Clara chuckled and began to walk aimlessly around the trees, looking at all the new plants and bugs. There were some that looked like beetles from back on Earth but they were different colors. Some were even changing colors every time Clara blinked. She took in the scenery and loved how the plants weren't only green but had a faint purple tint to it. It was beautiful.
The Doctor locked up the TARDIS and started to follow her around as she explored. He began excitedly pointing out all the different organisms around "That's a Feldorian lynch beetle, there like the fire ants of this planet, nasty buggers." Noticing another bug that looked like a worm but with curved spines and a horn, he pointed and exclaimed, "Ah! And that's a Battering Worm. They literally batter their way into trees and enemies like a battering ram. But they are a lot purplier that I remembered…in fact…" The Doctor stopped and an expression of concern fell over his face. "Clara."
Clara didn't hear the Doctor the first time. She was too busy staring at an unusual flower. The flower was purple and it seemed to pulse. Every few seconds or so, a small wave of light purple would radiate from the center of each petal and continue throughout the rest of the flower. The pulses would overlap and make interesting shapes on the plan's surface. But what was truly odd about it was that it was losing petals almost every second but it would instantly began growing new ones, only to have them fall off. "Doctor, come and see this. This flower is losing its petals like mad and it's…" She turned around and was face to face with the Doctor who was looking at her with a stern face.
"Pulsing" Doctor said in a low whisper.
"Yes, it's pulsing. Look." Clara turned and pointed at the flower which was still rapidly losing its petals.
The Doctor slowly walked over and rubbed his fingers along the petals of the flower before they fell off. He then swiftly plucked the flower from the tree branch it was growing on. Even though it wasn't attached to its roots anymore, the flower continued to lose and regrow petals. It did, however, cease to pulse.
Clara walked up slowly and stood at his side staring at where the flower had been. "Doctor, look. It's growing back."
The Doctor looked down and watched as an identical flower grew in the exact spot as the other. The flower blossomed in under thirty seconds. Unlike the other one, this one did not lose petals instantaneously. It began pulsating almost instantly and this time, the pulses radiated throughout the flower and continued onto the neighboring flora.
The Doctor looked back at his flower, which was still alive in between his fingers. "That is odd…very odd indeed."
Clara looked up at the Doctor, "Wait, you mean that's not supposed to happen?" Suddenly, the flower in the Doctor's fingers dissolved into purple smoke and drifted away. The Doctor followed the smoke as it drifted upward and eventually dissipated. "No Clara, it's not…not since the last time I was here…" The Doctor started to slowly look around at the rest of the trees.
Clara followed suit. She could faintly see the pulsing occurring in all the trees around her, even the leaves on the tree tops were steadily pulsing the same light purple waves. "How long has it been since you were here? And what isn't supposed to happen? The pulsing or the smoky flower?"
"Neither should be happening or maybe it just wasn't happening before. Last time I was here, it was eighty years ago. Well, eighty for the planet, about two hundred for me…maybe I just didn't notice but…"
The Doctor started feeling leaves and other plants at random. He placed his hand on various tree trunks and closed his eyes. He opened them and without taking his eyes off the sky of foliage, he continued, "Planets usually don't change this rapidly in eighty years. The trees are giving off a sort of energy transmission that I can't pin point"
He slipped his hand into his jacket and pulled out the sonic screwdriver. He pointed it at the tress and activated it. It let off its normal vibrations and after a second, the Doctor flipped it and looked at the readings.
The Doctor began to examine one of the beetles he had pointed out before which was flying by his face. He plucked it from the air and held it in between his fore finger and thumb. "For example…these beetles didn't have wings before…" The Doctor dropped the beetle and it started buzzing. Wings came out of its back and it flew away.
Suddenly, in midair, the beetle turned into a drop of purple liquid and dropped to the ground. It spattered on the leaves and instantly, reformed into the beetle but this time, the beetle had a horn attached to its head.
The Doctor pointed the screwdriver at it and read the readings again, his face becoming even more puzzled than before.
The Doctor and Clara, who had walked over to stare at the bug, watched in awe as it flew away. "And things usually don't evolve that quickly…" he said in a soft whisper, still staring at the screwdriver. Clara was still watching at the bug when the Doctor, put the screwdriver back in his jacket, grabbed her hand and started pulling her through the forest. "Doctor, where are we going?"
The Doctor looked back and gave her a smile, "We're going to see the volcano!" He laughed and ran even faster. Clara smiled back but she couldn't stop herself from looking up at the foliage above. To her, it seemed to pulse even more.