A/N: The Chibi's Are Stalking Me, Cordelia-Lear, GSRgirlforever, Isis the Sphinx, Jessa L'Rynn, Kathryn Shadow, NewDrWhoFan, Olfactory-Ventriloquism, Rynne, SilverWolf7, and TardisIsTheOnlyWayToTravel are proud to present the Second Annual Doctor Who October Project.

Each author has one character assigned, in the mode of the Canterbury Tales. Jessa L'Rynn edits.

Disclaimer: Some roses are red, old TARDISes are blue, we're just borrowing this lot, we don't own Doctor Who...

The Companionable Tales

Chapter 13: Cloud Gazer

Today's Author: NewDrWhoFan

"Oh my god, I freakin' want one!" Donna exclaimed through the loud laughter of the group.

"That sounds just like my daughter," Jackie said, shaking her head in resignation.

Isleen frowned abruptly. Her happy expression might as well have been erased from her face, it disappeared so quickly. "Your daughter?" she asked hesitantly.

"Rose is my daughter, yeah," Jackie said. "I thought you knew."

Isleen shook her head slowly. "Sorry, I guess I didn't. I think I..."

"Whatever you know," Mickey cautioned, "you probably shouldn't say."

"But I got the impression that Rose was something else, somehow," said Isleen, hesitantly.

Martha smiled and shook her head sadly. "That's a pretty common theme with a few of us. Just... change the subject."

"Are you afraid of the big bad wolf?" asked Lucy in a soft, playful sing-song.

"Oi!" Mickey snapped, rounding on Lucy. "You can just..."

"I've got a question!" Sarah Jane practically yelled over the crowd. Everyone turned to her, and she nodded firmly. "Right, well, I've got several questions, actually, and I want to ask them, but I think this one is the most important."

She looked a bit nervous at being in charge again for a moment, and then she squared her shoulders and looked resolute. Mickey glanced over at Luke to see what the boy thought of such a youthful version of his mother. He seemed to be watching her with great pride in his expression, and Mickey observed to himself that it was rare for teenage boys to be impressed by their parents. Luke had struck him as respectful, but somehow Mickey still thought this might be a good experience for the strange kid.

"Right," said Sarah. "I think the most important thing we need to know right now is a bit more about how everyone works into this. Isleen, can you tell us how you met the Doctor? I think it might be very important."

Isleen frowned. "But..."

"Honestly," Martha agreed, "I'm sure Sarah's right. Don't be worried if it's too embarrassing. You know how Mickey met him, after all, and it doesn't get any more embarrassing than that!"

"Hey!" Mickey protested, but everyone shushed him, and Jackie looked like she'd tell it her way if Mickey didn't let himself be hushed. Jackie's way would make everyone look awful in that scene. "Yeah, Martha's right," Mickey said. "I'm sure none of us had really fantastic experiences the first time we met the Doctor. We're never at our best for that sort of thing. So tell us, if you can?"

Slowly, looking like she was agreeing to walk to the gallows instead, Isleen nodded.

Unlike many of her friends, Isleen was no star-gazer. Rather, she was a cloud-gazer. While the others were still harvesting in the Valley, she would climb the hill and lie in the grass, basking in the sunlight and mentally drawing pictures in the clouds that would form every morning before noon. Sometimes she would imagine little animals at play, sometimes forests in the sky, sometimes she could see her mother or father painted in the wisps of white-on-blue.

When the patterns began to change, Isleen was the first to notice. The towering clouds weren't heeded much at first, since the rains still came and went as expected. But it was no longer warm and welcoming on the hilltop; the noon sun was obscured, and the winds buffeted the clearing.

Isleen complained about the chill and took to wearing a blanket as a shawl. Her parents were concerned, but her friends (more peers, really) laughed at her and called her weak as they continued work and play unabated.

It was on the evening of the alignment, just as the elders were beginning their ascent up the mountain at the head of the Valley, that Isleen fell ill. Her father begged the Healer to come and see her, but the Chief insisted the eight had to ascend together, and that Isleen would be seen in the morning. Isleen spent the night in and out of consciousness, always waking to find either her worried mother or her worried father at her bedside.

At daybreak, the elders arrived. The Chief stormed into Isleen's room, shouting and pointing and threatening. It was difficult to make out what he was actually saying in his agitated state and with her parents trying to remove him, but Isleen managed to hear enough. The Stone was missing from the mountain observatory. Not only that, but the alignment had been hidden in clouds--clouds at night! At this very moment, thick, dark clouds hung in the sky, and rumblings of thunder could be heard.

And the elders were blaming Isleen.

They claimed witnesses saw her leaving the harvest early in the morning, cloaked for the cold of the mountain, and that she must have scaled the mountain and stolen the Stone. Isleen tried to protest her innocence, but she couldn't lift herself from her bed, so far had her illness progressed. Her parents tried to defend her, but the Healer insisted her illness was proof of her guilt. The elders demanded the return of the Stone by that evening, and left the house.

The clouds had not dissipated at noon, or even by nightfall. In fact, a storm now raged over the once peaceful Valley. The elders began moving everyone to the higher ground on the mountainside to avoid the flooding, but Isleen's family was forbidden to leave until the girl produced the Stone.

Isleen's last memory of the Valley was her mother, sobbing at her bedside.

She awoke in a strange, bright room. Her mother and father were standing with her, along with a man she now knew as the Doctor. She was in the TARDIS medical bay, and the Doctor had healed her.

Although the Doctor had restored the balance of... Isleen hadn't understood all he'd said, but he had found the Stone and returned the clouds to normal; the elders still blamed Isleen.

Banished by her people, and indebted to this amazing, powerful man, it was really the simplest choice of her life to ask to travel with him.