Violet (The Never Series) *EDITING*

Chapter Two

Chapter Two

Peter

I was flying, no that’s not a good enough word: I was soaring. With the wind rushing through my hair and stinging my eyes: I felt freedom at its purest. There are no boundaries in the sky, and because of the limitless expanse: it always had a way of making me feel like the youngest boy in the world. Of course, I don’t know my exact age; but I know that I am roughly around seventeen now, and I don’t plan on growing any older. When you live in Neverland, you don’t grow up in any way. Your mind and body stay the same until you wish grow older. For the safety of all those on Neverland; I decided that I needed to grow up a bit: at the age of seventeen you are not quite an adult but still a child; seventeen was perfect for me and the lost boys.

I landed on a broad outreaching branch, and leaned against the wide expanse of the trunk, the view was amazing; you could see the sun turning the Dawn sky a subdued blue-ish purple. I smile to myself, and just stare into the distance: watching the sun being drawn ever so slowly upwards. I jumped slightly, when I heard shouting break the surreal peace of the early morning. “BANG! BANG! BANG!” Breakfast was ready. I pushed off of the trunk that I was leaning against and leapt into the sky once more, only this time to return to the Twisted Tree where we always ate our meals. Of course, we didn’t actually cook the food, no: that was all Tiger Lily. Tiger Lily was the only Lost Girl, although she hadn’t actually been lost, she had decided to join us after she claimed that she’d had enough of waking up to the smell of a “burnt dead thing”. I chuckled at the memory: she had just stormed over one morning to our camp and literally snatched the ladle out of Elph’s hand and shouted:

“That’s it! I cannot take one more day of waking up to the smell of a burnt dead thing! I am now a Lost Girl and none of you will ever be cooking anything ever again!”

We had all just stood there with our mouths open, stunned at the unexpected intrusion, and watched as with each word Elph’s face paled and he began to shake in fear of the angry teenage girl in front of him. He hadn’t been alone. If anyone was late for any meal that she had made then no-one would be eating for the rest of the day, and we couldn’t cook because she guarded the hollow where she cooked with daggers: which she actually did use on us once when we were foolish enough to try and take over the kitchen. I winced: she had sliced mine and Lock’s arms and then threatened to cut off our hands if we didn’t get out of her kitchen right away.  I slowed just before I reached the hollow, landed and then hurried towards where the sound of Tiger Lily scolding one of the boys – probably Curly – for being disrespectful. I shook my head and smiled to myself: we were all like sons to Tiger Lily, even though she was the same age as us. I walked in, to see that she was actually telling off Elph, who looked extremely annoyed: I should have just walked on past, but I couldn’t resist teasing Elph. “Are you getting told off by a girl Elph?” as soon as I looked at Tiger Lily’s face – which had turned an intriguing shade of red - I knew that I should have just kept my mouth shut:  she pointed one of her daggers at me and I swallowed nervously at the dangerous glint in her narrowed eyes: “Pan, for the simple reason that you are intruding in my personal business, you are not getting any food tonight, so you had better get out of my kitchen right now or you know what I will do with this.” She hissed, whilst waving the dagger threateningly at me. I nodded, and scarpered: only one thing ever managed to actually scare me and the others, and that was Tiger Lily: she was the source of the food. Most of the time…

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I sighed wistfully, thinking of the food that was most likely being served up to the Lost Boys now. I kicked a few small twigs out of my path whilst dragging my feet through the damp foliage of Forest of Snakes. The Forest of Snakes was the place where the wind whispered lies and your senses betray you. Hallucinations and voices that aren’t actually real haunt these woods. I lift my head and look around at the beautifully deadly forest.

 My stomach growled angrily, demanding sustenance: I frown, frustrated at the dull ache which wouldn’t just leave me alone. I am about to take off into the sky where I longed to be, when a sharp snap of a stick breaking caught my attention. I whipped my head towards the source of the sound, I assumed a defensive position, grasping my dagger in my right hand and withdrawing it from its sheath around my waist. “Come out! Come out wherever you are!” I taunted menacingly. Unsurprisingly it didn’t work. It was probably just my imagination seeing as I was in the Forest of Snakes, but I didn’t want to pass it off as my imagination just yet.

The sharp grating sound of a weapon being withdrawn had me spinning around to face a pair of dangerous violet eyes surrounded by long, thick, black lashes. Waist length hair the colour of black Obsidian and her full lips curled into a cruel smile. “Ready or not” she whispered “here I come” and then she dived towards me with her cutlass raised.