Doctor Who_ Wolfsbane - Jac Rayner [84]
They both picked up a lamb chop in each hand - Sarah somewhat more gingerly than the Doctor - and headed for the door. Halfway there, the Doctor stopped. He smote his forehead with the back of his hand, narrowly avoiding swinging a lamb chop into his eye. „I almost forgot!‟ He hurried back to the bar, and handed something over to the landlord. „I got you a humorous postcard,‟ he said.
Neither the landlord nor Sarah noticed that the Doctor pocketed something else while the landlord was distracted.
„Now what?‟ said Sarah, as they left the inn.
„Back to the woods.‟ The Doctor sniffed a lamb chop. „Let‟s just hope Emmeline‟s sense of smell is acute enough.‟
Sarah felt a bit silly, wandering through the wood waving a lamb chop in each hand. The Doctor, of course, threw himself right into the spirit of things. „Here, Emmeline! Nice fresh meat for you! Come and get your lovely fresh meat!‟
„What if someone else hears you?‟ Sarah hissed.
„After what happened a fortnight ago? No one round here is going to come anywhere this wood for years. Emmeline! Hi, Emmeline!‟
There was a rustle of leaves.
„This thing isn‟t bleeding enough to bother the land, is it?‟
enquired Sarah nervously, examining the raw flesh.
But the source of the rustling was the wolf. It nervously poked its silver nose round a bush.
The Doctor sank to his haunches, coaxing it like it was a shy puppy. „Come on. Come on. Come here. Good girl. Here‟s some nice food for you...‟
He held out a hand with a chop in it. The wolf edged closer.
„I don‟t blame you,‟ said Sarah, trying to help. „For biting me, I mean. And I‟m jolly grateful to you for digging me up and saving my life.‟
„Everything‟s going to be all right,‟ said the Doctor softly.
„Everything‟s going to be all right.‟
The wolf came up to him, still timorous. The Doctor had one hand outstretched, one hand in his pocket. Slowly, the wolf relaxed. „There,‟ said the Doctor. „That wasn‟t so hard, was it? Now, everything‟s going to be all right.‟
And he brought his other hand out of his pocket and stabbed the steak knife through her heart.
Chapter Fifteen
Returning to the Land
The earth heaved. Trees toppled slowly to the ground. Sarah screamed, falling back, rolling this way and that to avoid the waving tree limbs and wild, dancing thorn bushes. There were eerie and terrifying sounds coming from all around which could have been roots being ripped from the earth, or could have been the screams of tree spirits.
„Hear me!‟ cried the Doctor, loudly and urgently. „We are giving back power to the land! You can sleep now! You can sleep! Sleep!‟
The screaming continued, the ground rising and falling like a waterbed. Chasms appeared as the earth ripped apart.
Sarah scrabbled for a handhold, anything to save herself, anything to stop herself falling into the pit, but the bushes threw her off and the thorns ripped her flesh till her palms were too slick with blood to hold anything anyway. She was falling, falling towards the hole in the earth, and this time she would be buried alive and nothing would be there to dig her out, nothing would be able to save her...
„SLEEP!‟
The earth stilled. The chasm closed. The trees and bushes stopped their rustling. There was a feint noise on the breeze, which may have sounded a bit like, „Thank you‟. And then there was no breeze, and everything was silent, save for the agonised panting of the wolf as its life blood sank into the earth. And then that sound stopped too.
Sarah stumbled to her feet, hands outstretched. She backed away from the Doctor, her eyes wide, horrified. „What did you do?‟ And she pointed at the wolf with a hand still dripping blood. „She‟s dead! You‟ve killed her! You‟ve killed her!‟
But then, before Sarah‟s eyes, the wolfs shape changed.
The muzzle contracted. The silver-grey fur shimmered and vanished. Limbs stretched and filled and claws disappeared.
Dark hair rushed from the head, slithering over the ground.
Ears lost their points. There on a blanket of leaves lay a pale-skinned naked woman,