The Old King ~OUAT Panfiction (Book 3)

Old Tricks

            "I'm telling you, he's lying," Anne protested as she was pulled forward. "You only just met the guy, woke up on some foreign island with no memory of your life before -- " Jerked toward a cage, she fell on her knees. "You don't think that's just a little bit bizarre?!"

"Yeah well, we only just met you, what's your point??" Sawyer protested, causing a smirk to peak on Chester's lips.

"My point is -- "

"Get in there, lost girl," Sawyer commanded, pushing her inside the opened cage.

"Hey!" She went to protest, before the cage was slammed closed, startling her. She panicked, watching them chain up the lock on the cage. "Wait a second!" She clung to the bars, peering with earnest. Chester's sea blue eyes hovered in front of her, while Sawyer's hazel orbs focused on the lock.

"Oh, and we didn't just meet him," Chester mentioned.

Anne's brows furrowed. "That makes no sense."

"C'mon," Sawyer began, nudging the blonde, before he climbed to his feet.

"Please!" Anne pleaded with desperate eyes that bore through the bars of the cage. "Listen, I can break loose from this cage, I've done it before!" She exaggerated. This made them turn around to look at her, their interest peaking. "I can tell you why too," she added. "You're about to use some makeshift pulley to haul me up into a tree."

"Bollocks!" Sawyer exclaimed.

Chester rolled his eyes. "You could've easily seen that when we brought you here."

Anne's cheeks burned. She would never get them to listen to her over Pan, that was one of the things Pan was always good at. He had a way with words, his mind and his actions. At one point, Anne thought he was born to beguile and seduce. He was brilliant.

Just as Anne suspected, they pulled her up into a tree, tying off the rope so she dangled from a bulky tree limb. Watching them leave her, she pulled out the knife she had taken off of one of them, examining it. Slipping the blade through the bars in the top, she sawed at the rope so it would splinter off and snap.

When it did, the cage crashed to the ground and busted open. Anne rubbed her backside in annoyance at the pain, slipping the knife into her boot, before she fled into the freshly vegetated forest. She snuck back the way she was led and peered into the camp. She watched the bustling lost boys bring in firewood they had gathered, baskets of nuts and fruits, and raw meat all in preparation for lunch -- perhaps, dinner? Anne thought to herself. It couldn't have been that late, could it?

Pan was ordering them around as he would new recruits. If Anne was judging this right, Chester lied. Besides, it couldn't have been that long. She had never slept longer than twenty-four hours -- or so, it felt like it. She dodged Pan's eyes when he glanced in her direction, obscuring herself behind the leaves. Waiting, she peered through the leaves again to discover his eyes had strayed somewhere else, before he walked off. Anne caught Chester leaning against a tree, following Pan's feet with his eyes as he chewed and tossed a toothpick around in his mouth. Sawyer stood next to him, making conversation so intimately like they were exchanging secrets.

Anne then snuck around the outskirts of the camp, eavesdropping from behind another bush by the tree. She could catch their muffles, but couldn't make out their words. Hesitantly, though painstakingly, she made her way closer. She held her breath as she placed her back against the same tree on the opposite side. Their words were clearer than day, so clear that it almost startled her.

"So who do you think this rumored stolen recruit is that Pan mentioned?" She heard Chester ask.

"Give it a rest, mate," exasperated Sawyer. "You're really going to believe a girl?" Anne bristled in defense, brows knitting together.

"I'm just saying, we've only known Pan a week," Chester went on. Anne's interest peaked some more, puzzled and startled by his words. It couldn't have been a week, they left the village at the same time, they had to, otherwise her dream was false. If Pan was resurrected just last night, how could he have commanded a shadow to sweep up a group of boys and have them on the island in a week's time? -- When Anne had just woken up that morning.

"A week is a lot longer than a morning," Sawyer tossed in.

"It wasn't just that, though. It was the way they looked at each other, I don't know, maybe I'm just seeing things. I can't get those glowing white eyes out of my head," the blonde confessed.

"Those glowing white eyes were just a part of a dream." Glowing white eyes, Anne contemplated. A conclusion was hanging on the tip of her tongue, quickly ceasing when Chester's voice served as a diversion.

"Well how the bloody 'ell did you think we got to this place??" He inquired with a hint of frustration in his voice. "I'm telling you, she knows something."

Abandoning their conversation when she couldn't take it anymore, Anne headed off into the depths of the jungle. She had to get Pan alone, because if her assumption was correct that he would sense she was roaming around, he would come to her. And if he was hiding something, he would come alone.