Claimed

Chapter 23 - Faith, trust and pixidust

As I had to find out the hard way, Iris's punishment and target practicing was one and the same thing. Peter had her tied to at tree, our goal was the apple that was firmly placed on top of her head. Peter had started with shooting, because she wouldn't hold still enough for the apple to stay on her head without anything. The apple was impaled with an arrow, just above her head, the arrow of course was Peters, no one else had hit yet.

I was my turn. Iris, more panicking than ever, was almost screaming if it wasn't for the piece of cloth we had put in her mouth to stop her from doing so. She didn't know, that Peter wouldn't let her die. If she died know, she would never be of any use to us and her punishment would be over too soon.

I took aim, aiming a little above my target. I let it go, but it flew right into the bushes, just like all the others. Shrugging, I let the next lost boy have a try.

We continued like this for about an hour, only stopping because Iris had passed out from fear, shock and maybe pain.

About 7 arrows were stuck in the tree, 2 other arrows had actually hit the apple(not counting Peters) and 1 arrow had hit Iris in the top of her shoulder. Peter removed, the arrow, healed her and told a few boys to take her back to her cage, and make sure she had plenty of water.

He came over to me,

"So about that reward, are you ready?" he asked. Smiling.

"As ready as I'll ever be when I have no idea what it is actually about" I answered with half a smile. Peter grabbed my hand and we started trekking through the forest. Everything started going up, the hill got steeper. Finally it stopped going upwards. We were on a cliff, where the view was beautiful. I stopped and admired the beauty of this place.

"Even though this is a good view, this is not the reward I was talking about" Peter said. I looked at him curiously.

"Then what is it" I asked

"Well from what I gather, you don't have any means of flying, you can't take the form of any flying predators right now, am I right?" He said, not answering my question, but I had a feeling where this was going and it excited me, so I just nodded. "Right, so I am going to teach you how to fly with the help of pixidust" He said.

"Okay, so how does it work?" I questioned, now very excited.

"Well I am guessing you've already heard the usual, 'faith, trust and pixidust', but if you think of a happy memory or just a happy thought all the while trusting it will work, everything should go more smoothly." He said, while sprinkling the dust all over the both of us. 

I started searching my mind for a happy memory, but couldn't really find one, so I settled on a happy thought. If all goes wrong I still am able to change, so my predator should save me. 

"Are you ready?" Peter asked me. I stepped closer to the edge to look down. Not really sure about all this now. He must have taken that movement as a yes, because I then felt a push and then I was plummeting downwards. Suddenly I couldn't even remember to think of happy thoughts or to even try to trust that I could fly. I was just falling, getting closer and closer, to the ground. 

Suddenly I felt my predator, trying to do, what she does best. 

Save me, when I am going to die. 

She took the control over my body and changed, and then we soared through the sky with huge wings and a beautiful coat of feathers. (White tailed eagle - wingspan: 244 cm/8 feet)

She gave me back the control, I turned around and flew back to a flabbergasted Peter. I now had 6 predators I could take the shape of. The wolf, the cat, the tiger, the sabre-tooth, the mermaid and now the eagle. 

"Well now, there is no point in teaching you to fly, is there?" He said it with a defeated smile. "So do you wanna fly back or walk" He said. As my answer I took of flying, expecting him to follow with the help of pixidust. When I noticed he didn't I flew back to him. "What now?" he asked. I made a movement with my head indicating, that I wanted him to come with me. He seemed to understand, because as I took of, he did the same.

We flew back to camp together. Peter stayed in the camp, whereas I flew straight into our tent to get some clothes. I heard some of the boys saying things like:

"Did and eagle just fly into Pan's and Katherines tent?"

"Hey, guys, did you see the eagle?"

"Where did it go?"

Peter calmed them down by saying that it was just me and that I would soon be back. Which I did and all the boys were amazed, that I could change into an eagle now.

"Have the boys already hunted for dinner?" I asked Peter

"No, why?" He asked, obviously curious. 

"How about we go and hunt, it's after all been some time since I hunted last" I said. He nodded and of we went. I hunted as a tiger, so it wasn't long before we had killed a big deer. Peter sent it back to camp, using magic. I turned back and dressed.

"It's a shame, that you have to wear clothes all the time, why not just walk around naked?" He asked jokingly. 

"Well first of all, that would be cold..." He didn't let me finish, instead he gave me a slight push, so I stood with my back to a tree and him very close in front of me.

"Not if I am there to warm you..." He trailed of. He placed an arm on both sides of me and looked me deep in the eyes. I took this as a sign to continue,

"And all the boys would stare..." I whispered, again he interrupted me.

"Okay maybe it was a bad idea." He whispered, smirking again. "But you could at least be naked while we are alone" He now wore a full on smile, which I was very fond of.

"Still not a good idea..." I said trailing of. He now stared very intent on my lips and in my eyes by turns. His joking smile disappearing, he leaned in and our lips met. I had missed this. Peter awakens certain feelings in me, that I don't quite always understand. What I do understand, is that we are each others true love, which is not something you take for granted.

A/N

No, this is not the ending. I realized when I wrote this that it could seem like it, but no, not yet.

See ya <3