The Forest of Fear
Thought I'd just tell the readers that yes I will include the new Doctors (if I ever get there and the earliest you're most likely going to see one is the Children in Need special, with Harry coming with the fifth Doctor), the romance won't come until about the second Doctor an if the chapters keep being so long its gonna be a while. Also love all the comments I've had, they've helped and made me feel happy. I know I might of, sorta, mentioned that I would be able to update quicker during the holiday... um sorry? Time just got away from me and I only write when I feel in the mood. Also I never thought that people would like this because it's the old Doctors first and most of the people I know have only seen the new series. Oh and before people ask there is a reason that Harry seems to be happy.
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or Doctor Who
~0~
Clumsily Ian picked it up with his hands. "It's a skull." He tossed it aside before picking up another one from the pile. He examined in carefully. "They're all the same," he whispered. "They've been split open!" He dropped it horrified...
~0~
The Tribe was sleeping.
Huddled together for warmth, wrapped in as much skins as they possessed, the cave people slept, dreaming of fire, trying to forget the deadly cold that seeped into the caves – the cold would grow fiercer, stronger, night by night. Unless fire came back soon there would be mornings when the weak ones, the women and children and the old would not wake. When the cold was at its fiercest, even strong men died at night.
Only Old Mother was still awake. Fire leaped in her mind too, but not as a saviour, a protector. To Old Mother fire was an evil demon. Her confused mind associated it with the death of her husband, Gor, and with all the misfortunes that had come upon the Tribe.
The strangers threaten to bring fire. The strangers were evil, too. Old Mother thought for a long time, wondering how she might save the Tribe from the menace of fire. At last she thought of a way.
She rose stealthily, creeping across the cave to the place where Za lay sleeping, Hur at his side. Za's precious knife lay close to his out-stretched hand. The knife was a long thin sliver of stone, its edge ground sharp. Old Mother reached out for it.
Za twitched and muttered in his sleep, as if suspecting of her intention and she drew back her hand. He slept again. Old Mother snatched up the knife, and scuttled away.
Hur watched her through half-open eyes, and wondered what she should do.
~0~
Ian was holding his tied hands out before him, stretching his bonds in the hope of slipping free of them, but the strips of rawhide were tough and sinewy, and there was little give.
Susan was searching the floor of the cave for sharp edged stones. "Hold still Susan!" Harry said in exasperation. "It'll take even longer for me to untie the rope if you keep moving!" Susan though ignored Harry and carried on with her search. Harry sighed in annoyance.
"Here's another one with a rough edge." She picked it up and hopped over to Ian, hampered by the fact that both her hands and feet were still bound. She totally ignored the fact that Harry tried to hold her down so that he could keep trying to untie her.
Ian took the stone in his own bound hands, and moved over to Barbara who stretched her tied hands flat on the ground. Ian began sawing at the thongs with the stone. "It's no good the stone's too soft. The edge keeps crumbling. Harry how did you manage to get out?"
"Oh," Harry paused, trying to think of a good excuse. "When they were tying my hands and wrists I tensed my muscles to make the gap bigger and, um, the water on the ropes helped me to slip my hands through." He hoped that it was a reasonable excuse, he only thought of it because he had read it in an action book once. Luckily Ian seemed to believe, even if the Doctor didn't seem to, and that ended that line of questioning.
"The whole thing is hopeless," grumbled the Doctor. "Even if you could get us free, we'd never manage to move the stone blocking the door."
Ian raised his head, sniffing. "There's air coming into this cave from somewhere – somewhere else beside the door, I mean."
"So there is," said Barbara. "I can feel it on my face."
"It may only be a small opening though. Don't count on it..."
"Why not – you obviously are," muttered the Doctor.
"Of course, I am. Any hope is better than none. It's no good just lying there criticising us. Do something. Help us to get out of here if you're so clever!" Ian tossed the stone aside. "It's hopeless," he said, promptly contradicting himself.
'Don't give up, Ian, please,' begged Barbara.
"Come on sir, if we give up before we start we'll never get out," Harry added hopefully.
"All right. Come on, Susan, Harry, let's look for a better piece of rock."
The Doctor had been silent since Ian's outburst. For once, he had lost his usual air of complacent superiority. A little sheepishly, he said, "Don't waste your time with stones. Try one of the shattered skulls. A good sharp piece of bone will be more useful."
"Good idea," said Ian. He began rooting in the grisly pile of skulls.
The Doctor seemed quite prepared to take charge again. "We must concentrate our efforts, young man. We must all take turns in trying to cut your hands free."
"Surely we ought to get the girls loose –"
"No, no, you first. You're the strongest, you may have to protect us..."
Ian nodded, impressed both by his own responsibility, and by the Doctor's ruthless grasp of priorities. He found a skull that had been split almost in two, with a satisfyingly sharp edge at the break point. Silently, he handed it to the Doctor, and stretched out his bound hands.
The Doctor began sawing at Ian's bonds. For a long time he worked furiously. At last he stopped, gasping with effort. "Harry, you try for a while. My arms are tired."
"Yes, sir." Harry took the piece of skull, and began sawing busily away.
The Doctor moved over to Barbara, who was staring blankly into the darkness, her face white and drawn. "Don't think about failure," said the Doctor gently. "We shall get free, and we shall all escape from this terrible place."
"What?"Barbara scarcely seemed to understand him.
"Try and remember how you and the others found your way here. Concentrate solely on that, retrace every step of the journey in your mind."
"Yes, all right, if I can." Barbara looked at him in surprise. "You're trying to help me, aren't you?"
"Fear makes good companions of all of us, Miss Wright."
"I didn't think you were ever afraid, Doctor."
"Fear is with all of us, and always will be," said the Doctor quietly. "But so is the other sensation that always lives with it."
"What sensation?"
"Your companion referred to it a little while ago. Hope, Miss Wright. Hope!"
Harry went on sawing at Ian's bonds refusing to admit he was starting to get tired. Their work however seemed to have made only the slightest impression on the thick leather strips – it was obviously going to be a very long time before they were weakened enough to be broken.
Susan sat close to the Doctor and Barbara, watching Harry work. She was dozing a little when she heard a strange rustling sound behind her. She turned around. In the far corner of the cave was a framework of branches, decorated with more of the ghastly, grinning skulls. The rustling was coming from that corner. To her horror, Susan saw that the skulls were moving. "Look!" she screamed, and everyone turned round, Harry pausing in his work to look over his shoulder.
The pile of branches was pushed aside from behind, sending skulls bouncing and rolling across the floor. A ghastly figure appeared, a skinny old woman with straggling white hair. There was a long stone knife in her hand.
Brandishing it menacingly, she advanced upon the group. "Fire is evil," she chanted. "You will not make fire!"
~0~
Hur nudged Za into wakefulness. He opened his eyes, reaching instinctively for his axe. Hur put her finger to her lips and led him between the piles of sleeping figures and outside the cave. They stood shivering in the night wind.
Za blinked at her, rubbing the sleep from his eyes with his fists. "What is it? Why do you wake me? Tell me!"
"I saw the old woman take your knife."
"If you saw – why did you let her? She is old. You could have held her."
Hur answered his question with another. "Why did she take it?"
"Who knows? Perhaps she has gone into the forest to hunt!"
"No," said Hur. "I have thought long on this. She has gone to kill the strangers."
"Did she say this?"
"She took your knife. She is afraid of fire."
"You should have stopped her."
"Kal was in the cave. Leaders are awake when others sleep. You must stop her." Hur paused, looking hard at Za.
"The strange tribe will not be able to show you how to make fire if the old woman kills them."
"But if I stop her from killing them they will give fire to me – and not to Kal. Come!"
They hurried to the entrance to the cave of skulls – and saw the great stone still blocking the door.
"The old woman could not have gone into the cave," said Za angrily. "The stone is there. Why do you tell me this lie?"
Hur went to the cave mouth. She pressed her ear to the little gap between the stone and the edge of the cave entrance. She beckoned to Za. "Listen!"
Za listened. "I hear the old woman in the cave. She is talking to them." Dropping his axe, Za began heaving the stone. At first it would not move, but gradually it started to rock, more and more. Hur ran to help...
~0~
It took the Doctor quite a while to realise what the old woman wanted. She was gabbling hysterically about fire, waving the knife threateningly at them.
"What does she want, Doctor?" sobbed Barbara. "is she going to kill us?"
"I'd like to see her try!" Harry growled angrily. He stood up and brandished his right hand in front of him so that he might use his magic should she come too close. Luckily he held the skull piece he was using to try and the rope with in his right hand so to the others it looked as he would use that against the woman.
"Calm down. I don't think she wants to kill us. As far as I can make out she's terrified of fire – she's offering to let us go if we promise not to make it."
The old woman nodded eagerly, quickly getting over her shock at seeing one of the group already free. "I will set you free, if you go away and do not make fire. Fire will bring trouble and death to the Tribe."
"Let us go," said the Doctor, instantly. "Let us go and there will be no fire."
They became aware of a grinding noise from the mouth of the cave. Someone was rocking the stone. There was a bellow of rage.
"Someone is coming," said the Doctor. "Quickly now!" He held out his wrists, and the old woman sawed at the bonds with the stone knife until they parted. "Now my feet!" The old woman stooped and cut the bonds from the Doctor's feet. One by one she freed them.
All the time the great boulder blocking the entrance rocked more and more. The old woman pointed to the way she had come in –there was a narrow opening concealed behind the bushes. "You must hurry. Follow the tunnel, and then take the path into the forest. You can hide there."
"Hurry," shouted Ian. "They'll be here in a minute." The Doctor went through the tunnel, then Barbara, then Susan and Harry and finally Ian himself.
Minutes after they had disappeared, the boulder shifted enough to leave a gap at the entrance. Za squeezed through, Hur close behind.
"Where are they?" roared Za.
Hur looked at the discarded lashings on the floor of the cave. "She did not kill them. She has set them free."
Za saw his knife in Old Mother's hand, and snatched it from her. "Why, old woman? Why?"
"They would have made fire," moaned Old Mother. "They would have made fire."
Hur's sharp eyes had spotted the opening at the back of the cave. "They have gone this way. Here, Za!"
Za headed for the gap, and Old Mother wound her skinny arms around him, trying to hold him back. Angrily, Za threw her aside. She stumbled to the floor, and lay there half-stunned.
Za peered into the tunnel and hesitated. "They have gone into the night."
Hur said, "They have taken the secret of fire with them."
"The beasts will kill them. They will kill us if we follow."
Hur went back to the cave entrance, recovered Za's axe, and brought it back to him. She pressed it into his hand. "You are the leader, Za," said Hur softly. "You are strong, as strong as the beasts. You will be stronger still, once you know how fire is made. Stronger than Kal." Za looked at her for a moment, then slipped into the tunnel.
Hur followed him.
~0~
It was dark in the forest.
The path was so narrow that low-lying branches whipped constantly across their faces, and they had to shield themselves with upheld arms as they ran. The air was chill, though the forest protected them from the night winds. The path was so enclosed on each side and overhead that it was like running through a tunnel. Still, it was a thousand times better than the ghastly cave with its stench of death and shattered grinning skulls. Harry led the way with Susan following close behind, then Barbara, then Ian, with the Doctor in the rear. As they ran, Ian became aware that the Doctor was falling further and further behind.
He turned and saw that the old man had stopped running altogether. He was leaning panting against a tree. "Stop! Just for a moment, please."
"We must keep moving, Doctor."
The Doctor nodded weakly. "In a moment... in a moment."
"We're not far enough away from the cave yet..."
"I know... I know. But I simply can't run anymore!"
"Try!" urged Ian.
The Doctor nodded wearily, but he didn't move.
"All right," said Ian. "There's only one thing for it. I'll have to carry you."
"No. I'll carry him," Harry interjected. "I'm probably the fittest here." Already inside his mind he was calculating how he could place a feather-light charm on the Doctor without him noticing.
He advanced on the Doctor, who waved him indignantly away. "You'll do no such thing, young man. I don't need your help. I may be old, but I'm not senile. I just want to get my breath back, that's all."
Harry looked despairingly at Susan. She came forward and said, "Please, grandfather."
The Doctor sighed and hoisted himself wearily from the trunk. They moved on, though this time at a slower pace. There were mysterious rustlings in the forest around them, and the cries of wild beasts.
Barbara moved up close to Ian. "Are you sure this is the right way?"
"I think so. We want to cut off the corner of the forest and get back to the ship. We came in to the forest at a different place – it's hard to be sure. What do you think?"
"I can't remember, Ian. I simply can't remember!" There was hysteria in her voice.
Discreetly, Harry took a stone he had in his pocket and cast a point me spell. As it was the stone pointed in the direction they were going. Or was it pointing in the opposite? At time like this Harry wished his original wand hadn't been snapped by the Ministry.
"Don't worry," Harry consolingly placed his hand on Barbara's shoulder. "Judging by where the moon is and where the sun was when we landed we must be going the right way." Harry came up with his lie by thinking about how Ron, Hermione and he had to rely on the sun and moon when they were on the run because they couldn't use they're wands. Hermione and Ron were good for something even if it wasn't loyalty.
They moved on their way. Ian heard a noise in the darkness behind him and whirled round. The bushes seemed to be moving slightly, and he thought he heard a low throaty sound, like the purring of a giant cat...
"What is it?"
Ian shrugged. "Just some wild animal or other. Probably more scared of us than we are of it." But in his heart Ian wasn't too sure. He racked his brains to remember what animals had been about in the days of the cavemen.
Not dinosaurs, at least, though that was a common mistake. Luckily for man, these great monsters had been long extinct. But mammoths certainly. And what about the sabre-toothed tiger? Surely that had been around? Cautiously they moved on through the dark forest. They came to a fallen tree, and paused to take their bearings.
"I remember this place," said Susan excitedly. "But we didn't go right by it, we went around"
"That's right," agreed Barbara. "The trail passed it on one side."
"I hope you're both right," said Ian. "Because if you are, the ship can't be very far away." He turned to the Doctor, who was leaning on Susan's shoulder. "How are you feeling?"
"I'm quite all right, thank you, young man! Don't keep regarding me as the weak link in this party."
Suddenly, Barbara gave a little scream, and moved closer to Ian and Harry.
"What is it?"
"I don't know. I thought I saw something move – over there in the bushes."
"Nonsense," said the Doctor airily.
"I tell you the bushes moved, I saw them. We're never going to get out of this terrible place. Never!"
"What could it have been, grandfather?" whispered Susan.
"Imagination, my dear child. Pure imagination," said the Doctor, but he looked round rather uneasily.
Ian put a consoling arm around Barbara's shoulders. "Look, I know this seems like a nightmare, but we'll get out of it."
"We'll all die in this terrible forest, I know we will!"
"No we won't," said Ian gently. "Not if we don't give up."
"Ian, what's happening to us?"
"Look, we can't be far from the ship now. We'll be safe there. We got out of the caves, didn't we?"
Susan moved closer to the Doctor and shivered. "It's so cold!"
The Doctor slipped off his jacket and put it round her shoulders. "You're welcome to this, my child."
"What about you, grandfather?"
The Doctor managed a smile before frowning slightly when a jacket was wrapped around his shoulders. Looking from the direction it came from he saw Harry giving him a welcoming smile.
"Don't worry about it Doc. You can use mine." Harry said. "I'm used to the cold. Used to go out in the snow in only a pair of trousers and t-shirt when I was little." Still frowning the Doctor took the jacket and slipped it on. The Doctor was surprised it fit him, Harry was glad he had inherited his parent's knack for transfiguration.
Ian came over to them. "Barbara's feeling the strain a bit. We seem to have stopped anyway, so we'll rest here for a little while."
Susan nodded gratefully. "Is there any chance of their following us?"
"There's always going to be that chance until we get back to the ship," Harry answered.
"That's why I don't want to stay here too long." Ian added.
"You don't think I want to linger, do you?" said the Doctor peevishly.
Ian gave him a long-suffering look. "No, of course, I don't. I think we'll change the order when we set off again. You lead, with Susan and Barbara, and Harry and I will bring up the rear."
The Doctor bristled. "You seem to have elected yourself leader of this little expedition."
"There isn't time to take a vote on it, is there?"
"Just so long as you understand that I won't follow your orders blindly, young man."
Ian leaned forward. "Believe me, Doctor, if there were just the two of us, as far as I'm concerned you could find your own way back to the ship!"
"You're a very tiresome young man, aren't you?"
"And you're a very stubborn old one," said Ian, through gritted teeth. "But when we set off, you'll lead, the girls will come in between, and Harry and I will go last – that's the safest way!"
"Safest? Why safest?" asked the Doctor
"I think Barbara is right. I heard something in the bushes behind us when we stopped before, and it's still with us now. Something's stalking us." Ian answered.
"Sheer imagination!" The Doctor exclaimed.
"What makes you so confident, Doctor?" Ian argued back.
"I refuse to be frightened out of my wits by mere shadows!"
Ian gave up. "Very well, suit yourself. We'll rest here for a little while longer, and then move on."
"Come on Doc, isn't it better to be safe than sorry?" Harry reasoned
~0~
In another part of the forest, Za and Hur too had paused, though not to rest. They knelt, examining the traces left by the strangers on their passage through the jungle – markings as clear to them as road signs to a modern motorist.
"Here is a broken twig," said Hur. "They rested here."
Za examined a footprint. "They have strange feet."
"They wore skins on them," said Hur. "There are more marks here, and here. They went this way." There was a distant rustle ahead of them, and a low growling.
Za looked fearfully at Hur. "It was wrong to follow them. We should not have done this."
"We cannot go back now. Would you have Kal mock you as you mocked him?"
Za took a firmer grip on his axe and they went on their way.
~0~
The little party moved on through the jungle, inevitably slowed down by the fact that the Doctor was now in the lead. Barbara caught her foot in a trailing vine and fell, crashing into the bushes to one side of the path. Her outstretched hand touched something warm and wet. Stumbling to her feet she looked at her hand. It was covered with blood. She screamed.
~0~
On the trail behind them, Za cocked his head alertly. "They are very near now. That was one of the women. Come!" They hurried on.
~0~
The Doctor was examining the huddled shape just beside the path. "What is it, grandfather?" asked Susan fearfully.
"Only a dead animal. Some kind of deer, I think. It's been killed very recently, the body is still warm."
"What killed it?" Harry asked, examining the corpse.
"Judging by these claw marks, some very large and very savage member of the cat family – possibly a sabre-toothed tiger." Suddenly, they heard a crashing in the jungle behind them.
"Lions and tigers and bears. Oh my." Harry whispered jokingly to Susan in hopes to make her more comfortable. Truth be told Harry was scared as well. Even if he couldn't be killed he didn't fancy being mauled to death by some wild animal or having to watch anyone else be killed knowing he didn't stop it.
"It is the tiger?" whispered Barbara.
"Too noisy. It must be the cave people, coming after us. We'll have to hide, and hope they pass by. Quick, over there in the bushes." Ian thrust them into the bushes, and they crouched down, waiting. Seconds later, two skin-clad figures ran into the clearing, and paused, looking around them. One was a massive figure carrying a stone-headed axe – one of the men they had seen at the cave. The figure beside him was both smaller and slighter. To their astonishment, they saw that it was a girl.
The two savage figures stood poised, peering around them suspiciously. Close by in the bushes, the great cat was also poised. It had followed this strange prey through the forest for quite some way. Several times it had crouched to spring and bring one of them down, but each time something had held it back. There was something very wrong about these creatures. Their appearance, the way they crashed boldly through the jungle, and above all the alien smell of the strange skins they wore, all this was new, unknown – and possibly dangerous.
When Za and Hur moved into the clearing, the great beast's dilemma was resolved. It knew the cave people of old, knew the way they looked and moved and smelt, knew how they hunted with spears and axes. Lashing its tail, the tiger snaked through the forest towards the two newcomers.
In the clump of bushes, Ian whispered, "Keep down all of you. Not a sound!"
Za looked round uneasily, sensing rather than seeing something wrong.
He touched Hur's arm. "Wait here," he whispered. "There is danger in this place. I will go and look." Za moved cautiously into the clearing, heading straight for the bushes where the Doctor and his companions were hiding. From somewhere behind him, there came a low growl. Za swung round. It was the voice of the tiger, the long toothed one, the old enemy of his people.
Grasping his axe tighter, Za swung his head from one side to the other, listening, sensing. Just behind him the long grasses began to ripple. Hur saw it and screamed a warning, but it was too late. The tiger sprang.
As the tiger hurtled through the air towards him, Za seized his only possible chance. He ran, not back but forwards, under the attacking beast, and swung his great stone axe with all his strength at the creature's side. He felt the axe-head thud home. The tiger screamed in rage and pain. Its whole weight dropped full upon him, bearing him to the ground. Za tried to wrench back his axe for a killing blow at the skull, but only the handle came free. The axe was broken...
To the Doctor and the others, everything seemed to happen in a blinding flurry of speed. They saw the great beast spring, bearing the caveman to the ground. They heard the tiger scream. Only Harry saw the man make a brave choice and move toward the great beast.
In a flash of yellow fur, the cat broke free and disappeared into the forest, leaving the blood-covered form of the caveman stretched out in the moonlit clearing. The girl gave a great cry of grief, and ran to kneel beside him.
Ian jumped to his feet. "Quick, now's our chance. Get away all of you. Run!"
Instinctively, the others obeyed him. All except Barbara, who stood looking back at the two figures.
"What are you waiting for?" shouted the Doctor.
"We can't just leave them!" Barbara answered
"My dear Miss Wright, they are savages. They would cheerfully have killed us. Remember the skulls in the cave." The Doctor replied in exasperation.
"I don't care what they've done, they're still human beings." Barbara began walking across the clearing to where the sobbing girl knelt by the motionless body of the man. "I think he's dead. There isn't any danger." She shouted back to the others.
"Barbara, come back," shouted Ian running after her. "This is our chance to escape." Harry ran to her also, he pulled Barbara a little distance behind him so that if the girl were to attack he would be the closest.
"I'll come with you, Barbara," called Susan. She moved to follow, but the Doctor caught her arm.
"You will do no such thing, Susan. Stay where you are. We're going back to the ship!"
"No, grandfather," said Susan defiantly. "We can't leave her here alone."
The Doctor looked across the clearing and said exasperatedly, "What are they doing? Are they out of their minds?"
Crouched protectively over Za, Hur looked up fiercely as Barbara, Ian and Harry approached. "Keep away!"
"Let me look at him," said Ian.
"No. You will kill him." Gently Barbara pulled Hur aside but only after Harry and pried a stone from the girl's hands. Ian knelt beside Za's body.
"It's all right," said Ian. "I'm your friend."
Hur looked at him in amazement. "Friend?"
"Yeah course we're friends. Well in the sense that we're not going to harm him." Harry answered, pointing to Za when he was mentioned.
"I shall need some water." Ian interjected.
"Water?"
"Get me some water," said Ian patiently. "For his wounds."
Hur pointed. "There is a stream – over there."
"Show me," said Barbara firmly, as though addressing a reluctant pupil. "Give me your handkerchief, will you, Ian?"
Muttering and grumbling, the Doctor allowed Susan to lead him over. "It's all right, grandfather," said Susan soothingly. "It's quite safe now." The Doctor snorted in disgust. Susan looked down at the caveman. "How is he, Ian? Is he dead?"
"Far from it," said Ian. "In fact, he's a lot better than he looks." He picked up the haft of Za's axe. "I imagine he must have left his axe-head in the tiger."
Barbara and Hur came back into the clearing. Barbara gave Ian his water-soaked handkerchief, and Hur carried more water in a folded leaf.
Ian and Harry began washing away (well Harry was also doing a quick spell to check there weren't any life threatening wounds but the others didn't need to know that) the blood from Za's wounds, which were soon revealed to be no more than a series of deep slashes in his arm and shoulder.
"Most of this blood is the tiger's," said Ian.
Barbara pointed. "Look, there's a cut in his forehead – the tiger must have stunned him." Ian bathed the cut, and Za moaned and stirred.
Ian looked ruefully at Barbara. "We seemed to have missed our chance of getting away. I bet your flat must be just littered with stray cats and dogs."
"They're human beings, Ian," said Barbara again.
"All right, I know."
Ian looked up at the Doctor, who stood scowling down at them. "Have you got medical supplies in the ship? Antiseptic?"
"This is preposterous," spluttered the Doctor. "One moment we are desperately trying to get away from these savages and now –"
"Now we're helping them! I know. You're a Doctor. Do something."
"I am not a Doctor of medicine, young man."
"Then what are you a doctor of?" Harry finally asked angrily. How could the old man look down on someone suffering and not feel like he should help? Harry could only hope that if Susan ever got hurt then he would help, or he would be in a whole heap of trouble.
"Grandfather, we should make friends with them," urged Susan. "Maybe they'll help us."
"Ridiculous!"
"Why?" said Barbara angrily. "Why must you treat everyone and everything as less important than yourself?"
The Doctor looked severely at her. "I suppose you think that everything you do is reasonable, and everything I do is inhuman. But suppose your judgement's wrong, not mine? If these two savages can follow us, so can their fellows. The whole Tribe may be upon us at any moment!"
"The Tribe sleeps," said Hur.
"And the old woman who set us free, mm? What about her?"
"You're right, Doctor. We're too exposed here." The Doctor nodded complacently – but his expression changed rapidly when Ian went on, "We'll make a stretcher and carry him with us!"
"You're not proposing to take him back to the ship?"
"We can make the stretcher with our coats," said Ian briskly. "Barbara, Harry, Susan, see if you can break off a couple of long straight branches from those bushes." Harry saluted jokingly, hoping to relieve the tension. Unfortunately no one was in the mood for jokes.
As she moved away, Barbara said, "Maybe the old woman won't give us away. She helped us, she won't want the others to know."
"Do you think these people have logic and reason," said the Doctor furiously. "Can't you see, their minds change as rapidly as night follows day. She may well be telling the entire Tribe at this very moment..."
~0~
Sometime in the night Kal woke, warned by some instinct of danger. He looked around him. Everything seemed normal. Then he saw that Old Mother was gone. And Za and Hur... Something was happening. Whatever it was, it must be concerned with the strangers. Za had betrayed him, he was trying to force the strangers to give him the secret of the fire.
Kal rose, knife in hand, and made his way stealthily to the cave of skulls. His suspicions were confirmed, when he saw that the great stone had been moved aside. He slipped through the gap and saw to his astonishment that the cave held no strangers, and no Za. Only Old Mother lay moaning on the ground.
Kal dragged her to her feet. "The strange creatures – where are they?"
"They have gone," said Old Mother, a gleam of triumph in her eyes.
"How did they move the stone?"
"Za moved it."
"Za has gone with them? Tell me, old woman, tell me!"
The old woman pointed to the back of the cave. "Za and Hur went after the strangers. Through there. There is another way."
"The strangers' hands and feet were bound," said Kal fiercely. "Za set them free! They have gone with Za to show him how to make fire."
"I set them free," said Old Mother proudly. "Now they will not make fire any more. There will be no more fire!"
"You freed them?" Kal saw an end to all his hopes – the secret of fire lost, or given to Za – and all because of this meddling old woman. "You freed them?" A surge of blind rage swept through him, and suddenly the stone knife in his hand was buried in Old Mother's heart.
The old woman stared disbelievingly down at the knife for a moment, and then fell dead at his feet. Kal plucked out the knife, wet with the old woman's blood, and thrust it beneath his skins. He would have to think of something to tell the Tribe.
~0~
Ian was busy showing Harry, Susan and Barbara how to make an improvised stretcher. "The poles go through the sleeves of the coats like that you see..."
Susan knelt to wipe Za's forehead, but Hur thrust her rudely away. "No. He is mine."
"I was only trying to help him."
Harry laughed. "I think she's jealous of you, Susan."
Baffled, Hur looked around the group. "I do not understand any of you. You are like a mother with a baby. Za is your enemy. Why do you not kill him?"
Ian said, "These people just don't understand kindness or friendship. See if you can explain, in a way she'll understand, Barbara."
"Don't use too many long word," Harry smiled, still amused by Hur's jealously. "Imagine your teaching me history again." Barbara discreetly rolled her eyes.
"We will make him well again," said Barbara gently. "We will teach you how fire is made. All we ask in return is that you show us the way back to our own cave."
A feeble voice from the ground said, "Listen to them, Hur. They speak truth. They did not kill me." By now Za was conscious, though still dazed.
"I'm getting worried about the time," said Ian. "We've been here far too long. Are we all ready?"
"I'm terribly thirsty," said Susan. "Can I just go and get a drink?"
Ian nodded, and Susan went over to Hur and said hopefully, "Water?" Hur led the way to the stream and Susan followed.
"Be careful!" called Harry.
Susan looked at the Doctor, who was standing a little apart, sulking. "Do you want some water, grandfather?"
"No, I do not!"
"What about giving us a hand here, Doctor?" called Ian. The Doctor folded his arms and turned his back.
"Don't take any notice of him," said Susan over her shoulder. "He's often like this, especially when he doesn't get his own way!"
Ian finished checking over the stretcher. It would have to be pretty solid to carry Za's weight.
"Maybe it was a good idea making friends with these two," said Barbara hopefully. "We might even stand a better chance of getting back to the ship."
Ian looked up from his task and saw that the Doctor had picked up a heavy pointed stone and was advancing stealthily towards Za. He sprang up and gripped the Doctor's wrist. "What are you doing?"
"Let go of me," said the Doctor indignantly. "I was just going to ask him to draw some kind of map on the ground, to show us the way back to the TARDIS."
Ian looked narrowly at the old man. Just how much ruthlessness was the Doctor capable of, if he felt it might save his own and Susan's life? He took the stone from the Doctor's hand and tossed it aside. "It's a good idea, Doctor, but I don't think he's in a fit state to draw any maps. We'd better get going."
Susan and Hur were back from the stream by now, and the Doctor looked on scornfully, while Ian, Harry and the three girls struggled to roll Za onto the stretcher. They managed it at last.
"Will you take one end, please, Doctor?" said Ian.
"You surely don't expect me to carry him?"
"Don't worry, I'll get the other side," Harry sighed. "Lead the way please, Susan." Harry picked up his end of the stretcher, Ian took the other, and the little party set off.
~0~
Kal had roused the rest of the Tribe, and they were milling about confusedly outside the main cave. "The strangers have gone," shouted Kal. "Za and Hur have gone with them. We must go after them and bring them back."
"Hur would not help the strangers to escape," said Horg.
"She has gone with them all the same."
Horg shook his head in puzzlement. "Where is Old Mother? Has she gone with them too?"
"She sits silent in the cave of skulls," said Kal. "I saw her there, but she would not move or speak." Horg led the way to the cave of skulls and they all crowded inside.
Old Mother sat cross-legged, staring into space, leaning against a pyramid of skulls.
"She will tell you what happened," said Kal. "Ask her."
Horg reached out and touched Old Mother on the shoulder. She tipped over sideways, and fell stiffly to the ground. "She is dead."
In a loud, compelling voice Kal said, "My eyes tell me what happened here. I see pictures as I do when I sleep. Za and Hur came here to free the strangers, so that they could steal the secret of fire for themselves. Old Mother tried to stop them, and Za killed her. Za has gone with them. He is taking them back to their own tree in return for the secret."
Horg said slowly, "The old woman is dead. Za and the strangers are gone. It must have been as your eyes saw it."
"I am your leader now," shouted Kal. "Follow me, and I will lead you to the strangers!"
~0~
It was Susan who reached the edge of the forest first. Pushing her way through a screen of bushes, she peered out onto the darkened plain and shouted, "There! Over there! I can see the TARDIS!"
The others plodded slowly after her along the path. Carrying the weight of Za had slowed them down to a crawl. Frequent rests had been necessary, and it had taken them an incredibly long time to reach the edge of the forest. But they were here at last, and safety was in sight.
"Come on, Harry," shouted Ian. "We're nearly there, just one final effort."
"Yeah, yeah. If anyone's been struggling it's you," Harry huffed.
"Barbara, you and Susan hold back the bushes so we can get the stretcher through," said Ian. Barbara and Susan pulled the screen of bushes aside, and Ian led the way through the gap with the stretcher. As he came out onto the plain, he could make out the square blue shape of the TARDIS just ahead.
Suddenly, to his horror, he saw a number of burly, skin clad figures emerge from behind the TARDIS and advance towards them.
"Back!" shouted Ian. He retreated clumsily back into the forest, hampered by the stretcher, swung round and saw another group of tribesmen blocking the path.
The leader had a short jutting beard, and there was a stone knife in his hand.
They were trapped.
Next time: The Firemaker