Chapter 1 - The Monotony (Disclaimer at bottom)

Lyra Belracque,(Silvertongue for those who knew her) was a lonely teenager, three years had passed since the fateful day with the breaking of the knife, and it hadn't gotten any better. For one, hitting her adolescent stages made Lyra long for somebody, one of her basic human instincts. But unfortunately for her she was a bright girl, she wouldn't do anything now without running it through her mind several times, picking out the flaws and figuring out how any scenario could finish. They all finished in the same way… Will.

It's not that there weren't people who were interested, Lyra had grown up in her mothers image, and there were plenty of boys who were obsessed with her, the most persistent of them being a 15 year old boy called Gary Holmes. Gary wouldn't leave Lyra alone, and he had the bruises to prove it, which he loved.. It made the other boys back off.

Gary popped his head over a little mud mound, eyeing his prey, little scared Lyra Belracque was in her usual moping spot, on the roof of Jordan College.

"She must spend every bloody minute of the day up there" Observed a mousy haired boy who was sat next to Gary.

"You know she's not interested in you Gaz, you should really stop trying."

"I'll make you stop trying to live if you don't keep your voice down, do you KNOW what she threatened to do to me if she caught me snooping after her again?" Snapped Gary.

"Haha what? Write a little sad poem about it?"

Gary picked up two balls of mud from the pile, held them in one hand, and crushed them, making the mousy haired boy wince.

This is what happened, everyday. Lyra knew that Gary was always there, one on hand she hated him for it, how dare he even think about watching her without her consent? But on the other hand she knew that if she ever came to her senses, she'd stop wishing about what could have been, and actually do something about her life. Gary wasn't bad, she thought. He could be a creep sometimes, but he had good intentions, but before Lyra ever let herself think more she just saw a big mental picture of Will's face.

"Lyra?" Said a sleepy voice from in her arms.

"Yes Pan?"

"Why can't we do it?"

"Why can't we do what?"

Lyra knew this was mere pleasantries, she knew exactly what Pantalaimon was about to ask her, he'd asked her the same thing every night for the past three years.

"Why can't we just let them go? Will and Kirjava I mean."

"You know you're right Pan, you're the voice of reason, and I promise you, I'm going to try, we better get some sleep."

Lyra pulled up the trap door she'd fashioned from the roof tiles, everyone knew that she lived in the attic of Jordan college, and that she refused to sleep anywhere else.

About a year back the master had finally run out his life, it wouldn't have been such a bad occasion for Lyra, but he was all she had left in the world. Iorek Byrnison was presumed missing, after a rebel group of bears attempted a coup d'etat on the throne. Such a human thing to do, but the bears were becoming more human by the day. No-one knows if Iorek actually survived the coup, they never found his remains, and there were rumours of him living on his own in Muscovy of all places, but the tale confused Lyra. Serafina Pekkala wasn't around anymore either, she'd got into a fight with a so-called friendly witch clan, who for some reason weren't too impressed with Serafina's travels, and thought that human matters should stay human matters.

So now it was just Lyra and Pantalaimon, living illegally in the rafters of Jordan college, followed by boys, and not having a thought that wasn't suddenly consumed by memories of Will.

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Meanwhile, a world apart Will was finally waking up, his bed of straw outside the town of Oxford, he would have moved out of the place, but it reminded him of Lyra. Will's life hadn't been all peaches and roses either, not two weeks after getting home, Mary Malone had been snatched right under his nose by MI5 agents. She was presumed dead. He'd looked after his mother for another year after that, she had been deteriorating rapidly. One day, while in town waiting for Will who was picking up the morning newspaper she had a walk. A walk which ended when a Virgin train smashed into the side of her.. A mile out of town.

Will had been hit hard by the deaths, and blamed himself for not looking after his mother, and not protecting Mary, and he had but a single possession in the world. In fact it was just staring at this possession that took up large portions of his days. The possession of course, was his broken knife. It was a terrible life, he was undernourished, and sometimes he could go weeks without bathing. But thoughts of Lyra just consumed him, which he couldn't understand. Shortly after arriving back in his own world he attempted to push her out of his mind, convincing himself that it wasn't true love, but just a first crush, and that the feeling would fade. It didn't.

He got up clumsily, this time he'd decided to sleep in a nearby barn, it was out of the way and he knew he wouldn't get hassled here. He slowly stood up, he'd changed. Gone were the ferocious eyes, they had disappeared, he looked very much like himself, just taller, skinnier, and like a neutered dog, he'd lost something. His plan for the day was simple, he was going to mope around the barn for a bit, then he was going to make his daily pilgrimage to the botanical gardens.

"What a fucking pointless existence" He commented on himself as he stumbled to the door to get a bit of fresh air.

Unfortunately for Will it wasn't fresh air which filled his nostrils when he exited the barn, it was the stench of death. He looked down to see. Well, he couldn't really describe it, it looked like a man, and it had wings like an angel. It had real flesh, albeit rotting away, so it couldn't be an angel. He decided to put this to one side for the moment while he gathered his things, this was what he had been looking for, something to break the monotony…

Disclaimer: No I don't own any of Philip Pullman's characters, yes I know that this idea is tried, tested, regurgitated, but I'm doing it anyway. It's my first fan fiction (Well, if you discount a sort of screenplay fan fiction I did when I was 11.) So I'd love some reviews and tips, cheers.

P.S. I promise that I'm getting rid of the sad, just wanted to set the scene ;)

Also, I did write this at about half 12 at night when I got bored, so excuse any errors ;)