by Cour M.
“I spoke her name on the wind. And it’s just a feeling, but I know it in my heart. The White Witch knows we are here, and we have to keep moving.”
Swiftly obeying, they all put out the fire and descended once more down the watchtower, and back into the woods. Quickly they walked, but soon they heard the movement of a sleigh, and Amy knew what that meant.
“We have to run!” She cried.
“Follow me,” C.S. Lewis said, “if this is my dream, then…”
He did not finish as he raced forward and led them through the trees. As Ten followed after him, the Dream Lord appeared out of the corner of his eye, standing on a large rock.
“Not being the one to lead now,” he laughed, “how you have fallen.”
“Just blot out what he says,” Rory reassured him.
“No,” Ten stated, “I want to hear it. I want to know.”
They continued to run along and then C.S. Lewis found a cliff and jumped over it. They all stopped in shock, thinking he had jumped to his death. However, his head appeared over the cliff.
“Don’t worry, there’s a bit of land here that can’t be seen. Hurry! She’s close!”
They went to him, saw the land he was sitting on, jumped down next to him and they all huddled together. Eventually, they heard the sound of stomping feet while a sleigh carriage was being pulled.
“Halt!” Came a domineering and powerful woman’s voice. The sleigh became still, and Ten looked at C.S. Lewis. He could tell that the man was desiring to see what she looked like, so he held his shoulder.
“Don’t,” Ten whispered. “Don’t look at her.”
C.S. obeyed and they remained still.
“What is it, your majesty?” An assistant of hers asked, “can you sense something?”
“Yes, fool! There is someone new here. I can feel them.”
They listened as she took a few steps forward, then they heard her lean down just nearby them. Suddenly the air grew even colder and icicles began to grow around them, almost sticking into their sides and backs.
They heard her breathe in deeply.
“Your majesty, what does it matter if there is someone new here?” Her assistant said.
“It matters because I don’t like threats,” she replied, “tell all of our allies, from the wolves to the bears and tigers, to be on alert. We have an enemy here. I can feel it.”
She rose up, then left, and the icicles began to dissolve around them. They heard her get on her sleigh and then depart. Once they knew she was gone, Ten took a look around above, saw that she was indeed out of sight and said that all was clear. They all emerged and stood up.
“So, I gather that was her,” John sighed.
“Yes,” C.S. said, still watching where she had gone. “Yes, that is her.”
“She sounds evil to the core,” Jason noted.
“Oh, you have no idea.”
Amy then turned to Rory.
“We just met the White Witch in Narnia,” Amy smiled.
“Yes, we did!”
They both began to jump up and down in happiness.
“See,” Ten said, “who gives you the better adventures? Me or my successor?”
“Stop competing, or they will think you’re insecure,” Jack advised him.
“It’s never insecurity to state a fact.”
They stood up and C.S. was still looking at where the White Witch had gone down. Ten stood next to him.
“What are you thinking?” The Doctor asked.
“That I didn’t even get to see her face.”
“Do you really want to? Is it worth what would happen afterwards?”
C.S. turned to Ten.
“Doctor, you weren’t there. In the battles for this worthless war that we are fighting. The way I have seen men die. And the way that I have almost died myself. So, yes. It is worth it. Anything is better than where I’m coming from.”
“All right,” Jack interrupted, “we need to find out where to go next. And we need to find out where the soldiers are or we’re not getting out of this place.”
“C.S.?” John said, “since you know the answers…”
C.S. Lewis looked around and then his eyes got filled with an idea.
“Follow me!” He instructed to them, then he rushed through the trees. As he did so, John Henrickson came up to him and walked alongside him.
“So this is all real? We are really in a magical land that came from your dreams.”
“Yes, it is.”
“The mates and I couldn’t believe it at first. But it’s real. I mean, it’s daft, but it’s real. This is all bloody real.”
“I’m sorry, John. I know you must blame me for this.”
“Are you joking, mate? We were just in the middle of a war, and now we are transported to a land away from all that. I’m not sure that I’ve ever been happier.”
C.S. looked at John and smiled.
“Yes, I don’t think I have ever been either.”
“Amazing, isn’t it?” The Dream Lord said as he suddenly appeared next to the Doctor. Ten looked around at the others to see their reaction. “No, not this time Doctor. Only you can see me.”
“I’ll look like I’m talking to myself,” He said, with his lips barely moving.
“You don’t have to talk. Actually, I prefer it that way, so you can just listen.”
Ten looked down at this strange man who was beside him and did his best to figure out what he was.
“You’ve got a gang now, don’t you?” The Dream Lord noticed, “have you ever had a gang before? You know, that’s what makes this all amazing, isn’t it? If this is C.S. Lewis’s dream, then why does so much of it work for your imagination? After all, this whole situation is perfect for you. Well, except for the ambiance. No TARDIS, no outer space setting, and no technological timey wimey environment. Without all that, you barely look like yourself. Instead, the Doctor is here, barely looking like the Doctor, in the midst of the woods, with no way out. Well that part is not new, is it. The having no way out part, I mean. That’s the sad thing about this regeneration. Between your past and your future, you are beginning to feel like the impotent one, aren’t you?”
Ten looked at him menacingly.
“Ah, there’s the look,” the Dream Lord grinned, “the look of fury and anger that hints at the darkness that lies underneath, but that darkness is empty… useless. It wasn’t you who defeated the Master this time. Unlike your previous selves, you did little. You just sat in your tent, then your cage, while Martha did all the work, and then after all her efforts, what does she get: just you turning into a glowing marshmallow and taking the credit for something you didn’t accomplish. Again. Now you’ve taken the credit for other’s actions before, but it’s beginning to really hit home for you. That’s why Amy and Rory are quite the godsend, and why you never had any intention of returning them so quickly back to your future self—despite how much you mess up the timeline of things. Admit it to yourself. You want to know that you can do things better than him, because you honestly know now that you are not better than Nine.”
Ten opened his mouth to speak but the Dream Lord clucked his teeth.
“Don’t forget. You’re the only one who can see me. After all, you don’t want to reply and look like a madman, do you?”
The Dream Lord smirked and then disappeared.
Seeing his look of consternation, Amy knocked shoulders with Ten.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes, I’m… actually I’m madder than The Madman.”
“Didn’t know there was anyone in the universe actually called that.”
“It was on Gallifrey. His actual name was The Engineer, but he was also insane, so behind his back, we called him The Madman.”
“You never told me that.”
“I didn’t?” He smiled, “Well, I guess I am the talker.”
“Oh he talked a lot too, but it was more of him talking about w
here we were going, rather than where he was coming from.”
“I begin to run away from things.”
“No, it’s not that.”
“Yes, it is. Don’t worry, I’m not afraid of the idea. That’s all I ever do. I have been running away. I’ve always been doing that.”
“No, it’s more than that, and it’s something you once said to me. You’re not always running from things. You’re running to them, before they fade away forever. That’s why you run to us, and not just to us, but to all of your companions, I reckon. You run to us, before we fade.”
“I like that.”
“So, no more sadness?”
“No more sadness.”
Ten began to feel more like himself.
“I am in the woods, with no spaceship, no TARDIS, no space around me, no nothing!”
“All the things that make the Doctor appear as not the Doctor.”
“Yes, and yet…”
“What?”
“I feel that I needed it.”
“Because there is more to the universe than space itself. More to the Doctor than space itself.”
“Yes, I suppose there is.”
“You learned that once, when Rory and I had settled down. You stayed with us this one time, when there was this cube invasion. The Doctor came to stay. Not to fly off into space, not to discover anything, or to uncover a meta-crisis. Nope. For once, the Doctor just came to stay.”
“I had a home.”
“You had a family.”
“We’re close now!” C.S. said, “I can feel it.”
C.S. Lewis got a wild look in his eye and then he turned suddenly.
“It’s this way, I know it!” C.S. suddenly began to run through the trees, “come on!”
“Wait!” Ace cried, “C.S. be careful.”
“Don’t worry,” Ten rushed forward, merrily, “I think I know what he is talking about.”
They all followed C.S. Lewis through the woods and then he jumped into a clearing, covering his mouth in awe.
“Bloody hell!” He cried happily. The rest of the group reached him and then they looked on what he saw.
“Oh yes!” Ten roared out with glee, “there it is!”
Everyone stood behind C.S. Lewis as they all looked on a lamppost, tall, and unique. Standing out amidst the backdrop of the snow and woods, it paved the way of showing them that they were in the beginnings of this new land.
Amy took Rory’s hand.
“It’s a lamppost,” John said, “but what does it mean?”
“Nothing, I suppose,” C.S. voiced, mesmerized.
“But it gives me hope anyway,” John admitted.
“Because it’s meant to.”
C.S. walked up to it and then touched the lamppost, just to make sure it was real. Ten walked up to him.
“How does it feel?” Ten asked.
“Like I dreamed it would.”
“Then it’s a good dream.”
C.S. turned to the Doctor and hugged him suddenly.
“Thank you, Doctor. Thank you so much!”
The Doctor hugged him in reply.
“It was my pleasure, C.S.”
“I don’t understand why you all call me that, by the way.”
“Oh, you’ll understand one day.”
“Sorry to interrupt,” Kenneth said, “but we’re out in the open, exposed. Strategically speaking, we need to figure out what to do next.”
“We don’t have to,” C.S. said merrily, “we found the lamppost, so any moment now, someone will come.”
“Someone?” Jack asked, “like who?”
They were suddenly interrupted by footsteps. But they didn’t sound like that of a human. They all closed ranks, stood there and waited. As they did, they saw a figure through the trees, carrying an umbrella. It moved through the woods, came into the clearing and Ace gasped as she beheld it. Being afraid as well, it cried out, dropped its parcels and then moved behind a tree.
“My god, what is that?” Henry cried out in shock.
“It’s a fawn,” Jack explained.
“Don’t worry!” C.S. Lewis said, moving forward to the fawn, with his hands outstretched, “my friends and I mean you no harm. Really, we come in peace.”
The figure leaned around the tree at them and Ten smiled happily at seeing his curly hair, his legs of an ass, and the familiar red scarf that had become iconic for the wearer of it.
C.S. moved forward to the fawn, his hands still outstretched and then he picked up one of the parcels.
“Ah!” The fawn objected, “wait.”
“Don’t worry,” C.S. assured him, picking up the rest, “I’m just helping you.”
Once he picked them up, he handed then to the fawn, who took them.
“Thank you.”
“We didn’t mean to scare you.”
“You didn’t, I was just… well, I was a little scared, I admit.”
“Once more, I must apologize. These are my friends, Amy, Rory, Ace, the Doctor, Jack, Henry, James, Oliver, Jason, Kenneth, and John. We were stopping here, because we need a guide. And I had heard about you from some others here in the forest. We were wondering if you would give us your help.”
“My help?”
“Yes, of course if you need payment of some kind,” Ace said, “we can figure something out.”
“What are you? Tall dwarves?”
“No,” Amy chuckled, “we are humans.”
“Humans?” The fawn gasped, “here in our lands?”
“Yes,” C.S. said, “sorry if it is dangerous for you, but we are sorry. And you, well, your name is Tumnus, right?”
“Yes. It is.”
C.S. Lewis turned to the rest of the group and Amy came forward.
“Well, it’s nice to meet you, Mr. Tumnus.”
“Yes, a great pleasure,” Ten said.
The Doctor came forward and offered his hand, but Tumnus looked at it, confused.
“Oh, you’re supposed to shake it.”
“Why?” Mr. Tumnus asked.
“Why well…” The Doctor thought about it, but he had no answer, so he turned to the group. “Why do you humans do it?”
“I don’t particularly know,” C.S. Lewis explained, “but for some reason, we just do when we meet each other.”
Mr. Tumnus shrugged, then he took the Doctor’s hand, shook it incorrectly, and it was must amusing.
“Oh my god,” Rory whispered, almost crying, “he’s shaking his hand incorrectly. It is so cute.”
“I know, right,” Amy replied.
“Well, I am delighted to meet you all,” Mr. Tumnus voiced, opening his umbrella once more.
Chapter 12
The Great Escape
There, under the Atlantic Ocean on Earth, in the colony of the Sea Devils, Nine was fixed to the spot, staring at the machine that he had invented so very long ago.
“But I don’t understand,” he whispered to Clara, “I destroyed the machine. How could they have a copy of it?”
“Did you leave the plans lying around and someone could have taken them and escaped with it?” Clara asked.
“It’s possible, I guess. Darn it. Well, nothing for it now. By the way, Clara, I’m about to do something really stupid.”
“And what is that, John?”
“I’m about to ask you to give up your entire position.”
“What?” Clara asked, seriously.
“What is it?” Commander Nestor asked her, “what is he asking for?”
Clara held up her hands for her to be quiet.
“John, elaborate on that please.”
“I need you to go to the consul unit.”
“Already there.”
“Now tell me what you are looking at?”
“I don’t really know what anything is called.”
“What are the colors of things?”
“Well, there is the yellow toggle, then the red lever thing and this green switch.”
“Brilliant, press that gr
een switch.”
“All right.”
Clara flipped it.
“So what did it do?”
“You just made the TARDIS visible again.”
“I what?!” Clara turned to the group, “He just had me lower the shields.”
“What?” The entire group said in unison.
“Yeah, so John, I’m flipping that switch again.”
“No, don’t.”
“Yeah, you can watch me.”
“Clara, please, I need you to remain visible.”
“The Sea Devils will know where we are.”
“Exactly. I need a distraction. When they see it, they’ll flock to it, and then the machine will be free for me to sabotage. Clara, it’s obvious that it isn’t fully working yet, so if they activate this machine, then they will revive all of their kin on different colonies. Clara, with them all united, they will try and take over the world.”
“What are their chances of success with that?”
“A lot. They have superior technology than humans. And they also have the desire for a reckoning.”
“Yes, but I have to answer for the safety of the people on the TARDIS here. I have to make sure that they are safe.”
Nine warmed to her comment.
“I know, Clara, and I would never put you in danger. Really, I wouldn’t. Even when you get detected, the TARDIS can withstand the strongest of weapons. The only thing that can kill it is if it falls into a supernova, or something like it, and believe me, the Sea Devils don’t have the strength to make one of those.”
Clara looked around at their company, from Euripides to Ethel Waters. They were in her care, but they were inside the TARDIS. And therefore it was all down to if she trusted the TARDIS itself.
“Fine,” Clara gave in, removing her hand from the switch. “I trust you.”
“Thank you, Clara,” he sighed.
Eventually, word spread through all the colony that the TARDIS was spotted and all Sea Devils left their posts to go to it. When Nine felt that he was in the room by himself, he went to the machine, looked around it, went to the computer and began looking at the data records of the Sea Devils history and programs. As he read onward, more and more, he grew appalled and worried. This was worse than what he had expected, for it wasn’t just the Sea Devils planning an uprising, but it also was about them destroying much of the earth before they did.