We were all sat patiently in the dining room, dinner was served but Rose was nowhere to be seen. I shot the Doctor a warning look but he just shrugged with a grin and kept eating.
"Your companion begs an apology, Doctor. Her clothing has somewhat delayed her. Miss Pond, would you care to help her?"
"I'm sure she shall do just fine on her own," i told him, edging closer to the Doctor.
"Oh, that's all right. Save her a wee bit of ham," The Doctor said.
"The feral child could probably eat it raw," the Queen joked, but with a surprisingly straight face.
"Very wise, Ma'am. Very witty," Reynolds told her, chuckling.
"Slightly witty, perhaps. I know you rarely get the chance to dine with me, Captain, but don't get too excited. I shall contain my wit in case I do you further injury," the Queen teased, making the Doctor smile.
"Yes, Ma'am. Sorry, Ma'am."
"Besides, we're all waiting on Sir Robert," the Doctor announced, placing his napkin on the table, "Come, sir. You promised us a tale of nightmares."
"Indeed. Since my husband's death, I find myself with more of a taste for supernatural fiction," the Queen explained, sounding excited.
"You must miss him," i said gently, placing my napkin on the table as well.
"Very much . . . Oh, completely," She said sadly, but then picked up with a smile, "And that's the charm of a ghost story, isn't it? Not the scares and chills, that's just for children, but the hope of some contact with the great beyond. We all want some message from that place. It's the Creator's greatest mystery that we're allowed no such consolation. The dead stay silent, and we must wait." I thought she was going to cry, but she shook it off, "Come. Begin your tale, Sir Robert. There's a chill in the air. The wind is howling through the eaves. Tell us of monsters."
He smiled nervously, but conceded to the queen's wishes. "The story goes back three hundred years. Every full moon, the howling rings through the valley. The next morning, livestock is found ripped apart and devoured."
"Tales like this just disguise the work of thieves. Steal a sheep and blame a wolf, simple as that," Reynolds reasoned, shrugging.
"But sometimes a child goes missing," Robert said as if hinting at something, "Once in a generation, a boy will vanish from his homestead."
"Are there descriptions of the creature?" The Doctor asked.
"Oh, yes, Doctor. Drawings and woodcarvings. And it's not merely a wolf. It's more than that. This is a man who becomes an animal."
"A werewolf?" i asked in time with the Doctor, him more excited. My eyes drifted to the window nervously, where i could see a full moon high in the sky.
"My father didn't treat it as a story. He said it was fact. He even claimed to have communed with the beast, to have learned its purpose. I should have listened. His work was hindered. He made enemies. There's a monastery in the Glen of Saint Catherine. The Brethren opposed my father's investigations."
I looked to the bald man, the Brethren - they were monks. That meant shaved heads. Said man was staring out of the window and i rose to my feet without him noticing, only to see the rest of the servants outside, armed and in red.
"Perhaps they thought his work ungodly," the queen suggested as i grabbed the Doctor's shoulder, trying to get him to look. "Miss Pond are you alright?"
"Lupus deus est, lupus deus est," the man began to chant quietly.
"That's what I thought. But now I wonder. What if they had a different reason for wanting the story kept quiet? What if they turned from God and worshipped the wolf?" Robert said, hinting with his words and the Doctor finally caught on.
YOU ARE READING
The Golden Snow (RE-WRITING)
Hayran Kurgu(UNDER EDITING) When Alex was seven years old, she was diagnosed with Schizophrenia. The reason - The Doctor. He and a woman called Red appeared before her, opened her eyes to the wonders of the universe and vanished, leaving her with broken dreams...
