Artifacts
branches.
    This is truly the most deadly thing I’ve ever seen , I thought.
    “Those thorns will rip and tear your flesh if they have the opportunity.”
    “Seriously?” I asked. “You’re talking about the Blackthorn like it’s alive.”
    “ It is ,” Skylights said emphatically. “Go ahead. Touch it again.”
    Reaching out for the thorns, the branches bowed out to meet my hand and the thorns slowly turned toward it.
    “Crapola!” I yelled, jumping back and shoving my hand in my pocket.
    “If you’re going to battle pirates,” a familiar voice said, walking up behind us, “you’re going to need words a lot more awesome than that.”
    I didn’t even have to turn around. “Mouth, I knew they wanted to give you back, but I didn’t think we’d see you this soon.”
    “I’m ready to lead this battle with my new friends,” Mouth said, putting his arm around Skylights, who quickly shrugged it off.
    “Lead the battle?” I asked.
    “Sure,” Mouth said. “I’ll tell Tank and the Grumpkins what to do from the safety of my command center in one of the tree houses. Our victory will be famous all over the world.”
    I tried to hide my smile. “You’re a legend in your own mind,” I said. Then I turned back toward the Blackthorn. “How does the wall appear out of nowhere to protect the house?”
    “It’s not a wall,” Skylights said. “It’s a maze, with more than one entrance and choices along the way. The walls are high so you can’t see the way out. We almost lost poor Grifter a few times. As hard as we try, we weren’t able to get through the first few layers.”
    “So why do you want to get in there so badly?” I asked. “What is the artifact?”
    Skylights looked at the others and then nodded. “A remnant of a time when all the great stories were written which has become a threat to the very foundation of Fairy Tale Land … ”
    “ There’s a land! ” Crunch cried, hearing those two words put together for the first time.
    “Let me start from the beginning,” Skylights said. “While seizing a ship and plundering it for every last bit of treasure, Captain James Bartholomew Hook stumbled upon a man, hiding amongst the crew, who had originally hired the ship to take him to Neverland.”
    My head was swirling. “Say, ‘Let me start from the beginning,’ again.”
    Skylights laughed. “It’ll get easier. I promise.”
    “Who was the man?” Korie asked.
    “His name was J. M. Barrie,” Skylights said.
    I shot a look at Korie. “The guy who wrote Peter Pan ?”
    Skylights smiled as Grifter and Touch snickered behind him. “The man who spent time with us and Peter in Neverland and later wrote about his experiences.”
    “This is the craziest thing I’ve ever heard,” Mouth said, “and I’ve told some doozies.”
    “It does get stranger,” Skylights said. “Barrie was on his way to talk to Peter about an artifact which could supposedly change the course of fairy tales forever.”
    “How could it change them?” I asked.
    “It can rewrite them,” Skylights said.
    “Why does everybody think the artifact is here?” Korie asked.
    “We’ve been looking for it for the better part of the last century … ”
    “Century?” Mouth asked.
    “Some of us are a great deal older than we look, Mouth,” Skylights said and then continued. “Years ago, we had thought we found it. After much searching and inquiry, we traced it to a Lost Boy named Slightly who stumbled on it in the forest during one of his searches for treasure. We believe it was taken in one of the raids Hook or even Blackbeard before him had made and was lost over the years.”
    “What did he say when you asked him?” Crunch asked.
    “Slightly is much like Mouth in that his memories are based on pure fabrications.”
    Tank cracked up. “He knows you pretty well, Mouth.”
    “So you kept looking?” Korie asked.
    Skylights nodded. “We kept looking.”
    “By the time we realized Slightly did have the artifact,

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