Caged • Robbie Kay/Peter Pan •

Chapter Fourteen

There I sat at the dining table, waiting for the others to come for breakfast as Nolan warmed the tent with the wood-burning stove.

"Are you alright, Meadow?" he asked.

"Yeah."

He shook his head as though my simple reply hadn't convinced him, but he didn't press further to get answers.

"Peter should be well enough by now. I think the accident that happened yesterday was the last of it." Nolan concluded, stirring something on the stove top.

I nodded, though he wasn't watching me. "Where do you get the meat?" I ask, having never seen another creature on the island besides birds and fish.

"The cellar." he responded.

"Before that, I mean."

"We set traps in the spring and catch hogs throughout the summer. Sometimes we shoot birds and at one time we had chickens, but they got out one night and froze to death." he explained, setting the kettle of oatmeal on the table.

He walked around to the other side of the table and pulled a large plank of wood up by a metal ring. The hinges made a loud creaking noise and beneath the wood were steps dug into the earth climbing down into darkness.

"Is that the cellar?" I asked as Nolan clunked down the dirt steps.

"You haven't seen it?" he called back up.

"Not yet. May I come down?" I asked, sliding off of the bench and standing above the square shaped hole in the ground.

"If your eyes can adjust alright, yeah!"

I hovered over it for a couple of seconds before following him does into the hole.

A lantern was lit and hung from the ceiling, revealing the walls lined with large stones and wooden planks used for shelves.

"See? The cellar." Nolan nodded once before scanning the shelves in search of something.

"Here we go." he said as he pulled a vial from the shelf. "Honey."

The yellow sappy liquid filled the vial and left a sticky sweet residue on the brim.

"I haven't had something as sweet as honey since I've been here." I muttered.

"Life needs something sweet sometimes to balance the chaos." Nolan said as he went back up the stairs.

I took a quick look around again and then put out the lantern.

"Meadow, would go get some fruit from Liam and Owen?"

I nodded. "Sure." I said, knowing where the fruit trees stood around the camp.

I wondered what Peter was doing, since he hadn't come out of his room and only silence fell through the curtains.

Perhaps I had offended him or he was thinking about what I had said, but I expected no apology from his arrogant lips.

I trudged out of the tent and walked briskly to the fruit trees where Liam tossed down mangos and Owen placed them in a basket.

"Good morning, gentlemen. What fruit have you for harvested for breakfast this morning?" I asked, as though I hadn't just seen Owen a few hours before.

"You said morning twice." Liam pointed out, obviously not feeling up to being chipper and pleasant.

"Maybe morning needs to be used twice to remind you that it's no longer night time. You gotta wake up, bud." Owen said half joking and half serious with his hands placed on his hips and squinting one eye as the sun shone on his face. "Come down, I think we've got enough." he added.