A child danced around the garden, as a bubbling barbeque sizzled as juicy ribs were dropped on it, and the birds flew about the garden, catching any left over vegetables they could. The sun was hidden behind the bush, but the stretch of unbroken blue sky was enough to heat the little back garden. A fish jumped in the pond, and the dark wooden table creaked under the weight of an over-flowing salad bowl.
A coke lay over turned on the grass. The ribs burned to charcoal. The fish fell back into the water, never to be seen again. The birds screeched to a halt in mid air, then disappeared from view, maybe hiding in the trees. The salad bowl turned black with hungry flies. Clouds covered the sun, and the sky became a menacing grey. Heavy rain fell, and blue lightening struck across the sky.
But the child still ran.
"Will she be alright?" Frodo asked, his concern reflected on his face, along with most of the group. The Doctor knew the answer, but Frodo had been through enough for today.
"She's going to be just fine." the Doctor smiled, and Frodo nodded and walked away. Boromir stepped up behind the Doctor.
"She's not though, is she?" His voice was only a hushed whisper, trailing off as he stared at the girl's dishevelled body. Even with their help, her tiny sliver of health was deteriorating, she was slowly fading away.
"No." the Doctor replied, unable to look Boromir in the eye. He tended to her once again, taking a piece from the collection of strawberries the Hobbits had stashed.
"Will she ever be alright?" Boromir asked, concern creasing his forehead, as he frowned at the Doctor.
The Doctor looked up at him, then looked away. He looked at the wet cloth in his hand, and threw it to the ground. The girl muttered in her sleep, something about steak.
He stood straight, and began to walk away. "I don't know." he sighed. "She hasn't been attacked by anything exactly..." he turned to Boromir. "Physical. Tangible. The thing that's keeping her like this, it isn't completely real. It doesn't exist." he took out the sonic.
"Yet."
"What do you mean 'they got away'?" Mrs. Wormwood shouted at Kaagh, and a few of his soldiers, as they hurriedly stepped up the tower steps. "You have a whole army at your disposal, and you couldn't hold onto seven Natives and an idiotic Time Lord." she spit out at the Sontarans, grabbing a piece of machinery from an Uruk.
"We found this, left in the middle of the forest."
Mrs. Wormwood studied it more carefully, then her face fell, and she became very pale.
"Where exactly in the forest did you find this?" she whispered, shaking as she turned the object around in her hands.
"Two leagues west of where we caught them." the Uruk stared at the woman, who became more terrified the more he spoke.
She tossed the piece of misshapen, dull metal, and began to walk towards the mixed army. She barked out orders at a few Uruks, jumping as they admired their weapons. Kaagh walked straight to her, his stocky legs competing to keep up.
"What are you doing?" he looked back to the object, thrown away by the Uruk, who had lost interest. "What is that?"
"I'm going to do something very spectacular and stupid of me." she sat in the wooden carriage, she didn't care much for horse-riding.
She beckoned to the three Uruks in front of the carriage, who went to fetch the horses.
"I'm going to save Middle Earth."
With that the horses were put in place, and Kaagh was issued with another order.
The Doctor teased the girl's chapped lips with fresh strawberries, squeezing them above her lips, but that didn't arouse her. She had been out for hours, almost a whole day now, and hasn't eaten in a few days, at least. Her cracked ribs were clearly visible through the sweat-covered shirt, and had been draped with a heavy cloak, but still she was at unrest, unable to awake. Every now and again she spoke, sometimes incoherent babble, and other times, prophecies and insults a mad man might whisper.
Don't let them get you, they'll kill the cradle...
This was a constant sentence, a warning, the only thing they could take as a real warning. Something - an army, a terrible force, maybe - was stirring in the darkness. She knew, she knew everything that was to come, the Doctor had sensed it. He hadn't told the rest of the Fellowship, they should be focusing on this task, and fight no other evil forces on Middle Earth, except for their prominent and immediate enemy, who was hot on tail, up until they had found the girl. They had seemed to have returned to Isengard.
They were all fearful for the girl; she was obviously unwell, not just physically. Something very bad had happened to her, and as for the red streaks that had fallen as freely as tears down her cheeks, that was a whole other mystery.
Merry and Pippin, looking more ridiculous than the Doctor had, fez tipped at an alarming angle on his head, which he had felt was mandatory to hold onto, were sent out on berry and water collecting duty. Frodo liked to go around the forest for firewood on his own, but was sometimes accompanied by Sam. Frodo hadn't slept in a while. Aragorn and Legolas were constantly on the lookout, running about the forests like leaping-crazy deer, who had been told by the Doctor numerous times that if they were still here they'd be dead by now. Gimli sometimes followed Merry and Pippin in their gathering. He usually ate all the berries, while the two went out and splashed in the water.
That only left Boromir and the Doctor, looking after the near-death girl and thinking very philosophical thoughts. The Doctor wasn't one known for the latter.
"Doctor?" Boromir whispered, like a child, as he sat on a stump, and bent over, scratching up dirt and dried leaves. The forest floor was soft, and made the thumps of Aragorn and Legolas hard to hear. The forest was quiet, except for the sound of Merry and Pippin splashing in the river, even though they were warned of the danger of what the Doctor called 'Vampire Fishes'. 'Be careful!' he had said to the Hobbits, 'Those things are very quick when it came to catching their food.' The two hadn't taken it seriously, but it hadn't helped that he winked.
"Doctor?" the Time Lord looked up from his sonic, after messing with the ends. He nodded.
"What do you think will happen?" the Doctor frowned. "When she wakes up?"
He gave a side glance to the girl, who had been breathing heavily and cold sweat dripped in small beads down her forehead.
"I don't know..." the Doctor said, before kneeling in front of Boromir, and speaking very fast, as he liked to do when he was explaining something extremely complicated.
"But I have a theory. She was bleeding from her eyes, right? Well I think it was a bad conversion. She wasn't completely compatible, but they must have been short of people. Or maybe they needed someone to help them get out."
"Who are they?" Boromir bent forward even more, fascinated at this sudden outbreak. "Is it the Vashta Nerada? From where?"
The Doctor frowned and shook his head. "No. Why would it be them? They don't convert..." he sighed. "And I don't think I know exactly where from yet. They could be anywhere if they could convert her!"
Boromir sat up, and frowned. "Well then Doctor, who is it? Who do you think did this to her?"
The Doctor stood up, and pointed the sonic screwdriver at the girl. She squirmed in pain, and Boromir winced. After the spasms, the girl's eyes flew open, and she sat bolt upright. Her chest rose in heavy, rhythmic breaths. She didn't move for moments, not at all, only to breathe.
"What is she?" Boromir took a few steps back, and began to walk slowly away.
The Doctor's face went pale, and the girl swung her legs off of her bundle of blankets. She ripped the cloak off herself. She stood straight, and didn't take any steps for a while. She then learned to walk, and took steady strides towards the men.
"Humans." the Doctor whispered, backing off into the forest. "You never really stopped getting yourselves possessed by insane ancient aliens." he turned to a very nervous looking Boromir. "Run!" Boromir didn't move. He was stuck to that spot. "For goodness sake, Boromir, get out of here!"
The girl turned to the other side of the forest, a soft patter along the leaves seemed to echo around the trees, who grumbled noisily. A tall business woman, wearing practical but high black heels emerged from the darkness, her hand in the air, revealing a large ring on her finger.
"Hello, Doctor." the woman smiled warmly. "I don't believe we've met before." She twisted the stone on her finger, and the girl screamed in agony. She fell to the ground in a heap.
The Doctor stared at the girl for a moment, then brought his eyes back up to meet the woman's. "No, I don't believe we have."
The woman knelt before the girl, and checked her vital signs. "Breathing's slowing down, but otherwise, she may wake up tomorrow." she mumbled to herself. "Let's hope that doesn't happen."
Boromir looked angry and outraged. He stepped forward to the woman, and pushed her away from the girl. "Who are you to decide her fate? Stay away from the girl!"
The woman stood up, and smoothed down her pencil skirt. "My name is Mrs. Wormwood. I am here because this girl is threat to this planet." 'Mrs. Wormwood' sighed. "And it looks like whatever has gotten inside her head has gotten inside yours." she said to Boromir, who just got more angrier. He pushed the woman again.
She raised her hand, and was twisted the ring. The Doctor shouted, but covered his ears. Boromir screamed and fell with a soft thud on the forest floor. Mrs. Wormwood stepped over Boromir, and tiptoed through the rough leaves towards the Doctor, who glanced anxiously at the girl and Boromir, both looked to be sleeping, face down on the undergrowth.
"I don't want to have to do that to you." she looked him up and down. "We might just need a doctor."
The Doctor picked up a cloak, and tucked his sonic away into his tweed. "You will." he said. "You always need a doctor."
He stepped through the forest, as though he wasn't the one being captured at all, and Mrs. Wormwood ran after him like he was a rogue child.
"And I'll always be there. In the shadows. Hiding. Looking out, never looking in, looking back." A voice said in the shadows. "But Doctor, it's time you looked back."
The Doctor swirled around, staring at each corner of the trees. The voice was male, and it carried, but it drifted with the wind, like a whisper, but a shout across the trees and the distant crash of the great river. Whoever the person was, which he had a hunch about, wasn't actually there in the forest.
The Doctor walked on, ignoring the voice. "It's time to wake up, Doctor." the voice faded away into the light. The Doctor and Mrs. Wormwood found themselves confronted by a group of Sontarans in a boat, all looking tired and sweaty.
"Did you hear that?" the Doctor whispered. Mrs. Wormwood just frowned and shook her head. The Doctor had his eyes on the sky, sniffing the air. "Something's wrong..." he stepped onto the boat as Sontarans dragged Boromir and the girl aboard.
"I'm afraid I don't understand you, Doctor." Mrs. Wormwood looked annoyed. Mumbling wasn't something she particularly appreciated. And when it comes to the Doctor, it mattered most that they heard him. They need to know everything.
"Well, that's good then. " he whispered, then his voice became a shout. "Because I'm sure if anyone understood me, the sky might burn."
Maybe it would.
A voice whispered in his head, like a taunt. Galadriel. She knew something.
Middle Earth would burn if anyone knew what the bloody hell he was talking about all the time.
"Doctor!" Merry shouted. "Doctor! Where are you?" Merry made to shout for the Doctor again, but Pippin slapped him on the arm to shush him.
"Be quiet! He could be asleep!"
Merry scoffed. "Ha! He only sleeps when he gets bored, and that's when Aragorn and Legolas talk about battle strategies." he sighed. "Anyway, he got those special ear plugs now. He'll never hear us."
"Someone call me?" a man stepped out of the shadows. He was tall, skinny, wearing a bright blue suit. He wore glasses, which he quickly pulled off, and his hair was sticking up on his head.
"What - who -" the Hobbits unsheathed their daggers, and pointed them at the man.
He held his arms up. "Ooh, wouldn't want to use them, wouldn't want to hurt them." he reached into his jacket.
"Stay back!" Merry warned. "We're armed!"
"Calm down!" he pulled out a copper rod, glowing blue at the end. "I was just getting Ye Olde Sonic-y!" he pointed it at the sky. "And it looks like you two have something that belongs to me."
He stepped up to them, taking out their pockets, one by one, until he found a silver round disc from each of the Hobbits. "Hey!" Pippin jumped. "They're the Doctor's!"
The man looked up. "Yes they are." He gave them back to the Hobbits. "Hold these on the palm of your hands for a moment, will you?" The two obliged. "Like the hat by the way."
"Thank you." Pippin grinned. "It was given to me by a friend."
"And..." the Doctor pointed the 'sonic-y' at the discs. "Now!" The discs brightened to blue, and Merry and Pippin disappeared into a hazy blue fuzz, no signs left of them.
"Better watch out." the man said in a bad American accent. "'Cause there's a whole lotta trouble comin' your way lil' darlin'."
"The Doctor's coming to town."
