"What do you think of this place?"
Clara stood on her tiptoes to have a proper look of the image showed on the TARDIS monitor. Her lips curled into a warm smile.
"It seems like a perfect spot to have a picnic."
The Doctor gave a sigh of relief. He had shown her a few other places, but until then none of them had seemed good enough for her. One was too cold, one was too warm, another one had too many insects and ants, and the last one hadn't been beautiful enough.
He couldn't believe he hadn't remembered of that place right away. He hadn't thought about it for a long time, probably because he hadn't been there for a very long time, but he had a wonderful memory of it.
He landed the TARDIS with its usual hissing, whining, sound. He opened the doors with a snap if his fingers for Clara, who had both her hands busy with a big picnic basket.
They stepped out into the sunlight and found themselves standing on a wide field, entirely covered with extremely colorful flowers. Quite near to where they had landed, the field stopped at the edge of a forest, but other than that it spread as far as they could see.
"This is beautiful, Doctor," Clara sighed, happily.
"It sure is," he agreed.
They made their way towards the forest, until Clara decided to stop, a few hundred feet away from their time machine. She dropped the basket and then rummaged in it for a sheet which she then sprawled on the ground. She smoothed the angles meticulously and eventually straightened to checked whether she had done a good job. Satisfied, Clara opened the basket and started pulling out stuff: sandwiches, a salad, apples, a bottle of water...
She stopped to cover a big yawn with her hand. She suddenly felt so tired. She should have known, this had been the first time she had managed to stop, after a couple of frantic months divided between school and adventures. She was determined to take advantage of that day to relax as well as she could.
The Doctor stood beside her as she prepared everything for their picnic, his hands hidden deeply in his pockets. A sudden realization dawned on him.
"I forgot my screwdriver in the TARDIS," he exclaimed, making her almost jump by surprise.
"Go on and get in then, "she said, drowning any further possible remark in another big yawn.
"I don't need you to tell me that, thank you very much," he complained angrily. Why did she always feel the need to boss him around? He turned around and marched towards his time machine, before she could have the chance to answer back. She watched him storm away, with her mouth opened as if ready to speak, but nothing came out, so she sealed her lips into a straight line. Soon enough, though, she smiled and chuckled quietly at the thought of the Doctor's reaction.
She rubbed her eyes and then stretched her arms tiredly. She was starting to feel her eyelids heavy and realized how hard it was to keep her eyes opened.
"Maybe I'll lie down for just a second, until the Doctor comes back," she said to herself.
She hardly finished that thought, when her strength abandoned her. Her legs stopped supporting her and she was hardly able to arrest her fall by stretching out her arms and pressing her hands to the ground. She knew that something was wrong, but she was also aware that she wouldn't be able to do anything about it.
Her arms deceived her and she crumbled definitively on the grass.
The powerfully colored flowers were the last thing she saw through her misty gaze before everything turned black and she lost consciousness.
In the meanwhile the Doctor paced the console room, searching for his missing screwdriver.
"Where did I leave you..." he whispered to himself, before spotting it abandoned on his armchair. He grabbed it and then made for her door, addressing Clara even before he was outside the TARDIS.
"Clara, some idiot left my-" but the rest of the words were lost at the tip of his tongue, when he saw the two men where he was expecting Clara to be, waiting for him to get their picnic started.
Instead, his companion was clearly unconscious and carried by whom he could only assume was some sort of knight, by the metal armor which covered his whole body, while his partner guarded the area around them.
The Doctor stared horrified at the scene which met his eyes, momentarily unable to move, his entire body paralyzed. But a second later he was already running toward his friend.
"Clara," he yelled.
"Clara," he repeated, desperately.
The two knights turned abruptly in the direction of his screams.
"Let her go," he shouted, as if hoping that throwing them commands would somehow stop them.
"Clara!"
The one who wasn't holding the girl, without further hesitation, pointed his arm towards him. He realized too late what was going to happen. He stopped running and tried to duck, but the dart which was shot from the knight's weapon stung painfully the left side of his neck.
He grunted in frustration, still trying to focus on Clara, as he fell to the ground and passed out.