Funeral / Taken away

Lyra was still fast asleep in Mia's arms. She pulled a blanket over her to keep her warm and she stroked her locks. Mia felt like she was cradling a baby sister.

Aster was making sure that Pan was comfortable too. He was fast asleep on a pillow and he looked like he was he was having a sweet dream.

She heard the crunching of snow and the tent doors were pulled back. Lee entered. His eyes were wet and so were Hester's. Something bad had happened. She felt she knew what it was.

"Is he..." she drifted off.

He sighed. "I'm afraid so,"

A tear leaked from her eye. Her dad reached forward and wiped it away.

"Do we have to tell her?"

He sighed. "Yes. It's best we do it now than later. Do you want me to do it?"

Mia snuffled and nodded. "Lyra..." Mia whispered, shaking her shoulders a little. "Lyra..."

Lyra twisted her head and looked up at Mia. She quivered seeing her sad eyes.

"I'm sorry Lyra," Lee said.

"He's died?" her voice turned broken.

"I'm afraid so," he said sadly. "He must have wondering alone in the cold for days,"

"Can I see him?"

"Of course,"

Lyra lifted her head off Mia's lap, and she helped her up. They walked out of tent towards a makeshift pyre at the far end of the camp. Billy's body laid underneath a blanket of blue. Maggie allowed Lyra to take one last look at Billy's lifeless face.

Mia's heart was broken seeing the two of them along with Tony so heartbroken.

She couldn't bear to imagine her father like this if he lost her. As Maggie and Lyra embraced one another and Maggie swore that she would avenge her boy, Mia walked over to the weeping Tony, placing my hand on his quivering shoulder. He turned to me and I said 'sorry' to him for his loss. He sniffled and she offered him a little hug, which he accepted. She then let him go so he could to his ma.

Lyra let go of Maggie and she walked over to Mia and her dad. Mia embraced her tightly, apologising a number of times for saying that everything would be alright before. Lee embraced them both and his daughter promised Lyra that we were here for her no matter what.

They let go of one another and she clutched onto Lyra's hand tightly. Maggie used flint and steel to light the pyre up and Billy's body under the blanket was engulfed in flames.

A wave of humming engulfed the atmosphere. John Faa began to enchant some melodic words.

Dear son

Your soul never leaves you

Everyone started joining in.

Dear son

God does never leave you

Dear son

You are God's son

Your soul never leaves you

My son

Their voices echoed into the night. Everyone stood there for several hours until Billy's body was no nothing more than a pile of ash. Maggie and Tony's faces were wet with tears. No more words were said after that.

Lyra was still crying once the funeral was over, so invited her once again into our tent and to spend the night with them. She accepted again, too broken to even hesitate. Mia let her sleep next to her and shared her sleeping bag, hoping that her closeness would help her recover from her loss.

The night was silent as we fell asleep. Lee snored for a long while on my other side until Hester snapped at him to shut up. His snoring was a constant habit which Mia had to tolerate for a long while since they started traveling together four years ago.

Lyra fell asleep, her tears still raining down her cheeks. Mia clutched on tight to her hand to keep her knowing that she wasn't alone. She was almost completely asleep when a sudden rustle from outside echoed in her ears. She lifted her head up. She waited to a quiet feeling to return but she heard another rustle. Something wasn't right. She carefully stood up, making sure to not wake up her dad or Lyra. She stepped out of the tent to see what it was.

"Mia?" Aster, in the form of a mouse, hissed in her ear. "Your dad told us not to leave the tent,"

"I just want to see what that noise is, for all we know it could be trouble,"

"Don't you remember him saying never go out without him knowing?"

"Well, he's not awake. And I don't always have to do everything he says. It'll be fine,"

She had a little peer around. It seemed everything was alright. "False alarm Aster. Must have been the wind,"

"Uhh...Mia?" her daemon whispered.

"What?"

He pointed a furry paw in one direction towards a body. Mia gasped. She wanted to scream. She suddenly felt slow crunchy steps behind her.

When she turned around...Bang!

Darkness took over her vision. When she came too, she felt my hands tied behind her back and her feet were bound together too. Aster was inside her coat pocket. She was covered by black blankets and she felt the surface that she was tied up rumbling beneath her. She heard barking. She was on a sledge. She was being taken somewhere.

"Help!" she screamed. "Dad! Lyra!"

"Shut it!" a voice shouted from outside with a thunderous boom.

Mia stopped herself from screaming out, fearing she would be killed. She had to stay calm.

For a long while everything was quiet again except the barking of the sledge dogs. Then the sledge stopped. The blankets were pulled off and she saw a few men surrounding her and lights shining down from above. The men wore army uniforms and they had wolf daemons. Suddenly she was heaved up and taken into a large room. she was placed on the ground. In front of me was a lady in a green winter outfit with glasses and a short hair.

She kneeled down. "What's your name?"

"I'm...Milly Surrey," she lied.

"Is that your daemon?" she reached forward to touch Aster but quickly he turned into a moth and fluttered up.

"Ahh...still haven't settled yet I see. Cut her bonds,"

The soldiers gave one last sneer at her and cut her hands and legs free.

"Sister Clara...see this girl gets attended too," she ordered.

A woman in a blue dress with a white sort of nurse hat approached me. "Come on,"

Reluctantly she followed. As she did, Mia noticed she had no daemon. She gulped.

They came to a bigger room with a large cupboards and storage cabinets. "In the room next door is a changing room," she said. "We're goanna give you some nice warm clothes and you're going to get changed into them. Just wait for a second while I get them," Mia stared at her as she circled over to the giant cupboard pulling it open, revealing some green suits. It looked exactly like the one that poor Billy was wearing.

"Those clothes...those were the ones poor Billy was wearing," Aster, still in the form of a moth, whispered.

Mia gasped. "Oh no. This is it Aster. This is Bolvanger,"

A cold feeling slithered up her spine as her heart began to hammer rapidly inside her chest. She struggled to breathe as she was busy gulping my fear in.

She was escorted to some changing rooms. Aster turned into a moth and fluttered above her head as she got changed. Reluctantly she pulled off her leather coat and cotton winter wear and pulled on some green shorts with a matching shirt and black slipper shoes. She pulled back her hair back and tucked her precious necklace under my shirt.

I will never ever take that off.

She left the changing rooms, reluctantly handing over her clothes to another nurse and she followed Sister Clara down a stone corridor. She thought of her dad and Lyra and everyone else.

I hope that they would get here soon. I can't bear to end up like poor Billy.

Lyra hadn't slept too well that night. When she came too, it had only just passed first light. She didn't feel like sleeping again. Her face was still wet with tears from losing Billy.

How am I going to tell Roger what happened to him? She thought to herself. She only opened that she wouldn't be too later to save him as well. She woke up early and rubbed my eyes.

Panstretched his paws yawed.

"You slept alright Pan?" she asked.

"Yeah," he turned around. "Where's Mia?"

Lyra twisted her head. To her shock, Mia wasn't in their shared sleeping back. She twisted her head around to see if she was sitting at a corner, but she wasn't.

She couldn't have gone out. It was still a little early. She crawled over to Lee.

"Lee...wake up..." she whispered, shaking his shoulders. "Wake up,"

"What?" he muffled as he woke up.

"Mia's gone," I whispered.

"What?" he jolted up. He twisted his head and saw that she wasn't there in her sleeping bag. "Mia?" he called. "Mia?!" Quickly he dashed out the tent with Hester. She followed after him. They started to look for her.

Lyra had just turned a corner…when suddenly she screamed.

"What is it Lyra?" Lee rushed to my side.

She pointed. He twisted his head and he gasped. There were three dead Gyptians with three slit throats. There were no daemons.

Clamouring was heard behind them. They turned and saw John Faa, Coram, Maggie and Tony.

"What's wrong Lyra?" Maggie rushed over to her.

"The camp was infiltrated," Lee said.

"What?" Coram asked.

"Look," she pointed behind me.

Coram and John caught a glimpse of what they had found, and they gasped. More gasp emitted into our ears when they heard numbers of Gyptians clamouring out of their tents.

"Hey, have any of you seen Mia anywhere?" Lee asked.

"I haven't," Maggie said.

"She wasn't in her sleeping bag," she said. "When we went outside to look for her, we found these bodies,"

"Check the camp,"

The six of us and our daemons looked.

About six more Gyptians were found dead. Their throats had been cut slit. The raid had been done quick and swift without even a single noise. Mia was nowhere to be seen still.

"If these Gyptians are dead and Mia isn't here..." John started to say.

"Don't say that," Lee threatened. "She's around here somewhere. We just haven't looked harder,"

"Lee...your daughter isn't anywhere to be found here. The attackers must have took her,"

Suddenly a loud roar thundered their eardrums. Lyra turned and saw Iorek back from the night away. On instinct she rushed to him.

"Lyra, what has happened?"

"The camp was infiltrated last night. A number of Gyptians were killed and Mia's nowhere to be found. Is she with you?"

"I haven't seen here since yesterday,"

"She has to be around here somewhere," Lee looked like he was going to explode in fright.

"I'll check the Alethiometer," Quickly Lyra pulled out the Alethiometer and started turning the needles to the different symbols. Once her question was framed, the main one began to turn round. The answer began to flood into her head. The final symbol the needle pointed to was the tree for shelter. As it clicked, Lyra felt her heart jump.

"Oh no," she breathed.

"What?" Lee asked, frantic with fear. "What is it? What does it say?!"

"It says..." she looked at him. "She's at Bolvanger,"

Lee's face was engulfed in white. "No. No. No. No, no, no, no, no, no!" he looked like he was about to scream.

"Calm down Lee," Maggie soothed his shoulders. "We'll get her back,"

"But what if we don't?!" he cried out. "What she gets her..."

"She won't Lee!" Lyra ran to him taking his hand. "We will not fail her!" She vowed with all her heart that her cruel mother would not hurt anyone else. I cannot bear to lose another friend.

"We head off now!" John declared. "We will not let another child suffer from the cruelty of the Magisterium!"

Oh my Mia as been taken away. Will they save her in time? Will they try to cut her daemon away? We'll have to wait and see and find out. What do you all think so far? Thank you to those who have been supportive.