Who: The Lost Boys (with the exception of Curly)
Where: Their home in the Sleeping Woods
When: Tuesday Evening
What: Another argument between the boys breaks out and one ends up leaving, possibly, for good.

Still very sickly, Binky was fast asleep in his bed as Slightly, Nibs, Tootles, and Marmaduke all sat around the big table. Their tree house deep in the Sleeping Woods was just one very large room, the table (their most precious possession) in the very center.

The Lost boys, with the exception of Curly whom was still missing, hadn't spent much time out in the world of Pentamerone. It was a combination of being unsure of what to expect out there and their dreary fear that they could never return Neverland. It was a lost cause, they all knew Neverland was gone forever; Before their arrival in Pentamerone they had sat witness to Neverland's unfortunate, slow disappearance. Still, they did not want to believe nor speak aloud of their darkest fear.

Marmaduke was fuming. He simply sat quietly as he rolled his fingers on the table. His eyes flicked back and forth between his brother, asleep on the other side of the room, and Slightly whom sat at the other end of the table.

"Even if we don't look for Curly, we should at least get out of this place every once in a while." Nibs suggested, breaking the uncomfortable silence.

"I thinks the same!" Tootles said nodding his head in agreement.

Slightly sighed, "But if we do go out there, we should look for him."

"Who's to say we haven't already?" Marmaduke spat.

Slightly's eyes squinted, "What are talking about?" He said looking over to Marmaduke.

"You know very well what I am talking about!" Marmaduke said angrily.

Slightly just stared at Marmaduke queerly, "No, no I don't."

Nibs too looked to Marmaduke confused, "Duke, what are you talking about?"

Marmaduke slapped his hand on the table, "He," Marmaduke's other hand pointing at Slightly, "has been going out into Pentamerone without us in secret."

"So!" Slightly retaliated.

Nibs, now looking to Slightly, raised his voice, "You know we do that sort of thing together!" Nibs scratched at his head, "What are doing out there anyway? What are you keeping from us?"

Slightly let out a breath, "Nothing!" He bellowed, "and even if..." He threw his hands up into the air, "I don't need permission! I can do things without the rest of you!"

Tootles sat looking at the three in bewilderment.

Nibs shook his head in disbelief, "But we never do anything alone! We... we have to stick together! That's what we do! We stick together." Nibs looked at Slightly upset, "Why do you want to go off alone? What have you been doing out there without us?"

"I said, nothing!" Slightly responded rapidly in a shriek.

Marmaduke hissed at Slightly, "I can tell you what he's been doing!" Marmaduke said glancing at Nibs but quickly returning his glare at Slightly. "He's been taking food from out there!"

Slightly's breathing grew loud and erratic, "So what! I... I... who cares!"

Nibs looked to Slightly in disgust, "What do you need to get food..." Nibs broke off, answering his own question before he could even ask it, "You always have been a poor make-believer!" He said in a hushed tone.

Slightly's angry face quickly shifted into a sad, pathetic one.

Marmaduke nodded in agreement, "You have nothing to say for yourself, do you?" Marmaduke sneered.

Slightly just sat in his seat, his face like a sad puppy, with nothing to say.

Tootles, still watching in disbelief, looked from Slightly, to Marmaduke, and then to Nibs. "Wells I..." Tootles began, "I don't sees why Slightly can't go outside if he wants. I just confused abouts how Marmaduke's knows that Slightly's been going outside without us..." Tootles sniffled a little, "without's Tootles..."

Nibs wanted to say something to cheer up the obviously saddened Tootles, but the half-wit had actually brought up a good point that sparked Nibs interest. "How did you know this?" He said looking to Marmaduke.

Marmaduke cleared his throat, shot one last glare at Slightly, before answering Nibs. "Well, I was talking to Binky the other night. We were trying to figure out how he got sick or whatever you call it. Trying to see if he did anything different." Marmaduke took in a breath, "That's when Binky remembered how he had been eating some of the food that Slightly had hidden. He saw Slightly one night, while we were all sleeping, bringing food into the house. We think Binky got sick from something he ate." Marmaduke looked back to Slightly, "So if his sickness doesn't get better, it's all your fault! It's all your fault because you don't have an imagination!"

"That's not true!" Slightly screamed. "I can so! I have more imagination than all of you put together!"

Nibs spoke up, "It does make sense now..." His voice kind of sad due to his recollections, "I haven't seen you do anything magical since we arrived here. You never eat with us... and when you do, you take the food we make appear." Nibs folded his arms, shaking his head at Slightly.

Slightly, about to speak up again, was cut off by Marmaduke, "If what you say is true, Slightly, do it right now. Make something appear. Imagine some dinner for yourself, if you have so much imagination."

Slightly breathed deeply, "I don't have to prove anything to you!"

"Because you can't do it! Just say it Slightly, you don't have an imagination anymore!" Marmaduke yelled, still looking at Slightly in disgust.

Slightly huffed and puffed, glaring at the three of them. Placing his hands on the table, he closed his eyes and bowed his head down. The other three watched, finally quiet, waiting for something to appear before Slightly's hands, anything, but nothing came.

Slightly sat there for minutes when it should have taken him a matter of seconds. Peaking his eyes open a twinge, he slammed his hands down onto the table when he saw that there was no food before him. "Fine!" He erupted, "Fine! I don't have an imagination, are you happy?"

Nibs just looked at Slightly in disappointment, "You've always been so fascinated with remembering things from before, so intrigued by the past that you never became one of us... not really."

Marmaduke shook his head, "He's right. Slightly, you have never been a Lost boy... just a pathetic boy with an old Dad trapped inside."

Slightly's face contorted and twisted. Marmaduke's words pierced Slightly right in the heart. Slightly, still standing from where he was sat, stomped his foot on the ground and spat onto the table. Without hesitation he tramped off out of the tree house and broke of into a run out into the Sleeping Woods.

Nibs and Tootles, surprised at this reaction, stood up quickly and ran to the door calling out his name.

"Just let him go," Marmaduke said with a shrug.

"No!" Nibs said turning back to look at Marmaduke, who was still sitting at his seat, "I may be mad, I may think low of what Slightly did, but he should not be out there alone. I didn't want this."

"Yous both should of thought of that before you said all those nasty things to him," Tootles piped up, making sense for the first time in his life.

Nibs looked to Tootles uncomfortably, he knew Tootles was right and had nothing to say for himself.

Realizing that Slightly would not return unless by his own will, Nibs and Tootles soon gave up calling out to him. Soon, the night grew darker and the three boys, without anything to say to one another, soon joined the fourth in sleeping.

Tags: slightly, marmaduke, nibs, binky, tootles