Ein Märchen aus alten Zeiten

An: Nothing is ever that simple. Happy New Year.

My computer BSOD'd on me just as I'd finished editing. All hail auto-recovery.

Joseph Fields didn't seem in any hurry to decide what to do and after waiting for a reply for a good five minutes, Jenny gave up in disgust and wandered out to get some dinner for them all, leaving Vastra to guard the rather stricken looking young man.

She was walking back up to the high street when she passed a small crowd congregating around a man holding a piece of paper. She slowed her pace, intrigued and started to hear what they were shouting.

"It's struck again!"

"S'the monster that's what it is."

"Those damn police don't have a damn clue."

"Arrestin' some navvy just to make it look like they're doing something."

"I reckon it is them, stealin' away kiddies. Wouldn' put it past 'em."

Jenny frowned and moved to the edge of the circle. She tapped someone on the shoulder. "Woss goin' on?"

"Another attack. Killed a child this time."

"What did?"

"The monster o' course! Ain't you bin payin' attention?" The woman glanced at her scornfully.

Jenny stood in stunned silence as the group soon split up and went off to disseminate the news. She told herself sternly that Vastra, had she killed a child, would've eaten it. But she still dashed back to the hotel, food forgotten about. It didn't matter if Vastra hadn't, everyone would think she had.

Jim was standing outside the hotel when she arrived back. She'd forgotten about him entirely.

"Miss Jenny. Miss Jenny!" he ran up to her the moment he saw her, looking pale and panicked. "Is it true that Matthew is the monster? Is that why he was arrested? Is that why you was huntin' him Miss? Cos he killed children?"

Jenny's stomach gave a sickening lurch at the thought that she might've gotten Matthew into more trouble than either of them had expected. "Wot? Nah, he was jus'…dressin' up. Messin' about. It wasn't him."

"Then who is it Miss? Is it that Joseph Fields?"

"I doubt it seein' as how he's bin in the workhouse this long while." Jenny scoffed at the lack of logic.

"You found 'im? How'd'yer find 'im?" Jim gaped at her.

Jenny cursed under her breath. She hadn't brought Jim up to speed on any of it, indeed she quite possibly couldn't without getting lots of people into trouble. And right now she had a much bigger problem to sort out.

"Are you sure it ain't Matthew?" Jim followed her up to the door. "Miss? On'y the kid wot got killed…that was down by the canal miss. And thas right by the railway."

That stopped Jenny. "What do you know about it Jim?" she asked him gently.

"It were last night. The boys that go down by the canal bin sayin' it for weeks now. 'Bout the monster. But it were only when an adult saw it too that anyone believed 'em. But now a boy's bin killed, Miss Jenny!"

"What boys are these?" Jim hung his head and didn't answer. "You reckon you could take me to 'em?" He shook his head. "Can you take me down to the canal where it happened?"

He lifted his eyes and gazed at her shrewdly. "All right."

"Good. Wait here." Jenny tore up to the hotel room.

"Ah Jenny. I was wondering where you'd…"

"No time fer that!" Jenny cut Vastra off, slamming the door behind her. "Apparently there IS another monster here in Swindon. An' it's killed a kiddy. There's gonna be a lot of angry people about."

There was a taut silence filled with an unasked question that Jenny was trying very hard to not let come into her mind.

Vastra's eyes narrowed. "It wasn't me."

"I know." Jenny said a little too quickly.

"I would never…not even an ape…"

"I know!"

"I am aware that in the past I have threatened…" Vastra stared at a point just over the top of Jenny left ear.

"Vastra!" Jenny cried desperately. "I know! But they don't. If you go out there now an' they spot yer, they'll kill yer! So please…"

Vastra looked her properly in the eyes for the first time since Jenny had spilled her news. She gave a slow nod. "I will remain here."

Jenny wrung her hands. "I got to…"

"Of course." Vastra's voice was calm and distant and Jenny hated it. With a scowl and disregarding Joseph's presence entirely, she stalked up to Vastra and flung her arms round the Silurian. "You were right." Vastra said, gently disentangling Jenny from her and walking over to their cases. "This case has proved not as simple as it seemed." She rummaged in the bottom of one. "Although in a most unexpected fashion." She drew out Jenny's sword and held it out to Jenny.

"I ain't practiced…"

"Ha!" Vastra snorted, stalking over to Jenny. "Since when has that ever stopped you taking on anything?" She fastened the sword around Jenny's waist.

Jenny flushed at the implied praise, and the feel of Vastra's arms around her. "Well…"

Vastra cupped her cheek with one hand. "Be safe. And try not to get too injured?"

Jenny gave a wry smile, which Vastra promptly kissed, causing a soft "oh!" from Joseph, still slumped in the corner. Jenny ignored it and, throwing Vastra's cloak around her shoulders, to disguise the sword, she clattered back down the stairs and out into the twilight to where Jim was waiting, stamping his feet.

"Alright Jim." She nodded and they set off in silence.

There were few people on the streets, those that there were muttering in huddles. Jenny had been expecting angry mobs. After all, a child had been killed. Not just drowned in the canal, which happened occasionally, they would insist on playing on the tow paths, but torn into pieces with what must've been sharp claws. Or knives. The streets of Swindon felt tense but as of yet, were lacking in torches and pitchforks.

Possibly due to the policemen Jenny spotted patrolling near the railway station, looking more purposeful and alert than she'd seen them since she'd arrived. She followed Jim as he skirted past them, moving down a road, then another onto Fleet Street. They crossed the wooden bridge, walking down onto a small path which ran right by the canal. High brick walls of houses faced one side, on the other there were wooden fence posts to stop the casual or drunk walker from falling straight into the canal. Further along, Jim stopped.

"There's a wobbly slat. You c'n sit right on the edge."

Jenny looked over the fence. The canal looked swampy and dark in the half light. Looking around to make sure no-one was watching, she drew her sword carefully.

Jim gasped.

"I tol' yer din't I? Great Warrior."

"You're a Monster Hunter!" He looked even more awed than Jenny thought possible. "Is it Joseph Fields miss?"

"Nah. He was just a missin' person." Jenny shrugged. He looked at her disbelievingly. "Even monster hunters have slow days." She rolled her eyes. "Now get through them slats an' sing out if you see anything."

Jim nodded eagerly and wriggled through. Jenny was not a tall or large person, but she suspected she'd have difficulty following. She wondered briefly what she was doing, what she was expecting. A prehistoric monster that killed children. The police wouldn't think it was an acutal monster of course. Especially after they'd captured Matthew. They'd think it was all a big hoax now; a distraction. Of course it could still be a normal awful human being. Jenny had met those too in her life. But people had seen a monster. Not Vastra. But something else. And it had killed a child. She was hoping Jim would count as a child enough to lure it but not enough as one that he couldn't escape. The sight of him squatting by the water's edge brought to her mind memories of scavenging with the mudlarks.

"Sing out if you see anythin' Jim." She whispered.

He nodded, crouching at the water's edge, watching it swirl but never flow. It was a canal, the waters were always still compared to a river or a stream.

Jenny strained her eyes, wishing she'd thought to bring matches or a light of some kind. There was a gas lamp nearby and the light from the houses, but all that seemed to do was make the darkness murkier. She spotted Jim nudging a clump of reeds with a stick in the beginnings to boredom.

"Jim!" she hissed. "Stop it." Was that a small arrow of a ripple on the water, reflecting the faint light?

"Sorry miss." He jerked round, dropping his stick in the canal, where it made a faint glooping noise.

There was another noise from the canal, on the edge of hearing, a soft, quick hiss, as if someone had just sucked in a quick breath.

"Jim!" Jenny reacted before she'd really even seen the figure rising out of the water, struggling to get over the fence and keep her sword in her hand, tearing her skirts in her haste. She saw it now, as she stood upright; long fingered hands ending in sharp claws, no face just long dripping strands of something through which eyes gleamed and teeth glittered and a body that didn't seem to endJenny grabbed Jim by the back of his shirt and threw him behind her. She heard him scrabbling over the fence to safety as she swung her sword blindly in front of her. A raucous howl of fury and disappointment and the dark shape twisted and writhed back into the water with a far too real sploosh, drenching Jenny. She waited as the waters settled and silence descended except for Jenny's ragged breathing. Stillness except for Jenny's eyes, frantic and wide and darting all over the surface of the canal for any sign of a return.

Minutes passed. Jenny lowered her sword at the sound of boots on stone, rushing this way and distant calls. She hastily sheathed her sword and clambered back over the fence, not particularly wanting to be found armed with a sword and in torn and bloody clothing. She watched from the shadows as the crowd reached the spot where she'd seen the monster. Belatedly she realised Jim was not there. But he'd escaped, he hadn't been taken, she'd thrown him clear. He had to have done. Pulling Vastra's cloak tightly about her, she sidled through the busy crowd and back to the Great Western hotel, reasoning that if Jim were to find her anywhere, it would be there.

"It's not mine." Jenny reassured Vastra as the Silurian exclaimed at the sight of blood. Her desperate swing had connected.

Joseph was still sat in the corner, looking absolutely terrified now.

"Have you decided what to do yet?" Jenny asked him, walking over to stand in front of him and folding her arms.

The sight of the blood still on her arms seemed to focus him. "Um."

"Looks to me like you got three choices." Jenny shucked off Vastra's cloak and handed it to her.

"Four." Vastra interjected, hanging it up and sighing at the rips in the bottom of it.

Jenny scowled her. "Four then. One, you c'n go back to London, go back to Harriet, all fine an' dandy. Two, stay here, with Matthew. Three, stay here but not with Mathew. Four…" she turned to Vastra.

"Find somewhere completely new." Vastra filled in. "Fresh starts are perfectly possible. If you wish for it."

"It's a little bit more complicated than that…" Joseph tried, having found his voice. "I mean I don't…but how can I go back to Harriet now?"

"She misses yer." Jenny shrugged. "Enough to come hirin' us."

Joseph looked at her and then at Vastra. It was possible that he thought that a wife who was prepared to hire them to track him down, was a wife who might be prepared to take him back.

"But you'd have to think of the consequences." Vastra came to stand by Jenny.

Then again, a wife who was prepared to hire them to track him down, might have done so for reasons other than reuniting with him. Joseph's eyes dragged themselves back to the blood staining Jenny's arms.

"C…consequences?" he stuttered.

"Living a lie. All day. Every day." Vastra's tone seemed almost idle.

"It would keep you safe." Jenny cut her eyes at Vastra. "But it might not keep you happy."

Joseph sat there for a long while. "Can you write letters?" he gestured to Vastra's sprawling mess of paper on the table.

"I can." Vastra sat and picked up her pen in a business-like fashion. "What would you like me to say?"

He walked out a short while later, a small amount of money in a bag in his hand and leaving behind two letters on the table.

Jenny left to have a bath; by the time she returned Vastra was already curled up in their bed, facing the wall.

"Are you happy?" the question came suddenly from the blankets as Jenny changed into her nightgown.

"'course. Mostly. I mean, terrifyin' monsters leapin' out a canal at me aside." Jenny tucked herself in alongside Vastra.

"I think that contributes to your happiness, my dear." Vastra said drily, earning herself an elbow in the back. She rolled over and raised her eyes ridges.

Jenny grinned guiltily. She'd cleaned her sword whilst Vastra had been writing Joseph's letters and had wondered briefly whether she'd have to read them to Matthew and Harriet.

"Are you happy with me?" Vastra wasn't giving up.

Jenny rolled onto her back with a sigh. "Look, we don' live a lie."

"No?"

"We…live a disguise. But at the centre of it there's truth." Jenny turned her head to find a very focussed gaze directed at her. "I told you before. "Honestly", remember?"

Vastra grinned slowly but broadly, showing all her teeth. "Tell me again."

An: Monsters in the canal. Happy thought. Ten points if you can name it. Hint: Shares half its name with this fic.

Ein Märchen aus alten Zeiten means a fairy tale from olden times and is a line from Die Lorelei by Heinrich Heine. Which is an epic poem.