Things look fairly bleak for Will and Lyra in their own worlds, but then Lyra discovers something that is likely to change that for them, the next step in her destiny.
Meanwhile in her own world Dawn's life is running amok and she is not put it lightly confused. Amazing fate and the discovery of the truth bring together these two stories. Please READ and REVIEW. I've been working on different parts of this for months (though only posting one chapter at a time unless requested otherwise), and it would be lovely to feel loved for once.
DISCLAIMER: I wish I owned HDM, its what I wish for when I see a shooting star, but unfortunately I've never actually seen a shooting star or any proof that wishes on them come true…so basically I don't own HDM cause it belongs to Philip Pullman (the genius that is).
Authors note: that thing about Dawn isn't in this chapter...but it is a main part of the story. It'll come in later
Chapter one; For the Lack of CareHow is it that no matter where we go we have friends, but we don't have anyone to whom we can tell everything, no person who is as much us as we are, no person to talk to and be understood by at any time of day or night. How is it that we cannot think of others but dwell on what we ourselves care for?
Lyra's world
"Why can't you come out on Mid Summers day? We could get lunch or something. Come on, it would be fun. You're always busy on Mid Summers. What is that big thing you must go and do in secret?"
"I'm sorry David, I just can't explain. It's something I must do, I will come out, but I just need to be somewhere between twelve and one. Any time after or before that I'd love to go out somewhere with you." The sixteen year old Lyra Silvertongue groaned in desperation as yet again her boyfriend failed to understand. "I need to do this Davie, it's like visiting your mothers grave on her anniversary or something, it's just something I have to do."
"But why can't you just blow it off, I'd blow off something stupid like that at the first chance I had."
"I know you would, I can see that, but I'm not like you in that way." he would never understand and she could see that now. Lyra had been going out with David Murphy for just over a year but the more time she spent with him the less like Will he seemed. That had been her reason for going out with him at first; until you got to know him he was like Will, but when you knew him at all well you could see that there were many things different. William Parry would never have asked questions about something he knew she didn't want to talk about but Davie was never done asking.
"Ah, come on Lyra, have a life why don't you. Every year you go off on your own for an hour on mid summers day, and you'll never tell me where you're going. Sometimes I feel you confide in that Dame Hannah more than me. You're always talking to her."
"You know that's not true, Dame Hannah is teaching me how to use the alethometer again, you know how important that is to me."
"Yea, I know. That alethometer thing means more to you than anything else. It's like it's your boyfriend, not me. You mean so much to me Lyra, but you don't seem to feel the same way about me at all. Every single year I plead with you not to go away you go on mid summer's day, every year you refuse. This is our second year going out and I haven't once seen you on mid summers, not even when we weren't going out together. I wish I knew where you go when you get off on your own. I wish I was as important to you as mid summers day is." Lyra sighed.
"Davie, I love you to bits but mid summer is special to me for a really important reason. If I didn't go then I would feel I was letting him down, I could never do that, not to him, not with what he means to me." Lyra suddenly realised what she had said and tried to pull it back but David had heard.
"You meet a man on mid summer? Is that your big secret?"
"Yes…No…Kind of…I don't know." She paused, and then continued, it was time to tell David a bit more of the truth about her past.
"He was someone I met on my travels, you know, the ones I've told you bits about. He was like a brother to me and I could never forget him." Here her story started to get a bit watery as she had never told David of the other worlds and didn't wish to now.
"He was killed in the north when I was travelling with him, he fell down a cliff and when we found his body he was too destroyed to return home. We buried him in the snow on Svalbard, near Iorick Briorson's palace. Ever since then I've gone away on my own on mid summers day so that I can think about him in silence. It was something we always agreed to do if anything happened to one of us, whether we were travelling together or not, and it helps to think that he's doing the same thing where-ever he is now, in whatever comes next." She drew to a halt and looked up to where David was sitting opposite her. Ten seconds later he was sitting beside her with his arms around her.
"Oh my Lyra, my little darling. I never knew, I'm so sorry. After you've gone on your own we can go and get lunch but I understand that you need to go away now."
Will's World
"Come on Lydia, it's not the end of the world. It's only one hour for one day. I'm sure you'll manage without me for that amount of time." The blond hared girl beside him nodded quietly. Like Lyra in her world Will had chosen to go out with someone who reminded him slightly of his lost love, and, like Lyra, he had been bitterly disappointed when he found out the truth. Lydia was sweet but she didn't have Lyra's heart or her passion. Lydia was loveable enough but she wasn't Lyra Silvertongue. No one could even nearly compare to Lyra.
"But why do you have to go?" Lydia asked, her small voice quivering slightly as it always did when she was near Will. He always made her nervous and she always felt small around him, but it was small in a good way.
"I told you didn't I?" he said kindly, feeling pity for the young girl who loved him so much, a love which he could never truly return. "Remember I said about my little sister that disappeared when she was only five? Where she went missing is too far away but every year on the day she went missing I go to a special place for her where I can be alone and remember her."
"What was her name?" Lydia asked. She already knew but loved hearing about the little sister that was so full of energy and had such a sweet voice that people called her Silvertongue.
"Her name was Lyra." Will lied. So far describing Lyra as his long lost sister had been the easiest thing to do when he was asked to discuss her. This way he didn't have to hide his love for the beautiful girl and her daemon that he and Kirjava would never see again. "She had golden brown hair which shined blond in the light and her eyes were as blue as the sea. She was the most beautiful little girl ever." As he spoke images of Lyra filled his head, her golden hair so close to his, her thin and beautiful fingers wrapping around his, the feel of her fingers touching him in places they shouldn't have. At the memory of her his eyes filled with tears, but luckily Lydia didn't understand the truth. She believed he missed his little sister with all his heart but she would never understand that Lyra was more than a little sister to him. If there was such thing as a soul mate then he was sure that she would be his. He and Lyra were made for each other, and while he and Lydia were good together it would never be the same. He would never in a million years let Lydia touch him like Lyra had. Those images were what made his memories of Lyra so special. Yes, he had promised her that he would love another, but he knew deep down that this would not be so. Not when Lyra was still out there, alive.
"Why won't you take me with you to meet Lyra?" Lydia asked. "I know you don't see her but it must feel like meeting her."
"I'm sorry, I couldn't. Not to Lyra. She knows where I go and that I'm there every year because I can feel it, but it would be wrong if I were to take anyone else with me. This is a time for a brother and a sister to be close to each other, no offence but it just wouldn't be the same if I had to share her with anyone else. This is something I have always done on my own, even though I was only eight when she disappeared. She was only three years younger than I was so she would be thirteen now, and ever since I lost her eight years ago I've needed to go back and say goodbye every year, I never even took our mother there."
"Times can change Will, I know it must be hard to let go but we're supposed to be able to trust each other with things, you know you can trust me not to tell anyone where it is you go."
"No, I don't think you understand. This is something I've been doing for half my life now. Eight years is a very long time, it's a habit that can't be changed so easily. There was only ever one day I missed, but that was because I was travelling and I went to the place she was last seen that day." Lydia slipped her arm around him and he hugged her back, not really paying attention to what he was doing. His eyes were filled with tears and his mind with the memories of the woman he would always love.
Thanks for reading the first chapter of Gonséither. Now all you've got to do is click on the little purple button on the corner of your screen to leave me a review. Even two words would be appreciated…ah come on, please, it only takes two seconds goes down on knees and begs