I don't own Doctor Who, I don't own the Doctor or the lovely Donna, I don't own the TARDIS or the sonic screwdriver, nor do I own any of the other elements and aspects introduced in the BBC show Doctor Who. I do, however, own Cirula, and wotgei, and various other elements of Cirulian culture that will come up in later chapters—such as the monster of the week, which will remain unseen for a while, but rest assured, it's there, and I own it. I also own my words. But yeah, everything else is Moffat's. And I am making no profit from this, so he doesn't need to feel threatened or anything. Enjoy!
The planet Cirula was beautiful. It was a third the size of Earth, and only one-fourth of it was water, with the rest mostly dominated by hilly land. It was very mountainous, and it also had its share of lakes and rivers and forests, but the Doctor had brought Donna to see the hills.
The grass was a pale violet colour, and it was long, so when there was a breeze, you could see the ripples distinctly as they spread across the grass. And it was breezy often on Cirula. Donna immediately loved it when they stepped out of the TARDIS onto one of the tallest hills on the planet.
They picnicked there, and the Doctor treated her to an ancient traditional Cirulian dish, something called a "wotgei." It was some greenish fruit smashed into a pulp and served in a bowl with a few spices that Donna couldn't identify. But it was good.
She didn't ask until she was almost finished, so involved was she in the dish—"So if this is a traditional dish, not just some fruit that grows here, there must have been people here at some point, yeah? So where are they?"
The Doctor shrugged. "They must be around here somewhere. We just haven't seen any."
Donna started swiping her finger around the bottom of the bowl for the last traces of wotgei. "Shame. This is an amazing dish. Didn't know you could cook."
He gave a crooked grin. "I can't. I bought these off a stall at the last intergalactic market we stopped at. Remember?"
She fingered the pretty bracelet that changed colour every twelve hours that she'd gotten there. "Oh. Can't say I'm surprised."
He set aside his bowl and stood up. "We can try to find them, if you want. I'm actually not terribly familiar with Cirula."
She raised her eyebrows. "You're not?"
The Doctor shrugged. "No one really is. It's a bit like Earth. Sort of isolated. They know that alien life exists but few Cirulians actually engage in interplanetary travel."
"But you're very familiar with Earth," she teased. "Just not this place."
"Right," he said with a small grin. "Shall we go?"
Donna climbed to her feet. "But of course."
They'd walked for at least an hour, maybe two. Donna had lost track. These hills gave her an overwhelming sense of peace, strange though they were. Neither of them had said much. The Doctor had seemed lost in thought, as he usually did if you left him to his own devices for long enough.
Eventually, though, they came to a small drop off, which of course hid a wall of rock that the Doctor was now examining with interest. Donna didn't know what he found so interesting about it. Eventually he took out his sonic screwdriver and began to scan the rocks. She'd waited for several minutes with rapidly thinning patience when finally she blurted, "What on Earth are you looking at?"
The Doctor looked up at her, eyebrows raised, and she caught herself, realizing the expression she'd used. "I've got to get out of the habit of saying that…"
He chuckled, and slid his screwdriver back into his pocket. "Something in here is giving off an energy signature. A lot of somethings, actually, but as to what they are, I haven't the foggiest."
Donna pursed her lips. "That sounds like the rock is hollow and there's a cave behind it."
He looked excited but crestfallen at the same time. Donna had no idea how he was pulling that off. "Exploring doesn't sound like a very wise idea, does it?"
She smiled at him. Sometimes he seemed almost childlike to her. "How would we even get through? This rock—" She leaned forward and rapped her knuckles against it twice "—you'd need a stick of dynamite."
The Time Lord nodded in acceptance and looked as if he were about to say something in reply, but, lo and behold, there was a low rumbling sound, and Donna felt the stone beneath her feet quaking slightly. Shaken with a sudden terror, she leaped off the rock and onto the lovely soft grass, grabbing the Doctor's arm to steady herself as a section of the stone wall crumbled in on itself, leaving an opening about a meter across, and twice as tall as it was wide. Donna stared at it breathlessly for several seconds before realizing that she was still holding the Doctor's arm. She released it and stepped away from him, but he wasn't even looking at her. He was staring openly at the hole with his eyebrows knit together and maybe Donna was imagining it, but she thought she saw a touch of trepidation in his eyes…
"Either that wall is the most unstable one I've ever seen or heard of," he said, finally turning his head to meet her eyes, "or something wants us in there."
Donna was immediately ready to back away, but just as immediately, the ground underneath her was just as stable as the wall and she slid and tumbled and fell forward through the rocks and the sand and the darkness.
A/N: Short and relatively uneventful first chapter, but things are about to pick up. Stay tuned!