"So, where to next?" Anna asked brightly, skipping up to the console. "I fancy chocolate. Can we go somewhere when its the equivalent of Easter?"
The Doctor grinned over the console at her.
"Oh, and I'm gonna fly if you tell me the co-ordinates," she added sweetly, gently pushing him over to the pilot seat.
"You don't know how though!" he replied indignantly.
"yup, I do!"
"Fine, impress me, and I'm not telling you the co-ordinates," he folded his arms across his chest looking remarkably like a small child in the body of a slightly bigger child.
"Fine."
"Fine."
Anna grinned and turned her attention to the console. She carefully recalled all her knowledge from her nearly complete compendium and began flicking levers and pushing switches in a much more controlled way than her enthusiastic Uncle. She wasn't 100% sure as to what she was doing. Yet.
And she didn't really know any co-ordinates. She had to pause a few seconds, gently chewing her lip, deciding whether to plump for the safe option or make them up.
Pro's: Making them up was WAY more fun.
If she went for the safe option she'd know where she was
Con's: Safe option BORING!
Since when did she ever do the boring stuff? Don't answer that.
So it was decided!
Eagerly, she plumped for random combinations of numbers, alphas, dashes and diamonds. She hoped there would be chocolate.
The TARDIS wheezed into its landing. Eagerly, Anna pulled the scanner towards her, swiftly reading the swirls of Gallifrain text. Well. It wasn't Earth, that much she was certain on.
"So, Anna, where are we?" The Doctor asked airily. He looked smug but still a little put out. Anna grinned.
"Let me just do an environment check."
With that she ran to the doors and stuck her head out. She was greeted by a shady clearing surrounded by the most magnificent emerald and pine trees she had ever seen. The air tasted of water and mint and smelt heavenly.
Anna stepped out, her eyes wide in awe and delight. She didn't know where they were, but by heavens it was one of the most beautiful places she'd ever seen. She felt so tiny next to mighty great tree boughs, a mix of silver and green.
The Doctor stepped out behind her and whistled appreciatively.
"Well done Anna! Good guess. No chocolate here though I'm afraid," He smiled at her. "I'll make a Time Lady of you yet."
Anna glared at him, but it was impossible to stay angry in such fantastic surroundings.
"It's so beautiful," she smiled, raising a hand to touch the fraying fronds of a foreign plant. Softer than a cotton blanket in the darkest green she had ever seen. "Where are we?"
"This Anna? You have bought us to the New Forest of Cheem," He smiled proudly at her across the clearing "Well done! Excellent piloting, but I think we may need to take a look at co-ordinates."
"Cheem..." Anna frowned, trying to remember what she had been taught about the planet. Her father had insisted on installing a knowledge of planets and species for all his children. "Fifty thousand light years from Earth, with some traditional Earth species... aren't the trees alive?"
"Some of them, not all, sort of like in Narnia, y'know. Beautiful place Cheem, and the inhabitants are really spectacular! Y'know, first place I took Rose was Earth Death, and there were some trees there, really friendly bunch..."
Anna tuned out the Doctor's excited babble, choosing instead to examine some of the gorgeous floral plants around her. She knelt reverently in front of a flower, a similar shape to a tulip with soft rose petal, at first glance a flawless white, but on closer inspection a hint of sapphire blue issued from the centre. A small cluster of gems nested where the blue began.
"Hey, Uncle Tom? Is that a Saphir plant?"
When she received no answer, she turned around to find that the Doctor and the TARDIS had both vanished.
"Typical."
...
She could hear something. She wasn't sure what it was, a grating noise that whipped up a gentle breeze on this calm day.
She glanced back, she really should get back to the homestead... she looked forward. She had heard rumors from the hunters that the Nymphs were rallying to the capital. It might be them...
She ran forward, lightly leaping over tree boughs and silently moving leaves from her line of sight. She knew there to be a clearing up ahead in the Saphir forest.
She stopped suddenly, straining to hear.
She could hear a mumbled conversation "..of course its so completely him! Never ever take your eyes of him for a second otherwise he vamooshcas and I get stuck somewhere random, possibly hostile without any form of anything. And all because he wants to play hide and bloody seek!..."
She crept closer to the noise and saw, through a gap in the Cotoon fronds a young girl dressed in a pale blue dress. She must have been a nymph! They had come!
She crept forwards, into the clearing and crouched by a saphir.
She rustles the leaves by accident. The girl whipped round, fists raised in a gesture of hostility.
...
Anna POV
Ok, weird. Left on my own in a strange clearing and now suddenly, I'm being stared at by a tree... Well, it is Cheem, I guess there must be trees that roam the forest.
Still kinda weird though...
She has soft creamy coloured... skin? Bark? Whatever... with dark hair elaborately tied to form some sort of headdress . She doesn't look threatening. If anything, she looks interested.
I lower my fists, not that I'd have done anything and spread my palms so that she can see I'm not going to hurt her. I also bobbed a sort of curtsey to show respect. Apparently that's a good idea. The treeform smiled and imitated the gesture.
"Welcome traveller," she said in a soft musical voice. Then her voice lost its mystical quality and became childlike, or at least teenage-like. "Are you a nymph?"
I was confused. I'd always considered nymphs to be the embodiment of trees, but this tree woman before me obviously considered the term in a different manner. I shook my head.
"My names Anna."
"Corianth," the girl looked almost disappointed. "We were told that the Southern Water nymphs were moving. I've never seen a nymph before, only a wood carving, and they aren't very reliable." Corianth laughed. Then just as suddenly she stopped and stared at me in a sort of fear and interest. "You're not a human are you?"
The way that Corianth said it made it sound really bad, so I decided I had to play up the alien.
"Less than half," I whispered. "but don't shout it about."
A crack split the quiet forest air. Suddenly, Corianth was on her feet and grasping my hand with a vine like grip.
"I must take you to the homestead," she cried, her eyes wide with fear "I shall be in so much trouble for leaving!"
Then I was pulled through a jungle, by a tree. Bet you don't say that every day.
A/N I've planned the next couple of chaps, so THEORETICALLY, this story should be done in like, 10 chapters. They will be long ones, though not sure how long as I actually have to write them first!