The Wizard's Guide to Timelords and Other Demons Book 1: The Forgotten War

Come The Legions

"What exactly is that, Doctor?" Elise asked as she stared across the field at where the giants were still standing in a line as they had been for hours. Only now, a strange, glowing, golden mist was rising from behind them somewhere in the forest. If she focused her eyes hard enough, Elise could just make out thousands of tiny sparkles swirling about inside the mist.

"That is regeneration energy," replied the Doctor. "A lot of it."

"But what does it mean?" Elise inquired further.

The pale appearance of the Doctor's face betrayed his great weariness—and concern. "It means that our friend the Beast is a fast reader and a quick learner," he said.

Aside from this troubling new development, little had happened since the troll with the Gallifreyan book had been whisked away into the forest. The tables that had been tossed by the wake of the airliner-sized dragon were now righted, and the magical map had been located and returned.

Hagrid and Madeye arrived just then with a report on their search for the fallen Reaper.

"We did find that abominable beast of yours lying in a thicket," Madeye said, "He appeared to be asleep. No sign of the Chinese Fireball, though. If it wasn't blown to smithereens by that explosion, I'd wager that the Reaper made quick work of it just the same."

"I'd reckon tha' old Scar engorged himself on too many dragons an' needs ter rest up a bit," said Hagrid.

Crudely put, the Doctor thought, but Hagrid was essentially correct. A single Reaper could only consume so much temporal paradox energy before requiring time to digest it. This was usually done upon returning to the Time Vortex. But for some unexplained reason, Scar was trapped in the temporal realm and could not return home.

The Doctor was also amused that Kendra and the others had affectionately given the evil time-gargoyle a name, although he did find it to be rather disturbing at the same time. In any case, the Doctor was confident he knew how to wake Scar up should the occasion required it.

At that moment, Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall also returned from the field, and Dumbledore was looking rather troubled.

"Doctor, would I be correct to assume that we can expect further attacks in the near future?" He asked.

The Doctor glanced again at the line of trolls in the distance, as well as the growing cloud of regeneration energy just beyond it. "I would say that is a certainty Professor. Why do you ask?"

"As headmaster of Hogwarts, I have been granted a special...sense, I guess you could call it, which allows me to know when Hogwarts is about to be placed in imminent danger by something." Dumbledore replied.

The Doctor thought it rather humorous that the old wizard was mentioning this just now. "You mean something like giant spiders, trolls, evil dark wizards and fire-breathing dragons?"

"I'm afraid it will almost certainly be even more menacing than what we have already experienced, Doctor," Dumbledore said soberly.

"And when do you expect this new threat to arrive?" the Doctor asked.

All at once a brilliant flash of light illuminated the trees on the edge of the Forbidden Forest. It was followed by another, and then several more in rapid succession.

"Right about now, I suppose," said Dumbledore, as he turned to gaze across the field.

"Doctor, are you seeing this?" Elise called out in alarm.

As the flashing continued, the Doctor glanced into the field and saw numerous bursts of miniature lightning bolts striking the ground.

"Those are transmat beams!" the Doctor cried out. "And by the looks of them I'd say that is Sontaran technology!"

Elise stared intensely at the small electrical bursts in the field until she was confident she knew what they were.

"Well, they're definitely not Sontarans," she said, and the Doctor was very surprised that she even knew what a Sontaran was. "They appear to be human. They're UNIT soldiers, Doctor, dozens of them Doctor, with more popping in by the second." Then the expression on her face dropped as she realized what was happening.

"It's the Beast's army beaming over from my world," she said as the anger beganto surge inside her. "And they're heavily armed!