Doctor Who_ Wolfsbane - Jac Rayner [88]
Harry carried on, answering her call.
In the vortex, the TARDIS span, bringing the Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith closer and closer to November 1936.
The wolf leaped from the bushes. This time Harry had no silver candlestick. This time, there was no Godric or Grail.
This time, the wolf sank its teeth firmly into Harry‟s throat.
Harry struggled to his feet. He was still being called onwards.
Hand to his neck, he staggered forward. A beautiful woman in green walked towards him, hands outstretched to him. He took hold of those hands. „I thought you were lost,‟ she said, smiling.
He smiled back.
„Come with me...‟
She drew him to her. He was halfway inside the tree. Three-quarters inside. He was inside the tree.
With a wheezing and groaning sound, the TARDIS
materialised.
Sarah stared up at the scanner. „Too many trees,‟ she said.
„But that doesn‟t mean anything, does it. We‟ll have to go out and see.‟ She opened the doors.
The Doctor tossed one end of his tartan scarf over his shoulder, and strode out into the wood. „He‟s not here,‟ he called back.
„Harry!‟ called Sarah. „Harry! Harry!‟ She looked around her. „That‟s the dryad‟s tree,‟ she said. If you‟ve got the time right, this is when we‟re supposed to pick him up.‟
„Unless she was lying to you,‟ said the Doctor, peering closely at a knot on the tree trunk.
Sarah drew in breath. „Do you really think so?‟
„It‟s possible,‟ he said, seemingly unconcerned.
Sarah yelled twice as loudly as before. „Harry! Harry!‟
There was a strange coughing sound, a tearing, that set her teeth on edge. And there was Harry stumbling towards her, looking dazed and bewildered.
„Is it forty years already?‟ he said.
Sarah grabbed his hand and clung to it tightly. „Oh Harry, Harry! I thought you were dead! Oh Harry, I‟m so glad to see you!‟
He seemed to realise at last who she was. „S-Sarah?‟
„Yes, it‟s me! Oh Harry!‟ She called over her shoulder.
„Doctor! He‟s here!‟
The Doctor was actually smiling.
The Doctor and Sarah took an elbow each, and led Harry back to the TARDIS.
„Come on, Harry,‟ Sarah called over her shoulder, loud enough for the dryad to hear, „let‟s get out of here. Back to our own time. We don‟t belong in this one.‟
But inside the ash tree, the dryad, although hearing the words, was distracted by something else, desperately trying to get the bitter taste from her mind.
Godric awoke. He was aware of much pain, and something that he had never felt before. He finally decided it was despair. All he had desired, all his life, was to become a knight of the king, a brave and fearless knight, serving truth and justice. He had never believed it would come to pass.
But then... he had been chosen. Not as a knight, true, but he had been given a task to do, a great and glorious task such as any knight would have been honoured to bear. It had been entrusted to him. The Grail-bearer, the Doctor had called him.
He had been trapped in this strange land, away from all he held dear, with no hope of ever returning to his time and place - for he well knew that time only went forwards, and even strong magicks such as those of Merlin could not force it to go back. But suddenly, his exile had a purpose. Oh, he wouldn‟t go so far as to say it was destined, but the thought that by being here, a thousand years from his own time, he was playing a part in something great and good... well, that had made a difference to him.
But he had not been worthy of the challenge. He had failed the task.
Somehow he could sense that the task had been carried out despite his failure, and that brought him some comfort.
But still the darkness dug into his soul. He had failed in his only task, and now he had to live out his life in this ungodly world.
He sat up on the bed, and saw the Doctor lying on the floor. His eyes were wide and staring, and he was not moving.
He did not, to Godric‟s eyes, look to be breathing.
Godric had only had two friends in this terrifying new world, and now he had lost one. And for all he knew, he may have lost the other too.
„I should never have awoken,‟ Godric