A barefooted Amy stands at the edge of the alien planet watching a sunset. It's pretty boring, really, but she's tired of the running and taking a break from all the running seemed appropriate. It's a bit orange, like a melted candle. If she concentrates, she can almost smell the faint whiff of peaches or oranges or whatever other candle smell burns orange but it's only in her mind. She knows that. All she can see it a round sphere of orange but it's more beautiful than any Earth sunset could ever be.
She smiles at that because here she is, Amy Pond, on an alien planet, watching a sunset. It's surreal.
A gasp slips out when small lights begin to shine in front of her like stars. First there's one and then they burst in a cloud, full of sparkle and shine and shimmer. She thinks they might be fireflies, but she doesn't see a form when she looks closer, just the smallest twinkles of starlight joining together. She lets her hand linger out against the light, a twist in colour that heats her hand and makes a giggle bubble up from her chest and out through lightly parted lips.
"It's quite beautiful, I find."
Her eyes widen for a moment when the Doctor's voice rings at her side. Since when did he get so good at creeping up on her?
She looks down. His toes wiggle at her glance. No shoes. Well that probably explains it. Her own are bare too. The Doctor had made her take them off, something about them being offensive to the living environment. She wasn't really listening. She hadn't waited for him to take off his. He doesn't look quite comfortable without his shoes on but he goes on talking without comment.
"The last touch of sunset at the edge of the world. Not just any world though." He gazes out, taking it in with a slow lingering look, "Ventalo."
"Does that mean the planet's important then?"
"Yes."
She waits for him to continue but he stretches out her hand to ghost over hers. He's too occupied in watching the light dance around their almost joined hands. She stretches her fingers towards his hand and his dance away and all the while the light breathes around them, magical and alive.
"Are you going to tell me why?"
His face blanks. "Oh. Yes. Important. Why? Right." His fingers twitch as they always do. Amy wonders why he can never seem to keep them still, "Well, it's important because it's one of the few planets where the light is actually a living organism. Can you imagine that? Living, breathing, eating, smelling, tasting light. It's simply amazing, isn't it?"
She almost inclined to agree when a sudden sinister thought creeps up on her. Her mind is stuck on the word 'eating' because that's not a word she likes to hear when she's surrounded by living eating light. She quickly pulls her hand back as if the light is a piranha waiting to eat her up.
"Alive?" Amy questions and the Doctor can hear an undercurrent in her voice. Oh a tinge of something. Something familiar. He knows that something, it's... It's... Oh yes, it's mistrust and surprise with a hint of indignation. Quite familiar. Although he's not sure why she would be feeling this way. It's only living light after all. "You're telling me the light's alive?" She takes a warning step closer to him, keeping out of the light. Her voice rises, "Is it hungry?"
Oh!
"Oh! Of course not, Pond. Well, actually it probably would be but not for you. They're not fond of meat or people. They're more interested in the nitrogen in the air. And what a feast they get. A very rich diet nitrogen is for the Ezcrivatch. That's what they're called. A bit hard to pronounce though."
She decides not to mention that she thinks that sounds like a stupid name for a light creature. She's not taking any chances.
The Doctor continues with his hands curled around her shoulders, his head hovering beside her own and his voice sounding knowledgeable like the professor he's practically dressed as. "And they pass on that goodness to whoever stands within their swarm as a friend. They like you, like both of us in fact. I can tell. And so can you."
"How?"
"You can see them, can't you? They don't show their light to just anyone. A picky lot, they are."
He smiles then and steps out and away from her. He throws his hands wide, stepping into the light. For a moment, Amy can't help but think he looks like an angel then she sees his eyes and there's a flash of something old and ancient within those orbs. She blinks and it's gone, because he didn't look like an angel in the moment, he looks like a god and a demon, something powerful to be reckoned with and she takes a breath to let the image pass because she's never quite seen far enough into his soul to know that such things could exist within him.
"Well, are you going to just stand there Pond? It'll be gone soon. We can't waste it. It's not good to waste moments like these."
He reaches his hand out to her and she grabs it with a grin, assured that the light won't eat her. Her lips curl into a smile as he spins her around and the light breathes out the barest of warm touches against her exposed skin. She giggles again and watches the sunset swoon, taking the pool of melted orange, plunging them in the light of alien fireflies.
They soon flicker, flames dying out, and fade away.
"Can't waste a moment, Pond." The Doctor says, his voice solemn, and she can see the barest hint of a faraway look on his face in the dim night light, "Blink and you'll miss it. And we wouldn't want to do that."
"No..." She slowly speaks as if time has caught up with her words, "I guess we wouldn't..."
The world around her whispers night-times' end and in her mind morning sings its tune because time is creeping up on her and soon all of this will fade away like the last touch of sunset at the edge of the world.
The End