Chapter Three: The Paradoxical Puzzle
"Oh Pip, I can't do this! All this way to find Lord Lynx, and now to save Serge, and I'm scared to death!" thirteen-year-old Kid shouted hopelessly.
Her daemon, who had taken the form of a red fox, nuzzled her confortingly.
"And even if Mrs. Harle got to Serge first," Kid went on, "she'd just take him back and kill him. Why do they do these things to children, Pip? I just don't understand!"
But Pip had no answer. All he could do was cuddle close to her and wait for her terror to subside. Gradually, she calmed down, if only because she had no other choice. She was Kid, cold and frightened by all means, but herself.
After her short outburst, she and her beloved deamon resumed their journey through the unbelievably cold arctic. If it were not for the layers of thick winterclothes she wore, Kid would have frozen to death long ago. Now, after months of hardships, fighting, and running, Kid was sure she had reached the end of her quest to rescue her best friend Serge. Originally, he had been captured by the gobblers, who were at first believed to be child-eating monsters, but were now known to be an organization lead by non other than Mrs. Harle, who Kid had just recently discovered was her own mother. this organization had been seperating children from their deamons, an act that almost always resulted in death. It was like cutting away a piece of the child's very soul...
There had been many other shocking truths revealed, but all Kid was worried about now was catching up with Lord Lynx and finding out why he had run off in such a hurry with Serge. She had always looked up to Lord Lynx as an uncle, but after all she'd been through, she could not trust anyone.
The Aurora flared out above them, brilliant and enchanting, outshining the millions of tiny stars almost to the point of hiding them from view. Transforming into a snowy owl, Pip flew high over the seemingly endless land of ice and frozen earth. circling above her, he called out, "We're almost there! Lord Lynx is just over the next ridge, unloading some sort of equipment from the sled. Serge can't escape..." Before he could say more, the Aurora flickered suddenly, and then vanished all together. Although shaken by the bizzare occurance, Kid could clearly feel something around her. Dust, that was what it was. The strange particles that both Lord Lynx and Mrs. Harle were so focused on. Lord Lync had said something about the Dust being the key to opening the gateway to another world...
Something about that memory caused Kid to pause. Had she been to another world before? She knew that was impossible, but a voice burried deep inside her argued with her common sense. She was brought back to the present by Serge's voice calling her name.
"I'm coming!" she cried back, struggling forward through the ever- white snow. She was moving on determination alone, her strength long spent.
"Kid! Kid, help!" her friend's call repeated.
"Hold on! I'll find you, Serge!" She had meant to say that she'd save him, and was not sure why she had said the word 'find' instead. Too desperate to worry about it, however, she finally pulled herself to the summit, and her blue eyes beheld the activities below.
Lord Lynx was twisting together two pieces of wire that led to a row of odd batteries and other machanical trinkets. Crouching beside him like a monster about to pounce was his black panther daemon, and held carefully in her mouth like a cub was Serge's own daemon, Poshul, fighting uselessly for freedom. Of course, Serge could not go more than a few yards. The soul bond held him forever close to his precious little daemon, as it did to everyone, except for witches. The poor boy was calling out in a panic, first Kid's name, then his daemon's name, and then running to Lord Lynx and pulling at his fur coat. The man merely pushed him away distractedly. When Serge repeated the action, he was knocked to the ground.
Kid had seen all of this by the light of the stars, but then as Lord Lynx finished connecting the wires, there was a shocking flash and the Aurora Borealis reappeared. With the bright light aiding her vision, Kid could now see that another wire was somehow suspended in the air, stretching all the way up to the rainbow curtain itself. A dark bird flew down from somewhere above, and Kid immediately recognized it as a witch's daemon, explaining how the wire had been raised so high. The witch was surely helping Lord Lynx, flying out of sight on a broom. Kid's attention was brought back to Serge then, as Lord Lynx beckoned him to come forward.
"No! Get away!" Kid screamed as she tumbled down the slope to protect her friend. moving ahead of her, Pip attacked the panther and managed to free Serge's daemon from her jaws. The two younger daemons, as well as their human counterparts, were all fighting the great cat, hitting, scratching, biting, and pulling. As soon as the chance for escape showed itself, Kid took Serge's hand and dragged him away, running as fast as her weary legs would carry her. To her dismay, Serge writhed and screamed, and she realized to late that, although Pip had escaped, Poshul was once again trapped by Lord Lynx's panther. She tried to stop, but now she was not just being moved by her legs alone. The shelf of ice and snow was breaking away, sliding down towards the freezing sea hundreds of feet below. They were to far! Serge would die when the bond snapped!
Above, a bolt of pure energy blasted through the glorious Aurora as the blast of power released by the breaking of a soul bond shot through the carefully planned wire chord, the tip of which was now joined to Serge's daemon. The starry sky was ripped apart like paper, and beyond it, floating high above, stood a vast city of golden towers and wide streets. Sunlight showed everything in its full glory, and Dust whirled around the opening like a million fireflies.
The ice shelf had stopped, caught on a ledge or something. Serge lay still in Kid's arms, and he was not sure whether we was unconcious or dead. Pip was there beside her as always, and they watched as a silver dragon the size of a wolf flew over a white hill to land in front of the panther. It was Mrs. Harle's daemon. At first they both appeared wary, but the dragon reached out a scaly hand and, with the cat's silent permission, touched her head.
And then Kid's gaze was drawn away from them, for Mrs. Harle herself had caught up, and was now wrapped in Lord Lynx's strong arms. She remembered now, Lord Lynx was her father. Why had she forgotten? Her parentswere both there, together again at last! It would have been a dream come true, if they had not become her enemies...
"We won't be able to get away with this, Lynx." Kid heard her mother say sadly, but Lord Lynx contradicted her.
"I've made it possible for anyone to cross. No one will be able to stop us. Everyone will want to see the other world, and not even the Church will be able to change things now."
"You don't know how powerful they are..." Harle trailed off as Lynx held her tightly against his body.
"I know better than anyone how strong the Church is, but the Dust and this other world will change everything. Look up, Harle! Behold the sun and wind of another world! Feel it on your hair, your face..." he pushed back her hood, turning her around and stroking her hair as she stared up at the city beyond the Northern lights. "Come with me to another world, Harle."
The woman shook her head, obviously distressed. Lord Lynx was not happy with her answer.
"Your daughter would come. Is she even stronger than her mother?"
"Then take her. She is more yours than mine, anyway."
But Lord Lynx shook his head. "That is not the case. You took her in, you tried to mold her. Twice you've tried to keep her, but twice she has escaped. She is just as stubbern as you."
Kid's parents continued to argue, with their daemons watching solemnly, knowing that they would be seperated again, but Kid lost track of the words that were being said. The feeling of wrongness had been nagging at her for some time, and now it was growing stronger by the second. What were they talking about? Mrs. Harle... no... Harle had never held her, and they were not even her parents. Lynx was Serge's father. Kid knew that. She looked down at her motionless friend and a flood of conflicting memories washed through her head, dizzying her to the point that Pip had to steady her before she toppled off of the small ledge. What was she doing in such a cold and icy place, anyway? She was supposed to be finding Serge, despite the fact that he was there in her arms. Finally, names and memories fought their way to the front of her mind, and she stood up, balling her hands into fists. Her blonde hair blew free from her hood in the icy wind, and Pip stared up at her in wonderment as she shouted out, catching the attention of Harle, Lynx, and their daemons. "This is wrong! I'm Kid, the Radical Dreamer! Struth!" and with those words, the illusion around her vanished into thin air.
Kid, the real one this time, was alone again. At first she thought she was back on Opassa Beach, but everything around her seemed transperant and unreal, as if she was stuck between worlds. She could even see ghostly figures moving around her, and wondered if they were her friends.
"Congradulations. It took you less time than I expected to pass the Test of Mind," said a deep and almost unbearably loud voice, echoing off of the landscape more than was scientifically possible. Then again, Kid doubted that any laws of science held true in this place.
"Show yerself!" she shouted, feeling her boldness and strength return.
The ocean water rippled strangely for a moment, and then a huge draconic creature burst forth to float above and slightly in front of Kid. All of her memories having been restored at the end of the test, she knew the beast as the Time Devourer, though it was weak and incomplete, having been broken and left for dead once Lavos was done with it.
"You again?!" Kid exclaimed, one hand on her hip and the other at the hilt of her dagger. "Haven't you learned not to mess with me an' my mates?"
The dragon god shifted, it's great wings beating the air. "If Lavos could not destroy me, than no mere human can."
"Ha! Bugger you! We killed Lavos, didn't we?" the thief pointed out confidently.
"Very well. Since you think that you can best me, I shall put you through the second of my three tests. Your mind is strong, but what about your soul and body? If you pass all three, I shall allow you to complete your task, but if you fail..." and it gave her a serious look, as if to say that she most likely would, "I will keep you here for eternity."
"And what if I choose not to take the tests?"
"You will fail by defalt."
She glared daggers at the creature and grumbled angrily, "That's not fair, but I guess I have no choice. Gimme the next test." Before the words had left her mouth, another illusion was placed around her. This time, however, she was still herself. "The Test of Soul, huh?" she said to herself as her surroundings changed.
There were two scenes before her that seemed to merge together in the middle. To her left, in a room filled with raging fire, stood Lynx, with Lucca cornered against the wall. Kid took a half-step towards them, but out of the corner of her eye, she realized what the other scene depicted. It was Serge, and he was fighting Lavos alone. The enemy was beating him to the ground with element after powerful element, and she knew that he would not last much longer. So this was the test. A choice between saving Lucca's life, or saving Serge's. They were the two people she loved the most, one from the past, already long dead, but terribly missed... and the other from the present, still alive, but far from her reach. The correct answer was obvious, but she simply could not bring herself to abandon Lucca, no matter how much she loved Serge... was in love with Serge...
Lucca was closer to her, just a short dagger's throw away, but Serge was being burnt, torn, and blasted to death before her very eyes. She had to make a choice, but she was not sure if she could live with herself after letting one of them die. The sensible part of her knew that it was just a mirage, but her emotional side, which was much stronger, was still fighting ferociously with itself. Her heart racing so fast she feared it would burst, Kid drew her dagger. Milliseconds passed that seemed like hours, until suddenly an idea came to her. With a fierce battle cry, she threw her dagger, the weapon that had saved her own life again and again. It struck the form that was Lynx in the back, right between the shoulderblades. Not waiting to watch, but knowing that Lucca had taken the chance to escape, Kid charged at Lavos, flinging her most powerful elements in quick succession. In no time at all, she stood in front of her badly injured love, screaming wildly as she forced the fake Lavos back. The monster retreated, and Kid once again found herself facing the Time Devourer, who was both impressed and iritated.
"Good job," it said grudgingly, "but now you will face the third and final test. The Test of Body is much more simple than its predecessors, and yet it may prove fatal. You must defeat me in battle."
"Ohh, how original," Kid said, voice laced with sarcasm. With silent pleasure, she found that her dagger had been returned to its sheath, and she drew it once more.
As soon as she had taken up her fighting stance, she was thrown back by her opponent, who had moved in immediately to attack. She jumped back to her feet, ignoring her bruises, and darted in with her curved blade held high. She made it most of the way to the flying beast before being knocked back once again. The thief wondered when the Time Devourer had become so much faster. A battle like this was no time to be distracted, though, and she readied her vulcano element. The most powerful fire-based element was one of her favorites, and had been one of the items she had discovered in her bag when looking for the komodo scale.
The violent blast of fire and lava shot upward from below the Time Devourer, and it flapped its charred wings to escape. The dragon god did not float back down once the element had cleared, but instead attacked from behind, first hitting Kid in the back with an UltraNova element, and then slamming into her bodily the instant the painful white power faded. It occured to Kid as she staggered to her feet and used one of her few healing elements that fighting this dragon had been much easier with two others helping her. After quite a bit of trouble, she was able to stand up straight, but her dagger lay at her feet, her right arm hanging shattered and useless at her side. Gritting her teeth, she prepared an Inferno element. It struck home, but from out of the flames like a phoenix the Time Devourer sprang, the tips of its wings trailing fire. It rushed Kid, and her weakened body would not operate fast enough. She was caught in the dragon's mouth and it held her prisoner just as the panther had done to Poshul during the first test, but the Time Devourer had no reason to let Kid live. The star-stealing girl screamed in horror as the long fangs piercing her flesh and the powerful jaws crushing her body. She swore she could feel her very spirit tugging to escape into death, and it would have succeeded if a small, brightly colored blur had not shot past, pulling Kid away from the dragon.
In shock and to weak even to scream in pain, Kid blurrily looked up at her savior. Her dillusional mind at first showed her the face of Serge, but she blinked and he was replaced by non other than Harle. She lost conciousness before she had a chance to feel any outrage or humility at the fact that one of her least favorite people had saved her life.
Laying the unconcious thief down gently, the Dark Moon Dragon then turned to face the dragon that she was a part of. Although she had felt it calling her, she had refused to merge with it, following its call only in order to save Kid. Honestly, she was not sure why she had bothered. She had always thought of herself as being cold-hearted and strong, but knowing that the Time Devourer would kill Kid, she simply could not ignore it, even if Kid was her rival in love.
"How dare you interfere. This is not over, Harle... The humans who defeated us must pay for their wrong-doings."
Harle did not answer, but only frowned at the beast before dissapearing with Kid.
Chapter Three Disclaimer: The plot used in the Test of Mind is based on the final chapter of The golden Compass, by Philip Pullman.
"Oh Pip, I can't do this! All this way to find Lord Lynx, and now to save Serge, and I'm scared to death!" thirteen-year-old Kid shouted hopelessly.
Her daemon, who had taken the form of a red fox, nuzzled her confortingly.
"And even if Mrs. Harle got to Serge first," Kid went on, "she'd just take him back and kill him. Why do they do these things to children, Pip? I just don't understand!"
But Pip had no answer. All he could do was cuddle close to her and wait for her terror to subside. Gradually, she calmed down, if only because she had no other choice. She was Kid, cold and frightened by all means, but herself.
After her short outburst, she and her beloved deamon resumed their journey through the unbelievably cold arctic. If it were not for the layers of thick winterclothes she wore, Kid would have frozen to death long ago. Now, after months of hardships, fighting, and running, Kid was sure she had reached the end of her quest to rescue her best friend Serge. Originally, he had been captured by the gobblers, who were at first believed to be child-eating monsters, but were now known to be an organization lead by non other than Mrs. Harle, who Kid had just recently discovered was her own mother. this organization had been seperating children from their deamons, an act that almost always resulted in death. It was like cutting away a piece of the child's very soul...
There had been many other shocking truths revealed, but all Kid was worried about now was catching up with Lord Lynx and finding out why he had run off in such a hurry with Serge. She had always looked up to Lord Lynx as an uncle, but after all she'd been through, she could not trust anyone.
The Aurora flared out above them, brilliant and enchanting, outshining the millions of tiny stars almost to the point of hiding them from view. Transforming into a snowy owl, Pip flew high over the seemingly endless land of ice and frozen earth. circling above her, he called out, "We're almost there! Lord Lynx is just over the next ridge, unloading some sort of equipment from the sled. Serge can't escape..." Before he could say more, the Aurora flickered suddenly, and then vanished all together. Although shaken by the bizzare occurance, Kid could clearly feel something around her. Dust, that was what it was. The strange particles that both Lord Lynx and Mrs. Harle were so focused on. Lord Lync had said something about the Dust being the key to opening the gateway to another world...
Something about that memory caused Kid to pause. Had she been to another world before? She knew that was impossible, but a voice burried deep inside her argued with her common sense. She was brought back to the present by Serge's voice calling her name.
"I'm coming!" she cried back, struggling forward through the ever- white snow. She was moving on determination alone, her strength long spent.
"Kid! Kid, help!" her friend's call repeated.
"Hold on! I'll find you, Serge!" She had meant to say that she'd save him, and was not sure why she had said the word 'find' instead. Too desperate to worry about it, however, she finally pulled herself to the summit, and her blue eyes beheld the activities below.
Lord Lynx was twisting together two pieces of wire that led to a row of odd batteries and other machanical trinkets. Crouching beside him like a monster about to pounce was his black panther daemon, and held carefully in her mouth like a cub was Serge's own daemon, Poshul, fighting uselessly for freedom. Of course, Serge could not go more than a few yards. The soul bond held him forever close to his precious little daemon, as it did to everyone, except for witches. The poor boy was calling out in a panic, first Kid's name, then his daemon's name, and then running to Lord Lynx and pulling at his fur coat. The man merely pushed him away distractedly. When Serge repeated the action, he was knocked to the ground.
Kid had seen all of this by the light of the stars, but then as Lord Lynx finished connecting the wires, there was a shocking flash and the Aurora Borealis reappeared. With the bright light aiding her vision, Kid could now see that another wire was somehow suspended in the air, stretching all the way up to the rainbow curtain itself. A dark bird flew down from somewhere above, and Kid immediately recognized it as a witch's daemon, explaining how the wire had been raised so high. The witch was surely helping Lord Lynx, flying out of sight on a broom. Kid's attention was brought back to Serge then, as Lord Lynx beckoned him to come forward.
"No! Get away!" Kid screamed as she tumbled down the slope to protect her friend. moving ahead of her, Pip attacked the panther and managed to free Serge's daemon from her jaws. The two younger daemons, as well as their human counterparts, were all fighting the great cat, hitting, scratching, biting, and pulling. As soon as the chance for escape showed itself, Kid took Serge's hand and dragged him away, running as fast as her weary legs would carry her. To her dismay, Serge writhed and screamed, and she realized to late that, although Pip had escaped, Poshul was once again trapped by Lord Lynx's panther. She tried to stop, but now she was not just being moved by her legs alone. The shelf of ice and snow was breaking away, sliding down towards the freezing sea hundreds of feet below. They were to far! Serge would die when the bond snapped!
Above, a bolt of pure energy blasted through the glorious Aurora as the blast of power released by the breaking of a soul bond shot through the carefully planned wire chord, the tip of which was now joined to Serge's daemon. The starry sky was ripped apart like paper, and beyond it, floating high above, stood a vast city of golden towers and wide streets. Sunlight showed everything in its full glory, and Dust whirled around the opening like a million fireflies.
The ice shelf had stopped, caught on a ledge or something. Serge lay still in Kid's arms, and he was not sure whether we was unconcious or dead. Pip was there beside her as always, and they watched as a silver dragon the size of a wolf flew over a white hill to land in front of the panther. It was Mrs. Harle's daemon. At first they both appeared wary, but the dragon reached out a scaly hand and, with the cat's silent permission, touched her head.
And then Kid's gaze was drawn away from them, for Mrs. Harle herself had caught up, and was now wrapped in Lord Lynx's strong arms. She remembered now, Lord Lynx was her father. Why had she forgotten? Her parentswere both there, together again at last! It would have been a dream come true, if they had not become her enemies...
"We won't be able to get away with this, Lynx." Kid heard her mother say sadly, but Lord Lynx contradicted her.
"I've made it possible for anyone to cross. No one will be able to stop us. Everyone will want to see the other world, and not even the Church will be able to change things now."
"You don't know how powerful they are..." Harle trailed off as Lynx held her tightly against his body.
"I know better than anyone how strong the Church is, but the Dust and this other world will change everything. Look up, Harle! Behold the sun and wind of another world! Feel it on your hair, your face..." he pushed back her hood, turning her around and stroking her hair as she stared up at the city beyond the Northern lights. "Come with me to another world, Harle."
The woman shook her head, obviously distressed. Lord Lynx was not happy with her answer.
"Your daughter would come. Is she even stronger than her mother?"
"Then take her. She is more yours than mine, anyway."
But Lord Lynx shook his head. "That is not the case. You took her in, you tried to mold her. Twice you've tried to keep her, but twice she has escaped. She is just as stubbern as you."
Kid's parents continued to argue, with their daemons watching solemnly, knowing that they would be seperated again, but Kid lost track of the words that were being said. The feeling of wrongness had been nagging at her for some time, and now it was growing stronger by the second. What were they talking about? Mrs. Harle... no... Harle had never held her, and they were not even her parents. Lynx was Serge's father. Kid knew that. She looked down at her motionless friend and a flood of conflicting memories washed through her head, dizzying her to the point that Pip had to steady her before she toppled off of the small ledge. What was she doing in such a cold and icy place, anyway? She was supposed to be finding Serge, despite the fact that he was there in her arms. Finally, names and memories fought their way to the front of her mind, and she stood up, balling her hands into fists. Her blonde hair blew free from her hood in the icy wind, and Pip stared up at her in wonderment as she shouted out, catching the attention of Harle, Lynx, and their daemons. "This is wrong! I'm Kid, the Radical Dreamer! Struth!" and with those words, the illusion around her vanished into thin air.
Kid, the real one this time, was alone again. At first she thought she was back on Opassa Beach, but everything around her seemed transperant and unreal, as if she was stuck between worlds. She could even see ghostly figures moving around her, and wondered if they were her friends.
"Congradulations. It took you less time than I expected to pass the Test of Mind," said a deep and almost unbearably loud voice, echoing off of the landscape more than was scientifically possible. Then again, Kid doubted that any laws of science held true in this place.
"Show yerself!" she shouted, feeling her boldness and strength return.
The ocean water rippled strangely for a moment, and then a huge draconic creature burst forth to float above and slightly in front of Kid. All of her memories having been restored at the end of the test, she knew the beast as the Time Devourer, though it was weak and incomplete, having been broken and left for dead once Lavos was done with it.
"You again?!" Kid exclaimed, one hand on her hip and the other at the hilt of her dagger. "Haven't you learned not to mess with me an' my mates?"
The dragon god shifted, it's great wings beating the air. "If Lavos could not destroy me, than no mere human can."
"Ha! Bugger you! We killed Lavos, didn't we?" the thief pointed out confidently.
"Very well. Since you think that you can best me, I shall put you through the second of my three tests. Your mind is strong, but what about your soul and body? If you pass all three, I shall allow you to complete your task, but if you fail..." and it gave her a serious look, as if to say that she most likely would, "I will keep you here for eternity."
"And what if I choose not to take the tests?"
"You will fail by defalt."
She glared daggers at the creature and grumbled angrily, "That's not fair, but I guess I have no choice. Gimme the next test." Before the words had left her mouth, another illusion was placed around her. This time, however, she was still herself. "The Test of Soul, huh?" she said to herself as her surroundings changed.
There were two scenes before her that seemed to merge together in the middle. To her left, in a room filled with raging fire, stood Lynx, with Lucca cornered against the wall. Kid took a half-step towards them, but out of the corner of her eye, she realized what the other scene depicted. It was Serge, and he was fighting Lavos alone. The enemy was beating him to the ground with element after powerful element, and she knew that he would not last much longer. So this was the test. A choice between saving Lucca's life, or saving Serge's. They were the two people she loved the most, one from the past, already long dead, but terribly missed... and the other from the present, still alive, but far from her reach. The correct answer was obvious, but she simply could not bring herself to abandon Lucca, no matter how much she loved Serge... was in love with Serge...
Lucca was closer to her, just a short dagger's throw away, but Serge was being burnt, torn, and blasted to death before her very eyes. She had to make a choice, but she was not sure if she could live with herself after letting one of them die. The sensible part of her knew that it was just a mirage, but her emotional side, which was much stronger, was still fighting ferociously with itself. Her heart racing so fast she feared it would burst, Kid drew her dagger. Milliseconds passed that seemed like hours, until suddenly an idea came to her. With a fierce battle cry, she threw her dagger, the weapon that had saved her own life again and again. It struck the form that was Lynx in the back, right between the shoulderblades. Not waiting to watch, but knowing that Lucca had taken the chance to escape, Kid charged at Lavos, flinging her most powerful elements in quick succession. In no time at all, she stood in front of her badly injured love, screaming wildly as she forced the fake Lavos back. The monster retreated, and Kid once again found herself facing the Time Devourer, who was both impressed and iritated.
"Good job," it said grudgingly, "but now you will face the third and final test. The Test of Body is much more simple than its predecessors, and yet it may prove fatal. You must defeat me in battle."
"Ohh, how original," Kid said, voice laced with sarcasm. With silent pleasure, she found that her dagger had been returned to its sheath, and she drew it once more.
As soon as she had taken up her fighting stance, she was thrown back by her opponent, who had moved in immediately to attack. She jumped back to her feet, ignoring her bruises, and darted in with her curved blade held high. She made it most of the way to the flying beast before being knocked back once again. The thief wondered when the Time Devourer had become so much faster. A battle like this was no time to be distracted, though, and she readied her vulcano element. The most powerful fire-based element was one of her favorites, and had been one of the items she had discovered in her bag when looking for the komodo scale.
The violent blast of fire and lava shot upward from below the Time Devourer, and it flapped its charred wings to escape. The dragon god did not float back down once the element had cleared, but instead attacked from behind, first hitting Kid in the back with an UltraNova element, and then slamming into her bodily the instant the painful white power faded. It occured to Kid as she staggered to her feet and used one of her few healing elements that fighting this dragon had been much easier with two others helping her. After quite a bit of trouble, she was able to stand up straight, but her dagger lay at her feet, her right arm hanging shattered and useless at her side. Gritting her teeth, she prepared an Inferno element. It struck home, but from out of the flames like a phoenix the Time Devourer sprang, the tips of its wings trailing fire. It rushed Kid, and her weakened body would not operate fast enough. She was caught in the dragon's mouth and it held her prisoner just as the panther had done to Poshul during the first test, but the Time Devourer had no reason to let Kid live. The star-stealing girl screamed in horror as the long fangs piercing her flesh and the powerful jaws crushing her body. She swore she could feel her very spirit tugging to escape into death, and it would have succeeded if a small, brightly colored blur had not shot past, pulling Kid away from the dragon.
In shock and to weak even to scream in pain, Kid blurrily looked up at her savior. Her dillusional mind at first showed her the face of Serge, but she blinked and he was replaced by non other than Harle. She lost conciousness before she had a chance to feel any outrage or humility at the fact that one of her least favorite people had saved her life.
Laying the unconcious thief down gently, the Dark Moon Dragon then turned to face the dragon that she was a part of. Although she had felt it calling her, she had refused to merge with it, following its call only in order to save Kid. Honestly, she was not sure why she had bothered. She had always thought of herself as being cold-hearted and strong, but knowing that the Time Devourer would kill Kid, she simply could not ignore it, even if Kid was her rival in love.
"How dare you interfere. This is not over, Harle... The humans who defeated us must pay for their wrong-doings."
Harle did not answer, but only frowned at the beast before dissapearing with Kid.
Chapter Three Disclaimer: The plot used in the Test of Mind is based on the final chapter of The golden Compass, by Philip Pullman.