Continued [ @onceiworeatrenchcoat ]:
She was so angry with him. It was not hard to tell and he knew it took courage to be so. Lyra was yelling at him, at him. He always commanded respect. People didn`t like to mess around with him. He enjoyed that power and yet she dared to yell at him. Her little body shaking, her words making him small. The guilt was eating his heart. He wanted to yell back, to tell her she was being ungrateful, spoilt, rude and disrespectful but how could he? Didn`t he deserve all that? ‘You DON`T talk to me like that.’ He said finally, his body growing bigger against the tiny girl.
How could he explain to her the dangers of the North? She had always been so fascinated by the stories of the Tartars, the witches, the ghosts and nothing would ever put her off. The Master and the scholars would try to scare her on his behalf but nothing would ever keep her away. And deep down such news always melted his heart. She was his daughter. ‘You have no idea how dangerous the North is for a child.’ A child because that is all that she was, just a child believing that her uncle was betraying her and he so desperately wanted her to believe that because the truth was even worse.
“I don’t CARE!” she shouted back, her voice shrill, cracking nearly unnoticeably as she yelled. Lyra was quick to anger, though normally found more patience where her uncle was concerned. She idolised him, would always idolise him, only now she had been let down one too many times. There was no more room for her to stuff down the hurt feelings and anger she felt each time he left without saying goodbye or broke his promises.
“You promised. You promised you’d take me North with you, but you never!” Her brown eyes burned with unshed tears that she had given up blinking away. “I’m twelve-years-old, Uncle. Twelve! I’m old enough. Even if I wasn’t, you en’t ever here. You never spend any time with me.” That put an end to her shouting. She swiped at her eyes, rubbing them with the back of her hand. “You’re the only family I have, right? Why can’t you see that I need you?” She was pleading now, no longer yelling, she couldn’t find the energy to.