Once Upon a Time: Ever After High (Book 10)

Ch.27 Slashed

Now surrounded by pirates, everyone held out their weapons and prepared to fight.

"Watch out for their arrows!" Jane warned as she pointed to younger pirates who were aiming them with their bow and arrows "They're dipped with Dreamshades!"

At that point the pirates fire their arrows as Aidan used his sword to block them. Pretty soon everyone began to battle the pirates, it was pretty intense for they had to watch their every move to avoid getting slashed by the pirates weapons. Although it didn't go so well for Aidan when one of the pirate's arrow slashed through his hoodie on the upper side of his waist.

"Aidan!" Darling gasped after watching what had happened.

"It's okay" he assured "It didn't go through."

"Look out!" she screamed as he turned around to see a pirate raising his sword above him.

And before he could strike, Darling ran in front of her brother and used her sword to block the pirate's strike and banged her arm and shoulder against him knocking him down. As everyone continued to battle the pirates, Elena and Mira both used their magic on the pirates when Jane suddenly called out.

"This way!" she ordered as everyone who when they had the chance took off running from the pirates.

"Let them go" Pan suggested as the pirates let the group run off "We'll get them next time."

(Flashback) After showing Abby around some parts of Neverland, Piper took her on a tree where they sat on a thick branch and gazed upon the horizon.

"So how long have you lived next to my mother?" he asked her.

"Ever since I was a little girl" she replied "She used to babysit for me and would tell me about Neverland."

"Well how do you like Neverland so far?"

"It's wonderful" she smiled "Just like how I imagined it. I wish I could stay here."

"So why don't you? My mother did."

"Well-" she sighed "Even though I wish I could, my home is back in England, and even though I'll have to grow up, I wanna try to visit Neverland whenever I can."

Piper leaned his head back against the tree, thinking that this was starting to sound a bit like his parents story. When Wendy first came to Neverland, Peter didn't want her to leave, and now he was beginning to question himself whether he was okay with Abby leaving.

"So when was the last time you've visited England?" she suddenly asked.

"A month ago" he answered "I go there every once in a while to visit my relatives, and if I wanted to, I would stay there for a year or so so I would grow up a bit, but now I think I'm done with growing up."

"What do you like most about England?"

"That would have to be seeing my family, and staying in my mother's old room where she first met my father."

"I have to admit-" she smiled "Your parents are really romantic, they have such a beautiful love story."

"They do don't they?" he agreed with a smile.

"I was hoping that Wendy would of stayed in Neverland with Peter, and I'm glad she did. Although when I first heard that Peter wanted to grow up, I didn't believe it at first, but then I found out the reason why and, well, here they are now, happy as can be. I always knew they were meant for each other."

Piper kept the smile on his face, even though she just met Abby, he was already starting to like her.

"So you wanna go back to exploring Neverland?" he asked.

"Maybe later, I kinda like talking to you."

"Well what do you wanna talk about?"

"Anything" she smiled.

After escaping the pirates, everyone came to a stop to catch their breathes after making sure they weren't being followed.

"Is everyone okay?" Jane asked "No one got slashed or anything?"

Everyone assured that they were fine.

"Are we at least getting closer to the Lost Boys camp?" Olivia asked.

"I'm afraid not" Jane sighed "We ran a different way and now we're father from their camp."

Everyone groaned.

"Oh quit whining" she ordered "We'll make it. In the meantime, everyone take a break."

As everyone did so, Elena headed away from the group and started to pick berries from a bush.

"Don't pick the red ones" she heard Pan's voice behind her.

"You're a pretty powerful one" he added as she tried to ignore him "From what I've seen when you were fighting those pirates, you're pretty good with magic."

"Yeah well I am a sorceress so if you don't leave me alone, I'll blast you to the bottom of the ocean."

"Hey I was trying to be friendly" he smirked as she got up and tried to walk away from him "From what I've seen, you're pretty unique, mind if I call you a Lost Girl?"

"Call me whatever you want-" she stopped with a frown "But you're not gonna stop me from finding my friends."

"Don't forget trying to get them out alive-" he added with a sneaky grin "Which I doubt you will."

She gave a growl as she walked off. Meanwhile, Aidan gathered his sword and water canteen as he tried to crept away when Darling stopped him.

"Aidan are you sure that arrow didn't get you?" she asked with a worried look "Cause that slash on your hoodie looks pretty deep."

"Don't worry-" he assured "It didn't get me, I feel fine. I'm just gonna get some water and I'll be back."

"Alright-" she sighed "Be careful."

As he headed off, Aidan made sure that he was far away from the group so they wouldn't see him as he hid behind a tree. He took off his canteen and his hoodie while winching in pain as he lifted the hem of his shirt up to where he could see the slash mark on his side from where the arrow got him, and to his horror he could already see the Dreamshade poison seeping into his veins making them black.

He cursed himself for not telling anyone before, thinking that the arrow didn't slash deep enough. But now he knew that if he didn't get any help, he will die a slow and painful death.