Chapter 4
A Devilish Fork.
But it wasn't looking at her. It was staring with its hands on the mirror, looking deep into the eyes of its own reflection. Amy scrambled up hastily, but the creature wasn't looking at her, it was looking at its reflection. The mirror shone faintly in this inky, sombre forest, framed by the black jagged fingers of the dryad. It slowly turned its head up, as it gaze passed over Amy's own reflection, and the looking glass slipped from its strange, ragged fingers and fell into the long grass. Amy glanced to her right, and noticed a long beam of gilded light in between to tree stumps. Maybe the light would stop it. Slowly she picked up the mirror and, keeping her eyes on the dryad, she walked her feet towards it and stopped when she felt the warmth on the back of her legs. The dryad had rustled threw the dry grass after her. 'Rory!' she shouted as the thing grew closer.
Back on the road, The Doctor was staring at the darkness ahead. Cautiously, he stuck out a hand waved his hand around in it. It shifted like black wreaths of cloud around his fingers, and when he pulled his hand back, it carried on shifting and swarming. Its like soup, he thought to himself. Then he realised he'd said this out-loud.
'Mm soup', said Rory, 'What I'd do for some leek and potato right now.'
'Try not to think about it, it'll only make you hungrier.'
'Hey, that reminds me, what do we, like, eat here?'
'What we really need to find is wate-'
'Rory!' came Amy's voice from the thicket.
'Amy!' cried Rory, and bolted after her.
'DON'T GO WANDERING-', The Doctor trailed off. He sighed and jumped down off the road.
Rory, and at length The Doctor (he kept stopping to sonic things), found Amy with her mouth open staring at the dryad. It was kneeling in the pool of light, its arms outstretched to the mirror on the forest floor. It turned from decaying red, to the rottenness of flesh-coloured sand, to pale green, to smaragdine. Glossy leaves grew up in the dry, pale remains of its ivy-hair. Its eyes filled up with the golden light of the mirrors. It stared up at The Doctor. it whispered. Many more faces were appearing in the dark wood.
'They've found us, c'mon!' Rory tugged Amy back as The Doctor stared transfixed at the strange wood creature. 'Hmm?' he murmured, and then he saw the approaching dryads, 'O YES! run right!' and turned to see that Amy and Rory were already half way down the path and rearranging the mirrors.
The dryad grabbed his hand with the ferocious strength of living wood, as strong as iron and more flexible. Pure green and barkless, but new bark was quickly growing underneath the old rotten skin.
'AH!' yowled The Doctor as if he had been stung and yanked at his arm. Then he noticed something. On the back of the creature's hand, burnt into the heartwood, there was a marking shaped like a devil's fork. 'Sonic... branding' he hissed and pulled out the sonic screwdriver. At the sight of it, the dryad let go of his arm and pulled back with a defensive snarl. The Doctor didn't wait to see what it would do next, he ran.
Back along the road and to where Rory was carrying Amy over his shoulders, struggling down the path now flanked with peering faces.
'For the second time, where have you been!' demanded Rory.
'What happened to Amy?' The Doctor rubbed his arm.
'She just fainted, look, Doctor, look at her arm!' Rory showed him. Amy had a black burn on her arm. It looked like a devil's fork.