The Prince stood and clapped his hands together once. As he did, a group of servants rushed in and
cleared the low table of dishes and plates of food. Cups were brought out, along with pitchers of
fresh, cold spring water. They drank
slowly, and Vastra noted how the minerals in the water gave it a slight
tang. She wondered if the others could
taste it like she did.
‘There is much to be done in the next few days, my
friends. I will be in my chambers for
the day, preparing for tomorrow’s funeral.
The rest of you know your appointed tasks, and I trust that they are
completed or that you are awaiting contact from the other villages following
the announcement of Father’s death..’
He paused, acknowledging his advisor’s nods.
‘Tsugu sensai,’ he continued, turning to the old man, ‘You
have been granted two special tasks, as you know. One must be done tomorrow, but the other…’
‘The other is no task at all, my Prince. It will be a pleasure to occupy my friends’
time. They will be prepared for
tomorrow’s ceremonies, have no fear of that.’
Vastra looked nervously at the Doctor, who waved his hand
dismissively, as if saying, don’t worry about it.
Are you certain? Her face expressed in reply. She couldn’t quite figure out if his smile
meant of course I’m certain or of course not, we’re both going to die.
She’d have to wait to find out, she guessed.
‘If you will all excuse me then,’ Prince Taisei said
quietly, ‘I need to attend to Mother and make sure she is alright before making
my final arrangements for tomorrow. I
suggest you all do the same.’ He bowed
once and left through heavy red velvet curtains. As soon as the curtains fell still, his
advisors quickly stood and left the room, talking amongst themselves and
worrying over their duties. The Doctor,
Tsugu and Vastra were the only three remaining.
‘Well, I suppose it is just us three again,’ Tsugu said with
a laugh. The Doctor joined him, while
Vastra seemed far less amused.
‘Would one of you care to explain what “being prepared for
tomorrow’s ceremony” means? I do not
think I like the sound of this.’
Tsugu walked to her side.
‘My friend…my dear new friend.
You need not worry. I simply will
go over a few things with you about the funeral ceremonies tomorrow, and you
will be free for the day to do as you wish.
Kyoujyu, on the other hand, will be catching up on his music
lessons. I expect he has quite a bit to
catch up on.’
As they walked to the great doors leading out of the hall,
it was Vastra’s turn to smile, while the Doctor looked decidedly uncomfortable. She even caught him run his hand through his
hair nervously a time or two. It almost
pained her to admit it, but she found enjoyment in that.
They walked through the doors and out into the
sunlight. It took a few moments for
their eyes to adjust, but they could all see the large pyre being erected in
the centre of the courtyard. They gazed
on it silently, all of them knowing its task the next day.
‘Kyoujyu tells me you are an avid swimmer,’ Tsugu said,
breaking the uncomfortable silence. ‘He
also tells me that you found the small pool near the hills. If you’d rather something a bit larger, I
could direct you to one.’
‘Go on,’ replied Vastra, her enthusiasm quite evident.
‘Travel further down the road you followed yesterday,’ Tsugu
said. ‘You will see a tree that looks
like an old man, hunched over with age.
Follow the direction he is pointing in…you will not miss it.’
‘Thank you, Tsugu.
I…’
Her reply was interrupted by a loud bang, almost like a
firework going off. All activity stopped
as everyone looked to the sky. A bright
object, brighter by far than the sun, streaked across the sky toward the
west. It arced downward, below the tree
line, and faded from view. The path it
burnt across the sky, however, remained, like some kind of trail.
‘What was that?’ Vastra asked, quietly.
Almost in response, a worker in the courtyard exclaimed ‘It
is an evil omen! A demon surely has come
to claim the life of our new king just as they did good King Eisō!’
‘No, no no!’ called out Tsugu, trying to calm the
crowd. It is nothing of the sort. We have all seen stars that fall from the
sky! This is no different, only that it
fell during the day! Pay it no heed!’
His words did little to quiet things, and soon everyone in
the courtyard was in a panic, fearing the worst. Vastra looked about in shock…this is what she
remembered seeing, back before she slept.
Superstitious apes, bickering amongst themselves over scraps of food.
Unable or unwilling to work together to meet a common goal. She began to wonder, after the days of seeing
them at their best, if they really had changed at all.
‘QUIET!’ yelled the Doctor.
It was loud enough to be heard over all the squabbling in the
courtyard. Even Vastra was taken aback
by it. This was something she had never
seen, and the firmness and stony look on his face chilled her.
‘King Eisō was an honest man…and he believed in Tsugu enough
to make him his most trusted and closest advisor. His own son, Prince Taisei, feels the same
way. And you ignore his words so easily?’
The squabbling had dulled to a quiet whisper. All eyes were on the Doctor, including Tsugu,
who looked on with a faint smile on his face.
‘And if this is an omen, then it is a good one! Obviously they have
come to prepare to take
the spirit of King Eisō already to the Heavens, such were his deeds. So
stop arguing! Stop fighting! Is this how you would want your late
king to
see you?’
A few muttered responses of ‘No’ came from the crowd.
‘Is this how you want your future king to see you?’
The crowd replied ‘No’ again, this time more forcefully.
‘Alright then! Stop
your worrying, stop your bickering, and let’s give good old King Eisō the best
send-off we can!’
The crowd looked at him, unsure of what the Doctor meant,
but went back to their tasks. Tsugu
looked at him quizzically.
‘A bit too far, Tsugu?’
Tsugu held his fingers an inch or so apart. ‘I believe, Kyoujyu, you would say ‘Just a
bit.’’ He laughed.
‘I will see you in my quarters in a half hour…I hope you are
ready to impress.’
The Doctor bowed. ‘I
won’t let you down, teacher.’
‘We shall see about that,’ Tsugu said with a quiet
laugh. ‘We shall see.’
As he turned and walked back to his quarters, Vastra grabbed
the Doctor by the sleeve and pulled him aside.
‘Alright Doctor…what was that?’
He looked up at the trail, still fading from the cloudless
sky.
‘It’s really too difficult to say. A daylight meteor certainly isn’t unheard of,
and with the pop, not to mention how bright it was, it could have been a
bolide.’
He paused, his eyes following the path across the sky.
‘But the trajectory is all wrong. I mean, it could have skipped across the
atmosphere, but no, that was too perfect an arc for that.’
‘I didn’t hear an explosion when it hit,’ Vastra said.
‘Might not have,’ the Doctor replied. ‘It might have all burned up in the
atmosphere before ever touching the ground, although something that bright…it’d
have to have been pretty big to burn so bright.
Unless…’
‘Unless what, Doctor?’
Vastra looked at him, jaw firm, eyes locked on his.
‘Seven hundred years from now I’d say it was man made. But it’s not even 1300 yet, so there’s not a
single civilization on the planet that has the technology to send anything into
space…unless by space you mean the air right above your head and by sending you
mean tossing it up by hand. So there’d
be no reason for anyone to come here, either…it’s just too early for that.’
‘Then what exactly are you suggesting? That you have no idea?’
The Doctor smiled.
‘That’s exactly what I’m suggesting, and also we’ll
probably
find out at the same time. Furthermore,
that you should take Tsugu up on his offer…that pond is amazing to swim
in. Finally, I’d better get to his
quarters before he finds more pails of water for me to carry. Frankly,
the water carrying bit? It’s getting tiring, literally.’
He turned, took two or three steps towards Tsugu’s quarters,
and then pivoted on his heels. Vastra
hadn’t moved, but he really hadn’t given her much of a chance to.
‘Vastra?’
‘Yes?’
‘If by chance you do see anything odd, you will come back
here and tell me, right?’
Vastra waved her arms around. ‘Doctor…everything here is odd to me.’
Vastra waved her arms around. ‘Doctor…everything here is odd to me.’
The Doctor opened his mouth to reply, paused and then raised a finger up. ‘Good point. How about this? If you see anything odder than this…something that doesn’t seem to fit…get back here right away and tell me, alright?’
‘Do you expect I will?’ Vastra looked concerned.
‘I don’t know what to expect, but right now one king is dead, his only son is about to be crowned king, and if anyone wanted to upset the balance of history, now would be a perfect time to do it.’
Vastra nodded. ‘Understood, Doctor.’
‘Kyoujyu!’ exclaimed a voice from across the courtyard.
The Doctor ran his hand through his hair again. ‘I’d better get going. Remember…if you see anything odd, get back here immediately. Got it?’
Vastra nodded. ‘Good luck with the water pails,’ she added, cheerfully.
The Doctor glared and turned to scurry across the courtyard while Vastra’s laughs faded as he ran.
~~~
Curiosity very nearly got the better of Vastra.
She figured such would be the case even as she passed the city gates and began heading down the road. The walk was pleasant, the sun gradually heating the air and brightening her spirits. About 2 miles past the path she had followed to find the pool she swam in yesterday, she saw the tree Tsugu mentioned. She supposed with a little imagination it might just look like an old man, bent over. Even here she could smell the water, cool and clean and with that mineral tang she had tasted before. She could smell the flowers that grew around the pool, fragrant. She judged the pool was maybe a half mile from the road, and she was certain that unless one knew about it, no one would ever find it.
She stood near the tree, mulling over her options. It would be very easy to just continue down the road and search out whatever it was that fell out of the sky. She always had been inquisitive, and she knew that it usually got her in trouble, even from her early childhood. Still, she thought to herself, how would anyone ever know if I did not go swimming?
She looked up to the sky, trying to judge where the slash of light had passed. The trail it had left behind was faint now, but she made a guess at its course and distance. She’d prepared for an afternoon away from the activity and chaos that would lead to tomorrow’s funeral, and the small pack slung over her shoulder with a light lunch and clean robes attested to that. She was thankful she prepared, as it looked to be a fairly long walk. She gazed over toward the east, where it seemed the faint trail arced, and began to walk in that direction.
She’d only taken a few steps when she heard noise up ahead. She thought about the fact that she wasn’t exactly human, and while she knew she was more or less accepted back at the city by the people there (or at least the ones that mattered; after all, she was a ‘dragon’ as proclaimed by the late king’s advisors, and obviously an omen of some import), the likelihood was that anyone else seeing her would run in fright, or stop to attack her.
Neither was an option that appealed to her, especially with the bustle at the hall and the Doctor warning her to be careful.
She quickly moved off the road, found some fairly thick underbrush that offered her cover while still allowing her a clean line of sight to the road, and waited. If something suspicious or strange did come her way, she wanted to be able to see it clearly enough to report back.
Several groups of people passed, dressed much like the residents she had been around the previous two or three days, obviously heading to pay their final respects. Nothing seemed unusual or out of the ordinary.
Perhaps investigating isn’t the best course of action, she thought to herself. Not at the moment, at least. But soon.
Her stomach growled, and she figured it was as good a time as any to eat. She remained hidden from the road and passers-by as she ate, wondering what the Doctor could possibly be worried about. While he didn’t look exactly like these humans, he did look human enough, yet she sensed there was something more about him, something hidden.
Obviously, the fact that he had a strange blue box that was bigger within than without, which travelled in time (and space, he had said), had something to do with that. No matter what the reason, she believed that he was more worried than he was saying, and she intended if at all possible to find out why.
Her meal finished, she packed her sack and thought for a split second about continuing down the road when the wind picked up the scent of the water and the flowers again. They reminded her so strongly of the springs deep beneath the earth that she had swum in as a child. The draw was too much to resist, and she turned back away from the road and headed toward the spring-fed pool. A few minutes’ easy walk later, she stood a few yards from its edge.
‘Some pool,’ she said aloud. ‘This is more like a lake.’
A small island rose up out of the centre of the water; a small building rose from the island, gleaming white marble blazing in the sun. The flowers were not random wildflowers either…they seemed to be carefully tended, planted and cultivated flowers. It struck her as odd that such a place would be so hidden, but perhaps there was reason for that. It was beyond her what these humans did…even though some things, like the proper honouring of the dead and the rites associated with it, made sense, others, such as this place, made none whatsoever.
She shook her head. There was no point in trying to understand it. She slipped off her robe and, with a running leap, jumped into the water. It was every bit as cold as it looked, and for a few moments she thought she might not make her way back to the surface. She finally broke free of the water’s embrace, her head rising up above the gently waving surface.
‘A bit cool,’ she said quietly, ‘but refreshing!’
She began an easy paced swim to the island at the lake’s centre. At the very least, she wanted to see what was there. After a few minutes she stopped to see how much further it was, and was surprised to see she was barely half way there. Determined, she picked up her pace, and after a minute or two more she was walking out of the water toward the pillared building. She walked inside, the water dripping off her scales like tiny crystals, and saw the Doctor.
Her eyes grew wide.
‘How is that even possible?’
Before her stood a statue of the Doctor, dressed in robes similar to the ones they had worn since their welcome at the court. There were no inscriptions, no carvings, nothing to indicate why such a thing would be here. She walked around it in obvious shock, her eyes wide, her mouth open nearly as wide.
It was too much for her. She quickly left the building, nearly running, and dove back into the lake. Countless questions started running through her head, and she struggled to keep up with them all.
How is this possible? Who is he? How could this statue be here? Why did he bring me here? How long have these people known about him? How old is he? What is he? None of this makes any sense…how can any of this be here? How did he just show up when everything went wrong after I woke up?
She reached the shore where she disrobed and collapsed on the ground, her breathing ragged, her pulse racing. Despite the chill of the water she felt her blood heated inside her as she tried desperately to process what she just saw. She lay there, gasping for air, and let the chaos overtake her long enough to pass into darkness.
When she awoke, she found herself lying on the ground where she came out of the lake, much calmer but with just as many questions racing through her head. She looked up at the sky and tried to gauge how long she had been sleeping. Judging by the angle, she guessed it had to be hours, as the sun was creeping toward the western horizon. If she started back now, she’d make it back before sunset.
Correction, she thought. Even now I’ll be lucky to make it back before dark, and that’s if I hurry.
She turned and started to head back. What started as a walk turned to a jog as she tried to beat the sun.
~~~