Shadow of the Hook

by Erik Schubach

  She chuckled then nudged her chin at the torn and stained Hello Kitty pirate outfit. I buzzed over to it and asked, “You've a needle and thread? I should be able to handle one.”

  She cocked her head, then her eyes widened, and she blushed slightly as she said, “Oh, I'm so sorry, Robyn. I keep forgetting you're not a real fairy like my Tink. She could sift her dust on torn or broken things to mend them... fairy magic.”

  I cocked my head at the clothing and contemplated it, glancing back at the dust sparkling in the oil lamp light. I asked, with a squinted eye. “Just... dust them?”

  She chuckled low and smoky, then said, “I'm not sure really. She just... did it. I think fairy magic is all intent. She can't do big things, but small things like this, like mending fabrics or repairing nicks in a blade...”

  I repeated, “All intent.” I considered it then I imagined the clothing as it used to be and hovered up over them. I buzzed my wings quickly, then sneezed at the amount of dust that exploded from them. The sneeze had me rocketing backward, just to be deftly caught in Hook's cupped hand.

  She chuckled and teased, “Worst fairy, ever.”

  I stomped her hand and pouted, coaxing a grin from her.

  Then we peered down at the clothing, covered in a heap of sparkling dust. How had I generated that much? It was more volume than myself.

  She took a pouch off her hip and opened it, and I could feel the power emanating from it that tasted like mine, only much, much more intense. True fairy dust. She scooped the dust into the bag as she told me in a serious tone. “People will literally kill to get their hands on fairy dust. Be careful when you do things like this, and only use what will be burned out by the task.”

  She lifted the little pirate jacket and shook the remaining dust from it and smiled at me. “Well done, Tin... umm, Robyn.”

  I was pleased to see the jacket looking clean, undamaged, and pristine. Then hesitated. I shouldn't be proud I'm able to do fairy magic. I needed to get back to normal.

  Her verbal slip looked to hit her like a physical blow, it was plain to see how much she missed her love. To keep her mind off of it, I landed on her knee when she sat back to look at our girl. Then I cocked my head and prompted, “You say that the Lost Boys don't age unless the Pan consumes their imagination and emotion?”

  She nodded and cocked her head at me as I pressed forward. “He had, over the years, brought you close to adulthood before you escaped?”

  She nodded again and provided, “I looked more like the sixteen or seventeen-year-olds back home. And almost as old as the Lost Boys who were used up and became oldies... adults.”

  I cocked my head and looked at the dangerous yet alluring woman as she removed her cap to put on the table and shrugged out of her jacket to drape on the back of her chair. She would have been a rare beauty in my day, a combination of femininity and physical power, like our Goldilocks.

  Then she shrugged. “Time claims all who are not with the Lost Boys, except on the Sea Devil, where that same power of imagination is gathered through the artifact. As long as I stay on board her, I do not age. It is only my time ashore or when hunting the islands for where the Pan has hidden my Tink away that time has passed for me over the past century. Why? How old do I look now? I don't really have anyone to gauge my apparent age by. Everyone looked old to me when I was taken.”

  I regarded her and buzzed up to her shoulder and settled on it, kicking my feet idly as I sat on my hands. I said, “I'm more long-lived than I care to admit, but by mortal standards, you look to be about Parker's age. So around twenty-five or six.”

  She blinked, her voice a hoarse whisper, “Mom was twenty-five the last time I saw her.” She took the hook off her stump and sat it on the table in front of her, and she flicked it, causing a tone to rise again, like a tuning fork, and she replayed her last memory of her mother again. She looked to me as she froze the scene and twisted it in the air with a motion of her hand, letting her fingers drift through her mother's cheek.

  She spoke wistfully, “I wonder, do I look like her? I can never see it in the mirror, I only see what I have become.”

  I nodded to her and said, “There is a lot of her in you, especially in the eyes. A strength balanced with kindness.”

  She smiled sadly and let the image dissolve. Then she nodded and stood, it was like rising up into the sky. She moved Mandy's things to hang on some pegs fastened in a bedpost and said, “I'm going to get some rest while I can. They'll be coming to get me once the repairs are complete. I want to get cleaned up first.”

  Then she started stripping out of her clothes and froze when she saw me studying the ceiling planks intensely. She stopped with her shirt half untoggled. “Oh, sorry, again, I keep forgetting you're not a real fairy. They don't have any modesty.”

  I shrugged and blushed. She chuckled as I buzzed over to snuggle into the soft downy belly fur of my Mandywolf as I said in a voice higher pitched than normal, “Oh, no. It's fine. I'm just going to take a little nap then.”

  She rolled her eyes at me as she shrugged her shirt back on and took her boots off, each clunking heavily to the floor. With her good hand, she reached over and pulled the privacy curtain on her bed, calling out from the other side. “Better?”

  I chuckled at the funny woman, then sighed and laid back into the seductive warmth of my little wolf. I'm not sure what happened next, because I was out almost the moment I closed my eyes for a moment.

  Chapter 10

  Sea Hag

  The sound of the cabin door closing woke me hours later. I looked over to see Wendy, propping her head up on one arm, gently smoothing down Mandy's fur as she just looked at her with parental propriety. She saw me wake and smiled at me. “You were out like a log. Are you sure you're getting enough sugar? Fairies burn a ton of energy.”

  I blinked and shrugged. “The last I ate was in your cabin.”

  She nodded and reached to her side table and took a sliced strawberry half out of a wooden bowl and handed it to me. I had to take it with both hands. I narrowed an eye at her, causing her to smirk, then I rolled my eyes, whispered a prayer to the Goddess, then bit into it. It hit me like a bomb. I felt completely reenergized the moment I swallowed. My eyes widened then I proceeded to eat the fruit that was the size of my head, and still felt a little peckish as she watched me.

  Then she asked as she looked at her... our girl again. “How long will she sleep? The men say the repairs are done and we're setting sail for the Grotto. Masika will want to speak with you, then I want to see if we can rescue my Tinkerbell, you and Amanda showed great skill, and it may be enough to tip the scale against the Pan.”

  I looked at the wolf pup and said with wonder. “Truthfully, I don't know, this is something new. The change usually enrages her wolf, and it will thrash against the bars for hours before settling down.”

  Then I admitted my carelessness. “Unless I calm her. She recognizes me as her mate so she will snap and bluster, but not harm me. Then she'll curl around me protectively, and we'll sleep. This is the first time she remained... well, her inside. I'd like her to sleep as long as she can since you have twenty-four hour nights here.”

  She narrowed one eye and said in a slightly chastising tone, “Isn't that reckless? I mean, I heard all the stories about the cursed and how they were single-minded killing machines.”

  I shrugged. “Maybe. But they aren't as single-minded as people believe. They, like any wild animal, have three instincts, hunt, kill, mate. All are equally as strong, so for me, it isn’t as big of a risk as it may seem.”

  She nodded at that, and then she smirked and whispered, “And being a little poof-ball like this, she doesn't look very threatening.”

  I crinkled my nose. “I know, right?” Then as a sobering warning, I added, “But make no mistake, outside the Sea Devil, even as small as she is, she'd be even more dangerous than her human form is, and can spread the curse with a single bite.”

  She inhaled deeply then nodded. We both tu
rned slowly when our topic of discussion whined a little. I gave a toothy grin, and Wendy tried to look innocent when we saw our pup had one eye open watching us. I said, chagrin over being caught talking behind her back apparent in my voice, “Oh, hi love. You still in there?”

  She looked away, in a doggy pout. Yup, she was there. I'd get an earful from her later, now that I admitted I made a habit of entering her cage at night to calm her wolf.

  Wendy smiled at us then told Mandywolf. “We're sailing to the Grotto now. We'll be there by morning, the night is almost over.”

  The pup nodded, and it was still disconcerting to see human intelligence in its eyes.

  We watched in fascination as Wendy geared up after she changed out of her sleepwear. She had almost as many hidden weapons on her as Mandy carried in her weapon's rig. And when she donned that well-worn pirate's cap, she looked so imposing and impressive.

  Then we went out on deck. The Hook called out, “Stay away from the wolf pup, she's not safe.” A chorus of, “Aye aye Captain,” rippled among the men. Then Mandy trotted over, still a little clumsily to the railing, and she looked between two carved wood balusters and whimpered as the ship seemed to burst through the fog of the Nothing, the mist seeming to try to hang onto the ship until it trailed behind us and rejoined the billowing banks of it that surrounded the realm.

  She sat and whined, silhouetted in the moon which covered half the horizon. I buzzed to land beside her, taking a handful of fur to look at the sight she has not seen in the years since she was infected, the full moon.

  The captain joined us, squatting and placing a hand on Mandy's back. Then my girl lifted her little muzzle to the sky, and a tiny and mournful howl came from her throat. I tipped my head back and let my tiny voice join her's.

  Then before I knew it, the Pirate Queen lent her howl to the song of pain and longing. Soon, every hand was on deck doing the same as they moved to the rail to sing to the moon goddess who looked so close that we could touch her.

  Everyone worked in a solemn silence after that while the moon slipped slowly into the water over the next couple hours, until a bell was tapped lightly and someone in the crow's nest whispered loudly down to the deck, “Land ho. The Grotto is on the horizon!”

  Men went quickly and silently into motion. The Captain and the man in the crow's nest were scanning the horizon in all directions with their spyglasses. I understood, if someone saw the Sea Devil sailing into the Grotto, she would be easily trapped there by an enemy blockade.

  Then I panicked when I saw the clouds in the sky to the east being painted the pinks and oranges of the impending sunrise. “We need to get Mandy into the cabin!”

  Our wolf pup was already trotting that way, knowing what was coming. Wendy just scooped her up, and with long thudding strides, brought her to the cabin. I zipped up to her ear and said, “You might want to wait out here, it is painful to watch.”

  She looked at the pup in her arms then me, and she took a deep breath to steel herself and stepped inside, me following. No sooner had she set Mandy on a round rug which looked sort of Persian to me, then the wolf started twitching and convulsing as her back arched.

  Whimpers and howls of pain were replaced by the screaming anguish of a little girl. Then she stopped and her back relaxed as Amanda looked up at us, smashing her lips to one side she said, “Well that just happened.”

  Much like fairies apparently, wolves didn't have much modesty as she just stood up, bare to the world, and made her way to her hanging clothes. I looked over at Wendy, whose eyes were brimming with tears and anger. Nobody liked seeing their child suffer. I landed on her shoulder and placed a hand on her cheek and assured her, “She's fine. She's used to it, and once it is over, there's no more pain.”

  I know she knew I was just trying to console her because even after all this time with my girl, it ate me up inside each time she changed.

  Amanda said as she showed her elongated canines in a snarl at the little pink pirate's cap before she smashed it on her head, “That was... I was a fucking wolf. I...”

  Both Wendy and I snapped out in unison, “Mandy, language.”

  She looked sheepishly at Wendy and lowered her eyes in submission. Hey, she never does that with me. Then she continued, “That was the most surreal thing ever. I mean, I know logically that I change into a werewolf in the full moon, but I'm never conscious of it. It's like something that happens to a different person. But this time, I... was the wolf. Fur, claws, fangs and all. Is that what Daria experienced all the time?”

  Then she looked at us and puffed up a bit, “Is it a fearsome beast?”

  I had to bite the inside of my cheek and said as seriously as I could muster, “Frightening.”

  Wendy was grinning like a loon as she widened her eyes and nodded, “Fearsome.”

  Amanda's lower lip puffed up as she pouted out, “I hate you both.”

  The fearsome Captain Hook, crouched, straightened the collar of Mandywolf's jacket, batted away the tail that was twitching in annoyance, then stood and said, “Come on young lady, you'll want to see the Grotto as we approach, it's both amazing and foreboding at the same time.”

  She absently dropped her hand, and Mandy took it, then we went back out when I landed on my little wolf girl's hat and kicked my feet lazily. The two badasses made such a cute family. Amanda eyeballed me, and I chuckled and shrugged and gave in. “It's such a fuzzy little floof, being a pup and all.”

  She looked mortified, then her expression changed to that of anticipation and wonder. I followed her gaze to see an island growing on the horizon, that looked as wild as the one we first found ourselves on. It had the caldera of a volcano, long extinct and overgrown by the jungle at its center.

  We seemed to be sailing right for a portion of that caldera that had collapsed into the sea, leaving a seaway entry into it. I buzzed up above the Sea Devil a few hundred yards to look. It was quite spectacular to see and had a dangerous natural beauty to it.

  Then I rejoined the girls, Wendy looked at me with her lips pursed. Then she made sure we both knew the gravity of what she said next, “You really shouldn't leave the ship like that, even when we were boarded. Outside the safety of the Sea Devil, you are susceptible to the Pan's influence. It would take just one word from him to ensnare you again.”

  Mandy growled then prompted, “How can we help you get Tinkerbell back if we can't leave the ship? There has to be...”

  The captain was nodding and interrupted my girl. “That is the other reason we need to see the Voodoo Queen. She... well she is not of this realm and is immune to the Pan's abilities. She has great power, and maybe she will know how to dampen the sway of his words. We know that heavy exposure to fairy dust over a period of years can break his spell, so there must be other ways.”

  I nodded. That made sense. Then I asked, “Shouldn't I be immune since I'm sort of a fairy now?”

  She shrugged and chuckled. “I know nothing of magic, so I don't know how it works. I'd guess that since you are not a real fairy, only having suffered a Make-Believe, that may have something to do with it.”

  Mandywolf offered to me, “Perhaps that's why you shook it off once before. When I was freaking out after becoming human again that first morning at the treehouses.”

  Wendy blinked. “You shook it off?” Then she got the other implication, “Amanda? You regain your senses after you transform?”

  I nodded and landed on Hook's shoulder, sharing, “She was her old swearing self when she changed back. And something about my concern for her made it so I could see through the fog of Peter's words.”

  Her eyes widened, and she started to look excited, but I held a hand up to stop her building enthusiasm, “But all it took was for him to reinforce his words again, and we enthralled again, his every word our reality, and I think he may somehow be using the Lost Boy's imagination to reinforce his commands somehow.”

  She nodded solemnly and said, “Likely. I remember the power of his words, and how I just
knew them to be true to the bottom of my soul, so I think subconsciously I was reinforcing that reality with my imagination while he held sway over me. The combination of his influence combined with the reality-bending of the Lost Boy's imaginations makes Neverland a place of ultimate power for a being such as him.”

  I knew she was right, otherwise, why would he keep coming back to Neverland with children he kidnaps from other realms instead of staying in those realms. Here, he was a self-made god. I felt my ire growing but assured myself that false gods always fall.

  And now, it seemed his power was becoming a finite thing as he lost more and more Lost Boys to adulthood as he used them up, without being able to replenish his supply of young minds from the other realms now that Wendy was the master of the Sea Devil.

  I furrowed my brow, then looked back to the Nothing that surrounded all of this realm. Was it... was it a cage, to keep the Pan in? How long had the demon been here?

  Wendy grunted then said with grim determination, “In any case, mark my words, he will fall, and we will free Tinkerbell.” She reached her good hand up, and with a quick snapping motion, her leather collar protectively arced over me. Again, I was struck by how natural she made the action look.

  Men ran along the deck, adjust lines and sails, calling out orders, slacking the mainsails and lowering others as we glided between hazardous looking rocks that passed menacingly close to the ship's hull. The island swallowed us up.

  We dropped anchor in a lagoon in the middle of the island, inside the dormant volcano. I looked round to the amazing, ancient looking jungle, and I could feel life all around us. This was a wonderland of nature unmatched by any I have seen, save Perchta's Garden.

  Though unlike my Goddess' garden, my heightened hearing could pick up the sounds of jaguar's screaming, and natural wolves huffing as they hunted their prey out in the trees. There were big predators here, which likely stopped the indigenous animal populations from becoming more than the island could support.

  I used my farsight to look at the edges of the lagoon, motion in the water catching my attention. At first, I thought mermaids until a prehistoric snout surfaced. Craggy skin and large unblinking eyes, dangerous teeth all around. Knowing what to look for I scanned around to find that they were everywhere. Crocodiles.