Shadow of the Hook

by Erik Schubach

  I wondered how she knew the goings on in a different realm like that, not even Perchta could pierce the veil with her sight into other realms. And from what Masika has shown me in the past, she was a minor goddess, who didn't have even a portion of the nature goddess' power. Unless she has hidden her true potential from me.

  Then again, the gods have always played so many games with us lesser beings, so I would not just take things at face value anymore. Snow... Perchta has shared with me that gods are not really gods, just beings from other realms with far more power and capabilities than mortal man, so they view individuals such as herself as gods. In both her forms, Snow seems disturbed when I pray to her. But it was my upbringing, and my entire existence I knew that she was the one who had breathed life into us and nature alike.

  No matter how much she wished it, I would never see myself as simply her peer, nor would I assume I was Nefertiti's peer, for even the weakest of the gods is beyond our ability to comprehend.

  She held up a hand to stop us from asking questions as she cocked her head as if listening for something only she could hear. “They are moving, our time is short if we are to make a difference. So let me tell you the truths of it all.”

  Wendy rolled her eyes. “As if you'd ever talk plainly, you old bat.” She said it with the teasing of a loved one in her tone. And it was quite humorous because even though Masika looked to be Wendy's age... like she said, sometimes our eyes don't show us the reality of things. From the times I have spoken with her, I gather she is thousands of years old, if not older.

  She asked, “Do you know of the Elders?”

  We nodded, and Wendy cocked her head in interest. For the Pirate Queen's sake, she explained, “Long before many of the realms sprang into existence, when time itself was just a concept, a race of great beings walked the roads of the fabric of existence between the new, budding realms. The Elders.”

  She sat back in her seat and her eyes focused out into a void we could not see. “They took it upon themselves to document the development of these new realms, as new worlds and new peoples developed. The six Elders were the chroniclers of so many new civilizations.”

  She made a sour face and said, “As with many civilizations, some were poisoned with the thirst for power, even if accumulating that power destroyed everything. And time and again, for every realm that lived in peace, and communed with the nature around them, becoming one with it, there were ten that ended in tragedy. Entire civilizations were wiped out, and in some cases, entire realms fell, leaving a hole in the fabric of all things.”

  She sighed, thoughts and emotion heavy in her tone. “The Elders, save one, Titiana, decided that it was not just their way to simply record the rise and fall of these fledgling realms. They thought that it was their responsibility to shepherd these realms, and to stop the poison of corruption from spreading.”

  Masika waved a hand in the air, and it filled with power, and with the tinging of a tuning fork, Wendy's hook pinged and light erupted from it, and a projection encompassed the cottage. It felt as if we were inside of creation itself, a void with so many sparkling lights like stars, but somehow, I understood each star was a realm, shining with life.

  A lumbering form turned its back on others who were gathered, and I could feel the magic shaping my understanding, and that form took on that of a woman, shoulders slumped, leaving a group of these titans, these Elders, her back to us as she stepped out into the wilderness of the void between all of these budding realities. Titiana.

  She almost growled out, “They assigned wardens to each of the new realities. Scales who were to make sure that a balance was kept between the lightness and the dark, believing that only by maintaining a balance could the realms the Elders oversaw truly reach their potential.”

  Shaking her head, she exhaled, her expression full of sadness and compassion. “I fear they have forgotten themselves, and that same corruption they despised has crept into their own minds. They lord their power over others now, and woe to any who oppose their view of how realms should progress. They even tried to impress their will upon the other realms that existed before the Elders. But found that for all their formidable power, some realms either had a power they didn't understand and could not combat or some that were actually created by beings that were more powerful than themselves.”

  Flashes of battles of incomprehensible scale flickered past. Some, the Elders walked away from victorious, some with them licking their wounds, and there were extreme cases where entire realms fell.

  One I blinked at, it had looked like a golden brick path leading up to a city made of emerald crystal, like in a story Parker had read to us about a girl who went to another land in a tornado. What was it called? Oz? I watched as the Elders were denied and wound up leaving that land battered and beaten.

  Masika narrowed her eyes as she watched, then added, “The mortal realm has been in flux in recent years, and the Scales there were hard pressed to keep a balance as the realm sought its own equilibrium that is something other than the balance the Elders require. For too long the shadow of evil was consuming the realm, but the Avatars became an overwhelming force, a natural defense against the sickness enveloping the land. Too powerful for the Elders to allow to exist.”

  She inhaled deeply and watched as the Elders started moving again, walking the roads between the realms, a dimly lit, far away realm their destination. The magic impressing upon me that it was the mortal realm. Her voice was a whisper.

  “So now the Elders are moving, to reset the mortal realm, wiping out the civilizations there because it doesn't fit their template. They yet punish the Scales after their power was stripped. And are incensed that the new Scales of the realm refuse their masters.”

  I got the impression of time as a swirling river, and that little time has passed in the mortal realm since they started marching toward them, but eons have passed for the Elders as they move through other realms to get closer.

  She pointed at the backs of the giants as they lumbered on. “The mortal realm cannot stand against their power, not without help from other realms. Realms with power they cannot understand nor affect. Like the lands protected by Dorothy of the Gale, Witch of the Four Cardinal Points from Oz. Or here, where reality can be twisted and warped with but a thought.”

  With a movement of her hand, the projection changed, and I recognized the map we looked down upon, with the compass rose in the sea. It was Neverland. She pointed as we fell into the world, the very sky tearing open as the Elders waded waist deep into the sea. “They seek shortcuts through other realms who resonate more with the mortal realm than some, as it would shave eons off their travels. But they were stopped in Oz, and when they dared enter Neverland without permission of her guardian, the original Captain Hook. He possessed a weapon, an artifact gifted to him by a traveler. A weapon that they could not defend against.”

  We saw a lumbering shape we could not focus on, crushing a man's arm, and with an explosion of magic, released him, and we saw a gleaming hook where his hand had been. Then the giant seemed to curl into the sea, forming a familiar island as it appeared to slumber.

  She smiled fondly like one would at the memory of a lover. “Captain Adrian Grey... Captain Hook. Hero of the realm. He wielded the artifact and refused the Elder's passage through Neverland and bid them turn back. They were incensed.”

  And we watched as a battle which boggled our minds unfolded before our eyes. The valiant Captain took to the air, flying his ship, the Sea Devil through the skies, braving a storm like no other to fight along side what looked like an army of fairies in the skies and mermaids in the seas.

  The scale was unimaginable as he took titanic blows from beings who should have crushed him like a speck of dust. The Hook singing with each impact. Him slashing out with an imagination that seemed boundless, warping the world around him, pushing back the Elders.

  Finally, they turned around and trudged back out of the realm battered and beaten. Leaving the champion of Neverl
and barely alive but defiant.

  With watery eyes, the Voodoo Queen shared, “To punish Neverland for refusing them, as they left, the Elders opened a portal to the demonic realm, so that demons could devour this realm as they have others.”

  The island which was the sleeping giant seemed to reach out to Captain Hook as he started fighting the demons as they invaded the land, but he was so tired. We could hear a cry of anguish from the island as the man stood on the deck of the Sea Devil, looking to have made a decision.

  Masika's voice was raw. “Even with his ability to warp reality itself with his imagination, Adrian could not close the portal, and he was in no shape to fight the demons. So with one last act which consumed all that he was, he used the artifact a final time.”

  We watched as the man stood on the deck of the almost destroyed Sea Devil, bloody but defiant as he smiled toward the reaching island then held up the hook, looking through it. The hook tumbled down into the sea as the man became a billowing grey fog that spread out to ring the realm, engulfing the portal.

  The demons seemed to fade from existence as the Nothing consumed them.

  Masika said in a whisper, “His last act was to protect Neverland for all time, his imagination creating the Nothing, engulfing the portal, and condemning any demons who dared cross through to Neverland to non-existence. And the barrier serves as a deterrent to the Elders as well, as not even they can pierce the Nothing.”

  Then she smiled. “It also, unfortunately, keeps those in who would travel to other realms. The only way to cross through the Nothing is with the ship created from the same imagination as the Nothing itself. The Sea Devil.”

  She wiped her hand in the air, and the projection stopped. Then she hissed in distaste. “One demon, the Pan, had made it to the islands before the Nothing had descended. He found the remains of the Sea Devil and rebuilt her. And had looked to find the artifact so that he could lift the Nothing to allow his brethren to run free in Neverland. But the mermaids, loving the man who saved this world, found the artifact and brought it to the most powerful witch they knew so that the Pan could never use it.”

  Her lips quirked into a smile as she rolled her eyes. “For a favor that is.”

  I smiled back, wiping tears that were glittering and sparkling from my cheeks. “Yes, they are all about trading favors aren't they?”

  She nodded and said, “And well deserved. The men of Neverland cowered as the fairies and mermaids went to war with the Hook. Their populations were virtually wiped out, yet they fought. So I will grant them any boon they would ask of me.”

  Amanda hopped off of Wendy's lap and walked up to Masika and when the woman bent down to her level in the chair, Mandy raised her little hands and wiped the tears off the Sea Hag's cheeks. Mandy smiled, then hopped up into her lap to give her a tight hug as she whispered the truth we had all sussed out for ourselves, that we were watching her memories, “You loved him, didn't you Titiana?”

  The woman inhaled deeply, then sighed as she hugged Mandy to her. She looked up like she could see the sky and said wistfully, “It has been so long since someone has called me that, dear child.” Then she nodded. “Ah did. Very much.”

  I said as Wendy just blinked at the realization that this woman I had thought to be just a minor goddess was actually an Elder, “Will you help us? Will you help us back to the mortal realm, and stand with us against the other Elders?”

  She cocked her head at me. “But mah darling one, you already have the means to get back home.” She nudged her chin toward the lagoon, toward the Sea Devil. Then added, “Ah am but one. They are five. The magics of the other realms are what is needed to stand beside the Avatars.”

  My Mandywolf stuck out her lower lip and gave her... well, puppy-dog eyes. Masika, or should I say Titiana? Chuckled and said as she kissed Mandy's forehead, “By all the elements child, do you practice that?” My girl beamed an overly adorable smile at her, her elongated canines touching her lower lip.

  The woman sighed and said, “Ah can give what little help ah can before you leave Neverland.”

  I shook my head. “We can't leave these people like this. We need to stop the Pan, and free the Lost Boys from his influence.” Then I furrowed my brow and asked, “Is the portal still there, in the Nothing?”

  She nodded, and I shared a smirk with Mandy as I buzzed up to Wendy's shoulder, where she adjusted her collar to shield me as I said, “We can at least stop that threat in case the Nothing ever falls. A friend of ours, the Red Hood, has taught us how to close a demon portal, and how to end the threat of a demon forever.”

  Titiana shook her head as she cuddled my girl. “Only the blood of a demon can do...” She hesitated, and a smile spread on her lips as she looked down at my girl who was beaming what she called a 'shit eating grin' up at her. The woman inclined her head in capitulation and added, “Or the blood of one cursed by magics fueled by the blood of a demon.”

  I sighed then voiced my fear. “But we are susceptible to the Pan's influence, being from the mortal realm. It was entering the envelope of magics of the Sea Devil that broke the Pan's spell upon us.”

  My old friend nodded and said with a wicked grin, “We have what we need to give you certain protections to resist his siren's call.”

  Then Mandy asked, “You said you foresaw our coming with some rocks or something? Is that how you know what's going on in the mortal realm right now?”

  Titiana nodded the white teeth of her smile a stark contrast to her glowing ebony skin. “Stones, child, not rocks.” Then she shook her head. “No, the stones just foretold that two women of power would come to end the reign of the evil of the land with Neverland's champion. I have... connections with the mortal realm. A spy as it were.”

  She pointed to a corner to where a little girl was playing with a doll, I blinked. How had we not seen her there? Then the girl stood, blurring like a ghostly apparition then reforming in front of us and I knew she was but a ghost.

  Not just a ghost but... Mandy blurted out as she hopped up to run to the girl with the excitement of youth, “Isla!” It was true, the spirit of the little matchstick girl who was the Elder's proxy in the mortal realm was here. The Elders used her to police the Scales, to be sure they didn't break any of the rules they lay down.

  The girl waved cutely from her hip, looking confused for a moment before she asked with stunned shock, “Amanda, is that you? And Robyn? What happened to... oh, the Lost Boys?” She giggled. We nodded, and Mandy engulfed her in a hug, her arms going right through the girl. Then she settled on lowering her hand to approximate holding her hand.

  I asked, “How are you here? The Nothing...”

  She shook her head and faded away then blinked back into existence. “I am but a spirit, I do not travel the roads of the living. Time and space hold no meaning to those of us who wander forever in the between of it all. Maybe one day, the Elders will allow my spirit its final rest.”

  My heart was saddened, knowing it was not any unfinished business that tethered her to reality, but the whims of the Elders. Titiana held a hand out, and Isla took it. She was solid to the hidden Elder. Then the woman kissed her cheek. “The darling one has kept me apprised of all the Elders have been doing. They forget that ah too am one of them so the little one can find me. And one day, ah will get the others to do the right thing and grant her peace. Ah cannot do it alone.”

  She hugged Isla and said, “Let the others know that the Elders are almost upon them, little one. Also, let them know that help is coming. Hopefully, it will be enough to tip the scales, and the mortal realm might live on.”

  The little girl looked around at us all then waved at us after kissing Titiana's cheek, then she was gone.

  The woman stood, looking at Mandywolf with her cute little wolf tail swishing behind her. She clapped her hands together and looked around like she was determining the next step. “First things first. Ah think it is about time that the Pan's reign of terror ends, and we rescue the dear sweet Tinkerbell.
Don't you, mah darling ones?”

  Chapter 12 – Fairies

  She led us to the front door of the cottage, and we stepped out with her as she and Wendy held Mandy's hands. I almost fell off of Wendy's shoulder when instead of stepping outside onto the garden paths, we stepped onto the main deck of the Sea Devil.

  Wendy chuckled at the shock on my and Mandywolf's face. Right... Nefertiti is Titiana, an Elder. Got it.

  The pirate said, “Takes a while to get used to that.”

  I nodded. Indeed it would. And it put things into perspective for me too. That no matter how powerful this Elder was, she was still stymied by the powers of imagination here, the reality-bending it is capable of, else she would have done away with the Pan herself and rescued Tink for Wendy, who it looked like she loved like a daughter.

  I thought on that a moment. No, it wasn't the Pan that she couldn't deal with. It was that he surrounded himself with the Lost Boys, who were in his control, that were the obstacle. And the historian I knew, would not injure innocents just to get to the person controlling them against their will.

  It made more sense to me now that I looked at it, that she was an uncorrupted Elder. Standing in the shadows and letting history play out around her while interfering as little as possible. It is a true shame that the other Elders didn't have her sensibilities.

  I glanced over to see Gerald leading the men in stowing the dory. How did that get back to the ship? Wait... I really didn't want the answer, now did I? If the pirates had looked afraid before, and talking in whispers when we arrived, they looked positively terrified now that the Sea Hag had joined us on board. You could have heard a pin drop anywhere on the ship.

  I buzzed over to the railing and landed on it to look back toward the little beach we had landed at earlier, then turned to see a puzzling sight. Wendy was standing there, in all her imposing glory, eyes a bare slit in the shadow of her hat, arms crossed over her chest as a heavy booted foot tapped the deck while she looked at Mandy expectantly.