Rose didn't say anything when she noticed that they Doctor's eyes were lighter still while his rash was darker. She also didn't mention that he continued to sweat as he shivered, and she definitely didn't bring up that she noticed he was limping, even if it was slight, favoring his left, and uninjured, leg. She guessed that he was fully aware of all these things and thought it best if she left it unstated. He didn't need her knowing that she knew. He was worked up enough.

The second day seemed harsher than the first, especially on the Doctor. Not only did he not sleep well the previous freezing night, but they spent more time out in the heat the second day. The mud caking his lower body didn't help either. Still, no matter what the reason was, analyzing it didn't help the Doctor make it through any easier.

"How's your head?" Rose asked suddenly.

The Doctor looked up at the midday sun through the trees. "Better, much better. Just throbbing a little now. Right here," he put his fingers on his forehead. "Still, much better than last night."

"Too bad we don't have some aspirin."

The Doctor looked at her suddenly, a little worry on his face. "I don't care much for aspirin."

"Well it would help, yeah?"

"Not really."

"Sure it would. It would ease the pain. Too bad I don't have any. Although…come to think of it, I can't say I've ever seen any in the TADIS…"

"There's a good reason for that."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. Aspirin and I don't get along."

"Huh?"

"It's…toxic to a Time Lord," he looked back to the horizon. "I know many who were assassinated that way."

"Oh…," she paused. "So, how's your chest?"

"No pain. It feels fine, like nothing ever happened to it."

"What about your leg? How's it feel?"

"What are you? My mom?" he snapped, looking sharply at her.

"No! I'm just concerned is all! You look horrible and you're limping! I think I have reason to be worried."

"Yeah, well…that thing last night had quite a grip upon my lower appendage."

"How'd it get such a tight grip anyhow? I would think you'd notice."

"Slowly, Rose. Slowly. That creature does everything gently, so much so, that it's usually unnoticed. And by the time it's tight enough for you to notice, your limb is asleep and you have no feeling in it anyway. Pretty clever, actually."

"Good thing you woke then."

"I'm a lucky man," the Doctor smiled a little.

"Always have been," Rose grinned back.

The Doctor nodded. "Yep, that's me."

"What about the rest? Your headache and such. What was that then?"

He sighed. "I dunno. Not a native to the swamps, that I can say for sure. I've never heard of a thing that can do that here, on this planet. Other planets sure, of course, but not here."

Rose looked around a little before changing the subject. "So, how much longer until nightfall then?"

"Not long, look," the Doctor pointed out through the trees. "Animals are starting to come out. Nightfall is just around the corner."

The giraffe-like creatures were poking their heads into the tress, although the scattered when they noticed that the Doctor and Rose were watching them.

"Thank goodness," Rose sighed. "I'd take the cold nights over the scorching hot days any time."

The Doctor grinned and nodded. "I second that."
After they saw the creatures retreat back to the safety and cover of the forest, the pair continued to move along, watching as various other things as they began to crawl out and into the open air. Everything was going smoothly until a menacing growl, something like the growl of a lion but with a dragon-sounding edge to it, stopped them cold in their tracks. Rose and the Doctor looked at each other, but neither turned around.

"What was that?" Rose whispered. "A poce?"

"No," the Doctor replied just as quietly. "Poce are sleeping at this time of day…or night…or…whatever. Point is, they're sleeping now. They only come out during the heat of the day, which I find rather daft, but I'm not a poce. As soon as the temperature begins to drop, they hunker down for the night. They would never be out this late. Way past their bedtimes."

"So…what was that then?"

"I dunno."
Both turned around very quickly this time when they heard the roar again, closer than it was before.

"Where's that coming from?" the Doctor asked no one in particular.

"I don't know. I can't see anything," Rose answered all the same.

The roar erupted through the trees along with a creature this time, the beast leaping up onto a nearby rock right in front of the two.

It stood tall on the rock, its pointed claws out and digging into the rock and its teeth bared, long canines grabbing most of the fading light. The body was feline, strongly resembling a lion. It stood on stocky, sturdy legs with muscles rippling underneath, and large paws, all flexing their sharp, silver claws. Its head was some cross between a lion and dragon, as would be expected by the roar it produced, its nose being pointed and scaly and slowly turning into a furry lion's head. It had a bit of a mane, but it wasn't nearly as thick as a normal lion's nor did it cover as much, just barely covering up the top of its neck, draping over its shoulders a bit, but that's where it stopped. The mane never even reached its chest. Curved, pointed horns came up from its head just in front of the rounded ears while silver spines, spines matching the color of its claws, ran from its horns all the way down to the tip of its tail. It had red markings that closely resembled tribal markings and stood out bravely against its almost-black blue body. Its yellow eyes stared out at Rose and the Doctor, regarding them with contempt and hunger as it snarled again.

"Doctor…what is that?" Rose involuntarily gripped his arm.

"I don't know," the Doctor admitted. "I've never heard any stories about such a thing. Although, I can see why. That thing looks something fierce."

The creature roared again, causing the two to take a step back. Still, they kept their eyes on it.

"How about we just call it scary and leave it at that, hm?" the Doctor looked eagerly at Rose, nodding a little.

"Yeah, I'm good with that," she nodded back. "A big, scary, beast of a lion. I can go for that, yeah!"

As the creature took a step forward, the Doctor and Rose turned and bolted, running as fast and as best they could, given the circumstances. While they sloshed through the mud, bogged down by the sucking force, the creature had no problems moving in the muck, bounding effortlessly after them. It chased them through tree after tree, around and over rock after rock, always snapping and reminding them that it was right on their heels.

"We can't out run it!" Rose called to him. "It's too fast and it's adapted to this swamp. There's no way to out run it."

"I know," the Doctor growled. "I just need something. Something to scare it off. I don't want to harm it, just spook it a little. But what?" he ruffled his hair with both hands as the continued to run. "What, what, what? What could scare this thing?"

His eyes went to the swamp and widened for a second. He mumbled something to himself before plunging his hands down into the swamp below, stooping as he continued to run. His hands passed the watery layer down into the mud part. Scooping up two handfuls, he squashed them together as he brought his hands up out of the swamp. Casting a quick glance behind him, he threw the ball at the beast, hitting it square between the eyes, blinding it.

"Nice shot!" Rose exclaimed watching it try to wipe off the mud with its paw, slowing down and basically stopping.

"Keep going!" the Doctor urgently scolded. "I doubt I stopped. In fact, I know I didn't. I just bought a little time and a very temporary lead. If anything, I just succeeded in making it angry."

The Doctor's guess was correct again. After much shaking of its head and swiping at its face with its paw as well as its tail, it finally got enough mud off that it could see again and its eyes fixed straight on the now-distant duo. It growled, gave a roar, and chased back after Rose and the Doctor with vengeance.

The Doctor and Rose leapt onto a large rock, pausing only for breath. To their dismay, they saw that the creature was still advancing, and fast.

"What are we going to do now?" Rose wondered. "Too bad neither of us carry guns."

"Well, even if we did, doesn't mean we'd us them," he absently replied.

He was already looking around him, calculating the options, such as they were. Still, he saw nothing of use. Everything was too big or not sturdy enough. But just when he was about to concede, he saw something that made his eyes light up and a grin creep across his face. A thick branch poked out of the swamp, sticking up just within the Doctor's reach.

"Must've been a main branch," he noted, grabbing a hold of it and pulling. "I can hardly see any minor branches being this thick." With a moist, smacking sound, the branch dislodged from the swamp, nearly sending the Doctor sprawling onto his back. He grinned. "Oh yes! Perfect!"

He pulled out his sonic screwdriver, pointing it at the thinner end of the branch and shining the blue light onto it, his face squinting as he concentrated.

"What are you going to do?" Rose asked, her eyes shifting nervously from the creature to the Doctor and back again.

"I'm trying to light it on fire!" the Doctor looked quickly up at Rose and then back down to his screwdriver. "I have a feeling that these creatures don't see fire very often and most creatures, primitive or not, are afraid of the unknown."

"Can you really do that?"

"I think so. If I can create enough friction of the molecules in the branch, then it should ignite."

"Well, I hope it does, and quick! That scary lion thing is coming. Fast!"

The Doctor looked up and saw that the creature was indeed, coming fast and closing in quickly, heading straight for the Doctor himself.

"Come on!" the Doctor urged the sonic screwdriver, his hand tightening on the device as the creature drew even closer. "Come on!"

The creature advanced closer still, growling and roaring, fuming at the busy Doctor, coming close enough for its eyes to be clearly seen. It leapt into the air, its claws extended and poised, coming down towards the Doctor. At the last possible moment, a large stick caught the beast horizontally in the mouth, stopping its assault and forcing it back down to the ground with a heavy thump just short of the Doctor. The Doctor pushed the stick deep into the corners of the creature's mouth, keeping the snarling thing at bay. It even tried swiping at the Doctor, but its shorter legs missed, causing it to lose its balance and twisting the branch along with the Doctor's arms as well. Still, the Doctor held on to the button of the sonic screwdriver and continued to try and ignite it, the glowing end pressed against the branch as his hand complexly twisted around to keep it and the branch in his grasp. The beast growled and lunged forward, pushing the Doctor back. The Doctor's foot slipped on the edge of the rock and he fell back, landing in the mud and smashing his head into the trunk of a nearby tree. The shining teeth gnawed and chewed on the branch and bark at the back of its mouth as the creature's head advanced on the Doctor, its weight bearing down on him and forcing him further into the swamp while he still clung to the sonic screwdriver, desperately trying to create a spark and set flame to the branch as he continued to blink away the black spots in his vision, though his mind kept telling him that it was too wet and would never start.

Just before the Doctor's head submerged, the branch sparked, just for a second before flickering to life, weak at first, but quickly growing in intensity until it resembled a wooden torch. The creature's eyes jumped to the flame, fixed on it. For a moment, it just stood there, watching, and then it quickly removed its mouth from the branch and backed away slowly as the Doctor struggled onto his feet.

"You like that, huh?" the Doctor taunted, swishing the first back and forth in front of the creature. "You like that? No? Well then back away," he thrust it at the beast.

It scrambled over the rock backwards, completely ignoring Rose, and as soon as his hind feet hit the swamp again, it spun around and raced away from the fire, looking back occasionally.

Rose watched the creature just as the Doctor did, but she looked back in time to notice the Doctor's exhaustion and run up to him just as the his knees buckled and he began to fall.

"I got you," Rose stated, catching him under his arms and keeping him from the swamp. "I got you."

"This seems familiar, only last time, it was the other way around as I recall," the Doctor grinned a little. "I caught you, remember?"

"Yeah," Rose smiled a little. "In New New York, in the hospital with the cat nuns, yeah? That what you're thinking?"
"That's it."

"I bet I didn't weigh this much though."

"You'd be surprised."

"You calling me fat?"

"…No. I believe I'm calling myself thin."

Rose chuckled a little. "Well, you are that."

Her smile faded though as she looked over the Doctor, or what she could see of him. She bit her lip when she saw the back of his head was damp and dark, tinted in red, and he had a rather large gash imbedded in his hair. She knew he had hit his head hard on the tree, but she didn't know it would do that. She looked at the tree, and then she saw that the tree's bark was rough and stuck out in weird shapes and places all over.

"You're bleeding," Rose told him.

"Scalp wounds always," he took a deep breath as pain wafted over him, "look worse than they are. I'm fine. Really."

"But even the wound itself looks horrible. And you're bleeding. Bad."

"It'll pass. It's nothing."

"I don't care what you say, that's a bad injury. You hit your head really hard on that tree. I heard it. I saw it."

"Yeah," the Doctor's free hand wandered to the back of his head briefly before he let it drop to his side again. "But I can still walk on my own. I don't need help from you."

"Doesn't matter, I'm giving it to you anyway. You do need help every now and again, and this is one of those times no matter how much you protest," she hoisted him up, his arm around her neck and over her shoulder, her other arm supporting him around his waist. She paused to look at him before smiling and stating quieter, "You were really brave though. Stupid, maybe, but definitely brave."

"Yeah? You think so?"

"Yeah, I do. Thank you," she gave the wrist she was holding a little squeeze. "You were fantastic."

He smiled weakly, appreciating the compliment and assurance. "Yeah…I suppose I was, wasn't I?"

He wouldn't dare mention anything to Rose, but his head was throbbing horribly, though it was perfectly understandable and expected. He had felt his wound, and to him, it didn't feel all that bad, but he had hit his head really hard. That much he was certain of. He was sure he recalled hearing a small crack when he smacked his head but admitted it could be paranoia. If he could just lie down and rest, let it pass, he knew he'd pull out of it. But out here, that was not an option. Keep moving forward as long as you can, that's the rule in this swamp. It had served them well so far. He still found himself thinking a sobering thought: Rose was the reason he would pull through. Without her help, he probably would've just laid in the swamp and died. He found himself thinking once again about how glad he was that they had met.

They continued to press on even as the darkness began to fall over the land. The brilliant blue sun set was up in the sky now, setting a calming mood for the evening. Even so, they were on edge, having failed to find any reprieve or hope yet, feeling rather desperate and a little depressed. They just kept moving forward, hoping for a miracle.

Rose perked as she spotted a shadow in the distance, a shadow unlike any she had seen so far in this swamp. Odder still, she was nearly certain she saw light coming from the shadow, and she knew that it was too early for the bugs or geckos since the sun hadn't even completely disappeared yet. Other than that, the light coming from the shadow wasn't blue but rather more of a softer yellow.

"Doctor, look," Rose shook him a little and pointed ahead to the large, square shadow highlighted by the dying light.

"What's that?" he tilted his head. "It looks like…a house?"

"Maybe it is. Sure looks like it. And if it is, maybe there's someone living there that can help us."

"Maybe give us shelter at the very least," the Doctor nodded.

Their spirits lifted, they picked up their pace, going for their hope as fast as they could. And their optimism was only strengthened as they grew closer and saw more features of the mysterious shape.

It was definitely a house, they could see that now, raised up on stilts to keep it high out of the muck. The front facing the two was square, though the roof was obviously domed. Even at a distance, it was very clear that this house was formed out of sturdy wood, possibly from nearby swamp trees, and that it had been there a while, enduring harsh weather and other conditions. There were a few steps leading to the porch which Rose helped to guide the Doctor up when they reached them.

"Hello?" Rose called, pounding on the door and racking into the Doctor's ears, only helping to worsen his headache. "Is anyone in there? Hello?"
Her heart leapt as she heard the door knob turn. She held her breath as the door opened and a shadow covered her and the Doctor.

"Please, can you help us?" she looked at the Doctor, his head hanging. "Please?"

She only hoped whatever stood before her was friendly.