WHO: Lyra Belacqua WHEN: Day 4, early morning WHERE: Room 24 and the underground lake WHAT: An Adventure! RATINGS/WARNINGS: nah! STATUS: complete
The rats had nudged her awake, it was the only reason she had been up before anyone else in the room that she had decided to stay in. The random light coming from inside the mirror had confused her at first and Lyra hadn’t been entirely sure she wasn’t still dreaming. But then it had clicked--a one-way glass mirror! She had only really read about them in books, but here she was able to experience one. Part of her yearned to share it with Pan, the guilt she had been feeling at having an adventure without him starting to boil up again inside of her.
“No. It’s alright. He’s here too. I just can’t see him.” She had to keep reminding herself of that fact, that the unbreakable connection was still tying her to him. “I think we should explore.”
She knew he’d tell her that she shouldn’t do it alone. He was always the safer one, but without his constant urge to try and curb her need for adventure, she wasn’t about to wait for anyone else. A quick message sent out onto the network about the secret room and she looked at her small group of rats, nodding toward the mirror.
“Can you help me move the mirror? I bet we can go inside and find something.” She didn’t know what exactly. But they were supposed to be looking for clues. “Maybe there will be cheese.” It was possible, doubtful, but definitely a possibility.
It took some effort but between the rats and her own determination she was able to push the mirror aside enough and found the doorless opening. It was a tight squeeze but she managed to get through, a line of rats following after her.
She skipped toward the staircase and took the stairs two at a time downward, snatching one of the torches off the wall to help light the way better, singing as she continued on downward. The rats scampered down after her, squeaking out the same melody after her. Her feet hit soft, flat earth and Lyra slowly swung the torch back and forth to take in the sand underneath her. It was different than the kind at the beaches near Jordan college, less rocky, and reminded her a bit of the snow on Svalbard, except that had definitely been harder when she’d had to run along it.
Further down the beach there was a canoe, lit by a lantern on the side. Lyra looked back at the rats sitting on the step above the sand, all of their heads canted up toward her with an expression that she took for curious.
“It can’t be that hard to row a boat.” She vaguely remembered a voyage on a river from when she was younger, the swaying of the vessel as the storm pounded from above, and a hyenas cries in the distance. Shuddering at the memory, she bit down the slight tremor of fear, before racing toward the canoe, her little troupe following along after her.
Once they were all inside of the canoe, she pushed situated the lantern carefully into its place, and then pushed the canoe into the water, swinging herself up into the boat. It took several moments to steady herself, and several more to get a handle on the oar, but at least they were off in the water now. Who knew what else they might find out in the dark?