She was magnificent – everything he had dreamt of, and more. The boy gulps audibly as Florentine steps closer, his eyes perhaps a bit misty as he watches her – the one from his dreams. She had haunted him for as long as he could remember, with her sprightly laugh and her mischievous antics. But the, there is something different about the Florentine that steps in front of him now… something wisened. You’re all grown up… He cannot remember her name, or even the fact that he knew her in real life. All Pan knows is that in his dreams, she is a girl. The woman who looks at him now, is every bit an adult. There is something world-weary about her that does not show in the immortal boy. Yes, Pan is exactly as he was when she’d met him – and exactly as he was for the many years he’d been around before that. It’s not clear how long the scaled adventurer has roamed this earth, only that he’s been a boy forever – and will be a boy forever to come. Do you have the dreams too? Perhaps that’s where the gilded girl knew him from… for now the boy is questioning if his dreams were ever really dreams at all. His heart leaps for a moment, as he wonders whether the adventures were real. Swallowing deeply, the crystal vial filled with liquid stardust bobs at his throat as he reaches into his well-worn satchel to draw out a tiny silvered object. Without a word, the boy hands Florentine a tiny thimble – unknowing that it is she who had once handed it to him. Do you remember, what came before…? His eyes are pleading for her to explain the madness to him – for something to make sense of the confusion which shrouded his every waking moment. For Pan was something of a shell now, lost and far from understanding who he was. Gone are his memories of time travel in the rift tide. Gone are his memories of Oliver, and Rook, and Neverland. Gone are his endless stories, unless you counted those he recounted about dreams… but the boy is still very much the same – bright and eager, ready to take on the world.
