Six Points of Light:Hook's Origin Page 16

  James and the rest of the group approached. Tigerlilly’s troop disbanded and went off into the village. James stood with Michael at his side, feeling a bit out of place. Tigerlilly emerged from the crowd and embraced James, tears staining her beautiful face.

  “I have waited a long time for this moment,” she said. “Do you know what it is like to wait for the one you love in a place where time has no meaning?” James felt as if he knew what she was describing. “Come.” she said, wiping her tears away. “You must be starving.”

  She took ahold of his hand and pulled him into the crowd. People seemed to be moving all around him. Many of them resembled Tigerlilly. Their long, beautifully black hair was pulled back in braids and decorated with glass beads. Their skin was tan and shining, their eyes kind. As Tigerlilly helped him navigate the crowd, many placed their hand on his shoulder or patted him on the back. They seemed happy to see him, although he had no idea why they should be.

  Tigerlilly pulled James into a tent and pushed him down into a waiting chair. The tent was dark and smoky and smelled of sandalwood and soot. A small hole in the upper part of the tent’s wall was the only ventilation. As James’s eyes adjusted to the dark, he saw that there was a very old man sitting opposite him. James glanced at Tigerlilly, who was still standing, and she gave him a quick smile. She approached the sitting man and knelt at his feet.

  “Father,” she addressed him respectfully.

  The man reached out one of his frail hands and patted Tigerlilly on the head. He slid his hand under her chin and smiled lovingly at her.

  “I am happy you are safe,” he said.

  “O’Malley has returned!” she said excitedly.

  “I never doubted that he would,” said the old man. “It was only a question of how.”

  “It was the shadow, Father.” Tigerlilly lowered her voice. “The boy has separated himself from it. It needed a physical body to return to Neverland.” James shifted in his chair. “This young man knows the boy. He is the one Peter speaks of.”

  “He speaks of me?” asked James.

  “Oh yes, James. He speaks of you at every opportunity,” said Tigerlilly. She leaned over and ladled a steaming concoction of the most wonderful-smelling soup into a clay bowl and handed it to James. He drank it up, trying not to make a mess of himself. He was famished, and the hot soup filled his belly. Tigerlilly took the bowl from him and filled it again, handing it back to him carefully.

  “My scouts have seen the rallies he holds,” she said. “Elaborate ceremonies where he riles up those Lost Boys of his. He tells them you are evil incarnate. He tells them you are hideously deformed and that your soul is as black as the night sky.”

  James felt his face flush red hot, and he balled his fist.

  “We know it’s not true,” said Tigerlilly. She turned her head up and forced a small puff of air out of the side of her mouth in disgust. “He tells them anything he can to keep them loyal. Your Wendy protests, or at least she used to.” Tigerlilly looked down.

  “My Wendy? How do you know about her?” asked James.

  “Oh yes, of course, this must be very overwhelming for you.” She smiled warmly. “Michael came to us with this information. He came to ask for our aid, and we helped him get back to you, hoping that the shadow would facilitate his return. I suppose the shadow served its purpose. The fact that it inadvertently brought O’Malley back to us was an unexpected surprise.”

  “You knew O’Malley—I saw your name on his sword,” said James

  Tigerlilly smiled. “Yes. It seems like we have spent a lifetime apart. If I have my way, I will never be parted from him again.”

  James saw a fierce determination flash in her eyes.

  “Michael said you were the only one who could help rescue his sister. He says you know Pan better than anyone,” Tigerlilly continued.

  James doubted he knew anything about the real Peter. “You said she was at these rallies. Where is she now?”

  “Peter has done something with her,” said Tigerlilly. “For a long time, she was at every rally, every meeting, and then suddenly, she was gone. We believe he is holding her somewhere within his compound.”

  “He lives in a compound?”

  Tigerlilly looked at the old man, and he began to speak.

  “Neverland is a forever place,” he began. “Its genesis is unknown. What we know is that, for ages, Neverland has sheltered those who could find their way here. It has been said that you must be a child to come to this place, but that is simply a misunderstanding. Neverland is for those who are young at heart. I came here as a man, and I brought with me my kin. We were being systematically exterminated in our own land. Legends of this world were well known to my people, and when we came here, we saw that we had a chance for a better life, and so we stayed. We kept the balance by only taking from the land what we needed.

  “After living in peace for a very long time, a stranger appeared here. A child. You know him as Peter, but most everyone now calls him Pan. He came here with a band of young people and set up a settlement atop the cliffs of Mermaid Cove. There had once been another settlement there. O'Malley was a part of that earlier group, but these Lost Boys were different. Their number seemed to double or triple every other day, and soon their numbers far exceeded our own. They came through the woods, and we met them with open arms, as is our custom. He betrayed our trust, and late one night they burned our homes and stole our possessions, food, blankets, anything they could find. They stole from us and left destruction in their wake.”

  Tigerlilly’s face was twisted into a mask of anger.

  “We had to establish a network of scouts to keep an eye on him,” the old man continued. “We need to know where he is and be ready if he decides to attack us again. It is not how things should be. The balance that once existed in this place is slowly fading. Pan has taken people by force and threatened them with violence. He hunts to the point of gluttony. We have had to find other ways to feed our people because Pan takes so much without considering how it will affect everyone else.

  “He keeps this Wendy a virtual prisoner. Michael came to us and begged us for help, but there was little we could offer.”

  “Wendy’s brother John is fiercely loyal to Pan,” said Tigerlilly.

  This didn’t surprise James. John’s loyalty to Peter had been established well before the lot of them traveled to Neverland.

  “Michael stayed with Pan because Wendy is like a mother to him. He has never been loyal to Pan, he was loyal only to his sister who he now fears is in great danger.”

  “Would he hurt her?” James asked.

  Tigerlilly glanced at her father, who gave her a small nod. “James, I’m not sure what Pan was like during his time with you, but he is a very dangerous person now.”

  “I know he is dangerous. I’ve seen it with my own eyes,” James replied.

  “In the northern territories of Neverland there is a land called Hildur,” Tigerlilly continued. “Its people are small in stature and have pointed ears and lithe features. I think people in your world would call them elves. Pan came across a group of them foraging for food in the northern wood, and he cut them down where they stood.”

  James felt as if he were going to be sick.

  “His mind has been corrupted,” continued Tigerlilly. “In the guise of a young boy, he doesn’t seem menacing to an outsider. But he is murderous and vengeful, and the Hildur people were not his first or last victims.”

  James ran his hand nervously through his hair. “So what do we do now?” he asked. “I have to try and save Wendy, no matter the cost... I love her.”

  Tigerlilly sighed. James saw that she shared his pain.

  “We must first determine where Peter is keeping her,” she said. “We will send scouts to determine her location.”

  “The Lost Boys outnumber us three to one,” said Tigerlilly’s father.

  “Yes, but we are not so foolish as to attack them straight out. And besides, we have James with us now
. He knows Pan. He can help us.”

  “I haven’t known Peter in a very long time,” said James.

  “O’Malley said you were close, like brothers,” said Tigerlilly.

  “How have you had time to speak to O’Malley about me?” James asked. “We arrived here at nearly the same time.”

  “O’Malley came through the entry point unexpectedly. We keep a very close eye on the entryway closest to our village. When we went to greet him, he told us about you. We hoped you could find your way here, so we waited. It was a half day’s wait, but for you I’m sure it seemed much shorter.”

  Time does not run in a straight line, James thought.

  “You can give us a little more insight into Pan’s mind, tell us how he’s vulnerable. You knew him so well—”

  “I thought I knew him,” James interjected. “I don’t know if I ever really knew him at all. I feel as if I don’t know anything anymore. He left me for dead and he... he laughed while that alligator tore me apart.” James felt overwhelmed.

  Tigerlilly’s eyes misted over and her father simply shook his head. They seemed to pity him.

  “Excuse me please,” said James. He quickly exited the little tent and drew a deep breath. The crowd had dispersed, and only a few people were still milling about. He walked for a short time and found a small meadow behind the last row of tents, where he sat down in the grass. The sun was fading and shadows were cast all about.

  He thought about how adamant Peter had been all those years ago when he’d tried to convince James that everything his mother had written about was true. James couldn’t understand why, now that Peter had found his way to Neverland, he was wreaking such havoc and destruction on this beautiful place.

  James heard footsteps approaching. Tigerlilly and O’Malley joined him in the grass.

  “I understand how overwhelming this must be for you,” said O’Malley.

  “Do you?” asked James. “So you understand what it’s like to have your hand ripped from your body? Do you understand what it’s like to have your heart ripped from your chest?”

  James was furious. So much had been taken from him. His hand, Wendy, Sister Maddie—all ripped from him by force.

  “We do. We understand,” said Tigerlilly softly. “But you have a choice now.”

  James stared at her through a veil of tears that he refused to allow to fall. “What choice do I have?”

  Tigerlilly moved close to him and took his mangled wrist in her hands. “You can allow your sorrow to consume you.” She turned his wrist over in her hands. “You can allow the anger and the hurt to rule you. Or you can choose to live in the light.”

  “Live in the light?”

  “Yes, live in the light, James. My people believe that living entails more than simply drawing breath. You must recognize the light within you, you must not allow it to be diminished by the deeds done to you in the past. You’re alive right now. I can feel your heart beat. I can see your chest rise and fall with each breath. You are alive, but are you living? Truly living?”

  James hung his head. “Something died in me when Wendy was taken. Something died in me when Sister Maddie passed away. Something is dying in me now, as I fear I will never have the chance to put right all of these wrongs.”

  “We cannot bring back the dead,” said Tigerlilly, still holding firmly to his wrist. “But we honor them by living. We honor them by keeping the light inside our souls burning for as long as we are able to. We fight for what is right and good and just. That is how we honor them, James.”

  Something began to stir inside of him. He looked into Tigerlilly’s deep, dark eyes. Her soul was much older than the body it inhabited. He could feel it. James felt embarrassed and wiped his face.

  “Do not hide from us, James,” said Tigerlilly. “We will lift you up when you are weak, we will walk with you when you are lost, and we will be there to pick you up when you fall.”

  James felt an incredible surge of emotion rock him to his core as he looked from Tigerlilly to O’Malley.

  “Choose the light, James,” said Tigerlilly. “Leave the darkness behind. Be free from it.”

  “You don’t have to be alone anymore,” said O’Malley.

  “Why do you care what happens to me?” asked James.

  “How could I not?” asked Tigerlilly.

  “It’s just her way,” said O’Malley. “There’s no sense in fighting it, trust me. Once she’s determined to look after you, you’d be a fool to try and stop her.”

  Sister Maddie once told James that the most powerful tool we possess is love. She told him it could mend a broken heart, it could move mountains, and it could allow him to forgive.

  “Should I forgive him for the things he’s done?” asked James. It was an honest question, a question he was asking of himself more than anything.

  “I don’t know. Only you can answer that,” said Tigerlilly.

  “If I may, James,” said O’Malley. “I think the person you need to forgive is yourself.”

  James knew deep inside that O’Malley was right. While he blamed Peter for much of what had happened, he also shouldered a tremendous amount of guilt about his part in all of it. He often wondered what would have happened if he had declined Sister Maddie’s invitation to take Peter under his wing, if he had not followed Peter into the woods that day. Perhaps fate had some hand in it, because from the beginning James had been compelled to do these things even though his common sense was telling him to run. Run away from that strange boy with the fake smile and wild eyes.

  All of his decisions had led him to this point, this place, and these people. Now he sat with O’Malley and Tigerlilly looking on. He knew there was no turning around, there was only what lay ahead.

  James wiped his face. “I don’t know if I can forgive him,” he said softly. “But I will have to settle that matter at some other time, because what matters now is that I am here, among friends, and I have to save Wendy. I must. That is what I have to do at this moment.”

  Tigerlilly nodded and placed her hand on his arm, giving it a little squeeze. She stood up, and O’Malley escorted her out of the clearing towards the tents.

  James looked up at the night sky. The stars were more brilliant and bright than he’d ever seen them. He looked back over his shoulder and saw a few glowing fires in the distance; little white puffs of smoke rose up and mingled with a few low hanging clouds. He breathed in the warm moist air and that lovely jasmine scent. He seemed to have fallen through time and space into this strange and beautiful place. Perhaps he was not so very far from home after all.

  CHAPTER 17

  BAIT THE HOOK

  A dim light saturated the walls of the animal skin tent. James lay half-awake on his cot. He rolled onto his side and propped his hand under his chin.

  He shared the small tent with Michael, who lay quietly in the corner, covered in a colorful blanket. How strange it was that he felt so comfortable in this place.

  He thought about Peter and Wendy and how things had gone so terribly wrong. He felt guilty that he was in Tigerlilly’s camp, among people who seemed to genuinely care for him, while Wendy was still being held captive.

  Stop. Don’t do this to yourself. You cannot change the past.

  James sat up, pulling up one of his lanky legs and resting his arm on his knee. He tried to quiet his mind, but it went round and round trying to make sense of Peter’s actions. James wanted nothing more than to calm the whirlwind of “what ifs,” but he could not.

  A small whistle cut through James’s thoughts. He turned to see Tigerlilly’s lovely face peeking through the doorway.

  “Oh good, I’m glad you’re up. Come with me. I have someone I’d like you to meet.” She disappeared from the doorway, and James scrambled to his feet. He pushed back his long black hair, attempting to tame the few wiry gray strands that were concentrated near his temples.

  He had slept in his clothing, and so he tucked in his shirt and tried to smooth the creases in his pants with hi
s hand. It didn’t work. He gave a little sigh and left Michael sleeping soundly to find Tigerlilly. She was waiting for him just outside the door, and he nearly ran right into her.

  “Sorry,” James said, steadying her with his hand.

  “It’s fine.” She smiled warmly at him, patting him on the shoulder. “Come with me, please.”

  The pair walked leisurely down the center walkway between two rows of tents. In the distance, James could see a stable, and he heard the braying of horses.

  “Do you know how to ride?” asked Tigerlilly, picking up on his interest in the stable.

  “Oh, yes,” said James. “Father Johnson taught me. I used to go to his stables a few times a week to take lessons.”

  “Riding a horse with one hand is quite a skill, James. You’re a warrior at heart, aren’t you?” Tigerlilly’s straightforward manner made James a little uncomfortable.

  “I don’t think I’m a warrior at all,” he said.

  “Well, we’ll see about that.” She turned abruptly and disappeared into a small wood-framed building. James followed her inside and was immediately overcome by a very pungent odor.

  “What is that smell?” he asked as the aroma hit the back of his throat.

  “That, my boy, is my magical elixir,” said a gruff but chipper little voice.

  James saw that a man, almost as short in stature as Michael, was standing next to a large wooden vat, stirring its contents with a wooden paddle. James buried his face in the crook of his right arm.

  “James, this is Smee,” said Tigerlilly. “He’s… well, he’s an artist of sorts.”

  Smee laughed heartily. His belly poked out from under a shirt that was two sizes too small.

  “I don’t know why you bother wearing a shirt, Smee,” said Tigerlilly, the slightest bit of annoyance coloring her voice. “I’ll leave you to it.”

  With that, Tigerlilly turned and left him alone with the strange, smelly little man. James made sure he had a clear path to the door.