Always Neverland

by Zoe Barton

  “Not fair,” Prank muttered.

  “Thank you,” I said, admiring the feathers. They were as red as the blanket the Never birds had been standing on.

  The Never birds all turned around again, and each grasped another tail feather in its beak.

  “No!” I cried, and the Never birds looked up at me with their beady eyes. “No, thank you, but you don’t have to. If you give me too many, you might affect your ability to fly.”

  The Never birds turned to each other with excited little trills, as if they were discussing a new development.

  “What did I do?” I asked as Spot began to rub her head against my leg, like a cat.

  “You proved yourself a wise and judicious ruler,” Prank said, half joking again, and three of the Never birds nodded, trilling happily.

  They weren’t the only ones to hear about me being crowned queen.

  The lion arrived just three minutes later, before Button and Kyle came back.

  One minute, Prank and I were putting up the string of acorns that Button had made, and the next, all the Lost Boys were up in the air, shouting at the top of their lungs.

  I understood what Dibs was saying first. “Lions! Lions!”

  Still on the ground, Peter and I turned at the same time. A lion stalked into the clearing. He shook his mane and blinked at me with big, topaz eyes.

  I gulped and stopped myself from taking a step back. “I didn’t know that there were lions in Neverland.”

  “Yep, lions. And tigers,” Prank said, starting to count on his fingers again. “And bears.”

  “Wolves, too,” Peter added.

  “They can eat you,” Dibs said sharply.

  With sleepy, half-closed eyes, the lion started to walk slowly across the clearing, lashing his tail.

  I looked at Peter, who didn’t move. I decided that if Peter wasn’t afraid, then I wasn’t going to be either. We would make a united front as queen and emperor of Neverland—for the Lost Boys’ sake.

  “He doesn’t seem hungry,” I said, trying to reassure myself.

  He really didn’t. He came up very close, so close that I could feel his hot breath on my face.

  Peter smiled at me, the smile that carried a hint of pride. “He heard that you were the queen of Neverland too.”

  The lion yowled in agreement.

  Suddenly, I wondered if my ability to Pretend was a little too strong for my own good.

  But really, I didn’t mind it all that much. My fingers and toes tingled. Pretending to be Queen Ashley, Lion Tamer, had its perks.

  I stretched out an arm toward the lion slowly, ready to fly up and join the Lost Boys if he attacked. But the big cat just thrust his head into my hand and began to purr. His mane was incredibly soft.

  “Aww, I think he likes me,” I said.

  When I offered him my other hand, he licked it. His tongue was so scratchy it tickled, but I didn’t giggle. Laughing might hurt his feelings.

  Peter put his hands on his fists, looking on smugly.

  “Whoa,” Dibs said, impressed.

  “Kyle really has to come back,” Prank said.

  The lion leaned forward suddenly. Dibs and Prank shouted, worried that the cat was getting ready to pounce, but he just knelt, looking at me expectantly. I had a pretty good idea what he wanted.

  I flew up a little and landed gingerly on his back. The lion roared with delight and took off at a run. I had to grab his mane to keep from falling off.

  “Not so fast,” I said, steering him back to the Lost Boys.

  “You’re riding a lion,” said Prank, as if it was a trick he had always wanted to try.

  I shrugged. “I saw it in a movie once.”

  “Kyle has to see this,” said Dibs, and Prank nodded.

  “He—,” said someone on the other side of the clearing. We all turned. Button stood on the ground, grasping a tree for support, as if he couldn’t think of a thought happy enough to get him into the air.

  His face was white. “Kyle’s been captured!”

  Chapter 23.

  Tiger Lily’s Little Brother Complains about His Sister

  “Pirates!” Peter cried automatically, drawing his sword.

  But Button shook his head. “The mermaids say that it was Tiger Lily’s tribe.”

  A knot formed in my stomach. What could Kyle have possibly done to upset the princess?

  Peter lowered his sword a little, puzzled. “The Cubs?”

  “But they’ve always been friendly,” Dibs said, frowning.

  “Well, since Peter saved Tiger Lily from drowning, anyway,” Prank said.

  To me, Button added, “When the first Wendy was here.”

  “Maybe it’s just a misunderstanding,” I said, stroking the lion’s mane.

  “I don’t think so,” Button said. “The mermaids said that Kyle got caught in a trap right by the shore, and while they were trying to figure out a way to free him, Tiger Lily and a few braves came and took him away.”

  “Maybe they thought it was me,” Prank said softly, sounding nervous. “I kind of did something. The day before Ashley got here. With some water balloons, and their hunting practice . . .”

  Peter and I exchanged a look. We were both trying to stay calm for the younger kids. Okay, so maybe that was just me.

  “I know I haven’t been here long,” I said slowly, “but I’m sure that Tiger Lily can tell the difference between you and Kyle. Let’s go pay her a visit.”

  “We can’t,” Dibs said.

  “They moved their camp after that trick,” Prank said apologetically.

  “You don’t know where they are?” I asked, starting to get even more worried about Kyle.

  “Tink would,” Peter said, raising his hand to his mouth to whistle for her.

  But then the lion roared, making all the Lost Boys jump.

  Button took flight, translating for the big cat. “He says that he knows where the Cubs are camping.”

  “That’s very helpful,” I told the lion. “Would you please take us there? Quietly though—I don’t want them to know that we’ve come, at least at first.”

  The lion yowled and bounded into the woods. I bent forward and clung to his mane, glancing behind me to make sure the others were following.

  Peter burst through the leaves just above me, looking grim and determined. His golden blade glinted. Prank and Button flew just behind me and the lion, and Dibs appeared in the air to my left, holding Hook’s hat to make sure it didn’t blow off.

  I knew that we were all thinking the same thing: if Tiger Lily had done anything to hurt Kyle, she wouldn’t find us so friendly after all.

  We found the Cubs’ camp at the opposite end of the island, just beside the cliff where the fairies’ tree grew. The lion stalked forward noiselessly. When we were close enough, I tugged lightly on his mane. He stopped, and Peter and the Lost Boys landed on branches around us. There were only a few trees between us and the clearing.

  At first, it didn’t seem like anything strange was going on—except maybe that the tribe acted much more serious than they had been at the Grove of Food Trees. The Cubs lined the cliff’s edge, staring out over the water. Tiger Lily stood a little apart and above, the beaded feathers in her hair whipping back and forth in the wind. She looked beautiful and fierce.

  I was having a hard time remembering why I ever wanted to be her friend.

  “I don’t see Kyle,” Dibs said.

  Peter leaned forward, hanging from a slender tree’s trunk. He was angrier than I had ever seen him. “The pole.”

  Two Cubs held both ends of a long, wooden pole. Kyle hung from the middle of it, bound with rope. He wasn’t crying or anything, determined to be brave; but he looked out over the water too, as still and as white as he had been when Prank told him that Never birds ate Lost Boys named Kyle.

  “They’re not going to throw him off,” Prank said uncertainly. “Are they, Peter?”

  “No,” said Peter fiercely.

  “Not if I have an
ything to do with it,” I added.

  The lion under me started to growl, warning us.

  One of the braves—the shortest one closest to Tiger Lily—had turned away from the ocean toward us.

  I opened my mouth to lead the charge, but Button whispered, “It’s okay, Ashley.”

  “We still have one friend among the Cubs,” Peter said.

  The brave walked into the trees, holding his head high and his back very straight. Then I recognized the red stripes painted down his bare arms. It was Pounce. When he reached us, he took in the presence of Peter and the Lost Boys without batting an eye, but when he saw my new lion friend, his eyes bugged out a little.

  “Pouncing Squirrel,” Peter said, inclining his head in his new regal way.

  “My sister has lost her mind,” said Pounce, sounding a lot like a really frustrated younger brother. “I come to you in the hope that you will stop her from doing something that all of us shall regret.”

  “So, she did capture Kyle on purpose,” said Button sadly.

  Pounce shook his head. “She wanted to capture the Wendy girl.”

  “Me?” I said, shocked. “What did I ever do to her? Is she still mad about the thing with the pirates and the cupcakes?”

  “She saw you cut the sails of the Jolly Roger. You are a warrior, as no Wendy girl has been before,” Pounce said. “And my sister also heard that you have been named Neverland’s queen.”

  The knot in my stomach got a little bigger.

  I’d been so proud of myself yesterday, especially when the mermaids named us allies. It never occurred to me that someone wouldn’t like me changing things in Neverland.

  “That was just Pretend,” I whispered.

  “The great cat you tamed does not think so,” said Pounce, pointing at the lion I was riding.

  “How did you hear about Ashley being queen?” Button asked.

  “A mermaid told a dolphin, who told a flamingo, who told a Never bird, who told a squirrel, who told me,” said Pounce. That made me think that Pouncing Squirrel might not be such a lame name after all.

  At the top of the cliff, Tiger Lily let out a high-pitched, triumphant yell, and the braves echoed her halfheartedly.

  Pounce jumped. “We don’t have much time. They have spotted him already.”

  “Who?” Button asked.

  “My sister is proud,” Pounce told us, looking pained. “She promised Croc that she would feed him today with human blood, and so she will feed him.” He turned to me. “Even if she does not have the human she wanted.”

  “But Kyle can still fly, right?” I said hopefully, turning to Peter. “Even if they throw him off the cliff?”

  “If he still has fairy dust,” Prank said.

  “If he can think of a happy thought after seeing all those teeth,” Dibs added.

  Pounce looked at Peter. “The tribe does not wish to fight the Lost Boys. If you attempt to rescue Kyle, we will not stop you. But if you attack our princess, we will be forced to protect her. Do you understand?”

  A noise filled the air, even louder than the waves crashing below.

  “What’s that sound?” Dibs asked, wide-eyed.

  “Christmas bells,” I said automatically. Gulping, I turned back to the cliff.

  At the edge, the two braves holding Kyle raised the pole over their heads. Kyle squirmed, trying to twist free. They let go. Kyle fell out of sight.

  “No!” I shouted, and the lion under me sprang forward.

  Chapter 24.

  We Snatch Kyle from the Jaws of Death

  All the braves turned to look. Tiger Lily gave another yell, a battle cry. My lion answered her with a roar. The braves leaped out of the way.

  The lion stopped at the cliff’s edge, and I dived off his back.

  For once, I didn’t have a plan. I was way too worried to have a plan.

  Kyle was already halfway down, going so fast that the pole whistled. The crocodile swam directly under him, its tail lashing through the sea foam.

  I flew faster.

  The crocodile opened its jaws.

  “ . . . bells, jingle bells,” went the familiar song.

  I stretched out both hands, reaching out for the end of the pole that Kyle was tied to.

  “Ashley!” he cried.

  My hands closed around the wood, and I held on tight. For a minute, we hovered in midair, staring at each other and breathing hard. My arms started to feel the strain. Kyle gulped and looked down.

  We were only fifteen feet from the water. I could hear the music even better now: “Oh, what fun it is to ride in a one-horse open sleigh. Hey!”

  The crocodile snapped its yellow teeth.

  “That was really close,” Kyle said.

  “We’re not out of this yet,” I reminded him. My muscles started to tremble, and I gripped the pole with both hands until my knuckles turned white. I refused to drop him. “You’re really heavy.”

  I flew upward with the happiest thought I could muster (Kyle’s alive—I saved him), but we only went up an inch. With the added weight of the pole and all the rope, Kyle was just too heavy for me.

  On top of that, the coat that the mermaids had given me kept getting caught in the shore’s high winds, blowing me off course.

  “Bows!” said Tiger Lily’s cold voice. “Take aim!”

  “Uh-oh,” murmured Kyle.

  Along the cliff’s edge, the braves lifted their bows, drawing arrows slowly and reluctantly from quivers on their back. I had nowhere to go. We were as trapped as Buttercup had been in the pirates’ net the day before.

  “Not fair!” I shouted, glaring at Tiger Lily. There wasn’t much else I could do this time. I couldn’t even talk my way out of it.

  My lion roared and swatted, knocking two bows over the cliff’s edge, but then the braves loosed some arrows at him. He bounded into the woods—out of the fight.

  The crocodile snapped its jaws again, eager for a meal. “Jingle all the way.”

  The princess only looked smug. Then something green and gold flashed over her head, and her expression changed.

  A second later, another pair of hands grabbed the other end of Kyle’s pole. With the weight so much lighter, my arms stopped trembling. I breathed a sigh of relief.

  “You should’ve waited for me,” Peter told me sharply.

  “If I had waited one more second, Kyle would be reptile food,” I snapped. Maybe I was a little testier than usual. It had been a very close call.

  “Yeah,” Kyle said, nodding so hard that the pole wobbled. “That would be bad. Could we please move a little farther away?”

  Peter and I exchanged a look and started flying slowly upward. The crocodile lashed its tail, throwing up spray.

  “Bye, crocodile!” Kyle called, giggling madly.

  “I think he’s in shock,” I told Peter.

  The sound of sleigh bells filled the air again. The song had started over.

  “Ashley, the crocodile is singing,” Kyle said. “Why is it singing?”

  “It swallowed my iPod,” I said absently, thinking about the Cubs. “Mom’s probably going to ground me when I go home.”

  The other side of the pole dipped. I looked toward Peter in alarm, worried that someone had shot at him. But Peter was fine. He was just looking at me with a strange expression.

  Kyle began singing along with the crocodile. “Dashing through the snow, in a one-horse open sleigh.”

  “When you go home?” Peter repeated.

  He sounded stunned, and I couldn’t figure out why. A few days ago, he couldn’t stop thinking up excuses to send me there.

  “I have to go back,” I reminded him. “It’s almost Christmas.”

  I couldn’t remember exactly when Christmas—the real Christmas—was. It was strange that I couldn’t remember, but I knew that it had to be close.

  “O’er the fields we go,” sang Kyle, “laughing all the way.”

  We had flown up above the edge of the cliff. Tiger Lily scowled, her dark eyes na
rrowed. Beyond the line of braves, Pounce stood with Dibs, Prank, and Button, arms folded over his chest like he was in charge. It took me a second to figure out what he was doing, but then I realized: the Cubs couldn’t shoot at the Lost Boys if Tiger Lily’s brother was standing right next to them.

  For a long moment, Peter and Tiger Lily stared at each other, looking murderous. It was a stalemate.

  Then the brave closest to Tiger Lily turned to her. “Princess, Pan has been a great ally to our people, and the lion tamer is a great warrior,” he said. “This fight can be avoided.”

  “Who’s the lion tamer?” Kyle whispered to Button.

  “Ashley,” Button whispered back.

  I straightened up and raised my chin like I thought a warrior should.

  “Wow. I can’t believe I missed that. Ashley, can you tame one again so I can see?” Kyle didn’t know that we were still in danger.

  Then I realized I had forgotten to bring any weapons. Some great warrior.

  “Give me your sword,” I asked Peter. “I have to cut Kyle free.”

  Peter passed it over wordlessly, without looking away from the princess, but Tiger Lily turned to me with a sudden smile.

  “I see,” she said. “The Lost Boys have a new chieftain.”

  I scowled at her and sliced through the ropes holding Kyle. “Well, that’s the stupidest thing I’ve heard all day.”

  Peter obviously didn’t think so. He snatched his sword back with a ferocious scowl, a sure sign that he took her comment as a grievous insult.

  I wasn’t too worried at first. Peter took a lot of things as an insult. I was too busy making sure that Kyle was okay.

  “Can we go back now?” I asked Peter, hoping to leave before Tiger Lily forced Pounce back to her side and somebody accidentally loosed an arrow. “We have a Christmas tree to finish decorating.”

  “She gives many orders,” Tiger Lily said, her smile openly mocking. “Even to the great Peter Pan.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Peter, she’s just trying to make you mad on purpose—”

  “Quiet!” Peter interrupted.

  I pressed my lips together, watching carefully. I was kind of hoping that Peter wasn’t as angry as he seemed—that he was just putting on a show for Tiger Lily and her Cubs.