The pair walked straight past the slight man sitting on the rock without noticing him, until he spoke.
"Who in Drea are you?" the man said harshly.
The Doctor and Donna turnded simultaneously, startled. The Doctor gave a friendly smile. "Oh! I'm the Doctor. This is Donna. We're heading to the village. We found one of its inhabitants earlier this morning, Yenna, her name is. She was badly hurt, we don't know by what, but we're taking care of her. Hopefully, she should be fine."
"Yenna?" The man looked suspicious. "Yenna would never leave our daughter alone."
"Your daughter?" Donna asked. "Oh, you must be…" She had never heard Yenna's husband's name. But the Doctor knew.
"Oh, you're Deyno! We've heard all about you. But I thought you were on some sort of...scouting trip, is that right? Did you get back?"
Deyno nodded. "Very early this morning. But you said you found Yenna? Is she alright?" The desperate expression on his face made it clear that he loved Yenna very much.
The Doctor hesitated, but only for a moment. "Like I said, she was badly hurt. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, but you can't see her right now."
There were obvious traces of tears in Deyno's eyes. "How do I know you're not lying? How do I know you're not the one who hurt her?"
Donna stepped right in front of him. "Look into my eyes," she said softly. "I promise you, we're not lying. Yenna will be fine, but we need to know what attacked her. Now, has there been anything else like this recently? Any unexplained disappearances or injuries or deaths?" The Doctor looked at her rather proudly.
Deyno took a deep breath. He believed them. "There have been three disappearances in the last two months. Ardek was the first. Then the child, Reytu. And just a week ago, just before the scouting trip started, the wife of one of our members vanished. Her name was Vanda. She was also my sister. No bodies have ever been found, until now. But Yenna isn't dead, you said? So there's hope for the others, as well?"
"Of course there is," the Doctor said confidently. "But we need to find them first. Do you know where they disappeared from, where they were seen last?"
Deyno nodded. "All were last seen going over the hill. I saw that the water jug was gone from our house, and Amia had a fever, and I assumed…" He put his face in his hands, trying to hide his tears. His voice came muffled. "And so I left Amia with a friend and came out here to watch for Yenna, but I was scared to cross over the hill."
Donna looked sorrowfully at this frightened young man. He couldn't have been older than twenty years old, if people here aged the same as they did on Earth. She knelt down next to him and tapped his shoulder lightly. "Hey, listen, it's okay. You can just stay here with your daughter, and we'll look after your wife. You don't have to cross over the hill. Alright?" Deyno nodded again, but he didn't lift his face. "You should go back to the village," she continued. "We'll be back when Yenna's healed." Donna stood up, and motioned to the Doctor that they should leave. By the time Deyno lifted his head up again, they were gone.