Chapter 6.2 The Siege on Camelot
Catapults and arrows were drenched in black tar, put ablaze and fired upon the monstrous flower. As it approached its roots tore through the village branching out until thousands of vines had invaded each building and were slowly stretching up the outer walls of the castle. The towns people too afraid or too stubborn to leave are clearly visible, the roots now sucking the very life essence from their bodies. Red and blue leaves seemed to bloom out of their mouths and ears and their eyes all turned brown and slimy, ballooning slightly from their sockets as they filled with the pustule residue of the flower's sap. The pitch fires burned brightly as small glowing scorch marks on the stem of the flower only to wither away and burn out without much affect on the creature its self.
Finally the flow descended on the town well and moved no closer to the castle walls. Its roots took hold and began to suck the water from the ground.
Chapter 7: Revelations
"Merlin…Merlin…awaken young warlock there is work to be done" The voice of the dragon reverberated in his head, a deep growl that was unlike the voice Merlin was accustomed to. "Merlin, things are not as they should be, a great evil is afoot, even I have began to succumb to its will."
Merlin awoke with a start, the whole of the TARDIS was shaking, Arthur was at his side pulling him up as the Doctor wrestled with various controls on the dashboard. "What is it?" Merlin said, his eyes squinting momentarily at the brightness of the whirring center console."I've locked on to something…it's not of this planet…alright…yes, there we go, Allonzi…" The TARDIS almost bounced before finally coming to a stop, throwing Arthur and Merlin to the floor.
"Oi, get up, we don't know what's out there and I can't have you two lazing about." The Doctor grabbed his coat and opened the door to find the top of a speckled mushroom. The TARDIS was perched precariously on an angle to onside of the bulbous fungi. "Right we have mushroom…" he said poking his head back into the TARDIS before stepping completely out and onto the mush of the mushroom cap.
Merlin and Arthur scrambled to their feet and followed after, "Mushroom, what does he mean mushroom?" Arthur said. It was a brief moment before he found out, the door swung open and the aroma of slightly rotting shitake mushroom filled his nose. Across the field that was the mushroom cap the Doctor Was bouncing up and down randomly on different spots. The two stepped out of the TARDIS with the door closing behind them of its own accord and were left to navigate the soft strata below them.
"Doctor, how big is it?" said Merlin as he reached him.
"Have a bounce, it's the only time you'll ever get to bounce on a Turrilian class starship" said the Doctor, taking another bounce, a child like smile crossed his face.
Merlin nodded reluctantly and pushed off with full force and flew into the air nearly thirty feet before returning to the mushroom surface only to bounce a bit higher the next time.
"Oops…Merlin you bet try to land somewhere else or you'll bounce even higher the next time" said the Doctor before he looked at Arthur, "Don't, you humans just…just don't." Merlin twisted in mid air and yelled, pointing his hand below him, "arafa 'm chwyrlïa" his speed instantly arrested and he floated there momentarily before the magic ended and he fell again, another three times he said this before he touched down.
"What happened?" said Arthur.
"It's the material of this particular fungi, it's a space mushroom, the outer shell defies general laws of physics it exerts a greater tension of energy than applied to it usually at a magnitude of five times. It's a defense mechanism, bounce whatever tries to hit you off. The whole 'I'm rubber you're glue' mentality…"
"Rubber…?" said Merlin, "Glue…" said Arthur.
"Right, now, the question is what is a Turrilian class starship from the Forest of Cheem doing here, in this time period?"
"Forest of Cheem, is it me or is this all confusing?" Arthur said to Merlin.
"The Forest of Cheem is a sentient highly evolved planetoid from over three billion years in the future, the race is a descendent of the rainforests of Earth, this planet. Let's find the entrance." The Doctor pushed lightly with the tip of his toe and bounced five feet in the air and landed ten feet away. Arthur and Merlin shrugged and followed in the same manner. Soon they found themselves on the other side of the mushroom cap where a slimy orifice was protruding. Rips and breaks in the lower stem reached almost to the bottom of the cap and a green ooze was running slowly from the cracks and seeping into the ground.
"Right, you two stay here, keep watch, yell if anything comes…" the Doctor put one leg into the opening, "and don't do anything stupid…" with that he slid down the opening and into the belly of the ship.
**
The Doctor found himself in the emergency pod room of the upper deck of the mushroom. The interior of the mushroom was sickly blue and it seemed to tremor as though it were breathing. Electronic computer modules were stationed every so often next to small fleshy doors.
"A cryogenic holding chamber, this isn't just any old ship…" The Doctor rushed to a nearby console and ran his sonic screwdriver over it. The panel blinked to life indicating life stats and a name Theban Rasselorf, the Doctor did the same at each of the consoles, Mortimus a.k.a. the Trickster, a.k.a. the Meddling Monk; Defriad the Destroyer, Maliscent the Conqueror, Ca'hatom of Tri-Elsa Prime, "These are prisoners, this is a prisoner transport. But what happened, did the flu do this? No…no the Kaliny Flu couldn't have done this." The Doctor back tracked and found another passage that lead deeper into the ship. He finally reached the engine room. The gaseous spores which produced the fuel necessary were rotten and the liquid plant flood which had been used to create the gas was leaking out of the long cracks which he realized was in the stem of the ship. There wasn't one tree in sight however which was a growing concern. Pushing onward he found his way up a long spine that ran down the center of the mushroom. At its top was the command center were three trees were, two of which had withered and died, gone brown and even stank of mulchy decay. But one of them was still green, the few leaves that were left, and the Doctor approached sonic screwdriver out.
"I know you are of the Forest of Cheem, who are you and explain why you've landed here."
The tree twisted slightly, a barky face budded with fresh leaves long since needing pruning contorted heavily. Its feet were bare and rooted into the ship its self, and small grey flowers were sprouting all over him.
"I am the Forest of Cheem Vallri'din Constable." The tree's voice was harsh and raspy, "the feel of fresh air comes with you. How does one of your kind know of the Forest of Cheem?"
"My kind?...Oh no I'm not human, Time Lord," the Doctor said putting his sonic screwdriver away, "I've been to the forest a dozen times at least. What happened here?" The Doctor went to a computer console and began to poke around, the time listed was for the year seventy-six new universe calendar .
"We crash landed here," said Vallri'din.
"Obviously, but why?" Said the Doctor
"Because of the trickster,"
"You mean Mortimus?"
"No…Maliscent the Conqueror, they tricky twig of a flower released Kaliny Spores into the air vent poisoned the ship. "
"But how did you get here, on Earth, six billion years before you should even exist…"
"Mortimus tried to use an emergency..emerg…ceh…emergency temporal transmatter device, but caught us …" the tree began to wheeze.
"..caught you…you were traveling at faster than light…a hyperdrive? You were powering a hyperdrive with gas? He got caught in the matter stream and wham you got dragged along. But what about the ooze that's coming out, plant food?"
The tree nodded, "bu…bu..but its tailored to us, these primitive plants if it touches them…"
The Doctor stood bolt straight up and looked to the tree, his face darkened into a furrowed brow.
**
Arthur and Merlin found themselves walking around the edge of the discombobulated mushroom. Finally to arrive at the stem which was oozing with the gelatinous substance that smelled rather of brimstone.
"Aghk what is this?" Merlin exclaimed loudly, "it smells worse than your under-garments…"
"Hey, they only smell that way because you don't wash them properly."
"I wash them properly, you're the one who sweats them up every day."
The two of them stopped at the edge of a small river of the goop, the grass at grown wildly high there and had bent over already. Wild flowers were sprouting with ferocity right before their eyes.
"Merlin, are those flowers growing rather quickly?"
"Arthur…I don't think we should be worrying about the flowers…" Merlin pulled Arthur's arm for him to turn, as he did he saw what Merlin was looking at.
A tall tree was walking towards them, its branches were gnarled, it had a human like face protruding from a long gurthsome trunk, and its roots seemed to pull it forward.