“N-Neverland?” I sputtered, unable to hide my shock. I gawked at the leaf clad youth before me. “Peter Pan? But how? Neverland’s on an obscure island of the kingdom thousands of miles from Rockledge.”

With an imperious flutter of her wings, Sen replied, “There’s much about fairies you don’t know.”

My lips turned downward in annoyance.

“I’m aware,” I countered, refusing to bristle openly in front of her. As I brought up before, the fairies did an outstanding job of obstructing my endeavors to chart their homes on my map of the Kingdom.

Sen did a dreadful job of masking a satisfied smirk. “Come now, Shirley, fairies are obliged to safeguard the homesteads of all fairies, no matter their clan. And…” She went on, cutting me off and shaking a denunciatory finger in my face. “Thank goodness we did. Otherwise, Scrivenger would know of the fairy godmother’s most guarded abilities.”

“Which is… what?” I demanded, with a significant glance around me. “You have a secret backdoor into Neverland?”

Photo courtesy of: Clker-Free-Vector-Images; courtesy of” Pixabay

Sen scoffed and shared a grin with Peter. “I thought you had a better imagination than that.”

I began to lose my patience. Between being dropped down a shaft and scorned for my ignorance, I’d had enough of Sen’s lofty attitude. “Are you going to tell me about this ability or not? Does Peter know about this…” I waggled my fingers. “Magic power?”

Peter held his head high and crowed with hilarity. “Course I do. Tinker Bell told me a long time ago. She may not be a fairy godmother, but she knows some codes.”

“Codes?” Duncan asked.

“Yes,” Sen replied, resigned. “As you’re a part of the Resistance now and can’t leave Rockledge the usual way, there’s nothing for it. I have to tell you, but you must keep this an absolute secret. There’s a curse attached to the spell on anyone who even tries to betray us.”

Peter nodded sagely and made a slicing gesture across his neck.

Undeterred by Peter’s warning, Duncan swelled with irritation, his beak snapping together. “Well, what is it?” he asked impatiently.

I stood silent with expectation, my goatee quivering. After all these years, I would finally learn how the fairies hid their homes from the rest of the magical folk in the Kingdom.

Photo courtesy of: Stefan Keller; courtesy of: Pixabay

Sen drew closer, settled on my other shoulder, and spoke straight into my ear. Duncan leaned around my chin to listen in. “When I tapped the newel post, I entered a code. The code opened a portal that led us to Neverland.”

Duncan whistled appreciatively, whereas I froze, a deluge of painful childhood memories crowding my mind.

“Are you only able to travel through the realm?” I whispered, already knowing the answer.

“No, Shirley,” Sen replied, “we can open doors into many other worlds.”