Never

Chapter Two

Rounding the corner, Lily stopped short. A bonfire roared in a clearing at the edge of the woods. The flames leaped towards the sky, seeming to take the shape of wild animals as they fought and danced. Dozens of boys were dancing around the fire, yelling and roughhousing and laughing. The beat of the music sped up. One boy in particular seemed to be enjoying himself. He was wrapped in a patched cloak, his face hidden from view. He was tall, but not gangly, and when he turned, she saw he held a set of pipes in his hand. So that was where it was coming from.

A large, stocky boy approached her, his face covered with a mask that resembled a wolf. He had curly, strawberry blonde hair spilling out from underneath.

"C'mere, let's get you a mask." He said, leading her to a pile of what looked like furs in the corner. "What's your name, boy?"

"Uh, Mason." Lily replied. It was the name of the new baby in the orphanage.

"Well, Mason, pick a mask." A dangerous smirk crossed the side of his face she could see.

Lily picked up the first mask she saw. It was a bear, made with thick, scratchy black fur. Throwing it aside, she picked up a tiger mask. Where she touched it, her hands seemed to tingle. She put it on.

The boy in the wolf mask seemed impressed.

"Good choice." He pushed her towards the crowd of rowdy boys. "Go, dance."

She moved towards the fire, almost in a trance. The music flowed through her, simultaneously relaxing and thrilling. Following the lead of the boys standing around her, she put one foot in front of the other, clapping as she moved in the line of dancers circling around the fire. She leapt around the clearing, towards the trees and darkness, but always returning to the bonfire, her tether. As she moved faster and faster, twirling with an agility she didn't know she had, she laughed aloud, howling and yelling along with her brothers around her. My brothers, she thought, and smiled. They were all alike somehow. She could feel it.

It seemed to Lily that they had been only dancing for minutes when she noticed the sky beginning to grow lighter. She wasn't tired at all, on the contrary, she felt alive and full of energy. She couldn't possibly go back to that orphanage ever again, not after she'd been reminded what it felt like to be free. Dancing felt like flying, the wind felt like all the truths of the world, seductively being whispered against her skin, the music felt like pure life and vitality.

All too soon, the piper stopped playing, and all at once the spell was broken. Lily stood in the midst of masked boys, unsure what to do. The piper climbed up and stood upon a crate by the fire, which by now was little but sizzling embers. He threw back his hood, carelessly tossing his cloak to the ground, revealing layered army-green clothes and a longsword at his waist. and began to speak. Lily sucked in a breath when she saw his face.

His skin was smooth and tan, the flickering firelight casting shadows across his high cheekbones. His hair was rumpled from the hood of the cloak, light brown and curly. He raised one eyebrow, casting a mischievous smirk across the crowd of boys--the crowd of boys, and Lily. Everything about him was maliciously handsome, from the spark in his green eyes to the way he held himself, slouched and boyish and careless. And yet she could tell that he was obviously well built, wiry and lanky and all lean muscle. His eyes sparkled with malice, and he seemed almost to be a creature from another world.

Breaking out of her reverie, she realized that she was staring and he was speaking and she wasn't paying attention because why is he so strange looking?

"...my friends, boys, tonight you are being given the chance to fly away from your lives here. None of you are happy. You all feel lonely, lost. That's why I'm offering you an escape, a title, a place in the world where you belong. You will be the lost boys. You will fly home to Neverland with me, and we will fight and run wild and never grow old.