The Garden of Glittering Lights
The Doctor lost control of the TARDIS for some reason and began spiraling out of space. He tried to gain control but as soon as he was about to crash land into what looked like a corn field, he was ejected out of the TARDIS. He hit the ground with a loud thump and groaned in pain. He stood up and looked around to gauge where he was at (he was too focused on gaining control of the TARDIS before he could see where he was about to land). It wasn't a corn field, but it was a field of tall, leafy plants. He couldn't tell what color they were because it was completely dark. Looking at the sky, he realized he wasn't in the same universe, the stars were all wrong. There were stars he had never seen before and he could see other galaxies in the sky, almost as if it was zoomed in on space. Okay, he thought to himself, let's see where I'm at.
He began to wander around aimlessly for about ten minutes. There were puddles of what seemed to be water all over the place. Suddenly, he heard movement. He reached for his sonic screwdriver and scanned the area for life forms. A human was nearby. He walked towards the human with caution, he wasn't sure if they were going to be violent or not.
"Hello, is someone there? I mean no harm," he called out into the void.
"Please," a voice whimpered, "I needed food for my family. I didn't mean to poach, I was desperate. Please don't turn me in."
The Doctor pushed aside a thick gathering of leaves and saw a man with a bloody knife in his hand. At his feet was a sheep-like creature. Everything looked like a normal sheep except it had two tongues sticking out and had a stout horn in the middle of its forehead.
"What kind of sheep is that?" The Doctor squatted down by it and scanned it, "It isn't coming up as a known species on my sonic."
"Sonic?" the man replied curiously.
"Yes, my sonic screwdriver, can sonic everything but wood. And apparently this creature," the Doctor stood up and tapped his screwdriver on his hand a few times.
"I-I don't understand sir," the man lowered his knife.
"Oh, never mind that, let's talk about this sheep," he gazed down at the animal, "Why does it have two tongues, and what's up with the horn on its face? I don't like not knowing things so the quicker you tell me the better."
"Well, you see sir, that's why I hunted it. It's not like the normal ones—they're called teleluxovis—it only has two tongues instead of three, and there's a horn on its face instead of another eye," he pointed out the various features with his knife, "it's a freak of nature so I felt like it would be okay if I hunted it, no one would miss it."
"Teleluxovis," he paced in a circle around the animal, "I've never heard of—" he soniced it again just to make sure. Still, nothing came up.
"Careful with that light, you might attract them," the man gestured to the screwdriver.
"Attract what?"
Before the man could answer, there was a popping sound and three people fell in a puddle nearby.
"Ron! You grabbed my hair!" a girl's voice screeched.
"Sorry, I just grabbed onto whatever I could. Better your hair than being grabbed by Wormtail," a boy responded. The girl scoffed.
"Guys, quiet, I don't think we're alone," a second boy's voice hushed them.
The three made their way to where the Doctor and the man were.
"Lumos," said the girl as her wand lit up.
The girl had wavy bushy hair and rather large buck teeth. She was wearing jeans and a purple cardigan sweater. Her face was covered in cuts and bruises and it could only be assumed that the rest of her clothed body was in the same state. The first boy was a tall, lanky red-head with freckles spotted all over his face. He too was covered in cuts, and there was a rip in the knee of his jeans. The third boy had unruly black hair, dazzling green eyes, round glasses, and an interesting lightening scar on his forehead. He had the most cuts out of them all, including a rather deep gash on his left cheek.
The five of them stood in a circle over the teleluxovis and exchanged glances. The girl was the first to speak,
"Erm, hello, I'm Hermione. Hermione Granger. This is Ron Weasley," she gestured towards the red head, "and this is Harry P—"
"Potter! Yes! I know all about you three! Good old JK! I didn't know it was actually real though!" the Doctor lightly shook Hermione by the shoulders.
"Erm, what?" Hermione said nervously.
The Doctor quickly changed his cheerful disposition into a more serious one, "Sorry, yes, nice to meet you. I'm the Doctor," he put his hand out to shake Hermione's but she just looked at him.
"Wherever you brought us Hermione, is full of madmen," Ron leaned to whisper to Hermione.
"I'm sorry, but Doctor who?" Harry asked.
"That is the question my boy!" he stepped back a few paces.
"How did you get here?" the man stared at the light being emitted from the wand.
"Well they apparated of course!" The doctor patted the man on the back.
"How did you know that?" ventured Hermione cautiously.
"And, how did you get here?" the man pointed his knife at the Doctor.
"TARDIS," he crossed his arms defensively.
"TARDIS?" Harry inquired.
"Time And Relative Dimension In Space, it's how I—"
"Oh! Your time turner! You're a time traveler!" Hermione smiled at her understanding.
"Ehhh, close enough," the Doctor uncrossed his arms and the man lowered his knife.
"This is the weirdest night I've ever experienced," said the man quietly to himself.
Hermione looked up at the sky, it wasn't right. She studied enough astronomy to know what the stars look like from any spot in the world.
"The stars, they're wr—"
"Wrong? Ooh you are the brightest aren't you! I-I mean, yes I noticed it too."
Hermione looked at the Doctor suspiciously and pursed her lips.
"Interesting," she squinted her eyes.
"Sorry to interrupt, but where exactly are we?" Ron leaned into the conversation.
"Good question, where are we—what was your name again?" the Doctor looked at the man.
"The name's Pauper," Pauper bowed slightly, "and we're in Yeswurn."
The four outsiders looked at each other. Harry, Ron, and Hermione had certainly never heard of a country called Yeswurn. The Doctor had never even heard of a planet with the name. They silently bounced ideas off of each other. Finally, the Doctor murmured something. He turned around a few times looking at the sky. He pulled out his sonic screwdriver from his pocket and pointed it towards the sky, attempting to scan it on multiple different settings. The buzzing noise from the screwdriver progressively got higher pitch and the light fluctuated from bright to dim. Finally, he confirmed his suspicions.
"Pocket universe," he said condescendingly.
"A what?" Ron slightly laughed, surely this man was mad.
"Pocket universe, a pocket universe is a—"
"Is a universe almost parallel to our own. If you think of our universe as a balloon, this is what happens when you twist the end of the balloon into a slightly smaller balloon. It's still part of the main universe, but only just. Or you can think of it as a tumor, but that's kind of condescending," she hugged her arm and glanced at Pauper.
The Doctor scrunched his eyebrows, "How did she—How did she know that?"
Harry and Ron shrugged.
Now that they knew what it was, both Hermione and the Doctor knew they had to escape before it was too late. Hermione used her wand to shine around the different areas surrounding them, but it was only tall, leafy plants.
"We're going to have to venture out," said Hermione looking off into the distance.
"Please, turn out your lights, it will only attract them," the man put up his hands in submission, begging them to turn out their lights.
"Attract what, exactly?" Harry's face throbbed as he spoke.
Suddenly, the man became very mysterious, his voice changed slightly and his eyebrows fell at an angle, "We are not allowed to speak of them. Just know they are very dangerous," Pauper took a step back.
"Well," Hermione scoffed, "how are we supposed to see them if we need to defend ourselves if we don't have any light?"
"Yeah, I agree with Hermione, we'll need to know when they, whatever they are, are coming," Ron stepped forward next to Hermione.
"You have been warned," said Pauper ominously.
The Doctor looked concerned at Pauper. He tried to riddle out what clearly wasn't a riddle but a clear statement to not have any light. He never liked pocket universes simply because he knew nothing about them. He gestured for the trio to follow him into the depths of the field. They walked in silence, with three wands alit, but nothing had attacked them thus far so they assumed they would be fine. Then they heard another pair of footsteps. The Doctor put his hand up to stop them from moving further. They all looked around carefully.
"Don't move," the Doctor whispered as a young woman appeared, "Erm, hello! I'm the Doctor."
She was a beautiful young woman with shoulder length, fiery red hair. She had blue eyes so light that they resembled ice. Her skin was flawless and a pale white. Her lips were pale, almost as if she was cold. She moved slowly and curiously. She stared at the Doctor dead in the eyes but seemed to get bored with him and moved towards Ron. She stopped at the tip of Ron's wand which was still illuminated and caressed the light. She began humming lightly as she held the light in her hands.
"Ron," the Doctor whispered, "turn out your light. Harry, Hermione, keep yours on. I want to see what happens."
The three nodded and Ron turned out the light.
Suddenly, a third eye opened in the middle of the woman's forehead. Her humming became a shriek and she opened her mouth and three tongues slithered out. Every tooth was fanglike. Ron screamed.
"Tu—"
"Turn out your light Harry," Hermione's wand dimmed.
"Run!" the Doctor ushered them to run away.
The woman stayed behind and let out a horrifying shriek as she arched her back backwards and her arms fell limp to her side. Then, she sprinted after the four of them.
Their faces were slapped with large leaves as they ran as fast as they could away from the creature. The Doctor pondered what happened, and then it clicked with him.
"She's a teleluxovis!" He shouted,
"A what?" Hermione shouted back, using her wand to shoot leaves out of the way.
"That animal that Pauper was hunting! The one he had was a mutant, so it probably couldn't shapeshift into human form!"
"I've heard legends about those!" Ron was shooting leaves as well, "They look kind of like sheep, until the night time when they shape shift into human form! They feed off of light energy! But they're only legend! They live in the Garden of Glittering Lights!"
Hermione scoffed, "How do you know about this and I don't?"
"Does that really matter right now Hermione?" Harry shouted.
"It always matters Har—ahh!" Hermione tripped over a rock. The three ran back to help her up, but she sprained her ankle and couldn't run.
"Erm, I'm pretty sure if you don't use any light you can hide here and we can come back for you," the Doctor suggested.
"Pretty sure? Pretty sure?" Hermione winced in pain as she tried to get up.
"No! There's no way I'm leaving her behind!" Ron stood in between Hermione and the Doctor.
"I just need to find my TARDIS and we can get out of here!" The doctor pleaded.
"We stay together," commanded Harry.
The four looked back and forth between each other, trying to figure out what to do next. In their panic, they had not realized that it had gone completely quiet. The frogs stopped croaking, the bugs stopped buzzing, the wind stopped rustling the leaves, a nearby creek stopped streaming, and suddenly, their heart beats slowed. They slowed until there was less than a pulse a minute. Hermione was the first to notice, she quickly pulled Ron down to her level and put her fingers on his neck. She held her fingers there for about a minute and a half before she felt a beat. One single beat. She tried to speak, to tell them that their pulses were slowing down, but her mouth wouldn't open. As hard as her muscles tried to open her mouth, they couldn't. It was like she had been glued shut.
She tried to scream. If they heard her scream muffled, maybe they would put together that she couldn't open her mouth. No sound came out though. She looked at the Doctor, surly he would know what was happening. The Doctor looked at Hermione and loudly whispered, "What's wrong?" Hermione looked at him and pointed to her mouth and nodded her head in frustration. He pulled out his sonic and scanned it.
"Nothing I scan comes up in this universe. We have to fix you, it seems they hunt the weak and right now you're the weak," he kneeled down to Hermione's level and held her shoulder.
"Fix her? What's wrong with her?" Harry kneeled as well.
"Her mouth won't open. Her vocal cords aren't working. And her p—"
"Her pulse is slow," the Doctor looked astonished at Ron as he said this, "I only know because she checked mine too. Mine is extremely slow. It sounds funny in my head, Doctor. What's going on"
"Hmm, yes. I see. Makes complete sense now. Ron, are you in love with Hermione?" the Doctor stood up and suspiciously pointed at Ron.
"Um, uh, I mean, um," Ron stumbled and stuttered.
"Yes he is," Harry chimed in. Ron looked at him funny, "What, Ron? It's completely obvious."
"What's happening is they cast umm how do I say this? They cast an enchantment on the one they're hunting. This enchantment causes the weak to become more weak," the Doctor kneeled back down and tried scanning Hermione again.
"Well then why is my pulse going slow?" Ron put his fingers to his wrist.
"My guess is that in this universe, those who are soul mates are connected physically as well. What happens to one, happens to the other, just at a slower rate."
Hermione nodded her head enthusiastically.
"Well of course you knew that Hermione, brightest witch of the age, yes?" the Doctor patted her head. She rolled her eyes.
Harry tried to think of a spell to use to help Hermione and Ron. He thought of Anapneo but the last time he tried that spell it did the opposite and started choking the person he tried it on. He sighed in despair. Hermione was the one good with spells, he couldn't understand why she wasn't using her wand.
"Hermione?" she looked at Harry, "Where's your wand?" She pulled out her wand from her pocket. "Try casting Anapneo or Reparifors." Hermione rolled her eyes and gave him an exasperated look.
"Harry, she can't speak, how is she supposed to cast the spell if she can't say it?" the Doctor brushed him off.
"Sorry, only trying to help," Harry shrugged.
Hermione's field of vision began to soften and close in on her. Each breath became difficult. Not impossible, but difficult. Her muscles felt weak. And just like that, she fainted. Ron rushed to her side and picked her head up out of the puddle. He tried to speak, but his mouth wouldn't open. He panicked and tried to pry his lips open, with no success. Harry tried to calm him down because he was making loud splashes that might attract the teleluxovis.
Footsteps started coming closer. The Doctor and Harry looked at each other and quickly tried coming up with a plan. They spoke at the same time.
"Stay here and fight them off," Harry said.
"Run," the Doctor stood up.
"If we don't stay I'll lose my two best friends," Harry argued.
"If we stay, we'll lose all of us," the Doctor leaned in closer.
They stared each other down until they heard a chorus of high-pitched screeching. It sounded like a whole herd of teleluxovis. Harry Pulled out his wand and the Doctor his screwdriver. They turned to face their approaching foes and took a deep breath.