#nodofneverland

“ Don’t you have some sort of crew to answer to? ”  Her tone was no less judgemental or repulsed than ever.  “ ‘Not like you answer to Peter Pan anymore... ”  Those cerulean eyes of hers went cold. She realized who she was talking to. Well, as best as her minuscule bank of memories allowed for. Her mind was too full of meaningful encounters and worthwhile allies and opponents to keep track of every individual she came across. She seldom could be bothered to learn a name, nor could she care to match a face to one. 

Tink knew he was a pirate and knew she’d heard his pitiful excuse for a voice before. But it was different. It was older now. Still, somehow too soft and not at all worthy of speaking to any sort of real, deserved repentance.  “ Inadequate boys always makes for the most pathetic of pirates. ”  She scathed.

The answer was undoubtedly yes, but Kane merely shook his head as Nod prodded the deep cut into his cheek. The wound throbbed as blood pushed to his face, flushing it, with pain, but mostly anger that he had actually fallen into some Lost Boys’ trap. He had been collecting wood in the forest and he had tripped a vine of some kind, springing the net. Luckily, he had managed to throw himself out of the way of the net, but a bramble that had been set snapped when he moved and flicked back to cut his face. 

He had put a rag on it and headed back to camp to get the thorn out of his skin, but Nod had seen him first and offered to help. Kane had wanted to brush the first mate away and take care of it himself as he was wont to do, but Nod knew enough to know he could sew the wound much cleaner than the quartermaster. Finally, Kane had consented and sat down, allowing Nod to pull the barb from his face and start to clean it out.

“Did those feral children put anything on the barbs that I should be worried about or does it look clean enough?”

Nod was not a small man. In fact, among the crew of the Jolly Roger he was actually on the taller end of things; but Nod had a bad habit of liking to annoy Kane. Kane was tall, exceedingly so, and built like a tree and Nod had made the mistake of slipping Kane’s favorite ax out of his holster to see if Kane would notice and then dropping it in the surf as they disembarked from the ship on the way to get wood for repairs after the long winter. What Nod could have had no knowledge of was the fact that Kane was in a particularly sour mood that morning from a slight stomach bug which had kept him up into the night.

Kane regularly would have just punched him in the shoulder and went to grab the ax, but this time, Kane was in no mood for jokes and when his eyes locked on Nod’s, his mind made itself up immediately. His shoulders tensed and he began walking towards Nod, first slowly, but then gaining speed till he was chasing his fellow pirate along the beach, getting more and more irritated with each second he didn’t catch him. But Kane won out in the end, grabbing Nod up in his arms and swinging him while the other protested to no avail. Nod’s “Stop” was met by a splash as Kane chucked him in the water before going to get his ax.

This was why Ace didn’t like to adventure alone. Usually, when he was with the rest of the lost boys, he never had to come face to face with a pirate if he didn’t have to. And when they did, it was always fun because he knew it would be a fight to remember. It also prevented him from situations like this one, where he absentmindedly wound up much deeper into pirate territory than he originally planned. Ace had been scrounging the beach for treasures, specifically something to bring to Wendy as a welcoming present. While Ace had a bad track record with motherly types, he didn’t find Wendy too terrible, at least as far as girls were concerned.

And Ace wasn’t about to let some rat of a pirate chase him away. Especially not one as irritating as… this one. The pirate’s name slipped away from him. But his face was distinctly familiar. It was on the tip of his tongue, and he furrowed his brow as he tried to remember it. “Is that supposed to scare me? Because it doesn’t.”

A smirk tugged at the corner of his lips, and he decided to push his luck even further. “I can go wherever I want. It’s not your cove.”

Well, technically it was. But Ace didn’t see anyone’s name on it. And even if he did it’s not like he could read what it said, so there.

⇢  D&D STARTERS  ;

“ What’s the point of doing anything if you feel bad about it? ” 

Tink never did understand how people could bother with such mixed emotions. It must have been due to their size. The smaller you were, the less feelings you had to muddle over, clearly.