The suns hadn't even risen when Ariana and Theta had set out on their first big adventure together only a few days after they had come up with the idea. They had both packed as much rope as they could find and food, some water, and a first-aid kit, just to be safe. Of course, it hadn't been easy to collect the things that they would need to climb a mountain without raising to many questions, since they had told everyone that they were going to spend the day exploring the wooden area around Ariana's house, but their little lie seemed to have satisfied her parents.
One of the main issues that they had come across had been clothing. Ariana, for one, didn't exactly have the best selection of clothing at hand for climbing mountains, but they had quickly overcome that obstacle once they had managed to find some clothing hidden away in the old dressing room that Ariana had found. The clothing was a little big on her, but she quite liked how much more free she felt walking around in the trousers with a belt around the waist and the cuffs rolled up in her boots, while the white shirt and blue tunic fit slightly better beneath the thick, woollen hooded jacket.
Theta had been quite amused when he had first seen her dressed so differently to how he had always seen her, having only ever seen her in dresses or, once, a pair of overalls, and had to admit that she seemed much happier in trousers and her coordination had improved slightly. He really didn't understand why woman didn't just wear trousers, they had to be more comfortable then some of the dresses he had seen his Mother wear.
"So how long do you think it's going to take to climb this mountain?" Theta asked after a long silence had settled over them with only their footsteps crunching the grass and sticks beneath their feet breaking it, using torches to light their way through the trees.
"Well, it should only take us an hour to reach the mountain," Ariana replied thoughtfully, adjusting the straps on her bag so that they rested more comfortably on her shoulders, "Then we ought to reach the halfway mark after another two hours, possibly more, and the top should take another three hours".
Theta paused mid-step, his eyes widening slightly, "That long?"
She continued walking passed him, forcing him to hurry after her, "What did you expect?" she gave him an amused look.
"I don't know…four hours to climb the entire mountain".
"Four hours?" she exclaimed incredulous, throwing him a quick look, just to make sure that he was being serious, "Perhaps if we were experienced climbers, but not on our first attempt".
He sighed slightly, wondering if this whole idea really was such a good idea after all. He hadn't quite expected that it would take all day to climb the mountain, he had hoped that they might be able to spend some time exploring the woods before returning back to Ariana's home for dinner, as they had agreed to do, but now it seemed that that wasn't going to happen.
They continued making their way through the trees, making sure to keep walking in the same direction, not wishing to get lost before they had even managed to reach the mountain. Eventually, they finally managed to make their way through the trees and out into a large clearing that marked the bottom of the mountain where rocks were scattered around the clearing. The suns had just began to rise as they started to organise the rope and their harnesses.
Theta, being the one who had studied rock climbing far longer than Ariana, was the one who checked that the ropes and knots where all in order, and making sure that the harnesses where properly secured to their bodies. Once he had checked his own equipment, he moved to check Ariana, trying hard not to blush as he tugged on the harness strapped to her middle.
"Are you quite sure you know what you're doing?" Ariana asked nervously, biting her lip, feeling too nervous to even blush.
He gave her a confident smile, "Of course I do," he told her, "There, all set," he nodded after a moment, stepping back once he finished determining that her harness was properly tightened and secured, "Are you sure you really want to do this?"
"I said that I would, and I will," she said stubbornly, refusing to admit that she was very nervous about the whole idea, but she had told him that she wanted to do this and she wouldn't take it back, not now. She reached into her bag that she had left at the bottom of her feet, and grabbed out a set of gloves, pulling them on, "Are you sure that you want to do this?" she resorted, fixing him with a look.
Theta smiled broadly at her, grabbing his own gloves from his bag, pulling them on, too, "Are you kidding?" he raised his eyebrows playfully at her, "I'll beat you to the top".
She narrowed her eyes at him, "Is that a challenge?"
"No, it's a certainty".
Ariana scoffed at him, fixing him with a look, breaking into a smile, "We'll see about that".
…
The climb started off well enough with Theta in the lead, while Ariana following closely behind him, just trying to keep a hold on the jagged rocks and trying not to slip too much. It wasn't until mid-morning that they finally reached the halfway point and, their legs and arms arching, practically collapsed against the side of the mountain as they settled on a rocky ledge, letting their legs dangle over the side.
Panting, Ariana struggled to pull her bag off her back and grabbed her drink bottle, taking large gulps of water, while Theta was hardly better as his floppy hair was plastid to his forehead and he used his own water to try to cool himself, pouring some of it over his head before taking large gulps from the bottle.
"Why did we think we could actually do this?" Ariana gasped out, closing her eyes tightly, feeling exhausted already and they had only reached the halfway point. She was quite certain she was going to be dead by the time they reached the top, let alone climbing back down, "Don't humans usually train before trying something like this?" she looked across to Theta.
"Usually," he agreed, finally starting to catch his breath, running a hand through his wet hair, sending droplets flying everywhere, "But I didn't think that would apply to us".
"And why not?" she asked, frowning at him, confused.
"Well, we're Time Lords…"
"Not yet," she cut in, unable to stop herself from correcting him, "We have to graduate and take our vowels first, and that's only after we have become Junior Time Lords and we receive our symbiotic nuclei, allowing us the ability to time travel".
"Fine," he sighed slightly, sending her a look mixed with amusement and exasperation. She sounded as if she had just been asked a question in class, "We're Gallifreyan novices. Better?" he raised his eyebrows at her.
She blushed, giving him a sheepish smile as she realised how she had sounding, "Well, technically, we're already Gallifreyans," she said, shrugging, just teasing him, "What you could have said was that we're novices at the Academy, which would have been more accurate to what you were attempting to say".
He stared at her for a long moment as she struggled to stop herself from bursting out laughing, before she found that she couldn't hold it back any longer and started laughing. He joined in, shaking his head at her as she giggled, "You are completely mad," he grinned at her.
"You say that like it's a bad thing," she remarked playfully through laughter.
"Oh, not at all. I happen to think that you're one of the most brilliant people I've ever met, and the fact that you're mad only confirms that for me".
Ariana laughter faded as her cheeks heated up even bright then before as she realised what he had just said, "You…you think I'm brilliant?" she blinked at him, shocked.
Theta coughed slightly, looking very embarrassed as he shifted awkwardly, "Well…yes," he admitted, suddenly finding his shoelaces very interesting.
"Oh," she said slowly, unsure of just what to say. No one had ever said something like that before to her, and she couldn't help feeling very flattered and very pleased that Theta thought that way about her, "Well, I think you're brilliant, too," she told him sincerely, giving him a bright smile.
His eyes snapped back up to meet hers, blushing just as deeply as she was, "That's good," he said awkwardly, still not knowing how he was supposed to react to that, smiling broadly at her, "That's very good. We're both brilliant, that's…great".
"Yes," Ariana took a deep, relieved breath, "That's very great".
"The greatest of the great," he nodded quickly as silence fell over them. He cleared his throat and looked away from her, "Anyway…" he began, trailing off, lost for what to say.
"Why are you so interested in humans?" Ariana asked suddenly, making him blink at her in surprise at the change in subject.
"I think it's because they're so similar to us, at least in appearance," Theta said after a long moment of thinking it over. He shifted slightly so that he was facing her better, "Or that's how it first started. I think humans are incredible," his eyes lit up and his voice grew more passionate as he went on, "They live for such a short amount of time, and yet they've managed to accomplish things in a thousand years that have taken us twice as long. How is that even possible for such a primitive race to be able to do that?" he shook his head, laughing slightly, "I find it amazing".
She smiled softly at him, enjoying hearing and watching him talk about humans, "I can tell," she commented.
He looked at her curiously, "Well, why do you like humans so much?"
"Much like you, I find the idea of what they have accomplished in such a short timeframe to be astounding," she answered, smiling faintly, "I also find the way that they behaviour to be fascinating. They are so emotional and, especially during the twenty first century, they are so unreserved with each other, not at all like Time Lords. They hug in public, they hold hands, they even kiss in public, can you imagine what would happen if someone did that in the middle of the Citadel?" she laughed at the very thought, imagining the scandalised looks.
Theta laughed too, picturing it. It certainly wouldn't go down well, "It almost makes you wonder if humans way of interacting is better, doesn't it?" he said thoughtfully to her, "To have that freedom to do as they please must be nice".
"I must confess, it does sound nice. No longer needing to be so reserved amongst each other, feeling comfortable enough to be ones true self without raising eyebrows or receiving disapproving looks".
"Have you ever thought about what you wish to do when you graduate?" he asked her suddenly, taking her by surprise by the change in topic.
Ariana blushed faintly and looked away from him, "It will only sound silly…" she said, trying to avoid the subject.
Theta lightly nudged her side, drawing her attention back to him, and gave her a wide, encouraging smile, "Even more silly then wanting to climb mountains?" he raised his eyebrows at her.
She laughed, "Well, I suppose it would depend who you asked," she commented, highly amused, "My Mother certainly would prefer mountain climbing to my idea".
His eyes lit up eagerly, "It must be good, then".
"I've always had this dream of…" she took a deep breath, feeling childish admitting it to someone, even Theta, "Of travelling the Universe for myself, of meeting people from other planets, learning from first-hand experience their culture," she sighed heavily and looked away from him, "It sounds completely…"
"Brilliant!" he cut across her, making her head snap back up to look at him, her eyes widening in surprise at the excitement and happiness written on his face.
She blinked at him, startled, "Excuse me?"
"I've always wanted to travel, too!" he told her excitedly, looking as if he was only just restraining himself from grabbing her arms.
"Are you being serious?" she stared at him, dumbfounded that they seemed to have had the same dream. Well, she supposed that she really shouldn't have been so shocked, they did think quite alike and had very similar interests.
"Of course, I wouldn't joke about something like this. For as long as I can remember I've wanted to travel and see the Universe".
"Goodness," she breathed, shaking her head, laughing, and Theta soon joined in, "No wonder you and I became friends," as their laughter started fading again, she sighed slightly and glanced around, "We probably ought to be moving along now".
Theta sighed too, really starting to regret ever suggesting they try climbing a mountain, but it did make him realise something. He knew now that he didn't want to spend the rest of his life climbing mountains. He carefully stood and held out a hand, helping Ariana to stand, before setting off once more up the mountain.
The climb was much the same as how it had been when they had first started their little adventure, only their arms and legs started arching much faster this time after their break. The further they climbed, the colder and windier it grew as the rocks grew sharper and slippery as they approached the snowy top of the mountain, and they were forced to pause to pull their hoods over their heads before continuing.
Ariana could feel herself starting to shiver even through the thick coat she wore as the icy wind blew across her face and her breath grew shorter, but she pushed on seeing no other choice but to go on. She could see Theta ahead of her glancing back to her every now and then, and she tried to give him a smile, but she wasn't entirely sure that he could actually see it.
She grabbed a rock, grateful for thinking to bring gloves as she made to place her foot on a small rock sticking out from the side of the mountain, when her foot slipped and the rock gave way beneath her. Her heart leaped in her chest as panic flared within her and she atomically tried to tighten her hold on the rock, only for her hands to slip. She screamed as she felt herself falling forwards and right into the rocky surface of the mountain when everything turned into blackness with a burst of pain in her left temple…
Some awkward pre-teen conversations, just imagine how bad it's going to get when they have crushes to deal with later on. And we've finally reached the mountain accident and don't worry, we will get an idea of just how Theta reacted when he realised what had happened to Ariana, and what the fallout from this innocent little adventure will be not just from Ariana's parents but also between Theta and Ariana. Tell me what you thought, please review :)
Guest review:
Rainbownarwhal: I apologise for how long it's taken to get this chapter up, but I'm very glad you like them. They're still trying to get to know each other at this point and I have to admit that it feels very weird to write the Doctor and the Hatter as being so distant with each other like this. Thanks for the review :)
