Chasing a Glimpse ((A Doctor Who Fanfiction))

2. The Zafflefruit Games

Oh, how glad and happy when we meet/ I'll fly away/ No more cold iron shackles on my feet/ I'll fly away/ ... Just a few more weary days and then/ I'll fly away/ To a land where joy will never end/ I'll fly away

-I'll Fly Away by Allison Krauss ft. Gillian Welch

I tinkered with my machine in my one-roomed house, delicately adding the physic translator to the slew of other parts. Vortex Manipulator was scrawled across the top of my plans, for lack of a better name. And that's basically what it had started out as. I had taken the schematics for a vortex manipulator because of its relative simplicity and small size, and then tweaked the design, using knowledge I had gained from an apprenticeship I'd had before the war. Since I didn't have exact coordinates for my destination, as I had no idea where my father was, I had ditched the parts needed for using coordinates. Instead, I substituted those for a combination of new ones that, if they functioned according to plan, should take a person from a thought or memory, and triangulate their location based on biosigns and other confusing things. Now, all that was left was to get the final part and attach it, which would happen tomorrow.

I had done all that I could that night, so I decided to take my routine trip up Mount Cadon and take a look at the nearby cities. I did that every night after I finished working on the vortex manipulator. It started out as a way to see what I would be leaving if I left. A way for me to decide if I really wanted to go through with it. Now it was my slow and steady way to say goodbye. As the second sun would go down, I would pass through the small city I lived on the outskirts of to climb the steep slopes of Mount Cadon. How high I climbed depended on how tired I was. And once I had reached the destination of the day, I would look out across the plains toward Arcadia and a little ways beyond. I would sit there, looking at the glow of the city, and think about its people. I would compare them to how they used to be. I would remember all of the things I loved about living here before the war. And then I would look back out and realize why I wanted to leave. Because this was not the Gallifrey I loved when I was younger.

Ready to go, I snatched a zafflefruit from the pile of fruits I had bought earlier in Arcadia and went outside, heading through the city towards the mountain. I strode through the streets away from my small home, my scarlet cloak billowing out behind me. As I made my way, I noticed a group of children laughing and playing in the street ahead of me, tossing a ball of woven red grass back and forth. I couldn't help but smile at them as they respectfully stopped their game as I passed, watching me carefully, and I knew why. Many adults became mean after the war, hardened by battle. They didn't have time for children or their fun and games. I, however, was barely an adult by their standards, and therefore was much less irritable. I remembered very well what it was like to be a kid. So I shot them a grin.

"That ball looks a bit worn out." They seemed a bit surprised that I was trying to make conversation, but one of the older boys regained his composure fairly quickly.

"Just a bit. But it still works." He answered, meeting my gaze now that he knew I wasm't some stuck-up adult. Seeing as I was in a good mood, I reached into the pocket of my cloak, pulling out the zafflefruit I had planned on eating. I tossed the neon green melon, its hard shell a few centimeters bigger than my fist, to the boy.

"Here. That should be a bit better. Plus you can eat it when you're done." The boy smiled, and threw it towards a girl, starting the game again. As I started to walk away, he called out to me, facing me with the fruit in his hands.

"Miss, would you like to play?" I turned around and smiled, shrugging.

"Why not?" I jogged over, clapping my hands and bending my knees. "Show me whatcha got!" I shouted playfully, and they all giggled. The Boy tossed the zafflefruit to me, and I immediately tossed it to a little girl across from me, who threw it to a boy her age, who threw it to someone else, and the game continued. Flying zafflefruit, going from one child to another. The game went for a while, and soon I had to pull myself away. Not because of the glares I got from passing adults, but because I still had my trip up the mountain to do. I called out a farewell as I put my cloak back on, heading towards the steep slopes.

'Miss, would you like to play with us tomorrow as well?" The boy called out, and I paused, the giddiness all but disappearing. If all went well, I'd be long gone by this time tomorrow. But I plastered on a goofy grin as I turned around and nodded.

"Definitely." With that, I spun on my heel and raised my hood, striding towards Mount Cadon.

A little while later found me perched on a small outcropping about halfway up the mountain, just high enough to see Arcadia. I leaned back against a large stone and sat there, thinking as I always did. About what was gone. What was happening then. What was to come. But I mostly fantasized about how the reunion between my father and I would go.

I would see him, and his face would light up. He would stop whatever it was he was doing and hold his arms out for me as I run towards him. I'd leap into his arms with a cry of "Father!" And he would hug me and kiss me in that fatherly way he always did when I was little, and tell me how much he had missed me, and how he had tried to come back for me. And I would sit there in his familiar embrace, basking in the attention I had missed. It would be perfect.

It was times like these when I could imagine the joy on his face at the sight of me that I knew I had to go.