First ever fic, hurrah!-i don't even know anymore. Thank you for giving this a go and , if you can, please leave reviews and constructive comments and such so I know what I stuffed up or to just simply boost my confidence or whatever... anyway thanks again! :)
The luminous crescent moon floated in the pool of azure sky, there's not a cloud to be seen. The encompassing glitters of the distant galaxies shone brightly tonight and by the gods, it was a beautiful time to go stargazing. But in the far horizon, a hazy blue figure floated amidst the cold atmosphere. From the far planet ground below, it would take quite a time and concentration to spot the shape, for painted on was the bluest of the blue, but not as dark as the navy heavens (It's just hard to spot altogether, really.)
Inside the bobbing police box called a man to his companion, "Coping there, Pond?"
"Coping?" answered an irritated Scottish lady's voice which can be dangerous. "Coping?! Do you have any idea how ridiculous coping sounds in this sort of situation?" Amy Pond of Leadworth scoffed, clinging for her dear life at one of the metal side-bars, trying not to fall off could her becoming-sore arms can carry her. The TARDIS had stopped dead in the air, way far above ground, as I have probably mentioned. And what's worse was that she slanted to one side, doors wide-open and systems off, putting everyone in her in a dangerous position.
"Hanging sideways is fun." chimed the Doctor, gritting his teeth, on the other side of the console. He had his one arm around a railing and his other holding the fizzing sonic screwdriver that he waved up and down towards the console before studying it like a wide-eyed 5th grader you analyzing your mathematics test paper.
"It's like…it's like monkey bars…" he went on, not taking his eyes off his trusty instrument. "But with the danger of falling. Hundreds and hundreds of feet above the ground. Solid, solid ground…Cheer up, Amy; it is a good workout for the arms. Say, where is Rory?"
"In…the toilet,"— to this the Doctor muttered "Oh, goodness help him"— "but Doctor, this is gonna tear off my arms!" Amy fumed. Sweat rolled down her cheeks, her hands started sliding off the bar. She glanced down in terror to see dots of light, small building structures in the green forest stretched at the side of a high-tide beach, waves rapidly push and pulling with a few scattered rocks around, sticking out like big chunks of ingredients in a soup.
"Just about right- er, hang in there," Amy heard the Doctor say, his voice seemed to have come from the base of the console room. "Just fixing the stabilizer core and fission-fusion chambers which should work if I just connect-"
"Doctor!" Amy shrieked. Her hands fully slid off the railings and she too skimmed down path, her boots screeched against the floor. Her feet had reached the open air when the engine sounds and the bright lights went on and the TARDIS came to life and straightened up briskly, halting Amy only just in time. Amy gripped the doorway so tight she might have dug her carefully painted nails in it; her breaths came out shaky and her hair bewildered, not to mention her heart pounding vigorously against her rib.
"You alright?" called the Doctor apologetically, grinning nervously. He came up to the console to see her sitting casually by the front doors, her back rising up and down rapidly so he could tell she was breathing hard. "So sorry about that."
She stood up and walked up to the console rigidly and as fast as her wobbly knees can carry her. She leaned with both hands against it and gaped up the TARDIS. "Don't ever, ever do that again," she quaked.
The Doctor nodded, half-grinning, and was about to mention Rory when, speak of the devil, he heard sticky footsteps behind him. Amy glanced at the direction and her eyes widened even more while the Doctor slowly turned around to see a soaking wet Rory and certainly not looking so pleased.
"Okay, so I went in the toilet for one minute and the next thing I know: everything is not going to where they're supposed to. What happened?"
The Doctor swallowed. "The fusion devices that enables us to travel through space sort of, er, collided with each other, flinging us to wherever we are now- which we'll then find out later- and it also interrupted the internal energy, disabling the main stabilizers in here and shutting some of the old girl's systems up for a moment."
Rory started to speak when he closed his mouth and nodded knowingly. "I'll just…" he gestured towards his damp clothes, turned around and went off. Finding out of what happened didn't make him feel any more assured.
The Doctor turned back to Amy and said pleasantly, "Shall we land?"
Annabeth held up the report card in her hands dangerously swiftly and close to his face. "What's this?" she said and by the tone of her voice, he could tell she was scowling.
"Uh, my Camp report card…?" Percy answered innocently.
"I know what it is, Seaweed Brain," She rapped the card in his arm and he caught it. "I meant your Ancient Greece! Of course I knew you wouldn't care less for Archery, which you totally owned, but your Ancient Greece is a disgrace. Son of one of the big three Greek gods and you've managed to translate an ancient English citation to a Greek 'I tripped an old badger by his foot and gave him tea.' one. Really, Percy?" She said it all very quickly, trying not to laugh.
"Wait, how'd you know?" marveled Percy about his failed Greek translation she had just quoted, his eyebrows arched.
"It says there in the card."
"Chiron just had to mention it. Maybe you could give me private lessons again?"
Apparently, Annabeth was having none of it. "Or maybe you should focus more to it and less than talking to horses and fishes and whatever." She stormed off towards the beach, carrying a large sketchbook and a pencil case with her.
Soft breeze brushed pass their skins and the voice and smell of the salty waves splashing was ahead of them. Percy glanced at his watch: 7:39 in the evening.
"Okay give me a break, Mom," his utter sarcasm made Annabeth scoff and increase her pace. Percy stopped in his tracks for a moment and let out a frustrated groan to the sky. Sometimes Annabeth's strong and firm characteristic can be admirable and it did save their lives couple of times during their previous quests. But at times, it just drives him nuts.
Together they sat comfortably on the wooden porch, with all the night sky bathed with shining stars above them. Annabeth sketched and sketched buildings and temples and Percy thought she looked so…professional.
Annabeth caught him gazing at her. "What are you staring at?"
"What? Oh, I was just staring at your art works." He lied openly. Annabeth smiled and flipped through the pages of her book promptly, showing him right from the first page.
"I'll take that as a compliment. Although I still have a lot to learn and don't say I don't."
Catching glimpses of pictures and sketches; some finished and coloured. Percy stared in awe until she came to a page that caught his attention. He reached out and brought Annabeth to a stop from flipping through another page.
Startled, Annabeth looked up and said "What?"
"That box…" he muttered.
Annabeth shrugged and explained, "Oh, that? Rachel kind of helped me with that not a week ago. Kept bringing it up that she sees visions of it often and gave me the visuals so might as well draw it for fun. She didn't tell Chiron about it because she thought it might just be her ability just mixing up."
She touched the detailed borders of her drawing. It was indeed a blue box- a police box to be precise- with a background of thick green trees. It stood beside a pine tree that greatly resembled Thalia's former self.
What bothered Percy was that he'd only just dreamt of the same object of vision as Rachel, their oracle, last night and was surprised to find it in Annabeth's sketchbook. This could have meant something.
His deep thoughts and their moment was interrupted by a firm voice behind them.
Clarisse La Rue spoke up in an urgent manner, "You two lovebirds get up. We're needed up the Hill."
They both got up abruptly but he couldn't resist the manner to ask questions before Clarisse shushed him off and urged them to follow her quickly. Only then did they notice that she was carrying a javelin, indicating how alarming whatever the situation was. They jogged and pushed pass curious campers, young and old, from every cabins. When they neared the pine tree, this time Annabeth demanded information, "What's going on?"
Clarisse smirked and simply replied "You'll see."
Where the guarding dragon Peleus should be sleeping, stood the smoking blue box and its wheezing groaning sound replaced the dragon's loud snoring for a moment. Thin fog escaped the bottom of its doors; yellowy light shone through the windows and the polished label that said 'POLICE BOX'.
One tree nymph said spitefully, "That thing nearly brought couple of our young trees down…" She paused and shook her head. "It appeared out of nowhere!"
Beside her, Chiron, who towered over the little nymph, trotted closer to it. "Any ideas what it might be? And no snide comments, please, I know it's a police box."
Rachel appeared next to Annabeth with eyes wide open; a look of familiarity to the box occupied her face. She and Annabeth and Percy exchanged a glance at each other before Rachel spoke up, nodding towards the old thing. "Chiron, I-I had visions of it. Almost a week ago and often that time."
"And I also dreamed of it last night." Percy chimed in, to which Annabeth glanced at him that might have said Why didn't you tell me?
Chiron nodded knowingly. "Dionysus said he'll be along. Not every day do we get a blue box appearing out of thin air here in Camp."
There was a moment of silence, then silent gasps and murmurs when the door shook and slightly, just ever so slightly, started to open. Clarisse and couple of armed campers gripped their weapons tight, nymphs scrambled back to their trees and everyone else readied themselves for whatever might come out of the innocent-looking box.
Amy let out a stifled gasp and froze right on the spot. If she could've taken one more step forward, she would probably have had her right foot bitten off, for in front of her was a long, curled up dragon with scales the colour of copper, glistening under the lights of the TARDIS. The Doctor and Rory, too, stopped in their tracks.
The Doctor nearly clapped his hands together as a mannerism during these kinds of circumstances when he stopped himself from making any noise that might wake the reptile. "So, we have materialised around a sleeping "dragon", that's new. Love new, new is good. Mind you, it is a bit disturbing though."
"A bit disturbing?" exclaimed Rory to the Doctor before turning to Amy saying "Amy, step away from it," in a cautious and whispered manner.
Amy nodded vigorously. "I am! Doctor, how are we going to move it out?"
The Doctor smiled hopefully. "No idea, but listen, it'll probably hear us out and maybe we could get to a nice agreement if we just…tell it to move? I don't know! Never really encountered the problem of having one in the TARDIS before." He pondered for a while and looked at the dragon-like creature intently. It might probably just a dinosaur, or a really big alien reptile. But whatever it was, it was too long and big for a modern reptile. Where are we this time, eh? He wondered fondly.
"Amy, Rory, I'm going to check outside where we are. Keep our friend…comfortably safe." He gave an encouraging smile and thumbs up before Amy and Rory could even protest, though they had started to but decided otherwise.
The Doctor toddled towards the doors as quietly as possible. He neared the door. He touched the door and started pushing it, catching a limited glimpse of the outside when suddenly…
THONG!
The noise the TARDIS made, as if she was being hit from the outside, echoed off her walls and reached the dragon's ears — thinking about it, the Doctor wondered why the dragon hadn't woken up in the first place but putting that aside— Whatever the case, the fatal-looking reptile opened his yellow eyes and rose from his slumber.
It growled, looking around intently at his alien surroundings. His eyes focused on the console just beside him filled with shiny buttons, levers and goodness knows what a tamed dragon could tell. But this is definitely not the pine tree.
He turned to the odd and skinny man by the door. He growled under his breath, thin smoke coming out from his nostrils. The Doctor grinned in the friendliest way he could make at the creature and he said calmly, "Hi. Would you mind if you move out?
