Epilogue
The TARDIS materialized more quietly than usual within a little thicket of trees and bushy shrubs ringed by decorative stones. The dappled mix of sunlight and shadow under the iridescent foliage hid the time machine very effectively. After a moment, there was a rustling, and the Doctor's head stuck out of the bushes. There was a leaf in his hair. He looked around.
The thicket was part of the larger forest that bordered what was now a sunny courtyard surrounding the base of a tall hill. The rocky side of the hill was carved with dragons, and a stone gateway was set in its center. There was a building on the right, not quite extending into a lake, and the Doctor knew that on the other side of the building another TARDIS was waiting, disguised as a large rock.
A sound. Voices. The great door creaked open and the Doctor's head vanished into the shrubbery. A taller, older-looking man with flowing white hair strode by, his arms full of books of all sizes and colors, somehow radiating dignity despite his bare feet and the pale bluish-gray gi of the Vanussian martial arts. He walked across the court and disappeared around the building. There was a cry from the door: "Grandfather, wait for--" and a petite girl with short dark hair burst out of the darkness within, missed a step, overbalanced, and crashed to the tiles. The partial cause of her mishap, a collection of books to equal her grandfather's, scattered halfway across the small square.
She climbed to her feet, apparently unharmed, and started picking up books. Another man came out after her, tall and craggy and also clad in a gray gi, and offered to help her. The Doctor recognized Sarchas Allan.
"Thank you," said the girl, looking rather flustered, like a high school student whose favorite teacher has just seen her... well, drop a stack of books all over the floor. "I'm awfully sorry we're rushing away like this."
"He certainly seems to be in a hurry," said Sarchas, in the gravelly voice the Doctor remembered so well, "for a man who has all the time in the universe."
"Oh, he's like that, whenever he decides he has to do something," said the girl. The Doctor's eyebrows rose in indignation. "He would have left this morning, but he didn't want to miss the last class."
Sarchas handed her a stack of books. "He said he's taking you to Earth next, in the Galaxy."
In the thicket, the Doctor smiled. As he recalled, there had been more unplanned detours on that trip than there were light years between Koli and Sol. That other TARDIS wasn't going to see Earth for a long time.
"Have you ever been there?" continued Sarchas.
"No. But it sounds fascinating. I'm to be enrolled in an Earth school, and Grandfather says I ought to read all his Earth books on the way to prepare. He's got dozens of them, it's his favorite planet--"
An impatient voice floated around the building. "Susan! Susan, time's flying!"
"As well it might," she muttered. "Coming, Grandfather!" Thanking Sarchas for his help, she raced across the courtyard and around the corner. Sarchas stood looking after her for a moment, shaking his head in amusement. Then he turned and went back inside the hill to prepare for the next few hours of classes.
Susan had missed a book. It had landed under one of the bushes in the thicket, hidden by leaf and shadow, its title glinting gold where a spark of sunlight touched it. When he was sure the coast was clear, the Doctor picked it up.
Moments later, the thicket was empty.
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end