Youth Is Forever

"Neverland," I whispered. This place had to be a dream, right? This couldn't be real. I closed my eyes, trying to make myself appear back in my warm bed at our family's estate. I tried to make myself vanish from this horrid place so I could be back with my family and friends- laughing and joking, living without a care in the world. When I opened my eyes, I was still on the Jolly Roger.

"The greatest place on this Earth. Land of no worries and endless pleasure."

"So you invade our house in the middle of the night, blindfold us on some flying ship, make us sleep in a small room- just so you could bring us to some tropical paradise?" I pondered this. A paradise. Hardly seemed so, what with all the dark essence it gave off. Why would somebody take you from your home in the middle of the night, just to take you on a vacation?

"Yes."

"Lies!" I yelled without thinking. James bit his lip, but ignored me. I shrugged. It was the usual reaction to my outbursts.

"You will stay here forever and have and do whatever you please, but I did bring you here for a reason."

"That being?" John asked, stepping forward, standing in front of me and James. His lips were pursed and his eyes reflected his anger and outrage to be here. They also showed his awe and wonder.

"I would not know. I get my orders from Pan."

"Pan? As in the Greek God of the Wild?" Wendy asked, also stepping over to us. It was a perfectly logical question in this situation. A wild paradise could mean that there was the great God Pan here. I did read the Percy Jackson series, so it wasn't completely irrational.

"Not exactly." Is all James said.

"Who is Pan?" I asked. This question had been preying on my brains for at least the last twenty seconds and I just had to ask.

"The King of Neverland, not to mention the fairies."

"What about the fairies?" Wendy asked.

"He's also the King of Fairies." James smiled as if talking about his king gave him happiness. He must be a good king, I thought. Then, my thoughts switched to fairies. Did this delusional bastard really believe in fairies? Then, off to my left, the flickering lights started to move from tree to tree again. Those can't possibly be fairies, can they?

"Insanity must be the leading cause of death around here, is it not?" John laughed.

"Actually," James started. "It's drowning."

"Oh my," Wendy gasped. At first we thought that the gasp was for James' comment. Then, we looked past the ship to see what she did. A large, crocodile was skimming over the water. The crocodile was a sickly green and had two rows of razor like teeth. It's large eyes were staring right at us, but something about the reptile was off. "Is that a-"

"Yes, but he's completely harmless. The thing has never tasted meat in his entire life! I've raise him since he was a baby crocodile and he's been helping guard Neverland along with the rest of Pan's Knights."

"That's rather odd," John remarked.

"Odd? That's all you can say? Honestly John, we're in some neurotic paradise with a vegetarian crocodile, fairies, and the leading cause of death is drowning. Not to mention that fact that we were kidnapped and flown here on a flying ship and all you can say call this place is odd?"

"Michael, don't start now." Wendy then turned to James once more, her eyes full of interest. "When do we get to go home?"

"Hate to say it, but that's up to Pan."

"For crying out loud!" I yelled. "Can we meet this mysterious frying Pan and get on with our lives?"



As soon as we got off the ship, we made our way into the dark, scary looking forest. Okay, so scary isn't the best adjective I could use to describe the forest. Perhaps I could use terrifying or even frightening. The air outside the forest was dark and fog-like. James informed us of a volcano that was hidden on the island and it often let out plumes of sulfur. It was harmless, but quite annoying.

We pushed and shoved overgrown vegetation out of our path, following James the entire time. Something about being led through the forest of some weird dreamland so you can meet a king who would decide your fate is kind of horrifying. We must have been walking for half an hour before we stumbled out of the forest.

"My feet hurt." I started to complain, my voice becoming nasally and annoying. James turned to me and shook his head. "What?" He held a finger to his pale lips before answering.

"Be quiet! The Natives will hear us! They are not so fond of us."

"The Natives?" John inquired.

"The Indians who inhabited Neverland before us, and even before Pan. We took over the land and they've hated us ever since." I yawned. History was never my thing. James pointed out and the distance, my gaze following his arm. It was that large mountain I had seen before. Note to self, Neverland does not have practical distances, I thought. The mountain was rough and rigid, but at the top I could make out the dark outlining of a building- a castle? "We're almost there."

We walked around to what I considered the front of the mountain. Long, cracked and silver stairs lead to the top of the mountain and to the building. We started to climbing and about half way up the stairs, the building came into view. I had been right, it was a castle. The castle rose to the sky, it's bricks dark and gray. On each side of the castle were towers and along the top was a wall were more knights stood, probably to guard the castle. Each knight was armed with a bow, quiver, and sword.

"This is where Pan lives?" Wendy asked, her dark hair falling into her eyes. James just nodded and led us even farther up the stairs. Eventually, we came to the castle's entrance. Suddenly, I felt light and happy inside. I felt like a child who'd been given candy after their mother told them no. James knocked on the large double doors and they opened- by themselves. We all pressed forward, totally amazed by the castle. The inside was not what I expected at all. Along the room were eight door ways, four on each side. But, in the spaces between these doors were huge, spiral staircases that lead to the ceiling, across the room, and into walls. They really didn't make any sense to me, but I didn't question it. In front of us stretched a long red carpet the even ran along a short stair case at the end of the hall. The staircase lead to a tiny stage-like center.

"Whoa." I whispered. Upon the stage was a large, green cushioned throne. Upon the throne sat a boy no older than me. He was tall and lanky, his bright green eyes filled with boredom. He had fire red hair and his cheeks were lined with freckles. This boy wore a green hoodie on top of a white tee shirt and faded jeans. His eyes flickered as we drew near, his pink lips curling into a mischievous smile. "Is this-"

"This is our king. This is Pan."