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“Run!” Pan squealed and turned into a bird as he jumped off Lyra’s shoulder.
Lyra gasped loudly and her eyes went wide as she saw the shadow grow bigger on the wall behind her, and her feet were slower than her mind, so she had to whisper to herself “move, move, move, RUN” and finally, she does move.
Her feet could barely keep up with how fast she was running. She thought she sprained her ankle at some point after her foot got stuck between two planks, but she had no time to think about it. Her blood was pumping hard through her veins, adrenaline rushing from her head to her toes. At some point she felt like screaming, just cause, but that would be a little too stupid, even for her...
“What is going on here?” Ma asked, a brow raised as she placed her hands on her hips.
Lyra screamed in surprise before covering her mouth and quickly and hiding behind Ma as Pan turned back into a marten and buried himself into her shirt, the two of them giggling at each other as Lyra held Ma’s skirt over her face.
Ma sighed and rolled her eyes.
“Well, if you’re going to hide, might as well do it properly.” Ma said as she ushered Lyra into one of the large crates that was only half filled with grain, which was more than enough for Lyra to fit in.
Just as Ma closed the lid, a gyptian man walked through the door, covered in flour from head to toe. Lyra and Pan watched carefully through one of the unplugged holes in the crate, eyes wide and curious, both of them holding their mouths shut with their hands as to not giggle out loud.
When Ma Costa turned around, she scanned the man covered in flour up and down then shook her head, but smiled knowingly as she leaned back against the crate, properly covering the hole Lyra and Pan were watching through.
“Ma, have you seen a child and her daemon run around the place?” the man inquired, a serious tone in his voice.
“There’s a lot of children that run around all over the place, care to be more explicit?” Ma raised one of her brows and crossed her arms over her chest.
“A girl with hair up until…” he paused and gestured to his jawline. “here, brown eyes, ferret daemon.”
“I’m not a fer-“ Before Pan could finish the sentence, Lyra quickly grabbed him and covered his mouth.
“Shh!” Lyra glared down at the daemon.
“What was that?” the man demanded, narrowing his eyes as he tried to look behind Ma.
“Rats. Been trying to catch them all morning.” Ma kicked the crate as subtly as she could behind her.
The gyptian didn’t quite buy it, that was clear to see, but the stern look on Ma Costa’s face made it clear that she was not in the mood to be questioned. He sighed loudly and shook his head.
“I’ll go look over there, then.” And soon enough he was outside, walking away from them.
Pan and Lyra giggled together again as Ma opened up the crate, her expression softened and she shook her head.
“Since you two have to hide in here now…” She moved back to grab one of the brooms left against the wall. “How about you help me clean this place out?”
Once again, Pan and Lyra looked at each other, both with narrowed eyes, seemingly having a mental conversation with themselves.
“Run?” Lyra asked.
“Run.” Pan replied instantly and turned into a bird again, taking off and making Ma fall back just slightly as Lyra jumped out of the crate and took off after Pan, their laughs echoing down the hallway as they ran.