Revery of Silence (Doctor Who)

I - Night in the TARDIS

The crackling fire lulled Roka into a light slumber. Never did she leave her place at the Master's side and when she heard a small noise from his direction, she immediately snapped wide awake to hear a weak chuckle from him.

"You guarded me?" he brought out, still not sounding too healthy, but obviously strong enough to joke around.

"No," Roka grumbled and her arms over her knees, throwing a venomous glance in his direction. "Just thought, when that thing comes back I can feed you to it and run."

"Sure... and that after crying so loud." He stuck out his tongue, clearly being on the winning side in this small duel of words.

She already regretted having lost her temper before, seeing the amused twinkle in his eyes. Already there was a mean response forming in her head, when they heard twigs snapping nearby.

"Ah, the cavalry is arriving," the Master sneered.

Behind them orange light shone through the darkness and faint voices reached through the vegetation before the Doctor came in sight, a torch in hand, closely followed by Amy.

"Oh, finally!" she let out. "I was so afraid I'd never find this spot again. Good thing you made a fire."

Roka quickly shot to her feet and got a few steps reach between her and the Master. The Doctor's gaze wandered over the whole scenario.

"So much blood!" he exclaimed in shock and rushed towards the Master. "Are you alright? You're wounded badly, aren't you?"

"Do I really look anything even close to alright to you?" he groaned back. "You know... now that I have to see your face, I think I'm doomed."

The Doctor let out a deep sigh, handed Amy the torch and reached down, grabbing the Master's arm and helped him off the ground. It was clear that he might be out of imminent danger, but far from stable, visibly swaying and barely able to stay on his feet. Quickly the Doctor took his arm and lay it over his own shoulder.

"Och, come on, Doctor. That's more humiliating than leaving me here," the Master rebelled, but was either too weak or unwilling to actually stay put, since he did not make an attempt to struggle.

"Amy told us what happened," the Doctor explained, walking slow and careful. "Oh, poor Rory isn't happy. Really not. Not at all."

"Yah, I noticed."

"Good thing I didn't sleep forever," Amy threw in. "Didn't even know what creature that was. It just went all black all of a sudden, and next thing I see is my Rory's worried face above me."

"I'm so sorry about this, really," the Doctor apologized. "It's almost impossible for this thing to be here. It's not their planet at all! Normally they only appear in nebulas of the felctrom category, and even there the systems have to meet..."

"Ugh, spare us," the Master groaned. "It's enough to know they aren't from here. I bet someone dropped that thing off or forgot it."

"No... Nooo..." the Doctor let the word fade into a worried sigh. "We found another crack nearby. One like that in Amy's room. It lead to the home world of those creatures. So there might be more. And there not being other predators around makes this the perfect habitat. No one to share its food with. Was probably quite shocked to see some creatures as big as you two there."

"Good thing you closed the crack," Amy remarked and shuddered visibly at the memory of it.

For the most part they walked back in silence. The Doctor leading, with the Master's arm draped over his shoulder. The Master, probably putting a lot more weight on the other one than was really necessary. Amy, constantly biting her lower lip, eyes wandering around as if she awaited another one of these creatures to jump out on them. And Roka, silently following last, weirdly lightheaded and constantly throwing glances at the Master as if to remind herself that he was alright.