The Third Star

Chapter 4: A Hunter's Heart

It’s a funny thing, to be a deer.  Never bothering anyone, not hurting anything, and then one day fate shoots an arrow through your heart and you die.  How ironic that the most innocent of creatures is the most heavily hunted—or perhaps the irony is the other way around.

Heart of the animal synchronized to the heart of the hunter as Tiger Lily silently lined up her arrow.  Aim above the heart.  She remembered her father teaching her that, his calloused hands closing over hers on the bow.  To this day, she hasn’t missed a target.  Despite her terrible past with her father, she never would have survived Neverland’s wilderness had he not taught her how to hunt.

But that’s not true, she grudgingly admitted as she adjusted her grasp.  She quietly released the arrow and sure enough, it hit its target perfectly.  The beautiful deer collapsed to the ground, kicking feebly a few times before passing into a blissful oblivion.   Tiger Lily removed the arrow and crouched down by her kill.

It wasn’t true because Peter never would have let her starve.

In a different time and circumstance, he had vowed that he would always take care of her.  It didn’t matter what had happened since then, because Peter Pan never broke his promises.

Tiger Lily held the deer’s face in her hands and used two fingers to carefully close its eyelids.  She kissed its nose and bowed her head, paying her respects to the animal’s sacrifice.

Unfortunately, the deer was a small and skinny creature, and it wouldn’t sustain her for very long.  She carried the carcass to the shore and placed pungent herbs around it, so as to protect it from other forest predators.  Grabbing her bow, she disappeared into the forest again.

She didn’t feel right taking another deer, so she looked towards the birds.  They were mostly bones and feathers, but some of them were plump and slow, making them the perfect prey.  Tiger Lily found a flock poking around in the brush, and she carefully took aim.

Suddenly, all the birds snapped to attention and fled the woods.  Swearing under her breath, Tiger Lily lowered the bow and turned towards the obnoxious sound that had scared them away.

Someone was coming.

Whoever it was clearly did not know how to make their presence a secret, because Tiger Lily had no doubt the whole island could hear him.  She had lived in Neverland’s wilderness long enough to be no louder than a shadow flashing through the trees.  The newcomer sounded as if he were intentionally trying to stamp on every twig he saw.  If he was being chased, he was, for lack of a better word, screwed.

Tiger Lily swiftly pulled herself up onto a tree branch where she could watch the action from a bird’s eye view.  She had just settled down when a boy burst into the clearing.  He had dark, thick hair and was dressed in a bathrobe.  He paused to catch his breath, gasping with his hands on his knees.  He looked over his shoulder in the direction from which he had come.

So he is being chased.  Tiger Lily leaned forward, trying to get a closer look.  The boy had to be one of Pan’s new lost boys.  All the new ones arrived in nightclothes, later to be replaced by the trademark lost boy rags.  A runaway?  Regardless, this boy needed help, and Tiger Lily would have hated to see what would have happened if Pan’s posse got their dirty hands on him.

She easily dropped from the branch and landed soundlessly behind the boy.  The poor child didn’t even notice her until she gently pulled at his elbow.

He cried out, whirling around.  Tiger Lily raised her hands, palms facing him, the same way one would calm a spooked horse.

“It’s alright,” she said calmly, “I won’t hurt you.”

“Wh-who are you?” the boy stuttered in a panic.

She placed her hand over her heart.  “I am called Tiger Lily.”

The boy looked nervously over Tiger Lily’s shoulders.  “I have to go, the lost boys…they’re chasing me, I can’t stay—“

He started to run again, but Tiger Lily caught his wrist.  “You can run all you want, they’ll still find you, especially with that ruckus you’re making.  Come, I will conceal you.”

The boy followed Tiger Lily all the way to her modest home in a forest clearing by the shore.  She lifted away a massive pile of dried deer hides, gesturing him under it.  She replaced the hides carefully and went about preparing her kills for dinner, awaiting the lost boys.

Sure enough, a band of four or five of them arrived in the clearing, each armed with long swords.  The lead one, an arrogant brute named Sawyer, sauntered up to where Tiger Lily sat and kicked a rock at the dead deer.  Tiger Lily stared calmly at him as he shamelessly peered into her shelter.  Sawyer nodded to the other boys, and they spread out, searching her camp.

“We’re looking for a lost boy, a runaway,” Sawyer declared, planting his hands on his hips.

“Are you, now?” Tiger Lily said dryly.

Sawyer glared at her.  “Don’t sass me, little Indian, or I’ll skin you like one of your precious animals.  Do you know where the boy is?”

Tiger Lily rolled her eyes.  “How should I know?  I want nothing to do with Pan or his cult.”

“Then I guess you wouldn’t mind if we checked out your camp,” Sawyer said.

“Normally, people ask permission before they do something,” Tiger Lily said, narrowing her eyes.

Sawyer snorted.  “That mouth of yours is gonna get you in trouble one of these days.”

“I’m sure you’d love to be there when that happens,” Tiger Lily smiled sweetly, raising the bloody knife from the bird she was gutting.

The lost boy wrinkled his nose, saved by the return of his companions.  They looked frustrated and tired; Tiger Lily’s plan had worked.

“Not a sign of him anywhere,” one of the boys said, slipping his sword back into his belt.  He shot a suspicious glance at Tiger Lily, who had resumed disassembling her dinner.  “Not that we can see, at least.”

“Ugh.  Pan’s gonna be mad,” he said, annoyed.  He turned to Tiger Lily and pointed his sword at her.  “If you see anything, you know where to find us.”

Tiger Lily casually batted his sword out of her face with her knife.  “I’ll be in touch,” she said sarcastically.

Sawyer’s face grew red.  “Alright boys, move out,” he ordered reluctantly.

All the boys except one took off running into the woods.  Tiger Lily recognized him as a boy named Ryland.  He was one of the older ones, but also a bit quiet.  She raised her knife as he drew closer, but he put his hands up as a sign of peace.  He quickly kneeled down by Tiger Lily’s side, putting his hand on her arm.

“Keep him safe,” Ryland said, his voice low.  “He’s one of the good ones.”

Confused and surprised, Tiger Lily nodded.  Ryland squeezed her arm gently and straightened up before running after the other boys.  Finally, the clearing was quiet.

She went to her shelter and pulled the hides off of the boy.  His face shined with sweat from both the warmth of the blankets and the fear of getting caught.  He took a shaky breath.

“Thank you for your help, Tiger Lily,” he said, “but I think I’ve got it from here.”

“You sure?” Tiger Lily raised her eyebrows.

The boy nodded.  “I think so.”

He was almost at the tree-line when Tiger Lily called after him.

“Hey!” she yelled.  “I never caught your name.”

The boy smiled.

“Baelfire,” he said.  “My name is Baelfire.”