The constant flying was helping to clear Tinkerbell's head. She decided to continue flying until she was no longer angry. It seemed like she hadn't been gone for long but, for the humans, time was passing quickly. Tinkerbell had already missed multiple days of work which translated into multiple years in the Kingdom. She was not there when the home tinkers were creating innovative new roofs for the huts that they lived in. She was also absent when the tinkers from all five fairy types got together for the Great Tinker Symposium.

The Great Tinker Symposium is a convention in which all of the tinkers come together and share their newest innovations. Had Tinkerbell attended the symposium, she would have thoroughly enjoyed herself. The human tinkers showed off a new vase that induced precipitation in order to keep flowers alive longer. This invention upset the plant tinkers who had a strong disdain for the action of ripping plants out of the ground and leaving them to slowly die on a kitchen table, which served no practical purpose.

After fully conveying their dislike for the creation of the human tinkers, the plant tinkers showed off their own invention. It was a genetically engineered oak tree that was toxic to any bugs or animals that tried to penetrate the bark. The plant tinkers boasted that not only could the trees withstand any bug attack while living; but if used for building houses, the wood would be a natural pest deterrent. Upset animal tinkers started to yell that it was inhumane to breed plants that are toxic to animals. When the animal tinkers demanded that the plant tinkers destroy the only prototype of the toxic oak, the plant tinkers immediately refused.

It was no surprise that the plant tinkers refused to destroy the oak. Much like trees, plant fairies are slow to change and always stand their ground. In other words, they are stubborn. Animal fairies, on the other hand, are notorious for being primal in nature. They become angry easily and often get physical when upset. These personality traits made for a volatile mixture every year at the symposium.

This particular year, with the added stress factor of the toxic tree, the mixture exploded. Many of the animal tinkers began asserting their physical dominance over the plant tinkers in order to get them to change their minds. The plant tinkers, who had no intention of changing their minds, had no choice but to also resort to violence. Thus, an all out brawl ensued. Indecisiveness took hold of the weather tinkers as some sided with the plant tinkers and others with the animal tinkers. The wishy washy nature of weather fairies often left them incapable of agreeing with each other. Some of the weather fairies even switched sides in the middle of the fight.

Home fairies tend to be calm in tense situations, so most of the home tinkers just sat back quietly and watched the fighting. And, of course, there were the human fairies. Similar to how the humans grew to dislike the fairies in the ancient stories; human fairies have a slight dislike for the other fairy types. They wear human clothes and live in human style houses which gives them a sense of righteousness over the other fairies. Not amused by the arguing, the human fairies took to the sky to watch from above and judge the other fairies.

Had Tinkerbell been there, she would have enjoyed making bets with the other home tinkers on who would win the fight. Tinkerelias was notably lackluster without Tinkerbell by his side. He was the only home fairy that didn't place an official bet with Tinkerslay. The fight eventually ended with no clear winner. Watching from above had become boring for the human tinkers, so they flew off. Both the animal tinkers and the plant tinkers had declared themselves the winners which caused sufficient confusion among the weather tinkers. Because the symposium was hosted in the home fairy village this year, the home tinkers stayed behind to clean up after everyone was gone. As he cleaned, Tinkerelias thought about Tinkerbell. He wondered where she was, what she was doing, and when she would return.

Tinkerbell was tired of flying. She looked around to see that she had reached the Tree of Life. The shade created by the tree was a welcome sight. She landed at the base of the tree and decided to take a short nap.

Her dream snuck up on her so slowly that she believed she was still awake. Tinkerelias appeared before her. He was screaming at her and motioning for her to run toward him. It was uncommon for Tinkerelias to overreact to a situation, so Tinkerbell knew something must be seriously wrong. She tried to run to him, but her feet wouldn't move. From behind, she felt someone approaching. She turned to see an enormous shadowy figure. Tinkerbell tried to run, but was still frozen in place. The figure fell in front of her and curled into the fetal position.

There was no face on the figure, nor any other discerning characteristics. Tinkerbell could see, however, that the shadow was of a human child. As the child lay motionless before her, she felt the invisible restraints loosen their hold on her. With her feet free, she was able to move however she wanted. Her brain immediately told her to turn and run toward Tinkerelias, but her heart had different intentions. She felt a tugging from deep in her chest. It was pulling her toward the fallen child. She slowly moved toward the shadowy human figure while Tinkerelias screamed louder for her to stop.

As she reached the shadow, she raised her hand to touch the spot where his cheek should be. Suddenly, the ground started to shake violently beneath her. The shaking, however, was not part of her dream. Boom, she was jolted awake by the sound of cannon fire followed by more shaking of the earth. Tinkerbell had heard rumors of this occurrence, but had never experienced it firsthand. It was Hook and his men.

The rumors stated that the pirates had become so good at their job that no human could cross into Neverland. Although this was the goal they were after, it left the pirates bored. Cannon fire was the signal the pirates used to inform all of Neverland that they had captured an invading human. This sound was stuff of legend to Tinkerbell, because it had been many fairy years since there had been a human sighted in Neverland. The last sighting had been of a group of Native Americans who found Neverland by accident while searching for food. It is said that the pirates disposed of the invaders after a great battle and the air was thick with the sound of cannons for many days after. Curiosity got the best of Tinkerbell, as it often did, and she flew off in the direction of the booming noise.

She found the edge of the Great Lake with relative ease. Off in the distance, she could see the outline of the vast pirate ship. It was a menacing sight, but she flew toward it anyway. The air thickened as she got closer to the ship. Smoke from the cannon stung her eyes and blurred her vision. She could, however, make out the faint outline of a person tied to the mast of the ship. Tinkerbell had heard about this. The pirates' main method of punishment was the plank. They would capture the humans and tie them to the mast while they prepared the plank. After the wooden board had been placed on the side of the ship, the pirates forced their prisoners to jump off of it. The humans were either eaten by the crocodiles or forced to swim back to the Kingdom with the crocodiles on their heels.

The air started to clear and Tinkerbell took a better look at the prisoner. She gasped as she saw a small boy tied up on the ship. On closer inspection, she saw that the boy was beaten and bruised. His shaggy red hair lay flaccid on his head and his clothes were nothing but rags. Tinkerbell couldn't believe that a mere child had found his way into Neverland. He couldn't have been more than ten human years old. Without realizing it, Tinkerbell had flown close enough to the boy's face to touch it. His face was dirty and tears moistened his cheeks. Tinkerbell touched his cheek with one finger, too light for him to notice. It was so cold that Tinkerbell feared death had already taken the boy. Tears started to stream down her own face and she quickly removed her hand from the freezing child.

"Boy!" said a voice from behind Tinkerbell. The sound hit her like a brick wall, knocking her on to the deck of the ship. She immediately covered her ears as she rolled back and forth on the wooden panels. Out of fear that the person would speak again, Tinkerbell gathered all of her strength and flew into the air. She wasn't sure how high she needed to fly to escape the thunderous sound of the human's voice. Finally, she stopped after ascending high enough that the people below looked like ants. From this height, however, her sensitive ears could still hear everything they were saying.

"What is your name, Boy?" asked the pirate, who Tinkerbell assumed to be Hook.

"P-P-P-Peter Pan" answered the small boy.

"Well, Peter Pan, you picked the wrong land to invade. Now, walk the plank!" As soon as these words left the pirate leader's lips, his men descended upon the small boy. They cut the ropes which bound him to the mast, and carried him to the plank. They forced the boy to walk to the edge of the plank. A retreat was made impossible by a stout pirate who was holding a sword to the poor boy's back.