Finally, as the sun was beginning to sink in the sky, they touched down in Neverland. Aeris struggled to recall the layout of the island. "I think…well, I think the pirate city is over here…"

"Don’t you know?" Fezzik asked her.

She looked at him crossly. "It’s been a good ten years or so."

They started to walk through the forest. It was quiet and peaceful, and Aeris didn’t like the sound of that. Not at all. Where the Lost Boys were concerned, you wanted them to be making as much noise as possible. Otherwise, there was no telling what they were up to. They made it through the trees, up a slight incline. Then the tree line broke, and they both stopped cold. Fezzik gasped, and Aeris caught her breath.

Neverland opened up before them. They stood on a cliff, overlooking the entire island. They could see the sunlight of the afternoon, bright on the water, the Jolly Roger a toy boat on that glittering blue glass sea. Fezzik had begun to float again, and she laughed.

"Is it that wonderful?"

"Come on, Herald!" he cried, taking her hand. She floundered at first, but then got control of it, and they flew down to the city together. What they found explained the silence of the forest.

Chaos reigned. It was a scene that would have pleased the goddess of discord, Eris. Pirates were running and screaming epithets. Lost Boys were laughing wildly and darting in all directions to escape the angry pirates. Hook was on the deck of his ship, fencing with Pan. Aeris put a hand to her head. "I was afraid of something like this…"

"What is it?" Fezzik asked her.

"They’re raiding the pirates. Hook’s probably kidnapped Tink or Tiger Lily again. Oh, for heaven’s sake…"

"HERALD!" A shout came out of nowhere, and suddenly, Aeris felt herself bowled over by two identical boys dressed in animal skins.

"Twins!" she said, standing up over them and putting her hands on her hips. "Where are your manners? I thought Wendy taught you better than that!"

"But—we’re at war!" they cried in unison.

"All the more reason not to run down the Herald. Where—"

But they had ceased to pay any attention to her at all. They were staring at Fezzik, their eyes traveling up from his feet to his face, a long, awed look.

"Hello," the giant said amiably enough.

They screamed and ran.

"I don’t think they liked me," he told Aeris, shrugging. It seemed he was rather used to that sort of reaction.

"We need to talk to Peter and Hook. Can you…um…put a stop to this?"

"Oh, sure. Inigo asks me to break up fights all the time." He stormed into the fray, bellowing and pushing pirates out of his way and being careful not to step on any of the smaller Lost Boys. He glanced back at Aeris and waved his big hand. "Come on," he said, smiling.

"What fights?" she muttered, and followed him down. "Just what has he been doing on that pirate ship of his anyway?" she was asking Fezzik.

The battle was effectively over, and the Lost Boys were retreating as well as the pirates, both sides thinking the giant belonged to the other. Aeris and Fezzik simply walked onto the ship.

"Hallo!" It was Hook, his fight with Pan at a standstill, both of them looking pouty and put out. "What do you think you’re doing there? We’re having a war!"

"Captain! I must speak with you and Peter!"

He squinted. "Herald?"

"It’s me."

"What the devil happened to your hair?"

She rolled her eyes. She had forgotten that the last time she saw the residents of this place, she’d been sans streak.

"Well, no matter, no matter. Come on up…" He went over and stomped on the deck. The stairs that led down to where Aeris was flipped to reveal red carpet. They began to walk up.

Tinkerbell made one of her trademark haughty sounds. Peter laughed. "Tink says you look like a skunk, Aeris!"

"Yeah, well, I don’t believe in fairies."

Tinkerbell immediately dropped to the boards and dimmed her light, stricken.

"Oh, please. That tired old gag?"

The fairy made a soft little jingle.

Pan looked worried. "Gee, Aeris, I think you hurt her."

"For pity’s sake," Hook grumbled. He lackadaisically clapped his hands a few times. Tinkerbell’s light glowed brighter, and she was miraculously cured. "Let’s get on with this."

"I need…well, I need to see the Sea Witch."

Hook looked at her for a long time. "Aeris, are you bonkers?" Pan demanded.

"My sentiments exactly," Hook said, leaning towards her. "Exactly what sort of trouble are you in, my dear girl?"

She frowned at him. "I’m not! It’s a friend of mine, and I…Well, it’s The Dread Pirate Roberts."

Hook’s eyebrow went up. "A friend of yours?"

"Well, yes…"

"That’s very interesting. Very interesting indeed. And why do you need to see the Sea Witch, hmmm?""

"Because." She pulled the canvas out of her bag, knowing that unless she satisfied Hook’s curiosity, he’d get in her way. "I painted this and I don’t know what it means."

"How could you not?"

"I did it in my sleep."

Peter let out a low whistle. "This just gets weirder and weirder. Even for me."

"We want the Sea Witch to tell us what it means," Fezzik volunteered.

Hook nodded, stroking his mustache thoughtfully. "Very interesting," he murmured. "I see no reason to deny you passage through my waters, and—"

"No way," Pan said flatly. "That witch is off her rocker. And it’s not just her. It’s everything. I don’t like the sound of this. I’m not letting you go. You’re too important."

"I am here to protect her," Fezzik said with a touch of pride.

He paused, his little boy’s face darkened with deep thought. "You’re pretty big. But Aeris needs protecting from more than just the Sea Witch. More like…" He struggled to put it into words.

Tinkerbell jingled.

"Yeah, more like she needs protecting from herself," Peter agreed with the fairy. "She’s going to get herself into all kinds of trouble. I don’t think she should go."

"Aeris is a grown woman, and quite capable of taking care of herself," Hook told him.

"It’s just a Sea Witch!" Aeris finally yelled. "I’m tired of this nonsense! I’m going, and I have to, and you can’t stop me!"

Hook turned to her. "Just a Sea Witch?" He laughed. "Just a Sea Witch? You are in deep, Herald. Let her go, Pan. Let her have her way. She’ll be a bit the wiser for it, I should think."

"Come on, Peter," Aeris pleaded. "The gates won’t open without you and Hook. Please…"

The boy folded his arms across his chest. "No way. Come on, Tink."

"Ungrateful little wretch," Aeris muttered as he flew away. "I’ll remember this next time you can’t find your shadow. Now what?" she asked Fezzik.

But Captain Hook spoke. "Well…there is another way in…"

Fezzik didn’t like the way Aeris’ eyes lit up. He was all for rescuing Inigo, that is, if Inigo was really still alive, but he was beginning to have his doubts about going to see the witch, especially since Peter Pan, the spirit of adventure himself, would not open the way. And he wasn’t the most clever man in the world, but he thought maybe Hook was having his own misgivings.

"But it’s entirely too chancy, and I won’t have you putting yourself in danger," Hook continued, backtracking. Fezzik was right, James Hook was becoming steadily less eager to see the Herald of the Underground wandering into the Sea Witch’s clutches (he had once done so himself, to see if he might ever beat Pan, and paid a terrible price for it), but now it was too late, wasn’t it? One look in her blue eyes, so hopeful and determined, and he knew it. The best he could do now is try to talk his way out of this. "By the way, Herald, do your friends the Goblin King and Queen know you’ve come here?"

"Yes," she snapped, her patience completely worn out. "Now where is the other way in? I’ll find it myself if I have to."

"Oh, I don’t doubt that. Not at all. But…Herald…" He sighed finally. His own patience was wearing out, and he realized that while women knew nothing of war, they usually won more battles than they lost, and Aeris intended to win this one. "It is under the mountain on the east of the island. At the foot you’ll find a white stone. Your friend here…if he can move it, you can enter the cave; he shouldn’t be able to fit, so you’ll be going alone. I will warn you again. The way is dark and long and dangerous, and it might take you till sunrise just to find the witch’s cave. You could be lost, and never find either her or your way out at all."

"I’m willing to take that chance," she replied.

"I’m sure you are. I think you’re willing to take many, many chances." He glanced at Fezzik. "If I were her companion, I’d be sufficiently frightened."

She shot him a poisoned look and grabbed Fezzik’s arm. "Let’s go, I don’t want to waste any more time…"

Fezzik turned to her as they flew away. "Aeris, what if you get hurt?"

She glanced at him. "I don’t know, Fezzik. I have to try. I have to. Besides…I’ve lived in the Labyrinth all my life. I’ve dealt with Calypso and the Hobgoblin…and worse…so how hard could this be?"

It was nearing sundown when they found the rock. But it was huge. Aeris was, to say the least, daunted. "Can you really move this thing?"

"Sure," Fezzik said, although he didn’t look as certain as he sounded.

For the first time, she backed down a little. "This is really my quest here, Fezzik. You…you don’t have to."

"We’re doing this together," he told her, a smile breaking over his face like sunshine through clouds. "For Inigo."

She smiled back at him. She felt like a weight had fallen from her heart. "All right, then. Together."

Fezzik put his shoulder to the rock and pushed. It moved immediately, but not nearly as far as he’d intended. It rolled, ever so slightly. And that was all.

He took a deep breath, stood back, then tried again. He planted his feet, heaved against the rock, and pushed. Nothing. At last, he pretended the rock was the sailor who’d berated him on the Revenge, and slowly, it rolled aside until it showed an entrance, indeed too small for him and barely able to accommodate the Herald. There were stone steps leading down into the darkness.

He looked up at Aeris, and she clapped her hands. "Fezzik, you are brilliant!"

"Thank you, Aeris."

She reached into her bag and pulled something out. It was a spool of white thread. "Hold the end of this," she told him. "I’m going down there."

"What did you have this for?"

"I don’t know. I just grabbed whatever I laid my hands on when I was packing…" She looked at Fezzik, understanding what he was getting at. "I…I guess what I told Sarah was right. Fate looks after Heralds."

He thought it might be a little more than that, but said nothing. He took the thread in his hand, and Aeris unwound the spool a little. "Wish me luck."

"Good luck, Aeris. You come back soon."

"I will."

She descended down the steps.

Initially, the opening shed a little light. But once she was off the stairs, she was plunged into darkness so heavy she could barely make anything out.

"Aeris? Are you all right?" Fezzik thundered down.

"Yes…"

"You don’t sound very sure."

"It’s just that it’s dark…"

"If you get scared, come back up."

"I’m already scared," she muttered. "Okay," she told Fezzik, and started forward.

She bumped into a wall. The thread fell from her hand, rolled. She dropped to the ground, groping frantically for it. Her right hand brushed against something smooth and wet. She shrieked. She jumped and heard the thread roll again, and this time was able to reach out and grab it.

Fezzik had felt the slack in the thread and heard her cry, and he was on his knees outside the tunnel, calling her name.

"Aeris!? Aeris, come back! Aeris!?"

She sat in the darkness, trembling, clutching the thread tightly. "I can’t do this," she whispered to herself. "I just…I…"

"Aeris?" Fezzik said quietly.

"I can’t, Fezzik," she called back.

He was silent for a while. When he spoke, he did so with soft calmness. "What will happen to Inigo?"

Her fear stilled in her chest. And it began to go. She managed to get to her feet, and took a few deep breaths. "I’m okay," she called. Her voice trembled, and so she repeated it. "I’m okay." There was more strength behind it, and she felt more sure. She began to feel along the wall, and slowly make her way through the darkness.