In the Forest of the Night
We landed the TARDIS in Trafalgar Square in London. Clara said she had to chaperone a school trip. So we decided to just hang around London for a day. A short time after we landed there was a knock on the door. The three of us looked at each other and we headed for the door. We opened the doors and at first we didn't see anyone. We didn't see anything but trees. But, then we looked down and saw a little girl about 12 years old, "I'm lost. Please, can you help me?" she asked.
"It's that way," said The Doctor, he started to walk away but then he came back, "Are those trees?"
"I need the Doctor and his nieces. Are you the Doctor and his nieces?"
"Yes," I said as I leaned down to look at her, "Do you have an appointment? You need an appointment to see The Doctor." Then I gave her a smile.
"Please. Something's chasing me," said the girl.
We let the girl in and she gasped when she saw the console room, "When you drink a glass of Coke, it's only this big," said The Doctor as he used his hands to show his point, "but it's actually got this much sugar in it. It works a bit like that."
"What does?"
"The TARDIS," I said, as we walked up to the top level of the console room, "It's bigger on the inside than the outside. Didn't you notice?"
"I just thought it was supposed to be bigger on the inside, so I didn't say anything."
"Well, of course it's supposed to be bigger," said Annabelle, "Most people are confused by that."
The Doctor picked up a map and opened it. Then, the girl as said, "I find everything confusing, nearly. So, I don't say anything. That's how come I'm in the woods. I thought Miss Oswald told me to find the Doctor and his nieces. But it wasn't her. It was just in my head."
"Miss Oswald?" asked The Doctor, "Dark hair? Highly unpredictable? Surprisingly round face?"
"Everyone says she's in love with Mister Pink,"
"The PE teacher."
"Maths," said the girl, Annabelle and I together, as we walked back down to the main level.
"I really like him," said the girl, "I was in his group."
"Mister Pink was looking after you?" asked The Doctor, "Well, that explains why you're lost." The Doctor tossed the map aside.
"Doesn't it surprise you that we know all about your school?" asked Annabelle.
"Everyone seems to know everything about everything, apart from me," said the girl.
"That's not quite true," said The Doctor, "I, for instance, have no idea why, when the terrestrial navigation..." The girl went to press a button on the console but he slapped her hand then he continued, "The terrestrial navigation starts up, it closes down all the other systems.
"You should ask somebody who knows."
"Hmm," I said, "That's one of the drawbacks of being among last of your species. There's no one else to ask when your TARDIS won't start."
The Doctor started the TARDIS. It started up then a few moments later it stopped and the navigation system announced, "You have reached your destination."
"No, we haven't," said Annabelle, "We're supposed to be in the middle of London."
"You have reached your destination."
"Oh, stop saying that!" said The Doctor.
"She's only saying it because it's true," said the girl, "We are in the middle of London."
I leaned down and said, "Sweetie, we are in the middle of a forest."
"Come and see," she took my hand and lead me outside. The Doctor and Annabelle followed, "Nelson's Column. Do you like it?"
"Do I what?"
"Do you like the forest being in Trafalgar Square? I think it's lovely," said the young girl as she looked up.
I looked and saw one of the lions at the base of Nelson's Column. It was surrounded by trees. I looked and I saw Nelson's Column covered in ivy to a few feet near the top.
We went back in the TARDIS and started to try and find out what was going on. From the news reports we were able to get from all over the world, Earth, including the oceans, was completely cover in trees. A little while later, we got a call from Clara, "You three are always showing me amazing things. Well, I, Doctor, have finally got something amazing to show you and your nieces."
"Yes, well, there are some things I've never seen, but that's usually because I've chosen not to see them," said The Doctor, "Even my incredibly long life is too short for Les Miserables."
"Here here," said Annabelle.
I rolled my eyes and Clara said, "Oh, Doctor. You three are going to love this."
"Well, when you come to get this child, you can tell us," I said.
"Huh? What child?"
"A little girl. Apparently, Danny was supposed to be watching her."
"She probably has a name," said Clara.
"Good point," said The Doctor. He walked up to her and said, "You. Have you got a name at all?"
"Maebh," said the girl, "My name's Maebh."
"What? Maebh?" asked Clara, "Where are you?"
"Trafalgar Square," said Annabelle, "We found her wandering around the brand new forest."
"Brand new forest?"
"Yes. It's like the New Forest, except even newer."
"Is that the forest that's covering London?
"Was that the amazing thing you were going to show us?" asked The Doctor, "It is amazing, but we saw it first."
"Look, is she all right? Will you bring her over?
"No, we can't bring her over. We are Time Lords, not childminders."
"You've got a spaceship," said Clara, "All we've got are Oyster cards."
"And we've got a global rapid afforestation crisis to deal with."
We went back outside and started to scan the brand new vegetation with our sonic screwdrivers, "Why would there be no reading?" asked The Doctor.
"Because they are actually made of wood," I said, "There are no circuits, nothing mechanical about them. They are wood."
We jumped down off of the pedestal the lion was on, "What's this for?" asked Maebh as she grabbed at Annabelle's sonic.
"This is a sonic screwdriver," said Annabelle as she took, "It can interact with any form of communication you can mention. Sadly, trees have no moving parts and don't communicate."
"They communicate a bit, though."
"What?" I asked.
"Otherwise they wouldn't all grow at the same time, would they," said Maebh.
"So, what, do you think that's how spring begins?" asked The Doctor, "With a group message on Tree Facebook? Do you think they send texts to each other?"
"You don't need a phone to communicate, do you. I haven't phoned home, and I know my mum is worried about me."
A short while later, Danny and Clara arrived in Trafalgar Square with a group of kids. They were talking while the kids took selfies with the lion. There was mini earthquake and one of the girls broke a limb off of one of the trees as she was trying to climb up the lion's pedestal. She showed the branch to Danny and Clara, "Look, sir. No rings. Trees usually have rings to tell you how old they are. This one's got no rings. Why's that then, sir?"
We walked up to the group and The Doctor said, "The rings mark the years of growth. One ring for each year."
"This grew up overnight," I said, "That whole tree is the result of just one night's growth, and they're still growing."
"Everyone, this is The Doctor, and his nieces, Teddy and Annabelle," said Clara, "And, they going to sort everything out. Isn't that right? It's what they do."
"Well," said Annabelle, "we have had a good look what's been going on and right now, the answer to that is no."
"They always says that. They're really clever."
"Oh, yes, we are," said The Doctor, "Very clever. But what use is clever against trees? They don't listen to reason. You can't plead with them. You can't lie to them. They have no moving parts, no circuits. This is a natural event."
"How can it be natural for a tree to grow in one night?" asked Danny.
"That's exactly what they said about the Ice Age," I said, "How can whole glaciers just pop up out of nowhere? Well, they just did. That's how this planet grows, through a series of catastrophes."
"Farewell to the Ice Age," said The Doctor, "Welcome to the Tree Age. Possibly. When the Ice Age was here, you lot managed to cook mammoth. Now there's a forest, you'll just have to eat nuts."
"I can't eat nuts," said one of the boys, "I've got an allergy."
"Don't worry," said Clara to Danny, "It's a thing he does. He pretends he's not interested and then he has an idea. He's playing for time."
"Time. Interesting," said The Doctor.
"See? Clever kicking in."
"A tree is a time machine. You plant a little acorn in 1795, and in the year 2016, there's an oak tree, there, in the same spot, with a tiny little bit of 1795 still alive inside of it."
"You can't create an overnight forest with extra special fertilizer," said Annabelle, "You have to mess with the fabric of time. And communicate with trees."
Then the three of us Time Lords went back in the TARDIS. Clara, Danny and the kids followed us inside, "So you're saying it's an act of aggression?" asked Clara, as she walked up to the console.
"By trees?" I asked
"Er, trees clean the air," said a little girl with red hair and two braids on each side of her head.
"Exactly. Well done, Ruby," said Clara, "Someone or something who's trying to scrub the atmosphere before colonizing or invading." The Doctor kept looking around at all the kids in the TARDIS, "Ah, yes, Doctor. Ahem. This is Coal Hill Year Eight Gifted and Talented Group."
"What are the round bits for?" asked a black boy as he looked at one of the round things on the top level of the console room.
"Ask your teacher. Come on! Down from there!" said The Doctor, as he went after him.
I turned and saw Ruby turning some dials on the console, "Hey! Away from the console," I said as I shooed the kids away from it.
"Come on," said The Doctor, as he helped, "That's an antique. Get away from there! Don't touch that!" The kids moved down to the lower level of the console room.
"Haven't any of you noticed that it's bigger on the inside?" said Annabelle.
"There wasn't a forest," said Ruby, "Then there was a forest. Nothing surprises us anymore."
"These trees all appeared at once. That wasn't a coincidence. There's no such thing as an arboreal coincidence."
"Something or someone has coordinated this," I said, "To coordinate, you need to communicate. We have every communication channel on the TARDIS open, and nothing."
Danny saw a stack of homework books that Clara left behind. The Doctor saw this and said, "Except. Let me see that." The Doctor took the book and Annabelle and I walked over to see what caught his attention. There were several pictures of trees. There was also a lightning bolt and the Sun with an angry face.
"Homework books. Why are these here?" asked Danny.
The Doctor closed the book and we saw the name on the cover of who's book it was, "Maebh Arden. Maebh Arden. Which one is Maebh Arden?" He ran down to the lower level and started to look at the other kids, "Which one's Maebh? Maebh? Maebh? Maebh? Maebh? Maebh? Maebh? Maebh? Maebh?"
"Oh, my God. Maebh's gone," said Ruby, "Maebh's lost in the forest. Maebh's going to die!"
"Argh!" said The Doctor.
"Ruby, that's enough!" said Clara, "Doctor?"
"We've got to find her!" said The Doctor as he moved back up to the main level.
"Yes, I know that we have to find her. Doctor, listen to me. Her sister went missing last year. She's on medication. The child is barely functioning. She hears voices. She's very vulnerable."
"What do the voices say?" I asked
"I don't know. She takes tablets and they stop," said Clara.
"Humans… You never learn. If a child is speaking, listen to it," I said, as I brought up the Sun on a monitor.
"Oh, like you three listened to her?"
"He's right," said Annabelle, "She was trying to tell us something and we ignored her."
"Maebh Arden is tuned to a different channel," said The Doctor, "She can lead us to the source, to the heart of the forest. We have to listen to her. We have to find her." He took his sonic screwdriver out.
"Not everything can be fixed with a screwdriver," said Clara, "It's not a magic wand."
"Does she have a phone?"
"Well, yes, she does."
"Have you got the number?"
"Er, yep."
The Doctor scanned Clara's phone, "Maebh Arden. Five hundred yards south east of here. We'll go get her." The Doctor, Annabelle and I headed for the door.
"I'll go with them," said Danny.
"Oh, I can go," said Clara, as us Time Lords walked out the door.
The Doctor went back inside and he said to the kids, "Hey! Do not. Touch. Anything. Anything. H-h-OK?"
The Doctor, Clara, Annabelle and I started to go after Maebh, "Gifted and talented? Really?" asked The Doctor.
"Furious, fearful, tongue-tied. They're all superpowers if you use them properly. Are they going to be all right?"
"They're in the TARDIS," said Annabelle, "the safest place on the planet."
There was another small earthquake and Nelson's Column slowly started to fall to us. We dove to the ground and just being hit by it.
"If this is an invasion..." I started to say.
"What?" asked Claira.
"It's over. They're here, they've won. What do they want?"
We got up and started to follow the signal from Maebh's cell phone, "Doctor?" said Clara, "Look behind us. The path we just walked down. It's overgrown already."
Then we saw Maebh's cellphone on the ground, "Clara!" said The Doctor.
"Why would she put her phone down?" asked Clara.
"Doesn't want to be followed?" I asked.
"Lost a hold of it in a struggle?" asked Annabelle.
"Left it as a clue, so we would know where she was going?" asked The Doctor, "Trail of breadcrumbs. Hansel and Gretel."
"I'm actually frightened," said Clara, "I never get frightened. Why am I frightened?"
"You just lost a little girl," I said.
"Yes, that is a worry, but I know you three'll find her. No, no, no. This is not a worry. This is a dread. Maebh!"
"You're pursuing a little lost girl through a mysterious forest," said The Doctor, "The path has disappeared. You find yourself with a strangely compelling masculine figure. Maebh!"
"Any minute now we're going to find a gingerbread cottage with a cannibal witch inside," I said, "Maebh!"
"Exactly. The forest. It's in all the stories that kept you awake at night," said Annabelle, "The forest is mankind's nightmare. Maebh!"
We continued walking through the forest of London, when we came across a pencil case, "Clara. Is it hers?" I asked.
"Yes," said Clara as she picked it up, "Clever girl."
We continued down the path, when a man in a fire suit stopped us, "Get back! We're burning here. Stay back."
"We're looking for a little girl."
"Stay back. We're about to burn." He walked forward and we saw a group of people in fire suits. One of them turned on a flamethrower and pointed it at one of the trees. It burned for a while but then it went out, "What's going on? Trees aren't responding to flame-thrower. I mean, they don't catch fire. They just don't catch. It's like they're flame proof or something."
Then, The Doctor started down the path, "Trees control the oxygen on this planet. They withhold it, they smother the fire."
"What kind of forest is clever?" I asked, "What kind of forest has its own in-built fire extinguisher?"
"What do they want?" asked Clara.
"Why now?" asked The Doctor.
"What do you mean, why now?"
"The whole natural order is turning against this planet. But why? Why now?"
"Well, what else?"
The Doctor stopped and took Maebh's homework book out of his pocket and opened it to one of the pictures, "How did she know this?" he showed it to Clara.
"What is it?"
"This is a massive solar flare headed for Earth, like the one that destroyed the Bank of Karabraxos," I said, "We've got an entire TARDIS and we didn't notice this. But she knew. How?"
Clara closed the book and saw the name on the cover, "This is Maebh's. Where did you get this?"
"You left your marking in the TARDIS."
"Oh, great, right, well, that's just brilliant, isn't it. You don't think Danny saw this, do you?"
"Mom just told you that a solar flare is going to wipe out Earth and you're worried about an argument with your boyfriend?" asked Annabelle, "How did she know this? She even put the date on it!"
"I always make them date their homework," said Clara.
"It's today's date," said The Doctor.
Clara paused, "Well, there must be a way?"
"They want something. They're saying something. If there is a way, the way is Maebh Arden."
"OK, you know they're not really gifted and talented, don't you? I just tell them that to make them feel good."
"She's lost someone," I said, "People who've lost someone, are always listening, always looking, always hoping. So, they notice more. They hear more."
Just then we heard a howl, "Was that a howl?" asked Clara. There was more howling, "Was that a wolf? No. That is impossible. We're in London."
"Would that be the London with the zoo?" asked Annabelle, "The zoo with the pack of wolves? The zoo whose barriers and gates have probably been mangled by the trees? No, wolves are not impossible. Stick to the path, Red Riding Hood."
"There is no path," said Clara as we heard more howling.
"Then we're lunch," said The Doctor.
We continued walking and then we heard a girl scream, "Maebh?" said Clara. Then, we started running in the direction of the screams. When we found Maebh she was on the other side of a fence, "Maebh!" said Clara, "Doctor, give me a boost so I can pull her over. Maebh?" Maebh ignored Clara and continued walking, "Maebh!"
Maebh found a gate in the fence and walked through it closing it behind her. The Doctor, Annabelle and I knelt down in front of her. Then, I said, "Maebh. You came looking for us. You didn't..." Maebh started swatting at something around her face, "Maebh, Maebh, you didn't just stumble into the TARDIS. Tell us what you know."
"Teddy…" said Clara.
"This is important."
"Yes. Can we please deal with the wolves first?"
"These are zoo wolves," said Annabelle, "They're not even used to hunting."
"Annabelle!"
The wolves snarled at us from the other side of the fence, "Right, OK," said The Doctor as he pulled us all together, "We've just got to look as if we're too much bother to eat, right?" So, stay still. Stay together. Look big. Look big like a big five-headed, then-legged scary thing!"
The wolves then jumped over the fence and ran past us whining, "Ha ha!" laughed Annabelle, "I told you they were no good. Those wolves are terrified."
"What are wolves frightened of?" asked Clara.
Just then we hear a deep growl on the other side of the fence. We turned and saw a tiger walk toward the fence. It stopped and roared at us, "There are very good solid scientific reasons for being really quite frightened just now," said Doctor.
Just then Danny appered on the tiger's side of the fence and shone a very bright flashlight in the tiger's eyes. Then, eventually the tiger walked away. Then, Danny and the other kids stared to cheer, "Mister Pink! Why, thank you very much," said Clara.
"Ah, no problem," said Danny, "Just decided it was best not to leave you alone with them," I rolled my eyes. Maebh started swatting again. Then, Danny said, "They've worked well together. Noticeable increase in confidence and energy levels."
"Well done. And for saving us from a tiger, too."
"Er, has she had her medication yet?" asked Danny, as he saw Maebh.
"Oh. No, I..." Clara started to take her bag off.
"No, no," said The Doctor as he interrupted, "Not her medication. We don't want to shut her up. We want to know what she knows."
I looked at Maebh and said, "Maebh, what's the. Maebh, what is this?" I started to copy her, "What is this?"
"Apart from being almost savaged by a tiger and abducted by a Scotsman and his American nieces, she's allowed any nervous tics she likes, OK?" said Danny.
I went up to the fence and said, "This is not a nervous tic. This is react..."
"Please!" said Ruby, "Just give her, her tablets. She's been in a state since her sister went missing."
Then Maebh started running into the forest again, "Maebh!" said Danny, as he walked through the gate, "Maebh! Maebh!" Then we all went after her.
After a short while we reached a clearing there was a bright light in the center and there were some cobwebs marking the outside edge of the clearing. Maebh went into the clearing and The Doctor, Annabelle and I went in, "Miss? What is it, miss?" asked Ruby.
"It's coming," said Maebh, "It's coming for everyone, and I can't unthink it."
"Maebh," I said, "Maebh, this forest is communicating. With you. Nobody else. No technology can hear what it's saying, but you can. Tell us what it wants. Where it came from. Just tell us who did this."
Maebh turned and looked at us, "It was me. I did this. I did these trees."
"No, Maebh," said The Doctor, "You didn't make a global forest appear overnight. How could you do that?"
"Thoughts come to me. Ever since Annabel went missing, I look for her everywhere. I don't find her, but I find thoughts. The big forest was one. I thought everyone would love it." Maebh started swatting again, "The thoughts! The thoughts! They go so fast."
"This is stressing me now," said one of the boys, "When I get stressed, I forget my anger management."
"Maebh, can you see something that we can't see?" asked Clara.
"Nearly. Too fast. Everywhere," said Maebh.
"Everything's subject to gravity," said The Doctor, as he took out his sonic screwdriver, "If I can create a little local increase..."
"No," said Danny, "You're not experimenting on..." The Doctor waved his sonic and little points of lights started to fly around Maebh
Maebh gasped, "They're lovely! They don't like it when you're holding them. They want you to let them go."
"Who are they?" asked Annabelle.
Then Maebh started to speak and but there was a deep male voice coming out of her, "We are Here. Here, always, since the beginning and until the end."
"Here?" asked The Doctor, "That's it?"
"We are the green shoots that grow between the cracks, the grass that grows over the mass graves. After your wars are over, we will still be Here. We are the life that prevails."
"Why now?" I asked, "Why are you here now?"
"We hear the call and we come, as we came before to the great North Forest, where we lie still in a great circle," said The Here, "As we came to the vast Southern Forest."
"Who is calling you now?" asked Annabelle.
"The sun that creates. The sun that destroys. You are hurting us. Let us go."
"You sent for me and my nieces," said The Doctor, "The girl came looking for us. Why? Why us?"
"We did not send. Pain," said The Here, "Did not send for you. We don't know you. We were here before you and will be here after you." The Doctor then released the Here and the points of light went away.
"That was actually quite cool," said one of the boys in the group.
Maebh fell to her knees, then Danny and I ran up to her, "Maebh, you came looking for the Doctor and his nieces. Think. Who sent you for the Doctor and his nieces?"
"It was just a thought. It was just a thought that came. I think it came from Miss," said Maebh, "They've gone. Why does everything have to go?"
I walked over to The Doctor and Annabelle to think about what was going on. Clara walked up to us, "This really is going to happen, isn't it?"
"Stars implode," I said, "Planets grow cold. Catastrophe is the metabolism of the universe. We can fight monsters but we can't fight physics."
"Why would trees want to kill us? We love trees."
"You've been chopping them down for furniture for centuries," said The Doctor, "If that's love, no wonder they're calling down fire from the heavens."
"But we saw the future. Lots of futures. Earth's futures," said Clara.
"They're about to be erased," said Annabelle.
There was a pause and Clara said, "If you can't save them all, save who you can," We looked at here, "The TARDIS. It's a lifeboat, isn't it? Not everybody has to die."
When we got back to the TARDIS we saw that it had started to be covered in ivy. Danny said, "Right, come on, team."
As we started to clear off the TARDIS, Clara said to us Time Lords, "When they're done, you three need to get in your box and go."
"We're all going," I said, "We're taking the kids."
"Taking them where? What are you going do with them? Leave them on an asteroid? Find a space academy for the gifted and talented? They just want their mums and dads, and they're never going to stop wanting them."
"We can save you and Danny," said The Doctor.
"Danny Pink will never leave those kids so long as he is breathing."
Once the door was clear the kids cheered, "Come on, team," said Danny.
"Can we take another selfie, sir?" asked one of the boys.
"Of course. Come on, then,"
"Yes!" said the children as they went over to the lion.
"We can save you," said Annabelle.
"I don't want you to," said Clara.
"What, you don't want to live?" asked The Doctor.
"Of course I want to live. I just..."
"What?" I said.
"Don't make me say it," said Clara.
"Say what?"
"I don't want to be one of the last of my kind," she said, knowing that we were going to head to Denver next to pick up my family.
"Then why did you bring us all here?" asked The Doctor.
"Because it's the only way to get you back to the TARDIS, make you three think you're saving me. Well, you know what? This time, I'm saving you three. Make it worthwhile."
"This is our world, too," I said, "I was 'raised' here, we walk your earth, we breathe your air."
"And on behalf of this world, you're very welcome. Now, go. Save your family."
"Maebh!" I called out. She ran over and I said, "I'm sorry that we couldn't help you."
"You helped me loads. I thought it was all my fault. I feel much better now. Are you going to get rid of the forest?"
"Hard to get rid of a flame-proof forest, Maebh, eh?" asked Clara, "Come on."
Clara walked away with Maebh. We watched her leave and we got in the TARDIS. I set the coordinates for Denver and started her up. We looked at a video of the sun and saw the solar flare starting to come off of the sun. "Flame-proof forest..." said The Doctor.
Just then a thought hit all three of us "Flame..." said The Doctor.
"Proof..." said Annabelle.
"Forest!" I said.
"A thousand atom bombs and no one hurt..." said The Doctor,
"We are Doctor Idiot and his Idiot Nieces!" I said. I canceled Denver and we headed back to Trafalgar Square.
We rushed out of the TARDIS and saw that Clara and Danny had left with the kids. We rushed after them and we called out, "Clara! Come back here! Come back!"
We got close to them and The Doctor said, "Clara! Mister Pink! Maebh! All of you! Quick, quick! Come back." The kids started to come back.
Then I called out, "Come back. Come on. Maebh, quick. Good girl, good girl. Come on."
We got them all back to the TARDIS and sat them all down on one of the sets of stairs leading to the top level of the TARDIS. The Doctor turned one of the monitors to them. On the screen was the picture of the sun, "It's there on the screen, look. Big solar flare headed this way. A thousand kilometers a second. Coronal mass ejection. Geomagnetic storm. It's huge. It's brewing up a solar wind big enough to blow this whole planet away." We got a bunch of blank stares from Danny and the kids, "I assumed your teachers have mentioned this?" asked The Doctor.
"I thought it would spoil an otherwise enjoyable walk," said Clara.
I sighed and rolled my eyes, "OK. Well, this is the bad news. The good news is, it's happened before. And you're still here. The Tunguska Blast, 1908. That should have blown the whole planet off its axis, but it didn't. It knocked a few trees over. Well, it knocked tens of thousands of trees over, but that's beside the point. Then there was, Curuçá in Brazil. Same thing. Earth should have been destroyed, but it wasn't. What do these things have in common?"
"They're really, really scaring us?" said Ruby.
"Trees," said Annabelle, "Whenever there's a planet-threatening, extra-terrestrial impact, the trees go into over drive and create a giant forest, filling the atmosphere with oxygen. Pumping it up like a massive, highly inflammable airbag, so that when trouble hits..."
"Everyone dies," said one of the boys.
"No," said The Doctor, "The impact burns off the excess oxygen. You have some fairly hectic weather for a few days and some fairly trippy looking sunsets, but apart from that, you will be all right. We were wrong. The trees are not your enemy. They're your shield. They've been saving you since forever. Protecting you from everything that space can throw at you."
"The wide ring," said Clara, stood up, and walked over to us, "The red ring. In the museum, Ruby saw a cross-section of a tree. One of the rings was wider than the others, and red."
"Atmospheric dust, captured by the trees. The fingerprint of an asteroid. Happy Red Ring Day."
"I don't get it," said Ruby, "If they're good, then why are we chopping them down?"
"What?" I asked.
"The Government are sending out defoliating teams," sad Danny, "They're dropping chemicals on them right now."
I rolled my eyes, "What is it with you people? You hear voices, you want to shut them up. The trees come to save you, you want to chop them down!"
"Or you think you need to save the world when it's already saving itself," said Clara.
"I did admit that we were wrong," said The Doctor as he started to do a scan.
"Excellent. The mobile networks are still working," I said. I walked over to the kids, "Alright. We are going to call everyone on Earth and tell them to leave the trees alone."
Maebh stood up, "Can I do it? I started it. I should finish it."
I smiled, "Sure." Then, I looked at the others, "Time for a class project. Your assignment: Save the Earth."
The kids sat on the floor of the console and worked on the script for Maebh. She wrote it down and when they were finished Maebh stood up, and said, "OK. And I think that's it."
I pressed some buttons on the console and every cellphone on Earth started to ring, including all the phones on the TARDIS. Once we got the signal that most everyone answered Maebh started, "Essential services have been disrupted due to an unexpected forest. We'd like to reassure you that the situation will be rectified very soon. Please don't be scared. And please don't chop, spray or harm the trees. They're here to help. Be less scared. Be more trusting. Oh, and Annabel Arden, please come home."
I turned off the connection and I said, "OK, who would like to witness a once in a billion years solar event at close up?"
"Mum! There's my mum!" said Maebh, as she looked at the monitor and saw her mother. She was just outside the TARDIS. Maebh headed for the door and I watched on the monitor and smiled as she was reunited with her mom.
Danny and the kids decided that they didn't want to join us to watch the solar flare hit the Earth. So, Clara and Danny got the kids home and then Clara joined us as we watched from a safe distance above Earth. The four of us stood in the doorway and looked down at the green Earth. "I hope we're right," said The Doctor, "It would be slightly awkward if the world was destroyed at this point."
"What?" asked Clara.
The solar flare hit the Earth and I said, "There goes the planet-sized airbag."
"That's the trees, harvesting the solar fire," said Annabelle. Soon, the flare had passed but Earth was still there.
We landed the TARDIS in Clara's apartment and watched from her veranda as the extra trees just disappeared, "That is amazing," said Clara, "How will they explain this tomorrow?"
"You'll all forget it ever happened," said The Doctor.
"We are not going to forget an overnight forest."
"You forgot the last time," I said, "You remembered the fear and you put it into fairy stories. It's a human superpower, forgetting. If you remembered how things felt, you'd have stopped having wars. And stopped having babies."
AN: If you like this story, Review, Favorite and Follow. It gives me motivation to keep going.