“Neverland?!” he asked, surprised.

    The boy smiled and nodded, “Yes. Welcome to Neverland. The world where time stands still.”

    “What do you mean time stands still?”

    The boy laughed, “Yep. You’re definitely not from around here. I may not look it, but I’m six hundred and sixteen years old.” He laughed again when he saw Taemin’s jaw drop, “No one ages in this world, but we can still die. The fairies live on the other side of us,” he said pointing away from the ocean. “We protect them from the pirates.”

    Taemin’s eyes widened at the influx of information, “Pirates?! Real pirates?”

    “Yes, they are very dangerous.” The boy drew Taemin back to the center of the tribe where the group had begun roasting meat.

One of the men handed Taemin a bowl of the meat, “Here, you must be hungry. Eat.”

“Thanks.” Taemin prodded at the meat in the bowl. He turned to the boy who had greeted him earlier, “What kind of meat is this?”

The boy grabbed his own and tilted his head toward a tree. Against it, rested a giant crocodile skull.

“Crocodile? That’s a huge reptile. How can you catch them?”

“We have a hunt every two weeks. Maybe you should join us one day, it’s fun.”

Taemin set his bowl down, hunger dissipating, “I would love to, but I have to get home.” He stood up, looking for a way to leave.

“If you want to get home, you will have to ask the one who brought you. I don’t know how well you’ll fare, seeing as the fairies don’t speak.” He pointed to the forest, “Their village is that way.”

Taemin set off into the woods with purpose in his step. He walked for some time, but as the sun started to set, he found himself wandering in circles. “Which way was it? West, or East?”

“You lost pal?” came a voice from behind Taemin.

He turned around to find a man, not much older than him, with what looked to be his crew. The man was handsome and he had an eyepatch over his left eye. Taemin could barely catch it under his long dark hair, but it was there. He backed up slowly, “N-N-No I’m good, I was just--”

The man clapped his hand over Taemin’s wrist, “Come now. You can spare us some time can’t you little one?”

He was frozen with fear, these men were definitely the pirates that that boy had been talking about. “You’re pirates.”

The man laughed and held out his hand, “Captain Key. Nice to meet you.”

Taemin ignored him, “If you’re here in Neverland, you must not age either.”

“You’ve got it!” Key turned to one of his men, “Say, Suho, How old am I?”

“You’ll be five hundred and twenty, next month, Captain.”

The man chuckled, “Yes.” He turned back to Taemin, “Now, why don’t you come with us?”

Taemin turned to run, he only got a few feet before he felt a pain in his side. He looked down to see a sword poking out from his abdomen. One of Key’s men had been behind a tree, waiting for him to try to run. He collapsed to his knees, and before he lost consciousness he heard a warcry from the distance.

“,” Key exclaimed, “It’s the savages. We’re outnumbered. To the ship.”

One of the men pulled his sword from Taemin’s side and left. He rolled over onto his back and put pressure on his wound, but it didn’t help. He could feel himself bleeding out there on the forest floor. He felt strong hands pick him up just before he lost grip on reality.

~

Taemin found himself lying on the lush green of the forest floor. He tried to roll over, but he was paralyzed with pain. After a few tries and much agony, Taemin was able to sit up. He looked around to get a better view of where he was. The trees had vines dangling from their full branches and stood several hundred feet in the air. There were small houses built into the higher parts of the treetops. Upon seeing them, Taemin understood where he was. The fairies’ camp.

He sat and admired the sight before him, but it was short-lived as a couple of the fairies drifted down to meet him. Taemin recognized one as the fairy that he had seen on the rooftops, but the other, a male, he did not know.

The female floated toward him, “Taemin,” she said, “You have been gravely injured.” She spoke to him, and he could hear her clearly, but was not moving. “The only way for us to heal you is for you to bathe in the dust spring.” She gestured to a small pool off to his right, as the light broke through the tree leaves, the water from the spring sparkled with silver glints.

“Wait. Hold on. How are you speaking to me without moving your mouth?”

This time the male fairy started to speak, his deep voice a stark contrast to his small body. “That is a long story Taemin. One that we will speak about in depth after you have healed, but in short, you have much in common with this world. You have a connection to it, and through it you are able to hear our thoughts. That is why Tinker Bell could not speak to you on your planet.”

Taemin nodded, taking it with pride along with being transported to another planet. “That sounds lovely, but may I ask a couple of things?”

The fairy nodded.

“How did I get away from the pirates? If I take a dip in this sparkly little pool, will it hurt?”

He pondered the inquiries, “If you bathe in the waters of the Dust Pool, you will experience some discomfort, but it will be short lived. About the other question, how about Kai answers that,” he said moving his eyes behind Taemin.

Taemin turned his head to see the boy from the tribe, “Kai? Your name is Kai?”

He nodded, rubbing the back of his neck nervously.

Taemin would have continued in his conversation, but he was interrupted by the male fairy.

“You are growing weaker. You must bathe in the pool before you bleed out.”

Unable to move, Taemin looked to Kai. “Can I get a hand?”

The other helped Taemin over to the pool, but before he could set his foot into it, he was interrupted again.

“You must be completely without man-made objects. You must strip . I apologize if it makes you uncomfortable, but the only way for the pool’s magic to be effective, is complete skin contact.”

Taemin felt his wound bleed more as he maneuvered his arms out of his ripped shirt. He stepped out of his pants and into the pool becoming fully submersed in the glittering water. He stayed afloat on his back as he waited for the liquid to take effect.

It was merely seconds before he felt his toes start to numb, and he realized that this was the same feeling that he got when he touched Tinker Bell. However, this was more potent than she was. As the numbness spread, Taemin lost the ability to move his body. Unable to keep himself afloat, he sank into the deep depths of the spring. He began to panic, but that quickly subsided as he saw his wound start to close.

Taemin tried to move his body, but he was still paralyzed. The fact that he did not feel the need to breathe puzzled him, but the question slowly slipped from his mind as an agonizing pain overtook his body. This pain was much worse than what he felt when he was stabbed. His entire body felt as though it had been set on fire. He tried to scream, but the glittering liquid forced its way down his throat. The pain doubled as the burning sensation became internal. He did not know how long he could withstand the pain before he passed out and drowned. He tried to swim, but he could only move his fingers and toes. He reached the bottom of the pool as he thought of his friends.

Taemin had resigned himself to the fact that he would die this painful death, but as he closed his eyes to accept whatever afterlife that awaited him, the pain disappeared. He regained his ability to move mere moments after the pain had subsided. Taemin pushed off of the bottom of the pool and out into the open air.