"This way!" The Doctor ducked off the trail.
Trinia scampered to keep up with him. "Doctor, are you sure?"
"Positive! I can feel the time energy calling to me-Trinia? Come have a look at this!"
Trinia finally caught up to the Doctor. When she saw what he wanted her to look at, her face fell. "Of course..."
The shrews appeared to have crossed the stream on foot. The tracks led into the rushing water and re-appeared on the other side.
"Right then, we'll just have to cross it." The Doctor took a seat by the stream bank and, in a flash, had removed his socks and shoes and rolled up his trouser legs. "Ready?"
"Ready."
Trinia took the Doctor's hand and the two of them waded into the stream. Trinia tensed as the rushing water nearly caused her to lose her footing. "So," she said. "This TARDIS thing, it's a...ship of some kind?"
"Of some kind, yeah."
"And you said it's...bigger..."
"On the inside."
"How can it be bigger on the inside?"
"Oy! You don't see me asking you how you can be...a talking squirrel."
"Because that's a normal thing."
"Well, it's normal for things to be bigger on the inside where I come from. Back on my home planet-watch your step," the Doctor said as he and Trinia stepped out onto dry land.
"You must come from a very mixed-up place, then."
"I suppose so."
"Well, I don't know if it's my place to ask that, but maybe after we've gotten rid of these vermin, I think I'd like to..." Trinia trailed off. "Do you hear that?" she whispered.
"Yeah." The Doctor could hear some sounds up ahead. It could be whoever had taken the TARDIS; he knew they weren't far now.
The Doctor and Trinia silently made their way forward until the two of them had reached the edge of a camp. The Doctor motioned to Trinia and the two of them dropped behind a bush so that they could watch.
Shrews, just as Trinia had suspected. Small, spiky-furred creatures wearing bandanas and rapiers, eating, drinking, arguing...And there, at the edge of the camp, was the TARDIS. Trinia stared at it. She didn't think she'd ever seen anything so blue. She didn't know what the words at the top meant-"Police Public Call Box"-but it had to be something special.
A simple, genuine smile formed on the Doctor's face. "That's it," he whispered. "That's the TARDIS."
"How are we going to get it back?"
"I don't know. I'm thinking of a plan. Right. Here's the plan. We walk up to them and we ask for it."
An ugly-looking shrew roared something incoherent and whacked another one over the head.
The Doctor's face fell. "No, that's a rubbish plan. Forget that plan. Why don't you come up with the next one?"
Trinia surveyed the camp. "Maybe if we make it around to the other side we can just...Is it locked?"
The Doctor made a motion as if he were about to snap his fingers. "I can unlock it."
"Okay, so here's the plan. We sneak all the way around the perimeter of the camp. We get right behind the TARDIS. Then we dash out, you unlock it, and we get in. Does that plan work?"
"Only one way to find out. Ready? Go!"
The Doctor turned around and was surprised to find himself staring down the point of a rapier.
"Um..." He gulped, then smiled at the shrew. "Hello. My friend and I were just..."
"I 'eard ye," the shrew growled. "Plottin' to steal Log-a-Log's blue box, I'd say!"
"But-" Trinia protested.
"No buts! I'm sure Log-a-Log'll have a few choice words fer you two." He prodded the Doctor. "Now move, or ye'll taste me rapier!"