Author's note: I had to write a fantasy story for language arts, and I ended up with this, and decided to put it on here.
"So are we going to?" I asked.
"I think we should, and since I'm paying, I decide. This will be interesting!" my dad replied. This seemed to settle it, so we all walked up to the building. There were boat rides out to an island near the shore for $10, and my family was deciding if we should go. I was on a vacation with my family in Italy. So far we had seen a lot of ancient Roman ruins, and visited a couple museums. I, along with my family, got into the boat. We rowed out a little ways, and set the boat down near the shore. I looked around, and the first thing I noticed was how different it was from everything else I had seen with my family. The stuff on the island definitely looked like ruins, but not at all Roman. There weren't any buildings, there were just piles of things that looked like they came from a sci-fi movie.
"What is this stuff?" my little brother Ben wondered. I was no closer to knowing the answer to his question than he was. Silently laughing, I picked up a small, screwdriver-like object that looked like something from my favorite TV show. I pressed a button, and it lit up and buzzed. This made us all jump, because of two reasons. First, the object had obviously been sitting around for a long time, so it couldn't possibly have ever had electricity, let alone still work. Second, this was identical to a Sonic Screwdriver, a thing from a TV show that everyone in my family watched. I noticed a small thing that didn't look like it belonged on this island of strange objects at all. In fact, it looked like it belonged with all the other Roman ruins we had seen that week. There was a very small stone building, if you could even call it that, about five feet tall, and a few feet wide both ways. Before I could go examine that, my older brother spoke.
"Maybe we should go back, this seems a bit strange," he suggested. We all agreed with Alan. When we got back to the shore, the building that we had rented the boat from wasn't there anymore, and neither was the man that we had rented it from. After looking around for a while, we decided that we should go look around at the island a bit more. When we got back to the island, I went over to look at the small building I had noticed earlier.
In the building, I noticed something immediately. Despite the small size on the outside, I appeared to be in a room a little larger than a normal classroom. This place was bigger on the inside. In the center, there was sort of a pillar, with a lot of complicated control devices around it. Finally, I realized what was going on. The room I was in right now and the device I had found outside were both from the TV show Doctor Who. I was in the TARDIS, a time and space machine. It was bigger on the inside, because it was basically another universe. Suddenly, the TARDIS began to violently shake. Grabbing hold of the control panel in the center, I thought desperately of anything about how to control it I had seen. After a few seconds, I remembered a conversation involving "blue stabilizers." Looking for blue buttons, I finally found some, and pressed them. This caused things to stop shaking. When I recovered from the shock of what had just happened, I decided to go check the door, to see if I was still in the same place.
What I saw outside surprised me. I appeared to be near a Roman city. The city wasn't in ruins, like all of the tourist locations I'd seen. It appeared to be still new. There were people in togas walking around. Having no idea how to fly the TARDIS, I decided that the best course of action would be to go into the city, and see if I can find anything, or anyone, to help me. At that point I realized something. I was wearing a normal sweatshirt with English words on it, blue jeans, tennis shoes, and a digital watch. None of this stuff would've been around at that time period, so I decided to go see if I could find a clothing room in the TARDIS. After finding a bedroom, a kitchen (I took note of that, in case I got hungry), a pool, and a library, I finally found a huge closet. Well, it was closer in size to fifty closets put together. Before looking around for a toga, I remembered that not everyone in Ancient Rome wore togas. After thinking for a moment, I remembered that only Roman citizens wore togas. Women, and especially teenage girls, probably couldn't be citizens. Finding a simple dress would probably be best. After looking around for a few minutes, I found a pretty, light blue dress. I put the dress on, and put my regular clothes back in the main control room, so that I could get them when I was ready to go back. I also took my hair down, since hairbands probably weren't used that much either.
When I was satisfied that I looked like I could have been alive 2000 years ago, or actually right now, I went back to the kitchen. I made a basic peanut butter and jelly sandwich, deciding that that could be the last one I ate for quite a while. I also made myself some tea, since tea is delicious. When I was done with that, I found a cloth bag, and filled it with some basic food that could've been around in Ancient Rome, since I could get hungry. I also went back to the large closet, and got some gold and silver jewelry, in case I needed to sell it for money. When I was finally done getting everything I thought I would need, I walked out and headed for the city.
When I got to the city, I decided that I first needed to figure out exactly where and when I was. This would be a lot harder if the TARDIS didn't automatically translate for me. Walking up to the nearest person, I asked, "Excuse me, could you tell me what city I'm in?" I already knew I was in Rome, so I at least knew my general location. The person told me that I was in Ostia, a place a little to the west of Rome the city. From what I could remember, that is about where I was earlier. So I didn't move through space much, just time. I knew where I was, but asking when I was might have caused awkward questions. Next, I decided to get some money, and find a hotel to stay at for the night, since it was starting to get dark. Before I did that, I realized that I could probably just spend the night in the TARDIS. Still, a little souvenir from Ancient Rome would be nice. I found a place to sell a bit of the jewelry I had grabbed, and used the money to get a vase. While I was walking back to the TARDIS, someone stopped me.
"Excuse me, miss. Can I have a word with you?" he politely requested.
"Ok, what do you want?" I replied not so politely.
"You have done quite a nice job of trying to blend in with your clothing, but it's still quite obvious that you're not from here. Despite the fact that the style, fabric, and color of your dress are perfectly fine, it was clearly made in a factory. You aren't with anyone, and you don't appear to have any sort of reason to be here. Any reasonable Roman girl who actually belonged here wouldn't be out this late."
"Well, you don't seem to find the idea that I could be from the future to be ridiculous at all, and you seemed to be looking to see if anyone here is from somewhere else, so you can't exactly be from this time period either. Do you have an explanation?" I questioned.
"You're an interesting little girl, demanding an explanation from me without giving one yourself. However, I would like to get to somewhere else before we discuss this. Come with me," the person told me.
I considered this for a moment. This was a stranger telling me to come with him, and I didn't know a thing about him. However, he seemed likely to know how I could get back home. I decided to follow him. We walked a little ways, and we reached the shore. When we were away from anyone else, the man took off his toga, and I saw that he wore a suit underneath it. He had fairly dark hair, that was a little longer than most guys' hair. The man was pretty tall, and skinny, but no unhealthily so. There was a boat there. I could see an island out in the water a bit. "I think that island out there is where I was when I got sent back here," I told him. This appeared to make the person uneasy, but he tried to hide it. At that point, I realized that I didn't even know his name. "By the way, what's your name?" I inquired.
"Epsilon Psi, but most people just call me Epsy." I found it interesting that, despite the fact that Epsy was for whatever reason residing in Ancient Rome, his name was two Greek letters.
"Where did you get that name from?" I wondered.
"Lots of us had names that were Greek letters," he explained, not very thoroughly.
"Well, I have two questions about that. First, you say 'us', but you don't say who your people are. Second, you refer to your people, whoever they are, in the past tense," I point out.
"I haven't run into any of them in a long time, so I assume something happened. They all loved Ancient Rome, and all other ancient civilizations, where the great human empire began," he explained, again very unthoroughly.
"The great human empire? So you're from further into the future than I am. Also, you still haven't told me who your people are."
"We're not people. I'm a Time Lord, from the planet Gallifrey, from the constellation Kasterbollous," he explained, at last being thorough.
At this point in the conversation, we reached the island, and walked into a small room identical to the one I'd run into that day, so many years in the future. I stumbled into the TARDIS, very surprised. According to Doctor Who, the TV show that was so obviously real, all but one of the Time Lords were gone. Here, right in front of me, was another one.
"Did you happen to know the Doctor?" The words just came out of my mouth before I could even think about them.
"How would you know about him? I assumed I was the first Time Lord you'd ever met, since you were stranded in Ancient Rome without transportation, and without knowing how you got there!" Epsy exclaimed.
We both walked off into a nice little dining room, and Epsy made tea. "So I've told you enough about me. Who are you, where are you from, and how did you get here?"
Taking a drink of tea, I replied, "Emma. I'm from the States, but I was on a vacation in Italy when I left. I got here when I was on this very island; I found a TARDIS like this one. When I went inside it, it traveled back in time on its own."
This seemed to shock Epsy. "Did you just leave the TARDIS where it landed?" he asked, clearly very worried.
"Yes. Why?"
"If there are any other Time Lords left without transport, they'll find it and get it in a second. Even if they have their own TARDIS, a spare never hurts. The only way I keep this one safe is by locking it when I'm not in it, but obviously you didn't lock it behind you!"
We both ran back to the boat, paddled very quickly back to shore, and ran to the hill that I had left the TARDIS on. When we got there, I saw why Epsy had been worried. There was another person, or probably actually Time Lord, trying to get into the TARDIS. Epsy sprinted forward and bodyslammed the new Time Lord. I rushed into the TARDIS, and locked the door from the inside, so that the new Time Lord couldn't get in. This also prevented Epsy from getting in, so they fought at the door of the TARDIS. I rushed around different rooms of the TARDIS for something that could help. The kitchen was no good, since there probably wasn't a large supply of poisons in there. The closet I had been in earlier couldn't do anything except embarrass him to death. The pool could help, but only if I invited him into the TARDIS, which wouldn't be any good. Some of the books in the library might give advice on how to fight a Time Lord, but I didn't dare look in any of the books, in case I accidentally spoiled the future for myself. I also found a room to which I couldn't guess the purpose of better than possibly to fill shoes with yogurt, but that didn't seem like it could be right.
The next room finally had something useful. It was a room full of weapons. All sorts of weapons, from guns (which the Doctor would not approve of) to hammers to swords. I began formulating a plan. If I were to kill the new Time Lord, that would be wrong. But, if I were to kill him, he would just regenerate. When a Time Lord is killed, they just come back to life with the same memories, but a different personality and body. Sometimes, regeneration is a bit tough on a Time Lord, so it would be easier to make him pass out, so that he's not an issue. I took the gun, to be used only to make him regenerate, and a baseball bat, to make him pass out. After grabbing this, I went outside. Epsy and the other Time Lord were still wrestling. I took the gun, aimed carefully, and shot the Time Lord. He exploded into golden light, and stood before us, looking completely different.
"Oh no," the Time Lord muttered. "I've never regenerated very well." After mumbling that, he passed out.
"That was easier than expected," I commented to Epsy. "Can we go into the TARDIS and talk? I still need a few things explained." Epsy agreed, so we went in, and sat down in a comfortable room. "How did I end up back here? I didn't do anything to the TARDIS to make it move."
"Well, a TARDIS can't operate without anyone in the control room, if you didn't know that. When a TARDIS has been abandoned for a long time, but is still functional, she will travel to whoever she considers her owner, as soon as she gets a chance. I suppose that, at some point, I end up leaving this place without my TARDIS, and the next time anybody enters it is you. How did you get to the island, anyway?"
"There was a boat rental to go out to the island. The weird thing is, the man who rented us the boat disappeared," I explained.
Epsy seemed to find this very interesting. He appeared to be planning, and explained, "I must've done that. After I drop you off, I'll go back in time a little while, disguise myself, and rent you the boat." After considering this for a moment, there was nothing else to be explained.
"So, is it time for me to go back now?" I asked. Epsy nodded, so I took my regular clothes, went into a different room, and put them back on. After that, the TARDIS flew back to the island, at the exact time the TARDIS had left.
When I walked out, my brother commented, "It looked like for a second the box over there disappeared, while you were in it. What was in there, anyway?"
"Nothing much. It was just an empty box." We walked back to shore, left the boat sitting there, where I knew Epsy would find it, and continued on with our vacation.