Chapter Four: A new world

'Ahhh crap my head hurts' was the first thing Lyra thought. What happened? She was trying to remember. She had been sitting on the bench in their garden when she felt this peculiar sensation, she couldn't quite describe it. Then seconds after that a window to a world she had never seen before opened up before her. She had then been sucked into it almost like a magnet, but it hadn't been a smooth ride. It was like the world was far away and she had to travel through space* to get there. Sometime in her traveling she had gone unconscious. She realized that she was laying on something, but she just couldn't figure out what it was. It was painful to open her eyes, they felt heavy and tired. When she finally managed to blink, all of her senses came back at once.

Above her was a swaying palm tree, outlined against the morning sky of another world. In the background there was a beautiful ocean breaking on a sandy beach. Off in the distance there was another island, with and exotic looking jungle. Paradise. She turned her head to the left and saw something she never thought she would see again in her whole life.

Will hit the sand hard, skidding into a palm tree. An obscenely large coconut fell on his foot and he sweared really loudly. What the hell had just happened? He had just been sucked into a random world, but he hadn't used his knife. He had just felt this weird sensation and boom, here he was. Not a bad place, it smelled like the sea and looked like an island you would find in the Caribbean. He got up and took off his shoe, a nice baseball shaped bruise was developing on his right foot, great. He shook the sand off himself and turned around to see another shape 100 yards down the beach, it looked like...but that was impossible, wasn't it? Or was it, Will was thinking that after his travel to this world nothing was impossible.

As he neared the figure his guess was confirmed, it was Lyra. He felt so happy inside but what if she was hurt, or worse. What if she had moved on to another just as he feared? He sunk to his knees in front of her, he didn't care if she was with someone else, he still loved her and he would take care of her no matter what.

"WILL!?" Lyra exclaimed. She sat up fast, which was the wrong thing to do, her head started throbbing and her back felt was stiff. She gasped in pain and Will extended a hand toward her but drew it back unsure.

"Lyra..., are you hurt? You should lie back down." In spite of the pain Lyra smiled.

"Of course I'm ok, I've never been better in my life! Will how are you here?!" She practically knocked him over with her embrace. But he didn't hug her back and she was confused.

"Will? What's wrong?" She pulled back to see his face, a confused mass of emotions.

"Lyra, I don't know how to put this, but I don't know if you still...you know...feel the same as before I didn't want to rush you..." His voice trailed off and he rubbed the back of his neck.

"Will you've got to be kidding me! How could I ever love anyone other than you? In fact just today I turned down one of the guys from my school who wanted to go out with me. I'll always love you Will, from now till I die." She said this all in a rush and was breathless to see what Will had to say. She looked up in astonishment to see he was crying tears of joy.

"I will always be yours Lyra, as long as you are mine." He cupped her face in his hand and kissed her gently and slowly, they had all the time in the world together, for now and that was all that mattered.