A/N: Uni only just started and I'm already up to my neck in it. Sorry for delays! :o

Chapter 4 - K is for Killer Gigano Quercuses

Leah had bid goodbye to everyone happily and been the first out of the TARDIS door when they'd landed, eager to get going.

She emerged into a small cave seemingly buried deep inside a beautiful forest. Her Uncle Brax shouted for her to hold up and wait, but she ignored him and ran forward out of the mouth of the cave and among the trees.

They were absolutely huge - wider than Uncle Jack's SUV and towering over her for what seemed like miles and miles. The trunks were orange, with red vines creeping up all around them like unstable spiral staircases. There were various animals running in and out of gaps in the vines and holes in the tree.

She turned back to the TARDIS, which Auntie Gwen, Uncle Brax and Uncle Ianto had finally emerged from. The two humans were staring at the trees, utterly amazed.

'Are they trees?' Auntie Gwen asked dumbly.

'Gigano Quercuses,' Leah informed her proudly. 'They're only on Colossus planets. They have a lifespan of… umm… 40,000 years.'

Auntie Gwen looked a little stunned at the tidal wave of information coming from the four-year-old girl. 'Really?' she ended up asking, for want of a better retort.

'There's one on Colossus Colossi, which everyone swears is over 50,000-years-old but Daddy thinks they're liars.'

There was a collective laugh at that.

'Actually, there is a consensus that the Gigano Quercus species could be sentient,' Uncle Brax told her.

'Yeah, if you touch 'em and they're in a bad mood they might kill you,' Leah agreed.

Uncle Ianto and Auntie Gwen immediately stepped away from the nearest tree.

'But I think Daddy was making that up so I wouldn't climb it,' Leah continued.

'He was,' Uncle Brax told her.

Uncle Ianto and Auntie Gwen relaxed a little, but still didn't move near the tree.

'Shall we?' Uncle Brax suggested, smiling at his niece before heading off through the forest,

'Wait!' Leah shouted, causing them all to stop, alarmed. She hauled her transcendental backpack off of her shoulders and put it on the ground, unzipping it to rummage through. She eventually pulled out her little pink furry notebook with attached pen, studiously flicking through the pages until she found her notes on Gigano Quercus trees. She then took hold of the pen and crossed out probably lying, changing it to definitely lying. She then put the notebook back into her bag, zipped it up, and put it back on her shoulders.

'Let's go!' she enthused, and skipped through the crowd to lead the way through the forest.

Eventually they emerged out of the forest, onto a wide plain of undisturbed grass, bar a few small cow-like creatures on the edge. But it became clearer as they advanced that the cow-like creatures weren't small, but just incredibly far away. They were huge.

'Starting to feel a little like Gulliver,' Uncle Ianto mused as they got close enough to gauge the size of them. They were about the size of two average human males.

'Stay away,' Uncle Brax warned them. 'They've got their calves with them, it's breeding season.'

They all dutifully avoid the herd, pushing on across the field. They they continued on a downslope, towards a small village containing rings of small stone huts like Leah had seen in the Earth history section of the TARDIS' library. White smoke was billowing out of the chimneys, and the village was alive with the voices of conversing adults and children playing.

They entered the village, and very soon found themselves surrounded by the people. There was an unspoken expectation between the four time travellers of being yelled at with pointy sticks being thrust in their direction, but the villagers were far too busy staring at them.

'We're looking for Hunfrid,' Uncle Brax announced politely to them all. 'We're here on behalf of the Doctor.'

At the sound of her father's name, a ripple of excitement burst through the gathered tribespeople. Several of them bowed, and every one of them, Leah noticed, seemed to be staring at her with wide eyes.

'What?' she asked.

No one had the chance to reply as suddenly there was the sound of massive footfalls, jolting the ground she was standing on. Her Uncle Ianto instinctively grabbed her hand to stabilise her as suddenly the sun seemed to disappear and Leah found herself looking up at a giant humanoid walking straight towards them.

For a small moment she panicked, but quickly calmed down as the giant man - as tall as a house - reached them and offered a wide, reassuring smile.

'I am Hunfrid,' the giant said in his deep, booming voice, seemingly not surprised to see them instead of the Doctor. He gestured behind him. 'Please, come to the council building.'

'I am so glad I found you,' Hunfrid was saying to them all as they made their way to the Elder Council's meeting house. Uncle Brax kept Leah close, and Auntie Gwen was holding her hand as the entire population seemed to be staring at her.

'I am Braxiatel, the Doctor's brother,' her Uncle Brax said to Hunfrid. 'These are the Doctor's friends; Ianto and Gwen, and his daughter, Leah.'

Hunfrid's massive eyes looked down at Leah. They seemed to sparkle. 'You are just like you were before, Leya.'

'Leah,' Leah corrected.

'We called you Leya, Leah is not pronounceable in our tribal language.'

Leah looked at her Uncle Brax. He was frowning, as if trying to recall something. Then he seemed to click.

'It was here,' Uncle Brax realised. 'During the massacre at the Proclamation the Doctor sent his clone daughter to a tribe so she could be raised in safety. Twelve years ago. That was you, wasn't it? He sent her here.'

Hunfrid nodded. 'We took her in and raised her as best we could.' He paused, looking at Leah again. 'This is not the same Leya.'

'No,' her Uncle replied. 'This is the Doctor's real daughter. Your Leya is very well, she's head of the Neo Proclamation.'

Hunfrid nodded again. 'She sends us frequent messages.'

Uncle Brax nodded. 'The Doctor apologises for not being able to be here himself, but he had an extremely urgent errand to run.'

Hunfrid stopped, frowning. 'He is alive?'

'You are surprised?'

'I assumed to have sent his daughter to us he must have been in mortal peril, I had not expected an answer to my message.'

'He's alive,' Uncle Brax assured him. 'He sent us to help you. What's the matter?'

Hunfrid didn't answer for the moment as they reached the Elder Council's meeting house, which was quite a lot larger than any of the other buildings. The door was huge - big enough for Hunfrid. He opened it up and they all filed inside into a glorious, huge interior. It was lovingly built, with various wooden carvings placed around the perimeter and large woven drapes hanging from the ceiling, all serving to frame a large wooden round table in the centre. Around the table were a variety of chairs - a particularly large one for Hunfrid to sit in, and a particularly small one in amongst some normal-sized chairs, of which were currently occupied by a variety of elderly men and woman all dressed in elaborate, colourful clothing which Leah immediately wanted to try on. Some of the chairs were empty.

On their entry they all got up, bowing to the group.

'We thank you,' one of the Elders said. 'Welcome to our village.'

They all gestured for the time travellers to take the empty seats. They all did, Uncle Brax about to lifft Leah onto his lap when Hunfrid held up a huge hand.

'May I?' he asked Uncle Brax.

Brax nodded, but was clearly cautious as Hunfrid reached out to Leah, extending his hand. 'Jump on,' he invited her.

Leah climbed onto his finger and held on, full of glee as he moved his hand to place her on the the small chair - though the seat was high enough to put her eyes on level with everyone else's. He then drew back, took his own seat, and everyone finally sat down.

'This is Braxiatel, the Doctor's brother, his friends, Gwen and Ianto, and his daughter, Leya,' Hunfrid said to the elders, pointing to each of the time travellers in turn.

All the Elders were staring at Leah again. She could tell this was going to be a recurring theme as when they looked at her they saw the little girl delivered to them on the escape pod from twelve years previously.

'We thank you for coming,' one of the elders said.

'You have some of your elders missing?' Uncle Brax noted, indicating his own chair.

'Our people have been disappearing.'

'How so?' Auntie Gwen asked.

'At night we lock our doors and Hunfrid stands guard, but we only hear their cries before they have disappeared,' an Elder explained.

'And the doors are still locked?' Auntie Gwen asked.

The Elder nodded. 'We break in but they have gone, their food still boiling in their pots.'

'No clues, then,' Auntie Gwen mused, looking at Leah and her two uncles. 'When was the most recent disappearance?'

'Last night,' Hunfrid told them. 'Would you like to see the hut?'

They all nodded.

Hunfrid and one of the Elders led the group to a hut near the centre of the village. Thankfully the villagers had stopped watching them and instead were going about their activities, though there was definitely something in the air Leah didn't like. A kind of dark underlying fear and tension.

They entered the hut together. It was a basic construct, minimally decorated with a mud floor that looked a little churned over near one corner. Leah watched her aunt as she employed her police skills into examining the scene presented before them, trying to piece it together.

'No sign of attack?' Auntie Gwen asked.

The Elder shook his head.

'This mud has been churned up,' she pointed out to Uncle Brax and Uncle Ianto, who both nodded in sync.

'That means something came up out of the ground,' Leah deduced, already walking to the churned-up mud patch. Uncle Brax quickly took her arm to stop her getting too close.

'Could still be under there,' Uncle Brax said.

'But isn't that the fun of it?' Leah asked, bewildered.

Her two Uncles and her Auntie all turned to stare at her.

'You don't have to do it the way your father does it, you know,' Uncle Ianto told her.

'But it gets to the point quicker,' Leah pointed out.

'We're doing this our way,' Uncle Brax said, decisively pulling her back before turning to the Elder. 'When did people begin to disappear?'

'Around a year ago,' the Elder informed him. 'None of them have returned.'

'And how regularly are they being taken?'

'It is increasing as time passes,' the Elder replied.

'Gaining in confidence,' Uncle Ianto muttered.

'Or there's more of them than there was before,' Gwen added.

Leah tried not to think about that, unintentionally reaching up to grip the nearest hand, which happened to be Uncle Brax's. It felt very different to her daddy's. Her daddy had such long fingers his hand would wrap around her's entirely, cocooning it protectively. Uncle Brax's didn't - his fingers were shorter; stubbier. She could feel the draft on the back of her hand.

'Did something happen just before the first people disappeared?' Uncle Brax asked.

The Elder could only shrug. 'I'm not sure.'

Uncle Brax looked at the others, his brow furrowed, before looking to the Elder. 'I think we need to have a look around.'

'Please,' the Elder invited. 'We will be happy to provide you with whatever you need.'

They all nodded courteously as the Elder left to let them confer.

Leah watched her Auntie look to her Uncle Brax, clearly trying to work it out. 'So something's come out of the ground?'

'There seems to be no other logical explanation,' Uncle Brax replied, scratching his nose with one finger.

'So we gotta go underground!' Leah concluded.

'I told you, we don't have to this your Dad's way,' Uncle Brax said seriously.

'Then what?'

'Survey the area. Obviously something has been introduced to the area that wasn't here previously.'

'On it,' Uncle Ianto said, pulling out a strange metal device from his pocket and immediately tapping away, causing a series of beeps and whirls to issue from the small device.

'You're all doing it wrong,' Leah insisted. 'If we just stand here more people will get taken and...'

'Leah, your father is a very clever man, but why not try a new approach?' Uncle Brax suggested.

'A softly, softly one,' Auntie Gwen added.

Leah looked at them all, Uncle Ianto still tapping away on his device in the midst of the silence. She sighed, and held her uncle's hand tighter.

'Okay,' she said.

'I'm getting traces of unknown tech,' Uncle Ianto announced suddenly. 'Due east.'

It took a few hours to get to the trace of technology, which turned out to be an escape pod, looking very out of place on such a tribal world. The door was broken off, lying on the ground redundantly to expose the inside. It was rusted by time, but it was still quite intact. Uncle Brax lead the way to the pod, Leah hanging behind with her notebook back out.

He ducked his head inside momentarily, before looking back at the others. 'Parts have been stripped,' he informed them.

'Does it have a black box?' Leah wondered.

Uncle Brax leant a little further in, fiddling for a moment. 'I can't remove it.'

Leah quickly reached inside her bag and pulled out her dad's sonic screwdriver, moving forward to hold it up to Uncle Brax. He took it, thanking her before the familiar sonic buzzing began, and something clicked. Seconds later Uncle Brax turned back, the box in hand. He moved back to the others and with another spurt of sonic, activated it. They all gathered around to take a look.

BLACK BOX FILES – SP/EP: 109-34

Uncle Brax's brow furrowed. 'This escape pod is from the Shadow Proclamation,' he told them.

Analysing files... Complete

72% file corruption. See available data? Y/N

Uncle Brax pressed Y.

BLACK BOX FILES – SP/EP: 109-34

Journey details:

Origin Point – Registered: Shadow Proclamation, Dock 3/109/45, 14.1/07

Destination Point – Custom Input: Colossus Major, -13.4811031° N, 13.542166° W, 20.8/07

Journey profile:

Pod activated

Custom destination input

Estimated journey time calculated

Stasis query – occupant confirm – stasis activated

Arrival at destination

Stasis deactivated

Landing protocol initiated automatically

Landing successful

-END-

Repeat? Y/N

'This must've been the one Leya arrived on,' Auntie Gwen mused. 'But that was twelve years ago.'

'Perhaps something was inside it, something that's taken a decade to mature,' Uncle Brax suggested, handing the black box to Uncle Ianto before ducking his head back inside the escape pod. More sonicking ensued. Eventually he emerged again, frowning. 'If the escape pod brought something with it it's long gone.'

'What could it have brought with it? How, even?'

Uncle Brax frowned. 'I'm not sure.'

Everyone paused to think about that. The group of blank faces Leah could see made it apparent nobody had a decent explanation.

'It's getting dark,' Uncle Brax noted, checking the sky. 'I am not sure it's wise to be on the ground at night. We must warn the village.'

They all nodded, and headed back to the village.