Shadow of the Hook

by Erik Schubach

  He said, “Good. Remember that.”

  She nodded.

  “And you?”

  I blurted, “Bella, Tinkerbell's sister.”

  He said in a too pleased voice, “Good. Now run off and play with the Lost Boys, all of you have fun and use a lot of imagination, I need to replenish after this. The mornings are going to be difficult from now on it seems.”

  We all giggled. Yes! It was time to play, and I would be really creative with my imagination to make him proud of me.

  I chased after Mia when she ran past Nate, squealing out, “You're it!” as she touched him. The Lost Boys all took to the air to chase the impossibly fast little girl, who was blurring through the trees with her wolf speed. I buzzed up and landed on her shoulder and kissed her cheek. She giggled and poured on the speed as she leapt over a fallen tree like a gazelle.

  I looked back to see the Lost Boys all avoiding Nate, and a couple who were following us slowed and whispered to each other and laughed as they joined hands then closed their eyes. A moment later they were following again.

  I smiled at the little yellow bow at the tip of Mia's bushy wolf tail. It has always been so cute. Wait, that seemed wrong. Oh. I giggled. The little stinkers did a Make-Believe. I squinted an eye, two could play at that game. I knew it was hard for just one person to do a Make-Believe, but I imagined really really hard.

  Then they squeaked and stopped mid-air when they hit the big spider web that was now between us. Mia squealed in delight, her tail swishing in excitement as the boys took out their tiny daggers to cut themselves free as they laughed.

  The whole morning was like that as everyone started to tire. We all did our best to play and imagine for the Pan. It was what he wanted. But we had to eat. So we all returned to the treehouses and settled down to eat.

  I grabbed my little bow and shouldered it. It just felt wrong not to have it on me. Mia saw this and looked at her weapon's rig hanging on a branch and asked, “How did it get so big?” Her tail twitched in aggravation.

  I said helpfully, “We can help.”

  The boys who were busy thinking of imaginative meals nodded, and then the rig was much smaller, even her guns were sized for her little hands. She beamed at us and put the rig on, and it looked silly on the yellow dress for a moment, until it turned pink with little flowers. She nodded and put on the little pirate coat over her ensemble and put on the frilly pirate hat. She looked like Hello Kitty pirate, and it was adorable. I cocked my head wondering what a Hello Kitty was.

  I shrugged then started eating with the group. I asked as I looked up to the Pan's treehouse, “Why doesn't Peter join us for lunch?”

  Timmy said as he was scooping chocolate pudding into his mouth, “He stays up there during lunch now. Ever since Tink disappeared and the Hook stole the Wendy. You know that.”

  Her eyes were a little glassy for a moment before she nodded, “Of course, silly.”

  I nodded, knowing he's mourned like that since it happened. A part of me was a little confused about how I remembered that when I had just showed up yesterday. Miawolf stood, her tail swishing, she looked so brave and strong as she said while drawing her little pink guns and twirling them with the ease of practice and the reflexes of a wolf. “I know what to do!” She glanced up at the treehouses. “We can make the Pan happy again by rescuing the Wendy from the Hook! He'd be so pleased with us.”

  I was nodding, sparkling dust sifting from me. She was always so smart and strong and brave. That's why I loved her. We could do it, right? Rescue the Wendy? What great mischief that would be.

  The boys all were smiling an nodding. I could see that same mischief twinkling in their eyes. Murmuring, “A grand adventure.” “A rescue.” “Save the Wendy.”

  They all looked to my Miawolf like she were their commander. She nodded at them with pride in her big brown eyes. Then she squished up her lips to one side and then crinkled her nose and asked, “Umm... how do we find the Hook?”

  Timmy flew over to us, squinting an eye in thought and asked, “Pirate's Landing?”

  I nodded, why I don't know, as Mia said, “Brilliant!” Then she paused. “What's a Pirate's Landing?”

  Nate called out, “The pirate town on Crescent Island. It's where the pirates go for supplies. You know that.”

  Oh yeah, duh. Why were we forgetting everything?

  Mia said without much conviction, “Of course... I was... umm... just testing you. You're just silly boys after-all.”

  They nodded, I thought it was so cute that they were following her lead. She'd make such a cute tiny puffball of an Alpha. Then she pointed north. Timmy shook his head. She pointed south, he shook his head. She squinted an eye and pointed west, and he grinned and nodded.

  She ran off squealing as she holstered her weapons, “To Pirate's Landing.”

  I could barely track her with my farsight as she blurred through the trees. I buzzed over to catch up and land on her shoulder.

  The boys could barely keep up. Silly boys.

  Then we reached a rocky beach and stopped. Mia scrunching her lips to one side. “Ok, how do we get there?”

  Nate offered, “Fly. You didn't forget how did you when you were grown up? Once you think you can't you lose it forever.”

  Mia looked insulted as she puffed up and said, “Of course I didn't forget. I never growed up. It was just a Make-Believe the Hook put on us.” Then she strained as she looked up into the sky. I giggled because it looked like she was constipated. Then she asked sheepishly, “Umm, so how does it work again?”

  The boys all laughed at her like she was being silly. She added, “I know how I'm just checking to see if you 'member is all.” She crossed he little arms across her chest.

  Timmy said, “After Tink dusted us, all we have to do is think happy thoughts and then just fly. The Pan says that only those with imagination can. And since the oldies have no imagination, they can't.”

  She cocked her head and strained with her eyes closed. She opened one eye and looked down, and looked disappointed that she was still on the ground. Then she harrumphed and pouted.

  I offered, “Did Tink ever dust you?”

  Her eyes widened as she smiled. “No, never.”

  I felt proud of my deduction and flew a circle around her head, shaking my wings to sift sparkling dust through her hair. I felt embarrassed that I wasn't sure how this worked. Hadn't I done it before? I was a fairy, right? She sneezed cutely then I prompted, “Think happy thoughts.”

  She softened, and she got the look of someone much older and wiser as she gazed at me and said in a tiny voice, “You are my happy thought.”

  I blushed then squealed in excitement when I pointed down. Her feet were off the ground as she hovered there. Her smile lit up the world then she squeed in excitement, her tail swishing as she rocketed up into the air. She commanded, “Lead the way boys, adventure awaits!”

  In a raucous bout of cheers and giggles, we were all off, flying toward a heavily populated island. Oh, the mischief to be had in a place like that. Part of me was a little confused. Why couldn't I remember any of these places if I was Tinkerbell's sister? Had Hook done something to me when he had killed Tink?

  We flew a direct course to the island. It was like something from a storybook, looking similar to the other heavily populated island I had seen when the Lost Boys rescued us... from... what had they rescued us from again?

  Buildings popped out between the trees across the entire island, even from cliff sides by one rocky shore, with suspended rope and plank walks between the wood and brick structures. The most defining feature was the large inset harbor that gave the whole island a crescent moon shape.

  Crescent moon? But wasn't it full all the time? It was hard to think, why did my head feel so fuzzy?

  I shook it off, we had an adventure to implement. Rescuing the Wendy from Hook would surely make the Pan happy, and that was the most important thing.

  Sticking out into the harbor was a huge pier that had many
mooring docks extending from either side of it, with all manner of ships loading and unloading crates, barrels, and supplies. Men were everywhere. It was bustling with activity.

  As the Lost Boys dropped to skim the surface of the water, my Miawolf did too. It was exhilarating! Then just as we reached the end of the pier, they swooped up and landed on the huge, ancient and worn planks which looked to have weathered hundreds of years of storms and activity.

  Mia whooped and corkscrewed into the air, then plummeted to the pier where the Lost Boys had alighted feather light, my girl was not as subtle. She hit the pier like a cannonball, I even heard the wood splintering under her feet. Then she tiptoed behind the crates the boys were hiding behind.

  Anyone else would have likely broken their legs in a landing like that, but they weren't as tough as my Mia. I buzzed up and kissed the tip of her nose, causing her to smile and sneeze cutely at the dust sifting down from my wings.

  She peeked around the crates, and her lips curled back, her tail twitching in annoyance. She bared her slightly elongated canines and growled at the activity that had stopped. Apparently, her flamboyant landing had not gone unnoticed.

  Someone shouted, “Lost Boys!”

  Said Lost Boys all pulled their daggers and stepped out from behind the crates. Miawolf followed, drawing her twin pink guns. Even though they were smaller than before, they still looked ridiculously large in her little hands.

  Than before? Hadn't they always been this size?

  I flitted above it all as I drew my bow. The arrow I had nocked emanated a warmth, and my confusion grew in that warmth.

  Mia's tail swished wildly side to side in anticipation of a fight as the men all started drawing long, dangerous looking cutlasses. Then she seemed to get distracted when the motion in her peripheral got to her, and she looked back to see her tail.

  She let out a little “Eeep!” surprised to see the tail connected to her. Then she growled cutely like her little wolf, and said, “I'll get you for this, boys!”

  One man with a peg leg and an eyepatch said, “You'll not steal supplies today, boys.” And he lunged and swung his blade.

  Before I could react, Timmy caught the strike on his little dagger blade and deflected the blow into the boards at our feet, and backslashed as he glided back a couple feet, tearing the man's sleeve and leaving a little trail of blood.

  Miawolf moved in front of him in a protective stance and growled out, “You'll never take us alive!”

  The man nodded and called back, “Have the mortician make up a bunch of smaller coffins, they say we have to kill them.”

  Huh? We hadn't said that.

  Then all the men charged. I let loose shot after shot, and as the arrows left the string, they became ten times larger and longer, striking blades out of the men's hands as fast as I could draw.

  Mia was whooping with the excitement of battle as she sprang up over a man diving at her, cartwheeling in the air and firing at a big wooden pike which had some sort of metal tip and hook at the end.

  She rapid fired almost too fast to follow, yelling out, “Bangbangbang!” and the pike was reduced to toothpicks in the air in a hail of bullets, the tip and hook falling harmlessly to the dock. Then she landed gracefully at the end of the flip, ejecting the spent magazines and slamming the butts of the guns down on her rig under her pirate coat onto fresh magazines. Then she crossed her arms, dragging the weapons across herself, drawing the slides back simultaneously, chambering rounds.

  Then a man lunged at her froze when he found the barrel of one of those pink guns under his chin. She stood on her tiptoes, the other gun firing a single shot at a hoist rope beside her, causing a crate to slam to the pier, making men dive off the pier into the harbor to avoid being crushed as cannon balls rolled out of the crate.

  She holstered one gun, her nostrils flaring, her eye on the man she had dead to rights, and snagged a cannonball rolling past with her free hand. Then with blinding speed, she tossed it behind her without looking, and a man who was about to jump off a net on a ship behind us, with a dagger in his teeth, grunted and flew back with the impact.

  I grinned, no Wendy was as strong as my Miawolf.

  The fighting paused as everyone had their eyes on her, even the Lost Boys, who were staring at her, slack-jawed and wide-eyed.

  She growled up at the man who was five times her size, “We're not here to steal anything. We're on a mission, to find the Hook. Don't make me take you down.”

  The man looked confused and asked, “Take me down where? To the water?”

  She rolled her eyes. “We'll take you all out if we have to complete our mission. You, you, poopie-heads.”

  Another man asked as he checked his head for something with a hand and he called out, “Take us out of what?” He sniffed his hand.

  I blinked. They were taking everything that was said literally. Like they couldn't envision what was being said. I shivered for some reason, thinking they had no imaginations.

  Jamie called out, “They're pirates. They won't listen.”

  All the men, who were apparently pirates, looked at him then shrugged and pressed the attack again. Ok, I had to think about this. Apparently, it seems they were fighting us because they thought they had to, being pirates and all. And the Lost Boys were fighting the pirates because... well, pirates, hello.

  I heard the creaking of a ship approaching the pier as the battle went on. Three pirates were injured and one of the boys, Kyle, had a bad gash on one arm, and he was sitting behind a crate crying.

  The sound of heavy ropes hitting the pier, followed by the thud of boots on the planks of the dock caught my attention as I let loose another volley into the seemingly endless stream of pirates flooding the docks. I was happy that Mia had holstered her other gun and had snicked out her little pink metal batons instead. Incapacitating men as she spun and dove and almost danced through them.

  Unfortunate for the pirates, her reach wasn't great now, so most of her blows were striking guts, knees, or... well... pirate parts.

  I looked back at the new arrival and saw the back of an imposing figure in a long pirate coat, heavy boots, and a triangular leather tricorne hat. The pirate secured the lines on the deck, and I looked up to the imposing tall ship, pirates lining the rails and a Jolly Roger pirate's flag fluttering from the central mast crow's nest.

  I tightened my grip on my bow, but the men on the ship made no indication they were going to join in the battle.

  He turned and just slowly started walking down the middle of the pier. I heard low murmurers that sounded like, “Magic,” and the Lost Boys scattered, like quail flying to various hiding places. Pirates started parting the way as the newcomer stepped purposefully closer. Clomp, clomp, clomp.

  Men were scurrying off, as I heard whispers of, “The Captain.” Fear painted every face around us as Miawolf, and I stood alone against the pirates.

  My heart was filling with dread as I glanced to the shore to see people running and screaming into the buildings, and windows were shuttered.

  I heard a single word that was more a gruffly growled command than anything, “Move.”

  Men dove into the harbor trying to get out of the way as the man just kept moving forward. Clomp, clomp, clomp. One man said, “Captain, we were just dispatching thieves from...”

  Again, I couldn't quite make out the voice as it was gruff and spoken just above a whisper. “I don't care, I'm here for supplies, so get out of my way.”

  The pirate backpedaled, and tripped over the cannonballs and fell unceremoniously in a heap as this captain started walking again. Clomp, clomp, clomp. We instinctively backed out of the way as his shadow loomed over us and he moved past us like we were beneath his notice.

  He gruffed out to the crowd, “Get back to work.”

  All the men who were fighting with us ran off in a panic to return to what they had been doing before we had arrived.

  That was it? The fight was over? I called out, “Thank you, sir,” as Miawol
f growled at him.

  He spun back toward us pulling his hat to his chest, then looked up at us with dark blue eyes that had an endless depth whicch spoke of stormy seas. His voice was filled with hope and heartache as he asked, “Tink?”

  I had to blink twice as the person seemed to deflate, seeing I wasn't who they thought. But what had me stunned was that this captain... was a striking woman. She sighed then looked at Mia and me in confusion. Her eyes were trained on the butts of the guns peeking out of Miawolf's coat. “You're not from Neverland? You're from home?”

  Huh? That was just silly. Wasn't it? I had to put her straight, “I'm Bella, and this is Mia.”

  She lifted her other arm to show that instead of a hand, she had a dangerous looking hook that sang of magic and power to me so loudly it was almost deafening. “They call me the Hook. Come with me.” She reversed her course back toward her ship while Mia growled cutely as she drew her sidearms.

  Then she chased after the woman when she didn't seem intimidated in the least. “Hey, come back here, Hook. We're here to rescue the Wendy from you, you... meany butt pirate!”

  I giggled. Butt pirate. Heh.

  The woman didn't look back, she just chuckled dryly. “We have much to discuss, ladies.” Then without any further ado, she leapt into the air and flew gracefully back onto her ship, her men making room for her on the deck. I gaped at her... but... she was a grown up, and she could still fly.

  I squeaked out, “You can fly?”

  She called back down, “Of course, I never once thought I couldn't.”

  Mia and I flew up and held back twenty feet from her, and my little wolf said, “But you're an oldie, a growed up.”

  The woman shrugged, crossing her arms across her chest, and absently picked at her teeth with the hook. “I never forgot to believe like the rest. I can still imagine and play.”

  Then she turned and walked off toward the main cabin of the sailing vessel. “I'll be in my cabin when you get brave enough to follow.”

  Miawolf growled and started forward, I buzzed in front of her. “It might be a trap, Mia.”

  She squinted one eye like she was trying to think, and it looked hard. I giggled. She might not be the swiftest wolf in the pack, but she was mine. Pack... did we have a pack? Why did I have a feeling there was more than just Neverland and the boys back at Pan's treehouses?