Lisa, Darren, Flip, and Dreamer came to the field of the skirmish that separated Flip from the Doctor and Constance.

'Call to the others,' ordered Lisa, brandishing the wooden spear, and as Lisa faded out of reality, with a quick blink, a glitch, the spear dropped. Lisa was quick to pick up and point it at Flip.

'Oi! Doct-ah! Connie!' called Flip.

Birds scattered in the trees.

The Doctor, having recovered, looked to where the noise was coming from a second before Constance and the Early Dorom beassi heard it.

'She's alive!' Constance exclaimed and clutched her chest in relief.

'You'd think otherwise?' asked Jane.

'No, well, um… Philippa can be impulsive. I just worried she might've gotten physical while your people were fading.'

The Doctor made a noise, and everyone expected him to say something, but he didn't.

'Should we call back?' asked Jane.

'No. We can't give away our position,' said Constance. She pointed to another hilltop, 'We'll call from there.'

'You do that. I'll meet them where they are,' said the Doctor.

'You managed to determine their location?'

'Of course.' The Doctor turned, almost saw Jane, but closed his eyes and swallowed the nausea. He looked at the trio of elders, Poison Nose, Dark Hide, and Savage. 'Unless we're to be kept here against our will?'

'No, but Savage will go with you,' said Poison Nose.

Savage looked at Dark Hide because Poison Nose wouldn't meet their gaze. Dark Hide merely shrugged.

'I will go too,' said Determined.

Savage wanted to object, but Determined was Poison Nose and Dark Hide's child, and Poison Nose was ignoring Savage, ignoring, too, Wiggle. Savage could not understand why, and perhaps the children would, all the children, with their strange minds understand why losing a mate meant anything in a society that didn't have union rites, nor bothered with monogamy when it takes three to create progeny.

Savage kept watching Poison Nose, waiting for them to look back, but Poison Nose only watched the Doctor and Constance talk. Suddenly they understood that Poison Nose was also different like the children. Poison Nose was thinking so much everything else was drifting away, like Determined and Dreamer.

Savage felt someone poking them three times, in rhythm, they knew it was going to be Wiggle. It was.

Wiggle tapped her mouth.

Savage leaned down to listen.

'Bring them home,' she said.

'I will.'

'No. Bring them home.' Wiggle pointed to Constance and the Doctor.

Savage considered it. The Doctor was made sick by the ghosts, but Constance suffered nothing.

'I will think about it.'

Wiggle wiggled with joy and returned to scratching shapes into the tree, sitting beside Sudden, guarding the ghost with others.

Dreamer sat up, smelling the approach of their family/tribe. Flip saw the Doctor's coat distinctly as he emerged from behind rocks. The Doctor caught sight of the Yssimarb, exclaimed and threw himself behind the rock.

There was a hushed discussion and Constance stepped out with Savage and Determined beside her. They were both smaller than Constance, but Savage was taller than Determined, as hunters usually are. Savage also stood on their legs, back curved, but only a little. The long and thin gatherer, Determined, stayed on all fours, nose close to the ground.

'Is the Doctor okay?' asked Flip.

'Yes. Time sensitivity,' said Constance, so close to saying 'he's just being dramatic,' but she did actually also add: 'Are you okay, Philippa?'

'Yeah, fine.'

'How have they treated you?'

Flip held up her bound wrists. 'I'm tied up, but they didn't think I could talk. They're surprised I can talk to the furry guys.'

'Yes.'

Lisa held out their stick in front of Flip. 'I can understand this one too. Can this one understand us?'

'Yeah, she can. So can the one that's hiding behind the rock. Oh, here he comes.'

The Doctor stepped out from behind the rock, he was facing away from Flip.

'Hello, I'm the Doctor. I'm afraid I can't look at you. Your fading in and out makes me nauseous.'

"You shouldn't have said that," thought Lisa.

"You really shouldn't have said that," thought Darren, very aware of the weapon in Lisa's hand, very aware they were supposed to be spears. Long range.

'So please don't think I'm being rude. I intend to help you. I should be able to stop the fading.'

'Doctor, why would you want to do that?' asked Flip, knowing that Constance probably couldn't see the look she was giving, but hoping they both heard the tone.

The Doctor shrugged. 'Flip, they'll die if I don't.'

'Oh, but Doctor, we aren't here to cause trouble,' insisted Constance. She wasn't sure if tugging on his sleeve might be worse than going along with Flip's tone.

The Doctor looked at her, brow furrowed, somewhere between annoyed and confused. 'Of course not, why would we?' His expression flickered for a moment to a sheepish smile. 'I know we always get into trouble, but that's not always our fault.' And back to the furrowed brow. 'Constance, what are you saying?'

'My friend doesn't know what he's saying. He thinks that he always has to fix things. He just gets it wrong sometimes.'

Lisa smirked and turned to Darren, 'A lot like you.'

Darren cracked the wooden stick across their face. It was meant to be their back, it was meant to floor them, instead, they crumpled with a wet cracking sound.

Dreamer hid behind Flip, and Flip did her best to break the twine, but it dug deeper.

Constance cried out and the Doctor asked what happened before the fear of it being Flip made him turn and look. He saw Darren and Lisa, they were not fading, they were both quite solid, but he still felt sick and had to look away again.

'I'm sorry. I'm sorry. That was meant to be your back.' Darren bent down and lifted the crumpled body of Lisa and began to drag them across the field. They turned to Flip and Dreamer. 'Help me get them across. They can't be allowed to go back to Brian repeating anything your friend just said.'

Flip got Dreamer to use their claws to cut the twine off her wrists. Flip watched Dreamer understand something. They bit at the twine with their teeth and it broke apart. Flip helped Darren carry Lisa and Dreamer scurried across, bounding towards Savage.

Dreamer burrowed themselves into Savage's belly. They hugged. Determined joined in too.

Beside them, Constance and Flip hugged, as they hugged Flip held out her fist for the Doctor, he eventually bumped his fist against hers which made her laugh.

'Why do you keep ignoring Savage?' asked Dark Hide.

Poison Nose sniffed, something strange was on the wind.

'Poison Nose. You're going quiet again.'

'I'm thinking,' said Poison Nose, taken from their quiet meditation. 'I'm thinking a lot, okay? We don't have any homemakers out with us to think. We have few enough born anymore. They're all… away.'

'Do you want to be a homemaker?'

They looked to Wiggle, a hunter who chose to be a hunter, despite being born a homemaker. Poison Nose tried not to be angry at her, but it was hard, she wasn't what she was supposed to be and everything is what it is because it is supposed to be.

'What would be the point? I can act like one, but I'll never be one.'

They were both watching Wiggle, round, chubby Wiggle, sitting amongst the hunters, all so much taller and stronger and fiercer. Even Sudden, non-verbal Sudden who would make shapes in the dirt with Wiggle, carve on bark and make decisions with the certainty of a homemaker.

'You are a good leader,' said Dark Hide.

'Savage is more of a homemaker than me.'

'Savage has more spawn to tend.'

'We share Determined. We all share Dreamer.'

Dreamer is not an orphan, but all three parents are too old or injured to hunt and gather, so stay at home. Everyone has taken up some responsibility for Dreamer. Even Savage, whose gentle firmness can more easily manage the children, all born strange and alien to their parents.

If they, any of them, had a more developed society I would say Poison Nose felt like they were at fault for contributing to Determined, blamed Savage for having at least two spawn who were strange. But these were not complicated creatures, they were still mostly animals, they still thought in terms of survival and the family/pack/tribe. Poison Nose's pensive moods were, like Dreamer, grasping at something they couldn't quite comprehend.

Just asked Dark Hide was about to ask something else, Poison Nose caught the scent of another two ghosts on the wind and alerted everyone to be ready for another fight.

Jane took an interest and stood to see what was happening.

The Doctor came first with Constance, his eyes covered with a tied handkerchief. Constance brought him to where she had tended him. She laid him down and guarded him as Darren carried Lisa into the middle of the Early Dorom beassi.

Flip came with Savage, Dreamer, and Determined. Savage spoke to Poison Nose and Dark Hide, explaining what had happened.

'Hi Darren,' said Jane. 'Did you finally get sick of them?'

'This isn't funny, Jane. I hit their face really hard.'

'If they can still breathe and you can feel a pulse they should be fine. Though, I'd be surprised if there's a difference.'

'Jane!'

'Do they come safely?' asked Poison Nose to Savage.

'That one attacked the other when the… strangers explained they were unfit.' A strange choice of word you might think, but again, they do not know the concept of illness and disease, only if one is fit for their duties or not.

'I knew it,' said Poison Nose.

Savage knew they misunderstood and tried to explain further, yet Poison Nose continued to stare at the Yssimarb.

'The way they are like wind, this isn't how they should be. This is their unfit. This stranger, the bright one, claims to be able to fix it.'

At this Poison Nose gave their attention to Savage briefly, before looking at the Doctor and asking Savage, 'Can he bring back the ones we have lost?'

'I don't know.'

'You! Bright coat!'

Everyone stopped to watch Poison Nose point at the Doctor, who was keeping his back to Darren, Jane, and Lisa. Even though they didn't understand what was said, the noise was clear and Darren and Jane watched the furry creature single out the Doctor.

'Yes?'

'You can make them like stone again?'

Considering what just happened with Darren and Lisa, the Doctor held back acerbic remarks, and then it wasn't as fun when your opponent can't parry. 'Yes, I can,' he said, not managing to hold back, he was still patronising.

'Can you bring back the ones who are wind?'

This took a moment for Constance and Flip to follow, but they did. The Doctor had just taken his time with the wording. 'I do not think so. They are… too many pieces.'

'Is there somewhere I can set them?' asked Darren, generally, but mostly to the human women.

Constance asked on Darren's behalf and it was agreed Lisa could be laid beside Jane. Constance came over to try and held, pulling a handkerchief from her pockets to staunch the bleeding.

Lisa faded out. Constance's hand fell through, hit the ground, and she recoiled very quickly. Lisa slowly solidified, and when she did, Constance applied a lighter pressure.

'It doesn't look too bad. Just a lot of… blood,' she said.

When they really looked at it, Darren had to admit, this was true. It didn't look like a lot of damage. The nose was broken for sure, the lips split, and the forehead dented, but they had all experienced worse and survived with little scaring.

'Put them on their side and use a wet cloth. You want to stop the bleeding but also make sure it doesn't clot in the nose and pool in the mouth. They might choke,' said Jane, a little apathetically.

'I don't think they keep water,' said Constance as she brought Lisa to her side.

'There's a stream close by. I can smell it,' said Jane.

'Mm. Me too,' said Darren, looking in the vague direction of the smell.

Determined sidled up to their parents and spoke very loudly: 'They want to go the water, but that's where we have our home.'

Poison Nose growled for their silence, but Dark Hide reminded them that the ghost ones couldn't understand them, just the strangers.

'But do you trust the strangers?' asked Poison Nose.

'I do,' said Savage, who could see the Doctor as one of the children, a different way of thinking that was sometimes very insightful, but open to distraction, and usually at the cost of some pack mentality (read: Social skills.)

'I do too,' said Dark Hide. 'Why do you not?'

'They speak strangely, they make my head hurt when I speak to them. Especially the one who doesn't need to act his words. And they smell strange too, too much like one thing, too much like flowers.' Meaning clean, there was sweat and emotions now, but still, that sharp and flat smell of hygiene pervaded. 'I don't like that this colourful one can't look at the ghosts but could fix them. I don't like how the other two don't care. That one even touches them.'

Constance felt she was being watched, and turned to see the beady black eyes. She swallowed her discomfort and spoke directly to the conferring elders: 'Can you bring us to the stream? We have to get water.'

'Bring you stream?' asked Poison Nose.

'My friend means could you bring water from the stream here,' clarified the Doctor.

'How?' asked Poison Nose.

The Doctor sighed. He searched in his pockets, and amongst the humorous nonsense, there wasn't a water bottle or any sort of container. He tried to think. He had overheard Determined, so did Flip, and they also overheard the conversation which Poison Nose declared they didn't trust him. Because Time Lord hearing and all that.

'Do any of you have containers?'

'Like a prison?' asked Darren.

'No, something to carry the water in. I don't think they want us going to the river,' said Constance, quietly, not sure how well stoats would hear.

'Why do you need water to carry?' asked Darren.

'Because they don't absorb it from rain or dew, and we need more than a few drops to ease the blood flow,' said Jane. They then looked around at everyone and produced a startling amount of water from their mouth. They did gag and buckle their belly like throwing up, but there was clearly no distress.

'That was a waste. You don't know when it's going to rain again,' said Darren.

Jane shrugged.

Darren sighed and reluctantly spat up some water onto the cloth he took from Constance. He continued to dab at Lisa's face, wiping away the blood.

Flip of course reacted poorly and explained to the Doctor what happened.

'Well that fixes that,' said the Doctor, a little disappointed he didn't get to talk his way into getting the water and seeing the home of these Early Dorom beassi before they migrate and evolve. 'And speaking of fixing things, would you be able to tell me how you came to be like this?'

Not looking at the Yssimarb, it took a moment for them to realise who he was talking about.

Darren looked to Jane to answer and she did, in a very similar way to the explanation Flip heard. Although Jane added more technical language and was more certain about the scientific truth of things rather than the spiritual assumptions of Brian.

'I couldn't have a look at this shell you came in? Where there any remains of it?'

'I don't see why not,' said Jane. 'If I bring you, Flip and… a different furry one, we can explain that Lisa,' again they didn't say Lisa, they said an unpronounceable name, 'had an accident trying to stop…' Jane looked around for Dreamer, but couldn't tell the difference in any of them, 'whichever one of you came with Flip.'

'You are so quick to lie,' said Darren.

'Do you want to explain to Brian why you, one of the dissenting voices to their authority, on a task to rescue another dissenting voice, lost the sycophant who is clearly out to take Brian's place?'

Darren tensed up, in fear, skin hardening, turning more like tree bark. 'No.'

'Then let me lie.' Jane stood up, braced themselves, and when they faded out of reality as to only be an outline, they leapt through the sticks and waited for the solidifying.

The Early Dorom beassi were frenzied, chattering amongst themselves, even Sudden was ready to attack.