A metallic throbbing cut through the quiet, dewy morning. A bright blue police box appeared out of thin air, whipping up a slight breeze as it landed. The door swung open and the Doctor stepped out. His brown hair flopped over his eyes and red bowtie was wonky. He straightened it and reached into his inside pocket for his sonic screwdriver. Finding it missing, he turned around to head back into the TARDIS to fetch it but he found his way in blocked by his two companions, Amy and Rory Pond.
“Could you let me past? I really need to get in,” The Doctor asked them, flapping his arms.
“Looking for this?” Amy asked him, holding up his screwdriver. The Doctor just smiled sheepishly, took the screwdriver and stuck it in his jacket pocket.
“Thanks.”
“It’s okay. You’re always leaving it lying around.” Feeling sheepish again, the Doctor turned and headed off, Amy following.
“Rory, shut the door on your way out!” the Doctor shouted over his shoulder. Rory turned to shut the door and when he turned to follow his wife and the Doctor, he found they were already far ahead. Sighing, he ran after them.
When Rory caught up with Amy and the Doctor, he found the Doctor licking a fence.
“Umm, Doctor, what are you doing?”
“Finding out where we are. Amy asked.”
“So you have all this scanning equipment in the TARDIS but you lick a shed to find out where we are?”
Turning round, the Doctor just looked at Rory, then to Amy.
“Answers. We are in the year 3145, on Earth near some village. And, yes, I suppose I do lick something to find out where and when I am.”
“Like when you licked my shed all those years ago?”
“Yes, I suppose....” the Doctor trailed off. He then headed off and entered the village. And immediately wished he hadn’t. Amy and Rory looked on as a villager, who looked like a teenage boy, held a shotgun at the Doctor. Holding up his hands, the Doctor asked carefully,
“So, what have I done to make the first person we see on this planet point a gun at me? Already.”
“Strangers at this awful time. The vanishings at night. The crystal forest and its lake. Mysterious, shadowy figures. Need I go on sir?”
“Fair point. Vanishings? I can help there,” the Doctor pulled out his physic paper. “See? I’m the Doctor, from the Universal Ministry of Planetary Defence. Speciality, villages. I’m trained to deal with, umm, village protection. These are my companions, Amy and Rory Pond. I call them Pond 1 and Pond 2. You can call them Amy and Rory. But, tell me, vanishings?”
“You better come with me sir. And you’re friends. We can talk to Belle. She’s the most recent to fall victim of the vanishings at night.”
“Okay, cool. But first, don’t call me ‘sir’ and I could do with a cup of tea and maybe some Jammy Dodgers. Oh, and what’s your name?”
“Name’s Tom and I know what you’re thinking. I’m too young to run a village but I have to. But I can’t cope with the vanishings and all the things the vanished tell us and it was hard enough before. Losing both parents now this.....”
Belle sat at the table, head in hands. She smelt tea and sat up. Then nearly fell off her chair. Tom sat across the table, with a strange man with an even stranger dress taste next to him. Behind them stood two more strangers, a fiery haired girl and an ordinary looking man next to her, stood in the door way.
“What’s going on?” asked Belle, wary. The Doctor sipped his tea then introduced himself.
“I’m the Doctor and I need your help. Tell me everything.”
“Everything?”
“Yeah, if you can.”
“Well, it started with the Big Bang and then....”
“Not everything from the beginning of the universe. Everything about these vanishings and shadowy figures. Please?” Belle nodded then started her story. She told the Doctor about how she ran from black, winged wolves, the angel with the dark wings and how he enchanted her. She then went on to say about that she herself turned into one of the wolves and felt she had no control over her body. That she couldn’t do what she actually wanted to do and that when the sun rose she awoke in her bed, like it was a dream. Then every night then after, she turned into one of the wolves and went into the crystal forest with the other wolves and could only do what Gortail told them.
“Gortail?” Amy asked Belle.
“That’s what the angel called himself,” Belle carried on her story. It was this point her story got really interesting. She described that whenever the sun rose and she turned back into a human, the other six wolves did too, all into the other girls who had vanished too. Belle also told the Doctor about how she knew it wasn’t just a dream. She said one night she left the house and was spotted by Tom himself.
“Didn’t you Tom?” Belle asked a nervous Tom.
“Indeed I did...”
“How did you know it was Belle?” Asked the Doctor, fiddling his bowtie.
“Her eyes Doctor. They may have been a different colour but it was in her eyes!”
“Belle, you mentioned all of the wolves, or the vanished if you prefer, like yourself, were girls?”
“All from the village and, yes, all the vanished!” The Doctor sat back in his chair, thinking up a plan. Jumping up (spilling his half drunk tea over his plate of Jammy Dodgers in the process) he pulled a notebook and pencil from his inner pocket and handed them to Amy.
“Pond, take notes and stay here. Pond 2, with me. We’re going to the crystal forest....”
“Umm, why me and not Amy?”
“You know why Rory, now come along!” The Doctor bounded off through the door then immediately back in. “Which way to the forest...” Tom pointed and the Doctor leapt off again. Rory kissed his wife on the cheek and ran to catch up with the Doctor.
Ten minutes later Rory and the Doctor entered the forest. Rory gazed in wonder at the violet trees of crystal. Unknown to the Doctor and to Rory, they were being watched by a pair of amber eyes.....
