Molly woke to the sound of falling snow. She could hardly feel her toes from the cold.
Curled up next to her lay Emily, shivering in her sleep. "We should get a fire going before they wake up," whispered Erocur in Molly's ear. "There's still a little wood left in the corner.
Molly crossed over to the other corner and picked up the remaining 4 pieces of wood. They're a bit damp bit it's better than nothing, she thought.
As soon as the fire was going the little shack felt a bit warmer. Emily stopped shivering and Molly began too feel her toes again. But the snow continued to fall.
A large yawn came from behind Molly and she turned around to see that Seth had woken up. His sandy blond hair lay on his head as if it had been thrown on hastily, the ends going in every direction. He smiled and bent over so as to get closer to the warmth of the fire.
"Thanks for starting the fire, it makes it so much warmer in here." His stomach made a large growl. " We'll need more food," he then turned and shook Martin, "Get up! We're going to the market today. Oh, and wake up René." Seth then turned back to Molly. "We'll take what we've got, we can steal the rest."
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The market was a busy place even in the winter. The streets were lined with rows of carts some with steaming foods others with clothing and others with strange contraptions. Salesmen would yell out for customers. The streets were so crowded that a group of children could easily go unnoticed.
The children had some money but none were about to us it on food. Next to one of the food stands was Molly. She was good at stealing, she had done it before, but never had she ever felt comfortable doing it. She was always worried that she might get caught. She'd been caught before and did not wish to relive that experience.
The woman at the cart looked over at her. Her daemon was in the form of a crow.
"What are you doing here? Get going now! There's no use just standing around," she said.
Then suddenly the woman shot her head around to find René in mid reach for one of the meat pies. This was her chance, with one quick move Molly's hand shot out and grabbed one of the pies while the woman was still turned and shot off between the carts, through the snow and around the corner before she stopped to lick the drippings from the pie.
Then suddenly as Molly was beginning to look up, a young girl no older than 10 years old came running into her. The pie slipped and fell onto the ground when Molly and the other girl tripped over each other and both landed in a puddle of slush.
The girl got up and looked at Molly and under her breath said something that sounded like, "Stupid townie."
"And who's calling me a stupid townie?" said Molly getting even angrier. The girl gave the air of a colleger. Probably Jordan College.
Jordan College was the grandest college in all of Oxford. Molly had heard about the college a few times and then some other times she was told of a group of kids from the college that caused trouble in the city. This was probably one of those children.
"I'm Lyra. Sorry about the pie." replied the girl who then turned her back and continued running.