A/N: Hello again! Sorry this chapter took a bit longer than normal, I hope the fact that it's pretty long makes up for that. Finally the Doctor and his guests get somewhere, eh? It's about time for something to happen, methinks…
Chapter 5
When the TARDIS stopped, the Doctor stepped away from the controls, and looked at Sherlock and John.
"Well, here we are." He said.
"Where is 'here' exactly?" asked John. The Doctor shrugged.
"Let's find out!" he called, running across the room to the door, and flinging it wide open. And for another time that day-he was losing count- Sherlock and John were stunned into silence. They very obviously weren't on Earth anymore- the putrid green sky and shining gold mountains reaching for it in the distance proved that. Not that much of the mountains could be seen, the majority of them were blocked by dark grey canyon walls, dotted with small holes. The canyon was completely silent, except for a harsh, chemical-smelling wind that pulled at their clothes and stung their eyes.
"Well, not the most gorgeous place in the universe, but I suppose that's what you get on random." The Doctor mused, putting his hands in his pockets and spinning around slowly, looking up.
"W-where are we?!" John whispered. At first, an alien land had seemed to be exciting, fascinating, even. But now that they were actually there, in an empty silent canyon, all he could feel was a spike of fear. He could swear that he felt millions of eyes boring into his head, and glanced nervously at the holes in the canyon walls.
Sherlock narrowed his eyes and looked around, seeming to be taking the whole situation rather well.
"Yes, where are we, Doctor?" he asked. The Doctor grinned.
"Ah, boys, finding out's half the fun!" he said, rather loudly, John thought.
"Can't you check, in the TARDIS or something?" John asked, bewildered, taking a small step closer to Sherlock.
"Well yeah, but that'd be a bit boring, don't you think? C'mon, let's go meet the locals!" He shouted over his shoulder as he stared walking. John and Sherlock exchanged a glance, and then hurried after him.
"newcomerssss?" a voice hissed through the darkness.
"It would seem so, sisssster." a hand with long, slender fingers and wicked looking talons moved towards the only source of light in the room, a jagged opening in the wall that shimmered with magic.
"Why are they here?"
"sightssssssseeing?" The other scowled at the light-hearted response.
"Be serioussss, sister. If we are discovered..."
"Yes, yesssss, I know." the voice sighed, and then turned in the dark to a small figure that she knew would be waiting there. "Assssemble the ones who are necessssary-class 3's only. Leave the resssst outside the doorssss. Wipe their memories."
The small figure bowed, and scurried out of the cave.
"It is time to move on, sisssster."
The Doctor walked along the canyon path, looking up at the silent walls. "I wonder if anyone's even here?" he mused to himself. Then, he raised his hands to his mouth and shouted "HELLO! IS ANYONE HERE?!"
"Obviously there are, though they seem to be avoiding us." Sherlock spoke up. The Doctor turned around, looking puzzled.
"How do you know?" he asked, and Sherlock rolled his eyes and pointed to the ground. Looking down, both John and the Doctor saw a multitude of footprints in the dust, as if a large group of people had passed through.
"They must have been through very recently, or else the wind would've eradicated the footprints, also..."
As Sherlock rambled on, the Doctor looking intrigued and amused, John looked around again, and could've sworn he saw movement behind a rock a little ways off the path. Glancing back at the Doctor and Sherlock, he started off the path, his hand over his pistol. As he approached the rock, he called out "Hello?" grimacing when an unwanted tremor invaded his voice.
The rock didn't move, obviously, and John let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding. Of course not, what was he thinking? Plop him down in a new place and all of a sudden he's a scared little kid again? No, nothing was here.
But then a small rustle came from behind the rock, followed by a sharp intake of breath, quickly silenced. John froze, then moved slowly closer, one hand over his gun.
"Hello?" he called again. "Who are you, who's there?" a small sob came from behind the rock, and John paused, then frowned. It sounded like a child. "Hey, hey, it's okay. I won't hurt you." John said, using his 'doctor' voice. He walked slowly around the rock, and was shocked, to see a small, seemingly human child cowering in a patch of tall grass growing there, with its hands covering its mouth.
"Hey, shh, it's okay. It's okay, I won't hurt you. Come here." John said, squatting down and holding a hand out of the child, who eyed him warily, with no small degree of fear in his eyes. But after a few seconds, he slowly brought his hands down, and scuffled a little closer to John.
"There, that's good, come here. Let me just take a look at you." John kept murmuring quietly, so as not to spook him. He noticed the kid looked frightfully thin, just on the verge of being dangerously so. The kid came a bit closer, and reached out a tentative hand, gently putting it into John's. John smiled, and stood up, the child standing up with him, but had taken his hand back, and was cradling it against his chest. John pursed his lips and gently took the hand, looking it over.
Turning over the boy's arm, he saw a long gash that went from his elbow to his wrist. His breath caught in his throat- It was still bleeding, so it must have been recent.
"That looks like a nasty cut." he said, his mind spinning at a million miles an hour. How did that happen? He couldn't ask the kid, he clearly looked traumatized, but it must've been bad. He took off his jacket, wrapping it around the kid's cut. "C'mon, let's go get you fixed up." when John started walking, he noticed the child didn't follow, and turned around. He was eyeing him warily, as if he didn't believe John could be real.
"Who...who are you? You're not a goblin..." John frowned quizzically.
"No, of course I'm not. Why would I be a goblin?" he asked. The kid tilted his head slightly, and replied "because only the goblins deal with us. If we get sick or die or anything, they always take us away until we can come back. Or they take us to…" his voice trailed away and he stared resolutely at the ground. John frowned, not liking the sound of that at all.
At that point, it seemed that the Doctor and Sherlock had realized that John had wandered off.
A/N: Thanks for reading! Hope you liked, please reeeevieeeewwww! Thankies!