lost_boy | all this has happened before

We were running. Running from Peter. Running toward the pirates.

It hadn't been difficult to convince the others this was our best option, not after all Peter had done. They knew now, they had seen what he was like, they'd been viewed under the cold, dismissive gaze of Peter Pan and understood he thought nothing of them. Of us. Because I may have been his favourite once, but it was clear I was too grown up, too close to being a man to be loved by him any longer.

I knew that had upset me once, but now, surrounded by my friends, running toward other friends, I didn't feel that same sense of loss that I had before. As with Charlie and Sal and Nod, I was choosing these good people, people I loved, and I was turning my back on Peter.

We crossed the Island, skirting the plans with the Many-Eyed, taking the path up into the mountains, toward Bear Cave, and then beyond. I paused at the cave, remembering Harry and his death here, but only for a moment. I had learned long ago how to mourn my friends while on the move and today was no different. My other friends needed me now, they needed me to lead them to safety away from Peter.

Leading the way down the mountain path, past the Marking Rock, I could see the camp and the cove in the distance, the shipped docked where it usually was when the pirates weren't away, raiding whatever places they were able to find. And I could see people. Pirates, yes, but familiar faces, too, and I picked up my pace, hurrying the others toward them.

[Coming together post! Gathering, as usual, Jamie and everyone who was with him at the tree is going to come to the pirate camp/the Jolly Roger, so feel free to have threads that take place on the ship or on the shore at the camp. Also feel free to employ fairies if you like, they'll be spying for Peter, who'll be coming soon enough. In a few days I'll post a second top level for Jamie and Peter's big final fight where Jamie will be losing his right hand.]

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Eowyn had not expected a small boy to approach her. She was reminded of Eothain and Freda, who had been driven from their homes by the Wild Men, and she smiled down at the boy. He was very young to be brought on this adventure, and she would care for him as she could and as he had need.

"Of a certainty you may. What is your name?"

She speaks kind of old fashioned, like the way they tell the stories in the Celtic Legends book he's been reading with John, but it's not hard to understand. He likes of a certainty, it sounds more sure than of course.

"I'm Luke," he says, and after a second remembers his manners and reaches out his hand.

He explains nervously, "Jamie and Eponine said I shouldn't be alone, because Peter doesn't like littler kids. Is your sword real?" It definitely looks real.

Edited 2019-12-04 00:40 (UTC)

"Well-met then, Luke," she replied seriously, and shook his hand equally seriously. "I am Eowyn, and I will make sure that you are not alone. And if there is danger, I will make sure that you hide so that you are safe."

When he asked if her sword was real, she nodded.

"Indeed. This is not my sword, for my sword was not brought with me to this place, but it is a sword, and it is real. Know you how to use a sword?"

He was young to use a metal sword, but not to use a wooden one.

"Well met," he says back seriously, because if that's how she says it, that's how he should say it to her. "Eowyn." He smiles a little relievedly. He sort of wants to give her a hug, only he's not sure you just hug strange women you've barely met, even if you are trying to keep out of trouble. "Thank you..."

His eyes go curious and wide at her description, and at her question. "You have a sword back home, too?" He shakes his head at the question. "I mean, I had a plastic sword back home that went with a pirate costume..." He glances furtively at the ship. "Before I knew pirates were a real thing. But I don't think we were doing anything the right way. Can even kids learn how to swordfight?" He's never even really thought about it but he kind of wants to learn now.

"I have a sword in Darrow that I brought from my home," she told him seriously. "And I would say that children may certainly be taught to use swords. My brother and I began playing and fighting with wooden swords when we were not yet seven years."

It was not so in all lands, but she had no complaints about the training and swordsmanship that she had had. Ever was it useful, even when she had not been placed in a pirate camp.

"Wow," he says, soft and awed. His eyes light up a little bit. "That's how old I am. Six and a half." A little more, even, because September is his half birthday. Maybe it's not that important but he likes knowing it anyway. "Do you think I could learn too?"

A shout goes up from the pirate ship, out in the harbor, and he looks over, wide-eyed and takes a half step closer to Eowyn. "I miss my brother and sisters," he mumbles a little and glances up at her. "Is yours here too or back at home?"

Eowyn would not place her arms around Luke, for he might not wish it and she must also keep her hands free, but she shifted so that he was more protected by her. She watched carefully the ship, but nothing seemed to be occurring there.

"Of a certainty you could, if those who are your guardians would wish it. They may not."

There were those here who did not think children should be taught to fight, and she understood their wish to keep them as free of care as long as possible.

"My brother remains in my lands, and I also miss him very much. But he is Third Marshal of the Mark, and he is needed there to fight."

He thought about that. "I guess the Children's Home are my guardians," he says. They sign permission slips for school, anyway. "Would you teach me, if I could get them to say yes? I could tell them it was just practice and I wouldn't get hurt."

It sounds useful, or at least cool, and he's pretty good at persuading people to do things.

Luke's brow furrows. He knows what a marshal is, kind of. He doesn't know what a Mark is, except a kind of name, but it sounds like a sort of army. "Who are they fighting?"

"If they would agree, I would teach you. I would assure them that the sword would be not sharp, nor the blade heavy. It may still hurt if you drop it on your foot, but that is not often done more than once," she chuckled.

Whether he would remember that he wished to learn to use a sword after this time, she did not know, but she would teach him. As for how she would explain the forces of Evil to a child, she did not know either.

"They are fighting those who would wish to destroy my land and my people. We cannot allow this to occur, so my brother fights. I would fight too, if I were there, but I am not. Instead I protect you and all those here, and that is worthy also."

He laughs a little at that, and nods. "I'll ask them," he says, determined. "I'm a very good arguer." His smile is a little conspiratorial. "And if you'd tell them too I bet they'd say yes."

His eyes go a little wider when he hears that. There was the war in the desert he watched on TV at home, the one that's kind of like -- but that he has to remind himself isn't the same one -- what Alex was in. But that's a different kind of fighting than people coming to your home and trying to destroy it, he thinks. Maybe a little more like World War II, like his green soldiers in the can are from, because the Nazis went into other countries and tried to take them over and blew things up.

"That's scary," he says. "I'm sorry the -- bad guys," he says, because sometimes people tell him it's not that simple, but it seems pretty simple to him. "Are trying to hurt your people. Your brother must be really brave. You are, too." He mulls over that for a long few moments.

"I don't think they let girls fight, where I'm from," he says after a minute. "It's stupid, but I don't think I've seen a girl soldier." His toy soldiers are all boys, anyway.

"And what shall I tell them, then?" she asked, and teased only a small bit. She liked Luke's spirit and his stubbornness. It would serve him well in a land such as Darrow.

"There are female soldiers in many lands, but not always are they seen. And not always are they welcomed, but still they fight, for they must. Their people and their lands depend on it and they cannot ignore that responsibility."

"Like you said, that it's not sharp and won't hurt me. And um, maybe that it's educational," he says, thinking. Adults like when things are educational and not just fun. "And healthy." He grins. It's kind of fun thinking of ways that she can get him past the adults at the Home, even if it's not exactly sneaking because fighting with wooden swords does sound like it could be all those things.

"That's dumb," he says. "Not being responsible, I mean, people not welcoming. Fighting's hard, if someone wants to keep people safe they should be able to."

Edited 2019-12-19 05:04 (UTC)

It was clever of him to know how to speak to those who cared for him, and she chuckled.

"The swordmaster who taught my brother and I would certainly say that it was educational, and also I would agree that it is healthy, for it allows much exercise. Well then. If we are returned to the city, perhaps I will be able to convince them to allow me to train you."

She could not and would not promise anything to him, for she could not.

all this has happened before

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