Sorry it took me so long to update. I had to decide exactly what I wanted the old shop to be lol. Enjoy, please review :)
"So how is it that all I see is an abandoned shop and you see…whatever it is that you see?" Amy asked, squinting at the window.
"Think about it, Amy. How come you never saw that extra door in your house?" The Doctor answered.
"So a perception filter, yeah?" Amy considered this. "But if there is one, you should be seeing the same thing as me."
"Depends on whose perception they want to filter." The Doctor observed the Parisians walking leisurely past. "All these people, many of them window shopping, and yet they don't pay this particular store one ounce of attention. Not even a curious glance to see what it used to be or if another shop will be opening in its place."
"And they're all human, like me. Which means the perception filter is only supposed to hide it from humans. Not Time Lords."
"Makes you wonder why it's so selective."
"Alright then, what do you see?"
"Well it's a building, but there's no window; just a cement wall. And the door is…over there. Off to the side and up a bit of stairs."
Amy stared at the weather-beaten red door right in front of her face, which looked so real and substantial to her, and then at the Doctor. It made more sense to say he had gone crazy, which was always a good possibility. "I don't see anything."
"Well of course you don't. Now come on." The Doctor offered her his arm, but she hesitated to take it. "It's all right. I'll make sure you don't fall."
"You better be right about this." Amy didn't enjoy the idea of climbing an invisible set of stairs, but she trusted the Doctor enough to do it despite her misgivings.
It was odd, bringing her foot down on nothingness and feeling a hard surface anyway. She tripped a little on the second stair, but the Doctor caught her. Together they climbed into the air, stopping at one point so that the Doctor could reach out and open an equally unseen door. A gap opened in the wall, and beyond it the dim lighting made it near impossible to see.
"Ah, another corridor with bad lighting. What fun," the Doctor said, sounding truly excited as he plunged into the shadows.
Amy sighed, wondering exactly what had she done to deserve an alien for a husband who had a tendency for getting into trouble. Not that she'd like her life any other way, of course. For him and all the wonders in the universe, she could handle little things like invisible stairs and creepy lighting. And whatever was inevitably waiting for them at the end of it all.
The hallway wasn't long; merely a rectangular foyer with sagging wallpaper and a threadbare carpet. There was a door fitted with warped glass at the end of it, similar to one in an office.
"There's something written on the door," Amy announced, pointing at the peeling gold letters. Whatever it said, however, was a mystery to her. "Looks like a different language."
"That's because it is."
"So you can read it?"
"Regrettably, no. This tongue is ancient, even older than Gallifreyan, which really is saying something."
"I suppose we're going to march right in there without knocking, aren't we?"
"You know me too well."
"Yeah, and it's starting to scare me."
The Doctor smiled, pecked her on the cheek, and opened the door.
Amy felt her jaw drop. "Oh. My. Gosh."
"Well said."
"Doctor, explain."
The Doctor scratched the back of his head, still astonished but mostly mesmerized by the sight before him. Instead of the interior of a decrepit, human-built structure, they had somehow ended up outside. But it wasn't the kind of outdoors one might find in old France; the door opened out onto a cliff face, which cut away a few feet in front of them to plummet down into a boiling river. There was a steel bridge that spanned the chasm, leading to a sort of iron-walled fortress on the opposite side. The terrain around the fortress was like a wasteland; nothing but gray crags for miles, and the sky that the towers of the fortress brushed against was tinged dusky orange.
"It appears this door is actually a portal; a link betwixt nineteenth century Earth and an alien world. They're quite rare but not unheard of."
"Who lives here, then? What could have possibly built that thing?"
"Don't know. But I'm sure we'll find out inside."
"You just want to waltz right in? What if they're hostile?"
"Well they haven't attacked us yet."
"'Yet' being the operative word."
"Oh come on, Amy. Where's your sense of adventure?"
"I'm starting to wonder if I have any sense at all." Amy shook her head. "Alright. Into the big, scary, and possibly life-threatening alien fortress we go."
"Atta girl."
Crossing the bridge was the easy part, as long as you ignored the odd behavior of the water far below it. It bubbled and hissed as if there was an underwater volcano or two concealed beneath the surface, which, Amy figured, was probably the case. But once they got to the colossal door of the fortress, which was nothing more than an imposing steel slab, they ran into their first problem.
"Will you look at that, Doctor. No handle or doorknob to be seen. Guess we can't barge in after all," Amy said triumphantly.
"Apparently not. But there's always knocking. Although I must admit I've never really been a fan of it." The Doctor raised his fist to the cold face of the door and rapped on it soundly, his knuckles making an echoing noise on the metal.
At first nothing happened. But then, after a minute or so, a small square in the door slid away, revealing a window-like peephole. Peering through it was a beady black eye. It shifted from the Doctor to Amy and then disappeared, the window slamming shut.
"Guess he's not in a very talkative mood today," Amy surmised, shrugging.
"Wait for it," the Doctor replied.
Almost as if in answer, the sound of many padlocks unlocking and deadbolts sliding out of their cylinders erupted, and the door opened. Standing there in its place was a puzzling creature. It looked very much like a garden mole, complete with the beady eyes, long gray snout, funny pink nose, and claws. But it also stood as tall as the Doctor and had a humanoid body, and it was dressed in iron-plated armor and steel-toed boots.
"Hello there, I'm the Doctor. And you are?" the Doctor said in his usual chirpy voice, evidently not seeing anything wrong with an overgrown mole suddenly showing up in front of him.
"Doctor, it's a mole person," Amy whispered blatantly.
"Shh, Amelia. Don't be rude," the Doctor told her.
The mole person didn't seem all that eager to share his identity. "State your business," he said in a gruff voice.
"Oh you know, just out for a leisurely stroll around Paris, came across a portal disguised by a perception filter and couldn't resist checking it out," the Doctor answered.
The mole creature grunted. His eyes settled on Amy once more, appraising her.
"How much for the girl?"
"I'm sorry?"
"I said, how much for the girl? She'd be worth a fair amount on the market. Females are very much in demand."
"The market?"
"Yes, the Soricomorphan slave market. Now are you going to sell her or not?"
"Certainly not! That's my wife you're talking about," the Doctor said, finally understanding. He reached out and pulled Amy closer to him, just in case the mole person didn't feel like taking no for an answer.
The alien looked confused. "But she is human; I can smell it plain as day. Humans are useful for nothing besides working in the mines. How can she be your mate?"
"Long story, quite interesting, although I seriously doubt you'd care to hear it. Listen, Mister…whoever you are…it seems we've had a misunderstanding. I'm a jeweler back on my own planet, quite a successful one mind you, and I was told that the best stones could be found here in your fine city," the Doctor invented quickly.
The Soricomorphan looked skeptical at first, but a moment later he moved aside. "You may go about your business. But if you change your mind about the human…"
"I won't, but thank you," the Doctor responded, breezing past the creature.
"Keep her close, then. An unclaimed human wandering the streets of Dymecodon would be a prize find for any Soricomorphan," the large mole called after him, the hint of longing in his voice an indication that he didn't mind the idea himself.
"Doctor, would you like to tell me what just happened?" Amy hissed as the Time Lord practically pulled her along with him.
"I wasn't aware humans had that short of a memory span, but if you really want a recount…"
"You know what I mean. These mole things are enslaving people! What better reason is there to turn around and run in the opposite direction? We are pretty good at that."
"I can't leave now, Amy. That Soricomorphan doorkeeper said that your lot is being forced to work in their mines. Which means that portal was created for the sole purpose of abducting them from Earth. I have to stop it somehow."
Amy looked around her. The fortress was bustling with Soricomorphans going about their daily routine, along with a few other assorted alien races. Humans were scarcer, but whenever one was spotted, it was a sad sight to behold. One in particular, a young boy of about eight with sandy brown hair and freckles, was shoved in front of them by a Soricomorphan Amy assumed was his owner. The boy's skin and clothes were caked with dirt, and cuts crisscrossed his arms. He glanced up briefly at Amy, and the hollowness in his wide hazel eyes tugged at her heart.
"What do we do?" She asked, making up her mind.
By the way, I derived the name for the mole people from Soricomorpha, which is the order moles are in. Also, Dymecodon is the genus name for a Japanese shrew mole.