Chapter 8 – An Unexpected Guest –

Several weeks had passed now, and still no sign of any other Time Lords. They had travelled to at least a dozen planets, and Rose really was getting sick of it now. Gone were the fast and fun adventures of her and the Doctor. Now all they seemed to do was wander around aimlessly. They would travel to a planet, and all travel around for a week or so, before concluding that nobody was there. Eventually Kymern had decided that most of the few remaining Time Lords would be found on Earth, trying to look for the Doctor, as that was his home away from home, and where he could be found most of his time. They had been here for a few weeks, and although much to Rose's delight, they had already been to New York, Paris, Madrid and a few other major cities, nothing actually exciting had happened. She sighed, following Kymern and the Doctor down the street. Much of the Doctor's enthusiasm from earlier had gone now, but he still refused to give up. He must be very determined, she thought to herself, but would she do the same, if her home planet had gone, and her race was dying out? She tried not to think about it, life was hard enough as it was. She jogged slightly to catch up with the two Time Lords. They were currently in London, in the year 2032 as the Doctor apparently spent a fair amount of his time here, and assumed that a lot of his people apparently knew this.

"Doctor" she asked finally catching up to him. "Well…… how many.. people do you think you'll find?"

He turned to her, and gave her an innocent smile "No idea, but Kymern reckons that at least 100 of our people will have been able to get away"

"Oh" she said, looking upset at first, but then not wanting to offend the Doctor, she smiled at him.

They continued walking down streets, passing hundreds of houses. Once again, Rose's feet were getting tired, but she didn't make note of, reminding herself that she would have to do what she would have to do. She was just about to give her 100th sigh of the day, when suddenly a piercing scream came from behind her. Her heart leapt. Could this be their chance to save somebody? To finally get some action after several weeks of walking around and asking people. She turned around, exactly at the same time as the Doctor did. They both looked at each other, and he nodded to her. Her heart was pounding now, she knew this was it, finally, some action after 5 weeks of boredom. They were just about to start running down the street, but a curious, almost administrative voice stopped them.

"Ahem, and where do you think you're going?"

The Doctor turned around. It was Kymern, who just stood there looking at them both with one raised eyebrow.

"Well?"

"You heard, people might be in trouble…."

"Well, they'll sort it out won't they, they got themselves into trouble in the first place" Kymern assured him.

Rose looked bewildered. He was just going to go off and look for more of his people, not worried that innocent people might get hurt.

Kymern looked at her.

"My dear, it is not the Time Lords place to interfere with events that do not involve him"

"How…."

"Did I know what you were thinking?" Kymern completed "Simple, our race is telepathic" He suddenly shot a dirty look at the Doctor "or didn't your friend here tell you?"

"Well" she remembered suddenly "Err, he did just recently"

"But…." The Doctor was quick to intervene "I've lost the ability to use it over the years……. It's a bit push and shove"

Suddenly this all cleared up everything Rose had wondered. That explains why he never used telepathy, he couldn't use it on command any more. He must have lost this ability in the past then, she just thought to herself.

"Yes well, shall we press on? Leave those people be" Kymern brought her back to reality.

"If there's one thing I've ever learn't about humans" The Doctor grinned "Is that never trust themselves to be left alone" He turned and ran down the street, to where a large crowd had now appeared down there.

Rose laughed, then shot off after him. Kymern simply looked disappointed, then rolled his eyes. "Well" he muttered quietly "I guess I had better go make sure they don't stir up too much trouble, and with that he strolled off slowly after them"

With him taking the leisurely stroll, he looked ahead, to wonder why the Doctor and Rose had stopped by the crowd. By the time he had walked up to them, he noticed they were now looking upwards. Curious, he looked upwards, and his eyes opened in amazement. He simply could not believe what he was seeing. For slowly rising out of the crowd, from a crouch, was a very large, grey and stone-textured troll.

Kymern's mouth staggered slightly, then turned to the Doctor and Rose, who were now looking at him in surprise.

"Ah yes…. Well…. It appears we may have to do something or intervene then"