Northern Lights

 

There is nothing worth waiting for during a beating. As the last blow hit my hands, I winced, and glared at Afner, who also had three blisters on his left hand. My blisters looked about to burst. The housekeeper stood up, and scolded us, chastised us, even slapped Afner once when he answered back. Then, she rubbed and rubbed and rubbed the dirt and muck and filth off our knees, and promised that if she caught us brawling again, it’d be ten blows to the behind. Ouch.

Afner immediately shunned me and went up to his room, but I wanted to stay, and so, I wandered around, until I got to the library, and slumped down there. I read all the great novels and fairy tales, then decided I wanted to read about the Arctic, which Mrs Coulter said in one of her letters to the Master (intercepted by us, of course) that she was bound to do. And so, I began a magical journey to the North. I learned that seal liver could be eaten, but bear liver was poisonous. Huh. Pretty magical, if you ask me. After all, the seals are food for the armored bears, so wouldn’t it be logical for the bear’s livers not to be poisonous.

Soon, the librarian was about to head off for supper, but he noticed me, and stopped to examine my dirty face.

“Care to join me for some grub?” he asked, and I happily pranced alongside him. The man took me to a pub, and we had some meat pies. Just like me, the librarian enjoyed spinach in his pies. Just like me, he liked to add  a dab of ketchup on his pies. Just like me, he enjoyed drinking raspberry punch while eating. And then, Afner suddenly burst in, a bag of sweets in his hand. The sweets shop was next door, and he must have spotted me. But why did he look infuriated?

“I am so sorry, but I must excuse my little brother. He has…something to do,” he said, and dragged me out of the shop. The librarian didn’t really protest, after all, Afner looked identical to me. Afner gave me a very bad scolding, and then sharply smacked the side of my head.

“Little brat, heading off like that. You scared us all to hell! Thought the Gobblers got you!”

And we walked to the college in silence. Finally, when we reached the doorway, Afner gave me a pat on the head, and I was confused. A pat wasn’t a sharp blow. Then, he gave me two sweets, a candy and chocolate. It was mind-boggling.

“Little brother,” he said in his sweetest voice. “I’d like to ask you a favor. I think Nilda, perhaps, doesn’t like her surroundings. Her dæmon somehow managed to fly to mine and tell the message. So, perhaps we should travel to her London home, perhaps, and maybe barge in, pretend it’s a robbery, and rescue her? What do you say?”

He was terrible at pleading.

“I say…yes!” I said, despite my mind telling me not to. Nilda knew most of the servant’s children, and always thought up of good games. Unlike Afner, she also cared about her little brother, and so, I decided it was a go.

“We leave right now. Gather your two revolver, chamber them, cock them, whatever you need. I select an axe for myself. We’ll need to break the roof glass,” he said, and so, we began arming ourselves for our little operation. But only did we know that when we came to rescue Nilda, Nilda would be running off to save herself, and find us.

#Bai

And so the escape was planned. Lanston was never enthusiastic about the idea, but I managed to force him into it. We rushed towards the building, just to find Nilda already escaped with her dæmon. She began telling us what happened while I got some more meat pies. “Mrs. Coulter is really evil. Remember the Gobblers, she ran them, and steals children, and conducts some nasty experiments in the north. And, she nearly stole my aleithometer. The gypsies are just leaving, we can still reach them if we hurry.”
We raced down Cambridge, past the pubs, past Pordan College and to the canal, where we knew the gypsies’ boat would be waiting. We explained to them why we had come, which was because we were going to a place where Nilda had described, called Polvangar, she had said. They were going there too, to pick up one of their children which had been taken by the General Oblation Board, and so we set off. Our boat was searched every time wherever we went, possibly for Nilda by an order given by Mrs. Coulter. But that was fine, because there was a small compartment below the main part of the ship which the Costas insisted we stay in. There, something amazing happened. Nilda, who was the owner of the aleithometer, which looked like a clock, or a compass, because there were hands pointing to places around the dial, but instead of the hours or the points of the compass there were several little pictures, each of them painted with the best brush.

When we had docked for the second time, we were joined by some more gyptians, one of which, the leader, immediately took to speaking to us. His name was Pohn, and he claimed he knew the true story of our parents. “I know it’s true, because a gyptian woman told me about it.”
I could only stare in shock. Hadn’t they died in an airship accident? I could tell by the puzzled looks of my siblings that they were thinking the same. And so, reading our minds, he continued. “They did not die in an airship accident, in fact they are still alive today. Your father was a passionate man, and when he was young, he journeyed throughout the North and made a huge fortune. His name is Lord Pasriel. He is a very clever man, and even attended Pordan College. And your mother was a stunning woman, very clever too, even a scholar and so when they met, they married. Her name is Mrs. Coulter. The problem was, your mother was already married to a well-known politician named Lord Toreal. And so Lord Pasriel fought Lord Toreal, and killed him. The case was going to be argued profusely. Some said that that was murder, killing another man. However, people also said that Lord Pasriel was protecting himself, but eventually it was decided that his fortune be taken from him, and he was richer than a king. As for your mother, she left the scene completely. The gypsy woman, on the other hand, is Mrs. Costa.”
That was simply shocking.

dUfU

I staggered on the spot like a drunkard, my head reeling with shock. I was suddenly aware of the heavy velvet parcel in my coat pocket. I reached into my pocket and fished it out of my pocket. I could see my fur-clad hands trembling in the gloom. I placed it on the table and watched Parder Coram unwrap it with deft fingers. I heard a sharp intake of breath. Coram spoke first.

“I never thought I’d set eyes on one ever again. Where did you get this, and did he tell you anything about it, child?” he asked. I shrugged. 

“He said that it was called an ai-the-mom-eter?” I said, struggling to pronounce the scientific term. Faa chuckled.

“Alethiometer. It’s a symbol-reader.” I nodded, my face creased in confusion. 

“Okay, alethiometer. So, the Master said I’d have to learn to read it all by myself.” I said, ” Also, what does alethiometer mean?” I asked. Parder Coram spoke first. 

“I’m guessing that it derives from aletheia, meaning truth. It’s a truth-measurer. Everything was making sense.

The next day, Parder Coram explained further.

“All these symbols around the rim, they mean a series of different things. Take the anchor here, the first meaning of this is hope because hope holds you like an anchor so that you don’t give way. The second meaning is steadfastness. The third is prevention. It goes on to eleven, twelve, maybe forever.” he said.

“And do you know them all?”

“I’d have to have the book, but I know a few. I seen the book, but I en’t got it,” he said. “So, then to ask a question, you got three hands, and you point them to three symbols to ask a question. For example, you could point to a Marionette and ask about control, and so on. There are many different levels, each with a different meaning.”

#Yao

Life on Ma Costa’s ship was harsh, and then we learned an astonishing truth. For one, we weren’t actually brother and sister. Me and Afner were actually Nida’s cousins, and Nilda’s father was Lord Pasriel, while her mother was Mrs Coulter. Turned out the Lord had to brawl with Mr Coulter right when he was about to find out about Nilda, and Ma Costa had taken good care of Nilda. Phoga fluttered by my side as I took all of the information in. I wished Afner had been my cousin, not Nilda.

Finally, one day, a decision was made. We were to take 170 men to the North and rescue the children. We all desperately wanted in on this mission, but one of their rifles was taller than me, Nilda was quite persistent when she wanted something, and Afner, well, Afner was Afner. No offense.

When she wasn’t getting in trouble or pestering the soldiers, she was telling tales of the duel.

“And so my step-father had this giant sword, and he was waving it all about, and it almost blew Daddy’s head off, but then he pulled his boot sword out of its sheath and pointed it at him, and the two began dueling, and the clink of sword-points, and then a clash, and Daddy swiftly launched a strike to his heart, and it all ended,” she dramatically told us. Ma Costa laughed.

“By god, girl, you must be going crazy! It wasn’t no sword fight, Lord Pasriel shot Mr Coulter in the head!’

“Like this?” I asked, demonstrating with four blasts of my guns right into four bottles on the deck. One soldier, who had been watching, was taken away, and invited me onto the crew.

“If yous can do that with a pista, you can shoot a Gobbler from ten miles away with a accurate rifle and scope,” he explained, and dragged me away. Soon, after learning the readers had died or been captured, Nilda was finally admitted, but Afner was still not admitted until the fight in the alley.

The three of us were eating hot eels and running in the docks, which Ma Costa finally allowed on account of my guns. Then, a strange man dressed in black came into our sight, and I put a hand to my revolver, and when he pulled out a knife and then turned on us, and just when Nilda was about to run away, she disappeared, and when I pulled out my pistol, it wouldn’t fire, and then, I was mysteriously whipped away.

Any other teenager in Afner’s shoes would have run off and yelled for help, but Afner held his ground, valiantly standing up to the intruder. First, he kicked him, and then squirted some eel juice right into his eyes, and then clambered up the fire ladder of a nearby building like a monkey. Only after would we know it had all been just a test.

#Bai

After we had discovered that it had just been a test. We were arriving on the last part of our journey, and were going to face the people at Polvangar. That was clearly very dangerous, more so than climbing on top of the roof of Pordan College, but it would involve warfare, and warfare could only mean deaths. But still, we had to embark on this journey. However, when we were only around 50 miles away (quite a short distance given that we had already travelled 1000 miles over the period of 2 months) we were attacked. We were attacked by men with arrows, who, under the mist and fog of the north, could shoot straight and were certainly striking our boat. They seemed to come from all four quadrants of a compass, and then the members of the boat hopped on, took us and ran off – where to was a big question.

Eventually, we had arrived at Polvangar, where all the children were kept. Now that we knew Mrs Coulter would be there, Nilda would have to be on a serious alert, or we would be found quite quickly. So, we kept a shield around whenever Mrs Coulter would come in, which was every day at 12 O’Clock to 1 O’Clock. But the timetable was planned, and we could all see a spot, clear in the grid, which would come in useful. At 8 O’Clock to 9 O’Clock was simply dressing up, eating breakfast and getting ready for lessons. And then, came the suspicious part. At 9 O’Clock to 10 O’Clock, we would be lined up for the counting of Dust. And this Dust would match the Dust Lord Pasriel was talking about in his meeting. All that was said was whether the amount of Dust you had was above a certain number, 739,274,637 to be precise. Then, you would be taken away to another room, where horror stories would come. The most common was that they would remove your dæmon. Every now and then, there would be a fire drill. 

Once, when Nilda had been tested, she had been sleek enough to climb in a room which said RESTRICTED while I destracted the other testing people and let out the dæmons. Luckily, no one found out because the fire drill had just happened. She said it was the most horrifying she had seen. But later on, we heard Mrs. Coulter talking. “But who is in charge of the section?”
“A person named McKay, but there are mechanisms to stop this kind of thing from happening…”
“They didn’t work.”
“With all due respect, they did, Mrs. Coulter. McKay assures you that he locked all the cages and 11:00 today, just before the fire drill took place. The outer door would not have been open, because he leaves via the inner door which he usually des. There’s a code that has to be entered, and the machine does have a memory of doing so. Unless that’s done, the alarm will ring.”
“But the alarm did not go off.”
“It did. But, it ran when the fire drill took place.
“But when you went back inside…”
“Unfortunately, both alarms are on the same circuit. That’s a fault. What that meant is that when the alarm was turned off, the cages alarm was also turned off. Then, it would have been picked off by routine checks on every half-hour, but you insisted that you speak to our guards and scientific people.”
“I see. Then, the dæmons must have been released during the fire drill. And so, it could have been any single adult working here. Have you thought about that?”
“Have you considered it is done by a child? Every adult had a job to do, and every single job was done. The jobs would have taken their full attention. So, it must have been someone out of the system entirely, who just wanted to do just that, or a child. Possibly both, for that matter.”

dUfU

Possibly both, for that matter…

The words rang through my mind, penetrating my every thought and filling my mind with the look of calm anger plastered on Mrs Coulter’s face. Then, a spasm of pain rippled up my leg. I pulled it closer, absent-mindedly massaging it. I saw Afner doing the same thing, except in his neck. I tossed him a decanter of boiling to lukewarm water. 

“Press it against your cramp. It’ll soothe it, at least for a while,”. Afner stared at it, unsure what to do next. For a 15-year-old, he was incredibly stupid. I rolled my eyes and mimed an emphasised version of pressing the decanter against my neck. He touched it, and his hand flew back, smacking him in the face and partially blinding him. As I said: stupid.

Lanston, completely ignoring his brother’s state of pain, was firing shots at a half-obliterated target. After the trial of firing each one, there was the long and depressing stage of cleaning each part of the guns. Lanston, however, seemed to enjoy this process, whistling a tune whilst oiling a double-barreled shotgun. 

“You see, this is an AK-47. Made in the Soviet Union. Excellent gun.” he would say to me once in a while. To be frank, I only took in half of the information he was spouting at a ridiculous speed. I had filtered out more than I expected, imagining what a panserbjørn was. Maybe some sort of animal or tool?

I walked up to the main deck. Some young sailors were gambling over who would catch the most fish. Foolish. Being born to a confidence trickster, I could slip into my cabin with a large portion of the gambling prize. They should be more careful with money around someone of my intellect. They were almost as foolish as my cousins. And they, in the nicest possible way, were not the smartest.

#Yao

Slowly, we got adjusted to life at the Gobbler Station. Although we all knew the dark secrets within this building, even if some of the younger children had no clue, we got eggs and toast for breakfast, beef and potato stew for lunch, and some dried seal meat for dinner, along with warm mugs of milk and spice cakes just about every other hour. However, there was something strange formulating in Afner’s tiny brain of his. Despite Nilda sometimes calling him stupid and derogatory names that aren’t worth repeating, he told us his little formula for success one day as I was having a sip of hot cocoa, with extra cream of course.

“Why don’t we, at exactly noon today, go off and say we must go to the lavatory. We can slip out like weasels and then, just maybe, pull the fire alarm. The teachers won’t be expecting it, it’ll be pandemonium, and we’ll then lead all of these wretched, little, filthy children streaming out of the back doors! I’m very sure that our gyptian friends, along with Lee Scoresby, that aeronaut, remember him? Wicked long pistol, he even let Lanston take a potshot. I sure hope they’ve hired a panserbjørn, I really do, to help us fight off the Tartars,” he spilled, in one giant breath.

We stared at him.

“Um, great idea? Maybe?” Afner nervously prompted.

“No! We’re going to get killed! Phoga keeps trying to tell me that! Nilda, go ahead and ask the alethiometer how much resistance we’ll get,” I told her, brushing Afner aside as I gulped down my beverage. Nilda obeyed, and she relayed the results to us.

“About four squads of men with rifles, that’s about sixty. They have a few fire hurlers, some cannons,” she said, her eyes on the compass contraption.

“I told-” I began, but never finished it.

“Unless we have an armored bear at our side. We can wipe out ten squads with one of those serving us. Nilda, go ahead and ask your precious fortune thingy if a panserbjørn is along with us,” he commanded. She turned some knobs, fidgeted with the silver needles, and then told us the results.

“Your friend Scoresby (I can tell by the balloon) has managed to find an outcast panserbjørn called Iorek Byrnison, but beware, for his loyalties lie only to those who can obtain his armor.”

We all sat in a circle, puzzling the means of this strange message. We all had no clue how we could escape from this miserable prison, go and find this Iorek, get his armor back, and then race him back. And then, I got a bright idea. No, it couldn’t work. Unless…

Nah. It was too risky. I wanted to bribe a guard into letting us go and find this majestic bear, get his armor, meet back up with John Faa and Farder Coram, then somehow lead him towards us on a great journey to free all of the children. I counted the gold coins in my bag, then told my siblings my plan. They all agreed it was worth a try. After a light supper of baguettes, milk, and jam, we pretended to go to our dorms, but we really crept towards the front gates, sweating so profusely we almost drowned in our own produce. We spotted an officer with his Mosin-Nagant rifle proudly held up high, the beautifully-made bayonet tipped at the end. Slowly, Afner approached him, as I put my hands into my coat pockets, preparing to grab out a pocket pistol any chance I got.

When I had arrived at this Gobbler Station, they had took my two revolvers, but I had hidden my pocket pistol and my boot dagger. They would never find it. I heard Afner negotiating with the young officer, who was studying us. The officer suddenly began getting angry, and he started speaking in a loud voice. It was then that I cocked my gun and shot a round into his arm. Of course, a pocket pistol is hardly very effective when one is aiming to kill, but to stun someone, that was a different story. The man zoned out like a rocket, the blood slowly trickling down his wound. He would wake up in about two hours, discover the blood, and try to race to the hospital before the blood leaked out of his system. Fortunately for him, he would survive.

We got to keep the gold coins, plus two more from the officer’s money satchel. We took his bayonet, his sword, his rifle, and his pistol. His food rations were stored in his backpack, which we just decided to dump onto the ground and sort through. We found some biscuits and potatoes, along with two drumsticks of chicken. Soon, we were munching on some stale bread while trekking on the hard snow. Afner, being the biggest, lumped the Mosin Nagant and all of the five round clips. I got the pistol and dagger, and Nilda took my pocket pistol and boot knife. The food rations were stored in small pouches that we strung across our shoulders. We were off to save these kids.

Two days later, when we were all irritated and deprived of sleep and proper nutrients, we encountered a group of native hunters, who were sitting around a large fire and eating large chunks of meat. We salivated at the sight of it, but we knew they weren’t going to let it up that easily.

“Please, we’re hungry, we’ll give you some gold coins,” Afner approached them, extending his ragged hand. The hunters ignored us. After a few more sentences, Afner got angry, and shot one of them in the head. The rest quickly stood up, their harpoons straightened, the sharp blades at the top. They yelled something in a foreign language, then charged towards us. We frantically shot more and more, my pistol burning. As I loaded another loose round into it, I realized more hunters were coming from the north. If we wanted to survive, we’d need to make a stand for it.

“Quick! Dig a foxhole!” I yelled over the loud noises of gunfire. And so we dug, for our lives.

#Bai

So we had to dig, or be completely destroyed by a group of hunters. Not my best move, but it was fine. And so we dug, with only a single word in our minds, faster. Even I can see that that is necessary, despite my dim-witted sense (which I know about). When they began storming next to us with their harpoons, and we began snowballing them. There was still just too many of them even with snowballs to deal with, and so we dug even deeper down so that they couldn’t just reach us. Whenever they shot a harpoon at us it would just lodged in the snow, so they would end up pulling themselves down and end up being shot. It gave us a lot of harpoons. 

But the danger eventually passed, and we each hopped out, cold but with more supper. Time to head more North. Eventually, the town with Iorek Byrinson was found, meaning we could at least search for the armour. There, Iorek was just being forced to work and work and work. Nilda decided something was to be done, whether it find the armour or free the bear or both simultaneously, it would be better. The piece of armour was kept hidden in the church at night, which would be really tricky to access, so Nilda was compelled to creep in from the back entrance after I bought the priests a large brandy and bribed him into drinking it with a gold coin. Then, Nilda had to avoid another priest which had stayed there late to pray, which was very annoying. But after that came the trouble of how to get to the armour, which was hidden in the bell tower. As a result, I had to play climbing on a bell, which I will never do again, and retrieve the gleaming piece of iron armour. 

The place Iorek was located was right next to the bell tower, so he could be tortured by constantly thinking about the armour, and how he would never retrieve it ever again, never in his whole life. And so, when I took it to him he held it as if it was gold. After Nilda told him of our plight, he agreed to go with us, and destroy the whole army. So, we continued our journey North, passing through land – lots of it. But there was a sign – Lord Pasriel’s property, Beware. There, just outside the house, was another group of hunters, looking very savage…

dUfU

I felt a sharp poke in my side. It was Afner.
“Quick, Nilda, do something!” I shot him a look that one would give a completely deluded person.
“Are you kidding me? You’re the older one; you should be doing something!” I hissed at him. I looked at the hunters. They had creases in their cloaks, from screwing them up to hide them. Their hoods were flattened and faded, presumably from brushing against low ceilings. Their cloaks were stiff and dry from dried blood. I approached the leader.
“You’re a woman, treated as a slave for the past few years. You then decided to overthrow your master, and you’ve been on the run ever since. You’re about 21, possibly 22, and you’ve been living as a thief for the past month. You originate from France on your mother’s side, but your father is either from Spain or Italy; I would risk saying he was a mix. Your father ran away when you were born in Bolivia, and your mom was heartbroken, and she was ill with tuberculosis and died a year ago. You’ve been disguising as a boy to escape the police.” I moved on to the next person, smiling.

“You’re from Russia, Moscow, and your father was a servant to the Tsar. You were born in 1998, and your birthday is in late July. You are trans-gender, physically being a girl but mentally a boy. You are out for revenge, seeking the person who killed your mother.” I finished. The hunters looked at us, dazed, and let us through. Lanston and Afner looked at me, both wearing the same you-are-deluded look. I sighed.
“The first hunter was a girl because she doesn’t have the same bulge where boys have their no-no spot. She was a slave because I could see some red welts where she was whipped, and she has marks around her wrists where she wore manacles..” And it went on like this.

#Yao

Even with Iorek on our side, he didn’t handle very well with about fifty hunters all shooting arrows at him. There were just places he couldn’t handle. One arrow pierced his skin, and another skimmed it. He was bleeding heavily from the amount of blows that came from the men’s one shot Spencer rifles. Very quickly, Iorek fell to the ground, and he made his way with difficulty towards a small hole in the ground where he lay rest. One hunter came near me, and I snarled, then punched him straight in the face, alas, he started bleeding, then fell down when Lee shot him with his revolver.

However, more and more hunters shot rifles and fired pistols at us, and soon, I felt strong hands against my shoulders. Somebody grabbed me by my arm, then pressed a cloth against my mouth and nostrils. Sooo Sleeeepy…

My daemon Phoga woke me up very quickly. I was wrapped in rough furs, and both Afner and Nilda were sitting beside me. Apparently, Afner had been talking too much, and the hunters had gagged him with a piece of thick tape

After a while, I felt myself drifting off, and soon, I fell asleep. Nilda tried to wake me up by nudging me, but without anything to wake up for, I decided to ignore her.

By the time I had woken up, a large man was busily taking the weapons we had got for ourselves, but I hid my two revolvers in my coat. The hunter who searched me was puzzled by my boot dagger. He didn’t know what a scabbard was, and thought my dagger wasn’t a sword, so he let me keep it. He had never seen a firearm before, and so decided to let me keep the guns.

By the time we reached the big black doors of the institute, Afner had already begun to bribe the guards.

“Okay, hear me out. I have me some big, big coins. If you just cut that little bit rope off my hands, I’ll perhaps make a trade, if you understand my drawl,” he muttered from behind his gag.

The guard that was now carrying him just grunted and told him to shut up. After taking twelve gold coins from his satchel, the sergeant in charge gracefully handed over the money.

“Excellent work, my good men. Now, I’ll say farewell. Here’s some hot cocoa and sandwiches for sustenance,” he handed over a big bundle and six thermoses.

My stomach growled. But my fear was growing. We would be punished ever so greatly for our daring escape. Perhaps…they would use the new machine on us. The one that resembled a guillotine. The one that swiftly separated daemon from human.

Nilda was first in line for the capital punishment. Two guards teamed up on her, and soon, she was being prodded with the end of gun barrels towards the room.

“Yer lucky I aven’t put my bayonet on. You’d be a goner if I had a big knife at the tip of this gun,” he said, and soon, Nilda disappeared behind a door. We were brought to the cafeteria, but nobody was in it. Apparently, everyone had gone into their rooms. A guard told us to go and get some cakes and tea, and when we tried to tell him we weren’t very hungry (even though we were), he told us if we didn’t eat, he’d bring a rifle butt onto my face. I felt my face going white, and I hesitantly lumped over to the table, then took a nibble of a cake. Afner was pouring himself some tea, and he pretended to spill it. As he bent over to clean it, he whispered something to me.

“Remember: our mission is to get out of here, and get every last miserable child out too. Got it?”

I nodded, but I disguised it by pretending to be nodding to the deliciousness of the sponge cake, which, by the way, wasn’t actually all that good. It could use some more jelly on the inside. Pretty soon, another guard came towards us, and we knew it was over. Afner prepared his fists, as I locked my revolver. If we had to die, we would take out as many soldiers as we could. But suddenly, Nilda came flying out, Zoning following close behind. She was in a nightgown that resembled one of a robe that could be found in a hospital. A mustached man was racing after her, and four guards with only swords could be seen charging right at her. The two soldiers outside raised their rifles, and the sergeant drew his pistol. Three bullets whizzed through the air, but they missed their target. In fact, two hit the four guards following her, and they dropped to the ground, dead.

“Quick! We have to save these children!” Nilda cried. She and Afner quickly pulled me along with them, and we raced towards the open gates, Nilda punching the fire alarm in the process. Suddenly, all pandemonium broke free, as young children all peeked out of their dorms and prepared to charge towards the exit, as Nilda had explained to them.

We hurried along, but I bent over the sergeant, busily trying to unwrap his holster. A soldier caught up, and before what I was doing, I had slipped the gun out and shot the man straight in the neck. The red blood trickled onto the snow white marble. Before I knew it, I was holding my ground, shooting everyone that came near me. More and more guards fell onto the floor, and soon, I heard a distinctive click as my gun ran out of bullets. I frantically tried to unravel the rifle from the sergeant, but as I did so, a guard with his long bayonet drawn slashed at me, and the tip of my shirt was ripped off. He readied back for another slash, and I knew it was over. What was I to do?

#Bai

I could see vaguely in the distance that Lanston was in danger. I didn’t have a gun – if I picked up a gun he would be dead. I had to throw something, but what? There was just cutlery on the table near me, with a tablecloth, and candles, which were flickering. Then, there were plates, plates! I could throw a plate. I only had one chance, one chance to hit or he would be dead…

I shut my eyes and rammed the plate forward as fast as it could go, and then a bash! As the plate bashed into the head of the man, he fell to the ground, unconscious. We took all his bayonets, escaped the hunter’s wrath, and even killed the sergeant, took his coins and ran. But in front of us, was Mrs Coulter’s lair, where all the children were kept. All of a sudden, we took them by surprise and left, taking the children. There, Iorek Byrison had recovered, but more hunters came, and each of them formed a circle, ready to shoot. What were we to do? They raised their guns in unison, but they were too high, and some even shot each other. Mostly, we survived the fight. 

So, we continued our way, trying to keep warm in the freezing weather, where danger could be all about. Still we plodded until we reached a hut, with Lord Pasriel on it. And that was when Nilda knocked on the door, and an angry Lord was muttering, “Who in the name’s sake would be knocking on the door right now? Who in the right mind would even come to this place, without doing important experiments on Dust? If anyone can tell me, I’d give them a couple hundred pounds, I would. Or actually maybe only one pound? Or maybe I have to be more generous? Ten pounds sounds reasonable, but maybe it’s too little for one’s keep. Perhaps fifty pounds feels more reasonable, because it’s a lot more? I don’t know. Possibly. Well, I do need a lot of money for my experiments, so maybe not. Or, because there probably is no one, then perhaps I could give them the money. Hmm. Doubtful. Possible. Well, I don’t know at all. Or maybe I will just go back to my experiment. Or I could see what is going on. Usually there is no fun here, so I suppose that won’t do any bad. Well, who knows, right? I could just check, you know, just for fun? Well, I don’t know. But I have heard someone dealt with Marissa’s hunters. Incredible. Who could deal with those folk, heh? I’m just thinking, that could be a lot of fun, but who knows, right?    

dUfU

I heard my father muttering darkly.
Hm! I bet he couldn’t beat the hunters! He’s too incompetent.
I thought. He came to the door, still muttering under his breath. I put fur-clad hands on my hips indignantly. “Lord” Pasriel opened the door, still muttering darkly. As soon as he set eyes on us, he put on a hasty grin and gestured for us to step in. I did not move, stiffened with exasperation. I stuck my bottom lip out in a pout. Father rolled his eyes.
“Come on, Nilda, step in!” He said, annoyed. I shook my head in a taciturn motion of defiance. His green eyes seemed to blaze. I stepped in reluctantly, Afner and Lanston behind.

I removed my boots and my heavy coat. I sat down in one of Dad’s chairs. Pasriel twisted his fingers, apparently playing was a lone lock of fur from his coat. The fire crackled, the only sound in the remote hut. I looked at Lanston.
Do it,
my eyes said to him. His grey eyes narrowed, comprehending, but then widened with realisation. Pasriel didn’t seem to notice, he was playing with a strand of fur. Lanston slipped off the sagging couch, and approached Pasriel. Afner, who didn’t know what was happening, asked what was happening. I narrowed my eyes at his blue eyes, telling him not to question. Looking reluctant for a while, he squited at me, but them gave ne an inconspicuous shrug. Lord Pasriel only seemed to notice when there was a loaded gun pressed to his temple.

After a few murderous threats, he revealed one word: knife. He said a mumbled word too, a word sounding like Ci’gazze. Ci’gazze. Our new destination.

After a while, we got to Ci’gazze. We approached the looming buildings. As we crept in, a small girl about my age walked up. A small boy of about five clung to her shoulder like a sloth. He observed us with wide, unblinking eyes.
“This is Ci’gazze.” the girl spoke, but her thick accent made it sound different. It was almost Scottish, but also Irish. Maybe even from Yorkshire. She said something like Spectacles, or Special, but it sounded more like Spectres. She carried on about her spectres for a while, then moved on to a subject of ice cream. Then, she, Angela, and her little brother Paolo, walked away, their dusty red hair flickering. We carried on, until we met up in a huge castle after splitting up. I heard wheezing d judging by the look of confusion on my cousin’s faces, they had too. We followed the wheezing until we came to a room with a bound, tied and gagged old man. After untying him, we set off again. After exploring, we found a young man. He was panting, as if he had run a marathon, and he was waving a double-bladed knife Around, apparently demented. When Afner approaced, he faced him, wild-eyed, and continued with the deranged knife-waving. He turned back to Afner. He, the stranger, after all, had a knife, but Afner had been in worse troubles with the older boys at Lordan College. The stranger jumped forward, waving the knife about, and Afner darted forward and kicked him. They began to fight, and even Lanston, with his amazing on point targeting of guns, could not shoot the strager without a possibility of shooting Afner.

Playing his last and best card, Afner darted forwards and grabbed the knife, leaving the young man there, dazed. The man, who had greasy red hair, was seized for a minute, then was set back down, dazed and unconscious. Suddenly, I realised something was wrong. Blood was spreading from the rope that was wrapped around Afner to his shirt. I pulled the rope off his hand, my fingers fumbling with the crosses. With it fell the two last fingers of his left hand. Then, the old man we just saved came in. He cradled the knife gently, caressing it cautiously.
“I think it is time I tell you of the dark past of this particular knife.”

#Yao

The man went on to explain how this very knife had the ability to cut through the fabric that chained worlds together. It also had the ability to kill spectres, whatever that was.

“What exactly is a spectre?” Afner inquired. The man looked at us darkly.

“You will learn soon enough,” and he walked off with that sentence. We decided the city we were currently in was worth some exploring. Never had we seen anything like it before. The shops were all dimly lit, and whenever we opened the door, we could smell something foul. Half-eaten plates of food were discarded and forgotten about, left on the tables to rot, and glasses of wine that had been sipped only half-way stood at tables. We found a restaurant that seemed legit enough to serve three hungry children, and we slipped in. We had never seen this before. There was a counter, with a kitchen, and small tables and chairs littering the grand floor. Back in our world, servants did the cooking. No one else. But now, we rummaged the drawers for anything we could find. We found a box of saltine crackers, and a hunk of Spam, which we hungrily devoured. But aside from a piece of stale bread slice, there was nothing to eat.

“What about that?” Nilda asked, alluding to the tall, white, cold thing that stood right near us. We were all afraid to touch it. To think what might be in it! The contents we brainstormed. Our daemons helped.

“A bomb!”

“A witch! A bad one!”

“A monster!”

“Another person without a daemon!”

“Spiders!”

…

After a while, we got more hungry by the spot. We noticed there was a big sign with FOOD printed on it that had been attached to the side of the thing of suspect, and so we decided to open it. Afner strongly advised against it, telling us we were acting stupid.

“We’ll just have to search for food somewhere else!” he stupid declared. We ignored him, and opened the thing. It was cold, and I felt cold, because the summer heat had been unbearable. I stuck my hands in foolishly, and drew them back instantly after I touched something. It turned out to be some sort of can with the words C-O-L-A spelled at the side. I shook it, and something sloshed inside. I decided to open it, but this was confusing. I had no clue whatsoever on how to open such a thing. After trying to slip off the lid if there was any, I impatiently smashed the can against its sides, and tried to break it. Nilda had taken another beverage, but this one had a little cap that she easily twisted off. It had F-A-N-T-A spelled on the side. She took a swig, choked, and began coughing. She set the bottle down, and Zoning prepared to make her throw up the contents; he was worried it was poison. But she started laughing instead.

“It tastes like oranges, but so sweet and such a tangy flavor. Bubbly too. Plus, something makes me want to-BELCH!” she sputtered. I stared at her. Afner snickered. She scowled at him. My beverage was still unfortunately not available to me. It was bent out of shape, and then, after it hit a few shards of broken rock, it pierced the metal, and soon it was spewing at me in little fountain. I was beset from all sides, desperately trying to run off, but I managed to catch some in mouth, and it tasted really good. Like sugar, except, it had some distinct taste. It was bubbly, and it frothed.

After a while, even Afner decided to try. He took a bottle that had SPRITE spelled out on the side, and took a drink.

“Tastes like lemonade. Just more bubbly. I dunno,” he murmured, but wouldn’t bring himself to admit it: It was so far the best and most relaxing thing he had ever had. I just decided to try and figure out how to open it. I took a little thing that resembled a notch and pulled. Nothing happened. So I decided to push, and soon, I smelled something rich. I took a chug from the can, and burst into hysterics. I had never had so much sugar. The Scholars had limited me to one cup of sour lemonade and one cup of bare milk a day. This was turning me hyper. I chugged and chugged and chugged, until Nilda saw the effects. After one can, I popped open another, and had just taken a sip before Nilda gently pried it away from me.

“Well, that’s enough. I found a recipe for something called ‘sausage spaghetti strings’. Here, take one.”

We nervously peered into the bowl. Straight sticks of pasta stuck up with hot dogs stringed on them peered back up at us.

“Uh, Afner? Aren’t you supposed to boil this?” I asked, reading the paper.

“Hmm? Oh, so that’s why it tastes so funny!” Afner said, stuffing his face full with his creation. I slapped my head. Hopefully, food poisoning wouldn’t kill him from eating raw sausages. I helped Nilda make ham and cheese sandwiches from ingredients we got from the white thing, and we hastily ate. Afner thankfully didn’t get food poisoning, but he did refuse to eat the sandwiches we made. He had always considered himself a vegetarian when it came to ham (in truth he just didn’t like how cold it was) and so we made him a condensed milk and cream cheese filling. When he argued it look too white, Nilda threatened she’d shove a whole load of ham down his throat, he complied and angrily ate it.

After a while, we decided that we were done sitting around. We each raided the cold object, made some simple luncheons like sandwiches and cold cuts, added bottles of the strange drinks, lemonade, and ginger beer to our food, put it all in a sack, and made me carry it. Then, we set off, but we had not gone far before we found something interesting. A portal. To another world. And as we looked to the other world, we could spot noise, large buildings, and people walking around. We all stepped in.

#Bai

It was very strange. How come, all of a sudden, a door to another world had opened? And why was it not done before? There had to be only one solution, right? The knife. But so we continued in the world, leaving our world – the world of Oxford behind us for a long time. When we continued forward, we met an elderly man, displaying the heads of bears. It was in a kind of shop, where one could pop in and buy some heads. He looked friendly enough, and as a result we decided to at least gain some information. “My dear friends, what are you looking for. I have many heads, some of them great, including one of Iofur Byrison.” 

It was the name that began to give me a strange sensation. Iorek Byrison and Iofur Byrison, could they possibly be related?

“We are looking for Dust.”
“Dust? Of course, go to the lab nearby. Look for Dr. Malone and you will know what is going on.”
And so we headed there, mentioned the name to the frowning receptionist and tried to trick her by saying we were on a school trip. But she reluctantly let us in, and we entered her room on the fourth floor. It wasn’t large, about the size of a room in an apartment, but the view out of the window was fantastic. Her desk was facing the window, with a single oil painting on the walls. Her desk wasn’t messy – there was just a computer like item, a pencil case and a set of drawers. 

We asked, “What is Dust?”

The question shocked her immediately – she did not know about anything. “Well, Dust is a magical object, which can be shown on the computer. I will demonstrate the importance of Dust. It was first detected during the Stone Age, and has been there since. However, there are possibilities that Dust began in the first few months of time, related to Adam and Eve. Now, I can show you want this means. Although I am a very high level scientist, our funds means that we can not afford many things, which means that this equipment will have to go soon. I can show you this now.”

And so she switched on the machine, and when Nilda used her alethiometer, the levels flickered high. This meant that somehow or other, the two were related. How?

dUfU

It was powered with Dust, surely. Yes, Mary Malone told us. They were related, but how? They were both powered by Dust, but how? When I used my alethiometer, the levels flickered high. If I was using Dust, I should have been using all the Dust in the room. How would their machine have high levels as well? Surely it wouldn’t work? It was perplexing, puzzling. We left, still puzzling over this mystery. Later, we found the old man again. He was wandering around with no apparent reason. We caught up to him, and he turned to face us.

“Ah, you again. I suppose I neglected to show you exactly how to cut through the thin fabric of this dimension.” he said. We followed him, and he led us to a shady corner.
“Now, relax. Let your mind wander slowly down to your arm, then down to your hand, to your fingers, and then to the knife itself. Wander to the very pinnacle, then feel. Feel for a snag. A hole, or a rip. Then from that snag, slice. Slice to another snag.” ​Afner held the knife, unsure. Then, he straightened and tried. He was straining, everyone could see. He was trying, but he had to relax. He relaxed, softening his grip on the knife, on Æsahættr. He looked more… normal. Then he cut. And there in front of him was a portal.

Then, Giacomo Paradisi left. Alone, we wandered around. Then, there came a stampede of children, Angelica and Paolo, at the front. I spat at them.
“I should’ve killed her yesterday! She’s as bad as her brother! I’d like to -” Afner cut me off.
“Stop ranting and come on,” he said. He made sure that his belt was secure, his knife was in, and Lanston ensured that both his revolvers had the safety catch on. Looks like we had to run then.

#Yao

I was not prepared for what happened next. I could see hordes of children just rushing up to us, with a hatred so deep in their eyes. They shouted slurs at us, and cursed us. They spat, and then they began marching, surrounding us. We had no choice. Kicking the front door open of the current house we were residing in, we raced towards the backyard, hopping the fence, then hopping it again, and jumping into the forest that seemed to loom over us.

We ran as fast as we could, trying to dodge the children. They carried sticks and rocks, at least one had a powerful shotgun, a few more had borrowed hunting rifles. Some held knives that looked like they were in desperate need of honing. I grabbed a revolver and guarded Nilda, who didn’t have any weapons. Correction, she did have her fists. But still.

Soon, we could run no more, and we thought we were sure to be doomed. I stooped down, and knelt down, then prayed with all my might we would be saved with a miracle. And then, Afner suddenly spotted a white building a few paces forward, and we charged for it. It was our only chance of surviving. As soon as we reached the building, I barricaded the door, and began shooting. I picked off boys quite easily. The leader, a stocky boy around fourteen, opened fire on the wooden door with a pistol, and soon, even with a few flimsy rounds in it, the old door fell, crushing the chairs we had put up against it, and a great wave of smoke slapping us in the face. We did the best we could, but unfortunately, that wasn’t enough.

Some boy held up his rifle and shot, and Phoga quickly tickled him till he dropped it, but the weapon discharged anyways, and it was aimed right at me. As I prepared for instant death, I closed my eyes and held them closed. But it wasn’t until Phoga slapped me that I was aware I was still alive. It was only after the battle that I had examined the gun and learned the truth. I had been lucky. The gun was actually a flintlock, and it required gunpowder to operate. He could buy some metal balls and wrap them with foil to replace as musket projectiles, but fortunately, he decided to use some ground up sulfur and sawdust as gunpowder, and the musket ball had failed to fire. So I had been saved from an untimely death just from a simple irk.

We kept on fighting back, me with two revolvers in each hand, Nilda with a giant slab of rock in her hand, and Afner with a knife. Children were falling back by the minute, but every time one of them got killed, another one would take his/her place. But then, I noticed a tiny speck in the sky, which multiplied into several specks, and I realized with a start that it was Serafina! Hurrah!

The witches let loose a barrage of arrows which weren’t aimed at the children, but instead at the roof. It had been meant as a warning, and the children all scurried away. Some children whooped and said they’d be back, but once the witches set another bout of arrows on the roof, they decided to quickly scurry home before things escalated. With thankful looks, I accepted the piece of duck that the witches had leftover form their meal just three hours ago. Afner put the knife back into its scabbard, and then with a start he realized he was missing a few fingers. Aghast, he fainted.

He would awake to one witch carefully applying a soft paste to his wound, which was bleeding heavily, and attaching a new bandage. Apparently, he had leaked blood ever since obtaining the knife without even noticing it, and at least half a pint of the fluid would have already left his body. We were busy gnawing the meat off a rabbit’s bone. Seasoned with lemon juice and some seeds, it was quite good. Well, by that point, anything would have tasted like a fantastic delicacy.

Afner was crying. Imagine that! In all my years, unless Afner was in pain, he never cried. But he evidently was. It was as if he didn’t want to admit it hurt, but the pain and agony was squeezing the tears out one by one.

“How bad is it?” I questioned one of the witches. She knelt down a bit to get to my height and looked me straight in the face.

“Very. Unfortunately, your brother has lost one quarter of the amount of blood that will get him into shock. We’ve tried practically ever single spell that might work. No result so far. All we can do is hope the wound closes on its own, which is very unlikely, or stop the bleeding. We’ve gave him a tourniquet, but that still doesn’t resolve the issue of pain. That knife is powerful. The fingers are clean off to the stumps. I’m sorry, but we don’t have a solution.”

I sulked around, declining every single piece or scrap of food that was pushed towards me. My big brother was going to die. He was going to disappear from the face of the planet. No more play-fighting. No more teasing. I would have no protection. No more looking up to. My brother was going to perish. What else was there to say?

#Bai

It was painful, alright. Agonizingly painful. But there was nothing I could do – nothing. The next day, when we continued on our way, with the witches following us and protecting us from danger, the children came again. And now, there was no stopping the ferociousness of them, with their twisted faces, and had come back with the courage and better weapons, which they had clearly sharpened. Knives came back with a glint in them, guns with bullets (proper ones this time), bows and arrows, which were burning – there seemed like nothing could stop them, except maybe another world? 

 

The witches acted calmly, taking out a group of children each shot, but they only had about ten arrows each, and there were hundreds of children. There would be no way we could take them all down, not with my condition and the very limited number of weapons we had. But all of the children carried at least one weapon, so we could guarantee to find one to take down the others. Quite a few of the children had guns, more knives, and the rest whatever they could get their hands on.  There were some with baseball bats [I’m writing this for you, yao. I don’t even play baseball], even. 

But they were in not order, just charging however they could, trying to invade the small cottage in which we were in. It was small, picturesque little cottage, with trees growing around it. The actual thing was black and white, with the wooden beams a fantastic shade of night, with the walls a gleaming white. In the end, they retreated, back to their place, but they had lost their main strength – numbers. They were lost in all the other prospects, how organised they were, how well their weapons were, the experience of the warriors, all of those. 

 

And so eventually, when they had left, we could still not leave the world, for I was the only one who could use the knife, and my fingers were healing, slowly but surely. That night, however, the children decided that surprise was on their side, and they could use tactics to defeat us, not by numbers. And so this time, there were only about fifty of them, each armed with guns or knives, which could be thrown. At that time, Nilda was on guard, and what she did was immediately wake the witches – the witches could bow them down, or use magic, but how could be possibly defeat fifty?

dUfU

Nothing. Nothing at all. We were all going to face the inevitable end we all are, one day, meant to face. The witches were in a state of chaos, all crying and shrieking about their age and their lovers. Fools. Even I, being less than half their age, am not stressing. Hormones, eh? I sighed. I didn’t even know what we were trying to do, but it was hopeless even trying to return home with this lot. At least with a half-dying brother and a younger brother, I still stood a chance. Now, with a bunch of naïve witches, I was sure to die.

I know that I should probably embrace death as a friend, but I was still somehow anxious. Most of my worries were completely irrational, like, 

What if I die?

Who will be the bearer of the knife after Afner dies?  

As you can see, I was being a little over-dramatic. But the worries persistently clouded my mind. But, as I closed my eyes, waiting to die, I was waiting for a long time. It never came. Ci’gazze was empty. Then, I saw it. A flash of scarlet red hair, a whispered command. Then, my vision broke. 

I came round in a small camp. There was a fire of wet cherry wood and a small canopy/gazebo of leaves hung above, sheltering us from the dismal drizzle that dripped dully from the sky. The sky itself was a dun-grey, mundane and blunt. A fat goose on a spit was roasting slowly, sprayed with lemon juice and smattered with various herbs and seeds. Beside it, warming next to a fire, was a jar of berry chutney and a small pile of yesterday’s parsnips. When the fowl had finished roasting, a witch carefully removed it. We dug in, ravenous. I picked up a leg and tore the flesh off with my teeth. The lemon juice added an exotic tang to the tender meat of the bird, and the rosemary, sage and basil added powered it more. Delicious. 

#Yao

As we were eating, a witch stood guard over us, and two tended to Afner, wrapping bandages over and over on his bloodied hand, but it was no use, for the subtle knife had a blade so strong that being used against it would probably mean certain death. But if I knew one thing about Afner, it was that he would never give up, no matter what. He would keep fighting his wound to the end.

A few witches made a protective circle around us, as if we were their kin, and placed arrows to bowstrings. They aimed at everything that moved, and when we finished the goose, they handed us each a bag of sliced meat and told us that we would be taking a journey soon, so this bag of smoked meats would be our supplementation for quite a while.

“Get some sleep children, for you will need it,” a witch said, slicing thick slabs off a bread loaf she had obtained, and putting two pieces into each of our packs, added with a package of huckleberry jam, and a little jar of honey.

At exactly the mark of six at night, us children who were not armed, namely me and Nilda, were given swords if we ever came across trouble. I handled my blade with quite some foolishness, I attempted to chop wood with it, and ended up breaking a piece of the sword. A witch saw all of this, and she confiscated my sword for a dagger. Oh well. I should be happy to have anything at this point.

When it was time to go to bed, (which wasn’t exact, since whenever one of us children yawned was it, this time Nilda betrayed us) we all dropped to the ground or found a clean rock and fell asleep. Except me. I just lay there, thinking about tomorrow. One by one, the witches also fell asleep, and snoring crept into my hearing system. Thinking it was impossible to try and get myself some beauty sleep anymore, I went on a walk, but just as I was rounding the corner, the sentry on guard, a young witch, suddenly felt the urge to run off, and for what reason I didn’t know, but I followed her.

She was flying, and I was running, so when I got to a forest with a couple of thick trees, I couldn’t see her anymore. But by that time, I already knew what had intrigued her. A camp full of tents with raging campfires and lanterns. The witch brought her bow out, I unsheathed my dagger. She was aiming at Mrs. Coulter.

YES! YES! YESSSSS! How long I had waited for this moment, so I wouldn’t miss it. Unfortunately, the witch dropped her bow and began to edge towards the camp. What? NOOOO! COME BACK AND JUST SHOOT THE DARN WOMAN!

But no. She had decided that she just wanted to eavesdrop on some boring old conversation. But wait! Mrs. Coulter had tipped a flask of liquid right into the man’s drink! That devious woman!

I decided to wait a few minutes before charging on and stabbing Mrs. Coulter. But then I realized how stupid I was. There were ten bodyguards surrounding the woman, each with a long distance rifle, and around a whole regiment of troops waiting to charge at a command to do so. Now if I just ran out, the best scenario was that I got shot. The worst one was that I got wrestled to the ground, tortured, forced to reveal the locations of my friends, and then get shot in the head. And then my whole camp would die. Lucky me.

After a lot of waiting, I thought it wasn’t worth it to stick around, so I fell asleep.

But when I woke up, I saw the witch lying in a heap on the ground, her eyes white, and her daemon lying besides her. If I had been in a horror movie, I would have said she was dead or she had been mutilated. Not very far from it. It looked…like the work of a Specter.

Ignoring the huge amount of spiderweb on my face, I raced towards the camp. A spring of words were in my face, but I didn’t yet generate them into curses. Maybe I had a chance…

Nope, of course not. When I reached the camp, dead bodies littered the ground, Afner had hidden behind a rock.

“Afner! What happened?” I cried, shaking his shoulder. His knife was bloody, and four grown men were near him, their necks apparently having met the knife.

“I did all I could, Lanston, I did. But…they took Nilda!” My whole world broke apart. I began sobbing, and Afner at first tried to console me, but then fell in line with me. We were crying so loud we drew the attention of a pack of wolves, and they looked at us, and looked at their stomachs, and then I knew I needed a rifle. Breaking apart from the sob-marathon, I grabbed a Winchester and pumped round after round into wolves, and soon, the whole pack was dead. Pretty good.

“C’mon Afner. Crying does nothing. Grab a pistol, and I’ll take a shotgun, and let’s go save somebody,” I said, taking an Ithaca 37 shotgun. He grabbed a revolver, and we began our long journey together.

#Bai

Our job was now to find Nilda, who could be miles away now. They had taken her at sometime around midnight, when I had woken to the sound of shooting, rifle firing, and the screams of Nilda as she was taken away by several men, around ten of them. I had taken down many of them with the knife – it was a slice to the neck and that was it, but there were too many, and they were moving too fast, with my finger throbbing all the time. It was rather obvious that NIlda would be taken to Mrs Coulter, but God knows where she was, as she was as sly as a fox, shifting position every couple of days to evade capture. 

But then Lanston told me his story, of what had happened during the middle of the night and why he was not at the camp during the battle. “So, during the night, I couldn’t sleep. Although I was exhausted, I couldn’t sleep. When the witch, who was supposed to be guarding the entrance left and began to fly above the woods nearby. I had nothing to do, so I just followed her, and I ran into the forest. I could see their camp, and the witch, who had an arrow notched and ready to fire. I, meanwhile, had a knife, but I couldn’t kill her because there were ten guards surrounding her. If I threw the knife, my position would be located, and I could be tortured.”

“But that’s great, Lanston! We can find Nilda. If Mrs Coulter sent the people, she must have been alerted to our presence, and so sent the guards to find Nilda, take her away, and move to a position far, far away. That means they must be near, to escape. Packing up the tents would take time, and sorting things out would take time, which means that we can catch them. Let’s start moving, and get Nilda back!”

 

And so we continued the way Lanston had done, the prints still etched out nicely. It was nearing the camp where we saw her – we saw Mrs Coulter, still making the last second arrangements before leaving – it would give us a chance to get on the vehicle where they were leaving. And so we hopped on, and we were lucky. There was a slight gap between the two sections, where we would be forced to stay and wait. Soon, we would find out where everyone was going.

dUfU

I remember nothing. At least when you were drugged up with laudanum, you could get a decent night’s sleep.

 I woke up to a dimly lit room. It was very… luxurious. I was lying on a bed. A clean bed with silken linen sheets scented with lavender and plump duck-feather pillows. There was also a grand headboard, surrounded by a gilded gold frame. There were also two nightstands at either side of me, one with a lamp standing on it, another with a glass bowl of water with lavender sachets in it. There was a small fireplace with a small fire crackling away merrily. There were multiple pictures in gilded gold frames. One was of a baby with brown dandelion fluff on its head and large, hazel eyes. Me.

I sat up on the bed and swung my legs around to the side of the bed. I slipped off after a few moments of studying. I walked unsteadily over to the closet, which contained a number of fine clothes. I chose some knee-high tan leather boots and black tights, with a flared, wine-red velvet skirt. For my torso, I put on a loose, turtle-neck white knitted sweater. The wool in the jumper was of high quality, for it was smooth and soft, unlike the rough and scratchy cheap wool that was sold half-price in markets.

On top of that, I put on a long, black, fur-trimmed coat with a fluffy lined hood. For my mittens, I put on matching black gloves. After that, I wound a furry white scarf around my neck. Instead of using the hood to cover my head, I decided to use it to carry Zoning. I put on a white bear-eared hat. Parallel-dimension clothing was confusing. Yep, that’s right. I was ready for the Other Dimension.

#Yao

Me and Afner observed the camp very thoroughly, for we had no choice. Nilda could be anywhere, so, we planned to check every single hiding spot for her. Of course, there were still about fifty guards, and Mrs Coulter herself was supervising the whole operation. Afner gripped his revolver’s ivory handle with great intensity, and I loaded my firearm. Here was Afner’s plan.

1. Take out the guards using the old ‘snap the neck’ method
2. Search each tent.
3. Find Nilda
4. Evade the eyes of the other guards and run away and live happily ever after before the sentries discover the dead bodies.
5. Celebrate
6. Congratulate each other, and shoot our guns in a salute for…

“Okay, hold on, big brother. You think we have that much time? You do know Nilda will probably be trying to escape herself, right? So, why don’t we just try to avoid violence and just search. ‘kay? Good.” I nodded with any consent from Afner.

We both snuck silently and quickly, with Afner mumbling about me not even trying to be heroic. Soon, we reached the first tent still standing. Opening it with caution, we peeked inside, and we found four soldiers sitting in a circle staring at each other. Before I could say anything, Afner picked up his revolver, and shot with expertness at the four targets. They dropped like pins. Surprisingly, no one hear us, and before I could reprimand Afner, his daemon gave him a fist bump to signify triumph.

I rolled my eyes. Suddenly, we heard footsteps marching in a timely manner, and they were nearing us. The shadow of rifle after rifle neared my eyes, and a sword was brandished. Me and Afner, with great fear in our eyes, crept underneath a bed. We witnessed an officer walking into the tent, raise his sword, and then pointed it at the bodies. Ten soldiers immediately, without a word, ran to comply with his command, and they upturned tables and chairs, glasses and plates, bowls and utensils. They shot randomly into the air, trying to scare somebody out. One of the soldiers kicked over a drawer, and nabbed somebody, but it was dark, and we could not see. Then, we realized the person was short and stout. He wore clothes that were tattered, but weren’t rags. No, they were nice and looked like fancy clothes, but had worn off over time, and were now dirty and torn. He looked about Afner’s age, if not a bit smaller, but the officer stared at him, and then smiled.

“That’s him. That’s the little thief who’s been eavesdropping on our conversations and taking food from the kitchen. Mrs Coulter will be happy to hear the news of his execution, and rarely is she happy,” he snorted. The boy tried to protest, but he dragged out of the tent and towards the common ground.

“Lanston, let’s go! If they’re all distracted, here’s our chance!”

But I wasn’t nearly as set on rescuing Nilda anymore. I wanted to see what happened. And so, I ran out of the tent and furtively gathered with Afner behind a bush, as the man was bound and then made to stand. For whatever reason, the major of the camp read out in a monotonous voice:

“It is on this day, the 26th of September, that we commence for the public execution of this man who shall stay anonymous, for committing grand treason against the Church, and for pilfering and disturbing the peace. For this he will be confiscated the right to a trial, and will be given the sentence of instant death. Because of the seriousness of his grand acts against the court of law, he will be given the choice between hanging and then being burned, or firing squad and buried in an unmarked grave. If he does not decide within fifteen seconds, the choice be made for him.” The officer turned to the boy, who merely closed his eyes.

“I do not care,” he uttered.

“Firing squad it is. Would the four following soldiers come up and load their weapons? Private Werriweather, Sergeant Chuck, Corporal Louis, and Private Jo?”

The four men walked up to the stand, and followed the orders. A white page was taped to the man’s chest, right where his his heart was, and the shooters all faced the man. He was offered a blindfold, but he declined. The major pulled out his pistol, took out the bullets, and prepared to fire a signaling blank. I covered my ears, but I witnessed everything. The bullets striking the man’s body, his expression of pain, and then the light absorbed quickly from him. Although I didn’t understand why the man was being killed, I had just witnessed the brutality and cruelness of what the Church could do, and I vowed never to let that be the fate of the world.

“Come on, let’s go,” Afner said, a bit hurried both from the whole Nilda situation, and also for letting his younger brother witness such a graphic scene. We both rushed with great intent towards the tents, searching each and every one with fervor. Until Afner pointed how stupid we were.

“Lanston, stop kicking over that vase and listen. If every single one of the guards are supposed to be at the execution, than only the area with guards would mean Nilda! Because as far as we know, Mrs Coulter definitely wouldn’t want Nilda to escape, so that would mean the places with guards is where Nilda’s at!”

Of course!

Me and Afner scanned the area, and found the only place with guards, a cave with three sentries positioned at the front. We advanced a tiny bit further, when we were grabbed by strong, firm hands.

“Just what do you think you’re doing?” the captain asked, dangling us like puppets. A gigantic man, his mustache spread from ear to ear. His great saber was twice the size of a normal sword, and two great revolvers dangled from his belt. We kicked and thrashed.

“Let us go!” Afner exclaimed, butting the man and making his nose bleed.

“Hi-yah!” I cried, demonstrating a perfect example of my karate skills, by trying to kick the man’s head and accidentally hitting one of the pressure points on his neck. He gave way, dropping down and lying there. Of course, we were now free, and we rushed upon the cave, ducking down behind a rock before one of the sentries spotted us. We were contemplating our decisions for a plan when suddenly, Afner dragged the captain’s paralyzed body over and propped him up against a tree. Then he put the man’s great sword into his hand, and waved the captain around like a puppet. This caught the attention of one of the sentries.

“Captain!” he cried, and the three all snapped to attention.

“Soldiers, go to the execution,” Afner said in a low and commanding tone.

“But, but, Mrs Coulter personally told us never to leave our-”

“DO YOU THINK YOU HAVE THE AUTHORITY TO QUESTION ME SOLDIER? NOW GET YOUR NO-GOOD, DIRTY FACE TO THE EXECUTION! NOW!!! MOVE IT, ON THE DOUBLE!!” Afner yelled. The soldiers quickly scurried away. Now, the cave was ours.

#Bai

However, as we tentatively entered the cave, there was not a single sound except the dripping of water in a far corner. The room itself consisted of a simple bed with plush, clean sheets, a half-empty bowl of water, and a drawer with many clothes one might expect a twelve-year-old to be interested in. A light hung on the top like a person being hung, but still, Nilda was not here. She must have escaped, but to where I did not know. 

 

Instead, we left the room, but just ahead of us there was Mrs Coulter, flanked by two guards, both armed, primed and ready to fire. That meant we had to escape, but where? Mrs Coulter would certainly find us, as we were trapped in the cave with nothing but a few guns with almost no bullets, a couple of clothes, no food or water, no way out, no way to defeat the guards, no way to find Nilda, no way to kill Mrs Coulter without being killed ourselves, no way of surviving, and most certainly we were going to die. After that long list appeared in my mind the idea of the knife came to my mind. Instantly, I pierced a window straight through near the bed, grabbed Lanston and threw him through the window. When the shriek of Mrs Coulter came, and a guard came charging, I jumped through and shut the window, cutting him directly in half. 

 

After moving a few inches to the right, I opened another window back to the previous world, and took a shot at Mrs Coulter, but her guard reacted faster, and blocked the shot. Fortunately, it flew into his head, and he jerked one last time and fell still. About to take another shot at Mrs Coulter but I had ran out of bullets. Instead, I opened another window, and left with Lanston. My mind drifted back to Nilda. I knew she would not have left the camp, instead she would have waited for us to rescue her. The protocol was that if one or more of us were trapped, we would wait for another to rescue, namely me. If I were trapped, then Nilda would, and if we were both trapped it would be up to Lanston. I opened another glimpse of the window and tried to see her, but I could not see her. Where was she? Where?

dUfU

I had heard Mrs Coulter talk about a portal. Bingo. It was just around the corner. I slipped out of the bungalow, stepping out of my window. The crisp night ait hit me full in the face, so unlike the warm glow of the house. I carried on. I walked through the desolate village, my feet stumbling over the cracked cobbles. I walked through the streets, my feet aching from the cracks. I turned the corner and stopped at was I saw. It was… a city.

It was floating in an irregular square, almost like a trapezoid. I stepped through it and gazed with amazement at what I saw. There were cars everywhere and red, amber and green street lights. There were also huge pictures on the side of buildings, but… animated. The picture was moving, but the screen it was in wasn’t. There were also people sleeping on brown card with signs propped up next to them, saying things like:

Need Money

Will clean 4 Money

and so on. I strolled around and sat on a bench. A woman took pity on me and handed me a slip of smooth paper bearing the numbers: £20. I thanked her and stood up. I assumed it was money and went to the nearest bakery. It was warm and smelt of home. I bought a Cherry Bakewell and devoured it slowly, savouring the glacé cherry on top. I went to the nearest shop as well and bought a bar of “Cadbury’s” chocolate. I didn’t know what it was, but I saw a small boy eating it, and it smelled and looked nice. I opened it and started breaking off the squares, savouring each one with the same hungry delight as before. I also bought a tub of strawberries, as I had only eaten them once before, and they had been sour and unripe. After eating them, I had to figure out what to do.

#Yao

I blame Afner and he holds full responsibility for what happens next.

We tumbled headfirst onto the cold, damp sidewalk, our tender face meat connecting with the granite in such a violent way that I cried out and then kicked Afner in the shins. He violently jerked me.

“I just saved your life!” he cried, shaking me thoroughly. The shaking did not alleviate the pain one bit, instead, it only intensified it.

After five minutes of bickering, we both finally came up with a good plan. First, we’d steal some money. Then, we’d buy some food. Next, we’d buy some ammunition for our weapons, namely, 12 guage shotgun shells for me, and .38 pistol rounds for Afner. After that, finding Nilda would be our objective.

So according to the plan…

ATTEMPT ONE

“Please sir, have you some coins? Me and my brother-we lost our mum, and we have no money for food or new clothing!”

“Bug off!”

ATTEMPT TWO

“Please miss, do you have some spare change? Me and my brother, we-”

“Go away!”

ATTEMPT THREE

“Please sir, would you have some coins perhaps to spare to a few hungry children?”

“Nope. I only have bills, and that’s too valuable to go awasting on your kind!”

Afner wisely told me to shut up with my begging skills and steal some money. And so the grand scheme began!

First, my big brother took me into a department store with bright lights, something I had never seen before! Wow. Everywhere, there were people, and pretty and fashionable clothes decorated the hangers of the store. It was a whopping three stories! It even had something called an escalator, which I ran up and down approximately forty times. But Afner dragged me away, and took me to the cash register.

“Hmmm. Sir?” Afner asked

“Uh, let’s see-why yes, young man?” the clerk said, turning away from his own thoughts.

“Do you happen to have anything perhaps fashionable for a formal meeting, perhaps?”

“Erm, yes, if that’s what you’re looking for. It’s one floor below, you shouldn’t miss the signs,” the clerk said, given Afner vague directions and then returning back to guarding the register. Afner persisted with his question to get the clerk to leave.

“Well, I already looked downstairs, but I can’t seem to find anything! It may be all sold out! Could you guide me there?

“Um, of course! Let me just call my substitute from his break-Frankie! Frank!-” the clerk cried out, only to be grabbed by Afner.

“Oh, that’s all right. I’m sure the register will be fine, now come along!” Afner persuaded, leading the clerk away.

I made my move, dashing behind the register, pulling open the cash drawer, and-

“Excuse me, but do you know where the dresses for partying are located?” a young woman had approached me.

“Oh, they’re um, erm, uh, downstairs! You should check there!” I said. The woman nodded, then noticed my small height.

“Say, aren’t ya a little young to be working this register? How old are you? Shouldn’t you be in school?” she inquired, taking off her sunglasses, where were heavily adorned with jewels and minerals.

“Oh, not at all! I’m 16, my father is the manager here, but allows me to work occasionally, and I’m homeschooled!” I said, trying to make my voice a bit deeper.

“O-kay. If you say so,” the woman replied hesitantly, taking my advice. Now, I turned my attention back to the cash register. I mustn’t overdo it, I couldn’t let them notice. So I decided to dabble and take four hundreds, then take eight fifties, then nine twenties, then five tens, then two fives, and then a handful of coins. I decided to put the coins back, for they were of no real value, and would make an awful jingling. I stashed the twenty eight bills into my pocket, then nonchalantly closed the register and hung out at the counter. Soon, Afner and the clerk arrived.

“Oh, I’ve decided not to buy one. After all, I think they’re much too drab! Y’know?” Afner was saying. The clerk complied, and dutifully went back to the register. Afner grabbed my arm, and dragged me out of the store, where he then asked me to empty my pockets. I showed him the bills, and he counted it.

“1,040 pounds! Great job, lil’ brother!” Afner complimented, patting my head. I glowed with pride, happy to have made my sulky brother happy at me. But deep down, I also felt a sort of gnarly feeling that was eating at me, about being forced to steal to live. Was this how all poor lived? Stealing wasn’t right, and I certainly didn’t feel comfortable doing it. But if I wanted to live to rescue my sister, I would have to do the inevitable, and thus, I just shut my mouth from any protests that I could feel arising to my mouth, and happily, (despite my joy being kind of fake) pounced on the bag of assorted sweets that my doting brother had bought for me as a reward. The motley of candy was delicious, and temporarily, it eased the burning I felt in the pits of my stomach.

The first proper meal we enjoyed was in the morning of the next day. We went to a diner for breakfast, where we both got the king size English breakfast or toast, two eggs, jam of all sorts, bacon, sausages, tomatoes, potatoes, beans, smoked ham, and mushrooms. After two giant glasses of orange juice, we paid the bill of twenty one pounds, which Afner handed over. After lunch, (consisting of steak, mash, gravy, pudding, and veggies) we finally went to the gun shop, where we easily bribed the owner with two hundred pounds to let us buy firearm ammunition without an adult present and a gun license. After buying two boxes of twenty shotgun shells and one box of thirty-six revolver pellets, we also bought two parcels to hold the rounds, and a holster for Afner and a sling for me.

Then, after a snack of crisps and chocolate, we began to search for Nilda. We asked a lot of people, especially homeless ones, by bribing them with food and money. Finally, one spoke of something significant.

“Yay, I seen who you lookin’ for. Girl in her late teens, light hair, and tall? Yay, she went into a bakery store. She purchased some baked goods and a bar of chocolate. I saw her outside. Couldn’t see her though because of the fog that night! So I don’t know where she went. You better ask the baker!”

We thanked him, bought him a gooey cheesesteak from a local vendor, then went into the bakery. The smells of sweets and bread and pastries and tarts and cakes and candy wafted into my nose, reminding me of the old bakery near my home, MY world. I purchased a pastry that tasted of home, sugar and milk and berries. It was called “Berry Tart”. Afner asked about Nilda, and the shopkeeper said he had seen her!

“I saw her! She purchased a Cherry Bakewell and Cadbury chocolate, an’ fresh strawberries. Told me she was headed to buy a dress!”

And we were off again.

#Bai

She had gone off to buy a dress. But where exactly would there be a dress? The idea of a phone book sounded rather appealing, and so we found a telephone box — there was one nearly on every street, and looked for nearby shops which sold clothes. In the end, there seemed to be around a dozen in the nearby vicinity. Perhaps, but which one did we begin with? It seemed sensible that the nearest and closest to the one the shopkeeper had pointed in. 

Shop #1

 

“Excuse me, we’ve lost our sister, have you found her anywhere?”
“No, get out of here, you ragged scums! I don’t have all day, you know?”

 

Shop #2

 

“Excuse me, we’ve lost our sister, have you found her anywhere?”

“No, I’m very sorry, but I think she may have been over there.” She pointed to another shop, not that far away, with fanciful dresses, with shining colours. It was very likely, almost ninety percent likely it she could have been there. We decided to try our luck there. 

 

Shop #3

 

“Excuse me, we’ve lost our sister, have you found her anywhere?”

“Do you mean that girl, the other day? With a kind of berry pastry. Yes, I have seen her. She went upstairs and took a look at the dresses, the ones on the second floor. Then she came down stairs, and left, to go somewhere else. Said she needed to find someone to buy more food – naturally I recommended the shop over there, a bit like a convenience shop, where she could buy some bread, water, and other things she might want. Thanked me, and then left. She went in the direction of the shop.”

“Thank you. By the way, could you please show me where the adult’s dresses are? I might want to buy my mother something for her birthday. She quite likes dresses.” I gave a quick look at Lanston, to which he nodded, and while we went up the escalator, I could see him counting notes. He took me in the direction to the left, then to the right. 

I pretended to claw through the dresses, looking at the labels and buying some time for Lanston. Eventually, I answered, “No thank you, she prefers more purple clothing, but thank you for your help.”

 

After that, we left with another handful of money, and after buying Lanston more sweets, we began to search for where she possibly could have gone. We went to ask the shopkeeper, who mentioned that Nilda “left a message”. But she could only reveal it to us given that we could name who her mother was, which was easy. I said Mrs Coulter. Then, Nilda left a second question, which was who her father was – Lord Pasriel. The woman then told us that she was hiding in the nearby church, near St Louis. We had to get there quickly.

dUfU

I strolled through town, looking for clothing shops. I ran through all of them in my mind. Zara, Topshop, New Look, H&M, FatFace, SHEIN, all of these choices. I decided on a soft white wool turtle-neck sweater with a red plaid knee-length dress. I also bought a black belt with a gold buckle because the dress was one size too big, as I was a Small size, and there were only Mediums in stock. I next went to Claire’s. If I were to play as a parallel-dimension teenage girl, I would at least have to look the part.

I had stolen some money, I admit, but I had to blend in with the crowd. Zoning was perched on my shoulder, but nobody seemed to notice. I had bought a phone, whatever that was, and had set my password to 11214, 1 for A, as A was the start of Afner, 12 for L, the start of Lanston’s name, and 14, N, the start of my name. I had also bought a phone case. The number of options convinced me that humans in this dimension loved their phones more than their own flesh and blood. Weird. 

I headed over to a church. The only place I could actually remember. I headed over to the receptionist person. 

“If two boys come, one shorter than another, ask them their names. If they say Lanston, Afner, Mark or Luke (undercover names), ask them if they know Nilda. If they say yes, ask them who Nilda’s Mother is. If they answer correctly, by saying Mrs Coulter, ask them who Nilda’s father is. If they say Lord Pasriel, say I am hiding near St. Louis Church.” I said hurriedly to the Christian at the front. She nodded, and I left. I hope they find me. Fingers crossed.

#Yao

Rain. It’s the most dismal thing if you’re staring out of a hotel window, trying to count the number of drops of liquid on the window pane, while a swirl of thoughts fill your mind. And yet that was what I was doing, trying to forget it all, but that was impossible. I picked up my shotgun, and fingered it slowly, then put it down, and thought back to the beginning.

 

Two Days Ago

Me and Afner were running along the destitute alleys that would lead to the long-abandoned and broken church,  clutching our weapons, prepared for any surprise. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a person sprang out at me, and pinned me to the ground, trying to rob me of the precious banknotes in my pocket. I refused, banging my shotgun stock over and over on his face, but my strength was not enough, he was choking me, and Afner knew it. By now, the man knew Afner was there, but had ignored him, so Afner, without ANY hesitation, cocked his revolver, and said:

“Get off of him.”

The man suddenly looked up, and saw the end of the revolver, and he grabbed what seemed like a broken glass to me, and was about to swing it at Afner when there was a bang, and the bullet made contact with the man’s head, with such incredible force he was knocked down. Afner took me up, and held me tight, as we attempted to go on, but soon, we realized that the police arrived, with their modern guns and bulletproof vests, and helmets, and sunglasses, and handcuffs, and we ran for it. We couldn’t let ourselves be known, it was too risky, and the subtle knife would be exposed. The police organized into two lines of five, and they yelled a warning, telling us not to run, and to comply. But we wouldn’t, and they fired. Afner shot two policemen, but it was purely in self defense. I shot blindly, into the crowd while running, and I turned around so fast I didn’t even see the four officers that had fallen.

I had gotten used to lying, cheating, killing, injuring, assaulting, that I didn’t feel an ounce of regret or remorse. This was all for the entire universe. No, actually, for the universes. So our actions were justified for the greater good.

But none of that particularly made me too keen to give myself away to the authorities. Of course, not yet. When everything was cleared up and we had saved the world, maybe. But then of course, our world was not this one, and the police would never discover me, so I guess, it doesn’t matter really much?

Well, Afner was worried. He had me to take care of. I had twisted my ankle slightly, and we needed medical care, but unfortunately, within a day, all of England knew the story of the two boys who were accused of seven counts of manslaughter, possessing illegal firearms, and resistance of police. In other words, if we dared even show our face in a local medical clinic, we’d be caught and then thrown into jail. And then the universe would collapse. Woo-hoo.

So now, I was busy dialing room service, Afner was watching the news for any updates on us (we had checked into the hotel before the news happened, and we had worn ski masks). Soon, piping hot sandwiches, soup, and cold ice cream and desserts came up. I handed the man a few bills, and then we settled down for dinner. Despite us being on the run, we had still managed to steal some notes, plenty in fact, from many grocery stores and convenience stores.

We had 20,000 pounds, all in cold and hard cash. Our guns were hidden in the closet, prepared for combat at any time, with ammunition in bags.

While we were eating, Afner suddenly spit out a mouthful of his favorite egg, ham, and spinach paste sandwich, right into my face. I instantly threw a big chunk of corned beef into his face, and he grabbed me, and threw me onto the sofa. We began fighting, and although I was the one who stuck his face against the spare table, and then slammed his body against a wall, he had started it by spitting into my face.

After we both calmed down, Afner explained to me why he had suddenly expulsed already chewed food into my face.

“I have a great idea! How about we disguise ourselves?”

“Afner, you’re brilliant. I’VE BEEN THINKING OF THAT THE WHOLE TIME! But we can’t dye our hair or somethin’, ’cause then everybody would see us. How would we do it without attention?”

Afner thought for a moment, and then without a word, he punched me right in the face. Everything became black.

Four hours later, I came to. I was sitting in a chair. I couldn’t remember anything. And then a boy came in, with blood-red eyes and a hoodie over himself. His teeth were stained yellow, and he was wearing black socks and flip-flops. His hair was orange, and shaved in manner that resembled a crew cut.  Who was he?

“Stay away!” I warned, putting up my fists.

“Don’t you recognize me, Lanston?” the stranger asked.

“No, and…how do you know my name?”

“It’s me, Afner!” the man said, laughing, and then I really realized he was indeed Afner!

Afner lifted me, and put me next to a mirror. I hardly recognized myself! My hair was straw-blond, my fingernails were all grimy black, and for some reason, I was dressed head to toe in long sleeves, and I was shaved almost bald. Apparently, someone had stuffed newspapers into my hoodie, so I locked like I was a chubby boy, not the skinny one that had been malnourished for days and just gotten on to eating properly.

“Awesome,” I murmured. Afner laughed.

“Told ya,” he said, sticking a bite of a sandwich into his mouth. But how did he do it?

“How in the world did you get this stuff, like makeup or something?” I asked, surprised.

“Well, let’s just say the family next door was out, and I took a few things,” Afner said, smiling in such a sly way that I couldn’t help but laugh immensely.

“But now, little brother, how about we escape this wretched place and finally go save Nilda?” my brother asked.

“Okay,” I said, smiling.

#Bai

Now, we were ready to save Nilda. Being forced to locate the St Louis Church, which happened to be nearby, actually wasn’t a church. It was based on a chess club, and currently taught many students how to improve in chess. It was very likely that Nilda would be here, with its seemingly endless supply of food, and beds. So, we walked up to the front desk, which was highly furnished, and decorated with polished mahogany, azure carpets and chess boards everywhere. A cabinet sat nearby the entrance, displaying the many awards that the chess club had won – shelves and shelves of glittering trophies. 

When we asked for Nilda, however, the receptionist asked us to state Nilda’s father (Lord Pasriel) and the number of brothers she had (two). Both questions were answered correctly, and that she was now in the church nearby, a real one this time. So, we had to go to a church, and find a message near the wall of a church and that there would be a phone number there. The name was the forename of her favourite pet (Mary). 

Then, a message on a screen flickered, “It is the mission of the Saint Louis Chess Club, an educational organization, to maintain a formal program of instruction to teach the game of chess and to promote and support its educational program through community outreach and local and national partnerships to increase the awareness of the educational value of chess. Private lessons are an excellent opportunity to get specialized, one-on-one instruction with our highly trained staff. Private lessons include an initial assessment where the instructor will determine the player’s strengths and weaknesses, and then custom tailor a lesson plan to suit the player’s needs. We are now offering group lessons!”

After declining many offers, we needed to find St Mary’s church, which was on the left of us. It had a bright, brick-coloured exterior, and shone brightly. It seemed like a great place of worship, and we would hate to disturb it. But we had to. We barged in, slowly and apprehensively looking for the brick which had Nilda’s phone number. Suddenly, a voice behind us said, “East, 27, 9” It was a priest. “Said she was in a hurry, so would tell this to everyone.”

When he left, we found the eastern wall, the 27th row and the ninth block, and the message behind was 07311214000. 

dUfU

I clambered over the brick wall. I had written 07311214000 onto the ninth brick and had run. I was then currently in Costa Coffee, enjoying a caramel frappucino. My phone buzzed. I picked it up. Caller ID: Afner. Then, I heard his loud voice blaring through the earbuds. Luckily, I had thought ahead and bought AirPods so that when I connected them to the phone, nobody could hear him.
“HELLO? HELLO? IS THIS NILDA ON THE PHONE? WHO’S THERE?!”
“Hello, Afner, yes, this is me. Lower your voice. There are people here.”
I heard Lanston sigh and take the phone.
“Umm… Hello Nilda-” I heard Afner try to get the phone, and Lanston flick the safety catch inconspicuously and press the gun to Afner’s head.
“Umm, so where are you? We’re at the church you left the phone number in.” I checked the street and replied,
“I’m at the Costa Coffee on Hampshire Street.” I heard him consider and agree.
“Okay, I’ll meet you there.” Whew, siblings can be a handful.

I ordered another caramel frappuccino and licked the cream on top. Then Afner and Lanston came in. I don’t know how I recognized them. Afner had red eyes and a hoodie over himself. His teeth were stained yellow, and he was wearing black socks and flip-flops. His hair was orange and shaved like a crew cut. Lanston had straw-blond hair, fingernails that were all black, and for some reason, was dressed in long sleeves and was shaved almost bald. And he was chubby. His face was still gaunt, though. I went into the nearest makeup store and bought cheek pads (XL) and his colour foundation. Oh, and a beauty blender and bronzer with a foundation brush. I set to work, sticking the cheek pads on, covering them with foundation and bronzer. He was now Chubby Boy Lanston.

#Bai

Yes, we had found Nilda, but what we did not know was that there were people following us, and that they had been following us the whole time – they had been trying to track us down the whole time we were in this world. So, I would bring them back to our original world. Already, I had begun to understand the usage of the knife. I could change and enter a world at will, and somehow knew, by instinct, where each world was. This world was about a 45.674031749 degree angle, accurate to the most decimal digits I could calculate – our original world is about a 28.37286392 degree angle down. This would guarantee us safe passage back home. 

Occasionally I did try to enter other worlds, but usually I would take a peek at the many thousands of millions of worlds which lay about, the number itself would probably be millions, each one capable of being opened by one knife, a single knife, pointed in a direction and cut down, and only one person could own that one knife – currently me. 

It was about noon when people started looking at us. That was the time when I myself knew things would not go well – for there were people coming, and then the mutterings began, “Oh, look at them, who do they think they are. Mrs Coulter will be pleased to find that we have caught them at last, or should I kill them, steal their money and run away? They have thousands of pounds, I could live happily with that amount of money. Well, I could run away from Mrs Coulter, but she will send people gunning at me, and I would most likely be killed. But I do hate Mrs Coulter, and it’s certainly time someone disobeyed her orders: she can’t have her way all the time, or she will be a tyrant. And I don’t believe her claims, saying that it’s for universe peace. There seems to be some kind of maliciousness in her.”

“Yes, report to HQ, we’ve finally got them. Seriously. Jesus. Can you even believe me? Can you even believe me? Can you even believe me? Can you even believe me? Can you even believe me? Can you even believe me? Can you even believe me? Can you even believe me? Can you even believe me? Can you even believe me? Can you even believe me? Can you even believe me? Can you even believe me? Can you even believe me? Can you even believe me? Just because I messed up once doesn’t mean you can blame me forever, you know?”

#Chubby Boy Lanston

(Gee, thanks Du Du)

It was noon, and I was quite bored. Nilda and Afner were busy sipping their giant glasses of coffee, and I was picking at the remains of my strawberry pie, which were now long gone. I could feel a gnawing hunger in my stomach, and I stopped a waitress, and asked her for a jumbo hamburger and bacon cheese fries. She looked at me queer.

“We’re a caffeine shop. We don’t sell…lunch,” the woman told me. I frowned. And so, I was back to sitting and contemplating my life while my two older siblings chatted away the afternoon. Finally, I decided I was twelve years old and had a right to go to the McDonald’s next door if I wanted to. I grabbed twenty pounds, and bought myself a Big Mac, some fries, a fountain drink, and a shiny new McFlurry. I was busy eating on a bench outside when two tall men approached me, and I could see their daemons, a hairy tarantula, and a rat. I could feel myself getting ready to assess all of my knowledge of self-defense from watching online videos. One of the men knocked my drink away, but I brought my fist hard down on his exposed shoulder, and he yelped in pain, his tarantula hissing.

Suddenly, the arachnid leapt out at me, but I pinned him to the wall with a fork, and soon, one of the men was writhing in pain on the ground, slowing and agonizingly dying. The other man tried to nick my hoodie, but I mashed some burger in his face, and then pushed him right towards the open street. Blindly, he staggered towards the other side, but not before four cars had nearly killed him. And then he met his demise due to him hitting a pole, and then being catapulted into the air by a nearby parking car, and then landing right into a rock-hard wall. I sat down peacefully on the bench where I resumed eating my sandwich. After I finished up, I wiped the blood and guts of tarantula away from my shirt, and then went back to Afner and Nilda. They were STILL talking.

So, I decided to speed things up by announcing:

“I just beat up two guys who were trying to grab me!” I asserted, taking a seat. Nilda thought about his for a moment, then screamed.

“Mrs Coulter!”

Of course, the event that happened next were very much expectable. Everybody in the diner were confused and somewhat angry. But nevertheless, we had to escape, for five men were now chasing us, with drawn sabers or pistols. I pulled out the boot sword I had in my boot, and I unfolded the sword, then fired a few shots at our assailants. These men weren’t afraid to kill us, they just had to take Nilda alive. I began dueling four of them, and it was definitely not fair, but Lord Pasriel had taught me something very effective. Use your size to your advantage.

Therefore, I weaved between my enemies, and poked them in their behinds. (I just didn’t want to slash them or thrust to kill yet.) And so, it was this way that I became separated from my dear siblings. I was now being chased through a neighborhood that was unfamiliar and quite weaving, while four grown men who had stride-lengths twice as large as me were trying to kill me. I jumped on trucks, occasionally kicking over garbage cans in order to try and gain a few seconds on my escape time.

Unfortunately, I eventually ended up in a dead end of a valley, where they took out their long blades, and I prepared for combat. And then, and idea sprang to my head!

“Watch out, incoming car!” I shouted, pointing straight ahead. The four men looked, and I clambered up an apartment complex’s fire escape stairway to the roof of the building.

“Why, that little brat!” one man said, darting after me. Unfortunately, I was now at the top, so that meant with one flick of my finger, I sent the unfixed portion of the ladder spiraling towards the rock-hard cement. I just grinned, then ran off.

After two hours of just wandering around, I finally spotted Afner and Nilda, were were hiding behind a giant bin of fruits from a Chinese supermarket that was offering fresh fruit. I jumped from building to building, until finally, I was four stories above the fruit bin itself, and I then launched myself towards all those poor apples. I landed in the bin with a THUD! and most of the fruits were pulverized. The owner of the store, an old Chinese man, began yelling at me, but once I made my sword visible, he shut his mouth. But the only thing was, Mrs Coulter’s agents had seen us, and now fired potshots from a great distance, chipping off pieces of fruit or wood from the stalls. Every single customer fled the scene, and the owner went back inside, locked the door, and then stayed in his office to be safe. I, meanwhile, decided to flank the enemy, and so asked Afner to lay down suppressing fire with his revolver. Then, I loaded my shotgun, and crept slowly towards the bushes where the agents were all concealed.

I shot twice into the ditch where two of the agents were, and then three more times towards where the other three were.

The last thing I can remember is the feeling of an immense searing pain in my thigh, and then the whole world went black, with nothing to remember. The only thing I can still see clearly in my memory is the sight of Mrs Coulter herself with a smoking pistol and five more agents. Then, Nilda cried one last time, Afner yelled in rage, and I forgot everything.

I woke up in a bright field, with flowers, and butterflies, and insects. This was not the city, of dark streets and garbage. This was nature, pollen, flowers, and a tint of vanilla in the air. I could see Afner sitting on a dead log, talking to himself. That was strange. Afner never talked to himself. I found a bowl of soup and some meat floating it it, with a cheese sandwich. I angrily ate up, but angry in a hungry way, not at anybody. Soon, Afner hear my loud gulps and chomping, and his smile was so vast and large I was afraid he was going mental.

“You’re awake!” he cried, running over and hugging me so tight I almost lost breath. “Oh, and meet Balthamos!”

dUfU

I woke in a ditch. Not any old ditch, but in a ditch full of flowers and grass. The edge was lined with moss so soft; I could lie there asleep for a century. There was a cinnamon fragrance wafting through the air. Honeysuckle wove through the grass, fingering my face with soft petals. I plucked a flower, pulled the stamen through the blossom and set the delectable drop on my tongue. It sent a wonderful rush of life through my body, giving me the best sense of happiness I had experienced. I felt so carefree,… liberated, even! I could lie there in the ditch for days without care…

No. I needed to focus on the task at hand. I rose and registered my surroundings. A breeze of butterflies floated in the air, and I saw Afner and Lanston sitting on a decaying log, talking to what seemed like thin air. 

“Care to introduce me to your guest?” I asked, approaching them from behind. I saw the air between them ripple slightly as if there was an invisible being who had suddenly jerked in surprise.

“Oh, hi. This is Balthamos. Wait… you can see him?” he said, gesturing to Balthamos next to him. 

“No, I cannot see Balthamos, but I can sense him, and the fact that you looked like you were talking to air surprised me. You don’t talk to yourself, only mutter curses in a low voice.” I turned to Balthamos. 

“An angel, I presume?” I saw another ripple of air. I assumed this meant “yes”, so I took a spare bowl of soup and dipped my hunk of white bread into it. A fragment of translucent fish floated at the top, in the shape of a rose with three leaves. 

“Nice. It seems you for once remembered that your sister was a pescatarian.”

#Bai

Now finally, we were away from all the nonsense about assassins and knives and guns and pistols and murder and Mrs Coulter with a steaming gun and shooting Lanston and us swearing and opening doors with the knife and being shot at and Lanston jumping into apples carts and running away from people and pinning spiders with forks and smacking people in the face with burgers. Enough of that. Now we were off in the countryside, with Balthamos near us, and that he had been told by Lord Pasriel we had to be given safe passage to there – namely his area in our first world. We had to get there, so I set to open a portal, while Nilda used the aleithometer to find where Lord Pasriel was – he was now in Oxford and so we had to get there.

 

A few minutes later, we packed everything, I opened a window and we hopped through, and we were in Oxford already, because of the fact that we had travelled a lot to get to Mrs Coulter’s place, but negated that, and the building was in sight, Lordan College. There, we raced in, and asked the person on guard where Lord Pasriel was, which the answer was in his study. Racing upstairs past the familiar places – the chapel as well, we reached his study, with Balthamos still tailing us. He was ready to fight a war with Mrs Coulter, but needed us, me with the knife, Nilda because of her skill with the aleithometer, and Lanston, well, Lanston, because, how to put this nicely, is one of our family members and thus cannot be ignored. Oh yes, he could also fight with hamburgers, which is impressive. First of all, we had to know where all the armory was stocked (for Mrs Coulter) to which it was, after consulting the aleithometer, was in the world we were in before the last one, and so we had to find it. It was near the place where Lanston was captured. Indeed, that was the place. Opening a window, we found ourselves very close to the stock, in fact a few steps away, and we would have entered immediately, had it not been for the guards, who were watching quite closely, and I couldn’t open the window inside, because of possible mass-fusion which would lead to bad news – that meant the joining of two items, for example a gun and the window, which would cut the gun in two, as it has to make space for the window. But that is too horrific.

#I can fight with hamburgers 🙂

P.S. When we gonna end this?

After Afner solidly refused to even try and open a window, we would have to find other ways in order to sneak a peek at the armory, which was in another world. So the most easy strategy and simplest would probably be to wait until the guards abandoned their posts.

Unfortunately, it took us quite a while to realize that they weren’t going to do that unless something prompted. So then I got a crazy idea. I asked Afner to cut a knife, or else I would shoot him. He easily complied, and then I magically appeared in the hallways. The soldiers spotted me, and I yelled frantically.

“THIEF! THIEF!”

“Wot? Where?” one guard asked, grabbing his spear.

“Downstairs!” I said, pointing to the stairway. The two guards quickly ran off, with their spears glinting in the morning light. I grinned.

“C’mon!” I shouted, urging my two cowardly siblings on. They reluctantly followed. Afner even grumbled a “good job”. Or, at least I thought so. After my big brother sliced the door with his knife, we all stumbled in. And by stumbled, I mean awkwardly fell or tripped on some sort of bulky barrel of ammunition, and finally, when I turned on the light, we could the glory of all of the weapons. There were rifles, shotguns, pistols, swords, bayonets, bullets, gunpowder, even a cannon or two. Without any hesitation, I threw my shotgun away, and picked out a few special guns. First I decided on a MP-18, a powerful submachine gun capable of a 32-round magazine, grabbed ten magazines, and then strapped everything on, along with a Colt 1911 pistol, and a bayonet, and some grenades. While I was doing all that, Afner had selected a personal fire-thrower, and Nilda, well, she didn’t choose anything, except for double-barreled shotgun that looked like it was rusting off on age. In fact, there were only ten shells, so it would probably benefit me and Afner to watch over Nilda.

At last, we journeyed out of that world and towards Lord Pasriel, and when he saw us, he nodded with a consent, and we brought onto a gyropter, or a thing that had swirly blades on top and also included two Gatling Guns on the suns, and a powerful auto cannon in the front. We were escorted on, and we sat between nine African Guard soldiers, with their smart caps and black rifles. I didn’t say a word, Nilda just cleaned her shotgun, and Afner tried to tell a joke or two, but the sergeant told him to shut up. Serves the fool right.

“The three of you. Yes, you. Lord Pasriel has given specific information, and want you to parachute out into enemy territory. He would like you to hold off Mrs Coulter for as long as you can, and then reinforcements will arrive. Good luck,” the pilot said, gesturing towards the door. He went back, and brought forth a grappling hook, grappled it to a stud on the floor of the gyropter, and then told us to slide down when he gave us the instruction to. Unfortunately, the cave that Mrs Coulter was hiding in was apparently quite low, and I wasn’t very surprised to find my childish fear of heights arising. Nilda slid down first, then Afner, and then…I was shoved forth by one of the soldiers, forced to cling to the rope, and then landed on the ground with a thump.

I rubbed my sore back, and then regrouped with Nilda. However, Afner was nowhere to be seen. At last, we found him, already advancing towards the cave, and spreading fire wherever he went.

“AGHHHHH!” Afner whooped, then charged forth, spewing hot flames into the darkness. We joined him, blasting our weapons, until finally, we realized we had the wrong cave. By the time we finally managed to recon on Mrs Coulter’s location, the battle had already started. We heard gunfire, and crossbows firing at one another, and soon, the smell of blood entered our nostrils, and the three of us choked. Before we could do anything, Afner once again ran blindly into the cave, lighting his way through. It wasn’t very long before our stupid strategy ended in something horrifying. Nilda was grabbed, and we didn’t know she had gone. But then, I spotted Mrs Coulter trying to drug her to sleep. With one clear shot, I shot the pail of liquid, and Mrs Coulter was rebounded back. I could see the pistol she had dropped, and the golden monkey preparing to jump. Afner prepared to open a window with his knife, and then for some unknown reason, his eyes lingered on Mrs Coulter, and the knife shattered into bits. And with more confusion, I noticed Balthamos fighting the woman, desperately swirling around her, while then, two little people riding DRAGONFLIES! came into the cave, and told us to run quickly. But then, the golden monkey suddenly grabbed the woman, and prepared to kill her, but the little man stung Mrs Coulter with what seemed to be a spur on his foot.

The wretched woman who had caused us so much misery was now reeling back in pain, tears in her eyes, and the golden monkey too appeared to be in pain. Our two new protectors quickly told us to run, and we sprinted for the exit. The last words Mrs Coulter uttered before falling onto the ground were pleadings for Nilda to come back.

By the time we had rounded a corner, I finally asked the little people who they were, and the confusion all cleared up.

“We are Gallivespeans. We serve our lord, who is allies with Lord Pasriel, so we are friends. I am no threat or harm to you, as long as you comply with our wishes. Lord Pasriel wants you to join him again, and we will lead you there. Fail to obey, and our spurs will have a new target,” the man said.

“Boy, do you still have the knife?” the little woman asked, peering at the scabbard.

“Yes,” Afner replied, failing to mention the whole breaking apart thing.

“Good. Then let us journey on.”

(Wait, we should end it soon. After all, the next part in the book is Lyra and Roger going into the Underworld to save Roger, but there’s no Roger in this one, and besides, we haven’t even mentioned Mary or the mufela. So, I guess someone should end this soon.)

dudu

@yao (I’m going to let bai end it. I don’t have the competence. Bai, if you’re reading this, please end this. P.S. Please can you refrain from mentioning every singe type of gun in Eragon, as it causes a lot of confusion for me. 😁)

I looked at the Gallivespeans. I then  looked at their steeds. I shrugged, hiding my confusion. Aggravated splinters were froming on my feet, but still, I pressed on. We stopped at an ice cream parlour, and ordered ice cream. Lanston The Original ordered a boring scoop of vanilla, and Afner the Money-spender bought four scoops of again, boring vanilla. I don’t like ice cream, so I went to Yogoo, the frozen yoghurt parlour and bought a smoothie deluxe, a mango smoothie with a swirl of frozen yoghurt on top. As I sipped at my smoothie, I saw my brothers exit, talkig about something. I licked my frozen yoghurt and joined them.

“Wouldn’t that be risky, abandon- Oh, hi!” I heard Afner say. My brows knitted together in confusion. I cocked my head to one side, asking them for an answer. When they did not answer, I searched their eyes. I looked in Afner’s hazel eyes. Seeing nothing on the surface, I dived deeper. I could see only guilt. I turned to Lanston. His eyes were a little harder to penetrate. His brilliant blue eyes stared back at me Guilt. Only. I rolled my eyes. I turned back and stalked away.

They found me. Eventually. I was always better at hide-and-seek, as my slight elven frame could fit into nooks my stockier and taller brothers couldn’t. My hair was brown, and the colour of bark. If I rippled it, from afar, it could be taken as bark. My eyes were a flinty grey, and, again could be taken as stone from afar. I also liked decrating and drawing. I would frost cakes, decorate Christmas trees, draw designs… everything. I could even paint myself into a muddy bank of weeds. When they found me, my brothers and the Gallivespeans, they sighed. I laughed, understanding that they had looked everywhere. Well, at least we could continue our journey.

#Bai

I’m going to end this right here, right now. 

 

So our job, being to hold off Mrs Coulter for as long as possible, was ultimately successful, and it does make a great story or two to tell. It started with Mrs Coulter somehow entering a different world without the usage of the knife. Apparently she had access to different worlds, because the usage of Dust had created an explosive effect and ultimately created a passageway through different worlds. Thus, we had to go and prevent this. Estimating what angle the bridge had gone to, I quickly cut a window through the same way, and hopped through. The problem was, we had somehow managed to cut through an entire legion of her army. Being surrounded by soldiers, we simply had no way of escaping. 

Soon, the death of those men came to be noticed, and we were found in the middle of a crowd. This could not be very pleasant, as we would have to fight our way out. The question was, how could four people (three and the two extra passengers count as half each) defeat an entire legion of people? The answer was simple. So I could open windows, which was the good part. The other three people would fight the legion, and I would open windows so when they came to attack, they would immediately impale themselves by jumping into ravines or swords – I picked the world exactly – it was full of terrible things. And so we kept fighting. 

After that, most of the men were dead – either trapped in the world or have died already, and so our job was to face Mrs Coulter. The two small people charged immediately, and were killed almost that quickly. The lady picked them up like dolls and killed them right away. It was the three of us, versus the one of her. But what we did not know was that she had the powers of an enchantress, “Brisingr!” she shouted, and a blue fireball flew towards us, and we only had time to dodge the hit. (Involves me looking at the back of Brisingr for spells and making some things up) And then she was casting spells that could only mean the death of us, if it had not been for the knife. It could cut anything in two, even if that meant magic itself. And while she was shouting “Steinr Reisa” and was ready to throw it at us, when the knife flew from my hand and lodged itself in her heart, killing her instantly. 

 

And that is how the tale ends, of torture, betrayal, but ultimately success.