Starlight

26

"How'd you do it?" David asked turning to Hook. Tink had walked off back to her tree house, she refused to be a part of this until they had come up with an exit strategy. In this moment, Tink had retold the tale of the two people she found dead. The group knew of them, but they meant nothing to Aoife or Tink.

At David's question, Aoife looked at him interestedly too. "I got out on board my ship. The magic used to create the portal was acquired from a deal with Pan. I highly doubt he'd repeat this a second time." Hook explained exchanging an awkward look with Aoife. Hearing this made her look uncomfortable, and she turned away. Didn't mean he did, he still looked rather apologetically over at her. She was going to hold a grudge forever.

"Wait," Regina frowned. "Does this mean no one has left Neverland without Pan's say so?"

"Neal once did." Hook stated, Aoife looked confused. "Baelfire," he whispered to her, she made a quiet "Oohing" sound and nodded slowly. Although she did look rather confused over the name change.

"How?" Mary Margaret looked at him.

"For that, we'll need to visit where he stayed." Hook explained with a wave of his hand.

Aoife looked up at him. "You knew?" She asked quietly, he nodded slowly. Putting a hand to her forehead she turned and shuffled off slowly.

"She all right?" Emma asked, Aoife seemed pained now. It was different. She had seen all sorts of emotion from the woman, but this seemed like something else. She couldn't help but look worriedly at her, before looking to the one man who'd know.

"Never better. Discovered I may have lied about my exit off of this island, and found out I knew of Neal's inhabitance here, am I missing anything?" Hook asked interestedly, though didn't stop him sounding sarcastic. He was well aware he had detrimentally harmed Aoife in more ways than what anyone else could possibly ever do.

The walk to Neal's former home on Neverland was silent. Mary Margaret and David exchanged few words, Emma asked Hook questions about Neal's stay here, Regina stayed trailing a little behind and Aoife travelled from the trees. The trees were so out of control with growing that the branches practically connected to each other to create a bridge. She walked carefully along this bridge, every so often she'd glance down at them.

She knew Baelfire's cave – or Neal, seems that's what everyone knows him as – she had visited him, she had managed after so long to find him. Of course, he too had left, and she remained. The cave itself was nothing really special. Simply furnished, hidden away out of sight, drawings etched onto the walls. It was the bear necessities to survive in.

Leaning against a wall, Aoife nibbled on her thumbnail. Tilting her head to the side she walked over. Putting her hand on the rough wall, she ran it over the picture. "Will you visit it?" She looked over to Hook. "That's the city and the clock you were talking about, right?"

"You remember?"

"I have a good memory." He smiled and lifted the lantern up more to look at the rough sketch.

"I couldn't."

"If you're about to give me all that pessimism about not being able to leave, I don't know what I'd say." Hook placed the lantern down on the rough platform.

"It's not that." Aoife started playing with the thin blanket in front of her. "I have no means to get there. I know nothing of travel from the world they're from." She nodded towards the other group members. The outside world was terrifying and new, but exciting. There was so much she didn't know, so much she didn't understand. The prospect of being surrounded by all that new was scary, her stomach churned with prospects of what she'd do, where would she find herself?

"There's things called cars."

Aoife frowned. "People don't have horse and carriages anymore?" She looked puzzled, that was honestly the last mode of transport she was aware to. She didn't know what a 'car' was, but she was curious for any information he had.

Hook shook his head, "No, sorry, things have drastically changed."

Tapping the drawing, Aoife looked around. "Is it nice? Where they come from I mean? Is it nice?"

Raising an eyebrow he smirked down at her. "You sound almost worried."

"I...am...I'm not sure if you've noticed, but I'm not too good with new people."

"Yes, the whole cage routine was, interesting...it was definitely memorable."

"I never caught you in a cage before."

"No, no, you just trespassed."

Aoife smirked, slowly linking her arm with his she leaned against him. "Never heard you complaining." She whispered so only he could hear, she smirked and gave him a taste of his own medicine with personal invasion.

"There should be clues in here to show us how Neal escaped Neverland." Hook said while awkwardly moving away from Aoife who just looked at the drawing in front of her one last time before turning away.

"I never knew Neal liked to draw so much." Emma said while looking around everything.

"He gets it from his mother," Hook said while walking past. His comment caused Emma to look at him, Aoife just sighed and shook her head.

"If you see any bad drawings of animals, they're mine, I'm sorry, I can't draw." Aoife said simply while trying to rub one of her awful drawings off of the wall.

"What is that even meant to be?" Regina squinted.

"Shoo! Don't look it at!"

"Is that meant to be a cat?" Regina frowned.

"I don't know what a cat looks like anymore!" Aoife said sadly.

"Well, they certainly don't have six legs." Regina turned away, leaving Aoife to mope over her awful drawing skills.

"What do cats look like?" Aoife had shuffled after Regina, who didn't exactly look pleased with being followed. Regina was going to retort only she stopped when the lights got snuffed out and the ceiling was illuminated with spots of light. "The stars," Aoife said while twirling on the spot.

"Could these constellations be used to prove an escape route?" Emma asked, trying to get the twirling woman to stop to maybe get an answer. Worst case, she looked at Hook.

"Although I taught him how to navigate using the stars, I'm unable to read this, there's an encryption pattern which only the map maker knows." Hook explained quietly and somewhat sadly. With this being said, everyone took to exploring the cave some more. Emma had walked over to where the bed was set up. Pulling away the covering she looked over the tally marks which stretched down the wall. "Need a hand?" Hook asked.

Emma raised an eyebrow. "Was that a joke?"

He looked at her simply and shrugged. "I was being serious," he commented and helped her to shift the bedding away. The more the items of bedding were moved, the more tally marks appeared. "He was keeping count of his days in Neverland."

Emma looked puzzled and shook her head slowly. "They stop." She tapped the last set. "He must have got off of the island." Pausing she frowned lightly. "Or they stop because his hope was dwindling."

——

(Edited: 24/August/2020)