Banta strode through the ship like a hunter, walking towards her kill. She wasn't happy. They had landed on the side of this stinking world with little technology, so the battle vessel was never going to be fixed! And it was so cold! She collared a passing lower and growled at him, that if he didn't find a decent technician soon he would pay dearly for it later. He quivered in fear, nodded like a frightened cattle and hurried hastily off down the bitter corridor. Banta felt better. She enjoyed scaring the other Dosh pirates, it was one of her only pleasures in life, she also quite enjoyed the fact that the lower would search for ages but never find anything, and that his searching would be pointless as she couldn't tell one lower from another, so she would never be able to find him and punish him. She smiled.
"Turn left," instructed Anda "Then go into the second house on the right." Amy, who was leading the way, entered the house, followed by Rory, the Doctor and, finally, Anda. Amy studied the house. It was little more than a big hut and made of some strange alien material. She asked the Doctor what the material was, he told her that it was found on most of the "extreme" planets (planets that were extremely cold in the winter and extremely hot in the summer) and worked by staying warm when it's cold and cool when it's hot. "Very sophisticated technology, but the surprising thing is it's totally natural!" the Doctor raised his eyebrows at her, waiting for a surprised reaction from Amy. But she just smiled and shrugged, it was all so normal to her now. Anda had moved out of the room while they were talking, and Rory told them that she had gone to get her mother. "Is that a good idea?" asked Amy, but Rory assured her that it would all be fine "she said that her mother would be just as welcoming as she was, I guess it must be hereditary."
"Well," said the Doctor "the skariib are naturally welcoming to visitors, there have been almost no wars whatsoever on this planet for the last 3000 years, Not all of them are really nice, only the bare minimum are meaner than the rest, but they're much better than you humans." He smiled to himself, "and yet I still love you!" Amy punched his arm playfully, "Oi," she said "you can't go around dissing us all the time then trying to make up for it you know!" As she finished the sentence the door at the other end of the room, which led to the rest of the house, opened to reveal Anda, and, just behind her, a slightly taller, greyer skariib, who stared at the three visitors with a look of awe. "Oh, Anda" she said and grabbed the arm of her only daughter before slowly lowering herself gently into the nearest chair. Anda walked slowly towards the Doctor, Amy and Rory, she introduced each of them in turn before turning back to her mother. "So," she said "can they stay with us for a while. They can help with finding the missing people."
"Of course they can Anda, dear," her mother replied "but we really should tell the elder. He is in charge after all." Anda began to shake her head furiously at this suggestion "Not him, I preferred it when his brother was in charge, he was kind, but Hunt is not the sort of man to lead our village. I don't think he would see just how nice these people are. He would have them locked up!"
"I fear you are correct dear" Anda's mother sighed "Anda, your cousin, Milli went missing today; Auntie Kat and Uncle Joe are frantic!" Anda looked saddened by the news, but simply sighed and said "I think Thresh has gone too. What's happening here?" her mother turned her sad eyes back to her guests, "Oh, but we haven't offered our visitors a cup of granca yet! By the way my name is Lana, I'm the local tailor and I'm also a member of the council."
"Mum's named after a flower that grows here on Halo; you can see one over there on the table." Anda informed them. Amy, Rory and the Doctor turned their heads to look at the plant, Rory noticed that it looked like a rose, but was striped purple and blue. The Doctor smiled sadly and then turned to the two skariib across the room; "Now then," he said "what about that nice hot cup of granca?" he looked at Amy and Rory "It's really very nice you know."
As Anda's mother bustled around making mugs of hot liquid the other four sat at the table in the middle of the room. "So," said Amy, "do you have any pets or anything on this planet?"
"Oh yes," Anda replied "I have a mondo called Ariana,"
"Right," said Amy "and a mondo is…"
"It's basically a rabbit;" jutted in the Doctor "except it has three ears and changes the colour of its coat to adjust to the time of year"
"Cool," said Rory. He was about to continue the conversation, but before any sound could come out of his mouth, Lana set down 4 mugs of steaming hot granca down on the table with a clunk.
"Thanks," said Rory, though in reality he was rather sceptical about what it would taste like. Amy wrapped her hands around her mug and looked about the kitchen; there was evidently basic technology on this planet for she saw that there was a stove and what seemed to be a washing machine crammed in to the small room. She also saw a small box with a grill (she assumed that was a radio) and another box with a door on it which looked a bit like a microwave. As she turned her focus back to the table in the middle of the room she noticed that the Doctor and Anda had almost finished their mugs of granca!
She took a sniff at her mug and immediately wanted to try some, it smelled sweet, but not overpoweringly so; it reminded her of cold winter days where she and Rory would snuggle up together in front of a roaring fire, and sip either hot chocolate or tea while toasting marshmallows and watching movies.
She was just bringing the mug to her lips and was about to take a sip when suddenly two large skariib clad mainly in black and holding basic pistols, burst into the cottage! Everyone sat at the table leapt to their feet. Anda's mother looked shocked and began to speak calmly to the intruders "You have no right to be here," she said "I shall be taking this matter to.." but before she could say another word she was knocked to the ground by a large tree trunk of an arm. "Shut it, lady," said the first attacker, as the second began to advance on the Doctor, Amy and Rory.
"Mum!" Anda screamed, as she ran to help her mother.
"Now," snarled one of the advancing skariib "I'm afraid you're going to have to come with us,"
"Ah," said the Doctor "there are 5 very good reasons why we shouldn't do that, 1…" but he had already been grabbed by the shoulders and thrust towards the door. "No!" shouted Anda, and she threw herself at the wall of black and grabbed on to his belt, but she was simply brushed away with ease.
Amy and Rory were now in a similar situation to the Doctor, Rory's right arm and Amy's left were both in grips of iron. It was then that Amy realised that she was still holding her mug of granca. She turned and threw the contents over her captor, scalding him and causing him to release his grip on her arm, though he still held tight to her husband. She decided to run. If she could evade capture for long enough, maybe she could come up with a plan to rescue the Doctor and Rory. She ran out of the door and over the threshold; straight into the arms of a third skariib.