Within a few minutes, on Peter’s order’s, they were all sitting around Riio wanting to learn about
                      their new Mother. She told them how old she was, where she was from in England, and what
                      interested them most – about her fascination with the military. All the Boys pricked up their ears,
                      including Peter, and demanded more information.
                      “Well,” she began, “when I was twelve I joined the cadets…”
                      “What’s a cadet?” A Twin butted in.
                      “A cadet is somebody who is learning how to be in the Air Force, or the Army…”
                      “ARMY?”
                      “Yes, we…”
                      Peter jumped up in a fit of inspiration; “You can teach us to be in the Army, Riio! We can be the
                      Army of Neverland!” This was met with a great cheer from the boys and Riio knew she wouldn’t
                      have a choice anyway, so she smiled and told them to find as many of the clothes they had which
                      looked like plants or were the same colour as nature.

                      An hour later, after Riio had dug her cam cream out of her bag and covered their faces with Army
                      camouflage make-up she showed them some basic tactics. Soon they could all crawl along the
                      ground without making a sound and ambush her from all directions. Peter thought this was a
                      great game and didn’t hesitate in extending it.
                      “Riio, are we very good at this now?”
                      “Of course, Peter.”
                      “How good?”
                      “Really good…”
                      “Then let’s attack the pirates!” the Lost Boys let out a huge whoop at the idea and Peter had to
                      shout at the top of his voice to get them to shut up.
                      “I have an idea: first we fly to…”
                      Riio cut him off. “But we can’t fly unless it’s really necessary – it’s no fun otherwise.”
                      “Really?” Peter was once again alerted by the mention of fun. “How do you know?”
                      “I’ve been doing it four years and no amount of flying can make it that much more fun.”
                      “Ok then! We don’t fly.”
                      “We do fly, just not a lot of the time.”
                      “Ok, what Riio said. Now here’s the plan…”

                      “Odds, bobs, hammer and tongues! What in blazes is this?!” Hook roared at his crew who had
                      gathered round to see what he thought of his latest discovery. They now thought it would
                      probably have been a better idea to stay away. Hook snatched up Smee from the floor and
                      growled into his face.
                      “Where did you get this map, Smee?”
                      Smee stuttered about it being in a bottle floating in the sea and Hook dropped him to inspect it
                      further. It was a map of Neverland all right, and it screamed treasures at him plainly as Smee’s
                      appearance screamed yellow-bellied idiots. The captain, however, did not trust it.
                      “It’s worth a try, Cap’n,” Mullins started, and Starkey finished off with what everyone was
                      thinking.
                      “It doesn’t look like Lost Boy work or writing, and the ink is strange. Nothing I’ve ever seen
                      before, Captain.”
                      Hook paused and the rest of his crew gulped as the sunlight glinted off his hook, sending a
                      dancing light across the paper map they had laid out.
                      “All right.” He shot. “We go and look. If it isn’t in the middle of those dead trees and I mean no
                      trace, we come back today. No gallivanting around with a map we don’t trust, men – we have
                      better things to do on board this ship!”
                      The crew scattered to pick up whatever tools they might need, while Smee let down the
                      longboats. Hook stood staring maliciously at the shore they were heading for – if it was Lost Boy
                      work, or the work alone of Peter Pan, they would all pay dearly for their pranks, he would make
                      sure of that.

                      Curly stifled a laugh as he sat in his tree, surrounded by leaves and completely hidden by the new
                      colouring of his face and hands. No, He told himself. No laughing – Riio said no noise. He stiffened
                      as he saw a burly figure approach their hiding places.
                      Mason!
                      He glanced at The Twins’ spot and saw one of them shift slightly, though nobody would notice it
                      unless they were looking for it. He giggled silently, knowing what was coming, and saw shining
                      eyes in bushes, trees and under piles of leaves all fixed on Peter and Riio’s tree waiting for the
                      ambush signal.
                      “Found anything yet, Mason?”
                      “Starkey will ya shuddup – you haven’t said anythin’ else since we got to shore.”
                      “Kindly don’t tell me to shut up, Mr. Mullins…”
                      “Shuttit Starkey.”
                      The last voice was Mason’s and he was scuffling in a small pile of leaves, dangerously close to
                      Tootles’. Suddenly he gave a great shout, making Curly jump almost out of his skin and his tree.
                      “Here! What’s this!” He held aloft a shining coin, and the other pirates crowded round to see
                      what Riio knew was a two-pound piece, but the others on the island had never seen such a thing
                      before. Peter and Riio howled at exactly the moment the pirates had their backs facing them.
                      “NOW!”
                      Boys jumped from trees and out of places the crew thought they would have noticed a child
                      hiding, but the fact is – they didn’t look like boys. And the pirates didn’t think they were boys.
                      “Demons, men!” shrieked Mullins, and Smee was too scared even to threaten them with Johnny
                      Corkscrew. Mason and Starkey fell over each other trying to vacate the area, and Billy stood
                      rooted to the spot before yelling at the top of his voice as one of these small green and brown
                      monsters tackled him, slamming him into the mossy floor. The Lost Boys and Girl stole hats,
                      tripped pirates, danced around in a mad behaviour screaming and hollering incomprehensible
                      words in deep-throated war-cries that sent most birds and other small animals fleeing in all
                      directions.
                      By the time the pirates had run fearing for their lives, the Boys were already sitting in a circle
                      laughing themselves silly, which the crew of the Jolly Rodger had taken for some sort of cursing
                      ritual and removed themselves from the spot as soon as possible. Peter had time to gasp that he
                      thought he had bust a rib, but this only caused more peals of laughter that shook the eight of
                      them uncontrollably.
                      “We…we…” Tootles wiped his streaming eyes on a leaf, “we didn’t even…have to…” he took a deep
                      breath and finished with another giggle. “…fight them!”
                      They fell about again and it was a good hour or so before they got back home, and even then
                      re-enacted the scene over and over for Tinkerbell to tire of and for the Boys to go to sleep on
                      and dream of the wonderful Army of Neverland, which could send grown men fleeing for their lives
                      at the sight of them.