Ch: 4
"My best friend's name is Rose!" Arwen exclaims as they run. "And I'm curious too...Who the heck is this 'headless Horseman?' Isn't it a bit early for the legend of sleepy hollow?"
Sek stopped and turned around; aiming his gunstick where the Headless Horsemen would be once it caught up with them. "DALEKS DO NOT RUN! THE HORSEMEN WILL BE EXTERMINATED!" he screeched.
"Exterminated? Haven't heard that one before...Way to be creative!" Lyra grinned.
Sek faced Arwen, "DALEKS HAVE NO CONCEPT OF CREATIVITY! YOU HAVE AN HUMAN SIZE INTELIGENCE IF YOU DON'T KNOW THAT!" Sek screamed, already hating thus person.
"No, Sek, we have to keep running." Rose said, almost pleading. "You can't just exterminate the horseman, he might be friendly. It's not Arden's fault, she looks human enough. C'mon, Sek, please, let's just keep going."
"...Very well, as you wish." Sek said, following her.
She smiled lightly, though the horseman was probably close behind them. 'Well, c'mon, then." she placed a hand on him to urge him forward.
"Yes." Sek replied.
Rose noticed that the Doctor was further behind them than she remembered. Footsteps sounded closer and closer. For someone headless, the horseman seemed to get around just fine. Heart thrumming wildly against her rib cage, Rose ducked into the first room she saw-a closet containing nothing but a bedraggled mop. "Sek, in here! Arwen!" the Doctor was headed this way. If the horseman was giving him trouble she could swing the door open last second and hit him in the chest.
Arwen quickly slipped into the closet, slightly hurt by Sec's earlier comment. 'What's wrong with being human?' She asked.
"Rose is the only human I approve of!" Sek explained.
Arwen sorta shrugged in acknowledgement, opting to stop trying to figure things out, hoping that she just slipped and hit her head during dance class, and this was just some crazy dream.
"Why thank you," Rose said, blushing a bit. She planted a kiss on the top of his head. "We should probably try to be quiet; otherwise that thing might hear us."
"You are... Welcome?" Sek said hesitantly, unsure if he was saying the correct thing.
Rose just shoots him a cheeky smile, whispering, "Quite right, too."
As the other three ran onto a random room only to have a conversation while being chased, the Doctor closed the door on them, so he faced the headless man alone. Sonic out at such close range and locking the door so they couldn't get out (although he hoped Sec wouldn't blast the wood apart) he turned and addressed the figure: "Now see here… oh" he finally saw what had been terrorizing everyone and paused, the thing paused too as the Doctor rearranged his words to form the sentence: "Why would a Headless Monk terrorize an early 6th century British village? I thought you were of a peaceful type?"
Sek mentally smiled at this, maybe he wasn't such a lost cause after all. "Success." He responded.
Arwen just leaned against the wall, casually sliding into her middle split, her elbows resting on the ground.
Rose had her face pressed up against the door. "Headless monk?" she whispered, puzzled.
Arwen opened her mouth to ask a question, the closed it, deciding any answers she got would just confuse her more.
"Why?" the Doctor asked the headless robed man in front of him, "and why have you been de-hooded? Why are you causing this fear?" The Monk though made a motion as is to shake its non-existent head then turned, walking back down the stairs. "You want me to follow?" the Doctor asked, following anyway and forgetting to unlock the door the two women and Daleks were in until he was in the street, when it was too late. Looking back momentarily to the broken in front door with resignation, he jumped up behind the Monk on the horse as the beast reared and began to ride off.
Arwen hears them walking away, and frowns in confusion. "Hey, Rose, what's going on out there?"
"That is obvious" Sek interrupted.
Arwen starts to say something again, but decides against it, instead walking up to the door and gently pushing Rose aside. Arwen pulled some bobby pins out of her hair, allowing it to fall out its bun, and starts picking the lock, mumbling to herself.
"Your obstacle removing skills are INFERIOR! MOVE OR BE EXTERMINATED!" Sek Shouted, pointing his gunstick at the door in preparation to blow it off its hinges.
The lock clicks and the door swings open. "You were saying?" Arwen turns to Sek, raising an eyebrow, smirking just a bit.
Sek says nothing as he roughly pushes her out of the way before flying off after the Doctor.
Arwen stumbles a bit, and then composes herself, dancing out of the closet, humming a tune to herself. She sticks her head back in. "Coming Rose?" She grins.
"On my way." Rose said, grateful she hadn't been forced to smash the door down. She'd been considering it, but had a feeling that it would have ended with her dislocating her shoulder. "Sek, slow down, will you?"
Arwen danced along behind Rose, deciding that if this was just a dream, she'd enjoy it. "Chassé and chassé and Arabesque-2-3. Piqué turn piqué turn and pirouette..." She mumbled, dancing to an imaginary beat.
Sek swore he heard something, but he was almost to the Doctor, he best not let up now.
The Monk had ridden tirelessly away from the village, possibly its first night away from stalking the town. The Doctor could smell salt in the air, hear the cry of gulls and realized they had rode far indeed, near the ocean by the crash of waves over the pounding of the horse's hooves. How far back was the village? Maybe it had been a seaside village, would have made sense if there had been a dock or similar. There was torchlight ahead, a mass amount in the distant, the outline of a building familiar and the Doctor smirked. The Monk had taken him to Camelot! Just when he had wanted it to too...
"He ran off on one of the horses, after the horseman!" Rose exclaimed, irritated, as the three came outside of the inn and saw a horse missing. "And he locked us in a closet! But nevermind."
She went to the dappled grey mare she'd ridden earlier, grasping the reins and pulling herself up. Spending a month in the Victorian ages had been helpful in the horsemanship department. "Come on, Arwen, just pick a horse and let's see if we can catch up to him."
Arwen very in gracefully climbed onto a cream colored mare with a slightly lighter mane. The look on her face pretty much said "Gosh, I hope I don't fall."
"Hey, you'll be fine." Rose assured the nervous-looking girl. "Just... don't jab her in the side with your heels. I learned that the hard way."
"Right. Don't jab her in the sides. Gotcha." Arwen giggled nervously.
Rose coaxed her horse forward, knowing Sek could keep up by hovering over the rough ground. Presently they reached a path that was more gravelly and covered in gray stones, the scent of salt in the air. "We're near the ocean." Rose called to the other two. "Is Camelot near the ocean?"
"No one knows for certain," Arwen answered. "There is not a known location of Camelot, although there are a few cities in Britain that claim to be Camelot, no one knows for certain, as Camelot is less a physical place and more a powerful symbol of King Arthur's court and universe." Arwen babbled as they rode.
"Well, I think that I found the Doctor." Rose said, motioning to a horseman in the distance. "So it must be."
Arwen paused for a moment as she processes this new information. "Oh...Okay. I'll have to tell my History teacher then. And my geography teacher. And my friends teachers. Then go and- I'm rambling aren't I? Sorry. I talk when I'm nervous." She gave a nervous smile.
The Monk's horse skidded to a halt. The Doctor had noticed them pass through an open gate, the sudden torchlight of an active night-time courtyard blurring his eyes momentarily as he slid off the horse; the Monk remaining. There was the sound of a commotion from one of the buildings and a man in armor came out with a sword. He ignored the Monk as he addressed the Doctor;
"Name yourself or face my blade!" he was brave despite himself but the Doctor's mind had already raced well ahead, see the predictive future and realized what had gone on.
"Oh Lancelot you strong-minded man" the Doctor walked up to the man who hesitated, "Why go to all the trouble of hiring out one of the Headless Monks to haunt a little village so as to get me here? What had happened to this country? What of the King, in fact?"
Lancelot placed down his sword with slight reluctance as he asked simply, "Merlin?"
"The one and the same – although with a different face to last you saw. I don't suppose you've got a cuppa; long and cold journey after all. Oh! And before I forget, when a larger-than-life pepper pot and two blond girls come riding near, show them in – I kind of left them tagging along."
"Apprentices?" Lancelot asked as he led the Doctor back into the stone structure he had exited.
"Something like that…" the Doctor muttered, noting momentarily that the Headless Monk hadn't followed them, and instead had joined a group of disturbed-looking-knights like it was socializing – or at least trying to.
Sek stopped as he arrived at the fortress, glancing to the side he stared at the knights looking at him in fear, thinking he was a magical being or something.
Kill them, they deserve to die
Sek shook off this thought, slightly wondering where it came from.
Rose slowed her horse down to a trot. "Oi!" she called to one of the guards "Did, um did the Doctor-no, sorry, did Merlin just come by here? We've been trying to find him; he ditched us in the town nearby."
Arwen raised an eyebrow and rode her mare closer to Rose. "The Doctor, Merlin?" She whispered doubtfully.
Rose shrugged. "He mentioned something about being known as Merlin."
Arwen nodded slowly. "Okay...So, he's a time traveling alien wizard from the future? Good to know."
One of the guards of Camelot addressed the main Blond on the horse, taking control of her steed as he stated: "Merlin has given request that you and your friend and..." he looked to Sec, "Pepper pot?" he looked to his fellow guard with a shrug before continuing, "be taken to council and rested. He is speaking with Sir Lancelot at this time and they must not be disturbed. If you follow me please..."
Rose slipped off her horse. "Thanks. What was your name? Oh, and the 'pepper pot' is Sek." She came to stand next to him. To Arwen, she said, "Who knows. I don't think he's actually got... you know, magic." the last part was whispered so the guard wouldn't hear her.