Disclaimer: Still don't own Doctor Who. Sigh.`

Lucy spent the next three days sleeping the time away. Her waking moments were spent with The Doctor, answering seemingly pointless questions.

"Do you ever get that little tingle in your nose like you're gonna sneeze, but then you don't?" The Doctor leaned against the console facing her, notepad and pen in hand.

"What? How is that relevant?" She squinted at him. "Are you really a doctor?"

The Doctor looked up from his notepad. "You don't know?"

"No, why would I?"

"Well, you knew my name and you knew my ship's name, so why wouldn't you?"

"I...well…" She blew a strand of hair out of her face and frowned. "Fair point."

Suddenly, The Doctor spun around and tossed the notepad over his shoulder, pulling levers and pushing buttons on the console. Lucy approached the fallen notepad and took a peek at what The Doctor had been writing. A drawing of a stick figure in a space helmet? This guy is totally bonkers.

When the Tardis began making a loud wheezing noise, she finally asked what the hell he was doing. He paused and looked over at her with a mischievous grin on his face.

"Adventuring. Allons-y!" He yanked one more lever and the entire ship tilted, sending the two of them tumbling. The wheezing halted with a single bumping noise, and Lucy looked around, frazzled. The Doctor leapt up and swung a monitor toward him, inspecting the screen. "Huh? This isn't where I meant to go." He shrugged. "Not the first time."

"What? Where are we?" Lucy pulled herself from the floor. The Doctor, who was already at the doors, looked back at her. "Alpania. Planet of the mystics."

As she collected herself and followed him out the doors, she couldn't help but feel a growing sense of dread. Something very, very bad is coming. Closing her eyes, she sucked in a breath and squared her shoulders, willing the thought away.

The duo walked across an open plain for fifteen minutes before reaching a thickly-wooded forest. At the entrance was a dilapidated sign that read: Do not stray from the path under any circumstance. Inside, the trees created a canopy of eerie darkness. "Beautiful, isn't it?" The Doctor whispered.

"Trees? I suppose."

"Not just trees." He approached what looked like a regular pine tree. "Look closer."

Lucy crept toward the tree, examining the trunk. It didn't take long for her to realize that it was moving. The jagged lines of bark appeared to be rippling up and down. "Wow. That's…" Enchanted, she reached out a hand to feel it, but was quickly caught by The Doctor.

"No touching. They'll suck the life force right out of you," he breathed, then dropped her hand. He was looking around cautiously, now.

"Lucy?"

"Yeah?" She whispered.

"Why are we whispering?"

She straightened, opening her mouth with the obvious intention of saying something at a regular volume.

The Doctor shook his head, holding a finger to his lips and looking to his left. She followed his gaze and saw something not so far off tunneling beneath the dirt...toward them. Almost as soon as she looked at it, though, it stopped.

"There's a reason this forest is completely silent." The Doctor murmured, stepping closer to her. "The forest is smart. If the forest is silent, then there's something...predacious." Whatever was under the ground began tunneling toward them again, moving slower and more deliberately than before. "Okay, Lucy." He glanced at her. "We're gonna run." Lucy made a move to do just so, but was stopped. "But not yet."

At her questioning look, he simply winked, then cupped his hands around his mouth. "Hey, you! Oi! Yeah, you! Why don't you come on over here and introduce yourself?"

The Doctor's shout was jarring against the deafening silence of the woods. Immediately upon his words, the tunneling speed increased tenfold, racing and weaving toward them. Lucy backed away, horrified at both the nearing danger and The Doctor's eager look. She estimated that they had three seconds before whatever it was would be upon them, so she did what her instincts nagged at her to do. She ran.

xxx

Thanks for reading chapter two! Keep watch for a new chapter next week and, of course, reviews are always appreciated!