CHAPTER FOUR
Learning to Fly
While Mr and Mrs Darling were running home, Peter Pan was quickly making the children excited about going to Neverland. He told them stories and flew around the nursery. Then he asked them each to try flying, but they could not.
"I suppose that we will have to stay home," said Wendy sadly. In her heart she thought it was probably the best idea. But Peter continued to persuade her to come with him.
"If you don't come you won't see the mermaids!" he said. Then he turned to John and Michael and said, "and there are pirates!"
"Pirates! We must go at once!" cried John happily.
They tried to fly again, but they still couldn't. Then Peter told Tinker Bell to give him some of her fairy dust. He blew some of the dust onto each child and the results were amazing! The children began to fly!
When Mr and Mrs Darling and Nana arrived in their yard, they looked up into the nursery and saw three little people flying in the air! They then looked again and realized that there were really four people! Someone was in the room with their children!
They ran into the house and up the stairs. They would have been able to stop the children from going to Neverland, but the stars saw them go into the house and they blew open the window and whispered to Peter, "Hurry, Peter. Adults are coming!"
Peter Pan knew that he didn't have any more time, "Come with me!" he ordered the children. He then flew outside into the night sky. Wendy, John, and Michael all followed behind him closely.
A few moments later, Nana pushed open the door of the nursery and Mr and Mrs Darling rushed into the nursery. The children's beds were all empty. They ran to the window, but could not see anything.
The stars led Peter Pan and his new friends back toward the Neverland. They were flying toward the second on the right and then straight forward until morning. It was just the same as Peter had told them. Wendy was worried that they would get lost. She wondered how Peter could find the Neverland when there were so many mountains and seas!
At first, all the children were so excited about flying that they didn't worry about the danger. But there were many dangers. Sometimes they would hit a cloud and would not be able to see. Sometimes they would even become tired and began to fall towards the ocean below them. Peter would not help the children until they were about to hit the water before he would fly down quickly and save them. Peter Pan cared more about showing off to Wendy than about saving their lives.
"I'm hungry!" Michael said.
"No problem," said Peter. He flew over to a bird and took some food from its feet. The bird quickly grasped the food and pulled it back. Peter then raced it for a long time. Eventually Peter won and took the food. This was the way that Peter fed the children during the flight to Neverland.
Peter was a terrible show-off. He was also often mean.
One time Michael fell asleep and began to fall to the ground. Peter watched and said without caring, "There goes Michael."
"Save him!" screamed Wendy. But Peter just smiled at her and waited for what felt like a very long time. Finally he flew at top speed and grasped Michael's foot just a few seconds before he hit the ground. Wendy was angry at Peter, but she was still polite. She knew that they must be nice to Peter, or else they would all become lost.
"If he left us we would not know what to do," she told Michael and John.
"We could fly back home," said Michael.
"But we cannot find our way home without Peter."
"We would have to keep flying," said John, "We would have to keep flying, because Peter didn't teach us how to stop!"
Peter could fly much better and faster than the other children, so he would often disappeared for long times. When he came back he would describe some conversation he just had with a mermaid or a star. Every time that he went away, Wendy worried that he might not return.
Finally they saw an island in front of them. "There it is!" yelled Peter, "Look! All of the stars are pointing to it!"
Like Peter said, all of the golden stars in the sky were shining brightly on the island of Neverland. The children all looked down and felt that it looked familiar. Really the children had seen it in past dreams. Now they were really there and it was not just a dream. As they flew closer to the Neverland, the stars all disappeared. Suddenly the island looked dark and scary. The children knew that there were no night lights in the Neverland and also no Mommy, Daddy or Nana.
Peter flew close to the children now. They were flying very low and the tops of the trees were just below them. Everyone felt danger all around them.
"Do you want to stop for tea now or go and have an adventure?" he asked. Wendy wanted to stop for tea, but John could not decide.
"What kind of adventure can we have?" he asked.
"I see a pirate asleep in the grass below us. If you want, we can fly down and kill him," Peter said calmly.
"What if the pirate wakes up?" asked John.
"Wakes up? I would never kill a pirate while he was sleeping!" said Peter angrily, "That's not fair! I always wake them up before I kill them!"
"Oh! Do you kill many pirates?"
"Of course! There are more pirates in Neverland now than before!"
"Who is their leader?" asked John seriously.
"He is called Hook. Captain James Hook."
John became very afraid, Wendy was nervous, and Michael began crying. Their mother had told them stories of the terrible and violent Captain Hook.
"Is he really big?" John asked, now looking very respectfully at Peter.
"He's not as big as he used to be. I cut off a part of him."
"Which part did you cut off?" asked John, with even greater respect in his voice.
"His right hand."
"If he doesn't have a right hand, how does he fight?"
"He has put an iron hook where his hand used to be, and he uses it to fight!"
Peter looked at John seriously. "Every boy who serves under me makes me a promise. You must now also make this promise. The promise is that if we meet Hook in a battle, you must let me fight him!"
"I promise," said John truly.
Tinker Bell, who had flown in front of Peter and the children, now came back to them and told them of some danger. She said that the pirates had already seen them and they had prepared their biggest gun to shoot them.
"They must have seen Tink's light," Peter told the children.
"Tell her to quickly put the light out!" they all cried in fear.
"She can't," Peter explained to them, "The light only goes out when she is sleeping. It is just like the stars."
"We must hide the light," said Wendy.
"Okay, put Tink inside John's hat," Peter suggested. The fairy agreed and jumped into the hat, but she became very angry when John gave the hat to Wendy to wear.
They all silently flew after Peter. Suddenly a huge shot from the pirates' big gun ended the silence. BOOOOOOMMMMMMMMl!!!!!! Nobody was hurt, but the power of the gun carried Peter far away. The shot pushed Wendy up higher into the air and she found herself alone in the sky with Tink.
Wendy would have been safer if she had dropped the hat and Tinker Bell and flown alone because Tink hated Wendy. Tink loved Peter Pan and was jealous that Wendy would take him away from her. She planned secretly to kill Wendy, but she was too small to do it alone. Tink had an idea how to destroy Wendy so she jumped out of the hat and moved her hands to show that Wendy should follow her to a safe place. Afraid and lost, Wendy followed Tinker Bell toward her death.
