Frank and the Northern Lights - Chapter 13 part two - Fencing

Fencing - part two.

After cremating him, all of the travellers could finally continue the journey. During their journey, Lyra asked Iorek Byrnison if he felt lonely because he didn’t have his demon. Then he informed her that the feeling was dependent on the person. He said that he didn’t know what cold was nor what loneliness was. And he added that he thought armour was the soul of the bears like demons for human beings. He said that the armoured bears were different from human beings. He suggested fencing with Lyra to prove his words.

She picked up a stick and started fending him off. To succeed in touching him, she would feint an attack in one direction then actually attacked in another. Amazingly, when she faked her intentions, he didn’t move at all. And when she attacked him, his paws had blocked her stick in advance. She attempted to attack him until she was sweating profusely, but he blocked her attacks only if they were real. It seemed that he had already known all her actions. He explained that the armoured bears were able to see things in a way which human beings had forgotten. So Lyra’s father wouldn’t escape from the bears.


After that, she talked with Lee Scoresby. He explained how to fly with his balloon, the history between Iorek Byrnison and himself, and about Tartars. While they were talking about Tartars, she said, in Lord Asreil’s presentation at Jordan College, she had seen Gruman’s head which seemed to be evidence that he had been killed by Tartars. Lee Scoresby discounted her story and added that he believed Lord Asreil had to lie to other scholars to get their permission.
After, as she fell asleep, she thought about many things such as the things related to the Dust.