Moments passed. And passed. Silence in the air that met their ears. But a ringing sang in the air that met Sol's brain. It hummed against his skull at speeds and amounts even he couldn't keep complete track of. Some exploded as they rushed out to him while others fizzled and faded before they could truly form.
Her thoughts were racing around him, and he tried to give her the time she needed to collect them, but he couldn't help himself. He wanted to talk to her more. He wanted her to speak to him in that dreamy, optimistic tone that was so foreign to him. The carefree spirit he admired in all three of their Earth visitors, but the whimsy which she held in her eyes as they glided across all the new sights of his home planet, the pure delight in such trivial existence, that was what he wanted. He wanted that happiness. And if she could only speak in that whimsy to him, get lost in her own memories, perhaps he could become lost within them as well. Perhaps he could share in her happiness.
He was not usually a being of escapism. The Swan race in generality were not a species of wanderers and dreamers. They were a practical and purposeful people. They had no time to wrap themselves up in impudent fancy. But she was different to him. Her entire presence hit him in a way no other had. It called to him, resonated against him. And in this time of war that kept him awake at night and wracked his mind and heart with discord, he truly could not have withstood her charm even if he had wanted to.
"There are still things on your mind?"
He felt her twitch in his arms at the sound of his voice, and the ripples of her thoughts shook slightly as they floated in the air.
"Please, do not feel as if you must not speak what you wish to say. You may ask me anything you'd like. I will not be offended."
The smooth tone of his voice before was gone now. He had returned to the clear, concise, and gentle character he was when they met.
"Were you ever a swan? Like the kind on Earth I mean."
"No, that genealogy has long since passed in our history on this planet. My great ancestors perhaps were the primitive simple minded fowl from which our gene pool sprouted, but it has been many decades since the last Swan was hatched from an egg. We are now born, live, like other mammal species."
He could feel her ease against him as her shock began to disperse and her curiosity to take hold.
"How old are you then?"
"Here I am just over thirteen. Almost half into my kind's life span. Which would be an equivalent to about, thirty of your Earth years. How old are you in Earth years?"
She could feel her head heat up again. "Twenty-eight."
"Oh! That would make me only one year your senior here." he smiled, sincerely delighted in the finding of common ground between them. He didn't notice the red that swelled on her face.
"Do you have any siblings, Sol?" she asked quickly.
His breath was caught and he looked at her blankly before gazing away.
"Yes," he answered at last. "A sister."
His voice was the same friendly tone and he smiled as if he were still delighted but somehow, it still seemed as if he had changed entirely.
"I don't see her often."
"That's too bad..."
He glanced down at her and was taken back to see the sincerity in her eyes and the sadness that truly washed over her being. It seemed to run deep. Deeper than it would for someone simply sparing sympathies. It overcame her as if she were a person who knew the pain personally.
"I've never had any sisters or brothers, but something about the thought of being unable to see someone so close to you, it just makes me feel... Terrible inside."
Everything about her screamed only truth but how could it be? Her thought waves were suddenly humming so loud and burning so bright, he thought even the Earth beings might have been able to see them with their naked eyes as they burned to life in the very air they breathed.
"Yes, well, when responsibilities call, the disciplined will rise, for the greater good." His words were strong but his eyes betrayed him.
"At least, that's what we try to believe." He confessed to her, his smile admittedly less enthusiastic than from before.
"That's very noble of you and your sister." she smiled at him and he appreciated the compliment, but the conversation was only heading in the opposite direction in which he wanted to take it in.
At last they reached a door. A large, white, wooden door. She could see how beautifully carved it was, most definitely by the hand of a true craftsman with a knack for the talent. Sol easily turned it's golden knob and pushed it open with one of his large pale hands, continuing to cradle her in his other arm without even a slight of struggle.
The room was lined with white wooden book cases towering up towards the high rising ceiling, filled to their brims with books and scrolls spilling over. A large crystal window again with stunning gold designs running across it's trims mimicked the shape of the door and opened the room to the outer side of the palace giving way to a spectacular view of the land. It's powder pines at the edges of the wide pearl plains, the grey mountains poking out from the tops of the trees, dull compared to the lake that replicated liquid silver.
Before the window rested a very large, very heavy, very ancient looking desk. Also seeming to have been made from the cutting of another great white wild pine. Sol gently sat her down on it's empty, flat surface and she gazed out at the sight while he rummaged through drawers and cupboards.
He returned with a few instruments and carefully placed them down beside her. He pulled a chair for him to sit and then angled what seemed to be an ornate magnifying glass in the light that shone brilliantly from the giant golden chandelier dangling high above them. He picked up a long, thin metallic tool and a pair of beautiful eyeglasses and carefully placed the glasses unto his face. He lifted his now larger blue eyes in her direction before nodding to the first leg and motioning with his delicate fingers where he wanted her to place it. She hesitated.
"I've been walking around everywhere barefooted. And my feet weren't doing much better even before we landed here..."
"Here on Seraph my people never wear pod-cloths. Everywhere we've gone and everything we've done is on all of our feet all the time. I'm not about to squint at your dusty toes."
She smiled and slowly stretched out one of her legs so her pointed foot rested under the glass of the magnifier. His silk hand reached for her heel to turn and hold the foot in place but the delicate touch of his fingers sent a rippling sensation all the way up her spine as she pulled her foot back to her, away from his reach.
He blinked at her from behind his impossibly clear specks that made his blue eyes, big shining blue eyes. They were even wider from his confusion as she covered her mouth with a hand and shut her eyes tightly.
Had he hurt her?
"Sorry," she apologized quickly and repositioned her foot in it's earlier place.
He slowly reached out once more but as soon as his index made the slightest connection she recoiled once more. This time her hand jumped to her gut as she bent over, her hair falling forward covering her face, and a cry escaped her. Was she in pain? He could feel his brow furrow as he fretted the situation.
But then she raised her head, her eyes still shut but a smile on her face. She was laughing. When her eyes opened she breathed deeply. She continued to breathe a few more times before she spoke again.
"Sorry, I'm so sorry, it's just that... I'm really ticklish."
A smirk broke across his lips as a small sense of relief washed over him and the rest of him bubbled in amusement. He clasped her foot at the ankle and rotated it as he wished. Carefully he spotted each and every quill, no longer than toothpicks, no thicker than a single hair. He removed them painlessly, one by one.
She watched him work and studied his face as he concentrated expertly.
"I'm still sorry I didn't get to wash up or something before you had to do this."
"Don't be," he murmured, never losing concentration, "It's easier when you haven't."
"Really?"
He nodded.
"Yes, you humans and baths. How silly it is how much time you spend grooming when," slowly he pulled out a silvery prick with ease and dropped it into a glass pail with others resting at the bottom, "when your skin reacts so drastically to long periods exposed to water."
"Reacts?"
"You shrivel."
He shrugged.
"How annoying that must be. To have such silly skin, irritated by so much."
"Silly skin?"
"Yes," he spotted another quill, "Burns when it's too hot, shivers when it's too cold. Wrinkles when it's too wet, dries up when it's not wet enough! How demanding, controlling, limiting." Another silver needle slid out from the heel of her foot.
"Don't you have skin?" she scoffed.
"Yes, but feathers too." he sent her a glance and she rolled her eyes knowingly.
"They protect our skin from most trivial inconveniences."
"Well aren't you a lucky duck."
He chuckled and his deep laughter shook from the inside of his neck and the light cover of tiny feathers shimmered from it's shaking.
"Last, one."
He grinned at her as he dropped the last quill in the glass bucket with the others.
"Was that all? It looked like all you did was pull them out with tweezers and a magnifying glass. I could of done that myself!" she crossed her arms.
"Yes, I suppose you could have done that part," he smiled apologetically, "but you couldn't have done... This part!"
"Ouch!"
There was a click before she yelped as she pulled her leg away from him and rubbed the top of her foot.
"What was that?" she demanded more than asked.
"Anti-paralysis." He placed something on the desk that looked like a taser, if tasers were made of moonstones, that he'd been hiding in the sleeve of his robe, "The poison would have worn off on it's own with the removal of the quills, but this will help speed up the recovery of feeling in your leg."
"You didn't need to surprise stab me."she moped a bit as she rubbed around the two little pricks in her foot. "Somehow I think the Doctor could have helped me with that part too. And it might have been less painful."
Sol nodded while removing his slender spectacles.
"Yes, I suppose the Timelord would have been well equipped with much more advanced technology after all."
Her eyes glanced up. How had he known the Doctor wasn't human? What did he call him?
"And this is not even our Infirmary as I stated, but in fact my study. I do apologize to have twisted the truth to you, but, I wanted to show you something."
She raised her brow skeptically.
"It's something I thought you would appreciate most."
Sol turned away from her and went to one of his glass cabinets. He carefully unlocked it's doors and took gently into his delicate hands a jar. A thin, enormous jar of crystal. Slowly he brought it to the desk and set it down before removing his dexterous fingers from around it's casing to reveal the prize inside.
And there it was. That joy in her eyes. His escape. If even only for the moment.
She gasped as a smile spread across her face and her eyes lit up with pure enjoyment. She bent closer to the jar to see the beautiful fluttering sapphire wings of a gigantic butterfly. It's shade was unlike any she had ever seen before, and it's wings spanned much larger than any she'd seen as well. And all over it's little black body were specks of sparkling flakes of pearls.
"I've never seen anything like this. I've never seen a butterfly this type of blue, it's indescribable." she breathed airily as her soft, tiny, pale fingers reached out slowly to press against the glass where the insect rested.
"She is lovely, isn't she?" Sol smiled with pride, "But she's also special."
He turned and floated across the marble floor over to the glass case once more, again to pull forth another crystal jar.
This one held three fluttering butterflies, each as equal in size as the blue. But they were pure powder white. Just like everything else seemed to be on Seraph.
"She is the only one of her kind. None of the others will go near her. She will not mate."
Her heart almost sank.
"But she's so beautiful."
She frowned.
"Why is she blue?"
"We don't know. Everything on Seraph is naturally white, clear, or gold. For a species to be a color that does not match it's habitat is a death sentence. Natural selection would not allow this gene to exist. And yet, she exists."
"She's wonderful."
"She is bold, despite the dangers. Brave enough to be phenomenal."
"But she is alone."
Sol looked to see a sadness in the eyes of the woman beside him. It surprised him to see such a disheartening within her. Perhaps she was not so unlike his own kind after all.
"I would like you to have her."
She stood straight.
"Oh, I-!"
"Her old Mistress can no longer tend to her, and she has been left in my care, and though the jar is lovely, she is not content within it's confines. I'm sure your companion will have a space for her in his transportation. I would like you to take her. So neither of you will be alone."
Well what could she have said to that?
He lifted the crystal and raised it to her. She gently took it from his grasp and held it against the flat of her stomach. She looked at him, still unsure with the decision of this gift, but he only ushered her to his door. She followed and slowly stepped away from the study and back into the never ending hall.
She stood there at the edge of the entryway as Sol began to shut the heavy wooden door.
"Sol, who was her owner before?"
Only a crack large enough to show his ever expressionless face. But again his eyes betrayed him, as they dulled with a sadness she could not name, and he answered her with a tone so hopeless she was sure even the most hopeful would despair.
"My sister."
And then the door was shut.
She stared at its front a while longer before she finally turned and began to walk her way back to the entrance. She couldn't help but wonder of what ever could have happened to Sol's sister.
Again a flash swept through her mind. A thought, a memory. The boy without a face. Nameless to her. And yet he plagued her mind so frequently.
She closed her eyes and planted her feet to the ground so not to lose her balance. She was feeling dizzy when her companions rounded the corner and called to her.
"There you are! Where've you been? We were lookin' for you. You weren't in the infirmary."
Martha looked more curious than truly worried. The Doctor still had a cheeky grin gracing his lips.
"Yeah, I was earlier. They had this big, glass and gold laser thing and it scanned me or something. Then I was free to go. I kind of wandered off on my own. Found this." she raised the jar.
"Lovely." remarked the Doctor lightly intrigued.
"Thought you might want to have these back before you started wandering." Martha smiled while handing Nurse her boots.
"Guess I got used to being without them." she shrugged as she took them from her, handing the jar over to the Doctor so she could put them on.
"How'd you find this?" the Doctor asked curiously.
She shrugged again, keeping her eyes focused on the side laces of her shoes.
"Sol gave it to me."
"Ooh, Sol gave it to her." Martha practically sung.
"Well wasn't that nice of Sol, Martha?"
"Yes, very nice of him. Charming, even."
Nurse only rolled her eyes, shrugging off their teasing.
"It's just a butterfly in a jar. He wanted me to tend for it since it wouldn't stand a chance back on its own."
"Why wouldn't it stand a chance on its own?" Martha asked, sorry for the little bug.
"Because it's blue." she stood up and took the jar again from the Doctor while they all began to travel along the maze of halls.
"So?" the Doctor questioned further for explanation.
"So, nothing else is blue on Seraph. She's the only one. She'd be spotted and eaten in a second out there. Probably by some powdery hawk or some other bird of prey, or whatever this planet has to act as insect control."
"So let me get this straight, Sol gave you a rare, one of its kind, only specimen of its species, butterfly, in a crystal encasement?"
"Yeah..."
"And that's not charming?"
His face was ready to crack again but she only rushed her steps in response.
"Oh, he's good." She could hear him call as he and Martha giggled together.
She walked furiously down the corridor and cut around a turn before she came to a sudden halt. She stood there, still for a moment before sighing to herself. Carefully she turned around and peeked out around the bend. They were walking slowly towards her, laughter still bubbling out in hushed whispers. They gave her questioning eyes, though kept silent in waiting for her to address them.
"I... Don't know where I'm going."
Martha and the Doctor sighed as they walked up to her. The Doctor took her under his arm and then turned in the opposite direction that she had been heading in before.
"Don't worry," he gave her a pat on the back, "No one ever does."
She let them lead and chat among themselves as they passed slowly by columns of gold spiraling up to the ceiling, letting herself fall behind so she could lose herself in thought.
Yes, she knew there was an attraction to Sol existing somewhere within her. She wasn't naive, she knew what attraction felt like. She'd felt it for many boys before and eventually for many men as well as she aged. Many striking, handsome men that had proven to be quite different to her. From Johnny the paper boy and next door neighbor growing up for ages 4 through 8, to Yari, the tall, dark, slender gentleman she met in Cairo on an exotic finds trip, convinced that he truly was, an exotic find indeed.
Yes, she'd felt the burn for exotic men before, but none as, 'exotic' as Sol. He was a swan. A bird. An, alien. And not even an alien like the Doctor! Sol was, completely and undebatably, foreign territory.
Before she knew it she was lost in her own worries and wonders as new questions came to exist in her mind, those that even she was surprised for having as her cheeks reddened before she'd push them away. She was beginning to feel overwhelmed when she was suddenly pulled from them in a single moment.
"Here we are!"
The Doctor turned the gold handle to a simple white door and swung it open as he stepped in, Martha and Nurse following. She looked up to see she had entered a large and long white room lined with long, thin, simple empty beds opposite each other against the walls. The ceiling was raised high above them in this room as well, and it echoed as they stepped down the path between beds to the end where an entire wall of glass stood with a silk curtain pouring down its side. She noticed the last two beds that rested on the golden floor were different than the dozens they passed. They were larger, wider, and their frames made of the sturdy white pine instead of the icy pearl. Carved and intricate with detail. The two of them stood on an impressive rug and the bedding was covered generously with silken sheets, downy pillows, and soft down filled quilts. The Tardis stood in place of where the two adjacent beds would have been.
"This is where you and Martha will be sleeping. Sorry, no single rooms. The flock sleeps together. I'll be across and down the hall a bit in another room like this but for us men."
"Why is the TARDIS in here with us and not with you in your room?" Martha asked.
"They think it's a closet. I'd rather them think it were for your two's jammies instead of my space ship."
He turned away from her disapproving frown and continued back down the room.
"Besides, it's better here for safe keeping." he called before leaving them his back for good and making the rest of the way to the door.
Martha allowed her attention to fall upon the window and she stepped up to it to gaze out unto the view below. Nurse had slowly stepped to a small but beautiful wooden desk that took the corner beside the Tardis. Carefully she placed the jar in her hands down unto it's surface and sat in the matching chair to the desk.
The chair's back was long and thin, and it made her look so small sitting in it, but there she sat, sitting with her chin in her hand, elbow propped on the table. Her eyes, fixed to the little rarity in crystal. She couldn't help the smile from forming on her lips.
Martha noticed her silence and looked over to see her daydreaming overtake her. She smiled softly. She almost knew too well that hopeless fixation.
"Look at you. We've got a sight of a spectacular world covered in white, and you'd rather stare at a butterfly?"
Nurse turned to her in her seat.
"I don't know what's wrong with me."
Martha laughed and pulled her to the long, cushioned bench that stretched the width of the glass.
"Nothin's wrong with you. You're only human."
"That's exactly why there's something wrong with me! I'm human. And he's not!"
"And what's wrong with that?" Martha only continued to smile.
"I just! I'm not. Oh, I don't know! I just, feel... Silly."
"Why?" Martha laughed.
"How is that even supposed to work, Martha? He's a swan?" she sighed and looked out into the window, watching the yellow sun turn a shade of orange. "Humans and aliens, actual, aliens?"
"You'd be surprised." Martha remarked, almost solemnly.
"But I think when it comes down to it, all that matters is if he's sweet to you.
And Sol is, definitely, sweet."
