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.

威尔和莱拉沿着溪流来到树林里，他们小心翼翼地走着，一路无语，就这样一直走到了树林中央。

树林中央有小一块空地，上面长着软软的草，岩石上还长满了苔藓。头顶的树枝交错着，将天空遮了个严严实实。阳光穿过树枝间的空隙，漏下缕缕闪闪发光的金线，一切都被渲染成金色和银色了。

树林里非常寂静。只有溪流缓缓地流淌的声音，还有徐徐的微风吹动树叶的沙沙声，才会偶尔打破这里的寂静。

威尔把食品包放下，莱拉也把她的帆布背包放下，四处根本没有一点阴森森的感觉，这里只有他们两个。

他们把鞋和袜子脱掉，在小溪边的长有青苔的石头上坐了下来。他们把脚丫伸进冰冷的溪水里，顿时感到他们的血液有一种浑然一振的冲击感。

“我饿了，”威尔说。“我也饿了，”莱拉说，尽管她感到有什么东西在压迫着自己，那是一种喜悲参半的感觉，所以到现在，她并没有真正弄明白那是一种什么样的感觉。

他们把布打开，吃了一些面包和奶酪。面包刚出炉不久，很新鲜好吃的，成片的咸奶酪也是非常可口的，可不知道怎么回事，他们的手都反映很慢，好像还有些笨拙，他们没有仔细品味食物的味道。

莱拉从那些水果中挑了一个，然后满脸羞涩，紧张地转过身去，对威尔说，“威尔……”

然后，她轻轻地把水果递到威尔的嘴边。

从威尔的眼神里莱拉看出来了他马上明白了自己的意思，他非常高兴，都不知道该说什么。她的手还在他的唇边。威尔感到自己的嘴唇在颤抖。他抬手，紧紧抓住莱拉的手，然后，他们两人的眼中便没有了其他东西；他们俩心情很复杂，可也荡漾着无言的幸福。

就像两只毛虫笨拙地碰到了一起一样，他们的嘴唇也很自然地碰到了一起。当他们还未来得及明白这一切是如何发生的时候，他们俩已经拥抱在了一起……

“玛丽说过，”他在她耳朵轻声道，“当你在山上睡觉的时候，你喜欢一个人，你会立刻懂他的意思，然后她会夺走你的心，我曾经告诉过帕恩。”

“我听过。”她小声说，“我醒后也想告诉你这个的，可现在我明白了我过去的这种感觉：我爱你，威尔，我爱你……”

“爱”这个词让他的神经为之一亮，他激动起来了，他也对她说了“我爱你，莱拉，我爱你……”然后，他吻着她烫人的脸颊，呼吸着她身体的香味，她温暖芳香的发丝，还有她温润可爱的香唇——好像那个小红水果的味道。

周围什么也没有，有的只是寂静的空旷，仿佛整个世界都在屏住了呼吸……