The Master's Game (Doctor Who)

Lucid memories

It took Roka a moment to realize what he had just said, but before it could fully reach her brain the Master already shoved her to the side and took a look around. What did he want to remember her for? Surely not out of sympathy... although she had never before seen such a warm and honest smile on his face. Or had it just been a trick of the moonlight?

All she knew for certain was that it was horribly cold, and now that he had moved away she felt it gnawing on her relentlessly. She huddled herself deeper into her jacket and waited for the Master to finish his inspection of their surroundings. When he turned back to her, he raised both eyebrows.

"Mhm... the TARDIS is a rough two hour walk away," he stated, observing Roka. "And it will get a lot colder than that soon..."

She rubbed her arms and shrugged, smiling sarcastically. "Humans don't die that easily. But..." she looked around and picked up the knife from the ground. "I can make a fire. How long are nights here?"

"From this moment on... roughly three to four hours. Depending in which direction that thing here is swimming." He slightly stomped the ground.

Roka went to the pile of wood she had gathered earlier and prepared a fireplace, before she hit the knife against a stone. Not much later first flames started to greedily lick the wood and grew big enough to spread some pleasant warmth. She held out her hands to warm them up.

The Master sat next to her and sunk together. He looked exhausted and probably also not very eager to walk a long distance right now.

"You don't happen to carry anything edible with you?" she asked hopefully. But he only shook his head and continued to stare at the flames. "Well... the critters here aren't very shy... maybe I can catch some," she mused and got up to look around.

It wasn't hard to find something. There were creatures that looked like bunnies, but without visible ears. And they were peacefully sleeping next to some mushrooms. Some of those would be great too, but she wasn't in the mood to test her luck with them.

"Hold that. They struggle too much." She pushed one of the animals into the Master's hands.

He stared at it with a questioning look and then at Roka as she, swiftly and with a skilled move, stopped the struggling once and for all. The second rabbit landed motionless next to her.

"No qualms?" The Master eyed her curiously.

Roka shrugged and started to skin and gut the animals. "Doesn't help much with hunger. Hmm, interesting... seems like they don't have much blood. Weird creatures..."

"You did that before," he stated. "And not only once. Obviously."

She chuckled as she cut down some flesh and poked it onto sticks. "You missed a few parts when you were scrambling through my past. I lived a bit... feral for a while." Not long and the meat was emitting a nice smell. "Wanted to stay away from people."

"What for? They can't see you anyway." He leaned forward and grabbed one of the sticks, gulping down everything although it was still almost raw.

Roka gave him no answer. She only wrinkled her nose in disgust and rather waited, cleaning her hands in the grass. After a while the Master reached inside his jacket and got out two small water bottles of which he threw one in her direction. At least he knew something about basic survival, she thought smirking.

Time passed and the sticks got less and less.

"They don't taste too bad." Roka decided. "Better than squirrels."

"Tzz... be glad you never had to eat cachgrain. That's some nasty stuff. Tastes rotted, even if freshly butchered. But the Gholpiros love it. Bah!"