Chapter 3
When Clara woke up, The Doctor was already awake.
"Morning!" he called, cheerfully.
Clara yawned,
"What time is it?" she asked.
The Doctor looked at his watch,
"10.00," he answered, "You've been asleep ages!"
"Well, that's what you get from saving a village from a fire-breathing dragon at 2.30 in the morning."
"Anyway, come on!" shouted The Doctor, hurrying down the stairs.
"Where are we going?" asked Clara
"To see the village!" called The Doctor, cheerfully.
Clara pulled on her jacket and followed The Doctor down the staircase of the inn. They crept past Verity's room and out of the door.
When they got outside, they were both shocked to see how much the village had been affected by the attack.
The town was a shambles; a tree looked as if it might fall over any minute and there was blackened fire stains everywhere.
A dressmaker cleaned up her shop and a mother tended to her daughter, a potter was making a new batch of pots and ash from the fire was scattered all over the place. Clara bit her lip and gazed, sadly, over at the remains of a small cottage that was now half house and half ash.
"I'm going to go and check on Jessica and Tobias," announced The Doctor, "Maybe you should stay here and help out the villagers," he suggested.
Clara nodded and watched as The Doctor ran into the distance. She turned round to face the dressmaker,
"Need a hand?" she asked
"Oh, yes please!" smiled the dressmaker, "Can you help me tidy these bits of cloth up? It would be most helpful!" and she pointed to
a pile of rags and yarn in the corner.
"Always happy to help," Muttered Clara as she picked up a half burnt broom and got to work.
The Doctor knocked on the door to Tobias and Jessica's house and peered through their window. When Jessica came to the door The Doctor grinned at her,
"Need any help tiding up?" he asked, happily.
"Um… ok?" Jessica coughed, raising an eyebrow at The Doctor's wide smile as part of the doorframe collapsed under his slightest touch. She showed him in.
The little house was completely messed up, only the miniature stove remained unharmed. Davie lay in the corner in what was left of the wicker dog-basket, whimpering.
"You can start by cleaning up that," said Jessica, pointing to a mound of earth in the middle of the room.
Clara lay down on the ground and stared up at the sky, it had been two hours and The Doctor still wasn't back.
She picked up a twig.
"What are you doing today?" she asked it.
The twig, being a twig, didn't say a thing.
"Yeah, me too…nothing." And she tossed it aside.
"Sorry I was a while!" said a voice from behind her. Clara jumped. She yelped and turned over.
The Doctor smiled and Clara stood up.
"Don't creep up on me like that!" She snapped.
The Doctor shrugged and they walked back towards the inn… and it started to rain.
"I hate the rain." The Doctor grumbled.
"Hang on, how can it rain inside a hallucination field?" asked Clara. The Doctor stopped walking and the rain pelted down and Clara brushed a wet piece of hair out of her face, "What?" she asked.
"There is no hallucination field." Answered The Doctor.
"Ohhh… Do you think that's how the dragon got in?"
"Yes." Said The Doctor, shortly. Clara looked at him, he looked at her and they hurried towards the gates of the village…
When they finally got to the gates. Clara took a moment to catch her breath and The Doctor stuck an arm through the bars of the portcullis but felt nothing. He looked up and, instead of a mountain range and trees, he saw a dark forest and a snowy mountain with a cave in the rock face. The Doctor felt around for something to switch the hallucination field back on and found a button on the wall, he pressed it and the hologram field flickered back into life.
"We're going out there," he announced..
Clara looked up as the rain stopped falling,
"Now?" She asked.
"Well…no. But we will be going."
"Ok, two things, when and why?"
"We need to investigate where the dragons live so we can do something about them."
"We're going to climb a cliff to look at some dragons that might eat us?"
"Umm…yes."
"Right, goodbye, I'm going back to bed," said Clara. She spun around on her heels and headed back to the inn.
"WAIT, CLARA, COME BACK," called The Doctor after her.
When Clara didn't look back, The Doctor sighed and ran after her. He caught up and tried to reason with her,
"Look, we're not going right now. It'll be fun! The journey of a lifetime! Trust me!"
Clara thought for a while and looked into The Doctor's pleading eyes,
"Oh…OK, have it your own way." She gave in. Maybe it would be fun…
The Doctor smiled,
"Actually, you're probably right, we should get home,"
And they walked back to the inn.
"Just, no walking about tonight, ok?" smiled Clara. The Doctor just smiled back and nodded.
When they got back to their apartment, The Doctor explained to Clara exactly what they were going to do (but I'm not going to write it down because I'm trying to save paper and therefore trees and therefore forests and therefore the world)
"That sounds…risky," sighed Clara, after a minute.
"Yeah, but at least we'll be doing something for the villagers for once,"
"I like your use of the phrase 'for once'."
"It's true!" The Doctor shrugged, leaning against the planks nailed over the door to what was once a bathroom.
"So… what do we need for a mountaineering trip?" Clara asked.
"Um…I'll make a list…"