Chapter 2
"I said, who are you?" the cat-girl asked.
"Oh! I didn't know there were cat-people living here! This is great! Dragons and cat people, living on the same planet and everything!" the Doctor exclaimed.
"Excuse me? I'd prefer it if you didn't use that awful term. I don't know where you're from, but we Khajiit are well-respected here." she replied.
"Oh. My bad. At any rate, you have questions and I have answers. I'm the Doctor, this is Donna, and here are our credentials." He held out a piece of Psychic Paper.
"What?" That paper is blank."
"Well, then, that doesn't really matter. Anywho, Miss, who might you be, and where exactly are we?"
"My name is Jo'riir of the Kennen Khajiit family, mage in-training of the town Snowridge, which is currently being destroyed by a dragon." She replied curtly. "Snowridge being a small mountain town in the north of Skyrim, on the continent of Tamriel. Are you all right? Did you never learn basic geography?"
"As it seems, we sort of crash-landed our, um, magic box here and now we can't get back to where we came from." Donna replied.
"Well, today may be your lucky day. I can perform a repairing spell on your box, for a price."
"That would be great. We'll show you to the box first, and then discuss the price later." the Doctor added. Jo'riir eyed them cautiously.
"If you say so."
They led me through the forest, out into a clearing where a large wooden box stood, its deep blue panels obviously looking worse for the wear. "Here she is." The man who called himself the Doctor said. Hmm. I had been looking for something big to repair for a while, eager to show off my repair spell. I had come up with it myself, after modifying a heal spell until it was able to mend objects instead of flesh. But one thing struck my mind as suspicious. Why did they want me to fix this? It looked just like an ordinary wooden box. Couldn't they just have found a carpenter? "Are you sure it's a mage, and not a woodworker, you want to fix this?" I asked. The Doctor smiled. "She's more than she looks like on the outside." She? Was this man crazy?
Hesitating, I stepped closer and closed my eyes. Instantly, my eyes opened wide again in alarm. No… That couldn't be possible… I turned to face the box and closed my eyes once again. And then… I saw it again. That box… it was everywhere. I could feel its pulsing energy everywhere, and every when. It was as if time and space themselves were bending around this mysterious box. This was so much bigger than anything that had ever existed. Now I understood what he meant by "magic box." I opened my eyes again and said, "I'll do my best. Let me in so I can fix 'her.'" The Doctor opened the door, bathing the hilltop in golden light. This was it.
I stepped in and almost fainted. The sheer amount of mass conscience and energy was overwhelming, not to mention the fact that—"It's bigger…"
"On the inside, I know!" he said happily. "I love it when people say that." I stumbled. The whole world and all I had ever known went against this. My own brain disagreed with my eyes at what I saw. Everything was telling me that this box could not possibly be here, and yet here it was. I kneeled down on the floor. "I'm going to need a minute." I said.
I had to work fast before I went mad. I kneeled down on the floor, drawing a few crystals from my bag for luck. I cleared my mind, and then focused all my consciousness on this one task. A glowing golden circle formed around me and then spread throughout the room. I reached out with my mind… and another consciousness answered. This place… it was alive. She was alive. My repairing magic slowly seeped through the gap between time and space. She took that magic and sewed herself together with it, like golden threads streaming through every possible point in the universe. It was like a spider web connecting every piece of time, of space, of everything, with her at the center. The Tardis, she told me she was called. And then, just like that, it was over. I opened my eyes and immediately collapsed onto the floor.
When I finally awoke, I felt heavy as lead. I could barely move, let alone cast any spells. I opened my eyes to see that the spell had worked. The interior of the ship looked good as new, and as I slowly sat up, I could hear a new voice ringing in my mind: Good morning, Jo'riir. I knew that it was the Tardis speaking to me, that it was her way of thanking me for quite literally pouring my soul into this feat. I stretched and blinked lazily, before glancing around. It was then when I finally noticed. "Doctor? Donna? Where are you?" I called, worried that they had left me behind. I wondered if the Tardis would give me any hints, but she remained silent. I guess that 'good morning' thing would be the only time she would ever speak to me. Now that the magic bond was broken, I supposed that I couldn't communicate with her anymore. No matter. I would find them on my own. They had to be somewhere. I marched into an adjacent room, turned into a hallway, and poked around in room after room until I finally found them sitting in a cozy looking library, flipping through strange and ancient-looking books. "You know," the Doctor was telling Donna, "This one here is a signed poetry book from Apollonius himself…"
"Well, fine way to wake up." I said. "Lying on the floor, half-mad, with no sign of either of the people who made you perform a spell like that in the first place." It was mostly sarcasm, though. I was actually very thankful that they had left me alone and not bothered me, tired as I was. "So, now that I've fixed your ship, what will we do now? My home is gone, my parents have left me to fend for myself in the midst of a dragon attack, and the only people I know are still here are the ones who fell out of the sky in a box."
He sat up and folded the book, then placed it onto a small table. "Well, Joey," he started.
"Please don't call me Joey."
"Well, Joey, that is what I'm leaving you to decide. You can either go out to find a new home, or, perhaps, you can come adventure with us. I warn you, the latter might not be a wise choice. You could get killed in a thousand different ways, or get lost on an alien world, but you'll have a home. You'll have friends. And, most importantly of all, you're the only one here who knows anything about this universe Donna and I have gotten stuck in. It's your choice."
I stared at him for a while as I weighed the pros and cons, then blinked as common sense decided to take its leave. "I'm coming with you."