Peter helped her through the last of the current, pulling her back onto the shore on the other side. He reached without being asked, swiping his palm quickly against the bottom hem of her dress to brush off any specks of sand.
“And you’ve barely even scratched the surface, Magpie,” he replied.
Luckily for her, the King of Neverland’s mood brightened along the way to the cove. It was hard not to hold a smile when there was a magical world like Neverland waiting wherever they looked. By the time they reached their destination, Peter was happily holding her hand, chatting away. Whatever trouble plagued him before, whatever had once clouded his mind, disappeared as though it had never been there in the first place.
Around the shoreline, fairies danced along to the music. Their faces were lit up with so much joy that Maggie almost felt inclined to join in. Why shouldn’t she be just as happy, just as free? But as her gaze trailed around the crowd of dancers, something in the far back, along the rocky wall, caught her eye.
A rushing stream from the ocean struck through the sand. It grew wider the further it went, until there was a gaping hole at the base of the cliffside. But it wasn’t any of that that grabbed her attention. Where there should’ve been a stream rushing through the rocky mountain was only a woody dam, with ocean water caught on one side. Planks harvested from only god knows where were stacked to cover every inch of the tunnel’s entrance. The water trickled onto the shore, the natural stream becomingoverrun with the constant current. The tide would soon fall, Maggie assumed, but she had no idea when.
“Over there, Peter!” Maggie pointed in the direction of the dam before striding across the beach. She was careful to keep out the dancers' way. Peter quickly ran ahead, his attention turning toward the opposite direction of the dam.
Maggie was still aiming for the stream. “Where are you –”
“This way, Magpie,” he murmured as he grabbed onto her wrist, pulling her with a gentle tug. “We are in their territory now. It would be rude not to ask before rummaging through their things, don’t you think?”
“Whose?” she asked.
Peter steered her toward a pair of mermaids that were lounging at the beach shore. She took a moment to notice the feeling of his hand guiding her, of one arm intimately holding her around the waist.
A small huddle of fairies, both men and women alike, crowded around the lounging mermaids as though they were local celebrities. They were both sun-kissed with golden skin, eyes shimmering and as bright as the sea, and the most beautiful smiles Maggie had ever seen. One of them favored the color blue, with delicately baby-blue hair and a tail to match. Beside her, with a more closed off expression, wore pink incredibly well. Rosy hair cascaded down her back in beachy waves, with a fuschia colored tail.
With just one glance, Maggie was vying to be their friend. Instantly a slurry of thoughts ran amok in her mind.Will they like my dress? How I talk? How I look? My hair? My eyes? My –
“It’s normal,” Peter suddenly said, pulling her out of her mind.
Maggie blinked. “What is?”
“Coming close to mermaids like this for the first time,” he explained, one eye holding onto them, “It’s a bit of a shock. They’re naturally magical, you see. It’s hard not to want to be close to them, to feel the magnetic energy radiating off them.”
She watched him with wide eyes. “Neverland is full of surprises, isn’t it?”
“More than you’ll probably ever know.” Peter grinned, his gaze holding onto her face for a beat longer than expected.
“Peter Pan!”
The small crowd circling the pair of mermaids parted. Peter slowly turned, the twinkle in his eye only shimmering brighter. The beautiful mermaids beamed in unison, leaning closer as he made his way to them. The crowd slowly trickled away, stepping aside when they realized the girl’s attention was entirely focused on the King of Neverland.
Maggie instantly tensed. It was like a sudden upset stomach, a cramp that grabbed a hold of her in the middle of a sentence. She followed at Peter’s heels, her curiosity becoming somewhat irritable, for reasons she couldn’t explain.
“Princesses,” Peter greeted them with a polite bow. “May I introduce Maggie Hart?” He reached behind him without looking, grasping at Maggie’s hand to gently guide her forward.
Maggie curtsied the best she could, remembering how the Lost Boys had shown her to do it.
“My, my,” the blue Princess cooed, her head tilted as she watched Maggie. “You’re the human Peter picked up, aren’t you? The cook?”
Heat flushed across Maggie’s cheeks. “Y-Yes, I’m the –”
“Maggie is the best baker across all the human lands,” Peter interjected, his voice firm but managing to remain polite. “Almost all of Neverland is talking about her new restaurant, I’m sure you two have heard of it.”
The blue mermaid pouted as Maggie’s embarrassment turned into something much different.
“She’s also a botanist,” Peter continued, barely wasting a second. “A keeper of plants, that is.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Maggie Hart,” the pink Mermaid said. “I am Selina, and this is my sister, Coralyn. We’re daughters of the Sea King.”
Though Maggie knew the girl was only being polite, some sort of gut instinct told her that Selina had a bragging air about her. Peterhadjust said some things about Maggie that were nice enough, but hardly as important as being royalty. Maggie looked away, entirely ashamed of herself. In the end, she was simply a human. A human that Peter had to kidnap to bring to his island.
“We’ve come on important business,” Peter said, trying to take control of the conversation once more. “Maggie here knows it better than I.” His hand pressed against the small of her back, urging her forward.
