Straight On Till Morning (Disney Twisted Tales) - Liz Braswell Page 0,116
It’s balance. Nothing ever changes here in Never Land.
“Or…does it?”
She frowned, as if puzzled.
“Everyone knows the story of the time he cut your hand off. So there must have been a time before you had your hook.”
The captain looked at his hook with something like surprise.
“It was a long time ago…” he said, almost as if he was having trouble remembering.
“But it’s still a change.”
The pirates looked at each other, confused. Even the Lost Boys looked uncertain of where she was going with this. Slightly alone seemed to be concentrating on something else—but the minute wiggles of his shoulders hinted it was probably because he was trying to cut himself free.
“There have been other changes, too,” she added, trying to think of something else to say. She had lost her train of thought—what else could she mention that would keep Hook interested? Where was she going with this all?
She began to panic. Maybe she couldn’t pull this off. Maybe she was actually terrible at weaving stories on the spot that captured everyone’s attention.
“I grow tired of your very obvious delaying tactics, Miss Darling,” Hook growled. “What changes? How do they relate to me?”
Slightly’s arm spasmed; he had probably just cut his way through the last of his bonds.
Valentine noticed this movement and frowned, pushing his way forward to look.
“There are so many…unexpected things…” Wendy babbled, trying to find something that worked. “Not just from children’s imaginations…Never Land itself is making changes.…”
“I have!” Skipper suddenly stood up—awkwardly, arms behind her back. “I mean, I am a change!”
Everyone turned to stare at the Lost Boy. She stood terrified and defiant.
Wendy’s heart nearly broke with gratitude.
“Skipper, tell them who you are,” she said gently.
“Explain yourself,” Hook ordered, aiming the pistol at her.
“I’m a girl.”
Her giant animal ears were already off, thrown back over her shoulders, making her look more human. There was nothing more she could do—no taking down of her hair, no revealing a corset, no obvious sign to indicate what she said was true.
“I’m a girl,” she said more loudly, when she saw everyone’s confusion. “I just cut my hair. And stuff.”
“A Lost Boy who’s a…girl?” Captain Hook said incredulously.
Zane’s eyes were wide with interest; his face acquired a light that Wendy hadn’t seen in it before.
“Aye, a girl,” Skipper said a little more defensively, and stuck her chin out.
“A girl…what?” Ziggy asked.
Everyone looked at the pirate.
“What?” he demanded. He pointed at the rest of the Lost Boys. “That one’s a fox, that’s a bear, easy enough to see. What in the bloody deuce are you supposed to be? A girl what?”
“Ah…a bilby?” Skipper cleared her throat and spoke more forcefully: “A bilby.”
The pirates looked at her blankly, in silence.
The Lost Boy grew red and shifted on her feet, now uncomfortable with all the attention.
“A marsupial. Kind of like a hare, but with a long nose and tail,” Slightly explained helpfully.
“Oh! You mean like a bandicoot?” Djareth said, recognition dawning on his face.
“Exactly.”
“They’re highly endangered, you know,” Screaming Byron told Zane.
“All right, all right,” Hook said impatiently. “This is certainly a bizarre turn of events, but what has any of this to do with whatever warning you said you were giving me? What has this to do with changes?”
“The warning is about precisely this; it’s about change, Hook,” Wendy said. “It comes slow to Never Land, but still it comes. A girl Lost Boy, for instance. And surely you’ve heard about the squabbles between Slightly and Peter?”
“Of course,” Hook said with a sniff, looking exactly like a schoolboy who has been left out of a good gossip but desperately doesn’t want anyone to know. “Who hasn’t?”
“Well, then it must have confounded you as much as everyone else! The inseparable Lost Boys! Peter’s endlessly brave and loyal crew! With leadership issues! Power struggles! And one of them is a girl!”
“I still don’t see what this has to do with—”
“Things are changing, Captain Hook. Never Land is changing. Slowly. It is settling in, aging.
“And, it is obvious—you are as well.”
Silence blanketed the ship. The pirates looked aghast.
“Now see here, Miss Darling,” Hook said with a lilt in his voice as if it were all a joke—but his voice was shaky, and he raised the pistol to her.
“Everyone knows why you started chasing Pan, the youthful, adventurous, dashing young fellow—”
“It’s because he took my hand! He’s our greatest enemy! Isn’t that right, men?” Hook demanded.
The pirates muttered and shook their heads.
“All right,” Hook allowed. “Perhaps he’s my greatest enemy. He’s my nemesis. He’s my