The camp was neither noisy or quiet, Mara smelt something like cooked meat, the Lost Boys scattered around the camp, there were about five or six tents that weren't neatly done. The Lost Boys were either eating, strolling around camp, sitting or sharpening their weapons.

Of course, every boy gazed at the only girl in the camp when she was once spotted. Mara was immediately annoyed by all the stares. The chattering continued, the noises remained while half of them still looked at the girl. "So, this is the camp" the boy, James started, who was guiding her for the day or at least until Peter Pan comes back, "It's where we eat and rest. It has always been like this, at least since I arrived"

He lead her around camp until he stopped by a table which was made of bamboo and had multiple strings that stuck the bamboos together. There was a sullen looking boy sitting on the table, carving a stick, Mara was sure the boy wasn't making a weapon.

"This is Slightly" said James, gesturing at the sullen boy while James was preparing something on the table. The boy, who is called Slightly looked tall, his legs dangling front to back as kicking as if he were bored. Short greasy black-brown hair, wearing dark wooly garbs that were mostly dark brown. He didn't look up, he seemed deeply focused on whatever he was carving, or he was only ignoring them both. "Here--"

James nudged Mara's arm, getting her attention from Slightly, and had given her a plate of food. It was some sort of a meat, she couldn't tell what it was, she couldn't remember the last time she ate but she remembered red berries she had during the hunt yesterday.

They moved along around camp, "Slightly doesn't talk much, you can tell that he's the saddest looking Lost Boy in Neverland" James's voice was low, Mara glanced back over her shoulder to look at the boy again. Yes, he was sad looking. "This is Tootles" Mara shifted her head front, and James raised his hand a little at the boy on their right, sitting on a log and eating.

Like Slightly, he didn't gazed up. A shy looking boy kept his head down, a chestnut thick haired boy, wearing dark shade of green all over, even his cloak was dark green and he bore a tomahawk that tucked into his belt.

"You'll like him for sure, but he's quite shy right now because of you, he has never been this close to a girl before" James laughed through his nose.

"And you have?" Mara said as he stepped away from the shy boy.

James didn't speak for a moment, "I know it may seem that you're the only girl on the island but believe me, you're not"

Mara's brows lowered in confusion as he looked at James. "So, you and the Lost Boys aren't the only inhabitants here on the island?"

James shook his head lightly, "We'll get to that later, or Pan will tell you all about it"

They mainly walked around camp, Mara learnt the boy who attacked her yesterday is name Nibs before she fell unconscious which ended their hunting game. Nibs had a merciless and fierce in his look. Pan's right hand boy, the first boy who had spoken to her on her first arrival was name Felix, James was Pan's left hand boy, it is what Mara calls them. The youngest she had ever seen was Thomas, she knew she was taller than him, younger than the Lost Boys but James said that Thomas is the fiercest and toughest Lost Boy despite his age or his height but he was quick and he was one of Pan's favorite.

Then there was Rufio, a dark-skinned boy who nearly shot Mara yesterday at the river, James said Rufio was sometimes kind but Mara doubt that very much. There was twins, they weren't identical at all, but their heights, jet black hair, personality were the only similar things they shared, there was Twin One, a slender one with brown eyes who never knew his real name and Pan nicknamed him Twin One. Twin Two was the built looking one, a blue eyed boy, Twin was his real name until Pan named him 'Twin Two'.

An older looking boy she had seen was probably Curly, a yellow and curly haired, he had this kind smile when she saw him smiling and laughing with Rufio. And last name she remembered was Ace, a handsome looking boy who looked roughly same age as Curly. Mara could've sworn she saw Ace smiling at her, she wouldn't describe the smile kind or sweet but it was as if she were his prey.

There were more names of the rest of the boys James told her but she couldn't remember them, there were too many. Felix announced that today was training and it was time to head to the training grounds.

There hasn't been any impression of this place so far, Mara hated the fact that she was stuck on this island, an island where no child grows up. Never growing up, stay young forever, stay in seventeenth year forever does seem nice to Mara, any man would desire that so much of staying young or any person who is afraid of dying but it wasn't her desire.

The stroll to the training grounds wasn't much of a long walk but the trail was a bit harsh, she stayed at the very behind the boys as she followed them and remained behind James. The boys talked and snickered all the way to the training grounds.

Would she have to train too? She wondered, she knew wasn't best fighter or shooter. Who knows how long these boys have been training and who knows how long they've been out here. She recalled what Killian had warned the pirates about the Lost Boys, they had wield a sword for so long and longer than any man and before they were even born. Maybe she could be best as these boys in the next decade perhaps.

The training grounds was an isolated and open area, the walls of tall trees and bushes around them. Targets were hung on the north side for the archers and there were some that hung at the top of the trees. There were two circles of pits, there were three strings and wooden of dummies standing at the east side.

Not more than couple of moments later, the boys had started training, the archers practice shooting, most were practicing one-on-one with swords, spears and knives and the rest were practicing their swings on the dummies. Mara was observing for a moment before James approached her.

"Okay, what are you good at?" He asked her, "Ever shoot an arrow? Fought with swords but I see you've got one for your own"

Mara shamefully sighed "I'm not...good at any of them. I've just recently got this" she grabbed the hilt of her sword. "Hook taught me a little how to fight while we were sailing the past month"

James sighed, folded his arms on his chest, "No need to fret, all of us were terrible from the start. But I heard Nibs saying that you weren't quite bad at all"

"Really?" Mara's tone was full of doubt.

"And he also said you don't have any courage to take a life"

"Who doesn't?" She snapped a little.

"Well" He turned and looked at the boys. Seemingly hinted that these boys do, she knew that they were all that unethical.

Mara wasn't surprised, but wanted to get off the topic, "So how long do they train?"

"Few hours, sometimes all day"

"Every day?"

"Nearly everyday"

She will not survive at all. She swallowed a groan, few hours or all day of almost everyday training, that sounds like an agony.

"Come on" He nudged her arm, walked off and she followed him to the east side. He lead her to the spot where they practice on the dummies.

She knew the blonde one was Curly who was hacking his medium sized axe on a dummy, he was swinging hard and harder. The other two were Tootles and Slightly. Slightly wasn't doing anything but still carving off a wood and sat by the nearest tree. James grabbed something from the tree, he pulled out two wooden swords.

"Hey Tootles" James called, the shy boy turned to James and had handed a wooden sword to Tootles while the other went to Mara.

"What?" She uttered.

"We all train on our first day" said James.

"Why me?" Tootles spoke, his voice was almost deep than James's.

"We always start with the weakest one, don't we?" James smiled at Tootles.

"But I don't want--" Tootles paused, eyed at Mara for a second before looking at James again, "--I don't want to hit a girl"

"She's one of us now, you gotta treat her as we all treated each other around here, not treat her as a princess"

Mara admitted she'd rather to be treated like how these boys treat other than as a princess.

"Someone once told me that no man should harm a woman" Tootles muttered.

"We aren't men, are we, Tootles?" said Curly, who had stopping hacking away, "surely she isn't a woman either. Like James said, she's one of us"

Tootles sighed, seemingly gave in, he raised his wooden sword. Mara sighed as well, she didn't want to train at all, does she has to?

It's going to be a long day.

***