Chapter 10 The Never Bird Out on the water.
The lost boys had won their fight with Smee and Starkey, but they couldn't find Peter or Wendy or Hook.
Taking the pirate's dinghy.
They sailed home in it, shouting for Peter and Wendy the entire time, but there was no response, except for an occasional mocking from the mermaids.
They must be swimming or flying back, the boys concluded.
Had they stayed in the lagoon, they might have soon heard two voices crying for help.
Peter and Wendy, he injured and she weak, had climbed back onto Marooner's Rock.
As the water rose dangerously around them, they fell unconscious one right after the other.
A mischievous mermaid pulled Wendy by her toe, trying to get her into the water.
Feeling her slip from him, Peter woke up just in time to pull her back.
Our rock is shrinking, he told her.
Soon it will be gone.
Let's go then, Wendy cried.
We can swim or fly away.
I can do neither, Peter replied.
I have been injured.
You go.
But Wendy was too weak to make it on her own.
The children put their hands over their eyes to shut out the sight of rising water and prepared to meet their end.
Just then, something brushed Peter's leg.
It was as light as a feather, and it seemed to be asking, Can I help?
What luck!
It was the tail of a kite, which Michael had made a few days earlier but then lost to the wind.
Peter grabbed it and wrapped it around Wendy.
Now, you, Wendy cried.
It can't lift us both, Peter explained.
Michael and Curly tried.
Wendy clung to Peter, refusing to go without him, but he pushed her from the rock and away she flew.
Peter was left all alone in the lagoon.
The rock grew smaller and smaller.
In the distance, the mermaids called sadly to the moon.
Like any boy, Peter was scared to die, but soon his fear changed to excitement.
To die will be an awfully big adventure, he said.
Around him, the lagoon grew quieter and quieter.
Peter heard the mermaids saying goodnight to one another and shutting the doors to their coral caves.
He heard the water gurgle greedily as it rose to nibble on the rock.
Then he saw something white floating on the water.
He thought it was a piece of paper, or perhaps a piece of Michael's kite, but as he continued to stare at it he realized that it had a more definite sense of purpose than a mere piece of paper would have—.
It seemed to be fighting the tide instead of just going with the flow.
Peter found himself rooting for the white streak to win.
The piece of paper was actually the neverbird sitting on her now floating nest.
She was trying desperately to reach Peter, although he had teased her in the past.
He had also given orders that her nest was not to be disturbed.
For this reason, and perhaps because she was, above all things, a mother, she would disturb her nest herself to save his life.
Swim to the nest, she called to him.
I am too tired to row all the way to you.
But Peter didn't speak bird language and couldn't understand her.
And even near death, he could be very impatient.
What are you quacking about?
Peter asked rudely.
I don't understand a word.
Why?
I never.
The never bird said and tried again.
Same to you, Peter replied, whatever you just said.
Remembering that he was only a child.
The maternal Neverbird took a deep breath and made one last push to row her nest to the rock.
Upon reaching it, she flew up, leaving her eggs behind to make some room for Peter.
Finally realizing her meaning, Peter waved his thank you to the neverbird.
Looking down however, he saw there was not enough room in the nest for both him and her two large white eggs.
He lifted the eggs up and the neverbird covered her eyes with her feathers, afraid of what Peter might do.
On the rock next to Peter was a waterproof hat, broad and wide, which Starkey had left behind.
Peter put the eggs into the hat and set them afloat.
With a final happy quack, the Neverbird swooped down and settled herself on top of her eggs.
Peter got into the Neverbird's old nest, waved goodbye, and pushed off.
He in his nest and Wendy with her kite arrived back at the cave at nearly the same time.
Oh, how everyone rejoiced.
The party went on until Wendy realized how late it was and told everyone it was well past their bedtime.
The boys tried to stall, insisting they were injured and in need of slings and bandages, but Wendy would have none of it and sent them to bed.
