't the time nor place for..." Molly started to say.

"Molly, it's alright. I'll do it." Mara pulled out her locket and opened it slowly. The locket was surrounded by golden light.

She put her finger in the light for just a few seconds, her expression became peaceful, nothing like the stressful look she had on seconds earlier.

She closed the locket with a loud snap. "What was..." Peter started, only to be shushed by Mara.

"Watch." Peter waited for a few seconds.

"I don't see anything." Peter was annoyed. They had just wasted his time.

"Peter, look at her feet." Molly scolded the boy.

He looked down and let out a gasp. Her feet weren't touching the floor. It was no trick of the light.

As Mara descended onto the ground again, Peter fired questions at Molly pertaining to starstuff. All his ideas to fly around whenever were shot down though.

Then, Molly began to explain about what else starstuff could do, with humans and with animals.

The conversation started to ver towards the porpoises again.

"So you were talking to the porpoises!" Peter exclaimed.

"Yes. Sorry about the lie. We've been working with the porpoises for many years. Extremely intelligent, they are. More intelligent than many people, if you ask me. Anyways, there's more sea than land, so as you'd imagine, a fair amount of starstuff lands in the water, and the porpoises have learned just as much as we did, that it's best to just get rid of it." Molly rambled about their fishy friends.

"What do you mean?" Peter asked. Molly launched into an explanation of what happened when starstuff and animals mix.

Thinking that she wasn't needed at the moment, Mara tuned herself out, until she heard Molly start sobbing and say something about having heard about pirates sinking her father's ship.

Mara simply wrapped an arm around the girl again, and rocked them back and forth, as Molly continued telling Peter that the pirates were coming for the Never Land.

Mara put Molly to bed, with a gentleness that only she only possessed for her closest friends that most never got to even witness. Mrs. Bumbrake clambered down the stairs, heels banging against the metal boards.

Peter slipped out of the room to hide under the lower ladder, but not before Mara had told him to find them tomorrow.

Mara had dived into bed right after the door was closed. She couldn't sleep. Peter plagued her mind. Was it right to tell him? He's going to be in lots of danger now... Black Stache was coming. She was most certainly not afraid of any old pirate, but she didn't know how well she could protect so many people.

But she was going to try. That was all she thought about until she finally fell into a fitful sleep.