3. Portal Danger.
Ben quickly picks up Zoe and places her carefully in his top pocket to protect her. "Stay in there out of harm's way," he says quickly. "It looks like my white mouse. But what would it be doing so big?"
They run from the mouse as it is so big, and they fear it might be hungry! They find a bush to hide behind.
The mouse stops running and starts sniffing. "It'll find us in a minute," Zoe squeaks. .
"Less than that, probably," Ben says.
This is extremely unwelcome news for Zoe as she feels much more vulnerable than the others.
The mouse finds them and Ben steps forwards, desperately hoping that it is his white mouse. He offers his hand for the mouse to smell. Fortunately, it smells Ben, it's owner and food provider. It stares at them. The mouse has never seen such small people before. It doesn't occur to the mouse that it is large and is looking at normal sized people. .
"Let's go back to the invisible portal and let Zoe walk back through it," the Doctor says. "That should at least restore Zoe."
Once Zoe is restored to her normal size, they still have the giant mouse to deal with. "It might get hungry soon," Ben says, he doesn't want any of them to become mouse food! "I have an idea."
Ben walks around to the other side of the invisible portal and hopes his mouse will come to him. It doesn't. It sits there quite smug and happy.
"Let's walk away in this direction and see if it follows all of us," Ben suggests.
They all walk with Ben and the mouse does follow, fortunately.
"We just have to lure it through the invisible portal in that direction..."
The mouse is soon restored to its normal size and becomes content in Ben's pocket.
"Doctor, is it a good idea having so many of us doing this?" Chloe asks.
"Yes, it is," the Doctor confirms. "If there were only two of us, we might not have found each other just then."
"Where can we start looking for the previous team?" Zoe asks. Everyone turns to look at the Doctor expectantly.
"I really have no idea," the Doctor says. "We should find out about all of the portals and make sure they're all marked appropriately, just as the previous team started."
"When we go through a doorway, should we drop some sort of indication?" Zoe asks.
"Yes, or perch it above the door," the Doctor says. "Good idea. Then if we get lost, at least some other person searching for us might have a chance of finding us."
"I was thinking like Hansel and Gretel," Zoe says.
This means nothing to the Doctor or Chloe and Zoe notices. "You aren't from around here," she says. She has no idea they are not still on Earth or that they're not all from Earth, she thinks they are just not from their village. She now assumes they are all in a sort of Maize Maze. .
The Doctor and Chloe know they are on a planet they have never been to before and hope never to have to return to. "No, we're not from around here," Chloe says. Fortunately, her turn of phrase and emphasis didn't indicate that they were from much further away, maybe just from another village?
"Do you think that the previous team left any other clues, apart from the signs above the doors?" Ben asks.
"We should look for those clues," the Doctor agrees. "If there are any, we should look carefully."
"But what would we be looking for?" Chloe asks. "Let's scour the ground near one of the visible portals."
They look near each portal in turn until the Doctor notices something. "Just look here," he says. "You don't notice anything, but if you follow my finger ... can you see it?"
They peer closer until Chloe says. "How did you find that?"
"I'll tell you later!" the Doctor says quietly. .
Chloe uses a fingernail to scoop up a tiny amount of fine sandy soil from very near the portal. She then empties her fingernail into the palm of her other hand. A short straight bright object is among the sandy grains.
"They must have been shrunk before they left this," Ben says. "Even smaller than Zoe was."
"Ben," Zoe says, "could your mouse sniff them out?"
"Not a chance," he replies. "It isn't a bloodhound!" he looks down at his pocket and groans, "besides, it's disappeared again."
"What is this portal anyway?" Chloe asks. "It doesn't have a sign on it."
"Maybe the previous team were too small to put a sign up there," Ben says.
"Do we have a magnifying glass?" Zoe asks. "That thing in Chloe's hand might be a sign, it might say something."
"Well done!" the Doctor says. They don't grasp the full significance of the accolade as they don't know the Doctor much yet. "We should take it into the Tardis to examine it."
"The what?" Ben asks.
"Time And Relative Dimensions In Space," the Doctor says proudly.
"What does that mean?" Ben asks. .
The Doctor seems to have second thoughts about sharing more with their new-found companions so soon after meeting them. "It means we should go back and look at it through a microscope." With that he strides off towards the Tardis.
Once in the Tardis, the Doctor retrieves a microscope from a small cupboard in the Console, places it on the bench and asks Chloe to carefully place her palm contents onto a slide which he then studies.
"They have written Unknown on it," the Doctor announces.
"But at least we know they went that way," Chloe says hopefully.
"And that they were pre-shrunk at least twice," Ben says.
"Come on," the Doctor says. "We're going after them." He marches rapidly out of the Tardis, hoping that they'll follow rapidly enough not to notice the Tardis dimensions. .
They might notice Chloe's Christmas decorations? .