Part 10 – Of Bushes, In One Form Or Another.
(By Booster)
It turned out a little more difficult to locate a proper area for Dawn's visit to the toilet than first imagined. Thoughout the increasingly desperate search, Dawn's face got more and more strained and her legs became clamped tighter and tighter together. Any bushes they passed were either too sparse to hide anything from the Doctor or Clark, or just too high up in the canyon walls for Dawn to get to.
Eventually, the canyon led into a valley, sheltered from the winds and with a fresh stream of water running through it. The resulting fertile area caused the growth of several large groups of trees, various bushes and undergrowth. At least, that was how the Doctor described the area very loudly to Clark while Dawn spent some time behind the largest of these bushes.
Clark scratched his snout thoughtfully. "Tho, that coverth the plant life Doctor. What sort of animalth should we expecth?"
The Doctor paused for thought. He hadn't actually gotten that far ahead in his theory of local conditions and evolution, having part of his brain busy calculating the average bladder capacity of young teenage girls cross-referencing with the length of time Dawn was taking. Thankfully, Dawn's scream answered both sets of questions.
It turned out to be a particularly friendly vole that had snuffled at Dawn's ear at a most unfortunate time. In fact, the same vole that Dawn had been busy feeding banana to earlier that day.
"Still," as the Doctor remarked later as they continued to trudge up the mountain pass they'd eventually managed to locate, "At least you'd managed to get most of your trousers back on before we charged in."
"I'm still keeping him," Dawn muttered and tickled her new friend under the chin. Clark, who'd been starting to feel a mite peckish, looked disappointed.
The Doctor stopped and took another set of readings with the sonic screwdriver, before setting off once again. "At least the old girl's stopped moving now," he said thoughtfully, and tapped his teeth with the sonic screwdriver.
Clark stared around at the mountain scape all around them. "Taking a wild guesth, Doctor – we're thtill heading for Mad Miriam'th ethtate?"
Dawn looked up from where she'd placed Emort* into her breast pocket and re-adjusted the black cowboy hat on her head. "Like it could be anywhere else?"
The Doctor smiled wanly. "'Fraid so. You know, just once I'd like to be able to avoid the inevitable breaking in, dodging the guards and stealing the TARDIS."
There was the sound of several safeties being taken off various weapons, and several armed figures rose from their hiding places. The one nearest the Doctor, with a slightly more elaborate helmet than the others, levelled his gun directly at the Doctor's head. "Oh, I think we might be able to help you there," he smirked. "Go directly to Jail, do not pass Go and we collect $200 each."
"Oh joy," said Dawn, rolling her eyes. "It's the also inevitable ambush."
Emort just squeaked.
*That's what she decided to call the vole. Clark didn't get it at all. The Doctor took several days, then unconvincingly claimed that he knew exactly what Dawn had meant all along and simply hadn't found it funny.