Will and Lyra followed the stream into the wood, walking carefully, saying little, until they were in the very center.  

    There was a little clearing in the middle of the grove, which was floored with soft grass and moss covered rocks. The branches laced across overhead, almost shutting out the sky and letting through little moving spangles and sequins of sunlight, so that everything was dappled with gold and silver.  

    And it was quiet. Only the trickle of the stream, and the occasional rustle of leaves high up in a little curl of breeze, broke the silence.  

    Will put down the package of food; Lyra put down her little rucksack. There was no sign of the daemon- shadows anywhere. They were completely alone.

    They took off their shoes and socks and sat down on the mossy rocks at the edge of the stream, dipping their feet in the cold water and feeling the shock of it invigorate their blood. 

    “I’m hungry,” Will said 

    “Me too,” said Lyra, though she was feeling more than that, something subdued and pressing and half happy and half painful, so that she wasn’t quite sure what it was. 

    They unfolded the cloth and ate some bread and cheese. For some reason their hands were slow and clumsy, and they hardly tasted the food, although the bread was floury and crisp from the hot baking stones, and the cheese was flaky and salty and very fresh.  

    Then Lyra took one of those little red fruits. With a fast beating heart, she turned to him and said, “Will...” 

    And she lifted the fruit gently to his mouth. 

    She could see from his eyes that he knew at once what she meant, and that he was too joyful to speak. Her fingers were still at his lips, and he felt them tremble, and he put his own hand up to hold hers there, and then neither of them could look; they were confused; they were brimming with happiness.  

    Like two moths clumsily bumping together, with no more weight than that, their lips touched. Then before they knew how it happened, they were clinging together, blindly pressing their faces towards each other. 

    “Like Mary said，” he whispered，“you know straight away when you like someone，when you were asleep on the mountain, before she took you away ，I told Pan。” 

    “I heard,” she whispered, “I was awake and I wanted to tell you the same and now I know what I must have felt all the time: I love you, Will, I love you…” 

    The word love set his nerves ablaze. All his body thrilled with it, and he answered her in the same words, kissing her hot face over and over again, drinking in with adoration the scent of her body and her warm honey fragrant hair and her sweet moist mouth that tasted of the little red fruit. 

    Around them there was nothing but silence, as if the whole world were holding its breath. 

    威爾和萊拉沿著溪流來到樹林里，他們小心翼翼地走著，一路無語，就這樣一直走到了樹林中央。 

    樹林中央有小一塊空地，上面長著軟軟的草，巖石上還長滿了苔蘚。頭頂的樹枝交錯著，將天空遮了個嚴嚴實實。陽光穿過樹枝間的空隙，漏下縷縷閃閃發光的金線，一切都被渲染成金色和銀色了。 

    樹林里非常寂靜。只有溪流緩緩地流淌的聲音，還有徐徐的微風吹動樹葉的沙沙聲，才會偶爾打破這里的寂靜。  

    威爾把食品包放下，萊拉也把她的帆布背包放下，四處根本沒有一點陰森森的感覺，這里只有他們兩個。  

    他們把鞋和襪子脫掉，在小溪邊的長有青苔的石頭上坐了下來。他們把腳丫伸進冰冷的溪水里，頓時感到他們的血液有一種渾然一振的沖擊感。 

    “我餓了，”威爾說。“我也餓了，”萊拉說，盡管她感到有什么東西在壓迫著自己，那是一種喜悲參半的感覺，所以到現在，她并沒有真正弄明白那是一種什么樣的感覺。 

    他們把布打開，吃了一些面包和奶酪。面包剛出爐不久，很新鮮好吃的，成片的咸奶酪也是非常可口的，可不知道怎么回事，他們的手都反映很慢，好像還有些笨拙，他們沒有仔細品味食物的味道。 

    萊拉從那些水果中挑了一個，然后滿臉羞澀，緊張地轉過身去，對威爾說，“威爾……” 

    然后，她輕輕地把水果遞到威爾的嘴邊。  

    從威爾的眼神里萊拉看出來了他馬上明白了自己的意思，他非常高興，都不知道該說什么。她的手還在他的唇邊。威爾感到自己的嘴唇在顫抖。他抬手，緊緊抓住萊拉的手，然后，他們兩人的眼中便沒有了其他東西；他們倆心情很復雜，可也蕩漾著無言的幸福。  

    就像兩只毛蟲笨拙地碰到了一起一樣，他們的嘴唇也很自然地碰到了一起。當他們還未來得及明白這一切是如何發生的時候，他們倆已經擁抱在了一起…… 
    
    “瑪麗說過，”他在她耳朵輕聲道，“當你在山上睡覺的時候，你喜歡一個人，你會立刻懂他的意思，然后她會奪走你的心，我曾經告訴過帕恩。”  

    “我聽過。”她小聲說，“我醒后也想告訴你這個的，可現在我明白了我過去的這種感覺：我愛你，威爾，我愛你……” 

    “愛”這個詞讓他的神經為之一亮，他激動起來了，他也對她說了“我愛你，萊拉，我愛你……”然后，他吻著她燙人的臉頰，呼吸著她身體的香味，她溫暖芳香的發絲，還有她溫潤可愛的香唇——好像那個小紅水果的味道。 

    周圍什么也沒有，有的只是寂靜的空曠，仿佛整個世界都在屏住了呼吸……