Hello everyone! Welcome to my very first fanfic. I'm a huge HDM fan and when I stumbled upon ROTBTD, I knew I had to try a crossover. Please review, I'm happy to hear any suggestions or critiques on my writing. I hope you enjoy!
Chapter 1
Lyra rubbed her hands together and stood gingerly. She pottered slowly over to the small wood stove in the corner of their study. Pantalaimon opened his eyes blearily and watched her. He did not get up. He never had the energy to do much these days. Lyra crouched down and carefully added wood into the stove before lighting a match and flicking it in as well. Her thoughts, as they often did, strayed to Will and for a moment she basked in the sweet memory of their first kiss under the warm sun in the land of the Mulefa. The warmth, the sweet fruit, the touch of his fingers on her lips. She smiled ruefully. The fire took hold and she closed the door, tottering back to her armchair and gently lowering herself into it.
"Where's the alethiometer, Pan?" she asked. "I think I'll try and do a reading before I go to bed." Her handsome pine marten daemon stretched and stood. He reached down next to his bed and lifted a worn velvet bag in his mouth. The daemon moved slowly and carefully, dragging the bag to Lyra. She bent and scooped him up, taking the bag from him as she did. A huge pile of books were stacked precariously next to her chair. It had taken a lifetime but she was finally reasonably confident at reading the alethiometer without consulting her books. But she liked to keep them close, sometimes she liked to double check what she was reading.
The fire flickered and Lyra felt the warmth filling the room. Her knuckles cracked as she unwrapped her most precious possession. The alethiometer was a fine looking as it always had been. Its owner had withered and aged. Now an old woman, Lyra still had a sharp tongue and a fierce determination to live well. She had never married, preferring to dedicate her time to her studies of the alethiometer and her job as a Scholar at St Sophia's. She and Pan lived alone, they had always preferred it that way. No one to comment on their odd witch-like power of separation. Someone to talk to about the bizarre events of their early years. She had still regularly visited King Iorek until his death nearly 70 years ago and she still kept in contact with Serafina Pekkala. The gyptians she knew were mostly gone now but she still got visits from Billy Costa's grandchildren whenever the boats were in town. It was a peaceful, slow life, exactly how she wanted it to be.
Pan reached up and placed his paws on her arm. She smiled at him and opened the alethiometer. The hands immediately started drifting in a vague, non-purposeful manner and both of them contemplated it calmly for a long while. But Lyra's brow furrowed and Pantalaimon gave a concerned squeak. The hands were suddenly moving purposefully. Lyra sat up straight, tucked her grey hair behind her ears and watched. The hands were moving rapidly but her eyes tracked them with practiced patience and she began to get glimpses of understanding. But this couldn't be right!
She looked down at Pan, who immediately jumped from her lap and ran to their desk, grabbing a pen and paper from it. As he returned, Lyra began memorizing the patterns of symbols and stops. She took the paper from Pan and started scribbling, her eyes darting between the symbol reader and her writing. It took nearly two hours and her brain felt fuzzy by the end of it. But she had a long list of notes to compare to the books and she wasn't ready to stop yet. She opened the first volume, checked the symbol, checked the number of stops, noted down the meaning. Opened the next book, repeated the process. The sun was glinting into the apartment by the time she was done. Her eyes were blazing through her exhaustion and she looked remarkably like Will. Pan glanced up at her.
"That's the strangest reading we've had in a while," he remarked. Lyra was still staring at the paper in front of her.
"I thought we had solved the issue of dust. But Pan, do you see what this means? Someone is going to be traveling between worlds again!" Will and Kirjava appeared in their mind as they last saw them; a boy with straight eyebrows barely controlling his tears and the big black cat by his side.
"It's impossible," said Pantalaimon. "The angels said all the windows were shut. No one can leave the world of the dead except through the window we left open. We saved the dust, we lived a full life! We built the kingdom of Heaven in our own world!"
Lyra said nothing. Her heart was starting to bound with hope. They could find this person. This snowman the alethiometer talked about. He could take them to Will. One last moment spent together. But she was also worried. The alethiometer said that this person was opening windows again and that dust would start leaking. Then it said some confusing things about a fire girl, a dragon boy and a girl with golden hair. None of it made sense! She shook her head.
"Maybe we read it wrong Pan. It's so hard to be sure of it anymore. It used to be so clear, remember when I just knew what it was saying? Let's take it to the college. Maybe Rapunzel will have some luck, she's been studying very hard and might see something we've missed." Rapunzel was a young girl studying at St Sophia's. She had a knack for the alethiometer and Lyra liked her. Her hair was rich and golden. Lyra's heart leapt again and she fought back the feeling. Ridiculous, the symbol reader didn't make prophecies. Lyra stood and headed to her bathroom. She would bath and head to the college immediately.
