Author's Note: It's a one-shot but it's linked to my story "Forever: Colours of Eternity". As usual, I would like to thank my lovely beta, Bria!
TIME SHARDS: A WOLF FLOWER
He was finally alone.
The other boys had either lost track of him, or got bored of trying to find him among the steep rocks. He kept hearing their laughter and teasing in his ears for some time before he realised it was now only his memory. Inhaling the pungent mountain air, so different from the air he usually breathed, he tried to clear his mind of unpleasant images. He was not as skilled at it as the other children. He knew the technique. He learnt the steps by heart and he even practiced it when he was on his own. Trying to steady his mind, get rid of emotions, get rid of troubling thoughts, and just be. He probably did something wrong though, or there was some trick to it, some secret ingredient that he was not aware of, because it hardly ever worked for him. He clenched his fists in helpless anger.
Maybe they were right. Maybe he was a useless idiot and he was never going to be anyone important. He didn't really want to be anyone important. Perhaps that was part of the problem. They were all destined for greatness: they were born for it and brought up for it, and everything in their lives revolved around how great they will be when they grow up. They were already forming alliances and overthrowing imaginary enemies in their minds, competing against each other for power. He could never really see the point of all this.
He lay in the grass, his arm under his head, breathing the cold air and taking in the ripe orange colour of the sky. Was the sky orange everywhere? He had never seen it any other way but wouldn't it be fun to see a sky that was green, or blue? The thought made him giggle. A blue sky, that would be unusual! Or – he let his imagination go wild – three suns instead of two. Oh, why only three. Let it be four. Or five!
Or just one? Nah, that would be too dark and too cold. Could people even survive on a planet with only one sun? Probably not. He briefly wondered if they taught at the Academy about such weird places. Not likely. But he wouldn't know anyway. And that was not entirely bad because he was free to dream with no danger of ever being disappointed. Somewhere in time and space there must have been such a world. A remote planet, too insignificant to be remembered by civilised people like his own. It probably didn't even have a name. It was only inhabited by savages and they wouldn't have a name for it. It was dark and dangerous, with only one sun… Well, maybe with one moon, too, or they would live in almost permanent darkness, he decided.
Or maybe they did live in permanent darkness. The blue sky would be covered with black clouds most of the time, forests would be full of pits and huge predatory vines. Locals wouldn't dare to enter the forests for fear of what lurked in the darkness.
Monsters. Invisible monsters, silent and deadly. Monsters that would creep behind your back and stare at you until you could feel their gaze. Or worst of all, shapeless monsters. They didn't have any shape before you looked at them. But then, as soon as you met their gaze, they looked into you and they transformed into the most horrifying thing you could ever imagine. Not the same thing for everyone. That's why they were so scary. People looked at them at the same time but saw different things. It was worse than looking into the Untempered Schism. Well, possibly the same, but the locals wouldn't know that. They didn't understand much about time, anyway, spending all their lives under one lonely sun.
It would be a scary place to visit. One day he might, though. One day, when he was older, he would travel across the universe to find that planet.
The grownups said time had no beginning and no end, unless… well, unless the Time Lords should decide it should end. He wasn't sure about space but even if it had limits, it was still rather big. So was it really so unlikely that somewhere across time and space there might be a planet with one lonely sun, and with a blue sky?
He smiled. If there was, he would discover it when he grew up.
But the planet – the planet was only a beginning. Such an unfriendly place must have its secrets. Carefully guarded, never revealed to anyone. The locals didn't know. They spent their lives gathering food and fearing the darkness. They never opened their eyes to really look around.
Other travellers didn't know about it. It they had, they would have swarmed in to find the planet's greatest treasure. They would never find it though. Each of them would climb the highest and most inaccessible mountains. Each would dive into the deepest caverns and search the heart of the jungle, hoping to find it and to become richer and more powerful than all other adventurers.
Fools!
They would never recognize the real treasure. They could stumble on it, or tread on it, but they would never notice. Because the treasure was… well, it was enchanted. Treasure that didn't look like treasure.
It was not much to look at, to be honest. A little wild plant. Unnamed, unnoticed, growing somewhere among other wild plants of the planet. Completely unimportant. The locals would think it was a weed. Adventurers would never notice its existence. It grew far away from the beaten track, in a place you would only get to on foot. Not really hidden. Just too similar to other weeds to be noticed. A small wild plant. Prickly, untamed, like a wild animal. Like a wolf.
Like a sleeping wolf.
Because the plant was asleep. Waiting for the person who would overcome all hardships to find it, a person who would be able to recognise it among thousands of similar wild plants. See it for what it really was, and not for what it looked like.
The only person that would be able to remove the spell from the wild plant and make it bloom. All it took was to look at it. Not just look, but really see it, and believe in it.
The boy's eyes watered in excitement. Because when the little flower bloomed, it had the power to transform everything. It could shine like a sun. It could bring life to the dead and death to the living. It was able to heal all wounds. It changed hatred into love. And it would give the person who had woken it from its enchanted sleep the greatest reward there ever was.
Maybe he was good for nothing. Maybe he would never achieve any of the great things other kids dreamt about. Instead, he would find that remote planet, inhabited by savages and monsters and he would search every corner of it for the little enchanted flower. He knew he would find it. It was meant to happen.
Then he would take the wolf flower with him… or he would stay with it on the wild planet. Whatever the flower preferred. Enchanted flowers know what they want, surely, so he wouldn't argue. He would never leave it and he would always protect it.
A tear flowed down the boy's cheek, followed by another one.
If he made an oath here, on Mount Eternity, maybe it would all come true? Grownups said kids shouldn't come here, and never ever make any oaths or wishes here. They said the place was dangerous. They said you could lose your mind by coming here.
He searched his pockets and took out a broken knife. No one would ever know. No one should ever know, or he would never hear the end of it. They would mock him to death for believing in old wives' tales. Not to mention the punishment for entering the restricted area.
No, he didn't really want to think about it. The very thought made him sick. He hoped he would be able to sneak back home unnoticed before bedtime. But for now, he still had plenty of time and he there was something he needed to do.
One day, he would not be sick of fear anymore. He would be able to face any danger. One day he would leave Gallifrey and travel to the end of the world to find the wolf flower and to wake it from its magical sleep. It would bloom for him, and he knew there were not words that could describe it when it bloomed. It was worth every punishment.
He climbed onto the nearest rock – it was not very high anyway – and tried to carve a circle with the knife. The broken blade left a hardly visible uneven line. It would take some time but he wasn't going to give up.
Sticking out his tongue, completely focused on making the circle really round, and the straight lines really straight, so they would even please his teachers, which was never easy, he didn't notice an adult that came up the winding path and stood a few paces away, observing the boy with a mixture of anger, fear, and relief in her eyes.