Chapter Three: Bargains, Promises and Fights (PARTIALLY REWRITTEN)

The next morning...

Snail awoke to find himself cuddling with the still-asleep Koschei. He tried to slowly get off the bed as realization and memory of what had happened the previous day hit him, but Koschei clutched at him and complained:-Don't go...-

Snail gave him a fond kiss on the forehead and smiled determinedly. -I'll never go without you, Kosch.-

-The other child clutched his hand eith equal determination, and Snail got out of the bed, Koschei offering. -You can take my clothes if you need.-

Snail looked down at himself and mumbled an embarassed "oh yes", as he'd forgotten he was naked. Koschei took out clothes for both of them and gave a pair to Snail, who thanked him and ran out.

-So same time tomorrow?- Koschei's cheerful voice called hum, as he ran down the hill. -Same time tomorrow!- he laughed, glad that Koschei was back to his old self. Yeah, the deal he'd made with Death was completely worth it.

He ran and ran, and stopped at the bank of the Cadonflood River, the same exact spot the...the thing with Torvic had happened yesterday.

He couldn't see Torvic's corpse anywhere, and his blood was neither on the sand nor on the rocks he'd used on him.

He nodded and smiled to himself. The deal with Death had been really one worth mak- -Hello, child.- The Eternal was blocking his path once again, smiling maliciously.-You seriously thought you could just get away like that?- Then she added:-I may have wiped everyone's memories of Torvic...but surely you have not forgotten that there's still Torvic's biodata in the Matrix, or have you?-

-Othering Other!- Snail blasphemed. -What more do you want from me, you old Pythia? I've already told you, I have no intention of being your "Champion".-

-Then you'll be mine.- replied what looked like Death's younger twin, and Death thought about it for a moment. -I suppose I can work with that, little sister.-

Time turned to speak to Snail once again. -Then it's a become my Champion and Koschei becomes Death's, and it will be as if this awful story never happened.-

They shook hands and the two Eternals departed, leaving Snail confused and incapable of remembering what had just happened or for what reason he had come back here. Nothing bad had happened here yesterday, right? Then why was he here?

Oh well, it was probably nothing important.

He ran toward Lungbarrow, hoping to get there before Sattalthrope could catch him getting back THIS late...

-WORMHOLE!-

...Fat chance of that.

-Yes, Sattalthrope?- he asked boredly as the pluri-millenarian Housekeeper came and smacked at him over the head with her giant key, shrieking:-The arrogance! Is this any way to talk to an Housekeeper?-

-OW!- Wormhole cried, holding his throbbing head. -What was that for?-

-For not showing the proper respect when talking to the Housekeeper.- Glospin smirked, and the old hag gestured to him with her key, accidentally hitting him in the face with it.-See? You better take example from your elder Cousin! Glospin is one who knows how to behave!-

-Are you sure we're talking about the same Glospin?- Innocet raised an eyebrow at the two elders as she stepped in to get the kid out of the argument.

-Thanks, Innocet.- he mumbled as his Cousin accompanied him up the stairs. -Always happy to nag on Glospin-but where were you? Me and Irving were worried sick.-

-I just stayed at Koschei's place for the night.-

-Oh, is that so?- the slender, spectacled face of Irving Braxiatel stood in the doorframe of his study, looking reeeeaaaaallly pissed off. -Come inside, Thete. We've got to talk. You can go, Innocet, thanks.-

-What? We're all Cousins here, Braxiatel.-

-Well, this is brotherly talk, so thank you but please STAY OUT OF THIS!-

Irving slammed the door in a fuming Innocet's face.

-What's wrong, brother?- the kid asks worriedly. -I've never seen you so angry before. Come to think of it, I've never seen you angry.-

Then again, he hadn't seen him much before.

-Thete, you were Rassilon knows where for a whole day and you still have the nerve to ask me what's wrong?- Irving's voice was dangerously low, so Thete put his hands forwards defensively and tried:-I told you yesterday I was going out with Koschei, and I just spent the night at his place. That's all.-

-And what did you do with Koschei then, hm? And don't think about lying, because I'm your oder brother and the last person you should lie to?-

-Weeeeellll...you know that thing people did before the Pythia's curse when they really really liked each other and wanted to have babies? And about how you told me that it could be technically done by people of the same sex? And how I told you once that me and Koschei really really liked each other?-

Irving was silent for a moment, befote realization hit him and he downright EXPLODED.

-WERE YOU OUT OF YOUR OTHERFUCKING MIND, THETE?! YOU'RE SEVEN, THETE, SEVEN-AND HE'S WHAT, FOUR?!-

-But you said people do it because they really...-

-I know what I said.- Irving hastily cut him off, before sighing and pinching the bridge of his nose. -But we could talk for hours about how wrong it is for children to have sex. You don't even have a sexual education yet, heck, apart from Badger's lessons you barely even have an education, and Time Lords now consider it a revolting animal impulse rather than a natural thing, they wouldn't react tothe knowledge of what you and Koschei did very well...-

-WHAT?!- Thete burst in disgust. -I meant KISSING, Irving! And it was just a couple of pecks on Kosch's forehead, not THAT other stuff you're ranting about so much that you've made me dread it!-

-...Oh.- Irving came to the realization of his mistake with an almost comical face.

-...Pervert.-Thete deadpanned, and Irving let out a weary sigh. -I'm just worried you could get hurt, Thete. That's why I was angry. Because I'm your brother.-

-You seem the only one to really worry, in the House.- Thete replied with a bitterness unknown of in seven-year-old Time Tots.

-Maybe because I know what it's like to be picked on.- Irving took off his spectacles and put his hands on Thete's shoulders. -But the real reason is that I know that you have a gift no other Tinme Lord in over ten million years has ever had: you care. It may be because you're half human, and you may hide it, you may mask it, but you CARE, Thete. And that's what makes you so special, that's the reason because I get sometimes so angtry at you, that's the reason because I always tries to help you no matter what. Because you care.-

Irving finished his speech with teary eyes, and tried awkwarfly to wipe the tears, but Thete blocked him. Apparently he had decided that big brother needed a really big hug, and he didn't seem willing to go back on his decision, so Irving decided that it suited him just fine.

Thete, on his part, tightened the embrace, and reflected on his brother's words.

He decided that even if it turned out he wasn't truly the better person, then he'd become the one who made people around him better. And if he remembered correctly, there was a name for it, and in Old High Gallifreyan it began with a "D"...

TS

Hiya, folks!

Yeah, I know this chapter ain't really much, but I tried to set things right after the previous.

And, believe me, despite the misunderstanding, Braxiatel is right: children should NEVER engage in that stuff.

I've decided to show a bit of Lungbarrow again, and you'll probably see more of it in the next chapters, and as for the deal with Time and Death, it's canon, Big Finish canon. I just tried to explain the reasons for it in the previous chapter, that was what all the gore was about. And sorry if I hurt your sensibility with it.

As for the curses, the young Thete really shouldn't really curse so much at seven, but crukkling, Otherfucking, Othering Other , Shobogan, Otherfucker and old Pythia are all canon curses.

The Pythia, for those who don't know it, were an old matriarchal line of seers who were overthrown by Rassilon, Omega and the Other. The Cult of Pythia then went to Karn to form the Sisterhood of Karn, while Rassilon, Omega and the Other (whom nobody really knew anything about) became the Three Founders of Time Lord society...and we know how well it went, don't we?

Omega was lost in a black hole and went mad.

Rassilon became a dictator and was imprisoned in the Dark Tower.

And the Other...well, he threw himself in the original Loom as a final act of defiance against Rassilon.

I think it's pretty much safe to say:"Well, that ecalated quickly."