Tink 1st Chapter Preview

Chapter 1

At first I thought it was a bird. I thought it was odd that the bird was so far out at sea when there was nowhere to go. It could fly as far as it wished and it would still have to turn around and come back. There was nothing out there but endless waters. I knew. I'd tried too.

More times than I wished to count.

But it wasn't a bird. Not even close. It seemed to fly straight out of the sun and my eyes burned as I watched it draw nearer and larger. I swirled circles with my fingertip in the little pool atop the mountain I was perched on. The stream that ran from this pool spilled down the mountain edge in a waterfall and travelled down through the island as a river right out to the lagoon.

It was my island and I knew all of its secrets just as it knew mine. We were so in sync: Neverland and I. The name came to me when I first tried to sail away and had to come back. If anyone were to look in the caves eaten into the base of the mountain, they'd see the endless stretch of marks I'd engraved onto the walls from those first days I spent counting. As time went on I realised how futile it was.

I grew familiar with every rock, flower and tree over time. I didn't have a choice. Eventually it turned from entrapping to comforting and familiar. The stream of the river was the same as the sweep of the veins in my wrists; the breeze rustling through the foliage was the toss of my hair; and the quakes of the earth were the stomping of my feet against the ground.

With my hand shielding my eyes from the sunlight, I looked on as the flying object took form. It sank lower as it soared, heading straight for my island, or, the sea surrounding it at least. I realised it might resemble a ship as a stern and masts became somewhat discernable.

I couldn't pretend I was all too familiar with ships, having not seen anyone or anything off my island for so long. Even before I lived here, I don't recall ships as being able to sail through the sky.

Perhaps this was finally my way out. If they landed here, maybe they could take me away with them. They were the only ones that had managed to find this place in a century. I didn't know what sort of magic kept Neverland hidden from curious eyes but I'd accepted by now that it was foolproof.

I had to try.

Before I could miss my chance, I hitched up my skirts around my knees and barrelled down the face of the mountain. It wasn't by any means a huge mountain but it still took a while to scale either way. At least it was easier on the way down, and I knew all the shortcuts and where to avoid falling sharply to my death.

Even so, I skidded down the last slope at the bottom and skinned my knees as I lost my balance. Not wanting to waste another second, I brushed the dirt off and started the run through the forest towards the beach in the direction I saw the ship aiming towards. Leaping over the stream, wider than I was tall, I scrambled through the last few trees until I broke through the tree line onto the soft sandy beach.

The ship was flying, somehow, just a quarter of a mile off shore and I halted as, upon closer inspection, I spied the flags they were flying. I'd hoped I'd recognise them, and I did, but not in the way I'd expected. They didn't belong to any country I knew of.

It was flying a formidable skull and crossbones upon a backdrop as black as night. The Jolly Roger: the symbol of pirates.

I considered taking a step back and hiding in the forest. If they'd come to plunder Neverland, they wouldn't find anything worth taking. There is nothing precious here, nothing worth stopping here for at all. That was the whole point of my being here.

Would they still take me if I had nothing to offer? What bargain could I strike with them? Maybe I could owe them something? Before I could consider whether it was worth the risk, a dark form fell from the side of the ship and splashed into the water almost before I could even register it had happened.