Keeping Fantasia: The Third Book of the Fantasia Series

Chapter 46: Neverland Misadventures - Curiouser and Curiouser

Chapter 46: Neverland Misadventures – Curiouser and Curiouser

(When: Somewhere in Time)

When Peter woke up, he had a vague recollection that they had crashed. 

He also had sand in his ears. And it wasn't happy, fluffy, warm summer sand; it was slushy, yucky, cold winter sand.

"Ugh." Peter wiggled a finger in his ear. It felt like the sand was clogged to his brain. Finger still wiggling, Peter rolled onto his knees and opened his eyes.

He was on a beach. It was winter. The ocean was too salty to freeze, but snow was falling in glittery, white veils. Frostbitten cliffs towered against the shore. Gentle dunes sparkled along the sea.

Peter surveyed the panoramic. It was pretty (albeit way too cold), but something felt...off. 

Peter felt like he was viewing the world through an old TV: the colors were dull, sounds were slightly hazy, and Peter swore his peripheral vision was occasionally jarred by static.

Peter rubbed the back of his head. Wondering if the crash had scrambled his brains, he decided to locate the Second Star was, and (more importantly), locate where they had landed.

"Beach..." Peter studied the shoreline. "Cliffs to the right...dunes to the left...dunes nice and soft for...dancing..."

Peter choked, suddenly overcome with déjà vu. Staring at the beach, he imagined a string of Christmas lights in the sand, leading a pretty girl in a blue dress towards him.

"Oh my god." Peter clapped both hands to his head. "Oh my god! This is the beach! This is where Wendy and I celebrated our anniversary!"

Peter jumped into the air. He crowed into the twinkling snow. "We're in Fantasia!"

Although Peter wished Wendy was with him, he rejoiced like a robin on the first day of spring (or, like a college student on the first day of spring break). They were home! They had outrun Captain Hook! King Arthur was never going to close the magical realms again! He and Wendy would be together forever!

"CRAAWWWHH AWH AAHHH!" Peter pummeled his chest. "CRAAWWWHH AWH AAHHH AWH AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!"

Suddenly, someone seized his leg.

"Peter! Shut up! Quick we need to hide, the Jolly Roger is sailing this way! Peter –"

Peter swung around, foot popping from his sneaker. Ariel stood below him, trident shaking urgently as Peter turned around.

The moment she saw his face, she stopped.

"Peter?" she gawked, almost dropping his shoe. "Peter– is – that you?"

Peter snatched his sneaker.

"Of course it's me!" he sneered, "Think before you say stupid things!"

As Peter shoved on his shoe, he waited for Ariel's response. But none came. That was weird; Ariel was usually the queen of girl-power comebacks, but for some reason she was speechless. Her jaw was slack, and she was staring at Peter like he was a zoo animal.

Ohhhh great. Peter thought, It finally happened. Ariel has fallen in love with me. Geeze, what a bother. Everyone wants a piece of the Pan. Well, tough noogies Ariel! Pan the Man is a delicacy only to be enjoyed by Miss Wendy Moria Angela Darling (although he was flattered all the same).

"Okay!" Peter laced his sneaker. "Snap out of it! Where is everyone? Where is Wendy? And what do you mean the Jolly Roger is sailing this way? Didn't we lose Hook in the Black Hole?!"

Ariel shook her head, still mystified. "I think we're still in the Black Hole."

"Still in it? But how? This is Fantasia! I remember this beach, Wendy and I came here when we celebrated our –"

Peter stopped mid-rant. He glared at Ariel. "Why are you still staring at me?"

Ariel made a small circle with her trident.  "Peter you're...young."

"What?"

"You're young."

"Of course I'm young, I'm thirty three, same as you, fish brain."

"No Peter –" Ariel skimmed her trident across his sneakers. "—you are young! Younger than me! Look at what you're wearing! Remember these clothes? Peter, you look like a high school student! You look like a teenager!"

Peter touched his cheek. Unable to see his face, he looked down at his clothes.

His graphene jumpsuit was gone. In its place was the outfit Peter wore nearly every day at Sir Ector's Orphanage for Lost Boys and Lost Girls.

Awestruck, Peter touched every article of clothing: the fitted green t-shirt, the faded jeans, and his cherished hand-me-down Nike high-tops, colored red, yellow, orange, and green.

And, under his feet, spread across the wintry sand, was something else that belonged to Peter long ago:

His shadow.

Peter made an incoherent, astonished sound. Dropping from the air, he pounced on his shadow. Bizarrely, the shadow didn't fight back. It behaved like a regular shadow, insipidly mimicking Peter's every move.

"But how?" Peter groped his neck, searching for Wendy's magical thimble. He always wore it on a chain, ever since Wendy had exchanged it for his soul. 

Peter searched frantically, but the thimble was missing.

"No!" Peter ducked inside his shirt. He shook the fabric, praying the thimble would fall out. "It's gone! My thimble is gone!"

"You don't need it." Ariel said, shuddering against the cold. "Peter you have your shadow. You don't need the thimble anymore. It's like...it's like you went backward in time."

"But where is Wendy?!" Peter demanded, feeling his teenage temper rise. He didn't like to lose control, he hated when he didn't understand. "How come you're not young? Why is my shadow attached to me? How did Hook follow us and where is my wife?!"

"Oi! Ahoy! Ariel! Peter!"

They turned. Long John Silver was trudging through the ocean. His gears were frozen and waterlogged; it was a miracle he had made it to shore. Moreover, Silver was carrying two passengers: Morph was shivering on the brim of Silver's hat, and an old man was slung over the cyborg's shoulder.

Confusion set aside, Peter and Ariel rushed to Silver's aid. However, once they reached the shoreline, Silver insisted Peter and Ariel tend to the old man.

"I'll be fine!" Silver said, squeezing Morph dry. "Me gears will warm up, just need te keep movin so they don't rust in place. It's him I'm worried about – "

To Peter's surprise, Silver yanked off the old man's boots.

"I found him nearly drowned." Silver said, turning over the boot and smacking ice bits from inside. "He was floating aside the Second Star, down below the cliffs of Pirate's Point. I would have brought him on deck, but I had to abandon ship when I saw the Jolly Roger o'r the horizon! He's chilled te the bone, I'm sure hypothermia has set in!"

Silver tossed the boot to Peter. He attacked the second.

"Ariel," he said, "I think ye might have te lay unclothed with him, te heat him up, see."

Peter balked. "Whoa, whoa, what??! Silver are you insane? Captain Hook is coming, Wendy and Jim are missing, and you want Ariel to get naked  with this stranger??!"

Ariel knelt. She stroked the elder man's face.

"He's not a stranger." she breathed. "Peter...this is Jim."