Six: The Singing Trees

Rose

The noise started long before the TARDIS even registered Fauna's existence, and it came without warning; one second the only sound was the whirr of the TARDIS, and the next this music was reverberating through my ears.

The Doctor told me that it was the creatures of Fauna that I could hear, that their songs could be heard throughout the galaxy.

"The Vixi are a singing race," The Doctor explained as he flicked switches and zoomed around the control room like a blue bullet. "Their planet, Fauna, is around eighty percent forest- the rest is made up of mountains and lakes- there are no seas or plains, anywhere." Rose nodded slowly as she digested the new information- she knew that she would never remember any of it when the Doctor tried to explain another planet to her, but it was interesting anyway.

"Sounds nice- let's go." She said, and then frowned. "Unless they're like those Paddina people. I did not like them." The Doctor sighed, exasperated.

"You're not going to let that one go, are you?" He moaned. "All they did was go completely crazy and chase us and then cover you in blue stuff- uh, and then, um, threw feathers… at, uh you." He said, making a face as his argument lost its power. He shook his head. "Oh, you so should have killed them."

"Er yes, I think I should have done." Rose said, her voice deadly. The Doctor coughed, unnerved.

"Anyways… I'm certain they're not like that- shall we go?"

Rose paused, deliberating for a second before grinning. "Go on then."

* * *

"Nice." Rose whistled in appreciation as she looked at the infinite forest in front of her, blowing quietly on her tea. They had landed on Fauna around half an hour ago, and the Doctor had managed to dredge up an old-fashioned kettle and gas burner from the endless capacity of his ship, so now the two of them were sitting on fold-away chairs (another thing that the Doctor had produced) in front of the TARDIS sipping tea. It was quite nice really, just sitting and sipping, Rose thought, her muscles purring in appreciation; they hardly ever got such a rest.

"Hurry up." The Doctor moaned impatiently, and Rose half-laughed, half-cried with annoyance. The Doctor was a genius- could do so many things with different coloured potions and gadgets that would never make any sense to Rose, and yet he couldn't understand the concept of 'sitting down' or 'relaxing.' The words were like some foreign language to him.

Rose huffed. "Stop fidgeting!" She hissed as he swivelled around his chair for what seemed like the hundredth time in the last ten minutes, and he shot her an innocent look.

"I'm bored." He whimpered, and Rose almost expected a childish "play with me mummy!" on the end. She sighed- he was like some excitable puppy, full of energy… minus the doggy smell.

"I don't care if you are bored." She said sternly. "I'm sitting here until I've finished my tea- go and tinker in the TARDIS for a bit or something." And with that, he vanished like a shot- his eagerness leaving a little cloud of dust behind.

She sighed contently at the silence that followed- she loved the Doctor dearly, but sometimes it he was so draining! She tested her tea, and finding it at drinkable temperature, took a mouthful.

And almost spat it out again in surprise as a tree detached itself from its cousins and began walking casually towards her.

"Hello." It said as it drew nearer, and Rose could see immediately that it wasn't a real tree- it sort of a mixture of plant and man; it had a humans shape and features, but deformed hands- they were gnarled and curled like tree roots- and earthen, dirt coloured skin.

"Hi." She spluttered, choking slightly on her tea. She coughed again and straightened, grinning. "Sorry about that- you took me by surprise."

"I gather you haven't met one of the Forest of Cheem race before?" The tree-man asked, unperturbed by Rose's reaction. She smiled ruefully.

"I was kinda obvious, wasn't I?" the tree-man shook his leafy head.

"Oh, no you really weren't." He said; all seriousness. "You had me fooled!" He coughed. "For about half a second, but still…" Rose giggled, taking an instant liking to the bizarre fellow.

"I've never heard of you- human, sorry." Rose paused to register his expression; she hoped he wouldn't go crazy at her for being a human, as Rose rather liked him. "But I'm sure my friend has." She continued, after ascertaining that his expression had remained pleasant. She rose and gave the TARDIS a smack. The sound echoed through the wood hollowly, and seconds later a disgruntled Doctor appeared.

"There better have been a very good reason for scratching Mabel's paintwork, Tyler." He warned, eyes narrowed. Rose huffed at his tone- deciding to let his most recent nickname "Mabel' slide (he changed them every week; last weeks had been Judith)- and nodded at the tree-man. "We have a visitor, Doctor"- she paused. "Sorry, I didn't catch your name."

"Twigs That Shine in the Sunlight."

Rose blinked. "Um, long name." He nodded solemnly.

"Lengthy titles are traditional amongst my people- most call me Twigs." He offered, his dark, woody eyes blinking slowly. "Come, I shall take you to the Circle." Rose glanced at the Doctor quickly for explanation, but he was too busy exciting over the fact that they were going to explore that he didn't notice.

"Come on Rose!" He crowed happily. "We're going into the forest! If you go into the woods today you're sure to get a surprise…" Rose didn't know how the Doctor knew the words to Teddy Bears Picnic, but she felt it safer to just not ask- rolling her eyes at the tree-man, she set of after her friend, quickly getting swallowed by the dark shadows cast by the huge trees.

* * *

The trees were moving.

Rose could hear their leaves rustling, their branches creaking, but she wasn't afraid. How could she be? Of solid, immobile wooden objects?! No, that was silly…

But they were still moving.

On the peripheral of her vision, Rose watched as a tree- average looking; perhaps a bit tall, but still- twitched, some of its leaves falling out at the movement. What seemed to Rose, if she squinted her eyes and tried hard, an almost head-like shape in the trunk followed the dead leaves, and then with an ominous creak, the whole tree bent at the middle and scooped up the fallen leaves, dumping them into a hollow near its base, like some bizarre street-sweeper. The whole process took only a few seconds, and when Rose blinked, the tree was frozen once more, as if it had never moved. She frowned, daring the tree to move again, but it didn't. Rose shook herself roughly, and moved on.

"Come on, Tyler- the Circle is waiting!" The Doctor crowed, oblivious to Rose's ponderings. He paused, frowning. "Why is it always the 'circle'?" he asked, curiously. "Why not 'the square', or 'the trapezium'?"

"'Welcome to the great Trapezium'?" Rose scoffed. "It sounds like an art museum!"

The Doctor thought for a moment, before nodding. "Yep. Don't sound right, mate."

"Innit." Rose muttered under breath, smiling. Then she shivered- chavvy Doctor didn't sound good. She had a brief image of a teenage Doctor wearing Burberry and cheap sunglasses, hanging around outside the Co-op with his mates and taunting old ladies pushing tartan shopping trolleys. And then she really couldn't control her laughter anymore, letting in out in a huge honk that startled the Doctor into leaping a foot into the air.

The Doctor shot her a taken aback look. "What?" But try as she might, Rose couldn't reign in the giggles enough to explain. The Doctor threw her a disturbed look before addressing the tree-man. "Sorry 'bout this- Rose is normally so civilised. Humans y'know?"

Twigs nodded empathetically, and glanced at Rose- who still hadn't stopped laughing and had a mixture of tears and snot running down her face. His eyebrows rose silently, but he didn't say anything.

"Anyway," he said, and Rose finally managed to stop. "I present to you the Great Circle of the Vixi."

Moments later, Rose was in a clearing- a normal, average clearing; with trees ringing its edges and a border of tiny powder-blue flowers, the infinite, cloudless sky stretching above her.

Normal.

Except for the twelve, huge trees that were standing in a loose circle, chatting quietly together in the centre of the clearing. As one they turned to face the newcomers, and Rose found herself greeting six pairs of piercing, woody eyes.

It seemed these were the Vixi she had heard so much about.

A/N: Ooh, well… reviews? Hmm…