Peter

"Hey kid, this is my corner."

Peter peered up at the ancient man scowling at him. His beard was so long it brushed against Peter's nose.

"Your corner?"

"Yeah, that's what I said, isn't it?"

"How'd you get it?"

The old man snorted. "By being here every day for the last seven years!"

Peter looked down the sidewalk at all of the others stationed with their signs and cups and wondered how long they'd had to sit there to claim those spaces. Sitting in the same place for seven years? It sounded like drudgery. They certainly had an odd way of getting things up here in the Grey World.

"Move along, now," the old man grunted, "you don't want me to make a scene."

Peter stood and stepped away from the man with pirate breath. Sitting there with the sign hadn't done him much good anyway. He had thought that girl might help him, the one with the tangled hair and the tease in her smile, but she ended up just giving him those two pieces of paper. He pulled them out of his pocket, wondering what they were. They had a woman's face on them. Maybe it was a picture of someone who could help him? But how could he find her? Would she know where his shadow was? He studied the papers for a few moments, but then decided that the best thing to do was to find that girl. She could at least explain what the things meant. He pulled his fingerprint collector from his jacket and scanned one of the papers. The small screen displayed several sets of prints. He discarded his own and chose the ones that were the most fresh. Peter held the collector out as it scanned the street and surrounding buildings, then the screen duplicated the image and lit up several spots where the device had found matching prints, showing him the direction he needed to go. He was glad he had brought the collector with him, usually he only used it to find Slightly whenever he stole all the rum berries and hid in the trees.

His collector guided him down a maze of streets, picking up the girl's fingerprints in various places: on the side of a building, on a hand rail, on a sign hanging in front of a toy shop. Peter walked through an alley of tall buildings, shuddering as he quickened his step. The towering structures made him feel trapped.

Peter had only ventured up to the Grey World a few times, but that was far more than the other lost boys, who had never come here. This was mainly because no one ever wanted to leave their home, and usually Peter didn't either, but sometimes he had an unsettling feeling that he was missing something - that some great adventure was passing him by. He was also the only one who knew how to get to the Grey World, but he didn't intend for it to be a secret. He would be happy to tell the others if they ever asked him.

The last time he had come up here was... when was it? He couldn't remember. He just knew that he had encountered something unpleasant involving a badger and had sworn he would never return to the Grey World again. But then his shadow had gone missing, and he tracked it up through the tunnels and into the alley that smelled like ginger until he lost the signal on that large, twisted bridge. He had to get his shadow back. He was growing anxious about all the points he was losing, which would surely compromise their winning streak against the pirates, and he didn't want to... great lion horns, he thought, what was that smell?

Peter doubled back to a window that displayed delicious looking pastries and breads. Nearly salivating, he walked into the small shop, eying a row of fruit filled doughnuts.

"Can I help you?" Asked a stout man behind the counter.

"Yes!" Peter replied, grateful for the man's consideration. "I've lost my shadow. Have you seen it?"

The man rolled his eyes. "Great," he muttered, "another cracked one. Probably an addict."

Peter was about to ask what 'addict' meant, but the man had started talking to another person in the shop. Peter shrugged and plucked a blueberry doughnut off of the shelf. The man behind the counter started yelling something as he walked out, but he didn't know why. He must have been shouting at someone else.

By the time he finished eating his doughnut he had arrived at a door covered in the girl's fingerprints. He turned the handle to let himself in and found someone inside. It was a lady. She was on a ladder painting the wall. It was a pretty lady, but it wasn't the girl. And she wasn't happy to see him. She whipped her head around and screamed. Peter backed up and slammed the door. He heard a loud crash. He considered going back in to see if the lady was okay, but a moment later his concern passed.

He reprogrammed his collector to find the most recent of the girl's fingerprints instead of the greatest quantity. He backtracked to the street corner where he had been sitting, and then continued on to an area where the streets were narrower and the buildings more crowded. Soon he was standing in front of an oddly colorful house sandwiched in between two dreary buildings. There was quite a lot of noise coming from inside, so he peered in the window and saw the girl sitting on the floor with two young boys who seemed very upset. Peter pushed the window open a bit so he could hear what they were saying.

"But Miss Wendy, where will we go? They're going to throw us out on the street and we'll get eaten by the alley monsters!" Exclaimed a red-haired boy.

"No, you won't, Trevor," the girl responded. "Mrs. Nancy and I will do everything we can to keep this home, but if we can't, you'll just go to another house where they'll love you as much as I do."

"Will they love me?" The other boy asked piteously.

"Yes, Zachary, I'm sure they will."

"But I don't want to go away, Miss Wendy, I want to be with you!" The first boy pleaded. "How will I find you?"

The Wendy girl pulled the boy called Trevor into her lap.

"Do you remember the story of Hansel and Gretel?" She asked.

"Handsome and who?"

"Hansel and Gretel."

"Are they the ones who got eaten by the wolf?"

"No. When Hansel and Gretel were sent away from their house, Hansel dropped white pebbles along the path so they could find their way back home."

"I remember!" Piped Zachary. " They got lost in the woods and found a house made out of candy and a witch wanted to eat them!"

"I'm going to get eaten by a witch?" Wailed Trevor.

"No," soothed Wendy, "I just think you're so clever that you'll figure out a way to find me."

The boy buried his ginger head into Wendy's shoulder and she wrapped her arms around him. The scene made Peter smile.

Just then a large black dog jumped at the window and barked in Peter's face. He stumbled back and fled down the street. The dog reminded him too much of that crazed badger from before. Peter resolved that he would go back to the house later. He wasn't exactly sure why, but he wanted to take that Wendy girl to Neverland.