“I can’t stay,” Petra said as she began to rise up off the ground again. “I need to check on my knight.” Just as she started to fly away Tiger reached out and grabbed Petra’s wrist, stopping her. He pulled her down towards him and Petra had been caught off-guard so in a matter of seconds their faces were inches apart.

“Thank you for rescuing me from Captain’s Hook’s clutches, Petra Pan,” Tiger’s voice was low, husky. He leaned forward and Petra’s eyes widened when she thought that Tiger might try to kiss her. But then he seemed to think better of it and placed a kiss on the top of Petra’s hand instead.

Petra blushed at the unexpected gesture and her hand was tingling slightly. That was no thimble! Tiger had always treated her like a little sister…a pesky little sister. So that’d just been weird.

Petra forced a smile on her face though. She didn’t want to hurt Tiger’s feelings after all. And now she was learning a thing or two about feelings. Bothersome things to be sure. “Anytime! Bye!” Petra said brightly before pulling her hand out of Tiger’s grip and flying off, heading towards the Lost Girls’ Forest.

Continuing to pull the floating bed behind him, Tinker descended below the trees’ thick green canopies of leaves in the Lost Girls’ Forest. Eirwen glanced around his surroundings, and noted that the forest wasn’t all that unusual. Still, the birds were definitely unique looking with glittery, glowing feathers, and the squirrels that were running along the trees’ branches had purple and blue fur.

Tinker maneuvered the bed into the center of a large clearing. Eirwen looked up and blinked. This was the Lost Girls’ forest alright. High up in the surrounding trees were tree houses. Connecting the tree houses together were wooden suspension bridges. It reminded Eirwen of the Ewok Forest from Star Wars. Except, of course, there was that feminine touch that the Lost Girls had added to their dwellings. All of the tree houses had been decorated with pretty, colorful flowers and leafy vines.

The village looked deserted until several young women began to drop down from the trees on thick, leafy vines in an impressive fashion.

The Lost Girls…well, lost women, anyways. Eirwen thought to himself wryly, as his gaze drifted down from their faces to their ample breasts. No twelve-year-old girl had breasts that big.

Most of the Lost Girls were wearing skimpy bikini tops and mini skirts made out of green or brown leather and that were decorated with fresh flowers. The girls were also wearing armor - vambraces, greaves, and some were even wearing helmets. The armor surprised Eirwen and made him think of Amazon warriors and Valkyries.

As soon as the girls’ feet touched the ground they fluidly nocked arrows to their bows and aimed at him. Eirwen glanced over his shoulder in surprise, expecting to see a giant monster standing behind him or something, but nope. There was nothing there but more trees. Those Lost Girls who weren’t wielding bows had spears pointed his way threateningly. The tips of the spears appeared to have been fashioned out of stone.

Eirwen gulped nervously. The girls surrounding him were beautiful and equally intimidating. And although they were beautiful, Eirwen noticed the dark shadows beneath their eyes and their hollow cheeks.

The haunted looks on their faces were oddly familiar. Eirwen knew that look all too well. It was the face that stared back at him in the morning ever since he’d been diagnosed with Stage 4 brain cancer.

There were six girls that stood out from the others in particular due to their flashy and colorful hairstyles and outfits. One had blonde hair, and was wearing a headband with a pair of fox ears on the top of her head. She was wearing a red leather bikini top and matching mini skirt. The blonde’s outfit was decorated with red roses. Another girl had curly, purple locks and freckles. She was wearing a purple top and matching skirt.

Two of the girls looked exactly alike and Eirwen realized they must be twins. They both had rainbow colored hair and matching outfits. One adorable girl appeared to be younger than all the others, and had bubblegum pink hair. She was wearing a pink dress decorated with daisies.

The last girl that had caught Eirwen’s attention had a bob of sky-blue hair. She was wearing a blue and black leather corset and a black leather mini skirt. She was also wearing knee boots instead of greaves and sandals like the other girls. On her head sat an ostentatious, wide-brimmed blue hat decorated with blue flowers, and a curling, black plume. She strode forward and pointed her spear at Eirwen. “Who is he?”

She was obviously addressing Tinker, but Eirwen opened his mouth to respond anyways. Unfortunately, Tinker flew in front of him and beat him to it. “I would think that would have been dreadfully obvious, Nibby. He’s a slaver. He escaped Hook’s clutches. He was going to sacrifice those two little girls in that bed over there to Tezcatlipoca!”

Nibby gasped in horror and shot Eirwen a dirty look.

“I’m a what?” Eirwen glared at Tinker as his stomach began to twist itself into knots. He met Nibby’s recriminating stare. “That’s not true. He’s lying! Those girls over there are my sisters! I would never harm them!” He gave Nibby a beseeching look, willing her to understand that apparently the mischievous fairy had it out for him.

The small pink-haired girl gave Eirwen a searching look before hesitantly speaking up, “He doesn’t look like a slaver.” She made a show of exaggeratingly looking his current outfit over.

Eirwen had nearly forgotten that he was still dressed in pj’s - a white and blue striped button down shirt, and matching pants. He was definitely feeling underdressed in that moment. At least, they hadn’t stuck him in one of those awful hospital gowns though, so it could have been worth. His ass could have been hanging out for all the girls to see.

Nibby appeared uncertain for a moment until Tinker scoffed loudly. “He’s obviously lying. As you can see he’s not an Indian and since he’s a full-grown man…that means he can only be a slaver,” Tinker continued in his matter-of-fact tone.

The Lost Girls began to murmur their agreement to Tinker’s wise words. Besides, they trusted Tinker. He’d always been the Lost Girls’ ‘guardian’ and had acted as a sort of ‘father figure’ to the girls.

In a desperate, last ditch effort to save his skin, Eirwen tried to wake up Joan and Michelle. He shook their shoulders roughly but still they would not wake. Bloody hell. He was so buggered. Hadn’t Tinker said something about how until the fairy chose to wake up the girls that they would remain asleep? Shit, shit, shit.

A sudden thought came to Eirwen. “Wait, Petra said I’m a kn-”

“Gag him!” Tinker ordered with an imperious wave of his hand.

Nibby quickly did as ordered, stuffing a rag into Eirwen’s mouth as he struggled against her futilely. She was a lot stronger than she looked. “Mmph!”

“I think he was trying to say something,” the pink-haired girl said softly, but wasn’t heard by her companions.

“Twins, take the two girls somewhere safe so that they can rest,” Tinker directed next.

“Yes, Tink!” The Twins saluted Tinker before approaching the bed. Each picked up one of Eirwen’s sisters carefully and began to carry them away.

Eirwen’s eyes flared in alarm out of worry for his sisters. “Hey! Wait! Where are you taking them?” Eirwen tried to say with the gag still in his mouth, but all that came out of his mouth were unintelligible grunts. Realizing that no one could understand him, Eirwen leapt off the bed and ran towards the Twins.

“Stop him!” Tinker called out. “That bastard is still trying to capture those poor girls!”

Nibby swung her spear at Eirwen and hit the back of his neck with the butt-end of her spear. Eirwen’s eyes rolled into the back of his head as he fell unconscious.

When Eirwen regained consciousness twenty minutes later, he discovered that he’d been hogtied to a long wooden pole that he was hanging upside down from. Okay, so the Lost Girls had definitely seen Star Wars. He felt a lot like Han Solo right now being carried off by the Ewoks for a grand feast where he was to be the main course.

Two of the Lost Girls were carrying him along through the forest. One of the girls was Nibby and the other was the blonde wearing the fox ear headband.

“Mmph!” Eirwen objected through the gag in his mouth, eyes wide with panic and alarm. Where were they taking him?

As if Tinker had read Eirwen’s mind he flew over to Eirwen and whispered in his ear, “You are going to be tossed into Merman Lagoon. Whether you drown first…or the mermen decide to eat you, remains to be seen.” A dark chuckle slipped past Tinker’s lips.

Eirwen’s eyes widened like saucers. Merman Lagoon? He remembered his great grandfather telling him about the place. Merman Lagoon was supposedly a well-concealed rock pool of dark blue water. There was a waterfall where the mermen liked to bathe beneath it. And in the center of the pool was a large rock that the mermen liked to recline on while they sharpened their wicked tridents.

Any other time, Eirwen would have been excited to get to see real live mermen and perhaps even mermaids, but…it definitely would have been under different circumstances than his present ones.

“Mmph!” No, please, no. Eirwen thought desperately, giving Tinker a beseeching look. One that the fairy completely ignored. Bloody hell. Having your flesh ripped off your bones by sharp teeth probably isn’t going to be very fun.

Eirwen noted the cruel, triumphant expression on Tinker’s face and wondered why the fairy seemed to hate him so much. What did I ever do to him? Eirwen thought grumpily.

His great grandfather’s words suddenly came to mind:

Tink was so jealous when Petra brought me to Neverland to be the Lost Girls’ father. He probably would have killed me if given the chance. I’m quite sure he was in love with Petra Pan.

That’s it! Tinker was in love with Petra! That’s why he was trying to off Eirwen. Great, just great. Eirwen let out a helpless groan. He was dealing with a jealous and murderous fairy. Weren’t fairies supposed to be friendly albeit mischievous? So much for the accuracy of children’s stories.

As they continued their way through the forest Eirwen noticed that the flowers appeared to be…alive. Well, more than just alive. The flowers were talking, singing and giggling.

Eirwen no longer thought any of this was a dream. This was definitely real and definitely happening because real life sucked. Yep, my life is cursed.

Eirwen stopped struggling and resigned himself to his fate of being eaten alive by hungry mermen. Why should he struggle? Didn’t he want to die?

When Eirwen abruptly went limp and stopped struggling the Lost Girls shot him concerned looks. “Why do you think he stopped struggling, Slightly?” Nibby asked her friend in a hushed tone so that Tinker wouldn’t overhear her.

“He’s obviously come to terms with his guilt,” Slightly replied with her nose in the air. “And has accepted his punishment as his due.”

“Oh,” Nibby said with a small frown on her face. She didn’t sound all that convinced.

When the group exited the edge of the forest they entered out onto an outcropping of rock on a cliff that overlooked Merman Lagoon. The Lost Girls carried Eirwen over to the edge of the cliff and he glanced down. He gulped at that daunting one-hundred-foot drop.

Merman Lagoon was just as his great grandfather had described with its serene pool of dark blue water and stunning cascading waterfall. There was a pebbled bank of glittering white stones and shells. The lagoon was beautiful, and not such a bad place to die, per say. A beautiful watery grave for my final resting place. Eirwen thought gloomily to himself.

“Toss him in, girls!” Tinker ordered, a gleam in his blue eyes.

Nibby hesitated at the glum look on Eirwen’s face. Her heart suddenly went out to him. “But he looks so…pathetic now.”

“He’s a slaver, Nibby,” Tinker growled, and waved his hand angrily through the air. “He deserves no mercy!”

Nibby bit into her lower lip, but eventually nodded. She looked over at Slightly, who had a quizzical eyebrow raised at her friend. Together the two girls swung Eirwen out over the edge of the cliff, and then simultaneously let go of the pole on the count of three.

Eirwen fell one hundred feet down, and landed on the water on his back with a tremendous splash. The air was knocked out of his lungs from the force of the impact. He immediately began to sink below the surface of the pool. He wondered fleetingly if he would get to see a merman or mermaid before he died, and if that would be a good thing or a bad thing.

What did it matter? What did anything matter?

Eirwen thought morosely as he closed his eyes and accepted his face.

But then Eirwen thought of Joan and Michelle.

His sisters would wake up alone on this mystical yet wild, unpredictable and dangerous island. This place…is like Hell dressed up as Paradise. Eirwen thought to himself grimly. And his sisters would be alone here with no one to protect them from whatever sinister thing was out there lurking in the woods - bloodthirsty pirates, savage Indians and strange Never-beasts. They would be…afraid.

And Tinker…Eirwen didn’t trust that fairy one bit.

Eirwen realized in that moment that he had to survive. His sisters needed him. Until my last dying breath I will protect them! Eirwen began to struggle against his bonds once more, and the ropes rubbed the skin at his wrists raw until they bled. Now there was blood in the water. That couldn’t be good.

A few seconds later, Eirwen caught sight of movement out of the corner of his eye. What’s that? Then Eirwen saw them - mermen!

The mermen had the upper body of a man and the lower body of a fish. They had odd hair colors - blue, green, and silver. All of them were wielding golden tridents with sharp, deadly points. They appeared harmless enough until they smiled at Eirwen revealing sharp, pointed teeth that reminded Eirwen of a shark.

The mermen had been circling him almost warily, but now they swam closer. One lunged his trident at Eirwen. He was about to be impaled! However-

A short blade blocked the trident’s path with a clang that seemed to vibrate through the water. What the hell? Someone had just saved him. But who could possibly be down in the depths of the lagoon with him?

Eirwen turned to see who was holding the short dagger, and saw that it was Petra Pan. Petra caught his stunned gaze and smiled at him, a fierce glint her green eyes.

Eirwen managed a weak smile. His lungs were burning. Shit. He couldn’t stop himself from opening his mouth and trying to breathe. Cold water immediately rushed into his lungs. Black spots swam in his vision. He watched numbly as Petra battled against the mermen with that tiny but wicked dagger of hers. But then Eirwen blacked out.

Eirwen didn’t get to see Petra hiss at the mermen: He’s mine!