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He sat, on the small outcrop of rock, a short way away from the ruins of
once great palace, and stared off into the distance with eyes only half
seeing the beautiful, rolling green landscape before him. Behind him were
the ruins of the palace of the Emperor Tai - he had visited it, in its
heyday, with Zoë and Jamie. The great and glittering palace has now been
reduced to a handful of grey stonewalls and arches. Gone was anything above
ground level; gone were the fine mosaics that covered all of the floors,
gone were the beautiful and highly coloured wall decorations. Now it was
only an abandoned ruin, stone worn away and faded by the weather, centuries
of neglect removing all but a few scraps of its once great craftsmanship. He
didn't look at the ruins though, he sat on the small outcrop of rock that
was probably once stone from the palace, his back to the ruins, and stared
out at the landscape before him.
The weather was warm, a large sun hung high in the sky, a gentle heat
washing over his body. He had removed his coat, which he had folded neatly
on the grass next to him, and had undone his waistcoat. He had considered
returning to the Tardis and carefully searching through it's huge wardrobe
for clothes that would be his own, instead of the one's he was wearing, ones
that he had permanently borrowed from a locker in a San Francisco hospital,
but in the end it felt like it was far too much effort. Sitting there,
breathing in the relaxing air, that helped calm his troubled mood.
It had not been in an easy transition this time, not that previously it had
been the easiest and gentleness of processes, but this time it had been even
more traumatic than any previous times. His old body had been ripped apart
by bullets and butchered by human surgeons who had no idea he was not human
too. His old body, one heart stopped and circulation minimal, had lain for
hours in a freezer before his cells finally found the energy to regenerate.
When he had woken up in his new body his mind had been clouded and confused.
He had not had time to recover and centre his mind, find and explore his new
personality, before he was chasing around San Francisco trying to repair his
Tardis and fighting an old foe he thought was dead.
Now that was all over and he had said his goodbyes to those he left in San
Francisco, he had come straight here. His Tardis had materialised in the
ruins of what was left of Empire Tai's once great palace. He had left her
there, tucked away next to one of the few remaining walls, and he had
wandered out to where he now sat.
The Eye of Orion, the planet on whose surface he now sat, had an atmosphere
that was heavy in positively charged irons. The atmosphere, with each breath
he breathed deeply into his lungs, he found calming and healing. The longer
he sat there, the more breaths he took, the more he felt he was settling
into this body. He was beginning to feel that this body belonged to him,
that it was his own, and soon he would be calling it by his old name.
The Last time he had been to The Eye of Orion, a time like this long after
the fall of its great empire, had been with Tegan and Turlough. He clearly
remembered explaining to them of the healing properties of The Eye of
Orion's atmosphere. But that visit had been cut all too short.
In front of him was a rolling green landscape, gently sloping away into a
slow and rambling river at its lowest point, then it gently climbed upwards
until it merged with the sharply rising hills, that cut across the horizon.
It was a lush, green and sooth landscape. There was not one feature or
building to catch his attention or interest yet he found it a pleasing and
relaxing view, a view that now held his attention by its smooth and green
beauty.
He missed Grace, even though he had only spent a few days in her company. He
missed her wit and intelligence; she had been one of the few people he
hadn't had to explain how the Tardis was transdimensional as she stepped
inside of it. But she had chosen to remain on Earth. Like all his previous
travelling companions before, eventually each and every one of them had left
him. Most of them had returned to their own worlds, often even their own
times. Even those two women of his own race who travelled with him
eventually left, even Romania and Susan had grown tried of his wandering
life (why had he never returned and told Susan the truth, when he eventually
realised it?). Now he felt very alone, it was the first time he had
travelled on his own in a very long time. It was the first time he had
arrived somewhere and not had to answer a stream of questions about the
place they were from the person next to him in a long time. The silence of
here, on The Eye of Orion, had calmed him but, now, slowly he was beginning
to feel very lonely.
As he watched that landscape, as his mind turned over and over his thoughts,
he did not see it, at first. When he did see it he thought it was merely
speck on the horizon. Only when he looked back, at that speck this side of
the room river's bends, did he notice that the speck had moved, moved closer
to him. Over the next few hours he watched that speck move, in a zigzagging
pattern, closer to. Eventually he saw it form a shape, a recognisable shape.
It was a human leading a pack animal. He sat there for a long time, slowly
watching the figures approaching him. He had realised the figures were
following a winding path that lead to the ruins were he was.
Only when they were closer, much closer, did he see them fully. The human
figure was a teenage boy, dressed in a rough brown material shirt and pants,
leading a four-legged pack animal. The animal, with empty bags slung on its
back, ambled slowly behind the boy, its body covered in long grey fur, its
long narrow snouted head hanging forward and its long and very bushy tail
swaying from side to side. The boy was thin, his limbs long but not covered
in thick flesh, his skin ashen, almost grey, and his head shaved, dark
stubble beginning to grow back on it giving a dark shadow of were his hair
had once been. The only splash of colour about either boy or animal was a
red woven cap that covered the crown of the boy's head.
The boy and the pack animal didn't seem to notice him, as they wound their
way up the valley, until they turned the last shallow curve of the pathway.
Then the boy looked up, the boy finally pulling his eyes off the path in
front of him, and stared straight at him. The boy just stood there, the pack
animal grunting and kicking at the ground with its front feet behind the
boy, staring straight and hard at him. At first he was amused by the boy's
staring at him but soon he grow uncomfortable under the boy's unblinking
gaze.
"Hello, lovely weather for the time of year," he said to the boy and smiled,
what he felt was, a welcoming smile.
"Weather's always like this in this season," the boy reply, his voice heavy
with flat vowels.
"It's still lovely weather," he added.
"What you doing here?" The boy asked him.
"Enjoying the view. It's the most splendid view."
"I know, I've been here before."
"The palace was built here because of the wonderful views on three sides."
"How you know that? No one else comes here."
"I'm a traveller and I've travelled a lot. You'd be surprised the knowledge
you can acquire when you travel."
"You travel?" The boy's face was full of disbelief, as if he had just told
the boy the Eye of Orion was flat. "No one travels."
"I do. I travel in my Tardis."
"What's a Tar-Dice? Is its some riding-beast?"
"No, no. My Tardis is a ship, a machine that I travel through time and space
in."
"You're mad," the boy said as his face creased with annoyance.
"No I am not. I have been accused of being it many times but I am as sane as
the day is long. At the height of the Orion Empire, when this palace was the
centre of it, your people travelled to distant stars, they lived on other
worlds, they even experimented with time travel."
"I know, I've heard all the stories from my grandmother, all about how we
were this great empire. So what? They're only stories."
"No, they're true. I've visited here when Emperor Tai was at the height of
his powers. This palace was a site to be seen then. I brought my friends
Jamie and Zoë with me then. They were so impressed by the whole palace, well
Jamie was more impressed with it than Zoë was but Zoë was like that."
"You came here then?" The boy was slowly taking steps towards him, an
expression of puzzlement now on the boy's face. "You don't look old enough.
This place has been a ruin for over a hundred generations."
"I said I travel in time and space. I don't lie," he replied but the boy
still looked at him with a puzzled expression.
"What did the… what did Emperor Tai looked like?"
"He was a surprisingly little man with jet back hair and the silliest little
black beard. He had a terrible taste in bright and jewel-encrusted clothes.
Oh yes, and a long scar down the left side of his face. He always said it
was a duelling scar, but people around his court said he got it when he fell
over dead drunk. I was always favoured the latter explanation."
The boy looked at him for a long moment, as if taking in everything he had
just said, before replying to him:
"Why come here, now? You can travel anywhere at anytime, why come here, now?
We're nothing now, our great empire died a hundred generations ago. We have
been conquered and conquered and conquered. We're nothing now. We scratch
out a living here and there. We don't travel to the stars, we don't leave
this world, most of us don't leave our own villages. Out of everywhere why
come here, we've got nothing to offer you."
"I came here because it's peaceful," he replied. "I need to rest. It's been
very... Traumatic for me, lately. I've always found the Eye of Orion one of
the most restful places in the universe."
"It's the dullest place in the universe," the boy replied.
"Why do say that?" He asked, for the boy's face had a dark expression on it.
"Because it is and I hate it here."
"Then come away with me," he offered without a second thought.
The boy and now gave him a suspicious look, his features twisting into
suspicion, but that dark expression still remained reflected in his eyes.
(Even for a human resident of the Eye of Orion, this boy was certainly
expressive - he could see the boy's emotions written on his face)
"Are you serious? I'm not stupid."
"I am very serious. I've always travelled with a companion. Now I'm
travelling on my own. Anyway, I was wondering if you wanted to see the
universe. You seem very unhappy here. I thought a trip around the universe
might help. Nothing fancy, just galaxies and any civilisation that takes our
interest," he said. Again the words just tripped off his tongue with hardly
a second thought.
"Nah," the boy replied.
"I'm not trying to kidnap you or anything sinister like that. At least let
me take you back to see what the palace looked like in its heyday."
The boy smiled, a slow and gentle smiled that crept across the bottom of his
face (it was the first time he had seen the boy smile), and said:
"I can't travel with you, I've got my family to look after. My grandmother
is too old to work. My sister's husband died last winter, leaving her to
look after two young children. My father can't work, he was struck on a head
in a brawl at the tavern, two years ago, and since then he's a mindless
idiot. I'm the only one left to provide for them all… If I travelled with
you I would never want to stop travelling with you, I'd never want to return
here, I'd love it too much... I hate my life here but I also owe it to my
family to stay… thank-you, but I can't."
He smiled back at the boy; he knew exactly what the boy meant. He had
originally left his own home not because he wanted to but because he had to.
This boy was staying at his home not because the boy wanted to but because
the boy had to.
"I understand," he told the boy.
"Think of me when you do travel," the boy said.
"Of course I will," he replied, "but... what's your name?"
"Edwy," the boy answered him.
"I'm the Doctor," he said as he stood up and held out his hands of the boy,
to Edwy, to shake hands. Edwy just stared at him for a moment, then - like a
light turning on - he nodded and said:
"You want to shake hands, that's a custom from the old empire. Oh... Right."
Quickly they shook hands, even for someone so young Edwy's hand felt very
dry and rough.
"Goodbye," he said.
"Goodbye," Edwy replied.
He turned away, quickly picking up his coat, and strode off towards his
Tardis.
Edwy stood there, in the ruins of The Great Tyrant's Castle, and watched the
strange man walk away - and he had been very strange. The man had long and
curly hair, which was allowed now, and his strange clothes, clothes that
must have been the product of many days fine tailoring - who wasted time on
fine tailoring, who could afford it. Anyway, clothes like that man's would
not last a day or so in Edwy's life. No one he knew even tried to be as
"genteel" (a word his grandmother so liked) as that man did, these days.
Then the man did the strangest of all things, far stranger than anything he
had said. He walked up to a strange, large blue box (something Edwy had
never seen here before), opened a door in it and stepped inside. Then, with
a rushing-wearing sound, it disappeared - simply faded from sight.
Edwy shook his head, he must have been daydreaming it, the season's
deceptively bright sun had affected him, or else that morning's bread must
have been mouldy and he had been hallucinating (he'd almost believed the
man, almost believed the things he said, but he'd just been hallucinating).
Slowly he moved on, beginning to walk through The Great Tyrant's Castle,
leading on his grunting pac-ma. He knew where the latest collection of
moonstones was hidden; the place the arms dealer had left them for him. He
knew they would bring him enough to keep him and his family for the whole
season. He did not do it often so he could easily asway his conscience, if
anyone were killed it would be on the other side of the world or even on
another world - no one in his community would be hurt.
Travelling in time and space, see the universe - he had been dreaming he
told himself.
The pac-ma let out an exceptionally loud grunt.
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