My foot crunched down in the gravel-like ground in front of me. The view outside the TARDIS door was heart-stopping. My hand lifted to my lips as I struggled for each breath.
The ground looked like fish aquarium gravel. The colors of the delicate rocks ranged from sea blue to magenta, and included every color in between. Small transparent plants sprouted everywhere, most with tints of blue, purple, or pink.
Not very far from where I stood, there was a small pool of water. Though I wasn't next to it, I could see from where I was that the water was crystal clear. Nothing floated inside of it, no ripples broke it's surface, in fact if I hadn't seen a petal from one of the flowers that grew next to the pond floating there, I wouldn't have realized the water was anything but air.
The horizon line was completely flat. Nothing but gravel and little plants for as far as I could see. A huge sun was slowly rising up- less than half of it was above the horizon. But the rays of light it gave off glistened off the pebbles, and resonated through the translucent plant life.
"It's beautiful." I gasped.
"Eryll." He whispered. "By far among the most peaceful planets around." He gave a quick shrug. "Of course, that's because there's only one species that lives here, and they're not among the most intelligent creatures. More like dogs." As if on queue, a small patch of gravel in front of me began to shift. A small lump formed before a small face popped out and shook the gravel off of itself.
"Yip yip!" It squeaked. It's voice was very high-pitched and friendly. It pulled itself the rest of the way out of the ground and ran a quick circle around my legs. "Yip yip!" It squeaked again.
The little critter was blue, somewhat resembling a fennec fox, except it had no nose, rather it had two nostrils in it's forehead. It had no hair, though I wouldn't really say it was bald, either. It's skin was soft and squishy- the texture seemed halfway between JELL-O and a marshmallow. Either way, it looked slightly edible. In some places where a peak of fur would normally bed, a small spike of it's gelatinous skin would be there instead.
The Doctor smiled as the happy thing cocked it's head, wriggling with excitement. "Eryllians." He informed me. "Very friendly and very playful." He knelt down to pet the alien.
It jumped back, then cautiously resumed its position next to the Doctor, slightly more wary than before. It sniffed his outstretched hand, eyes locked onto the other's. It sniffed, its whole muzzle rippling from the movement.
The Doctor reached into his pocket with his free hand and pulled out a small, round, red object. It must be some type of berry, I supposed. It certainly looked like one.
Sure enough, the Doctor held it out to the little animal, who quickly snatched it away and began munching on it.
"Watch." The Doctor said mischievously.
As the Eryllian swallowed, I realized I could see the shadow of the chewed food slowly slide down its throat and settle in its stomach.
"Whoa!" I exclaimed, giving the Doctor a quick unbelieving glance.
It looked up at me, ears pointed forward. It made a quiet chirping sound and took a small step in my direction. I knelt down to welcome it. Silently it took another step and sat down about a foot in front of me.
"Hi there." I smiled. It's tail flicked to the side. I reached out a cautious hand in an attempt to pet it. Gently it set its chin into palm and flicked its tail from side to side. My heart skipped a beat and my spun. How was this thing so cute?! I scratched its chin, causing its rear left foot to kick uncontrollably.
"Don't scratch too hard." My companion warned. "It's skin is very soft and delicate, and Eryllians don't heal very well. They've never had to protect themselves from anything."
"What do they eat?" I asked. Maybe the plants, I thought. There wasn't much of anything else around.
"The gravel." The Doctor replied. "And when they finally die of old age, their body hardens and breaks apart to create more."
I quickly stood up to avoid touching the gravel as much as possible. "So all of this is dead Eryllians?!" I squeaked.
The Doctor looked at the ground and thought for a moment. "Yeah, most of this has probably been through an Eryllian at some point by now. It didn't start like that though." He paused. "But Eryllian cubs grow out of this stuff, too."
"Really?" I turned to him. "How?"
"You see those clear plants? They're baby Eryllians. They slowly liquefy and absorb the gravel around them Until they shape into a full-grown Eryllian."
I turned back to the little creature. "That's kind of cool." I crouched down again and resumed petting its smooth skin, causing the rest of it to jiggle. It turned it's head, allowing me to itch behind it's ear. "So this whole planet is made out of all the same stuff?"
"Mostly." He answered, nodding. "There's not a lot to do here, but it's so beautiful." He said, gesturing at the endless gravel and rising sun.
"It really is." I stared into the distance, soaking it all in, forgetting that I was still petting the little Eryllian. I realized this once again when it got tired of being scratched it the same spot and gave me a little nip. "Ouch." I murmured, pulling my hand away.
The Doctor looked down at me, seeming in thought for a few moments. "Had enough fun yet?"
I looked at him, suddenly confused. All the excitement was making me tired faster than normal, but no way was I giving this experience up to take a nap. I shook my head quietly and went back to playing with the Eryllian. "This is really fun." I explained. "It feels like a dream. I mean… I can't really be here with a fictional character on an alien planet, playing with a real alien, can I?"
He drew back a little bit, probably offended by my comment about his being fictional. "Hillary, this is real. You're in a different universe now. You'll never go home again."
Never go home again. Yesterday, this statement seemed like a wonderful idea. Not that I didn't like life at home -or on earth for that matter- it's just that a fantasy life seemed so much better. Now the reality of never going home hit me hard. Why hadn't I thought longer about it? Right. The Doctor had only had a few minutes. But had I made the right choice? I knew I was going to start missing my family pretty badly soon, but had I been given another chance, I very well might've picked the Doctor again. I rubbed my scalp in frustration, lost in my world of thoughts and confusion.
What was my mom going to think? She'd be devastated if I went missing. She probably IS devastated, I thought. She'll think she's done something wrong! She'll think I ran away because I was mad at her! She'll never forgive herself!
A shadow lowered over the Doctor's eyes as his head tilted down. "I shouldn't have let you come." It was then that I realized tears were streaming down my cheeks. I heard a spark of anger in the Time Lord's voice. "How could I have been so irresponsible. Taking a sixteen year old a girl away from her family!? What an idiot!" He pressed his hands against his temples and began to pace.
"No." I sobbed. "I told you I wanted to come. I was trying not to give you an option."
"But I'm better than that!" He spat. "Stupid!" He hissed through his teeth. I began to sob more, choking on every breath.
"I'm sorry!" I cried.
He stopped walking and turned to me, suddenly softening. He knelt down to me and looked me in the eye like a mother to a child. "No, Hillary, listen to me." He liften my chin to look at him. "None of this is your fault. I'll make this up to you, I promise."
I pulled away, rising to my feet quicker than I meant to, causing myself to stumble before getting completely upright. "I'm not a kid." I murmured, wiping the water from my eyes. "I'm fine. I chose to come and I'm going to stick with it." I turned away so he wouldn't see that tears were still rolling down my face. "Who…" I sniffed. "Who cares… if I'll never… see my family?… This is… this is better than home."
The Eryllian, still in front of me, placed its two front paws on one of my feet, and tipped it's head. It whimpered and shifted its weight, trying to attract my attention.
I looked down at it and sniffed.
"Yip yip!" It squeaked. I smiled a little bit, my eyes slowly drying. I bent down and held out my arms, allowing it to climb into my grasp.
"I'm ok." I insisted to the critter, though I was probably trying convince the Doctor, or maybe even myself.
A silence stretched out for an awkwardly long amount of time.
Finally the Doctor sighed. "Where do you want to go? To make you feel better?" His voice sounded exhausted. In his mind he had made an unfixable mistake, and now he had to make the best of it.
I thought. "Can… Can we maybe go to Earth? For just a little while?"
He smiled. "Absolutely."
I set the Eryllian down and headed for the TARDIS, only to be tripped by the little thing yanking on the heel of my shoe. When I stopped and turned around, it folded it's ears back and whimpered, its tail swishing from side to side.
"It's never seen a human before." The Doctor observed. "Looks like you've made a good impression."
I smiled at it, pat it once more, and resumed my short walk to the TARDIS interior, only to be stopped once again. "What?" I said, spinning around.
"Yip yip!" It cried. It then ran ahead of me, prancing along, vibrations shooting through its body every time it hit the ground. It darted into the phone box and turned around. "Yip yip!"
The Doctor smiled. "A VERY good impression. It seems we have another passenger."
"Wha- we're keeping it?" My voice cracked.
"Why not? Though Eryllians are extremely friendly, they don't have families and they don't rely on the company of each other. And this one is extremely fond of you, it would seem. Do you not want it to come?"
"No! No, I do! It's adorable!" A little burst of adrenalin sped my speech. "But my mom would never let me keep an animal that fast!"
"Well it's just one, and they're very easy to keep. They don't eat much, and while in their natural habitat, they only eat the ground, they can really eat just about anything you give them."
"Thank you!" I bounced up and ran into the ship after the Eryllian. "What should I call it?" I paused. "Is it a boy or a girl?"
"The boys are blue and the girls are more pink. The purple ones are much harder to tell, though."
I thought for some time. "I'll name it… Rory." I snickered.
"Rory? That's an interesting name."
"I found it quite fitting." I said, quickly examining the little guy to make sure it went with him well enough.
He stared at it. "How so?"
I suppressed a laugh. "It's nothing." I assured him. "You'll get it some day." The awkwardness of me having seen future events of the Doctor rose up again, and was painfully obvious on his face.
"…Rory it is, then." He added quietly without further question. "Off to Earth, then?" He said as he joined me in his ship.
I picked up Rory and nodded happily.