Peter Pan and the Neverland Floods: The Curse of the North Witch

5-10 minutes - Perfect for bedtime - Magic & adventure

One day, Peter Pan and the Lost Boys woke up to find something strange afoot in Neverland. It was raining. And while that isn’t strange in itself, it is certainly strange for Summertime in Neverland. 

“Never mind,” said Peter Pan. “It will soon stop.”

But the rain didn’t stop. It fell and fell, in great big splashing drops, all day. The Lost Boys couldn’t play football at all. They had to stay in their tents.

They said goodnight to each other from the shelter of their tent canopies. There were big muddy puddles all around the camp. 

“Tomorrow, it’s sure to stop raining. The sun will come back out and then we can play football,” said Peter Pan.

But it didn’t. The rain poured down all night, right through to the morning. The sky was dark with cloud. There was not a single beam of sunshine to be seen. And the rain had burst the banks of the muddy puddles. Now, a stream was flowing through the camp. Everything was wet.

By lunchtime, everything was even wetter. The stream had become a big, wide river. The tents were wet, the sleeping bags were wet, the lunch was wet and the lost boys were soaked. They felt very miserable. But what was most worrying of all, was that their magic ship was wet, inside and out. It was completely flooded. The water stopped the magic from working, so the Lost Boys were stuck in Neverland with no way to escape.

“Something is wrong here.,” said Peter Pan. “Something has happened.”

He thought hard about it. It seemed like the rain would never end. It kept coming and coming and coming, splashing and sploshing and splishing. There was only one place that much water could come from. 

“This is the work of the North Witch.” He announced to the Lost Boys. “It must be. The North River is the only place that this much water could come from – it never runs dry. She must have cursed Neverland and sent us all this rain!”

“But why?” Cried the Lost Boys. 

“I don’t know,” said Peter Pan, standing up bravely, “but we’re going to find out.”

The North Witch was a very shy witch and she didn’t like to talk to strangers, especially boys. Peter Pan knew just who would be able to find out why she’d cursed Neverland. He called Tinkerbell straight away and sent her off to fetch Wendy. 

Wendy was fast asleep. It was the middle of the night and she was having a lovely dream, tucked up in her warm, dry bed. 

“Wendy! Wendy, quick, come on! Quick, quick, wake up!” Tinkerbell pulled Wendy out of bed by the blue bow in her hair! She started tugging on Wendy’s nightdress.

“What….?” Muttered Wendy, half asleep. She was surprised to see Tinkerbell.

“Quick, Wendy, hold on tight. Peter Pan needs to see you – it’s an emergency!”

Tinkerbell blew a shimmering pinch of fairy dust towards Wendy and together they flew out of the nursery window and off through the night sky. They flew so fast that Wendy could barely even glance around at the twinkly stars, which she loved to do. She knew something must be wrong. 

When they got to Neverland, Wendy was shocked to see the soggy, splashy camp. The rain was still falling, and she sheltered under a tall tree while Peter told her all about their problem. 

“I don’t have much time before morning,” worried Wendy, “but I’ll do my very best to speak to the North Witch and find out what’s happened.”

Tinkerbell and Wendy set off to the North River straight away. They flew and flew, over jungle and mountains and sand, and finally they came over the top of a hill and saw the North River on the other side. It wasn’t like any river that Wendy had seen before. It wasn’t blue, or grey, or green, or even brown, like the rivers we know. It was rainbow coloured, every colour you can imagine, shimmering and shining and swirling together as far as the eye could see. 

Tinkerbell dropped Wendy at a door of a very ordinary looking house, with not a bite of gingerbread in sight. Wendy had spent the flight thinking about what this North Witch who had cursed Neverland might be like. What do we expect a witch to look like? Perhaps a pointy black hat, a warty nose or a tatty black dress? 

Well, the person who answered Wendy’s frightened knock didn’t have any of these. In fact, she was beautiful. She had long, rainbow hair and a dress that sparkled with sequins all the way down to the floor. 

“Are you… the North Witch?” Asked Wendy, feeling a little bit silly. Surely this lovely, beautiful person couldn’t possibly be a Witch.

“Oh yes, my dear. And you’re Wendy.” She smiled, “How lovely to have some company. Would you like to come in for tea?”

“Oh, ok, thank you.” Muttered Wendy. She wondered what the inside of the house might be like. What do you think it might be like inside the North Witch’s house?

The North Witch welcomed Wendy into a very ordinary kitchen. They sat down at the kitchen table – but there was no tea on the table at all. The North Witch snapped her fingers and with a fizz and a crackle, there in mid-air was a rainbow wand. The Witch swept the wand over the table and suddenly it was full of all of Wendy’s favourite food and drink – strawberry milk, chocolate bars, blueberries and strawberries, mashed potato and fishfingers and burgers, Nanny’s cake and cheese sandwiches and olives.

Wendy and the North Witch ate it all up and then Wendy could wait no longer. “Thank you so much for this delicious tea. Now, I’m afraid I must talk to you about something very important.”

“Yes,” said the North Witch, sadly, “Peter Pan has sent you, I suppose?”

“Yes, he has. Did you send the rain to Neverland?”

The North Witch nodded and started to cry. 

“But why?” Said Wendy. “They are all soaking wet. The tents, the Lost Boys, even their magic ship! Why did you curse Neverland?”

The North Witch was still crying, and now she started to hiccup a little bit here and there. “I know, I know but I h-had to and I can’t t-tell you why. I-I’m not allowed…”

Wendy felt sorry for her. “If you tell us, we can help you.”

The North Witch pulled a rainbow handkerchief out of her pocket and wiped her face. She took a deep breath and said, “Ok, I had to curse Neverland because… someone’s stolen my Sprinkles! And if I didn’t cast the spell, I wouldn’t ever see Sprinkles again.”

The North Witch started to cry again. 

“What is Sprinkles?” Asked Wendy.

“My cat, my lovely cat. I love her very much.”

“I see,” said Wendy, thinking about her dog, Nana. She would hate it if anyone took Nana, so she understood how sad the North Witch must be feeling. She held the North Witch’s hand. “Do you know who’s taken her?”

“No,” sniffed the Witch, “I only have this letter.”

Wendy noticed straight away that the letter smelt very strongly – pooh! – of fish. On the right-hand side was the writing. On the left-hand side, the paper had long scrapes and scratches. The message read: “Curse Neverland with a month of rain and Sprinkles will come back home. If you don’t, you will never see her again.”

Wendy said, “Come to Neverland with me and show Peter Pan this letter. He will save Sprinkles. But he can’t do it with a wet ship. You must stop the rain.”

The North Witch looked frightened. “Do you promise we will find Sprinkles?”

“Yes,” said Wendy, “I promise.”

So the North Witch crossed her kitchen to her ordinary looking bookcase and waved her magic wand. A book dropped out onto the floor but as it fell, it grew bigger and bigger until it was quite the biggest book Wendy had ever seen. The pages fluttered open and rested on just the spell the North Witch needed. She sat on the edge of the book and leaned over it to read aloud. The Witch was murmuring and whispering and Wendy only heard a little bit, the odd “Alackazoo” and “Ziggamebob”, but suddenly there was a bright flash and crackle. Then the book snapped itself shut and lifted off the floor, shrinking and shrinking as it rose up, and slotted perfectly back into place on the bookshelf. 

“It’s done.” Said the North Witch, turning back to Wendy. 

Wendy hoped she was right about Sprinkles. “Come on,” she said, “Let’s go to Neverland.”

When they arrived, the North Witch told Peter everything she’d explained to Wendy. Peter called the Lost Boys round to look at the letter. 

“If only we could work out who wrote it…” He said.

Who might write a letter with one hand on one side, and scrape the paper on the other? Who would want to curse Peter Pan and the Lost Boys? And who is nasty enough, sneaky enough and devious enough to kidnap Sprinkles?

There’s only one person it could be. Wendy thought of it, at just the same time as you did! Captain Hook!

As soon as she said it, Peter jumped up. “Hook! That’s it, let’s get that Captain, boys!”

The Lost Boys howled and danced around the clearing. They couldn’t wait for a fight, to get their own back on that nasty pirate. Some of them ran off to get their magic ship ready. 

But there was just one problem. 

“The trouble is, we have no idea where he is. He could be anywhere in all of Neverland by now,” said Wendy, thoughtfully.

“I can do a searching spell to find him,” offered the North Witch, her wand appearing in mid-air, “But there’s a condition -”

“You need a map!” Predicted Peter, tugging a roll of paper out of his sleeve and spreading it on a tree stump in front of them. 

“Well, yes,” the North Witch smiled kindly. “But I also need to know if he’s on land or water. I can only search for one or the other, and the rule states that a witch can only use one searching spell each week.”

“Oh.” Peter said, “Captain Hook could be anywhere – he could be sailing the seas on his ship, or searching for buried treasure in the beach, he could even be hiding in the town. There’s no way for us to know.”

But Wendy had another of her brilliant ideas. Think back to that letter; are there any clues of where Captain Hook might have been hiding? Can you remember what it smelled like? Fish! And where do fish live? In the sea! And that means Hook must have been on his boat on the water!

Sure enough, as the North Witch murmured and chanted and waved her rainbow wand over Peter’s map, a small dot began to flash in the middle of the blue. 

“Is that him?” Peter gasped. A witch’s magic is a powerful and wonderful thing. He was amazed.

The North Witch nodded, but held tight onto Wendy. She was frightened to come face to face with the horrible Pirate who stole her beloved Sprinkles.

Straight away, they all set off together on the Lost Boys’ ship. The ship was not an ordinary ship; magic meant that it could travel in all sorts of ways. What do you think might be the fastest way to travel? Exactly, flying. The ship zoomed up into the dark sky and zipped through the stars, aiming straight for the sea and that flashing blue dot. When they came closer to Captain Hook’s boat, however, Peter decided to change their course. If they were to beat Captain Hook and his dangerous and dastardly pirates, they had to catch them by surprise. Luckily, their magic ship could also move under the water, just like it could over it, so they dipped under the surface and went deeper… and deeper… and deeper in the cold blue water like a submarine!

“Ready boys?” whispered Peter.

As they got close to Captain Hook's ship, the Lost Boys pulled out their swords and stood to attention. They were ready. 

When Hook’s ship was right above them, their own ship began to rise, closer and closer and closer and…

“ARGH – It’s Peter Pan! Pirates, get your weapons!” Shrieked Captain Hook, as Peter and the Lost Boys jumped onto the deck of Hook’s boat with their swords drawn. It was too late – there was no time for the pirates to get their weapons. The Lost Boys caught them all in a net and hoisted them up the mast. They were swinging helplessly over their attackers’ heads, and only Captain Hook was left on the deck. 

“Hook!” Cried Peter, striding towards him. Hook cowered away, knowing that once again he was outnumbered - and outsmarted. “Where’s Sprinkles?”

“What… Why, Peter, how lovely to see you.” Stuttered Hook, smarmily. 

“Where is she?” Demanded Peter.

“Why, whoever do you mean? I don’t know who you’re talking about.” 

“Sprinkles! What have you done with her?”

Hook’s eyes darted nervously around the boat. The Lost Boys hung back, but their swords were out. There was no way he could escape. 

“I’ve got no idea where that useless witch’s ugly moggy is! I’ve never even seen it!” 

“Then how do you know,” Wendy asked cleverly, climbing over to the pirates’ ship, “that Sprinkles is a moggy? If you’ve never seen her, how do you know she’s a cat – and that she belongs to the North Witch?”

“And I am not useless, thank you very much!” Announced the North Witch, storming across. As soon as she spoke, there was a loud ‘MIAOOOW’ from the Captain’s cabin. What might be in there, making that noise? Exactly! The North Witch wasn’t afraid at all anymore. She ran to the cabin, threw the door open and out sprang Sprinkles, straight into her arms. They had a lovely hug and felt much better.

“And you, Hook,” snarled Peter, pointing at the cringing Captain. “You never, ever bother the North Witch, or Sprinkles, ever again! Do you hear me?”

“Yes, Peter.” Hook snivelled.

With that, the team returned to the Lost Boys’ ship and sailed all the way back to the North River to take Sprinkles and the North Witch Home. When they got back to the camp, Tinkerbell was waiting for them, buzzing all around the clearing. 

“What’s taken so long?” She squeaked, “It’s nearly morning! We might not make it!”

“Oh my goodness,” cried Wendy, “I totally lost track of time.”

“We need to go – now!” 

There was barely time for a quick goodbye as Tinkerbell threw a pinch of sparkling fairy dust into Wendy’s face and grabbed tight to her little finger just to be sure it had worked and off they went, whizzing through the stars even quicker than they’d come.

 In a flash, Tinkerbell was shoving Wendy through her window, in a very undignified fashion. The sun was rising as Wendy quickly shut the window. As she jumped back into bed, she could hear her mother’s alarm ringing out. In fact, Wendy only just had time to pull the covers up and close her eyes tight, before her mother came in: “Morning Wendy, time to get up. Did you have a good sleep?”