Chapter Text
Chapter One
She was all alone in the haunted abandoned house. All by herself. And she had to be extremely careful so as not to wake up the the two-headed ghost that haunted the mansion!
No. No. She wasn't in an abandoned haunted house. She was in the jungle in ... Zyaire! But she was still all by herself. And she was being chased by a very hungry wild leopard through the jungle. But it was okay because the wild monkeys were helping her find safety. And so she swung through the jungle vines as if she were a monkey herself, the ferocious incredibly fast wild leopard's teeth chomping at her ankles.
But then suddenly one of the vines broke!
But it was fine, because she fell onto a tree trunk.
But the tree trunk limb was incredibly slippy and she was falling, falling, falling.
"Ow", Lyra complains, picking herself up from where she had fallen off at the bottom of the bannister, landing on her bottom. She wipes the dust off herself. "I'm okay!" She shouts up to her parents, before picking up the phone at her feet. She dusts off the camera lenses and smiles at the screen. Her daemon, Pantalaimon, flutters around her face as a butterfly before landing on her nose. Reading the messages that reel on to the screen, Lyra waves at the screen, "hi". And then chirps, "yep, I'm okay".
Pantalaimon changes from a butterfly into a white ermine, perching on the top of Lyra's head.
"Yes, he's the best", Lyra breathes, replying to some of the comments about Pantalaimon.
Lyra's stomach rumbles again. "And now ladies and gentlemen", taking the steps up the main staircase two at time, "I am in the wilds of Oxford in Brytain where we are about to witness an incredibly rare sighting", trying to emulate her father's television show voice as best as possible. "These rare species of humans we are about to see have been hibernating since breakfast but it is now", she pauses to look at her watch and her eyes go wide. "It is now almost three o'clock and Pan and I are very, very hungry", rushing up the rest of the stairs before skipping towards the room her parents usually use.
The door is off the latch.
Lyra puts her ear against it but hears nothing.
Keeping the phone close to her chest so as not to show anything, Lyra pushes the door open cautiously and takes in the disheveled white bed sheets in the centre of the room and the two mops of dark brown hair entwined with one another, and then the silver and gold entwined on the arm chair in the corner.
Everyone and everything is still inside the bedroom.
Closing the door back in, she removes the phone from her chest before giving her audience a quick wave and putting the phone on lock.
She then rushes into the room and hurls herself on both her parents.
They groan, and grumble her name.
"It's time to get up!" Lyra announces loudly. Happy to see that Pantalaimon, now a snow leopard cub is giving her parents' daemons the same treatment. "Hibernating is over. It's almost evening and your cub is half starved".
"Lyra Belacqua, always so dramatic", her mother, who tangles Lyra into her embrace.
"Mama I'm hungry", she pouts.
One of Marisa Coulter's crystal blue eyes opens, and her mouth stretches into the most beautiful smile Lyra knows, before she pulls Lyra more into her embrace and starts kissing her face. "My beautiful girl".
"I don't want kisses Mama, I want food", she protests, but snuggles further into her mother's warmth and comfort, burying her nose into her neck, making her feel like a very small child again. "And it's almost three o'clock".
"Hmmm", her mother hums, "that is quite late".
"Mama!" Lyra protests again as the woman has gone still again. Lyra sits herself up. "And you both smell!"
Both her parents laugh but make no effort to rise, in fact they entangle in each other again.
Lyra rolls her eyes and sighs loudly. "Fine, I guess I'll just starve to death".
"If you could do it quietly", her father mumbles.
"We'll be up soon Darling", her mother. "We're just tired".
Her father mumbles something to her mother that Lyra can't quite hear but it makes her mother laugh.
"You've been sleeping all day!" Lyra complains, splaying herself all over them again.
Her parents grumble again underneath.
"See, this is why I keep telling you she needs a sibling", her father whispers.
"And you both need to wash because you both smell really bad", Lyra continues. "But most importantly one of you needs to feed me", she cries, turning on her tears, knowing it will make her mother cave.
Her mother whispers something to her father and Lyra goes silent, gleeful because she can feel movement underneath her.
Her father sighs. "If you're really that hungry Lyra, find my bag there's a meal deal inside that you can have".
"No Asriel, I don't know how many times I have to tell you, I don't want her eating their highly processed food. It is not good for her health. Do you want to purposefully make your daughter sick?!" Her mother pulling herself out of bed.
"And I keep telling you Marisa", her father following suit and Lyra jumps grinning because finally, "just because it's packaged does not mean it's highly processed. I only buy the freshly made food".
"Yes", her mother hisses, "freshly made how long ago. It's not good for her. It's not good for you. It will give you performance issues".
Her mother yelps as her father pulls her back into bed. "Take that back", he says seriously, but he's grinning.
Her mother is grinning too.
They kiss.
Lyra rolls her eyes.
"You guys! You were so close!"
"I am not a guy Lyra, I am a woman. Your father is not a guy Lyra, he is a Lord. Asriel, I've told you I do not like her using their disrespectful slang language".
"Marisa, Marisa with all your rules. Raising our daughter would be so much easier if you divorced your husband and did it with me. What do you say Lyra?"
"I say yes!" Lyra answers, squeezing herself between her father's chest and her mother's bosom. Giving her mother her best eyes, the eyes that she knows make her go all melty and gooey inside.
Marisa Coulter stares down at the both of them lovingly and caresses both their cheeks with her hand, her eyes starting to fill with tears.
"Don't cry my love", her father whispers, leaning in to kiss her mother. "Don't cry. Come, let us take a photo of the three us just how we are in this moment, and then see if we can whip up our hungry youngling some food. Now where did I leave my phone? Oh here, we'll use Lyra's".
Her mother sighs, "I don't have to tell you my dislike Asriel that you've given her one of those contraptions, it's really not-"
"-healthy", both Lyra and her father finish her sentence and her mother throws them both a glare.
"Relax, it doesn't have a SIM card or connect to anything, it's just for her to play around with sometimes", picking up what is actually his phone.
Lyra watches with bated breath as her father turns over the phone, knowing that he will very quickly realise that he had mistakenly given her his phone earlier not hers, and she hadn't said anything because, well because, his is more fun to use. She can't make live videos on hers.
"Wait, this isn't Lyra's, this is ... shit! Fuck!" Her father's fingers furiously tap the screen as her mother scolds him for his language.
Her father's eyes then make contact with Lyra and Lyra can see fires blazing within them.
"Asriel?"