Jody in Neverland

Chapter 16 - Captured

Tomorrow, I'll take you to see the pirate ship, and old tick tock the crocodile. And then there is the waterfall, the Indian camp, and the mountains and... Peter chattered gleefully as they headed back to the treehouse

I'm sorry Peter, it all sounds amazing but I've got to go home. Everybody will be wondering where I am, and Kingsley will kill me. 

You should stay here with me and the lost children. There is no need to go back to those nasty grown ups.

They may be nasty sometimes but they are my family,  my mum, my brothers. I cant just forget about them and anyway there's all my friends at the Dumping Ground as well. I miss them.

Peter realised that trying to persuade Jody to stay was pointless. Her heart was in the grown up world with her friends and family, however much her mind wanted to stay in Neverland. The next morning Peter announced to the lost children that Jody was leaving. Everyone was upset and erupted into protests that there would be no one to tell them stories.

Looking round at the forlorn faces almost broke Jody's heart until she had an idea.

Why don't you all come back with me. I know a place you can all live and be looked after and be told stories. It's called the Dumping ground. There's Mike and May-Li, they are careworkers, but they're more like parents and there's lots of other kids to hang out with.

Please Peter can we go? Asked the children at once

Peter had been furious that Jody was leaving and was even more hurt that the lost children wanted to go too but he didn't try and stop him. Instead he instructed Tink to guide them from Neverland back to the Dumping Ground.

He instructed Tink to take them through the forest to the water meadows, where there was more space for them to fly.

They left the tree house one by one, stopping to say goodbye to Peter. Jody was last to leave.

Goodbye Peter and Thank you

Jody suddenly darted forward and kissed Peter on the cheek and then left.

Unfortunately for Jody and the lost children, the pirates were in the woods hunting for the lost gold of Captain Bluebeard. They stumbled across the children quite by chance as they crossed a winding creek. They managed to take them by surprise. The lost children were using a fallen tree as bridge across the river. The ancient tree had fallen across the river many years earlier during a fierce storm and provided the perfect bridge for the children. The pirates had split up on either side of the creek to search for the treasure. Whilst Hook, Starkey and a couple of henchman barred the children's way on one side of the river, Smee and the rest of Hook's cronies, came up on them from behind. There only option was jump into the raging river or walk straight into the hands of the pirates.

Within minutes the children had been overpowered and tied up. Tink was so enraged by the pirates that she began to fly round pulling at their ears and hair. If she had been thinking straight she would have realised that the best way to help the children was to escape and tell Peter what had befallen the children. But in her anger, her only thought was to attack the pirates. Unluckily for Tinkerbell, Smee managed to capture her in his hat. It was quite by accident, he had been using his red stocking hat to swipe at Tinkerbell who was particularly enjoying tugging his ears. He had swiped at her and the hat had enveloped her and Smee had triumphantly twisted the opening of the hat shut, so Tinkerbell had been trapped inside. 

The pirates took a child each, slung them over their shoulder and headed back to their ship triumphantly, with Smee bringing up the rear clutching the hat in which Tinkerbell was imprisoned. They might not have found Bluebeards gold but they had found an altogether more valuable treasure – Peter's lost children!