I stand again, nervous energy keeping me moving. Maybe I should’ve offered to help fight off the pirates. But what good am I at fighting? None. I’d probably punch myself in the face. No, better I stay down here.
A bell rings nearby, and then a glittering orb shoots down from the waterfall.
“Tinker Bell?” I step back as she appears in a flash.
“What are you doing down here?” she yells, her golden eyes full of ire.
I clap my hands over my ears then force myself to put them at my sides. “I’m supposed to stay down here.”
“They’redyingup there, and you won’t go help?” She steps toward me, her gossamer wings practically vibrating.
“Wait, they’re dying?” I can feel my face go cold as all the blood drains from it.
“Yes! They need your help, and what are you doing?” She crosses her arms, her nose upturned. “Being a lazy mainlander, letting others fight her battles for her, letting her friends die.”
Ouch. I could argue that the neverbear isn’t my battle, that Peter told me to stay down here, that I’m no good in a fight.
I open my mouth to say all that, but then I pull back. “Hang on a second. Youhateme. You tried to set up the scary old lady in the town to poison me and curse me. There’s no way I’m going up there. You’re trying to get me killed.”
She steps closer, and I stand my ground even as she stares up at me with her impossibly golden eyes. “This is exactly what I warned Peter about. You only think about yourself. You don’tbelieve in Neverland. Not really. You don’t care about Peter or the Lost Boys. All you want to do is cower down here and hope someone will come save you.” She practically spits the last words at me. “EvenWendy, with all her prim and proper ways, helped Peter fight off Hook.” She points a short finger at me. “But you—you aren’t Wendy. You’re just waiting for your chance to get back to the mainland, even if it means you leave this island and everyone on it to die.”
“That’s not?—”
A roar shakes the cavern, stalactites falling and crashing nearby. She doesn’t look away, her eyes still on me. “Too afraid to help. Too afraid to believe.” She scowls and flashes back into her orb form, then flies toward the waterfall.
“Wait!” I call.
She pauses, her orb spinning.
Shit, this is probably so,sodumb, but what if she’s telling the truth? Can I take that chance? I saw what Hook does to the Lost Boys he captures. What if I could save one of my friends?
“If I can help, I will. Just show me where they are.”
The orb flits to my shoulder, and I hear her broken-bell voice. “I’ll take care of Peter myself. You can tend to the rest.”
“Fine, just take me to them.” I don’t know what I can do, but I have to try. Just the thought of my friends—yes, I think of them as friends now—hurt or afraid gets me moving. Tinker Bell is loyal to Peter and the Lost Boys, at least that’s what I’ve seen. I have to trust her. That’s what Peter would want. He’d want me to believe in her. So, despite my earlier misgivings, I follow her into a side tunnel.
It’s dark and mossy, water leaking along the walls and making faint drip noises as I hurry along. I follow close behind Tinker Bell until she comes to a vertical shaft and flies straight up.
“What am I supposed to—Oh.” There’s a small wooden platform at the bottom with rope wrapped around a crude crank system. Gripping the handle, I begin to turn it, and the platform rises up the dark granite shaft.
I turn as fast as I can and ignore the burn in my muscles. Before long, I see brighter rays of moonlight filtering down to me. I turn faster, the platform moving smoothly, and I finally reach the top. The jungle is all around me now, large leaves and huge, nodding flowers every way I turn.
“Tinker Bell?” I look around for the fairy, but I don’t see her golden glow anywhere. “Tink?” I try her nickname (which I’ve secretly been dying to use), but she doesn’t respond to that either.
A howl sounds to my right. I don’t like it. Not at all. I grip the crank and start turning it counterclockwise.
The platform doesn’t move.
“Come on.” I yank on it, then bring my foot up and try to kick it into motion. “No!” I yell as the crank breaks off and falls into the narrow space between the platform and the stone wall. It clacks and clicks its way down, and I can’t hear it when it hits bottom.
Shit. I’m an idiot. Tinker Bell did this on purpose. But why? Leading me up here and leaving me is a sure way to gain Peter’s wrath. What’s her endgame?
Another roar shakes the forest and leaves begin to fall all around me as I hunch down. That sounded close, way too close.
I can’t stay here by the shaft without risking falling in or being found by the bear. It’s too open. So, I slink toward the nearest tree and lean against it.
Think, think, think. I look around at the terrain. That’s no help. I have no clue where I am, and when I look up at the moon, I see that it’s getting high in the sky overhead.
