"Meow," said the tortoise-shelled feline as Anna's fingers ran through her fur.
"You're such a sweetie, aren't you Vastra?" Anna smiled to the cat, as she looked up attentively at her human, "Yes you are! Yes you are! Yes you… you just wanted feeding this whole time, didn't you?" Anna realised.
"Meow," the cat agreed, as if to answer her question.
"Fine," Anna muttered, pushing herself from her favourite spot of her sunken-in sofa with all the force she could muster, as Vastra ran excitedly ahead towards the kitchen, occasionally pausing to check that her human was definitely still following her.
"Ewww… Vastra…" Anna gasped, clasping her hands over her mouth as Vastra purred proudly at the dilapidated chaffinch that hopped around the floor next to the food bowl. "You didn't even kill it…" Anna observed. She looked squarely at the adorable face of her cat, wondering how such a beautiful, innocent creature could commit such an atrocity. She was used to Vastra bringing in dead birds, but this poor specimen… did she take it outside and let the cat finish the job? Or maybe hide it away, in case the birdie, by some miracle, flew away with its one remaining wing? Or maybe she should put it out of its misery? Could she kill it? Anna puked at the thought of wringing her bare hands around this innocent, vulnerable creature and gifting it sweet release of death.
A familiar sound graced the hallway. That wheezing. That wind which blew through Anna's jet black hair faster than the time she had almost been blown off the peak of Mount Snowdon. And the thrill of adventure that always followed it.
"Or maybe I could fly away somewhere, and return to this exact moment before having to make that decision," Anna decided, beaming away at herself.
"Meow," Vastra replied, rubbing at her leg anxiously.
"I'll feed you in a moment," Anna promised, skipping away to the blue box that now sat in her living room, "I just need to hop into the living room and then come back immediately."
"Anna!" greeted the grey haired man, peering out of the open blue door with one hand on the closed blue door like he always did, "You know biological stuff. I've found a little job for us to do."
"Saving the world?" Anna asked.
"Yes…" the Doctor replied, "Well… saving a world. Very dangerous business, so…"
"I'm in!" Anna beamed, hopping into the TARDIS immediately.
"When did you become so reckless?" the Doctor chuckled, snapping the one door shut and dashing towards the console.
"Five years ago," Anna smiled, "When I met you." The TARDIS began to groan into life as it always did. The Doctor shot her a quick smile, before scowling at the centre console as he carefully monitored the landing. As usual, the TARDIS came down on its destination with a slightly bumpy landing, forcing Anna against the railings around the edge as it stopped wheezing. But the Doctor was always in control of where he was going. Always.
Anna stood beside the Doctor at the mouth of the dense forest, her feet slowly becoming more and more damp in the long grass. A short-haired, stocky, human-looking woman stood upon a perch bellowing instructions through a mysterious alien contraption. After a short amount of examination, Anna quickly concluded that this device was essentially a loudspeaker.
"Experts – each group of you has been assigned at least two gunners depending on the size of the group." Anna glanced across at the two armed gunner standing beside her and the Doctor. On her nearside was a huge, bald, black man named Zinek, with biceps so large that Anna wondered why he bothered to carry a weapon at all. He almost completely hid the other gunner from view, a tiny woman named Cassana with pale skin and long, auburn hair with a full fringe; a calm, measured presence compared with the enormous muscle man standing beside her. Both held what looked essentially like antiquated hunting rifles, although Anna was assured that there was far more to them than that. The entire grassy meadow was a sea of brown and green, in accordance with the camouflage colours that everybody on the mission was required to wear.
"Do not at any time be with fewer than two gunners if in any way possible," the loudspeaker woman continued, "So that means if there are three gunners or fewer in your group, then you must not separate. If you find yourself with just one gunner because one has been lost, then it is vital that you head straight out of the forest."
"What can be so dangerous about this forest that needs all these precautions?" Anna whispered.
"You really don't know?" Cassana whispered back.
Zinek seethed a little. "How can you sign up for this without knowing how dangerous it will be?" he muttered.
"I don't know…" Anna paused, "I just… did… That's just what I do now." She glanced at the Doctor, who listened to the loudspeaker woman with a scowl across his brow.
"You have all been allocated a zone in the forest," the loudspeaker woman said, "Please take a moment to acquaint yourselves with exactly where it is you are going."
"Where are we going?" Anna asked.
"The deepest, darkest centre of the forest," the Doctor beamed, exchanging excited glances with Anna. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Zinek rolling his eyes inwardly.
"Whenever each individual group is ready," the loudspeaker woman concluded, "Make your way towards your zone. And good luck, comrades!"
"Right!" Anna concluded, "Let's see what we can find!" Abruptly, before anybody else in the field had moved, she took a step towards the woods. The Doctor followed her, proudly, with Zinek and Cassana close behind, both with their rifles outstretched in different directions, always cautious. With every step that Anna took, the light from the alien sun fell to the darkened canopy of the thick-trunked, leafy trees that made up the forest, until all that remained was a few shafts of sunlight occasionally catching her face as they tried desperately to penetrate the thick canopy above. Anna could remember when she first started travelling with the Doctor, how her heart would thump louder and louder inside her chest as she pressed further and further, as if to warn her: 'Danger! Danger!'
But not anymore. She always felt so safe now. As she had explained to Zinek, this was just what she did now. She travelled with the Doctor into the most dangerous heart of the darkest forest, and then return home neatly in time to feed her cat.
"Ewww!" Anna screamed, as a thick, grey, gloopy substance landed perfectly down the right side of her face, sliding coldly down her cheek and slipping onto her camouflage jacket. "Eww… what's this? Doctor?"
As the Doctor laughed to himself, Cassana explained. "Some of the remains of one of the predators must have been caught up in the branches of that tree," she said, "And then it landed on your face."
"You got a slider?" Zinek chuckled, for the first time of the entire trip.
"Shut up, Zinek!" Cassana chimed, "It's not pleasant!"
"Is it harmful?" Anna asked, already knowing the answer from Zinek's laughter.
"No," Cassana smiled, "Not in these quantities. Just… here… let me…" she delved into the side of her backpack, picking out a green cloth to wipe away the gunk.
"Thanks," Anna said.
"That's what we're here for," Cassana said, "To look after you, as well as to protect you."
"Here, pass me that," Anna said, receiving the cloth from Cassana's "We could bring that back as a specimen."
"Of course," Cassana said, "how thoughtful."
"And that's what we're here for," Anna explained, folding up the gooey cloth and placing it inside her jacket pocket.
The innermost section of the forest was so dark that, when standing behind a particularly large tree, Anna almost needed a torch just to see where she was going. As the three aliens around her appeared to see just fine, she said nothing. All she could do then was just to tread, one step at a time, hoping that she didn't walk into any kind of danger.
"Woah! Watch out!" Cassana cried, frightening Anna too far out of her skin to put another foot down .
Anna stared down at the ground before her. A pool of what looked like muddy brown water stretched around two metres in front of her, unexceptional for the most part, except for the dead face of a peach-skinned man, bobbing across the surface like a lillypad.
"Hello?" said the face, opening his eyes. Anna took a surprised step backwards, before catching her breath as she came to terms with what she was seeing. A floating, living face in a puddle. Just another thing to see when travelling with the Doctor.
"Hello," the Doctor said, kneeling down beside the pool, "What's your name? How did you end up like… this?"
"My name is Ponlock," said the face confidently, "Do you really not know how I ended up here?"
"My friend Anna and I aren't exactly from around here," the Doctor explained.
"Aaah, aliens!" Ponlock chimed, "We hardly ever get aliens coming to help us! So glad you guys came! Do you know how much a different perspective helps us to research the predators?"
"Oh, I do!" the Doctor replied.
"So what did happen to you?" Anna asked.
"Well," Ponlock explained, "when a predator dies, it leaves one of these swampy marshes where it landed."
"We call it a deadpool," Zinek interjected.
"Wow," Anna remarked, "What a name." Her response was met by four blank alien faces.
"It catches you when you step in it?" Anna guessed, trying to distract from her faux pas.
"Yes," Ponlock replied, his face falling sincerely, "and when a predator comes along… I'll… I'll…"
"It will consume him," Cassana concluded.
"Yes," Ponlock sighed.
"I am so sorry to hear that," Anna said, amongst the buzzing of the Doctor's sonic screwdriver examining the deadpool and the face that swam within.
"I was devastated when I first landed in here," Ponlock recalled, "I had so many plans, you know? So much more I wanted to do with my life. But since then I've seen the night three times now… no… four, maybe? I lose count. I've learned to appreciate rising and falling of the sun. The breeze of the trees. The songs of the birds. And the smell of the dew… mmmm… that morning smell…"
Anna glanced around the forest. The entire trip, she had become so fixated on their research, that she had forgotten to appreciate where she was. The alien forest was beautiful in its own way… the birds did sing very clearly and the sun poking through the trees summoned a concentrated warmth which radiated through her entire body. In the distance, a leaf fell from a branch, carried gently away by the light breeze until it landed softly against the dewy ground.
"I admire your optimism, Ponlock," the Doctor said, reading the side of his screwdriver intently, "It has been a pleasure to meet you. I am sorry for what has happened to you."
"Yes," Ponlock said, "I'm sorry too."
"But if it makes you feel any better," the Doctor said, "we have found some great readings from you. Did you know that these predators leave a tiny trace of ammonia behind after they die? Ooh… it looks like it increases gradually over time until there is nothing left."
"That explains the smell," Anna said, glancing at the sonic. "And what's up with that DNA reading from Ponlock? That is messed up!"
"I know!" the Doctor said, "Fascinating, isn't it?"
"I seem to remember the ammonia being mentioned by one of our previous experts," Cassana recalled, "But they had no idea how to measure this or turn it into anything useful…"
"Right here!" the Doctor beamed, "That's why we're here!"
"Wow," Ponlock gasped, "That could really push things along!"
"That's what Anna and I do," the Doctor explained, with a twinkle in his eye, "we jump onto planets across the universe, and we save worlds."
"And then you just leave like nothing has ever happened?" Ponlock asked.
"I have to feed my cat when I get home," Anna explained, "And do something about the bird she brought in."
"You guys are incredible," Ponlock said, "It has been such a pleasure to meet you too."
"Goodbye, Ponlock," the Doctor said, walking away from the deadpool.
"I'm sorry for what happened to you," Anna said, as she began to make tracks away from where Ponlock floated.
"Yes, you would be sorry," Zinek muttered, once they were sufficiently out of hearing range, "You nearly ended up joining him!"
"Ooh, that was a close one!" Anna chuckled.
"So close!" the Doctor cried, "You should be more careful, Anna!"
"I don't think either of you are taking this very seriously!" Zinek snapped. He towered over the Doctor and Anna, rigid as a post, his face and his biceps a picture of disapproval. "Do either of you two clowns have any idea what kind of danger you are putting yourselves in just by being here? Do you? Did seeing that face floating in that deadpool not ring that home to you?"
"I know we'll be fine," the Doctor said.
"How?" Zinek asked, "How do you know? You claim to be experts, and I see that you are both incredibly clever, well done, but I very much doubt that you are doing anything right to keep yourselves safe!"
"How do I know that I am safe?" the Doctor asked, "Yes, it's because I'm clever! It's because I have such an intellect and such a knowledge of this universe that your tiny brain could barely begin to comprehend it! I am a Time Lord from the planet Gallif…"
"And what do you know about our forests?" Zinek asked, "Have you ever even seen these predators that we are supposed to be facing? Do you realise why it is that we even bothered with that pep talk before we went in, or why we have all these safety precautions in place?"
The Doctor walked onwards in silence. For several minutes, or what felt like several hours, all that could be heard was the singing of the birds, the breeze of the trees, and the footsteps of the four people as they explored the forest further.
"Which way do we go now?" the Doctor eventually said, as the clearest path began to fork in two opposite directions.
"That depends," Cassana explained, "There should be some perfectly intact samples of goo to the left. But if we want to take down a live one for experiments, then we're better off turning right.
"So we split up," the Doctor suggested, "One gunner to one expert. Cover both ends."
Zinek waved his arms frantically above his head. "Did… did you even listen to anything I said back there?" he asked, furiously.
"Yes, I did," the Doctor replied, "That's why I'm suggesting we have a gunner going each way to protect us."
"And if that gunner dies?" Zinek asked, "What then?"
"Well," the Doctor replied, stepping so close to Zinek that he could almost kiss him, "You'd better make sure you don't."
Zinek shook his head. "I can't allow it," he said, "Cassana and I will stay planted here until we can agree on a direction."
"Or what?" the Doctor asked.
"Or we will head straight back out of the forest, and any more research you could have gathered will be lost, and it will slow the process of fighting these predators, and it will all be because of you!" Zinek snapped.
"Doctor," Anna interjected. The entire group turned to face her. "Catch you later!" she cried out, rushing down the path to the right.
"In a bit, Anna," the Doctor replied, turning to walk the other way.
"Stop! Now!" Zinek ordered, "You can't be alone in the forest!"
"Then come with us," the Doctor cried, already a fair distance away, exchanging a quick chuckle between himself and Anna.
Zinek sighed, shaking his head disapprovingly. "Go after Anna," he said to Cassana, "I'll follow the Doctor. Maybe we can knock some sense into these fools."
"Maybe you're right," Cassana said, "Although I fear they may be too set in their ways."