The swamp was dark – the kind of dark the haunted the corners of nightmares, hiding creatures of the night behind a veiled shadow of mystery… but it was the mystery and not the nightmare that drew the boy out. He padded in an uncharacteristically quiet manner through the brackish water, peeking around mangroves with wide eyes and a boyish grin, looking for fireflies. Nevermind that if he actually found one, he wouldn’t know what to do with it, but he enjoyed the way they blinked like tiny stars around him, and sighed quietly in the dusky night, pleased at his latest adventure.
Bullfrogs began to add to the whisper of the wind through cat tails, and as the land grew darker still, the scaled colt decided to head for higher ground. After all, he remembered a place like this in Neverland… and remembered it was a place that the Crocodile had called home. While the toothy reptile had never really caused him much headache, it had proven quite a nuisance to the pirates. Good riddance, if you asked the boy.
When his feet hit marshy ground, he shlogged through a bit of mud, stopping once he reached a grassy clearing to roll among the emerald shoots. The motion felt good, and the stronger he rolled, the more that the ground cover wedged between his scales. It didn’t bother him much though, and settling on the soft bed of grass, he rolled onto his back to watch the stars pass by overhead.
It was here that the keepers of the Dusk Kingdom would find him, sleeping belly to the open sky, as his chest rises and falls in sleep. It was a vulnerable position, to be certain, but one that is quintessential Pan – nothing to fear, and not a care in the world.
Through the sleepy sounds of birds in nests and crickets singing songs to the wind, the marshlands did not suit her. She was born from winter seasons that did not give way to warmer weather, soft crunch of snow underfoot much preferable to traverse in than the sticky nature of swamp waters. And though she was found more often in other parts of the realm, the place of marsh was still part of Terrastella, and still one she knew well enough to get around in.
It were times like those that she chose to reacquaint herself with the least-visited part of the Dusk Court. She had no company to pass the time with, so she instead gave mind to the day that fell away into night. Stars were already littering themselves in the sky, trees patching and blocking most of the view. The swamp was a quiet place found dedicated to the animal and plant life that called it home; she was surprised, then, to hear the sounds of something rather larger than often seen there. She made her own way through the dark waters, the creams of her coat becoming dyed with the murky darks that clung to her underbelly.
It had taken her quite some time to pick through the wetness of the mud, for though she was not one to care for dirty appearances she found that her legs were difficult to pull through the thickness. She wondered if any called the swamp home, and how they managed to not be driven to insanity by it. Night was well under way by the time she crossed over the spaces the unknown boy had been, and by then there were no raucous noises to indicate what had been causing the commotion earlier. It seemed to have gotten away from her, and she sighed as she lifted herself out of the dingy water and onto the edge of a clearing in the forest. The trees parted and gave way to a full view of the sky, a comforting nod to perhaps the darkest place in Terrastella. It was only as she moved forward that she noticed the upside down figure of another tucked beneath the arms of the atmosphere; completely unaware, without any movement aside from his chest, he seemed to be sleeping. Rann pulled up from her walking sharply, careful to make no sound as she crossed over to him. Curiously, she gazed down at his form and wondered if he realized the danger he had put himself in.
With a solid shake of her head she allowed a single sigh to slip between her lips a she silently dropped herself to the ground a few paces away. She confined herself to a sleepless night to allow the protection of the boy who seemed so innocently ignorant of the threats the swamp held.
The sleeping boy was dreaming – somewhere far from here – in a place with faeries, and tree houses, and stolen treasure. His legs twitched as if “running” as he laughed to the colts who followed him, dodging the trees and sidestepping the familiar potholes in his path, leaping effortlessly over fallen logs and splashing voraciously in the puddles strewn over his well-worn trails. He was back in Neverland, free and young, without a care in the world. That was before, you see… before the magic, before Time threw the world into chaos. It was before Rook, before Flora, even before Oliver had found him. There, Pan had been a simple lost boy, lost to the wilds of Neverland.
He smiled, turning his head slightly into the damp leaves, one eye fluttering open as it focused in the night. Dawn was far from breaking still, but there was a pale swath of moonlight that shimmered from the water, falling on the companion that had watched him in sleep. He blinked slowly, focusing on the mare, yawning quietly as he took in the sparkle of her coat. For a moment, the usually chatty child is quiet, as if pondering the situation. Still on his back, he looked at the sky, back at the mare, and back at the sky once more.
”You look like the night.” he said at last, making the connection between the sickle moon above and her unique markings. ”Are you a fairy?”
She certainly didn’t look like his Tinkerbell, or even Hazel… but she had to be a magical sort of creature, with stars on her back and a sliver of moon beneath her forelock. Choosing to believe her some sort of night queen, he rolled onto his side to get a better look at the mare, introducing himself with a hushed sort of tone.
”I’m Pan by the way… from Neverland. Is this your home?” It struck him that she didn’t quite look at home here, but she wore the moonlight well, so it was possible. ”I don’t live here… I’m lost, I think… Would you believe it if I told you that Flora and I fell through the sky?” It wouldn’t be the first time such a thing had happened to the boy, ridiculous as it sounded.
