"You'll Find Wonder"
29. Howled Until I Was Heard
Seeing the Doctor stride off toward the ship in the sky, the rest of the group had looked to one another. They had to keep an eye on Dorothy, there was Tamrin's body… They had to do something though.
Anro had gone to Meran, nodded down to the body, and the man understood, taking her from him. Once she was safely transferred, he'd turned to Quinn and pointed off to where the Doctor had gone.
"You want to go after him," she guessed, and he nodded. She looked back to the others. "Stay here," she told them as she and Anro took off running. "Wait!" she called after him, as he was faster than her. They reached the Doctor, which was made easier by the fact that he'd stopped and now stared straight up at the ship. "What happens if they come down?"
"Oh, I want them to come down," he assured her. "If I can talk to them, maybe they won't decide to strike back for what your time agent and the woman on the other end of that arm you're holding have done to him and the other five," the Doctor explained, indicating Anro.
"Are they dangerous?" Quinn asked.
"I don't know, what's your definition of danger?" he asked, looking down at her. "If I tell you to do something, you do it, alright?"
"Got it," she promised. She trusted him, no matter how she'd doubted one thing or another before, she had settled those things by now. If he said run, she ran. "What are you planning?" she asked, and he smiled.
"Anro, you called them from worlds away, how about getting them to come for a quick talk?" he looked to the beast man.
"Doctor?" Quinn touched his arm, interrupting him in order to point out the new arrivals.
Just ahead of them, in the clearing, three of them had appeared. They looked as Anro did, of course, but it was clear they had never been in captivity, never been made to crawl on all fours like animals. Quinn looked at them, and what she could see more than anything was what Dorothy and the others had robbed of him. What she also saw though was that the trio looked like they would strike if any of them gave them reason to.
"Good, excellent, uh… hello," he smiled, stepping up. "I'm the Doctor." The middle one of the trio had begun to growl in what Quinn knew, without understanding, was speech.
"What are they saying?" she whispered.
"Well, in broad strokes," he hesitated, "They're upset, and they think we were the ones who took him."
"But he can tell them…" she looked back to Anro. He looked back to her, moving ahead. She could vaguely get the sense that he knew some or all three of them. He was all but bending the knee. She watched, listened as he conversed with them. She could try and guess what was happening, but her best way of seeing it was by looking to the Doctor. At first he was nodding, satisfied, but then he stopped. "What?" she asked him.
"Good news is they believe you and I were not responsible." She waited, knowing what would come next. "But now they may be ready to take on… everybody else."
"No, hold on!" she came up to join Anro at the front.
"Quinn…" the Doctor held a hand out to try and bring her back.
"I'm fine," she told him. "Can they understand me?" she asked Anro, and he shook his head. "Then translate for me," she asked him before turning back to the trio. "I've been here no more than a day, and in that time I've had to accept the fact that there are such things as travels in space and time, and other… people, from different worlds. I don't know how common it is to you, although you have a ship so I guess you're familiar with it, but it's new to me. I never knew it was real, but those people back there, they know even less. They would have no way of defending themselves, but they would try, because that's what you do when people attack you, right? You may not know what's happening, but you fight back to survive. You can spare them that, and spare yourselves the potential casualties. The problem is done, it's being fixed. We know who's responsible, and they'll be punished, the way they should be. Anro's here, and he's safe, and he can go home, with you… No one else needs to get hurt. I've gotten to know him, briefly, but… I know what he's like, and if he's one of you then I can only hope that you share in those qualities that made me see how good he is, that I didn't have to be afraid around him the way some of these people were." She paused, breathed. "All he wants is to go home… I know what that's like."
Anro had translated the whole way and, when she finished, he bowed his head and put his hand over his heart as he looked to her. She smiled, then tilted her head discreetly as though to ask how they were taking it. He looked back to them, and he spoke again. When he was done, much to her surprise, it was now them who bowed their heads… to her.
"That's… that's good, right?" she blinked. A moment later, the trio was gone. "Are they loading up to return, or…"
"No, they're waiting… Time to say goodbye," the Doctor explained. Anro started back for where they'd left the others then, so the Doctor and Quinn followed. He returned to Tamrin, who rested on the ground now. Violet had taken her vest and placed it under her head, because she felt as though she should. He crouched at her side, speaking to the Doctor over his shoulder.
"Yes, I think you should," he bowed his head. "Thank you." Quinn looked to him. "Anro asked to deliver Tamrin's body back to her people himself, he says he wants them to know just who she was." Quinn smiled, moving to crouch at Anro's side. He looked to her and she took his hand.
"Probably won't see each other again, but… I won't forget you," she promised. He put his hand on top of her head and she laughed. "Who says we need words?" she breathed out. "You take care of yourself, Anro, okay?" He held his hand over his heart and she cried and laughed at once.
They would stand back, the Doctor and Quinn, to watch as the group said its goodbyes to the one they had called Roar. They hadn't really known him, because they wouldn't let them, but he was still one of them.
When all was said and done though, he would rise, taking up Tamrin's body and carrying her down the way, back to where they'd stood just a moment ago. As he'd get to the clearing, he and the body would disappear.
"You know if you should ever find yourself on his world now, they would welcome you with all the care one gives a hero," the Doctor spoke at Quinn's ear. "That's more or less the way he described you."
When they were gone, there was a brief moment's silence over the group before the Doctor looked back to them, to Dex, and Meran, and Renlo, and Annidae… to Dorothy.
"Who wants to go home, too?"
TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)
