Truth to the Tale
This was the best one yet in both of their opinions. Of all the planets and time-spheres the Doctor had taken them to so far this rated the highest. The name of the planet was Viehmann 2; it was really just a moon but was large enough to be confused with a planet and had been given actual planetary status sometime during the Earth 51st century. The inhabitants of the planet around which it orbited were humanoid creatures with golden skin and the ability to live underwater. Some time during their 18th century they had come into contact with Earth in secret.
"Ever wonder who those moving statue people were all over the place?" the Doctor had asked them while explaining where they were going.
"Anyway the longer they stayed there and the more they observed the more they became obsessed with Earth culture, particularly fairytales. Don't know why; might have something to do with them having a very limited imagination as a race. So they gathered up all the information they could and flew back home. When they got back they told everyone how fantastic this stuff was and they decided to create their own fairytale world. So they started building on their moon, which was pretty much inhabitable anyway and because they happen to be rather clever scientists, best in the universe actually as far as this stuff is concerned; some of the stuff they've done with genetics and biological studies is just amazing… where was I? Oh yes, so basically they created their own little fairytale world on the moon, based on Earth fairytales, great huh!"
Gillian and Jennifer had stared at him in silence for a moment, waiting for their brains to catch up with the speed of the Doctor's speech. When she thought she understood Jennifer nodded.
"Sounds good," she said.
"Sounds weird," said Gillian.
"Great," said the Doctor, "I love weird!"
It was weird but it was also good and a great many other things. The terrain changed between snow covered mountain ranges, gold and silver beaches, flowering gardens and dense forests. The people all wore beautiful hand-stitched clothes, from the richest nobleman to the poorest peasant and everyone was kind and welcoming to them.
"But if this is all a fairytale then where are the witches and wolves and sorcerers and evil queens, and I'm not talkin' about Graham Norton." asked Gillian, gazing around at the tranquil village before them.
"Ah, well actually there aren't any." said the Doctor through a mouthful of rosy red apple from the immaculate orchard of some cheery old farmer.
"What do you mean there aren't any. It's not a fairytale if you don't have bad guys."
"Well the people who built this place didn't really like the idea of all that untapped evil just hanging around and besides it only exists in fairytales to be defeated. They didn't see the point of generating a whole batch of people that only existed to be destroyed."
"But the point of many fairytales was their cautionary aspect," chimed in Jennifer, "don't go into the woods or else, that kind of thing to stop children getting themselves into trouble. What's to stop them here, I mean if there really are no wolves to tear them apart what's to stop them wandering off and getting lost?"
"What's to stop you wandering off in your own town and getting lost? Somehow I don't think there are a lot of wolf infested forests in Stenhousemuir." The Doctor sounded cocky and he was standing with his hands on his hips looking at her in a sarcastic way.
"Because the same principal applies," she replied calmly, "A child hears a story about the bad things that can happen if you talk to strangers and just because they don't live in a quaint little village in the hills and the stranger they happen to meet the next day is clean-shaven and wearing jeans rather than a cloak and a long black beard doesn't mean the story they've heard doesn't apply. They still know that bad things can happen when you talk to strangers, even though the setting is different the story still resonates and the same applies for all other cautionary tales. It's the message that's important, not the story, and I don't say that very often."
Gillian was grinning, and the Doctor was giving her the same look they gave him when their minds were playing catch-up. Jennifer whipped the apple out of his unresisting hand and took a bite.
"Some aspects of Scottish Ethnology can be rather useful." She smirked and began to walk ahead down the path in the direction they had been heading before the argument broke out. The Doctor stared at the empty space where she had been for a minute before leaning towards Gillian. He took a deep breath.
"She's not bluffing." he said in a slightly strained voice.
"Nope," giggled Gillian, "she really is that deep, it was me who was bluffing." She patted the Doctor on the shoulder before dragging him off down the path behind her friend. The two girls linked arms, leaving the Doctor to slouch along behind them.
"I think he's sulking." said Gillian after a while.
"Let him sulk. Serves him right for acting so superior all the time."
"True."
"On the other hand he might just leave us here to teach us a lesson."
"Also true."
"Wait here." Jennifer let go of the other girl's arm and slowed her pace to match that of the Doctor.
"I'm not talking to you." he said.
"Oh grow up. You know for someone who'd nine hundred plus years old you can be remarkably childish sometimes."
"That's just my boyish charm." He smiled at her that time and she grinned back.
"Maybe. Alright, how about this, what's the square root of 793?"
"Easy, 28.160255."
"There you are then. I didn't know that. You, the Doctor, are officially the smartest person here okay. Feel any better?" He grinned widely.
"Absolutely!"
"Right then." Together they caught up with Gillian and all linked arms.
"To Oz?" asked the Doctor.
"Technically not a fairytale, but what the hell," sighed Jennifer, "To Oz!" The three of them began to skip down the road. All that could be seen was a trail of dust and a chorus of "We're off to see the wizard". Someone was watching them, and it wasn't the Wizard.
"All I'm saying is I'm not the cowardly lion alright! Neither am I the scarecrow with no brain." The Doctor was in full argumentative mode, hands on hips, legs planted firmly on the ground, shoulder width apart, face set in a pouting glare.
"Oh poor didoms. Are you the Tin Man then?" Gillian was taunting him.
"No, in fact I'd say I was rather over qualified on that front."
"In that case you must be Dorothy!" she crowed in delight. "The little girl from Kansas lives."
"I am not!" He managed to stop himself from stamping his foot.
"Are too, look, you even pout like a girl."
"I am not pouting!"
"Are too!"
"Am not!"
Jennifer ignored them. She had wandered a little further down the path they had been following to the edge of the wood. She sat down in the shade and put her hands behind her head, leaning against a tree for support. From experience she knew that an "Am not/Are too" argument between her friends could last for a long time and would probably result in the Doctor sulking for the second time that day and probably taking them back late out of spite. She closed her eyes and let the bright sunshine warm her face.
There was a noise behind her, like the sound of twigs cracking but when she turned there was nothing there. Telling herself not to be paranoid she sat back again. When the darkness of her closed eyes got suddenly deeper she didn't even have time to open them.
At their place on the road the Doctor and Gillian had concluded their argument with a tickle competition which the Doctor had won by holding Gillian upside down by her ankles and out of arms reach. When she went red in the face and threatened to break his sonic-screwdriver he let her go.
As she gasped for breath and sorted her hair the Doctor straightened the wrinkles she had made in his suit.
"Where's Jen?" asked Gillian suddenly, looking around.
"Wandered on ahead."
"Well where is she?" The Doctor looked around vaguely.
"I'm sure she's around here somewhere."
"Um, no she's not!"
"Ah. Right then." Slowly at first but with increasing speed they began to run towards the edge of the wood where they had last seen her, calling. When they got there the Doctor knelt down, examining the ground. Even Gillian could see it was flat where Jennifer had been sitting on it but there was a funny smell here too.
"What's that smell?" she asked.
The Doctor lifted his fingers up to her face, they were covered in silvery powder.
"What's that?"
"Mercury," he answered, "that's what the smell is too."
"Why Mercury, isn't that poisonous?"
"Extremely, for humans, took you long enough to work it out though. They used to use it to make top hats, and mirrors actually, and make-up as well."
"Thermometers," mumbled Gillian.
"Yeh, stuff like that." The Doctor pulled himself to his feet and rubbed his fingers on his coat. "But why mercury?" Gillian shook her head. "Come on." He reached out and took Gillian's hand before pulling her towards the trees.
"Where are we going?"
"Following the trail." He nodded towards the trees nearest to where Jennifer had been sitting, there were smudges of the mercury on the bark.
Carefully they picked their way through the bracken and nettles that covered the forest floor, following the silvery trail. Eventually they came to a clear space between the trees. Here the undergrowth had pulled back from the dirt and looked rather scorched around the edges. The centre of the clearing was smoking slightly with a silvery fog and the smell was very powerful. The Doctor pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and handed it to Gillian.
"Cover your mouth, try not to breathe it in."
Moving slowly towards the centre of the fog he reached down to the ground and picked something up.
"What is it?" asked Gillian through the handkerchief.
"Mirror." he replied, holding up the long shard of reflective glass. "Gillian, I think we just found your bad guy."
The TARDIS computer was whirring angrily. It occurred to Gillian that the ship absorbed the emotions of the Doctor and now he was angry. Angry because something in the forest had stolen Jennifer in a place where there were supposedly no bad things to steal people away. As he glared at the computer screen he talked in a low rapid voice while Gillian sat in the corner shivering with worry. She and Jennifer had known each other since primary school. They had been best friends for years but they'd never been in this much trouble before.
"It's this place," the Doctor was saying, as much to himself as to her, "it's stupid to think that a place full of fairytales, where evil is part of the fabric will just lie back and accept it when there's no evil around Jennifer was right about it all being wrong. It's generated its own evil! It's generated evil as a cure for itself and for some reason that evil has taken Jennifer. But why?" That last question was more of a yell. "Why her, why not one of us?"
"She was by herself." muttered Gillian. "We left her by herself."
"No. The mercury would have overcome all three of us together. It has to be something to do with Jennifer."
Gillian wasn't listening anymore although she did wonder why people called you by your name more when you were in trouble. She kept thinking that she shouldn't have teased the Doctor and let Jennifer walk on by herself. She'd been bored of their arguing and now she was missing. Even if the mercury would have got all three of them at least they'd be together. Somehow she felt lost without her friend, they always knew what each other were thinking and often said or did the same thing at the same time. Although she was used to being alone or with other people, right now when she knew they should be together she felt like there was part of her missing. The Doctor was talking at her but she didn't care, at least not until he grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her.
"Pay attention Gill. There must be something about Jennifer, there must be some reason she was taken. Something's been lurking here, for years probably, waiting for the right person to walk into their hands and it was Jennifer. Tell me why?" Gillian shrugged.
"Fairytales," she said lamely.
"What do you mean?"
"Well," she paused to try and fully form the thought that was in her head, "well she likes fairytales. More than likes really, she's really into them and she believes in them too."
"What do you mean she believes in them?"
"Faith and honour and truth and true love and all that kind of stuff. She may come off like a cynic but she really believes in all that stuff and…"
"Yes?"
"I think she understands them too. She knows what makes them work, all the bits that go together to make it work properly. Not just language or plot but something else, like a kind of force, a force that makes the fairytale a fairytale. Like magic I suppose. I think she knows what that is."
She looked glumly at the Doctor, expecting him to say that wasn't it but instead he was grinning at her.
"You're brilliant!" he shouted, kissing her on the top of her head. "You are absolutely brilliant! Gillian Graham you have just told me how to save your friend, does that make you feel good?" Gillian felt a golden glow coming from inside at his words.
"Absobloodylutely!"
"Fantastic, now" he turned back to the computer console, "we just have to find her."
There was something slightly clichéd about the situation Jennifer thought. Being knocked unconscious on the outskirts of a forest was bad enough but to wake up tied to a chair with thick, double knotted rope in a darkened room with a gag in your mouth was just a little too much. This was of course all a sub-thought to the immense terror that was gripping her but it was nice to know that there was a part of her looking around and saying, "Oh come on, surely you can do better than this!"
There were many sounds in the room she found herself in, most of which seemed to be coming from an ever moving ball of rags in the corner. This was also the main focus of her fear. Occasssionally it would whine like a wounded dog, then there would be a hacking cough, a cackle or a chilling scream. The bundle kept shivering and changing shape with lumps and bumps appearing under the fabric.
There was also a loud hissing sound coming from a cauldron in the corner, the flame beneath which was the only source of light. The stench coming from the thing was more foul than anything she had ever imagined but what worried her slightly more was the apparatus which swung from the roof above the evil pot. There was some kind of glass jar with many tubes dangling from it, like a great crystal jellyfish. Some of these tubes seemed to end in rather sharp needles. With the ball of rags on one side and the cauldron and it's attachments on the other Jennifer found the safest course of action to look straight ahead and had spent the last however long it had been staring at her pale reflection in the long, dusty mirror in front of her. Judging by the way she had been sprawled on the floor when she had come to it was almost as if she had been ejected head-first from the mirror itself. But that was impossible, magic mirrors were only in fairytales… ah. Right then.
She was about to consider attempting to untie herself when the bundle in the corner stopped twitching. It was still for a moment or two and then began to move with sharp spidery movements towards the cauldron. There it reached up, exhibiting the height it had hitherto concealed and pulled the glass jar down into the foul smelling liquid with an almighty splash accompanied by more hissing and a certain amount of petrol coloured goo slopping onto the floor. The thing took no notice and began to straighten the mess of feelers attached to the jar. Picking up some kind of metal arm band it attached a needle to one side and another tube to the other which then stretched out to another needle and another metal band.
Moving slower now towards the bound girl Jennifer could see that whatever it was had begun to twitch again and she tried to struggle free of her bonds. But the thing clapped the first metal band to her arm and retreated across the room to the warmth of the cauldron once more, fixing the other band to itself somewhere under its rags. Now quite terrified for her life, sanity and everything else she happened to possess Jennifer began to struggle harder but the thing in the corner gave a shrill cackle and reaching up once more released a cord on the side of the glass jar.
There was a terrible sucking noise and the liquid in the pot began to rise into the jar and then filter slowly out through the tube which was now stuck to her arm by the band. The pressure of the stuff in the tube caused the needle in the band to press into her arm and she felt a similar pressure on the other side, realising that there must have been another needle in the band itself on the other side. Whatever this goop was it was going to wash through her system and push all her blood out which would be transferred to the thing in the rags. Jennifer wasn't stupid, she knew exactly what to do in this situation. Working her jaw and tongue she managed to work free her gag. She took a deep breath and screamed.
The liquid in the tube was half way to her arm and the thing in the corner was twitching and hissing and screeching in excitement when all of a sudden the little room seemed to explode. There was light everywhere and noise and…
"Doctor!" she shouted, recognising the tall figure striding into the confusion.
The Doctor winked at her before drawing a long silver sword from under his coat. It shimmered in the new light and sent out a shringing sound as it cut through the air and down through the tube, ahead of the vile liquid. It trickled out onto the floor as Jennifer stared at it. The Doctor wandered over and unclipped the metal band from her arm. Jennifer suddenly realised that Gillian was there too.
Her friend appeared to be kitted out in all the bad guy killing equipment she could get her hands on including a string of garlic and what looked very much like a small flame-thrower.
"Gillian?"
The other girl grinned and helped her to her feet as the Doctor untied her.
"Who the hell died and made you Buffy?"
Gillian laughed but quickly went pale at the sight of the blood coated needle the Doctor was holding in his hand. There was a sufficient amount of blood coming out of the punctures on Jennifer's arm as well.
"Here." said Gillian handing over the Doctor's handkerchief which she still had in her pocket. When it had been tied tightly over the wound they all turned to peer into the corner.
The thing which had kidnapped Jennifer was crouched in the corner again and seemed too enraged or insane to try and run away. It writhed and howled before them in a miserable ball of dirt and rags. The Doctor stepped forward and, still keeping at a safe distance removed the vile cloak the creature wore. The two girls gasped and clung together more tightly.
It was a creature to be sure. Its body could not seem to decide what shape it should be and seemed to morph haphazardly between human, wolf, goblin, male and female and everything else in between. The noises that it made were animal, human, and everything else all jumbled up in a horrid mess.
"What is it?" asked Gillian.
"It doesn't know." replied the Doctor. "All that evil, all that power and energy and it doesn't know what it is. It's all the fairytales here. Out of everything it's the only bit of badness and it doesn't know quite where it fits in, it doesn't know what story it belongs to."
The thing on the floor was getting slower, its breathing was laboured and its metamorphosis was slowing down.
"What's happening to it?" murmured Gillian, transfixed.
"It's dying." said Jennifer softly.
"The morph takes up so much energy it can barely sustain its own life. Jennifer was its last chance."
The thing before them began to shrivel and go black. The three friends watched in silence until it was nothing but a black husk on the floor.
"Why did it want me?" said Jennifer, breaking the silence.
"Cos you understand fairytales." Gillian told her.
"What?"
"You understand fairytales," the Doctor repeated, "the thing sensed that. Because you understand it thought it could use you to decide what it was supposed to be. This stuff," he indicated the cauldron and it's contents, "it was supposed to suck the knowledge out of you and transfer it to the creature via your blood. What is it with blood and fairytales by the way?"
"Cautionary tales remember." Jennifer told him.
"Oh yeh, never thought of it like that. Anyway, it had obviously been waiting for someone like you to turn up for a while, had all this lovely goop all ready for you. Probably overheard our little disagreement earlier and decided you were the one it was looking for. But when I broke the connection it was already too far gone to do anything about it so it just let go." He knocked the little husk with his shoe. "Come on, let's get back to the TARDIS and get that arm fixed." They wandered out of the door into the bright sunshine of a fairytale glade complete with ruin.
"How did you find me?" asked Jennifer as they headed back towards the ship.
"Got the TARDIS to scan for you."
"Right, and why all the weapons, the sword and all Gill's lovely junk?" The Doctor scratched the back of his head.
"Didn't know what would work. Once I realised what the thing wanted you for I knew it wouldn't be able to settle on one form so we just grabbed everything that might have an effect."
"Garlic?" Gillian blushed at her friend's quizzical look.
"You never know," she muttered.
"Right." She turned to the Doctor. "What'll happen to this place? Will it generate more evil do you think?"
"Doesn't really matter. The Socrotites that built this place lost interest ages ago and it's going to crash into the sun in four years anyway."
"The Socrotites? I thought you said this place was called Veihmann 2." said Gillian.
"It is. The people who built it are from the nearest planet, Socratoa. In actual fact there is no original planet Veihmann, I've often wondered about that." He broke off when Jennifer suddenly stopped walking. She was bent double and her shoulders were shaking. Worried her two friends reached out towards her but she threw her head back and they saw that she was laughing.
"What's so funny?" asked Gillian, annoyed not to be in on the joke after such a difficult day.
"Veihmann!" crowed Jennifer through her giggles.
"What about it?" even the Doctor looked confused.
"You said that the Socrotites or whatever became obsessed with Earth fairytales and found out everything they could right?"
"Yes, what of it?"
"The Brothers Grimm got most of their stories from an old egg woman who lived in Kassel in one of the German states. She was known as "the fairytale wife"."
"So what?"
"Her name was Frau Dorothea Viehmann!" The others stared at her for a minute and then Gillian began to giggle. The Doctor shook his head.
"Definitely too much excitement for one day." He muttered and hauling one along with each hand he started back towards his ship. Bloody fairytales!