Chapter 19

Luckily, climbing down was faster. It involved a lot of just plain dropping. They got to the ground, and the Doctor took the lead. Squinting through the leaves, it did look like they were going to the tower, all be it by an indirect, circling towards the back, sort of way.

They sadly didn't get very far before a big metal hook on a thick wire came shooting out of the forest. It looked like one of those grappling hooks people climbed with, only bigger, and sharper. And it shot out with incredible strength and speed, one hook digging into Pride's ankle. Then he was being yanked backwards.

The Doctor was suddenly holding his arms.

"Doctor!"

She was pulling the other way, digging her heels into the ground. "Got you."

"Don't let go." She was clearly straining a bit, and it worried him.

"I might have to. I can make that hook release you with my sonic, but I need my hands to do that."

"You let go and I'll be pulled away."

"Lilly, hold on to Pride."

"No." Pride shook his head vehemently. (He was really being stretched by this process, and it felt like if the Doctor managed to be as strong as the hook he was going to lose a leg. But he tried not to let it show.) "You can't trust her."

He and Lilly didn't exactly get along. This would be a convenient time to get rid of him.

"Unlike some people, hating you isn't enough reason to let you go flying to your death," Lilly said as she grabbed his wrists.

The Doctor let go and Lilly was dragged forward for a moment, surprise in her eyes, before he hooked her foot around a root. The Doctor quickly pointed her sonic screwdriver at the hook. The wire disconnected from the hook, zipping away. Pride dropped to the ground.

He sat up and pulled the hook out of his ankle while Lilly turned to the side, a little pale like she was about to be sick. It was admittedly, a large tear, and some flesh was just missing. He could see what he suspected was bone in the deepest part.

"I don't think you should walk on that," the Doctor pointed out.

"I'll be fine," Pride said. He clapped. Without souls in a Philosopher's Stone, he couldn't replace the missing flesh, but he could seal the wound up by taking skin from the surrounding area. It thinned the skin out a bit, but the wound was no longer bleeding. The same could be done with the damage under the skin, but thinning out things like muscles and nerves didn't always work as well. "See?" He stood up. "It's fine."

He took one step, and collapsed on his injured foot.

"You shouldn't move on that," the Doctor said, using her official No Arguing voice. "You can wait here for us."

Wait? Aside from how insulting this was, what assurance did he have that they'd come back? The look Lilly was giving didn't help.

"I can walk."

"You clearly can't."

"Wrath only had one soul and he could fight with fatal injuries."

"And that clearly worked out well for him."

"Not as helpful as you thought you were?" Lilly asked.

"I got us here! Do you think you could've done it on your own? You're the one who needs to prove you have any use."

"Funny, you told me my 'use'. Just because you think it's unimportant doesn't mean it's not there."

"Are you two serious?"

Both Pride and Lilly turned to the Doctor. Pride already got a bad feeling from the tone of her voice.

"You are people. Not roles. Leaving you as just roles doesn't do me any good. Both of you. If I didn't want to take you with me, share my adventures with you, I wouldn't. And Pride." She sat down next to him, which was both a good and bad thing. "I am definitely coming back. I know things haven't been great lately, but I'm going to do my best to keep you safe, and I'm not going to leave you here. Okay?"

Pride looked away. He knew that. Or, he should. She'd saved Porter after he tried to kill her. She'd gotten him into the submarine just a few hours ago. He was being paranoid. He mentally kicked himself for letting a human get under his skin like that. Then he nodded stiffly.

"Right. Then stay here, and don't make your leg worse. I'm coming back."

"I know," he muttered.

He continued to stare away at nothing while the Doctor got up, and she and Lilly walked away. He could hear them leave, the crunch of their footsteps moving further away.

He sighed and flopped against the ground. He really, really, shouldn't have let Lilly get under his skin like that.

For a while, he continued to just lay there. He eventually pushed himself up, listening to thunder clouds roll over head. He picked some lose dead skin off his arms. Apparently, he wasn't completely immune to the human death cloud, but it was a far cry from what happened to Mic.

He leaned against the huge tree nearby. He supposed it wasn't just Lilly, the human, getting under his skin. The Doctor had made every indication she didn't want him with her. Why would he assume otherwise? And he couldn't say he liked the general useless feeling either.

Then he heard a noise, something rustling in the forest. The Doctor had saved him from the grappling hook, but that obviously wasn't the only danger in this forest. Pride slowly raised his hands, but didn't clap them together, waiting for any other indication he was being watched. Whatever the Doctor was doing, she better finish quickly.