A/N: I don't know why, but I've sen very few Winged Doctor fics. So I thought to try myself here. And it's my first Twelfth Doctor fic as well, so... tell me what you think!

At first Benna didn't know what to do when she saw one of the tombs' covers shaking. She would have called for help if it were not for two obvious reasons. Or, more likely, three.

She's absolutely dumb. Unable to learn anything.

It would be useless to call for help even at daytime - who would pay attention to an errand girl? Benna was to pay attention when being called for, not vice versa. So now she just had to sit in the corner of the basement, curled up with cold and fear. Though she had been told that "dead men don't bite", she feared them. And darkness, and being punished too.

Finally the tomb's cover moved to the side with a screech. Benna hugged her knees, hiding her face in them. She didn't know what was scarier: the creature from the world of the dead or her master's rage - if he finds out Benna's been here again. She had been whipped so hard, so hard the previous time...

The cover was moved off almost halfway. Oh no. If it falls down, there will be a rumble, and her master will murder her, they find it such fun...

But no. The cover stopped, and another thing fell - silence. Then, without a sound, a white hand showed itself from the tomb, clutched its edge and began flexing its fingers, like a spider preparing to attack. Some moments later a human figure - white above, black below - climbed from the tomb, groaned and half-fell onto the floor, clutching its sides. It lied there for a short time, then stood up and looked around, its eyes glowing in the dark.

Benna bit her cheeks from the inside not to howl with fear.

"Whom do we have here?" the ghoul asked, walking directly to her. "Do not be afraid, I will not do any harm".

That was not a voice of anyone from Hades. It wasn't hissing or howling or demanding, it was a calm human voice. And now Benna could see that the flesh of its owner wasn't rotten or infected - as solid as hers, though even visibly cold. And another thing: Benna's breath formed clouds over her nose and mouth, while this creature didn't have them, though it was breathing - it was heard and seen by its body's movements, but not in this way.

"What are you doing here?" the creature asked, having crouched next to her. "You're about to catch pneumonia... ah, forgot, what time is it?"

Benna's eyes were used to the dark, and its face with glowing eyes was close, so she could see it now - it was a face of an elderly man, with age wrinkles and short silver hair, but it seemed wrong here, as if a wrong head was stitched to the body, which was to be much stronger than it's required in this age. And now it was clear why it seemed so white: the man's torso was wrapped in blood-stained stripes of white cloth all over it, as if he was wearing an odd sleeveless tunic.

"Why are you not replying? It's not too polite, you know", the man went on. Benna touched her lips with the tip of her forefinger and moved it along them, indicating her inborn lack. "What? You cannot speak?" Benna shook her head. "Ah, I'm sorry... But I have to call you some way".

This was almost no trouble. Benna's mother had invented this way of showing her name a long time ago, hoping that it would come in handy some day. And today it did. She pointed at her brow, then at her ear, twice tapped on her nose and then at her ankle.

"Wait a bit..." The man frowned. "Brow, ear, nose, nose, ankle... Benna?"

The girl nodded.

"All right, Benna. I'm the Doctor. Let's get out of here".

Benna grabbed his arm, silently pleading him to stay with her look. Now it would be the most dangerous time to come out, as for her. Once she had been caught in the middle of the night, and the safest time was before dawn, when everybody left to work. After the nasty case with being caught, her only friend, Camellia, another maid, would close the basement doors whenever Benna decided to spend the night there, and sneakily open them in the morning.

"What? Are you afraid of the dark?"

Benna shook her head, pointoing at the door and showing that it was locked.

"Primitive technologies", the Doctor muttered. "And I don't have my sonic screwdriver with me... Guess I'll have to stay with you, Benna. Will you be let out, then?" The girl nodded. "All right... Hey, you're freezing".

He sat onto the stone floor (Benna had thought it was solid ground, but it was stone, with a huge layer of dirt - no one comes to visit dead men without a truly truly forceful reason) next to the girl and gave her a corny, but comfortable embrace. Benna gasped - not only because she wasn't used to this gesture, but also because the Doctor wasn't cold anymore. His body was getting warmer and warmer, until the girl felt as if sitting next to a fire which couldn't burn her.

"Better now?"

Benna nodded again, blinking at him.

"Don't worry. That's just me... Benna, how long have you been silent?"

The girl shrugged.

"Since birth? Let me look!"

The Doctor briskly raised her chin up, opened her mouth with two fingers (without any effort) and pulled her tongue so far, that Benna counged and wheezed.

"You have a throat of an opera singer, girl! Yeaaah... Little nitwit". Those two words were said in a whisper, the following - aloud. "Heard that?"

Benna chuckled.

"Okay, we have nothing much else to do... Can you call me by the name?"

By the name? But "Doctor" isn't a proper name! It never was! - sounded in Benna's head. The Doctor replied as if he knew what was going on in her head:

"Forget it, Benna. I'm the Doctor, and this is it. Come on, girl. I've heard a baby calling me by the name, and you're not a baby... though compared to me... How old are you? Twenty-six?"

Benna showed both hands with fingers sticking to the sides. She couldn't read or write, but she could count. And she knew her age.

"Still a youngling. Do it, girl".

Benna couldn't do much. But she tried.

"D... d-d-d... daaaaah..."

"You're not attempting hard enough".

"Do... whshrrrrr..." The last was a sound of air without direction coming out of Benna's mouth.

"Lazy bottom".

"Doctor!"

"Always works", the Doctor smirked. His way of smiling was creepy, like that of dead men who eternally show their teeth. "One more time, Benna".

"Doc... taaaaaaah..." Benna wasn't thinking the previous time, that should be it. And that warmth slowly made her sleepy. No tracks of fear, no tracks of waiting for the worst. Dead men don't bite. And dead men don't keep alive men warm...

Benna was woken by the sound of people shouting outside. And not only that: there and here the yelps of horror were interrupted by short strikes, as if lightnings hit the ground. One, two, three... Or no, those strikes were more like the sounds of arrows sticking into trees, but much louder and scarier.

The Doctor woke up as soon as she did, already full of energy - he bounced up, but a bit unluckily, so his strange white tunic got ripped. Benna heard a sound of cloth tearing.

"Ah, never mind it, Benna..." He walked to the exit and listened. "Uh-oh. Seems like a time twister in all senses..."

But it wasn't "time twister" or whatever strange things about which he was talking.

"Benna! Has it happened before?.. Benna!"

"Doctor", Benna said, staring at his wings.

Now they were seen from under twice ripped white cloth hanging down. Blood-stained there and here, like his clothing, not fully unfurled, silvery grey, darker than his hair, and scruffy, as if they needed to be cleaned. If feathers can be cleaned.

"Benna, you're not special. But you can become one if you help me. Do you want to stay a brain-pudding?"

Benna shook her head.

"I just knew it. Come here, youngling!"