p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;"The planet turns./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" We see a flat expanse of land. It cannot be quite a steppe, nor a field, its emptiness was by design although nothing grows or grazes on it. Nothing has for quite some time. A huddled group of people move through it, they are unarmed, they are humanoid./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" They are Early Dorom beassi, consider them the homo habilis, or just a little before. They do not walk so much as prowl, occasionally dipping down to pad their knuckled paws against the ground. They do not talk but communicate in low grunts and hand signals./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" They do not like the forest, they do not trust it. There are predators in the greenery. They prefer their quarries and hilltops./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" They came to one such quarry, or not a quarry, but a rocky plane that spread out between sheer mountains. Above was once where they lived, and when they looked up they could see the broken bridge between the two hilltops. A more wistful and masochistic member of the group climbed a rock to get a view of their old homes./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" These homes were not even the basic huts that would be expected, but just shelters of broad, waxy leaves strategically woven together./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" This watcher had memories of watching the gatherers returning, their arms full of fruit, the hunters rarely returned with such bounty. The homemakers, oh how they wished they could have been the homemaker they were born to be./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" Their little group were happy then, they had a bigger pack then. It was common for people to move between packs and families (for they called themselves that and had not yet the cognitive ability to conceive of a tribe or commune). Some of the older members of this pack had even been there when the travellers came back from beyond the Dry Lands./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" Due to some unfortunate temporal distortion, the equinox had been subject to intense summers which cut a drought line between the hemispheres. Before this, the proto-Early Dorom beassi lived along the lands, some journeying farther than others. The stories inter-family/pack mingling had been limited since the temporal drought divided the land so./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" Some dared to journey the desert as a challenge some time ago./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" In more recent years they had encountered families/packs who had been chased to the Dry Lands. No one had heard if they had ventured beyond to the supposed other land, but equally, they did not hear of those staying in the Dry Lands./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" After all, it would be the perfect place to hide from the hunters./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" Speaking of the hunters./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" You can't quite see them looking at this forest, or rather, you can clearly see them, but you have no idea what you're looking at. Wouldn't it be just wonderful if I pointed out a particular tree only for the bark to open its eyes and an alien creature to step forward to view their prey?/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" This didn't happen. The hunters were far more patient, and further back than the clearing and its forest. But still they tracked the movements of the little pack out scavenging for supplies./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" The roar of some great beast echoes around them, it disturbs the birds in the trees and unsettles the hunters who have been chasing down the Early Dorom beassi. The Early Dorom beassi themselves leap and bound for the hilltops, scuttling up the hills in two groups. They raised their clubs and wait for the monster, but it doesn't come./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" Elsewhere, a little ways off in the forest before the clearing, before the stony plane and the hilltops: the mouth of this great beast opened and the Doctor stepped out followed by Constance Clarke and Flip Ramon./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'Oh, what a lovely place,' Constance said, attempting to avoid calling it Eden, she was much too proper and well-bred for something so cliché./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'Yeah, it's alright,' said Flip. 'Doesn't look like it's been mowed in ages.' Flip was from London and was working-class so I will do my best to document her speech patterns./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'Yes, a genuine wilderness, reminds me of home.' She meant her childhood home in Malawi (née Nyasaland), but don't worry, she was one of the nicer coloniser families./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" The Doctor, the colourful coat one, quoted Whitman. Neither companion paid much attention to this./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" Constance breathed in deeply. 'What fresh air. I think, Doctor, I am beginning to smell the difference between the artificial air and this natural air.'/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'Yes, artificial air has that tanginess to it,' said the Doctor. He looked back at his companions, then down at their shoes. 'We are probably going to walk in the mud, I don't know if high heels and… Chuck Taylors will do you well.'/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'Doc, are you really lecturing us about dress sense?' asked Flip, she crossed her arms and gave an amused and cheeky sardonic look./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'Oh my, we aren't having this argument again. The Doctor's right Philippa, in we go.' Inside the TARDIS, on their way to the wardrobe, Constance reminded Flip that the Doctor's coat was, as he claimed, high fashion in some parts of the universe and that they had both seen him in less garish attire. 'He's very sensitive, you know that.'/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'He can take it.'/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" Debatable./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" When they returned from the wardrobe in Wellington boots that fit quite snugly, the Doctor was already quick-marching on the horizon./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'Well that makes a change from us disappearing,' said Constance./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'Thi's why he wears the coat, 's so we don't get lost.'/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" The two women giggled as they strobe to catch up with the Doctor./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" They found the Doctor holding his chin, examining the ground. He took out what looked to the human companions like a jeweller's monocle. The Doctor turned his head, let the monocle fall into his hand and checked his soles./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'Step in somefing?'/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'Mm, oh, no, just noticed some footprints, checking they are humanoid.'/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'I thought you said we weren't on Earth.'/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'We aren't.' The Doctor smacked his lips and sniffed the air. 'Kessas Aen, I do believe, the temporal anomalies are unmistakable.'/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" Neither companion was quite impressed. Both had the suspicion he didn't actually set the randomiser on or had checked the console read-out before leaving. He was a magician and both women were happy to be entertained by a performer, but they were also the type to also want to know how it was done./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'Then locals?' asked Constance./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'Or explorers like us.'/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" The Doctor shook his head in a slightly patronising way, which made Constance bristle and Flip roll her eyes. Flip understood it was not sexist, just patronising, but Constance used to taking orders from men who remembered the good old days before women could vote, easily forgot the Doctor was not a man in the same way the others were./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'Then what?' asked Constance, a little sharply./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'There's something animal about it, too soft. Considering where we are in the planet's history… locals might be right, in the same way tigers and beetles are locals of Earth.' The Doctor looked up brightly. 'I'm assuming you mean the equivalent to humans?'/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" Constance did not dignify this with a response./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'I think it might be a developing humanoid. Hominid equivalent perhaps.' The Doctor tasted the air once more, he looked around him. 'This isn't quite the body for tracking.'/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'So it's like Neanderthals?'/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'The half-monkey men?'/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'Ape,' corrected the Doctor. 'And no, not quite. Humans developed from apes with some Silurian interference. These would be beassi, Early Coot, maybe even proto-Early Dorom. They evolved from… well, they look like mustelids.'/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'What?' asked Flip./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" Constance shut her eyes to try and remember the biology textbook from her schooldays but drew up short, and even so the Doctor answered before she could be certain she didn't know. 'Otters, stoats, mink, ferret, badgers, wolverines.'/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'Big stoats?' asked Flip, childish to see one and cuddle it./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" Constance grimaced a little at the idea. She loved otters as a child, and still a little as she grew up, but in the circles she moved in, they also hunted stoats and otters as well as foxes. She never quite approved, but was convinced a little upon hearing how utterly beastly otters are to their runts of the litter./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'Possibly at this stage, yes, but not exactly as you'd imagine it. They might be in the stage where they look more human than stoat. I could see if there are any DNA samples around this area and analyse them to be sure.'/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'Would it matter?' asked Constance./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'Of course,' snapped the Doctor. 'All life matters.'/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'I am well aware Doctor, I simply meant would it matter other than to prove how right you are?'/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'Oh, that, no, probably not.'/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" Flip and Constance joined him by the footprints, also noticing the others./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'A group of them—hunters?' asked Flip./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'More likely gathers. I can't smell any animals.'/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'Can we follow them? I've always wanted to see cavemen. Well, ones that don't wear trackies and catcall you.'/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'Ah, you beat me to it,' said Constance./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'I met real cave people once, a long, long time ago,' the Doctor began a pleasant stroll in the direction the group had headed./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'A previous incarnation?' asked Constance./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'Yes, back when I was younger in an older body.'/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'And what happened?'/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'They tried to steal my matches for my pipe.' The Doctor made a mock impression, 'Strange man, strange furs, make fire.'/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'And what did you learn?'/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'The value of a human life.'/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" He wouldn't say any more on that but did continue to tell them the story of the tribe and escaping./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'Do you still smoke a pipe?' asked Constance, not recalling if he did while at Bletchley./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'And ruin my good coat? No. I think I still have a smoking jacket somewhere.'/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'And here's me thinking Noël Coward just left it behind.'/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'No, I haven't been poor Noël's type for a while, and I don't think I will be for some time. And I met him… let's see, sometime in the sixties, I think he and Graham were together by then.'/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'I have no idea what you're talkin' about,' said Flip./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'How sad, I know not every artist can't survive that long, but I thought Coward would have,' said Constance./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'Oh, he does… for the more cultured,' said the Doctor with a playful jibe at Flip. She returned with two fingers and a smirk./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify" /p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;"Far behind them, the hunters who hunt the beassi, the ones who you couldn't quite make out until I pointed them out, they perked up at the sound of the TARDIS landing. They listened to the ground for the results, fearing their prey had been devoured. But then they scented others, they heard the whisper of the trees and knew of the others, they felt the ground, feeling every footstep and squelch of Wellington boot./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'Follow them,' said their leader. Tall and thin and not quite there, they had a glow about them as they faded in and out of reality./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" They were all humanoid, but they were not easily mistaken as humans. All of them were tall and thin, spindly, and all glowed and faded in and out of reality. The leader had more solidity and carried a spear, one of carved and sharpened stone./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'We will take back our fallen,' said another./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'I want these strangers too. They survived that beast and they are different from these colonisers, I want to know. They might know the secrets of this curse or the cause of it.' It made a noise from its tiny mouth like the rustling of reeds. They all spoke like that, but this was a noise, a cheer./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" The others joined in the war cry./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" We see a flat expanse of land. It cannot be quite a steppe, nor a field, its emptiness was by design although nothing grows or grazes on it. Nothing has for quite some time. A huddled group of people move through it, they are unarmed, they are humanoid./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" They are Early Dorom beassi, consider them the homo habilis, or just a little before. They do not walk so much as prowl, occasionally dipping down to pad their knuckled paws against the ground. They do not talk but communicate in low grunts and hand signals./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" They do not like the forest, they do not trust it. There are predators in the greenery. They prefer their quarries and hilltops./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" They came to one such quarry, or not a quarry, but a rocky plane that spread out between sheer mountains. Above was once where they lived, and when they looked up they could see the broken bridge between the two hilltops. A more wistful and masochistic member of the group climbed a rock to get a view of their old homes./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" These homes were not even the basic huts that would be expected, but just shelters of broad, waxy leaves strategically woven together./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" This watcher had memories of watching the gatherers returning, their arms full of fruit, the hunters rarely returned with such bounty. The homemakers, oh how they wished they could have been the homemaker they were born to be./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" Their little group were happy then, they had a bigger pack then. It was common for people to move between packs and families (for they called themselves that and had not yet the cognitive ability to conceive of a tribe or commune). Some of the older members of this pack had even been there when the travellers came back from beyond the Dry Lands./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" Due to some unfortunate temporal distortion, the equinox had been subject to intense summers which cut a drought line between the hemispheres. Before this, the proto-Early Dorom beassi lived along the lands, some journeying farther than others. The stories inter-family/pack mingling had been limited since the temporal drought divided the land so./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" Some dared to journey the desert as a challenge some time ago./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" In more recent years they had encountered families/packs who had been chased to the Dry Lands. No one had heard if they had ventured beyond to the supposed other land, but equally, they did not hear of those staying in the Dry Lands./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" After all, it would be the perfect place to hide from the hunters./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" Speaking of the hunters./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" You can't quite see them looking at this forest, or rather, you can clearly see them, but you have no idea what you're looking at. Wouldn't it be just wonderful if I pointed out a particular tree only for the bark to open its eyes and an alien creature to step forward to view their prey?/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" This didn't happen. The hunters were far more patient, and further back than the clearing and its forest. But still they tracked the movements of the little pack out scavenging for supplies./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" The roar of some great beast echoes around them, it disturbs the birds in the trees and unsettles the hunters who have been chasing down the Early Dorom beassi. The Early Dorom beassi themselves leap and bound for the hilltops, scuttling up the hills in two groups. They raised their clubs and wait for the monster, but it doesn't come./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" Elsewhere, a little ways off in the forest before the clearing, before the stony plane and the hilltops: the mouth of this great beast opened and the Doctor stepped out followed by Constance Clarke and Flip Ramon./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'Oh, what a lovely place,' Constance said, attempting to avoid calling it Eden, she was much too proper and well-bred for something so cliché./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'Yeah, it's alright,' said Flip. 'Doesn't look like it's been mowed in ages.' Flip was from London and was working-class so I will do my best to document her speech patterns./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'Yes, a genuine wilderness, reminds me of home.' She meant her childhood home in Malawi (née Nyasaland), but don't worry, she was one of the nicer coloniser families./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" The Doctor, the colourful coat one, quoted Whitman. Neither companion paid much attention to this./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" Constance breathed in deeply. 'What fresh air. I think, Doctor, I am beginning to smell the difference between the artificial air and this natural air.'/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'Yes, artificial air has that tanginess to it,' said the Doctor. He looked back at his companions, then down at their shoes. 'We are probably going to walk in the mud, I don't know if high heels and… Chuck Taylors will do you well.'/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'Doc, are you really lecturing us about dress sense?' asked Flip, she crossed her arms and gave an amused and cheeky sardonic look./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'Oh my, we aren't having this argument again. The Doctor's right Philippa, in we go.' Inside the TARDIS, on their way to the wardrobe, Constance reminded Flip that the Doctor's coat was, as he claimed, high fashion in some parts of the universe and that they had both seen him in less garish attire. 'He's very sensitive, you know that.'/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'He can take it.'/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" Debatable./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" When they returned from the wardrobe in Wellington boots that fit quite snugly, the Doctor was already quick-marching on the horizon./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'Well that makes a change from us disappearing,' said Constance./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'Thi's why he wears the coat, 's so we don't get lost.'/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" The two women giggled as they strobe to catch up with the Doctor./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" They found the Doctor holding his chin, examining the ground. He took out what looked to the human companions like a jeweller's monocle. The Doctor turned his head, let the monocle fall into his hand and checked his soles./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'Step in somefing?'/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'Mm, oh, no, just noticed some footprints, checking they are humanoid.'/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'I thought you said we weren't on Earth.'/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'We aren't.' The Doctor smacked his lips and sniffed the air. 'Kessas Aen, I do believe, the temporal anomalies are unmistakable.'/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" Neither companion was quite impressed. Both had the suspicion he didn't actually set the randomiser on or had checked the console read-out before leaving. He was a magician and both women were happy to be entertained by a performer, but they were also the type to also want to know how it was done./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'Then locals?' asked Constance./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'Or explorers like us.'/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" The Doctor shook his head in a slightly patronising way, which made Constance bristle and Flip roll her eyes. Flip understood it was not sexist, just patronising, but Constance used to taking orders from men who remembered the good old days before women could vote, easily forgot the Doctor was not a man in the same way the others were./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'Then what?' asked Constance, a little sharply./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'There's something animal about it, too soft. Considering where we are in the planet's history… locals might be right, in the same way tigers and beetles are locals of Earth.' The Doctor looked up brightly. 'I'm assuming you mean the equivalent to humans?'/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" Constance did not dignify this with a response./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'I think it might be a developing humanoid. Hominid equivalent perhaps.' The Doctor tasted the air once more, he looked around him. 'This isn't quite the body for tracking.'/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'So it's like Neanderthals?'/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'The half-monkey men?'/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'Ape,' corrected the Doctor. 'And no, not quite. Humans developed from apes with some Silurian interference. These would be beassi, Early Coot, maybe even proto-Early Dorom. They evolved from… well, they look like mustelids.'/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'What?' asked Flip./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" Constance shut her eyes to try and remember the biology textbook from her schooldays but drew up short, and even so the Doctor answered before she could be certain she didn't know. 'Otters, stoats, mink, ferret, badgers, wolverines.'/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'Big stoats?' asked Flip, childish to see one and cuddle it./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" Constance grimaced a little at the idea. She loved otters as a child, and still a little as she grew up, but in the circles she moved in, they also hunted stoats and otters as well as foxes. She never quite approved, but was convinced a little upon hearing how utterly beastly otters are to their runts of the litter./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'Possibly at this stage, yes, but not exactly as you'd imagine it. They might be in the stage where they look more human than stoat. I could see if there are any DNA samples around this area and analyse them to be sure.'/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'Would it matter?' asked Constance./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'Of course,' snapped the Doctor. 'All life matters.'/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'I am well aware Doctor, I simply meant would it matter other than to prove how right you are?'/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'Oh, that, no, probably not.'/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" Flip and Constance joined him by the footprints, also noticing the others./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'A group of them—hunters?' asked Flip./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'More likely gathers. I can't smell any animals.'/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'Can we follow them? I've always wanted to see cavemen. Well, ones that don't wear trackies and catcall you.'/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'Ah, you beat me to it,' said Constance./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'I met real cave people once, a long, long time ago,' the Doctor began a pleasant stroll in the direction the group had headed./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'A previous incarnation?' asked Constance./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'Yes, back when I was younger in an older body.'/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'And what happened?'/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'They tried to steal my matches for my pipe.' The Doctor made a mock impression, 'Strange man, strange furs, make fire.'/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'And what did you learn?'/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'The value of a human life.'/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" He wouldn't say any more on that but did continue to tell them the story of the tribe and escaping./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'Do you still smoke a pipe?' asked Constance, not recalling if he did while at Bletchley./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'And ruin my good coat? No. I think I still have a smoking jacket somewhere.'/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'And here's me thinking Noël Coward just left it behind.'/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'No, I haven't been poor Noël's type for a while, and I don't think I will be for some time. And I met him… let's see, sometime in the sixties, I think he and Graham were together by then.'/span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'I have no idea what you're talkin' about,' said Flip./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'How sad, I know not every artist can't survive that long, but I thought Coward would have,' said Constance./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'Oh, he does… for the more cultured,' said the Doctor with a playful jibe at Flip. She returned with two fingers and a smirk./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify" /p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;"Far behind them, the hunters who hunt the beassi, the ones who you couldn't quite make out until I pointed them out, they perked up at the sound of the TARDIS landing. They listened to the ground for the results, fearing their prey had been devoured. But then they scented others, they heard the whisper of the trees and knew of the others, they felt the ground, feeling every footstep and squelch of Wellington boot./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'Follow them,' said their leader. Tall and thin and not quite there, they had a glow about them as they faded in and out of reality./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" They were all humanoid, but they were not easily mistaken as humans. All of them were tall and thin, spindly, and all glowed and faded in and out of reality. The leader had more solidity and carried a spear, one of carved and sharpened stone./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'We will take back our fallen,' said another./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" 'I want these strangers too. They survived that beast and they are different from these colonisers, I want to know. They might know the secrets of this curse or the cause of it.' It made a noise from its tiny mouth like the rustling of reeds. They all spoke like that, but this was a noise, a cheer./span/p
p class="western" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="justify"span style="font-size: medium;" The others joined in the war cry./span/p