Neverland, Wiser Than Us All

Peider and the Star

Peider was the bastard son of an exiled challenger to the Chieftain's position. The young boy of eight's life had been difficult even before his father's exile. For the man that had sired Peider had cast off the woman who had birthed him. He didn't know the woman's name, as his reluctant overseer and father only referred to her as "that useless wench" when he was already yelling at Peider.

From what the eight year old gathered from those who taunted and teased him, the woman had been from a rivaling tribe, traveling as they did in the barren, frozen wastes. Somehow – here the stories always changed – the woman had died, and the babe was dropped at Pan's feet, shivering and homeless.

The tribe of the woman who had birthed him would not keep the red headed witch child of a flemdgellum, a word the boy in question didn't know.
His sire was about to toss him back into the snow, when the Nandia, or the tribes' wise woman, commanded that he keep him as penance for his wrongdoing. The Sky was sending retribution for his sinful act, and the red headed omen was now his to care for.
Pan took the words "care for" very loosely. The child was fed often enough that he lived, and was warm enough that he didn't freeze entirely. Pan even let him sleep at the foot of his bed if he was drunk or cold.

Now the babe was a child of eight rotations of the travel cycle. Despite Pan's efforts, the boy was cheerful and eager. Eager to please and eager to love. When Pan showed him the least bit of kindness, the boy's big cheeks and freckles would pull into a grin with the front two teeth missing.

His bright red hair and vivid blue eyes, made even the least superstitious in the tribe whisper under their breath. They were all dark haired, brown skinned with eyes to match, and this difference troubled them. Causing them to shut their tent flaps, shoo the boy away, and turn their backs when he walked up. As if pretending he wasn't there would shield them from bad luck.

The stars saw what the people could not, that in the years Peider was with them, were the most bounteous the tribe would ever experience. None of that saved him from blame every time something went wrong. If even a ladle couldn't be found, they would curse the red headed witch and shake him down first before checking their own tents. When the ladle was found he was often struck across his face, to teach him a lesson.

His scrawny body with big round cheeks, bright intelligent eyes, silly behavior and jokes, and above all his infectious laugh – as he saw humor in most things; a gazelle trying to leap through new snow, the penguins tripping over one another, making faces at babies. These actions would surprise a laugh out of one of the Gasheda, the tribe members. Peider's heart would fill with hope, and he would turn his big blue eyes on the person. The boy hoped beyond hope that he could share in their happiness for just a moment. The Gasheda would see the eyes and remember themselves. They would glare at the young boy and return to whatever it was they had been doing, and Peider would turn away heartbroken again.

Peider often cried alone in the dark of the tent for the rejection of his open heart and the cruelty of those he knew could love other children. He had seen it. When the tears were gone he would lift the flap and wish on his star. It was the smallest star in the night sky, but it shone brightly, as if it could pierce through the darkness. Unlike the other stars it didn't rotate in the night's sky, but shone in the same place every night. He always felt that it was just for him. He poured out his heart to the star. He told it his wishes: that it wouldn't be so cold, that the other kids would play with him, that his father would love him, the new baby in the village would recover from his cough, his hair and eyes would turn brown like his sire's, that Nandia would prophecy good hunting so his father would be happy. Most often he prayed that the star itself wouldn't disappear. Peider told the star his hopes: that he would be a mighty hunter like his father, he himself would have a soft baby to love one day, that he could fly away, that one of the mother Gasheda would take him in, his new joke would make the others look at him kindly...that he could leave the snow and heartache as soon as he was a man.