Unhappy Thoughts

Indians

I didn't know when Peter would be back so I moved as quickly as I could. After getting my backpack and a map I saw lying on the table I ran out of the camp, careful not to be seen by Felix or any other lost boy. Making sure I had distanced myself a good amount was my first priority. After what seemed like 20 straight minutes of running I finally slowed my pace so my lungs could breath. I crouched beneath the body of what I think was a bamboo palm and grabbed 'my' map. According to the map my destination was two miles northwest of the lost boys camp, with was clearly marked on the page. There were many 'X's on the page as well as a couple circles. I knew it was none of my business but Felix's words kept replaying in my head.

"He's in his lair figuring out how to consume all the magic of Neverland so he can take all of it's youth and be young forever."

"Yeah sure"

"Oh but I didn't tell you the best part, he's power hungry because of the darkness," then whispering in my ear he said, "seen or hear any fairies lately?"

I shivered at the memory. I knew he was just trying to mess with me and get in my head, but a very small part of me couldn't help but tie together the 'X's and the absence of fairies. That's why I needed to find her. She's always able to help. Able to sort things out and makes sense of things. I just pray that nothing happened to her in my absence or that she didn't leave. She was my only hope for truth. My only hope for really finding out what was going on.

Moving out from underneath of the bamboo palm, I continued my trek northwest as my mind roamed in multiple directions. Thinking of possible explanations, other than Felixs', to everything. But, no matter what, my mind continued to contemplate the worst and how everything since I'd first looked out the window of the Jolly Roger, pointed in that direction; the absence of creatures, the darkness, Peters attitude.

I knew I was almost at my destination because the forest around me had a sense of happiness in its air. The air was warm and the breeze seemed to carry its own laugh as it chased through the trees. Each puddle or pond glistened in the sunlight that shown through the branches. Soon a noticeable dirt path came into view with wild flowers growing on each side. Insects buzzed and birds sung from tree to tree. This was the Neverland I remembered.

My mind drifted back to happier times.

"Peter! Slow down! I'm still not good at this flying thing!" Mckalya yelled slightly winded.

"Ah come on Kayla," Peter laughed for the light breeze to carry it and spread it like beautiful music throughout Neverland. For it was Peters laugh, the laugh that kept the land youthful and full of happiness,"stop being a slow poke!"

"Easy for you to say! You do this everyday!" She groaned even though she was happier then she'd ever been in her entire life.

"You can't lie though, I am quite the master," he smirked before relaxing on his back still ahead of her.

Rolling her eyes, 'Kayla', as Peter had called her, flapped her arms in an attempt to move faster.

"You look like a bird!" Peter playfully mocked her.

"At least I don't smell like one!" She yelled her attempt at a comeback.

"You know you can't use that against me because I can crow too!" Peter won once again.

"Whatever, we need to hurry up, Tiger Lillyʻs probably wondering where we are!"

"You mean you need to hurry up while I preform three perfect front flips!"

"Oh really?" She challenged him.

In answer he preformed three perfect front flips.

"A little shabby if you ask me," Kayla shrugged and she continued to barely stay a float as she watched her plan at a comeback unfold slowly,"I think you need to redo that."

"Fine I will, plus a 1040 spin side ways!" he dared.

"As if," she said just to push him more even though she already knew that he could do ten times the skill level. All she had to do was keep him occupied for a few more seconds.

"Watch and learn you amateur," he laughed before beginning.

He was just beginning the 1040 part when he crashed into the dense section before the waterfall that McKayla had known about all along with a thud that shook a million leaves to the ground.

She reached him just as he was sitting up from his position on the ground, making her ten feet taller than him, and hovered over him to say, "and then, though it seemed impossible to predict in the beginning, the one and only McKayla, queen of Neverland, beat Peter the former slim ball of a kin-!"

"Only I win games that I create," Peter grinned as he held McKayla in an iron grip before releasing her a little to hug her before giving her a kiss on the cheek, "but sometimes I can tie."

I was pulled out of the memory by the sound of Indians chanting to the beat of a drum. At last I had reached my destination and stood below a worn sign of redwood with slightly faded lettering across it that read the same passage that Peter and I had once built our relationship on and had been engraved on my soul all these years.

Love me without fear

Trust me without questioning

Need me without demanding

Want me without restrictions

Accept me without change

Desire me without inhabitants

For a love so free...

Will never fly away

I walked past it before my emotion on the inside shown on the outside and continued down the different yet familiar trail leading to my only hope.

As I approached the center of the village, I searched the crowds for someone I knew. Seeing only men an idea of where she might be popped into my head. Leaving the mens coming of age ceremony, I traveled behind the tents and into the edge of the forest.

A little ways in I came across the denser section of trees and choked back a sop before entering. To my left a tree stood almost encircled by the ones around it and I did my very best to not think of the best moment of my life that I had once shared with Peter there. Continuing on silently as physically possible like she had taught us I neared the dead middle. There I saw her sitting peacefully in our usual spot. Purposely, I made noise in which she immediately reacted to so that in a less then half a second her eyes were locked with mine. At first they were hard and alert, then quickly softened.

Speaking in her thick accent she spoke my name, "Kayla!?"

"Hey Tiger," I gave her a sheepish smile despite my overwhelming joy of seeing my best friend. After she embraced me and we shared tears of joy I quickly told her of the last few years since being here and my adventure of how I returned.

"I donʻt care how you got here just as long as you are here," she smiled then frowned as if reading my thoughts, "It's Peter isn't it."

I nodded before saying, "Tiger Lilly, I came her because I know you would never lie or hide anything from me, so please tell me, what is happening? What is really happening?"