From This Day Forward

Four

Rose dove to one side, feeling the rush of displaced air as the beast careened into the space she had occupied moments before.

She didn't wait to see if it recovered its balance, instead taking off in the direction it had come from. That seemed to be the only place where there was any sort of path out of the clearing.

She needed to find somewhere to hide until the Doctor got the TARDIS down here. As the angry growls became closer and a hiding spot failed to appear, though, she decided she was more worried about outrunning the beast than the Doctor saving her.

Rose found her saving grace when she spotted a low hanging vine in the distance.

'Oh, please let this work,' she gasped and took a running jump towards it.

For a half-second she sailed through the air, her hands grasping at nothing, and then just as quickly her fingers wrapped around the thick plant. Even more importantly, despite pulling taut with her weight, it held.

She didn't let herself relax, though, instead shimmying up as far as she was able.

It was just in time, too.

The creature had caught up to her and was now jumping and swiping at her, like a huge and sinister cat trying to get at a bird.

A snapping noise from above caught her attention, and she saw with horror that even with the different gravity, the vine wouldn't hold her weight for long. Especially not with the creature worrying at it from below.

I'm going to be eaten, she realised with a sinking sensation. Forget dying in a basement in Cardiff, this is definitely worse!

The creature swiped at her again, and she felt one of its claws graze her thigh, making her clench her eyes and grunt in pain.

Rose waited for the next blow to connect more lethally.

Thwack!

The beast let out a sudden snarl and reared back.

Thwack! Thwack!

Rose cracked one eye open, watching in amazement as a shadowy figure on the lowest nearby tree branch hurled rocks or perhaps pinecones down at the beast.

'Oi! Alien-person!' a trilling voice shouted at her. 'Can you swing over here?'

'I-I think so,' Rose called back.

Several other missiles landed below her as the beast tried to get close, kept at bay by whoever hid in the overhang.

'Then do it, fast! That vine won't hold long!'

With a set goal in mind, Rose moved her body side to side, desperately trying to gain the momentum to bring her closer to the low-lying branch. Her thighs and upper arms burned as she sought to bring herself as high as possible before the vine snapped. All the while, the mysterious stranger kept the creature distracted.

There was a sudden give in the vine as Rose reached the highest point of her arc. With no other recourse, she threw herself into the air.

Emptiness swallowed her, and her legs flailed uselessly. Her hands gripped the air, clawing through it in search of something solid –

Two feathered, webbed hands reached out, one grabbing her by the arm and the other trying to steady her by grasping the back of her shirt. Between her mystery rescuer and herself, she managed to haul herself up and across the rough bark of the lowest branch.

She didn't even have time catch her breath before she was being dragged away from the ledge.

'Come on, we need to hurry, that won't stop it long!' her rescuer said, letting go of Rose and taking off at a run. 'They can still move around here on the lower levels – the higher we get, the more likely it is to get stuck somewhere!'