Peter's heart pounded in his ears. The cloud now sat directly over Cannibal Cove and he could see that somehow they'd managed to sail the ship up the river and hide it behind a rock that jutted out. The ship appeared to be empty, or they were all below deck, but Peter couldn't imagine why they would do that, unless they were hoping that Peter would come aboard.
Peter scanned the beach and forest, looking for signs of the Pirates, but had no luck.
"Tink," he whispered. "Do you see anything?"
Tink groaned. "Why do I have to do everything for you? Don't you have your own two eyes?"
"I'll let you pull Wendy's hair again if you tell me where the pirates are."
"You will not!" Wendy objected from below him. "And it's just Wen, not Wendy."
Tink grinned, showing off two rows of sharp teeth. "Will she scream?"
"Most likely."
Tink flew away from the cloud for a few yards and then dove straight down toward the forest so quickly that even Peter lost track of them.
"Peter! You better tell it to leave my hair alone."
"They will do no such thing. I already made a deal with them. You can't break a deal with a fairy."
"You can if I say so." Wendy floated up to Peter's height and crossed her arms.
"Get down! They'll see you!"
"But they won't see you?"
"I'm still mostly behind the cloud. You're flying out in the middle of wide open space."
"I am not!"
Bang!
Peter lunged at Wendy's legs and pulled her down just in time for a bullet to whiz past her head. Wendy screamed, and in her panic she would have fallen had Peter not still been holding on to her.
"Wen!" both Michael and John shouted.
Peter grunted. Wendy was a bit bigger than him and holding her up was difficult. "Wendy...think...happy...thoughts," he said through gritted teeth.
"How am I supposed to do that when I've been shot at?" Wendy shoved herself away from Peter, seeming to suddenly gain control of herself. Evidently her happy thought was razzing Peter.
Two more gunshots sounded. "Scatter!" Peter shouted, and shot downward, toward the forest. He didn't look to see where the others chose to go, or if they went at all.