Chapter 3

The Missing Mirror

The Doctor, still staring, took the sonic screwdriver from his pocket. He glanced up quickly, to make sure he was still within sight of the path, and subsequently to Rory and Amy. He could see them now, the happy couple.

Amy sat down hard on a log and began hitting the heels on her boots against a sharp edge boulder.

'What are you doing?' asked Rory quizzically.

'We may be here for a long time, I dont want to be walking round, foraging in four and a half inch heeled cowboy boots.' She grunted and heaved at the zip. 'O great, its stuck!' Amy yanked the boot heel, 'Rory, give us a hand!'

And so, Rory tugged at the end of her boot, bracing himself first against the boulder, and then the log, and then both. Suddenly, the boot came off and, unluckily, as a parting gesture, the four and a half an inch heel hit Rory in the most unfortunate area of his face. The cry that followed would have shaken the most mighty tree's roots.

Rory cradled his injured nose, and 'O Rory! are you alright?' came from just behind the trees.

And it was his fault they were trapped. In Peripheral Park. The random anomaly that just appeared, anywhere in the universe and sucked any luckless ship or moon or planet in that was close enough. To get lost in the wood forever, or to be sucked dry by bark-zombies. And Amy's arm. They needed water.

He looked at the signpost again. It was from a street. On Earth, in either England or America by the language. Then he saw the coat of arms. England then. Up at the top it read: Marshfield County Council and underneath in large writing:

Doctor's Street

Leading to Path's End

He took out the rubbing he had made of the mirror's edge. Among the old cracked cherubs and flowers, gold paint now flaking, there was a small, almost completely rubbed away imprint. It was of a devil's fork, three arrowhead points set on a slender line in the mirror. He squinted-

'Doctor!' exclaimed Rory, 'They're, umm, here'.

The Doctor looked behind him to see a gnarled oaken face, twisted with age and drought. He quickly scrunched the paper into his pocket. The dryad reached out a hand tentatively, and looked at him questioningly. The Doctor step back, looked behind him quickly and then ran. On the path, the tree people moved close. They didn't move like the zombies that any movie had ever depicted. They didn't move in a swarm and make groaning noises. They melted into the trees, and Amy thought she wouldn't notice them until they were right next to her. They crept out from the sides of the path.

'Errm, Rory, look behind you, are there any more on the path?' Amy asked shakily. Her arm was stinging horribly.

'Err,' Rory craned his neck, stepping backwards at the same time, 'No.'

'Run then!' exclaimed Amy and bolted.

The other two ran after, down the path of mirrors and up a slope where the path twisted and writhed through the trees like a cat playing with a ball, and through the dead forest.

Then abruptly, just up ahead, the light disappeared. The path went on, but there was no more light.

'The mirrors!' shouted The Doctor. He ran to the foot of a tree, there were mirrors all the way apart from.. here. The mirror was gone. 'Where is it?' cried The Doctor, 'You two, help me look!'

Amy peered into the dark forest. She crept behind the first few trees and hunted around in the grass, groping with her hands. Then suddenly, without warning, her arm began to burn with low horrible sting. She cried out, and then looked up into the face of a dryad.