I land face first on to something dreadfully hard, skidding forward. I peel myself off the ground, looking up and turning around. I am on a bridge. I am on the bridge. The bridge, that exists, and not the cold dark ground of the ravine.

I look behind me. Johnny is sprawled behind me, his shirt ripped to shreds. Red everywhere. He turns onto his front, groaning. I look at the edge of the ravine. The tiger is pacing back and forth at the edge. It can't see the bridge.

"You dumb tiger," I laugh. "Filthy little beast aren't you?"

Groaning, Johnny stands up.

I run up to Johnny and hug him. "How is your back?"

He cocks an eyebrow at me. "It was sore from the landing but it feels fine now."

"What?" I ask, turning him around.

His shirt is ripped everywhere, from what I can assume is the tiger's claws, but there is not a single cut on his body.

"What do you mean what?" He asks pushing past me and jogging forward. "I landed funny after the jump and it hurt. But after your hug helped straighten out my back and now I feel awesome."

The bridge ends, and I hop off it, just after him. "You got lucky, not a scratch."

He whoops loudly and jumps in a circle, cheering into the woods.

"Would you shut up?" I demand. "We aren't here to dally about and celebrate over you not being mauled by a tiger. We are only here for one thing; a boar. Now if you'd please-"

He shushes me. "Look, you need to shut up if we have any chance of catching a boar."

I roll my eyes.

He runs away from the ravine and deeper into the forest. I follow him, not wanting to get lost alone in the dark.

He sprints ahead of me, too fast for me to keep up. Thankfully Johnny is very clumsy; he repeatedly rips over logs and bashes into tree branches slowing him down in the process. We reach a clearing.

Johnny bends down into the grass, gesturing for me to do the same. I lay down beside him, looking ahead. There is a boar standing just ahead of us, its face is buried in the ground, sniffing along. The boar is long and quite hairy, much more than I had thought. It has a mixture of black and brown hairs all over its body.

Johnny reaches down and grabs what appears to be a knife from the belt he is wearing. It came from nowhere, the knife, completely masked by the foreign clothes Johnny is wearing. Johnny stands, rustling the long grass as he does. He throws the knife, missing the boar by a foot. The boar begins to run and he sprints off after it.

"Wait here," he shouts back at me, sprinting off deep into the forest.

I roll my eyes and stand up, deciding against listening to him. I brush the dirt off myself and begin to jog into the forest. It's then that I realise my hood fell down on the bridge. I pull up my hood, cursing my hair as I run. The hat managed to stay on though; I guess it is the perfect fit.

I hear the loud whooping of what I can only assume is Johnny having killed the boar. I chuckle, and continue jogging towards the sound. Suddenly, the whooping is cut off. I stop in my tracks, wide eyed, peering around. I jog forward a bit more. Looking around for him. Listening for him.

"Johnny," I yell, trying to keep my voice down.

I jog forward a bit more. After the first few steps I break out into a run.

"Johnny!" I yell. "Johnny!"

I crash through tree branches and trip over logs. I turn to the left and continue running. No Johnny in sight. No boar either. No blood, thankfully. I run and run, not stopping, for what seems like an hour, but can only be twenty minutes. I run into the middle of a clearing, panting. I collapse onto the ground.

"Johnny!" I wail one final time.

Suddenly I hear a loud banging from beside me. I look over to see a branch having fallen from a tree at the edge of the clearing. I look up into the tree and see the shadow of someone. Who the shadow belongs to, I have no idea. They hop down from the tree, landing on the ground with their hood still up, covering their face. They walk over towards me, spear in hand. They take their hood down, revealing it to be the boy from earlier who beat up Johnny. I've already forgotten his name.

"Hey Harry," the boy yells smirking. "We've got company."

I hear nothing except silence as the boy continues to stare at me. I look over and notice another boy emerging from the woods. He walks over to me, tripping and falling but quickly recovering, then sticking out his hand.

"I'm Harry," the second boy smiles, his thick British accent coming through. "You're a New?"

I nod and shake his hand. "They call me Charlie."

"This," he says gesturing to the boy from the tree, "is Alex."

"I suppose I should be friendly too," Alex grumbles, glaring at Harry. He reluctantly sticks his hand out to me and I shake it.

It's too dark to actually make out anything from their appearance, but Alex seems to be much taller than Harry.

"Nice to meet you both," I shuffle awkwardly, "but I'm looking for a friend of mine. He disappeared, somewhere over here."

"I missed first kill," Alex groans.

"First kill?" I ask.

"Once you shoot the boar, you touch it. That transports you and the boar back to the starting point." Harry clarifies.

"What'd you think," Alex ask, incredulous, "you'd lug back a humongous boar to the starting point? It probably weighs twice what you do."

"So, who chose you?" Harry asks me, sidetracking from Alex.

"Chose me? Like, to be here?" I stutter realizing the boy never said his name.

"It probably was Felix, wasn't it?" Alex laughs, sitting on the ground.

"Blond hair, big scar on his face?" Harry pushes.

"I think," I say, a little bit overwhelmed by their back and forth questions. "Couldn't really see his face."

Harry's face becomes sullen. He nods, taking in a deep breath. "Do you know how to use that?"

"Use what?" I ask.

"The bow and arrow," he clarifies, "do you know how to use it?"

"I went to summer camp once," I reply. "We used them there, so I get the gist. I'm pretty sure that if I pull the bow a certain way I could get glass in my hand."

Alex stops ripping out the grass by the handful and looks up at me but doesn't say anything. His eyes seem to glare right through me. I resist the urge to punch him.

"I'll explain later," Harry tells him. Harry turns to me. "The ones on Neverland don't have glass in them. Really, it's just cock the arrow and then shoot."

I sigh. "I have pretty bad aim. I have a dagger."

"I doubt you'd be able to catch a boar to be able to stab it anyway," Alex says.

Harry rolls his eyes. "As rude as Alex is being, he's right. Boars are pretty fast. Not to mention they weigh probably twice what you do. How much do you weigh?"

He sounds like a broken record; he's already told me boars weigh twice what I do.

"I'm not too sure. 120 pounds maybe? That seems to be about right." I answer.

Harry sighs. "You Yankees and your weird measurements. Alex?"

"54 kilograms," Alex spits out, not looking up from the grass.

My eyes widen. "Did he just..."

"I did." Alex says, still looking away.

"Anyway, you should practice." Harry says.

"Practice conversion?" I question.

"No with your bow and arrows." Harry groans. "Am I really this hard to follow Al?"

"No, it's just him." Alex answers.

"Anyway," Harry says. "Bow and arrow. Shooting. Pull it out."

I take the bow off of me and reach back, grabbing an arrow out of the quiver, stumbling slightly as I reach for the arrow. I hold up the bow in front of me, and knock the arrow into place. The arrow rests on the top of a little notch on the bow. I pull it back using the string. I look over at Harry.

"Shoot the tree," he says, pointing at the tree which Alex came down from.

I breathe out, pulling back the string a little more, than letting it go. The arrow pops out, falling a few feet in front of the tree. The tree was only about 15 feet away to begin with.

"Alright, alright not bad." Harry tells me. "Shoot another. Aim a little higher. It went straight to the ground because you aimed to low."

I sigh and jog forward. I pick up the arrow and head back to where Harry stands. Raising the bow, I knock the arrow into place. I lift up the bow, this time aiming higher. I close one eye, making sure it's aimed at the tree. I pull back the string, tighten my posture. I release the string, sending the arrow flying forward. It's at the right height this time, but goes flying to the left of the tree.

"Okay, okay." Harry pauses. "Alright, both eyes open this time. You had great posture when you shot the arrow, keep your body like that the whole time. Aim after you've pulled the string back."

I hear a sigh from behind me. Alex. "Harry, do we have to do this? It's quarter."

"Quarter?" I repeat.

"Yes quarter," Alex says. "Meaning a quarter of the time has passed. It's been an hour and a half."

"Has it already?" Harry asks. "Man, time flies."

"How did you know that?" I ask.

"Because I'm not a plunter." Alex answers. "Anyway, we should get going Harry."

"Are you saying we should leave him?" Harry scoffs.

"What's a plunter?" I ask

"Is that a bad idea?" Alex ignores me.

"You want to leave him?" Harry asks, looking betrayed. "We aren't leaving him. Did you leave me when I was the dumb New? No you didn't."

"Well that was different." Alex sighs, rubbing his neck. "You were the first 'dumb' New, and you certainly weren't dumb at all. Being picked New didn't happen back then."

"Oh, so since it happens now that means we shouldn't help?" Harry counters.

"What's wrong with being picked and a New?" I ask.

Harry's face goes pale. He attempts to smile, but I can tell it's a fake smile. He gulps. "You see... when we play... when Pan and-"

"Quit being a girl about it." Alex rolls his eyes, turning to me. "News get picked because it's funny to watch them struggle then die. You were chosen by Felix because watching people die is fun. At least, the most fun he gets on this island. You are in the Night Hunt, because you look like the weakest link, which means you are expendable."

"Don't be so rude." Harry interrupts, his voice quiet.

"No one wants to train someone who will just die anyway." Alex continues despite Harry's protests. "It's a waste of time and resources. You're tonight's entertainment."

I look at Alex, who just smirks at me. I exhale, glaring at him. I turn to the tree and pull an arrow out of my quiver. Notching it in place, I raise the bow. I aim and release, sending the arrow into the tree. It lands in a branch. Not quite in the center, but I'm not complaining. I turn back to Alex.

"I may have been picked to die, but so have those dumb boars. And I think that in the next four hours I can certainly outsmart one." I growl.

Harry smiles. "Alex, he'll do fine. Let's go."

He turns around and jogs off in to the woods, Alex in tow. I decide to follow them. They pick up the pace, running through the forest. The grass continues to get higher the father into the woods we get. I assume it's farther anyway; I don't have any sense of direction.

Harry and Alex stop running, giving me the chance to catch up. I look forward and can see the slight movement of the boar, through the thigh-high grass. I look at Alex and Harry. Alex's smirk dominates his face. Harry nods to him, gesturing to the boar. Alex throws his spear at the boar. I hear the squeal of the boar.

Alex runs up ahead to where the boar lies. "See you back there Harry. It's third through. Remember the time."

With one final wink, Alex touches the boar. He's engulfed in a sparkling green smoke. The smoke clears and he and the boar are gone without a trace.

"So it's you and I." Harry smiles at me. He suddenly frowns and squats down below the grass. He yanks me down with him. He puts a finger up to his lips. He looks over to the left. His brow furrows and he begins bouncing up and down. Suddenly he pops up.

"This way," he says, gesturing to the right of where we stand.

I follow him through the forest. After a few minutes of jogging I smell it. I smell shit. Harry stops running abruptly and I bump into him.

"It's crap," he says pausing.

In front of us is a colossal pile of what I assume is boar crap. I don't use the word colossal lightly either. The pile is nearly as high as my ribcage, and is about five feet long. It reeks. I can see the smell.

God, this reminds me of the days before we discovered my sister's lactose intolerance.

"Why they would crap in a massive pile like that, I have no clue." Harry continues. "But I can only assume one is nearby."

He climbs up into a tree, disappearing among the leaves. He pops back down.

"There's three over that way." He tells me, pointing.

We jog off in that direction. I let him take the lead again. He stops jogging, grabbing my arm to pull me back.

"There," he murmured. "You see the boars?"

I look over. There are three boars, all in a row, sniffing about. They are massive. Massive like a couch, massive. Massive like I'm not surprised they shat all that out into a pile, massive. Massive like they could eat me alive, massive. Massive like they could swallow me whole, massive.

I look over at Harry, raising my eyebrows. "You want me to shoot one of those things?"

"Don't be such a wuss," he rolls his eyes.

"I'd like to see you try and kill one," I hiss.

He nudges me, gesturing towards the boars. I give up on arguing. I take off my bow and notch an arrow onto it. I aim, closing one eye, at the boar closest to me.

"Keep your eyes open," Harry breathes. "Aim a little more to the left."

I readjust myself, then fire. The arrow lands in the shoulder of the boar to the right of the one I was aiming for. I guess I didn't move far enough left. The boar squeals loudly and collapses. The other two boars screech and run away. Harry leaps in to action. He pulls a knife out from his belt and whips it at the boar. The blade hits its head straight on, and the boar collapses.

I guess my surprise is showing on my face, because Harry looks at me and smiles, "I sharpened Gertrude this morning, when Pan selected me."

"Gertrude?" I chuckle. "That's what you call your knife?"

He looks at me, completely seriously. "You come to my house, on the day of the hunt, and insult Gertrude."

He smiles. "I'm just messing. Now kill that boar."

He touches his boar and disappears in the green cloud of smoke.

I look down at the boar. I pull the arrow out of its holder, putting the arrow in the sheath, deciding I'll clean it later. I grab the dagger from my cloak. Shaking, I roll the boar onto its back. I plunge the dagger into its stomach. It makes one last exasperated squeal, before it dies. I release a breath I didn't know I was holding. I place my hand on the boar, and watch the green smoke engulf me and the boar.

~~~~~~~

Hey would you look at that. I'm maintaining a streak. Thanks for sticking around this long, there's more where it's coming from. And don't worry, Charlie will interact more with Pan soon enough.

Please leave me your thoughts. If you loved it, hated it, I'd love to know so I know what I can do moving forward.

You are the best, thanks.