The Doctor's eyes were wide, "What, where….um, you didn't see . . . ?"
"No!...you?"
He shook his head. Great! I thought, Toast, I knew that tendency of yours to wander off would turn fatal one day, for all I know you could be dead! Sudden images, horrible things, popped into my mind like a movie reel had been flipped on. I shut my eyes desperately; it had only been a little while…she couldn't have gone that far.
The Doctor poked his head out from behind the blue box… "She's not behind the Tardis." He confirmed the slowly wheezing death of our best chance. "Though," he saw my distraught look and slowly grabbed my elbow, guiding me behind the Box or Tardis as he called it (whatever that meant). He pointed and I followed his line of sight. Leading off as far as the eye could see was a path, about as wide as a road running through London, sculpted of the same black rock that stuck up here and there from the water. It laid atop the water, moving with the waves as they sloshed over the sides.
"It's the only way she could have gone," he said.
I nodded, but didn't say anything.
"Unless she can fly . . ."
I turned to him, my face twisted into a question.
His eyes were big and lips pursed as if the notion was possible. He felt my eyes; turning to me his eyebrows shot up, "What?"
"What yourself!"
His shoulders shrugged, "Just speculating… I have been to planets where things like that-"
"She can't fly!"
"Well," he accented the "w" and paused, "That settles that then, come along."
He tugged me by the hand as we set off running down the path. Our feet slapped against the damp surface as we did our best to balance on the shifting, moving trail. I nearly fell once, and the Doctor barely caught me. I had been straggling behind him, arm outstretched to keep ahold of his hand. A stray rift in the rock happened to be annoyingly positioned in just the right spot as to catch the tip of my shoe and yank it off, sending it, and nearly me, tumbling into the murky green waters surrounding us.
"AH!" he heard me yelp.
In a split second he turned round and his face burst into what could most efficiently be labeled as an OH NO face. He lurched toward me, arms outstretched.
My body had shifted out of balance, from forward facing and somewhat balanced on my two feet, to some strange contortion that resulted in a flailing attempt to return to the later position. My flailing proved counterproductive, and I ended up tipping towards the edge of the path. Thankfully, the Doctor was there to catch me; to my embarrassment, he wrapped both arms around my waist and yanked me into him. My feet left the surface for a moment, before he set me back down on them, gently letting me away from his body. I let out a shaky breath, one shoe missing and my face burning with chagrin; the whole humiliating ordeal took less than a moment and I brushed myself off and tried to compose myself, lifting my chin in forced bravado.
The Doctor sniggered just a bit, shook his head, and then cleared his throat; I saw the faintest rose of blush bloom over his complexion and he swallowed. "Well…you're alive, th-that's good."
I nodded, and stuttered out, "It is."
We kept running. Now we were just coming upon some rocks, jagged and uneven spires that stuck out of the water on all sides like a mouth studded with teeth.
"Nicolette," I looked over at The Doctor, "Please, don't fall here." His tone was teasing.
I shot him the dirtiest of looks; to my satisfaction he flinched, though he couldn't seem to keep a smug smirk from his lips, and to my surprise neither could I.
We turned a sharp corner, only to backpedal furiously when before us there towered a palace of dark stone. My eyes grew huge, and I turned to The Doctor, mouth hanging agape.
He smiled wide, "Yeah, I know!"
