Peter Pan, the Pied Piper
There once was boy named Peter Pan. He lived in the small town of Hamelin. Peter always dressed in pied clothing and was a skilled piper. Now the poor boy was orphaned as a babe. He was the only orphan in the whole town. He lived on the streets playing the pipes to make a living, which was not much. His multicolored pied clothing was made from various pieces of clothes he had strung together.
The children always loved listening to Peter play his pipes. They were mesmerized by the alluring sound. Whenever Peter played his pipes, the children felt drawn to him. They would come from all over the town to sit and listen to his music. Peter was always happy when the children played with him and listened to his music. The child were always kind to him. They were all innocent and untainted by the cruelty of the world.
However, the parents of the children were mean to Peter. The adults of the town would always tease young Peter calling him names like Peter Piper or Pied Piper. They did not like for their children to play with Peter or listen to his music. They did not like his unknown origin and his poor status. They treated him like a scum even though he was just a mere child.
Poor Peter felt so alone and isolated. Besides the town children, everyone else always ridiculed him. They made fun of his clothes and his pipes. This made him sad. He longed to leave this town. He longed to find a place he could call home. He always dreamt of a place where the only way to reach it was to fly. It was a haven where only children were around and they would listen to his music and play with him. The place he dreamt off was called Neverland.
One day, he decided to leave town and find his Neverland. He trudged the the edge of a cliff that overlooked Hamelin. The cliff had an amazing view of the town. Alone on the cliff, Peter looked at the town and began to play his pipes. He played his heart out. He let the sound of the pipes fill his body and he moved the rhythm of the tune. Then the most peculiar thing happened.
From far away, the children of the town heard the sound of Peter's pipes. The sound enchanted the ears of the children. They all began to walk and gather with him on the top of the cliff. He did not understand why all the children started to appear next to him on the cliff.
He wanted nothing more than to be surrounded by all of his friends. He did not want to be alone anymore. He decided he would use the music and take all the children of Hamelin to Neverland with him. He continued to play his music and urge the children to fly to Neverland, to the place where there were no adults and they were free to do as they please.
One by one, using his music, he lured all the children to the edge and had them all jump. He knew that they would all fly off to Neverland. He stopped the sound of his pipes and looked at the town. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and jumped. The cool air blew against his skin and he felt weightless . He knew he would soon fly and meet all the children of Hamelin in Neverland.
The children never returned home to. No one ever leaves Neverland.
Author's Note
I based my story off of the old folktale called The Pied Piper. The Pied Piper uses his music to lure rats that infested the town into the river and drowned them. He was denied payment for his work and used his music to lure the children into the river and drowned them as well. I read this from the Grimm Brothers' book called Deutsche Sagen. In my version, I did a play on mix of Peter Pan and the Pied Piper. I merged them into one singular person. I originally wanted to do a rendition of Pied Piper and had some trouble coming up with ideas I was happy with. I kept saying Pied Piper and someone misheard me and said Peter Piper. The name Peter stuck with me and eventually I thought of Peter Pan and the rest was history. Peter Pan was the Pied Piper and vice versa. In Peter Pan's story, some believed Neverland was death and Peter Pan was a guide to the children. When I merged the two stories together, I made it so that the Pied Piper lures the children away to "Neverland". I made it so that Peter Pan's origin story was taken from the Pied Piper's. This way it gave the Pied Piper an actual name instead of nickname. This story would explain why Peter Pan dislikes adults and is interested in children. The music from the pipes was used as a means to lure children to Neverland to play with him forever. I loved these two stories and it was such a fun creative process working to merge the two together. I also loved a dark cliffhanger ending, so interpret the ending how you would like! I hope you would enjoy my story!
Source: Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, "Die Kinder zu Hameln," Deutsche Sagen, herausgegeben von den Brüdern Grimm (Berlin: In der Nicolaischen Buchhandlung, 1816), no. 244, pp. 330-33. In following editions this legend is numbered 245.