Disclaimer: I own nothing except for my OC Eira and her son Torsten along with any alterations to the original storyline plot their shared presence creates to various readers amusement everywhere across the globe.

Eira Byrnison Chapter 10

Eira's confusion soon fades away to horror as she realizes what exactly they are carrying. Yes, it is more than likely one of the missing Gyptian children. The alethiometer hadn't led them astray, but he or she is missing something very crucial alongside them.

Eira doesn't see a 2nd daemon. The distinct profile belonging to the existence of a 2nd is completely absent. She can't even detect its scent on the air currents.

Balking from this realization Eira shudders and releases an alarm call to alert the others in the camp.

Those asleep rouse from their makeshift tents, some even grabbing their weapons believing full-heartedly that they're being attacked.

The opposite is even more terrifying.

Eira immediately goes to where Lee Scoresby and Hester are with her cub as other daemons add their own alarm calls to mix with hers. Eira makes the noise a mother bear would make when calling her cub and Torsten comes to her right away.

Concerned, Lee Scoresby said "What's going on? Are we under attack?"

Shaking her head, holding Torsten to her chest with a paw, Eira said "No, Lyra and Iorek are back."

Lee Scoresby begins to smile, but it quickly fades when he takes in the graveness in Eira's posture and expression.

Quickly they make their way to the front of the crowd with Eira keeping Torsten close to the chest the entire time.

As the party of four move further and further into the encampment a ringing cry splits the air from Ma Costa as she recognizes the child Iorek and Lyra have found in their exploration.

"Billy! Is that my Billy," shouted Ma Costa, rushing straight over to them with relieved cries.

With the help of another Gyptian, Ma Costa extracts her son off Iorek's back with Lyra and Pantalaimon slipping off on their own. It's here at Ma Costa takes note that a very crucial element is missing from this party.

Looking around frantically, Ma Costa said "Where's Ratter? Where's his daemon?"

No one has the answer to the question of where her son's soul spirit has been taken.

Hugging an unresponsive Billy close to her, Ma Costa said "Is that my Billy? Billy, where's Ratter?"

Torsten whimpers against his mother, pressing further into her fur as the tension in the atmosphere affects him.

Eira gently licks him between the ears to comfort her cub distressed cub.

Stepping forward as others in the crowd keep away out of fear, John Faa said "Maggie, let me help you. Take him inside. Get him warm."

Sobbing Ma Costa picks Billy up and carries him inside a nearby tent for privacy.

Many watch them go in stunned disbelief at what they've bore witness to.

Ma Costa's elder son follows to lend a hand to his mother.

Lyra attempts to do the same, but Lee Scoresby stops her.

Placing a hand on her shoulder, grim-faced, Lee Scoresby said "Best leave them to it. Trust me when I tell you that they love you, but this…they won't want you there for."

Quietly, Lyra whispered "He was…he was…without his daemon, like a ghost. The alethiometer was right. It was like…like he wasn't there, like…he couldn't even hear me."

"This must be what they do, this is what they take," reasoned Lee Scoresby, bleakly.

"It's horrible," declared Lyra. "It's worse than anything. Why would they take someone's daemon?"

Hester's ears pin back pressed against her head and Pantalaimon cowers against Lyra's legs.

"It's about control, isn't it? Because if you can remove someone's soul, you can do anything," surmised Lee Scoresby.

Iorek releases a low growl. He then lightly nudges Eira subtly signaling to her for them to leave. This is not the place for them right now. Eira picks Torsten up in her mouth and they do so.

"Yeah, our furry friend here, doesn't do too well with emotion. Never has. Eira's better, but as a fellow mother Ma Costa's pain is too much. They'll be back with Torsten at first light. They just need to get him away from all this," said Lee Scoresby, patting her back reassuringly. "Hey. You did a brave thing, kid. A good thing. I'm proud of you. You trusted your instincts, you found Billy. Come on."

Lee Scoresby then takes Lyra to a spot where she can rest.

Billy Costa dies less than an hour later.

Ma Costa's heartbroken cries echo over the air during the funeral pyre, the heartache devasting to those who hear it.

Listening to it sends an awful pang through Eira's heart.

Eira couldn't imagine how it would feel if she lost Torsten to those monsters this way.

For the remainder of the night, Iorek and Eira stay close together with Torsten sticking between them. Eira knows Iorek is going through the torrent of emotions she is. She guesses it's the main reason why he led them away from the Gyptians as they mourn their lost child. It's their goal and main priority to keep their precious cub safe.

The family of three go to sleep with many thoughts dwelling in their minds.

They should never have left the camp.

Despite them still being within the vicinity Iorek and Eira's absence probably gave them the opening they needed to snatch her.

The Gobblers opening to kidnap Lyra.

Authors Note:

For those of you on fanfiction I'm sure you've been facing the many unwanted ads when you're reading a story. Well, yesterday, I finally had enough, and I got an adblocker app. It worked! No more ads on any level! The one I got is Adblock Pro: Safari Ad Blocker. It really works. Just follow the instruction video that it attached to it.

Heads up everyone there's someone on fanfiction you need to seriously watch out for. Early a couple of months ago after I woke up I was checking my email and I saw I had a new guest review on my A Dog's Purpose Is Strange Magic 2 sequel. I took a look at it and got a very big shock. Some random person I've never spoken to before on here or anywhere else in my life was basically threatening me. Intimidating and practically ordering me to write a threatening letter to someone on their behalf, telling to stay off of for life or else they and everyone else close to them would be killed, disgustingly telling them to kill themselves. And at the bottom of the message this crazy person wasn't done. Warning me that if I don't send the letter then they would kill me and for confirmation to email them to make absolutely sure I complied with their demands. Of course I did nothing of the sort. Instead of doing what they wanted I reported them to the website, sent copies of this deplorable guest review message to police officer cousins of mine so they could have it on file, and I went to a nearby police station and reported it.

When I spoke to the police officers and they checked everything on the message they saw, that while the address and names of business were accurate the people and their names were not. They agree it was more than likely a scam because of the email address on the bottom in order to perhaps get access to personal information or potentially hack my computer. Despite that I'm still very happy they took it seriously as I showed and told them everything. All the same I'm still very happy that I brought this to the attention of law enforcement. Even though the entire thing might be fake I'm still very happy to have brought this to the attention of those who can do something about it if it was legit in some way. This may have been a scam, but it's obvious these people are beyond irresponsible if they try to goad people into sending death threats to random strangers just to get access to info.

Be that as it may if this does unfortunately happen to you do not send any messages to the email addresses they put down and I HIGHLY RECOMMEND that you bring the message to the authorities immediately whether it is legit or not.

Because it's a guest review it might not be visible for a couple of days as it loads if it is sent to you. But when it does you should definitely pressing the report abuse button and send it to the email that leads to the support staff that is available.

Just a heads up to those of you who aren't aware of this yet, Email alerts for this website are now only active if Email opts is enabled in account settings.

I hope you all like this one! I certainly did while writing it for your vast enjoyment! ;D

For those of you just starting out with my stuff there are other works on my profile that may catch your interest. I highly recommend you take a look as soon as the opportunity presents itself to you. Who knows, you may be pleasantly surprised by what you discover.

Stay safe everyone. Especially with all of these crazy natural disasters occurring a lot lately due to global warming and climate change everywhere for sure. I swear it's like they're getting worse and worse all the time and it's like officials are simply just ignoring it or pretending it doesn't exist entirely just to go on with their daily lives. Especially those in multi-million dollar companies that rely on certain elements of our planet that we rely on to naturally keep us safe instead of adapting and finding new safer ways to keep in business. There are so many options out there where they can adapt, but they just refuse to see it because all they care about is money. Climate change is altering so much faster than anyone can really keep track of.

So, in light of all this, it is important to live life to the fullest as much as anyone can.

I know I am. ;) See you guys next time.