Chapter Two
The lid of the oyster shaped ship crept open slowly, a blinding pink light emerging from within, dimming quickly at the hiss of the engine turning off. Two large figures clambered out with as much grace as two blind elephants, whispering to one another in hushed voices, the light from the ship only just showing their outlines.
"I thought you said it was here.." the larger one growled in a low voice, scratching his pig-like nose.
"It is.. I'm sure of it.." the other figure looked up at his friend, and boss, and pulled out a small item which looked like a cross between the standard Earth PDA and a small satellite dish. "Look.." he pointed at the screen and his friend grunted in reply.
"Look at the date, Ophamech..." the larger figure pointed a stubby finger at the top corner of the screen, which read January 25th 1905.
"What about it?" Ophamech looked up, clearly puzzled.
"It hasn't been found yet!" the larger creature growled, running a hand through the short about of hair he had before whacking Ophamech over the back of the head "Now what do we do?"
"Well, it's not the end of the world, Chapivosh" Ophamech shrugged "Only a few hours to go.."
"Where are we going?" Donna asked, clearly irritated. They'd been walking now for what felt like hours and the noise the insects were making in the tall grass they were currently walking through was slightly creeping her out, and slightly just bugging the hell out of her.
"Donna..." the Doctor had, by now, pulled out his sonic screwdriver and was using it to scan the area for.. well, whatever had made the TARDIS crash land.
"Well you always have me walking aimlessly.."
"Never aimlessly, Donna.. there's always a point... most of the time" he flashed her a grin before raising his sonic screwdriver to his ear, listening to the gentle buzzing. "I just.. can't work it out"
"What is it?" Donna raised an eyebrow, her eyes scanning the surrounding area as she secretly looked for lions while contemplating just why the Doctor was always full of contradictions. Not that she really minded, it was more interesting that way.
"There's two signals..."
"And that means?"
"I'm not sure yet.."
"Oh, well that's helpful" she replied, sarcastically, glancing around once more before looking straight at the Doctor who'd begun searching through his pockets.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm looking for a torch or something.. It's pretty dark.. Are you always so full of questions?"
"Do you have to ask that? Really?"
"See.. two in that one sentence.. Ah-ha.." he grinned, pulling out a wind-up torch and beginning to wind it up.
"Trust you to have a wind-up torch" Donna mocked, but was secretly glad of the break in the darkness.
"Well it saves on batteries.."
A rustling in the grass caused her to stop, her eyes scanning the darkness for whatever it was. Zina wasn't usually afraid of the night time, even in Africa. She liked to believe that she knew the darkness well enough, having snuck out every night for over a year, to not be afraid of it and yet, the continuous rustling in the grass had her heart racing.
"Hello?" she called out, not expecting a reply. Hearing a growl, she wanted to scream but she knew that would provoke an attack. Instead, she froze to the spot, her heart still racing, her brain ticking away for a way out.
"Seriously, Donna, there's no lions here" the Doctor gave his red-haired companion a reassuring grin, offering her his arm, which she linked her own through. She'd seen the Doctor battle aliens, free enslaved species and stare death in the face several times and yet, she wasn't sure that, should they come across a large African wild cat, he'd be able to fight it off.
"Yeah, you say that now.." she watched the light from his torch as it highlighted the grass before them, making their every step safer. "But what happens if we come across one?"
"I'll deal with it"
"Talk to animals now, do you?" The Doctor gave her a look and shook his head, continuing to walk.
Her breathing hitched a degree, her heart still racing as her eyes scanned the darkness. The only light was that from the moon and it wasn't really enough for her eyes to see properly. Yet, she could still make out the figure in the grass and could still tell it was a lioness. Her crouched position told Zina that this was a lioness on the hunt, a lioness ready to kill. She couldn't take her eyes off the powerful front legs extended in front of the magnificent beast, until.. was that a light?
Chapivosh and Ophamech made their way quickly along a narrow dirt track, occasionally banging into one another as they walked. Their huge build made it difficult for the two creatures to walk side by side along the track. Huge arms knocked against one another.
"Stop it" Chapivosh snarled, nudging Ophamech hard enough for him to step backwards slightly, easing Chapivosh's walk along the path.
"Where are we going?" Ophamech asked, rubbing his arm where he'd been shoved.
"We're going to find somewhere to hide out, until it's discovered.."
"Oh. Ok.." they continued walking, past grassy plains, towards a small village that lay in the distance, their every step shaking the ground around them. They kicked down the first door they came across, planning to hide inside until the early morning.
"Hey, what--" a tall, thin boy of seventeen jumped up from his chair and stared at the beings. In the candlelight, his eyes trailed over their bodies, widening at their huge, bulging muscles before falling upon the faces of the invaders. He gasped, stepping back, thinking his eyes were lying. They had the faces of warthogs, huge white tusks curling from their mouths towards their pig-noses, sharp and pointed. "What are you?" the boy stepped behind his chair, as if it would protected him from the horrid creatures. Before he could say anything else, Chapivosh pulled a large gun out of the holster on his hip and aimed it straight between the boys eyes.
"Did you hear that?" Donna asked as the sound of a far off gunshot reached her ears and her grip on the Doctor's arm increased. He frowned slightly, nodding.
"Yeah.. Probably someone warning off lions" he smirked sideways, earning himself a hit on the arm from Donna.
"Ouch, what was that for"
"Don't joke about it!"
"Donna! Come on, there are no.." the Doctor's voice trailed off and Donna's eyes instantly shot from his face to the beam of the torch. "lions.." he finished as his eyes trailed over the large lioness which lay crouched in the grass before them, facing in the same direction.
"Ok.." Donna whispered softly, noting that the lioness didn't even look towards her as she spoke "What do we do?"
"Someone will have heard that" Ophamech hissed to his boss as he looked at the lifeless, bleeding body of the boy on the floor
"And?"
"Well, we don't want to attract attention.. We should leave.." Chapivosh spun towards him, a snarl on his face
"I'm the boss.."
"I was just giving you my opinion, sir.." Ophamech shrugged. Chapivosh considered this for a minute before nodding, heading out of the door.
"The closer we are to the mine, the better anyway..."
The Doctor reached into his pocket and pulled out his sonic screwdriver, handing the wind-up torch to Donna before fiddling with the screwdriver for a few seconds. Quickly and quietly, he leaned down next to the lioness and pushed the button. The effect was immediate. The lioness arched her back as though yawning, before turning her head to look at the Doctor. Her eyes twitched and she backed away, growling softly at him. Donna could feel her heart pounding, she could see this ending terribly. Time and Space and aliens and unimaginable things and a simple African lion finished off the Doctor? How unsatisfying. The lioness roared, but it wasn't aggressive, it was full of fear and pain as the sound from the sonic screwdriver hurt her ears. Within seconds, she was gone. Donna released a breath she hadn't even known she was holding and ran to hug the Doctor.
"Well I didn't realise you could do THAT" she smiled, impressed before glancing at the beam of light which fell from the torch.
Zina remained frozen to the spot as she watched the happenings before her. The two strangers hadn't seemed to notice her, but they'd scared off the lioness, which was pretty helpful in preventing her from becoming big cat food. She looked up just as the woman's light covered her.
"Hello" Donna Noble smiled down at the girl, stepping towards her. The Doctor grinned, shoving his hands into his pockets and following Donna onto the dusty path. "I'm Donna, this is the Doctor.. What's your name?"
"Zina" she replied softly, her eyes resting on the gentle faces of her unintentional rescuers. "You.. scared it off.." she nodded her head towards here the lion had run. Donna laughed slightly
"HE scared it off.. he's good at scaring things"
"Oi!" the Doctor frowned at her before smiling at Zina. "Zina? Pleased to meet you. Lovely in fact.. Erm.. We're a little.. lost, I'm afraid.."
"Oh.. Well.." Zina looked from the Doctor's smiling face to Donna's "I'd love to show you where everything is, but you'd better come with me until morning.. It's dangerous at night."
"I can see that.." the Doctor nodded, rocking on the balls of his feet "Ok, we'll follow, you lead" he smiled before looking at Donna, whose eyes were glancing over the girl or, more accurately, over the bruises on the girl's arms. The Doctor, spotting what Donna was looking at, inhaled sharply. "Zina.. has someone hurt you?"
Zina looked down at her arms, running her hands over them to try and hide the bruises. "It's... nothing.." she smiled, before starting to walk once more.