The Truth About Never - Book One

Chapter Five

They ran for quite a while longer, whacking leaves and plants out of their way as they did, forgetting to be quiet. Dirt and stones pressed into Peter's feet, making him want to squirm, but he kept running. Eventually, James collapsed and the teenagers sighed with relief, plopping down next to him. Everyone was too tired to speak so no one did. Dirt and grass stains were smeared against their faces and clothes, but everyone was too exhausted to notice.

To Peter's surprise, he heard a very faint buzzing and felt a struggle of something small in his shirt pocket. He carefully pulled the squirming object out. It was a fairy, the blonde one dressed in green with a bell necklace. He jumped back in bewilderment.

"Wow, a real fairy!" Mary said in awe and tried to touch the creature, but she zoomed over and sat on Peter's shoulder instead.

"I think someone likes you," James laughed and pointed to the fairy, which was now sitting in Peter's palm and tracing her tiny finger over his much bigger ones. For a moment Peter couldn't find his breath, and he wondered, is this a dream? 

"What's your name?" Peter giggled and gently tugged on the fairy's hair.

Tinkerbell, she said.

Peter nodded and Nibs whined, "Why can't we understand her?"

Peter looked at their faces in confusion.

"What do you mean? She said her name was Tinkerbell."

"What?" Mary stared at him in surprise. "You mean, you could understand her?"

"Of course I could. What did you guys hear?" he asked.

"I just heard a bunch of ringing and squeaking, like a bell," Slightly said, looking at Peter with envy.

"Me too," Tootles exclaimed and everyone else agreed.

"So why can Peter hear her and we can't?" Curly's voice cracked and everyone stared at their feet except Mary, who was looking at him with astonishment.

"Why aren't you with the other fairies, Tinkerbell?" Peter said to her, ignoring his friend's curious stares.

It gets boring with them. I'd rather be here with you. You can call me Tink, by the way. She fumbled with her blonde hair.

"What did she say?" James questioned, examining Tinkerbell.

"She said she likes being with me. Oh, and we should call her Tink."

"That is so cool!" Curly smiled and impishly punched Peter in his arm.

"Shut up, Curly. This is not cool. This is strange and we need to figure out what's going on," lectured Slightly, eyeing Tink with distrust.

"We need to make camp and settle for the night. Anyone know how to make a fire?" James insisted.

"Yeah, that's the first thing they teach us at the orphanage," Curly exclaimed sarcastically and rolled his eyes.

James smirked and began picking up sticks and logs, dumping them into a pile.

How did you get here, anyway? And what's your name? Tink proclaimed.

"My name's Peter. That's Tootles, Curly, Slightly, Nibs, Mary, and James is over there." He pointed to each one of them in turn. "The nuns at our orphanage sold us away. We were slaves on a ship until the pirates sunk that ship, kidnapped us, and brought us here to look for pixie dust." Mary and the four boys looked at Peter as he spoke to the fairy, though her language was foreign to them.