Chapter Fifteen
Seconds later, Peter and I were running down the plateau incline with Tiger Lily. Peter was filled with anger, spitting out his words. I was sick to my stomach, and shaking. Tim was still on the Island of the Lost Boys.
“How could he have done that?” Peter shouted. “He hasn’t had the guts in years to step foot on the Island of the Lost Boys. He knows how outnumbered he is.”
“I don’t know,” Tiger Lily replied. “A bunch of the Lost Boys that escaped just came here. They went to my village first, looking for you, then came here with my parents.”
“Is my brother with them?” I yelled. “Is my brother with them?”
“I don’t know,” Tiger Lily replied. “I don’t know, I—”
“Where are they?” Peter growled. It was a side of Peter I had never seen before. Gone was the boy I had known for the past afternoon and night. This was the warrior I had heard people talk about.
“They’re here on the shore,” Tiger Lily said. “Waiting for you.”
We ran out of the trees and onto the sand, not far from where we had landed earlier. I saw a little sailboat, no bigger than a small car. There were only six Lost Boys in it. The Chief and Chieftess stood on the sand next to them.
“Peter,” one of the Lost Boys said. “We’re sorry, Peter. We couldn’t fight them off. We couldn’t fight them this time.”
I ran closer to the boat. I scanned it quickly. Tim wasn’t in it. Oh, god, Tim wasn’t in it.
“It’s okay,” Peter said. He looked over the Lost Boys in the boat. Their clothes were torn, and their faces were covered with bruises and scratches. One of them was holding his side, and bleeding through his shirt. “What happened? When did they come? How many were there?”
The boy holding his side winced. “Not that many. That’s the thing. Ten, maybe twenty. But they didn’t need many. Not with Hook’s magic. In a few minutes, he had laid waste to the entire village. We fought back, but we couldn’t. Not this time.”
“Where’s my brother?” I asked. “Is my brother okay?”
The Lost Boy shook his head. “I’m sorry. They took him. They took almost all the Lost Boys. Almost every single one of us.”
“Oh, god,” I said, covering my mouth. I tried not to cry. How could I have left him there? In that village? My knees buckled and I nearly dropped. What had happened to him? Where could those pirates have taken him?
Tiger Lily put an arm around my shoulders. Peter looked to me, and noticed how upset I was. The anger in him grew.
“Is this it?” he asked. “This is all that’s left?”
The Lost Boy nodded. “We were the only ones who got away. They came—they were looking for you. Both of you.” He looked to me. “The whole time Hook was attacking, he just kept asking for Peter and Emily, and laughing. He said he was there to see the girl from America.”
The Lost Boy looked at Peter.
“We gotta fight back, Peter. We gotta fight back.”
Peter stared ahead. “Everyone, come with me. We have no time to lose. The time for planning is over.”
He turned and headed back toward the plateau.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“It’s time for a war,” Peter replied. “If that’s what Hook wants, he can have it.”
Before long, we returned to the top of the plateau.
“You have the full support of the Natives,” the Chieftess said. “We’ll get word to the tribe as quickly as we can. You just tell me what you want to do next.”
Peter walked ahead. He was taking charge.
“We need the ship. We can’t wait any longer. It’s through here.”
We walked into the circle of trees in the center of the plateau. Little fairy houses —like beautiful, intricate birdhouses—hung from the branches around us, and there were also bigger houses built on the ground, which we could have entered by ducking through the doorways, if we wanted. But that’s not why we were there; we were there for the giant, wooden, caramel-brown pirate ship, complete with black mast, in the middle of the tree circle. It rested on the grassy ground, tilted to the left slightly and sunk into the soil. A few fairies fluttered around the ship, and around us.
“Wes, what do you think?” Peter asked. “How soon can we get this thing back on the water?”
Wes inspected the ship, running his hand along the hull. He shook his head. “Not right away, that’s for sure. This thing has taken some serious damage.”
“That last battle with Hook was pretty intense,” Peter said. “And the ship was right in the middle of it.”
“Not to mention the damage from sitting here on land for so long. It’ll need major repairs before it’s ready to sail.”
“Why don’t we fly it to Hook, with fairy dust?” I asked. “Isn’t that how you got it here? Won’t that be the fastest?”
Peter shook his head. “Won’t work. It won’t have the same effect. It needs to be on the water to get Hook to board it. If he sees it flying, it won’t remind him of his old life. It’ll probably just remind him of when he lost it. If he’s gonna be lured out onto it, it needs to be sailing on the water.”
Tiger Lily looked up at the mast. “Mother, Father—let’s send for our best carpenters and builders. They can’t work miracles, but they’ll work as fast as they can. It’ll be a few hours, at least.”
“That’s fine,” Peter replied. “We’ll need to head back to the Island of the Lost Boys, anyway, to get supplies. We’ll have to work with whatever your tribe can do.”
“And where are we going after we round up supplies at your place?” Wes asked.
“We’re going to the Island of the Pirates,” Peter replied, “and we’re bringing our fire right to Hook.”
A silence passed.
“I want to make sure everyone knows what we’re up against,” Wes said. “We’ve all seen Hook’s magic, up close. We’ve seen how out of control he is. And none of us have anything that can combat him. Not even close. This isn’t going to be pretty.”
“It’s what we have to do,” Tiger Lily said. “If Hook crossed the line into the village of the Lost Boys, he’ll come for the Island of the Natives next. It’s inevitable. We have to attack him before he can capture anyone else, and we must do it now. This is our last chance to save our people.”
“So what do we have?” Wes asked. “Me, you, Peter, Em. Six beaten down Lost Boys. The warriors of the Natives.” He shook his head. “As fierce as your warriors are, Tiger Lily, that’s not enough.”
“Yes,” Peter said. “We need more.”
A moment passed. Everyone looked to me, then at the multi-colored, brightly lit fairies swirling around us.
I got the hint.
“You want me to…?”
Peter nodded.
“We haven’t even asked them if we can borrow the ship yet,” I replied, “and you want me to ask them that?”
“With them,” Wes said, “we’d at least stand a chance.”
I thought it over. I didn’t know the fairies—I had literally just learned that fairies existed—so my initial instinct was to say no way. It wasn’t my place to ask them for their help. But, then, that instinct was quickly overruled. Tim had been captured. He was in terrible danger. And that’s all that mattered. I had to save him. These fairies knew me (or at least they thought they knew me), and I was going to use that to my advantage. It sounds terrible, but I had to. It was my brother.
I turned to the blue fairy, fluttering near me.
“I know,” I started, “I know it’s a lot to ask, but I have to…”
The blue fairy smiled.
“We’re going to go face Hook, and I know I—”
The blue fairy didn’t let me finish. Instead, she flew toward me and wrapped her arms around my bicep, pressing her cheek against my skin. I was ten times the size of her, so she couldn’t hug me, but what she did was basically the equivalent of a fairy hug. Then, she flew backwards, pressed her fingers to her lips, and let out an ear-piercing
whistle.
Just like that, in an instant, the forest came alive around us. The leaves of the trees rustled, the branches shook, and the darkness was illuminated by brilliant, rainbow-colored light. Close to 100 fairies zoomed from their houses and the trees, in all shapes and sizes. Streaks of yellow, orange, pink, red, purple, blue, and green flew toward us.
The fairies stopped, in front of me, hovering there. The blue fairy winked.
Wes laughed. “Okay. I’ll take that as a yes.”
Tiger Lily grinned, and let a fairy land on her hand. I shook my head, chuckling. Peter didn’t laugh, however. He didn’t even smile.
“Thank you, fairies. Let’s go. Every moment that passes is a moment we don’t have.”