[Word count: 1600]

| chapter - one |

\ message to bears /

With a light groggy mumble, Mallory pushed herself to sit up on her knees. She wrapped an arm around her abdomen when she felt a slight tinge of pain that slowly evolved to soreness, as she let out a small breath to calm herself down.

She rubbed her temples trying to remember what had happened, but the memory seemed to be far away, nearly impossible to grasp. The very last thing she could regain was that she was flying over this island and got shot down by an iron arrow. That was it. The rest was lost.

Mallory looked down to see herself wrapped in bandages, they were around her abdomen and rode all the way up her chest and halfway up her neck. It was like they acted as her new clothing. But she saw that she did still have her pants on, so she was happy about that.

Looking down at her hands now she noticed even more bandages wrapped around her palm and down her wrist and forearm. Both of them. Which brought a small memory back. She remembered burning her hands on the iron when she tried to grab at the arrow to pull it out, so now the bandages there made more sense to her.

She was sore all over, especially on her back. Stretching her neck and other joints, she assumed she had landed pretty harshly. She even cleansed her horns from the leaf's and moss that stuck upon them. And of course fixed the tangles of hair around her horns, so her hair was as normal as it can be in such circumstances.

But when Mallory went to stretch her wings from the soreness she felt on her back, she noticed something very odd. Her wings seem to not move a single muscle. She went to grab one side of her wings, only to grab nothing but air. This got her nervous.

Mallory then reached even further. Instead of grabbing feathery wings, she ended up placing her hand on a bony stub that prodded out of her back. She went to reach for the other side, only to feel the same exact bony stub prodded out of her back on that side as well.

Her heart raced realizing what this means. Someone somewhere on this island decided to be brave, having the nerve to cut her wings off. She wanted to know who could've been so cruel to do such a thing. Who she had to make pay for their dreadful misfortune.

But then her mind flees from those thoughts and her eyes swells with emotion, she didn't know what was going on nor where she was. Memories were mixed and many were gone, and this was just all so confusing.

"I see you've finally awoken," The voice sounded, much closer than she expected.

Which caused Mallory to jolt and look up at the figure that walked before her. It was a boy, a teenager who had shaggy blonde hair and dark brown eyes. He also seemed to be holding a staff - or, more rather a very long thick stick. Almost as if he's using it to help him walk more thoroughly.

The boy chuckled, "I apologize for startling you. I'm Bear, and this here is Fenn." He motioned towards the boy next to him.

Mallory looked up at Fenn now. Fenn seemed to be slightly taller than Bear, and didn't need a staff to keep him balanced. She also noticed Fenn had quite the bright blue eyes, a very light shade of blue, baby blue maybe.

Fenn waved, "Welcome to Neverland."

Mallory carefully nodded, as she furrowed her brows and looked around. Now she remembered where she was, the name was tugging at her tongue and here it was.

"Guys!" Another voice came, as a boy appears from the hill and next to Bear and Fenn. "Pan wants us back at camp." The boy then looked down at Mallory, eyes widening in surprise. As he then turned back to the two others and whispered in Bear's ear.

"Keeping secrets now, are we?" Mallory crossed her arms with a hum. "How do you expect me to trust you if you're just going to whisper among yourselves, right in front of me?"

Bear shook his head, "It's nothing important to you, it's for personal reasonings. It has nothing to do with you, don't worry so much."

Bear then motioned towards the boy that just came, "This is Bishop. Don't let his height fool you, he may be short but he sure does pack a punch."

Fenn chuckled as Bishop seems to protest, "I'm not that short!" He swat at Bear's arm. "Remember, I beat you at last weeks game and the trinket was just above your head!"

Bear rolled his eyes, "Oh, save your triumph, Bishop. I let you win and you know it."

All Bishop did was grumble in annoyance. While at this point, Mallory was already up on her feet. This whole conversation both confused her and kind of made her uncomfortable.

Bishop then walked up and stood next to Mallory, seeing as she was shorter than him by a few inches.

Bishop then held his hips and grinned with victory at Bear, "You were saying?"

"Okay?" Bear raised a brow. "So, you're taller than a girl?"

Fenn then cleared his throat, "To be fair, Bishop is also taller than Nibs and Devin."

This only made Bishop become even more confident. Whilst Bear bumped Fenn's shoulder, "Don't boost his ego."

Bear seemed to realize that they went way off track, "Alright, alright, enough. We aren't here to argue, we're here to welcome-" He paused, realizing her name was unknown. "-I'm sorry, um, what was your name?"

All three of them looked everywhere, only to realize the girl was gone. Mallory had disappeared into the forest. She ran for it whilst they were distracted with their bantering.

"Come back! Neverland is not safe exploring alone!" They all said as Mallory ran, but she did not look back. She just kept running.

They spit out multiple words she's never heard of, like "Dreamshade" and "Tribal Natives", "mermaids" and even something about an "Echo Cave". But Mallory was clueless to it all and she didn't care, she just ran.

She saw a clearing from the trees a few feet away that she thought could've been her way of an escape, as she went for it. only to be met with a very large cliff.

Mallory sucked in a breath and slid herself to a stop, the tips of her now muddled boots balancing at the very tip edge of said cliff. She wavered her arms trying to keep herself from falling, as she saw the heart dropping fall to the rock crashing ocean below.

If only she had her wings, she wouldn't be so afraid of falling as she could've flown herself back to safety. But alas, they were still missing.

Until a hand quickly gripped onto her wrist and pulled her back from falling. She swiveled around and yanked her arm back now that she was a little bit away from the cliff. "Don't touch me-" She stopped herself from complaining any further.

She expected to see Bear, Fenn or even Bishop. They were there, but in the tree lining. But yet another boy stood in front of her, it was this one who pulled her back from falling.

This boy's eyes were a shade of green and his attire was also a darker green with some browns, he matched the forest. He also seemed to wear a belt around his waste, even though his shirt went over his pants, which Mallory found strange.

Bishop seemed to try and mouth something to her, but she couldn't decipher what he was trying to say.

"Long way from home I'd say, hm, little bird?" His grin was tight, and more menacing than Fenn's.

Mallory squinted knowing he was referring to the wings that she used to have, she guessed he saw her from the sky. And this had her wondering if he took them from her, which caused her to feel angry but she tried to hide it.

The boy then spoke up again, "Well aren't you going to give me a name?"

She sighed, "Mallory..." She felt as though she shouldn't have told him, but, there was no going back now.

The boy nodded, "Peter Pan." He introduced. "But most call me, Pan."

It was like a flash of memory, as she could've sworn she heard that name before. Someone told her, but she couldn't remember who.

"If you follow me I'll bring you to our camp." He turned around and walked into the forest. "You may as well, it's not like you have anywhere else to go, not anymore."

Mallory wasn't sure if she wanted to follow, something about Peter Pan was off to her. She never really learned about the fairytale, not much, but she knew she wasn't supposed to feel off about it.

Bear, Fenn and Bishop all motioned her to follow, to not disobey or else.

She turned her head back towards the cliff and saw a large ship among the horizon, far away. She squinted again at the sight, and tried to remember anything of it. The ship looked familiar but she couldn't quite grasp the memory for it. She was so confused on why her memories seemed to be lost.

Guessing the boy was right with having no other choice. Mallory sighed as she turned and followed all of them.

Back into the forest they went.

------
Here chapter one!

What was your favorite part of this chapter? :)

As y'all know, chapter one of majority of my books always start out kinda short. As it is just the start of the story.

Either way, I hope you've enjoyed it.

Stay inside, stay safe and save lives.

Xoxo <3