Straight On Till Morning (Disney Twisted Tales) - Liz Braswell Page 0,98
Wendy decided.
“Whatever river you choose, Hangman’s Tree is here.” He put an X on the ground.
Can you remember from when we went there before? Tinker Bell asked. It’s southeast of the Black Dragon Mountains, about halfway to the coast. In a round clearing, like a fire or a meteor cleared it out.
“Thank you, Tinker Bell,” Wendy said. “That was very precise and clear.”
“Did you name it?” Peter asked suddenly.
“Name what?”
“The river! Did you name it yet?”
He was deadly serious.
“No—I don’t suppose I have,” Wendy said. “Hadn’t we better—”
“We absolutely had better!”
Peter put a finger to his chin, thinking.
Tinker Bell furrowed her brow, trying to come up with something.
Wendy looked at both of them in exasperation. They didn’t have time for this.
Peter’s eyes lit up and he opened his mouth.
“How about—”
“We are not calling it the River Pan,” Wendy interrupted.
“I wasn’t,” Peter said peevishly. “I was going to call it the River Peter.”
Tinker Bell giggled, sparkles of dust falling around her.
“No. How about…the First River? You should like that. It makes sense, but it makes absolutely no sense at all. It’s just Never Land’s style.”
“The First River! It’s the River of the First…but it’s not really the first river! I love it!” He clapped her on the back—rather a little too hard, and she fell forward.
But what if the pirates get here before you get back? What if Hook gets to Peter before we’re ready? Tinker Bell asked.
“What about your fairy friends? Can you ask them to help? To at least—keep you company?” Wendy asked. “To keep an eye out?”
The little fairy gave her a nearly uncomprehending look.
“I know you aren’t the closest with them, really, but this is an emergency. You’re in serious need. All of Never Land is in trouble. Thorn might come—he seems a decent sort.”
Tinker bell tossed her head and began to jingle something contemptuously.
“Don’t,” Wendy interrupted. “Don’t let your ego get in the way of protecting yourself and Peter.”
“I don’t need protecting by fairies!” Peter squawked indignantly.
Wendy and Tinker Bell ignored him.
Finally, the fairy nodded. All right. For Peter.
“Good,” Wendy said with a sigh. “Well look, I should head out. Stay here,” she ordered, standing up and readying herself to go. “Tinker Bell, take care of him. Make sure he doesn’t leave. But if the pirates appear, fly—if you can—into the jungle and hide.”
Tinker Bell saluted her smartly.
But Peter just stood there gazing at her, mouth agape.
Wendy looked down at herself; she hadn’t even realized how heroic a pose she struck. From her shadow—which took this opportunity to actually behave—she realized how she appeared: powerful, strong…with a scandalously short tunic cinched around her waist and improvised leggings that showed a prodigious amount of her newly tanned skin. Her hair was down around her shoulders. She bet she was the spitting image of an Amazon, short a bow.
“Gosh, Wendy, you sure look different from when I first saw you,” Peter mumbled.
Tinker Bell put her hands on her hips and started to jingle.
“Well, I must be off,” Wendy said quickly. “Bye!”
And she took off into the air, like Nike, triumphant.
Wendy fell backward into the sky a little more rapidly than she intended. It felt like a dream she’d had once or twice: suddenly being pulled up into the air, snatched out of a narrative, away from monsters or loved ones.
Her heart jumped at the unnatural movement but she didn’t stop.
Barreling forward, she stuck her arms out and—there. Her fingertips brushed against the steady warm wind that Tinker Bell looked for when they had great distances to fly. It streamed almost directly due north, so she would have to get off it and take a right at some point, but it would ease the journey somewhat.
She banked into the thermal, feeling important. For the first time in her life she was on a quest where people needed her for real things—for survival, not for a popped button or an emergency trip to the market for some dinner veg. If she failed it would mean disaster for her friends and all of Never Land.
And what precisely would Hook do if she failed? If he succeeded in catching Peter? How would he end Never Land rather permanently? Would he use dark powers to call up a titanic storm and sink it like Atlantis? Could Peter’s shadow have something to do with that? Would he somehow rain down fire and lava?
Well, Wendy didn’t intend to find out. She stretched and frowned, flying a little faster.