The ride to the bottom of the canyon was, at first, fairly interesting to Amara and the breeze created when they moved was a pleasant relief. If Amara had known beforehand they were going to be hiking around a canyon on what felt like something in the high eighties, she would have worn shorts instead of her usual jeans. She was glad she still had on her lighter V-neck shirt and a pair of sneakers she knew would stand long distances. Then again, it's not like she woke up that morning thinking she would be whisked off by a time traveling… Well, she really had no idea what he actually was. He certainly looked human, but he had two hearts and pretty much told her he was not from Earth. Not to mention the time and space traveling box he seemed to be the sole pilot and crew of.

Just as Amara expected, the same powder blue mini skirt wearing woman stood near the front and center of the lift to talk and point out various things about the canyon on their way down. It was surprisingly similar to the history of the Grand Canyon. The woman cheerfully referenced the early history of the planet they were on, called Alexandria, and described how early land explorers found the canyon, tried to map it, and how they didn't always survive. The only part that really peaked an interest for her was when the lady mentioned very briefly the settling of the planet by early 'full blooded' human space travelers. Amara asked the Doctor about that and he told her that they were now around one-hundred and thirty thousand years from her own time; humans had started to spread out from Earth and naturally mingled along the way.

After about an hour of the historical and geological makeup of the canyon and how certain rock formations were thought to look like certain people, or aliens for all Amara knew since she had no clue who they were talking about, the tour guide announced they were going to speed up the lift and asked everyone to step back from the railings for safety purposes. Looking up, Amara saw that in that hour they had barely gone an eight of the way down even at the steady pace they had been going. On one hand, she was thankful they were speeding up, but then again she wondered what that would mean and had visions of rides she had been on at amusement parks where they lifted people up really high just to drop them in a free fall for a few seconds. She wasn't so sure she liked the idea of that.

"I love this part!" the Doctor said to her with a small excited bounce.

Looking around she saw everyone had obeyed the direction and took a couple steps in towards the center of the lift. Anyone who had come with someone else was also holding hands. Just as she noticed this, she felt his hand take hold of hers firmly. She gripped his in return more so out of reaction not sure what was about to happen. The tour lady walked past them to a pedestal in the back of the lift with just a few controls on its smooth stainless-steel looking slanted top repeating the safety warning before pressing a quick sequence. Almost immediately, the lift sped up. It was gradual at first, but then began to pick up speed until Amara could feel a slight weightlessness start to lift her and make her stomach flutter. Everyone on the lift seemed fine with it and a few smaller children were laughing, but it unnerved her as she watched the rocks and boulders whiz past closest to the sides of the lift—the safety warning making complete sense now. She plastered herself to the Doctor's side burying her face into his arm. She could have swore she felt him shake with a laugh, but she was more concerned with when the ride would be over. After a little while she could feel the breaks being put on and the weightlessness was replaced with the return of gravity pushing her feet, and stomach, firmly into the platform.

"Can I have my hand back now?" He asked into the top of her head. She looked up from where she had buried her face against him to see they were at the bottom of the canyon safe and sound. She hadn't even felt the platform 'land'. Everyone else was already moving to the front of the lift to get off and look around. She released his hand and stepped away feeling embarrassed.

"You two are adorable together!" The older woman from before fawned over them as she moved passed to exit. "Me and my Kinnely were like that too when we were your age. Weren't we, honey?"

"Hm, what?" The older man next to her hadn't been paying any attention at all. She gave him a swift swat on the arm.

"We're not together." Both Amara and the Doctor said at nearly the same time.

"Young love is so sweet!" She ignored them and continued on with the crowd.

"I can't wait until we're like that, sweetie-pie!" Amara teased batting eyes up at the Doctor. He simply scoffed with a shake of his head and pushed forward with the crowd. "By the way, you could have warned me."

"Where's the fun in that?" He shrugged. "I thought you would have enjoyed it."

"I love rollercoasters, but only when I know what's coming next." she explained.

"Again, where's the fun in that?" he asked.

"What was with holding hands?" she continued.

"You looked unsure." Was the simple reply.

"Thank you, but I saw everyone else doing it too. The lady only said to step back from the edge, but then everyone was holding hands like they were supposed to do it. That's why I kind of got freaked out." She admitted with a small twinge of embarrassment.

"There's an old, old, old, OLD legend about a Romeo and Juliet couple who leapt off the top of the canyon together. Typical young loves and their families said 'no' just because they didn't like each other. Although it was much less intense, and much less bloody, than the original story. They ran away one night, were followed by their families, and cornered in the canyon. He just grabbed her hand and they jumped!" The Doctor started explaining as they turned away from the direction the crowd was herding to follow the canyon wall.

"So everyone holds hands on the way down to mimic the couple that threw themselves off a cliff for love. That's just a bit morbid." Amara recapped.

"The thing is they survived!" He kept plodding on to where ever he was going. "They survived their leap of love all the way down to the very bottom of the canyon. Some call it a miracle they didn't hit the walls on the way down or simply go splat at the bottom. Some say that strong updrafts slowed their fall and maybe even made them float safely down. Some say they faked their deaths to escape their families. Some say it was because they managed to land in the lake."

"A lake? Yeah right! From that height, the speed of the fall would be like hitting solid concrete." Amara shook her head against the thought. As she was saying this, the path they were on once again opened up as it had at the top of the canyon to reveal a large lake. The shores were full of boulders and slabs of rock that had eroded from the canyon walls alongside small smooth water worn pebbles. The waters were a deep azure blue, but she could still see a long distance under them. Her eyes followed line of pebbles at the edge of the gently lapping waves underneath them and off into deeper navy blue depths. Across the lake, the other edges of the canyon cupped around it and at that distance they didn't look as if they were standing five miles down.

"Wow." Was all she could breathe at the sight.

"Show you a naturally made half billion year old canyon and you are more impressed with the two thousand year old man-made lake." He was clearly teasing her.

"That's man-made?" She pointed to the lake and realized it was the bits of water she had seen from above. Of course she had seen man-made nature before back on Earth, but the sheer scale of this lake was incredible. It was a land-locked sea more than a lake! For a moment she found herself wondering at what point does a lake become a sea. Did it have to do with overall size, volume of water, or just what people decided to name it?

"Yup, one hundred percent artificial! Right down to the water in it. That's not rain water—of course it's not!—this area of the continent barely even gets 1/10th of an inch of rain every few years or so. Nowhere near enough to collect this much even after two thousand years. Well, maybe a tiny bit of it is rain water, but there's not even any rivers feeding it." He approached the edge of the water to pick up a pebble and attempt to skip it. 'Attempt' was the right word because the ball shaped rock skipped only one and a half times before slipping beneath the water. Amara could follow it all the way down as if she was only looking through a distorted window instead of water.

"But you said this was all carved by water." Amara corrected.

"Yes, and it was, but that's long since dried up. This lake was a failed attempt at restoring that river, but lucky for them it added to the tourism anyway. What other canyon do you know that has a lake nearly the size of a sea?" He had found another pebble, but it also quickly fell to the bottom.

"Here." She started to look around her feet and quickly found what she needed. "It needs to be flatter and a little oval to skip the best. Also, flick your wrist and aim to just nick across the surface." She showed off the two inch long disc she had found before flinging it across the surface managing nearly eight skips.

"Nice!" He complimented before looking for the appropriate shaped rock to try again.

"When my dad took us camping, me and my sister would try to see who can skip the most. She would always say it was unfair because I was older and that somehow gave me an advantage." She laughed a bit at the memory of it. "Then my dad would take one and skip it all the wall across the river!"

"Show off!" the Doctor laughed and skipped his new and improved pebble. Amara lost count as it quickly bounced far away before finally sinking; this time being way too far off to follow it down into the depths.

"Excuse me, who's the show off?" She smiled.

"Hey! Stop disturbing the lake!" A man shouted at them as he came from the path they had. He was definitely past his middle age, but not quiet old yet. Long dark brown hair that was peppering with age at the temples was pulled back into a pony tail that reached the top of a thick belt that held up beat up and dusty pants. He had no shirt on to reveal the slightest bit of age starting to pull at his skin and muscles on his sun leathered lean body, but otherwise he looked in top shape. A way past five o'clock shadow roughed up the lines of his face. Overall, he appeared to be the color of the canyon itself and Amara couldn't tell if it was a layer of dirt and dust or if he was carved from it.

"Fred!" the Doctor called happily to him causing the man to stop and squint at him for a moment before his dark eyes widened in surprise.

"Well, I'll be!" The dirty man, Fred, continued on at a friendly stroll until he was close enough and grabbed the Doctor's hand shaking it heartily. "How have you been?"

"Fine, just fine." the Doctor smiled letting Fred shake and jostle him.

"God, it's been years! Look at you! Why is it that you only seem to get younger while I get older? How fair is that? Come on, share your secrets!" It was a good natured ribbing.

"You don't look too bad yourself." the Doctor looked him over.

"It's the Canyon, keeps me young and fit!" Fred gave his chest a swift pat with a proud smile.

"I do hope you're still giving your famous tours." the Doctor said.

"In a few minutes, but first, aren't you going to introduce me?" Fred was eyeing Amara. She smiled politely, but felt unnerved by his eyes raking up and down her.

"Amara." She introduced herself maintaining the polite smile, but she didn't offer her hand hoping he also wouldn't. However, he did and she took it just to be nice. She tried to give the hand a normal quick shake, but he turned his hand up in hers so that she was forced to bring the top of her hand near his mouth.

"It's a pleasure." He waggled eyebrows at her before planting a quick kiss to her knuckles. She resisted the urge to wipe the back of her hand on her jeans in front of him. "That made my day so much better, and now I have a tour to run. You both are coming, right?"

"Of course!" the Doctor smiled.

"All right! You know where we meet, be there in about five minutes while I gather everyone else." And with that Fred turned and left the two alone again. Amara took the chance with Fred's back turned to finally wipe her hand off.

"Yeah, sorry about that. Fred, well, he just doesn't get out of the canyon much." the Doctor apologized to her.

"He's the Fred of Fred's Tour? Seriously?" Amara whined at the thought of having to spend an 'intimate tour' with him.

"He's not all that bad! Besides, this is about the canyon, not him." The Doctor said and started for the path. Amara sighed and followed. She knew she shouldn't judge a book by its slimy cover, but Fred hadn't made the best first impression on her. It wasn't the way he was dressed, how he looked, or even really that he had tried to hit on her. She couldn't tell why, but he rubbed her the wrong way to the point that she wanted to tell the Doctor they should think twice about taking the tour. She didn't though and just followed him starting to get the feeling that this was how it would be. He would lead and she would follow, even if she wasn't always comfortable with it.