NEVER PLOT DROP: Winter is Dead

“[The Daffodil] turned to the sunlight / And shook her yellow head, / And whispered to her neighbor: / "Winter is dead.” ― A.A. Milne

Lucky for all of the island’s inhabitants, it seems that the ice is finally cracking and melting away to reveal the luscious paradise of Neverland anew. There is no subtlety in the changing of seasons here; the change comes on swiftly. Is it because the land has been encased in shades of blinding white and muted grays for so long or does the island’s flora look even more vibrant than it did before? 

With the warm weather comes a whetted appetite for adventure from many of those within the Lost Boys. The troupe has set out for the beach at the edge of their forest. There, as proclaimed by Peter, of course, they’ll be holding a grand bonfire in celebration of Wendy Darling’s return to the island. It is sure to be extra raucous due to all that pent up energy caused by a long and brutal winter. All that noise is bound to draw the attention of the merfolk in the nearby Lagoon.  

Those more observant inhabitants might catch sight of strange goings-on around the island. The odd shadow may be spotted sliding beneath the surface of Neverland’s waters. The thing is seemingly there one moment and gone the next. Whatever this creature, or perhaps creatures, is — it’s eerily unidentifiable. Even if one manages to sneak a peek directly at it from under the surface of the water, it’s as if you’re looking through a dirty, clouded glass and all that can be perceived are blotches of fleshy pink and inky black. And then it’s gone before your mind can take in any of the details. At first, you might think the other oddity rather innocuous in comparison to these mysterious waterbound shadows. However, it would be foolish to dismiss the sightings of these small creatures. It’d be easy to mistake them for woolly worm caterpillars, which you can find an abundance of now that it’s warm once more. There are so very few of these tiny creatures popping up across the island that the differences between them and woolly worms are easily overlooked at a glance: foreshortened bodies, eight eyes instead of six, fangs, gray where the caterpillars are reddish brown, and four sets of legs.