Breaking Point

Lu'Pa

They heard a footstep and broke apart, looking up at the interloper, right into the point of a spear. A spear that was pointed right at the Doctor's head. Rose let out a little growl that was part frustration, part warning to the man holding the spear to her Doctor. At that moment, had the Doctor looked at Rose, he might have seen very faint traces of Time in her eyes.

"Oh, come on," he groaned. He stood up slowly and pulled Rose up off of the ground, keeping his arm around her waist when they were both on their feet.

They were surrounded by five men, who all looked like nothing other than humanoid wolves. Two of the wolf people were down on all fours. The other three were standing upright, spears trained on the Doctor and Rose. The spears were held in hands that looked like paws with extra long fingers.

The Doctor gave his customary greeting. "Hello, I'm the Doctor, and this is Rose, and we were just here to see the sights."

"You are not of this world," said the leader, who had gray and brown fur covering his entire body. "You will come with us." At a gesture, the two wolf people who had been on all fours stood up, one grabbing Rose's arm, the other grabbing the Doctor.

"You don't have to be rough, you know," complained the Doctor. "We'll come along without a fight." At another gesture from the leader, the Doctor and Rose were let go, but the two men who had held them were still on guard.

"So, you lot are of the Lu'Pa?" he asked, bending over to pick his coat up off the ground. After giving it a quick brush, he donned it, with a little help from Rose when the second sleeve wouldn't cooperate.

The leader replied in a clipped tone, "Yes, we are Lu'Pa. You, off worlder, have trespassed in the sacred shrine of the God and Goddess."

"We're sorry," Rose said, breaking her silence so far. "We were under the impression that the sacred shrine was open to all."

All of their captors stopped and turned around to look at her. They then looked at one another. This could not be good.

"It used to be," the elder of the group told her. "But then, an off worlder sullied the sacred land, and the light flowers dimmed. Now, only pack may visit the shrine."

"I knew it was dimmer, didn't I say so, Rose."

"You're being rude, your supposed to say, 'sorry to hear,'" she chided.

"Oh, um, I'm sorry to hear that," the Doctor said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck.

The Lu'Pa were still paying Rose an exorbitant amount of attention, and the Doctor almost none. This caused the Doctor to pull Rose closer to him.

"We're just travelers," Rose tried to explain. "We'd never dream of...sullying a place." Rose tried to assure them that they wouldn't do anything to the beautiful place they were in. She hoped that their culture wouldn't think that the two of them snogging was considered sullying the land. But you never could tell when it came to religions. It could go either way. "We dinnit, did we?"

"That remains to be seen,' the leader said, in a no nonsense tone.

They walked for five minutes, into a clearing where most of the buildings looked to be made of mud and were shaped like large, earthen igloos. Larger buildings were in a thatch and log type of construction. The Doctor and Rose were led to the largest building. Once inside, the group stopped at the open door to a small room, what was obviously a kind of cell.

"Step in," the Lu'Pa who had done all of the talking so far commanded. The Doctor complied, stepping into the tiny, windowless room. He turned around, expecting Rose to come in behind him, but the Lu'Pa closed the cell's door before she could step inside the cell as well.