"Excuse me, pardon me," Paul gently pushed his way past the crowd as they circled something in the middle of a field that had been shot and killed early this morning.

A farmer thought it was a wolf attempting to attack his nearby flock and shot it, and when he came across the corpse, he made a scene, and now everyone came out to witness it.

Gasps and murmurs, the crowd couldn't believe the sight, and Paul took over immediately as he saw the corpse.

The smell was worse the closer he got, but amid the black sludgy sweat and blood, Paul sees the remains of the Drekker, shot and killed with a long rifle.

Dared not to touch the body, not wanting the sludge on him, risking the body having twitches, and carefully he used a stick to pulled the body to the side to see it better.

In the light, it was even more terrifying, and he heard women screaming for their husbands as he looked at the face of the dead Drekker.

The eyes drew his attention as he sees how human they looked up closely, that at one point this beast was a man, and all that remained of his transformation were his eyes.

Blood was oozing from the half-open beak, Paul sees the black spiny teeth that lined the beak, the thin blackened tongue lifeless lay hanging out of the side of the beak.

Couldn't tell how old it was, but it wasn't old and seasoned, that much Paul can tell from a cursory glance, still shimmering black, "feathers" smooth compared to the ragged visage of a Big One.

This wasn't a patriarch, which only meant this would be even more personal.

In his mind, Paul worked it out, the Drekker was stirred to investigate a potential food source, but the farmer got in the way of that, and killed it without a second thought.

The farmer had a good shot and shot through its heart, killed it dead, now everyone's good as dead because of it.

"Move aside!" Paul heard Hap shout as he pushed his way through the crowd with Hoyle trailing behind, eager to collect the specimen for his museum.

He stopped when he noticed Paul and instantly accused Paul of trying to steal from him, claiming that the body belonged to him.

Moving away from the body as he watched Hap and Hoyle come around it with a cart, Paul struggled to warn them not to touch the body carelessly, but Hap shouted him down, and he was forced to witness Hoyle and Hap struggling to retrieve the corpse from the body.

He jolted when he saw the clasped clawed hands, but knew he couldn't warn the men about their lethal secrets without Hap getting even more aggressive and risking an altercation.

"Worry not! I will have this fine specimen cleaned and ready for presentation!" Hap cheerfully said to the crowd as Hoyle yanked the corpse onto the cart.

His angel eyes widened, Paul saw Hoyle holding the wrists with the claws barely hovering over the ground, him complaining about the smell, but Hap yelled him into continuing his job.

It took strength for Paul not to yell at them to be careful of the claws, but alas, he was forced to watch Hoyle drag the dead Drekker onto the cart before pulling the cart back to Hap's Museum as Hap trailed behind.

Leaving a black spot in the grass in their wake mixed with blood as onlookers started leaving the scene.

A pit formed in his stomach as he exhales sharply watching it unfold and helpless, Paul turns his head before leaving himself as he silently hoped Hoyle didn't touch the claws, else he would be doomed a painful death.

However, the fate that waited for Hoyle if he didn't would just be as painful, that Paul wasn't sure which would be less painful.

"There you are!" Paul sees Taylor coming up to him, visibly disturbed as she witnessed Hoyle carting the corpse to the museum.

Silently they spoke before Paul affirms her fears at what's to come, that they'll see the consequences come nightfall.

Grasping his hands, Taylor asks what they should do, if they are at risk of the Sabbek retaliating during the day, but Paul responded that he wasn't sure, other than he knows what tonight will bring, and that they needed to work out the plan how to proceed.

"I want you to be with the TARDIS," Paul concluded that he wanted Taylor nowhere near this, causing her to protest that he couldn't do this alone, and they needed to find the individual the TARDIS said could survive the massacre.

Well-aware of the risks, Taylor wouldn't leave his side, reminding him that it was her duty as a companion to aid the Doctor, and that he was her love, too.

The TARDIS would make sure they would come out of it in one piece, anyhow.

Disapprovingly shaking his head, Paul tried talking her out of it, but Taylor remained stubborn in her ways, fearing what would happen if Paul went about this on his own, and that he couldn't be in two places at once.

"I'll be fine, Paul," Taylor gently squeezed his hands as she affirmed her intent helping him through this adventure.

Chewing on his inner lip, Paul agreed to allow her help, before warning that if things get out of control, and they will be, to run into the safety of the TARDIS.

Her vibrant red hair bobbing with strands of blond, Taylor agreed to this, before they left for the museum where there's another crowd waiting to see the dead Drekker.

Silently, the couple questioned what the colonists would do if they knew the truth about what they're looking at as they gawk.

Call it a demon, an aberration, an affront to their God, what else, might not even want to believe that this was once a human man who had been chosen to become this beast, and that there was nothing Paul or anyone could do to return them to their former lives.

If there was such a feat, Paul hadn't heard about it, and he often questioned what the man would do if given the opportunity of regressing back into his original form, what he would remember during his time, if there was any hope for him.

Suppose it's one of those questions that were best left alone, how long, Paul doesn't know.

Incapable of going inside the museum once again to see the corpse being propped up by Hap as he makes wild claims, Paul led Taylor away, his mind ablaze while his angel eyes glistened under the sunlight.

It was hard continuing the facade that nothing was wrong, but Paul and Taylor pushed through, their dread hidden behind their friendly faces as they mingled among the colonists, listening to their gossip.

In the back of their minds, they dreaded sundown, that the Drekker will make their move, but the more Paul thought about it, he came to a disturbing conclusion.

Since the Drekker held a mutualism relationship with the tribe that lived in the area, perhaps it changed them in some way, and with their patriarch likely once a former chieftain of the tribe, he would have instilled old ways in his flock.

It won't start as a massacre, as he and Taylor dreaded.

The Drekker will escalate their attacks until an outright massacre, picking off the colonists attempting to flee.

As Taylor said, it will be days until the fabled disappearance of the colony, and the Drekker will wait until the colonists were right where they wanted them.

Even if the TARDIS won't tell them everything, they can certainly come to their natural conclusions themselves, and Paul feared them all the same.

Come sundown, someone will go missing, and it's a matter of who.