"Thanks." Tina blushed a bit. "Maybe next time I won't even get hurt. That would be good. That's a step up from helpless."

"You're hardly helpless," Gold said. "Neverland is just something you should never have had to experience."

Tina shrugged, unconvinced, but let him lead the way again anyway. Every once in a while she'd stop and bully another plant into telling her what she needed, and eventually she even stopped getting hurt.

Gold was proud of her for that. She was learning very quickly. It was even getting to the point that she was leading him, rather than the other way around. The plants she was bullying were supposedly leading them towards their two wayward group members, although Gold did keep an eye out. They were Neverland plants, after all, so there was always the chance of deception.

Before noon, Tina had managed to bully enough plants that she could actually see Hook and Rachel up ahead of them. She grinned.

"Ha! I knew it would work."

"Well done," Gold said. "Well done indeed."

Rachel heard something behind them, and turned around warily. She grinned when she saw Tina and Gold, and she nudged Killian.

"Found them," she said.

Tina grinned at the praise. It was rare enough that she enjoyed it.

"Well, that was unexpectedly fast," Hook said, following her over to the other two.

"How'd you guys find us so quick?" Rachel asked Tina, checking her friend over. "I was tempted to send up a flare, but that struck me as a bad idea."

"I bullied the plants into telling us," Tina said, grinning a bit. Her grin widened at Hook's look of disbelief.

Rachel grinned.

"No way," she said. "That's awesome."

"It worked, eventually." Tina grinned. "So, what was the point of splitting us up? No one came after us, and we found each other again."

"I believe we were meant to be split up for longer," Gold said. "We did find each other again remarkably quickly. Which means we should be on guard, Cora is not likely to be pleased with this."

"Which changes things how?" Tina asked. "She was already planning to kill you." Which was enough to make Tina want to hurt her.

"It was a game, before. Now she'll be angry," Gold replied. "I might have a plan, but it's rather risky and not at all guaranteed to work."

"Rather risky," Tina repeated, looking at him. "I don't like the sound of rather risky."

"We may not have another option," Gold pointed out.

Tina grumped but didn't say anything else about that.

"We should find somewhere defensible ish," she said. "In case Cora or the Lost Boys pay us another visit."

Gold nodded and glanced at Hook to see if the pirate had any suggestions.

Hook shook his head a bit. "There are few places on the island like that, and I'm sure Pan has all of them covered," he said. "We'll have to find somewhere just big enough for us."

"I'm sure we'll find something," Rachel said. "We just have to look for a bit."

Hook nodded. "Might as well keep searching," he said, starting to walk again.

Rachel nodded and followed him.

Gold gestured for Tina to follow them, and then took up the rear.

Tina kept an eye out for anything that would work for them. But Hook ended up spotting the little area first, going over to investigate. There was a little natural covered area down near the shore.

Rachel went over to investigate as well. The little sheltered spot was up against an outcropping of rock, so it was protected from behind, and it had a bunch of low-hanging trees leaning over it to provide shelter.

"This isn't bad," she ventured.

"No," Hook agreed. "This isn't a bad spot." He did check out the area though to make sure there was nothing hidden there. And no Dreamshade. He wasn't fond of it either.