Rose sat there for a moment alone. Not even the cloaked man was around. Thoughts flew through her head. She was supposed to have the Doctor back, Jack at her side and they were supposed to happily stroll back to the Tardis. Of course apparently she had forgotten who she was, who they were, and most importantly how they lived. With a sigh Rose got to her feet. She was alone. So bitterly alone. This isn't fair. It's never fair. She knew it wasn't fair. Aliens, and humans alike. No matter the species they were never fair. They were always unfair. Harsh and unfair. Never listened. With a grunt Rose looked around before locating the tallest mountain on the planet. She found it with ease. It was tall, with clouds floating around the peaks. It didn't look to be too far away and it was a beautiful bluish grey color.
"Seriously, there isn't even a little bit of this that's fair," Rose said out loud with a frown. She started to walk towards the mountain. She had confidence but not that much. She's just a puny human. A stupid primitive ape as the ninth Doctor put it. What could she do? Suddenly, a little bunny hopped up. It was adorable, with its long floppy ears, light pink fur, and its cute little light pink eyes. You might think that it would look a bit creepy but really, the bunny didn't.
"Hi there," Rose said with a smile, kneeling down to look at the cute little intruder of her thoughts. "What's your name?" The bunny's nose twitched softly and the bunny looked up as if to regard her.
"Strawberry," a tiny voice said. It was more like a small squeak but it was easy to tell that it was a little girls voice speaking.
"Well, hi there Strawberry. I'm Rose. We are both named after plants. Maybe we are related," Rose said, flopping down onto her back which allowed the little bunny to climb up onto her stomach. The bunny happily climbed up and then went up to Rose's face the whiskers tickling her cheeks. Strawberry giggled and then rolled around playfully.
"So Strawberry. My friends have been kidnapped, and I'm all alone," Rose said, slowly.
"I don't have friends," Strawberry squeaked. "They've all gone." Rose felt a little bit of sorrow for the poor little bunny. She didn't know how the bunny could talk but she also didn't really understand how cotton candy could ever be lethal. So… You know….
"You want to hang out with me. I've got to go save my friends and I could use some company," Rose asked the little bunny. The pink fluff ball rolled off of Rose's stomach and into the green grass.
"Yeah, yeah!" She exclaimed hoping excitedly. "Where are we going?" She asked after hopping around the grass in circles for a while.
"Over to that mountain. It's the tallest mountain on this planet. Do you see it?" Rose asked, pointing up at the mountain. Strawberry nodded eagerly and Rose laughed. "Let's go then."
"Are we there yet! Are we there yet!" Strawberry squealed bouncing up and down as the pair neared the bottom of the mountain. Rose smiled at the overactive fluff of bunny. The little thing was so…. Everywhere it was almost like having a little sister around.
"Not quite. Almost though. We just need to go to the top and find a cave," Rose explained with a smile. In reply Strawberry bounced up and down some more, before jumping over to a rock that was lying on the mountain.
"Is that a cave? Oh! Oh! I think I can see your friends!" Strawberry exclaimed. The bunny stuck her head under the rock and pulled out a few pebbles with her mouth. "Hi! Hi! I'm Strawberry! What's your name?" Strawberry asked the pebbles, Rose laughed and was about to explain that those weren't her friends but Strawberry interrupted her.
"Oh? Ok. So you're Captain, and you're Doctor," Strawberry said and Rose blinked, twice.
"How did you know that, Strawberry?" Rose asked, with a new upside down smile on her face.
"Your friends told me," Strawberry replied, pretty much eating the pebbles and then spitting them out onto her back. "Ok, everything's packed and ready to go."
"Strawberry-" Rose started, about to tell Strawberry that the pebbles weren't her friends but she couldn't bring herself to tell the poor thing. "Um, we have to keep going up the mountain because these aren't all of my friends," Rose said, motioning up to the top of the mountain with her chin.
"Kay!" Strawberry all but squealed, before going off and muttering a bunch of nonsense to her new friends that still stayed nestled in the fur. They walked up to an edge on the mountain and Rose realized she would need to climb up. Knowing that Strawberry couldn't climb, she picked up little Strawberry and put the small animal up on the ledge. Then she carefully climbed up putting her feet and hands into each crevice in turn.
"Rose, Rose, Rose, Rose, Rose, Rose. Where are you Rose? Rose, Rose, Rose where are you! Rose, Rose, Rose! What happened to you? Rooooose!" Strawberry called suddenly.
"Yes, Strawberry?" Rose called up, Strawberry wasn't too far but she still felt the need to call up.
"Oh, Rose. You're ok?" Strawberry called down poking her little head down. Her nose twitched right in front of her face, because Rose was that close to the ledge that Strawberry was on. "Oh hi!"
"Hello, Strawberry," Rose replied with a smile. Strawberry then jumped off the ledge and landed on top of Rose's head. Careful not to tilt her head to much, Rose lifted herself up with all her mite, and pulled herself onto the ledge, without hardly breaking a sweat. Strawberry, who was still on Rose's head jumped off it and onto another ledge that wasn't too high up. There were about 5 or 6 more ledges to go and then they had to hike the rest until they got to the cave near the very top.
"Rose? Rose? Rooooose!" Strawberry called once again from the ledge she was on. With a grunt and a laugh Rose climbed up this ledge with ease, because it had bigger crevices to hold onto.
"Yes Strawberry?" Rose asked, looking down at the mammal.
"Are we there yet?" She asked with wide, and attentive eyes.
Rose looked up, to see that she had one more ledge to climb. This climb had taken way longer than expected. She had thought it would only take give or take twenty minutes but in reality in had taken about an hour and Strawberry wasn't being helpful. All she did was talk to her pebble friends and then whenever Rose put her on a ledge she acted as if Rose had completed disappeared.
Rose, took her time with this next ledge because believe it or not they were high up, not extremely high yet, but high. The wind whipped Rose's hair around like it were paper in the wind and the mountain seemed to sway whenever Rose looked up, so Rose decided to keep her gaze focused on the rock in front of her more than anything else.
Rose could just hear Strawberry calling for her, with some confusion. To be honest Rose wasn't that far down actually, Strawberry was on her head again, but Strawberry was just that oblivious when it came to seeing things. Maybe she just needs glasses, Rose thought with a laugh. It would make sense except she didn't really know if bunnies needed glasses….
Ignoring that last thought Rose lifted herself up onto the ledge, panting. Strawberry jumped off her head and looked at Rose with those big curious eyes.
"Are we there yet?" She asked sweetly.
Slowly, Strawberry and Rose trekked up the mountain. They were both tired, and both really wanted to sleep. But Rose wanted more than anything to get to the top of this mountain, into the cave, and save her friends from whatever crazy 'thing' was around.
She could feel her motions slowing but she still kept on moving, aching step after aching step. Suddenly, Rose tripped on a crevice in the past. She huffed out air, and put her hands in front of her, pushing up so that she was sort of hanging there in the air face to face with a tired, but hyper at the same time bunny.
"Are we there yet?"
After walking for about an hour, Rose could tell that they weren't far from the cave. She walked while she listened to Strawberry talk about her old friends.
"-So Kandy is smaller than me, younger too. Her fur is about the same color as mine, except hers is unnaturally purple. See her mommy, Raspberry is pink, and her daddy, Rasper is blue. So when she was born she came out purple instead of blue or pink. Of course almost all the bunnies made fun of her but not me, Lemonade, and B.R. Lemonade and B.R are my best friends. Lemonade is pink like me, and B.R is blue. My mommy and daddy are both green so we don't know where my pink fur came from but that's ok. I just. I don't know why they all left," Strawberry ended, with a small frown. She looked sad for the first time today.
"I'm sure they didn't leave you purposely Strawberry. I bet you're looking for you right now," Rose assured. Strawberry looked up at her, with a thoughtful smile.
"You promise?" Strawberry asked.
"Yeah. I promise," Rose replied.
"Rose?" Strawberry asked after a while. About ten minutes to be exact.
"Yes?" Rose asked her.
"Are we there yet?"
They walked some more in silence. It had been who knows how long. Rose stopped keeping track a long time ago.
"Rose?" Strawberry asked, with a small smile and new found hop to her step.
"Yes?" Rose asked, for what felt like the millionth time.
"Are we there yet?" Strawberry asked.
"No, not yet," Rose replied, looking at her feet as she walked.
"But you said we were going to a cave and there is a cave right in front of us, and there are people in cages in the cave," Strawberry said, sounding genuinely confused. Rose looked up and saw what she was talking about. A cave with Jack and the Doctor in each cage. Not to mention a horde of bunny in one of the cages.
"Doctor? Jack?" Rose asked, her lips slowly turning into a smile.
"Rose?" They both called at the same time. Strawberry looked into the cave at the back and her eyes squinted.
"Rose? How do those people know you?" Strawberry asked, hiding behind her leg.
"It's ok, Strawberry. These are my friends," Rose said with a smile, looking around. She could see a huge golden key hanging from the ceiling and she snagged it, and then ran and opened all the cages.
"Rosie!" Jack said, attacking her with a giant hug. Rose laughed hugging him back.
"Rose!" The Doctor explained, pulling her into a hug too. They all hugged tightly when suddenly Strawberry was attacking the back of Rose's leg.
"I want in! I want in! Please. Please. I want in!" Strawberry begged. Rose laughed and picked up the fur ball.
"Guys this is Strawberry," Rose introduced, showing them the pink fur ball. They both looked down at the bunny and the Doctor picked the little bunny into his arms.
"Hey little Strawberry. How are you?" The Doctor asked.
"Hi! Hi! Hi! Hi! Hi!" Strawberry squealed and then hopped into Jack's arms. She looked up into his eyes.
"Hello. My name is Captain Jack Harkness," Jack announced. The Doctor grunted, and looked distastefully at Jack.
"She's a bunny Jack. Don't flirt with bunnies."
"First of all, I only said 'hi' secondly the bunny breaths doesn't it?" Jack asked with a signature Harkness smile.
"Ugh. Enough of this right now, guys. We have to go to the Tardis right now, ok?" Rose urged.
"Come on guys! Let's go! Let's go!" Strawberry encouraged, hopping up and down.
"Yeah, let's listen to the magical talking bunny," Jack grunted, as we all started to follow the bunny.
"Rose? You got this one?" The Doctor asked Rose, and Rose sadly shook his head.
"You know how just before we came here I was in the middle of a book?" Rose asked, quizzically.
"Yeah," the Doctor asked, not following clearly.
"I was just getting to the part in the book where they talked about the planets unique wildlife," Rose explained, with a tongue-in-tooth smile.
"Oh! Oh…" The Doctor said, with a hand on the back of his head.
"Yeah," Rose said with the grin still on her face.
"What are they doing?" Strawberry asked, with a frown on her face as she looked at Jack.
"What do you mean little tiny bunny?" Jack asked crouching down as if to see her better.
"I mean why don't they just do the lip touching thing already?" Strawberry asked. Jack picked her up in his arms and laughed while Rose and the Doctor both had their faces turning to Rose's namesake.
"Ok so now we have to go to the Tardis. Yeah?" Rose asked, in an attempt to change the subject.
"Ok, so where are we going next?" Strawberry asked with a smile, and of course a hop.
"Back down the mountain, and to where we came from!" Rose explained with a parentally, smile towards the little bunny.
"Are we there yet?"
