Taemin pulled himself from the pool. His brown hair dripping in front of his face, but as he looked up through his bangs, he noticed the tips of them start to turn white. He watched as the white spread up to his scalp. He looked up at Kai who had been staring open mouthed at him.
“What?” he asked his new friend.

“Dude, you’re...beautiful,” he answered, voice dripping with honesty. He watched as Taemin’s entire head turned white. As the other stood up, Kai noted how his white skin sparkled with the remnants of the dust. “There’s still dust on your body. You should probably wipe it off before you put your clothes back on.’

Taemin looked down at his body and tried to brush off the glittering dust, but it would not come off.

“The dust has been absorbed into your very being, and because of that, parts of your body will inevitably manifest it.” The male fairy had silently appeared behind Kai to explain the situation to Taemin.

The young boy cut the fairy off as he was about to continue speaking, “YOU SAID THAT THAT WOULD NOT HURT ME! It felt like I was being set on fire!”

Surprise and confusion manifested on the fairy’s face, “That has never happened before,” he said. Seeing the questioning look on Taemin’s face led him to continue, “You are not the first human to swim in the pool. It usually just numbs the person of their pain and seals up the wound. We have never had it cause anyone pain before.”

Taemin looked at him with a blank stare, “I felt like I was on fire, nevermind the fact that it had paralyzed me,” he scoffed.

“Paralyzed you? This is a rare case indeed. I will go to speak with the council.” He looked at Taemin’s still body, “You might want to get dressed as well.”

Taemin took his clothes from the oblivious Kai, “What did he say?” asked the elder.

“You didn’t hear him?” Taemin asked.

“No. No one has ever spoken to the fae. They cannot speak.”

Taemin remembered what the fairy had said about his connection to the planet. “He said that I am able to hear their thoughts and that I had something to do with this place.”

Kai thought to himself as Taemin finished putting on his clothes.

Taemin pointed to the place where he had been stabbed, the hole had been sewn up with some sort of green material.

“That’s a special type of vine that the fairies created to make their clothes. They’ve given some to the tribe in the past. It doesn’t tear or wear out easily, so it makes for a good material to hunt in, but they haven’t been as magnanimous since the pirates decided to wage war on them.”

“The pirates waged war on the fairies? Why?”

“They want the Dust Pool to themselves. Years ago, they saved Captain Key when he fell off of a cliff, and since then he has been after the Pool for himself.”

Taemin nodded, understanding the Captain’s need to know where he was going. “He doesn’t know where this place is?”

“No one really does. The fairies blindfold anyone that they bring here. Including us.”

At that moment, the fairy had returned and beckoned for Taemin to go with him. He asked for Kai to stay behind, which the elder did without question. He knew that the fairies liked to keep their secrets, and he wouldn’t try to interfere.

The fairy led Taemin to a small alcove carved into the trunk of one of the largest trees that he had ever seen. The boy looked into it carefully where he saw a ring of seven small chairs. In them, sat a group of older fae, both men and women.

“These are the seven elders. They are all over a thousand years old. With their infinite wisdom and experience, you may find the answers that you seek.’

Taemin nodded and approached them cautiously.

“What is it you seek child?” asked the lady in the middle.

“I want to know why the Dust Pool didn’t just numb me, but also paralyze my whole body. Why did it make me feel as though my entire body was on fire?”

A man on the right end spoke up, “The Dust water was reacting to something inside you.”

“What could that be though? I am just a human, like everyone else.”

“We have not seen something like this in many years. Not since the days of him,” said the lady next to the man who spoke before.

“Who?”

The woman in the middle took back control of the conversation, “Your world has undoubtedly heard of him. He was the boy who stole children, the boy who didn’t age.”

Taemin thought for a minute, “The stories I heard as a child told of a boy who took children before the second war, but they were just fairy tales.”

“Not fairy tales, dear boy. They spoke of the one called Peter Pan. He was the one who brought life back to Neverland. He had great adventures and fought with the Captain before Key, who took over the Jolly Rodger shortly after Hook’s death. He was one of the first to swim in the Pool. He also came out saying that the water had burned him inside and out.”

“Peter Pan was real? And he was like me?”

“Yes. He was very much like you.”

“You keep saying ‘was’. Did Pan die?”

“Unfortunately, yes. Peter died of the wounds he sustained when he killed Hook. It has been five hundred years since him, and we have not seen another like him until now.”

“Couldn’t he have just been healed in the Pool after he was injured?” he asked as the distance in time hadn’t quite hit him.

“No. The Pool only works once. We never told that to Key, but I don’t think he would believe it anyway. He is a stubborn man.”

Taemin had absorbed all of this information in confidence. He was not sure what relation he had to Peter, but he was determined to find it out. The fairies had finished talking by now, and Taemin had begun to leave, but the lead fairy stopped him.

“Taemin, we will assign Tinker Bell and Dewey to be your teachers. They will inform you of our ways and teach you how to utilize your new abilities.”

Taemin wrinkled his face in confusion. “What new abilities?”

“You will learn in time,” she answered.