When Harry awoke, he immediately rolled onto his side and vomited. Ugh, he wasn't sure he could even get up. He groaned and tried to pull himself upright and his vision started spinning. He stumbled sideways and caught himself on a tree. Good. Okay. Upright. Now what?

It was dark outside, but he could make out the lumped figures on the ground. He saw a slow stream of blood coming from a pile of what looked like perhaps six bodies, and came to a sudden awful realisation. Robert had never said anything about the others. He had said Hook and Pan wouldn't die, but he had never said if that was the norm in Neverland. Harry was starting to think not...and if that was the case, then...what had he just done?

Had he and his crew just killed a bunch of innocent children? Bloody hell, did he even have a crew anymore?

"Captain," a voice called from behind him and Harry whirled around.

His first mate was walking quickly up the beach to the trees where he was standing.

"Are any of the others around?"

"All dead, sir, but I found something interesting. You'll want to come have a look-see."

Harry gently pushed himself off of the tree. He seemed alright, so he followed Smee down to the water.

A small dinghy was pulled up on the sand and when Harry looked closer he saw three figures inside. They barely looked alive, and yet they looked...it was his old crew! The ones who had abandoned his exploring expedition. There were only three left, then. Harry shuddered to think what happened to the rest.

"Well? Let's help them out. These are some of my old crew, must've been floating around lost like me."

Smee shrugged and started to pull the bodies one by one off of the floor of the dinghy and onto the sand.

~*~

Louis was thinking about the new Hook again.

This bothered him particularly, because Louis didn't usually think of anything. Especially not anyone. The only things his mind was usually filled with were new ways to have fun and what he wanted to eat next. Well, until Wendy. She had been so new, and exciting that he did think of her quite a bit. She intrigued him more than just a passing fancy as most things were to him. Then again, when the new Hook appeared, he had started forgetting more about Wendy.

Either way, he didn't like how much Harry ⁠— Hook, he corrected himself ⁠— was occupying his thoughts. Louis knew he was somewhat selfish, but he liked it that way. He didn't need to be wasting time pondering something that wasn't amusing or edible.

~*~

Harry had recovered fairly quickly after Robert had saved him (most likely due to Neverland's help), but his new crew was still half dead. It had been maybe four days, and they were hardly able to sit up. They couldn't even keep down the watered-down gruel Harry had tried to give each of them. It was frustrating.

What, exactly, was the most feared pirate of Neverland supposed to do without a crew? What was intimidating about him now? Harry left the ship in an irritated huff. He decided to walk around the far half of the island, which he hadn't seen yet. He started out stalking through the forest to let out his frustration, but quickly stopped. He felt silly trying to be intimidating, even just to the little songbirds and squirrels. Harry had simply not been made to be an angry or scary person.

He had been made to be a baker, he thought. He should have just continued through with the apprenticeship under his father, but no, he had to be childishly naïve and run away to be an explorer. Well he certainly hadn't thought that through ⁠— otherwise he wouldn't be in this mess at all. Sure, baking was boring, mundane work, but he wasn't sure why he had thought he could find his way to South America if he got lost on his way home from the open market.

Harry looked up to discover that he had somehow walked near the edge of a lagoon. It was a beautiful, sparkling blue, with colourful blooming flowers covering the banks. There were large moss-covered rocks in one side of the water, and on them ⁠— were those ⁠— mermaids?

As Harry gasped in wonderment, the three mermaids looked over and saw him. They started giggling, and Harry walked forward as if in a trance. He had thought nothing about Neverland could shock him anymore, but there were mermaids. He continued forward, trying to get a better up-close look, when he was startled (so much he nearly let out a very unHook-like scream) by a pair of arms lightly circling his neck and a voice whispering in his ear.

"You'll want to watch out for the mermaids. If you go over, they'll entrance you and you'll never leave until you die of starvation and thirst."

The soft breath and the brief brushing of lips against his ear tickled, and it took Harry a moment to process what had been said.

"What?"

He turned and the arms were gone. He saw, instead, a very wet Pan pulling on his clothes.

"Pan? What on earth are you doing?"

"Besides helping you? I was having a swim before you interrupted by foolishly trying to die by mermaid. And we're not on Earth. Honestly, the things you don't know." Louis shook out his hair in a fashion not entirely dissimilar to a dog.

"Did warning me really require scaring the socks off me by sneaking up?"

Louis swooped down to peer at Harry's boots speculatively up close.

"Really? Where did they go? Your boots are still on."

Harry was briefly confused before he sighed.

"It's just a turn of speech."

"Well it doesn't seem like a very good one if it makes no sense," Louis sniffed and flipped back away from Harry, lowering his voice, "and anyway, I couldn't have them hearing me tell you their secrets. You can't imagine they'd be very happy about that, as it is already, well..." he gestured toward the mermaids on the rock, who sat pouting and glaring at Louis.

"Why did you help me at all? I thought you said we were supposed to be sworn enemies?"

Louis frowned. He had been asking himself the same thing, and he really wasn't sure. He knew he was supposed to fight Hook, wanted to fight Hook. But when he had looked up and saw Harry walking toward the mermaids, he had only felt exasperation, and had just unthinkingly flown up to save him. Something about how new Harry was to this world, and how naïve he was, well it just made Louis want to warn him ⁠— to fix it and tell him about all of the dangers out there so he would know. And besides, wasn't Louis supposed to be the one defeating Hook? Yes, that was a rather good reason, if he did say so himself.

"I'm supposed to be the one defeating you. It's hardly fair if something else kills you. Then where's my satisfaction, hmm?" he answered Harry finally.

"Okay then, what are these? Are they safe?"

Louis looked over to see him pointing down at some particularly cute water nymphs and smiled.

"Yeah, those are water nymphs. They're great fun to play with."

"Nymphs? Are those like fairies? Ro⁠— the old Hook said you were a friend of the fairies."

"No, nymphs are their own thing, I think. And I don't know about fairies, but I'm alright with the pixies, I guess. I have Tink, and she's a pixie. I would never be able to fly if I was only friends with the fairies, they're selfish, cold little buggers. Pixies are much friendlier, if a bit annoying."

Harry was in awe. He could talk about nymphs and mermaids and pixies and fairies ⁠— and all with such a casual manner. The fact that these things were real was enough to stun Harry into temporary silence. He was amazed that things like this could be so apparently normal to someone like Pan.

"Tink?" Harry finally thought to ask, "Who is she?"

"My friend, I guess. She follows me around quite a bit and helps me out. Always trying to get me to talk though."

"Hmm," so that was why Pan could fly. He had a pixie friend...but how did she help him fly? "I still don't understand how you can fly, though."

Louis looked at him as if he were crazy.

"Pixie dust, of course. Just a little faith, trust, and pixie dust is all you need, really. Anyway, don't let this make you think we're not still fighting. This is an eternal battle we've got going on here," Louis ended sharply.

"A⁠— alright then. Should I leave now?"

"Unless you want my blade in your neck, I'd suggest it," Louis said threateningly, internally shaking his head that he'd briefly forgotten they were fighting. They weren't supposed to casually talk, and he shouldn't have shared the secret of how he could fly. He had just been so amazed that Harry didn't know, and Harry was interesting and easy to talk to. He needed to stop forgetting so often, it would damage his reputation.

He watched as Harry scampered off in fear at his sudden change in mood, and sighed. He leaned down to pet a few nymphs on the head, but quickly straightened up, saluted the mermaids, and flew back across the island to the camp of the Lost Boys. He was a little reluctant, as several of the newest recruits he'd picked up were rather obnoxious and whiny, but he thought it best since the sun was setting soon anyway.