• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

'Hello there, I hadn't expected quite such a reception.'

Dryfid was the first to speak. 'Doctor,' he choked, 'this is a surprise.'

'I don't suppose you thought you’d see me again. Where's Nuada?' the Doctor asked casually.

Another man came out. Younger than the first one, wearing jeans and a body-warmer, he carried a rifle in one hand and blinked as he emerged into the sunlight.

'And Stuart Taylor!’ Dryfid exclaimed. Stevens pushed his way to the front.

'Mr Taylor the vet?' he asked.

'That's right,' Stuart replied with some surprise.

'I'm Inspector Stevens. I don’t know if you recall, but you called me to tell me that you'd found a unicorn.’

Stuart laughed. 'Sounded a bit crackpot at the time.’

Stevens shrugged and gestured around himself. 'Who am I to deny the facts’

Next out was a young girl, dressed like the people of Dinorben. She cowered behind the Doctor. 'This is Bathsheba,' he said, ‘her family were killed by demons.'

‘But where is Goibhnie?’ Dryfid asked. 'This is his chariot. ‘

‘I am here,’ Goibhnie’s electronically enhanced voice boomed out. ‘I am assessing the data regarding the movements of the reject material.'

'Goibhnie, my friend … reject material?’

'That's demons to you,’ Stuart said.

The Doctor smiled at the onlookers. 'We've come to help you.’

Captain Rhys pushed through the crowd. 'Why? Why should you want to help us? And why did Goibhnie desert us for so long? Why has he only just decided to help us?'

There were scattered mutters of agreement. The Doctor raised his hands to silence them. ‘I’m helping because I'm an inveterate interferer, and Goibhnie wants the world of Tír na n-Óg to continue.'

'Goibhnie is a traitor.'

‘Rhys! Stop this foolishness,’ Dryfid commanded. ‘We have had too much hatred. It is obvious to me that Goibhnie was not allowed to help us sooner because Dagda was testing us. Is that not right, Doctor?

'Well, he did have his mind on other things. But we are here to help you now.'

'Let Goibhnie tell us so himself,' Rhys snarled.

'We are here to help you,' Goibhnie said, stooping to come out of the craft. 'Greetings, Dryfid.'

'Greetings, Goibhnie. The Tuatha welcomes you. What are we to do? The demons are preparing to attack.'

'I suggest that we descend to the ground. We can't do anything about the demons from up here,' the Doctor said.

'Well?' Dryfid looked to Goibhnie.

'The Doctor has a good grasp of scientific technique. I am prepared to follow his advice. Come!'

'My lords, Herne approaches,' a soldier shouted. They turned to look and saw that a glowing figure was indeed approaching at some speed.

'It seems we are all to face the demons together,' Dryfid said.

'We cannot let him through the gates,' Captain Rhys said. 'Even if Goibhnie does not seek to betray us, we cannot endanger our position further by opening the gates. There are already demons at the walls.'

Stevens turned from his intense examination of the figure and asked, 'Why is he running backwards?'

'That's because he moves through time in the opposite direction to everyone else,' Stuart told him.

'No, it isn't,' the Doctor said.

Stuart gaped. 'What?'

'When I first met Herne he moved in the way one would expect a normal person to move. Goibhnie, has Herne ever acted like this before?'

'There does seem to be something unusual about his gait,' Goibhnie admitted.

The Doctor and Dryfid, followed by their companions, descended to the lower tier of the wall so that they could keep Herne in view. Near to the foot of the wall he collapsed and for a moment the light that he emitted grew dim. Herne lay still.

'What's happened to him?' Dryfid asked and then his eyes widened as, suddenly, Herne rose rapidly towards them.

'He's flying,' Bathsheba said. 'How's he doing that?'

'Search me,' Stuart said. 'Doctor?'

'True contra-temporal existence - even to the extent of disobeying fundamental laws of physics.

Fascinating. Stand back!' the Doctor commanded.

Herne appeared over the edge of the wall. The surprise in the eyes of the watchers was mirrored in